01: Subsignal - Touchstones
After their rather incredible debut (Beautiful & Monstrous) in 2009, Subsignal’s second album solidifies them as one of my favorite bands in the prog scene today.
When istening to Touchstones, I always think of that phrase, ‘you’re only as strong as the weakest link’ and with Subsignal, there’s no obvious weakness. The playing is tight, the vocals are strong, the melodies are hooking, the arrangements veer from the experimental to the traditional and the production is pitch perfect.
The music fits the progressive rock tag perfectly as underneath their progressive structures and arrangements, is ultimately good solid rock music, and is more than worth the time of anyone who likes either genre. The album is good value for money too, sporting 70+ minutes of music.
02: Tragedy Machine - Pacify
http://www.tragedymachines.com/
Probably my one to watch for the future. Their debut EP was a cracking blend of electronic driven rock, which was neatly matched by their dramatic style.
The eventual album, Pacify, was a more polished affair. They’re one of those bands who know how to punch a melody home, and how to drive a song forward off the back of it. The vocals are clear and powerful, and cut swathes through the layers of sound which define the album.
Word is that work on album 2 has already begun, and going off their debut, it’s certainly something to get excited about.
03: Blue Stahli - Blue Stahli
Strap yourself in for a 40 minute blast of electro metal, which screams and kicks it’s way onto the music scene with gusto. I seriously considered giving this the top placement, as it’s just so far out there, and has so much power and energy behind it, that anything less than top place seems almost disrespectful to the creative genius behind this.
There’s a good mix of breakneck tracks which keep the pace up, but it’s also tempered with moments of real beauty, such as Throw Away, which shows that Blue Stahli isn’t a one trick show, but that he knows how to construct an album of character and charm.
Never the less, it’s absolutely the multilayered, uncaged rage of tracks like Anti You and Scrape which stand Blue Stahli apart from every other album released this year, and anyone with even the faintest of interest in hard hitting quality music should certainly give it a listen.
04: Within Temptation - The Unforgiving
http://www.within-temptation.com/
Within Temptation have taken their dramatic sound and polished it into a razor sharp rock album. Tracks like Faster display a crisp sense of rhythm and melody, which are as epic as they are catchy.
05: Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events
When Mike Portnoy suggested the band take time off to recharge their batteries, I thought it was a long overdue course of action. Dream Theater have been drifting on autopilot for nearly a decade, and whilst each new album was rarely bad, it was all so desperately uninspired. I couldn’t pick out a single track from anything since Six Degrees and tell you which album it was off.
Here we are though, with Mike Portnoy out of the band, and Mike Mangini now taking the drum stool. Whilst things obviously didn’t go to plan for Mike Portnoy, the result for Dream Theater is what I would arguably consider their best work since 2002’s Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. From the driving and majestic opening of On The Backs Of Angels, to the impassioned Outcry, this is DT on top form.
Sure, it’s not what you could necessarily call a break from their typical sound, but things like the subtle use of loops, and the cleaner production really gives the album a more nimble pace and sharper sound than anything since Six Degrees.
06: Darren Hayes - Secret Codes & Battleships
Whilst an untypical choice for a dyed in the wool progite, Darren’s previous album (This Delicate Thing We’ve Made) was a musical tour de force, based around the concepts of time travel, and it caught my attention.
Whilst the concept and indeed, much of the musical ambition may be more muted on this new album, the music is never anything less than well crafted, and the vocals impassioned.
07: Arena - Seventh Degree Of Separation
Arena have crafted a stunning comeback album with The Seventh Degree Of Separation. A concept album which chronicles the moments between life and death, the story is told with dramatic effect, and the music is more direct and a touch harder than you would typically expect from an Arena album.
The album holds a good amount of music, and whilst the foreboding mood of the concept lives throughout every track, the pacing offers a good degree of variation, and gives the album an adventure like feel.
08: Pendragon - Passion
Pendragon are distinguished in that they’ve been going since the neo-prog movement kicked off in the early 80’s, and yet have got increasingly better with each subsequent release. They’ve settled into their groove now, and whilst I don’t think they’re interested in pushing things much beyond their comfort zone, when the music here is this good, they’ve no need to.
Passion features all the hallmarks of Pendragon’s best work, dramatic flare, soaring guitar, considered lyrics and an exciting streak running throughout. I really have to make the effort to catch these guys live.
09: Yes - Fly From Here
If you were a betting man, you wouldn’t have given particularly good odds on a new Yes album ever seeing the light of day, let alone it emerging in 2011 and being rather decent. After a slavish touring schedule which has lasted close to a decade, and with Jon Anderson bowing out mid-way, it really was time for Yes to either produce something new, or resign themselves to the fate of becoming their own cover band.
Thankfully they chose the former option, and with the Drama era lineup of Geoff Downes, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Alan White, Geoff Downes along with new vocalist, Benoît David, they have recorded a genuinely enjoyable record. There’s nothing that’s going to surprise or shock, this is Drama era Yes staying close to what they know, but in light of all they have achieved, there’s nothing at all wrong with that. The highlight is undoubtedly the 15min title track, Fly From Here, which recaptures the grace and poignancy of Yes’s most memorable moments, thanks in no small measure to some truly glorious guitar work from Steve Howe.
To be honest, outside of the aforementioned track, there’s not a lot to get excited about, but Fly From Here is worth the price of entry, and whether you’re a fan of classic Yes, or just a fan of prog, it’s more than worth your time..
10: Evergrey - Glorious Collision
Evergrey barely survived a recent split, which saw Tom S. Englund (singer, writer) and Rikard Zander (keyboardist) as the only members to remain, but if Glorious Collision was meant as a statement of intent, that the band are still a force to be reckoned with, then mission accomplished.
What - for me - distinguishes Evergrey amongst so many other prog metallers, is Tom’s really impassioned vocals, and how effortlessly they can weave softer more melodic sections into their hardest of songs. They have a terrific sense of melody, and of any band I follow, they know how to kick an album off right.
