Every time I put on this album I always think that I was crazy for liking it. The first few minutes of Distorted Mind are simply not good. It is a very weak start to the album. That said once the album starts adding in layers, melody, atmosphere, ambience, vocals, pipe organs, horrified ambience, different drum patters... etc. Basically when the album really shows itself the first few minutes are easily forgiven.
Sketches of Reality is four and nearly an hour long. To say that the songs take a while to develop is an understatement. The aforementioned Distorted Mind takes a good five to six minutes before it really shows what its character is... and that is ok, its a 15 minute long song.
When Sketches of Reality is at its best, its hypnotic melodies sweep me away into a completely different mind set. It's repetitive to the point where it has a meditative quality to it. It's so easy to get lost in the crevices of the album, and that right there is why it was a fond memory.
Even listening all these years later it remains a strong album and those initial impressions years ago were correct. Through all its twists and turns Sketches of Reality remains consistently good except for a few moments of hollow sounding riffs. Those moments are few and far between, even if one of them is the first one of the album. Needless to say I'm glad I got this one again, and it'll be staying in my collection for quite some time.
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