Customer Reviews

Age of Impact

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm not really a fan of progressive metal, but I love this cd and was hooked on it for quite a while. Of course, as you would expect, the playing is superb all around - I especially liked Terry Bozzio on drums and John Petrucci on guitar. However, what really makes this album shine is the strength of the compositions themselves. Trent Gardner has written some great music here ! There is a bit of padding throughout (probably needed to accommodate all the solo spots), but the clever contrast in dynamics makes it all flow nicely. My favorite aspect of Gardner's music has always been that the vocals are the focal point - and I really enjoyed the strong performances of all the singers on this project.

Explorers Club is not a real band. It's actually a side project of Magellan's singer/keyboardist Trent Gardner but if it were a band, boy, would it be a band for the ages. It seems like Gardner took a cue from one of his contemporaries, the incomparable Arjen A. Lucassen and wrote what is essentially a rock opera and invited numerous mega talented musicians to get in the act. Take a look at the plethora of superstar participants: Terry Bozzio (Drums), Billy Sheehan (Bass), Trent Gardner (Keyboards), Wayne Gardner (Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Additional Bass), Brad Kaiser (Additional Midi Percussion), James LaBrie (vocals), D.C. Cooper (vocals), Trent Gardner (vocals), Bret Douglas (vocals), Matt Bradley (vocals), John Petrucci (Guitars), Steve Howe (Acoustic Guitar), Derek Sherinian (Keyboards), Trent Gardner( Keyboard and Trombone), James Murphy (Guitars), Michael Bemesderfer (Flute and Wind Controller), Frederick Clarke (Nylon String Guitar), Matt Guillory (Keyboards)

Now I'll admit I haven't heard of all of these guys but with the ones I have heard of, Billy Sheehan, Trent Gardner, James LaBrie, Terry Bozzio, D.C.Cooper, John Petrucci, Steve Howe and Derek Sherinian, I know a Superstar band when I see it and Explorers Club plays like a band of Progressive Rock Superstars.

About Trent Gardner

Trent Gardner is the band leader of the Progressive Rock Band Magellan. He writes all the songs, sings and plays keyboards. While this is probably enough to keep most musicians busy, it obviously isn't enough for Gardner and several of his contemporaries, like LeBrie, Sherinian and Petrucci who together probably have more side projects than actual band recordings. Gardner for one has produced two subsequent side project releases in the rock opera, Leonardo: The Absolute Man (2001) and a second Explorers Club release, Raising the Mammoth. (2002)

Age of Impact

If you like good Progressive Rock , you're going to love Age of Impact. Though it consists of only five songs, in true prog-rock tradition they average over ten and a half minutes.

The music varies from a Dream Theaterish sound as on the sixteen minute lead song, "Fate Speaks" to a mellower sound which is evident on portions of the middle tracks. I find the variety of singers (there are five) quite exhilarating. They are all very good and they each take the lead for a song with LaBrie taking two and Gardner harmonizing, except for a portion of the last track where he takes the lead. As you might expect there is a lot of instrumentation and soloing but the vocals take a back seat to no one. The music is melodious, despite being prog, the singers are excellent and the lyrics are meaningful.

Age of Impact is progressive songwriter Trent Gardner's side-project featuring some big name progressive musicians (Steve Howe, John Petrucci, Terry Bozzio, Billy Sheehan). Gardner comes from the band Magellan, who I am not familiar with, but this album's appeal came to me because of some familiar talent involved. Gardner seems to be writing an album about progressive rock, not just a progressive rock record. It's almost a form of oblation, where Gardner's songwriting tries to cover as much ground as possible and acknowledge the progressive greats of the past. In fact, it's more of a homage to prog than prog itself. Magellan might be a progressive metal band, because there are times of a very distinctive metal quality to the album. You can also pick up some interesting themes in the lyrics, like the challenges a contemporary progressive musician faces.

Musically, Explorers Club has a rich mine of talent. There's some stunning soloing from the eight (!) soloists involved, with John Petrucci's work being especially great. A pair of his wonderful solos illuminate the echoic "Fading Fast" with amazing emotional acuity, which help make it my favorite on this disc. Elsewhere, there's some unnecessarily flashy guitar and keyboard acrobatics undermine some interesting songwriting...I mean, there's more than 30 solos here and the album isn't even more than an hour long. An important lesson to learn is that there's more to "progress" than being a technical monster.

The vocal talent, like the instrumental talent, is also here in spades, but I must say that the singers don't have much to work with. The vocal melodies are supra-awkward, filled with affricatives that are pretty rough on the ears. Like I said, "Fading Fast" is my favorite track...it's an interesting, ambient composition with a lengthy intro that uses some Arabic drumming and vibrant synths and guitars. Matt Bradley's the singer on this one, and he does a good job, sounding almost ghostly over those moody synths. On this one, the lyrics aren't too clumsy. James LaBrie is a fabulous singer, but given songs without hooks or good melodies, he's talent is squandered. (The production handicaps his voice, too.) DC Cooper has a good, rich voice, and he gives the best vocal performance on the album, I'd say, although his track ("Time Enough") is spliced uncomfortably by a discomfited solo from James Murphy that seems out of place.

While I am being critical, one must not lose sight of some great stuff here. The quiet, luminous solos (Garner, Sheehan, Bemesderfer, Howe) in the middle of "Time Enough" are sublime; some frenetic work on the final track "Last Call" is ostentatious but still captures an ingredient of amusement; and other bits scattered throughout.

