Progressive Savage

Yes, I’ve been silent for some time now, but new Transatlantic CD is something I can’t pass by quietly. I mentioned this, at that time still upcoming, release back in April and now I hold it in my hand. The Whirlwind–because that’s the name of the album–is band’s third studio album, released eight years after Bridge Across Forever. To those who haven’t heard of the band before–is it even possible?–Transatlantic is a progressive super-group consisting of such a prog-stars as Neal Morse (ex-Spock’s Beard), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Roine Stolt (Flower Kings) and Pete Trewavas (Marillion).

The Never Ending Illusion is an Italian prog-metal band’s Daedalus second studio album. The band was formed in April 2000 in Genoa and released their first–though I haven’t got the chance to hear it–studio album Leading Far from a Mistake in 2003. Judging from the songs credits, at least for this album, the band’s mastermind is their bassists :) Fabio Grem. To tell you the truth, I didn’t like this CD at first and it took me some time to begin to like this recording. Sadly, this happens more often lately.

Dave Martone is one of my favorite guitar shredders ever since I first listened to A Demon’s Dream, so I was glad to hear that just a couple of months ago he had released his fifth solo album, Clean. Among the musicians invited to this recording, which includes Joe Satriani soloing in Nail Grinder, Greg Howe in Hard Wired, Jennifer Batten in Moron Face and Nickelback’s Daniel Adair drumming the whole time, the name of the most fierce and definitely one of the world’s best bass players, Billy Sheehan, stands out the most.

After first listening to Flagship’s Maiden Voyage I considered it a pretty lousy recording instead of a highly praised album I’ve read about. But somehow I kept coming back to this CD and in time I even begun to like it. Obviously I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece of symphonic prog–maybe because of lack of any substantial experience with the genre–but rather a funny crossover prog, somehow similar to Metal Majesty or Gamma Ray’s pop-like songs from Power Plant (It’s A Sin and Heavy Metal Universe, or rather Happy Metal Universe, for example).

Judging from what I’ve heard so far from the Hungarian progressive scene I can say it’s unique and definitely cognisable, mainly because of the use of many non-rock sounds like piano, string and brass instruments and mostly avoiding the heaviness that the whole Western progressive world have already adopted. One of the bands that populated Hungarian progressive landscape of the 90s was Townscream, formed by Vedres Csaba after he parted ways with After Crying. Nagyvárosi Ikonok, which translates to Metropolitan Icons, is the band’s only album written mostly by Vedres Csaba–of course–while lyrics, in Hungarian, came from Egervári Gábor. All the tracks of this piano driven album are bound by a common theme: the big city and it’s comparison to countryside.

A Different Point of You is Alias Eye’s–a southern Germany band–second full-fledged studio album. I’ve first read about it on Andrew Kauz’s blog and, given that I often enjoy albums Andrew picks for his This Week’s Featured Album series, I thought this CD might be interesting and gave it a try.

Although not near excellence, A Different Point of You is definitely a very interesting recording, mainly because you don’t get to hear too many bands playing similar to what Alias Eye shows here. Or maybe I haven’t heard too much crossover prog so far… Nonetheless, what I really like about this album is the gathering of other than typical rock sounds: a saxophone (one of my favorite instruments), contrabass and couple of  interesting keyboards effects, including my second favorite piano.

An Ephemeral World, released in 2004, is so far Patrick Rondat’s last studio album in his solo career. The main theme is rebellion against the fashion and the arrogant and violent society portrayed by the media. As Patrick wrote:

The music that I offer you doesn’t seem to be rebellious when compared to that traditionally considered to be ‘rebel music’, nevertheless it is a form of resistance to the current musical environment, and the further development of this ephemeral culture.(…) I have a relentless passion both for my instrument and to find a form of complexity–this creates a yearning within me to extend my creative boundaries–simplicity does not have the monopoly on emotion and sincerity.

My love for Patrick Rondat’s work begun with his third solo album On the Edge. Although it took me some time (over half a year constantly searching) to get my hands on the CD itself, I love this album ever since I downloaded it from the ‘net in the first place. Come to think about it, if I wouldn’t listen to the mp3 version at first I probably wouldn’t be the proud owner of any of his albums, so maybe mp3s ain’t so bad after all?

Amphibia is Patrick Rondat’s third solo album. Released in 1996, presented Patrick’s famous frog that’s associated with all his solo work ever since.

Rape of the Earth is Patrick Rondat’s second solo album. Compared to his most recent work this is not a marvelous recording. Still, it’s pretty decent and quite interesting from a historical perspective as it shows a transition from heavy to prog metal, introducing Patrick’s individual style that will remain on his successive albums while his riffs will undergo a major evolution.