The Progressive Music Thread

[sirdilznik]

For those that don't know what Progressive Music means, Progressive is music that tells a story throughout the length of an album. It is more than just a collection of songs, progressive albums use the songs in an album to convey a lasting message. Progressive songs tend to be quite lengthy, though don't necessarily need to be, and put together a chapter of a story, when sown together with other songs on a given album they tell a tale.

Anyway what are your top 5 Progressive Albums of All Time?

Here are mine:

1) Pink Floyd ~ The Wall - A very abstract prog album. The Wall tells the story of "Pink Floyd", who is a combination of Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, losing touch with reality as his father leaves him alone when leaving for the war then drugs further disillusion him and send him into madness. Not the most concise album ever, but the imagery and the abstract progression is nothing short of amazing. The Wall is the all-time prog classic.

2) Queensryche ~ Operation Mindcrime - The most concise prog album ever. Operation Mindcrime is the tale of Nikki, a young drug addict disillusioned with society that gets sucked into the role of a hitman for an extreme group of radicals. During the story he falls in love with a former prostitute turned nun and has to make the hardest choice of all.

3) Genesis ~ Selling England By The Pound - Many people that were not around during the Peter Gabriel Genesis Era do no remember how incredibly awesome Genesis was back them. Selling England By The Pound was their quintessential album. A progressive rock opera of corruption and greed. Selling England By The Pound served as the catalyst to numerous amazing albums to follow.

4) Yes ~ Close To The Edge - While not as concise as some of the aforementioned albums on here, Close To The Edge was a progressive masterpiece that pushed the boundaries of what is and what could be the boundaries of reality.

5) King Crimson ~ In The Court Of The Crimson King - The album that introduced King Crimson, possibly the greatest prog band ever, to the world. In The Court Of The Crimson King is an EPIC progressive journey through both time and style that would go on to define the hectic, unforgiving style of the band for years to come.

[brillo1]

You should check out this type of music at http://www.supaswap.net/ they have a whole section on music and you get the chance to discuss and even swap albums between members

Hope this is of interest

[MegaHassan]

I llike some prog rock and prog metal bands like Queensryche, Atomic Rooster, Rush, Fates Warning, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Anubis Gate, Circus Maximus, Savatage and whatnot. But overall I prefer my music to be direct and not so meandering, but prog works really well in certain moods or when I'm on a long bus ride to uni.

I f'n adore Queensryche though, they have/had that perfect blend of anthemic, arena like qualities and progressive story telling and a thematic continuation of ideas that I loved a lot.