Australia is The Tea Party's biggest market outside of Canada. It wasn't until the insanely average Heaven Coming Down that they saw any kind of success in the US. Edges Of Twilight, the album with massive hits "Fire In The Head" and "The Bazaar", is still seen as the ultimate Tea Party even though they have moved on so far since then. Anyone still expecting another Edges is surely to have given up by now. Since then we've had the band experiement in electronica with Transmission and more solid pop-rock with Triptych.

Thankfully the latest album has seen the band shake off much of the pop. Much of the music is dark, with huge rock guitar riffs, stabbed through with keyboard and horns. Jeff's melodies suffer the usual familiarity problem but they blend better with the music on offer here compared to the jarring Triptych. Many are claiming the Eastern influences are still there but they exist only in the background. Influences now seem more alongs the lines of U2 and Nick Cave, with hard-rock being the main ingredient. Production throughout is particularly good with the between song spaces being filled with a variety of demented musical noises, a personal favourite touch of mine. Jeff's lyrics seem to suffer from a lack of inspiration, at least on the surface... he has an unhealthy obsession with "angels".

Fans interested in hearing some harder edged Tea Party, sniffing back to Transmission days, I'd definitely recommend at least having a listen to this album. Anyone still waiting for Edges 2, piss off back to your fanboy hole and don't come back. The Tea Party are not interested.