Author: Time Lord
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Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep (Best of 2013 — Part 8)
Coming in the #8 slot (in alphabetical order) on my Best of 2013 list is this year’s perfect slice of prog from:
Spock’s Beard
This one completely caught me by surprise. I was not prepared for how awesome it is!
I was not expecting “Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep” to be soooooo good. I was not expecting to like it so much!
No Neal? No Nick? Wow, I was not expecting this to be one of the year’s best.
But holy smokes! I feel like this is the Beard’s best album ever!!
(Time will tell if I persist in that judgment. But so far my enthusiasm has not waned!)
I really love this disc a lot. Everything works here! All the tracks are amazing.
(And I have seen this album on a lot of Top Ten lists, so I know I am not alone in the republic of Progarchy with my enjoyment of this fantastic album.)
Congratulations, gentlemen! You have gone above and beyond, showing us all what true excellence in prog is.
Dimensionaut (Best of 2013 — Part 7)
Coming in the #7 slot (in alphabetical order) on my Best of 2013 list is the incredible debut from:
Sound of Contact
I have written earlier about this amazing release at these links:
The Spiritual Vision of Dimensionaut
Overcoming the Monster (Best of 2013 — Part 6)
Coming in the #6 slot (in alphabetical order) on my Best of 2013 list is the awesome band with the awful name:
This new album defies categorization. It is brilliant and endlessly fascinating.
I want give a big thanks to Brad for everything he does to spread the word about excellence in prog.
Case in point: this album, “Overcoming the Monster,” which he drew to our attention back in June.
Now, I know that there are lots of fans of this disc to be found among the Progarchists here at Progarchy.
So, I can be brief, since I know that many of you have listened and can agree with me wholeheartedly:
“Overcoming the Monster” is one of the very best of 2013.
Excelsior!
Monetizing Metal
Iron Maiden has figured it out (and shown prog the way):
Iron Maiden hired a BitTorrent analytics company called Musicmetric to determine where piracy of their music was highest, then scheduled tours of those countries. They made millions touring Central and South America.
And sometimes a smart band can be so popular that even tribute bands will go in and tour the places that remain.
Ride the Void (Best of 2013 — Part 5)
Coming in the #5 slot (in alphabetical order) on my Best of 2013 list is the band that released an exceptionally fine metal album this year:
Holy Grail
This truly excellent metal album became a favorite of mine early on in 2013. I’m not sure, but I believe Brad circulated an Electronic Press Kit sent by the band to Progarchy.com early in 2013 and that was how I first heard of “Ride the Void.” But then it was finally a recommendation from a student that sent me over to iTunes to actually investigate further and to listen to the track previews.
Giving the tunes a superficial and abbreviated first listen, I only downloaded four tracks: “Archeus” (a brief instrumental intro); “Dark Passenger” (the announced single); “Sleep of Virtue” (a track that instantly sounded amazing to my ears); and “Rains of Sorrow” (the album’s epic metal ballad finale). Nothing immediately grabbed me and stood out as I previewed the other tracks, and so I only downloaded these four.
Well, after a week, I was completely hooked and totally won over by the excellence of this unusually fine metal. So I downloaded the rest of the album. Eventually, after repeated listens, I knew this would be on my Top Ten for the year. The guitar work was so amazing that, despite the heavy metal cliches in the lyrics’ subject matter, I had to acknowledge that here was a work of musical skill that stood out within the genre as being above and beyond all expectations.
The hardest tracks for me to get into were three with death growl vocals, since I find that whole style of singing to be completely ridiculous. Cookie monster vocals is my preferred term for this sort of silliness that mars otherwise enjoyable music. But nevertheless over time I was still won over to these three tracks because the instrumental work in them is so superb and because the cookie monster vocals are used only sparingly for dramatic effect at appropriate points in the songs: “Bestia Triumphans,” “Crosswinds,” and “The Great Artifice.” The first one (“Bestia Triumphans”) was the easiest one for me to get to like, because that track has some epic prog metal time shifts and a bombastic dramatic context that suitably situates the vocal silliness. The latter two tracks (“Crosswinds” and “The Great Artifice”) have first-class guitar work, and so in the right mood I can listen to the whole album, but sometimes I still resort to a playlist that omits these tracks (my two least favorite and only because of the unwelcome vocal interjections).
Over time, in addition to “Sleep of Virtue” and “Rains of Sorrow” which immediately struck me as upper-echelon metal, “Too Decayed to Wait” became a stand-out favorite of mine because of its remarkably catchy guitar work. But really there are so many fine moments on all the tracks here that once you digest the album as a whole you simply to need to endorse the whole project as one of the very best of the year 2013.
