History of Progressive Rock [Import]

1. Vivaldi

2. For Richard

3. Mockingbird

4. Journey To The Centre Of The Earth

5. The Weaver's Answer

6. Take A Pebble

7. Red

8. Poor Man's Moody Blues

9. Starless

10. Barbarian

11. House Of The King

12. Theme One

13. Hocus Pocus Medley

14. Heaven Can Wait

15. Mother Nature

16. Desolation Valley

Tracks:

Tears Of Paganism
Lunar Poetry
Perun's Celestial Silver
Carpathian Mysteries
...And Winter Becomes
Ancient Nation
The Grief Of Oriana
Sorrows Of The Moon
Autodafe/Barbarians Dreams
Return Of The Vampire Lord

Customer Reviews:

check it out!!!!.......2006-10-21

Verry good muzic....... The only thing that I would like to see a change in is the vocal volume, a little low for me. But the band is fu*#ing great. Well worth the money....

Nokturnal Mortum Again Achieve Perfection.......2005-09-25

Making a perfect album is damn near impossible to do, but this is the second of their 3 absolutely breathtakingly perfect cds (the others being Goat Horns and Weltanschauung).

This is a re-release of older material but it still holds up amazingly well. Great guitars and astonishingly gorgeous keyboards. Just listen to Perun's Celestial Silver. That is one of the greatest songs ever made. Their cover of Return Of The Vampire Lord is another perfect track.

If you havent gotten this cd yet, buy it now! You sure as hell wont regret it!

Just as Good, if not Better Than "Goat Horns"!.......2005-03-14

Well, NM did it again, and amazed me with another prime slab of symphonic/folk black metal. While "Goat Horns" suffered from a crude production, "Lunar Poetry" utilizes a clearer production, but maintains a "distant" atmospheric sound, especially in the vocals. Everything here was mastered from the original mCD, which was recorded on analog. So here, you have a more classic, warm production, with the classic tape hiss and everything. Some may complain about the tape hiss, but I think it adds that much more to the ancient feel of this album. Varrgoth's vocals are more in the traditional BM style here, though he does some strange chanting every now and then. (But especially on "Autodafe/Barbarian's Dreams".) The guitars play a bigger role here, and often harmonize together, and even solos pop up every now and then, but the keyboards are just as essential as they ever could be in NM's awe-like soundscape. First off, there is much more of a folk influence in the music here, and I guess you could say it's "heavier".

Where "Goat Horns" gave listeners visions of starry summer nights, "Lunar Poetry" portrays a more sorrowful and dreamy atmosphere, especially with the guitar work and ritual chanting vocals. Rather than visualizing a full moon riding over the plains, you get more of "wintery" vibe from this album. Listening to this would make you swear you were in the mountains on a bleak and cloudy winter night. I appreciate this type pf atmpshere that is portrayed, so I guess you could say I prefer this to "Goat Horns", though they are both supreme albums in the field of extreme metal.

Nokturnal Mortum's most famous track is on here, "Perun's Celestial Silver". It is absolutely beautiful and stunning! It has the depressing folk melodies, an absorbing atmosphere, and is probably one of the best songs on the album. "Carpathian Mysteries" is another favorite of mine with its beautiful guitar harmonies, and the war-march of "Ancient Nation" must be heard. But for me, the high point comes with "Autodafe/Barbarian's Dreams". The song plays out like a story, shifting through several extravagant melodies before breaking down into the final cycle of dream-like keys and cutting off into tape hiss. Breathtaking...

Like any other NM release, I would reccommend this to fans of symphonic black metal, or even Viking metal. A top-notch CD. Buy this along with "Goat Horns" and Summoning's "Stronghold".

Majestic Black Metal Brilliance!!.......2004-07-19

This is the first album ive ever picked up by nokturnal mortum and im shocked...these guys are amazing. From the first notes of 'tears of pagonism' you know this is gonna be a dark and majestic album. The songs are very very well written, way beyond most black metal acts abillity. I would recommend this to any fan of true black metal. \m/

Majestic Black Metal Glory.......2003-10-09

Hailing from the Ukraine, Nokturnal Mortum has become one of the most talked about acts in the Black Metal scene as well as the National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM) scene. Lunar Poetry, their second album, has become one of the most influential and beautiful Black Metal albums around. Melodic guitars and majestic keyboards make this album a true tribute to the solemn moonlit sky on a winter night. Simply breathtaking.

