The 500 Best Prog Albums - Ever!

[Trollheart]

Album title: The Divine Wings of Tragedy
Artist: Symphony X
Nationality: American
Sub-genre: Progressive Metal
Year: 1997
Position on list for that year: 5
Chronology: 3 of 9
Familiarity with artist: 3
Familiarity with album: 1
Gold Rated track(s): The Accolade, The Divine Wings of Tragedy, Candlelight Fantasia
Silver Rated track(s):
Wooden Rated track(s):
Comments: No matter how poor this might end up being, I'm glad to get back to "normal" prog and away from those who experiment. Can do without that for another while, thanks. This one is over an hour long and has a proper prog suite on it, so we may be on safer ground. Or it may all be a cruel trick. I guess we'll see. Well it's a decent start, typically prog metal, but I would have to say nothing that memorable yet. Singer sounds quite a lot like RJD. Kind of really only start taking notice for "The Accolade" though, a slower, sort of medieval style acoustic ballad which is really nice. Okay it's not really a ballad but still the best track so far. It's not that the rest of it is bad, it just isn't making any real impression on me.

"The Eyes of the Pharaoh" is good enough, and "The Witching Hour" gives me a sense of Arena circa Pepper's Ghost, then the title track is that suite I spoke of, opening on a chanted choral sort of thing, reminiscent of Queen really, or some sort of mass, and it all seems to be based I think around the Fall of Lucifer? Maybe. Anyway it's already more interesting than almost all of what has gone before. Now we get a treatment of Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War" and now it's rocking along nicely. Again, like the Mekong Delta album, this is almost completely different to the rest of the music on the album, and I'm really getting into this now. I think given a few more listens I might really like this, but it does take a while before I feel even compelled to do more than just listen vaguely. It ends well, on "Candlelight Fantasia", lovely little ballad. If only it wasn't for the first six tracks, leaving "The Accolade" aside.

Personal Rating: 7/10

[Trollheart]

Album title: Into the Electric Castle
Artist: Ayreon
Nationality: American
Sub-genre: Progressive Metal
Year: 1998
Position on list for that year: 4
Chronology: 3 of 11
Familiarity with artist: 4
Familiarity with album: 3
Gold Rated track(s): On one listen I can't decide, as I really at the end point have pretty much forgotten what the tracks sounded like.
Silver Rated track(s):
Wooden Rated track(s):
Comments: Looking at this, it should be a shoo-in. Double album, three tracks in the ten-minute mark or more, no less than five suites, and people involved like Damian Wilson, Clive Nolan, Thijs van Leer, Sharon den Adel and Fish, though it is, as Ayreon always is, the brainchild and baby of Arjen Lucassen. If you don't believe that, here's what he does on the album: electric and acoustic guitars, MiniMoog, keyboards, bass, mandolin, Mellotron and vocals. Oh yeah, and he also produced and mixed the album, and wrote all the music. But here's the thing: I've never heard an Ayreon album all the way through, but my old problem persists, in that what I have heard has never remained in my mind or my memory to any great extent, meaning I could not hum or sing a single Ayreon song.

This appears to be (duh) a concept, in fact a space opera (subtitled as such) but these reviews have to be of necessity short, since I have so many more to listen to, so I won't be looking into the idea behind the lyrics - some sort of idea of mythology certainly, with Isis and Osiris namechecked - which may do the album a disservice, but I really just don't have the time. Besides, any album worth its salt - even a concept one - should stand on the music alone, rather than a need to know the story behind it. So that's how I'm going to approach it. After all, I have over an hour and a half of music to get through here, so I think that's enough to be going on with.

It opens on "Welcome to the New Dimension", which I think can be treated as a sort of introduction/prologue, with some speech over wibbly keyboard, and reminds me of Arena's "Moviedrome" to an extent. Nice wailing guitar, slow and dramatic, and into the first of the five suites, eleven minutes of "Isis and Osiris". I'm sure nobody thinks they're writing about the Islamic terrorist group here - Isis and Osiris were both major gods in the Egyptian pantheon. I like the way it segues directly and seamlessly in from the opener, and here we get the first chance to hear Fish, ex-Marillion frontman, on vocals in one of the roles in the space opera, rather appropriately playing "The Highlander". The entrance of Damian Wilson of course brings a Threshold sound to the song as I think it moves into its second stage, then female vocals join, but whether they are Sharon den Adel or Annette van Geisenberger, or both, I don't know, as both these ladies of symphonic metal take part in the album.

