i'm not sure how much i value being memorable- it's an interesting music appreciation criterion actually


I think it's very important. If you don't remember a song/album, how you gonna want to recommend it? And remembering something or being familiar with it really strikes a chord then (not literally of course) when you put the album on again or hear it again. It's part of what I love about music: when you hear that song and it brings back those memories, reminds you of the first/last time you heard it. A real bridge to the past, very often. Nostalgia and music go quite well together for me. I was watching a TV show last week and all the music was eighties gold - Human League, Men at Work, Bon Jovi, Tears for Fears - and it really brought back good feelings of times before Karen's illness, before my mam's passing, before my aunt's passing, when I had money and more hair and not too much to worry about. I also like to get to know music: either learn or at least understand/recognise the lyrics, and most of my favourite albums I can sing and also hum all the music too as well. I know, when listening, where that guitar solo comes in (and can emulate it), where the drums crash, where everything fades dowm, how many verses/choruses there are etc. I feel a lot more connected to music that way.


Quote from: Trollheart on Apr 15, 2023, 08:13 PMif I could whistle, which I cannot

What's up? Do you have a harelip?

You know, buddy.. I would read your journal about you learning how to whistle 😗

Happiness is a warm manatee

right

yeah i get that but i don't know if lacking that is necessarily bad - i think it depends on what kind of music it is and how old you are and other factors

just because having a characteristic is a positive doesn't mean lacking that characteristic is a negative


Yeah, I get what Trollheart is saying but it only really applies to stuff that is both traditionally melodic and "song"-based. I've listened to hundreds of death metal and ambient albums where I only have vague conceptions of "how the songs go" but I still listen to them all the time and consider them favorites. Like I can follow them as I'm listening to them but it's not snappy tunes you can hum or anything. There are plenty of other memorable elements like rhythm, timbre, structure, etc.

"stressed" is just "desserts" spelled backwards



Anyway, time I got my ass in gear and got back on the horse, to wildly mix metaphors.
And so



Album title: A Social Grace
Artist: Psychotic Waltz
Nationality: American
Sub-genre: Progressive Metal
Year: 1990
Position on list for that year: 2
Chronology: 1 of 5 (so far)
Familiarity with artist: 3
Familiarity with album: 1
Gold Rated track(s): Halo of Thorns, Another Prophet Song, I Remember, A Psychotic Waltz
Silver Rated track(s):
Wooden Rated track(s): Strange
Comments: I remember these guys. Grindy tried to get me into them via Into the Everflow but I don't remember being impressed. This is their debut. Heavy as fuck from the beginning, very powerful vocals. The second track, "Halo of Thorns" has a very acoustic, sort of medieval opening then kicks up into a mid-paced semi-rocker/semi-ballad. Very impressive. Some really exceptional dramatic instrumentation in "Another Prophet Song", real prog metal fare, then I kind of find "Successor" a bit of a let-down after that, seems a bit confused and disjointed to me. I mean, it's not a bad track, I just find it hard to follow it. Not crazy about "In This Place" either, to be honest, and the spoken part really bugs me.

Things get back on track with the soulful "I Remember", quite possibly the ballad on the album, vocalist attended by what sounds like pipes of some sort, becomes quite anthemic fairly quickly, but I'd still, so far anyway, class it as a ballad. Ok it says here it's a flute, and I can hear it now. Very ethnic-sounding. Lots of weird electronic effects and a staggered intro then to "Sleeping Dogs" - oh my mistake: must be a short instrumental, only runs for a minute and a half and takes us into "I of the Storm" (so the calm before the storm perhaps?) which punches out of the speakers and grabs you by the - GAAAWWK! - eh, by the throat, yes. Marching and stamping and clomping all over the place like an army on their way to do some real mischief, it pounds along with real purpose, then not a title track but what you might call a signature track, "A Psychotic Waltz" is a slow grinder that just oozes menace with some truly introspective guitar which kind of reminds me of Maiden's "Strange World".

