Artefactron - Artefactron (2022)

The debut album from this band from Mexico.

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

This album was released two years ago through their own webpage. It has been released both on CD, LP and off course as a stream.

The cover art work is very attractive and draws the viewers. The hope is that this is a symphonic prog album..

.. And that is not far from the truth.

Take a lot of RPI - Progressive Italian Rock, and then add some neo-prog and symphonic prog.

The vocals are in Spanish and they are great. 

The music is very lush and colourful. The album has a very good balance between some pretty melodic music and some far more complex music.

The balance between the keyboards and guitars are good. The album is at it's best when the cascades of keyboards is running through some more complex music.

This is easily one of the best albums from 2022 and a very good album in it's own right.

Get this album.

3.5 points

Faveravola - Castrum Zumellarum (2024)

The second album from this band from Italy.

The band was a nine piece big band on this album and the lineup was drums, bass, guitars, violin, flute, saxophone, organ, piano and vocals.

This band released their debut album Contea Dei Cento Castagne back in 2006. I reviewed this album back in November 2011 for ProgArchives and was pretty impressed by it.

I also noted that their folk rock label was slightly misleading as the music was also RPI - Progressive Italian Rock.

We are in 2024 and I have to agree with myself. The music on both albums is both folk rock and RPI.

The music is mostly half-acoustic and based on some good vocals. Most of the music is pastoral and not particular eclectic or complicated. There are a lot of violin here and some of the music is leaning towards acid folk. 

The use of organ is rather good and adds a lot of quality.

The reason is that RPI has a lot more folk rock incorporated than progressive rock in England and USA ever had. The progressive rock from France and Spain too had a lot more folk rock incorporated than the English speaking world.

Castrum Zumellarum is sixty-six minutes long and has a mix of decent and good songs.

It is an album which would interest RPI fans. Check it out.

2.5 points

Looking Glass Lantern - The Country House Weekend (2021)

The fifth album from this one-man-band from Great Britain.

Graham Dunnington did all the computers, guitars, synths and keyboards here.

Graham Dunnington has with this project got a good reputation and position in the scene. I have reviewed all the albums and I have quite enjoyed them.

The music on this album is entirely instrumental.

The music is both cinematic and pretty much neo-classical. There are some symphonic prog here too.

If this album is meant to be an instrumental concept album around a quiet, some will say dull, weekend in a country house, this album has really hit the spot here. There is not much excitement going around on this almost one hour long album.

Parts of this album is really dull. A bit too much muzak too.

This is a decent enough album and just that. This is so far his least interesting album.

2 points

 

 

Landmarq - Entertaining Angels (2012)

The fifth and final album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Some guests added saxophone, cello and backing vocals.

The band left us behind with this and a couple of live albums, DVD and CD. The band has reformed for some selected gigs and may have plans. I do not know.

Tracy Hitchins joined the band on vocals on the previous album and is still at the microphone on this album.

The music is a mix of 1990s neo-prog and psych rock. Pink Floyd comes into mind when it comes to psych rock.

Most people will label this album and music as female fronted melodic progressive rock. And that is a very accurate observation. It is what it is.

The quality is good throughout this seventy minutes long album and the band went out on a high. Check out this album.

3 points

Lucifer Was - En Fix Ferdig Mann (2024)

The eight album from this band from Norway.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, organ, piano, flute and vocals.

A choir added their voices too on one of the tracks.

Lucifer Was is the band of Thore Engen and he and Lucifer Was has been around for decades. Mostly asa band somewhere between folk rock, blues and hard rock.

There has also been a couple of projects where Thore Engen has left those genres. This is one of them.

Norwegian vocals and lyrics who sounds like we are in the middle of a rock opera. The music is rock opera and musicals orientated.

There are some folk rock and Jethro Tull influences here too.

But most of this forty-five minutes long album is in the musicals/rock opera vein. Although with some strong folk rock influences.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. This album is not Lucifer Was finest moment. Nevertheless, this an OK album.

2.5 points

Zappa. Frank - The Man From Utopia (1983)

The 25th album from this artist from USA.

Frank Zappa did the vocals, drum machine, guitars and synths.

