An unfortunate accident

My brother had for a long time, dreamed of having a motorcycle. He was finally able to get one a couple of years ago, and was extremely happy about it. He had to part with it because he could not afford it at the time. This last summer though, he bought another one since he could financially. And again, he was ecstatic about it.

He became part of a motorcycle group that organise trips. They have a web site on which people post a destination, and whoever wants to go can join them. My bro chose one, which was planned for last Sunday, destined to go from Montreal (that's where he lives) to Lake Georges in the State of New-York. That's a decision he is going to regret making, for the rest of his life...

The route is the 9N, and is very sinuous. But nothing dangerous at all. It's a paved country road, and there are lots of lodging areas along the way. It's a very nice drive actually, along, of course, Lake Georges. There was one curve though, that went down slightly steeper than the others, and turned left at the same time. For now, what we know and what my brother remembers, he made a judgement error, and put on the brakes while he shouldn't have, and his bike just went sliding to the side, hitting the metal guide rail. he fell over the rail, and the bike bounced back on the other side of the road. This resulted in a severe ankle fracture on his right leg, a dislocated shoulder on the left, and multiple bruising on his ribs, shoulder back and left arm.

Let's say that when my mother called to give me the news later on that Sunday, I expected the worst - you know what "worst" I mean... So although we did not know at that point the exact extent of his injuries, at least I knew he was still alive, and he did not have something really bad like a broken neck, which could lead to paraplegia or quadriplegia. So I went by to my parent's house, because now, we had to decide what to do. I'll spear you all the different discussions and arguments we had to come to this decision, because family matters differ from one family to the other, but in the end we decided that me, my sister and my father would go to see him the day after.

The 6.5h drive down there went very smoothly. Upon arriving to the hospital, which was the Albany Medical Center, a very reputable hospital and it showed, I expected it to be harder to take when seeing my brother. It wasn't as hard as I expected, but there was a sadness that grew in me. He had a neck harness, but fortunately it was just to prevent his head from going on the side too much when asleep, as it would not be good for the bruises (and he did sleep a lot because of the morphine and, well, because his body was in a healing process). His left arm was strapped onto his body, so that it does not move while the shoulder, replaced from dislocation, heals. Hi ankle, part of his calf and his foot had metal pins coming out of them, with metal bars to hold everything together, a bit like a cage, to prevent everything from moving (I know there is a name for that thing, but I don't remember it at the moment). Not a nice sight to see, mostly with part of the foot had an oval-shaped opened wound, about 6cm wide. My father was not able to watch this when it was uncovered... So in other words he was in pretty bad shape, although he was stable, and he could move all his members, even the toes on the side of his broken ankle.

Today, which is 4 days after the accident, he will be transported at a hospital in Montreal. He will be staying there until he is well enough to start physiotherapy. So this will surely be many weeks. The physio might be done at a hospital in Gatineau, near me and our parents. I expect the healing process will be long and tedious for his right leg mainly, but hope is there and my brother can be strong when needed.

We're hoping for the best.

Mini album review: Epica

Epica - Consign to Oblivion

There's a trend in the Heavy Metal and Prog Metal industry since a certain number of years to mix heavy with classical. Some do it very well, but others not so very well. And surely there is a whole bunch that sound very similar from one to the other...

Then there is Epica, who I find stands out a little, not because they are necessarily much better than others, but because instead of sounding like metal with some classical parts, they are more like classical with some metal parts. Well, lets say lots of metal parts, but the classical is definitely more present. And the classical side sounds a lot like the instrumental parts of an epic movie. So it is intense.

Another possible downside of Symphonic Metal bands, depending on your taste, is to have a singer that sounds too operatic. This is another point that Epica scores. Simone Simmons has a very lovely voice, and even in the higher notes where she starts to sound operatic, it still sounds nice (again, for my taste anyway). The main, and probably the only, down side of the band is the grunts. The guitar player, Mark Jansen, of which I have no complaint on his guitar playing, sometimes does grunts. While it is not very often, I find it breaks the mood and sometimes borderlines the ridicule. It's OK to have some sort of deep voice to express feelings of anger or the such in specific parts of a song. But grunts? not for me... Not in this type of music anyway. But fortunately, the rest is so fantastic that I will not prevent myself from listening to any Epica songs.

My rating: * * * * ½

Mini album review: Yes

Yes - Union

Like I mentioned in the previous Genesis mini album review, I'm a prog guy. So of course, I love the music that Yes created in the 70's, progressive rock's early glory years. That's a given. But I find myself among a rarer species who continued liking their music through their transformation to better fit the 80's trends. This happened to many of the 70's prog bands - either that, or they just split up or disappeared (sometimes to re-surge in the new millennium, for better or for worse). But instead of hating them for it, I tried to appreciate it. And sometimes their presence in the pop-rock world stood out from others because of their background and musical talent, which unfortunately was not the case for all 80's-born bands. Because of that, for me, these bands made some of the best sounding pop and rock music in the 80's and 90's. A lot of these albums I still listen to today, and of of these is Yes' Union.

Union seems like it was not a very popular album. Most of the people who like their 70's material did not like it (because it was another pop-rock sounding album), and even those who liked them in the 80's, with popular songs like Owner of a Lonely Heart in 1983 and Love Will Find a Way in 1987, did not remember they still existed, so they probably were not even aware that album came out. But personally, I think it's an even better album than Big generator, and on par with 90125. There are many contributors on this album. I think the entire Yes cast of past and present (that "present" was 1991) played on at least 4 tracks. There are no tracks with all nine of them playing together though, but that's probably a good thing - more musicians at once is not necessarily better in rock bands... I think the reason is that there was in reality two "outfits" of the band making up songs - one for a second ABWH release, and one for a Yes album. They decided to put all the created songs on a single album (although some versions of some songs also appeared on the Squire/Sherwood Conspiracy album, which I have mini-reviewed here), thus the title of Union, and created an awesome record. Every single track is strong, and there is enough variety to satisfy the music lover in me. I would say it's their last great album they did to date.

