martindavey87 Eternity X are a band I have highly ridiculed and mocked in the past. Most notably for the fact that their previous albums, 'Zodiac' and 'Mind Games' take themselves way too seriously, which itself, wouldn't really be much of a problem, if the music wasn't so boring and uninspiring. Oddly however, while 'The Edge' isn't really any different stylistically or lyrically (other than a stronger presence of keyboards), it's an album I thoroughly enjoy.

Must be the keyboards, right?

Main songwriter and all-round focal point of the band, Keith Sudano, has clearly put his heart and soul into this record. The music is well composed, with plenty of ambitious tracks and intricate passages, as well as some very personal and emotional lyrics. The musicianship is tight, with the usual progressive metal traits all here in full force, such as long track durations, interesting guitar riffs, crazy time signatures and a vast use of different sounds. There's plenty of instrumental acrobatics allowing for everyone to shine ('The Edge Part 3' is an interesting example of this) and there's a strong symphonic element to the music too.

Some of the highlights from this album include 'Imaginarium', 'The Edge of Madness', 'The Confession', 'Baptized by Fire', and parts two, three and the "Legacy Reprise" section of 'The Edge'. The album is consistently strong from start to finish.

'The Edge' is an ambitious release that will certainly take some time to get into, but will be worth the effort. It's funny that I like it as much as I do, since it's nothing overly different than what had come before, but there's just something here that resonates with me. It's a shame that Eternity X would go on to disband and Keith Sudano would take a leave of absence from music, because for all the flack I've given this band for their previous releases, this really is a brilliant album, and could have led to great things if they'd continued down this path.

martindavey87 Eternity X are back for round two, with 'Mind Games', the follow-up to their debut release, 'Zodiac'. It's a bit of an odd one really, because while certainly a step up from its mediocre and boring predecessor, which took itself way too seriously, 'Mind Games' itself, is also mediocre, boring, and takes itself way too seriously.

Musically and sonically, everything's pretty much the same here as before, though at least they didn't do another concept album based on the zodiac star signs (what the hell was any of that about anyway?). But sadly, 'Mind Games' itself, despite one or two brief moments of goodness, is a mostly lacklustre affair, with boring, introspective lyrics, and rather static guitar riffs, that just sound like they're trying to be complex for the sake of it.

Onto the positives... if they can be considered as such... 'Faith' is an alright track, though it has a God-awful intro, and bonus track 'Switchblade' isn't half-bad... though the fact that a "bonus track" is considered one of the better songs speaks volumes about this album.

It's a shame, because vocalist, band leader and songwriter Keith Sudano is clearly very passionate about what he's writing, evident especially in his vocal performances, but the music itself just isn't very interesting. And with lyrical nuggets of joy such as "Mr. Suicide - grab his hand he'll take you on the ultimate ride", it's clear that this is nothing more than a self-indulgent cheese-fest.

martindavey87 Oh boy... this is a funny one... Eternity X's 1994 debut is a concept(?) album, based upon... you guessed it, the zodiac star signs!!!

And it is utter nonsense.

The music is boring and uninteresting. The technical ability is there, but everything seems so bland and formulaic. The lyrics are complete balderdash which don't really make any sense. Or maybe they do but the music is so devoid of excitement that it's impossible to follow.

A lot of the songs are too short for anything to really shine through, and on top of that, they all sound the same. You can clearly hear how passionate vocalist and main songwriter Keith Sudano is by his performance, but that just serves to make me somewhat pity the guy for how dedicated he seems to this album. I mean, it's laughable how serious this record is.

To add to the unintentional comedic value of 'Zodiac'... the most memorable song is probably bonus track 'Fast Forward'. It's a six-minute bass solo that is about four minutes too long, and while it does have some nice melodies in it, it gets repetitive fast. Sadly, there is probably an Eternity X fan out there somewhere that is desperately trying to seek out this rare bonus track (funnily enough, a edited, shorter version of this song will appear on the bands follow-up release. Yay!).

It's so hard to figure out what the hell this album is really about. I can only assume that it's meant to be some super inspiring introspective journey of self-discovery... but ultimately it just takes itself way too seriously.

cold103 At this time, this is one of my favorite albums. It's one of the most underrated albums that I've heard if not the most underrated. It seems it's great in every way. There are great vocal melodies, yet it's not over the top or cheesy. The vocals are emotional, which is good in this context. In music, I think the thing that matters most to me is composure, that everything in the piece of music makes sense or connects with at least one other part of the piece more or less. It's certainly not how difficult it is to play things like solos. I don't care about how hard it is to play anything because extremely difficult things to play can easily sound bad. Perhaps that bit is obvious. Anyway, I think the composure of The Edge is great. Pain of Salvation fans must check this album out! In my honest (as always) opinion, it's better than any Dream Theater album.