Your Prog Rock Hot Takes

Big Sky wrote:   I let Christi know that I did not care if he thought my take had no place here. If he does not like what I post, I suggest he ignore me.

Edited by Cristi - November 29 2023 at 00:27

Here, this will get us going.....

my hottest take would probably be that I'd rather listen to a good song instead of technical flexing. Most 70s proggers understood that, so did neo-proggers, heck even early Dream Theater had buncha awesome tunes, but later on the plot got lost methinks.

I don't care how fast of a guitar player you are or how many time signatures you crammed into your 12-min long djent epic, I want to hear some good/creative songwriting - this is what prog to me, first and foremost

Frets N Worries wrote: A Momentary Lapse of Reason is a great record

it absolutely is, and I personally got some other faves that would be considered hot takes:

Marillion - Somewhere Else (I actually prefer it over Brave AND Marbles), Holidays in Eden, Anoraknophobia

Genesis - from Phil's era, Invisible Touch+We Can't Dance+s/t >>> Duke+Abacab+ATTWTT+W&W.
A Trick Of The Tail is Phil's era best tho, no hot take here

some other unpopular albums that I absolutely love:
Dream Theater - Falling Into Infinity
Steven Wilson - To The Bone (his best solo album)
King Crimson - Islands, The Power To Believe
The Mars Volta - Octahedron
Fates Warning - Inside Out, FWX, Disconnected (their best album)

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: There never really was a prog resurgence (at least not a major one)

sad but true

I don't know if this is a "hot take," but the best progressive rock band is Van Der Graaf Generator and you cannot change my mind.

And the only good Genesis album is "Selling England by the Pound"

Steve Hackett's music is just much better than Genesis.

The Big Generator is the best Yes album since Relayer.

Edited by omphaloskepsis - November 29 2023 at 09:11

Cristi wrote: Lumenko wrote: Cristi wrote: Lumenko wrote: Contemporary Scandinavian progressive music is extremely overrated. You need to develop a bit why you think so.  I don't see it how it's "extremely overrated". I don't think it's even overrated.  Today's exaggeration in championing Scandinavian progressive music dates back to the 1990s. Obviously, when the early 90s are debated in the context of prog-rock, people usually mention "Hybris" by Änglagård as a kind of revelation, as if "Hybris" was a lonely phenomenon at the time. However, the 1990s are an underrated decade in prog-rock, and actually, there are several truly great prog-rock debut albums from the early 90s. For instance, Casino was a one-off prog-rock project by Clive Noland and Jeff Mann. Their self-titled concept album also features Sylvain Gouvernaire from Iris and Karl Groom from Threshold. Unfortunately, Jeff Mann passed away shortly after the "Casino" CD was released on the Dutch 'progressive' label SI Music in 1992. But before he left, Mann left behind the "Casino" CD, which is perhaps the UK's best prog-rock album of the early '90s. Or, Swiss band Galaad. For their first concept album, titled "Premier février," also released in 1992, the band delivered a powerful and theatrical prog-rock sung in French [without copying Ange!], with the originality of the singer as well as some magnificent melodies. Both of the aforementioned albums are better early 90s prog achievements than Änglagård's "Hybris." You said "extremely overrated". That's a superlative if I may say so.  It's all subjective, I think Änglagård's Hybris is better than all the albums you mention here.  I would say TFK are overrated, but that's just my take on the band. Also TFK has quite a few imitators. It's become a bit predictable.  But i don't think the entire scene is overrated.

"Hybris'', as a mostly instrumental album with only a few verses here and there and not so great vocals, isn't even close to the albums I mentioned above.

Cristi wrote: Lumenko wrote: "Hybris'', as a mostly instrumental album with only a few verses here and there and not so great vocals, isn't even close to the albums I mentioned above. Änglagård played some vintage keyboards, of course, and they had "complexity'', but after listening to the album a few times, there's nothing particularly memorable about it. There's a lot to complain about regarding its production as well. "Hybris" is just one of a number of extremely overrated prog-rock albums from Scandinavia. That's just your opinion.

Well, I'm afraid that it's not just my opinion if I hear that Änglagård were ripped off a lot from King Crimson, particularly from their "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" and "Starless and Bible Black" eras.

Lumenko wrote: Cristi wrote: Lumenko wrote: "Hybris'', as a mostly instrumental album with only a few verses here and there and not so great vocals, isn't even close to the albums I mentioned above. Änglagård played some vintage keyboards, of course, and they had "complexity'', but after listening to the album a few times, there's nothing particularly memorable about it. There's a lot to complain about regarding its production as well. "Hybris" is just one of a number of extremely overrated prog-rock albums from Scandinavia. That's just your opinion.  Well, I'm afraid that it's not just my opinion if I hear that Änglagård were ripped off a lot from King Crimson, particularly from their "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" and "Starless and Bible Black" eras. Furthermore, Änglagård somehow sound like they were compelled to play prog-rock, much like the majority of those other Scandinavian prog-rock bands. Also, although I'm sure they adore the genre, the Scandinavians seem to be forcing the dark side of prog-rock instead of its bittersweet and colourful nature. I mean, instead of appreciating the prog-rock genre's vibrant scenery, it seems like many of them pushed the one-dimensional atmosphere of dark wave and gothic rock into their take on prog-rock. It causes a good portion of Scandinavian progressive music to be dull and colourless.

The best Scandinavian band is Freak Kitchen. Very colorful, fun, heavy, and great lyrics.

A shame PA has rejected them for inclusion twice, at least.