Age Of Impact Salina KS

Age Of Impact

Explorers Club

Magna Carta Records, 1998

REVIEW BY: Matthew Turk

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/15/2002

Every so often, an album comes along that manages to fusemultiple different styles in a new and interesting way, creatingmusic that is both interesting and stylistically unique.

This album is, sadly, not at all like that.

If anything, this album is a collection of random solos thatspeak with no voice, lyrics that sound stupid at best, and anoverblown cast that looks for quality in quantity.

This "supergroup" (and I use that term lightly) is thebrainchild of Trent Gardner, the man described by Magna Carta asthe messiah of Progressive Rock. It's a long-winded attempt at aconcept album describing humanity, and our efforts in life toexpand beyond our capabilities. Or something. It's pretty standardfare - lots of vague descriptions of our uselessness as a race, andour various failures with our collective lives. The lyrics,however, are usually just vehicles for the vocalists, none of whomare in prime form here. James LaBrie, the vocalist from DreamTheater, sounds like he's doing an impression of himself.