Time Signature A matter of energy...

Genre: progressive hard rock

I don't know which description of Docker's Guild's "The Mystic Technocracy (Season 1: The Age Of Ignorance)" is better: progressive rock with elements of hard rock and metal or hard rock with elements of progressive rock, but that is probably because the elements are pretty evenly balanced.

Evolving around keyboards - which is not surprise given that this is Docker's main instrument - the progressive element is definitely quite dominant, but, not unlike Touchstone, there are plenty of heavy chucking and hard rocking guitar riffs to satisfy many a fan of hard rock. Just check a track like 'The Mystic Technocracy' which rocks hard all the way throughot, 'Norse Cosmogony (Part Two)' which features power metal style double bass drums and a quite epic atmosphere, the odd metered hard rocking main riffs of 'Judeo Christian Cosmogony' and 'The Gem of Love' or the heavy and groovy riff that opens 'The Secret of DNA'. Other tracks are more in the vein of keyboard-based space rock, but still with quite heavy guitars at time (not unlike Saga's recent brand of progressive hard rock). These tracks, I think, are pretty interesting, too, and AOR fans will be happy to know the album is AOR-tinged all the way through.

The overall lyrical theme is one of interplanetary conspiracy in which the creators of the major monotheistic Earth religions are in reality a race of extraterrestrial aliens who are manipulating the Earthlings, through religion, into destroying each other. And, as if by otherworldly magic, this potentially cheesy theme fits the progressive AOR music incredibly well, evading any hint of cheesiness and kitsch, instead giving the impression of a deep reaching and multi-faceted, yet accessible, piece of rock music art.

Fans of the likes of Saga, Genesis, Dream Theater, ELP, Touchstone, Star One, Consortium Project, Phenomena and other progressively oriented rock, hard rock and metal bands should find this album, with its lush keyboard arrangements, spacey sounds, rocking guitars and epic feel, and of course the complex lyrical theme, appealing.