He had help from an army of guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, woodwinds, guitars, strings, keyboards, mandolin and backing vocals.

Frank Zappa was now at the end of his life and career. His output of new studio albums had ended long time ago and what remains is albums with old songs in new sound and configurations.

This forty minutes long album is a compilation of weirdo, sarcastic and hateful observations of his surroundings and the world at large delivered as some comedy songs.

The first song Cocaine Decisions is a pretty good song and raises the hope for this album.

Hope quashed on the next songs. 

The remaining nine songs are somewhere between poor and decent.

This album is not among his finest albums.

1.5 points

My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours (2001)

The seventh album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Two guests helped out on keyboards.

I have reviewed their first six albums and some EPs in ProgArchives and in # 1 of this blog. The last review was published around ten years ago and it is about time to complete my reviews of all their albums.

My Dying Bride's debut EP hit me and a lot of others like a tonne of bricks. We became hooked on their mix of death, doom and avant-garde classical music. I have since then had an on and off interest in the band and I regard them as one of my favourite bands.

So it is about time to review the half a dozen albums yet to be reviewed.

I got to know some of the songs from The Dreadful Hours on their 2002 live album The Voice Of The Wretched. Songs I liked.

So the blend of doom and avant garde rock we get on this seventy minutes long album does not come as a surprise to me.

The vocals is a mix of death grunts and clear vocals. The music is pretty harsh but still melancholic. The band has their own genre, their own music carved out on their debut album and this album is a return to this genre after a sidestep into grunge and stoner on their 1998 album 34.788% Complete.

The music here is good throughout and it is a nice reminder how good and unique band this is. Oh yes, they are one of my favourite bands.

3 points

 

 

Høgt Gras - Frihet (1982)

The one and only album from this band from Norway.

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

This album got a very regional release in Norway and was mostly only sold on the north-west coast of Norway. This is where the band comes from. The album was then re-released on CD last year through Norske Albumklassikere and I got a copy of it.

To call it an album is wrong. It is clocking in at barely seventeen minutes and I feel a bit short-changed. But the album was very popular on Discogs, selling for small fortunes and a re-release was and is in order.

The music is a mix of folk rock, funk, punk, Frank Zappa and Jethro Tull. The vocals are in Norwegian.

Half of the songs are decent and the rest of songs are best forgotten. The Frank Zappa influenced songs are a bit lost if Norwegian is not your language.

In short, this is a half-decent album and I am not impressed. 

1.5 points

Afenginn - Lux (2013)

The fifth album from this band from Denmark.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, contrabass, mandolin, violin and clarinets.

A trio of guests added percussion, vibraphone, marimba, grand piano and trombone.

This band released seven albums between 2004 and 2019. I am not sure if they are still around as a band.

The band can best be described as a chamber rock orchestra. The music is avant-garde/RIO and a good reference is Aranis from Belgium. But Afenginn has carved out their own niche on their own. 

The music is far, far away from what I normally review here. I have reviewed most of their albums, both in earlier versions of this blog and in ProgArchives and I have found their music pretty challenging and interesting.

That is the two words I would use here. Challenging and Interesting. It is also in the RIO tradition set down by the RIO festivals decades ago. 

The music is pretty much mid-tempo where the clarinets, the three types of clarinets, is playing the main role. Knowing what to expect and knowing what to look out for, the music is decent enough. I have heard better albums in this genre though. This is not one of their best albums either. 

Nevertheless, this is a decent album.

2 points

Green Lung - This Heathen Land (2023)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band label their music as occult rock.

I have yet to hear their first two albums. Neither do I plan to review them either. I got this album from a friend in the business.

The music is a mix of good old doomy heavy metal (Black Sabbath), heavy metal and stoner metal. Add in some catchy pop and rock too and you get this album. 

The vocals is good and the music is pretty catchy. It has a lot of Ghost influences and it is not a surprise that bands like Green Lung has jumped on that bandwagon.

The music is catchy and uncomplicated. It does not have many really interesting details. The songs are simply not that good. 

This is a decent album.

2 points

Looking Glass Lantern - A World of Great Invention (2020)

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band is a one-man-band with Graham Dunnington on computers, guitars, bass, synths and vocals.

I reviewed his newest album, the 2023 album A Victorian Christmas Compendium, back in December last year. Yes, I reviewed it last Christmas. 

As I have got all his albums and has reviewed all but two of them for my three blogs, I thought it was a good idea to also review the remaining two albums. The first one being this album.

The band and it's sound has always been sailing close to the sound and music of the Dutch duo Us. 

That means pedestrian, pretty slow paced neo-prog with a lot of symphonic prog influences.

There are some interesting details here and the vocals are OK. Most of the stuff here are decent enough, interupted by some good pieces of music.

I am not entirely won over by this album. Hence...

2.5 points

Landmarq - Science Of Coincidence (1998)

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Some guests added additional vocals, including children vocals.

Damien Wilson had left the band and the band replaced him with ms Tracy Hitchhings. That means a shift from male to female vocals.

Landmarq now sounded like Magenta on their first albums. That means neo-prog with female vocals. 

A bit of a change and shock for the fans.

The guitars and synths.... their sound has also lost some of it's muscles. The symphonic prog stuff has been reduced a great deal. There is not any symphonic prog here at all.

Tracy has a good voice and she is carrying the album. The songs are not particular good, I am afraid to report.

The result is an album somewhere between decent and good. It is an album mostly for the neo-prog fans.

2.5 points

District 19 - Stay For The Ending (2023)

The fifth album from this band from USA.

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

This is the follow up to their 2019 Screens album. An album I like a lot. 

I guess the pandemic and the cost of living has had some influence on this four years long break. These four years has been incredible hard for all of us.

The band continues down the same path as on their first four albums. That means some very complex and muscular music somewhere between progressive metal and neo-prog.

There was some goth rock on the Screens album. That has thankfully gone on Stay For The Ending. 

The female vocals is fitting and muscular enough for this kind of music. They are in fact very good vocals and ms Leslie Hunt is very much in full control over her voice. That is not always the case when it comes to vocals in this genre. 

The guitars are cutting and good. Ditto for the keyboards.

This one hour long album is therefore a good album and one to check out from one of the better bands from USA.

3 points

Grand Funk Railroad - Shinin' On (1974)

The eight album from this band from USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, piano, clavinet, moog, mellotron, harmonica and vocals.

The album's producer Todd Rundgren added backing vocals and guitar on one track.

The band were back again with their eight album.

The band became a quartet on the previous album after six albums as a trio.

The big hit on this album, and a song not representative for this album at all, is their cover version of The Loco-Motion. A song I wish we had been spared for.

The rest of the half an hour long album contains some pretty hard arena rock with some blues and southern rock thrown into the mix too.

The music is decent enough but this album is not one of their best albums.

2 points

Wyatt. Robert - Shleep (1997)

The sixth album from this artist from Great Britain.

Robert Wyatt did percussion, keyboards, trumpet, fiddle, bass and vocals here.

He had help from some guests who provided drums, bass, guitars, strings, woodwinds, synths and backing vocals.

His previous studio albums had been bare-bones solo album with only Robert Wyatt and a couple of helpers on the albums. Outside his own studio albums, he was also busy in other projects. There is a wide variety in style and genres on those projects.

Phil Manzera (Quiet Sun, Roxy Music) gave Robert free use of his studio. With a new studio and friends, Robert was able to merge his two musical personas into one persona. The first result of this merger is Shleep.

There is many instruments here. But they are tastefully used with the help of the producer Phil Manzera and Robert's musical visions.

The album starts with a pop song and then moves onto more jazz and folk based songs and pieces of music.

The tempo is mostly like dirges. Slow in other words. Robert's excellent vocals still shines through the many competing instruments. 

The quality of the songs may not always be good. But the vocals and the many interesting details makes this a good album. Robert Wyatt still manage to fascinate, bare-bones or on an album like this.

3 points

 

 

St. Helena - Hello Friend (1991)

The one and only album from this band from Norway.

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

This band from the far north of Norway, from beyond the Arctic Cirle, were formed in 1971 and recorded this album in 1974 before they split. The album was released as an archive album by Colours in 1991 and then Norske Album Klassikere in 2022. The latter one in two versions, the original and an alternative version.

