I recently wrote a tribute to Colin Tench over at the Dutch Progressive Rock Page. I also reviewed his two most recent albums, which he released under the Colin Tench Project banner. While I only ever “spoke” with him via email, he was great to interact with. He was so supportive of Progarchy, which we greatly appreciated. It was truly sad to see him go.
Read my full tribute and review over at the DPRP: http://www.dprp.net/reviews/2018-020/.
RIP Colin.
“Wither” is one of Dream Theater’s better ballads. John Petrucci wrote it as a way of conveying the writer’s block he sometimes experiences in writing music. I’ve found that it makes an excellent theme song for my graduate school experience. Soul crushing, to say the least.
Flav Martin & Jerry Marotta Release Debut Album Soul Redemption
Peter Gabriel’s rhythm section of his classic line-up, Jerry Marotta and Tony Levin, reunite for the backbone of this album!
Soul Redemption is the debut release from singer/song writer Flav Martin and drummer Jerry Marotta. The duo harmoniously blends modern adult rock with traditional world pop. Whether performed in a cafe in Italy or on the polo fields of Indio, these songs would feel comfortably at home in either environment.
Soul Redemption is a harmonious blend of modern adult rock and traditional world music.
Continue reading “Jerry Marotta & Flav Martin: SOUL REDEMPTION”
As much as I love all things Arjen Lucassen, nothing of his has hit me quite as hard as Universal Migrator Part I. I’m sure it has to do with the fact, in large part, that Ayreon takes the overall story of the blind minstrel from Arthur’s court from high fantasy to high science fiction with this album. It serves as a wonderful transitional album, essentially moving Lucassen as well as us from Ayreon 1.0 to Ayreon 2.0.
(For what it’s worth, I think we’re living in Ayreon 4.0, but that’s a post for a different time.)
Continue reading “Second Spring #5: “One Small Step” by Ayreon”
What would you do if your drummer and bassist quit? The remaining members of Perfect Beings — vocalist/keyboardist Ryan Hurtgen, keyboardist Jesse Nason and guitarist Johannes Luley — upped the ante. Their goal became “a four-sided double vinyl album with four continuous compositions that cover one side of each album,” with Luley on bass and sessioneer Ben Levin on drums.
Adding to the degree of difficulty, Perfect Beings’ second goal was avoiding the dead spots some listeners (including me) find in their obvious model, Yes’ divisive Tales from Topographic Oceans. I’m happy to say the band’s superb new album Vier (German for “four”) succeeds on both counts. It’s sound is spacious and elegant, but it’s not about style over substance, The music is thoroughly, consistently enticing; something marvelous is always happening, and the band’s sense of invention seems inexhaustible.
From classical music to thrash metal, all within six degrees of musical separation. For Dream Theater, channeling this stunning wealth of influences is nothing novel. But, a concept album clocking 96 minutes and without any weak moments is extraordinary.
Covering the full spectrum from Overture to catchy choruses — “Are you justified, Are you justified —- Justified in taking, Life to save life” — they comfortably elevate progressive musicianship to stratospheric levels. Layered passages with grinding riffs and complex time signatures — that sheer jazz like drumming with adequate doses of coarse and clean vocals. These drawn out compositions simply demand our undivided attention.
Within a world of carefully orchestrated concept albums, this level of spontaneity with elaborate structural progression is uncommon. In short, brazenly intricate and yet restrained, Dream Theater composes a rare aesthetic blend of metal and prog mindset. Musically and emotionally complex, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a progressive epic even without attempting to be one.
Featured Image : Shot by yours truly (San Francisco, circa 2012)
Florida-based prog rock lover Barry Weinberg launched his most recent album “Samsarana” back in January, a record, which in the musician’s own words, should inspire its listeners. In an interview for Progarchy, Weinberg discusses what it took to come up with this ambitious project.
What made you go to release “Samsarana” under your own name? Does it feel more personal that way?
I was original going to release Samsarana under the name of my production company: DRP: Dream Reality Productions, but under advisement from my co-producer/sound engineer, we decided to call it “Barry Weinberg’s Samsarana.” Other than the drums (performed by Glenn Welman out of South Africa), I performed everything on the album…and, as the album is semi-autobiographical, it is definitely very personal to me.
I suppose one could accuse me of being just a bit too obvious regarding this fourth installment of Second Spring. After all, it is April 5. I even contemplated using another Talk Talk track for this fourth part. Then, I put “April 5” on, and I realized immediately how right it is for today. After all, it’s following yesterday’s Big Big Train track, “The Permanent Way.”
Big Big Train is as close to perfect as the world will allow. Still, Mark Hollis joining BBT would make the band just a bit more perfect. . . .
Recently Misha Mansoor (Periphery) shocked the metal community by sharing with the world that he can’t make a living solely from his band.
This is common ground for almost all newer bands of our time, yet what has brought the rapid downfall in CD sales and decline of the music industry — the internet — also presents us with a range of new possibilities to support the bands we love and cherish even stronger than before.
Instrumental progressive metal band Art Against Agony from Germany have produced two albums and two EPs since 2014 and have toured Europe, Russia and South America over the course of the last few years, taking the management and production of the band fully into their own hands.
For the production of their third album Shiva Appreciation Society the project has now joined funding platform Patreon to give their fans a unique opportunity to support the band and become a part of the new production themselves.
From a range of 1€-50€ support, the band is offering anything from a free album until a complete involvement into the production process, being able to give the band feedback about raw tracks during composition and mixing of the album. Additionally, there is a very limited amount of t-shirts available exclusively for the Patreon supporters only!
The third album of the artist collective will be very experimental and progressive, yet one can expect a big focus on the bands Indian percussion player the_maximalist and their piano player the_surgeon, giving both of them a major spotlight.
The band will release their new record in October 2018 and follow up with a European tour, and there is more to come!
Video trailer for the new album Shiva Appreciation Society can be seen below.
Excuse the quality, but still probably worth more than my thousand words.
Progarchy 