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keratas posted:Yes are touring Australia, and tickets are on sale today. Are they worth seeing live? Depends on your pain tolerance. Naturally, the elderly gentlemen have slowed down a bit, but they seem happy to be performing, are still pulling their weight, and are still worth experiencing. If you're a big fan, at least. But 2011 has not been kind to young Mr. David. Some claim he was suffering from illness earlier in the year--and he probably was; otherwise this is pretty much inexcusable--but he also wasn't holding up his end up of the bargain when Yes came by here a couple of weeks ago. I'm genuinely surprised he hasn't gotten the boot. It sucks, because when I saw Yes on their 2009 tour, I was more than happy with his singing. Fly From Here's one of my favourite albums of the year, too, so I was really looking forward to hearing the new material in a live setting. I still enjoyed it, honestly, but I don't think anyone was entirely satisfied with the vocals.
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Dec 30, 2011 20:09
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I got into prog via being forcefed King Crimson and Zappa tunes as a kid, but I still haven't been able to get into any of the ELP albums I've heard. I expect one day I'll wake up and things'll just click, especially since I like just about all of their contemporaries, but if critics had a hard time getting into them, I can see why. On a less respectable and probably more critically panned note, I haven't gone to a gig in well over a year, but I'm strongly considering going to Fish's Farewell to Childhood tour. I already saw him play Misplaced Childhood in its entirety maybe 10 years ago, and the non-Marillion material he's playing these days is basically an anti-draw for me, but I love Misplaced Childhood an unreasonable amount and worry I'll have bad luck if I don't go and listen to him tell me that there is no childhood's end one last time.
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Aug 8, 2015 12:40
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Vulture Culture posted:"1985" around 6:30 that's basically out of Porcupine Tree's "Sleep Together" (maybe also Dream Theater's "Misunderstood," the parts are similar enough) it never sounds forced. Ha, I was almost certain I'd heard that exact part before in an Ayreon song, but it might've been "Misunderstood". I still like Haken's debut album the best, but Affinity is great. I'm not really feeling the album closer, and I'm surprised they decided to end two albums in a row on such mellow notes, but maybe it'll grow on me or it'll make more sense in the context of the album if I read the lyrics.
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May 13, 2016 19:09
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Queensryche became insanely bad, but Operation: Mindcrime, though barely more prog than mid-80s Iron Maiden, is a really good metal album.
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Sep 10, 2018 14:59
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He was also on the latest Ayreon album, though that one was back to being all about space and stuff instead of basically being a musical like The Human Equation. But Paladinus probably meant the Roswell Six album, which was kinda like The Human Equation except nowhere near as fun, and apparently the whole thing was written by a reputable(?) science fiction author.
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Sep 14, 2018 18:26
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Ruddess' insistence on starting half a dozen of its songs with a minute-long piano intro made it even more of a slog to get through. That and LORD NAFARYUS are the only things I've taken away from that album. Therion released a laughably bloated "rock opera" this year that literally goes on for 3 hours, and somehow that felt like less of a waste of time than The Astonishing.
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Sep 14, 2018 19:48
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Dishwasher posted:The Source was definitely a musical. It shows the origin of the electric castle, the water people kept alive by machines, and the rear end in a top hat computer from Electric Castle. It was a sequel/prequel to 01011001, which I think is Arjen's best work, and ties the whole series in a nice little bow. Very important Ayreon lore there. Oh, for sure. I just mean that The Source and 01011001 seem like they're more abstract and perhaps too expository to work on stage the way Human Equation did and I imagine Theory of Everything and Electric Castle could. Arjen being overwhelmed with the number of guest singers who agreed to participate in 01011001 led to him not really giving everyone time to shine like on a few other Ayreon albums, in my opinion, but I do like that one, too. Electric Castle and The Human Equation are still my favorites, though, and The Theater Equation is definitely the best concert experience I'll ever have.
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Sep 15, 2018 14:31
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Train of Thought saw DT go way overboard into being a "metal" band, but they had enough new riffs and ideas at the time that it's their last worthwhile album, IMO. I was surprised when they completely dialed the heaviness back on Octavarium, but I really disliked their overt tributes to Muse, U2, and whatever nu-metal inspired These Walls. I never want to listen to that album in its entirety, though the title track is a lot of fun. Although knowing what they would become since then, I kinda resent Octavarium for giving Jordan Rudess the impression that it's OK for him to write insanely overlong atmospheric intros. I was looking forward to them going as ridiculous and cheesy as possible on The Astonishing, but I seem to remember it having half a dozen similarly sleep-inducing keyboard intros that made it even more of a slog to get through. When Spotify's Release Radar put on Haken's opening track off of Virus a month or two ago, I thought I was listening to Fear Factory or something at first. I'm not crazy about the direction they've taken, but they're definitely good at it, and I already like the new one more than Vector, which I thought was by far their weakest outing. Skjorte fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Jul 31, 2020 |
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Jul 31, 2020 11:45
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 15:51 |
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Road of Bones might have been my favorite prog album of the past decade, but I've barely listened to any of their other material. Just noticed they now have a whole bunch of their stuff up on Spotify, so I should rectify that soon.DoubleCakes posted:And a couple days ago I had a good time with Ayreon's 01011001. This is the third time I've listened to this album and every thing landed so well for me. This was the album that got me interested in his music, but this listen I really paid attention to the lyrics and narrative and I think it's pretty cool. The songwriting is pretty consistent in how catchy and awesome it is. Although I've listened to other albums by him like the Universal Migrator duology and The Human Equation, this is likely going to be my favourite album by him for a long time because it emphasizes the brilliant camp of his songwriting style more than those albums. I had a feeling I could love it from the start and now I do. Don't sleep on Into the Electric Castle. Human Equation will always be my number one Ayreon record, but that one's a real good time, too.
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Jan 20, 2022 15:37
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