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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Tears Memories of Things Unnecessary Review by Gary Hill This is a unique album. The music here really runs the gamut. Some could be considered heavy metal. The bulk could not, though. In fact, the majority is either melodic progressive rock or weird ambient space music. This incredible diversity along with the skill in songwriting and performance, make the disc an exceptional one. It’s recommended to any progressive rock fans with an open mind to music that occasionally turns metallic. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2010 Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Time Master (Radio) If the whole disc were like this, I’d consider this to be a progressive metal album. It’s a shorter edited of one of the two part suites on the set.

Things Imaginary (Radio) This is a melodic progressive rock cut that has an intricate acoustic guitar solo section later in the piece. The cut is another edit, much like the previous piece.

Time Master The next two pieces are part of a suite called “Time Master.”

a. Memories Here we have an expansive instrumental introduction. This is just about a minute long and quite pretty.

b. I Just Want to Forget This cut seems to combine modern progressive rock sounds with thrash-like Metallica sort of music. It’s a powerhouse cut, but one that probably will have a lot of the prog purists running for cover.

Things Imaginary Here we get another two track suite.

a. A Childhood Dream This short instrumental is pure progressive rock.

b. A Hurtful Reality Intricate, sedate and balladic, this is a wonderful piece of music that’s purely progressive rock. It gets quite involved and moves through a number of intriguing changes.

Trendy De-commercialization This time we get a three piece suite that is over fifteen minutes long. It’s very purely progressive rock.

a. Sleeping Level 9, Hypnotic patterns...consuming Zombies This is just plain ambient weirdness that I’d qualify as space rock. Some hints of melody emerge late in the piece.

b. Awakening, Products We Don't need...Mind Manipulating Tacktics of Greed They add more rhythmic elements and layers as they continue here, and it gets more energy, but otherwise the same basic concept holds in place from the last movement for a time. It grows out after a while into some RIO-like fusion. We get some vocals that make the whole thing feel like Hawkwind a bit to me.

c. Going Back to Sleep, This Time free...A New Age born...? This cut is sedate and pretty, but still contains a lot of the elements of the other movements of this suite. It turns very pretty and powerful later and there’s a spoken word movement over the top.

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