• David Cross Band - 1992 - "The Big Picture"
• David Cross Band - 1994 - "Testing to Destruction"
• Dificil Equilibrio - 2001 - "Trayecto"
• Dio - 1993 - "Strange Highways"
• Djam Karet - 1989 - "Reflections From the Firepool"
• Djam Karet - 1997 - "The Devouring"
• Doctor Dunbar's Medicine Band - 2005 - "DDMB"
• Dream Theater - 1989 - "When Dream and Day Unite"
• Dream Theater - 1992 - "Images and Words"
• Dream Theater - 1994 - "Awaken"
• Dream Theater - 1997 - "Falling into Infinity"
• Dream Theater - 1999 - "Scenes from the memories"
• DreamTone - 2005 - "Sojourn"

Smashing masterpiece (for the '90s at least) of Classic Art Rock with a marked energetic drive. Powerful, speedy and masterly songs and instrumentals are followed here by more lyrical (but no less progressive) compositions only twice. The bass is made up of a powerful rhythm section and quite hard guitar riffs, and on this background Cross' violin demonstrates its eventful improvisations and arrangements. However, the leader doesn't block up the other musicians, and the violin passages either are followed by guitar or keyboards solos, or (more often) all do soloing simultaneously, thus bringing about a majestic polyphony. This very original music can hardly invoke any direct associations.

David Cross Band - 1994 - "Testing to Destruction"

Stylistically and compositionally this is almost a copy of its predecessor. But, the melodies of surprising beauty that pierce the two first tracks (the first violent, the second diverse, rather ballad like) advance this disc to be the leader (IMO) of David Cross' discography. One of the strongest Progresive albums throughout the '80sand the '90s, to say the least.

Dificil Equilibrio (Spain) - 2001 - "Trayecto"
(40 min, "Musea")

I haven't listened to both previous Dificil Equilibrio albums. As for their third release, "Trayecto", this is another excellent example of a clone album. At last, it is King Crimson's turn to be cloned. Musically, this album is not unlike those of King Crimson in the 1980s. Furthermore, it sounds like the logical development of the stylistics, which were presented on the "Three of a Perfect Pair" album. While listening to "Trayecto", I get the impression that Fripp & Co, who, as you well know, are the most 'reincarnationable' band in the world, are able to marvelously materialize in the form of another band as well. The only exception here is a Spanish Adrian Belew's unwillingness to sing. Anyway, if you like "Somewhere But Yesterday" by Xitizen Cain and the other great clone albums (as I do), check out "Trayecto" immediately. The Museum of Musical Clones enlarges slowly yet rather regularly. To have (or refresh) an idea of my thoughts on such distinctly different things as "clone" and "imitation", click here.

Dio (UK / USA) - 1993 - "Strange Highways"

Unlike most of the other rock-veterans, Ronnie Dio have his own inner force for further improvement. His early very popular albums are looks very artless in comparison with the late more mature works. I dare say that "Strange Highways" is just an example for present-day Black Sabbath how it is necessary develop their own earliest structures. This album is a true model of modern Prog-Doom-Metal with that mix of magic power and intricacy, for example, of King Crimson. As usually happened after the absolutely non-commercial works, Dio was throwed out from major "Phonogram", and his new "home" is good German "SPV".

Djam Karet (USA) - 1989 - "Reflections From the Firepool"

I have heard only the three Djam Karet albums in all and two of them ("Burning the Hard City", 1991-1 and "The Devouring", 1997) were reviewed and published on the site some time ago). It's hard to choose the best one from these three albums, as all of them are excellent, at least. This Djam Karet's third album, released by the band* at their own expenses back in 1989, is as original, complex and interesting an album as both the other mentioned ones. "Reflections From the Firepool", however, sounds way more diverse than the others, so music-wise, I find it the most balanced album out of the Three 'of mine'. While, for example, the structures of "Burning the Hard City" consist mainly of "hard elements" (in the sound, this one is really heavy) almost all of the songs from "Reflected From the Firepool" contain the Djam Karet main structural components in practically equal proportions. These components are the heaviness and the fluidity, though, case in point, these two are raised to the power of innovation. Yes, it is well known that Djam Karet is one of the most innovative contemporary bands, but stylistically, their music represents something indescribable. Really, it's difficult to describe what kind of Progressive Music the guys of Djam Karet play briefly and precisely at the same time. Is this Symphonic Art Rock, Prog Metal, Jazz Fusion or, maybe, RIO, after all? Nobody knows for sure. Meanwhile, the fifth progressive element-genre, consisting of indescribable, distinctly innovative bands, became a bit larger once again. (*Djam Karet has signed the US "Cuneiform" label in the beginning of the 1990s, and now, in the beginning of the next decade, "Cuneiform" has remastered and reissued all the Djam Karet back catalogue.)

