ROCKET SCIENTISTS

Infectious, catchy prog-fueled music. The highlights are the songs Erik Norlander wrote--"She's Getting Hysterical," "Martial," "The Fading Lights," "Cheshire Cat Smile," "The Lost Years." All 5-star songs, combining the best elements of neo and symphonic prog, without any excesses. Some prog fans may feel this album is a little too mainstream, not proggy enough--but it has precisely the right amount of prog for my tastes. The focus is on quality songs and not on how technically proficient the musicians are (although they are, of course, talented). There's a generous amount of keyboards, which one expects when Erik Norlander is involved. The occasional well-placed trumpet and trombone, plus some guest vocalists--including Lana Lane--keep things interesting.

The songs Norlander doesn't write are still good. They fit the tone well, they're enjoyable and well-made. Some of them are 4-star worthy. But they're not why I have this album on repeat.

I'm not quite ready to give this album the coveted 5-star rating, but it's so, so close. 4.5 stars, and one I'll be returning to often.

Back in 1998 I had not long changed jobs when I suffered an incredibly serious motorbike accident. After being off work for six weeks I needed to start work again, but it was obvious that for the foreseeable future that would mean working from home. I couldn't drive as I had broken my right arm in six places, and was in a great deal of pain. But my company delivered my laptop to me, and each morning I would dial in to the mainframe and write code using my left hand, which was incredibly time consuming, but it got me back into the swing of things. I would get frustrated, and when code was running I could do nothing expect stare at the green screen, so I used to play a music video on the TV to maintain my sanity. That video was 'Earth Below and Sky Above', and I hate to think how many times I watched it in late 1998. I loved the skill and music from Rocket Scientists, and it also introduced me to Lana Lane.

I lost touch with the band after 1999's 'Oblivion Days', so missed 2006's 'Revolution Roads' altogether, but when I was asked if I would be interested in hearing their 2014 EP I jumped at it. Just two instrumentals, but when one is well over 25 minutes long and the other is their interpretation of a James Bond film theme what could go wrong? Absolutely nothing. Keyboard player Erik Norlander is still there of course, along with guitarist Mark McCrite and NS/Stick player and cellist Don Schiff. There are a few guests to help them along their way, but musically this is very much built around the interaction of these three. All three of them take the opportunity to lead the band, with the symphonic music flowing and floating, layered and wonderful, just like it used to be. This is complex progressive rock music that feels so very natural, with no effort required. I have yet to hear the album that was released at the same time, and since then Norlander has been working very closely with John Payne, but let's hope there isn't too long until the next Rocket Scientists release as this shows how great musicians can interact and have fun.

When I read for the first time about this new work of the Rocket Scientists, I thought that the title of the 'lbum was so nice, just ask myself 'which kind of music could be with that title?', seems to fit perfectly with the band's concept'and just was by this way, and well'just a masterpiece, unless for me. The main thing is an instrumental epic of 26 minutes, (Traveler on the Supernatural Highways) that past so fast that you would want more and more. The theme it is not tracked in the CD, but has seven parts, well defined in the booklet. I will describe part by part. The fact is that if you (as I guess) did not make never a trip on a Supernatural Highway, this music is the opportunity to do it! First part (6:38 minutes) starts with a bass synthesizer motive, and over this, since the very beginning, the epic feeling is there, the melody and the rhythm section are typical Norlander and sound great. I just imagine the travelers or the traveler on this trip, what they see at the sides of the highway, or what they perceive on the horizon... The melody repeats on this first part but evolving over itself, just amazing. On the second part (3.44 minuttes), the epic sensation seems to increase as the melody take another round but with a different approach, and the overall track becomes more dynamic' the trip seems to be more adventure now, a true epic trip. Suddenly seems to take a breath and flows into a peaceful section on the part three (1.26 minutes), which gets over an amazing rhythm section, with a beautiful synthesizer melody, until everything seems to stop. But just starts again, now with an almost romantic piano motive, great for Norlander! (Part 4 2:14 minutes) Since then the piece starts to flow to something more rhytmycal, less symphonic and more eclectic. That's Part 5 (3:19 minutes). I can see Don Schiff work here, with his distinctive stick sound. What happens? The trip gets into something darker maybe or less enjoyable? As if something is altering the travelers'and this sensation persists into the Part 6 (1:52 minutes) too, but now with a more intense job of the synths and guitar. Finally the trip seems to pass this moment and slowly returns to the epic context (Part 7 6:53 minutes), but now with the electric guitar there. But the epic feeling becomes more ethereous now till the end, and I can imagine myself seeing the travelers disappear on the far distance, into the clouds, maybe to another dimension? Just Wow! The second track, is a little gem for me, a great cover. Reading the booklet, Norlander says that Marc McCrite, the guitarist and singer of the band was always a fan of John Barry, the soundtracks maker of James Bond series. The guys get into a cover of 'On her majesty's secrets service' from the same title movie, an instrumental piece with true winds! Trumpets and trombones'and the result is stunning again. Just an EP, but sounds great, personally I love this album, is progrock from A to Z. Not virtuous, but atmospheric and epic. Highly recommended.