The members of this band later played in far better known bands as Akasha, Høst, Flax and also had pretty successful solo careers.

The music is a mix of folk rock, psych rock and eclectic prog. The music is pretty complex throughout. It is also a bit heavy too. 

What shines through is the complexity of the music. The references here is therefore Aunt Mary, Genesis and Gracious.

The big minus about this album is the lenght.... It is twenty minutes long and that is far too short. Hence get the 2022 version as it has two different versions of the same album and a couple of extra tracks.

The original album is a decent album. It is a bit of a hidden gem too and I have noted that the 2022 version is pretty popular. 

2 points

Affinitry - The Colour Of Change (2013)

The one and only album from this band from Canada.

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

The band comes from the east coast of Canada. The nearest big town is Boston on the other side of the border with USA. The town they come from, Saint John, is also a ferry port from where you can take the ferry to Nova Scotia.

Wild country in other words. Too many trees for my liking. Too claustrophobic. 

Their music is a mix of indie rock and heavy prog. Porcupine Tree and Rush comes to mind.

The sound is good and the music is pretty muscular. It is pretty hard throughout this half an hour. 

The vocals is good and the guitars are decent. Decent is also this music and I guess they were a good live band. For all I know, they still are. 

2 points

Greenwood. John - Dark Blue (2023)

The debut album from this artist from Australia.

John Greenwood did the vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards and ochestration himself.

He got help from numerous guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, woodwinds, strings, guitars, grand piano, keyboards, synths and vocals.

John Greenwood comes from Great Britain, then moved to Australia and became one of the leading experts and plastic surgeons on burns and damaged skin.

During this period, he wanted to write music. He taught himself on several instruments and then got in touch with the guys in Unitopia, Sean Timms and others, to record this album.

I think it is fair to say that John Greenwood is one of the most remarkable persons in the progressive rock scene and that only based on his daytime job and his then retraining to become proficient on several different instruments.

Dark Blue is a musicals and concept album in the good old way.

That means lots of classical musical instruments. Lots of vocals too. This inbetween some classic rock instruments.

The music is bold and big. The quality of the music is not always good. 

This is a good debut album and only time will tell if John Greenwood want to continue down this road as a composer and musician. If this is his only album, I tip my hat to him and says well done. 

2.5 points

Myth of Logic - Pictures From A Previous Dream (2023)

The second album from this band from USA.

The band is a one-man-band with Scott G Davis doing the bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals and programmed drums. 

The 2022 debut album Surrounded By Ghosts was a pretty good album. It was, as this one is too, released through Bandcamp.

Both albums is an example how to maximise the one-man-band concept to it's full potential. Which sometimes means coming up far too short.

Pictures From A Previous Dream is a mix of US neo-prog and symphonic prog. The influences from British neo-prog bands is this time far stronger than any influences from Spock's Beard.

The guitars sounds a bit strange this time around. They sounds like the 1980s guitar sound. The keyboards and synths sounds like they were from the 1990s. The vocals is good.

The album is over seventy minutes long and most of the music is good. There are even some very good pieces of music here. Hence the rating. There are some flaws here and these flaws is due to the band format.

Nevertheless, this is still a good album.

3 points

In The Woods - Diversum (2022)

The sixth album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest added keyboards.

Their five first albums had been very different from each other. They are like five different planets. 

Their 2018 album Cease The Day got a good review here. I like that Enslaved inspired album. And I thought the band would settle on that sound, taking into consideration this being the core of their past too.

I was proven wrong when Diversum hit my speakers and earbuds.

The band has taken black metal, added a lot of Anathema like psych rock and then added a lot of progressive rock too.

The vocals is everywhere from black, death, grunge, djent and muscular clear vocals.

The music is melodic and muscular. It is also progressive.

This album is by far their best album so far and indeed a very good album.

Check it out.

3.5 points

Cooperativa Del Latte - Fogli d'acqua sparsi (2023)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

I never thought I would see this band release their second album. Their debut album Il Risveglio was released in 1998 and gave it a very good rating back in August 2013 in # 1 of this blog.

