Age of Impact

This review is entitled "the sum of the parts" because that's what this album is: A group of incredible musicians getting together and making a great record. Age of Impact is not more than the sum of its parts, as some truly magical albums are, but it certainly isn't any less.

The brightest star on the album is John Petrucci, who lays down the kind of tonal lead guitar that's equal parts Van Halen and King Crimson. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why he sounds so great, but there are a couple of key factors. First off, he doesn't distort any more than he has to. Many metal musicians just crank the gain and go to work, but Petrucci leaves enough room for there to be nuance and finesse, especially on the higher notes. The result is a crunchy (albeit a bit too quiet) rhythm tone juxtaposed nicely with a seemingly clean and crisp high end. Second, the songs themselves are structured such that Terry Bozzio doesn't need to make many dramatic rhythmic shifts in order to accommodate Petrucci (this is to say that Petrucci's solos are generally placed into the song proper, as opposed to being lazily thrown on top of a breakdown), so the transitions are naturally more fluid and intuitive than what we may be used to. Third, Billy Sheehan, bassist extraordinaire, fills out the bottom half of the rhythm tone incredibly well. Though I have never been shy about criticizing Sheehan's rampant use of effects pedals and distortion, the fact of the matter is that his fuzzy, high-gain sound adds a spine-vibrating low end to the mix that coalesces beautifully with the what Petrucci plays, giving the song a backbone even in the absence of a strong rhythm guitar. This gives grants the songs a lot of leeway, and hence a lot of really great and roomy guitar solos.

Guitars aside, the rest of the band works quite well as a unit. Evidently, keyboardist Derek Sherinian didn't learn any lessons from Dream Theater's Falling Into Infinity and still uses gadgets that sound like horn synths, but there's nothing egregious and it actually provides a nice atmospheric backdrop for the rest of the band. The vocals are poppy and a little on the weak side in terms of low-end mixing, but they're not a bad fit for the album. Nick Mason may not be a great drummer, but he was perfect for Dark Side of the Moon. Likewise, James LaBrie may not be a great singer, but his style and tonality (more specifically, his tendency to elongate higher notes) fit pretty well considering the symphonic and melodic aspects of this record.

Drummer Terry Bozzio also plays solidly, navigating complex song roadmaps with ease and tastefully elevating the songs with timely fills and elaborate interludes. His drum sounds have never been amazing (his flimsy bass drum sound is one reason I've never really gotten into some old Frank Zappa records), but the snare drum is punchy enough, his rack toms–all fifty of them, last I counted–are high enough, and he's as sure-handed and capable as always. As far as interplay goes, Bozzio displays a tendency to try and do too much himself (like in the last minute or so of Fate Speaks–I have no idea why he keeps rolling on his lower toms when there's obviously no room for that in the mix), but the technicalities and timekeeping are textbook.

The song structures themselves are nothing to which a run-of-the-mill prog fan wouldn't be acclimated. Some of the songs are probably a little longer than they have to be (the first track is an even sixteen minutes, though it could probably be condensed down to eleven or twelve without having to omit anything important), but that's par for the course these days. As I have said, the breakdowns and tonal shifts aren't there to do anything other than to shake things up. The songs don't change for the sole purpose of letting a musician hog the limelight: Rather, they vary for the sake of disrupting the same musical monochromaticity that plagues so much metal these days. It's refreshing to hear an album be able to do that naturally. What I'm trying to get across is that the transitions don't just exist because someone got lazy and wanted to copy and paste a solo into the track. As a prog fan, it comforts me to know that some musicians still take the time to do that.

This album is well-thought out, well-assembled, and not lazy. It's not pure gold in the way Master of Puppets or Images & Words are, but it's still one hell of a record. 93/100.

Well, as a long time Dream Theater fan I stumbled across this looking for any collaborations John Petrucci had done after hearing first LTE disk and let me say, this has Petrucci's BEST playing he has ever done that has been recorded to date.

Now if you are looking through the guest list you might see that this has to be good, what with Billy Sheehan on bass and Terry Bozzio on the drums, but while the vocals are rather poppy it is worth listening to just for those damn solos. I have mainly listened to this album in order, and it is probably best to do so in order to gain an appreciation of the ebbs and flows of the music, however you can listen to individual songs if you are strapped for time. While James LaBrie may not be everyone's favorite singer, he has always been more impressive to me in his solo works or as a guest (Ayreon's Human Equation being my favorite instance of his voice) he sounds better on this than on most Dream Theater albums.

The only let down for me in regards to this album other than the pop styled vocals, (which while not my thing, definitely work in this context) is the rhythm guitar tone, as it doesn't have a huge amount of gain and the heavier type of riffs (Fate Speaks being a prime example) suffer a little from this, but Sheehan's bass playing fattens out the sound to make it sound rather solid overall. The keyboards seem to take up more of the sonic space during the vocal sections, but listening to something like the solo section in Fading Fast, where it is just drums and keys with JP providing one of his more tasty moments outside of Lines in the sand definitely suit the tone of the album.

My recommendation for this album is that if you only ever thought that Petrucci can only play fast, just check this out and you might change your mind. If you look long enough on the net you may even be able to track down the 'Petrucci mix' version someone made of just his solos, but it doesn't give context to what they add to the music. All prog fans owe it to themselves to check this out, as the playing is solid from some of the biggest names in the business and that is what it is all about at the end of the day.