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Pagan's Mind are a Prog band that have been getting a lot of good press from this release. They released a debut album that almost no one heard, and "Celestial Entrance" is their follow up, and it's everything a prog fan could dream of.

Extensive, elaborate songwriting? Got it. Over-the-top musicianship? Got that too. For fans of Progressive Metal, there are few surprises to be had, except perhaps for a few flirtations with harsher, processed vocals here and there, but not much of that. The production is crystal clear, the vocals of Nils Rue are excellent, and the guitarwork - in particular – is absolutely first rate. Songs like "Through Osiris' Eyes", "Dreamscape Lucidity" and "The Seven Sacred Promises" are everything prog should be, so for fans of the genre there is no downside here.

For those who are not progheads, this album falls prey to the same problems most of these kinds of albums suffer from. The elaborate songwriting usually overloads the songs, and prevents them from being really catchy or memorable, though Pagan's Mind are better about this than most bands of their ilk. The wankery musicianship is often a bit tiresome, and the conscious artiness of the lyrical themes can be difficult to stomach. That said, Pagan's Mind are nowhere near as bad about this as Power Of Omens and some other bands I could name. But they are a prog band, and so these flaws are in evidence. Prog fans will crow about how those are not flaws, but that doesn't change anything. For fans of the genre this is a perfect album, and even non-prog fans will find this enjoyable as Pagan's Mind keep the excesses under a mite more control than their peers normally bother with. This may not be as good as Dream Theater's "Images and Words", but it is easily better than anything else they ever recorded. Recommended.