An Endless Sporadic’s Self Title Debut [Review]

If you’ve played Guitar Hero in the past two years (let’s face it, you have), you may have ventured to play some of the lesser known tracks after playing Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” for the 500th time on expert mode. One of those tracks that may fall just under most players’ radar is An Endless Sporadic’s “Impulse” (found in Guitar Hero III), a much welcomed jab in the arm to the progressive rock scene from their first EP, Ameliorate. Thousands of downloads later and the prog rock duo decided it was about time to give us some more with a self titled debut.

Check out my review after the break and drop in a comment naming a new band you discovered via Guitar Hero  for a chance to win a signed copy of the album Unfortunately, it’s signed to Joe, but hey, it’s still pretty neat! Contest ends Friday, January 15.

AES’ debut flows together as if it were one half hour-long song from its slow build of acoustic guitar within “Waking Hours” into a rush of electric riffs and sliding keyboard in “From The Blue”. Its seems that keyboardist Zach Kamins has listened to quite a bit of Nobuo Uematsu’s work with The Black Mages, which shows through his keys. Drummer Andy Gentile displays a wide range of skills in the percussion department as he seems to realize when to lay it down tight and when a series of well times taps on cymbal can make the difference in slow tracks like “Shell”.

However, one track does breaks that flow momentarily. Despite this, “Eternal Bloom” has an exciting pace as its established serenity is broken by a burst of wailing keyboard and later a climbing guitar solo. It’s these sudden and frequent changes in tempo and tone that have been the staple of progressive rock for ages and AES take full advantage of this to keep you on your toes.

The bottom line with AES’ debut album is to never get too used to one particular tune or motif as it will disappear before you realize how much you loved it. Even for fans of prog this can be a bit straining to listen to, but it’s nonetheless a vibrant display of their skills.

For what seems to be a side project for Kamins and Gentile, they sure did come out swinging with one of most refreshing progressive rock offerings of 2009. While An Endless Sporadic serves as great background noise for long sessions at the desk or while playing an equally epic game, be sure to give your full attention for your first listen so you can catch every engaging riff, scale and drum line as they’ll leave each song as abruptly as they entered your ears.