LIVE ON THE ROAD OF BONES

Well, did anyone actually think this album could've sucked?

Isn't it amazing how a band with a nearly 35 year-old tenure of making huge innovations in the progressive music scene can now be at their best? For me personally, IQ have always been incredible when lead by their truly great frontman, Mr. Peter Nichols. Ever since 'Ever' in 1993, which marked a glorious return of Mr. Nichols himself IQ have provided a consistency of making some of the best modernized symphonic Prog rock the UK or even the world for that matter, has ever produced or has to offer. There really are only a handful of bands out there that can keep the flame burning brightly after even 20 years, but IQ have managed to defy the odds and still stay very relevant and quite popular for the many that worship and absolutely adore the Progressive rock genre. 35 years is a long time, so IQ definitely have me singing their praises.

In 2014, IQ stormed back into the progressive world after a five year break and released which many now feel their best album to date, The Road Of Bones. Honestly I was one of those Prog listeners, who felt that The Road Of Bones double album did blow away or had annihilated the competition, so the rightful title of 'Album Of The Year' was greatly and well deserved for IQ back in 2014. Actually, I felt the album was so good that it wasn't even fair.

In late 2015, we get what is now the latest IQ offering to date and it's a double live album that, in my opinion, can't fail who ever out there truly loves this band and like myself, adored The Road Of Bones offering. To talk briefly about this album is next impossible because the level of character and musically it has is off the charts, but I shall try and do my best so I don't bore you, the reader.

Live: On The Road Of Bones is an archival release listed at #007 (yes, like the secret agent. I know. How awesomely British can that be) and the album is and can only be purchased exclusively on their Giant Electric Pea (GEP) website, so I know obtaining this album may be a wallet crusher for those who reside outside of the U.K or Europe, but for every extra schilling you have to fork over I can assure you it's highly worth it. After all, how can we put a price on great music anyway? To continue, Live On The Road Of Bones was staged at The Met, which is in Bury, England on September 2015. A date that many of us like myself, may have ingrained into our heads because an absolute huge musical achievement was put forth by IQ and I feel that this is a live album that is already a classic in the making. Furthermore, the set list is brilliant. You get all five tracks of the actual Road Of Bones album from disc 1 and a few tracks from The Wake (1985) The Seventh House (2000) Dark Matter (2005) and 2009's Frequency. There is also 1 track selected from 1993's Ever album and it's "Out Of Nowhere" which has a pretty clever and humorous twist added to it to inject some light hearted, humorous spirit which smartly balances out the set list. As many of us know, the subject matter in most IQ albums/ tracks is not cheery, so to step outside the Macabre or introspective look into a serial killer's mind, IQ took an excerpt or chorus passage from the broadway musical, Mama 'Mia and threw it into the middle section of "Out of Nowhere" ! Did it work you ask? Strangely enough, I feel it did! Definitely, IQ get full marks for trying to add a little levity to their Bone chilling or serious setlist. A nice highlight. Other great performances that stood out largely in my eyes would be the incredible mind jobs ' The Road Of Bones' and 'Without Walls.' I cannot even begin to tell you how many times my spine has shivered with anticipation and the epic joy I get each time I've listened to both these songs on this album. It is so refreshing to hear both 'The Road Of Bones' and 'Without Walls' performed live in their entirety and I think many who are new and old to discovering IQ will garner more respect for just how good of a live act IQ really is. Everything is going IQ's way right now and I feel their current line up of Nicholls, Durant, Holmes, Cook and Esau is their most chemically potent yet. I know many are major fans of what The former keyboardist and synth wizard, Martin Orford did for the band but Neil Durant is more than an adequate replacement to fill Orford's fairly large shoes. Most of you savvy listeners out there will really hear where Durant adds his own sonic flavorings that were of course originally constructed by Orford. For instance, 'Guiding Light' off the 'Seventh House' is cared for beautifully by Durant for the way his additions, by adding different tonalities to some of the lengthier piano and synth passages, really shine through to the uniqueness of the kind of player Durant is. 'Guiding Light' certainly serves as another nice highlight to this incredible live double album. Meanwhile, of course Peter Nicholls VOX are still incredible! I thought as you get older your voice gets deeper and most lose a bit of range in the higher octave region, but this is massively not the case for Nicholls himself. He has not lost one bit of an edge to his voice. Nicholls is a true professional and I consider him to be a premier vocalists. He is unique and he is a terrific frontman who embodies some of that Peter Gabriel like spirit we proggers love so much. For example, a narrative introduction is given to each track before it's performed. I have always loved this kind of style and presentation hook. Nicholls, like Gabriel does such a great job of doing just that. The listener is easily transported into the mind of the thematic and conceptual serial killer who terrorizes a small town through a series of 'nighttime activities' through Nicholls's poignant spirit. On another note...well the guitar side of things if you will, Mike Holmes I feel is really now one of the very best in the business. Holmes is an amazing guitar player. Virtually every song played on this live album is an assured highlight of greatness. I never actually realized how fast Holmes can play! His fret and finger speed is exceptionally high and very dexterous. All tracks performed on both live discs is an essential highlight. Holmes guitar playing embodies so much of the spirit that is IQ as a band. If I had to pick a track I'd say that "Born Brilliant" is really a Michael Holmes special. The track title is a true testament to his make up as a human being and as guitar player. Fearless fret work unleashed! Moreover, as the Bass work by Tim Esau is nothing short of powerful, punchy and charismatic on a usual basis I feel that the Esau presence' is definitely very strong On The Road Of Bones. Esau is a brilliant bass player and he reminds me a lot of Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike and The Mechanics) by the way he can bring down the house with those Moog Minitaur bass synths and powerful Roland bass pedals he uses in his arsenal of destruction. My whole house vibrates as if I live in a train station or something whenever I have these guys play in my living room. Above all, the Esau presence is felt greatly and I for one am so glad he is back with the band. I love his bass work on 'Ryker Skies' and of course The Road Of Bones s/t track. Truly , a thing of low end beauty. Last but not least. Paul Cook. This is a guy who could put on a clinic to show how you can make drums sound interesting by even just hitting a snare drum and having fun with cymbal crashes all day. Like Esau, I am so glad 'Cookie' is back with the band. His drum roll offs are exceptional, lively and energetic. Cook is a real definition of a spark plug with in the IQ band. I feel that on the 1985 album, 'The Wake' Cook put on a drumming clinic, so it no surprise that on this live album 'The Wake, The Outer Limits and the mini epic 'Headlong' are pure 'Cookie' magic moments performed on this live album. As I said earlier, everyone in the IQ band are on top of their games and what we, as listeners, have on our hands is a top tier live album. As Peter Nicholls would say, " What did you expect? It's an IQ gig. "

