DOCKER'S GUILD

Beautiful and emotional rock opera we have here with the great keyboards up front, spacey sounds and great compositions with no weak tracks. It's rare that a cd will keep my attention all the way through, but this one does. Remind me a bit of Haken's material with the overall sound and songwriting style, that will please those who enjoy a symphonic approach with their prog. A classic that i wouldn't tag as a Neo-Prog, because i don't have the impression that it copy the past, but could be the new future sound of progressive rock started with Ayeron, with less emphasis on guitars and more on keyboards.

Docker's Guild - "The Mystic Technocracy Season One: The Age Of Ignorance" 13/20

42nd place album of the year 2012

As a basement-dwelling neckbeard atheist, I will immediately jump to listen to albums like Docker's Guild's debut, with its imagery screaming "things I agree with". Although I have since outgrown my phase of shoving nothing down people's throats, I still can't resist an album cover with the emblems of the three major monotheistic doctrines and a title like "The Age Of Ignorance". Or more specifically "The Mystic Technocracy Season One: The Age Of Ignorance" which screams science fiction and ambition, and also epic, since the 'season one' implies there are at least two (I hope) more to come, and each will be as conceptual and epic as the third season of Lost. The name "Docker's Guild" is in fact cleverly taken from Babylon 5, referencing both science fiction, which this saga bleeds entirely, and the fact that the songwriter's name is Docker. Clever.

Not only are there the conceptual draw-ins, but this album also falls under the neo-prog subgenre, my personal favourite subgenre and my blog's namesake. The band also claim influence from AOR and electronic music, and the epic scope of this record definitely compares to AOR and stadium rock, and all neo-prog takes at least something from electronic music, being born in the 80's and all.

So, if you know me and what I like in music, then I should be about to say that this is the greatest thing ever, and I most certainly felt some of that on first listens. But this album is the opposite of a grower. You could call it a 'shrinker', but that sounds weird. Although the title track and parts of other songs still hold the same appeal, but when I come across songs like "Loving The Alien" and "Prophecy" again I can't help but reach for the skip button. They're not bad songs as such, but they just feel tired after 5 or 6 plays. This is the reason spamming albums to get an order for album of the year is bad, because I get sick of them. It's also the reason I've been putting off this review for a few days, because I really don't feel like putting on the album again to refresh.

But enough on the negative side, to be honest, this is a fine album. There are moments of great musicality, like the piano on "Norse Cosmology I", once you ignore the strange Italian spoken word, despite the rest of the album being in English. There are also great choruses, the opening chorus in the title track is great, as well as in the three-parter "The Secret of DNA/Purple Orb". Naturally, being neo-prog, there are great synth solos too, but maybe that's just me who loves them.

If you love neo-prog, sci-fi sagas, overbloated lyrics that confirm your universal beliefs and synth solos, then get this album. It's pretty solid and I'll definitely be looking for the other 4 parts of this saga. And if he keeps it up lengthwise, then we should be getting almost 7 hours of music. Sounds fun. Originally written for my facebook page/blog http://www.facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog

Docker's Guild is the brainchild of keyboardist and vocalist Douglas R Docker, who has managed to gather an impressive cast of other musicians and vocalists to back the project - names like Gregg Bissonette (David Lee Roth, Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather), Magnus Jacobson (Miss Behavior), Tony Franklin (Whitesnake, Blue Murder, The Firm), Guthrie Govan (Asia), Amanda Somerville (Avantasia, Epica, Trillium), Goram Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen, John Noram, Nostradamus), and others. This album is a rock opera in every sense of the term, and the combination of vocal chorus style singing and keyboard style instantly reminded me of the space rock feel of projects like Star One and Ayreon. All throughout the album, the keyboards are featured prominently, and Douglas creates a lush landscape with many keyboard textures, giving a futuristic sound to the album that often reminded me of an 80's Sci Fi flick. Open the cd booklet, and the lush images presented back the music quite well, creating a lush, futuristic world. The album is meant to be part one of a 5 part concept album series, and the story revolves around the idea of fanatical, dogmatic religion waging war and committing atrocities in the name of their god. The music is energetic, dramatic, large-scaled, well-orchestrated, and professional sounding. A solid album that will appeal to fans of projects like Avantasia and Ayreon.