The Big Big Train website has been superseded by a band logo and a countdown – counting down from roughly 5 days and 10 hours at the time of this post. I sense exciting news from our favorite band! I’m not sure when it started – maybe I’m late to the guessing game. New album? NORTH AMERICA TOUR?!!! I guess we will have to wait and see.
Vade Retro, Satana
See the rock and roll real estate photos:
A house in the Indian Village neighborhood of Detroit that had been owned by Jack White is currently on the market. The asking price for the home, where the White Stripes recorded their 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan, is set at $1.2 million.
Prog Past, Present, and Yet To Come
One of Robert Fripp’s “devil bugs” caught up with the Krueger household on February 24 — the same day a “bomb cyclone” hit West Michigan, causing a 30-degree temperature drop in 24 hours, along with whiteout snowstorms. It’s taken this long for us (and the region) to emerge from hibernation — but through the depths of winter to the cusp of spring, music has taken sad songs and made them better.
That very day late last month, I trekked across the state to catch The Neal Morse Band’s Great Adventour stop in suburban Detroit; Neal and his merry crew (including son Will and daughter Jayda at the merch table) didn’t disappoint. As I anticipated, The NMB’s live take on The Great Adventure was even tighter, more driven and more finely honed than the fine studio album (first half glitches to Morse’s keyboard rig notwithstanding).
Hearing all of TGA in one go brought home how thoroughly integrated the new effort is. The key musical themes (as well as flashbacks to The Similitude of A Dream) aren’t just repeated, they’re developed in near-symphonic ways: transposed, transformed rhythmically and harmonically, recapped in unexpected contexts throughout the work. Kaleidoscopic contrasts of rhythm, instrumental color, vocal textures (mainly from Morse, guitarist Eric Gillette, keyboardist Bill Hubauer) and tonality meshed smoothly with drummer Mike Portnoy and bassist Randy’s George’s badass forward propulsion, ably mirroring the lyrical highs and lows of another journey to the Celestial City.
In sum, TGA is a genuinely impressive concept work, marked by ambition, intelligence, technique and sentiment in just the right proportions. The result at the end of each set (and the encore medley that covered Morse’s entire solo career, ending the night where it began) was sustained, extended, unforced ecstasy in the audience — a feeling that, I believe, couldn’t have been manufactured or manipulated into existence. I couldn’t help think that, consciously or not, Morse’s recent work fully embodies the ongoing ideal of American revivalist religion — an ideal, whatever its flaws, that’s been a cultural constant from the Puritan theologizing of Jonathan Edwards to the rough-hewn democratic juggernaut of today’s Pentecostalism.
And, in the inspired, paradoxically complex simplicity of its drive to the finish, The Great Adventure live reminded me of nothing so much as Gustav Mahler’s massive Resurrection Symphony. Like Mahler, Morse and band embraced everything that came to hand, running the risk of grandiosity to shape a new musical world — a payoff acknowledged by the heartfelt, fervent applause of the 300 souls in attendance.
The Artist Strikes Back: T Bone takes on Big Tech
This is a great talk by multiple Grammy and Oscar winner Joseph Henry “T Bone” Burnett about the threats posed by digital technology. You can read the talk in full text, but don’t miss the video version below, because after the talk ends at around 35 minutes, the Q&A section is excellent, and he has lots of great comments about music today (for example, listen in at the 45-minute mark, if you need convincing). Highly recommended.
Interview with Adam Green of HUMAN BRAIN
Human Brain is a project by composer and guitarist Adam Green who has been teasing his upcoming debut album with the release of “Spaces” single. In an interview for Progarchy, Adam talks about the project, and he sheds light on the album.
Hey Adam! Thanks for responding to this interview. How have you been lately?
Been great, thanks!
How might you introduce yourselves to new potential listeners?
I like to write for everyone with multiple musical tastes. If you like super hard-hitting, energetic and emotional music, you’ll love Human Brain!
What inspired the name of the project — Human Brain?
Brain dump basically. I have quite a bit of emotion and passion flowing through my brain on a daily basis that I wanted to release into my writing.
How did Human Brain initially form?
Human Brain essentially started about 3 years ago when I began getting more serious about my writing in general. I decided it was time to put an official name to it and yearned for the fulfillment of it being heard by others. I’ve been inspired by many of the great metal artists on YouTube and wanted to get my brand out there in a similar fashion.
You are about to release a debut album. What can you tell me about it? Where did the inspiration for it come from and how did you go about the whole process of writing and recording it?
10 songs spanning multiple genres including everything from alternative rock to metal. Inspiration for the album basically came from the answer above for what inspired the project as a whole.
What can be expected from the upcoming album? Would you say the released single for “Spaces” is an accurate sample?
Yes, Spaces is for sure though I will say every song has it’s own thing going on. Some are more mellow than others and many different guitars were used throughout.
What’s your songwriting process like?
My typical approach is to flesh out a track that incorporates all of the musical styles I love most (metal, rock, progressive) while taking the listener on a roller coaster of a ride with meaningful changes throughout. I wrote all of the parts in my head and laid them down in iPhone voice memos initially. From there, I tracked everything in Logic using my Kemper Profiler Power Rack, Apollo Twin and Toontrack.
What are your ultimate hopes for Human Brain?
