This is basically how I feel about a lot of prog. I've tried in vain to listen to it a few times but in terms of being aurally pleasing it's extremely low on the bar. There's no denying that they're fantastic musicians (that video is a solid example) but the fact is it sounds like pretentious people making 'smart' music that's had all the fun sucked out of it.
Perhaps the overtly cheesey sound is what they're going for but it just doesn't work to me. As a listener I want people to do more than have talent, I want to be enthralled and drawn into the music rather than just sitting back and going "shit, these guys are talented" which is about the only emotion prog has ever brought out of me. I can see why some musos would like it for the somewhat experimental ethos and so on behind it, but I can't imagine anyone would listen to it as a primary form of music because it basically has no heart, no subtlety, nothing that I really appreciate in music.
I'm probably not the best person to be even mini-analyzing the genre because maybe I just don't 'get it', but I listen to a lot of music and prog is one of the only ones that's continually disappointed me because although the talent is there it seems almost robotic and formulaic in it's experimental style (which might almost be an oxymoron, but it feels like it's being experimental for the sake of it too much of the time when it tries it), which is a real shame because I think many of the artists have had a lot of potential to make some truly enjoyable music rather than some kind of spectacle of notes.
This is pretty much how I feel.
It's like a load of musicians overtly screaming "HEY, WE'RE AWESOME MUSICIANS!!! CHECK OUT ALL THIS COMPLICATED SHIT WE CAN DO!!!"
There's no subtlety or grace in it imo.
I find that the most intelligent music sounds great on the surface of things, you can digest it becuase it's based on a simple idea (this is how the human psyche approaches these things), yet over listening and re-listening you discover parts of it which you didn't notice the first time. You begin to realise that there is an element of genious of how the song is constructed and put together in a very clever, yet subtle way.
It's kind of like the difference between Michael Bay films and Stanley Kubrick films. Michael Bay uses crazy explosions, mental camera angles and tons of short cuts all over the place to gain the attention of the viewers. Kubrick will lead you in very slowly giving the viewer the intelligence to breathe and try and understand what its all about. There is also a subtle theme that lies beneath the surface and takes a few watches to fully understand imo.
This is personal opinion obviously
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Progressive Rock (The Best Genre in the World): Symphonic Prog