I was first introduced to progressive rock in 1995 with PINK FLOYD's live album PULSE. Prior to that, it had pretty much been all classical music for me! The great thing about PULSE was the inclusion of a full performance of The Dark Side of the Moon.
I didn't know anything about prog at the time...
all I knew was that I'd finally heard a rock album that had almost the same scope and complexity that classical music had trained me to expect out of a composition. For awhile, I mainly explored PINK FLOYD's solo artists and other artists (like PETER GABRIEL) who have inspired them. Other artists came my way, too, like the MOODY BLUES, VANGELIS, RADIOHEAD and SIGUR ROS.
..when I heard the final track on ( ), I couldn't help wishing for more of that--the power and ferocity of it was absolutely unlike anything I'd ever heard before.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, the nascent metalhead in me was screaming to get out! Then, thanks to the S M collaboration he did with Metallica, Maestro Michael Kamen singlehandedly completed the transformation and made a metalhead out of me! Getting into metal wonderfully revived my interest in prog, when I started to discover just how many wonderful prog metal bands are out there--a journey I continue on to this day.
I do listen to other genres besides prog...
I'll even accept pop if it's very, very good. Please also understand that I am extremely picky about the sound quality of an album and I do deduct stars as a result of what I think are egregious mistakes, and I also tend not to like older albums as much because of this. I know that won't sit well with some people, but hopefully by explaining this in advance, you can take my reviews as you will.
I take a broader approach to the prog genre than some may, but I hope that when that's the case, you'll still be able to get something useful from my reviews and make a decision according to your own tastes. Number of CD in your collection of original progressive albums ..
. (Will get back to you on that..
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