I´ve become really interested in the music in the first half of the 70s and although I´m still an ignorant, I´ve already found lots and lots of spectacular bands and Van Der Graaf Generator is in my opinion one of the greatest. Albums like "H to Thee I am the Only One", "Pawn Hearts", "Godbluff", "Still Life" (hehee) and also "At Least We Can Do is to Wave to Eachother" are all excellent records. The frontman and vocalist Peter Hammill (check also his solo career, he even influenced punk rock) has really expressive and even dramatic voice, one of my favourites at the moment. The guitar was rarely in the forefront in this band, they relied more to keyboards, saxophone and, of course, Hammill´s voice, at the same time they managed to be quite heavy.
And even their latest album "Present", released in 2005, was quite good.

I am not so good at writing about bands so I hope to see comments. VDGG surely deserve them
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And I wonder whether "Still Life" by VDGG and "Still Life" by Opeth have any kind of connections.

I'm downloading one of their albums right now...The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome...apparently they're legendary...funny how I've never heard about them before...

Didn't expect to see a thread on them,but here it is haha.Pawn Hearts is probably their best album. I love the song Man-Erg.Truly one of prog rock's finest.

This thread needs to come back...they are well deserving of a thread on Metalstorm because they are such an amazing progressive art rock band with a little bit of folk due to the acoustic guitars and violins...please...we need more Van Der Graaf Generator fans in here!

VDGG is an amazing band indeed, They had a very good come back album in 2005 that definitely deserves attention.

My all time favorite prog band, more people need to come into this thread!!!

Oh man, what a great band. Kap, I can't believe you had not heard of these guys before. Oh man, they are such a solid band. Very influential on Neal Morse and Spock's Beard.

I already mentioned it in another thread but I can't help to bring this up again. In last.fm someone said something really humorous (in a good sense) - fuck death metal, Satan listens to VDGG.

My favourite album is probably "Still Life", although "Plague of the Lighthouse Keepers" (check out the live version from YouTube) from Pawn Hearts and "Lost" from H to Thee I am the Only One are so special songs for me despite of the latter being a bit too melodramatic. Bewitching band.

Written by John Barleycorn on 09.05.2007 at 01:04

I already mentioned it in another thread but I can't help to bring this up again. In last.fm someone said something really humorous (in a good sense) - fuck death metal, Satan listens to VDGG.

My favourite album is probably "Still Life", although "Plague of the Lighthouse Keepers" (check out the live version from YouTube) from Pawn Hearts and "Lost" from H to Thee I am the Only One are so special songs for me despite of the latter being a bit too melodramatic. Bewitching band.

Hahaha thats a fucking awesome quote. Also nice choice in albums. These guys are by far my favorite prog rock band. Perter Hammil is such an amazing singer. His voice is just unmatched. For some odd reason I've really been listening to "The House with no Door" a lot lately! I can't get enough of this band!

Peter Hammil is one of the most twisted people in music. He writes some truly strange stuff!!!!!!!! I like all the VdGG albums I have heard which is only the first few. But Definitely check out Hammils solo albums. They are a bit hit and miss, but the two stand out albums are "The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage" and "In Camera". It's music to send one to a mental asylum if you dwell on it too long! I prefer these two albums, they are incredibly "deep".

As others have said before, this thread definitely needs to be looked at closer... and more people on MS should check out this amazing band.

I never actually came back here to comment on Van Der Graaf Generator after I listened to them...from what I listened to, it seems to be a great meld of folk rock, progressive rock bluesy type stuff as well as something kinda dark and twisted in nature...

The only albums of them I own are Pawn Hearts and Godbluff... really great stuff. I shall be looking forward to getting more of their albums and I am also surprised to see others appreciate them on MS!

Written by Introspekrieg on 20.11.2008 at 03:11

The only albums of them I own are Pawn Hearts and Godbluff... really great stuff. I shall be looking forward to getting more of their albums and I am also surprised to see others appreciate them on MS!

The two best albums are actualy Peter Hammill solo efforts not VdGG albums, they are "the silent corner and the empty stage" and "in camera", the song gog magog on in camera is one of the most fucked up pieces of insanity ever put to record, I couldn't find a decent link to it that does the 17 minutes justice.... but check this out for great lyrics on the song "the lie" http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbSdUwzTGU&feature=related

EDIT: just realized i made almost an identical comment a few months ago...

These days I mainly just talk to plants and dogs
All human contact seems painful, risky, odd...




Maybe not the most obvious song pick, but I could listen to this for hours on end.