Another short review today.

Before delving into the progressive rich songs of "The Willing Well" series, the band delivers a really nice penultimate track that is as short and sweet as the preceding songs. Track number eleven, "Mother May I," is one of the shining examples of a song that starts off kind of slow, slowly building into a crescendo, and then ending with a loud and heavy full on jam session.

I loved this song from the moment I first heard it. Like the previous song, "Mother May I" has another really nice groove to it, albeit slightly different from "Lying Lies." The song starts how somewhat slow as Claudio and Travis play notes from high to low pitched, and Josh accompanies their grooves with snare work. Part of what makes this song so good is Josh's drumming. It's some of the fastest work he's done before, but it doesn't sound out of place next to the rest of the instrumentals.

As of this song, the story becomes more twisted. In earlier songs we've seen instances where the Writer's world and the world of Claudio Kilgannon were parallels, but now they start to collide, almost literally. Claudio's ever continuing struggle to accept (or rather, not accept) his destiny of overthrowing Wilhelm Ryan and destroying the Keywork coincides with the Writer's full and ultimate realization of the control he has over his story. Claudio sees cryptic notes that spells out "God only knows" -- which is a line from the song. Here, it becomes evident that God (i.e., the Writer) controls Claudio's fate. His fate is out of his hands. With this song and this part of the story in mind, it's time to move forward to "The Willing Well."