AMELIORATE

Ameliorate: 4 songs that appeared in so many video games like "Guitar Hero: World Tour", "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland" and "Guitar Hero 3", making them so famous. These two guys are very talented (one of them graduated from Berklee College of Music) and the songs have very interesting riffs, but still does not catch you all the time during the song. I think you have to listen to their songs over and over again to get that taste and complete them in your mind. I can only say congratulations to you, and I'm looking forward to their new production. Go ahead!

This short EP is a great addition to any fan of modern progressive rock's collection. There are four songs each with its own identity and a different way of experimentation, so there really isn't a way to describe the album as a whole. This shows that modern progressive rock bands can still be creative without being completely avant-garde or out there.

"Anything" is probably the most standard song on Ameliorate, though that doesn't say much. It begins with a regular rock riff and flows like a reguar up-tempo rock song. However, eventually it begins exploring musically and goes beyond the expected, before finishing up in a standard outro.

"Impulse" is definetely the most fun song here. It begins with some cool riffs and chugging, until suddenly some odd times come in. The listener will be taken aback as he is subjected to a rapid change of different styles, including funk, ballad, mathcore, and pure prog. A great composition and a fun one, especially for those familiar with playing it on Guitar Hero.

"Sun of Pearl" is perhaps the strongest composition on Ameliorate. It begins with some great reverberated guitar picking and builds with a great energy and a strong atmosphere. It is also probably the most proggy sounding song on the EP, and above all is a great example of modern progressive rock.

The last song, "The Adventures of Jabubu" is likely to be neglected, as it is a short song at the end of the album with not much going for it. However, there are cool marimba sounds and some nice riffs on it, so it mostly serves as a good addition to an already excellent short collection of songs.

All in all, this is a good one to get. An Endless Sporadic may be one of the future modern prog bands to watch.

What an amazing piece of work by an amazing band! These guys are great artists and very creative, and it definitely shows! In a song such as Impulse, you can hear many different styles of music coming out. I'm not even sure myself what genre of music I'd classify them as, but it's definitely progressive. Zach is amazing with the guitar and bass, he can shred up a storm but yet there are also very melodic sections in each of their songs. Andy is absolutely disgusting on the drums and has a very unique drumming style. Once again I just want to stress these guy's creativity, their music is very difficult to pin to a single genre. With 3 of their four songs featured in major video games ( Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero III, and Guitar Hero World Tour ) you think these guys would get the hint and record an album! Well that's just what they're doing, hopefully as I am typing this! New CD coming out and I am looking forward to it! Seriously though I cannot recommend this band more, please go check out their MySpace page to hear all four of these songs for free.

I have been one of the biggest fans of AES out there ever since Tony Hawk's American Wasteland hit the shops. Then there was a period of time where I forgot about them. When they were resurrected again in Guitar Hero III, I could keep my eyes off them no longer. And then the band appeared in Guitar Hero: World Tour, they had cemented their reputation in my heart: I check in on their MySpace and website everyday and answer new posts in the AES forums (I'm the third most active member), and check on the updates from Andy Gentile himself. But enough of my story, AES only has four songs in their catalog and they are a perfect band for every prog fan, since each song is in a different style than the last but still retaining the AES sound.

The album opens up "Anything." It is a strong opener, in my opinion, and will get metal-heads' ears perked up. The song is ablaze in heavy guitar solos and even contains a brief vocal section (which is quoted from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"). While this song would definitely be the favorite on the EP for fans of metal, I am more of a fan of prog and I absolutely love the acoustic interlude with soaring keyboards in the middle of the song.

"Impulse" is the band's biggest "hit", if you would call it that, and one of their most interesting. Impulse is far more melodic and prog than "Anything" and contains Carlos Santana-like solos and plenty of breakdowns and disturbing guitar passages that would once again interest metal heads. This song is a giant step above "Anything," but I must remind you again: I favor prog over metal.

"Sun Of Pearl" continues to build up from the previous two tracks, and is even more prog than the latter track. The song contains excellent piano and soaring guitars that build up to beautiful melodies and riffs. For the prog fan, this is definitely the best song on Ameliorate.

The closing "The Adventures Of Jabubu" is the most prog on the album. It is like the album is an ascending elevator and the songs get more prog as the next one ends. "Jabubu" is my favorite tune off the album and it is the most relaxed and has the nicest solos from Kamins. The climax of the track is an amazing xylophone solo from Andy Gentile followed by a few seconds of scattered applause.

So that's it, a fantastic EP by a fantastic band, and a new album is coming out this year too (check out the track from the new album on their Myspace)! This is definitely one of the better albums in 2000s progressive rock. While not as dense as Dream Theater, not as calm as Echolyn, and not as prog as The Flower Kings, AES delivers a fantastic EP that is a highlight of modern instrumental prog.

Ameliorate is the debut EP of An Endless Sporadic. This 18 minute treat was made by Zach Kamins (guitars, keyboards, bass) and Andy Gentile (drums) while they were on opposite ends of the country (Zach at school in Berklee and Andy at work in Hollywood). They wrote each other music across the Internet and eventually this EP came to life. The best song is definitely "The Adventures Of Jabubu" (the only one not to be featured on a video game. It is the one that most foreshadows the path they will take on their self-titled debut album. The rest of the songs are also great, which makes for one of my favorite EP's ever.

Support this band! They are very good!

I have guitar hero to thank for finding this small but great band. (Who said video games are a bad source of progressive rock?) Unfortunately Ameliorate is just an EP and therefore really short, because the compositions on here are really great.

The style of this band is obviously progressive metal but they do have a hint of jazz fusion. The bass is pretty funky and the keys are well up there in the mix. The guitar is still the leading instrument for this type of music which is used for some really crunchy riffs.

The compositions are pretty loose in that they are all over the place. I guess that's a good thing since it gives the album a less serious environment.

There are some moments that are overtaken by excessive noodling, but this is far and in between. Another pet peeve I have is the shoddy production, especially for the drums which sounds like a stick hitting a brick. But otherwise this is a phenomenal EP by a relatively unknown duo.

7/10

This is the debut release from this amazing duo that originally wrote music together across a distance and shared it over the internet. Their music has been featured in many video games, in fact 3 of the 4 tracks on this EP are from video games. it is fast moving music, and it is also very complicated, ever changing and ever challenging. It is quite technical as far as the playing goes. The tracks on this EP are quite short, never over 5 minutes, but they would explore more on their future albums.

The band itself is quite unknown, at least at the beginning. They did gain popularity when one of their songs was featured on the Guitar Hero game. They were able to get several fans from that exposure, and the fact that their music is quite difficult to play, even on the game.

The tracks have plenty of dynamic changes, mostly loud, but finding time to include quieter passages from time to time. But nothing remains still or in one place for too long. So, with the excellent playing, where does this EP suffer? Mostly from production, which since this is self released, is not the best, especially for what is demanded from this type of music. The other drawback is that the music changes so much in each track that none of the individual songs have any personality that stands out from the others. There is a lot of sameness in the music.

In my mind, the only thing that really stands out is the track "Sun of Pearl", but that is because I recognize the melody from somewhere, possibly in a game I've played somewhere, and the piano and funky breaks in the song give variation on the melody and gives it a really nice vibe. It always returns to fast drumming and showing off on guitar after each break, but there is always that feeling of hurry and get to the next section. I love the variation they put on the main theme though. Great song, but with a little work, it could be quite amazing. "The Adventures of Jabubu" is the only track not featured on any game. It has a good jazz vibe to it, almost like an Alan Holdsworth tune, but they don't give it much time to develop.

Overall, it seems like they are trying to fit an album's worth of material in 18 minutes. Everything rushes by at breakneck speed. What was needed here was more time to develop ideas and better production. With development, there would have been more variety here. Also, you can't usually expect the best production when a band handles everything on their own, but with a startup band, they did the best they could. This would improve on future albums. However, this is still a fun EP which is over way to quickly. The playing is quite phenomenal and the potential is very apparent. Lovers of Prog Metal should check them out, but be advised that most of their music is instrumental, and every track here is also instrumental.