THE BOOK OF HOURS

This album combines almost everything I love about prog into one delicious soup. It is a fusion of different styles combined into one throwback stylistic whole. At its core is the (to me) traditional concept of prog. That is, applying the aesthetics, passion, and stylistic traits of Romantic Era classical music to a rock-based instrumentation palette. There is ELP-style re-imagining of classical music into rock, Romantic-style interpretation of bluesy guitar, lush organs, blistering and swelling guitar leads. There are beautiful scenes, Tangerine-Dream keyboard timbres, Mellotron swathes (both vocal and strings), gorgeous fretless bass from master Reingold, and powerful and fitting drum bursts.

This is not some new invention. Rather, it is a near flawlessly-executed expression what is, to me, the most effective type of prog: classical instrumental music played via rock instruments. It does not sound (to me) pretentious (others are sure to disagree there), derivative, or stale. It does not sound old or dated. It is delicious from the start to the finish, though it took me about three listens (and a session in headphones) for the full glory to become obvious.

If only Richard Strauss (the Godfather of Prog) could hear this!

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