Author Topic: For prog fans, this is the "Year Of The Live Album" (at least for me)  (Read 660 times)

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Offline The Letter M

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It's not often I get very excited about live albums (especially over studio albums), unless they're from some of my favorite artists, but this year so far, I've gotten some STELLAR live releases from some of my favorite artists.

Neal Morse Band's The Similitude Of A Dream: Live In Tilburg
Haken's L-1VE
Ayreon's Ayreon Universe Live

And coming out in July, Big Big Train's Merchants Of Light

And each of these feels like a landmark live releases - Neal Morse's big epic concept album brought to life on stage was an exciting show to watch, especially since I loved that album so much; Haken's first live album is a treat to behold, with a good balance of songs (IMO), and a stunning performance of my favorite Haken epic "Visions"; and yet another Ayreon live album, but covering a TON of material from various albums, with a LOT of talented performers in every song! And of course, a Big Big Train live album is like a holy grail as the band have VERY limited live performances, so being able to get a live album from them is a treasure.

I know that Fates Warning also recently released a live album as well, though I'm not a FW fan so I cannot comment on that, but I hope it's a good one for the FW fans!

Anyone else have other new and recent live albums they want to gush about, from 2018 or even in the last year or so? It just feels like I'm getting all of these awesome live albums this year and it's such a treat, especially since some of my other favorite bands haven't had any full live albums in awhile (Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Steven Wilson).

-Marc.
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Offline Elite

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There's a Steven Wilson live release coming from his To the Bone tour, although it's unclear when that one will be released. I enjoyed the Haken release, but I haven't listened to the others. I'm usually not too much into live releases, because most of the time they just contain the same stuff you hear on the record (which, despite the genre's initial adventurousness seems to hold especially true for modern prog releases). In that sense, I'm not too interested in hearing the Neal Morse live album, because it won't be too different from the studio version. That said; I own the Haken one and it's nice to have, because I was actually at that show and it contains the 'Aquamedley', which you can't get elsewhere. I have yet to get the Ayreon one, but I might do so eventually. I was at that show too, so it would be nice to revisit that.

For me, the best prog live album is 'Coma Divine' by Porcupine Tree. While I realise this may be an odd choice, it has everything I want in a live album: it's intense, it contains alternate versions of tracks, there's jams going on and the setlist is outstanding.
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Offline Mister Gold

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I know that Fates Warning also recently released a live album as well, though I'm not a FW fan so I cannot comment on that, but I hope it's a good one for the FW fans!

Quite honestly, the new Fates live album is so great and all-encompassing for the band's career, it should basically be considered to Fates Warning what Alive in Athens is to Iced Earth fans or what several top notch live albums are to Iron Maiden fans. Ray's voice is quite different today from how it was in the late 80's and early 90's, so all of the earliest songs they play on the live album have adjusted vocal melodies to match his low and mid-range focused style of singing now... and honestly the new melodies generally sound a lot better than they did on the originals.

Definitely worth checking out! :hefdaddy
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