3
I can see the strange look on your face as you look at this. What the heck? You say (and have said, based on some of the e-mails I've received). It may be a stretch, but with professed Christian and former Extreme singer Gary Cherone on board, this aint your older brother's Van Halen any more on the 3 album. Most die hard VH fans wretched over this record, but us prog heads that hated them before are rejoicing somewhat now. Eddie lets loose all over this record with middle eastern stylings, interesting arrangements, tasteful solos and even some piano playing and a long instrumental. Cherone's lyrics are excellent, and he even sings straight out of scripture in some places. My only complaint is that sometimes he tries too hard to sound like Roth or Hagar when he screams on the rockers, and I like his voice better when he sings normally. You might want to check out Extreme's III Sides to Every Story as well, if you like proggy hard rock with a spiritual theme. {dt}
Mannequin Virtue; Please Stand By; Simple Experience;
Time Flies (a retrospective box set); Temptation
Steve Griffith and Jimmy Abegg grew up listening to progressive rock, and it shows. Although Vector is generally considered modern alternative rock, the Rush like rhythm section and Peter Gabriel like vocal style make them a candidate for this list. Mannequin Virtue stood apart from the new wave pack in the early 80's with its solid, odd-time rhythms and interesting lyrics. Please Stand By, while overproduced and slick, nearly broke out with a hit song in the early 80's. It's the most listenable, while being probably the least progressive of their albums. Simple Experience really sounds like Peter Gabriel in places, and is a worthy purchase as well. The last one, Temptation, is a good place to start, a fairly frenetic sonically with lots of interesting guitar textures and strong lyrics about Christ. Progressive elements are readily apparent, at least in the experimental nature of the music. Also look for Jimmy A's solo albums, Entertaining Angels and Secrets, which are both very creative guitar based Christian albums. {dt}
Vertical Alignment (USA -SC)
CPR Volume 1 (04), Signposts (06)
Signposts
Reviewed by Dave Taylor (05/06)
Peter Jorgensen's dreamy progressive hard rock band has released their long awaited full length album, Signposts. Besides Pete on guitar and keyboards and his wife Terri on bass, Signposts features Randy George and Wil Henderson of Ajalon, Steve Babb, Fred Schendel, and Eric Parker of Glass Hammer, David Wallimann of Glass Hammer and Young Earth, Carl Groves of Salem Hill, Mike and Shaun FitzPatrick of the band FitzPatrick, Eddie Jerlin of Everlasting Arms, and Kevin Jarvis of Farpoint.
We first heard Vertical Alignment on the CPR Volume 1 CD, with their song Once in a Dream. It was a promising start, but Signposts delivers the real deal. Pete Jorgensen is a deep thinker, and his songs tackle some heady topics on this epic album. Signposts takes major historical events from our times and shows us how they are spiritually significant in relevance to the hour we are living in.
The album starts off with the title track, an acoustic ballad that features Keven Jarvis of Farpoint on mandolin and Jim Branreuther on lead vocals. The vocal melody on this song sounds a tad cheesy to my ears, and it doesn’t really do the album justice as an introduction, although the lyrics set the stage for the semi-concept album theme. The best is definitely yet to come. Dress Rehearsal kicks in with a bang of bright synthesizers and some heavier electric guitar. Branreuther sounds much better on this war-themed power-prog tune, which features some extended keyboard and guitar soloing by Jorgensen. ELP-style keyboards mix with an early 70's rock vibe. Next is one of my favorites from the disc, Ballad of the Titanic, sung by Eric Parker, also of CPR fame. His fine crystalline voice fits this ode to pride and the fall perfectly. Guitarist Dave Walliman and keyboardist Fred Schendel also add their considerable talents to the epic tale. This is high prog rock at its best. Freedom’s Call follows, again featuring Schendel, but sung by the Fitzpatrick brothers (who’s expressive voices sound a lot like Shane Lankford of Orphan Project). Anchored by a driving bass line by Pete’s wife Terri, Freedom’s Call builds over 16 minutes, with the lyrics drawing parallels between Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, Christ’s sacrifice, and the freedom of African American slaves. Fred Schendel really shines during the extended instrumental breaks. Children of the Son, which features Wil Henderson and Randy George of Ajalon, expounds upon the terrible plight of orphan children in Romania over a bed of Yes-like symphonic rock. The Towers is based on the 2001 terrorist attacks, and the song features Edward Jerlin on keyboards. Eddie formerly worked at the World Trade Center, but was off