Progressive rock / metal

The most exciting thing about that tune was the bass playing IMO

Yup, I found the project through the bassist actually, not Eren. Nazım Kemal Üre is the bass player, he's phenomenal. He's actually an MIT graduate in aircraft engineering and a professor at one of the top technical universities in Turkey, too. Talk about a disciplinarian.

Here's him covering Bleed by Meshuggah

 
In other news, I just got the new Devin Townsend album in the mail. First of all, this guy really gives you your money's worth with physical copies. There's really extensive liner note descriptions of every song, including the bonus tracks! On the other hand, this has got to be the worst Devin Towsend album cover. It's so computerized and ugly.

As for the music itself, I enjoyed it! Didn't get to the bonus disc (which lately have been better than the main albums) but the main album was excellent. Lots to digest, as usual, but this feels a lot more adventurous than the last few DTP albums. Anneke is on it but a lot less featured than before, but I don't mind that she's used sparingly since she was so heavily featured on the last one. This album is much more progressive, heavier, and a step away from the more commercial vibe of Addicted/Sky Blue/Epicloud.
 
Check out disc 2 when you get a chance. I like the main album, but disc 2 is great as well (almost reminds me of physicist).
 
Who does know Balance of Power? British band with good feel for melody. This is from the third album from 1999, Ten More Tales of Grand Illusion:
 
Check out disc 2 when you get a chance. I like the main album, but disc 2 is great as well (almost reminds me of physicist).
Funny you mention Physicist, one of the songs on here (Victim) is actually from that album. Devin mentions in the liner notes that he still wants to do a proper recording of this song.

Bonus album was good, definitely a bit more aggressive at times. I wish Devin would do a more stripped down vocal approach though. The army of guitars and synths usually work fine but I'm not sure if I like his "choir" vocals technique. The melody ends up getting lots. Aside from that, I enjoyed it just as much as the main album.

Monkeymind was my favorite on first listen. I wish Dev did more instrumentals.

Devin also mentions in the liner notes that Loud is probably an indication of what the next album will be. I definitely prefer his more mellow stuff these days so I'll look forward to that.
 
Yea that one stood out for me too.

I've heard each album two times each now. So far I think MonkeyMind is my favorite of them all. Cool tune.
 
For every self respecting seventies prog fan!
  • Allan Holdsworth – guitar
  • Eddie Jobson – keyboards, electric violin, electronics
  • John Wetton – bass, lead and backing vocals
  • Bill Bruford – drums, percussion
 
Just found this:


Rough description would be a combo of early Opeth and more modern melodeath like Scar Symmetry. Perfect production and lots of cool melodic riffs.
 
The newest song by Seventh Wonder, who haven't released anything since 2010 because their singer (Tommy Karevik) was Kamelot's number one draft pick. Does not disappoint and seems to streamline their insane musicality, which is for the better in my opinion. Still, so many cool basslines!

 
It was Mark Kelly.

Here a Mike Oldfield with big cast studio performance of Tubular Bells Part 1 for BBC TV '2nd House', filmed on 30 November 1973, originally broadcast on BBC2 on 1 December, with Steve Hillage as one of the guitarists! (the guy with the longest hair ;-) ):

And Goblin, with their famous piece.
 
I think we should continue the Neal Morse discussion here because it's hard to follow in the Now Playing thread:
A few minutes of

Neal Morse Band -Similitude...

