Prog Muggin'

Just thought I would share this one...

A month ago my son asked if I could write a list of some of the bands I like.

Then yesterday I was presented with the mug shown in the picture. It is not a work of art, but considering who made it, I will definitely be using it.

For your notice, the text has been burned onto the mug, so it is wash resistant.

If I was drinking coffee, I suppose I would be drinking Progolatte from now on.

When bands are loosing it

I think most of us regularly go through the motions of eagerly awaiting a new release from one of your favorite bands, just to find it to be a rather moderate achievement or an outright disappointment. Sometimes we loose patience with a band and more or less give up on them, expecting nothing from them that would deserve our attention.

Why write about this topic? Don’t we just get over the disappointments and get on with it? There are after all plenty of other bands we can depend on to deliver what we need.

It is true that we turn to other sources, but if you are like me you never really get over the past. Once awed by the talent of “your band”, you tend to crave more of the same, and if you don’t get it, you wait, hoping for the day when they will take themselves together and bring back the “sound” of their former glory.

Reality check: Are the bands in question really getting worse in means of quality or did something happened to our perception of them?

Yes. Most bands are getting worse, either for real, or in relation to our expectations.
It is a known fact that great quality and innovation instills equally great expectations, expectations we tend to let grow regardless of how well a band keep churning out good quality music. We always expect or at least hope that “the next” album will give us as many, or even more, exciting moments as its predecessor. So, for a band to stay “on top of the game” they constantly need to outdo them selves. Maybe this seems unfair, but that is just how it works, music is above all entertainment, and if it doesn’t entertain its existence is moot.

So basically there are 2 ways a band can “loose it”:
1. The quality of their music it truly getting worse
2. Their talent has stagnated, enabling them to keep the level of quality, but produce nothing new that challenges or surprises the listener.

To back up my line of thought, lets look at some examples.

Read more »

New Blog Layout

If you are reading this you would have noticed that I have changed the layout template of the blog. The new design is easier to maintain and expand and also looks more clean. It features 3 columns (except at the top of the page), which means you don't have to scroll so much to see the links and other stuff in the sidebar.

Hope you like it.

If not, let me know in a comment to this article.

Teaching my kids some (musical) values

Da-da-Daa dada daDaa da-da-daa da-daaa

If you didn't already guess it...this is my 17 months old son mimicking a famous guitar sequence of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water". Apparently he picked it up while his older brother (9) was seeking out all versions of this song he could find on YouTube. I don't know how he got to hear this song, and I'm not much into this band, but it made me think...maybe this could be the start of something wonderful. Yeah, I know that statement is kind of cliche, but nevertheless I feel that I am on to something here.

Let me explain...My son has had a MP3 player for some time. Initially I put 15 good, somewhat popular songs on it, that he listened to for a while and then probably forgot about. Then he asked me if I could put 'Smoke' on it so that he could listen to it without the computer, cause his mother was getting a little enough of co-listening to it, and was thinking that his computer time was getting a little excessive. I told him "sure" and suggested that we also found some more material, since he was already bored of the 15 songs already on the device. What I didn't tell him was about my "evil" plan to slowly introduce him to "real music". This is something that has been in the back of my mind since I got kids; to "help" them discover music that is inspirational, entertaining and appreciated rather then just being the background noise of their lives.

Now, given the task of filling a MP3 player with music, what would you put on it? If the only requirement is that it should be good music, should you choose the things you like yourself or would it be fair to choose from all kinds of genres in order to give the potential listener more choice? Well, I'm not ashamed to say that I will try to instill in my son a taste for the music I prefer listening to, and I don't find that selfish in any way. You see, something that can bring people together more than anything else...is music. And I can think of no better cause than cultive the relationship with my son. If his potential love for jazz or classical music is to suffer because of that...so be it.

