IQ: The Road of Bones (2014) A Review...

 IQ is one of the most important bands of the music genre named as 'Neo-Prog'. They started their career in the 80's almost together with Marillion. Since then many years has passed, and a few weeks ago they released their 11th album entitled 'The Road of Bones'.
  For those who might be interested I must inform you that in a way this album can be considered as a 'concept' one. The title and the main story refers to the M56 Russian Highway which was built by politican prisoners of the Stalin regime between 1930's and 1950's. The road is almost 2.000 Km long, and it's considered as a memorial monument because the bones of the thousands people who died while constructing it were laid beneath or around the road. The land there is permanently frozen so interment into the fabric of the road was deemed more practical than digging into the permafrost to bury the bodies of the dead. 
  With such a deeply troubling theme for an album one might expect dark and melancholic music, and that's exactly the case here. The sound is rather heavy, and the atmosphere is dark. (You can tell by the cover as well).
  Upon it's release the album was available in 3 different formats: The standard single cd release (which contains 5 songs and has a total running time of almost 50 minutes), the double disc Special Edition (with 11 songs and a running time of almost 103 minutes), and a limited edition box set which was shipped in mid April, containing the Special Edition version of the album, a further CD titled The Road Of Bonus, a ticket to the album launch show at the Islington Assembly Halls on Saturday 3rd May 2014, an additional booklet Walking The Road Of Bones, a badge, a sticker and two glow sticks.
  Speaking for myself, I have the double disc special edition, and I'm still trying to get into their music and understand the album. Most of the songs are long, and with the exception of one song which is almost 4 minutes long, all the rest are over 6 minutes in lenght. The longest track here is 'Without Walls' which has a running time over 19 minutes. That's the most difficult song in the album in my opinion.
  Concluding this post I have to say that 'The Road of Bones' is a very interesting album, but only for experienced listeners, and/or IQ fans. And for sure it's an album which you enjoy more at nights...
 In the following video you can see the promo video for the album...