And the title refers to John Petrucci’s wife about to give birth to their child. 😉 Petrucci had to leave the recording sessions at some point.

I’ve discovered Dream Theater thanks to Tony Levin who had just released that album with Portnoy, Petrucci and Ruddess. I saw Dream Theater in Paris last Saturday, a performance which was captured for an upcoming bluray dvd.

This is my favourite show that you both have done, one of the best instrumentals and for me it doesn't feel that long because there's always something different next, great notes jana

Yeah, about the growls: i remember 20 years ago when i listened to Opeth for the first time thinking the same. Amazing music but couldn't decide if i loved it or not because of the growls. I was never into harsh vocals even in the 80's, but then again Mikael's growls are unique. So much depth combined with perfect diction and metric perfection, always fitting the music they create. Today they are one of my favourites and you know what? I'm so happy the growls are back! I mean, i love their last 4 albums before this one, but this is a new chapter. I call it Operath. And i love it!

Marillion my love 💝🍒👌🇵🇱🖐

When this is the opener, you know the album will be epic, and it is!

I was 14. I remember hearing this for the first time. After an unbelievable first side to a record. This is when RUSH became my favorite band ever,

Just saw him last night, opening for The Pineapple Thief in Montreal. Both were great. You have one of my all time favourite albums (AFTK) on your wall!

Although not much of a fan of Prog metal, I checked this out, as so many people championed how great Opeth is. Nope, not for me. Didn't find anything here of much interest or appeal. The growly vocals ruin every track (every time it starts to get somewhat melodic, those terrible vocals intrude again), but it's more than just that. Not anything I would ever want to hear again.

Great choices. The only change I would make would be to replace Dream Theater with Gentle Giant.

Thankk you for being there. Of course, I have the entire disco catalog . I was fortunate in that I saw GG Live on 3 occasions. in Montreal, Quebec. I guess that makes an elder hippy with taste.

First heard them15 yr ago..serious addiction!!better than the rest

Hey Nathan I've come across someone you should check out.... Formerly from cyberiam the Bass player Brian Kovacs has a new solo album coming out next month that sounds better than I expected. Worth the listen!

Listening to Prog /songs/ has kind of a bad smell... One should listen to Prog /albums/... :) Caught a like anyway. Regards. 👍

Nice video Nathan. The growling so called vocals ruin it for me. Maybe a few years from now some bands will have a vomiting sound for vocals, l'm sure alot of people will love that too.

Paragraph 1-7 is meant to be like reading a will. Their new drummer,valteri has done a stunning job on his recording debut. Love the album,but my top 2,are,watershed & pale communion.

Great review as always. Love it. Have you reviewed the new Cure album? Maybe they need to start a new genre named Goth Prog as that's what their new album sounds like. Here's the band playing the new album start to finish as one long musical suite. kzbin.info/www/bejne/raermWSplNhqsJo

For me, started 6 years ago with prog rock...then to prog metal...then prog death metal. The vocals are the vocals but its the dark melodic mixtures of heavy and light with dripping atmosphere that is hard to resist. No one does that better than Opeth.

Cool proggy christmas in the past: Jethro Tull's "A Christmas Song; Kate Bush... and ofcourse Greg Lake.. there should be other stuff too... including songs from myself ;-) That's more progfolk if you like.. what's in a name 🙂

10:20

I've been onboard as an Opeth fan since the 'Damnation' release when I heard 'Windowpane' on a late night heavy metal music TV channel. I found the harsh vocals an acquired taste but it actually didn't take too long and I was in boots and all. I own everything they've ever done on CD and many LPs. I've only listened though the entire 'Last Will...' album once in it's entirety and, if I'm honest, was a bit underwhelmed. However, having lowered my expectations, I've heard a few of the early tracks again and I think it's coming into focus for me. Early days. (BTW: I love many of the albums you have behind you. I recently discovered Ritual - The Story of Mr Bogd Pt1. Brilliant album. The Dear Hunter, Bear Ghost, Jethro Tull, Beardfish and IQ - Great stuff!.) Subscribed!

Praying for an instrumental version of this one! Can't abide the stupid growling, non-vocals.

I quite liked Oddleaf's debut too, but ending up here today was good for another reason as well: finding out that after almost 20 years there's a new Ritual album to enjoy! I thought I'd never hear of them again (and the album is a Part 1, meaning they should soon be back for Part 2).

Like you, I was never a huge fan of Opeth but appreciate a lot of their work. This album is great though and makes me want to dig a little deeper into their discography. Love your reviews Nathan!

Now THAT's a reaction. Very insightful Jana (i knew this song for a long time) - love LTE. At approximately the same time I got interested in the solo project of John Petrucci: "Suspended Animation" Great album.

I’m of two minds on this.