Next up in "Only In My Dreams" - oh no wait: that's Debbie Gibson isn't it? Always get those two mixed up. Easy mistake to make. This is "Only In a Dream", and it's a good mid-paced rocker, though I fear the quality may be starting to ebb as we near the end of the album. Prove me wrong, guys! Prove me wrong. Not sure they do with "Spiral Tower": it has a lot of creeping threat about it, but seems a little similar in ways to "I of the Storm" and kind of sounds a bit like a Zep/Dio hybrid. It's not bad, not bad at all, but I'm looking for better than not bad at this stage. "Strange" sounds like it might have more about it, nice kind of dramatic opening with spooky guitar and I think it's about to kick up any second now... and there it goes. Right I think it may have degenerated rather than developed into something. Sigh. Yeah that's absolute shit. And we have just the one track left, and it's... Nothing? Well, yeah, that's the title but it sounds like it could be really excellent. A strong finish? Let's hope so. Nah, not really. This album really nosedove at the end. What a pity.

Personal Rating: 7




Quote from: Trollheart on Feb 09, 2023, 02:52 AM
Album title: SBB [AKA: WOłANIE O BRZęK SZKłA AND SLOVENIAN GIRLS]
Artist: SBB
Nationality: Polish
Sub-genre: Eclectic Prog
Year: 1978
Position on list for that year: 4
Chronology: 8 of 19
Familiarity with artist: 1
Familiarity with album: 1
Gold Rated track(s): Both tracks are gold
Silver Rated track(s):
Wooden Rated track(s):
Comments: Oh-oh. The genre tag "eclectic prog" often spells trouble for me. Sometimes it's just a catch-all to describe something that's maybe avant-garde, experimental or otherwise outside of the general prog spectrum, but has some prog credentials. Sometimes even avant-garde or experimental prog might be preferable, but here we are, and given that so many good prog bands have come out of Poland, maybe we'll be all right. There are only two tracks, so I can copy out the names, otherwise I don't think I'd be bothering, with all those odd accents and things. I don't know, but with two tracks at over 19 minutes each I'm going to assume this is instrumental? This is "Wołanie O Brzęk Szkła (Julia)" and has some really nice almost Gilmouresque guitar as well as what may be a sitar or something, very nice anyway, very relaxing. All right, so there are vocals. Seem almost ethereal, but again very nice.

Getting much rockier now with electric guitar and the future echoes of "Duke's Travels" in another of those surely weird coincidences I keep coming across. I mean, this melody is so like the Genesis track you would wonder if they stumbled over this album before they recorded it? But I expect it's just one of those things. Great music so far though and I have nothing negative to say at this point. And now there's a totally bitchin' harmonica solo worthy of the best of Supertramp against a rockin' boogie beat. This album just gets better. No wonder it's so high on the list for this year. Fantastic powerful keyboard run to end the track, and into the second one, which has a much shorter title, and opens on bouzouki with wind effects, quite stripped down as "Odejście (Anna)"  takes us on another nearly 20-minute odyssey of what I hope will be pure joy.

And it looks like it will be. After a slow, relaxed start we have a sort of pattering percussion and a whistling keyboard line with maybe feedback guitar and it's loping along now at a fine pace. Then it all slows down on a shimmery synth line with a crooned vocal, not yet any actual lyric but more vocalise, a soft acoustic guitar and chiming keyboard painting a magical backdrop before the singer comes in with the actual vocal. I suppose it's because they don't sing in English that these guys never seem to have broken out of their native Poland, and it's a real pity because this album, and this band, should be known worldwide. Mind you, prog fans obviously know where it's at, placing it near the top of 1978's list, where it certainly deserves to be. There's a duet now, kind of vocal harmony going on against the lush backing, sounds almost Vangelis at his most gentle and restrained. And now it's picking up again with a truly superb vocal into a kicking guitar piece, but wow is that not the main theme of "Echoes" being pretty liberally ripped off there? Oh hell, it's just such a superb album I can ignore that.

