Enid. The - Tripping The Light Fantastic (1994)

The 12th album from this British band.

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

Reviewing all the The Enid albums is quite a journey. From the slightly off kilter to a bit more accessible music. But not wholly accessible and that makes the band pretty special and a bit of a treasure in the progressive rock genre.

The band is back again with a symphony......... or is it a piece of classical music ? 

The album is one hour long and it is nowhere near rock music.

This despite of no involvements from a classical orchestra. That is what we get electronics for......

The music feels like a movie picture score too. That is the genre I would put this album in.

No matter genres and splitting of hairs, the music is good and this is one of their better albums so far.

Yes, the music is a bit cheesy and will attract a lot of house mice. 

Nevertheless, it is a good album.

3 points

 

 

Congreso - Pichanga (1992)

The 12th album from this band from this band from Chile.

The band was now an eight piece big band with a lineup of marimba, drums, percussion, bass, guitars, woodwinds, piano, programming, synths, recorder and Spanish vocals.

They had help from two guitarists and numerous vocalists, including a children choir.

The band had released some good albums in the 1970s and the 1980s. They are living legends and I am one of them who both respect and pretty much admire this band. There is a place in the hearts of all music lovers for bands like Congreso. Not at least because of their background.

The music on this album is a bit of a mix of pop and folk rock. There is not much jazz here. None, in fact.

There is also some children music here who falls a bit flat on it's face.

The first half of this album is good whilst the remaining ten to fifteen minutes of the forty-six minutes long album can be bypassed.

The result is somewhere between good and decent... although the first part is so good that I will give it a good rating.

3 points

Blue Rumble - Blue Rumble (2022)

The debut album from this band from Switzerland.

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

A guest adds flutes on one of the tracks.

Instrumental music again.... and on a name-your-price Bandcamp album.

There is a lot of instrumental music in the scene and in the heavy prog and psych rock genres. 

The keyboards here sounds like vintage organ sound at times and that is a big bonus and attraction on this album.

The music is in the heavy prog genre. There are some psych and blues rock here too. Not to mention hard rock. Vintage hard rock from the 1970s. Ageless music, really.

The quality is not bad at all.

It is somewhere between decent and good. It is well worth a download, this album.

2.5 points

Pythagoras - Journey To The Vast Unknown (1980)

The debut album from this Dutch band.

The band was a duo with a lineup of drums, percussion, bells, piano, mellotron, synths and sequencers.

I reviewed their second album After The Silence (1982) around twelve years ago in ProgArchives and I liked it. 

That album was the first album the later so prolific guitarist and band leader Arjen Lucassen played on.

On this album though, Journey To The Vast Unknown, we get a forty minutes long electronic symphony.

The music is pretty ambient and does not have much dynamics.

The value here is not immediate and this album is a grower. There are some delicate melody lines and details here.

The standard is never better than decent though and this album goes down as a disappointment having heard so many praising it. 

I am not convinced about the merits of this album.

2 points

De De Lind - Io Non So Da Dove Vengo E Non So Dove Mai Andrò, Uomo È Il Nome Che Mi Han Dato (1973)

 

The one and only album from this Italian band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of timpani, drums, percussion, bass, guitars, flute, woodwinds, piano, organ, electric piano and vocals.

This band was named after a pin up girl from Playboy magazine the band fancied. 

Whatever floats your boat.....

The music is a mix of 1960s proto prog, psych and symphonic Italian prog.... RPI.

Even in 1973, the band sounded a bit outdated. Then again, that explains the charm of their music. The appeal of their music.

The music is a mix of hard and pastoral. Of rather eclectic RPI and more melodic RPI.

This is a bit of a weird album. But it is rather good and a grower.

It is indeed a good album. It is not the usual RPI album, but still a good album. 

3 points

 

 

Plurima Mundi - Percorsi (2017)

The debut album from this Italian band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, electric violin, piano and female vocals.

This band released an EP back in 2009 called Atto I before this album was released.

The music is RPI - Italian symphonic prog.

It is not the run of the mill RPI we sometimes get. This band combines RPI with gypsy music, jazz, folk and Vivaldi like classical music.

The female vocals is very good and the electric violin adds a lot of artistic greatness to the music.

This forty minutes is full of life and colours. 

It is also a good album and a very nice addition to any RPI collection. 