So I accidentally copied 2 songs onto the player with the names of Mystery Train and Sunrise on Mars (by Transatlantic and Threshold). Only 2 since I didn't want to scare him too much with unknown songs. You know the thing with kids, you just have to listen to the popular stuff to be cool. His reaction? Well he didn't care much about Threshold, but surprisingly he thought that Transatlantic was "way cool". Sad for the Thresholders, but great for my son. I like Threshold, but I still consider them to be only a few "measures and signatures" from mainstream. Transatlantic is on a completely different level. It is true that Mystery Train is not the most complex song made by the band, but it is a supreme display of greater musicianship compared to what "normal" people listen to these days.

To come back to the statement I made earlier about jazz and classical. It is actually a bit contradictory. I have found that prog can be the doorway leading to great discoveries in music. Before I got into prog I was completely anti jazz and classical (including opera), but now I'm open to both categories. Because there are no rules in prog, anything can be incorporated into it. Sometimes the result is bad, but a great many times the result is purely amazing. Just a side remark here: if you hate jazz and start liking The flower Kings...you are doomed to eternal schizophrenia.

Before I end this, it is time for the million dollar question...

What should I put on the MP3 player next?

Best of 2008

Yes, I know most other music related sites are doing the same, but still...I couldn't resist.

Lets keep the list to the top 3 and have a small description for each.

If any of you (co-authors or readers) would like to join, please add you own top 3 as a comment and I will move it to the main article.

Below are the current contributors (click on [+/-] to show/hide):

BG [+/-]

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1. Ayreon - 01011001

This is an amazing album. At first I was disappointed since I expected more guitars and a heavier sound, but the songs grew on me and this quickly became my most listened to album of the year. The most compelling side of this production is the range of vocalist that mr. Lucassen got involved and especially the way he managed to "use" them...it never feels like a case of too many cooks spoiling the meal. This album also has references (through the lyrics) to other Ayreon releases, which made me revisit all of them...just to connect the dots

2. Jupiter Society - First Contact / Last Warning

Sometimes not liking something at all is a good start. I suppose the music and vocals found on this album is so atypical that it may put you off at first. For me this is also it's strength....the emotion and atmosphere is crunching and demands your attention from beginning to end. It is dark, brooding and gives you a constant feeling of impending doom...I like it :)

3. Opeth - Watershed

What is it with Sweden and prog rock/metal? It seems they spawn buckets full of great bands and albums on a yearly basis. Opeth is, by no means, new...but they keep renewing themselves with every album. This is not as good as the previous one, but far better than anything else that aspires to become something in the same category. As a kid I sometimes listened to death metal but never really liked the growling and grunts. Opeth has found the perfect balance between harsness of "death" and the beauty and intricateness of prog.

Foster [+/-]

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1. Ayreon - 01011001

I'm a big Ayreon fan, and this album didn't disappoint. There are some incredible moments on here, and there's just something about that signature Ayreon sound that is so appealing.

2. Paul Gilbert - Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar

An incredible album from one of my favourite guitarists. So many different sounding songs on this album, all with amazing fretwork. I would have bought this for Progulus by now if it wasn't for the fact that I have no money. Same goes for his Get Out Of My Yard album.

3. Opeth - Watershed

I wasn't really a big Opeth fan (the growling put me off) until earlier this year, when I got hold of Ghost Reveries.. And then my opinion changed. I really like this album, but it's only really making this list because this year was a little bit disappointing in terms of releases compared to last year.

Stringray [+/-]

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1. Amaseffer - Exodus - Slaves For Life

The blend of jewish music, prog metal and "soundtrack" is extremely well done. I love it's tragical style (despite the bible theme). The album is full of great suspense curves, from rather cheesy elements through several emotional states, up to almost death metal and back. On top of that some awesome solo guitar playing at a highest level tone and not to mention Mats Leven's outstanding vocals, combined with oriental vocal performances by Kobi Farhi.
Also best newcomer 2008!

