ROMANTIC WARRIORS: A PROGRESSIVE MUSIC SAGA

Fortunately in the last Cabezas de Cera concert I attended, I saw this DVD on sale and immediately bought it. I've already read about it here in Prog Archives and in other sources, and the most of the comments (if not all) were positive, so I really was keen on this video. After the first time I watched it, I knew those nice comments were written simply because this documentary deserved it. Now that I review it I can say I've watched it three times, and enjoyed all of them.

This is an wonderful documentary (and also healthy for the prog scene) that offers a bright vision of today's progressive rock scene, in which there are hundreds of bands creating original music that is not really known around the globe, bands that share their musical talent with complex and unique songs that should be better recognized. This is something that is in our hands as prog lovers, and now I can say that thanks to this DVD I've been enjoying a lot a previously unknown band to me: Cheer-Accident.

"Romantic Warriors: A Progressive Music Saga" saw the light in 2010, it is a video documentary divided in five chapters that together reach the 90 minutes. Here we can appreciate the history, thoughts, influences and musical visions of ten different bands/musicians that belong to the contemporary prog realm. In the first part there is also an explanation with a map, of how this genre has developed throughout the world, a brief history when some of the most representative bands are mentioned; it is like an introduction for beginners.

We can also witness some stories from people involved in this realm, who are not actually known for being musicians, people like Mike Potter, festival organizers (RoSfest or ProgDay among others), people from prog labels such as Cuneiform or Poseidon Records, and some fans, from old warriors to young newbies, but all of them with an interest in common: progressive rock music. I believe one of the aims of this DVD is to keep this music alive, and even increase the interest of people, but besides the interest of the genre as a whole, the particular interest in those newer bands, because like someone (don't remember who) in this video said "it is time to pass the torch to the new bands".

To be absolutely honest, the first thing that caught my attention about this DVD was that it featured my beloved Mexican band Cabezas de Cera; if you know me then you know how proud I feel about them and how I love their music, so my CDC radar told me I had to get this video, and now I am happy with it, and not only because of CDC. I fell in love with Cheer- Accident, I've been looking for their music and watching some videos on youtube, they are a very original band which surprisingly was unknown to me, despite having released more than ten albums. Dan Britton's talent and projects were familiar to me, however I loved watching him rehearsing, sharing thoughts and playing alive at Prog Day.

While I was watching, I imagine myself attending to those festivals, my only experience was in 2008 in the latest edition of Baja Prog Fest, which was amazing, something I will remember forever. The fact of being with unknown people from different parts of the world, but all talking about prog rock was something priceless, it is like belong to the same country or the same channel. I hope to attend soon to one of those big festivals.

Now talking about older (or more experienced) guys, I loved to see both Gary Green from Gentle Giant and Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings talking about the past, the present and the future, these legends were previously inspired by some of the prog dinosaurs, but now they are the inspiration of newer acts.

I enjoyed a lot the selection of the bands featured here, and how they were intercalated during this video. Also it is worth mentioning that topics like prog venues (such as Orion), or the internet culture were mentioned here, because they are linked to the music and have a lot to do with the music's faith.

What a great documentary, a great idea by the people who did it, kudos to them. I don't really think I could name this a masterpiece, but I can highly recommend it to any prog rock lover, no matter if you are old or new warrior, it is worth buying. My final grade will be four stars.

Enjoy it!

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