Prog Pet Peeves

 

boo boo wrote: Of course hilariously over the top vocals can be awesome depending on the band, I'm a Uriah Heep fan after all.

That's a good example because David Byron does evoke LaBrie, mostly on account of a similarly overwrought style and annoying vibrato.  But he has a much better tone, kinda like Gillan, so he gets away with it to a large extent.  

 

boo boo wrote: Uriah Heep were a band who clearly enjoyed themselves though. My main problem with Dream Theater is that goddamn everything they've ever done sounds cold, routine and mechanical to me. It lacks that spark of life that all the best 70s prog bands had (and yes that includes ELP, STFU). Even when Wetton era King Crimson made music with an intentionally bleak and "industrial" sound, it had a rawness to it.   Dream Theater seem to only understand a portion of what prog rock was about. They know complex signatures and everything, but their music doesn't take me anywhere, they have no sense of humor, no ambition to actually use their skills to make something different.

Yeah, they lack rock and roll energy and spirit maybe because they have decided beforehand that rock cliches are disgusting and juvenile (in a way, they are but they often bring much needed life to compositionally tired ideas).  But they also don't have such an individualistic style like KC or Genesis.  They don't crush as much as the most extreme metal out there, they are not as creepy as say Magma, they are not as much fun to listen to as ELP, they are kinda in the middle.  But I won't trash them too much for it because some people like it that way, a bit of this and that without being particularly expressive in one direction, that;s why they do have a big following too.  But they can be borderline embarrassing with their handling of softer material, for that I cut them no slack.  How people can flog modern pop and then proclaim Another Day a masterpiece baffles me.