Please review and explain the prog/metal mix one of my math students just gave me.

I saw one of my students wearing a Yes shirt the other day and when I remarked on this he said, "Yes, I'm the president of the metal club." When I goggled at this he told me that the undergrads here who like prog also like metal. He has now made me a prog/metal mix which I think is meant to be "intro to the metal liked by the members of his club, aimed at people who listened to a lot of Yes in 1982." I will now listen to it as I make dinner and remark on the songs. Explanatory remarks and informed judgments from ILM would be extremely welcome.

1. "Natural Science," Rush
2. "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part II," King Crimson
3. "Paradigm Shift," Liquid Tension Experiment
4. "Reality Dream III," Riverside
5. "City of Echoes," Pelican
6. "In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion," Agalloch
7. "Ghost Key," ISIS
8. "The Drapery Falls," Opeth
9. "The Wind," The Morningside
10. "King of Those Who Know," Cynic
11. "Mother Man," Atheist
12. "The Donkey-Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens the Discussion," Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
13. "Desert Urbania," Unexpect
14. "Jordrok," Anglagard.

Your thoughts?

The Rush song -- I like the way the bass sounds, I was charmed by the first tempo change, I don't like the way he keeps mentioning "integrity." Um, I dunno, I don't know this song but I already know what Rush sounds like so I'm not learning a lot here.

There appears to be 45 seconds of beach sound at the end of "Natural Science" -- why?

Get a bigger kid to give him a swirlie

"Larks' Tongues In Aspic" sounds like you would make a really intense frowny face while you were playing it. I like it so far. Every time it threatens to get TOO frowny it switches over to the shuffle beat with the big bass. As if it's about to become ELO or something.

Oh yeah, also "profile this kid based on the mix" would be good.

There appears to be 45 seconds of beach sound at the end of "Natural Science" -- why?

I think it's something to do with returning to the natural world? I think Kris once described this song as Yes crossed with Afrika Bambaataa.

That Isis album is pretty good.

Liquid Tension Experiment -- wait, is this metal yet? Drumming very insistent throughout in a way that's noticably different from first two tracks. But the chords here are still the same kind of chords as in "Turn it On Again" or something. Now flanged-out bass. Don't know what to think. Dumb question: how much are the different parts of this song supposed to have to do with one another?

Riverside -- OK, this is metal now. Don't really know what to do with this song. The keyboard is kind of whining at me and then the guitar whines back.

The Pelican, halfway through, is totally likable. Jaunty.

Also, according to last.fm, all these bands are REALLY POPULAR.

The Agalloch song sounds like the music from the part of a video game where you're walking down a hall and you don't see any monsters and it's not even clear whether monsters are on their way or whether you're supposed to be solving some puzzle in order to unlock the door behind which there are monsters. At least, that's what the first two minutes out of 15 sound like. OK, taking a break now to get more serious about making dinner.

Liquid Tension Experiment is a prog SUPERGROUP.

The drumming is very insistent all the way through because that's the only way that Mike Portnoy knows how to play. If he doesn't do that 24/7, he won't win the Modern Drummer award this year. The same goes for every other player.

http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=76913&stc=1&d=1096572547

that is a picture of a guy who loves Mike Portnoy so much that he bought the same exact megakit and put a zebra blanket underneath it

Looking forward to your reaction to sleepytime gorilla museum

Tracks 10-12 are all great. Unexpect is kind of awful tho

Ha, that's what I was listening to?? How does one dude play it? Is he, like, suspended over it?

"OK, taking a break now to get more serious about making dinner."

totally my favorite part of the song.

hahaha YES

Liquid Tension Experiment is basically Dream Theater (and Tony Levin on CHAPMAN STICK) doing instrumental stuff. I actually think that song is kinda awesome.

Cynic and Atheist are classic tech death (unless that track's from the new Cynic; that one's supposed to be quite different).

If you want to impress your student, ask him about the Cynic- related band Gordian Knot!

Never heard of Morningside or Riverside.

Would gladly listen to this mix.

http://www.fun-n-stun.com/sites/tomwilson/_files/image/LiquidTension1.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BJs8mlnXmKQ/RxwVCjRgwNI/AAAAAAAAEwk/zA3_9_2lY-I/s320/Liquid+Tension+Experiment+-+Liquid+Tension+Experiment+2.jpg

hey experts if I really dig 2 and 12 which one should I check out next?

Secret Chiefs 3, Magma, Van Der Graaf Generator?

When I goggled at this he told me that the undergrads here who like prog also like metal.

Quite honestly I'm surprised to NOT see Dream Theater on that track list.

I would totally rock like 90% of this mix tbh, kind of envious over here

I am very glad not to see dream theater on this mix

I have never heard of Mike Portnoy before.
Does he have two asses and three legs?
That kit is bonkers.

Secret Chiefs 3, Magma, Van Der Graaf Generator?

― CharlieS, Saturday, 26 September 2009 22:47 (Yesterday)

I meant "of the other tracks on this mix", but thanks.

Your student gives me hope for the future. Pretty strong mix.

Sleeve--try Rush!

Sorry I've been busy guys, will try to listen to the rest of this in the next few days.

lol @ photoshop filters on those Liquid Tension Experiment covers

Ned and John's latest posts = me too, me too

That's one of Opeth's best songs

yeah this is actually a pretty good mix imo

Lop off that Pelican track, and that mix would be pretty near perfect.