3 points

 

 

Monkey Diet - Inner Gobi (2017)

The one and only album from this band from Italy.

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

The bass, drums and guitars format is probably the most misused lineup in the history of rock. It seldom leads to good bands and good albums.

On this fifty minutes long album, we get some hard music somewhere between psych, hard rock and blues.

The quality is pretty dire throughout this album and they gives us nothing news and nothing good.

This is in short a turkey.

Sorry.......

1 point

Regal Worm - The Hideous Goblink (2021)

The fourth album from this English band.

The band is Jarrod Gosling's band and he does the drums, glockenspiel, percussion, bass, guitars, mellotron, organ, synths, piano, programming and vocals.

He has help from four other musicians who does woodwinds and female vocals.

The band has had a nice progress so far and has established themselves as one of the best more experimental progressive bands in the UK.

And this time, the band goes............. Zeuhl.

Magma is the major influence here. But there is also some more manic Japanese zeuhl in their music.

The music is rhythmic, frantic and pretty much right on the money when it comes to zeuhl.

The music is also very good throughout.

This is another proof that this band needs to be checked out. They are a gemstone, waiting to be explored.

3.5 points

Ozric Tentacles - Become The Other (1995)

The 11th album from this band from England.

The band was a quintet on this album with a lineup of castanets, drums, percussion, bass, guitars, samples and synths. 

A guest added percussion on one track.

The band had by now established their fanbase and sound.

The sound is somewhere between ambient music and Hawkwind. 

That is very much the case on this album.

There is some really compelling, good soundscapes and melodies here. There is also some really good grooves here which makes the feet of the listener want to wander of in rhythmic movements.

This one hour long album is both good for the heart and the brain.... well, most of the times.

This is a good album who cements this band's good reputation in my home.

3 points

Groundhogs - Scratching the Surface (1968)

The debut album from this English band.

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

This band was a semi-progressive rock band who was very popular for a while in the 1970s. 

The band released fourteen albums from 1968 to 1999 and I got ten or so albums of them I will review this year. 

.... Starting with this album, their debut album.

The music here is straight blues with some hard rock. The music is not as prog as the Led Zeppelin debut album.

Harmonica, guitars and vocals is the dominating aspects of this album.

The songs are not that good or even decent. This is a throwaway blues album who did not really forecast the long career this band was embarking on.

1.5 points

 

 

Sintesi Del Viaggio Di Es - Gli Alberi di Stavropol (2022)

 

The second album from this Italian band.

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

This band was born out of a great RPI band, Sithonia. Sithonia released some albums before they disbanded.

We then got the debut album Il Sole Alle Spalle in 2017 from the Sintesi Del Viaggio Di Es and that was a good album and a good follow up to the Sithonia albums.

We are now in 2022 and the band has again released a new album. A very welcome album.

We are again talking classic Italian symphonic progressive rock - RPI. A great genre who continues to give and give. A genre with a history back to 1969 or thereabout.

This one hour album is a bit more rocking than the debut album and the songs are a bit better too. That is a good thing.

This band is sailing up the field of good RPI bands and is becoming a band I am starting to follow. Yes, I am a fan of their two albums.

This is indeed a very good album.

3.5 points

 

 

Grails - Chalice Hymnal (2017)

The seventh album from this US band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, synths, oud, mellotron and samplers.

They were helped out by some guests who provided synths, strings, saxophones, saxes, double bass and harmonica.

This album is so far their last album but I hope they will continue to release albums although I am not a fan of their music. But they have a lot of fans and others who really appreciate their music.

I therefore take my hat of to this band.

The band has deepened and softened up their brand of ambient post-metal since their pretty harsh debut album. A pretty poor album.

We are still in an ambient tonal soundscape without any song structures. The music is pretty elegant though...

The music is made on moods and this soundscape is slowly creeping upon the listener. This album becomes better and better for every listening sessions.

I still have my reservations even after some listening sessions. Parts of this album is good and other parts are pretty dull. 

A rating between decent and good is a fair one. However, fans of ambient soundscapes should get this album and some other albums from this band.

2.5 points

Move. The - Message From The Country (1971)

The fourth and final album from this English band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, woodwinds, piano, electric piano and vocals.

Bev Bevan, Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne. That was the members of this band on the final album of The Move. Three legends in their own right. 

