Progressive rock / metal

VDGG is great. I love Hammills solo works as well but much of it lacks rhe color,variety and passion rhat Van def Graff has. Nadir is kind of an anomoly in his catalog. The only one that comes close is Vital but is really not indicative of their sound. Its a different lineup with only Guy Evans on drums remaining Oh and btw Guy Evans is a great drummer. The VDGG sound is tied into his style of drumming. Jazzy with subtle shifts into heavier sounds and he brings them back down to earth after the sonic maelstrom. I love H to He but Godbluff contains maybe two of my favorite songs ever made; Scorched Earth and Sleepwalkers.

After Nadir check out the Future Now/ph7.
 
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Tracklist and lineup for the new Ayreon album:

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Deus_Adrian said:
VDGG is great. I love Hammills solo works as well but much of it lacks rhe color,variety and passion rhat Van def Graff has. Nadir is kind of an anomoly in his catalog. The only one that comes close is Vital but is really not indicative of their sound. Its a different lineup with only Guy Evans on drums remaining Oh and btw Guy Evans is a great drummer. The VDGG sound is tied into his style of drumming. Jazzy with subtle shifts into heavier sounds and he brings them back down to earth after the sonic maelstrom. I love H to He but Godbluff contains maybe two of my favorite songs ever made; Scorched Earth and Sleepwalkers.

After Nadir check out the Future Now/ph7.
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Man, am I getting into this band. Brilliant stuff. While e.g. Yes is a band that sounds to me as separate people stapling individual contributions on top of each other, Van der Graaff produces a powerful collective sound. It feels as it has raw strength and impressive depth. In no way do I intend to diss Yes (or other bands), but seriously: Van der Graaf Generator feels as being a very original and unique band, touching colours and emotions other bands don't reach that well. (At the moment (at least)), their material is more spellbinding than anything else. I discovered these guys late, but at least there's a lot left! My favourite song from Godbluff is probably Arrow, but Sleepwalker's beginning and end theme is one of their better pieces as well.

As a whole album, H to He and The Least We Can Do feel as my favourites, but this could still change of course. I haven't heard Still Life and later material yet.
 
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Awesome vid! Love the way Arjen describes what he likes and what his influences are. Also Maiden!! Nice to see him and Ed play guitar/bass/keys and drums.
 
That was pretty awesome. I have a buddy that absolutely loves Ayreon. I really need to start checking them out, myself.
 
Holy shit that's amazing! Those constant facts are both awesome and incredibly lame - "For this I tuned the E string down to D" and "It wouldn't be prog without at least one reprise! ;)" and "Anything can be expected in prog music!"....whoa, boy.

Anyway, the song is really cool. I'll have to listen again without the video to make a final decision, but I'm looking forward to this album. Notes on the singers:

- LaBrie sounds like LaBrie!
- Tommy Karevik is pushing every aspect of his voice and it sounds amazing, but holy hell...just like that guitar solo I'm sure Tommy is glad he doesn't have to reproduce this live, cause it'd never happen.
- Russell is really sounding rougher and rougher with every album. Still sounds amazing, but the grit is creeping in to every note now.
- Who is Michael Erikson? Very nice voice.
- Floor rules.

Clutch did a better job with 10001110101. :D
 
Glad you liked it :D Arjen is really good at getting the best out of singers. Even got Ralf Scheepers to not try to sound like Halford for one song :D

How come you haven't heard of Michael Eriksen? He's the singer of Circus Maximus, but more importantly for you: he sang for Kamelot for one show after Khan left but before Fabio Lione was hired.

Only recording of him with Kamelot (ProgPower doesn't allow amateur recording <_<):
 
Night Prowler said:
How come you haven't heard of Michael Eriksen? He's the singer of Circus Maximus, but more importantly for you: he sang for Kamelot for one show after Khan left but before Fabio Lione was hired.
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Ah, that makes sense! I've heard a couple CM albums but never knew his name. He's a got a very good, different voice from that rest of the pack.
 
Forostar said:
Man, am I getting into this band. Brilliant stuff. While e.g. Yes is a band that sounds to me as separate people stapling individual contributions on top of each other, Van der Graaff produces a powerful collective sound. It feels as it has raw strength and impressive depth. In no way do I intend to diss Yes (or other bands), but seriously: Van der Graaf Generator feels as being a very original and unique band, touching colours and emotions other bands don't reach that well. (At the moment (at least)), their material is more spellbinding than anything else. I discovered these guys late, but at least there's a lot left! My favourite song from Godbluff is probably Arrow, but Sleepwalker's beginning and end theme is one of their better pieces as well.

As a whole album, H to He and The Least We Can Do feel as my favourites, but this could still change of course. I haven't heard Still Life and later material yet.
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Still Life is basically Godbluff pt 2, World Record is even more mellow...VDGG mellow that is. Ha. Then it became something else. The more recent reunion albums are uniformly excellent.
 
Good singing and bass playing and a feel for melody/catchiness? It's John Wetton.

RIP!

Time to go Mr. Wetton, but you'll be remembered with a legacy of some fine music.

(Damn, great version!)
 
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