THE PARIAH, THE PARROT, THE DELUSION

Maybe nothing to do with the review but it's a question that always get in my way talking about Dredg, why does anybody refers to them as "art-rock", I mean, music is art, rock is music, so they make "art-art". I found that definition pretentious and self indulgent, but, at the end, Dredg really do great music, enjoyable, catchy, intricate and with a lot of soul and sense within, so, nevermind labels or references, this is really a group of inspired guys sharing music with sense, and that's always good.

This is their most recent material and I shouldn't start from here, but it's good to share my impressions now that everything sounds so fresh to me and that I'm in a very Alternative Rock vibe. Well, the first thing that jumps into my eyes is that their quality of sound is really one of the best I've heard in the last 5 years or so. The drums are very clean and strong, the guitars as well, which is maybe the most difficult thing to achieve nowadays. The riffs and the phrases are catchy, rockin' and enjoyable and everything is summoned around strong and touching melodies, not necessarily soft vocals but very touching and shares a lot emotion. This is what I search in music (or maybe in this kind of music) and I found this particular album to be great, maybe a little brief in the instrumental parts, but at the end, the music works for the album and the concept and they do reach the goal to make you (or me) feel the emotion and get into a very enjoyable state of mind (or soul, you pick). All the songs are short, so don't worry if you see that there are 18 tracks, all flows very well in between. Highlights: LIGHT SWITCH, IRELAND, INFORMATION and SAVIOUR.

This is a vocal oriented album, so don't expect too much instrumental parts, but great moody melodies. I feel that this guy really sings with soul, very easy to relate to and maybe that's the strongest aspect about the album, somehow the listener can feel himself closer to the artist and the music.

Now, I have a little problem, maybe it's a conceptual album but this is really not prog rock, or at least not in my standards of prog. Every alternative band should play like this, and that would be a perfect world, but how much about it that has to do with prog? I'm not sure, I can tell you, this can be one of my favorites Alt Rock albums but in prog, really, I don't see the connection.

So, I get back to the start, leave out the levels and enjoy. I'm sure I will be enjoying it, prog or not, but for matters of this particular review, I should rate it in a strong 3 stars album, maybe better in time, but I don't see how this could be an excellent addition to your PROG collection. A great album indeed and maybe 5 stars in the rest of the world, but for prog standards, 3 stars is fair enough.