The Move and this album was the forerunner for Electric Light Orchestra. Ditto for the previous The Move album. 

The music on this album is a mix of rock'n'roll and whimsical pop rock. It is pretty artistic with the exception of the rockabilly track which feels more like a throwaway track.

The result is a pretty whimsical weird album which gave notice of what was coming from these three musicians on the following albums. Both bands and solo albums.

This is a pretty good album in it's own right, just sabotaged a bit by the pretty poor rockabilly.

2.5 points

Psychic For Radio - Standing Wave (2012)

The one and only album from this US band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, programming and keyboards.

Four vocalists, including a female vocalist, added their vocals to this album.

This band was the band of the Progrock Records owner Shawn Gordon. He hired in some other guys and this album was the result.

The music is a mix of US neo-prog and progressive metal with some symphonic prog influences.

The music is really muscular and does not leave much to the fantasy.

The band has also done their version of the Alice Cooper classic Schools Out. A very different version than the original and not an improvement.

The music is pretty much formula based and not so good.

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

2 points

 

 

 
 

Montrose. Ronnie - Open Fire (1978)

The debut album from this US artist.

Ronnie Montrose did the theremin, mandocello, mandolin and guitars himself.

He had help from a handful of guests who added their drums, bass, guitars, harpsichord, moog and piano.

Ronnie Montrose split up Montrose and went solo.

One of the reasons for the split up Montrose was that Ronnie Montrose wanted to branch out into a more jazz and proggy landscape.

Hence this album.

Most of the music here is pretty cinematic. There is some jazz, blues and prog here too.

It most of all showcases his abilities and status as one of the better guitarists of his generation.

The music is both interesting and good. It varies a lot and it sounds a bit like 1978. It is dated, but that is not a bad thing in this case.

Ronnie Montrose released approx ten solo albums and I may explore them on a later date. This is a good album, though.

3 points

Hyper Delirious - From Then To Now (2022)

The debut album from this band from Canada.

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

This band comes from London in Ontario, Canada. A part of Canada with a lot of bands.

The band has gone down the progressive metal path. There is a lot of djent here and some nu-metal too. Funk is also to be found on this album.

The sound is good. The band knows what they do and the vocals is what to expect from this brand of progressive metal and djent.

There are some pastoral parts and some rather jazzy parts here too.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I am not won over but the band has delivered a commercial album which will please a lot people.... if they can find it. It is a Bandcamp album and very poorly search engines marketed and profiled. That has to be fixed pronto.

2.5 points

 

 

Oldfield. Mike - Amarok (1990)

 

The 14th album from this English artist.

Mike Oldfield did the bass, synths, pan pipes, pipes, woodwinds, strings, guitars and numerous other instruments on this album.

He had help from five guests who provided uillean pipes, African choir, spoken words and vocals.

After some rather poor pop albums, Mike Oldfield returned to the basis. 

That means symphonic new age music with lots of his own instruments. 

There is no songs here and the music on this one hour long album is one piece of music.  

The sound is the usual pipes based sound Mike Oldfield has made his own sound. A welcome return to this sound.

The music is somewhere between decent and good. 

I am not won over by this album but this is a good one if you want to find out what this artist is all about.

2.5 points

Haken - The Mountain (2013)

The third album from this British band.

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

Three guest musicians added their trombones and French horns.

The art-work on this album is one of the more iconic art-works in the last decade. Well, at least for a man like myself who comes from a mountain region and loves mountains like this. I have yet to find the name of this mountain, though. That annoys me......

Well, I am reviewing the music on this seventy minutes long album. 

Haken is somewhere between Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree. That also goes for this album. But add in some Radiohead and symphonic prog too. 

There are some beautiful pastoral pieces here in between the rather hard music. 

There are also some majestic symphonic prog here which takes the music up to the height of..... ehh.... the mountains.

The quality is good throughout as the band has a lot of very good details and good pieces of music. I am still to be converted but their three first albums has been a pleasant experience.

3 points

Lighthouse Sparrows - Aerials (2022)

The debut album from this band from Finland.

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

The band is supported by two guests who provided drums and backing vocals.

This is a new band on the neo-prog and the melodic progressive rock scene.

The band released two singles/eps in 2020 and 2021 before the full length album was released.

Music wise, the band is somewhere between the Polish neo-prog scene, a band like Manning and a bit more British neo-prog.