Lots has changed since 1998 and not at least their music.

The music is a mix of indie rock and Italian pop/rock.

There is some The Doors influences here. The vocals is really good and the best thing about an album bereft of any really good or interesting pieces of music/songs.

This forty minutes long album is a decent album and one only RPI record collectors would find interesting.

2 points

 

 

Motorpsycho - Lobotomizer (1991)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

The band was a trio on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

A guest added organs.

This is a band I have known since their second album. But I have never really dared to approach their music. This was when I went through my extreme metal and progressive rock phases. I have seen the very positive reviews of their albums done by other reviewers. But I have never been brave enough to dive into their world, their records.

I am going to review all their twenty-five plus studio albums this year and very probably well into next year and # 4, the next edition of this blog.

What do I expect from this band ? Lots of space rock albums. 

Lobotomizer gives us forty minutes of spaced out metal. Is there something called psych metal ? That is what we get here. Spacy psych metal.

The music sounds fresh, naive and very harsh and hard. Maybe a bit heavy too. The vocals are OK.

This album is an acceptable album and a decent one too. It is their debut album and the start of a very long career.

2 points

Landmarq - The Vision Pit (1995)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Three guests added vocals, male and female vocals.

The band continued on with their neo-prog. Neo-prog with a lot of symphonic prog influences.

This was the final album with Damien Wilson as the vocalist. He joined and made Threshold his main band and left someone else to do the vocals on the final two Landmarq releases.

The music on this album is their most symphonic prog influenced so far. The music is still melodic and slightly influenced by Camel.

The music is not overly complex. Hence, this one hour long album is pretty commercial and catchy. Not to mention.... accesible.

The result is a good album. Check it out.

3 points

Thule - Frostbrent (1993)

The third album from this band from Norway.

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

Three guests added trumpet, keyboards and vocals.

This is the follow up to Natt, their 1990 album and an album who has now got a classic album status in the Norwegian rock and progressive rock scene.

How to follow up Natt ?

The band has retreated away from the more progressive rock and has found a place more in the depressive psych rock.

Melancholic psych rock is how I would describe the music here. It is songs based and does not deviate much from the verse-chorus-verse formula. The vocals is depressive and the music is a bit slow. There is also a lot of dark anger in the music. 

Yes, there is a lot of darkness on this one hour long album. This band comes from the bleak arctic thundra, just a few miles south of the most northern point in Europe. 

The music here is more fascinating than good. It has a nerve and a dark soul who appeals to me.

This is indeed a different beast than Natt, but still a fairly good album. Check out this album from one of the most original bands in the progressive rock and psych rock scene.

3 points

Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit (2010)

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

Some guests added vibraphone, glockenspiel, moog, piano, cello, samples and backing vocals.

This is a review I should have done back in 2010 when I was in touch with the band. But I postponed it time after time. The music too much of a challenge to me back then.

The music is indeed a challenge. It is a mix of post-metal, some ambient music and a lot of standard black metal.

This one hour long album delivers some very eclectic music indeed. The black metal vocals is off putting for most. The ambient and progressive stuff is something the black metal crowd will find off putting.

It is a matter of alienate everyone from the music.

The sound is decent enough and so is the music. The opening minute of this album is the best part of this album and a false dawn.

Post metal fans should check out this decent album.

2 points

 

 

Glass Hammer - Arise (2023)

The 22nd album from this band from USA.

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

A guest added guitars.

My exploration of this band has been on and off in these three editions of this blog. I have reviewed most of their albums, but some are still remaining. I will plug these holes in due time.

I have always associated this band with muscular heavy prog and symphonic prog. Their music were very symphonic prog, almost ambient symphonic prog in the beginning if my memory serves me right.

They then moved over to becoming a heavy prog band.

This is where we find this album. The music is heavy. It is also grungy and has some King's X influences. Lots of them, indeed.

The vocals is a mix of female and male vocals. 

The quality of their songs is surpringly weak. I have always rated this band highly and what this one hour long album gives me is not always good.

The result is a disappointment somewhere between decent and good. 

Glass Hammer is still one of the better progressive rock bands. Check out this album.

