The fourth full-length album in nine years from this Italian hard rock / progressive metal project, 'The Great Dance of the Spirit', is really what its title reads. It was the longest pause between two albums prior to this, close to three and a half years, and it really is a testament of the band's growth.

Lucid Dream is basically just guitarist Simone Terigi now. His guitar playing sometimes reminds of Joe Satriani's fluidy, highly melodic style. He also plays heavy metal and hard rocking riffs, plus flies into wilder progressive passages, not forgetting calmer, mystic meditations. His playing sounds Earthy, and he does not go over to being pompous; therefore the lead guitar and solos are memorable stuff.

The compositions are rather long again, but they can also be meandering. Sudden tempo and thematic changes are abound, but Mr. Terigi kept his hands on the red thread, so the songs do not stray too much. Together with Satriani, without any better example, it is Rush that LD at their most complex reminds of. Mathematic tempo excursions inhabit among more straight parts. Acoustic guitars and string section appear on some of the songs and admittely bring in more of Earthy tones.

AOR-ish 'Desert Glass' is one of the catchier tunes here, but even it has its quirks. 'By My Side' resides in one point of extremities of this album, being a very soft piano-driven ballad. 'A Dress of Light' is a dark and heavy piece with more distorted guitar work, but also with calm bits and extremely catchy chorus and tasty guitar solo. There's also chirpier and highly positive vibes going around, like 'The War of the Cosmos'. One of the bigger LD compositions is the instrumental 'The Realm of Beyond', which shows Mr. Terigi's skills in composing stringed instruments. The album gets more of them towards the end, and it also gets very calm and soft after that instrumental. In all, this is the softest of LD albums, but it is with soul, no doubt about that. This is not a metal album, but prog rocking and not even rocking every now and then... But there are several dark moments in vein of King Crimson.

There are two vocalists on the album. One voice rather high-pitched, like a mixture of two Italian vocalists, namely Michele Luppi (ex-Vision Divine) and Terence Holler (Eldritch). Roberto Tiranti of Labÿrinth is the second voice, and his outlet is a bit more powerful. Both are very fitting for progressive music.

'The Great Dance of the Spirit' is rather full of positive vibes and isn't very metallic. It still sounds a bit homespun, thanks to its clear yet kind of dry production. The artwork is good and the CD comes in a nice digipak. The album contains some of the best songwriting from Simone Terigi, is well worth checking out if you're looking for spirited progressive rock music.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/22/2021 16:44