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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Childe Roland At The Mountains of Madness & Other Strange Songs Review by Gary Hill While Child Roland’s Underground disc wandered near to progressive rock, this one truly crosses the line into that genre. It still has some of the psychedelic rock and David Bowie influences and, at times, comes close to Haawkwind music. It’s overall quite a cool and prog-rock oriented disc, though. I like the other one a lot, but this is stronger. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2011 Volume 3 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

The Necronomicon Roland contributed a version of this song for the various artists set Strange Aeons and this might be that same tune. It’s a hard rocking number with a lot of progressive rock and a lot of Hawkwind built into it. There is a smoking hot guitar solo.

Moon This one’s more straightforward, but still psychedelic. It has more of a garage band sound to it.

Midnight Sun (Acoustic) A pretty and mellow ballad, this is tasty. It’s got a lot of progressive rock built into it.

The Hounds of Tindalos A hard rocker that’s very Bowie-like, there’s a lot of crunchy psychedelia here, but the progression shifts and changes enough to make it fit well under progressive rock.

Cassilda’s Song (Acoustic) Very pretty and very tasty, this is a progressive rock ballad that’s extremely effective.

Lucifer Childe David Bowie meets psychedelic music and progressive rock in this killer tune. It’s hard rocking and cool.

Brown Jenkin A mellower tune, this really combines a David Bowie kind of sound with a progressive rock element. There is some cool instrumental interplay later.

The House on the Borderland This is another that’s rather ballad-like. It’s pretty and proggy and a great piece of music. It has a lot of that David Bowie type of element. There are some cool keyboard bits present.

Behind the Mask A harder rocking number, there is a bit of a Crosby Stills Nash and Young element here. Of course, Bowie also features on the list of references. Whatever you call it, though, it’s a great tune.

What Do They Say? A song that appears on Roland’s Underground album, this version seems even more purely progressive rock oriented. I like this rendition a lot and it might be the best tune here.

Spaceship Progressive rock meets Bowie-like psychedelia on this powerhouse tune. It’s another highlight of the set.

Dream With Me A bouncy, rocking number, this is tasty. It’s quite proggy and yet has some of that Bowie element, too.

Midnight Sun There is a real spacey element to this. It’s a slow moving cut with a lot of killer guitar work on display. I like the cut a lot. It’s perhaps not as progressive rock oriented as some of the music here. There is a cool psychedelic segment later. It does also get a bit more prog-related further down the road.

Cassilda’s Song Weird spacey music creates the atmosphere of this number. It’s got both a lot of progressive rock and a lot of psychedelia built into it.

Midnight Gloomy and slow moving, this is proggy, but also rather dark and mysterious. It’s got some psychedelia built into it.

At The Mountains of Madness Take music rather like the theme music for “The Munsters” and twist out into progressive rock territory. You’ll be right in the style of this piece. This instrumental really is the most purely prog music on the disc. It wanders in some killer directions.

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