1. Awakenings. I love the mystic mood of A Winter's Dream, and imo it's one of their best from Damnation Game. Shame it came up against such a great song as Awakenings,which is possibly in my top 10 of SX songs. There's not a single bad moment in this track (this applies to many of SX's songs btw); I love the lyrics, I love Lepond’s bass in the intro, the chorus is great, and let’s not forget the fact that Sir Michael Pinnella absolutely slays on this track. The jazz-part in the middle of the interlude and the following solo is enough prove for that.
2. Rediscovery Pt.II. No contest. Serpent’s Kiss is an average song from a decent album; Rediscovery is one of the best songs from their masterpiece(or from their whole career). I love how the song so smoothly change “mood”, from the mellow to the more heavy (but still groovy). The whole song is just flawless,really, from the awesome polyrhythms going on in the intro to the epic ending. They must play this one live someday…..
3. Edge of Forever. A bit tough, since Iconoclast actually is one of the best songs from that album. Reminds me a bit about Evolution in the beginning,and though it unfortunelately suffers from a rather “meh” chorus (“ We are strong, we will stand and fight”? Come on guys….), it has a lot of energy and a quite decent solo part (with a keyboard solo as well!)
EoF is one of the best from DG, and is a great tune. The atmospheric intro, going over to Romeo playing staccato chords, Pinnella underlying synth chords, and Miller’s “plucky” bass lines, before eventually fading into the beautiful “Pictures of what used to be..”-part. Which is followed by a great polyrhytmic part, with the guitars playing the same power chord in 5/4, while Pinnella starts playing a melody line in 6/4. Love it.
4. Smoke and Mirrors. A good song, though far from their best, both in their catalogue and on Twilight, where I prefer Church, Orion and the Looking Glass. Still gets the nod over Masquerade.
