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I hate to write bad reviews. So I listen and listen again
to try and find work of value in any disc I write up. Stencil
Forest is a group of good musicians and their lead vocalist
has a very pure and resonant voice. There are a couple of
pretty good tunes on this, their first release Opening Act.
And that's just what this disc is, a starting point. The band
is a trio with Frank Cassella taking care of the guitar, keyboards
and some vocals, Doug Andresen on lead vocals and Ron Perron
on bass. The band initially went through a number of line
up changes with numerous rhythm guitarists and drummers. The
band has also recently reformed with Cassella and Peron definitely
in at this point. The have also just released a new album
titled The Abyss and I certainly hope that it will emphasize
Stencil Forest's many good aspects and see the elimination
of some of their worst tendencies.***
Frankly speaking now, most of the first couple of track
are bad, very bad indeed.. But the last five cuts are all
much better and mostly hold my attention. I'll tell you this,
this is never going to be one of my desert island discs but
tracks six through ten are not bad. Stencil Forest sounds
like a cross of Ambrosia, Styx, and Toto with a bit of Starcastle
here and there. That might sound a bit odd, but when this
band gets their collective groove going they can produce some
decent music.***
Of the first five tracks, only track two, "Celestial Voices"
gets any real traction, sounding like an outtake from Starcastle's
Fountains Of Light. It really is a fairly decent tune with
nice themes and very good playing. Track four, Crossroads"
has some nice proggy arppegiated synthesizer lines, but basically
sounds like The Baby's meets Boston. The following cut sounds
like Billy Joel and Journey. No, these first few tunes are
not going to endear anyone to Stencil Forest.***
Suddenly, with track six, things begin to happen. "The
Pandemonium Shadow Show" is a interesting and powerful piece.
It has several good themes that blend well, nice acoustic
guitar work and some jarring organ and synth lines that make
this tune sound like good symphonic prog.***
Track seven, "Indian Summer" isn't much of a proggy tune
at all but it does sound like one of Ambrosia's better singles,
good lead vocal, great back up vocals and hooks and more hooks.
I've had a soft spot in my heart for Ambrosia (or maybe a
soft spot in my head) so I'm inclined to like this tune.***
With the next cut we get more of the Ambrosia influence,
this one sounding like it could have come off of Ambrosia's
self titled debut release. "Five Studded Poker Player", they
call it, and there is gorgeous keyboard playing from Frank
Cassella all over this cut. This tune gets treated to a very
long fade out, ala Rundgren, with nice piano and organ. Two
bonus tracks wrap this disc up. "Five By Five" is another
huge leap in style, a reggae/pop song with great guitar and
vocals. The last is an acoustic version of track three, "Just
A Fantasy", which might not seem like such a good idea, but
it's just so well performed and the lead vocal by Doug Andresen
is his best performance on this disc.***
So there you go. Opening Act has its eclectic moments;
moments of pure sugar coated pop rock and a lot of echoes
from 80's AOR rock. But……it does have a few nice moments and
"The Pandemonium Shadow Show" really is a well written and
quite entertaining progressive rock tune.***
I've suffered though much, much worse than this and these
guys do know how to play their instruments and how to construct
concise rock tunes. Maybe with their next release they will
use these gifts to produce a bit more prog and a lot less
schmaltz.***
RATING - 3/5***
©Thomas Karr April 17, 2006
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