IQ new album 'Dominion' announced.
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Printed Date: April 30 2025 at 04:28
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Topic: IQ new album 'Dominion' announced.
Posted By: yam yam
Subject: IQ new album 'Dominion' announced.
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 08:47
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Well, we've known that they've been working on this for a while now, but today it's been officially announced. Just two more months to wait!  https://www.loudersound.com/news/iq-announce-brand-new-studio-album-dominion-their-first-for-six-years" rel="nofollow -  IQ: Dominion: 1. The Unknown Door 2. One Of Us 3. No Dominion 4. Far From Here 5. Never Land Looking forward to hearing this very much!  |
Replies:
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 08:56
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One of the most eagerly anticipated albums for 2025, I would think? ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 08:59
| ^ Certainly by me! |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 09:05
| IMHO Road of Bones had significantly less memorable "hooks" let's say than Frequency. It was still a delicious album though. But Resistance, for my tastes, is a clear step down. Songwriting-wise, it shows clear symptoms of the band running out of ideas. I hope IQ will bring back some of the "hummable" qualities of their older works on their upcoming album. |
Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 09:10
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First studio mix of track 3 "No Dominion": And track 4 "Far From Here" performed live at Paris Café de la Danse on 21.09.2024: That second video only has the usual quite tinny smartphone sound quality, but at least it gives us an idea of what to expect. |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 09:11
| It's always a pleasure to see more "newspaper comic strip" style doodles from Peter Nicholls. ❤ |
Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 09:38
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Looking forward to the album. I'm not sure about that album cover though?
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Posted By: mellotronwave
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 12:54
| ^Thanks Yam yam |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 13:37
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Looking forward to new IQ........ -------------   
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Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 13:39
It took longer for Resistance to kick in, but once it did...I fell in love. This girl adores Resistance and ROBs.
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Hrychu wrote:Posted By: mbzr48
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 14:32
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https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=89755 Added today
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Posted By: PaulG
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 16:29
| Definitely looking forward to this! Hope they change their touring schedule and fit Nee York in with Canada. |
Posted By: Lights Faces
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 18:23
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Omg omg. 2 months to wait. The artwork is super good. Kinda different from previous albums too. The number of tracks is very limited too. I hope they're gonna be long.
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: January 28 2025 at 22:53
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yep looking forward to this! I kind of agree about Frequency being above TROB but the latter is the one that is generally much more popular. It's not so beholden to the 'neo prog' as well which something that plays in its favour.
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Posted By: A Crimson Mellotron
Date Posted: January 29 2025 at 00:28
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Great news! Always excited for new IQ! |
Posted By: BrufordFreak
Date Posted: January 29 2025 at 15:44
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The wizard-looking dude on the album cover looks like he might be John Jowitt or Mike Holmes' son! ------------- Drew Fisher https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: Alard Charlton
Date Posted: January 29 2025 at 18:49
| I still think that they miss Widge's songwriting. IQ to me seem a bit directionless these days. |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: January 29 2025 at 19:30
| ^ apparently Orford went off to work as a truck driver he was so disillusioned with music! |
Posted By: Alard Charlton
Date Posted: January 30 2025 at 06:30
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I was in contact with Martin at the time and he didn't become a truck driver. It was a a very delicate and not very nice situation between himself and Mike Holmes. Orford was also becoming disillusioned about the ( then relatively new ) download culture. He left and decided to give up music and concentrate on his love of steam trains. I believe he is back in a part time capacity with Jadis. |
Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: January 30 2025 at 10:28
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Martin wasn't completely out of the music scene for very long at all. He performed at Mellofest 2009 (the second international Mellotron festival, held on May 2nd that year at the Luminaire in Kilburn, North London), did some gigs with former IQ lead singer Paul Menel in 2012, and has been doing occasional acoustic gigs in front of small audiences (mostly house gigs) with Jadis's Gary Chandler since the https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=96897" rel="nofollow - summer of 2014 . More info about that first gig he did with Gary https://giggingforever.blogspot.com/2014/07/7th-june-2014-gary-chandler-and-martin.html" rel="nofollow - here . Here is a short clip of him performing at Mellofest 2009: And performing the IQ song 'Nomzamo' with Paul Menel at Leamington Spa, 5th May 2012: He then contributed to the Jadis album 'No Fear of Looking Down' in https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=106718" rel="nofollow - 2016 and their 'More Questions than Answers' album from the summer of last year. He still plays live gigs with the band to 'keep his hand' in, as he says. Regarding his decision to quit the music scene after he released 'The Old Road' in 2008, he said in an interview with Prog Magazine in the https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2024332577616339&set=a.402062316510048" rel="nofollow - autumn of 2018 that all the companies that the album was shipped out to went bankrupt one after the other, and the album never paid its bills. He went on to say: "It takes four or five years to do this - every waking hour - and you never break even. The last track on 'The Old Road' is about the end of my time in music. All you can hear at the end of that album is the blackbirds singing in the garden, & that's all the songs you're going to get". Two more interviews with Martin can be found at: https://johnwettonlegacy.co.uk/f/meet-martin-widge-orford" rel="nofollow - https://johnwettonlegacy.co.uk/f/meet-martin-widge-orford (November 2023) and https://dmme.net/interviews/orford" rel="nofollow - https://dmme.net/interviews/orford (April 2003), though the first of those is about his experiences with John Wetton, and contains nothing of any relevance to IQ. When asked in that interview what he does for a living he replied: "I work for the Watercress Line steam railway one day a week and for the holiday park next door for the rest of the time. I basically look after the place, cutting hedges, mowing lawns and repairing and cleaning things. I also get to play with steam engines". Sounds like an idyllic life to me!
