Legacy Pilots is in fact Frank Us, a Hamburg based musician, who plays keyboards, guitars and sometimes he even sings and plays bass guitar. After the well-received predecessor called Aviation, Us releases a brand-new album called The Penrose Triangle and, on this album, he is “joined” by people such as drummer Marco Minneman (The Sea Within, The Aristocrats, The Mute Gods) (drums), bassist Pete Trewavas (Marillion), John Mitchell (Lonely Robot, Arena) on vocals) and the two guitar players Steven Rothery (Marillion) and Eric Gilette (Neal Morse Band); so quite an impressive band there.... The Penrose Triangle kicks off with an up-tempo melodic rock song called Better Days, featuring the very recognisable and formidable vocals of John Mitchell; so, a great way to start this album! Follow up Ghosts Of The Ocean is a ballad-like song starting with an acoustic guitar intro and again very emotional vocals of Mitchell, but most remarkable in this song is the guitar solo of no one less than Steve Rothery, sheer bliss. Mad Kings is the first “real” musical highlight with an outstanding vocal performance by Jake Livgren (a nephew of Kerry Livgren of Kansas fame)) and a phenomenal, rather furious guitar solo by Eric Gilette. As Dominos Fall is the first instrumental track and one that is filled with latin, jazz and prog rock elements and also featuring a nice guitar solo by Ricky Garcia (LaFee). The other two instrumental ones on this album are: Shadowplay and A Compendium Of Life, the latter being a very energetic prog rock track featuring Todd Sucherman (Styx) on drums and Lars Slowak on bass guitar; excellent melodic stuff indeed with lots of Emerson, Lake & Palmer influences! The ultimate song however is without a shadow of a doubt A Change Of Mind, clocking in over ten minutes this is the musical highlight of this album, featuring Marcus Minnemann on drums and Pete Trewavas on bass. A progressive rock journey for sure with lots of twists and turns, great melodies, and all players at the top of their game! The Penrose Triangle is a delight to all prog rock ears and a great musical journey from the beginning till the end; check it out, a must for melodic proggers indeed! **** Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
