, one of the few first-generation progressive rock bands to remain nearly consistent in the quality of their output throughout their career, fall flat with , the band's 12th studio album. Unable to shed the weight of their oft-brilliant history, the most promising moments of are crushed underneath the bulk. What makes such a disappointment is, despite how "progressive" the band-fragmenting ProjeKct approach appeared on paper, upon execution, it produced an utterly backward-looking album. More self-referential than a film, nearly every song on contains a heavy-handed nod to a previous song. There are even two tracks that are directly named after old material: and The most notable shift the pared-down, four-piece makes with is getting rid of acoustic drums in favor of electronic "V" drums (courtesy of , who took over full-time duties after left). does not seem to lose much in the transition, and, overall, the musicianship is superb as usual, but it's almost as if they thought new technology and a stripped down lineup would make up for a dearth of new ideas. Treading water is still treading water, even if the waters happen to be deep. There are, however, two bright spots on the album: The former features guitarist/vocalist at his quirky best, and the latter (credited to instead of ) is a beautifully textured, near-ambient piece that slowly builds intensity before a long, slow release. Together, they suggest that may still have some gas left in their tank after all. ~ Jason Nickey