These rocket scientists have a message for you. After all the years since the 1993 debut release, there is one thing that has always been an axiom of the band: It's all about the song. Though a prog band at heart, Rocket Scientists place heavy emphasis on song-writing and not just progressive instrumental flare.

Here's another album that attracted my attention by the cover art. I gave it a cursory listen on iTunes, I think it was, and thought it was a bit too poppy. Their older material seemed more interesting, especially "Oblivion Days" but those older albums were expensive imports. I kept "Refuel" on standby in my Amazon shopping cart for nearly a half year before finally deciding that I had to start somewhere with this band and this album was affordable.

Lucky for me, this album has turned out to be as outstanding as the cover promised. At first, I'll admit it was the pop (mainstream-ish) melodies that I heard and I wasn't blown away just yet. But I felt that it was an album I could listen to from start to finish as the level of music and song-writing quality remain high throughout. When I finally came round to listening to this album intently for the purpose of writing a review, I actually fell into a busy period when night after night I would listen to the album but return home from work too late to think of writing a decent review. As a result, it became a custom for a few days to just listen to the album again and again, and I discovered that I didn't mind at all.

The album kicks off with one of three instrumentals (actually four; I'll get to that). "Refuel", "Regenerate" and "Galileo" all show off the band's instrumental talents with some great compositions that allow for keyboard and guitar solos. "Regenerate" has become my favourite, and the official band video shows Don Schiff playing lead on his NS/sticks.

The rest of the album is song-oriented but what a selection! Yes, there are more pop-like catchy chorus melodies and mainstream approaches to song-writing. But there is variety as well and also some terrific instrumental sections in the songs. Some tracks like "Martial" and "Cheshire Cat Smile" are easy to latch onto and quickly become memorable for their melodies and use of cello or horns. Horns! Darn but those horns in "Cheshire Cat Smile" are uplifting and cheer-inducing!

A couple of other tracks like "It's Over" and "Fading Light" start off sounding like the album is going into mundane mode, especially after the gripping "Martial" and the prog delight "Regenerate". However, these songs are hiding some unexpected surprises. "It's Over" transforms partway in and becomes a rather impressive track after all, and "Fading Light" plays clever tricks with abrupt tempo and melody transformations.

The songs vary in length from the longest track, "Rome's About to Fall" (8:15) to the brief cello/viola/acoustic guitar instrumental, "Reconstruct" (1:30) that leads into "Cheshire Cat Smile". The longer tracks do make room for more impressive instrumental work.

While I say impressive, I don't mean complex or technical. Rocket Scientists Mark McCrite, Erik Norlander, and Don Schiff keep the show on the road and working with the song rather than going off on any wild tangents. There are several guests as well as instruments outside of the usual guitar/keyboard/bass/drum set up. I've mentioned cello, viola and horns (trumpet and trombone) already. You'll also hear contra bass, piccolo, and mandolin as well as many keyboards like Hammond organ, clavinet, and Wurlitzer electric piano. I think Rocket Scientists have put everything in to creating and capturing the sound that they wanted for each song. And yes, the sound quality is great with each instrument easy to pick out and the music only ever feeling cluttered once during a build-up and just before the release.

So, yes, I am thoroughly enjoying this album and I felt at last compelled to seek out other albums. I soon found their EP "Supernatural Highways" and my first choice "Oblivion Days" for reasonable prices and have them on order now. I hope they will prove to be as much pleasure to listen to as "Refuel". I wouldn't say it's an essential masterpiece but it is a terrific album in my opinion.

