Year round up 2003

Good year for music, my favorites so far:

Enchant - Tug of War -of course!
Dream Theater - TOT
Adagio - Underworld
Sun Caged
Djam Karet - A Night For Boku
Ars Nova - Biogenesis
Cast - Al-Bandaluz
Live - Birds of Pray
 
ProgMetalFan said:
I totally agree... but I think 2004 will make up for it... two Pain of Salvation releases is more than enough reason to have me excited.
Not to mention the return of Mayhem, Destruction, and the mighty Priest!
 
great records of the year:

Before The Dawn - My Darkness
Edge Of Sanity - Crimson 2
Nightingale - Alive Again (was it 2003-- nevermind)
Children Of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll
Katatonia - Viva Emptiness
Charon - The Dying Daylights
 
Demonspell said:
The 2004 releases I'm anticipating the most would be Pain Of Salvation, Evergrey, Into Eternity, and Zero Hour if it ever gets finished...
I'm sure all of these releases will end up near the top of my Best of 2004 list!
 
I bought only a handful of new releases this year.

Enchant - Tug Of War
Sun Caged - s/t
Iron Maiden - Dance Of Death
Tangent - The Music That Died Alone
Helloween - Rabbit Don't Come Easy
The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium
Queensryche - Tribe
King Crimson - Power To Believe
Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

The last three I haven't had the chance to listen to them enough to form an opinion, but overrall not a very good buch of CDs. "Tug" seems to be the winner however. :)

I don't know why I buy so few new releases. I bought about 40 CDs alltogether.
 
ProgMetalFan said:
Tangerine Dreamer: could you offer us your thoughts on the new albums by Iron Maiden, Mars Volta, Tangent and Sun Caged?

Certainly.

Iron Maiden - Dance Of Death
Oh boy, where should I begin? ok the songwriting... it is terrible to be honest. The titletrack is a good example of a new maiden "epic", it goes nowhere and is musically very uninteresting. Bruce sounds horrible too, I almost shed a tear while listening to the titletrack... that's how bad he sounds to my ears. Another big failure is the production. The music sounds like it could have been by any garage band out there. One of the worst-sounding CDs I've ever heard.

Sun Caged
This one is much better. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's one of the best progmetal albums ever (I've heard this alot), but definitely one of the best from recent years. First of all, this is exactly how the music should sound: huge, energetic wall of sound which hits you to the face right from the start. The band has a good sense of melody making some songs very accessible even after the first listening. Of course there is well enough technical complexity to satisfy those who look for something from that department also. The singer has a minor accent that only adds to the enjoyment of the CD. Overrall, a very good release.

Tangent - The Music That Died Alone
I bought this one simply because I had read some good reviews and I noticed that David Jackson of VDGG-fame was a part of the lineup. Apart from the opening song (which sounds a lot like Flower Kings and for obvious reason), the music is wonderfully retro-spiritual, full of 70s prog atmosphere, but with a modern sound of course. To be honest I wasn't hooked by the album and after three listenings I'm still not sure if this is a good release or not. It lacks originality, I guess.

The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium
This was a blind purchase, but proved to be a good one. It seems to be a mixture of different kind of styles and calling it a "prog-album" would be a mistake. This album is hard to descripe... :erk: I hear Faith No More, King Crimson and even Dream Theater. The music gets very aggressive and rhythmic fireworks every now and then, then mellowing down to more acoustic-driven material. I need to listen to this one more... only two times so far, but there's something cool about the whole album and I can't place my finger on it yet.
 
Tangerine Dreamer said:
2004 seems rather interesting at this point: new albums from Marillion, Fish, Sieges Even and IQ.
What the!?!? Didn´t they disband in 1999? If this is true, I´d be a happy man, especially because there would be the possibility of seeing them live once again... :)
 
The Stormbringer said:
What the!?!? Didn´t they disband in 1999? If this is true, I´d be a happy man, especially because there would be the possibility of seeing them live once again... :)

It is true.
http://siegeseven.com/

the site is not up yet, but check some information from the Val'Paraiso-forum:
http://www.valparaiso-music.com/forum/index.php

There you can also read that Sieges Even will headline a festival in Germany together with WatchTower. :headbang:
 
To get this straight and to prevent possible disappointment on my part: do you mean the long rumoured Val´Paraiso album (which could be good, but not Sieges Even-good) or a real, new album by Sieges fuckin Even? This would quite rule everything and my mother.
 
The Stormbringer said:
To get this straight and to prevent possible disappointment on my part: do you mean the long rumoured Val´Paraiso album (which could be good, but not Sieges Even-good) or a real, new album by Sieges fuckin Even? This would quite rule everything and my mother.

Things aren't that clear to me neither, but I understood that Val'Paraiso is no more and they will continue with the name Sieges Even. To me this sounds logical, because they ARE Sieges Even.
If you mean the two demo-songs "Lonely Views Of Condors" and "Where Our Shadows Sleep" they have nothing to do with the upcoming album. I thought those two songs were amazing... really moving stuff.
The new Sieges Even-album will contain only one 45-50 minute song titled "The Art of Navigating by The Stars" and is said to be very progressive stuff, just like Sieges Even.
 
Tangerine Dreamer said:
The new Sieges Even-album will contain only one 45-50 minute song titled "The Art of Navigating by The Stars" and is said to be very progressive stuff, just like Sieges Even.
Well, that´s supposed to be the official Val´Paraiso debut album, if I´m not mistaken... but you´re probably right, nobody seems to know right now. Let´s just keep in mind that Sieges Even are back and will probably grace us with another work of mind-twisting art next year... :)
 
I listened to Sieges Even's "A Sense of Change" twice today while studying for an exam! It's such a wonderfully beautiful work of art! I am glad that the Siege will continue!

Thank you for those great descriptions, Tangerine. I agree with you 100 percent on the new Maiden. Truly a tragedy. I just got Sun Caged today and am halfway through my first listen. I am very impressed. This stuff is super-melodic and I really enjoy the vocals. I'll have to check out Mars Volta. They seem to be getting a lot of hype.
 
ProgMetalFan said:
I listened to Sieges Even's "A Sense of Change" twice today while studying for an exam! It's such a wonderfully beautiful work of art! I am glad that the Siege will continue!

I can't get enough of ASOC and "Steps"... two of my favorite albums ever.
Now with Markus Steffen writing the songs again we can expect something mindblowing stuff from the new album. I have never been this excited waiting for an upcoming album.

Thank you for those great descriptions, Tangerine. I agree with you 100 percent on the new Maiden. Truly a tragedy. I just got Sun Caged today and am halfway through my first listen. I am very impressed. This stuff is super-melodic and I really enjoy the vocals. I'll have to check out Mars Volta. They seem to be getting a lot of hype.

The Mars Volta is definitely something you don't hear everyday. I have to give it spin tomorrow.

P.S - Do you know the 80s-band Talk Talk? I bought the album "The Colour Of Spring" and I think you would like it just as much as I do. What a wonderful piece of work. I would call it "Art-pop" myself.
 
ProgMetalFan said:
I've heard the name, but I'm not sure if I've ever heard of Talk Talk. If it's 80's art-pop... then I'll have to check it out!

They were quite popular in Europe back in the 80s with hits like "Such A Shame", "Life's What You Make It", "It's My Life", "Living In Another World",´etc. They started as a pop-band but soon evolved into something very interesting.

Here's a good source of information:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70311121029223125&sql=Briaxlfge5cqo