Tears Of Paganism (a short, melancholic keyboard intro) starts off Lunar Poetry leading right into the title-track. Blasting drums and Black Metal rasps fill your mind with the memory of ancient Pagan nights of worship and pride. Following the title-cut comes one of the most elegant and beautiful songs I've heard: Perun's Celestial Silver.

Perun's Celestial Silver begins with a folk-inspired keyboard melody taking you far away into a land of thought and landscape. After the minute intro guitars kick in and now you are off into some of Black Metal's most glorious moments ... Embrace it while you can. From raging, haunting melodies to majestic winter imagery, Perun's Celestial Silver possesses it all. And to think this is only the beginning...

Like a storm gathering in the sky, Lunar Poetry continues on building and building thoughts and peace in your mind. From the inspiring folk-melodies of Ancient Nation to the war-march of The Grief Of Oriana, prepare to experience perfection.

Autodafe/Barbarians Dreams closes the album in the same vein as Perun's Celestial Silver. Powerful folk influences, beautiful soundscapes and tear-provoking melodies, this song once-again capture's the true essence of Nokturnal Mortum. At about four and half minutes into the song you will be taken to the closing of the album: A keyboard melody that truly is one of the most beautiful I've heard. Building on the melody is added piano and drums as well as Knjaz's whispers in the quiet, silky night.

Tracks:

Meet On The Ledge
Fotheringay
Mr Lacey
Book Song
Sailor's Life
Si Tu Dois Partir
Who Knows Where The Time Goes
Matty Groves
Now Be Thankful
Walk Awhile
Sloth
Bonny Black Hare
Angel Delight
Bridge Over The River Ash
John Lee
Breakfast In Mayfair
Hanging Song
The Hen's March/The Four Poster Bed

Album Description

1972 compilation is a good selection of the better songs recorded by the group from What We Did on Our Holidays (1969) thru Babbacombe Lee (1971), including 'Sailor's Life', 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes', 'Meet On the Ledge', 'Si Tu Dois Partir', 'Matty Groves', 'Sloth' & 'Angel Delight'. 18 tracks. Island.

Customer Reviews:

The Best Place To Start.......2005-07-09

Fairport isn't Fairport without both Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny, which is why this is the best place for a beginner to tap into this amazing band. Other compilations such as "Meet on the Ledge" include too much of their less-productive years (which by the standards of most other groups would be considered fertile). It's a coin toss as to whether their best album is "Unhalfbricking" or "Liege and Leif." I prefer the latter because I'm a folkie, but if you're into rock you might like the former (or you just like it for its great title). But those two albums alone don't give you enough of an introduction to Fairport, because you miss many great tunes like "Just A Roll." You would think that, because what made them so special at the time was their unique blend of British folk and rock, that they wouldn't age well as that genre has been done to death. You would think wrong.

A solid one-disc compilation of Fairport's greatest period.......2002-03-24

This Island compilation covers seven albums from 1968 to 1973, when Fairport Convention recorded most of its best work. Strictly speaking, it's not a "Greatest Hits" album, because Fairport never really had any hits. But this is probably the best place to begin for any newcomer to Fairport. The album touches all the bases: Fairport classics "Meet on the Ledge", "Si Tu Dois Partir", and "Matty Groves", singer-songwriter material like "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" and "Book Song", songs that seem to exist outside of time like "Fotheringay" and "Now Be Thankful", the musical interplay of "Sloth", and electrified traditional songs like "A Sailor's Life". The only things that keep this from being fully representative of Fairport's career are the lack of drinking songs and songs about lost maidenheads. The oft-neglected "Babbacombe Lee" album is represented by three songs. There are a few quibbles in the song selection--for example, why is the "Rosie" album represented by the average "Hen's March/Four Poster Bed" instead of the exceptional title cut? Why "Mr. Lacey" and "Book Song" instead of "I'll Keep It with Mine", "Come All Ye", or "Tam Lin"? This version of the CD adds "Crazy Man Michael", which was not originally included. Fairport's first, pre-Sandy Denny, album is not included because it was put out by Polygram and not Island.

