Adagio - Underworld

Certif1ed wrote: I could say "I don't like it", but that wouldn't be true - it's OK. Anyway, that blunt statement would raise the question "Why?" - which I pre-empted. You sent the music to me, so I reviewed it as I would any piece of Prog. If it's not Prog, why is it in the archives? Re: Piano playing; Matt Bellamy is not pretending to be Beethoven, and he invents stuff in the style of Rachmaninov -  OK, Renaissance did it too, but Bellamy has a flair and character about his playing which rises above ability. It's an integral part of the music - not pure prog rock, but nevertheless, marks the music out distinctively - using technical skills to create something that suits the music. Richard Andersson seems to be trying to prove something - he's using a grossly simplified Beethoven style, yet decorating it with very fast flourishes - using a technical ability to compensate for lack of musical ability. It stands out in an uncomfortable way - it doesn't always blend with the music, and it doesn't arise from thematic material. Sure, you can write little chunks of music that are entirely unrelated and gaffer tape them together - but that is not a coherent way of writing a complete piece! It's entirely different to writing the piece, then having a few ideas later and moulding them into the existing work, and it's entirely obvious which approach is taken, when there is no noticeable moulding.   To continue your argument to its logical conclusion, if I gave a set of instruments to a whoop of baboons, then I should be considering the output to be fine art - who am I to judge?   Who am I? Just someone with as much right to post an opinion - especially when invited (may I remind you) - as anyone else. Stuff jumps out at me as blatantly obvious based on my (limited) experiences - if you think my opinion is wrong, that's your problem, and that's what discussions are for. Hence this forum.   I know what I like, and I like what I know.   Oh, and on the notes thing, there are actually 88 on a grand piano, if my memory serves me correctly. You then need to consider that exponentially, as many notes can be played siimultaneously. You then need to consider them timbrally - the same note groupings played on different instruments sound very different. You then need to consider the rhythm - a slight alteration in rhythm can modify a melody almost beyond recognition. Then consider the entire form of a piece - that's a heck of a lot of notes. More than 12, unless you're thinking of excecssive minimalism...

Whatever man

The intro is very slick, but not really compelling or unpredicatable in any way. The piano solo part is laughably poor - very quick arpeggio motifs based around very simple and slow-shifting harmony. The fast playing is a classic case of Emporer's new clothes.

The vocals are awful to my ears - but the ambience is a nice power metal ambience - enhanced nicely by the bells, and the actual sound of the piano adds a good texture. The playing is directionless and annoying though - just fast stuff intended to impress with no substance. Where the chords slow down, they're not very inspired.

The riffing is par for the course - tight as a gnat's chuff, with the bass generally slavishly following the guitar, and the drums practically likewise.

The slow guitar solo that follow is nice and melodic - but it's all NWOBHM stuff.

Getting the piano to follow the next riff adds a nice texture, but textural experimentation doesn't lift this into prog rock territory, and neither do odd time signatures - it's just power metal with nice textures and odd time sigs - which is part of what power metal has always been about.

The fast guitar solo is very well exectued - as they all are these days.

The slow piano section is quite annoying - all of the piano borrows heavily from Beethoven, with Wagnerian dischords that are probably more inspired by ELP than the former. This might seem proggy, but it's watered-down Beethoven - the great man would never have clung on for dear life to the basic harmonic shifts, he'd have been rattling the key signatures all over the place in order to set up some chaos to resolve.

That's the main problem with this type of music as a whole - the structuring is bad, so dramatic tension doesn't really exist or, more importantly, last. Sure the riffs and individual sections contain drama of their own, but none contribute to the big picture - it's more about a series of "hits" rather than a continuous developing whole - more closely related to pop music than you might think.

"Solvet Saeclum in Favila" (oddly, the second line of the "Dies Irae" in the standard Requiem mass), has a kind of Requiem feel to it but only because it shamelessly plunders Verdi's monumental Dies Irae.

This shifts around far too often to carry the weight of a piece about the end of time and judgement day - which is a great pity, as the textures are suitably dark. It's completely ruined by those damned vocals

SKIP

...and it all becomes predictable...

a bit of piano, some wooey effects, an organ, the pounding Helloween style riffs and drums... nice enough, but it's been done to death, guys. If I wanted to listen to "Ride the Sky", I'd pull out my copy of "Walls of Jericho".

A touch of Satriani in the guitar solo is nice - but the melody of the solo bears no or little relation to the developing theme. Again, we have a pastiche of ideas rather than a developing whole - although this is better than the preceeding material and keeps the underlying material related at least.

Around 2:50, I can hardly tell Adagio apart from any other prog metal band on the planet. It's all very generic stuff, only the piano giving any clues as to the band's identity.

Texturally, the intro to "From My Sleep" holds promise - but it doesn't last long enough. The "grindcore" section is quite a surprise, but then it's business as usual. It all rolls by without any eyelids being batted - nothing unexpected that lifts it out of the general metal-type style.

This is all I have of the album - but I bet I could predict most of the rest of it.

It sounds OK - quite good in some places, but generally comes across as a bit of a dirge to my ears.

The textures may be nice - but there are very, very few real changes in texture - by which I mean that it's either full-on guitarring, with heavy, distorted riffs, or keyboard-drenched quiet bits with Satch-style soloing - hey, I've got "Surfing With the Alien". So no real progressiveness in texture.

Form tends to be standard rock song form with extended bridges and instrumental interludes - classic hard rock structuring. So no progressiveness in form.

Melodies are very generic power metal melodies - largely safe scales with the odd jump and held note. So no progressiveness in melody.

Rhythmically, there's everything you'd expect from bands that call themselves Prog Metal - mostly repetitive riffs, but broken up with wearying sections in over-elaborate time signatures that all end up sounding the same because these are repeated to death - no improvisation or spontaneity is possible with this style. It all sounds meticulously worked out rather than spontaneous. So no progresssiveness in rhythm - everyone does this these days.

That leaves Harmony. Bog standard rock harmonic progressions, Tritones and standard scales in traditional modes with laboured dischords.

'nuff said

At least you can't say I didn't give it a chance

The firts five tracks of Underworld are killer, great great prog metal (great great keyboards). But then, unfortunatly, the album begin to sink slowly. These five tracks are in the same quality or better than the best Symphony X stuff.

PD: (Next Profundis is an eargasm)

I bought Underworld based on one song I'd heard, which was quite a good song, but I tend to agree that I don't find myself needing to repeatedly listen to it. Great stuff though, be interesting to hear some more of their hybrid metal/prog...I especially like the drum beats. Reminds me of another band, darn I forget their name...it'll come to me...just wait...ah...on the tip of my tongue!...damn, I just had it!...

Alogia! Some of their drum beats remind me of Alogia...great band! First discovered them through ProgArchives...

Drew wrote: Sym X has better replay value.

Agreed...

Nevermind- new album in December- looks cool!

Even though the realease is in Japan- why????????