Personal Rating: 10 (would go higher if I could; it's that good!)




just gave this a listen

damn there's a lot of prog out there

good one





Album title: Human
Artist: Death
Nationality: American
Sub-genre: Technical Death metal/Prog Metal
Year: 1991
Position on list for that year: 1
Chronology: 4 of 7
Familiarity with artist: 2
Familiarity with album: 2
Gold Rated track(s): "See Through Dreams", "Vacant Planets"
Silver Rated track(s): None
Wooden Rated track(s): None
Comments: This, my fellow prog heads, is where it all gets very strange and we step through the looking-glass... into Hell. Well, not quite, but who would have expected a death metal album not only in the top ten prog albums, but to top that list for this year?  But so it does: PA reliably inform me this is prog metal, though I have  my doubts. I've heard this I think twice, once for Metal Month and once perhaps on "Love or Hate", or maybe not. I know I have some experience with it. But I can't recall, on any of those occasions, feeling that it touched the prog metal standard at all. Perhaps I was wrong; perhaps it's too long ago now and I forget, or have changed my perception of the band. Whatever is the case, it really doesn't matter: PA say it's prog, put it at the top of their list for 1991, and so we have to give it a listen.

Perhaps take a crash helmet?

Interesting opening, like a kind of approaching drumbeat, then the guitars punch out and we have the classic death vocal, though I guess it's slower than would be usual on an album of this kind, sort of a fast Doom Metal thing. Some fine shredding definitely and Chuck Schuldiner's vocals make him sound like he's really in pain and roaring out his anger to the world. Jesus Christ ripping off a fine shred while throwing the horns! "Suicide Machine" comes with a built-in warning and you have to click "I understand and wish to proceed" before it will play! What is wrong with this world? Don't answer that. Anyway it's another fast pounding track but I can't see too much difference between it and the previous one; guitars are a little grittier and yeah I can hear his vocal striding along in a different way now.

"Secret Face" hammers along with Chuck grinding out the vocal again and some almost Maidenesque riffing from the boys; slows down and speeds up with quite choppy guitar but man is there some shredding on this! I hear some sort of vague Egyptian theme in "Lack of Comprehension", with some pretty brutal drumming (that's brutal in a good way) while it sounds like "See Through Dreams" has (gasp!) synth opening it and an almost orchestral feel to the guitars, the most purely musical of the tracks I've heard on the album so far. I find myself wondering if it might possibly be an instrumental? Kind of a cinematic idea to it, or at least that's how it comes across to me. Pretty damn excellent, and would easily qualify as my favourite on the album. Almost goes full electronic about halfway through, then some acoustic guitar before we're off and ripping, shredding and screeching away on the frets. Excellent.

"Cosmic Sea" has a lovely phased guitar opening for a moment, then it grinds along well, picking up speed as it charges headlong towards the finish line and that finish line arrives with the pounding grind of "Vacant Planets", thundering and rolling over everything and providing a very satisfying conclusion to a special album. Chuck, you're missed.


Personal Rating: 9 (as Metal) 6 (as prog)




Album title: Heaven Born and Ever Bright
Artist: Cardiacs
Nationality: English
Sub-genre: RIO/Avant-Prog
Year: 1992
Position on list for that year: 10
Chronology: 6 of 8
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album: Zero
Gold Rated track(s):
Silver Rated track(s): The Alphabet Business Concern (Home of Fadeless Splendour), Snakes-a-sleeping
Wooden Rated track(s):
Comments: Ah, more RIO music! Guess I must have really offended the gods of Prog. I believe the Cardiacs are well known in the avant-prog scene, but as I can't even get an invitation to their parties, I don't have a clue about them. RIO usually sends a little shiver of dread down my spine however, but we'll see. Explodes with a major chant, something like that thing you hear on the European football championships, very stirring and dramatic. Impressive stuff for sure, like listening to a choir at mass maybe. Next track, "She is Hiding Behind the Shed" is far more down and dirty, growly guitar and a sort of punk-style vocal, sort of reminds me of the Buzzcocks maybe. Pretty chaotic really but not too bad for RIO I guess. "March" then is built on a pretty solid bass line with a really weak vocal, barely audible really, at first anyway. Now it's taking shape on a group vocal, a little like, but not quite the same as, the opener. Riff in "Goodbye Grace" that really sounds like Maiden's later "The Duellist", but I would say this is so far the closest this album has come to outright punk in terms of speed and style.