2.5 points

Myth of Logic - Surrounded By Ghosts (2022)

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band is a one-man-band with Scott G Davis doing the bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals and programmed drums. 

Scott G Davis comes from the St. Petersburgh area in Florida and he has been writing the songs for this album during the last years. 

So far, two albums has been released. Both Bandcamp albums and I will review the second one a.s.a.p. 

The music is US neo-prog. It is melodic and it comes with some good vocals too. 

The music is pretty impressive as this is a one-man-band. The drums are not particular good but I think most will forget and forgive those. 

References are the likes of Kansas, Pallas and in particular Spock's Beard. 

The quality of the music is somewhere between decent and good. Some better songs and this would have been an impressive debut album. It is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

In The Woods - Cease the Day (2018)

The fifth album from this band from Norway.

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

The fifth album from this band from the far south of Norway. Kristiandsand is the name of their town. A town with a very lively metal and progressive rock scene. 

The band has been changing their music a lot from their previous album. Cease The Day sees the band following in the same footsteps of Enslaved and is taking the extreme progressive metal route.

Most of the vocals are in the black metal vein. The music is a mix of progressive metal and black/viking metal. Mostly viking metal. This is a recipe that has served Enslaved well. 

There is also some clean vocals here and the music is by no means an all out black/viking metal attack. The music is hard but also progressive.

The music is really good and the band has finally delivered on their promise. 

Check out this good album.

3 points

Regna - Cinema (2023)

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

This album is widely regarded as one of the more interesting debut albums from 2023. 

The music is symphonic prog. Classic symphonic prog with a lot of Keith Emerson organs and lots of Yes and Camel like melodies. 

The organs is really cool and the highlights of the album. The vocals is also good. 

The music on this forty-five minutes long album is both dynamic and melodic. 

The sound is good and so is the songs. This album deserve it's hype and we can only hope that this band will return with some more albums. 

3 points

 

 

Roxy Music - Roxy Music (1972)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, synths, tapes, oboe, saxophone and vocals.

A guest added some extra bass.

These legends released eight albums between 1972 and 1982. All of them will be reviewed this year in this blog. 

Their many interesting album covers and the Avalon hit single is my only meeting with them during my fifty years as a music listener. It is about time to give them some attention.

Their music has always had this reputation of being over the top art-rock and a mix of the Soho culture and the high society.

This my preconceived opinion and it is confirmed true on this album. That is more an objective observation than being a damning, negative remark.

The music is laidback rock with some jazz and brass rock incorporated. It has some The Beatles influences and it is pretty elegant. It is indeed art-rock.

The woodwinds are cool and Bryan Ferry's vocals is good.

The songs are a mix of decent and good songs. This is an interesting debut album and I am looking forward to the rest of them. This will be fun..... great fun.

2.5 points

King's X - Faith Hope Love (1990)

The third album from this band from USA.

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

The band had help from a dozen of guests who added pipe organ, cello, French horn and backing vocals.

The album title says everything about the band and those of us, far too few, who really liked this band when we discovered them around 1990'ish. 

The previous album Gretchen Goes To Nebraska was the album that hooked me onto this band before my interest in death metal and later prog rock/fusion made me put this band on a backburner. I mostly forgot about them, in other words.

The album title and cover is superb. The band also branched out into a more hippie flower power sound and theme on this album. This in addition of still being a groovy hard rock band with a lot of influences from The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Rush.

Their music is really quirky and eclectic. ...Which explain why this band never became the giants everyone thought they would be. Most of this album is too clever, too intelligent and too eclectic for the mass market, for the records buying public.

Those of us who really like this kind of music is being treated to one hour of clever harmonies, clever songs and lots of interesting details. 

It is also a pretty hard album although it has some flower power hippie influences. That in a strange way.

This is also a great album and the band now has my full attention again. They should never have lost my attention in the first place. Well, life is full of mistakes...

4 points

Taskaha - Taskaha (2020)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This band is a side project of a Gentle Knife member. I do believe it is now a fulltime band.

The music on this seventy minutes long album is a mix of djent, modern progressive metal and heavy prog.

The vocals is really good and there are a lot of good guitar harmonies here. 