Let me close out my review now with some links to YouTube commentary by some band members on almost all of the album’s tracks:
1. Archeus: This is the overture to the album. Its relative restraint allows you to be nicely ambushed by all the metal excellence that follows.
2. Bestia Triumphans: Ignore the cookie monster vocals when they intrude and then you can enjoy the innovative prog metal composition and the interesting musical shifts in this elaborately dramatic piece.
3. Dark Passenger: This single has a classic-sounding heavy metal gallop to it and could therefore be considered the “poppiest” of the songs; but really it is simply classic, new wave British heavy metal of the Judas Priest variety. The genre-bound lyrics take up a Rosemary’s Baby theme to sing of the titular passenger. Ignore that silliness and simply enjoy some really sweet solos and harmonized lead work. The band acknowledges that with this “horse metal” they are deploying leads over the chorus in deliberate homage to 70s metal. I love the way the song ends in such an exciting way.
4. Bleeding Stone: A very heavy track for Holy Grail that’s a bit of a nod to Slayer and also Black Sabbath. It’s got a triply feel, and a tough swashbuckler pirate vibe. Apparently it is a leftover from their last album.
5. Ride the Void: The title track that some band members feel might be their best yet. Perhaps you will hear the nods to Amon Amarth, Megadeth, and Thin Lizzy. Not my favorite track but still undeniably great musical work.
6. Too Decayed to Wait: Really effective time shifts and superb guitar work make this a fave. If I only have time to listen to one cut, this is always it.
7. Crosswinds: Funky metal cookie monster. But great guitar work.
8. Take It to the Grave: Unbelievably, this track was almost cut from the album. But it has such awesome guitar switchoffs, that it is easily one of the very best tracks. So very enjoyable. Top notch. Deserves an award for its outstanding guitar playing; it certainly does not deserve to be cut!
9. Sleep of Virtue: Everything works in this track to perfection. It would be the one track I would play to try and get someone to give the band a further listen. Astoundingly good.
10. Silence the Scream: Genre-bound lyrical subject matter is about a roadie as the perfect serial killer. Ignore that silliness and instead enjoy the “proggy riff” with “happy” and “poppy” melodies that contrast with the dark lyrical content.
11. The Great Artifice: Perhaps the thrashiest song. Suitably heavy drums and an awesome guitar solo section.
12. Wake Me When It’s Over: Classical guitar training on display here in an acoustic guitar palate cleanser before the epic finale. Really nice time fluctuations.
13. Rains of Sorrow: The band steps beyond everything that could keep them pigeonholed and narrowly genre-bound and does an epic metal ballad that succeeds wildly on every level. Truly exceptional and a fitting conclusion to this year’s standout pure metal album.
If you want more bonus band videos, here’s guitarist Alex Lee doing a yo-yo tutorial, and here’s a bit on the excellent Holy Grail album cover artwork for “Ride the Void.”
Dream Theater special Holiday 2013 release
Download free music as a Christmas present from Dream Theater:
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM DREAM THEATER
TO OUR FANS ALL OVER THE WORLD!It is because of all of you that “A Dramatic Tour Of Events” was such a success. We enjoyed playing to you all each and every night on the road!As a special “Thank You” we are releasing a compilation of live tracks that were not included on “Live At Luna Park.” With these now being available, you have a complete documentation of all the songs that were played during the tour (with the exception of cover songs.)Happy Holidays, and we look forward to having you “Along For The Ride” in 2014.~Dream Theater
The Mountain (Best of 2013 — Part 4)
Coming in the #4 slot (in alphabetical order) on my Best of 2013 list is a band that this year really made me sit up and take notice:
Haken
This is prog metal that is so transcendent, and so obviously far above the average genre offering, that I was truly shocked by the staggering magnitude of the excellence on display in this album release.
Kind of like an awesome mountain.
Behold the majesty! How beautiful.
How spectacular!
The first track, “The Path,” pierces right to the heart with its stunningly beautiful theme. (It resurfaces in very satisfying ways later on.)
Continuing on from there, the entire album is non-stop upper-echelon prog.
I want to give a big special thanks to my Progarchy friends, for alerting me to this amazing album, by posting the hilarious “Cockroach King” video back in September.
Perhaps my favorite track is “Pareidolia“; I agree with Thaddeus Wert that this track is sheer perfection.
(But then again, “Falling Back to Earth” is totally epic; and at 11:51 it wins the battle of the prog clock.)
I am pleased to see this album make it onto so many Top Ten lists among all the progarchists. Justice! What more need I say?
Perhaps I should close with a public service announcement, by noting the correct pronunciation of the band’s name. According to the band, it rhymes with bacon. As for the meaning of the name:
There’s no meaning, really. It came from kind of alcohol-fueled gatherings between me and my friend and we thought it’d be a nice name purely from the sound of it. There’s no deep meaning behind it.
