Stunning album! - The enigmatic time-travelling aliens return for another glimpse of their unique spacemosphere. Predecessor ?Impressionable Sounds Of The Subsonic? was an exceptional album but it?s unremittingly intense wall-of-sound was not for the faint-hearted. ?The Guitar Is Mightier Than The Gun? has moved further away from heavy-metal towards a more psychedelic approach: while still underpinned by heavy rock, this album effortlessly straddles the thin divide between spacerock and psych, musically exploring both outer and inner space.

The whole is cloaked in a big dose of Prog: music twists and turns, seldom standing still for long, always progressing to some new excitement and not afraid to experiment with alternative time signatures. Perhaps the greatest advance over previous albums is in the songwriting and arranging departments. Melodies are more memorable, vocal performances more assured, and dynamic arrangements propel songs with a vibrancy that leave a listener wanting more, despite their length.

It is an excellent sounding album, intimate yet emitting power and clarity without obvious over-use of processing effects. Each primary instrument has its own distinct place on the sound-stage, especially bass which is a commanding presence throughout. Indeed, as befits it?s title, guitars dominate this album: bass, left-lead and right-lead are bedrock constants on which all else hangs, whether other guitars, keyboards or miscellaneous samples. Oh, and the drum kit sounds superb too!

?Demons And Haze? is of tripartite construction, beginning energetically before a gorgeous majestic melodic centrepiece with soaring Mellotron-esque keyboards that finally dissolves into alien landscape samples; back in the day, especially when playing live, Prog bands would often insert a lengthy instrumental/jam session into the middle of a song, and that?s what FBFOS have done with ?Turn Left To The Mexican Barbeque?, a doom-laden hippie trip with scary male/female vocals book-ends a len