Zodiac

There has been a pervasive misconception over the past couple decades that progressive metal must necessarily be a massive foray into genre-bending antics with noodling solos and excessive time durations, rendering it all but inaccessible to anyone that isn't an aspiring virtuoso musician themselves. Much of this can be credited to the ascendancy of Dream Theater in the 1990s as a dominant alternative to the mainstream rock genre of the same name, spearheaded by an exaggerated stylistic evolution of Rush's pioneering efforts and the once occasional extended jam session epic songs becoming the order of the day as the imitators swarmed in hoping to ride DT's coattails. However, progressive metal began as more of a gradual reinterpretation of the old school heavy metal style that was itself already beginning to dabble in unconventional ideas as the 1980s roared on, culminating in a number of exemplary albums such as Queensryche's Rage For Order, Fates Warning's Awaken The Guardian and the often overlooked Of The Sun + Moon courtesy of the short-lived Canadian Sci-Fi upstarts Sacred Blade.

This is all relevant because despite not releasing any recordings until the 90s, the New Jersey-based outfit Eternity hails from the same mid-80s time period that produced the aforementioned seminal progressive metal albums, and their independently released debut LP Zodiac listens like it was largely composed in the 1986-1988 time period rather than 1994. Though a tad bit on the technical side and having more of a free-flowing, through-composed format from one song to the next that tends to eschew the typical verse/chorus orthodoxy of traditional music, this album often finds itself in territory bordering on the Iron Maiden-inspired mode of power/thrash that Iced Earth would end up popularizing a couple years later, and otherwise meshes a spacey, Pink Floyd sense of atmospheric aesthetics with a fairly conventional 80s mode of balladry and dramatic build up that wasn't unheard of among more traditional acts such as Helstar and Sanctuary during the closing years of the decade in question, not to mention a generally smooth yet occasionally gritty vocal performance out of Keith Sudano that is a bit less operatic and melodramatic than what he became known for on subsequent outings.

Technically speaking, what sets this album apart from the primitive power/prog character of the mid-80s pioneering works is how it packages these generally conventional elements into a conceptual song cycle based on the 12 signs of the zodiac that has a fairly theatrical character and flows like one extended, 42 minute epic. There is a clear sense of programmatic intent from one song to the next, as if Sudano and company were trying to paint a portrait of each zodiac character with every single note and nuance. The dense atmospheric intro dubbed "Zodiac Prologue" reeks of that same cosmic feel that was first established by Sacred Blade and stylized into a power-driven machine by Pagan's Mind a few years later, though the lyrical content presents a sort of metaphysical declaration that is a bit corny, particularly the deep spoken part at the beginning that probably could have been omitted. Immediately nipping on its heels is a gallop-happy, thrashing riff monster in "Aries" that does a masterful job of depicting a war-like character befitting the heavy side of the metal coin, one which is echoed in the bass and riff happy nod to old school Iron Maiden with an Iced Earth twist "Scorpio".

Though this album definitely lays on the old school, impact-based heavy metal goodness a fair bit thicker than the lion's share of albums that came out of the struggling U.S. scene in 1994, it doesn't live by punch alone. The more mid-paced and groovy "Gemini" has a chunky riff set and mixed rhythmic feel that is a bit more in line with conventional progressive metal, though the fanfare chorus section all but preempts the millennial European power metal sound by a couple years. On the lighter side of the equation is a jazzy, piano-driven ballad in "Cancer" that leans closer still to that signature Dream Theater sound that was rising to prominence at the time, though one of the other ballad offerings "Capricorn" leans back into cosmic territory, ramps up the flashy, Steve Harris inspired bass work and finds itself right smack-dab in Iced Earth territory, all but presenting a more rhythmically mixed up answer to the Burnt Offerings approach to a half-ballad. When all is said and done, the most brilliant moment to grace this song cycle is the full on homage to Steve Harris in "Virgo", which basically listens like a jazzed up revamp of "The Number Of The Beast".

As a total package, the twists and turns that this album goes through can be a bit jarring at times, and individually the songs feel a tad short and underdeveloped due to a shortage of recurring cadence points and a lot of technical meandering, but the final result is a very fun and enjoyable one that carries a lot of appeal for fans of 80s heavy metal and 90s progressive metal alike. It tends to be overshadowed by Mind Games and The Edge due to their more technically extravagant and longer running character, which conforms a bit more to the dominant trends in post-Images And Words progressive works, and functions as more of a throwback to a time when the definition of the genre was less clearly defined. It has all of the obligatory moments of technical showmanship displayed by each instrument, though a bit more sparsely placed as Sudano's vocals tend to rule the arrangement. For whatever label one wishes to slap on this album or what era one think it more suited to be associated with, Zodiac stands as a solid act of metallic defiance against the tide of grunge and pop/punk garbage that was taking over the airwaves. A sound scarcely heard outside of a few isolated conclaves in New Jersey and the surrounding tristate area, but a sound nonetheless.