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: January 31 2025 at 00:00
I got this from Andy Edwards yt channel. I did wonder at the time if it was just Andy's attempt at a 'joke'. Appears so!
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Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: February 04 2025 at 15:25
For me Resistance was a huge step down from ALL their previous albums, including those with Paul Menel on lead vocals. If I score IQ albums out of 100, every album would score over 90 except Resistance, which would score more like 60-65. So many dull tracks on that album🤦🏼♂️ ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 04 2025 at 22:00
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^ It may be the curse of the double album perhaps. The Road Of Bones was not originally envisaged as a double but became one after fans overwelmingly purchased the 2 disc version. Frequency was a much tighter affair and also featured one of the best English prog drummers Andy Edwards (now more famous for his yt channel it seems). However Neil Durants keyboard programming is exquisite on Resistance and creates a wonderful soundscape for the music. I feel it's a much more interesting album than TROB which pretty much repeats the track Further Away and shows virtually no musical progression in ideas. Prog is not always about 'the songs'. IQ top 5 for me 1. Ever 2. The Wake 3. Frequency 4. Tales From The Lush Attic 5. The Seventh House Most overrated IQ album - Dark Matter. If ever an album showed a band running on fumes that was it IMO. Never rated it better than a 3 star album in PA terms. However for me the Paul Menel albums have to be at the bottom. He was never a good fit although I admire him as an artist in his right. His attempt at a prog epic with Human Nature was quite good fun actually and I love the song Nothing At All. Also No Love Lost was decent. Imagine Duran Duran had become a prog band and you have IQ in the Menel years.. |
Posted By: Heart of the Matter
Date Posted: February 12 2025 at 14:51
Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: February 13 2025 at 02:54
Common Ground, from Nomzamo, is one of my very favourite IQ tracks. Nomzamo was my first album of theirs and I played it to death. And I still love it! AYSC? was more commercial but still is a fantastic album. I’ve never made a connection between IQ and Duran Duran though😂 ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 13 2025 at 03:03
Maybe DD are a bit of a stretch, but I always used to think of the Menel albums as being a slightly more 'prog' version of Ultravox... ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 17 2025 at 22:14
Great stuff indeed. Mike Holmes take a bow
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Posted By: Rexorcist
Date Posted: February 22 2025 at 15:29
| Then I need to get to their whole catalog soon. |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: February 23 2025 at 04:27
I personally love Dark Matter. It has some of the catchiest leifmotifs in the whole catalog, plus it's very nicely balanced with the technical playing imo. Harvest of Souls is my favorite IQ epic. It just has such a well constructed flow to it. No subsection sticks out tbh. |
Posted By: Rexorcist
Date Posted: February 23 2025 at 05:35
| I actually just heard Dark Matter again recently, and I do admit that there's talent in the melodies and riffs, but it's also a bit familiar in the symphonic prog vein it's going for. I also listened to The Seventh House a while back and found it more wide ranging and surprising. |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: February 23 2025 at 08:59
The way IQ utilizes those tropes on Dark Matter triggers a very specific retro-prog area of my nerdy brain. 
