After listening to IQ’s latest effort, Dark Matter, two things are quite evident. First, Martin Orford’s keyboards are very prominent and second, you can actually figure out what some of lead vocalist Peter Nicholls’ lyrics are about.

I’ll start with Orford. Usually, he seems to use more modern sounding synthesizer sounds, accompanied by piano, on IQ discs. But right off on Dark Matter’s 12-minute opening number, “Sacred Sound,” he plays a Hammond organ riff, something he barely used on prior releases. This song goes on to feature a church organ solo as well as mellotron sounds. While “Sacred Sound” includes some of Orford’s patented synthesizer towards the end, his introduction of classical analogue instruments is quite refreshing for an IQ release.

As for Nicholls, I usually find his lyrics to be so dense that they make absolutely no sense to me. Here, though, they’re far more straightforward, at least by IQ standards. On “Born Brilliant,” he gives a scathing indictment of someone who’s “cold and unapproachable, deceptive and a fraud.” I won’t tell you who seems to be the subject of his rant, but it shouldn’t be tough to figure out, especially when listening to the lyrics to “Harvest of Souls,” where Nicholls seems to be critical of the post-9/11 U.S.

Speaking of “Harvest of Souls,” at over 24 minutes, this is the longest track that IQ has ever recorded, which considering every IQ release seems to be good for at least one 15-minute song, this is quite a feat. The song features many of the regular IQ trademarks – a quiet acoustic intro, a well-sung Nicholls chorus and lots of instrumental mayhem with Orford, again, taking a staring role with some more Hammond, synthesizer and piano bits. The song closes with a lovely, Ever-esque guitar solo from Mike Holmes.

As for the other numbers, the haunting “Red Dust Shadow” may actually be my favorite song on Dark Matter. For some reason, its instrumentation reminds me of something off of Opeth’s Damnation disc. Starting with acoustic guitar as a backdrop for Nicholls’ singing, Orford soon adds some creepy keyboard sounds before bassist John Jowitt and drummer Paul Cook kick in. Orford closes the track with a chilling mellotron part before it segues into the ticking of “You Never Will,” a song that features still more strong Hammond reinforcements by Orford. Though my least favorite song on Dark Matter, it’s still a pretty decent song nonetheless.

“Born Brilliant” follows and musically seems quite similar to Pink Floyd’s “Welcome To The Machine.” Starting with machine-like sound effects and a throbbing bassline, this number conjures up the mood of the 1975 Pink Floyd classic quite well. Nicholls bile-filled lyrics, mentioned above, are delivered at first with various effects on his vocals before his real voice comes in. Holmes delivers some fiery guitar to the track. 

Dark Matter continues IQ’s string of strong releases, dating back to 1993’s Ever. And unlike previous IQ albums, this one should be easier to find as it is the band’s first release on the excellent Inside Out label.