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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Glorious Wolf

Mysterious Traveler

Review by Gary Hill

This is an intriguing and effective release. It makes good use of bluesy hard rock sound at times leaning toward metal. Overall, though, this is more of a progressive rock thing, and it leans toward Pink Floyd at different points throughout. While the opener features male vocals, female singing in the prominent motif beyond that point. Then again, there are more instrumental pieces here than vocal ones. All in all, this is quite an effective release and likely to make my "best of 2023" list.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2024  Volume 1 More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2024.

Track by Track Review
Repentance
Frantic and dramatic, this has a real prog rock vibe as it gets underway. It turns a bit more metallic as it continues, and it works through a number of twists and turns as it goes along. There is a cool heavy prog groove to it further down the road. This is a classy tune that leans on the harder-edged side of the equation.
Slow Down
Less metallic and more purely proggy in some ways, this does have some hints of bluesy rock in the mix. I definitely think of Pink Floyd to some degree on this, but there are plenty of other things going on here, too. It drops way down after the two-and-a-half-minute mark. The guitar oriented section that ensues definitely has both a bluesy vibe and some of that Pink Floyd kind of thing at play. As this builds outward from there we get some cool synthesizer work and some guitar playing that definitely makes me think of Gilmour. I can hear hints of the Meddle era of Floyd. This instrumental is pretty amazing. There are some great twists and turns on this thing.
The True Story
This builds up gradually with a vaguely bluesy vibe, but also plenty of early Floyd in the mix. Yet, it's also more modern than that. This becomes more of a melodic progressive rock number. I love the vocals on this, and the whole tune just oozes cool.
Howling At The Moon
In some ways this is more metallic. It's a killer rocker that really works. It definitely has some proggy things at play, too. It's another solid instrumental.
Mysterious Traveler
This definitely has some healthy helping of blues rock in the mix. It's another solid instrumental. I love the bass presence on this thing. The guitar work gets into almost jazzy territory at times.
Battlefield
Bringing both prog and near metal elements to bear at different points here, this is a unique and intriguing cut. This has some pretty amazing guitar work at times. The synthesizer gets opportunities to shine, too, though. It's a dynamic and dramatic instrumental piece of music. This thing gets very intense and involved before it's over and done.
Beautifully Broken
At nearly nine minutes long, this is the epic of the piece, but only by a little because there are a number of tracks here near or over eight minutes long. This comes in sort of bluesy and jazzy. The vocals are strong on this, and the track moves from through some cool evolution. It's sort of a straight-line growth until around the half-way mark. Then it seems to end but instead we get mellower, trippy stuff that again makes me think of Floyd's Meddle album. This again grows in a measured and rather linear way, getting pretty involved and hard rocking as it works through.
  
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