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: February 23 2025 at 09:41
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Hi, So far, what I have heard is nice. Not quite spectacularly great, but nice, and (perhaps) a bit pop'y for my tastes, or at least ... conventional. That's not to say that there are not nice things, but maybe I was expecting a bit more from a band that has been around for a long time. I'm not exactly one for the conventional sounding things at all, and much prefer a more experimental attitude, rather than a simple, play the lyrics kind of thing, which for me, is a bit tiresome, as I am a writer and words have special meanings, and many times, some of these lyrics are ... very trying! I live for my vision and the words are how those visuals can be described, and I can easily see when others do the same, but more often than mot the majority of the rock lyrics are in the area of let's pretend. And I'm not even a let's pretend person when telling the young ones bedtime stories, which have a special place in my heart. ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Rexorcist
Date Posted: February 23 2025 at 11:42
Well you gotta go with the trigger. In the context of raw favoritism, that's one of the most important things. It's pretty rare for me to consider an album 10/10 if it follows a singular genre. You'd have to make sure practically ever song is amazing for that to be the case. This has in fact happened before, however, notably with the albums Songs of Leonard Cohen, South of Heaven by Slayer and Almoraima by Paco de Lucia. It may also help if you have a strong theme which is lived up to in spades, such as The Disintegration Loops. Otherwise, a diverse and great album suggests that you're good at more than just one thing, which is why I prefer diversified albums and even started that neo-prog recs thread.
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 23 2025 at 22:45
It was actually my comment and not that of Essexboy. We were chewing the cud so to speak. I think it's a 3 star album personally and of course that is my personal opinion. It stands or falls on Harvest Of Souls which even for IQ is incredibly close to the 'We want to be Genesis' template, so achingly so it's painful. The band was running out of ideas after the great run of Ever through to Seventh House and Martin Orford left not long after, partly disillusioned with the biz, partly because of the comparison they had invited to Genesis and the inevitable comments. At the end of the day there is only one band I like more than IQ so I am judging them by a different standard as I do with ELP. People like Dark Matter fine. If that can be an entry point for them then it's doing a job at least.
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Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: March 07 2025 at 10:10
I used to think that DM was their weakest album. Not by much! But it’s grown on me and I can’t really fault it. (and Resistance is a pale shadow of it). HOS is one of their finest epics (with TNM and TLHG) and Sacred Sound opens the album superbly. The middle 3 songs aren’t stunning but they’re solid enough. ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: March 07 2025 at 12:54
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Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: March 26 2025 at 11:23
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1st listen of Dominion (which arrived today) suggests it’s a huge return to form after the disappointing Resistance! Never Land in particular is gorgeous…. ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 27 2025 at 01:40
| I couldn't agree less to be honest. Apart from Mike Holmes always great guitar soloing it's just about as unmemorable and pointless an IQ album ever released. I largely agree with the Notes Reviews and Nathan on Shuffle reviews on yt, both are big fans of the band but are basically being as poilte as they can be to not be too critical. 'Nothing sticks' after several listens according to them. I've heard it only once but at best it's about a 8/10 album and I'm not even sure about that at the moment (no goosebump moments and nothing remotely exciting). I don't like the mixing either , my CD copy has way too much high end and Cookie could lay off those crash symbals occasionally (please). |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: March 27 2025 at 01:54
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Will listen to it when it is released ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/release-polls/pa" rel="nofollow - Release Polls Listened to: 
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Posted By: Zeph
Date Posted: March 27 2025 at 08:02
Does your scale go to 15/10 or is that a typo? You don't mention anything positive about the album besides guitar solos, but would rate it 8/10 or 4/5 stars (Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection)? I'll give it a go when it's out.
