I don't recall buying this, I suspect it's one of my daughter's that she put out for the charity shop, and I thought I'd give it a listen. And I'm glad I did. It's one of the ones hidden in the drawers so rarely gets an outing.
One of the things with advancing years is the tendency to relate to what you've previously heard, and this 1990s prog album is built for that. Uprising kicks of the album in a huge 'we are prog' sort of way with an underlying riff which sounds nicked from Deep Purple, and it's a welcome listen; Resistance continuing in a similar way, but with harmonies sounding Queen-like (spoiler alert - that's not a good thing). And having noticed the Queen similarity further in United States of Eurasia , it begins to jar. But we rock a bit more over the next couple of songs, and it's a straightforward (loud) listen without anything becoming memorable. I'd like to think MK Ultra is about an over-enthusiastic Dons fan, but there's nothing in the lyrics to suggest that (or to deliver any coherent meaning - I bet Matt Bellamy is a Jon Anderson fan). And so on to the album's climax, their Exogenesis Symphony in three parts. And it's as self-indulgent as you'd imagine, still sounding at times like a more prog-metal version of Queen, and lacking the power that you'd expect from the statement of ending with a symphony in three movements.
3* - doesn't live up to the impact of the opening, but a reasonable listen nevertheless
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