Psychotic Waltz - Bleeding reviewed by Time_Signature at Progfreak.com

This is a really, really nice album. The athmosphere is generally dark and reminds me a bit of Psychotic Waltz meets King Diamond/Mercyful Fate. Musically, there is plenty of melody and semi-quirky keybord figures as well as a driving and dynamic bass. What's more, the entire album is freely available on the band's MySpace site.

This EP is an interesting journey through a dark and spacey soundscape. Especially the first two tracks are interesting as they combine soundscaping with musicality.

There are some interesting intrimental and improvised moments on this album, but other than that it is primarly a typical 90s alt rock effort (well, it may be a bit ahead of its time though), which is quite boring and pretentious and, quite frankly, stupid at times.

For some reason, this is one of my favorite Porcupine Tree albums. It contains mainly of improvised instrumental jam sessions with a lot of focus on jazzy bass patterns. Fans of fusion jazz might like this, and I am sure musicians regardless of their style and genre will appreciate listening to fellow musicians jamming, improvising and creating on the spot.

A very ecclectic album which balances on the razor's edge between prog and alt.

Do you like 90s style alternative rock? Do you like 70s and 00s progressive rock? Do you like genre-transgression? Do you like innovativity? Do you like dynamicity? Are you afraid of Opeth? If your answer to all of these questions is affirmative, then "Dead Wing" by Porcupine Tree is the way to go. It's a really good alt/prog rock album with nothing but strong songs on it, offering both entertainment and food for thought.

"Spiritual Healing" was probably the first really prog-related effort by Death, and, while it is not a masterpiece compared to Death's last four albums, it is way more interesting than many other death metal releases at the time. Paul Masvidal of Cynic has described this album as being in a more progressive direction than its predecessors, and, sure enough, there are plenty of progressive elements, such as time and tempo changes and complex song structures. There is also plenty of Schuldiner-style riffage which combines brutality and speed with melody and catchiness.

While less progressive and more of a straight death metal album than any of Death's subsequent albums, "Leptrosy" is nevertheless miles many other death metal releases at the time. There is plenty of unmistakably Chuck Schuldiner riffage on this album, and there are a few progressive elements to be found on this album, such as interesting time and tempo changes, "Pull the Plug" being the most interesting song on the album.

With Chuck Schuldiner, Andy LaRocque, Gene Hoglan and Steve DiGiorgio, 'Individual Thought Patterns' stands out as a shining jewel in the murky muddy stream of the death metal of the 1990s.

One the best death metal albums of all times, 'Human' was leagues ahead of most of the standard death metal releases at the time.

Another testimony to the fact that Death were superior to most of their contemporary death metal colleagues, 'Sound of Perseverance' is yet another prog death metal masterpiece, although not as well produced soundwise as 'Symbolic' or 'Individual Thought Patterns'.

Possibly the best death metal release ever with its interesting progressive-like energetic Schuldiner compositions bolstered by Hoglan's insane cymbal and hi-hat work.

I've never understood the hype around Muse among progressive music fans. Having heard this album, however, I do appreciate the fact the Muse's music is quality alternative rock containing some progressive elements. I have yet to join the hype, but I do like this album, which has a very retro feel to it while still looking forward, sounding most of all like the offspring of Queen and 80s U2 in space (which, I must admit, does make me think "Haven't I heard this before?", every now and then?). The main strength of this album, I think, is combination of athmospheric synthesizers, catchy melodies, and melancholic vocals which has a strange drawing effect upon the listener.

Great performance - as always - but mediocre sound production.

While not perfectly, this is basically a good and, at the time of making, original idea. Puffy64 seemlessy mixes heavily distorted guitars with the C64-ish sounds reminiscent of those used in the original game. While not that well executed, the music on this album does have a certain drawing je ne sais quoi to it. There is some really nice quitar work on it in the form of solos and interesting rhythms, and the use of C64 computer sounds makes for a semi-progressive edge (but not enought to even make it prog-related) and an interesting retro ambience.

A classic and one of the best - and most influential alternative metal albums of the last millennium. It contains a lot of progressive elements (such as tempo changes, odd time signatures and quirky 4/4 patterns, and genre transendence) without ever being a full-blown progressive album. There are individual tunes, however, that could be categorized as progressive proper, such as "Zombie Eathers" and "The Real Thing". In any case, this is a classic alt metal album fusing metal with funk, rap, hard rock and other genres without being as dull as a lot of nü metal is.

If you like doom metal, you have to acquire this classic. While very obviously inspired by the likes of Candlemass (there's even a silly Candlemass-like narrative voice on one of the tracks), "Into the Depths of Sorrow" is nonetheless original in its own way. Firstly, it contains several heavy riffs that are based on Middle Eastern scales, which has more or less become a trademark of SA's. Secondly, the incorporation of power metal elements (and eastern influences) creates a genre that is not as blues inspired as many first generation doom bands were (still, there are some cool pentatonic riffs on this album). Thirdly, SA's compositions one this album are more complex than was typical of the doom metal at the time. And lastly, there's Rob Lowe's voice - that in itself is worth buying the album for.

A lot of strong power metal tunes on this one, but boy am I glad they got rid of that vocalist, because he's terrible.

Another power metal milestone by Iced Earth.

What a great album this is! The music's straight out epic doom the way it should be. I really like Johan Langquist's vocals on this album (theer's a quality of desperation to his singing that neither Messiah Marcolin nor Rob Lowe possesses).