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It's so... black...
If the trendy critics are to be believed, the valid alternative form of music to the plastic boy/girl pop bands are repetitive machine-made dance music or those tedious droning three-chord indie bands. It's all complete bollocks, of course, there's plenty of good music around, it's just that the media ignores it completely in favour of the fashionable fluff of the day.
My taste in music gets labelled as 'Dinosaur Music' by some. But who cares what idiots like Tony Parsons think? I don't!
So what bands do I like?
Blue Öyster Cult remain one of the best bands ever to have come out of America, although sadly never as popular over here in Britain as they deserved to be. Perhaps we aren't ready for a band which plays hard rock, but with intelligent lyrics with a high weirdness content. They produced a string of classic albums in the 70s and 80s, but lapsed into silence as far as recording was concerned for most of the 90s, although they continued touring in the US. In 1998 they released "Heaven Forbid", their first album in ten years. They followed this up with 2001's "Curse of the Hidden Mirror".
Perhaps the best of the 70s British hard-rock acts, Deep Purple also released a brand-new album "Abandon" last year. Many predicted their demised after the departure of The Man In Black after one tantrum too many, but new guitarist Steve Morse has instead revitalised the band. Meanwhile, their former guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has gone in a different direction entirely, and has recorded three 'renaissance-style' acoustic albums featuring his fiancee Candice Night on vocals. Personally I think it's got about as much to do with Renaissance music as Dungeons and Dragons has with the real middle-ages, but all three albums have their moments.
And then there's Uriah Heep. What can I say about them? Apparently the inspiration behind Spinal Tap, they have had a great many ups and downs, a lot of lineup changes, but nevertheless have made a lot of great music along the way. And, like Deep Purple, they're not only putting out good albums, such as "Sonic Origami", but are still a good live act.
Marillion were the band to emerge in the 80s, as far as I'm concerned. The first four studio albums remain classics. After Fish's departure in 1988, replaced by new singer Steve Hogarth, they have been a bit more uneven. But they're willing to take risks and keep tying different ideas, as any band with the label "progressive" should do.
After leaving Marillion, Fish's solo career has also had it's ups and downs, but he's currently on fine form, as his recent albums "Sunsets on Empire" and "Raingods and Zippos" prove. He's a great live act, even when he's when he's suffering from nasty chest infections. I'm sure the beer roulette game is fixed - perhaps he should use Irn Bru instead!
Twelfth Night were one of the first of the 80's progressive rock bands, a great influence on other bands that followed, despite not enjoying any commercial success themselves; perhaps the late Geoff Mann's voice was a bit of an acquired taste for most people. Their self-financed album "Fact and Fiction" remains a forgotten classic of the genre. And if you ever manage to get hold of a copy of their debut, "Live at the Target", I was in the audience when they recorded it!
IQ are another of the early-80s crop of British "neo-prog" bands. Although not quite as innovative as Marillion, they've nevertheless recorded some finely-crafted albums.
There are a now a host of American neo-prog acts around. Spock's Beard are one of the better ones; a must for Hammond organ and mellotron fans.
Dream Theater are the front-runners of the American progressive-metal scene, combining prog-rock complexity with hard rock riffs, and some awesome musicianship
It's easy to take the piss out of Yngwie Malmsteen, the Swedish classically-influenced shredding guitarist, by calling him things like "Yngwiddlywiddly". A lot of his albums do get a bit repetitive, but I still love some of his early stuff, like the hack-and-slay anthem "I am a Viking".
Continuing with the classically-influenced metal, bands like Brazil's Angra or Finland's Stratovarius are in a similar vein, but with more emphasis on the actual songs. Italy's Rhapsody take things to extremes, playing "Epic Fantasy Metal" while makes Queen sound like U2! This is music you will either love or hate!
One for Ümläüt fans. Anathema started out playing death-metal, then began to introduce Pink Floyd-like influences after their original singer jumped ship. Their music is strongly atmospheric
Other members of the 'Northern Doom Scene' include Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride. But be careful! To much listening to this sort of stuff might make you tragically angst-ridden, and you many end up doing terrible things like playing Vampire. Don't say I didn't warn you!