TARKUS

I can remember the first time I had heard this. I was a young man then just starting on a quest to listen to the best musicians. I had been listing to the self titled and just had obtained Trilogy when my friend said "you have to hear this".

From the Eruption to Aquatarkus it just blew me away. I listened to it over and over for about 2 weeks. The first thing that struck me was how complete this piece of music was. The jazz overtones in Eruption to the almost perfect vocal line in Stones of Years the first two passages fit together like a lock and a key. Then the organ solo in Stones of Years made me first realize you can play rock without a guitar! To the Iconoclast to Mass with that torrid organ and percussion solo, outstanding, Building, Building until its release of the note held by the organ fading into a synth fading into a Guitar, Magnificent! Battlefield still as haunting today as it was then. Aquatarkus booming across the speakers to the final fanfare. Whew! What more do you need.

That song is for sure one of the top three examples of what Progressive rock is. The other 4 songs are ok but really have nothing to do with the fact that Tarkus is essential piece of prog history, development and a definition you could hand to someone and say this is prog. 5 Stars no question