SIGNALS (1982): A Song Cycle by Rush
The last album produced by the then fourth-member of Rush, Terry Brown, Signals (September 9, 1982) marked yet again a major progression in the music of Rush as well as in the lyrics of Neil Peart. The pressure to produce something similar to the previous year’s Moving Pictures naturally proved immense, as they had never encountered such success. On the Moving Pictures tour alone, fan attendance doubled at concerts, and almost anyone in the American Midwest could hear one of three tracks from the album almost anytime on FM rock radio. But the three main members of Rush decided that a second Moving Pictures would be too easy. They had done that album, accomplished what they had sought to accomplish, and they wanted to take their music in new ways. In particular, Lee had become more and more interested in keyboards and composing on them. He never planned to become a “Keith Emerson,” but he loved the challenge the keyboards brought him. [1] Not surprisingly, especially given Lee’s interest and the learning curve he needed to understand and overcome regarding synthesizers, the keys employed on the album had either 1) a deep, booming bass sound or 2) an airy, soaring feel. Lee remembers:
I was getting bored writing. I felt like we were falling into a pattern of how we were writing on bass, guitar and drums. Adding the keyboards was fascinating for me and I was learning more about writing music from a different angle.[2]
Further, he claimed, the keyboards allowed Rush to expand beyond the trio without actually adding a new member of the band.[3] With Signals and the following concerts to support it, Lifeson claimed he felt “almost re-born” with the new sound. [4]
Review: Choral Hearse – Mire Exhumed
Here comes an album that really surprised me. Choral Hearse is a Berlin-based all-female four-piece who are having their debut full-length album “Mire Exhumed” released on April 16th. The group creates what they call Progressive Doom Metal, which is then impeccably mashed with Experimental Rock and Folk elements.
The album flows seamlessly from track to track, carrying the listener through dark and disturbing soundscapes. The opener, “Chronic Departure,” acts as the perfect overture to the album, opening with a very simple, ominous melody, then carrying that melody through a consistent, driving beat with singer Liaam Iman’s haunting vocals adding the third layer. In many ways, this track takes the primal beats, presents them to the listener, and then shows the ways in which they have been altered and developed to produce this record.
The Age of Insanity
Twelfth Night was one of the most influential and respected British neo-prog bands. Though the band’s career was interrupted by various changes in the dramatis personae, many view Fact or Fiction, released in 1982, as their finest album. This was a commentary on the double speak and mind control beginning to permeate society, arriving two years ahead of the year of reckoning as predicted in George Orwell’s 1984.
The album represented the band at their zenith which also saw them playing the Reading Festival for the second time, a tour across the UK and a live album recorded at London’s legendary Marquee Club, at which vocalist Geoff Mann was to make his final appearances with the band.
soundstreamsunday #102: “Kiss It Off” by Little Feat
On the other side of the 70s country rock that made the Eagles fabulously famous and rich — and drove them eventually to a dark funk that produced songs like “Those Shoes” — dwells Little Feat, emerging from the Zappa/Beefheart camp of SoCal weirdness during the same period, with funky desperate darkness fully intact from the get-go. Theirs was an American vernacular progressive rock, full of smarts and awareness, and as led by guitarist and singer Lowell George (fired as “a favor” by Zappa, who then helped him get a Warners record contract since George was a talent, no doubt), they were the rock and roll revolution from the inside, the real throwdown at the hoedown.
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Phoenix Rising
Among the best to have emerged from Down Under is this band named Deströyer 666. Feels like they only entertain one single goal – destroy even the last remaining understated qualities in metal. And that’s exactly what they accomplish. Synthesized from black and thrash elements, Phoenix Rising takes extreme metal aesthetics to unprecedented loudness.
Rough harping choruses, over-the-top guitar melodies, black metal screams and galloping old school riffs. In short, 80s/90s heavy metal signatures exaggerated to the point of no return. From “Rise of the Predator“ to “I Am the Wargod” to “The Eternal Glory of War” – lyrics pretty much mirror exactly what the music conveys. With this brazen approach, they will manage to get through to even the most obtuse of listeners. With no frills old school structures, a style absolutely devoid of pretenses and adequate in substance – Deströyer 666 becomes that essential cross-over band to darker genres. Needless to say, album is rated 666/666.
By Christian Misje (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
Gleb Kolyadin: The Virtuoso We Need
Progressive rock has always attracted virtuoso keyboard players. Parallel with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page’s moves toward British blues and heavy music, classically trained pianists like Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman fired up Hammond organs, Mellotrons and prototype synthesizers, mashing up genres and grabbing attention with gleeful abandon. From the maelstrom of psychedelia, jazz and modern classical, a new kind of rock emerged — and one of the unspoken standards of nascent prog was that you had to really be able to play.
That standard offered multiple paths forward for proggers: jaw-dropping shredfests by Emerson, Wakeman and disciples; seamless melds of improvisation and composition from King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator; long-form, ambitious suites by Yes and Genesis. It’s also spawned countless wannabe virtuosos — sometimes trying their hardest, sometimes just following trends, but frequently lacking the compositional chops to give their playing maximum impact. Even after prog’s fading from mass culture, the virtuoso standard keeps attracting musicians eager to prove themselves — especially keyboardists — to the genre, like moths to a No-Pest Strip.
