Roswell Six - Terra Incognita (A Line in the Sand)

A proggy concept album based on best -selling novels? What a country!Terra Incognita is a epic fantasy book trilogy, created by author Kevin J. Anderson, based on world discovery and battles for religion.  Not too far from what we see and hear about today.  All that being said, it appears that Mr. Anderson is a metal head and has decided to put his books to music.  Anderson enlisted the talents of many names in the progressive rock industry to give him a hand in bringing his books to life, via music.  For the project, he asked Frame Shift multi-musician Henning Pauly to create and play all of the music on the CD.  I have to say, I was not familiar with Pauly, before this project, but now that I've heard this guy play, I'm truly amazed.  Dude is a bad ass.  The vocals were primarily handled by Steve Walsh (Kansas), Michael Sadler (ex-Saga) and Sass Jordan (This one left me guessing when I saw her name on the liner notes, because she is not affiliated with the metal community what so ever.  Not sure what rock they found her under, but she does a nice job).  A Line in the Sand, is the second in this trilogy and promisses to be heavier than it's predecessor.  I haven't heard the first CD, but this one is dark and heavy and very catchy.  The songs are well crafted and flow very well together.  The songs are progressive and have a very heavy edge to them.  All in all a very enjoyable listen.

Bottom Line: A concept album from a best selling author.  Much like the Ayreon projects that we are more accustomed to, Roswell 6 delivers the same sort of progessive punch.  A well crafted disk that gets better with every listen.

Standout Tracks: Barricade, When God Smiled on Us, My Father's Son and Whirlwind

- Ragman is looking for his reading glasses