THE MOUNTAIN

Lots of my friends love this album to death, and it seems to have rated pretty highly in a bunch of prog-type year-end music lists and suchlike...so finally I broke down and listened to it a few times.

Wow. And I don't mean that in a good way.

Now, there is lots of virtuosity here, no argument. These guys can really play, they have moments of compositional brilliance, there are seconds in a row where I can appreciate the sheer unapologetic progness of the enterprise....

...but holy god guys, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it. I don't think there is a "prog" meme or trope or notion or bridge or passage or stereotype these guys haven't used. Repeatedly. Over and over and over, bludgeoning the listener with sheer unadulterated progacity into whimpering submission.

And influences are one thing...but seriously...Okay, you like Gentle Giant. But you don't have to like them every thirty seconds for a bloody hour. Even occasionally tossing some Porcupine Tree tributes into the mix can't save this mess.

I just don't get it. The Mountain is like a parody of everything that made prog a laughing stock back in the day. This isn't brilliance, it is a relentless, poorly-thought-out stew of derivative "prog rock" spewed out by my speakers. It's too bad really, because there are some decent moments.