2. Mindflow - Destructive Device

After 2 albums I didn't spend much attention for, here it comes: a mainly metal oriented piece with fine crafted vocal melodies, a couple of prog elements in it, containing time signatures that make most people stumble, but kicking me into heavy grooving.
The cocept works quite well; the production output is a perfect metal sound that makes aggresion physical through bashing airwaves at my body.
I skip the "binaural tracks", but that's really a minor minus.

3. Andromeda - The Immunity Zone

It took me years to recognize the band at all and now I'm totally in love with their music. Their delight in writing and playing is addictive to me, I love how they simply have fun in juggling notes just for the joy of doing it, and stil they manage to create fine tunes that way that don't seem to 'noodle' along at any time.
For me they're the band that comes closest to the good old Kansas, who I tend to call my prog roots.

Lamneth [+/-]

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This was a hard decision for me this year, because there were two albums that I think both deserve the #1 spot, and in the end my choice came down to a right brain vs. left brain decision.

1. Karmakanic - Who's The Boss in the Factory

Highly complex, technically difficult, seamlessly interwoven, these are the things that I crave. Karmakanic finally delivers more than 2 years after their announced release date. This music could be described as Flower Kings for people who hate the Flower Kings, because it's an idealized version that seems superior in almost every way and still has the brilliant Jonas Rheingold touch.

2. Everon - North

This must have been a very difficult album for Oliver Phillips to write and record, because he touches on some of his very personal emotional experiences. But I guess he always does that. This album (and band) is so brilliant because they are so adept at sharing the human experience in a way that touches us without being too mushy (well except for 'Islanders' anyway). There's great songwriting here and great production as well.

3. Fromuz - Overlook

I had the hardest time picking the #3 slot because there's a lot of good releases this year that I could have put here but nothing that really stood out as more exceptional than the others. I went with the album that has received the most spin time in my car. I've already reviewed the album here in detail so there's no reason to repeat myself. Brilliant.

Arcarneiro [+/-]

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From the few '08 albums that I have (most of them I got from my friends!!! thx!!!), here are my top 3 fave ones....

1. Zero Hour - Dark Deceiver

On every album, they get better and better. After the very good Specs of Picture Burnt Beyond, these heroes of tech-metal come with another fine release. Hopefully, now they got settled with a singer, and a quite good one, they can get more tight and improve their sound. At 1st, didn't enjoy Chris voice, but now thinks that he's perfect of ZH!!! Awesome technical display by all band members, specially Troy on the bass and his Tendoniti

2. Presto Ballet - The Lost Art Of Time Travel

Delightful prog-rock album! Very enjoyable from start to finish!!! Great keyboard work, with all the Hammonds, Mellotrons and all that...

3. 7for4 - Diffusion

Another mix of different kinds of music styles and another awesome fusion album. Didn't top my fave album Time, but it's just great. Very cohesive album with no weakness. Even tho the work is based mainly on Wolfgang Zenk's guitar, every one have space to breathe and contribute for this great instrumental album.

Runner-up for the 3rd: Mindflow - Destructive Device.

Was quite surprised by it. Even tho liked their 2 1st albums, always thought that they lack a bit of identity. Plenty of hooks on the album, something that was somewhat missing on the previous. It continues the Alternate Reality Game started on the previous album, adding a very interesting touch with the 2 binaural tracks, which may also be a annoying thing, if the person don't know what it is about or doesn't care for the game. A very good Metal album with a bit of Prog-Metal flavor here and there... My only complain about it is that it almost looks like that that Ben Grosse wrote, recorded, played, and sung the whole album... you almost see his name everywhere... didn't like this move by the band. It seems they are trying to catch some "outside" attention to the album by all means... it feels really strange to me see his name directly in the cover of the album.

Rock is the new Pop

It seems that most non-mainstream artist at some point get so fed up about the music industry’s attempts to stifle creativity in exchange for profit, that they get inspired to write songs pointing the wrong doings of the corporations. I am not only talking about “poor” guys like George Michael (can’t believe I dare mention him here on this site) who could not change record label and wrote a song whining about “Freedoom….Freedoom ….You gotta give be4 u takeee” but also artists who are “persuaded” into performing a specific kind of music.

