"Largely bloviate ostentation with a few great moments."
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 isn't my cup of tea at all, 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. There is some metal elements here, but I wouldn't call it a "prog metal" 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 with lots of long solos.
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 super-awkward, which is a defining characteristic of Gardner's writing. He doesn't write very interesting vocal melodies, and sometimes they 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.
