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BANDLISTS' INTRO: This heading contains the discographies (sometimes they're far from being full, and only the most important albums are included here) of the Prog-bands depicted in my books about Rock Music, that were published in Russian and distributed all over the ex-USSR. About some of these albums (among the others) you can read the "Short and detailed reviews" in English now. The first Bandlist named "Classic Prog" contains, on the whole, the "profound" Prog-bands (of course, most of them are my personal favourites, although for the present there's no a lot of the her Prog-gems included in my new book). In this Bandlist you can also see some Proto-Prog bands, because all of them have real "Prog" separate songs, and they are great, you know that. The second Bandlist named "Neo Prog" contains in conformity with the title a catalog of more accessible performers. And please excuse me if my own opinion does not coincide with yours. Finally, all the discographies do not contain compilations, including "Live", but they do contain collections of rare and unreleased songs. OVERALL RATING: Proceeding from the universally recognized fact that True Masterpieces of Progressive are the well-known works of early Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, etc., the albums reviewed here are rated from the standpoint of an "experienced prog-lover". I choose the six-mark grading system - see it lower. In my opinion, just three basic genres form Progressive Rock: Symphonic-Prog, Prog-Metal and Prog-Fusion, though each of them contains several various categories, or manifestations, such as RIO, Canterbury, and others. The terms Classic and Neo quite correspond to profound and accessible. I think that only (once again) three components are determinative for overall rating - composition, performance, and producing. And as for design, CD-package... What does that have to do with it?
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