Thankfully there exist some labels that specialize in prog and other minority genres, so everything is not hopeless although only the most recognized (counted in album sales) band have a chance to move on to a bigger label and distribution channels.

Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to find out what prog artists have "done a Georg Michael” and let out some steam through their lyrics. On the top of my head I can think of the following:

Spocks beard – V - The Great Nothing
Explorers Club – Age of Impact - (whole album)
Rush - Permanent Waves – The Spirit Of Radio

…but I am sure there are many more.

I think what the most prog fans abhor in pop is the repetitiveness. MAVIII said it nicely in his last post :

“…base their rhythms from another song that was sampled, and then add some annoying FX sample and have it in the song over and over to create a beat or somekind of "cool" factor. And great! The chorus is pretty much the entire song, repeated over and over and over and over and over…”

Unfortunately this kind of stuff sell by the millions, so that is what the big labels strive to achieve in as many bands and genres as possible. To be fair, the labels are not all to blame since consumers happily buy what they offer. On the other hand, if the same labels had a bigger hand in exposing the non-mainstream, I am sure that many would break away from their current listening habits.

[hippie & futureman (chorus)]

A secret yearning lurks inside
like a dream trying to hide
another time, another space
an empty feeling haunts my brain
a strange void I can't explain
another time, another space

“Another Time, Another Space” by Ayreon on the album “Into The Electric Castle”

I have always believed that many people don’t know what they like. They just don’t know what treasures are out there until someone helps them to make the discovery. That is how I developed my own taste in music. I was listening to pop until someone showed me the hidden chest, turned the key and opened a completely new world.

To get back to the subject about repetitiveness...what really annoys me these days are the “successful” attempts to turn rock into pop. It’s not a new trend, but it is bigger business than ever. To describe what I mean...take this band, I don’t even remember their name, but they have a nice chorus line going something like this: “I will find something more of what I had before. Shame on you baby…forever your’s”. The band (or label) must have really liked that one since they repeat it a gazillion times. The style they play is rock, but their performance is pure pop. Their music is like candy, it tastes good for awhile, but when you don’t stop eating it’s going to make you puke.

Another example of rock turning pop is “Nickelback”. I my book they are the archetype of this phenomenon. There was an interesting article some time ago about how they, in their attempt to be creatively lazy, plagiarized themselves: Follow this link to read about it.

Even the harder rock is going the same direction. Just take a band like “Linkin park”. Have you ever felt that they lacked creativity? Well maybe they do, just look the following images:

What I've Done

Faint

Somwhere I Belong

Crawling

Numb

Lying From You

Please read the article related to these images here.

Alright…enough rants from me this time. Now I will go and listen to some real music and soon I will have forgotten all about pop....

Review: Second Society – All solutions are artificial

A short while ago I got in contact with one of my Childhood friends (seems that Facebook can actually be used for something). I also discovered that he has recently joined a Danish rock band as their bass player. So I thought that I would do him the favor of reviewing their latest album. Just one warning: This is not progressive rock/metal, but that does not stop me from reviewing it, since I am open to all sorts of music.

This is actually a difficult task. First of all my friend Lars Holmboe is...well…my friend and I would not like to write anything negative about him and his band activities. Secondly Second Society does not play the kind of music that I would normally listen to. So, since I am already rather biased, I will not rate the album on lets say a 0-10 grade scale, but just try my best to give a balanced view of my findings.

On the band’s MySpace page they name themselves a Danish PowerRock Band, and I agree in the sense that they are playing rock not heavy, death or other forms of metal, but the style is nevertheless powerful.

So what elements make this album stand out from the rest?

The first thing I noticed was that it is very well produced coming from such a relatively new and unknown band. I can already think of some other bands I listen to that would have benefited from the same production process. I feel that the resulting songs compliment each other well and belong on the same album, so yeah, it sound pretty much as if they know what they are doing and where they want to take their music.

