13. Triumph Progressions of Power 1980 (Attic)
Hard Rock
It's a hard road staying at the top.
Album
Following on from their breakthrough album
Just a Game the previous year, Canadian power-trio Triumph released their fourth album the superbly named
Progressions of Power just a year later, an album that would continue to fill the niche comfortably between AOR and heavy metal, and with a hint of progressive rock. Throughout the band’s career, its two frontmen guitarist/vocalist Rik Emmett and drummer/vocalist Gil Moore were constantly at loggerheads with one another, a factor which certainly strove each artist to try and outdo the other. On
Just a Game the Geddy Lee vocally influenced Rik Emmett had been the clear winner, but here on
Progressions of Power Gil Moore gained the upper hand especially with compositions like the pounding and relentless album opener “I Live for the Weekend” which at times sounds like a far heavier Boston. The AOR fuelled single “I Can Survive” and then back into heavy territory for the rousing “Nature’s Child” and the heavy Mike Levine drumming intro of “Tear the Roof Off” where the band remind me of REO Speedwagon once the song gets underway. Rik Emmett though is responsible for some good material with the moody ballad “In the Night” with its so-very 1980s centric sound and the two Foreigner inspired tracks “Woman in Love” and the gutsy album closer “Hard Road”. Personally of the two I’ve always been more of a Rik Emmett fan as his overall sound always resonated better with me and his blazing guitar really highlights the album especially on its heavier tracks like “I Live for the Weekend” “Nature’s Child” and “Hard Road”. I’ve always been a fan of
Progressions of Power but the album is largely seen as the lesser album between two better known albums, which are the previous
Just a Game and the following
Allied Forces. As an album it could equally be slotted in an AOR playlist, but there is just enough heavy stuff on here to qualify it for the thread and when it gets heavy, it certainly gets heavy! Finally Triumph are not really a band for metalheads as such, but more for AOR fans that like their material heavy.