THE EDGE

Eternity X was formed in 1990 by Keith Sudano (vocalist) and Robert "Zeek" Maziekien (bassist). Other band members came and went but for the recording of The Edge (1997), the other members were Jeffrey Shernov (Guitar), Jamie Mazur (keyboards) and Jimmy Peruta (drums).

The Edge

Now I tend to be a little effusive in my praise for worthy albums, therefore for The Edge I will try to be less subjective. Please do not take that to mean that I am less than enthused about The Edge.

If ever the term Art Rock fit the designee, this is it. The Edge is literally a work of Progressive Art. Even AMG recommends this album and they even put The Edge on a par with DTs, Images and Words and so do I. I am so happy I found this album that I am compelled to tell you about it, whoever you may be.

The Music is like a fusion of Dream Theater, Adagio, Symphony X and Shadow Gallery, both Progressive and Symphonic with low keyed to bombastic sounds. The phenomenal singer songwriter, Keith Sudano, has written and arranged some extremely interesting pieces and his powerful voice reminds me of both Roy Kahn of Kamelot, Geoff Tate of Queensryche and a little of Mike Baker of Shadow Gallery

Surprisingly The album starts out, in my opinion, rather slowly (in quality, not speed) with four songs under five stars. "The Edge - Part One" is a good, not particularly inspired, Dream Theater sounding number. "Fly Away" is a long (8 plus minutes) very accessible song reminiscent of Styx or Shadow Gallery. "The Confession" The best if the four, starts with a recording of Carmina Burina, then gets Progressive sort of like Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime. "The Edge - Part Two" is actually a very good song but the operatic sounding female singer is too strident and detracts from the overall effect.

Now we're getting to the meat of the album. Is there such a thing as a progressive ballad? If so, then "Aday in Verse" is it. Look for a great melody, lovely passionate singing and great piano playing.

"Imaginarium", with soft half spoken half sung introductions in the beginning and middle this inscrutable ten minute selection is otherwise mostly a medium fast tempo rock song during the verses and choruses. Look for great guitar playing, ethereal interludes and some fabulous emotive vocals .

"The Edge - Part Three" is one of the shorter and weaker pieces @ only 5 minutes our singer (Sudano) does an excellent job of singing actually sounding like two different people. Look for some background classical melodies.

Now we're getting to the killer songs, "Edge of Madness" is an amazing song portraying a realistic portrait of insanity. Look for insane style voices popping up all over the place with piano and guitar accompaniments in this chopped up, widely varied, medium pace song. This song is catchy as Hell!

"Rejection" starts with a standard telephone recording and a following beep beep beep, which we are all familiar. Following the tempo of the nerve racking beep first drums then the organ jump in the the whole band setting the scene for a heavy guitar laden song of rage.

"Baptized By Fire" is one of the more uplifting songs with a pleasant catchy melody accompanying an equally pleasant galloping beat. This song really reminds me of Everon and Oliver Phillips singing. This is the kind of song that'll get in your head and just won't leave you alone.

"The Edge - Legacy/Reprise" is a somewhat eclectic/schizophrenic ending. Look for a convivial acoustic guitar and a slightly folk melody then segueing into the reprise which is more progressive and great emotional singing. (Sudano's trademark)

I haven't mentioned this but The Edge is ostensibly a concept album. I haven't been able to figure out the story, however.

One cannot underestimate the importance of band leader Keith Sudano's vocals are to this album. Sudano is extraordinarily versitile singing in numerous voices and backing himself and even on occasion sounding like a girl. That's not to take away from the other members who are excellent as well but Sudano's vocals put Eternity X over the top. I keep thinking of more singers whom Sudano reminds me of, so here's another one - Jorn Lande of Beyond Twilight, more on style than sound and absolute importance to their respective bands.

So now that I've given my spiel, what do you think? Remember, this album is universally revered by reviewers. I have checked, it is true. The only thing The Edge was lacking was buyers but watch out, this is going to be a classic, so get your copy right now while you still can. For any, that like Progressive Rock or Metal this is a must. If you like any of the similar bands below, this is an essential album.

Similar Bands : Shadow Gallery, Dream Theater, Threshold, Everon, Vanden Plas, Queenryche, Savatage

*Sighhh* , alas with metal prog. The same old same old cliché of 5 guys dressed in black, sporting black clothes but smiling on the picture, the drummer is bald and has a goatee, the singer is overdoing it and almost ruins an album already confused in stories about dragons and quests for holy something?

Freakin' tired of all that crap?

I sure am. It kinda draws me away from that section.

Why can't a metal-prog band sounds anything but DreamTheater / Maiden/ Malmsteen ? Augh, it's getting annoying.

