Best Progressive Concept Albums

Barking Pumpkin said:
Did you guys read all about the concept or something before hearing the album?

Before I got it, I didn't know anything about Pain Of Salvation. I got 'BE,' and listened through it a lot. I absolutely loved the music, and then after basically memorizing the album I listened through with the lyrics in hand to try to understand the concept.....very last thing to happen for me with the album.

One of the elements that stands out immediately is the orchestra. I haven't heard a "metal" band use orchestra like this before. Daniel Gildenlow really uses the orchestra, with classical techniques such as four-part writing, complex harmonies, counterpoint, etc. The same way he does with the band on other albums. Then there is the real musical concept here. This is the most conceptual "metal" album I've seen in a musical sense. The classical method of developing a theme and making variations on it really stands out for me. The piano track you mentioned, "Pluvius Aestivus." The piano melody above the arpeggio line is the melody and variations from "Iter Impius." It starts with the orchestra behind it, and over the course of the song it switches and you have the orchestra doing the Iter Impius variations. Then you see all kinds of other instances of this classical method throughout the album, too many to note (sorry, corny pun). Besides the musical stuff, Daniel Gildenlow's voice is of course as amazing and expressive as ever.

And you're right.....it's not intended to be a "metal" album, although it does have its "metal" moments (Nihil Morari, for example) but it is an amazing progressive concept album. I don't see it as a "problem" as you noted it at all. Probably even a positive thing. Pain Of Salvation have never been a really heavy band, so it's not much of a stylistic change in that aspect of the music.

Oh....one other thing. The point that you can't compare it to Dream Theater or Symphony X or Shadow Gallery or whatever is a good thing to me. That's what makes it progressive. There are lots of bands that when I listen to them I could say "this sounds like Dream Theater," and that doesn't make a great band in my opinion.
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I didn't mean to start anything with you...as you probably guessed...I just wanted to state my opinion of the album now that I have heard it...it is VERY progressive, but not very metal...I guess that I was expecting something different than what was on the disc...I would actually like to hear any other Pain of Salvation albums, and then make my assessment of the band once I have heard every album...overall, they seem like a talented band (maybe not as instrumentally talented and showy as bands like Sym X, Dream Theater, and Shadow Gallery), but the talent seems to lie in the writing and composition, not as much in the shredding and blistering solos.....overall, they seem like the "Primus" or "Pink Floyd" of current progressive music...

Also, I bought Pain of Salvation - "Be" after reading mainly your glowing reviews and hype about it...I had no idea what it would be like or what Pain of Salvation sounded like as a band...I was just hoping it was good...in fact, "Be" was one of the first albums that I bought blind in a long time...so I knew nothing about the concept, and still don't fullly understand it...I merely know that it tells about the experience of God and all of his feelings in creating the human race and some of their faults....that is as deep as I understand it...
 
If you want more "metal" material by Pain Of Salvation, buy their first two, 'Entropia' and 'One Hour By The Concrete Lake.' It's really impressive because there is no learning curve for them......they basically started out making perfect progressive songs. Of course, they had an advantage because they were playing together 10+ years (I think.....m-a is down so I've forgotten exactly) before they came out with their first album. But they are a pretty mellow band compared to something like Symphony X. Lots of their songs start out with really heavy riffs, but then by the verse you'll have acoustic stuff. But I think any of their others would be plenty "metal" enough for you, especially the first two.

If you want.....I'll just list some of their faster, more progressive metal oriented songs:

Used
Inside Out
Inside
Beyond The Pale
The Big Machine
Winning A War
People Passing By

Oh......all of their albums are concept albums by the way. None are as involved with the concept as 'BE,' but they all are, and you can see some of the same "musical concept" things..... a really cool example being "Morning On Earth" and "Reconciliation," which both use the same melody, but with one being a ballad and the other being a fast paced progressive metal song.
 
