The American prog band Rocket Scientists, led by keyboardist Erik Norlander,
debuted in 1993 with the CD Earthbound, and first gained international
recognition with their 1995 CD Brutal Architecture, which was released on
the Kinesis label. After a live CD, the heavier Oblivion Days appeared in 1999, but
all three of these studio CDs had gone out-of-print. The beautiful Looking Backward
boxset (2008) remedies this in a big way. It contains 2007 remastered
editions of Earthbound, Brutal Architecture, and Oblivion Days.
Oblivion Days contains both the Japanese edition bonus track and the two
European edition bonus tracks. Brutal Architecture contains the Japanese
edition bonus track, and Earthbound contains one previously-unreleased bonus track.
(And like a late-night TV commercial for a kitchen gadget...)
But wait, there’s more! There is a 4th CD entitled The 2007 Sessions
(76-minutes), which contains new
recordings of classic Rocket Scientists songs reinterpreted by the band live in
the studio in 2007, including some unreleased material. Now how much would you
pay for this set? Before you answer, the set also includes the Looking Backward
DVD (NTSC, all-region). The main feature is video of the 2007 sessions (102-minutes). There is also a 25-minute featurette
An Afternoon with Emmett Chapman,
and 21-minutes of A Brief History of Rocket Science, which includes studio
footage from 1993-2007. The main feature was recorded by an HD video crew,
though of course it has been down-res’d for the DVD. The DVD includes 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround audio.
All of the original artwork is included in the package as part of an enormous
64-page full-color 5x7" booklet. Counts as 3 CDs for shipping.