But, this time I must admit it's a change of the ordinary steak-potato-bread meal that metal usually serves us. I must admit that anticipating a band by it's name is risky. But with a band named Eternity X, I feared the worst stereotypes. But this is where I get slapped on the kisser with a spiked glove. This has strenght, intelligence and actually going somewhere. We have to give credit to Eternity X, they keep us focused on melodies and the disc is not a yawning factor, surprisingly even after 70 minutes of, let's not fear words, very acceptable work. This record has a strong will to plunge the listener into a gothic/opera atmosphere and at many moments, almost vampiric. I believe the term Néo- classical is appropriate. It feels really refreshing after Threshold, Dream Theater and so on.

I really tried not to laugh when I heard the singer squeezing personnal body parts to reach something that should be opera (in the Edge part II). After a few listens, I even hummed the opera parts without feeling the wave of shame due to an overdose of cheesyness.

The keyboard works is really the icing on the cake that gives the whole darkish theme to the songs. The guitar/bass interplay is reminding the best years of the Iron Maiden, which will surely please the nostalgics.

In fact, take off the cliché wrapping and you have something 100% original. Eternity X do not sound like any band I heard so far. And that only is rare. Very enjoyable and a great change of concept with some addictive melodies...slow or heavier.

I think this record is a model to follow in the melodic progressive metal genre! It has been a long time since I've not been listening to a very good prog metal album like that! I remember the album Superior -Behind. Behind, being excellent, is more metal than progressive: the rhythmic guitar, although having an outstanding perfect razor sound, is more monolithic than here. Many prog metal artists do not exploit enough the progressive side, so that if the guitarists are not comparable to Glen Tipton or Dave Murray, then the overall music is less interesting. Actually, this Eternity X album has this rare perfect balance between progressive and metal elements! The progressive textures will certainly move you, because this album is very emotional! Women should like this jewel!

The lead singer often has a highly pitched voice a bit like Geoff Tate from Queensryche. The keyboards and the guitars sound a bit like Dream Theater circa "Images & words". The musicians are just slightly less virtuosos than the Dream Theater members: the music is just a bit less loaded, more atmospheric, and the emotions involved are very palpable: I would say more than on Dream Theater's "Images & words"! There are omnipresent excellent piano parts, and the lead singer is VERY emotional, varied & theatrical. I do not recommend to turn the volume too loud, so that the excellent razor guitar does not kill all the background subtleties and ambiences, provided by subtly floating keyboards, ear candy melodic & modern keyboards and guitar sounds effects.

The first time I've heard the "The Edge part 3" track, I've almost fell under my chair: it pretty sounds like Simple Minds' the "New gold dream" album! Some prog ambiences remind me Iluvatar, like on "Confession" and "Day in Verse". "Imaginarium" and "Rejection" has heroic choir-like background keyboards, a bit like on the early Manowar albums! The tracks can be very catchy, like "Fly away", and there are many very melodic guitar solos. Finally, let's add that all the tracks are at least very good!

Rating: 4.5 stars

Eternity X is one of the better prog metal bands out there. Even if the string synths can seem a little overdone and lead vocalist Keith Sudano owes more than a small debt to Queensryche's Geoff Tate, I generally like what this band does. In fact, I must say that the balance that this group strikes between metal and prog is more satisfactory than some other heavyweights of the genre like Tool and Dream Theater. If you like theatrical performances from your rockers than Eternity X is essential listening. However, while the group's ambition is to be lauded, this album, which goes on for more than 70 minutes, could have done with some trimming down.

The gripping opening track kicks off this album really well with thundering drums, powerful string synth and a brief Brian May soundalike guitar solo that leads into a great melodic metal track which also contains some flashy playing from each of the band's members before the memorable semi-tragic string synth melody returns. The momentum is kept up for quite some time.

Fly Away has an absolutely epic chorus and a nice guitar solo over a piano-led backdrop that reminds me of Queen. The Confession starts off with an excerpt from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and has a nice piano mid-section. The Edge (Part 2) The Looking Glass is another power-packed track with haunting choral vocals and a heavy string synth presence, even if I must admit that the classical "affectations" get a little ridiculous towards the end of the track. A Day In Verse is a really melodic piano-driven power ballad with a little bit of metal thrown in, it is perhaps a little bit too poppy, now that I think about it. Imaginarium is one of those definitive prog-metal pieces with great acoustic segments, hard overdrive playing, always melodic with a kick-ass mid-paced section.

The Edge Of Madness is a rather irritating piece, which has some nice fast-paced synth tucked in near the end of it, In fact, keyboardist Jaime Mazur who apparently joined for this one album, is the main player that excites me. Rejection is decent and one is rather grateful for its brevity, while Baptized By Fire is another beautiful piano-driven piece that turns into a prog-metal fest with more class than most other prog-metal bands muster ... it's probably my favourite piece here. Finally we have a reprise of the main song to round it all off nicely.

