Rocket Scientists’
third CD Oblivion Days (1999) is a lot
heavier than Brutal Architecture, due to guest guitarist Arjen
Anthony Lucassen of Ayreon fame, and so Oblivion Days sounds a lot
like a cross between Brutal Architecture and the Ayreon albums,
verging on prog-metal at times. This is Rocket Scientists at their most
forceful and, as usual, the sound is audiophile quality.
RealAudio Clips (G2 28K Mono)
All clips are excerpts. The downloadable versions require the entire file to be downloaded first but can be saved to disk. The streaming versions will begin to play after a few seconds.
| DOWNLOADABLE | STREAMING |
|---|---|
| Aqua Vitae | Aqua Vitae |
| Archimedes | Archimedes |
| Banquo’s Ghost | Banquo’s Ghost |
| Space:1999 | Space:1999 |
| Escape | Escape |
“Rocket Scientists has reached a new level of sophistication with Oblivion Days. This is not to suggest their previous works were lacking - Brutal Architecture was a very strong album, and the group’s most recent live opus also exhibited a skilled progressive rock band with crowd-pleasing acumen. But I can confidently state that the potential hinted at previously is now being realized. Oblivion Days is much heavier than Brutal Architecture, and this is at least partly due to contributions from guest guitarist Arjen Anthony Lucassen, a/k/a Ayreon. The overriding motif is heavy symphonic progressive with comparatively gentle vocal passages; at times, the music ventures into prog-metal territory... Erik Norlander has evolved into a monster keyboardist, who carries the load for most of these pieces... On the vocal front, Mark McCrite’s understated style remains quite appealing, a true counterbalance to the group’s bombastic instrumental prowess.” [Progression]“How can two guys, Erik Norlander and Mark McCrite, make such big, orchestrated rock and roll noise as they did on Oblivion Days? Of course this duo enlisted quite a few known names... Oblivion Days is an amazing disc from start to finish... This disc is a contender for 2000’s top 10 list!” [Music News Network]
“Clearly the best and also heaviest album so far by the Scientists, well written songs together with great production by Erik Norlander, who together with Mark McCrite are Rocket Scientists. Among the guest musicians we find Lana Lane and Arjen ‘Ayreon’ Lucassen together with some others, for example the usual rhythm section of Tommy Amato on drums and Don Schiff on bass. Mark is a really good singer and, as you all probably know, Erik is a real wizard on the keyboards, which really shows on the instrumental tracks. If I may make it easy for me and describe their sound concisely, I would say they play a melodic kind of hard ELP prog, so now you know!” [Rivendell]