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Explorers Club - Age Of Impact CD (album) cover

AGE OF IMPACT

Explorers Club

 

Heavy Prog

3.67 | 132 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Gerinski
Prog Reviewer
2 stars I have never been a big fan of Magellan, although I like some of their music I tend to find that the composition level is not high enough, their competence as instrumentalists is average, and the sound is too digital and electronic. At least the last two issues are solved here, but not the first one.

It's hard to understand how did Trent Gardner manage to convince such a stellar line-up of musicians and vocalists to participate in this project when the composition level is so low, and yet here we have John Petrucci, Terry Bozzio, Billy Sheehan, James La Brie, Steve Howe, Derek Sherinian, Matt Guillory? you name them, if this is not a supergroup I don't know what it is. I guess they were well paid.

Only the first track "Fate Speaks" is resonably good from the composition viewpoint, with a killer 4 minutes introduction mixing the styles of Magellan and Dream Theater followed by Magellan classic sounding verses / chorusses and great instrumental sections, and clocking 16 minutes it makes for a strong track, but even then it relies heavily on the soloing qualities of the guest musicians.

The other tracks are rather poor compositions only saved by the superb (and mostly long) solos, in particular Petrucci shines throughout the album, he was really inspired in this period. The inclusion of some flute and winds helps maintaining some interest but not enough, and the short appearances of Steve Howe on the acoustic guitar are rather uninspired for what we can expect from him.

Fans of prog-metal with special focus on proficient solos may surely enjoy this, but I don't think it deserves more than 2 stars.

Gerinski | 2/5 |

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