This is the fourth album from the Ian Parry-led Consortium Project, a prog rock epic collaboration featuring a whole host of guest musicians from bands such as Elegy and Within Temptation. 

The first installment came out in 1999 and Parry continues to write, produce, mix and provide lead vocals for the venture. The style is very much prog rock with some awesomely heavy guitars courtesy of Joshua Dutrieux and Henk Van Der Laars. The album also features a trio of female backing singers to add yet more diversity to the overall sound. 

It is to a degree a concept album, taking as its theme a future vision of the planet which has been ravaged by both climate change and wars fought over natural resources, leading to mankind trying to retrace its own origins, only to find a surprising conclusion and eventually a realisation that our continued testing of ever more sophisticated weapons had to be stopped for the long-term benefit of the world. All very PC and commendable, I’m sure.  

Sometimes I feel parts of the very complex song arrangements end up slightly sacrificed to the needs of the storyline, but then the disjointed nature of some of the tracks is very much in keeping with so many other prog releases I’ve heard and is one of the reasons it’s not my favourite rock genre. Just a few too many time and mood changes all within the confines of one song for my liking. 

As with so many other bands in the genre, there is absolutely no denying the quality of the musicianship on offer here and the sound and production is absolutely first rate. Parry has a vocal style which at times reminds me of a slightly more screechy Ronnie James Dio, but which sits well with the nature of the music.