Some good keyswork coming in now for about the first time since perhaps the album began, but this does seem to be a band more driven on a primal, guitar-focused sound, and this style continues on into "Anything I Can't Eat", at which point I do have to admit I get quite bored and begin to zone out a little. I mean, the guitars are great and these guys can play, but it's all a bit frenetic and directionless for me; guess that's RIO for you. But it's not for me. "Helen and Heaven" does at least slow things right down with a sharp acoustic guitar and a more restrained vocal, then we're back to mad breakneck speed for "Badblood" and I think there's some horns in "For Good and All" then "Core" is at least short, just over two and a half minutes. Have to be honest, I'm just waiting to get to the end now.

"Days is Gone" has a nice lively piano line and some cool brass, and it's really not all that bad, but then the closer "Snakes-a-sleeping" is bloody eight minutes long! I mean, sure, I know this is prog (apparently) but eight minutes of these guys makes me want to go a-slithering off, in the opposite direction. Maybe it will surprise me. Certainly has a nice Hammond opening and sounds a lot more prog than anything I've heard on this album so far. It takes a harder guitar line pretty quickly though, and I definitely don't like this guy's singing voice. Actually the track seems to end at the seventh minute, so I'm not sure why it's shown as being eight and a half, unless there's some stupid little coda thing on the end? Yeah, there's a stupid little coda thing on the end, a few seconds of confused noise following what sounds like an explosion. Christ.

I feel like I've been tricked into listening to a punk album in many ways, and while I suppose these guys will have other albums in this top 500 and I'll have to listen to them, I'm glad this one is over and I wouldn't of choice be listening to it again.


Personal Rating: 4/10



Is Cardiacs RIO? I never considered them that, but perhaps the prog community at large does. Maybe they played at a RIO festival.

Musically, I like "prunk" as in prog-punk 🙂

I've mostly only listened to Sing to God. It's a fun band and they have some good songs, although I find them a little dense and frantic and so I'm not sure I'd like to listen to a whole album in one sitting.. at least not Sing to God as it's a double album.

Happiness is a warm manatee

To answer your question almost half a year late, I don't know: I just go by what ProgArchives tells me.

Right then, where were we? Oh yeah...


Album title: Vemod
Artist: Anekdoten
Nationality: Swedish
Sub-genre: Heavy Prog
Year: 1993
Position on list for that year: 9
Chronology: 1 of 6
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album: Zero
Gold Rated track(s):
Silver Rated track(s): Karelia, Thoughts in Absence, Longing
Wooden Rated track(s):
Comments: Is this the first Swedish band we've come across on the list so far? I think it may be. Got a pretty dour, melancholic opening, in other circumstances I might have considered this to be atmospheric black metal, but the doleful organ is fading out now to be replaced by harsh, strident guitars and they're really picking up the pace. I do feel however that this may be an instrumental; if not, that's one hell of a long introduction. No, definitely an instrumental. Not bad, though I'm not falling all over myself to praise them at this point. Pretty competent, I would say. The vocal on the second track I would call a little whiny maybe; would not be a fan of this kind of singing just at this point. I think if I had to compare him to anyone it might be Peter Hammill, but without the force of personality the VDGG man has. In fact, I read these guys are seen as a sort of Swedish King Crimson, and given my less than love for that band, maybe this is why I'm just not getting into this.

It's not terrible by any means, just not grabbing me or holding my interest really. Okay well "Thoughts in Absence" has a nice reflective feel about it, reminds me of Mostly Autumn in ways or early Rush, but I still feel this guy is not up to the job behind the mic. "The Flow" just, well, flows by without making much impression on me, though "Longing" has a lovely cello line leading it and would seem to be another ballad, with acoustic guitar, while the last track is "Wheel" and is driven on a nice Hammond line with what sounds like female backing vocals in an almost Kate Bush style. Gets a bit heavier then with the guitar and picks up the tempo, think there maybe some horns in there too. Maybe a little jazzy, which is not good for me.

Yeah I think heavy prog as they call it is generally not for me. This isn't awful, but it's not great either, and I doubt I'll remember any of the tracks once I've finished the album, which I often use as my metric as to whether or not I consider an album good.