For the music to be heard and resonate with people across the world on multiple levels just like it does for me.
Do you have any bigger plans for the future?
TV, Film, Label with some gigging sprinkled in.
The last words are yours.
I’m beyond excited to give everyone a glimpse inside my Human Brain!
Follow Human Brain on Facebook.
Video: Delain — “Nothing Left” (Live) @delainmusic
Check out this video of a fantastic live performance by Delain which is also found on their new album:
Charlotte Wessels of DELAIN on the new video: ‘2019 marks 10 years since we first released “Nothing Left” on April Rain. Nowadays it’s a rare treat to see the track performed at one of our live shows, but it hasn’t lost any of its power in the decade that has passed. Performing “Nothing Left” together with Marco Hietala was one of the highlights of the night in Tivoli, and in fact, the entire show felt like a highlight; it was one of my favourite shows of our career so far. You can relive the night through our new EP/Blu-Ray Hunter’s Moon. As it was the first time we did an entire tour with Marco as a guest, all songs featuring him, including Queen cover “Scandal” are included, and the video for “Nothing Left” is now available on Youtube. We hope you enjoy it!’
Napalm Records comments: ‘Without a doubt: Delain belong to the golden spear head of Symphonic Metal! After last year’s release of their very first live album the Netherlanders present another live masterpiece – including four brand new studio tracks! Hunter’s Moon consists of this fresh material, a live album and a live Blue-Ray disc. The catchy title track “Hunter’s Moon” and the larger than life orchestral “Masters of Destiny” offer a haunting preview of what Delain is working on for their next studio album, due 2019. The band’s guitarists step to the forefront in composing two tracks exclusive to this release in “This Silence Is Mine” (Timo Somers) and “Art Kills” (Merel Bechtold). The live portion of the release will take you on a cinematic journey to the Danse Macabre Tour in Utrecht’s Tivoli Vredenburg. The majority of the live album features the deep tones of Nightwish’s Marco Hietala and includes heart rendering hits like “Nothing Left,” “Your Body Is A Battleground,” and “Control The Storm”.’
Death metal, inspiring joy since 1987
“The dominant emotional response to this music is joy and empowerment,” said Prof Thompson. “And I think that to listen to this music and to transform it into an empowering, beautiful experience – that’s an amazing thing.”
Death metal music inspires joy not violence
Black Vulpine’s new album “Veil Nebula”
Our discovery of the week must give a tip of the hat to AMG, who first won our interest by describing Black Vulpine’s new album Veil Nebula this way: “every song here either rocks hard, dooms hard, or at least contains nuggets of stoner, doom, and/or prog brilliance.” Check it out…
Progarchy Podcast: Nick Beggs Interview
The Progarchy Podcast interviewed Nick Beggs today, and it was a fascinating time. Take a listen to our combination of an album review and a song-by-song discussion with the artist himself:
The podcast includes a detailed discussion, for over half an hour, track-by-track, of the new album from The Mute Gods, Atheists and Believers.
Tune in if you want to hear all the details. But here are some highlights to get you excited. Listen and learn:
- how the first track, “Atheists and Believers” is devoted to telling the true story about extraterrestrial visitors to our planet;
- how Alex Lifeson of Rush got involved with the second track, “One Day,” and what he contributed to it;
- how Nick’s political views on “Knucklehed” and “Iridium Heart” spare none of us, since all of us end up being knuckle-headed in the end;
- how Nick plans to keep touring until he drops dead, after one of his joyous concerts, as a happy old geezer;
- how “The House Where Love Once Lived” incorporates Nick’s own experiences of marriage and of being a father;
- how “I Think of You” is connected to Nick’s own mother, who died at the age of 38, when Nick was 17 years old
- how “Twisted World Godless Universe” involved a collaboration with a friend of Nick’s who is a Catholic nun in Finland and whose talks with her about spirituality were part of the process by which the song was generated
The Mute Gods, Atheists and Believers
1. Atheists and Believers (4:11)
2. One Day (6:35)
3. Knucklehed (6:48)
4. Envy the Dead (5:40)
5. Sonic Boom (4:47)
6. Old Men (3:45)
7. The House Where Love Once Lived (4:54)
8. Iridium Heart (6:06)
9. Twisted World Godless Universe (8:32)
10. I Think of You (6:04)
The last time that Progarchy spoke with Nick was back in 2016, and so it was great catching up with him today. Thanks, Nick!
Exercises in Futility
When that punk coarseness is braided with some outside influences, black metal becomes something more. Whether it’s ‘In the Nightside Eclipse’, ‘Nemesis Divina’ or the stunning ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’ — it’s crassness with sophistication, that has elevates the genre to unusual heights. Exercises in Futility is not completely rooted in the 90s, but they channel that very sensibility, and same crudeness with atmospheric elegance.
Mgła mellows that black metal fury, almost like they applied some post-metal filters to a Burzum sound. With that constant strumming interleaved with adequate doses of tremolo picking and blast beats, the sound here becomes more streamlined. In short, there are no jarring temporal switches, but more tempting progressions. It’s not an all-out melodic assault like Dissection or Watain, but a more contoured, and structured aggression. But, quite like the black metal greats, Mgła is also moving the genre forward, beyond the confines of its Norwegian creators.
S. Bollmann [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Progarchy 
