SUBTERRANEA

It took IQ some four years to release a follow up album to the fine "Ever" from 1993. The unchanged line up were not however sitting on their hands, "Subterranea" proving to be the band's first double (CD) concept album. Admirably, they came up with a suitably grandiose theme for the album, the story centring on a man who is the victim of a tortuous experiment. The man is initially subjected to prolonged captivity in isolation, then allowed out into the real world. The tale then takes us through his experiences as he tries to cope with an accelerated life of discovery. Needless to say, adverse and sinister forces are at work exacerbating the challenge.

If we wish to be cynical, we can spend time looking for precedents for such a tale. For me though the time is better spent accepting that such concepts are one of the facets which distinguishes prog. The only question to be answered is how good is the album?! Such a question is particularity valid when it comes to this sort of presentation, as the concept can sometimes overwhelm the project to the detriment of the music.

The album opens impressively with a symphonic "Overture" which blends orchestral sounds with pounding rhythms and anthemic tones. In the best traditions of such albums, the tracks are generally kept short (although the final track runs to some 20 minutes) being linked together to form a continuous piece.

The musical style of IQ lends itself well to this format, the highly melodic roots of each song being fully exploited as each piece is brought to fruition. While the album is undoubtedly best heard as a complete project, the majority of the individual tracks stand up well as isolated numbers in their own right. Tracks such as the title piece would have fitted in perfectly on any of the band's albums, the guest sax on this particular track offering an impressive additional dimension.

To single out tracks though is to pay a disservice both to the complete piece, and to those not mentioned. I could focus on the magnificence of "Capricorn" with its superb sax and guitar, or the majestic 9 minutes which is "Failsafe", or of course the epic finale. I say again though, while each track stands proud in its own right, this is an album to be heard as a complete entity.

The prog genre (in name at least) has been pulled this way and that in recent times. Many bands and fans of those bands have discovered that it is now trendy to be labelled as prog, and attempt to jump on the bandwagon. It is though to bands such as IQ that we have to look for the spirit of prog being carried forward towards and into the 21st century. This is an album of contemporary prog at its absolute finest.

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