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In Retrospective is the second release from Unai Rubio's Progressive Metal band Ego. After the debut, Architects of Illusion, which I was rather unkind to, I wasn't sure what to expect. In Retrospective is a concept album (not a huge surprise, this is Progressive Metal, after all) about life from birth through death and all the sundry life events in between.

The music is quite similar to the debut; a light-octane mix of guitars, electric and acoustic, and keyboards that cycle through tempo and style changes that quite effectively varies the mood both between and within the songs. The heaviness factor ranges from Pink Floyd (i.e. non-existent) to nearly Dream Theater or Threshold, rarely staying with one or the other for very long. Gone are the female vocals from the first album, replaced by dueling clean and harsh male vocals. Normally, I really enjoy female-fronted metal, but this is a definite improvement for Ego. The harsh vocals ratchet up the aggression in a way the thin production and subdued bottom end do not. And that brings me to my main complaint with In Retrospective; it just isn't HEAVY enough. The guitars have no bite and the bottom end never comes up and kicks my ass, not even once. The album comes across as commercial, for lack of a better word, often times more Progressive ROCK than Progressive Metal.

In Retrospective is a mixed bag, better than the band's debut, with some classy performances, but nowhere near as heavy as it could be.