work on jury duty the day the planes struck. Having him as a guest on the song adds immensely to the emotion and poignancy of the tale. Jessica Cole adds expressive lead vocals. Rented Houses features Carl Groves of Salem Hill, one of my all time favorite vocalists. The song uses the analogy of our bodies being but temporary habitations, using world events as examples, or sign posts if you will, of the times we are living in. Mixing different media snippets with keyboard-driven prog rock, this is a progressive tour-de-force. What's a prog album without a fantasy theme? Next we delve into the world of Stephen Lawhead’s books, with the lyrics to Kingdom of Summer taken right out of his novel Taliesin. Mike Fitzpatrick is back on lead vocals on this keyboard driven, change of pace song. As a fan of Lawheads books, I think Vertical Alignment has put together a fine interpretation of the spirit of the book. Rented Houses Epilogue completes the disc, with Carl Groves again lending his distinct voice to a summation of the world events that are the signposts that lead us upward to a Vertical Alignment, complete with a short revise of the opening track to bookend the disc. With over 70 minutes of hot-off-the-press original spiritual progressive rock expertly mastered by Gene Crout, Signposts is sure to lead the way among the best albums of 2006.
For more information, go to: http://verticalalignment.com/signpost.htm
Vindication (1973)
Why couldn't I have heard this album in the early 70's? It might have changed the direction of my life. Vindication is a jewel well worth finding, original prog music from 1973 with all the bells and whistles from that era. They were a power trio from Indiana that had an original sound that's hard to compare with other prog bands of that era. Bands such as early Strawbs, early Genesis, The Yes Album era Yes, early Jethro Tull, and Ethos come to mind. They are distinctly American, the way Ethos, Echolyn, and Happy the Man are. Twelve strings and electric guitars, glockenspiels, and synths interchange with thumping drums and bass with nice three part harmony vocals reminiscent of Crosby Stills and Nash or early Yes. The lyrics are original and interesting without being particularly pretentious or trite. The songs are obviously Christian, with pleas to recognize God's love, but they manage to avoid the lyrical traps that turn off most unbelievers. This is a record that you can safely play for your prog loving friends and they will get into it without feeling hammered over the head by religion.
The album kicks off with a guitar driven instrumental called Sonnet to Seagulls, complete with synthesized waves washing as a intro and exit. The music is driving, with lots of tempo and time changes. The mini-epic Atop the Mountains is next, fueled by driving electric piano, and some frantic vocals. The song really kicks in with the instrumental bridge at the end with a driving bass riff accompanied by moog soloing with a marching drum rhythm. After Money Window, an upbeat song about greed, Vindication kicks into a classic called Satan's Song, a sinister plea from the father of lies. This one has the CSNY style vocals wedged around some ripping jamming by the band. Master Law, the 11 minute epic, follows next. This song can only be compared to classic prog epics like The Knife, Supper's Ready, or Heart of the Sunrise, with a multi-part classical structure, solos, instrumental interludes, wierd vocal effects and a message about some Man from Galilee. Walk to the Sea follows, and they unload all of their prog guns on it. There is not a bad track on this album. These guys play fast, and they play tight. The album closes with a the subdued and beautiful acoustic ballad, You and Me and God. I would be interested to know whatever became of Patrick Kennedy (guitars, bass and vocals), Brad Garton (keyboards and vocals), and Geoff Pacheco (drums and vocals). It's too bad they never recorded (or at least released) a follow up. This classic prog album is now available on a nicely packaged CD-R from Rock Solid Music. http://www.rocksolidmusic.com Get one quick, because they only have a few left. {dt}
From what limited info I could find online, Vindication came out during the early 'Jesus Music' movement with their LP in 1973. This is definitely good prog -- not that heavy with mostly a clean guitar sound - sometimes distortion- and lots of keys too. I imagine the music on Tull's Thick as a Brick - remove the flute and Anderson's vocals and you have a good idea of what the music is like in many places. The vocals are kind of 'poppy' for want of a better way to put it. {M.T.}
The Holy Grail in the world of
progressive rarities goes hands down to Indiana's Vindication. This is bona
fide five-star progressive rock from start to finish, quite unlike any other album in
Christian music. Lengthy tracks are the norm here and every one of them is solid.