on youtube. Sounds pretty good. Anyone listened to the whole thing? @Mosh?
Up to now I've never been a fan of Neil Morse's, even though I saw him live once (with Transatlantic iirc). Always found his stuff a bit too typical for the style and too 'normal' for some his musicians imo, plus I don't care about his religious views.
Haven't gotten to this yet but it is on the to do list. I actually did listen to his album One and I was very impressed. First solo album of his I thoroughly enjoyed.
Ha, it's great! Awesome band, all songs I've heard up to now very good, great sound. This is why Mike is better off without DT. Massive drum sound.
I like the parts when the non-Morse dude sings. Who's that?
Yes, I like his voice and playing too. Eric Gillette, haven't heard of him before.
His album/song ? might be one of my most listened-to albums in the past year. The dream team of musicians there certainly does not hurt. I liked Similitude a lot, though I heard it only twice in its entirety and I will need more listens.
Do you know a bit more than me about Neil Morse's religious and political views and the statements he makes on 'Similitude...' in this respect? I'd like to buy the album, but I'm not going to support someone who preaches the ideologies of the political religious right (or even just creationism).
Honestly, I don't. Neal is a very religious man and I can appreciate him in that regard, though we tend to disagree quite a bit (him being born-again, me Catholic - which makes us further apart than him and an atheist, I suppose :D - just kidding, of course :ninja:) and despite hearing quite a lot of stuff by him, Transatlantic or Spock's Beard I have absolutely no idea whatsoever regarding his political leanings.

He's a born-again Christian, therefore a Protestant, which means he'll be closer to creationism from the get-go (cause us darn Catholics even preach that darn evolution ... well, the Pope is the Antichrist anyway, right? Luther for the win!), but I'm not really sure. Also, there is actually a lot of quite pragmatic and intelligent people who are not all that crazy about the evolution theory as proposed and still are not young Earth creationists - they merely believe there might be another way the science has not uncovered so far (since any given time we are merely at the best point of our science's possibilities), so just about that. But I don't know and don't want to guess with Neal.

I'll say this much - even if I were an atheist, I wouldn't be bothered all that much by his lyrics. From what I see and hear and understand, he is very sincere about his beliefs, which are mostly on the personal side of things - "I believe that we all are loved by God", "I've learnt to walk by Him", "God is Love", "He gave me the strength" etc. In that regard, I believe it's much "safer" to buy Neal's records than - for example - Megadeth's. If anything NM suffers because he's explicit - John Petrucci's Catholic-ness has been very ingrained in DT stuff, yet it's subtle enough so you don't pick it up. U2 are a borderline example, but I cannot unhear it and they are as "dangerous" as Morse is, Christian-wise, IMHO. True, Neal is very serious about God, but so am I and that does not make me a bigoted, alt-right redneckish Sandy-Hook-trutherish conspiracy nut.

If it helps you in any way, Similitude is supposed to be based on The Pilgim's Progress ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim's_Progress ), which is supposed to be this seminal work of English literature, but I haven't read it so far, so I'm not really ready to say anything.

Of course, everything above might be uprooted by some interview I haven't read, but I feel this way right now.

The most important argument being of course the fact you would be missing out on some pretty awesome music - seriously, you have to hear ?. Portnoy, Roine Stolt, Alan Morse, Steve Hackett and Jordan Rudess in his most tasteful, non-wankerish, non-twitching-ants-and-fax-machines-fucking mood? Dude, now! :D

EDIT: Well, according to Wikipedia:

Because of its explicit English Protestant theology The Pilgrim's Progress shares the then popular English antipathy toward the Roman Catholic Church. It was published over the years of the Popish Plot (1678–1681) and ten years before the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and it shows the influence of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. Bunyan presents a decrepit and harmless giant to confront Christian at the end of the Valley of the Shadow of Death that is explicitly named "Pope"

I still recommend the album, so there :D

Also, to quote a very nice review that actually named this album the album of the year (with apologies to Opeth and Nick Cave):

