SUBTERRANEA

Very fine album in the same style as IQ's 1993 album "Ever" , but this time IQ managed to deliver a genuine 2 disc concept album!

IQ's "Subterannea" probably is one of my favourite concept albums of all time together with MARILLION's "Brave" and the very recent "Posthumous Silence" by the German neo-progressive rock band "SYLVAN". I do not only think those three bands all delivered a fine concept album, but I also think those three bands are the three finest bands in the neo-progressive genre.

I discovered IQ by their brilliant last album "Dark Matter" and worked my way back through their catalogue from there on, so "Subterannea" was my second introduction to IQ and what an introduction it was!

For me the big difference between those two album was that I liked "Dark Matter" already at first listen and I noticed that "Subterannea" took some more time to "settle in". But usually this is what I like best, because you find the album only getting better and better each time you listen to it. I must have spun both discs around ten times before I started to listen to some other music again.

Both disc of this concept album are great, but highlights from disc one would probably be the title track "Subterranea", "Sleepless Incidental" with a great harmonic organ kicking in during the middle section of the song and finally "The Sense in Sanity". Highlights of the second disc are "Capricorn" which contains a nice solo on saxophone, the delicate "Somewhere in Time" and the twenty minute epic "The Narrow Margin" on which the "middle section" really stands out.

Anyone familiar with "The Narrow Margin" will certainly enjoy the following lyrics and will probably hear the music playing on the background while reading them:

"Told me, go the way of your heart I'll be waiting for you But wherever you are, you're not inside me now"

WOW! Anyone unfamiliar with this album or even worse, with IQ, I would recommend to quickly add "Subterannea" or "Dark Matter" to your "prog- archives".

Yours sincerely,

Evenless

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