This is my first encounter with the act known as The Murder of My Sweet, which features Angelica Rylin and Daniel Flores, and the quality of this brand-new opus of theirs made me go back and check their previous outputs in order to familiarize myself a bit more with their intriguing mixture of progressive rock and symphonic metal.

There is an enticing story to this twelve-track offering of theirs that lends itself well to dramatic music with lots of nuances to it. Quite intense and dark at times yet delightfully varied and very much a study in contrasts as well as light and shade, Flores and Rylin have spawned an album that is rich in atmosphere and packed with interesting arrangements and good melodies. The crunchy guitars work well with the strings and keyboards while the vocals possess enough conviction to make the musical and lyrical narrative of the record sound and feel somewhat haunting at times. There is punch and melancholy in equal measure here and some sharp turns that add an element of surprise and unpredictability to “A Gentleman’s Legacy”. It does come across as too long and nine or ten tracks as opposed to twelve would have sufficed as it loses a bit of steam and momentum towards the end. Still, the LP sounds fresh and full of spark to these ears, and the production is big and heavy albeit a tad stiff in places. I could easily see fans of Queensryche, Geoff Tate’s solo works, and fans of prog metal in general get a kick out of this melodramatic piece of work.