The Progressive Rock formation SEVENTH WONDER hails from Stockholm, Sweden, and has been active since 2000. After releasing some demos in 2001 and 2003, they were picked up by LION MUSIC, who subsequently released their first four albums, knowingly “Become”, “Waiting In The Wings”, “Mercy Falls” and “The Great Escape”. What I do know is this; they are all being rereleased by their current label FRONTIERS RECORDS SRL and I will be reviewing all but the debut album. So, here we go, with “The Great Escape”, their fourth album, originally released in 2010.

And I have to tell you up front that in my ears and eyes “The Great Escape” is SEVENTH WONDER’s most Middle Of The Road album that I will be reviewing. It certainly doesn’t start out that way, though. I can only admit to the fact that the opening song “Wiseman” is quite the classic, and “Alley Cat” also can boast a very successful sound, but after that everything unfortunately becomes a bit stale, rather subdued. What I am hearing is a mix of AOR and JOURNEY with some Progressive elements thrown in when asked for. After the build-up that I got from listening to Waiting In The Wings” and “Mercy Falls”, it is quite the let-down. I was expecting SEVENTH WONDER to reach new heights, to go through the stratosphere. Well, they didn’t. at least not for me. And before you start saying I am slagging off “The Great Escape”, I definitely am not.

“The Great Escape” still consists of seven very good songs, only whereas the boundaries were widened extensively on “Mercy Falls”, they have surely been narrowed considerably on this one. Like I said in the review of “Waiting In The Wings”, SEVENTH WONDER consists of very talented musicians, who know their stuff. I understand that they got rave reviews when it was originally released, and I understand, but if you are expecting one thing, and get handed something completely different, you can be disappointed.

I just feel the safety harness has been pulled too tight, especially after their very heavy preceding album “Mercy Falls”. If they would have let loose on every song, like they have on the opening two, this would have been a cracking review. Now I can only conclude that with “The Great Escape” SEVENTH WONDER have produced another good record. Only thing is I really was hoping for more.