Good things last............2001-08-23

Vinyl wears, no matter how careful you are, but certain music lasts because it lodges in the heart.

To hear the purity of Sandy Denny's voice, pre-empting Eva Cassidy by nearly 30 years; to listen to the poetry of her words in her lover's song "Who knows where the time goes", seeing that deserted shore in our minds eye - this was one of the greatest ballads of the last century.

Yet there is laughter and merriment here too. The English folk tunes tumble over one another with the violin getting your feet tapping in tunes like "Four Poster Bed; Hen's March or Toss the Feathers".

You must feel sorrow for poor "Matty Groves", who found himself in such an awkward position and such an unfair fight! Never did a young man need to learn the value of saying "No thanks" to such a tempting offer.

Fairport Convention was a band that experienced both the cruel and carefree sides of life and put their experiences into their music. There is something for all moods in this excellent compilation.

But most of all there is Sandy's haunting, clear voice. It is worth buying these recordings for that alone..

Mei
Average customer rating:

Give this one a chance to grow on you

Mei

Manufacturer: Dark Matter Distribution
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

As the World

The End Is Beautiful

ASIN: B000CA6S0Y
Release Date: 2006-08-01

Customer Reviews:

Give this one a chance to grow on you.......2006-01-04

It often takes a few listens for an album to grow on me, but this one set a record. It KEPT growing on me with every listen for about a year, until it became a huge favorite. Echolyn is a prog-rock band out of Pennsylvania that over the last 15 years has gradually gone from having more chops than ideas to being the best hope for the future of prog. "Mei" is a single 50-minute album-length song, in the footsteps of "Thick As a Brick". And much as I love Tull's album, "Mei" is better. The album is full of alternating fast and slow sections, with most musical themes getting reprised somewhere along the way. The fast sections rock harder than anything Echolyn had previously recorded, though not as much as 2005's "The End Is Beautiful". William Barnes continues the great clean, crisp production he provided on 2000's "Cowboy Poems Free." Lyrically, the band's website bills "Mei" as "...a combination of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' and Dante Alighieri's 'Inferno'". On "Cowboy Poems", keyboardist Chris Buzby made the decision that he was going to minimize his use of synthesizers in favor of electic piano and organ, and that choice helps to give "Mei" a timeless feel. There is none of the neo-prog excess of earlier albums like "As the World", though Echolyn still loves to change time signatures. "Mei" and "Cowboy Poems Free" are the two best post-1980 progressive rock albums I've heard. By anyone. I own about a thousand albums, and "Mei" is hovering on the fringes of my all-time Top 10.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

Average customer rating:

Echolyn - Early Outstanding Effort
Echolyn's weakest album, but it has its moments

Suffocating Bloom

Manufacturer: Dark Matter Distribution
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

As World
The End Is Beautiful
Somewhere Else

ASIN: B000CA6S0O
Release Date: 2006-08-01

Customer Reviews:

Echolyn - Early Outstanding Effort.......2007-02-10

When this album came out I had no idea this band existed. In fact in 1992 for all I knew progressive rock was dead and gone. It was in the late 90's when I discovered Echolyn and went back and purchased their entire back catalogue. Echolyn are still one of the most unique bands, prog or otherwise, to have emerged from the United States in the last two decades. Although the band seems to want to distance themselves from this album, I think it ranks up as one of their best. Yes, they were young and their songwriting skills may have still been developing, but holy cow what potential they had. It all shines through on this album as the band basically throw everything plus the kitchen sink at the listener to see what fits. The first half of the album consists of individual songs that are mostly of the shorter variety. Highlights include "21", "Winterthru", "Memoirs From Between", "A Little Nonsense" and "Here I Am" The band takes classic progressive rock influences, then mold them into a unique sound that is completely their own. There really is no other band out there that sounds like Echolyn. The last half of the album is the 28 plus minute "A Suite For The Everyman". This epic is a tour de force that covers just about every musical style you could mention. The "Those That Want To Buy" section of the piece would prove to be prophetic of events for the band in the not too distant future. Instrumentally the performances are flawless with each band member showcasing their skills throughout the disc. Ray Weston and Brett Kull's lyrics get a bit obtuse at times, but for the most part I like them, and find some of them quite poignant. "I feel like I'm always sawing through the branch that I'm sitting on".........indeed I can relate. Fans seemed to have mixed reactions to this disc, and the band pretty much disses it, but for me it remains one of my favorites. The album would impress Sony enough to sign the band to a major labeled contract........for a while at least.......

