Progressive styles of music tend to be my favorite genres of whatever group of music they are part of. The reason for this is the musicians typically push themselves to perform insanely difficult pieces and to truly master their instruments. They typically are well versed in many styles of music and they will mix them together into intricate pieces that rarely do well in the mainstream. Perhaps there are too many notes, too much to keep up with, odd time signatures and key changes, and generally a lot of the pieces are difficult to dance to unless you are intimately familiar with the song before you begin dancing. Yet some people like myself look at progressive music with its amazing skill and arrangement like some people would view some great work of art when they are walking through an art museum.

Now the more common types of progressive music are progressive music which largely began in the 60s and is still going strong today. This is known as progressive rock. It had roots going back further than that. More recently when the foundation is more distorted or heavy it has also has taken on a new name of Progressive metal. Really the two styles approach music very similarly the metal one will usually just be a little heavier on the distortion, and will also often go to lower ranges than rock. I do believe when people use the term Fusion they are also referring to essentially what Progressive is talking about. So if you take Jazz fusion then that usually is jazz fused with some other musical style. Funk fusion could be the same. All of these fusions are essentially doing what the Progressive Rock, and Progressive Metal movements are doing as well the only difference is the foundation musical genre it is built off of.

I was just listening to one of my progressive playlists and the idea for this post came to me. I noticed that so many of the greatest progressive acts out there in both rock and in metal have a vocalist that is exceptionally skilled, but they tend to sing in a method that is annoying to a lot of people. In fact, it was generally annoying to me for awhile too. Then something strange happens as you listen to it for awhile. It grows on you. Instead of viewing it like a fungus growing on us though we could spin it and instead view it as a nice ivy that compliments us with perhaps a flower blooming past your ear if that suits your fancy. Or we could simply view it as our ears and mind learning something new and a new level of musical appreciation being attained.

I decided I wanted to do a nice musical post of some of my favorite annoying progressive vocalists. Buckle up!!!

I'll do this as another post where I track down the lyrics to help with the ear training. :)

Rush

I'll admit for the longest time I did not like Geddy Lee's vocals. Then one day I am lying on a cot in sweltering heat and a friend fires up 2112 from the beginning. That album is a masterpiece and it sang to me. By the end of that something went CLICK and I became a Geddy Lee fan. Though I do remember being annoyed by what I was calling whiny vocals.

Rush-Something for Nothing - 1976

Yes

Now it didn't all begin with Rush, and it didn't necessarily begin with this band Yes either. However, this band has a similarly often annoying vocal style and it does predate Rush. It most definitely qualifies as Progressive Rock as well.

Yes - Roundabout - 1971

Fates Warning

Now I've mentioned Fates Warning in some other posts before. I went on a motorcycle tripe around the summer of 1988 or so and happened to stop by a big record store in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I went to the metal section as at the time my home was very remote so I had to have local music stores special order stuff for me. Well this place had a lot. I'll admit I was sucked in by the album cover artwork here as well as then name "Fates Warning". I thought that was a pretty cool band name in 1988. I'd never heard of them before. I also bought a couple other bands I did know. This one was a total unknown and I'd often take chances and buy music from people I'd never heard.

This band started out with the vocalist John Arch. I am going to talk about him in several different places in this post. As far as I'm concerned he is the extreme of this vocal style and it took the longest for him to grow on me. I will admit I like him A LOT now and sometimes I'll intentionally seek out his pieces as I just need a John Arch fix.

Fates Warning-Guardian - 1986

John Arch did eventually leave Fates Warning. It was not due to being kicked out or differences with the band. This is a niche sound and they never did really blow up to something huge. He had another business. I think it had something to do with gardening or plants. He wanted to spend more time doing that and with his family. This is important to what I'll show in a bit.

Another great vocalist sent Fates Warning a demo tape and he became the new vocalist. I do believe his voice is more accessible to the average person. It is not as nasal and head voice oriented as the John Arch style. That doesn't mean it is better. It is just different.

Fates Warning-SOS (Official Video) - 2016

I could spend quite a bit of time showing off great Ray Alder vocals, but he doesn't as often fall into that sound I am referring to in this post. He is a great vocalist though and very much worth listening to. I don't know of a single Fates Warning album I'd consider bad. They also have so many different sounds.

The interesting thing is that after 20 years of no singing John Arch got together with Jim Matheos (guitarist and main song writer for Fates Warning) and they made a solo album for John Arch. It has only two tracks, but one of them has one of my all time favorite vocal phrases.

John Arch-Relentless - 2011

The phrase in that where he sings this part twice in the song I find strangely compelling, beautiful, and wondrous. It often sends chills down my back when I hear that part.

So this did show that there were still many closet fans like myself that had been missing new John Arch vocal pieces for the 20 year hiatus.

Well Jim Matheos got together with him again and they made an album called Arch/Matheos that I believe was easily the best Progressive album to come out the year it came out. It is perfectly intricate in the instrument side and the John Arch vocals are top notch.

Arch/Matheos-"Midnight Serenade" - 2011

Though I really am addicted to quite a few songs from this album. It often ends up as my CD of choice when I am driving somewhere by myself.

Arch/Matheos-Neurotically Wired - 2011 (I absolutely love this song)

I'd like to show you the full song "Stained Glass Sky" from the album Sympathetic Resonance, but it's been deleted from youtube and you can only find edited and much shorter versions of it. If you like progressive music and you are okay with John Arch vocals this album is a MUST have... it is truly epic and amazing.

Well that is it for this particular musical journey. It was what I was inspired to put together today. I hope that you enjoy it.