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Long defunct quasi-prog from New Jersey, Poets and Madmen paid lip service to Savatage in the album’s liner notes but actually formed (and disbanded) before Tampa’s finest released its Poets and Madmen album in 2001. Is this something for lawyers to discuss? In any case, P&M the band did, indeed, owe a great deal to Mssrs. Oliva & Co., especially the Paul O’Neill-instigated foray into piano-dominated metal cabaret. However, whereas Savatage gave itself over to triumphant pomp, this duo is merely beholden to circumstance. Integrating flutes, congo drums, saxophones and gongs into a prog-metal framework is a daunting enough task to begin with, but without the benefit of a sensible mix, congos sound louder than snares, flutes overpower guitar amps and saxophones loiter offensively in a manner akin to bad adult contemporary from the eighties. For every crisp lick that would sting the metal listener, there is another that owes more to Steely Dan, another two-piece studio project that supplemented its ranks with session players. However, Fagen and Becker never outsourced their singing, and Poets and Madmen should have seen fit to hire someone with more range and gusto than the fella they did, whose lowly baritone keeps the goings-on from vaulting into the stratosphere where overambitious prog like this really needs to be. Some fine bridges and choruses are all over this record but are undone by unwise, jazzy song progressions and a cruel, uninviting production. Coulda been, shoulda been, woulda been. But didn’t.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Through The Gates To The Temple |
| 2. Assassin's Fate |
| 3. Night In The City |
| 4. Do You Know You're Being Watched? |
| 5. The Spell |
| 6. Whispers From The Castle |
| 7. Captured Then Tortured |
| 8. Bloody Hearts |
| 9. Pirates |
| 10. Stronghold |
: 44:38
| Buy other Poets and Madmen albums |
