Real name:  Henk van der Hoff
Location: Netherlands
Send Private Message
Forum Joined date: 9/14/2007 | Posts: 901| Last visit: 7/28/2010 12:52:52 PM EST
Forum's Signature:

Hi fellow proggers,

So I've been invited to expand the reviewteam and consider it an honour. First I would like to pay huge compliments to Ronald Couture and Maxime Roy (and of course all the other significant collaborators) for this fantastic website (not to be a bootlicker but simply because it's the truth). I know this website for almost four years now and it was thanks to a review by Enchants latest album that I found out about the existence. Why wait so long to do reviews ? To be honest I benefited for a long time from the site by listening to downloads (nowadays streams) and reading reviews and I think it's fair to say it made me discover a lot of new bands and albums. After taking advantage so much for so long I thought it was time to do something back. I collected somewhere between 400 and 500 albums over the years and I am not done yet !

My proghistory started in the eighties when I got two albums from a cousin of mine and they were Wish you were here and Animals by Pink Floyd. Not the least you might say and I sensed it was the beginning of a new love for music, for progressive music that is. After this great introduction Genesis and Yes soon followed and then Rush and Saga.
But my final breakthrough came in 1991 when I bought The World by Pendragon and after that hell really broke loose. I started buying and buying and buying up till now. That explains the collection and you could say the virus really crept into me to never leave again.

As you can detect from my reviewing list I'm mainly a fan of neo prog and prog metal but also symphonic prog. Strange combination ? Maybe but if I tell you that I especially love very melodic music with a lot of energy you might understand it.
Last few years I try to discover as many new bands as possible but of course it will have to live up to my taste.
It made me realize how many great new progbands there are and they keep coming obviously. Isn't that great ?
Other features of my progressive love are: love for epics and for great guitar solos.

I will conclude with some listings because I like to make lists and statistics and it helps you to find out what your exact preferences are where bands and albums are concerned.

Top 10 albums

1. Not of this world - Pendragon
2. Moonshine - Collage
3. V: The new mythology suite - Symphony X
4. Vision - Martigan
5. A Street between sunrise and sunset - Satellite
6. LTE 2 - Liquid Tension Experiment
7. Christ 0 - Vandenplas
8. Skeem - Skeem
9. Who's the Boss in the Factory ?-Karmakanic
10. The Whirlwind-Transatlantic

Top 10 songs

1. The Odyssey - Symphony X
2. Garden of Dreams/Monsters & Men - The Flower Kings
3. Octavarium/Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - Dream Theater
4. On the Run - Satellite
5. All of the Above - Transatlantic
6. Black Light Machine - Frost*
7. Knight of the North - Glass Hammer
8. Shine on you crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd
9. Supper's ready - Genesis
10. Close to the Edge - Yes

Top 10 bands

1. The Flower Kings
2. Dream Theater/LTE
3. Symphony X
4. Satellite/Collage
5. Clepsydra (Swi)
6. Enchant
7. Jadis
8. Pendragon
9. Arena
10. Cairo

Top 3 guitar solos

1. Achilles last stand (Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin) (3:42 - 5:15)
2. The Neckromancer (Alex Lifeson/Rush) (10:45 - 12:21)
3. The seventh year (Karl Groom/Shadowland) (3:27 - 5:00)

For where the last sector is concerned: If anyone knows better solos than these please contact me. I'm a sucker for guitar solos. They have to be at least 1:30 long and somehow in the style of the 3 above. Thanks in advance.

Sub-genre Nb of reviews Avg rating 1 Neo-Prog 220 3.49 2 Symphonic Prog 112 3.69 3 Progressive Metal 107 3.70 4 Heavy Prog 49 3.41 5 Crossover Prog 37 3.24 6 Prog Related 36 3.33 7 Eclectic Prog 22 3.14 8 Jazz Rock/Fusion 19 3.74 9 Psychedelic/Space Rock 17 3.47 10 Various Genres 12 3.75 11 Experimental/Post Metal 10 2.90 12 Prog Folk 5 2.40 13 Tech/Extreme Prog Metal 4 3.00 14 Proto-Prog 4 2.50 15 Canterbury Scene 3 3.33 16 Rock Progressivo Italiano 3 2.00 17 RIO/Avant-Prog 2 3.00 18 Progressive Electronic 1 3.00