There is a lot of Manning influences here. Guy Manning's band, that is.

The music is pretty good throughout without really offering up any surprises. It is pretty much neo-prog formula based with some dark guitars and vocals thrown into the mix.

This album will please fans of melodic prog and neo-prog. 

It is also a good album and an album well worth checking out. The band and album is an welcome addition to the scene.

3 points

Regal Worm - Neither Use Nor Ornament (2014)

The second album from this British one-man-band.

Regal Worm is Jarrod Gosling on piano, organ, electric piano, moog, mellotron, synths, bass, guitars, glockenspiel, mandolin, drums, accordion, percussion and vocals.

He got help from six guests who provided saxophones, flute, harp, guitars and vocals.

Jarrod Gosling has so far released four albums under this name and I have reviewed two of them. I will next week review the new album... the 2021 album.

In the meantime, his back-catalogue is well worth checking out. As I am doing here on his second album.

It is difficult to really pinpoint the right label for this album. There is two long pieces here touching eighteen and a half minutes. Both of them are Canterbury prog meets symphonic prog and eclectic prog. 

The same can be said about the three short songs.... make that.... pieces too. 

There is a lot of playful music and mischief making on this album. That is a good, good thing. 

I really liked the debut album and the third album a lot and the same can be said about this album too.

This is a good album which needs to be explored by those into eclectic, symphonic and Canterbury prog.

A good rating awarded.

3 points

 

 

Sintesi Del Viaggio Di Es - Il Sole Alle Spalle (2017)

The debut album from this Italian band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, mellotron, hammond organ, moog, concerto flute and vocals.

This band has just released their second album and I am going to review that later this month. 

This band with the very long band name is the remnants of the very good band Sithonia. A band who released some good albums one to two decades ago. A band who were releasing music in the good old RPI tradition.

Sintesi Del Viaggio Di Es too plays pretty much classic RPI.

The music is pastoral and a mix of symphonic prog and folk rock. In short, pretty pastoral RPI.

The vocals and the mellotron and moog is very good.

The songs are pretty good. The details are really good.

This makes this album a very nice RPI album indeed and a good one. RPI collectors, like myself, should include this album and band in their collection.

3 points

Purposeful Porpoise - The Water Games (2014)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

The band was helped out by a handful of guests who provided sitar, moog, guitars and vocals.

This album is the brainchild of Alex Cora on guitars and vocals. 

He got some help from four other pretty known musicians from Dream Theater, Meat Loaf, Frank Zappa and Yngwie Malmsteen to get this album done.

This album is very long, clocking in at ninety minutes.

The music is muscular melodic progressive rock somewhere between US neo-prog and art-rock. There is also a lot of Electric Light Orchestra influences here.

There is a lot of female vocals and violins here. That sets the album a bit a part from the run-of-the-mill albums. 

The music is not particular good and I am not won over by this album. 

Hence.....

2.5 points

 

Moose Loose - Transition (1976)

The second album from this Norwegian band.

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

Their 1974 debut album Elgen Er Los was a good album and I was happy when I found a copy of he follow up album. The band has also released a third album under a different name I hope to pick up later.

This band is a fusion band and the music is pretty intense fusion.

The best comparison is Jean Luc Ponty with some Mahavishnu Orchestra influences too. 

Trond Villa's violins and in particular the Jon Eberson's guitar solos is striking good on this album. Hakon Graf's bass is also very, very good here.

There is a lot to be enjoyed on this forty minutes long album. Lots of solos and a lot of rhythm works which will keep the listener occupied and happy for some listening sessions.

This is indeed a very good album and one of the better 1970s albums from Norway.

3.5 points

 

 

Ant Band. The - A Light on the Hill (2022)

The debut album from this German band/project.

The band/project has ten to fifteen members. The lineup is drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, synths, programming, flute, glockenspiel and vocals.

Steve Hackett plays guitars on one of the tracks.

Those who knows the prog rock history would catch up on the cover art work and the band name. Is it not an Anthony Philips associated band ? 

Indeed, it is. He does not play here. But this is a very unofficial tribute band and album to his honour.

The music is a mix of Anthony Philips era Genesis, some of his solo stuff and self made stuff.

The music is melodic progressive rock. There are a lot of symphonic prog influences here too.

The music is good and it has to be good as it is party based on Genesis and Anthony Philips. The music is not overly exciting and it is not an album that raise the roof in my office.

It is a good, solid melodic progressive rock album.

3 points

 

  

Ixthuluh - No Money For A Radio (1979)

The second album from this Austrian band.

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

A trio of guests added percussion, bass, guitars and vocals.

I have a handful of albums from this band I thought were proper studio albums. When I lined them up for reviews, it turned out that they were all studio recordings and outtakes cobbled together into five or even six albums. I do not have their sixth albums. I normally never review albums like this, but I decided to proceed anyway.

This album is a mix of pretty much half decent to bad outtakes from recording sessions during two years.

The music is spaced out jazz with some blues.

The quality is poor and this is therefore a turkey.

Avoid.

1 point

Gandalf's Fist - A Day in the Life of a Universal Wanderer (2013)

The fourth studio album from this band from England.

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

The band had help from numerous guests who provided violins, cello, flute, saxophones, spoken words and vocals. Both male and female vocals.

This band has got a deserved reputation as one of the better British progressive rock bands.  

The music is a mix of modern hard prog, neo-prog and some symphonic theatrical rock.

The music is concept based and that is also the case here.

The music is pretty melodic and has some soaring guitars and melody lines too.

This is not their best album but it is still a good album from a band who deserve a lot more attention.

3 points

 

 

Moon Rã - L2 (2015)

The debut album from this band from France.

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

This band, who use Bandcamp as their platform, has only released two albums as far as I know. 

And yes, this is space rock.

The inclusion and much use of keyboards does not make their music as uncompromising harsh as most of the bands in this genre does.

Space rock light is what I get on this album.

That is fair enough and pretty likeable. It is just a bit shame that the music is not that good. There is some good pieces now and then. But most of it is just decent.

This is a free album and well worth the download. A recommended download indeed. But I wish this album was a better album than it is.

2.5 points

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)

The fifth album from this US band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, oud, baglama, guitars, guzheng, tape, melodica, synths and piano.

A handful of guests added flute, violin, vibes, synths and vocals.

The band has gone down a much more industrial post-metal path on this album.

The music is pretty doomy and gloomy.

We are still talking about soundscapes more than traditional melodies here. The music is collages of different sounds and ideas.

The sound is not as alien as I feared. There is some warmth in the sound.

The result is a decent to good album. I am not a fan but this is their best effort so far.

2.5 points

Move. The - Looking On (1970)

The third album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, sitar, cello, saxes, oboe, piano and vocals.

Two guests added their vocals.

The band had by now changed their vocalist. Enter Jeff Lynne.

The music on this album is a bit more rocking than we got in Electric Light Orchestra, the band that succeeded The Move.

There is some psych rock and blues rock here. Indeed, Led Zeppelin and some small Black Sabbath references can be detected. All three bands comes from the same town and the same pool of musicians. 

Looking On is a hard rocking album. But there is also a lot of art rock on this album and the music is pretty classy.

The music is a mix of decent and good. The album has not entirely won me over. But fans of Electric Light Orchestra should get this album as it is very much a part of their history and musical DNA.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Rigoni & Schoenherz - Victor (1975)

The one and only album from this band from Austria.

The band was Richard Schoenherz on keyboards, lead vocals and Manuel Rigoni on drums and percussion.

They had help from The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a handful of musicians who provided bass, guitars, arp and vocals.

This album is one of the more strange albums in the history of progressive rock. 

The album is a mix of classical music and a bit of a musicals rock. There are even some hard rock and blues here.

These two genres has not been mixed as in what ELP did. They exists side by side on this album. 

This music on this album is and sounds disjointed to say at least. 

What were they thinking is my question. Nevertheless, the album is here and it is not a good album. It is just half decent.

It is though a decent album and that is because it is an album well worth checking out just to have experienced it.

2 points

Moraine - Groundswell (2014)

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass stick, guitars, electric violin, programming, mellotron, saxophone and flutes.

Their 2011 debut opus Manifest Density caused a sensation in the fusion and eclectic prog scene. So we were waiting for the follow up....

.... And it has taken me eight years to dig out this album for a review due to questionable priorities. 

Well, there is no expiry dates on music and the album is still available for purchase and for listening sessions.

The music is again a blend of jazz, fusion and eclectic prog. It is like Mahavishnu Orchestra meets King Crimson and adds some more jazz to their music.

