It is fair to dedicate some lines to Berry since the life of the other two we already know. His professional start was in San Francisco with the band Hush that allowed him to open people like Peter Gabriel or Rush. After two solo albums, "Back to back" and "Out of bounds" joins the GTR group after the departure of Steve Hackett, but the fear that he would end up supplanting vocalist Max Bacon, did not define the thing. It should be noted that before this there was already a group project between Palmer and Berry that did not finish working.
Berry is a leading vocalist and guitarist, but also a composer and producer, he has composed some soundtrack and has participated with groups such as Magellan (in his album “hundred year flood” where musicians such as Tony Levin or Ian Anderson also appeared) of being an active part of the different progressive tributes-tributes that the magna carta seal publishes.
Berry was not only a kind of substitute for Greg Lake but was actively involved in the composition of the album, composing songs that Emerson later arranged in his own way. The album also featured the voices of Suzie O'list, Kim Liatt J. Edwards and Lana Williams.
There is also a live show of this formation with themes of E, L & P called “live in the city”.
The album is a clear example of music made in the 80s, digital keyboards, guitars with very clean sounds and loaded with reverb with direct rhythms, as always in this type of compositions, that the simple appearance does not mean that the content is not something more complex and in this album there is a bit of everything: The album begins with “talkin´ about”, signed by Berry who initially wrote it for GTR, a dynamic song with a classic refrain of the time. Follow "Lover to lover" signed by the trio, the song is not bad but the chorus seems a bit scary ... well, rather I would say very trite, it has an instrumental bridge that briefly reminds the seventies EL&P, but this bridge barely lasts a few seconds, no one gets illusions. "Chains" is a song "too much AOR" and therefore of those chosen to click on the radios. "From life" is the song that this album is worth, divided into three parts: I. The view, II. The border and III. Sangre de toro, a piece of authentic progressive pop is created, with instrumental fragments that can be remembered on the one hand to the tangerine dream of the eighties, but it also serves as a relief to Palmer's drums or Emerson's piano. In "Eight miles high" we continue with the AOR sonorities (this actually happens throughout the album), however, the keyboard and guitar flourishes that are marked by Berry and Emerson stand out on a continuous rhythm of Palmer. "Runaway" ... every time I find it more difficult to highlight something of each song, since almost all of them follow a similar pattern and production, of this I will say that it seems the weakest of the album. “You do or you don´t” is the typical ballad that we can find in almost any Hollywood movie of the time, although here Emerson's keyboard arrangements are very remarkable. The album ends with “On my way home” signed by Emerson and well, it does not leave a bad taste, possibly the songs that are closer to the classic EL&P style with production of the time, even highlights the fact that at times it seems even that Robert Berry wants to emulate Greg Lake.
Two things are clear at the end of the listening, that the album connects with what other fellow musicians of the same fifth were doing: Genesis with “invisible touch”, Yes and “big generator”, Pink Floyd with “a momentary lapse of reason” , etc ... and formations such as Asia or GTR, here that each one judges who did it best, since there is no doubt that they are great musicians trying to adapt to the times ...
On the other hand it is clear that the album is not progressive rock, so I think that judging it from this perspective is unfair, it is a nice album, superbly produced and competently composed, ideal for listening when you do not feel like complications but of things well made.
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