A world dedicated to music.

I love rock, metal, and progressive, but you'll also hear classical, Big Band jazz, oldies, and anything else that tickles my ears.

RIP Mac McDermott (1966-2011)

Very sad news in the prog music world today. It's been reported that Andrew "Mac" McDermott, former singer of Threshold - one of my favorite bands and the preeminent progressive metal act out of the UK - has passed away.

Prior to his joining Threshold, Mac was the singer for the band Sargant Fury. After they dissolved, he replaced original Threshold vocalist Damian Wilson. Mac sang for the band for the next ten years on the albums Clone, Hypothetical, Critical Mass, Subsurface, and Dead Reckoning, as well as the live double-album Critical Energy and several fan club releases. He suddenly quit just as the band was about to embark on their tour in support of Dead Reckoning, but stayed active in music, recording a second album for the prog band Yargos, forming his own band Swamp Freaks, and most recently singing for PowerWorld.

It was reported that Mac had been suffering health problems in the last few months, but there is no firm word yet on what these problems were and how they contributed to his death. Mac was 45.

When I saw this news, I was incredibly shocked and saddened. One of the best voices in prog music is now gone, and all we have of him now is his legacy on audio and video. RIP Mac. Keep on proggin'.

Here is Threshold performing "Light & Space" from the Critical Energy DVD as tribute.

Dead Letter Circus - One Step

My latest musical discovery is Dead Letter Circus, a band out of Australia that combine alternative rock with synth and a bit of prog, with some really great vocals. Check em out in this video.

Fair To Midland - Amarillo Sleeps on My PIllow

Taken from the new album Arrows & Anchors. One reason I like this song is that bit of Western twang the band adds to it, referencing their Texas roots, weaving it into the tone of the song without it sounding silly. If only more bands could be like Fair To Midland, Coheed & Cambria, The Mars Volta, or The Tea Party - able to tap into the mainstream but still able to defy easy genre classification while creating truly great music that transcends the industry attempts to put things in homogenized and sanitized boxes - the music scene today would be so much greater.

Iced Earth - Declaration Day

It's the Fourth of July, the birthday of the United States of America, and it's time to celebrate with some patriotic heavy metal.

Dream Theater - On The Backs Of Angels

Dream Theater is one of the founding bands of the progressive metal genre. Through their history they've seen several line-up changes, but from 1999-2010 they had a stable and successful team.

Last year, the DT fanbase was shocked by the departure of drummer and founding member Mike Portnoy. After twenty-five years in DT and several more running around participating in various side projects, Portnoy wanted to take a long break, but the other band members wanted to continue to move forward, so while no one wanted the split, nonetheless it happened.

After auditioning several promising drummers, the boys in DT chose Mike Mangini. Now they are set to release their next album this year, aptly titled A Dramatic Turn Of Events. To give us a taste of what's to come, DT has released the song "On The Backs Of Angels".