Explorer's Club - Age Of Impact

Year of Release: 1998
Label: Magna Carta
Catalog Number: MA-9021-2
Format: CD
Total Time: 53:29:00

The Players:

This is a side project led by Magellan's Trent Gardner, who sings on some of the album. His brother plays guitar and bass. Most of the bass though is played by Billy Sheehan. Steve Howe also lends his acoustical craft for some fills and frills. If your familiar with his solo albums, you know the style ... I knew it was him without knowing what album I was listening to.

Playing guitar solos we have the one and only Petrucci, also a very distinctive player in his shred state. These solos though are better than anything on DT's latest (I know that's not saying much but I happened to like the last album regardless.) Derek from the band that shall remain nameless, does is little finger-dancing on the keyboards. On drums we hear Terry Bozzio.

For the vocals, we get a sample from the aformentioned Trent Gardner, and also DC Cooper, James Labrie, Bret Douglas, & Matt Bradley.

The Songs:

"Fate Speaks" is the introductory song, the one that defines the sound of the album overall. The longest song of a collection of long songs (the shortest is 8:20). I get a little impatient there at the end, but a good listen nevertheless.

If you've heard Magellan, you know there's a direct link when you hear "Fading Fast." This is Trent Gardner's work, as it comes out clearly in the vocal melodies: The monotone vocals staying on one plane while the instrumentation changes key. Truely a Magellen thing, and a lovely and addictive sound once you get used to it.

Other songs on the album are "No Returning," "Time Enough" and "Last Call," the latter being a little tiring due mostly to a repetitive vocal chorus.

Conclusion:

Defenitely worth picking up.

This review courtesy Jeff Keifling, though I'm not sure where it originally appeared, Perpetual Motion most likely (and at the AudioVision site before it was absorbed by PW in 1999 -ed.

Tracklisting:
Impact 1 - Fate Speaks (16:00) / Impact 2 - Fading Fast (8:45) / Impact 3 - No Returning (8:20) / Impact 4 - Time Enough (9:15) / Impact 5 - Last Call (11:10)

Musicians:
Terry Bozzio - drums
Billy Sheehan - bass
Trent Gardner - keyboards, trombone
Wayne Gardner - electric and acoustic guitars, additional bass
Bret Douglas, Matt Bradley, James LaBrie, D.C. Cooper, Trent Gardner - vocals
John Petrucci, James Murphy, Frederick Clarke, Steve Howe - guitars
Derek Sherinian, Matt Guillory - keyboards
Michael Bemesderfer - flute and wind controller
Brad Kaiser - additional midi programming

Discography:
Age of Impact (1998)
Raising The Mammoth (2002)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin VA

Added: July 25th 1999
Reviewer: Jeff Keifling

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Language: english