The music is instrumental and pretty hardcore eclectic.

There is a lot of great details here and some good melodies too.

The end result is a good album and a must-have if the most eclectic of eclectic music is what you live for.

Can we soon get a new Moraine album ?

3 points

 

 

Arlekin - The Secret Garden (2021)

The second album from this one-man-band from Ukraine.

The band is Igor Syderenko on bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

He got help from three guests who provided drums, piano and flutes.

I did not expect a new Arlekin album after the release of the 2014 opus Disguised Serenades. But I was thankfully wrong.

We are again bang in the middle of the neo-prog land again. 

His version of neo-prog is very close to Genesis. Genesis at their best moments. 

The vocals are vibrato as in Peter Gabriel's vocals and the music is really melodic. 

The music is very poppy and simplistic at times. Too easy solutions are chosen in too many places. Nevertheless, this forty minutes long album has some very good vocals and a lot of interesting details.

It is indeed a good album and one to check out. Let's hope for another album next year or so. 

3 points

Enid. The - The Seed And The Sower (1988)

The 11th album from this English band.

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

Two guests added whistle and female vocals.

This album was originally released as a Godfrey & Stewart album. But the re-release named it as a The Enid band album.

The music is very much in the The End vein.

That means classical music on keyboards with some electric guitars in the Mike Oldfield vein and some whistles.

The music is very big and bold.

The vocals are OK and these fifty minutes are OK too.

I am not overly impressed or even pleased about this album. The music is simply not good enough.

This is barely a decent album... well, not even that.

1.5 points

 

 

Congreso - Los Fuegos Del Hielo (1992)

The 11th album from this band from Chile.

The band was an eight piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, cello, recorders, saxophones, flutes, piano, synths and vocals.

Congreso is one of the more interesting bands from South America. They changed between folk rock, fusion and pop from album to album. Very few albums sounds alike.

This three quarters of an hour long album sees the band go down a much more pastoral path than I am used to from this band.

There is a lot of instrumental jazzy and folk music meditations on this album. Besides of the opening tracks, this album is full of meditations.

The music is not ambient though as there is a lot of interesting details here.

The music is really good too. It is a grower though as it felt a bit tame and lame on the first listening session. Congreso has not reinvented the wheel on this album.

Nevertheless, this is a good album and a solid one. One to cement their status as one of the best bands from this region.

3 points

Fermata - Ad Libitum (1984)

The seventh album from this band from Slovakia.

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

The band released altogether twelve albums. The last one a couple of years ago. But this is the last of their albums I am planning to review this year. 

The band was starting to sound like zillion other bands by now and I am not that interested in mainstream rock and pop.

What we get on this three quarters of an hour long album is a mix of harder rock in their local language and fusion.

The final half has some good fusion. The first half is not too bad with some good vocals either.

I would still label this as their weakest output. Their six first albums is must-have if you are into fusion. This one is not although it is well worth a listening session.

2.5 points

Amarok - Hero (2021)

The sixth album from this band from Poland.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, percussion, guitars, violin, djembe, cello, harmonium, theremin, flute, synths and vocals.

Amarok, that is mr Michal Wojtas, gave us a turkey with the previous album The Storm from 2019. It is a most horrid album.

To my joy, Michal Wojtas has turned Amarok back to being a melodic neo-prog band in the Polish neo-prog tradition. A very good tradition, btw.

The neo-prog is a bit on the poppy side and is missing a bit when it comes to interesting details.

There is also some post-rock soundscapes on this album too.

The overall quality is good throughout this album and this album is a massive improvement on the previous album.

Welcome back, Amarok.

3 points

 

 

 

Mörglbl - Tea Time For Punks (2015)

The sixth album from this French band.

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

This band is said to introduce humour into progressive rock. That is what they started out as. That scared me a bit.... but I reviewed their fifth album, the 2012 opus Brutal Romance in # 1 of this blog and that was a great album.

I should really check out their five other albums too.

The music is a mix of metal and jazz. 

The riffs are on the thrash metal side of the metal spectrum. There is also a lot of jazz here. 

The music is riff based and very heavy indeed.

Besides of that, this album is pretty close to the power trio concept. 

The quality is good throughout and the band knows what they are doing. It is a slightly dull album but it is still a good album.

3 points