Echolyn's weakest album, but it has its moments.......2006-01-04

Echolyn's second album was their weakest. There are two excellent songs, the yuletide "Winterthru" and "Memoirs from Between", with it's chorus of "Set a course, up ahead, straight into heaven". A few other songs are decent, such as "A Little Nonsense", "Here I Am", and "Suffocating the Bloom". But their songwriting skills didn't fully kick in until the next album, 1995's "As the World". While most of the songs here have some catchy moments, most also have some dull moments to balance them. Out of fear of boring the listener, Echolyn threw a ton of riffs into every song to keep changing things up. The result is that instead of getting to hear the best musical ideas in a song one extra time, you have to listen to their 12th-best idea. Most of the lyrics are cheesy self-help philosophy. "One Voice" is a Van Gogh tribute that's as maudlin as Don McLean's "Vincent". The last half of the album is a multi-part "A Suite for the Everyman" that just doesn't work, whether it's the 12-tone stuff keyboardist Chris Buzby picked up in music theory class or the catchy choruses undermined by impossible lyrics like "It's branded me a stoic and that's not what I am". Start with Echolyn's later albums and come back for this one later if you become a big fan.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

Average customer rating:

History Re-Written
Atomgod
Manufacturer: Progressive France
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Alternative Metal | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000561K5
Release Date: 1993-08-12

Average customer rating:

La Bocca Della Verita
Remember Rome
Manufacturer: Midwest Artists Dist.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005MJXT
Release Date: 2001-06-01

Tracks:

Walkin' Away
You Amaze Me
Our Town
As I Go
Holy Smoke
Your Dark Eyes
Never Mind The Piano
Don't Know What To Do
I Wish
Let's Speak Italian
Be Real
While I Play The Clown
Autumn
The Current

Average customer rating:

3-CD collection of out-of-print material and rarities

Little Nonsense

Manufacturer: Dark Matter Distribution
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000CA6S18
Release Date: 2006-08-01

Customer Reviews:

3-CD collection of out-of-print material and rarities.......2006-01-04

This 3-CD set includes the material from three out-of-print Echolyn CDs, their 1991 self-titled debut album and two EPs, 1993's "...and Every Blossom" and 1996's "When the Sweet Turns Sour". The package also includes some live and semi-live recordings, an early unreleased track, and 2000 revisions of four of their better-known tracks. The "Echolyn" album has some good songs, in fact more of them than the second album "Suffocating the Bloom". But still, their songwriting ability didn't really kick in until 1995's "As the World". There's a lot of "chops for chops' sake". The two EPs are pretty weak except for a cover of Genesis' "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet". Disc 3, with three live-in-the-studio tracks of songs from 2000's great "Cowboy Poems Free" album and the revisited early tracks, is the strongest disc. The physical packaging of the set is innovative and impressive, though it won't quite fit on a standard CD rack. If you're not already an Echolyn fan, it's probably not worth your while to pay this price for this material. But if you've already gotten hooked on Echolyn from their later material, there's enough worthwhile listening here that you'll want to get this set.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

Average customer rating:

History of Progressive Blues
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Musicrama/Koch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Blues Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Compilations | Blues | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000DET3C
Release Date: 2003-08-26

Tracks:

Crawlin' King Snake
Honky Tonk Downstairs - Dan McCafferty
Louisiana Woman
Jealousy
White Man's Blues - Edgar Winter
Alec in Transitland - The Spencer Davis Group,
Darlin' - Frankie Miller
Ordinary Man - The Doobie Brothers
Agency Blues
Bobsit in Blues - Big Town Playboys
No More Cane on the Brazos - Ian Gillan
If You Don't Love Me, Why in the World Don't You Leave Me Be - Clem Clemson, John Mayall,