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Posted By: Frets N Worries
Date Posted: March 27 2025 at 08:05
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Wasn't a big fan of "Subterranea", but I'll give this one a shot. ------------- The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time... |
Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: March 28 2025 at 11:10
Listen again Richard. Come on, you know how this works! Tracks 1, 4 and 5 are all fantastic😎 ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: Grumpyprogfan
Date Posted: March 28 2025 at 11:57
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This album has been out (officially) for one day and it already is at the top of PA'S 2025 albums of the year? Same fan enthusiasm as 2019's "Resistance"....Deja vu. |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: March 28 2025 at 13:17
| The Unknown Door is one of those tracks that grow on you with each listen. Though, honestly, imo, its finale is pretty disappointing. |
Posted By: King of Loss
Date Posted: March 28 2025 at 21:49
| I listened to it, while it is a solid album, was surely worse than the album that I put on before it (All Traps on Earth that is). It is almost like a level lower than that album in all honesty. But it's not a bad album and I look forward to seeing them in short time on the Cruise. |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 30 2025 at 21:33
I think you have not noticed the words 'at best', in otherwords that's it ceiling. Currently I'm rating it at 7.5/10 and there is only one album in IQ's discography that goes below it for me and that is perhaps Are You Sitting Comfortably with it's overly cheesy 80's production. I'm thinking that Nomzamo might be higher just because of Human Nature, No Love Lost and the title track. Mostly this album is just treading water. We are a million miles away from the bold dark vision of Subterranea or the perfect poppy crossover of Ever not to mention the hard and heavy Frequency or the brooding The Road Of Bones. It's at best a professional consistent album.
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Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 01:03
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^ Sounds a little like Parasomnia. Will listen to it today ... ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/release-polls/pa" rel="nofollow - Release Polls Listened to:
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Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 01:08
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I think that history repeats itself in this case. It's just like with Parasomnia. An established prog band releases and album, hardcore fans who got their copies early express their excitement, then the album premieres and other people (including those who aren't such big fans of the band) listen to it, they see how much the fans praise it, they get upset by thier difference in opinions... and the album gets unfairly mass shаt on. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 01:16
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Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 01:19
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^ Why "unfairly"? I think you overestimate the impact biased ratings and reviews have on everyone else. I've read some opinions here, but my biggest influence so far has been the track they put out on YouTube. Based on that, I expect a "more of the same" solid release, and if the release turns out to be that, it will warrant a 7-8/10 rating. No further drama necessary
------------- https://awesomeprog.com/release-polls/pa" rel="nofollow - Release Polls Listened to:
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Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 01:20
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Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 07:29
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The postman delivered my copy on Saturday. Dominion rides shotgun in my car...starting today.
I have high hopes, since the last two albums are far-and-away my favorite IQ's. |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 08:17
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First listen impression: 80/100. Very solid release, but definitely of the "more of the same" type. ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/release-polls/pa" rel="nofollow - Release Polls Listened to:
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Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 11:50
I love Dark Matter as well. Yes, Harvest of Souls is about as close as you can get to ripping off Supper's Ready without being sued but it has some gorgeous melodies. I saw the new album in HMV this morning, terrible cover.
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Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 12:14
you still have an HMV??  ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 13:08
Never judge an album by it’s cover…. ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 13:37
| What's an HMV? |
Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 13:49
The closest one to you would probably be Cheltenham, followed by Cwmbran and Redditch.
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Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 13:56
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMV" rel="nofollow -
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Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: March 31 2025 at 14:02
I do remember the Merry Hell one from the early-mid 90's, but preferred to use the various second hand record stores which proliferated around Dudley after MH opened, driving the retail rents down. Somehow, I can't imagine driving to any of those three places on the off-chance! ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: April 02 2025 at 03:48
Agree to some extent but with Dream Theater anything at this stage that is listenable is a massive bonus while IQ are coming off a generally acclaimed run of albums. Maybe my expectations are set too high but I find myself wondering what the point of this is. With DT they needed to reconnect with the fans. My other thought is that IQ have not had a line up change for 3 albums, maybe that's a problem as they are lacking any outside influence to change the formula. For me at least they played with the formula on Resistance but now it's just formula.
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Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: April 02 2025 at 09:03
Whereas for me they played around too much on Resistance and made it boring, but with Dominion they’ve gone back to what they were good at, and added a couple of new ingredients!☺️ ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 02 2025 at 09:32
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I pretty much only REALLY like Frequency out of their more recent releases, but I haven't listened to them extensively (with the exception being Frequency).
------------- https://awesomeprog.com/release-polls/pa" rel="nofollow - Release Polls Listened to:
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Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: April 02 2025 at 17:03
Frequency is indeed a wonderful album. The 6-album run from Ever to Road Of Bones is just stunning…. ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: April 03 2025 at 02:51
kind of figures as that has a much harder sound, more akin to metal at times.