The album takes the use of synth (in rock) to a new level. Where other bands mostly use keyboard synth as a way of creating a background for the songs, this band uses it more as a regular instrument, which is quite refreshing in this day where so many bands sound similar.

The Songs:

The album opens with the rocker “A New Dawn”, which quite well introduces the band and gives you an idea about the rest of the album: Fast guitars, synth and voice distortion. This would be one of the obvious single contenders (are people still buying singles?).

“The Waiting”: Not a bad rock song, but I find this to be the weakest track on the album. I find it a little too straight forward, although the last 3rd has a good heavy feeling to it.

Like the opener “The Only One” is synth driven, maybe a little too much for my taste, but I find this song has the most enjoyable drum patterns I have heard for a while (also compared to what I normally listen to).

“Devil With Two Hearts” is my favorite song on the album, and could be another choice for a single. The introduction of piano to this track makes everything more interesting, especially how it stands in contrast to an otherwise heavy track. This is probably the most diverse track on the album, which in my book also makes the best.

The album is closed with “Bring me the renegades” which is my other favorite track. The band here shows that they have an excellent rhythm section, which I feel could have been put to better use throughout the album.

Some criticism:

All band members play their instruments well, nothing there to put my finger on. Everything fits together like a well oiled machine. Unfortunately that is where I must criticize the most, the album has some great moments, but overall I find it a little mechanical, as if part of the album was recorded on autopilot. Simply put, I miss some more surprises. Voice distortion and piano helps a bit, but more range and complexity in the vocals and melody would have made the listener experience more enjoyable. A way to achieve this would be to break away from the “verse, chorus, verse in 3½ minute” formula on some tracks, which would force you to come up with some new and hopefully brilliant ideas. But all that would be for a future album, which I would surely take for a spin.

Dear band members, if you read this, please take my criticism with a grain of salt. As I usually listen to Progressive rock/metal I am used to music that often has a structure more similar to that of classical and jazz than to rock/pop, and I usually favor the more complex sides of music. But, for the style of music you play I find that you do more than a decent job.

What is Progressive anyway? 4/5 - Discovering Marillion

Part: 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

Discovering Marillion

When I started to listen to Dream Theatre I actually didn't have a clue about Progressive Rock or Metal. This was just Metal, although being of a different sort. It actually took me a couple years before I started to explore the genre.

What really got me started was Marillion.
For a while I had been seeking new and interesting music. So there I was in the record shop looking at the "special price" CDs and one of them was standing out because of a colorful and interesting cover. "Misplaced Childhood".

The funny thing about this album was that I had actually seen (I can't say that I listened) it before (as vinyl), but at the time I totally dismissed it. I suppose I was too young and too interested in "Top of the Pops". I was introduced to it a few later times, but I stubbornly refused to see its value. So what prompted me this time? I am not sure, maybe I just decided to take a chance, I don't know, but today I am happy that I purchased it.

I brought the CD home, listened to it...and the next evening I had altogether 4 new CDs in my collection. On the third day I went to get more...bought one of the new era Marillion albums (Afraid of the sunlight) and was severely disappointed. Just to say it shortly the new lead singer sucked...badly.

Ok, ok now, I'm too hard on Hogarth (top left), but comparing him to Fish (bottom left) is like comparing apples and oranges. Both are fruit, but of a different kind, and I just happen to like one better than the other. This was around 1995 which is probably why I still didn't have a clue about the term "progressive". I say this, because at that time the Internet was not much to talk about and I couldn't access it to find out more about this genre of music that I had started to like more and more.

In 1996 I got married and 1½ year after I moved to Finland. At work we got free Internet access and it didn't take me long to find out everything about Marillion and put a label on my new and favorite type of music.

Nowadays I hardly never pick up Marillion. They have not become bad. Its just that I have heard those 4 albums so many times that I can sing most of the songs...even the guitar and keyboard solos. There are simply no more surprises left. Instead I look elsewhere, and luckily there is still so much material to put my hands on all the way back from the 70s till now.