Some superb Mellotron from Lucassen as the piece picks up in tempo and we head towards its conclusion, and into the second ten-minute suite, "Amazing Flight", where the guitar takes charge a little more, and there's a certain sense of blues boogie about this. I won't try to identify vocalists I don't know; despite my attempts, none of the pages on the album differentiate between who does what. I mean, roles are assigned, but you're not told who is on what track, so other than Fish's strong Scottish accent marking him as the Highlander, and the fact I know Wilson's voice, the others could be any of the - let's see: eleven! - vocalists on this project. I will say that for ten-minute epics these go in pretty quickly, which is always good in my view. Nothing worse than something overstretched and padded out to fill up the time. Good powerful punchy ending.

I would almost have sworn that was one of the Alan Parsons Project singers on "Time Beyond Time", either Eric Woolfson or Colin Blunstone, but I don't see either credited on the album. This is the first ballad, and indeed the first, since the opener, that isn't a suite. Is that pushing too much? I'm not certain: it's definitely a lot to take in all at once, and we're only about two-thirds of the way through the first disc, so will it retain the interest? It's pretty good so far, but again, will I remember it later? Nice bit of flute there from Thijs van Leer and some really sweet acoustic guitar alternating with screeching electric, while "The Decision Tree (We're Alive)" comes in on pulsing keys and soaring, Steve Rotheryesque guitar, and sees the return of Fish as the Highlander as well as another vocalist who sounds like, but clearly is not, Lou Gramm. Great sense of anthemic power to this one, then "The  Tunnel of Light" starts off with a spoken piece and then Fish remains in his role in a guitar-led semi-ballad, joined by one or two of the female vocalists (sorry, I just don't know which and I'm not familiar enough with either to be able to recognise their voices) and the first disc comes to a close on the somewhat ethereal "Across the Rainbow Bridge", which gets rocky enough towards the end.

Another suite to open disc two, and indeed another ten-minute one, as "The Garden of Emotions" has another spoken intro with a choral backing and ambient music before big trumpeting keyboards take us in. A fine performance from the female singers, I guess both of them, and some pretty raucous guitar from Lucassen too and some excellent Mellotron giving it an almost seventies Van der Graaf Generator feel. "Valley of the Queens" is the second-shortest track, at just under two and a half  minutes and has the two ladies duet against a really soft gentle acoustic guitar with more pastoral flute from van Leer, then it sounds like we're falling into the maw of some great beast in "The Castle Hall" with another spoken word piece followed by sharp ragged guitar. It goes along in a kind of staggered melody, sense of a kind of tribal chant about it in ways, and I see we're singing about Merlin, so again as I say I have no idea what the concept is here, but it seems to range across various myths and stories.

"Tower of Hope" has a very synthy opening, then growling guitar takes over and the vocal is odd; kind of echoey and also more nearly spoken than sung. "Cosmic Fusion" is the fourth suite, although not quite the shortest of the five, it is much shorter than the other three running for just over seven and a half minutes. A really nice solo female vocal with elements I recognise from later Marillion songs leads it in slowly and gracefully till it kicks up and burst into, of all things, a death growl in the midsection (there's a sequence called "Death's Grunt", so I assume this is it), the guitar getting harder and choppy as it marches along now. A big scream then and into I assume the third part with some almost Shadows-esque guitar work and busy synth. Shortest of all the suites, then, "The Mirror Maze" runs for a mere six and a half minutes, and has another of those spoken intros against kind of wind and echoey sounds, then runs on a beautiful solo piano with a very Beatles-style vocal which then gives way to an almost CSNY duet, which is really nice. Good acoustic guitar too.

Again, I feel this goes quite Arena-like in the second part, a sort of marching rhythm taking the melody as it goes along; definitely reminds me of something off maybe Contagion. "Evil Devolution" sounds, to be fair, like the title of a Devin Townsend number, and opens on yet another narration with what sounds like bubbling and spacey sounds, then has a kind of industrial/darkwave mood to it, sort of like Depeche Mode if they did prog. Not crazy, I must admit, about this one, but given that it's the first one I've had to say that about, it's not much of a complaint really. Another spoken introduction to "The Two Gates", which has a nice bright synth running its main melody and strays a little more in the direction of AOR than prog really. There's a short little track, shortest on the album at two seconds over two minutes, and "Forever of the Stars" begins with a vocal intro and then goes into a fast-paced synth backed by vocoder, taking us into the closer, "Another Time and Space".

