Being a newbie to the land of Voyager, I must say this is some daringly unique work. "The Meaning of I" is like a big melting pot, and these Australian madmen gladly mix, stir and replicate everything from progressive themes and gothic elements to power metal and even some death metal techniques—their sound is largely unpredictable and flourishing as one might expect. The Aussie-native progressive metal battalion stretches the limits of forward thinking music throughout "The Meaning of I" with substantial qualities of the progressive metal niche gleefully embracing the band's own recipe of melodic metal and pulsing keyboards between the mighty voice of Daniel Estrin, and I kind of get a vibe that the dudes of Voyager are about ten paces beyond the current leaders of progressive music with their extravagant songwriting and daring craftsmanship, which are both far beyond the stars.Describing Voyager is almost difficult because there are so many unique pipes flowing in and flushing out of "The Meaning of I" at any given time, but the group's structuring is certainly highly melodic and progressive in nature. However, their sound is truly something unique. As I said, putting Voyager in a general term or sound can be quite taxing, but overall there are traces of multiple genres and identities sketched within the band's corridors, like Nevermore-ish riffs, spacey keyboards, depressing atmospheres, and progressive structuring—almost like a multi-chromatic child of Nevermore, Dream Theater, Type O Negative and maybe Cynic at some intervals. Their overall efforts, though, are fundamentally excellent. Each and every track takes the listener on a special journey through progressive landscapes and dazzling instrumentally, sometimes cruising through dark, sarcastically-melancholic numbers like "Momentary Relapse of Pain," or perhaps beating the listener with frenzied guitar work and electrified instrumentally occupying the blazing "Fire of Times." All in all, Voyager's arsenal remains locked and loaded with surprises and fantastic thrills.
Daniel Estrin's vocals are pretty damn impressive too, kind of hitting some grey area between low-register singers ala Peter Steele or a really mysterious vocalist fronting a progressive metal band. And speaking of Steele, Voyager penned a tribute to the deceased Type O Negative vocalist entitled "Iron Dream" that sounds like a lost Type O Negative hit that also includes lots of emotional hooks and powerfully instrumentality; it's really a fantastic tribute to one of Voyager's prime influences. But even the little things are nice too, like the flow of the album which initiates with a plethora of spacey openers utilizing weird keyboard patterns and zesty guitar work; Voyager also turns the originality up to the stratosphere as they charge through progressive tunes like "Pensive Disarray" and the wonderful "Broken," and then reverting back to the upbeat, punching tunes with an occasional burst of prog-inspired cuts here and there.
"The Meaning of I" pretty much has the essentials of an excellent album held within a cage of brilliance. All the ingredients are here: complex patterns, an abundance of stellar riffing, sensational vocals, catchy songwriting, overflowing creativity...what else does the Voyager machine need? This is universally great on every perimeter, not a single source failing to deliver the dimension-bending goodness of progressive metal weaving in and out of the perceptual boundaries of conventional music with an extreme slice of elegance; it's quite the mouthful, but Voyager maintains an otherworldly degree of precision and power that's just too hot for the basic progressive metal players. Overall, I now assume the meaning of 'I' is excellence.