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One last time! Not my last time listening to this album, that's for sure. Metropolis Pt. 2 is filled with wonderful intricacies, catchy hooks, amazing lyrics, and fabulous musicianship. From the first time I head this album, I knew there was something special. The whole concept, Victoria (Metropolis), Julian, Edward, Nicholas, the Hypnotherapist...this should be a feature film! In steps Jordan Rudess and fills in any minor cracks within the band. From then on, they have been very stable and producing awesome records. This is my favorite DT album, and is a masaterpiece of prog metal. Those even remotely interested in metal WILL MOST LIKELY enjoy this album for the rest of their lives. It is that good, seriously.

— First review of this album —

If this had actually gotten released back in 1975 through Virgin Records like it was supposed to, Friendship Time's S/T here would be considered a seminal masterpiece today along with all the classic albums by Yes, Genesis, VDGG, King Crimson, etc., but unfortunately they ran out of money before anything could be sent out, and as a result the mastertapes were lost for over 30 years....until 2006! :D

Hence, in honor of the band, I will go ahead and set the record straight - this is a genuine, perfect album from progressive rock's golden age that deserves to be heard by ANYONE who calls themselves a fan of the genre.

For starters, the energy here is something so powerful and organic that groups like Transatlantic and The Flower Kings will seem but merely tame in comparison once it hits your ears; every track here is absolutely rife with the best instrumentation one could imagine, and that's as high a compliment as I can give considering how darn picky I am. It's powerful, driving beyond anything you'd expect, and has such fantastic OOMPH to even the acoustic pieces such as "Clouds". Just...wow!

It makes me wonder...where has this album been all our lives? There's nothing else like it today, bar the sort of crazy power Yes had up until Tomato, and even then there's something here that's special and unique to this particular outfit.

For people who have been craving something of true progressive quality, that ever elusive lost classic that lacks the contrivances that a lot of modern prog. possesses, an album that will pound the hell out of your speakers without you even touching the volume while making your ears feel as if they've died and gone to heaven.

This, my friends, is progressive rock at its most tight and energetic, at its most propulsive and imaginative. Precious gems like this are why I am a fan of progressive rock in the first place!

Infinite stars if possible, and may this poor little gem finally get the recognition it deserves here on ProgArchives.

Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso is one of the most popular bands of Italian Progressive Rock, and listening to their masterpiece, DARWIN!, it's easy to see why. There has been much praise for this album, and I am happy to say it reaches, or even exceeds, these expectations. DARWIN! is Banco's second album, and describes the theories and voyages of the British naturalist Charles Darwin. Let me say that if he could hear this album, he would be very proud. Read on to see why.

The album opens with "L'Evoluzione." This is an epic 14-minute track, and is the perfect example of what a well-constructed Progressive Rock song should be. The first sounds you hear are eerie chords played on a Mellotron. It really reflects the idea of the origin of life, and how it becomes something more and more wondrous and complex. The lyrics are about Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution, and how will eventually replace the old religious views of the beginnings of life and time. As a Christian, I disagreed in some ways with the lyrics ("Try, try to think a little different/ Nothing was made by the great Gods/ But creation was created by itself") but it in no way hindered my experience of listening to this magnificent song. My favorite part comes in at about 4 minutes, where things start to get wilder, with some ferocious piano, guitar and vocals. This track is essential Prog listening.

"La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta" is the second track. Most of it is instrumental, and what wonderful instrumental music it is! It's full of confronational electric guitar chords and ethereal textures, and is simply some of the best Progressive music one can find. After about six minutes, the excitement begins to die down, and in come vocals. This time, the lyrics seem to describe a creature going through the process of adapting to it's environment, but I can't be sure. Still, this is another great track from this superb album.

"Danza Dei Grandi Rettili" is the third track. This is a 3-minute instrumental, but it's still no throwaway track. It's a very charming song with some great instrumentation from all- guitar, bass, piano, and organ. While it is short, it isn't lacking in quality.

"Cento Mani E Cento Occhi" is the fourth track. It has a very mechanical and fierce sound at the start, but like all great Progressive Rock songs, it goes through many different phases, while working off of one main theme. The lyrics are about the first primitive men, and their lifestyles. I think their barbaric ways are perfectly captured by the rough vocals (did I mention that this band has a passionate singer?) Some of the vocals are a bit lighter than others, but it's all around wonderful. Yet another great track.

"750,000 Anni Fa... L'amore?" is the fifth track. Piano lovers will dig this track, as it is full of it. About half-way through, the piano goes on it's own instrumental excursion. Once again, we here the eerie mellotron, filling in mystifyingly mysterious textures. The lyrics are about love, and how there was even romance 750,000 years ago. This makes a lot of sense, for this is a beautiful song, and I'm sure it would be great at night-time walks. Once again, a fantastic track.

"Miserere Alla Storia" is the sixth track. It has a running start, with a manic keyboard solo, but then transitions to a more low-key tempo. This is beautifully illustrated with woodwind and mellotrons, giving it a grand atmosphere. The vocals are a little strange, and are more like talking, and man, are they creepy! The lyrics describe when Man starts to become more complicated, and starts forming civilizations. The song then segues into the manic keyboard solo, with some guest "keys" from the piano, only to die back down to a slower pace. As you would expect, this is yet another essential track.

