IAN PARRY'S CONSORTIUM PROJECT

A rapid glance to the lineup and you have in front of you the best of Dutch Progressive Metal, starting from Arjen Lucassen.

Well this is mainly a Ian Parry's project initially intended for a single album that later had three follow-ups, becoming the longest sci-fi inspired concept that I currently know. The fifth album of the Project is announced for this summer.

Lovers of progressive metal may consider this a masterpiece as good progressive metal is exactly what you'll find inside. What can be of interest for all the others is the skillful musicianship, the good songwriting and the concept behind. The album's alternative title is "Criminals and Kings".

Highlights are "Banquet Of Thieves", "Garden Of Eden", "Pandora's Box" and "Chain Of Fears".

A particular mention is deserved by "The Entity" that's a very atmospheric short instrumental. or the slow "A Miracle Is All We Need" with it's romantic piano intro.

There are some moments that remind to the 80s "hairy metal bands" but luckily not so poor as these. To me, this is a good album, but is a step beyond masterpieces like Ayreon's The Human Equation, but also to the Vengeance material, to mention another band which featured Ian. If we consider the whole 4 (now 5) albums it's an impressive work but taken alone it's just good.

Ian Parry has done a fantastic job with the debut release of his Consortium Project. A group consisting of... wait... hold on, who the hell is Ian Parry?!

His name is so almost-pompously placed in the title of the album as if he's someone you should know. It's almost hilarious. He's released a few solo rock albums, and he was known at the time of this albums release for fronting the Dutch prog/power metal band Elegy, who I actually quite like, but apparently nobody else really does. Still, when I got this CD and saw some of the musicians involved, my interest certainly piqued. Besides the savior of music himself, Ian Parry, this album features Thomas Youngblood from Kamelot, Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon fame, and members of Elegy, the band Parry was fronting at the time, all make appearances.

All jokes aside though, Ian Parry, messiah of music and master of the microphone, has gone and released a pretty good album. The music sounds exactly as you'd expect it to; guitar/keyboard-driven progressive metal, that actually does a fantastic job of blending elements of progressive and power metal, along with hard rock and even AOR influences. And Parry does have a pretty good voice. Bonus points!

That doesn't stop things from getting stale though. As half-way through the record the quality of the songs starts to diminish a little. They're not drastically terrible, but they certainly ooze of filler material, not worthy of a musical prophet such as Ian Parry. But the first few tracks, in particular, 'House of Cards', 'Banquet of Thieves', 'Garden of Eden' and 'Change Breeds Contempt' are all fine examples of good, quality progressive metal. And the closing track 'Pandora's Box' picks things up again, so at least the album doesn't end on a bum-note.

It's nothing that will change your life, but it will make a fine addition to the collection of any fans of progressive or power metal.

Ian Parry is best known for being the vocalist of progressive/power metal Dutch band Elegy (as well as guesting on early Ayreon's albums). In 1999 the singer took a break from his main job and assembled a cast of fine musicians to record his debut solo album, simply titled Ian Parry's Consortium Project. With Parry as the main songwriter as well as keyboard player, the line-up was comprised of an impressive list of fellow musicians, including Stephan Lill (Vanden Plas), Patrick Rondat (soon to join Elegy too) and Thomas Youngblood (Kamelot) on guitars, Dirk Bruinenberg (Elegy) on drums, and Barend Courbois (Vengeance), Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) and Martin Helmantel (Elegy) on bass.

The music is a blend of soft progressive metal, melodic power metal and hard rock, not too far from the type of sound one can find on the early Ayreon records. Royal Hunt may be another reference in terms of sound. The songs are mostly guitar- and keyboard-driven mid-tempos, with riffs that are gritty and majestic, but also very melodic and accessible. Meanwhile, the rhythm section provides a robust backbone that keeps things simple and to the point, rarely straying too far off the main beat. These are tracks clearly written with Ian Parry's vocals in mind and so the whole music revolves around the vocal hooks, with simple structures that are based on the repetition of verse-bridge-chorus, with a rare middle-eight thrown-in in a couple of songs. Each song also contains an inevitable guitar solo, usually placed after the chorus, allowing the guest guitarists to have the spotlight shined on them.

Given the rather straightforward and fairly unadventurous musical background, the success of the songs largely depends on Parry's melodic lines and performance. He is one of those singers in the tradition of Ronnie James Dio, with a voice that is gritty but also very expressive, and with a decent range. While his performance is generally good, the vocal lines he has written for himself do not always hit the mark. When they do, the songs are pretty good, like the opening duo "House of Cards" and "Banquet for Thieves", which feature a strong chorus that acts as climax to the momentum that the songs build over the verse and bridge. The piano-based ballad "A Miracle Is All We Need" is another strong song, wisely placed in the middle of the album to give the proceedings a much-needed change of pace after a sequence of mid-tempo tracks that somewhat tend to blur together.

Elsewhere, however, things do not work as well as the album's beginning might lead one to hope. "Evilworld", "Change Breeds Contempt", "The Snake" and "Criminals & Kings" are all sub-par tracks, with weak vocal melodies, especially on the choruses that fail to give the songs the cathartic boost they would so much need. The other tracks fair better, but only slightly. One gets the impression that Parry's songwriting is a tad too monothematic, with many of the songs here following the same structure and the same melodic ideas. Past its first half, the album becomes somewhat of a chore to get through, despite the fact that its closing tracks "Chain of Fear" and "Pandora's Box" are decent. The sound production does not help either, as the record sounds somewhat muddy and powerless.

Overall, Ian Parry's solo debut is a decent, but somewhat underwhelming effort. It is the classic album that would have benefitted a lot from a pruning down of two/three tracks, as well as an injection of more diverse and exciting material. The album is saved by a couple of good tracks as well as by the great line-up of musicians (including Parry), who guarantee solid performances all around. However, I would only recommend this to fans of the singer, because if you are looking for good progressive metal of the early 2000s, there is so much better stuff out there than this.