IAN PARRY'S CONSORTIUM PROJECT

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.

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