Maybe I just got my hopes up too high for this album, as I was very disappointed in this album when I first heard it. There wasn’t anything memorable like on Decoder, the vocal lines didn’t have the same magic, and the tracks sounded too much alike for my tastes. But, the more I listened to the album the more I enjoyed it. This album was definitely a grower for me. Though I still think this album doesn’t compare with Decoder, it’s not as dire as I first thought it was.

I would say the music is more progressive on this album, and it definitely has a lot of "hidden sounds" throughout—that is, there are a lot of things you don’t notice until after repeated listenings. If you recall their song "Dreaming Silence", that’s the direction the band went in on When the City of Quiet. Beatriz again varies her voice quite a bit like she has in the past, going from sweet to very aggressive to almost operatic. I feel like her operatic tone isn’t as good as her other two, though it’s not used very often so it’s not that big of a complaint. The first four songs on the album are probably my favorites—"Endless Road" is particularly good. They’re all pretty upbeat songs, which is where I feel the band really shines. For me the album loses some momentum in during the middle of the album, but ends pretty strong. The title track sounds very epic to me, and is certainly a highlight of the album. The final track, "A Merced de la Lluvia", is basically the Spanish version of their song "Searching for an Answer" from Decoder. Oddly though, I find the track actually suffers a bit from being translated from English to Spanish—it just doesn’t work as well. Still, the melody will surely be stuck in your head for days!

If you really enjoyed Decoder, you probably won’t like this album right off the bat. I would definitely suggest giving this album a few spins before making up your mind about it. However, we’ve seen how good the band can be when they are really on it—which makes this album disappointing for me.

7 / 10