The Tangent - Le Sacre du Travail (2013)

Just when you might have thought symphonic prog rock couldn't make a solid showing in 2013, along comes this album to prove you wrong. Unsurprisingly, it's a concept album that's highly orchestrated and very intricately constructed. There are three epic pieces, all of them great, with a couple of shorter and not as great (but still good) pieces to even things out. The influences of Yes and Pink Floyd stand out the most to me in this album's brilliant meshing together of classically-inspired song structures with beautiful atmospherics. In fact, this whole album is a modern reinterpretation of Stravinsky's timeless Rite of Spring which was composed exactly 100 years ago. It's an incredibly ambitious project by any measure and I don't think just any prog band could have pulled this off, but Tillison and co. somehow do. For a thrilling prog adventure be sure to give this album a spin.
9/10