I wouldn't say that The Edge offers many exciting surprises, but it's an engaging and underrated bit of prog-metal that deserves more respect than it seems to have gotten, not least from the hard-core prog-metallers themselves! ... 51% on the MPV scale

Am new to Eternity X but when I listened to this album for the first time there was a strong need to repeat spinning the CD many times until finally this album laid down naturally into my mind. One thing for sure is that the band has an excellent lead singer Keith Sudano which justifies the purchase of this album. Not just that the vocal, this album is also excellent musically. I might say that the music is in someway influenced by Queensryche, Symphony X, etc.

The opening part of The Edge...(Introduction) (6:10)" which comprises synthesizer-drenched music resembles a symphonic prog until when the drum starts to roll followed with vocal the music is brought into heavy side. I can actually feel that the music seems like being forced at the beginning as it sounds unnatural to my ears. But when it moves to " Fly Away" (8:03) where classical music influence is much more prevalent, I can accept the music naturally ..

"The Confession" (6:19) brings the music colossally with the choir lines as well as powerful low register vocal at the beginning. The music moves into heavier part with vocal and guitar as main bearer. "The Edge Part 2" (6:23) combines the symphonic music and power metal. The opening part reminds me to the rearrangement of Deep Purple's Child In Time by Ian Gillan Band. Synthesizer fills in the music followed with fast speed music with double pedal bass drum as well as guitar.

"A Day in Verse" (7:58) starts beautifully with excellent piano solo followed with fills that reminds me to pop song by Air Supply - well, I think this is a coincidence. But the melody is similar with that Air Supply song. This song has an interlude part in the vein of neo prog music with nice guitar solo. "Imaginarium" (10:11) starts off with nice acoustic guitar fills and excellent voice. It sounds like a ballad song in the beginning but actually the song moves into power metal music with nice melody.

Under "The Edge Part 3" (5:01) there is a classical music melody of Beethoven being inserted in the music (at approx. minutes 2:44). The combination of tight bass line, drums and voice is really nice. "The Edge of Madness" (7:13) starts mellow with powerful vocal and piano fills. The music then flows into heavier part. I like the use of vocals in dialogue that resembles like a conversation in the movie.

"Rejection" (3:24) is a wonderful composition with a music that combines modern rock, power metal and industrial music. The result is a wonderful composition! I like the tight bass lines which make up this song. Great! "Baptized By Fire" (7:28) brings piano back to life with power metal music. "The Edge...Legacy/Reprise" (5:03) concludes the album with excellent acoustic guitar fills in classical mode augmented with nice keyboard and bass lines. Vocal is in low register notes.

It's an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild, GW

I'd love to just hear these guys let loose and play some hell bent for leather Prog-Metal. This is a concept record that clocks in around 74 minutes. As usual with concept albums I feel they put the story ahead of the music on a lot of these songs. Still this is a good album that has lots of metal passages that rock out pretty good.

"The Edge...(Introduction)" sounds like it has some orchestration in it early before we get a drum / guitar melody 2 minutes in followed by vocals.The tempo does pick up and we get some riffs. Check out the bass solo. "Fly Away" has an uptempo and bombastic intro before vocals then riffs arrive. Lots of piano follows the guitar solo 4 1/2 minutes in. "The Confession" features choirs, spoken words and samples, as we're really into the story line now. "The Edge Part 2...(The Looking Glass)" has some Power-Metal moments as the drums are pounded with some fury. The vocals get crazy too. "A Day In Verse" is a piano led ballad. It's ok. "Imaginarium" is the longest song at over 10 minutes. Nice background synths as soft vocals come in. It kicks in 1 1/2 minutes. Killer sound after 5 minutes. I'm reminded very much of TIME MACHINE at times on this track.

"The Edge Part 3...(Existence Chapter 1,000,009)" has a cool galloping rhythm. Nice heavy sound to this one at times. "The Edge Of Madness" opens with vocals and piano. It kicks in before 1 1/2 minutes. Theatrical vocals in this one. A thunderous rhythm section after 5 minutes followed by a ripping guitar solo. "Rejection" opens with this phone message being played and then the beeping sounds that continue as the drums join in. Nice. Background synths, riffs and a calm all make up this tune. "Baptized By Fire" opens with piano and synths. Heavier a minute in. Contrast continues. Piano ends it. "The Edge...Legacy / Reprise" is for me the most interesting piece on the album. The different instrumental sounds that come and go early are good. It kicks in around 2 minutes as contrasts continue until it levels out after 3 minutes. Heavy with lots of synths.

I've just heard so much better from this genre. Not as good as advertised.