Personal Rating: 5/10





Album title: Visions Fugitives
Artist: Mekong Delta
Nationality: German
Sub-genre: Tech/Extreme Prog Metal
Year: 1993
Position on list for that year: 8
Chronology: 6 of 12
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album: Zero
Gold Rated track(s): Suite for Group and Orchestra
Silver Rated track(s):
Wooden Rated track(s):
Comments: Generally speaking, the words German and Metal - of any variety - usually result in loud, raucous bands - look at Kreator, Gravedigger, Scorpions, Accept. There may be some which fall into the less rowdy category, but overall I think you can expect loud and angry when you check out German metal. This is shown with an "extreme" tag, so that usually is not good for me, but let's see how it goes. Okay well it certainly does not come in easily, blasting the riffs in your face from the first note, a sense of expectation building as the first song opens up, and to be fair it's pretty decent, though either the production is bad or this guy can't sing loud enough to make himself heard over the guitars. Second track is okay I guess but I'm just not getting into it. I think technical metal, be it prog or otherwise, tends to, obviously, concentrate on the skill of the guitarist(s), and here they're very good certainly, but they seem to me to be more a sort of backdrop to nothing. I wonder if these guys rely too much on their technical playing and don't bother too much with the songs aspect?

Then again, there's a nineteen-minute suite coming up, so perhaps it's all about to change. Starts off with some really nice acoustic or Spanish guitar, a shade Hackettesque perhaps, and then a big slow marching almost orchestral piece (the whole thing is called "Suite for Group and Orchestra", though I don't see any evidence of an actual orchestra) then it's a big trumpeting arpeggio on the keys to take us into the third part, or movement I guess. So far it's all been instrumental since this suite began; will it remain so for the nineteen-minute run of the whole thing? I don't know, but there are no sign of vocals coming in yet. I think it's unlikely there will be any, which makes this pretty impressive as an instrumental, and as a piece of almost continuous music. It's odd, given the pretty banal nature of the first two tracks, that this could be so good: it's almost as if this were a different band.

Yeah, very impressed with that, so hopefully the last two tracks won't ruin it by returning things to the way the first two tracks went. I think I would say that the singer is very much the weak link here. It's no coincidence that I loved the suite primarily because he wasn't involved in it, at least not in a vocal way. Now he's back and while I wouldn't go so far as to say he's destroying the song, he's definitely not adding anything positive to it. The song isn't quite as bad as the first two, but it's certainly no continuation of the quality from the suite. And that leaves us with one track, and to fair it's not up to much either. So without that suite this would be getting a much lower mark, but the quality of that composition shows me these guys may well have something, so it gets a better rating than I would have originally expected to be giving it.

Personal Rating: 7/10




Album title: Written in Waters
Artist: Ved buens ende
Nationality: Norwegian
Sub-genre: Experimental/Post-metal
Year: 1995
Position on list for that year: 7
Chronology: 1 of 1
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album: Zero
Gold Rated track(s):
Silver Rated track(s):
Wooden Rated track(s): Every fucking one
Comments: The only album these guys produced because they were crap, or because they couldn't get a deal for more? Experimental is not great for me, post-metal not so bad, but I feel this may be a bit of a slog. The band name means "at the end of the rainbow", in case you were wondering, as I was. Well it's a powerful opening but a little chaotic I feel, perhaps justifying the "experimental" part of their genre description. Yeah, I thought it couldn't get any worse, and then they started singing. Well, after a fashion. Man, that was bad! The track was called "I Sing to the Swans". Well if so, I think they all would have taken wing and buggered off to be honest. Another guy who can't sing. He's basically talking the next track. I feared this would be a slog, and so it is proving to be. Not a lot I can say so far, really.

Jesus Christ, this guy cannot sing. I mean, either he's exaggerating his voice deliberately or he is just the worst singer I've heard in a long time. Okay I'll be honest: I've switched off now. Not literally - the album is still running - but mentally. I hear the music go into everything from death metal to doom metal, and the constant wail and drone of the vocalist is just setting my teeth on edge, so I'm just waiting it out. Don't expect a good result on this one. Yeah, I really hated that.

Personal Rating: 1/10



What the hell? I've never heard of them before and just briefly checking it out, it sounds a little stupid. It's not for me.

A bit of a curiosity, if anything? I assume a lot of people like this (?).

