AGE OF IMPACT

I borrowed this album from a friend for the novelty of hearing another progressive super-group or in this case a whole super-team! Unfortunately I didn't like neither the song writing nor the production all that much. The reason behind this is the that same old problem that has been ruining the majority of these collaboration albums, namely that they usually aren't really group efforts to begin with.

This time the mastermind behind project is Trent Gardner and it definitely shows because it all sounds just like a Magellan album on a grander scale. In a way the technology is somewhat to blame for making people think that they can basically compose the main outline of the compositions and then send them around to all the collaborators without ruining the overall quality of the material.

I guess that John Petrucci fans did get a kick out of this album judging by the amount of Fate Speaks guitar solo covers that have are available on YouTube! I definitely don't blame them because the only thing that Age Of Impact has got going for it are the solo spots and even those can sometimes feel like a novelty. Being a collaboration album every artist has to get enough space for a memorable effort which sometimes creates truly awkward moments like for example the acoustic guitar solo spot for Steve Howe on Time Enough.

If you're a fan of creative collaboration albums then you should look elsewhere to get your kicks because this album is only for hardcore fans of the collaborators who are featured on this release.

Edit: Dream Theater fans might recognize traces of the Finally Free solo from Scenes from a Memory on Fading Fast (between 5:20-6:40). The track can be streamed here on Prog Archives so go ahead and look it up just for fun!

**** star songs: Fate Speaks (16:00)

*** star songs: Fading Fast (8:45) No Returning (8:20) Time Enough (9:15) Last Call (11:10)