The instrumental 'Sonnet To Seagulls' starts things off in driving allegro fashion - and
the energy level doesn't let up for a moment throughout the whole lp. 'Atop Of The
Mountains' follows in classic art rock tradition with the trio's trademark ELP-ish
compositional complexity of constantly shifting mood and tempo changes. 'Money
Window' and 'Satan's Song' share a similar focus, as does the 11-minute epic 'Master Law'
that opens side two. Here Brad Garton takes on the Keith Emerson role of the group
with skillful piano and synthesizer that reveals strong classical training. Patrick
Kennedy also gets several opportunities to shine on guitar, showing agility in not only
the fast-paced jamming stretches, but also the more graceful acoustic passages (in
particular the beautiful closer 'You And Me And God'). Geoff Pacheco keeps the
ever-changing beat going and gets a nice little solo in 'Master Law'. Intelligent
lyrics and good sound for a custom. An incomprehensibly rare thing - only a couple
hundred pressed. Good news is that there's a possible re-issue in the works.
Hope it comes through cuz this is music that needs to be heard. Breathtaking
from start to finish! - {Ken Scott, from the Archivist, a book on early Christian
rock music)
Starship Universe (06)
Mike Visaggio is a fantastically talented keyboard player heavily influenced by Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. He's unabashedly Christian, although his songs are much more seeker friendly than "in-your-face" preachy. His singing isn't the most pleasant I've ever heard and his lyrics are head-scratchingly obtuse at times, but don't let that scare you off because the vocals are a small part of the overall album. Mike can surely rip it up on the keys with the best of them, and he wrings the most out of his Alesis QS and Korg CX-3 synths, including fantastic vintage B-3 and Moog sounds. The album features extended instrumental interludes where he showcases his chops, including a great cover of Blues Variation from ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition, which he adds his own flair to. He also does a wonderfully jazzy re-interpretation of the theme to 2001 A Space Odyssey. It's a really fun album to listen to, and certainly hearkens back to the bygone era of caped keyboard virtuosos from the 1970's, with epic prog and fusion flair. Visaggio is a one-man-band, and performs basically everything on his keyboards using samples. Besides the weak vocals as mentioned, the lack of real drums (except on the Yes-like rocker Synchonized Life) and guitars damper the music a tad, although even that doesn't hold back his keyboard and compositional talents from shining brightly. I would absolutely love to hear Mike hooked up with some other musicians of similar talent in a full on prog band recording, preferably with an exceptional singer that would push his music to the next level, on par with the classic prog greats. Hopefully, he can sell enough copies of Starship Universe to pay for the next installment of original music and make it happen, which I will surely be lining up to hear. Guys like Mike surely deserve your support. You can download songs to sample his music at http://www.mikevisaggio.com or from his myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/MikeVisaggio {dt}
Lyrics for the Living (02); Key to Eternity (03)
Billed as progressive hard-rock fusion, Visual Cliff combines
the styles of Liquid Tension Experiment and Pat Metheny into a nice blend of
heavy jazz-rock instrumental virtuosity. Lyrics for the Living is
an enjoyable disc - great background music to work or study to. Their songs tie into various Psalms
from the scriptures,
which the listener is encouraged to contemplate while listening. They have
chops, and a nice ear for tastefully played fusion. Band members include Rob Perez (Guitars/Writer/Producer/Engineer),
Rick Mals (Drums & Bass Programming), Rob Klan (Keyboards), and Eric Fuller (Bass
guitar on "Never Look Away"). Once this band gets a real drummer
and bass player, look out. The clips for their new album
sound great. Check out their
website
for more info on this promising band. {dt}