A Quest for Prog 25: IQ – Ever

"A Quest for Prog" is a series of 50 Progressive Rock reviews to be written over a year.  The band selection is taken from the book in the first post on this blog.  And the albums I am reviewing is based on the highest user ratings for each band on Progarchives.com.


IQ – Ever (1993)
Produced by Mike Holmes


John Jowitt - Bass, Pedalboard [Moog Taurus Bass Pedals] & Backing Vocals 
Paul Cook - Drums 
Martin Orford - Keyboards, Mellotron, Synthesizer, Flute & Backing Vocals 
Mike Holmes - Guitar 
Peter Nicholls - Vocals 


Track listing:
01. The Darkest Hour (10:52)
02. Fading Senses (6:36)
      i. After All
      ii.Fading Senses
03. Out Of Nowhere (5:10)
04. Further Away (14:31)
05. Leap Of Faith (7:22)
06. Came Down (5:56)


Released in 1993 “Ever” is the sixth album by English band IQ.  The band was formed by Mike Holmes and Martin Oxford in 1981.  The band along with Marillion, Pendragon, Twelfth Night, Pallas, Quasar and Solstice the were part of the Neo-Progressive movement which was accused of simply copying other bands styles.  The band is still active and recently celebrated their 30th anniversary.

The album begins with the 11 minute long “The Darkest Hour”.  The song is and upbeat and technical song that sounds like a mix of Dream Theater and Joe Satriani.  Production wise this song is very similar to allot of Progressive Rock records in the early 90’s with a few 80’s tracks thrown in.  The vocals are decent but are fairly bland.  Van Hagar fans might get something out of this song.  The song drags and lost any interest closer to the end. 

The two part “Fading Senses” begins with the Power Ballad “After All” section.  The track starts with some nice keyboards and guitar before moving in to a very dull Radio song.  That being said the vocals are stronger on this track.  Part two “Fading Senses” is slightly heavier with a mix of Sci-fi and funk.  This part is a bit more interesting with a darker feel to it but is still fairly dull.

The tone of the record continues with the Stadium Rock track “Out Of Nowhere”.  This is a plodding MOR song that fit’s in line with 80’s Yes.  The song has a few interesting movements with the tracking jumping around.  The vocals and the lyrics are pretty terrible on this one.

The longest song on the album “Further Away” follows.  This intro to this song has the most interesting instrumentation of any song on this album.  Beginning with a rolling keyboard line and flutes stylistically this section similar to Simon and Garfunkel.  Unfortunately after 3 minutes the song moves into familiar territory.  The track is heavier than previous tunes and has allot more energy and quite a nice groove.  The keyboards have a Sci-Fi feel and for some reason this song reminded me of Peter Gabriel musically.  They keyboard solo is pretty terrible and beyond this point the song slows and get very dull.  A few interesting moments that could have been whittled down into a few short songs but not a 14 minute track. 

In what could only be an 80’s Ballad “Leap Of Faith” follows.  There is so much contrived emotion on this track.  Not much more to say about this one than dull.

The album finishes on “Came Down”.  This track is a very straight forward MOR Radio song.  The technicality of earlier songs is completely missing here.  This is as bland as it comes. 

This album was such a dull experience to get through and write about that maybe this review should be on a white background with white writing.  This album delivered so little to me and seems like some talented musicians attempting to travel the road paved with gold and I gather failing.

1/10