You get a lot of value for money here as the music is both melodic, intricate and sometimes pretty heavy. There are even a couple of pieces with death metal vocals here when the band visits the djent genre.

The melodic stuff is pretty haunting and has some good pieces of music.

The overall quality is good. It is still too much of a run of the mill progressive metal album and the band need to improve a lot on their next albums... if they want to continue as a band. This is an acceptable debut album and something to build on.

3 points

Age Of Taurus - The Colony Slain (2018)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is their second album on their doom meta/stoner rock label Rise Above Records and it was, probably the band was, marketed as progressive doom metal.

Hence they lured me to get this album and now..... finally reviewing it.

The music is tight and compact. Not any notable solos here. The music is also a mix of old style thrash metal, stoner rock and doom metal.

The thrash metal is notable here. These thrash metal pieces is cool and it is many, many years since I have heard some run of the mill thrash metal. The more familiar mix of stoner and doom metal is also pretty neat.

This forty-five minutes long album is hovering somewhere between half-decent and decent. The majority of the songs are decent and that is what I am landing on. I have no plans of reviewing their debut album, though.

2 points

 

 

This Winter Machine - The Clockwork Man (2023)

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Two guests added guitar solos and vocals.

This band has become an established part of the art rock and neo-prog scene in Great Britain now. 

Their debut album was released back in 2017 and their first three albums are good albums.

The music is melodic progressive rock somewhere between art and neo-prog. There are also some symphonic prog influences in their music.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is meandering a bit but it still deliver the goods. That means good vocals, good guitars and good songs.

I wish the band had tried to stretch and challenge themselves. But was not to be on this good album. And that is my only gripe with The Clockwork Man.

3 points

Origens - Destino (2019)

The third album from this band from Brazil.

The band is a one-man-band where Alessandro Mendonca does percussion, bass, guitars, synths and vocals.

Numerous guests added drums, bass, guitars, mellotron, farfisa, organ, moog, keyboards, bagpipes and vocals. 

To my knowledge, this is his so far latest album. I guess he will release a lot more albums. That is.... if he is still among us.

This album starts out as third rate heavy metal album. Solid turkey terrain, in other words. My heart sinks to the floor everytime I have been listening to this part of the album.

Then the album enters into a pastoral part and changes into a more hard rock album. Hard rock from the 1970s. The hard rock is also pretty much influenced by psych rock too and these two genres merges together at the end of this album.

But this happens after the pretty poor opening minutes. The rest of the album is decent enough.

I am not won over by this album. It is a half-decent album and just that.

1.5 points

 

Longhare - A Day In The Sun (2021)

The fourth and final album from this band from Croatia.

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

Two guests added djemba and guitar solos.

Their two previous albums was very, very poor. In short..... turkeys. I therefore approached this album with dread.

I was not going to be very surprised. Positive surprised. The band is still chasing tones and rhythms. The band still plays loose but thankfully not so fast. This album sees the band slowing down quite a bit.

The music on this album is still a mix of heavy metal, stoner metal, psych rock and doom metal. But with some more folk and pop sensibilities.

The result is a couple of decent songs and an improvement overall.

The result is a decent to good album. It is not enough to declare myself a fan of this band.

1.5 points

Moto Perpetuo - Untitled (2023)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

A guest added violin on one of the tracks.

This is a new band to me. This fifty minutes long album has been released as a Bandcamp name your price and I took off course advantage of this offer. 

The music is a mix of jazz, cinematic symphonic prog and fusion. Mostly fusion and jazz, though.

The band does the right things with guitar solos, half acoustic jazzy guitars and all that. 

What the band has forgotten to add is some personality, good song/compositions writing and something that will surprise the listener.

The result is a very listenable decent album. It is an acceptable debut album. Next time, the stakes is higher and everything must improve.

2 points

Zappa. Frank - Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch (1982)

The 24th album from this artist from USA.

Frank Zappa did guitars and vocals here.

He got help from numerous guests, including his own daughter, who contributed with percussion, drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, saxophone and vocals.

Frank Zappa had by now released his final album with original pop/rock material and were threading water. Something he did for the rest of his life. 

