I almost jumped out of my chair when I was presented a chance to review the new STEVE HACKETT album, "Genesis Revisted II". There are precious few bands that I hold in godlike status but GENESIS is one of them.

Hackett has long been one of my favourite guitarists and songwriters. When I seen the track list for this, I was even more excited. Five of my very favourite GENESIS tunes are included here.

"Genesis Revisited II"is a massive 21 song, two CD set that runs a whopping 2 hours and 24 minutes. With a slew of guest vocalists throughout, including Mikael Akerfeldt of OPETH, Steven Wilson of STORM CORROSION, Phil Collins' son, Simon, and Nad Sylvan among many others.

There's good news and then great news about this. The good news is that Hackett has literally taken the original songs and reworked them in unimaginable ways. The great news is that each and every tune works in a majestic, brilliant way. His playing is as razor sharp as ever and there's a reverence to these songs that shows just how much Hackett loves these tunes. That reverence aside, he lets the music flow where it may, allowing the guest musicians to really shine.

While I understand that the pure scope of this may discourage some people from liking this, anyone that calls themselves a fan of Prog Rock or Metal should absolutely have this in their collection. This has immediately jumped to the top of my list for this year and it's going to take one hell of an effort to unseat this.