MOTIONS OF DESIRE

So, this is what Prog has come to. Just as I've been predicting for the last ten years or so, the unquestioning acceptance of Spock's Beard and The Flower Kings (and worse, Dream Theater) as some sort of leaders of Prog has made it possible to turn out an album like this, call it Progressive Rock and not get lynched.

While many of the very surface elements of Prog are in evidence here, the heart of it has been crudely excised with a rusty spoon. The core of the songs here is simple catchy Hard Rock, clichéd Metal and very basic Pop. Added on top of that: some Metal flash and a boatload of soulless proggery.

While I will admit that certain intrumental passages - although far from the majority of them - do inspire some occasional hope, that's almost immediately dahsed by some a Van Halen-style fingertap cadence solo figure, a common-as-dirt Rock riff or some hideously mainstream vocal bit.

But that seems to be par for the course for modern Prog; mainstream forms and figures are embedded with well-mimicked Prog tropes to make some hideous hybrid; like a mad geneticist's salmon-greyhound mix which neither runs nor swims.

Even though this isn't my cup of tea, since it is far too sugary sweet and ultimately vapid, I can certainly understand what people like about it. What I just can't understand is that they have the gall to call it Prog.