Quite possibly the worst album I (still) actually own

Eternity X, the american progressive metal band hailing from New Jersey, is a fairly unknown fice-piece whose only relevant album to the progressive metal scene is this album specifically, named The Edge, which was last one released by the band before disbanding.

The Edge, over the years, have achieved some kind of cult following and, among the fan circles and the following, it is (obviously) held in high regard. Because of that, I was somehow compelled to buy it when the opportunity arose, about a year ago, over the internet. Right after ariving at my door, I could see that this album was bound to be something different than what I have expected, due to the state of the album's jewlcase, that showed that this album in particular has had a considerable amount of hand-to-hand trade mileage.

Listening the album proved reavealing enough for the reason why it's case was in such a bad shape: although the instrumental passages not being so bad (in most songs), the vocals definitely ruin whatever achievement the instrumental work made, because the main singer, and to a lesser degree the backing vocals, is (or are) plainly out of tune for most (if not all) of the album. He just cannot follow a single musical line without being untuned. it was quite clear why people wanted to get rid of the album before it reached me.

You could explain it by claiming that this is his style of singing, but in my opinion that is a lazy, condescending and unprofessional way to justify the unforgivable, specially because he was in a studio, and not in a live gig, and had the possibility of actually try and record his parts in tune. This worst performances are: Fly Away, Imaginarium, The Edge of Madness (which is almost unlistenable) and Rejection. It is really painful to sit thought an hour and 13 minutes of this.

The instrumental parts are, for the most part, not so bad. However, there are passages throughout the album where you can clearly notice that the musicians are obviously overestimating their own playing abilities (specially the guitarrist), trying to play faster that they are actually capable of. That, however, is not too obvious because much of the album's songs are ballads or mid-tempo songs.

Style-wise, Eternity X also slips and falls hard. Their music is incredibly dated, managing to be even more dated than Images & Words and Shadow Gallery's self titled debut, which is quite an accomplishment since The Edge was released practically half a decade after those albums. Another grave style issue that I have with this band is that they are too similar to Shadow Gallery for their own good. Hell, even the singer's vocal timbre is amazingly close to Mike Baker's on Shadow Gallery's first two albums, which probably served as a major sources of inspiration, judging by the way this album sound.

About the concept in which the whole album revolves, the initial idea of making an album about the weight or the influence of heaven and hell over the life of a person was very interesting, although it was already literally made thousands of times before by other artists. However, the execution of such an interesting idea by the band was an unfortunate disaster.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Eternity X's The Edge is really an album that leaves me on the edge: average cheesy and dated (progressive) heavy metal music with one of the worst vocal performances I have ever listened in rock or heavy metal. Just for comparison, the vocals here are almost as bad (if not worse) than LaBrie's live performaces circa the late 90's, with the difference that LaBrie rupted his vocal cords in late 1994 and decided to keep on singing.

The similarities between The Edge and Shadow Gallery's first and second albums and the huge lengh of the album do not help at all in the band's rating.

Just one last word of advice: be careful when buying any Eternity X album.

Third album aswell their swansong and the best from all 3 is a real killer in prog metal zone, never being to popular or treated as should be. I bought this album together with Mind games since they were released almost 15 years ago, I quite remember the day, very cloudy and rainy day, never wanted to go outside to do anything, but I've heared at raidio a piece promoting the album, it was Fly Away, real treat for prog metal listners. So I've jumped outside and getit these two albums, since then they were constantly spining. So, The edge released in 1997 is by far the best they eaver done, soon they disbands without reason because the album was very well recived both by fans and critics, who knows what happend. This album took me some time to fully appreciated, but in the end Th edge shows his face to me and become a great progressive metal album in my cllection. The music Eternity X offers on this album is for sure much more mature and progressive aswell, with complec moves, better composed and with some intristing ideas overall. Here are no more that power metal cliches, the on left are very well meted with progressive metal elements, in the end a great album in this field. As one of the members said in an interview in amgazin from country when the album was released, that they music is much more close to what Queensryche done in their best period, rather then another DT clones. So, all pieces are good they flow one to anothe rvery well, great vocals and good musicianship make from this album a great addition to any prog metal lover. never realy fuuly appreciated by larger public intrested in this kind of music, some of them said that this release is a pale copy of what DT or Queensryche done years ago, not at all agry with them, this release and specialy this album don't copy anyone, they were in a period when prog metal was a popular genre, not like doday when all sounds alike. So I will give 4 stars to The edge, an album not quite fuly appreciated at their full value. 3 members from this band , soon after dibanded band, formed another great progressive metal band named Exhibition also featured here in PA. Recommend to those who have some intrest in prog metal, and not in some lame and boring music offerd by some bands today.