THE COLOR SPECTRUM: COMPLETE COLLECTION

This is an amazing collection which is definitely worth your while to search for. What this is is a concept box set of 9 EPs of 4 songs each. Each EP is named after a color in the visible color spectrum. In the vinyl edition, each EP is pressed in the appropriate color of vinyl. For vinyl collectors, even that is enough to make one salivate uncontrollably. Once I heard about the release of this, I pre-ordered it for close to $100.00. It's definitely worth more that that now. But, it's not enough for The Deer Hunter to put together an attractive box set. They have to go and write 36 excellent songs to go on these EPs. This box set is chock full of top notch, high quality music, mostly sung by the lead singer and songwriter Casey Crescenzo. This guy has an amazing voice with an unbelievable range and incredible dynamics. This guy has drama in his voice that you would not believe, drama that even matches that of Freddy Mercury's, but so very well controlled. He doesn't show off that voice unless it's called for in the song, so it's not over the top, but it's there. Oh boy, is it there.

The concept here is not that the songs are tied together by a story. It is more of an idea in each group of four songs on the EPs are related to the colors by timbre, genre, feeling. In other words, the Black EP is heavy and dark, while the Yellow EP is bright and sunny, with Green being somewhat folkish in nature. Being an Indie-folk fan myself, I love this EP, and consider it my favorite, but all of them are excellent. One other reviewer here went so far as to name several bands that were similar to the music on each EP so you can get an idea of how each one sounds. I think he got it pretty close. The amazing thing here is that one band is making all of these wonderful excellent sounds. The songs themselves are individual songs not tied together by anything except color which represents the style. These are all accessible songs, but they are all high quality, beautiful and excellent.

This would have to go down as being one of the most ambitious and original concepts I can think of. And the great thing is that it's all done so very well. I listen to these songs and can't find any weaknesses among the styles of rock music that are presented. That is the thing that makes this progressive is the idea and the quality of the music. These are straightforward songs averaging about 4 minutes each. There is nothing epic except for the concept and the release of the concept. Not much in the way of meter changes or ingenuity in the music itself, but you can listen to all +2 hours of this and not get tired of the music. I consider this progressive because of the concept itself and the quality of the music. Awesomeness and ingenuity, you get it all here.

If you can't bring yourself to purchasing the entire collection, there is an album which is an 11 track single album which pulls together selections from each EP, but there is sooooooo much you miss by not having the entire collection. The Deer Hunter has other albums that are more accessible as far as price goes and that have more prog elements than this, so only for that reason can I not give this 5 stars, simply because it's not what I would call essential, but if you haven't heard them, I would suggest getting one of the traditionally sized albums. I will warn you though, it will make you want to save up your money for this excellent addition. In my own personal collection and rating system, this has 5 stars, but for Prog Archive rating purposes simply because of it's inaccessibility tied to price and the availability of other Deer Hunter albums, I will give it 4 stars. Excellent stuff people!