There's a real sense of drama about this, a slow building to something on the back of guitar and synth then it goes into an acoustic almost David Gates-style melody, back to the buildup on synth, really nice vocal harmonies as some or even most of the singers return for the finale, lovely piano and squealing guitar as the piece heads towards its climax and ending on some rather odd little vocal effects.

While there's a huge amount to take in here, I feel it's quite likely that given a few more listens and maybe a read of the lyrics/story behind the concept I might really get into this album. There's certainly been a lot of work put into it, and while it means nothing to me in terms of the story as it finishes now, I imagine there are some really clever and deep ideas in there. The music is all pretty much first-rate, and the usage of different vocalists keeps things fresh. Overall, I'd say I'm impressed.

Personal Rating: 8.8/10

[Trollheart]

Album title: Judgement
Artist: Anathema
Nationality: English
Sub-genre: Post-metal
Year: 1999
Position on list for that year: 3
Chronology: 5 of 13
Familiarity with artist: 3
Familiarity with album: 1
Gold Rated track(s): Deep, Forgotten Hopes, One Last Goodbye, Parisienne Moonlight, Judgement, Don't Look Too Far, Emotional Winter
Silver Rated track(s): Destiny is Dead; Anyone, Anywhere; 2000 & Gone
Wooden Rated track(s):
Comments: A deceptively acoustic gentle start which then kicks up as "Deep" opens the album, the vocal very low-key, great rhythm. Really like this already. A great start, some fine guitar work and, I must admit, I don't hear any keyboards yet. Bassy opening to "Pitiless" and it rocks along nicely too, relatively short and a rather abrupt segue into "Forgotten Hopes" which slows everything down nicely with a soft acoustic guitar and a sort of crooned vocal, very reminiscent of Floyd's "Hey You" (even uses a lot of the lyric - hey you, did you ever wonder, stone, wall - I wonder if that's deliberate?). Would I class this as a ballad? Well, there's some pretty frenetic guitar work in it, but overall maybe, or at least a semi-ballad. Shortest track on the album, just over a minute and a half, "Destiny is Dead" is of course an instrumental, again quite Floydesque, then "Make it Right (F.F.S.)" has a moody, almost Nick Cave feel as it struts along, riding on a new-waveish keyboard line.

The real ballad then comes in the shape of "One Last Goodbye", reminding me a lot of Mick Moss's Antimatter, very poignant, very atmospheric, with somehow the drum pattern of the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin." Yeah, don't ask. I think of weird stuff and make weird connections. Very passionate vocal on this one. Absolutely sumptuous piano passage opening "Parisienne Moonlight", just gorgeous and it sounds like that has to be a female vocal, surely? Okay, we have guest vocals from Lee Douglas, so I assume that's her. Really adds something to what appears to be another ballad. Very short again, just over two minutes and driven almost entirely on piano and some synth. Lovely. Segues directly into the title track, which also seems to be a low-key affair with ambient keyboards and a slow purring bass line, lovely duet between the two Cavanaghs here, building up slowly and now picking up speed till it explodes into a frenzy of guitar and screamed vocals.

Lee Douglas returns to duet with Vincent on the again very Floyd-like "Don't Look Too Far", seems to be another slow song. A ballad? Maybe not, but relatively low-key again, then "Emotional Winter" has a very ambient opening with guitar that definitely recalls the best of Gilmour, again a slow song, smouldering and brooding, "Wings of God" is kind of the first time this album has really kicked ass, which is something I have to admit I expected it to be doing more. It's quite a laid back, easy going affair mostly. Then it's back to acoustic guitar for "Anyone, Anywhere", another Antimatter style song, with some really effective piano too, kicks up nicely near the end, and speaking of the end, we reach it with "2000 & Gone", yet another track with echoes (sorry) of Floyd, feels like it might be an instrumental. And so it is.

Despite the over preponderance of callbacks to and influences from Roger, Dave and the boys, I'm still very impressed with this album. I would prefer it was a little more original, but even at that it's a damned good listen and would certainly encourage me to check out more of their stuff. Definitely deserves its high place here, at the cusp of the century.



Personal Rating: 9.5/10