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Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: April 03 2025 at 11:21
In which case Mike should definitely listen to Far From Here off Dominion…. ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 03 2025 at 13:39
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^ I definitely like heavier Neo Prog, or even Neo Prog Metal (Riverside comes to mind) - but there is a broad range of styles I enjoy, including very light and "non-heavy" stuff. Like I wrote on the previous page, I enjoyed listening to Dominion. What I really liked on Frequency was the songwriting, and I think that Dominion is a little weaker there. But that opinion might change on further listens. ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/release-polls/pa" rel="nofollow - Release Polls Listened to:
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: April 04 2025 at 01:51
or the better version 'A Missile' off Resistance
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: April 04 2025 at 01:55
 Frequency is a perfect album for me. The last time I saw IQ play live was around that time with Andy Edwards on drums. I suspect that I must have realised and processed the fact that they were never going to better than that. |
Posted By: Disconnect
Date Posted: April 07 2025 at 18:25
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I am truly on the fence in terms of purchasing this album on vinyl. I don't care to preview new releases on mp3, I tend to commit to wax or nothing. Compressed mp3 bullsh*t is unacceptable to these ears. I loved Road of Bones and considered it their best since Dark Matter. Resistance was not to my liking at all. It sounded like leftovers from Road of Bones the band didn't consider good enough to be on Road of Bones. To those who have spun Dominion....is this an evolution out of Road of Bones or is it Resistance-esque? thanks
------------- "My own response to King Crimson is one of quiet terror." - Robert Fripp |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: April 07 2025 at 20:13
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Posted By: Disconnect
Date Posted: April 08 2025 at 05:28
I have, and though I know it is a lossless format, it is still digital. There's a warmth to vinyl that puts you in the same room with the artist (if engineered/mastered properly). ------------- "My own response to King Crimson is one of quiet terror." - Robert Fripp |
Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: April 08 2025 at 05:46
To me it sounds more like ROB-IQ then Resistance-IQ…. ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 08 2025 at 07:44
Someone needs to cure these ears from the nocebo effect
And the placebo effect
------------- https://awesomeprog.com/release-polls/pa" rel="nofollow - Release Polls Listened to:
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Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: April 08 2025 at 11:45
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Posted By: Disconnect
Date Posted: April 08 2025 at 15:57
Then I would tell you I am well aware of that fact and a vast majority of my vinyl collection are 1st pressings dating back to the late 60s. I own & operate my own recording studio, and am quite familiar with all things relating to music production. Perhaps I should clarify my earlier point by saying when in the role of a listener for personal enjoyment, it must be wax for me. If I'm working in the studio on my own music or a customer's music - I obviously work digitally because in this day & age it is the most feasible approach to a profitable studio.
------------- "My own response to King Crimson is one of quiet terror." - Robert Fripp |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: April 08 2025 at 22:52
| There is nothing wrong with the streaming version of the album it's just that there is not a single new idea on it and it overall sounds recycled IQ. They were never the most original sounding band in truth and from Dark Matter onwards have barely pushed into new areas. I'm now even assessing how much I truly like them. Ever will certainly always be a favourite album , that will forever be true. |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 09 2025 at 00:25
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^ When you say "idea", are you talking about songwriting or about the general style/sound? Personally I don't mind when iconic bands stay close to their established sound, it is a big part of their identity and I wouldn't expect any band to do the chameleonesque type of shapeshifting that Steven Wilson does, for instance. For me it is mainly the songwriting, combined with the musicianship (how well they play) that makes or breaks an album. ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/release-polls/pa" rel="nofollow - Release Polls Listened to:
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: April 09 2025 at 22:28
| ^everything really. I think they have become jaded as a band and for me started to become somewhat generic in approach from Dark Matter onwards. After that Martin Orford leaves and and with him a large does of the inspiration and music writing ability that their albums exhibited strongly. His 2 noughties solo releases are for me way more diverse and interesting than anything IQ did after Dark Matter and he even had a hand in creating the modern version of Big Big Train in some respects by utilising the vocal talents of Dave Longdon before Longdon became a full time member of that band. (although I'm perhaps reaching a bit on that!) The Road Of Bones was never that exciting as far as I'm concerned, the template for some of that album even being created some years before on the track Further Away from the classic Ever. There they had fortold a heavier metallic form of Neo Prog that became the thing it seems in the 00's'. Subterrannea was an incredible album although perhaps has not aged well while The Seventh House was the zenith of Nicholls lyric writing. Now I have no idea what this current album is about. Back in 1985 when I first heard IQ I was amazed at the sheer audicity of the band. Now its just hum de hum de hum 'meh' stock generic production and playing. Someone called it 'auto-pilot' and that seems sadly apt. Sounds like a band that has no idea how to advance and is desparate not to upset its core fan base. IMO |