CONSORTIUM PROJECT IV – Children Of Tomorrow

Are you one of those fickle music listeners who cringe at the word “project,” knowing full well that the conglomeration isn’t a band, but the merging of musicians from different bands wanting to explore new realms of musical consciousness? Then you have probably made your best cringe face three times prior to the release of Ian Parry’s Consortium Project IV, Children of Tomorrow. Parry and company have geared themselves toward the Progressive Metal crowd with their latest offering and have invited a number of musicians to guest on the disc.

The original Consortium Project, Criminal & Kings, was released in 1999, followed up two years later with CPII, Continuum In Extremis, and the last release was CP III, Terra Incognita (The Undiscovered World) in 2003. Most fans thought the project was done at that point and held the “trilogy” in high regard; but four years later Ian felt compelled to venture out with the CP yet again. Only keyboardist Joshua Dutrieux is back on board from the last recording sessions; Henk van der Laars is handling the main guitar duties and ex-Within Temptation Ivar de Graaf is managing all of the drums. The guest list consists of Lou St Paul – guitars, Rosita Abbink – female vocals, Erna aud der Haar – female vocals, Kyrah Dutrieux – spoken words, Judith Rijnveld – female choirs, Niels Veiylt – guitar, and Marcel van der Zwam on bass.

The disc opens with “A Sign of the Times,” beginning with a spoken word intro, which gives insight to the politically motivated themes of the album. Besides lamenting on the ignorance of the world leaders, Parry also warns of the dangers of television in “Neverland;” Parry has never been one to delve in to the fodder of typical Rock ‘n’ Roll clichés, but he does seem to re-hash generic topics of life in the modern world. Every track begins with an eerie keyboard hum and usually a spoken pre-cursor to set up the song; it is every bit as annoying as the movie quote samples that Rob Zombie uses to pepper every song he touches. Sometimes a song just needs to stand on its own.

Parry has a great ear for talent and he surrounds himself with very strong players. Parry himself shows a dynamic range and has an easy to digest voice. Unfortunately, the quality of the musicianship isn’t enough to make the album very interesting. Mostly full of mid-tempo numbers with no dynamic time signature variance and no choruses that stand out, it is easy to lose track of what song you’re on or if you have already heard this song. It isn’t until track 8, “Enigma,” that the album breathes any Metal-life and begins to lay the hammer down, but by then you have been subdued into a state of melancholy, and the song doesn’t have enough “oomph” to pull you out of that mindset.

Comparatively, Children of Tomorrow is like dining at a fine restaurant – on a sandwich. There’s nothing wrong with a good sandwich, unless you were expecting filet mignon. Parry and company are good players and they shouldn’t have their artistic creativity stifled, but it would be more appropriate to offer these “projects” as free downloads. That way they can share their works with the masses, but the masses can save their hard-earned money for the real “bands.”