The album closes with "Ed Ora Io Domando Tempo Al Tempo Ed Egli Mi Risponde ... Non Ne Ho!" This track starts off a little strangely, full of odd sound effects to give it a spooky mood. Then comes in the vocals, which I assume is describing a modern carnival. The track starts to become more lively and happy. The song then ends with an amusing trumpet (?) solo, concluding this magnificent album.

If you haven't got the hint yet, this album is fantastic, and is a must-buy. Not only is it one of the greatest Rocko Progressivo Italiano albums, it's one of the best Progressive Rock albums period. I love, love, love DARWIN!

Five Stars- Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.

Let me say- Wow the music and what the heck with the cover! However the ugly as it may appear, the music is contrastly beautiful and poetic . This is one of a great find this year for me. If you love another alternative prog like The Dear Hunter or The Mars Volta, you will sure love this album.

And The Glass Handed Kites is somewhat a darkly alternative rock that well soaked in progressive/post rock sauce-or maybe another way around. There are range of surprise you could find in this album; It all starts with alternative rock to dark post rock and well change into alternative/punk prog rock, disco-ish, neo-prog rock, then back to alternative prog and end the album with post rock. Variety yet seamless.The strong suit of this album is it full of idea. The musicianship may not be that exotic but the way they arrange things, put them together and the idea of music is so nice and beautiful.

Well, I would not classify this album as a masterpiece of Prog. I would say, however, this is essentially a must-try for all of you proggy head. 4 full stars.

This is real throwback psych folk, sounding more like something from the early seventies than the late nineties, which I think is great is the retro kind of way it was meant to be presented. I thoroughly enjoy listening to this CD and sort of lost it in my collection for quite a while before recently coming across it again. Too bad its been gathering dust as it is definitely top-drawer stuff.

I have a CD of old seventies psych music from my friend Peter Lindahl (In the Labyrinth) titled simply ‘Psychedelic Sweden’. The guitar on this record reminds me a lot of the Kawai Peter used to play “Syrran” and the unfinished “Mary Mercury”, which appear on that CD but were recorded nearly forty years ago. There’s also tabla and sitar here along with flute, which combine to paint a sort of patchouli hazy picture of light and smoky folk psych of the highest order (take “highest” to mean what you will).

There are no vocals on the album which I personally have mixed feelings about. On the one hand I love words with music, especially folk-leaning music, since the words help paint the story that is inevitably behind all the chords and rhythms. On the other hand singing can also get in the way of well-played instrumentals, and I have a hard time imagining in this case how vocals would have improved the overall sound. This is a trip best enjoyed sans words, I think.

The really amazing thing about these songs is that they are as vibrant and ranging as they are without any keyboards or digital studio effects to speak of. Simply guitar, tabla, flute, sitar and some decent yet understated violin. The quartet does a remarkable lot with just a little, for which they are to be commended.

The opening “Visa från Arendal” has an achingly familiar guitar riff that is not only recognizable but also sounds an awful lot like some sort of electric keyboard. Guitar experts could probably explain this if I knew one of those people, but I just dig the groove. These are highly melodic songs with fat-fingered string-bending and a toe-tapping backbeat that almost makes them danceable at times. Just the kind of groove that can keep your attention until the very last note plays out. “Sauna” in particular is not only smooth but also manages to rock out and manages to sound a lot longer than its 4:45 length.

And speaking of long, the band serves up another common psych offering with an extended tabla/sitar/guitar jam that seems to employ some raga constructions in the nearly twenty- minute long closing piece “Skogsgläntan Vättarnas Fest”. Despite the appearance of being an improvised jam, the construction is remarkably cohesive as the sitar weaves a series of movements backed by gentle tabla beats that sometimes rise to the forefront as alternating guitar passages wander in and out. The rather lengthy raga sequence takes forever to repeat itself, and when the rewind comes its not all that recognizable as the tabla has given way to snare drums and the sitar has been all but completely replaced by electric guitar. The transition is smooth and well done, rising slightly in tempo and energy before slowly fading to a close. A real trip.

I know very little about this Swedish band and to be honest only picked up their CD because of the unusual cover; that turned out to be a lucky move. This is a great album full of somewhat dates sounds delivered with the power of modern studio engineering and musicians having the advantage of learning much from the dusty old records in their fathers’ collections. I’d liken their approach on psych to contemporaries like Smell of Incense or even Voice of the Seven Woods. If you know either of these bands or their ilk you will undoubtedly get into these guys; if you don’t check them out anyway. A top-notch recording that falls just short of being a masterpiece only because I can’t quite add the word “groundbreaking” to the many superlatives already heaped on it. A high four stars though, and well recommended.

peace

A rare example of perfection within the confines of an album suite, 'Slow Dance' is the 'Thick As A Brick" of ambient-oriented progressive music, a must own pair of movements that touches everything from pastoral classicism to infectious worldly beat to electronics and back again, creating a feeling of transcendence that only grows more and more prevalent as the minutes pass and leaving you breathless by the end.