Djam Karet (USA) - 1997 - "The Devouring"

Pity I still haven't listened to other albums by Djam Karet, except for their latest. I really like RIO, and now I'm a little familiar with Djam Karet's creation, too. As well as the absolute majority of RIO bands, Djam Karet play very original and innovative music. "The Devouring" is more than 70 minutes of serious Progressive Rock with a lot of improvisational structures, though you won't find here elements of Jazz Fusion at all. The music is invigorating, the themes are fronted mostly by powerful electric guitars and synthesizers, though sometimes Djam Karet tend to be more spacey, especially on Lost, But Not Forgotten (3rd track) and Myth Of A White Jesus (5th track). As a whole, the music here can be described as original, often very powerful, instrumental Rock with quirky guitar solos and complex musical interplays from three (including bass) electric guitars, synthesizers and drums.

Dream Theater (USA) - 1989 - "When Dream and Day Unite"

The first album from the one of the most popular Prog-Metal bands. Extremely heavy yet not without the intricacy of "When Dream...", it is the hardest production from Dream Theater. A weak moment of this work is a low audio quaity, and also their first soloist Charlie Dominici's vocal stylistics doesn't grow on me. He was replaced by James LaBrie next year, and justly so. Album was released on "Mechanic" label, a division of major "MCA".

Doctor Dunbar's Medicine Band (Sweden) - 2005 - "DDMB"
(Record Heaven)

This is not Progressive Rock. It is regressive Rock, or at least very Retro-Rock. Doctor Dunbar's Medicine Band is a short album, consisting of 11 tracks, clocking in at 42 minutes. The sound is very late '60s (organ, guitar, drums & bass), think The Who meets Grateful Dead meets garage band. There is very little polish to the production, giving the album a fairly raw and immediate sound. Some of the melodies are catchy, all done if a straight ahead 4/4 beat (except I Wanna Party, in 3/4). Some are fairly forgettable. Happy Go Lucky has a driving beat and vocal styling that reminds me of Radar Love by Golden Earring until the chorus comes in. Rock Your World does not rock my world, but does have a nice bit of B3 organ solo before it closes out the album. Recommendation: If you're looking for Prog, look elsewhere. If you are into the retro-scene and a stripped down garage band production style, this album may be for you.

KW

Dream Theater - 1992 - "Images and Words"

With the second album the already famous DT joined the large-scale major lable "Atlantic". But, in spite of the great demand for the band's production, their following albums were released again by the divisions of "Warner"/"Atlantic" chief office ("Atco", "East-West"). Unlike the previous heavy and uncompromising album, this second one presents a big step towards the creation of their own indubitable mixture of melody, metal and progressivity. Quite apart from the sugary "Another Day" and "Surrounded", the album, on the whole,was composed and played incredibly well with all the hallmarks of Prog. And it's a pity, that the both sugary songs were not replaced by a beautiful 23-minute piece A Change of Seasons. But this song, which was written for THIS album, was appeared on the band's compilation of 1995 among the dubious live cover-versions of Titans' songs...

Dream Theater - 1994 - "Awaken"

Their longest album (about 75 min), not so bright as "Images...", but the most diverse, complex and composite, difficult for quick comprehension. Of course, with such factors, it was rated not as high as its predecessor. In my opinion, "Awaken" is the band's finest hour of triumph in the fields of Progressive Metal.

Dream Theater - 1997 - "Falling into Infinity"

When Kevin Moore left, and Derek Sherinian joined Dream Theater (ex-Aice Cooper keyboardist), there isn't now a single Anglo-American! Today the band are: an Italian, a Chinese, a Jew, a Canadian French, and an Armenian. Maybe it was designed so purposely, though if the technical level of Sherinian is good enough for Alice Cooper, it seems it isn't here the right place for him. The album contains 74 minutes of mediocre Protoprog songs, sometimes open poppy, and to make things worse the Japanese added another 10 minutes of MINI-CD with two poor pop-bonus tracks. It is very possible, that Neo-Prog-Metal performed on this album with typical "American" commercial sound, we'll see even in the "Bilboard" charts.

Dream Theater - 1999 - "Scenes from the memories"

Seems the commercial stuff of 1997 was simply a mistake of the band, and what was it to keep apace the obviously weak (ex) keyboardist Derek Sherinian, that former "lamp" (the holder of the keyboard background sound) of Alice Cooper. With their new album the band has fully restored their good reputation. As for me, the new album, together with "Images and Words" and "Awaken", is one of the strongest in their discography.

DreamTone - 2005 - "Sojourn"

Dreamtone is a quintet (vocals, guitars, keys, bass, drums), whose history dates from 2001. "Sojourn" is their first full-length CD. Stylistically their music can be defined as symphonic prog-power metal. The program is conceptual, the impression being enforced by spoken parts with symphonic-like arrangements in the background. Some tracks follow one another with no pauses. Concerning the material's musical quality on the whole, I have to notice its versatility and compositional diversity. The classical influences are evident not only in the instrumental parts, but also in the vocal ones. Above all I mean dialogues between different personages, taking place in most songs. The arrangements are tasteful and elegant; guitar and keyboard solos are highly technical throughout. Despite all the obvious virtues however, there is one essential shortcoming in this program, which is the absence of originality. There are many groups working in the same direction. The Turkish musicians are young enough, so I hope their best creations are yet to come.