How disappointing. But there are conflicting accounts; apparently the name is “actually the name of a fictional character” they once invented.
Well, if I could give the band a piece of advice — now that they have proven themselves to be top-rank masters of prog — I would say that they need to change their story on this, pronto.
Run this past the publicist: Why not officially decide that the band name refers to model Rianne ten Haken? (After all, there is rock precedent for using models’ names for purposes of euphony; I adduce, as my prime example, Nash Kato’s inspired use of Laetitia Casta’s sonorous appellation in “Octoroon.”)
But even more importantly, there has to be an immediate and non-negotiable change in the correct pronunciation of the band’s name:
Haken.
Rhymes with rockin’.
Kids Writing Music in a Basement
Loudwire recently caught up with John Petrucci of Dream Theater. An excerpt from their exclusive interview:
In your opinion, not just of the Grammys, but of other award shows, do you think they really matter?
There’s successes you have in your career. For me, for example, as a guitar player, as somebody in a band putting out albums, the success that we have in our field and how we’re viewed by our fans; that type of success means more than anything to us. The Grammy recognition is cool, as well, because that’s something different. Now, here is a situation where your song or album is being considered and voted on by members of the Recording Academy. It’s all professional; a wide range of professionals in the music industry. So, it could be different engineers, producers, musicians and songwriters in that pool of people who are doing the same thing that you are doing and think enough of your music that among hundreds and hundreds of submissions to pick, they say, “Hey, that song is deserving.” That has a really special meaning as well. It’s very cool, you feel a sense of honor and you’re humbled by that, from people making that kind of choice.
When you look at your history, Dream Theater are one of those bands that’s always been very critically acclaimed. For you, the Grammys is a new type of critical acclaim. Do you ever get used to the amount and of praise that Dream Theater receives?
It’s always surprising. In fact, we talk about this a lot. For example, me and John Myung, we met when we were in middle school / junior high. We were teenagers, we’ve been playing together for so long. We have so much history and the band has been through so many different things together professionally and personally. We’ve seen our families grow up together. It’s a very private thing when you have these strong relationships with these guys, you’re writing music with these guys behind closed doors.
It’s a really personal and private career that all of a sudden gets exposed in a very public way as soon as you put music out, play live and everything else. The innocence of it never goes away. We still feel like we’re the same kids writing music in a basement. [Laughs] Next thing you know, there are people out there that appreciate it and want to see it and want to get it, and in the case of the Grammys, want to recognize it. It’s all very surreal, it’s a strange feeling. You never get used to that kind of praise. It keeps us pushing to do better. You want to do better, to keep upping our game. That’s what great about choosing music as a career, you can do that.
Judas Unrepentant
Alva Noe has an interesting essay out on art, skepticism, and forgery:
I don’t know whether it is true that a janitor at an art gallery was fired not so long ago for sweeping up the artwork the morning after the opening, but the story captures a certain skepticism about art: if art is whatever “we,” or the art cognoscenti, say it is, then there is no such thing as art.
The worry that art is a sham is an old idea and it is one that art itself has cherished.
…
It is right to reject, as Gopnik does, the myth of the connoisseur, but Gopnik does so for the wrong reasons. The problem with the myth is not that it attributes unrealistic powers of discernment and identification to the connoisseur or critic, but rather that it mischaracterizes his or her job, and so it misunderstands what powers he or she needs to do the job well in the first place.
Gopnik describes the connoisseur as if he or she were a human measuring device, someone who has been trained up to give the right answer to questions of value and origin. This thought leads directly to skepticism. For either we suppose that the connoisseur cannot be wrong, that whatever he or she says goes, or we suppose that a mistake is possible, that a different connoisseur or critic could offer a different answer—but if a mistake is possible, then we must admit that there are no settled criteria for deciding the question of value, there is only what you or I or we “like.”
The connoisseur or critic, crucially, is not a measuring instrument, a kind of authorship- or value-detector. Rather, they are bent on seeing, and seeing is not mere detection. Unlike detecting, seeing is not instantaneous, nor is it all or nothing or once and for all. Seeing is itself thoroughly critical; it is thoughtful and it is contextual. Stanley Cavell captures this idea when he explains that what distinguishes the critic is not that he or she can discern qualities that you cannot, but rather that, in discerning them, the critic can give you the means to discern them as well. Criticism is less an art of discrimination than it is a discipline of accounting for what one sees; it is a practice of making it intelligible to oneself and another. Critics make sense, and they give you the tools you need to make sense too. Critics don’t just see, they teach us how to see.
…
We are all critics, and neither the possibility of forgery, nor that of perceptual error, should lead us to be skeptics, about art, or anything else.
If you need a soundtrack for further reading and reflection, why not revisit Big Big Train on Tom Keating.
Progarchy 