"A Spark In The Aether (The Music That Died Alone Volume 2)" is British prog band THE TANGENT's ninth studio album. I'll get very controversial for a moment and quote one of our once-greatest heroes, a Mr. JAMES HETFIELD, "... It's clever and everything, but I don't really see what it does." Okay, so first things first I'll come straight up and say it: while I do enjoy some prog-rock here and there, I am by no means a prog guy. I like my music to be meat & potatoes, and it takes some skill to take me out of that mindset. Basically, this is me saying you should take everything I say here with a grain of salt.

Back to the record: It's very clever. There are many cool uses of instruments, different scales, extremely technical stuff in the background, the full Monty. It's also very happy music, and rather light on the ears so you can listen to it anywhere. For my tastes, though, while clever, I find the music to be mostly anemic and (as the name suggests) rather pretentious. I suppose a more prog-inclined listener might like it, but I would take a BLESSED HELLRIDE over l'art pour l'art any day.
 <