AGE OF EMERGENCE Forgot To Wake "The All Seeing Eye" With The First Part Of The Saga

“…felt stagnant as it kept going… gave the feeling of being dragged to the finish line…”

The eye is watching it seems… scary when it’s in a coma. Coming this Friday is Part 1 of the “All Seeing Eye” saga of Australian Progressive Metal Band Age Of Emergence. The EP was written during the chaos that was the ‘rona rama 3000 of the early 2020s. There’s more I could get into about what the album is supposed to represent but I feel like the band will say more about that wherever you look. Basically, part 1 centers around the impact of big tech companies on us and our sense of identity. Sure that’s pretty relatable, and I think that’s something a lot of us will understand as we listen to the EP.

But that’s just the thesis for the EP. What does it sound like? How does the music support the narrative? Does it? Or is the All Seeing Eye more a dream?

The opening track, "The All Seeing Eye," starts with a strong Pink Floyd vibe before transitioning into a more Rush-like energy. Actually, not even that, I am getting some of that old-school prog rock song writing, but the metallic aggression is still coming through a bit once things get going. While the vocals may take some adjustment in places, they eventually find their stride amidst catchy riffing from Matt Neilson and tight drum patterns of Adam Clayton.

Despite its seven-minute duration, the track manages to maintain engagement, aided by subtle bass licks and a solid production quality. Though I will make note of the ending, when I’m hearing something that feels like it should be a “Big Rock Ending” with the drums and instruments wailing and ending all at once, it’s a bit anti-climactic for everyone except the drummer to be going along with it… and even then it feels like Clayton wasn’t super into the idea either. It just feels like an idea was drawn but nobody wanted to execute.

Okay, let’s move on to the next song. "Futility" unleashes crunchy riffs and energetic bursts, with the drums delivering blast beats alongside gnarly bass tones. Seriously, I can’t gush enough about Dean Holmes’ disgustingly heavy bass tone! Trust me, it only gets better as the album goes on. But that’s about the level of excitement you’ll get out of me thus far. There's a sense so far that the energy balance falters at times, specifically with the drums. While it could possibly be just the production not letting Clayton’s hits be felt by the listener, prog performances tend to favour perfection and tight playing rather than power. Still, the track manages to escalate with the vocals kicking things up a bit in the growl department.

"Gods Can’t Allow" starts with great energy, but the drums initially lag behind, eventually catching up to deliver a more powerful sound. At least, I think that’s the case? Maybe my previous assumption of Clayton’s aversion to power was wrong and the production wanted that? No idea, but glad to hear the energy coming forth even if the production kinda holds it back. Still, nothing inherently terrible.

But… “Mind Game” is where I begin to run into issues.

To be clear, the track is fine overall. There’s nothing objectionable with it, it’s not offensively bad, it’s a good song… I think. Here’s the problem, at this point in the EP the song starts to blend and mix together. The song feels like it’s dragging that runlength more than the rest and I started to feeeeel the length of this song as it went on.

And just as I thought it would never end, all of a sudden the track just stopped. I thought my computer crashed for a second, but no the song just ends. No climax. No cliffhanger. The song, and the album, just ended.

Now part of me feels like this may have been intentional. Afterall, the EP is The All Seeing Eye: Part 1, so my guess is that it’s supposed to feel like a bit of tension that’s meant to be resolved and released in Part 2. Like a TV show’s mid-season finale, where you’re left on a cliffhanger wanting to know how the show will continue and what will happen next.

The problem is, with how the album started to drag and blend, this ending felt more like I woke up from a coma and wondered where all the time went. Just… gyah!

Okay, so what’s the takeaway? Well, it wasn’t terrible. No, really! If anything, I’m glad I didn’t at any point feel like throwing down my headphones and starting a small bonfire with them in protest. But I wrapped up listening to The All Seeing Eye: Part 1 with a sense of wanting more. But not in the sense of wanting to get a hold of part 2 right away.

Overall, The All Seeing Eye: Part 1 is a solid progressive metal EP with good guitar work and gnarly bass tones (seriously holy crap I love the bass on this thing). And while the drums could’ve given me more energy than provided, the EP does have its highs without any significant lows. However, the EP felt stagnant as it kept going, and it gave the feeling of being dragged to the finish line. The blending of the songs helped nothing, and took the good qualities listed and liquified it into a “proggy pudding” towards the closing track. And with the lack of a satisfying cliffhanger, it doesn’t make me feel any anticipation for a follow-up. The EP wasn’t bad overall, I can’t stress that enough. But at 24 minutes long, it left a bit to be desired.