Prokofiev is difficult to listen to because he's working with an entirely different hierarchy of tones. His creativity is fucking off the charts, the musical modes of expression he found, the idioms he created... Dude is fucking unbelievable. He has expanded my capacity for music so greatly. It is not easy to get into, especially if you have no ear for atonality, but it's something you need to develop. If you have the capacity for classical music I think you should really try to get into him.
Here is Sonata 1, one of his earlier Sonatas, much more tonal but still evidence of his fucking alien intelligence. Check it out, tell me what you think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APxweGUCqIs
The later sonatas are straight up like, prog rock. It's just like a completely different world of musical sounds. We're just so accustomed to traditional harmonies and psychological landscapes and this is so out of left field that it's jarring. But again, if you develop your ear for it, you'll find that it starts speaking to emotional nuances inside you in this radically different and fulfilling way.
This is the third movement of Sonata 8. You probably will not like it but it's the kind of thing that, if you dedicate time to developing your ear, you may find yourself incredibly moved by the paradigm shift in your experience of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mw0J67A8mM
As for amazing drum solo, this is one of the most incredible things I've ever witnessed:
Also, I love romantic classical music. I had to develop my ear for atonal over the years too. But you can hear the stirrings modern 20th century in composers like Liszt and even Chopin. Ever listen to Chopin's Ballades? I can definitely hear intimations of Prokofiev in there. Beethoven too. Beethoven is my favorite - I've idolized him and obsessed over his music since I was very young. His Late Quartets are also a little more dissonant and visceral, but they are one of the most important pieces of music ever composd.
Bartok is another crazy mother fucker. Dude straight up captured the gypsies. His music is more difficult than Prokofiev. You cannot listen to Bartok without devoting every iota of your attention to it.
Lastly... Tool is like, my favorite band of all time. I used to be a totally obsessed devotee, read everything and listened to everything and am still kind of a walking library of Tool knowledge. I'll try to find something for you on that front. Danny Carey is the fucking shit!
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