Reviewed by Tony Cummings

To say this album has been long-awaited is somewhat of an understatement. It's taken five years and enough personnel changes to fill a small telephone directory to see the 'follow-up' to the band's 'Sons Of Liberty' finally out on the streets. To cut it, the band have had to sign to a German record company, where there's sufficient enthusiasm for Split Level to encourage Pila to pull off an edited "Julia", one of the outstanding tracks here, as a single. Only lead singer and guitarist Adrian Thompson remains of the Word album line-up but such is his dominant Celtic-rock sensibilities that the band retain their raw, percussive sound while bringing in a few new influences. They've finally lost any vestige of the 'U2 clones' tag that has dogged these grassroots gospel rockers for so long. Bassman Gary Preston and drummer Rob Craner lock into a tight groove, the album has a heartingly 'live band' sound and though none of the songs quite have the immediacy of old, this is an honest, no nonsense rock album.