The Rocket Scientists is a group of american musicians who balance their sound between Erik Norlander´s symphonic prog tendencies and Mark McCrite pop sensibilities. And it seems that, in the end, McCrite´s influences are more proeminent than Norlander´s. At the excellent, all instrumental, EP Supernatural Highways that preceded Refuel in a few months, wheren you can find the band in full blown symphonic prog mode, I was expecting more of the same in their next full lenghth. But that was not to be. Definitly, this is a much more "song" oriented stuff like most of their previous works.

Please, don´t get me wrong: these are surely sophisticated and well crafeted tunes, with several styles and moods. Besides, Norlander´s majestic keyboards are all over them. The band even brought some novelties like a brass trio to some tracks. It was also nice to see Don Schiff showing off his talents on cello, violin and mandolin, besides his already impressive work on the N/S Stick and bass. In other words: with all the pop leanings on much of the songwriting, you´ll still finds lots of progressive stutff here. Even some jazz and latin music bits can be heard here and there.

My only gripe about this record is that, after the monumental 26 minute epic title track of the EP, there are only three instrumentals on Refuel, all of them short ones. In fact the longest song here barely hits the 8 minute mark. Again, this is not a bad sign, and overall the songwriting on this album is excellent. There are no fillers. Still, considering the tremendous talents of all involved, they could have been a little bolder and take more risks. Where is the fuel to propel this rocket higher to the stratosphear?

If you like melodic prog rock with terrific performances and tasteful arrangements, this is surely for you. On the other hand if you´re looking for long instrumental passages, improvisations and jams, you might get disappointed. For my tastes, I liked Refuel a lot.

Rating: 4 stars.

A very interesting EP from those american prog rockers. There are only trwo tracks and both are unavailable elsewhere. As a novelty, they also are both instrumentals. The massive title track is the longest and most symphonic piece ever recorded by Erik Norlander & co: 26 minutes of pure prog heaven wiht everything you might expect thrown in: terrific vintage sounding keyboards, fine and subtle guitar lines, mood and tempo changes, lots of percussions and even a cello and a NS stick solo! It is ok that it sounds like a bunch of themes put together (including the title track of Norlander´s Into The Sunset solo album), but still the whole piece stands well together and has a cohesive delivering. It was a very nice surprise and I´m very glad that I got it.

The other tune is a quite faithful cover of the theme from the James Bond´s movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service, complete with dramatic brass parts from guest players Jon Papenbrook (trumpet) and Eric Jorgensen (trombone). Norlander was always careful with his choices of covers and this is no exception.

I was quite pleasantly surprised with this "big single" (over 30 minutes of music in just two tracks!). I really hope this powerful release is setting the path for future Rocket Scientists albums!

Rating: between 3,5 and 4 stars.

1997 sees the Rocket Scientists of Norlander/McCrite/Schiff along with drummer Amato touring throughout the States and visiting Europe, leading in 1998 to the first live album of the band ''Earth below and sky above''.However heading to the next album only Norlander and McCrite appeared to be among the official members of the band, although both Schiff and Amato were involved in the recordings.Bassist Tony Franklin (Derek Sherinian, Tadashi Goto, Docker's Guild, Arjen Anthony Lucassen on guitars, Lana Lane on vocals and Greg Ellis on drums, all helped during the sessions and ''Oblivion days'' became reality in 1999, released on the Dutch label Transmission.

The band worked on its style and developed their modern sound even more, ''Oblivion days'' is a tad heavier compared to ''Brutal architecture'', which is pretty reasonable, when seeing all these guests associated with the heavier stylings of Prog Rock and Metal music.But their arrangements kept going through symphonic paths with KANSAS being one of the dominant influences and what was quite exciting was the fact that all of these flashy synthesizers, angular guitar moves, rockin' edges and pounding grooves were combined with the mighty sounds of the Mellotron and the organ in several tracks.Of course Rocket Scientists remained basically a Prog Rock band and certain pieces move even deeper to the classic offerings of the old groups (like the very GENTLE GIANT-esque instrumental ''Archimedes'') and they even explored the sound of Jazz Fusion at times with neurotic keyboards and more technical playing.At this point they remind me a lot of NEAL MORSE's personal efforts minus the poppier tracks, a heavy, symphonic sound with endless instrumental space for time signatures, soaring synths and punchy guitar solos, bombastic orchestrations and a fairly symphonic orientation.Plus Norlander was always keen for some cinematic arrangements and powerful electronic explorations and he shows it in almost every single track in here.

