These first songs constitute what feels like the “first side” of the album, even though on CD there are no sides. The “second side” though, is where I really feel this album is overlooked, but gets incredibly interesting. It features a bit of biting social comment, moves through dark eastern mysticism, hits hard and then concludes with the perfect album closer... and then has a subtle coda. Of these tracks, many stand out. “TBD” is said to stand for the Tibetan Book of the Dead and also supposedly conicals Aldous Huxley's death. Also one of my favorite tracks, this song is truly haunting, but not scary, more sad and murky, before erupting in an outpouring of emotion that is accurately reflected in the roaring guitars. “Stage” is a bit of a dark look at the rock and roll lifestyle and what it can do to you, with appropriate hard rock thrash and impassioned screeching vocals.

My favorite song on this album is probably one no one would expect, especially with such hard hitting singles and such an overall high quality of song writing, but it's “Pillar of Davidson”. A slow burner with a lot of mystic blues flavor, it's a song that features some of my favorite lyrical lines and also some of my favorite vocal feels when the song kicks into it's final chorus, echoing back and forth with intertwined lead and back vocals that have a subtle chant-like feel. It's a song that has definite high points emotionally and just a great, deep feel, message and style throughout.

The album closes first with “White Discussion”, a somewhat dark world outlook, and another one of my favorites for both music and lyrical content. It starts with a bit of a funky riff before building into the same sort of hard rock explosive climax that recalls the album's opener, “The Dam at Otter Creek”. It's a great closer as these two songs, opener and closer are almost subtle musical echoes, one building to set the theme of the album with hard rock thump, and the other to tear it apart with the same power... And if that isn't enough, there is a hidden track on this album that serves as a perfectly subdued coda of a quiet soft bluesy ballad.

Although all of these songs can easily stand on their own, it is as a complete work that this album works best. It's a complete statement with subtle social comment through cryptically poetic lyrical lines strewn throughout that are sometimes obvious, sometimes amusing, and sometimes effectively subtle. What really makes it great though, is that it has such an all encompassing feel to it that is present from the very first track to the very last. They may not be stitched together ala the rock opera, and they may not necessarily have the same themes throughout ala the concept album, but these songs definitely all relate and work well together, even as they shift emotions and styles.