ANDY WEBB

Andy Webb

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

SPECIAL COLLABORATOR: Retired Admin

Member since: 6/4/2010 • Forum posts: 13104 • Last visit: 11/17/2020 8:25:56 PM EST
Location: Terria

Progressive Biography

Oh, hello there.

I suppose, if this is a bio of an admin of a prog website, I should mention how I got into prog.

My first real experience with prog was when Yes' box set In A Word was released. My dad, who was a big fan of Yes when they first emerged on the scene in the early 70s, purchased the set and let me borrow it, thinking I might find some value in it. I admit the music didn't click, I never had an a-ha moment, and I had a hard time listening to most of it.. However, around 2005-2006, I purchased Scenes From a Memory by Dream Theater, after I had read about it online. I was a fairly big metal head (still am) at the time, so the reviews online piqued my interest. One listen was all it took for me to be blown away. Dream Theater's combination of sheer technical prowess and melodic aptitude caught me by total surprise. At that moment, my addiction began. By 2007, when Systematic Chaos was released, I had come to embrace that Yes boxset as well, and once I got Systematic Chaos, my infatuation with progressive music was complete, and my quest to find new music began.

I found PA early 2009, when I was looking up reviews for Magellan. Over the next few months, I began coming back here when I would look for reviews. By mid 2010, I was a member and writing reviews myself. From then to now, my collection has exploded, my knowledge of progressive rock has expanded exponentially, and my love of the genre has grown in an immense way-- and hasn't stopped.

I became involved in the "behind the scenes" operations of the site in early 2011. Because my hunger for new prog was still fresh, I hung around the Suggests New Bands subforum a lot, and I became an asset for the genre teams by bringing new suggestions to them. That entered me into collaborating, and from there I joined a number of genre teams, including the heavy prog team, which I went on to lead, the prog metal team, and the math rock team. I eventually became an admin of the whole operation, which is a labor of love I continue to this day. I love this site, and I hope you do too!

So, I guess I'll explain my ratings system that I use in my reviews.

There are 5 stars available. The ways you may see me use these stars is this:
1-, 1, 1+, 2-, 2, 2+, 3-, 3, 3+, 4-, 4, 4+, 5-, 5, 5+

The straight numbers (1,2,3,4,5) are explained by the standard ratings (good, but non-essential, etc). The in between ratings are explained as such:
1-.......... Less than 1 star, really bad
1+......... Around 1.45, still bad but could be worse
2-.......... Around 1.55, quite poor, but not horrible
2+......... Around 2.45, not terrible, but could be better
3-.......... Around 2.55, less than average
3+......... Around 3.45, better than average, but not all that remarkable
4-.......... Around 3.55, pretty darn good, but has a number of flaws
4+......... Around 4.45, almost as good as it gets
5-.......... Around 4.55, extremely close to perfection, with very minor flaws
5+......... More than 5 stars. Perfection.

Up until April 20, 2011, I reviewed each song individually (most of the time, but not on live releases*), so my reviews tended to run a little long. If you want to get just the jist of what I'm saying, read the intro and the album overall, and that will give you the main points. I recommend reading the breakdowns, however, because you will see each tracks pros and cons, and which tracks are my favorites on the album.

However, this format started to get really old, and now I review the album as a whole, which makes both the reviews shorter and the time it takes me to review them shorter. Hopefully this new format will make the reader happier and no less informed than if I hadn't changed my format.

* Live releases are reviewed with "overall" in mind, because the tracks are reviewed individually on the studio releases and re-reviewing them musically would be pointless.

Keep proggin', everyone!

Reviews distribution by sub-genre

	Sub-genre	Nb of reviews	Avg rating
1	Progressive Metal	52	3.77
2	Heavy Prog	36	3.94
3	Crossover Prog	36	3.39
4	Tech/Extreme Prog Metal	25	3.64
5	Symphonic Prog	21	3.81
6	Experimental/Post Metal	11	3.73
7	Eclectic Prog	10	3.80
8	RIO/Avant-Prog	9	3.22
9	Neo-Prog	9	3.44
10	Jazz Rock/Fusion	8	3.88
11	Post Rock/Math rock	8	3.75
12	Zeuhl	4	4.00
13	Prog Related	3	2.00
14	Various Genres	3	2.67
15	Psychedelic/Space Rock	2	3.00
16	Prog Folk	1	2.00
17	Progressive Electronic	1	3.00
18	Indo-Prog/Raga Rock	1	4.00

Reviews and Ratings of HEAVY PROG

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