Legacy Pilots - Thru The Lens (CD 2024, 58:01, Private Release) The tracks:   1- Where The Pilots Meet (6:42)   2- Nemesis (4:19)   3- Don't Chase The Rainbows (8:49)   4- The Matter (4:31)   5- The Inner Fire (5:23) Cosmic Sea [12:52]   6- i) Prologue (3:17)   7- ii) A Poisoned Wasteland (2:21)   8- iii) Approaching Another World (3:44)   9- iv) A Toxic Result, Coordinates & Epilogue (3:30) 10- Fooled Again (5:09) The Professor & Me [10:16] 11- i) An Interesting Project (2:28) 12- ii) In The Laboratory (1:27) 13- iii) A Question Of Chemistry (1:13) 14- iv) Where East Meets West (1:09) 15- v) We're Cooking Something Up (1:16) 16- vi) Great Finale (2:43) Website      samples      facebook      Thru The Lens is the fifth album by Frank Us's Legacy Pilots and here comes the cliché, if you liked his previous album Helix (2023, see review) then you will certainly love this new album as well. Frank Us is again assisted by Marco Minneman, Lars Slowak, John Mitchell, Jake Livgren, Steve Morse, and guitar legend Steven Rothery. The new album features eight new tracks of which the two epic ones - Cosmic Sea and The Professor & Me - are the sheer highlights, displaying the musical skills of these wonderful musicians indeed. Thru The Lens has it all, ballads, pop rock, prog rock, making this album musically truly diverse and worthwhile listening to. The album kicks off with the instrumental Where The Pilots Meet and it is packed with familiar melodies, nice piano passages, and lots of laid-back prog rock influences. Nemesis and The Matter both feature the outstanding vocals of John Mitchell, and both tracks sound more like pop rock than like prog rock, but the beautiful vocals and catchy melodies - hello Lonely Robot - are really top notch indeed. The Inner Fire is a kind of tiresome track and that is mainly due to the boring vocals (German English???), although the furious guitar solo in the middle of this song is worth checking out! Fooled Again is also not one of the best songs on the album, as it is a dull ballad-like song, reminding me sometimes of the Alan Parsons Project... Well, as I mentioned before, the two epic ones are the best tracks here, especially Cosmic Sea a real prog rock beauty, featuring amazing melodies, dreamy vocals, melodic guitar solos and lots of prog rock twists and turns indeed. Sometimes Cosmic Sea reminds me of Ayreon, and the orchestral passages almost make up for a film music scenario... The Professor & Me is the last track of this album and it is an instrumental epic one, featuring lots of funky and proggy musical twists and turns, even a couple of "old-fashioned organ solos and lots of guitar melodies, which again remind me of good old Alan Parsons indeed. Overall, I would say that Thru The Lens is again a wonderful album, a must for lovers of melodic prog/pop rock indeed and this one also gets better the more you listen to it, so highly recommended! **** Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy?