Purple Overdose - Solemn Visions (1996)

The fourth album from this band from Hellas.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, sitar, guitars, keyboards, flute, sax and vocals.

This is their fourth album of in total five albums and I have reviewed them all..... and the review of the fifth album is coming up later this fall.

The band has by now come good after a very shaky start. 

Their psych rock has a lot of 1960s vibes and has also taken on a lot from the 1970s. 

Their music is to a large part retro-psych rock. But it still feels fresh anno 2021..... and probably anno 2050 too.

The vocals are good and the musicians gives us forty-five minutes of potent psych rock. The organ and the sitar adds a lot of goodies to the songs.

This is indeed a good album from a good band.

Check out this good album.

3 points

Embryo - Rocksession (1973)

The fifth album from this German band.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, violin, saxophone, organ and electric piano.

Embryo visited a lot of different genres during their career. Hardly any album are similar to each others. The main man in Embryo liked to experiment and keep the listener guessing.

So I was wondering what was going to hit me this time after the first four albums. Albums kicking in all directions.

This album, correctly titled Rocksession, takes us into the fusion territory. 

Soft Machine springs to mind here. Soft Machine anno Fourth. Mahavishnu Orchestra also springs to mind.

Embryo has chosen to take a lot from these two bands and the likes of Weather Report. 

They have then added their own signatures and their own style and take on fusion. A take on fusion which is very, very good.

There is a lot of very good stuff here and this album is bordering to great too. 

This is indeed a great album and one I will return to, over and over again. I have a collection of great fusion albums and I have added this album to that collection.

4 points

 

 

Fermáta - Fermáta (1975)

The debut album from this band from Slovakia.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, electric piano, synth and organ.

The band was formed in the Czechoslovakia before this state was split into two states. After the split, the band is regarded as a band from Slovakia.

The band has released ten studio albums. I got six of them and is trying to get the remaining four before my reviews of their albums is completed. I am in short reviewing all their albums.

This band grew up in the shadows of Collegium Musicum and Prudy. Fermata was indeed founded by an ex guitarist in Collegium Musicum. 

Fermata delivers us forty minutes of some pretty hard rocking fusion on this album, their debut album. 

The guitars are pretty harsh with a lot of jazz vibes. The same goes for the rest of the instruments too.

Fusion is the right label here as they are 50/50 both hard rock and jazz. 

This is indeed a very good debut album and I cannot wait to sink my ears into the rest of their albums too. I think I am really in for a treat here.

3.5 points

 

Little Jimi - The Cantos (2021)

The debut album from this band from France.

The band is a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

No, this is not a Jimi Hendrix tribute band. 

Although.....

This is another band operating on the fringes of what most people label as "progressive rock". It is still well worth listening to their albums and reviewing them.

This band's music, forty-two minutes of it, comes across as a mix of psych rock, heavy prog and post-rock.

As easy as that and the label "power trio" also suits this fine band.

The vocals are good and the band makes some good noise and mood on this album. The bass and guitars limits the sound a bit and the guitars are at times pretty harsh and dissonant. 

The music is decent to good.

This is indeed a fine debut album and I hope this band will stick around. Enough to make some more noise and albums.

2.5 points

 

 

Sideways - Into Balance (2016)

The fourth and so far last album from this band from The Netherlands.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

This is another band who operates somewhere between progressive rock and traditional rock.

There is a lot of bands like this and some of them are from The Netherlands.

The vocals are decent and the rest of the band also does a decent job.

There is a lot of neo-prog here in their sound and music. There is some interesting details. But there is not many of them.

Most of this album is pedestrian and not particular interesting. 

If a mix of prog and trad rock is your thing, this decent album may please you.

2 points

Qirsh - Aspera Tempora, Parte 1 (2020)

 

The second album from this Italian band.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

I quite liked their debut album so I jumped on the chance to review this album too. It was a bit too late to include in my 2020 reviews, but it is never to late to review prog, this timeless genre.

The music on this album is also timeless.

It is indeed RPI. 

It is also modern RPI with some eclectic prog and fusion. There is also some hints of avant-garde here. 

Area and Picchio Dal Pozzo is again good references.

The Italian vocals is really good. Both the male and female vocals. The music change a lot between various themes and is never really overly melodic. 

There is something for everyone on this good album. It is a fine addition to anyone's RPI collection indeed. 

3 points

Metamorphosis - I'm Not a Hero (2021)

The sixth album from this band from Switzerland.

The band is a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

This band has now reached a grand age and their sixth album.

It is still arch-typical neo-prog we get from this band. That is neo-prog in the English tradition.

Pendragon and some Marillion springs to mind here.

The music is really melodic with some good vocals and guitars. The keyboards is also filling in nicely here.

The result is very solid neo-prog album. The music is not the most exciting. But the band does the business here and is satisfying their fans and probably winning some new fans too with this album.

I just wish the band had raised their game a bit on this album. That is my only gripe with this album.

Neo-prog and fans of melodic progressive rock should get this album.

3 points

Ordinary Brainwash - I'mNotAddicted (2014)

The fourth album from this one-man project from Poland.

Ordinary Brainwash is mr. Rafal Zak on guitars, drum machine, bass, programming, keyboards and vocals.

The neo-prog and melodic prog scene in Poland is big. Far bigger than I originally thought as I have found some new and old addition this year alone.

Some choose to go it alone and play every instruments in addition to compose all music.

Rafal Zak is one of them and he is to be applauded for his so far five albums on the Ordinary Brainwash name.

I take it that he think Facebook is an ordinary brainwash. I disagree but this disagreement has not influenced this review whatsoever.

The music is what matters here.

The music is a mix of epic and melodic neo-prog. The piano playing is impressive. The guitars and bass too is good. The vocals is fitting this brand of music.

The music on this one hour long album is indeed very good and this band has shot up the list of my favourite Polish neo-prog bands. I need to invest my money in Rafal Zak's four other albums too.

3.5 points

Quilt - +5 to Strength (2012)

The one and only album from this Canadian band.

Nine people added their name as performers on this album and the lineup is drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards and vocals.

This is an extreme obscure album. It is now available through Youtube, posted by the band or one of the very few buying this album. 

The music is a mix of post-punk, krautrock, eclectic rock, theatrical rock and some youngsters messing around with instruments and vocals, male and female, in a studio.

Gong as their maddest is a bit of a reference here.

I believe all of this album was recorded live in the studio. That explains the shouts and some very unpolished playing of their instruments. Or attempted playing of their instruments.

The performing quality is very poor. 

Ditto for the music.

This is indeed a turkey with beak and all feathers intact. 

This album has been dispatched to my turkey yard. 

1 point

Enid. The - Touch Me (1979)

The fourth album from this British band.

The band was a sextet on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars and keyboards.

A guest provided oboe.

When I decided to review all/most of the The Enid albums, I knew I was right up for a challenge. I am no fan of classical music. I find classical music snobbish and not really my culture.

And The Enid did indeed serve up a challenge to me. That is, their albums.

Touch Me is one of these challenges.

The music is classical music. Or cinematic music if too be fair.

We get keyboards here but not as bombastic as Keith Emerson gave us in ELP. The Enid has a different take on keyboards driven classical music.

The music is more pastoral, indeed.

The music is not bad at all. This is a decent album but I am not really won over.

Check out this album if classical music is your cup of tea.

2 points

Congreso - Ha Llegado Carta (1983)

The sixth album from this band from Chile.

The band was an eight piece big band with a lineup of drums, marimba, percussion, bass, charango, guitars, flute, piano, recorder and vocals.

The band had help from an orchestra and some xtra vocalists.

The band had so far released five good folk rock albums. The band perhaps felt they needed to stretch their legs, flap around with their wings and challenge themselves more than they had done on the first five albums.

The result is this forty-three minutes long album.

The album is all over the place. Take pop, add in folk rock, classical music and jazz. 

There is too much variations on this album and it feels like an experiment with both the patience of the listener and the music itself.

Yes, they stretched their legs and their legs became pretty sore and too many imperfections was revealed to the listener.

This is still a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points

Argos - The Other Life (2021)

The sixth album from this German band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, percussion, guitars, flute, keyboards, samples and vocals.

The three guests added backing vocals, saxophones, organs and keyboards.

Argos is regarded as one of the best German neo-prog bands. Their first five albums has been very good.

Argos has also spawned some side projects like for example Jacobs. But the band was together again for this album.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is very melodic with some very good vocals.

It takes some efforts and time to get into this album. An album where Argos is flying pretty close to Genesis throughout. 

The songs are not that immediate hits and not so catchy. They are more reflective and introvert. 

This is still a good album. But it is not their best album by far. 

Argos is still a great band and their music deserves a lot of attention. That also goes for this album.

3 points

 

 

Sintesis - Sintesis (1976)

The one and only album from this band from Argentina.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, clarinet, saxophone, flute and violin. 

This is another obscure album from South America who deserve some attention.

The base for their musical explorations is jazz. Then we can add some folk and some eclectic prog.

There is also some hints of tango in their music.

The music is pretty flowery fusion. 

There is lots of saxophones and flutes here in addition to some half-acoustic jazzy guitars.

These twenty-seven minutes flies too fast, indeed. The repeat button is therefore applied.....

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. It is an enjoyable album and a must-have album for fans for South American prog and fusion.

2.5 points

 

 

Eros Necropsique - Pathos (1998)

The second album from this French band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of bass, guitars, percussion, keyboards and French vocals.

I was not overly impressed by their debut album. 

But I am pressing on by reviewing this album. The second of in total three albums and I will get onto the third album later this fall.

The band does acoustic, avant-garde gothic metal/rock.

The band is French and their music is very much in the French tradition. There is even some Ange in their music. 

But not that much.

The music is not too bad and it is an improvement on their debut album.

The goth here with screaming and singing vocals is still only decent and nothing more than that.

The band is quite an interesting band and so is this album too. Nevertheless, the quality is only decent.

2 points

Triangle Singular - Starbreaker (2021)

The debut album from this band from Russia.

I have no idea how many members this band has got but the lineup is drums, bass, synths and guitars.

Albums from Moscow in Russia is not the usual fare on my blog. I wish this massive country could produce more prog and post-rock.

Post-rock is what we get here.

Instrumental post-rock is what we get here. The music is pretty dark and has got a lot of post-metal influences. 

The music is pretty dark and moody. There are also some pretty pastoral parts on this one hour long album too.

Instrumental post-rock and progressive rock is not the most interesting and most exciting music around. I have turned down some albums this year for that reason.

The quality on this album is decent though and it is a name-your-price Bandcamp album well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

Oratorium - Oratorium (1972)

The one and only album from this German band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, piano, keyboards and vocals.

This is another very, very obscure album from Germany.

The music on this album is a mix of psych, symphonic prog, garage rock..... in short, the music is krautrock.

The music is rather acoustic and the vocals are in German.

There is some angel like backing vocals here too and this is supposed to be a Christian krautrock album.

The music clocks in at thirty-seven minutes and it is obvious why this album is so obscure.

The quality is dire.

This is indeed a turkey. A well feathered turkey and it is hereby included in my pretty large collections of turkeys.

1 point

Bengal - From Outer Space (2021)

The third album from this band from France.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, grand piano, keyboards, synths, sequensers, samples and vocals.

I have not had the chance to pick up their first albums from their Bandcamp page so this is my first meeting with this band.

I thought this was going to be, as advertised, a psych rock album. That is a genre I really like.

I was wrong and the psych rock label is totally wrong on this album.

What we get is a mix of grunge, nu-metal and some hard rock.

Linkin Park springs to mind with the rap and hip hop.

The music is not a disaster. I have heard worse bands than this. 

I am by no means won over as I am no fan of this music. 

The quality is half decent and I am not falling over in joy about this album.

1.5 points

Ozric Tentacles - The Bits Between the Bits (1989)

The fifth album from this band from England.

The band was an eight piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, synths, flute and sampling.

I forgot to read the notes on this album before I started to review it. Only when starting to get my thoughts together, I found out that this was a studio left-over album covering 1985 - 89.

It is not their best pieces in other words.

We still get lots of Hawkwind type of space rock. 

The music is really, really in the outer space on this album. There is some psych here too, but most of this one hour long album is somewhere in outer space.

The guitars are pretty dirty and the synths are balancing that up with some weirdo happy sounds.

This is not the band from their best side and this album is lacking in quality.

It is a decent enough album and just that. It is still worth a listen or two for the space cadets.

2 points

 

 

 

Dear Hunter. The - Migrant (2013)

The fifth album from this US band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, organ, synths, glockenspiel and vocals.

Some guests added viola, violin, cello, saxophones, trumpet, clarinet, bass and vocals.

The band has reached their fifth album. A milestone.

The band started out as almost an eclectic prog band with lots of The Mars Volta and Coheed & Cambria references.

The band has moved towards more mainstream rock on this album.

The good vocals is there.

Lots of strings has been added and that removes a lot of the edges from their sound and music. 

The result is a bit wishy washy and too much rock. Too much US rock.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good too.

I am not won over by this album.

2.5 points

 

 

Vestamaran - Bungalow Rex (2021)

The debut album from this Norwegian band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

This is a new band from Bergen, Norway and I got a promo copy of this album.

The music is said to be in the borderline of indie and grunge. Well, add some americana rock and and some neo-prog too.

The music is strictly speaking not progressive rock, but it runs this genre pretty close.

The vocals is really good and the songs are pretty good too.

The songs are a bit on the simplified end of the spectrum and does not have that many interesting details.

This is still a decent to good album and I hope this band will move more towards progressive rock in the future.

2.5 points

Sistra - Communication Deferred (2014)

The second album from this Italian band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, electric organ and vocals.

I reviewed their 2011 album Bearing exactly ten years ago for ProgArchives and I really liked this album.

This album has not come up for review before now so here I go with this album. This is their so far final album too.

Their music is a kind of a mix of garage rock, psych rock and electronic krautrock.

The vocals are female vocals and they are not particular good. 

The more melodic stuff here are decent enough. The more electronica parts are well below par and outright horrible.

This album is over seventy minutes long and it is not well spent seventy minutes (x 5 times in my case as a reviewer).

This is a half decent album but nothing more than that. 

If garage psych is your cup of tea, check out this album.

1.5 points

Efecto. El - Memórias Do Fogo (2018)

The fifth album from this band from Brazil.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, ukulele, clarinet, flute and vocals.

The band had help from numerous other musicians who provided percussion, woodwinds, strings and vocals.

This band is a somewhat mystery to me. 

Their music is very much based on vocals and I do not speak Portuguese. In short, maybe I am missing the point here as my reviews of their five albums is based on their music alone.

Their previous album was on those terms a good album. I therefore had hopes about this album.

The band has again reversed to being a vocals dominated band with shouting and some strange vocals. The music is a bit mix of folk, post-punk and post-metal.

The music is not good at all. It is barely decent and there is not much here to feel joyful about.

This band is a bit of an enigma to me and as this is so far their final album, I will leave the band like that.

1.5 points

 

 

Auric Gloom - Afterthoughts (2021)

The debut album from this Norwegian band.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and female vocals.

This band is new to me. The band is from Trondheim, a town/city in Norway (the third largest city in Norway) full of progressive rock bands.

I am therefore not surprised that another progressive rock band from Trondheim has released a self-released album. 

The music is a mix of neo-prog, a bit ambience and a bit dream pop. 

The band has female vocals too and a lot of guitars and piano. 

The music is at times very pastoral and a bit ambient. It is a floating around in the room kind of music. 

This fifty minutes long album has both a lot of interesting detail and also a lot of space where the tones is just breathing.

Auric Gloom is a great addition to the Norwegian scene and this album will surprise a lot of people. 

This is a good album and the band can only get better from here.

3 points

Orang Utan - Orang Utan (1971)

The one and only album from this British band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

This band was formed on the basis of some less than successful bands from that era. Bands now forgotten. 

The result was a record deal and this album where the band members could show case their abilities.

The music is a mix of really hard rock, blues and hard psych rock. 

The double guitars rips up the songs and the vocals are really forceful.

No prisoners are taken on most of the songs. There are other songs again with a more calmer blues and psych feeling. 

The music is decent enough and this album is a good album for those who loves hard psych rock from the early 1970s. 

I am not totally won over but the quality is still decent enough.

2 points

Quietlife Project. The - Catastrophic Futures (2017)

 

The debut album from this US band.

The band seems to be a one-man project on this album. The man is Andrew Higgins and the instruments here are drums, bass, guitars, synths and vocals.

Andrew Higgins has released five albums under this name. Albums released well under the radar as there is next to no information about this band on the prog rock blogs.

That is a shame because this is a prog rock band and the music is US neo-prog.

Take some Transatlantic, some Spock's Beard and some Genesis. The result is The Quietlife Project.

...And this album.

The album is fifty-four minutes long and it has a lot of good vocals and a lot of good harmonies. There is a lot to like on this album indeed.

The music is indeed very good and I am impressed. Me need to get their four other albums and warn others about this album and band. 

This is a band who really belong in the prog rock scene.

3.5 points

 

 

Oldfield. Mike - Five Miles Out (1982)

 

The eight album from this British artist.

Mike Oldfield did the guitars, bass, synths, exotic percussion, vocals, banjo, celtic harps, bagpipes, piano and vocals himself.

He got help on strings, woodwinds, drums, percussion, synths, keyboards and female vocals.

Maggie Reilly is with him on female vocals and Carl Palmer from ELP has joined as a drummer. 

We are still getting a lot of the same from Q.E.2 on this album too.

That means classical pieces with some pop and keltic folk rock. 

Mike Oldfield more or less invented ambient music and this is another ambient music album.

His music is still five miles better than most ambient music and this is album proves this. The Irish references are very good and gives this album a very good sound and ambience. 

The music is really good here too.

I got a lot of respect for Mike Oldfield although ambient music is really not my thing. But this is still a good album and I will save up this album for the coming decades, to be treasured and listened to again and again.

3 points

 

 

 

 

Purple Overdose - Purple Overdose (1994)

The third album from this band from Hellas.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, flute, sax, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

When I started out on my task on reviewing their five albums, I started with their very poor debut album which left a very bad taste in my view.

The band redeemed themselves on their second album. I was therefore looking forward to reviewing this album.

Their music is flowery psych rock from the last couple of years in the 1960s. 1968 - 1969 to be more precise.

US psych, that is. Not necessary the likes of Jefferson Airplane but more like the psych underground from that time.

... And the music is not an overdose of this psych rock. Far from it. 

The music is rather understated with some The Byrds harmonies and lots of very tasty keyboards sounds. The vocals too are tasty.

This is indeed a good album which makes me want to explore this underground US psych rock scene more. 

Check out this good album.

3 points

Terra Odium - Ne Plus Ultra (2021)

The debut album from this US/Norwegian band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, synths and vocals.

This is a bit of a super-group with members of Borknagar, Death and Cynic.

The music is not death or black metal, though.

We are talking power or progressive metal here. I guess progressive metal is the right label. It is softer music than the usual music from these five gentlemen.

The music is big and bold progressive metal. The music is a bit harder than most progressive metal albums. Hence me also using power metal on this music.

The vocals are good although a bit tiring. The musicians is top notch and cannot be faulted.

And the album is one hour long too. Good value for money.

I am by no means a fan of this genre. But progressive metal fans should check out this album.

For me, half of this album is good and the rest is decent enough.

Check out this album.

2.5 points

Sitting Bull - Trip Away (1971)

The one and only album from this band from Germany.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano and vocals.

This band came and went again after releasing this album.

The music is loosely labeled as krautrock. That is a label which includes a lot of sins and sinners.

The music has some laid back west-coast blues. It also has a lot of psych and a lot of rock. 

The vocals are good and the music is much more pastoral and quiet than I thought it would be. I am a bit disappointed with that...

The music on this album was pretty outdated already in 1971.

This album is therefore pretty half-decent, bordering to being a turkey.

A couple of songs are decent and that is a blessing for this album.

I am not impressed at all.

1.5 points

 

 

Quasar H7 - Nanodroids (2016)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, synths and vocals.

This band has flown under the radar of the progressive rock fans as it is not listed in any prog rock lexicons. 

Quasar H7 very much deserve a place on a list of Italian progressive rock bands.

Their music is wild though. Take some of Area and add a lot of metal and some neo- prog and some musicals to it. Add some jazz too and you get the drift.

The music is wild. Very wild indeed.

The female vocals are cool and so is the guitars and the many, many wild guitar solos. 

The quality is not the best. But this is an album I am happy to include in my collection of post-millenium Italian progressive rock albums. It is perhaps not a classic RPI album though....

2 points

Amplified! - Mental Decay (2021)

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards, synths and vocals.

This is a new band to me (again !) and it dumped down my inbox some weeks ago. Hence this review...

The music is borderline neo-prog and heavy progressive rock. Borderline...

Call it art-rock with some big Americana inspirations and a big Americana sound. There is also some hard rock influences here.

The band use both male and female vocals. Both of them are good.

Call the music what you want but the quality is not bad at all.

The songs are pretty clever and a bit commercial. The band is talented and I hope they will carry this talent onto the more commercial rock scene in USA. Which means lots of hard work..... Lots.....

Check out this rather good album.

3 points

Opus Est - Opus I (1983)

The one and only album from this Swedish band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, synths, piano and vocals.

This band self-released this album and Musea re-released some years later. A second album with studio and rehearsal studio outtakes was also released. 

The band was probably Sweden's first ever neo-prog band.

This is therefore probably the first ever Swedish neo-prog album too.

The neo-prog here is also supplemented by some harder rock, fusion and some art-rock.

The vocals are a bit weak and a bit annoying. The guitars are OK and the rest of the band does a respectable job.

The sound is the 1980s and not so good.

The quality is decent enough and diehard neo-prog fans will find a lot to enjoy here.

2 points

 

 

Smalltape - The Hungry Heart (2021)

The third album from this German project.

Smalltape is Philip Nespital on percussion, guitars, keyboards, electronics, piano and vocals.

He got help from a small army of guests who has provided strings, woodwinds, bass, drums, vibraphone and backing vocals.

I really liked the 2017 album The Ocean and was looking forward to sink my teeth into this album.

Smalltape/Philip Nespital gives us a full range of music on this album. From elegant pop to neo- prog and jazz. There is also some musicals here.

This is a 2 CDs album and the second CD is mostly taken up by a twenty-two minutes long opus.

The sound is very good and so is the vocals.

The music flows and ebbs. There is always a new theme around the corner and the music is very varied. Varied but never dull or less than good.

The music is really elegant and Philip Nespital is surely one of the bigger talents in today's scene.

Check out this very good album.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Embryo - Steig Aus (1973)

The fourth album from this German band.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violin, electric piano, organ, mellotron and marimba.

The drummer in the band, Christian Burchard, was the leader of the band. He is still the leader and the owner of the band. 

On every album, he changed members in the band to suit the music he had created for that album. He still do that as the band is still active.

The music this time is fusion with a lot of krautrock incorporated in the music. 

The violin adds a lot of colours in the music. So does the marimba too and the guitars and the tangents also adds a lot of colours.

The music is very good throughout and this must surely be one of their best ever albums. 

It is indeed one of the better album from the German fusion scene. Check it out.

3.5 points

 

 

Eros Necropsique - Charnelle Transcendance (1997)

 

The debut album from this French band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of percussion, bass, keyboards and vocals.

This band released three albums before they gave up the ghost.

The music is a bit of a depart from what I normally review in this blog. I will review these three albums because I have been a bit curious about this band for a while. I got their three albums and decided to give them a try. The two other reviews will follow later this fall.

Their music is avant-garde goth with some black metal overtures. 

The vocals is both male and female French vocals.

The music is pretty much goth ballad like with some avant-garde classical music too.

Most of the male vocals is spoken vocals and the female vocals is soprano operatic vocals.

There is not much going on here and there is not much quality either. Some of the music is decent enough but not enough to warrant a decent album status.

If dark goth is your thing, this band is your thing. 

1.5 points

 

Leirånes. Marius - Langtidsperspektiv (2021)

 

 

The debut album from this Norwegian artist.

Marius did the guitars, keyboards and most other instruments himself.

He had help from four other guests who added guitars, synths, drums and bass.

Marius Leiranes is a member of the Norwegian band Pixie Ninja. This album has been produced by the Norwegian stalwart Jacob Holm-Lupo and the guests are from White Willow and other bands.

This instrumental album is about his own family farm Leiranes and it's history. The farm is still there and owned by his family.

I totally get this concept as it is also my own personal history..... although I come from my father's and my mother's farms on the west coast of Norway. Both these has similar stories to tell.

I would have told these stories in a novel/book but Marius has chosen an instrumental piece of dark progressive rock to tell the story.

The music is pretty somber and it has some electronica too. As a piece of music, this half an hour long album works.

The music is good. It is also as somber as you would expect from a story about a farm who is straddling the Arctic Circle in Norway.

 

Check out this pretty unique album.

 

3 points

 

 

 

Skys. The - Journey Through The Skies (2015)

The third album from this band from Lithuania.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

The band had some modest success with their second album Colours In The Desert from 2011 before they released this album.... and then a fourth album two years ago.

Their music is still a mix of Pink Floyd, some prog and some psych rock.

The music is rather pedestrian and includes both male and female vocals.

There is also some rather slow and lingering guitar solos here. Those are in the best Pink Floyd tradition.

The songs are not that impressive and this album is a big step backwards from their previous album.

I am not impressed at all by this album as the songs are simply not good enough.

This is still a decent album and perhaps worth checking out if Pink Floyd floats your boat.

2 points

Hawklords - Time (2021)

 

The 15th or so album from this British band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, organ and vocals.

A guest added saxophones and flutes.

This band started out as a side project of Hawkwind before they became a real band after 2010.

The band gives us over fifty minutes of spaced out psych rock. 

There are some space rock and some spoken words. Parts of this album has a cinematic feel. 

There are also some pretty melodic proper psych rock songs here too.

This is my first ever meeting with a Hawklord album and I am pleased about the quality of this album.

It is indeed a good album and one well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Steam Haven - Last Want for Sadness (2021)

The debut album from this US band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Some guest musicians provided bass, cello, violin, guitars and vocals.

This is another new band to me and it was sold to me as a heavy prog album.

Well, there is some Porcupine Tree here and I cannot deny that.

Most of this music is a mix of grunge and rock. Add some youthful college rock and desert rock too.

The vocals are good and the musicians adds their worth on this rather hard rocking album. Hard rocking with some violins and cello breaking up the rather harsh music.

The music is OK without really impressing me. It is not so much progressive rock. 

This is a decent to good album and the band is a decent addition to the scene.

2.5 points

Ophiucus - Salade Chinoise (1973)

The second album from this French band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, flute and vocals.

Two guests provided moog and piano.

I reviewed their 1971 self-titled debut album many years ago for # 1 of this blog and was not impressed. That album is a turkey.

I did not have much hope for this album either.

The band has French vocals and they are good.

The music is a mix of rock'n'roll, blues, chanson, prog and pop.

A bit of something for everyone.

The quality is again very poor and only the vocals saves this album from being included in my collection of turkeys.

Poor, poor, poor.......

1.5 points

Fragile - Beyond (2021)

The second album from this German band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

This band follows up last year's debut album Golden Fragments with their new album.

Fragile was a Yes cover band before they started to write and record their own stuff. It reminds me about The Watch and their relationship to Genesis.

The cover art-works on both their albums screams Yes and Roger Dean. This sets the mood in a perfect way.

Claire Hamill is the vocalist here and that is indeed a female vocalist. Something that adds a lot of value to this album. The not so few Renaissance references is not a problem here either. They adds a lot of value to this album, indeed.

An album where the Yes references comes thick and fast. Nevertheless, this band has their own identity. It is a bit difficult to detect in the cascades of Yes'ish riffs and themes. But Fragile still stands proudly on their own four legs... make that eight legs.

Three tracks between fourteen and twenty-two minutes is what this album gives us. It gives us some very good symphonic prog in the good old 1970s genre. 

This is an album every symphonic prog fan should check out and then include in their collections of symphonic prog.

3.5 points

Enid. The - Aerie Faerie Nonsense (1977)

The third album from this British band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and flute.

The band has gone totally symphony on this album. It is a piece of classical music, in other words.

It is performed with bass, drums.... the instruments listed above. 

It is still a piece of classical music and I am not that eager to review pieces of classical music. I have never really understood the urge for rock bands to make classical music.

This forty minutes long album is not too bad though. There are some good pieces of music on this album.

Nevertheless, there are also some barely decent music here too and I am not overly impressed by this album. I am in a minority here, I can read from other reviews.

It is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Congreso - Viaje Por La Cresta Del Mundo (1981)

The fifth album from this band from Chile.

The band was an eight piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, marimba, bass, charango, cello, guitars, flute, tarka, melodica, piano and vocals.

The band has reached the five albums milestone.

The band is normally a folk rock band. So the music on this album came as a bit of a surprise.

A positive surprise too. 

The music on this forty-three minutes long album is still rooted in folk music and rock. But the main part is pretty eclectic with a great deal of progressive rock and some fusion.

The vocals are really good and so is the instruments.

The songs are still melodic. This album is therefore not an avant-garde album although it is pretty much avant-garde compared to most of the folk rock scene.

The songs are also well crafted and has a lot of interesting details.

The music is very good and this is by far their best album so far.

Check out this very good album.

3.5 points

 

 

Vokonis - Odyssey (2021)

The debut album from this Swedish band.

The band is a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

This is a new band to me. But I liked the cover art-work so much that I took a chance on this album.

The music is a mix of Opeth like progressive rock, stoner rock, death metal and doom metal.

There is some growls and there is some clear vocals here.

The music is very heavy and muscular. This is very much a metal album.

Some of the music is pretty epic progressive rock too. But the metal soon takes over and this album only offers some small windows of progressive rock. It is pretty obvious that their countrymen Opeth has influenced this band. And that is indeed a good thing.

The quality of this album, a Bandcamp album, is good throughout. Even the metal parts is really good. 

This music is not the normal fare but it is still a good album. It is nice to check out the fringes of the progressive rock genre now and then.

3 points

Slang - Garden City (2019)

The debut album from this Canadian band.

Slang is Steve Lang on drum programming, samplers, bass, guitars and keyboards.

Some guests added vocals and bass.

This is a one and a half hour long album with a lot of genres.

We are talking funk, fusion, hard rock, soul, a bit prog and a lot of rock here. 

That takes the listener on a roller coaster and not all of this roller coaster is good.

Most of this album has ideas but not fully finished songs and melodies. Some of the pieces here could had been developed a lot more. A lot more, indeed.

This is not a too bad album. But it fails on a lot of levels. There is still some decent bits here worth a listen or two.

1.5 points

Efecto. El - A Cantiga É Uma Arma (2014)

The fourth album from this band from Brazil.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, ukulele, trumpet, clarinet, ukulele and vocals.

Some guests also contributed with bass, tambourine and female vocals.

This album is acoustic reworks of older songs. Songs delivered acoustic on the previous albums.

The electric versions was full of screaming and random use of electric instruments who largely destroyed the songs. So these acoustic versions makes sense.

El Efecto was never a great band and song writers. But the folk rock on this album. Folk rock with some psych, is not too bad. 

It is fair to say that these songs gets into full bloom on this album. Not very good songs but they are still pretty good.

It is not an exciting album by all means but these songs are not bad at all.  

This is an album well worth checking out if Latin American folk music is your thing.

2.5 points

Zerner. Alexandra - Silhouette (2021)

The debut album from this artist from the Czech Republic.

Alexandra Zerner does the guitars, bass, mandolin, sitar, keyboards and flute herself.

She has got help on drums and on vocals.

This female artist is a new name to me and most others too. Her album is on Bandcamp and a couple of singles was released before this album was released.

The music is mostly instrumental guitar solos and riffs. The other instruments is just there to support the guitars.

A female vocalist does a proper song in the musical tradition before the album ends after forty-seven minutes.

The music is a mix of metal and some more folk/keltic metal. There are also some hints of musicals here and the vocal track is a song in the musical tradition.

The music is not bad at all. It is not particular interesting though.

This is a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points

Operation: Milksnatch - Sadly Tempoary (2013)

The one and only album from this US band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, violin, keyboards and vocals.

This band released this album before they disappeared again. Not much has been seen of this album in the form of reviews or publicity.

The band is clearly a post-punk band who approached melodic prog and metal from that angle. 

That explains a very chaotic album where ideas is thrown around in songs without really being coherent.

Which is fine if it is done with some style and coherent thinking. 

There is not much of that on this album. An album with a lot more shock factor than melody.

The vocalist and guitars screams and the keyboards are demented on some demented pieces of music. Music that largely does not make much sense.

Post-metal and post-punk fans may like this album. It is still a very poor album and a turkey.

1 point

Quaser - Out From Quaser (1994)

The debut album from this Japanese band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, synths and vocals.

This band has released five albums so far but I have only got this album. I would very much like to check out their four other albums too.

The vocals are in Japanese and not too bad.

The band set out to sound like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. 

There is some ELP'ish music here. But there is also some art-rock and pop here. Add some laid back fusion too and you get the picture.

This fifty minutes long album has a lot of classy music. The synth is a bit bombastic. Some of the music is pretty bombastic too.

This is a decent enough album and I want more of this band. Hopefully, that can be arranged.

Check out this album.

2 points

Ozric Tentacles - Sliding Gliding Worlds (1988)

The fourth album from this British band.

The band was an eight piece big band on this album with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, flute, synths, sampling, keyboards and guitars.

The band was now getting settled into their space rock genre. A genre they anno 2021 still inhabit. 

There is also a lot of electronica in their brand of space rock.

The space rock is pretty gentle and not that harsh on this one hour long album.

The band is running a bit empty of ideas on this album. 

The music is still pleasant enough and the quality is somewhere between decent and good.

I am starting to like this band now.

2.5 points