The problem is this: when you have to prove yourself (especially to yourself), it may come too easily to baffle with BS rather than to dazzle with brilliance — to play more notes, not necessarily the right ones, with space and taste going out the window. And when the seemingly endless runs of 32nd notes stop, is there anything of substance behind the flash and the “oh, wows”?
That thorny dilemma is why Gleb Kolyadin is the young virtuoso progressive rock needs.
In Concert — “The Clock … Tick, Tock:” Back in Time with The Musical Box
The Musical Box presents “Selling England by the Pound with Special Lamb Set Encore,” 20 Monroe Live, Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 2, 2018.
Back in 1977, the Broadway musical revue Beatlemania‘s tagline was “not The Beatles; an incredible simulation.” Little did anyone know that, 41 years later, Montreal’s The Musical Box would carve out a career applying that maxim to Genesis’ Peter Gabriel-fronted concerts of the early Seventies.
If the retro stage set (authentic down to the drum kit and keyboards) didn’t clue in uninformed patrons, the opening “Watcher of the Skies” left no doubt how hardcore The Musical Box is recreating the early Genesis experience. Clad in angelic white, “Tony Banks” (keyboardist Guillaume Rivard), “Phil Collins,” (drummer/vocalist Marc Laflamme), “Mike Rutherford” (bassist/guitarist Sébastien Lamothe) and “Steve Hackett” (guitarist François Gagnon) built the harsh, Mellotronic tension of the opening riff to a shattering climax — only for “Peter Gabriel” (Denis Gagné) to grab the spotlight with his black jumpsuit, cape of many colors, bat-winged headgear, shaved head, luminescent eye-shadow — oh, and his committed, slightly crazed vocal narrative of an abandoned Earth seen through extraterrestrial eyes. Right away, the bar was set high: this would be a night of prog-rock epics, meticulously performed by an ensemble that’s toured worldwide far longer than the original band, replicating the musical and theatrical quirks of legendary tours with painstaking precision.
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Interview: ENCELADUS
Texas-based progressive metallers Enceladus have launched their second album titled “Arrival” a few days ago. In the interview below they tell us about this new release, but also about the metal scene, favorite records, and more.
Hey guys. How are you doing?
Hey there, we’re doing fantastic, thanks for having us!
You have just launched a new album entitled “Arrival.” How do you feel about the release?
Pretty stoked! Releasing music is always fun. I think a sophomore album release is quite a milestone, showing the world that we have a lot more to offer! We added a few new elements to this album, so were excited to see how it’s received.
How much of a challenge was to put these songs together?
There wasn’t much of a challenge putting the songs together. Some come together easier than others, however. For instance, Universal Century was written in about an hour. We record the songs in our own time, so we’ve had enough time to let the songs breathe a bit before recording them.
What other artists similar to your genre that are coming from Texas are you friends with?
There are a number of good bands in a similar style coming out of Texas. We know some of the guys in Immortal Guardian, Aeternal Requiem, and Jessikill. I met them all in San Antonio actually. Its good to know there are bands getting that style of metal out there.
What is your opinion about the current metal scene?
The metal scene is great because I always feel like I’m in good company at a show or just talking about music. I feel there should be a wider audience and it should just be bigger overall though. Lets see some shows where just as many people come out for live bands as people do for computers! The more metalheads the better. [laughs] Id like to see more melodic power/prog metal bands coming out of the states as well.
Can you tell me something about your influences?
Any artist that dares to be different and step outside the box is an influence. Innovators inspire more than emulators for sure.
What are you listening to these days?
Quite a few things such as classical, Jrock, video game/cinema compositions, and prog bands. We’ve been jamming some Circus Maximus. In between that there’s some chill groovy stuff to get ‘down’ to as well. 😉
Your 5 favourite records of all the time?
Thats too hard for some of us, but here is a selection at the moment:
1) Angel of Salvation by Galneryus
2) The Divine Wings of Tragedy by Symphony X
3) Destiny by Stratovarius
4) Temple of Shadows by Angra
5) Blue Blood by X Japan
Can you tell me a little bit more about the gear you use to record “Arrival”?
Sure. Its been a pretty simple process. We use Cubase 8 for our DAW / ESP LTD Bass/ ESP LTD and PRS S2 Guitars, then Focusrite Scarlett’s as the recording interfaces.
What can we expect from Enceladus in the near future?
Definitely keep on a lookout! You can expect a style that is constantly evolving and never stagnant. We have enough ideas in the works for a third album and beyond already. Some epic stuff, some chill stuff, and most of all more METAL!
“Arrival” is available from Bandcamp.
Big Big Train’s FAR SKIES DEEP TIME Reissued
According to an email from Burning Shed this afternoon, Big Big Train has redesigned and remastered its 2010 maxi-ep release, FAR SKIES DEEP TIME. Coming after 2009’s THE UNDERFALL YARD, FAR SKIES DEEP TIME was never seen by the band as a proper studio release, but rather as a compilation of disparate tracks.
Over the last eight years, two versions of the maxi-ep have appeared, one with a remake of Anthony Phillip’s “Master of Time,” and the other with a remake of a very early Big Big Train track, “Kingmaker.”
This 2018 version will be the first to incorporate both tracks onto one release.
Big Big Train is the premier European band of third-wave prog, and this latest release will only add to the group’s massively growing but already sterling reputation.
To preorder from Burning Shed, please click here.
To see our review of “Kingmaker,” please click here.
Progarchy 