Such a great video..the Earth moved! Lol...nice one guys 😀

No intetest in AI at all or plug ins or any device which creates chords....I record all my tracks live and just keep going until its right. Every note on my recordings is played by me and always will be...I dont like machines doing human jobs really, when it comes to creativity!

Lynyrd Skynyrd --> Freebird, Tuesday's Gone are some of the beast songs. I love them. Nice Video. Love you from India.

If you're a pop song lover like Jenna then LTE could rag your head out in about 25 seconds. Big fan of the rhythm section here myself but have to be in a particular mood to handle this over the top prog.

Saw this and thought "Oh, Jana's not going to dig this..." LTE were the first of a slew of instrumental metal fusion combos that came along starting in the late 90's (Attention Deficit, Bozzio Levin Stevens, Explorer's Club, Derek Sherinian's various projects, etc.) Most of these bands were on the Magna Carta label, who were the source of all those prog cover albums from the 90's as well. I recall a great deal of excitement surrounding these projects initially. As for myself, it's great hearing Tony Levin play *anything*, but the nature of these projects means a certain amount of sameness creeps in, and there's only so much metal wankery I can stomach. But if you're already a fan of Dream Theater then this is probably more to your liking.

"emo prog" could not be more correct and also more likely to make people skip away from the video immediately lmaoooo (jk dude, really appreciate you taking the time to include is in the new releases!)

I love LTE! Great Sunday morning pick me up!

There have been a couple of cool releases this month that I stumbled upon. The Chilean band Crisalida and Dutch band Kingfisher Sky. I have been really enjoying both.

I have already pre-ordered The Lamb box set. My favourite Genesis album!

Marillion's This Strange Engine media box set just came out also

Everyone is excited about Opeth (with good reason) but both the Kyros and Stop.Drop.Rewind releases are great hope this gets some folks listening!

Nospūn have announced a new EP.

Hi Nathan Some great things coming out. Hope my Opeth box set arrives next week (Ian Anderson on it ) Have a great weekend

Thanks Nathan!👍😎

The YES albums are masterpieces to me. Just amazing.

Kansas yes!!! Nice to see a young man into prog 👊

Yes, Falling Into Infinity is so good! One of my favorites. I would pick Dream Theater's strongest five album run as Awake - Train of Thought, because the production quality got a lot better after Images & Words. And James' singing as well, he has some wailing high notes on I&W which I'm not fond of. Transatlantic, Haken, Frost* and Porcupine Tree would make up the rest of my top five. (I'm not sure about the order).

My #1 would be King Crimson, and as a run of 5 has to include Larks, Starless and Red, I would extend that to include Discipline and Beat, but I think they have a solid run all the way up to their last studio album of Power To Believe. My #2 would be Riverside. I think all their albums are amazing so that's a run of 8. My #3 would be Porcupine Tree. For a run of 5 I'd go Stupid Dream to Fear of a Blank Planet, but I could extend that to 8 with Signify to Closure/Continuation, or even to 11 with all of their albums. My #4 would Gentle Giant from Acquiring the Taste to Freehand for 6. My #5 would be the first 5 albums from Camel. Just missing out would be Pink Floyd with Meddle to Animals, Genesis from Nursery Crimes to Trick of the Tail and Rush from 2112 to Moving Pictures. Though Yes have some fantastic albums, they do not have a solid run of 5 for me. I did not include fusion, but if I did it may mix things up, but a lot of my favourite fusion bands/artists don't have a solid run of 5.

Can't argue with with your top 5. If you had 6-13 I think you'd agree wiith King Crimson, Renaissance, Gentle Giant, Moody Blues, and Supertramp (IMO they're proggy enough) PFM, Camel, Strawbs

How about Acquiring the Taste, Three Friends, Octopus, In a Glass House, The Power and the Glory, Free Hand and Interview? Oh wait, that's seven!

Genesis went downhill after Trespass !

Not even honorable mention for Gentle Giant? Suprisingly. First seven albums are bloody masterpieces.

‘YES’. 👍🏼 🎶❤️🎶

That's a good list! Off the top of my head, I think my top 5 is 1. The Dear Hunter: Act 1 -> Act 5 2. Coheed and Cambria: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3 -> The Afterman (counting this double album as one) 3. Dream Theater: Scenes From a Memory -> Systematic Chaos (though it hurts to leave Awake out) 4. Alcest: Les voyages de l'ame -> Les Chants de l'Aurore 5. Steven Wilson: Insurgentes -> To The Bone Honorable mentions: Genesis: Nursery Cryme -> A Trick of the Tail Porcupine Tree: Stupid Dream -> Fear of a Blank Planet Opeth: This one is hard to cut. But I think (and a lot of hardcore Opeth fans would probably disown me for this) I'd have to go Watershed -> In Cauda Venenum. I love Oldpeth. I just like Newpeth a little more.