Maximum Prog

The Giger artwork on the cover of this album fascinated me as a teenager and I wondered if it was rock'n'roll or classical. Turns out it was a bit of both. In part I can credit listening to this release at deafening volumes with disturbing our bucolic suburban enclave and also with tweaking my curiosity about 'real' classical music. Everything except for the throwaway 'Benny the Bouncer' is larger than life. This was serious music as far as I was concerned, a few steps removed from the Stones and Led Zeppelin. This was the pinnacle of Prog-rock in my humble opinion. Bombastic, busy and blustery. Keith Emerson's organ and synthesizers give it all a gothic feel, and Carl Palmer is a machine on the drums. Greg Lake the vocalist had been with King Crimson briefly and his rich timbre suits this music well. I don't know what a lot of people would make of this album, but for the younger kids in the audience there's a number of bands like Perfect Circle and Godspeed You Black Emperor that have the progressive feel to them. Maybe it's making a comeback. Maybe it never left.