Hear hear.

surprised there's no bungle or mars volta on that. those dudes are everywhere.

or Porcupine Tree

Prog songs are long. You can only fit so much on a cd.

Porcupine Tree have a weird status these days. (I'm a fan but I'm not surprised they're a bit out of this particular mix's loop.)

OK, I'm back, listening to this Agalloch song again from the beginning. Is this harp or guitar played to sound like a harp?

What's really interesting here is the back-and-forth between the horror-movie throat-scratch vocals and the straight rock vocals. I think I'm lacking some relevant context that allows me to make sense of hearing both of these in the same song.

Also: Hearing a guy intone "God is not dead" just sounds silly to me but is it actually that much more silly than hearing a guy murmur "I will love you forever" or some other sentiment I'd totally accept as a pop lyric?

OK, on to "Ghost Key," by Isis.

Before the vocals come in this is almost, well, jam-bandy. I think I like the throat-scratchy vocals here because you can't hear them saying things like "God is not dead" -- they're just kind of a sound among other sounds. Oh, and I really like the kind of flicked-sounding almost-one-note guitar solo that's going on here in minute 3.

There are pieces of this I like as much as anything on the mix so far. I feel like I have to accept the grandiose parts of this in the same spirit in which I accept it from, say, Smashing Pumpkins.

"The Drapery Falls," by Opeth. This is the first song on the mix that gives me any insight into why J0hn D4rni3ll3 likes metal; the way the drums sound at the beginning of this song reminds me of the way he strums. But maybe this is not the kind of metal J0hn likes, I dunno.

I know I'm repeating myself here but the vocals here suggest this is something to which I'm supposed to respond viscerally, I guess as I do to Sid Vicious? Or Poly Styrene? Or even Steve Perry? But I feel like I'd have to WORK HARD AND LEARN something in order to know how to do this.

What now? The transition between strummy acoustic and speed is not working for me, it just seems a trick.

"The Wind," by The Morningside. Like the name of this band. "Russian dark-metal" per last.fm. The music isn't as interesting as the last two and the vocals are yet more grandiosely growly.

"King of Those Who Know," by Cynic. This is fun to hear! I'm running out of ways to rephrase my basic reaction to this whole mix. But -- somehow here the guitar flourishes and speed-drum intrusions seem more motivated... it seems very thought through. But still the product of a decision-making process that's absolutely alien to me.

"Mother Man," by Atheist. Now I'm just getting bored. I think I need to go to sleep and revisit this again with fresh ears.

Hm, the vocals on "Drapery Falls" remind me a bit of Greg Lake TBH. I do like that song and some others like "Moonlapse Vertigo" but I think I burnt out on Opeth a little when I started hearing more recent art-metal. They sometimes seem like they're not enough of any one thing?

yeah honestly motherman always makes raise my eyebrows

Why did I never hear Cynic before?

I'm keen to hear your response to SGM (easily my personal fave of the ones I know on this mix...though to me it's pretty inextricable from the songs that precede and follow it on the original album. not sure how it works outside of that context).

any chance of making uploading this mix to mediafire?

You ask, I answer:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/un07gd

Somebody let me know if this worked.

merci beaucoup.

downloading now...seems to be working, but there's an unusually long download time to go.

I'll keep you posted.

Yeah, it took me unusually long to upload, too! I may have compressed it in some stupidly inefficient way by mistake.

Glenn MacDonald on Cynic:
"their at-once understated and hyperarticulated no-beat-missed second album now sounds much more obviously like King Crimson after a rusty cistern of coffee and a weekend of belated and more than a little befuddled listening to an old LP copy of Master of Puppets misfiled in a Hawkwind sleeve."

I don't really know what this means but I'm into it.

Opeth takes repeatedly listening to grasp 100%, but once you do, you open yourself up to one of the best and most consistently excellent catalogs of the last fifteen years.

Also, please ask your student to explain why he didn't put a cut off of Voivod's Nothingface on this mix. It's a glaring omission.

Thanks for the download link. I'm going to have an interesting time listening to this, I think.

Looking forward to your reaction to sleepytime gorilla museum

Just heard them play! My aforementioned student booked them for a campus show. Was very impressed; more so than anything on the mix above. One seldom sees something authentically strange at a rock show.

I momentarily confused Sleepytime Gorilla Museum with Dreamboat Gorilla. It was a confusing moment.

I think that's my favorite SGM song. "I am the adversary! And must remain! the adversary!"

But, tbf, Dreamboat Gorilla put on tremendously strange and exciting shows themselves.

Oh yeah, also "profile this kid based on the mix" would be good.

2:1 Lives w/ mom at age 30

5:1 School shooter

50:1 Future tech billionaire

naus

2:1 kind of an asshole

that's pretty much correct ;)

but i'd just as soon take back the "school shooter" comment as those people aren't usually involved in campus affairs…

this SGM tour is the best ive seen (and ive seen them uh 7 times i think?) such a great live band

2:1 kind of an asshole

No! The kid is totally nice actually.

"math-rocker"

(Don't think jon was saying that the student is an asshole.

Exactly. I was saying that the person inferring that a kid listening to this stuff might be a "school shooter" is "kind of an asshole".

gotcha, sorry