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AOR fans will rejoice and do backflips
over this one. Stencil Forest were one of those midwestern
bands who excelled in the genre some call 'pomp rock', and
as you can imagine got lumped in with similar ilk alongside
Styx, Kansas, Starcastle, etc. Any fan of any of those classic
American bands will find more to chew on with this album.
Apparently, Stencil Forest made this one album and faded into
oblivion, before returning this year with a new album, 'THE
ABYSS'. In between, vinyl copies of OPENING ACT had become
a much sought-after record for AOR fans.***
This isn't some retro band of now,
this is a valid document of an era and a genre. Sometimes
some of the 'lost' or forgotten recordings of, say, AOR or
'pomp-rock' , speak volumes for the genre often more so than
the big names. So, while the originality factor is slightly
lacking here, keep in mind that this isn't so much a clone
of the big names as it is more of the same from that era,
though perhaps they came a little too late, as the big names
like Kansas and Styx were starting to show cracks. There's
plenty of melodic moments and razzle-dazzle guitar and keyboard
interplay, but perhaps they needed one single back then to
at least have been a one-hit wonder. Anyway, OPENING ACT would
find a happy home in the AOR-lover's collection along with
STYX, JOURNEY, KANSAS, STARCASTLE, YES, AMBROSIA, SUPERTRAMP,
all of the above and maybe more exists in some small detail
or another within the fabric of OPENING ACT.***
the tracks: OPENING ACT: starts
off with the big riffs ala 80's Kiss before moving into the
big pumping anthem thing. There are some good melodic passages
here in between the pumpimg and the balladeering, like those
classic twin lead guitar sounds and some spacey synths. The
vocals remind me of Survivor.***
CELESTRIAL VOICES: A Starcastle-type
track with some nice Styx-like organ and guitar. Some spacey
mellotron-type keys too. The lyrics border on the ridiculous,
talking about 'crystal waterfalls' and 'interdimesional gateways'.
Talk about pomp-rock, but those naive bits add to the overall
charm of this dated gem. ***
JUST A FANTASY: acoustic guitar
textures with synth blend Kansas and Ambrosia elements for
this epic-sounding ballad track. Nice piano too.***
CROSSROADS: American neo-prog?
This one has Pallas/IQ elements with the vocals(Alan Reed/Paul
Menel sound) and the intro, and has some Yes-like keys.***
LOOKING BACK: back into some AOR-rock
Journey/REO sounds with the vocal harmonies and anthem chorus.***
PANDEMONIUM SHADOW SHOW: more epic
in nature, with dramatic bits befitting a song about any dark
circus coming to town. Strands of acoustic guitar and piano
swirl around the heavy rock crashes and Wakeman-esque synth
presence. Yes elements speak out here.***
INDIAN SUMMER: a power-ballad in
the direction of some Survivor/John Wetton hybrid.***
FIVE STUDDED POKER PLAYER: the
obligatory AOR song about gamblers/gambling. Nice synth solos
and overall keyboard-emphasis.***
FIVE BY FIVE: This one sounds more
akin to the decade it was recorded in than the rest of the
70's-ish album, with reggae elements and 80's sounding keys
and drum production.***
JUST A FANTASY(acoustic version):
an acoustic version of the album track brings out hidden depths
lacking in the full-blown band version, perhaps working better
this way.***
Stencil Forest's debut here is a
decent AOR album with proggy overtones which should please
the STYX/KANSAS fanatic who thought he had collected all the
pomp-rock he could, only to find that one had somehow gotten
away- Stencil Forest!***
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