On April 16, 2021 "Liquid Tension Experiment" released their third album "LTE3".
This anticipated album from "Liquid Tension Experiment", was the first in almost 22 years.
The wait was long, but the first three singles released from the album proved that it was definitely worth the wait. On January 22, 2020, we received the first single in the form of "The Passage Of Time", which just exploded with an energetic virtuoso show of the four old friends doing it for the first time in over two decades.
The superstar lineup includes guitarist John Petrucci and keyboardist Jordan Rudess (both from Dream Theater), bassist Tony Levin ("King Crimson" and others), and drummer Mike Portnoy who is having his second collaboration with Petrucci since leaving "Dream Theater" in 2010.
Beginning in the early 1970s progressive rock provided us once every few years with a worthy supergroup, shedding between the great and good of the genre. It started in 1970 with "Emerson, Lake & Palmer", "801" and "U.K." And it continued into the 80s with "Asia" and "GTR". The early 90s belonged to grunge and alternative and there seemed to be no place in the musical landscape for a supergroup with progressive roots. But towards the end of the decade, in 1998 we got the Liquid Tension Experiment which was the first to "restore the crown to its glory". It was followed by a flood of collaborations and "super-assemblies" that not only did not embarrass the roots from which they came, but in some cases even surpassed them.
However, the lineup that started it all in the 90s did not survive much, as with Jordan Rudess joining Dream Theater there was no point in continuing to maintain it. Today, however, 22 years after they first cooperated, and 11 years after Portnoy left Dream, the time has come for the long-awaited reunion of the four meteors.
We have already written about it quite a bit. Covid-19 struck the music industry and especially concerts, but it led to a "baby boom" of interesting singles, albums, and collaborations. In this case, too, covid seems to have helped these four very busy musicians to play together again, as the cancellations of the performances left them free time to finish working on the album, and so it turned out that we fans lost performances, but on the other hand we gained a lot of new material. This album is one of them.
It includes 8 tracks that prove that even though the four members are not on stage they are still in top shape.
The second single "Beating the Odds" is very different from its predecessor. It is melodic, symphonic, and happy. Petrucci who brought the lead reef from which the piece was born crowned it as prog-pop.
The third single "Hypersonic" is a completely psychic piece. Is the last to be written for the album. Towards the end of the recordings the band felt like it was going to be a fast, energetic, and exploding piece, something reminiscent of "Paradigm Shift" from the first album or "Acid Rain" from the second album, and that's how this piece came about.
There are two different and special tracks here. The first, is "Chris & Kevin's Amazing Odyssey" which is a kind of duet, drum bass. An exceptional experimental piece. The second, "Shades of Hope" is a guitar piano duet and completes the previous duet.
Another interesting piece is "Rhapsody in Blue", which is an interesting cover version of George Gershwin's melody that originated a century ago, in the early 1920s.
For Listening: Spotify.
Track List:
1. "Hypersonic" (8:22)
2. "Beating The Odds" (6:09)
3. "Liquid Evolution" (3:23)
4. "The Passage Of Time" (7:32)
5. "Chris & Kevin’s Amazing Odyssey" (5:04)
6. "Rhapsody In Blue" (13:16)
7. "Shades Of Hope" (4:42)
8. "Key To The Imagination" (13:14)