Barking Pumpkin said:
If you want more "metal" material by Pain Of Salvation, buy their first two, 'Entropia' and 'One Hour By The Concrete Lake.' It's really impressive because there is no learning curve for them......they basically started out making perfect progressive songs. Of course, they had an advantage because they were playing together 10+ years (I think.....m-a is down so I've forgotten exactly) before they came out with their first album. But they are a pretty mellow band compared to something like Symphony X. Lots of their songs start out with really heavy riffs, but then by the verse you'll have acoustic stuff. But I think any of their others would be plenty "metal" enough for you, especially the first two.

If you want.....I'll just list some of their faster, more progressive metal oriented songs:

Used
Inside
Inside Out
Beyond The Pale
The Big Machine
Winning A War
People Passing By
Click to expand...
Cool...thanks...I'll definitely check them out...from what I have sampled of it, 12:5 is their single least "metal" album, right? I'll definitely try to check out those first two albums...don't get me wrong, Pain of Salvation is a cool and talented band, they are just not as easy to get into as a say Dream Theater or Shadow Gallery, which write much catchier songs...
 
Ayreon Guardian X said:
Cool...thanks...I'll definitely check them out...from what I have sampled of it, 12:5 is their single least "metal" album, right? I'll definitely try to check out those first two albums...don't get me wrong, Pain of Salvation is a cool and talented band, they are just not as easy to get into as a say Dream Theater or Shadow Gallery, which write much catchier songs...
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:lol:, yeah. '12:5' is their live acoustic album, so don't go looking for metal there, :D. It's just all acoustic versions of some of their songs......they even do some of their faster paced heavy songs, in different arrangements. This really shows me that with Daniel's writing it's not about the heaviness, but the music and songwriting, the heaviness is never a cripple......because the songs come across just as well on 12:5. Another thing to point out is that it's a real acoustic live album.....there's a picture of the setup in the booklet and it's acoustic guitars, real piano, real harpsichord, music stands.....so it's not just a "put our guitars on the clean channel" acoustic album, they really do it right, and do their signature accenting the vocals with various three part harmonies. I really love it.....his voice is much more expressive by default just because it's in a live setting......I don't even listen to the studio 'BE' anymore because of this, just the Original Stage Production version. But the arrangement of "Ashes" on '12:5' is a really sexy song.........I guess you haven't heard the original, but that's their song that they put out on a single, pretty catchy and accessible. Then they turn that upside down on '12:5' from a depressing downtuned song to a sexy major-key blues number.

Another reason I'm drawn to Pain Of Salvation is because I'm really interested in composers, I love composers and bandleader type people in various genres, and since Daniel Gildenlow writes all of the music for Pain Of Salvation (minus a Fredrik Hermassen (sp?) song per album), so that's especially interesting for me.

Okay, that's enough from me....:D
 
1.V
2.Night Of The Stormrider
3.Inner Circle
4.A Pleasant Shade Of Gray
5.The Dark Saga

BTW. Jon Schaffer is working on new Iced Earth album.It will be concept album,follow-up of Something Wicked Trilogy!!!! :hotjump: :hotjump:
 
Vucko said:
1.V
2.Night Of The Stormrider
3.Inner Circle
4.A Pleasant Shade Of Gray
5.The Dark Saga

BTW. Jon Schaffer is working on new Iced Earth album.It will be concept album,follow-up of Something Wicked Trilogy!!!! :hotjump: :hotjump:
Click to expand...

I know its my thread, but i really must say that i'm surprised that it took 3 pages for "Night Of The Stormrider" to pop up on a "best concept album" thread. I love that album, along with many others, and i'm surprised nobody paid any regard to it.
 
Ayreon Guardian X said:
Barking Pumpkin, I was able to hear "The Perfect Element" and it is wildly different from "Be"...it is pretty damn cool...I actually like it more than "Be", but that's just because it is more normal, and less "progressive", I guess..."Be" is almost too progressive...
Click to expand...

Hah, also The Perfect Element is a lot more on the "emotional" side if you know what I'm talking about.
 
"No Exit" being a concept album is news to me... do you mean "A Pleasant Shade Of Grey"?

While we're at it, APSOG is one of the most grandiose, beautifully crafted and, what's more important, emotionally involving concept works I've ever heard.
 
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