Lastly, I of course want to talk about briefly about the audio production and engineering quality of this album. Many of you know by now if you've run into me on the PA Forums, that when it comes down to audio, being as it is sound pressure waves interpreted by our brains, I can be a bit of a nutcase I know. Sound quality and the art and science behind sound recording is as every bit important to me as the music is itself. I can thankfully say without the slightest grimace on my face, that On The Road Of Bones Live is absolutely pure and utter sonic ear candy for even the most discerning listener. Mainly, the maestro at the helm of the audio console is Rob Aubrey. Rob Aubrey I honestly feel, since he joined the IQ audio engineering team back in 2000 for The Seventh House, that over the last 16 years Aubrey has cemented himself like a 6th member of the band. His degree and knowledge for proper engineering skills is widely apparent on this live album. To my ears, this is one of Aubrey's greatest audio engineering achievements. The Overall mix On The Road Of Bones is absolutely sublime, Chrystal clear with an exceptional degree of instrument separation. Nothing is unclear or hazy. Above all else though, the real audio achievement on this live album is a little something called DNR. Quite simply, DNR refers to the term Dynamic Range. DNR refers to the accuracy at which high and low frequency responses are portrayed or made 'audible' with in or on an album recording, meaning where the 'loud' parts are actually made loud and the 'lower' parts (frequencies) are made softly or quieter in the overall mix/production of the album recording, but still the lower frequency responses are made very audible or clear to the human ear, which is how 'nuances' or those nitty gritty details can be heard on an album warts and all. Long story short, Aubrey is a genius at giving DNR to a recording cause it enhances the life, the immersion and realism to what you are listening to. There were many times I felt I was inside Paul cooks drum kit or at the foot end of Peter Nicholls's microphone. I can literally hear his nose whistle! All in all, I am truly grateful to have this album and it is a Masterpiece or classic in the making on every level.

Indeed. A very forceful, 5 Bones.

Prog On.

IQ are far and away one of the best bands in prog, with their remarkable consistency from 1993 onwards heralding one of the most impressive runs of studio albums in prog. Setting aside non-"main" studio albums - your archival releases, remixes, and rerecordings - I'd say their studio releases from Ever to Resistance represents a streak of excellence that has yet to be broken and which would be the envy of any other band.

Now, the good thing about being a band who's produced so many truly excellent songs is that it gives you a really deep bench to pick from when you are putting together a live show. Take Live From the Road of Bones, for instance. On two stuffed CDs, the band not only play the entirety of the first disc of the Road of Bones album (the "core" material on the album, if you will, since the second disc isn't on all editions), but they also treat us to material from a wide range of the rest of their discography, with pieces from The Wake, Ever, The Seventh House, Dark Matter, and Frequency all represented.

The end result is a superb setlist which I can't really find fault with. Though the band have occasionally played Paul Menel-era songs with Nicholls on vocals, at the same time I can't put hand on heart and say that the set would be improved by any this time. (Nor does it really cry out for anything from Seven Stories Into Eight.) The lack of any material from Subterranea makes sense given how closely associated with that album's storyline those songs are, and since there's something of a story hinted at in the core songs of Road of Bones perhaps adding in Subterranea associations would confuse things. Tales From the Lush Attic's best songs are, let's face it, the two epics, and the band seem to have decided - not unjustifiably - to make Without Walls from Road of Bones the standout epic of the night.

Either way, when you have a set list this good, all you need to do is then get IQ to perform it to their usual high standards (which of course they do) and make sure the audio engineers do a good job capturing the performance (mission accomplished). When you put it this way, making a live album this good seems easy... but that's if and only if you have a band on the level of IQ on your hands. As Live On the Road of Bones testifies, such bands are a rare treat indeed.