"Lyrically, ‘Similitude…’ is also some of Neal’s best work. Although it tells a story based on a book, the lyrics still feel very personal, perhaps mirroring Neal’s own spiritual journey. That he covered extensively with the two ‘Testimony’ albums, but this album feels equally personal and real. The lyrics are very honest, all the struggles, doubts, and pains that are part of a journey of faith (or life) are dealt with seriously and in a real way. Neal’s message of perseverance through struggles, there being no shortcuts in life (highlighted by “Shortcut to Salvation” a stinging critique of certain sects of modern Christianity) comes through clearly, and one doesn’t have to share his faith or his beliefs to take it to heart or acknowledge its relevance in a modern world. And through the whole album the lyrics and the music mesh perfectly and keep a constant movement. The journey is felt with the music as well as the story itself, and although the running length is staggering, the album never drags, even when it slows down and gets quiet. This is certainly more than can be said for a certain other double disk concept prog album that was released this year by Portnoy’s former band. As comparisons between the two are inevitable I’ll simply say that I have no doubt that Mike takes some satisfaction in the fact that the album he was such a big part of crushes the other on pretty much every level."

(Seen here - http://www.metalwani.com/2016/10/review-the-neal-morse-band-the-similitude-of-a-dream.html - their rating: 10/10, user rating: 9.1/10)


But that's enough off topic - NP: Slade - Slayed?
Thanks, Judas. Well, your name actually seems a bit misleading (even misguiding).
I personally don't care if Neal Morse calls himself religious, as long as he doesn't preach any fundamentalist views (and doesn't condemn anybody for having a different religion, sexual orientation, life- or deathstyle). Creationism is a form of fundamentalism, because it proclaims that God *literally* created the universe in 6 days -- rested on the 7th day, took one of Adam's ribs to create Eve etc. -- therefore science, as well as any religion apart from Judaism and Christianity, *is wrong* (Judaism is actually wrong too, for other reasons). 'Intelligent' isn't the word I would use to describe that.

I don't know Morse enough to know what he actually believes, just saw a few interviews on YT. For example he was asked how he felt about the new album, and he answered he was amazed at how good God made it to be. :lol:

Not interested in the political/religious discussion, but Neal Morse had a spiritual edge to his lyrics well before he became a Christian. His conversion happened toward the end of his time with Spock's Beard, not sure when. But the early Spock's lyrics were written in the same way, but with less direct references to Christianity. My problem with some of the religious content in his lyrics is that it's way too direct. Nothing is left open to interpretation and it borders on preachy. His earlier solo albums are more guilty of this, his recent work has moved away from that. Again I haven't listened to the new album so I have no idea how that compares. It's still possible that he wrote an album based on a Christian book but managed to keep it at least slightly vague I guess. I've never heard him condemn anybody for having different views. I remember an interview where somebody asked him how he felt about Mike Portnoy (who is raised Jewish and not actively religious) and Neal basically said something along the lines of "I talked to him about religion once and he said he didn't have time for it but that's OK".

But overall I don't care about the lyrics, as long as the music is good I'm interested. In case you guys don't know, the last two Neal Morse albums are supposed to be a band effort rather than solo projects. On the surface it doesn't seem like much of a difference since Mike Portnoy and the bass player in this band have been all over Neal's solo work since the beginning, but in the past those guys would quickly learn the already written music and record it. Especially Portnoy wasn't that creatively involved since he was constantly busy with DT at the time. Now everybody participates in the writing and it really showed on the last album (The Grand Experiment). Portnoy's best asset has always been his arranging skills. Since Neal Morse's music tends to be rather plain, having Portnoy around to mix it up helps.

Eric Gillette is a guitar player who auditioned for Neal's live band a few years ago and got to be part of the Neal Morse Band project. Like Portnoy, he was an awesome addition to the band and has added a new layer to Neal's sound. The added vocals are great and his John Petrucci-esque shred guitar style is a stark contrast from what you usually hear in Neal's music.

Here's a song from the last Neal Morse Band album that really impressed me and sold me on the project overall. You get vocal parts from different members, a spectacular guitar solo from Eric, and Mike Portnoy's arrangement is perfect. The a capella intro was his idea and I like how the chorus doesn't fully reveal itself until the end of the song. It builds up quite nicely. Very refreshing Morse tune, best thing I've heard him do since the early Transatlantic/Spock's Beard days.

 
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