Age of Impact is like a Big Mac meal. It's not great food, but it's good for a diversion once in a while, with "Fading Fast" as the burger, "Time Enough" the fries, and Petrucci's solos on "Fading Fast" as the toy. It's not a progressive masterpiece, but it's fun once in a while.

_Age Of Impact_ is a 5 song (each averaging over 10 minutes) concept album of sorts written by Magellan's Trent Gardner about the current prog scene. It features many of today's and yesterday's most progressive "explorers" (John Petrucci, James Labrie, Steve Howe, Terry Bozzio, Bret Douglas, Billy Sheehan, DC Cooper) performing traditional Gardner arrangements. The talent on this album is incredible, with excellent guitar and keyboard solos throughout. There are also notable vocal performances by DC Cooper (Royal Hunt, solo), James Labrie (DT), Bret Douglas (Cairo) and others. The cd is not great, in my opinion, but it is very good (I'd probably give it three and a half stars if I could). Much like Magna Carta's Liquid Tension Experiment project, the talent featured on this album is incredible (especially some of Petrucci's solo work), and my collection would not be complete without it.

I picked this up because I am a huge fan of Billy Sheehan, however, I'm not too sure he plays on the whole CD. One song he definitely solos on, but it says additional bass by Wayne Garner on the package. I'm willing to bet Garner played on most of it. The same goes for Steve Howe- one solo on one tune.

That aside, it is not too bad at all. If you dig Yes, then chances are good that you'll like it. This CD is also a must for John Petrucci fans. He solos all over the place. Some of the vocals are uneven, but James LaBrie does a great job on the parts he sings. (He stays within his range on this disc.)

Obviously, this disc is relying on your curiousity. All those names on it are hard to pass up. Are they worth the sum of their parts? I'm not too sure.

You'd think this was an all-star session with everybody who's anybody in prog and prog/metal; it's not. The disk is mainly Bozzio, Sheehan, Gardner and Petrucci, with a different vocalist on most each track, and small, mostly meaningless cameos by other luminaries. If you want to hear Steve Howe, don't buy this disc.

On the other hand, the music is wonderful overall. I really like the first 3 tracks, and the last 2 are OK. While the mix is a little muddy for Bozzio and Sheehan, the really are great, and Petrucci does nice stuff (with the exception of a tedious extended run-out on the last track.

Buy this disc!

The Explorers Club project was put together by Magellan mastermind Trent Gardner, and featured performances by Dream Theater alumni John Petrucci, James LaBrie, Derek Sherinian, Steve Howe (Yes, Asia), Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big), Terry Bozzio (UK) and other stars of the progressive rock world. I picked this up when I was in full-on Dream Theater mania, so the involvement of Petrucci, LaBrie and Sherinian was enough to get me to head straight for the cash register with Age of Impact.

Gardner's stated goal was to make the kind of grand progressive rock album that Yes or Genesis would have back in the day. The result was an overblown, unfocused exercise in self-indulgence by a group of musicians who are perfectly happy to solo away for hours at a time. Naturally Age of Impact features tons of great instrumental passages, but a grand total of zero real songs. Some of the musicianship is absolutely mind-blowing, but the vocals and overall songwriting is just too overblown and pretentious to be effective. Close to the Edge this isn't.

Personally, Age of Impact's greatest virtue is that it introduced me to one D.C. Cooper, then the lead vocalist of Royal Hunt. Hearing his voice for the first time made my jaw drop, and I think I had Royal Hunt's Paradox in my hands less than a week after hearing this album. Since then he has become my absolute favorite singer, so I'll always have some affection for this album.

If you're a serious prog fan, you probably won't be able to resist the lineup on this album. The resumes of the musicians on display here make Age of Impact a progressive rock album worth hearing. If someone besides Gardner had access to these guys, they would probably make an unforgettable album. Unfortunately his songwriting is just not on par with this level of musical talent. Still, the album is well worth checking out just to hear these noteworthy musicians doing what they do best.

To me, this is probably the purest form of progressive rock as we will find anywhere today. With instrumental prowess of all the participants of this project, I must say that this album is pretty much everything I expected it to be. There is a definite, albeit elusive, theme that is followed by the dynamics and the feel of the music. Vocal stylings are picked to that theme as well. The choice instrumentation, although sometimes overdone (the sounds of trombone, among other things, is at times otiose), is wonderful and keeps you into it.

The only thing I disliked about this album is the lyrics. They are repetitive, and add very little to the whole. Almost seems as if the vocals were there just so that the singers could sing something. Because of this, only 4 stars.

Buy this record, but keep in mind: it is for those who enjoy long instrumental passages of very technical music. It's really not for the weak-hearted. If you think you're up for the task, join the Explorer's Club!

I'm a huge fan of progressive rock and progressive metal, and have heard a number of these "supergroup" projects made up of members of various bands. This is definitely my favorite of all of them. Often these projects suffer from a lack of cohesiveness, or just plain self-indulgence. This CD suffers from neither.

A first-class cast of musicians (John Petrucci, Terry Bozzio, Steve Howe, et al) has put together a first-rate CD. I constantly find myself humming some piece of music, and playing through a little in my head, I realize it's from this disc. And not just one or two pieces- I like the whole disc. It's simply awesome. Any fan of prog rock or prog metal should have this in their CD collection. You won't be disappointed.

This CD is a must have for anyone that enjoys musicianship. Bozzio and Sheehan provide a spectacular foundation to the ever awesome licks that Petrucci unleashes. Mixed with great vocals, this CD has quickly become one of my favorites. Other CD's I would recommend would be "Black Light Syndrome" and " Lemur Voice" and Shadow Gallery "tyranny".