Guitarist and composer Nick Vasallo creates a mosaic of various colors and textures on this album of thoughtful moods and atmospheres in various musical settings. With the University of the Pacific Orchestra, there is a war-like dramatic “Ein Sof” that creates a fierce battle cry, while a Byzantine-like choir is thoughtful and meditative on the reflective “The Prophecy”. Pounding piano, slashing chords and the ugliness of destructive forces grips the listener on the siren scream of “When The War Began”, contrasting with the h overing almost Irish pipes that float on the tone poem “Ozymandieas”. Heavy metal guitars slash in a battle of starships on the hard hitting “Black Swan Events” while woodwinds and strings lurk around the thoughtful “The Moment Before Death Stretches on Forever, Like an Ocean of Time”. As you can well tell, the song titles and the mood are like a modern musical version of the anti-war classic All Quiet On The Western Front with every note of violence and anger actually being a call for the intermittent moments of peace. An album with a very relevant message