What's the joke?

Just a small entry...

The poll currently featured on the Blog contains a practical joke.
Can anyone guess what it is ?

I am out of money, so no prices can be won...sorry :(

The 4th

Family reasons has kept me from participating lately. Or maybe you could say that my life has progressed to a new level, which has limited my time quite a bit: The 22nd of March I had the 4th addition to my family, a baby boy.

Hopefully I will find time soon, but until then.....Prog ON !!!

Lyrics

Associating certain songs with certain situations is nothing new. More or less everybody does it from time to time. Some tunes can mean a lot because they remind us of good times or they were a comfort in difficult times. For me personally I am in dept to a handful of bands that have helped me stay afloat during relationship problems. The best example is probably that of “Pain of Salvation”. The singer, Daniel Gildenlöw, has a gift of interpreting songs and bring across the emotions put into the lyrics:

Pain Of Salvation – Reconcilliation (part) /listen/

I've washed my hands of your blood
Thought it would leave me clean
But with time on my hands
It turned to mud forming this crust of sin
Now - to be truly free
I'll let it come to me
So -break me if you must
When you break this crust
Freedom is to see

Hear this voice, see this man
Standing before you I'm just a child
Just a man learning to yield
I hate these hands soaked in blood
I hate what these eyes have seen
Up to my knees in filth and mud
How it hurts to become clean

This part expresses perfectly my state of mind in a situation when I felt stepped on, and kicked into the gutter and at the same time feeling guilty about my own part in the terrible mess surrounding me, trying to find the path that would end my suffering. I think there are times in our lives when crying is the only way to get rid of all the bad and continue living, and I admit it, I have been howling while listening to this song.

Pain Of Salvation - Morning on earth (part) /listen/

A relation, so oddly old - bred not to love
Suffers the beaten grounds of Idioglossia
We talk but we do not speak
Together only in our incapability to leave this fallen playground
We rule this Empire merely with these few crippled toys
Rust in our faces
This is what we can share - this is all we can lose
Still
Furiously we will linger to it with our lives
Cling to its rust and pains
Barefoot and torn
Bred not but born to love

This song helped me to understand some of what I was going through and why. No one could have said it better....

Dream Theater – The Mirror (part) /listen/

Temptation-
Why won't you leave me alone?
Lurking Every Corner, everywhere I go

Self Control-
Don't turn your back on me now
When I need you the most

Constant pressure tests my will
My will or my won't
My Self Control escapes from me still...

Hypocrite-
How could you be so cruel
and expect my faith in return?

Resistance-
Is not as hard as it seems
When you close the door

I spent so long trusting in you
I trust you forgot
Just when I thought I believed in you...

"What're you doing?
What're you doing?"

It's time for me to deal
Becoming all too real
living in fear-
Why did you lie and pretend?
This has come to an end
I'll never trust you again
It's time you made your amends
Look in the mirror my friend

I have always admired Dream Theater for their skills with their instruments. It seems that creating meaningful lyrics is also one of their talents as this song clearly shows. What normal relationship has not been through this kind of situation at least once (maybe that's an understatement...but just trying to be diplomatic)?

You could say I have only looked at the dark side of things...True, so when I get the time and inspiration I will try to find some examples of good but positive lyrics.

If you read this and have some songs/lyrics that mean a lot to you, and if you would like to, please feel free to share....

What is Progressive anyway? 3/5 - Dream Metal

Part: 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

Dream Metal

The source of my interest in thrash metal was to be found in my social life. I went to concerts, bought some records and listened to them with my friends, but when I think of it I cannot say that much of the music was great. I didn't listen to it so much, when I was alone and I never wore the metal uniform (jeans, T-shirt with a death metal band and long hair). Maybe it was my religious background (I still go to church on Sundays) that kept me from “giving my soul” to this music. At least I think that deep inside I could not really accept the message about death, destruction, despair and Satan that many of the bands we giving through their songs. I suppose Metallica and Megadeth were (and still are) quite innocent compared to some of the bands I listened to. I can still listen to both of them when I'm in the mood.

