Top 5 epics and why?

I'll list mine:

1. This Strange Engine (Marillion): So moving. Probably H era Marillion's most emotional track. Rothery's guitar work is brilliant.
2. The Last Man On Earth (Pendragon): It's hard to pick out one Pendragon epic, but I think this one is close to perfect. The choruses at the beginning are sublime and Barrett's haunting guitar playing is superb.
3. The Willing Well (Coheed and Cambria): I don't care what anyone says. This is definitely Prog and a very good Prog epic, at that. It's pretty diverse and not one of its ~24 minutes is wasted.
4. Solomon (Arena): An extremely bombastic climax to a very bombastic album. I love it, particularly the melodies (vocal and guitar) that start with the line "Does it matter to you?"
5. Supper's Ready (Genesis): The prog epic. Peter Gabriel is on fire on this track, and the outro is one of the classic moments of 70s Progressive Rock.

A few honourable mentions:

Harvest of Souls (IQ)
A Place in the Queue (The Tangent)
Ice (Camel)
The Bright Ambassadors of Morning (Pure Reason Revolution)
Buying New Soul (Porcupine Tree)
Narcissus (Threshold)

And many more.

Yes - Close to the Edge - the pinnacle of progressive rock. It's dark, light, slow and mysterious, sharp and edgy. And powerful chords during Wakeman's church organ solo.

Fantomas - Surgical Sounds - Maybe the only piece of music that has ever actually frightened me. I feel like I am ripping on flesh and bone when I listen to this. This is primal and evil. I love ever bit of it...even the end.

yes-close to the edge

5. The Creation/The Seperated Man (tie) - Neal Morse. The gorgeous melodies (first played on The Creation, and some reprised on The Seperated Man) can really uplift and touch the listener. Portnoy and George in the rhtythm departement really tear it up, but not too the excess that it takes away from the excellent writing, or from the beautiful melodies. The instrumental sections in these songs are absolutely brilliant, and are as atmospheric as ambient music, as exhilirating as prog metal, and as moving as Morse's music has ever been.

4. Hergest Ridge, Part One - Mike Oldfield. The atmosphere of this album is extremely captivating, and very rewarding. Though Mike is no guitar wizard, or instrumental genius, he is fantastic at writing music, and his most beaitiful melodies are found on Hergest Ridge. Part One is a bit more diverse, and not as sloppy as Part Two.

3. Octavarium - Dream Theater. Dream Theater, as far as I knew, were just a bland metal band. I thought they were just musical geniuses with no skill at writing and no musical sensitivity. But when I took this album out of the library, and heard this song, that presumption was shattered to pieces. Not only are these some of the very best musicians in the world, but they are also phenomenal writers, and explore in many different style of music. This album is extremely emotional from its moody beginning, to its epic climax.

2. Histoires Sans Paroles - Harmonium. This is an extremely delicate song. Its soft flutes, guitars and keyboards all meld together amazingly. They even manage to shift from section to section seamlessly. The beauty of this song has rarely been matched, let alone kept consistent for seventeen minutes. The flute line is one of the very best string of notes that can be played.

1. Supper's Ready - Genesis. Extremely captivating, beatiful music with phenomenally diverse atmospheres. The musicianship and complexity is top-shelf, but there's to it than that. The music has a bond with the listener. When listening to this song, it's like reading a well written novel. The serene, haunting introduction sets the mood, and the tensions builds until the massive climax and the conclusion.

I doubt anyone will really read all that.

EinTon wrote: micky wrote: Thing is, though, none of these tracks had really been "20-minute songs" in the truest sense. ALL of them essentially were several "conventional" pop and rock songs strung together with instrumental breaks instead of pauses, with a couple of reprises here and there to provide a proper feeling of "completion" at the end. Now, one may argue that that is actually the preferred way to approach a side-long track, and I of course love all of these to death (er, except Lizard. Lizard annoys me). But still, all of these tracks could easily be split into different songs and listened to separately (er, if you had that capability with your listening device). Do you know Aksak Maboul's "cinema" (RIO-style) ? It's  also very  cohesive musical piece, not a "suite" of different pieces -  although not a conventional "pop song" with verse and refrain. It's characterized by several musical "themes" which reappear in many parts of the piece, but always  a bit different arranged and in a different mood. The "main theme" is even played forward and backward at the beginning and the end of the piece. You

hahah.. I don't.... but I will... thanks!

ahhh... back to it.. now that the pit has been sated.

having covered the top epic song and top epic 'cut and paste'

the epic album.....  and should be no surprise

3. Tales from Topographic Oceans.

an grand epic across 2 LP's of a grand symphony in 4 movements.  Before anyone who bothers to care flames me... listen to the album... closely.  The 4 'epics'  are acutally parts of a larger epic.  They are all related.  I never caught it until someone a hell of a lot smarter than I pointed it out hahah.

Next up... epic instrumental

4. A Saucerful of Secrets...

forget the instrumental w**kfests that say nothing. This one does.. an instrumental epic that predates the theme  that Yes did with Gates of Delirium by YEARS.  More subtle.. and thus...  once you strip away the chrome  and all the bells and whistles.  A far more interesting epic.

last up....  simply personal preference here... for shear quality....

No surprise to any who know me....

5.Ys -  forget the track listing.... and find Andreas translation of it here at PA's.   What's more epic than the retelling of a man's journeys and encounters with death.   Simply an incredbile epic that flows with the same brutal intensity throughout the whole album.  Completely different that anything that comes to mind from the so called masters of prog. 


Edited by micky - May 23 2007 at 18:38

"Grendel" by Marillion - Such a badass song from beginning to end, and the Megaman-esqe middle section is the peak of prog badassity.

"You Enjoy Myself" by Phish - These guys are so underrated in the prog community. They took a composition that was 9 minutes on the album and developed it into a 25 minute live masterpiece, featuring a groovy Yes-like opening, a rockin' middle section, a funky bass solo, and closing with a crazy ever changing vocal jam.

"Cassandra Gemini" by The Mars Volta - This song bombards the listener with aggressive melodies from beginning to end, and rarely slows down, except for a short ambient section. It's filled with so many great hooks and vocal lines that are so fun to sing along to.

"Close To The Edge" by Yes - Not much to say about this one, although I will say that the Yessymphonic version is probably the strongest.

"The Truth Will Set You Free" by The Flower Kings - This was the first Flower Kings song I heard and I fell in love instantly. I've only heard it once or twice since then, but I'm listening to it again right now and remembering how great it made me feel on the first listen.

Ahhh, this is very hard! I can't arrange them by numbers. But I enjoy these: