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THEGAZZARDIAN

Stephen


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PROG REVIEWER

Member since: 8/11/2009 • Forum posts: 8268 • Last visit: 1/31/2024 4:55:23 PM EST
Location: Canada

Progressive Biography

My first conscious musical choice, beyond listening to whatever was on the radio (it was Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys at the time) was to distance myself from everything pop related at all, and listen to classical music. This lead, eventually, to musicals (Les Miserables remains an all time favorite of mine), to Rock Operas, eventually into Classic Rock.

Through Classic Rock, I listened to the likes of The Beatles, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Rush, Supertramp, Genesis, but Yes was the first band that truly sounded like something different to me. I still remember the night that I listened to Relayer for the first time, paying close attention to the music and thinking to myself, "This is music constructed by geniuses. I don't understand it, but I can hear the genius behind it." I would pick up many Yes albums, but it wasn't until three years later when I picked up Fragile that I was completely converted. It was the first Yes album to both impress completely and be accessible. There was no going back from that point, and all the Yes albums I already owned were suddenly experiencing a lot of new love.

In an attempt to discover more music that was like Yes, I exhausted the limited supply of what my local record store had available - Wind and Wuthering; 2112; A Farewell to Kings; Demons and Wizards; In The Court of the Crimson King; Caress of Steel; Thick as a Brick; these each entered my record collection in a hope to find something that would strike me as strongly as Yes had, while I scoured ebay for as much Yes music as I could find.

Then came the fateful day when I received my credit card, and a brand new world of musical exploration opened up before me as I was able to order music from online. My hunger for new music has only grown since, and the wealth of knowledge available on the internet, especially through bands such as this one. Although I started with classic symphonic prog, I have explored to various degrees Eclectic, Krautrock, Zeuhl, Canterbury, Prog metal, RIO/Avant, RPI, Prog Folk, and I hope to explore further in each one, as well as non-prog genres like Classical, Free Jazz, Alternative Country, Classic Rock, Folk, World, etc...I'll at least the prog part of my journey here!

On Reviews
I am constantly thinking about what it is that makes a review a strong or weak review, what makes it interesting and informative, so I try to mix it up every once in while. I typically veer away from track-by-track reviews these days because others are much better at it than me, except in the case where there are tracks that have strongly moved me.

I view three stars to be a good rating for an album, and try to be as sparing as possible with five star reviews; if I rate an album five stars, it means that unless that album is in a sub-genre you are not fond of, you should go out and buy it straight away.

Reviews distribution by sub-genre


 Sub-genreNb of reviewsAvg rating
1 Crossover Prog413.15
2 Symphonic Prog383.00
3 RIO/Avant-Prog323.56
4 Eclectic Prog313.68
5 Neo-Prog83.38
6 Experimental/Post Metal63.67
7 Heavy Prog63.17
8 Prog Related52.80
9 Rock Progressivo Italiano53.20
10 Progressive Metal42.75
11 Zeuhl43.50
12 Psychedelic/Space Rock43.00
13 Post Rock/Math rock33.67
14 Various Genres33.67
15 Jazz Rock/Fusion24.00
16 Canterbury Scene23.50
17 Prog Folk24.00
18 Proto-Prog12.00

Reviews and Ratings

197 ratings/reviews total  Sort by By ratings | Alphabetically | Chronologically(default)

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