My rating: * * * * ½

Mini album review: Genesis

Genesis - Wind and Wuthering

Being a fan of the Progressive Rock genre, I, like many others, am a fan of the 70's Genesis. I was not old enough to know them back then (I was born in 1972 actually), but in the late 80's, a friend of mine introduced me to Genesis, which was my first step into the prog world. And like all prog fans who like Genesis, their best period was when Peter Gabriel was their lead singer. That's the way we identify that period: the Gabriel-era. But for me, it was not the Gabriel-era, it was the Hackett-era...

Yes, in reality, Genesis really turned away from prog when Steve Hackett left the band, not when Gabriel did - although I do agree that a major piece was lost when Gabriel left... but for me, and if you would listen to that album carefully, it was Wind and Wuthering that was the last of Genesis' glorious prog album library. It does not sound like Foxtrot for sure, but nonetheless is an excellent progressive rock album.

So if your Genesis prog collection stopped at The Lamb, Gabriel's last effort with the band, maybe you should take a peek at W&W, and even Trick of the Tail (although I prefer W&W). Or you might have heard it before, but put it aside because you were too used to Gabriel's voice, or for other reasons. Try it again, you might enjoy it ;-)

My rating: ****½

EDIT: they now have released the special version of this album, which now includes a DVD-Audio disk, with a 5.1 remastered mix of the entire album. Wow, now it sounds even better than ever!!!

Mini album review: Ayreon

Ayreon - Into The Electric Castle

Ayreon is one of multiple "projects" by Dutch musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen. With Ayreon, A. A. Lucassen covers a lot of musical grounds, allbeit all in the Rock department... And that's why I like the Ayreon albums so much. It would seem like Arjen has very similar influences as I, ranging from 80's Hard Rock and Metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, to classic rock of the 70's, such as Led Zeppelin, Rainbow, Deep Purple and David Bowie, some 60's with The Beatles, 70's prog scene with Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull. There is even some folk in there, along with the album-length story, like a rock opera is written, with multiple singers, each with their own "role", or "part".

How he does it I don't know, but it all ties in very nicely. In my own opinion, he creates masterpieces. And my very favorite of these masterpieces is Into the Electric Castle. It is probably the one that most represent what Ayreon is. I'll just quote what's written on the Ayreon web site about the album:

"Into the Electric Castle' tells the story of 8 stereotypical characters from different periods of time who suddenly find themselves in another dimension. A Highlander, Knight, Egyptian, Indian, Barbarian, Roman, Hippie and Futureman each try to understand where they are and what they are supposed to do. It is then that a voice rings out from the sky to tell them that the dimension they have arrived in is built on dreams and fears. In order to find their way back to their own dimension and time, they must go in search of The Electric Castle. During the search every character is forced to confront his or her innermost fears, and not everyone survives the treacherous journey to the Castle.

At the end of the journey those that successfully dealt with their personal demons find out that the voice belongs to an alien named 'Forever of the Stars', a member of an alien race living in a distant galaxy. These aliens created planet Earth and its people as an experiment so they could study, and hopefully one day experience emotions, as they themselves lost feelings eons ago."

My rating: *****

Mini album review: Rush

Rush - Snakes & Arrows:

Rush is one of my all-time favorite bands. They have many albums which I like entirely, from beginning to end (A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, etc). For that reason, I will always have some Rush which I'm "In the mood" for (gratuitous reference to a track on their first album). Let's face it: Rush is surely THE most influential Canadian band on the prog scene, and one of the most influential of all in general. And quite frankly, I have yet to hear another band of the present that sounds like them.

I even like the more mainstream albums they released, like Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows and Hold You Fire. My interest stays strong up until Counterparts, with Presto and Roll the Bones having some "lows". Since Counterparts though, they have failed to amaze me with a full album. They have very good tracks here and there, but no entire albums. Actually, I would only take 2 or 3 of the best tracks of Presto, T4E, and Vapor Trails, and even Roll the Bones, and make one great compilation. But that's it.

But now, Snakes and Arrows has put a halt to this. YES! Finally, Rush IS BACK!!! What a fresh sound, that resonates the good vibes of the 80's, that reminds me of Power Windows and Grace Under Pressure, but with a harder edge in parts, and a little bit of experimentation in others. No it's not the prog sound of the 70's and early 80's - don't get overly excited... But I think fans of Rush will find that this is the album they have been waiting for for a long time.

My Rating: ****½

Mini album review: Spock's Beard

Spock's Beard - The Light (The Artwork Collector’s Series)

I was fortunate enough to put my hands on this little jewel. The Light is Spock's Beard's first studio album, and a classic of progressive rock work. Neal Morse, the lead member at the time, has been greatly influenced by the 70's prog rock bands, and you really feel that on this album. Although it still has a modern feel to it. So without a doubt, any prog fans who like the old Genesis, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant and the like, will probably like this album.

Now, what makes this a jewel? The package is part of what is called The Artwork Collector's Series, and is a limited, numbered edition. In addition to the remastered album, there are extensive liner notes for each song, a poster of the album cover, and some postcards. All this in a triple fold, enlarged CD case. The whole thing simply excites the music geek in me ;-)

I never heard the original release of this album, so it's hard for me to say if the remaster makes a big difference, but it sure sounds amazing!

My rating: *****