Surface tension --- Clockwork --- 1999 (Sensory)
Progressive jazz metal, did you say? Interesting indeed. This is the only album I can find by this band, and as it was released over ten years ago, it's probably safe to assume they are no longer together, but I can find little or no information on them on the web, not least because of the title of their album, which keeps leading me to scientific websites! So let's have a listen then and make up our own minds.
“Secrets of centuries” opens on a solo piano, joined by keyboards and then breaks out with metal-style guitars and choral voices, then vocalist Douglas Joseph Matthew Gillin (yeah, he uses all four names apparently) begins singing, and I must say I find his voice either a little weak, or low down in the mix. It certainly doesn't grab your attention, and this is with the music basically dropping back to basic piano and guitar when he sings most of the time. Nice guitar solo from M. Thomas Gammarino, the keyboard line held by Chris Pignatelli, or possibly Gillin, as he also plays the keys, in addition to flute, percussion and of course vocals.
There's a nice keyboard break near the end, reminscent of Yes or Asia, but other than that I have to say I'm singularly unimpressed so far. The sound is like that of a demo tape, or some band practicing in their garage. Haven't these guys heard of production? Incidentally, who produced this? Doesn't say. How interesting. No-one wanted to take the blame, (cough) I mean credit! “One wing” doesn't change my opinion. Confused melody, lots of guitars battling each other but seem to be crossing over instead of working together, giving the whole thing a very disjointed sound. I still hear nothing that stands out.
It's quite surprising, to look at the other reviews of this album, to see that they uniformly not only like it, but love it! But hey, this is my opinion and it ain't gonna be swayed by what anyone else says, or thinks. I'm not impressed, though there are some nice keyboard and some nice guitar moments on the second track --- at one point, the guitars actually manage to harmonise, and then they do in fairness sound pretty good. Acoustic guitar introduces “East of knowing”, then squeaky keyboard blasts in, the melody stopping and starting like a cheap car. Actually, it may be Spanish guitar, not acoustic, and it does keep pace nicely with the keys as the song goes on, but I feel the keyboards are a little out of place, making the song something it isn't, or should not be. It's short, just a second shy of three minutes, and an instrumental, and for what it is it isn't the worst, though I've yet to hear anything to get excited about on this album.
“If these walls could talk” is a much heavier prospect than any of the tracks so far, and again it's not bad but nothing about it stands out to me. The vocals are not great, not very strong, and the addition of flute to the song does nothing for it at all, though the little guitar break at about 3:30 in the song is quite nice. It sort of morphs after that into a Genesis/Yes hybrid, with squalling guitars and keyboards that are just let run riot to be honest. I really think Clockwork should have thought more about the arrangement of their songs before putting this album together: it's just so all over the place!
There's an interesting jazz/fusion track then in “The guardin' of Eden”, (ho ho guys, you have a sense of humour. But that alone won't get you through an album...) but again Gillin's vocals are so weak that the backing vocals, when they come, outshine him totally. That's not a good position for a lead singer to find himself in. I also repeat my assertation that the terrible production of the album has a lot to do with its muggy sound, and takes away any chance to hear these guys at perhaps their best. Then again, maybe this is as good as they get: perhaps there's a reason why they only seem to have released the one album before splitting.
I'm at that point again where I hate to be, when I'm not so much listening to the album as waiting (praying) for it to end. There are three tracks left, and I just hope that there's something to grab my attention and give me something kind to say about Clockwork, because I hate to be so negative, but this album sucks! Well, on to the next track, which is called “The convolution box”, don't ask me why, but it opens on a heavy guitar and keyboard intro, getting into something of a metal groove as it takes off, and maybe this could be the one? Nice bit of piano there too, not bad so far. Lovely little guitar passage, okay... over four minutes without Gillin singing, half the song, can't be bad. That Spanish guitar is back for a little cameo before the electric and the keys take the melody away again, and even the drummer sounds like he's having fun. More than I am, but anyway...
Six minutes of eight, and still no singing. It's an instrumental then. Fairly ambitious, to have such a long one, but they do fairly okay with it. It's nothing mad special, but it's not terrible either, and that's about the most positive comment I can make about this album at this point. If I turn my head to the left, there's a paused picture on my TV showing a man with his hands clapped over his ears as he listens to some kids' choir or something. He looks in pain, and I know how he feels! This album isn't, in fairness, awful, but it's really not far from it.
Nice progressive-rock style intro to “Smile under sad eyes”, then we're subjected sadly to the below-par singing of Douglas Joseph Matthew Gillin, and worse, his goddamned flute, which is really getting on my nerves! To be fair to the guy, his vocals are a little stronger here, for the first time, and there's a nice melody hiding in there somewhere, but it's lost among the different ways the guys approach the song, mad guitar solos, flying keyboards and THAT DAMN FLUTE! The closer is their epic, almost thirteen minutes long! Can I survive it? “Design of enlightenment” opens on bass and dramatic, strings-like keyboards, with pizzicato strings added and some rolling drumbeats, then takes off into a high-powered rocker, but it doesn't stay like that for long, and I think the problem here is that the guys try to cram too many different ideas into the song, maybe to fill it up, I don't know. But if you're going to write a song of this length you should have a good idea where it's going, what's going to be in it, and this all sounds like it's almost being done on the fly. I'm sure it's not, it just doesn't sound cohesive enough to me. There are some good ideas in the song, but they're not fleshed out properly or enough, and it becomes another confusing mess, with, it must be said, some very good individual performances, like Gammarino's acoustic and Spanish guitar, and Gillin's sparkling keyboards that run through the composition, but it never settles into any real sort of permanent groove, almost as if they're trying to imitate the prog-rock classic epics like “2112”, “Supper's ready” and “Tarkus”, but without any of the innovation, discipline or vision of Rush, Genesis or ELP.
In the end, I'm glad to just ride out the last five minutes of the song as the album staggers to a conclusion, and I can only wonder what the other reviewers saw in this? Maybe I'm totally wrong, and maybe I'm missing something, but I'm actually sorry I listened to this. That's close to an hour of my life I'll never get back. Well, that's the chance you take, but before I say anything more about them and offend their fans, I'll just stop here and leave it at that.
TRACKLISTING
1. Secrets of centuries
2. One wing
3. East of knowing
4. If these walls could talk
5. The guardin' of Eden
6. The convolution box
7. Smile under sad eyes
8. Design of enlightenment