My first encounter with prog was Queensrÿche . No, it wasn't Yes as you may have thought (looking at my last blog entry). I'll come back to Yes later. I suppose you cannot put Queensrÿche firmly in the prog category since much of their material, in my book, is nothing but sophisticated rock. At the same time they had enough stuff that veered (progressed, if you will) away from the mainstream rock/metal to consider putting them in the prog camp. Anyways in 1991 I bought "Empire" because of the interesting looking cover and, lucky me, I liked what I heard. I didn't immediately go and buy “Operation Mindcrime”... probably because of Metallica's “Black Album” that was released the same year as my discovery. Metallica completely blew me away with their new style and everything else had to wait...

Queensrÿche and especially Metallica, with their change from thrash to heavy rock, were good for me in the sense that they helped me open my mind to many new bands and styles. I didn't completely abandon my taste for harder side of Metal, but I enjoyed it less and less... Some years later I bought what was to be my last album in that genre. Pantera's “Far beoynd driven” was brutal and after some spins I thought to myself, what am I listening to? Why does everything have to be so extreme? Do I really like this? The answer to my doubt were of course that I had grown tired of the aggression. The music and the lyrics didn't bring me anything that I was in need of.

During the same year (1994) Dream Theater released “Awake”. I probably would have missed if it wasn't for friend who came to the rescue. I'm not sure why, but he just seemed to draw the rabbit out of the hat every time I needed some inspiration in my world of music. The first Dream Theater song I heard was “Lie”, and that was all I needed. Here was a group that was heavy yet melodic, played their instruments to perfection but didn't sound synthetic. Their lyrics had a message Far beyond the simple aggression, that was so prevalent in other bands. For me DT was pure and simple Dream Metal.

What is Progressive anyway? 2/5 - Thrash

Part: 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

Thrash

I am at my friend's house. He pulls out a new vinyl disc that apparently is Metallica's latest “...And Justice for All”. My immediate response is “METALLICA! Are you crazy.... that is just pure trash”. He answers “Yes, but this record is so much fun... just listen to this”.

A slow and quite nice electric guitar plays without being accompanied by bass, drums or keyboard. After a while you notice the drums. At first they can hardly be heard, but slowly they build getting louder and louder “dadadadadadadaDaDaDaDaDADADADA”. The first picture in my head is that of a nice picnic in the park being surprised by a motor cycle gang (anyone recognize what tune I am talking about?). The song is completely taken over and the funny part of it is that the rest has absolutely no resemblance to the first part. How cool was that?

So cool that during the next couple of years we were completely immersed in the local Thrash scene. The local band that caught most of the attention was called Invocator. They had a very nice demo (so we thought) and eventually recorded an album called “Excursion Demise”. Some of you may even have heard of it. Anyways the singer of the band much later moved on to “Anubis Gate”, of which I know many of you have heard.

One day my friend surprised me again... Of all the bands to check he had with recommendations borrowed a video tape of a live concert with band called “Yes”. I thought, he had gotten completely bonkers. Who in his right mind would listen to soft rock, yeah almost pop, like that? I completely dismissed it....I thought.

What is Progressive anyway? 1/5 - POP

Part: 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

POP

Long time ago (that is how it feels), when I was still a teenager I often spend my time with a friend listening and talking about music. My favorite artists at the time were Madonna and Kim Wilde (UK) and I had all their albums. My friend and I would record songs from the radio, and when we met we could spend hours going through the latest tracks.

Then there was the 2 year younger brother... He would some times join us, but for some reason he never really got into our music. One day he brought a tape which had a recording of Van Halen's “Why can't this be love”. The song is is more or less straight and uncomplicated guitar rock. We thought "BLASPHEMY! This is Heavy Metal“ and swore we would never, ever get close to like that kind of music......but the damage was done.

