Produced by Bruce Botnick, 1974's "The Pit and the Pendulum" was a concept piece based on Edgar Alan Poe's 1842 short story. If you ever read the original story, you'll remember it focused on the narrator's experience of being tortured during the Spanish Inquisition. Luckily the "horror" element was largely dropped from the album, Ross and company instead focusing their efforts on crafting a surprisingly mainstream and commercial set of AOR rockers that more, or less sought to address some of the story's underlying plotline. And that highlights one of the disconnects centering around this set. I've seen it labeled as progressive on various sales sites. I'd suggest the progressive label is a bit of a stretch, unless you're willing to consider The Alan Parsons Project, or Styx progressive. Mind you, that's not intended as a slam since I'm a big Parsons fan and found this album to be entertaining from start to finish. Yeah, it had a distinctive '70s artistic and production feel, but since I grew up with this stuff, I found it all kind of comforting. The fact Ross had a nice voice and was an excellent lead guitar player certainly didn't hurt with Jackson serving to add tasteful keyboards throughout. Highlights - the opening AOR ballad 'Swallow Your Dreams', 'Discovery', and the country-rock-tinged 'Free'.