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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Post Death Soundtrack The Unlearning Curve Review by Gary Hill This may not really be progressive rock, but it is clearly progressive music. Not only that, it has a lot in common with things like Porcupine Tree and RPWL. This is moody. It’s quite Gothic. There is a nice variety of sound from one piece to the next. No matter how you classify it, I like this a lot. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2016 Volume 3 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

That Which Is This is dark and moody. It’s also packed with melodies and great textures. This is very much a dark modern prog type of sound. I love the multiple layers of vocals, but the whole piece is just exceptional.

You Can’t Go Back The vocal presence is the main element here. This is also moody and dark. It’s Gothic, but again closely related to things like Porcupine Tree and RPWL. I like the guitar soloing later in the piece quite a bit.

Our Time Is Now Piano begins this piece. Other elements are added as icing on the cake. The vocals come in over this general backdrop. After the first bit of vocals, though, it works out to something more like industrial music. It has a cool flowing sound and energy. There are elements of hip hop in the mix, too.

Beauty Eyes I Adore The song starts with non-lyrical vocals unaccompanied. The arrangement is cool. Lyrical vocals come in over the top of that, but still no instrumentation is included. It’s almost a minute in before we get any instrumentation – some electronic jamming. The cut builds out from there. It drops to a piano and voice dominated arrangement after a bit. That feels sparse without all the backing vocals. We get more of those as it gets back to the electronic chorus, though.

Arrhythmia Dreaming Here is a moody cut that’s very much in line with a lot of modern prog. It starts rhythmically, but grows to more melodic and atmospheric. There is a very prominent rhythm element throughout most of the song, and this has some really rocking stuff built into it.

Little Alice This starts off percussive. It has a real dark industrial sound as it works forward with spoken parts over the top. The alternating lines of spoken/screamed vocals make it feel a bit like extreme metal or even rap. The sung vocals lend some more melody to it, but they are the exception. There are some metallic guitar sounds in the mix, too. In fact, parts of this definitely land in metal territory.

Through The Gates Piano dominates this. The vocals that come over the top bring a dark prog sound. This is mostly atmospheric. It’s quite Gothic in nature in a lot of ways. The piece is really mostly just piano and vocals. It is a bit on the creepy side, too.

Dance With The Devil This cut is electronic and mid-tempo. It’s one of the more mainstream songs here. This isn’t really up the level of the rest to me, though.

Transform In White Light This moody, proggy cut is great. It’s almost symphonic in some of the electronic layers of sound. It’s quite beautiful, too.

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Progressive Rock

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