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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Son of Man State Of Dystopia Review by Gary Hill Honestly, were this getting placed strictly on the music contained here, it probably wouldn't get put under progressive rock. This act, though, is a spin-off of the band Man. That band generally gets put under prog, so I'm doing the same with this. That said, there are some definite proggy pieces here. This also gets hard rocking, at times to the point of near metal. It all works really well, with some great hooks and strong tunes. This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2020 Volume 2. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2020.

Track by Track Review

Conscience After an atmospheric bit, this thing fires into some hard rocking zones that make me think of Uriah Heep to a large degree. There is a killer AOR break further down the road that rocks with a real melodic hook to it.

Feeding Time This number is still an up-tempo piece, but it's more keyboard based and more purely prog like. Mind you, there is a hard rocking edge to it that brings the AOR textures to play. This is classy stuff. There is a metallic section further down the road that lends a different flavor still.

Bring Out The Best In Me Mainstream rock with some definite proggy elements makes up the idea of this tune. There are some great hooks, and this is one of the most decidedly accessible pieces of the set. The tune works into a break that's very much Beatles turned prog.

When It Falls Apart Now there is some serious blues rock built into this rocker. There is some cool slide guitar on it. The bridge on the piece brings some definite progressive rock angles in its melodic concepts. Some of those aspects remain when it works back out to the song proper from there.

Auto Devotion There is almost an AC/DC vibe to the guitar progression at the start of this thing. The cut has had a hard rocking edge. There isn't a lot of prog in this cut. It's more of a pop metal kind of tune.

One With The Voice The opening movement here has some killer prog elements at play. There are harder AOR concepts built into this, as well, but the prog concepts are really the driving elements here.

Reign Of Yesterday Hard rocking metallic textures merge with AOR prog elements and more on this cool tune. This is another classy mainstream rocker.

What The Man Said There is a smoking hot metal concept at play on this number. I like the vocal arrangement on this thing a lot. The whole tune is so cool, though. I'd almost consider this to be either a hard rock or metal number more than anything proggy.

March With The Drum Acoustic guitar brings this into being with a balladic approach. Again, I'm reminded of Uriah Heep as this begins. This gets into harder rocking zones as it continues. There is some decidedly militaristic stuff here, particularly later. The closing of this cut includes sound-effects of a particularly dystopian nature.

New Beginning This comes in with a killer rocking groove and works out in style from there. There is still a bit of an AOR prog element at play, but there is also a definite metal edge here. I dig the hard-edged proggy break later in the piece. This has some decidedly potent hooks, too.

Too Many Questions A melodic rocker, this starts with some sound bites. This thing has some cool sections and great hooks. It also has some meaty guitar sounds. A false ending around the five-minute mark gives way to some smoking hot jamming from there. The returning section is a powerhouse instrumental movement that takes the tune to some trippy effects to end.

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