Half a year later we were all addicted to rock and the lighter side of Heavy Metal.

One thing the 3 of us had in common was our dislike of the extreme genres which we, at the time, associated with AC/DC, Iron Maiden and God forbid THRASH.

01011001 on Progulus.com

Today proved to be very interesting. I was basically having a fight, trying to concentrate on my work while paying attention to the tag board (chat) at progulus.com. Guess who won? Lets just say that tomorrow I will be in a big hurry to finish some of my stuff.

Other internet radios play the same music, some at a better level of quality, but none seem to capture the feeling of belonging to something, as well as progulus.com. For me, the board is the main attraction. It gives you a unique opportunity to chat about the songs while they are being played, and get to know like minded people (at least music wise). Some of the people using the board have a very broad knowledge about everything related to progressive rock and metal. So if you think you could need some advice in this area, a visit would be worth a lot (I promise).

The big subject of the day was of course Ayreon's new album, which have just been added to the list of requestables. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you don't like Ayreon) there is a limit to how often you can request a certain artist, album or song within a certain time frame, so I haven't heard all the songs yet. What I heard was either good or great, so I guess this is another ”must buy” for my collection. When I have had the albums for a couple of spins I will see if I can get time to put down a review.

Arjen Lucassen, who is the man behind the band (Ayreon), seems to be a really nice guy, at least when it comes to answering emails. Progulus listener popcorn_dracula got a really nice response to her email (link), and another fan reported she had gotten answers to two of her emails. It is so very nice when artists acknowledge their fans in this manner. Arjen deserves a lot of praise for this kind of attitude.

Focus

Nowadays setting up a blog is as easy as writing a shopping list. You just need to write down some basic information and off you go. Then comes the difficult but most important part: CONTENTS.

If you do not write, you have already wasted your time, unless you plan to become a blog designer.

So, first of all my main focus is not to waste my time. I have run blogs before, and my main problem was that I didn't have any specific goals about the direction of my writings. Eventually I felt I was going nowhere and I pulled the plug.

Lets start with some ideas on how to get this blog going...

• Collaborative blogging. It would be cool to have more than one person participating with writing articles. I believe that would make things more diverse and interesting.
• Band of the week. Write about the good and (hopefully not) bad things about a band and their music. The point would be to start a discussion through user comments.
• Reviews. These can be very time consuming if they are done well.
• Concerts. For family reasons I more or less never have the opportunity to go to concerts, but maybe readers (if any exists in the future) go and would like to share the experience.
  
• Web site review. Write about any web site that has prog contents.
• Other. If you read this, feel free to give more suggestions.
  

Prog Blog

I just decided a few days ago that it would be cool to make a blog around one of my big passions which is Progressive Rock and Metal. I have been thinking about doing this for a while, but decided to get started when one of the regulars (Hi Neoshredder) at progulus.com created a MySpace page and blog about neo-classical metal and some of the theory behind that kind of music. He also created a discussion forum where you can discuss all things related neo-classical metal. I'll publish the link for the the forum when I find/remember the address...

Edit:
Neoshredder's Neo-classical forum

This song is sooooo long...

The above statement seems to be the main reason why many people do not get into progressive rock, metal and similar genres of music. Why is it that certain individuals prefer short songs and wish for longer ones to end? I cannot say. What I can say is my own opinion about the subject.

I look at it this way. If some music is good, great or even fantastic to the listener, why would he/she want it to end? I love the 20 – 30 minutes song, which some refer to as an epic. During those minutes I often find myself in a state similar to when I watch an exciting movie. The pictures are painted by the instruments and often tell a story full of passion and emotions. When its over it can leave you with a great feeling that mostly promts you to come back for more.

I guess I am just like the typical movie, game or sports addict except with music I find one major difference: Music doesn't "steal" you time as many other "addictions". Its much easier to do things simultaneously while listening. I just do my things...accompanied by the best soundtrack I can imagine.