The third Sanctuary album is also the best of the trilogy. This one dares even more to expand the Oldfieldian style in new and exciting directions. It may be sacrilege to suggest it, but if this *were* a genuine Oldfield album, many might say it was one of his best, too. It's true that Rob Reed is standing on the shoulders of a giant, but he is a giant talent in his own right.
Often the music brings tears to the eyes, as if it were the soundtrack to the climax of a hard-won cinematic story. nickgreen90125
The album takes off nicely with David Longdon's "The Strangest Times", but then gets into immediate free fall and deeply underwater for the next few tracks, quite unexpectedly. Fortunately, it recovers with Nick D'Virgilio's "Apollo" (hey, this guy CAN write good music, although he hides this ability most of the time) and the remaining three tracks, one of which is another Longdon masterpiece. So in the end the final impression is somewhat in the positive range. Sven B. Schreiber (sbs)