The Electric Soft Parade - The Human Body reviewed by Mike at Progfreak.com

Every Led Zeppelin fan should get this release ... the sound quality is amazing.

I really don't like this album ... at all. I loved Posthumous Silence and as far as overall style, musicianship and production are concerned this is just as good, but the sub-par songwriting combined with the overly theatralic/emotional singing ruin it for me.

I really enjoyed listening to this album ... it's Avant-Garde music walking the fine line between Jazz and Rock, with much improvisation in it, very dynamic and not too easy to listen to if you're not used to it ... but it's also quite playful and not as gloomy as many other Avant-Prog albums that I've listened to lately.

Slow. Really Slow. Really, *Really* Slow. Very sparse ... the band set out a decade earlier to make Doom Metal music without guitars, and they've certainly come a long way. This isn't metal at all ... there aren't any guitars, and apart from the occasional crunchy jazz organ sound there isn't any distortion either. This is essentially very tasty, melodic Jazz music played very slowly over regular, but very minimalistic rock patterns. Confused? Give it a spin, listen for yourself!

What a voice! No, that wouldn't do this album justice ... the voice is magnificent, but the piano is even more prominent - and she's really taking it to the extreme. At first you might think "Tori Amos", but the music is actually quite different - definitely more aggressive (at least on this album) and more focused.

A really, really good blues album. Some covers, some original compositions ... great musicianship throughout, not just in the guitar department.

Wow ... just wow *big grin*. Listen to this magnificent album, you just *have* to.

I just listened to this again after quite some time (several years) and again it blew me away. If I had to say something negative about the album is that it occasionally gets a little bit cheesy story-wise ... but I don't mind at all. The songwriting is awesome, the musicianship flawless ... as is the production. If you're a fan of complex metal ... wrap your ears around this!

I really love the QotSA style ... some people prefer Kyuss (the de facto predecessor) because of the more epic/psychedelic/improvisational style, but QotSA make up for that with magnificent songwriting and a really cool and fresh approach in terms of harmonic structure and weird instrumentation. Add to that a good dose of humor ... not so much in the sense of comedy, but as far as witty/"naughty" lyrics are concerned.

This is the solo album of Mariusz Duda, known to most as the singer of progressive metal band Riverside. The music could be described as the atmospheric, thoughtful and non-metal part of Riverside, with a heavy dose of world music thrown in.

I really enjoyed it, but IMO they should have used more clean vocals - the black metal type growls/shrieking doesn't always match the music, which is really diverse and eclectic beyond the typical atmospheric black metal.

A very interesting blend of styles ranging from minimalistic singer/songwriter to heavy stoner rock/metal. Very strong songs, quite diverse, magnificent vocals ... wonderful!

A wonderful album ... a bit short, but also very concise and right to the point. The music is more melodic than their debut, it often reminded me of Aeon Spoke, which is a non-metal side project which is also quite recommended. This album is also a mix of rock and metal, there are some quite heavy outbursts of metal and the rest is rock. I think what amazes me the most is how they combine beautiful melodies and - occasional - highly technical playing with hints towards Fusion.

Underwhelming. I also can't hear anything Black or Death ... plain Thrash with slightly Anti-Christian lyrics.

I really enjoyed listening to this album. The music reminds me a bit of Anekdoten, but the songwriting is more eclectic ... I guess it's the somewhat gloomy mood and dense texturing. It's also quite heavy, but not in a metal sense at all, but the often distorted bass and "crunchy" rhythm guitar and keyboards. I also really like the often layered vocals, which - in concert with the other instruments - often create very dense arrangements, which can be difficult to digest for the listener ... but on this album it works quite well. If you're into interesting, thoughtful music with the desire to be different both in songwriting and instrumentation ... please check this out, it's really good stuff. The album is available at cdbaby.com and emusic.com, too ... check out the links next to the album name!

Still very jazzy, and only very few rock elements. Keyboards are very present, and it might very well be the birth of fusion, but I don't consider the music to be very progressive. Of course it's very good though, both for casual listening (especially for Jazz newbies) and for experts/musicians.

A solid album ... but I'm not yet "digging" the songwriting.

If you're a guitarist and you don't know Ron Thal (aka Bumblefoot): You have to check this out. He's *very* skilled, but always puts songs above solos ... add to that a heavy dose of humor and - at least on this album - a good deal of raw punk attitude.

Wow. Just wow. The essence of "Slow". Also very, very minimalistic and sparse ... so quite unlike your typical Post-Doom Metal which is often dynamic and contains loud passages, quiet passages, sparse passages, dense passages ... this is static music which always stays in the same trod. Boring? Not at all. There are always little subtleties which you can focus on ... slight shifts in mood, the odd, faint major note in an overall minor setting.

Wow ... what a change compared to their previous album! This is much heavier, almost sounds like Meshuggah at times, albeit without the growling. Very interesting songwriting / arrangement, *vaguely* reminding of Fates Warning, I guess particularly because of the vocal lines which remind a bit of Ray Alder.