Btw, small correction, but Ved Buens Ende means At the bow's end. Seems likely it would be a rainbow, but that'd be Ved Regnbuens Ende, regn being rain. Not that different from English in this case 🙂

Happiness is a warm manatee

Thanks for that Tore. I remember grindy correcting me on something else, like freiheit means freedom or fantasy or something; always good to get it right. Still, "at bow's end"? What exactly would that mean? Unless it's bow as in take a bow? After the performance? Anyway, whatever bow, bow or rainbow these guys are at the end of, I sure don't want to be there. Yes, this is the problem with lists like these. If you look back at the last three albums I've done yesterday, I really didn't like any of them. But they're on the list so have to be done. Just proves that despite what some people think, prog is a pretty varied and eclectic genre, and there's a whole slew of stuff in there that I would never listen to, given a choice, and would challenge their inclusion on the list. But then, what do I know?


Album title: Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion
Artist: Pan.Thy.Monium
Nationality: Swedish
Sub-genre: Experimental/Post-Metal
Year: 1996
Position on list for that year: 6
Chronology: 3 of 3
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album: Zero
Gold Rated track(s): Behrial
Silver Rated track(s): The Battle of Geeheeb
Wooden Rated track(s):
Comments: Jesus popping wheelies on a brand-new Harley heading down the Lincoln Tunnel at midnight munching a Big Mac! You have got to be fucking kidding me! I just endured almost an hour of this shit and here we are again with another one! What are the chances? God have mercy on my ears! I suppose at least there are only four tracks, but then one is twelve minutes long and one is almost fifteen, so it's hardly a let-off for me, is it? Then again, compared to the just-short-of-an-hour I struggled through on the last one, half an hour is certainly more doable, I would hope. I will say that any album that credits one of the band with "noises" sends something of a cold shiver down my spine. Oh hell, at least it opens with a big guitar riff not a million miles away from the start of Lizzy's "Whiskey in the Jar", but I'm pretty sure I can hear those lovely animalistic growls I so enjoy in vocals, so again, could be a bumpy ride.

Well there's no denying the skill on those guitars and we have synth too, so if you kind of ignore the guy growling the vocals - and they're very low and obviously completely impossible to make out any words in - it's not too bad. I could do without my other favourite thing, wild, frenetic horns, but hey, you can't have everything. Or indeed, sometimes, anything. There is, rather weirdly, a very Alan Parsons Project rhythm halfway into the first track, that twelve-minuter, and despite some crazy sounds and those squealing horns, I'd have to say I'm not yet compelled to claw my own ears off with a fork. I mean, it's hardly a ringing endorsement, I know, but it's the best I can do at this point.

No hell, let's be fair now: that is a fucking bitchin' guitar solo and it's followed by some truly exceptional ambient work on the keys as we head towards the end of the track. This won't be getting Gold status or anything but it's already better than all of the previous album put together. Hell, a bunch of magpies in a tree on fire would sound better than the previous album! Sorry, magpie/bird/animal/tree lovers. In fact, again, ignoring the - mostly ignorable - "vocals", this really is pretty damn good. Just as I said that, he's off again, but let him tire himself out: he'll sleep tonight. The music is really, really good, a lot better than I had expected. All right, the second track, the longest one, has its moments, and as Moe once said, it's not without its charm, but it's a little too, um, experimental for me. Superb guitar solo near the end, but it's nowhere near as good a track as the first one.

Oh right, I just got the title now: chaos and confusion. Cute. The third track has a lovely synthy opening that kind of sounds like eighties ambient or something, I think this stands a good chance of getting a Gold rating. It's really really nice. Just very relaxing, with a lot of like voice effects on the synth like a sampler, and a kind of industrial beat behind it. Gives me a sense of later Yes or something. The closer is just one minute, so I'm assuming it's either effects or a very short instrumental, or perhaps one hundred million people saying "wop". It's not one hundred million people saying "wop". It is in fact, oddly, one minute of pure silence, and given that it's titled "In Remembrance", maybe that's very significant. I wonder who or what it's in remembrance of? Can I find out? No; nobody seems to know, though given this was the band's last album, perhaps it was a "moment of silence" for the end of Pan.Thy.Monium. I reckon I'd have listened to more. Much better than expected.


Personal Rating: 7/10