QUEEN II

The greatest progressive rock album lots of prog fans never heard, including myself up until a couple of years ago! I always liked Queen but never really got into their albums. My 16 year old son, believe it or not, became a big fan and turned me on to their albums.

Queen's first two albums and even Sheer Heart Attack seem to take a back seat to Queen's other well known albums such as The Game, A Night At The Opera and News of The World. Queen II is that hidden gem, that forgotten progressive rock diamond that gets hidden behind the shadow of Queen's big commercially successful albums and the myriad of early '70's prog offerings. I was shocked at how good this album is. Especially the "Black" side which runs sort of like one long epic song with multi-parts until Seven Seas of Rhye. Not that the "White' side is bad. Quite the contrary. The first side gives a great cross section of the band with its anthem (Father To Son), and gives a glimpse to what's to come (White Queen (As It Began), folky psychedelia, (Some Day One Day), and a real cool rock tune by Roger Taylor (Loser In the End). It all starts off with the regal "Procession" where Brian May shows off his orchestral guitar sounds. Then comes the Black side. With it's heaviness, time changes, and mood shifts you don't even notice the complexity due to the strength of the material. Freddy Mercury at his most extreme. Unlike lots of prog metal bands who want to show you how clever they are regardless of what it sounds like. Here we get the opposite approach. The moods, melodies and lyrics dictate the complexity like all great prog should. "Ogre Battle" through "March Of The Black Queen" takes the listener through quite a workout until it lets you down nice and easy with the triumphant "Funny How Love Is". The great "Seven Seas Of Rhye" ends the album even though it doesn't really fit with the rest of the songs especially where it's located on the track list. Even if you are not a Queen fan but like prog, you might be pleasantly surprised by this one. I sure was. Blown away actually.