The timeline was moving forward for the sake of Rocket Scientists.They leave the 90's with a very strong effort, a mixture of Heavy Prog and old-school Symphonic Rock, performed with tension, passion and dynamics.Nice and strongly recommended stuff...3.5 stars.

After ''Earthbound'' the line-up of Rocket Scientists was officially expanded to a trio with Don Schiff now performing as a regular member.With Tony Amato again behind the drum kit the group recorded the sophomore effort ''Brutal architecture'', while an agreement with Kinesis had been obtained and the album was eventually released in 1995 on the US label.

''Earthbound'' showed only traces of Rocket Scientists' talent, who's potential starts to be unleashed on this second work.The style became more complicated with longer and more demanding arrangements, while the retro references are more evident and the respect to the masters of the past is clear throughout the listening.Norlander's shifting keyboards, from dark Mellotrons and nostalgic organs to Electronic-inspired synths and even clavinet, are the main reason for the change, next to the technical delivery of a good rhythm section and the enough room for instrumental exercises.Melodies are not absent either with some nice guitar solos by Mark McCrite, while a more accesible approach is still apparent on several tracks.But even these contain a nice amount of good interplays or more symphonic keyboards.The result is an album close to the likes of GLASS HAMMER, AJALON and AKACIA, having an evident US Prog feeling.Vocals are both sensitive and expressive, similar to the diverse musicianship.Additionally Norlander's piano reveals plenty of Classical orientations, that sound absolutely great next to the melodic Neo/Symphonic Prog of the group, which can get very dramatic at moments, showing a nice composing ability and an even brighter future.

''Brutal architecture'' marks a huge step forward for the US group.The music is still a bit unoriginal, but the change towards more elaborate, retro-inspired and intricate compositions was definitely the right move.Recommended, especially to fans of Neo Prog and 70's Classic Prog.

"Earthbound" first studio albun from ROCKET SCIENTISTS in my opinion is a kind of disk comparable inside the band career just as "Killroy was Here" from STYX or "A" from Jetrho Tull, or in other words a weak and almost inexpressive work, and in very lowest level than their subsequent releases, as for instance the fantastic "Oblivion Days" from 1999, and certainly if you hear in first place this third album and after "Earthbund" (as in my case), probably not recognize the same band. Due to this considerations and in spite the musicians quality, my rate is only 2 stars !!!

Earthbound reprise

This rating and review is not for the full 5 disc box set Looking Backward, but only for the individual disc of the same name. This disc is part of the box set but it is also available separately (through iTunes). The box set also contains re-mastered versions of the three studio albums Earthbound, Brutal Architecture, and Oblivion Days, as well as a DVD. For my reviews of the original studio albums see the individual album pages, but as I do not own the box set I cannot comment on the DVD.

The disc contains re-recorded versions of older Rocket Scientists songs. The bulk of the material originally appeared on the band's 1993 debut album Earthbound; Earthbound, Picture Show, Pythagoras (here subtitled 'unbound'), Minstrel Saviour, When Sorrow Falls, and Carry Me Home, were all originally on that album. These new versions were recorded in 2007 and are greatly expanded and generally improved upon, though the 1998 live album Earth Below And Sky Above (not part of the box set) already contained new arrangements of some of these songs similar to those found here. Earthbound reprise is new for this present album.

Brutal Architecture is represented by a new version of the excellent Mariner. This version was recorded in 2003 and features Kelly Keeling on lead vocals instead of Mark McCrite. Though I prefer Keeling over McCrite, I think that the best version of this song is the one that appears on the Erik Norlander solo live album Stars Rain Down (also featuring Keeling's vocals). Dark Water parts one and two - the first of which is recreated here - originally appeared on Brutal Architecture (while parts three and four originally appeared on Oblivion Days). Looking Backward contains parts five and six of this instrumental.

Finally, there are two remixes of songs that originally appeared on Oblivion Days. These are Escape and Break the Silence.

Overall, I enjoy this disc every bit as much as the four proper studio albums by the band. The best introduction to Rocket Scientists remains the aforementioned live album Earth Below And Sky Above, but Looking Backward is a worthy addition to any Rocket Scientists collection.