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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Bodragaz Awaken Review by Gary Hill I’m sure there are plenty of people who would say this disc belongs in the heavy metal category. I somewhat agree. For my money, though, I’d put this close enough to Dream Theater’s sound to include it in progressive rock. I know, some of you reading this think that DT is metal, too. In any event, this is some seriously crunchy, but also very strong music. If you haven’t heard this band in a while – see my reviews of their older discs, you haven’t heard them. It’s a lot different sound. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2009 Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Awaken This fires out with a very metallic texture. As the keyboards come across and the group pound out into the main song structure this feels quite a bit like Dream Theater. The vocals seem closer to Vince Neil, though. The chorus has some more pure prog stylings.

Rise They pound in here with a furious metallic movement, but there are bits of progressive rock keyboards here and there. They drop it down to a more ballad-like structure built around keyboards that serves as the background for the vocals.

Forever Take Dream Theater and add a healthy dosage of Queensryche and you’ve got a good idea of what this sounds like.

Beautiful Pretty keys lead things off here. That holds the introduction, but then crunch guitar enters. As they carry this forward it’s close to epic metal in its symphonic nature. They drop it way down for the verse and I’m suddenly reminded of Styx. It continues by combining these elements.

Dusk This is fairly purely metallic, but there are some progressive rock aspects to the chorus. I’d have to say that this is a bit average compared to a lot of the other music here.

Touch While this is a cool song, the formula is starting to overstay its welcome by this point and it’s all starting to get a bit “samey.”

Beyond They haven’t broken the mold here, but this fares much better than the previous cut. It’s got quite a metallic bent to it, but somehow the chorus has a very dramatic and powerful feeling to it. I like this one a lot. In fact, it might be my favorite song here.

Lost Those who want to put this CD in the metal category will find no better argument than this. It’s a heavy cut that is very much a pure heavy metal piece. There is a great Eastern tinged segment here, but I personally love those type of modalities.

Shine They start this off with a dramatic balladic type structure and that holds it for a time. Then it pounds out to more Dream Theater-like music to carry on. They drop it back to those ballad stylings later for a killer bridge and then power out into some of the most proggy crunch jams of the whole disc. This is one of the highlights of the album.

Dream Keyboards start this off, but when the other instruments pound in this becomes extremely powerful and dramatic. The cut is another that seems to me like Queensryche meets Dream Theater.

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