Tracks:

Millennium Blues - Clem Clemson,
Padlock on the Blues - John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
Wall Street Blues - Procol Harum
Angels in Exile - Scott Holt
Thrill Is Gone
Downsize Blues
King Guitar - Michael Messer
Shame on You
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Frankie Miller
You Are My Song - Edgar Winter
Rollin and Tumblin' - Jon Hiseman, ,
Woke Up This Morning

Average customer rating:

A History of Progressive Rock
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Retro Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0001YL680
Release Date: 2004-05-03

Tracks:

Vivaldi
For Richard
Mockingbird
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth
The Weaver's Answer
Take A Pebble
Red
Poor Man's Moody Blues
Starless
Barbarian
House Of The King
Theme One
Hocus Pocus Medley
Heaven Can Wait
Mother Nature
Desolation Valley

Average customer rating:

This CD is all over the place! And it's fantastic!
More inventive than you may think

Anasazi
Love History
Manufacturer: The End Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Metal | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Death Metal | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Lost
Angealism
Korbel
Masterless
Sown
Spiritual
The Mass
Phantomous
Voices

Customer Reviews:

This CD is all over the place! And it's fantastic!.......2002-05-04

I've been going through my vast collection of "as-of-yet-unlistened-to" metal discs, and I came upon Love History. My first reaction was "What the [heck] is this? And when did I buy it?" Then I popped it in, and to say I was pleasantly surpised would be a vast understatement. What burst forth from the speakers was a very-surreal, sometimes maniacally driving force of gloomy death metal, and often beautifully crafted song. After song. After song.

The album is all over the map, but never really straying far from the Depeche Mode meets In Flames sound they have going on. It's technically precise, right down to the sad guitar wailing and more than adequate rhythm section. In fact, check out "Korbel" to hear just what this band is capable of. It's a absolutely stunning instrumental arrangement that is at once melancholy and powerful. I listened to that particular track about 4 times in a row to capture the full scope of what they were doing. Other bands wouldn't be comfortable being so varied (uh, Cannibal Corpse anyone?), and if you want to see what I mean, get your eardrums to the 4:35 mark of "Angealism" to hear some seriously Metallica-inspired riffing. Other tracks of note: well, ALL of them. There isn't really a weak moment on the disc as far as I was concerned, and this is a classic case of 'boy, Amazon really needs to add 1/2 stars to the rating system' 'cause this baby is easily worth the 4 1/2. I just couldn't bring myself to give it the 5, simply because those are reserved for full-on masterpieces.

And lastly, for those wondering, the vocals are a perfect mix of full-on throaty death growl, and extremely gothic crooning along the lines of the best of My Dying Bride, Sisters of Mercy or the aforementioned Depeche Mode. If I have but one complaint, it's that I can't seem to find any more music by these Czechs! What's up with that?

More inventive than you may think.......2001-09-09

I never heard the name of the band before... Love History is one of those somewhat stock, nondescript, potentially forgettable bandnames. With a name like that, it is hard to detremine just what you can expect. The dude who runs a local metal store in my town, knows what I like and suggested Anasazi. I never would have given this band a second look on the shelf. Again, it's got alot to do with the unremarkable name. Well, I am pleased to report that this band is quite a notch above the average melodic/death offering. Strange song structures and odd musical breaks, unusual instruments and an uncoventional approach all add up to quite an enjoyable listen. Strong Melodic/Death foundation, with great musicianship. The songs are varied within themselves and offer something more to the listener than just verse/chorus/verse/chorus/solo/chorus/end. Flamenco guitar, mouth harp, flute and bongo drums all make an appearence. Good death vocals mixed in with clean singing, female soprano and spoken word narrative. Folky and classical elements creep in here and there. They never detract from the powerful songs and good solid metal delivery. They are a pleasing and unique example of technical/melodic/detah that deserves your attention. Bands to compare to: None.

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