THE PARIAH, THE PARROT, THE DELUSION

I always felt "okay" about Leitmotif, really enjoyed El Cielo, but after Catch Without Arms, I questioned my liking of Dredg. They were just one of those bands where you think, "Jeez, if they put one more step forward, they'd be one of my favorites." However, after hearing this 2009 debut, that day finally came. This is easily Dredg's finest work so far. It's diverse, their melodies and progressions are completely solid, and each song manages to stand out on it's own while also contributing to the 'whole' of the album. The album was inspired by an article titled "Letter to the 6 Billionth Person" by Salman Rushdie. I encourage anyone to read it, and then look back to the lyrics to bring the idea together. It's definitely a concept album involving psychological and sociological struggles.

http://dailyrumination.blogspot.com/2008/08/salman-rushdie-letter-to-6-billionth.html

This album has a fine collection of songs, each one appreciable as the last. The variations in instrumentation, both playing and tones, are very impressive, because it doesn't seem over-done. Everything just falls into place. Whether it be the piano stylings of the opening track, Pariah, the classic-rock power track, Ireland, or the uplifting and vocally-driven, Quotes, this album is sure to be stuck in your head long after your listen. I'm sure many debate the prog elements of this album, but the song structures aren't your typical "prog" jams with extremely technical constructions; this is something more subtle. A lot of the chord progressions are moving and/or just groovy. In the end, that's what music is best for. Whether or not one likes the actual music, it'd be difficult for someone to say that they didn't put a lot of work into writing this. The songs just have so much more "umph" to them than all their other albums. This was the piece of work I've been waiting for from them.

This album is exactly what it means to be; it doesn't strenuously strive for anything it can't achieve. Everything is smoothly written, with no strenuous passages or progressions, and you can feel it's completion once you're done. I had my favorite tracks from this album, but I soon found that all the rest warmed up to me very, very quickly. This is definitely a fine example of more modern progressive music, and is definitely up there on my top albums of the year. It's a well-crafted album and I encourage the opportunity to take a curious listen.