If you don't own this album, you ARE doing yourself a grave disservice, as this is the closest to perfection that New Age ever got in terms of musical engagement...and furthermore the best thing that Anthony Phillips has done since the late 70's. Get this!

5 stars.

The man showed already some DEEP love for the weird and crazy affairs. Being as a solo artist or as being part of a whole.

A deep psychedelia sound is sweating from this work. The combination of disjointed songs and "clever" ones is of course one of the attractions. But to be really impressed by all of these very short tracks is probably something I wouldn't be able to.

The same type of music was already available on "The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown", even if no great hit single made their appearance on this one. I guess that very few people know of this band and their input. To tell that that they are of major importance for prog rock might well be exaggerated.

You only need to judge by yourself. Great stuff as "Sunrise" shows all the power of the man. Vocals are deep, keys are classic, track is ? huge. It is really some kind of a hidden album. I wouldn't say that it is a masterpiece, but frankly as an early seventies album, it deserves quit a good listen from your part.

Not that all songs are great, but "Sunrise" is a definite highlight. Not only because it is one of the longest tracks featured, but simply because it is by far the best piece of music available. Some of the "Galactic Zoo" items are worth but could have been presented as a whole as far as I'm concerned. To have some short parts being spread out has not the most splendid effect.

Some parts are totally "unrealistic" and the type of "press next" argument is quite encouraged. "Creep" is a perfect description of this total chaos. Forget it by all means.

What's left, should you say?

Some heavy ELP stuff ("Creation + Gypsy escape") with all the pomposity of the example and to some extent it holds a great instrumental section which showed enough skills both in terms of playing and song writing. A great song for sure. THE highlight.

If ever some good heavy prog is shivering down your spine, I can only recommend you to listen to this album. Worth three stars in my rating system (seven out of ten really).

Short, concise, yet innovative even if released in 2008 this album represents a very nice offering from the band. It has been quite a while that they didn't release such an "old" album.

While I was listening to this, I was wondering to myself: hey! is this really a new TD album? Or was it just a dream while I was awaken!

The short "Armageddon" is such a brilliant track that will undoubtedly remind you of the superb past. This is by far my favourite song from this album and one of their best for some twenty years. Easily.

This great band could of course rest on their laurel's (as some of their earlier production) but they were doing better with "Purple Diluvial". The title track and "epic" of this album (almost twenty minutes) offers some average electronic rock parts, upbeat at times and frankly not too much of a glory particularity. Just good and keyboarding as hell.

But I assume that it is what we are expecting from TD every time they are releasing an album. The closing section of this "Purple Diluvial" does "speak" more to my bones and heart and is really poignant. Another great TD moment should I say. But there are an awful lot of these ones of course throughout their immense discography.

I consider this album as one of their good ones from this millennium, even if the dance beats of "Babylon The Great Has Fallen" are quite unbearable. But he closing part is such memorable...

This album certainly deserves a listen. Three stars is my rating.

Before they got into the business of cloning themselves, Therion made quite an interesting appearance on the extensive 90's metal scene. With Theli, Therion reached the end of their progression from a Celtic Frost replica into a highly influential blend of Celtic Frost's pioneering theatrical tendencies with an equal amount of Metallica thrash metal and Sisters of Mercy gothic rock.

Therion will probably not charm you much if you expect great musicianship, both the riffing and the song writing is fairly straightforward. But it is applied to maximum effect: they don't repeat too much here, change tempo and melodies frequently enough and had plenty of ideas to keep your attention to the proceedings. Both the inspiration and the passion for what they were doing ran high in those days. The element that could make them appealing to progressive rock audiences is the addition of Beethoven-era classical influences and symphonic choruses. Celtic Frost pioneered this in metal but Therion apply it very effectively.

As happened with every remarkable heavy metal album from the 90's, also this one sprouted a multitude of look-alikes that would ape the style and clutter the metal scene for years to come. Nightwish, Within Temptation, After Forever and Therion themselves would turn this exciting approach into a commercially successful but artistically deficient self-parody. Before it got so far, Therion made this essential piece of music. 4.5 stars

Therion had one more great work in them before they turned into a metal muzak producing unit, While Theli marked the end of their creative progression, Vovin is a solid confirmation of their quality standards. Even though the music is very straightforward, the huge symphonic arrangements, operatic voices and pleasant melodies could easily win over many prog-heads.

While every song is most pleasant, the continuous slow place and generic approach bogs down the effect somewhat. The Wild Hunt is the only up-tempo track that stirs things up a bit. Another weakness is that it is really too sweet and smooth all the way through. It's sure done tastefully, neither kitschy nor excessive (which is quite an achievement in this style), but sometimes I'd really like to kick their butt hoping they would put a bit more adventure in their work.

Therion used to be a unique and ground-breaking metal act in the 90's. Vovin easily proves that. But I used to be more overwhelmed by it at the time it came out. Since then it hasn't survived repeated critical listens all that well, I only play it occasionally now.