He is said to be totally ignorant of his children although they lived in the same house and under the same roof as him throughout their lives. It is therefore more than ironic that his daughter Moon gave him one of his bigger songs while he was in threading water. 

Valley Girl is the name of this song and it is the highlight of this album. It is a rather moronic song but it is also a groovy song who carries this album.

The rest of the album is a journey through his type of music. From a long guitar solo where Steve Vai is helping out to some more jazzy and avant-garde neo-classical stuff. And then we got the sillyness on Valley Girl and Teenage Prostitute. That is two songs nerds with a hatefilled attitude towards women would dig and love.

The result is a decent to good album. An album who provokes the listener more than entertaining them.

2.5 points

In The Woods - Pure (2016)

The fourth album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest added guitar solos on the final three albums.

I have yet to be impressed by this band. This band is highly rated but their three first albums did nothing for me.

The band has got rid of their goth rock and has gone for a more Anathema version of alternative metal. That also means a lot of Pink Floyd influences.

The music on the seventy minutes long Pure is much more harder than any alternative metal album from Anathema. Neither is the music floating around in the space as on a Pink Floyd album. 

In The Woods cannot help themselves from being an extreme metal band too. Their roots in black and death metal shines through this album.

The music has a mix of decent and good pieces. The vocals is good. Some of the extreme metal stuff falls a bit flat on it's face.

This is their finest album so far. It is still not an album I can embrace.

2.5 points

 

 

Endroom. The - The Endroom (2013)

The one and only album from this band from Norway.

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

Some guests added guitars, synths and vocals.

I decided to take a deep dive into everything progressive rock from Norway since the ice age and to this date. A lot of weird albums has therefore been discovered and reviewed in this blog during the last ten months.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a mix of old symphonic prog, folk rock and americana.  

The sometimes heavy accented English vocals is both male and female. 

The music is very songs based with female and male vocals duets and harmonies. There is not much else going on than songs with some sparse instrumentations. Progressive rock... ? Perhaps not.

The songs are decent enough and so is the music here. The band is supposed to be together again and I have been forewarned about a new album.

2 points

Akt - II (2016)

The third album from this band from Italy.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, vibraphone, xilophone, bass, guitars, banjo, melodica, mellotron, moog, piano, flute and vocals.

This album really is their third album. It is also their final album unless they want a comeback. That would be a welcome comeback. 

I reviewed their first two albums and two EPs in # 1 of this blog more than ten years ago. I really liked them and is fair to label Akt as one of Italy's hidden gems. In fact; the music genre RPI's hidden gems.

The music is RPI, indeed. In this case, a mix of Italian symphonic prog, eclectic prog in the vein of Gentle Giant and some jazz in the vein of Area.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is still mid-tempo melodic and takes us through some different themes. The good Italian vocals is our guide and a big plus. 

The result is a good album from a band I very much rate. I hope their albums and EPs once again will be available as it seems like their old homepage is down. But check out Youtube and ProgArchives for the albums. Albums every fan of RPI should have.

3 points

Vamoosery - Moving Forward (2023)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band has been around on Bandcamp for many years, releasing singles. One EP has also been released. 

Moving Forward is the debut album from this band from Coventry.

The music has been described by the band themselves as female fronted progressive rock. Which is right too. Spot on. 

But there is more to this fifty minutes long album than just that. 

The basis is a mix of heavy prog and neo-prog. Add in some rather catchy pop and folk rock too and you get this. There is even some harsh male death metal grunts here, representing the djent genre. 

There is a lot going on here. Not at least the powerful, commanding vocals from ms. Sheridan White. The band also does an impressive job.

There is a lot of youthful happiness and innocence to the album too (the band looks like teenagers). The music is still nodding a lot towards the good old masters in the scene. 

There is no doubts that we can now count this band as one of the bigger hopes for the progressive rock scene. This album is indeed a very good album and one to check out.

Get this album.

3.5 points

Origens - Adaptação (2018)

The second album from this band from Brazil.

The band was a one man band with Alessandro Mendonca doing bass and vocals.

Some guests was adding drums, percussion, guitars, bagpipe, keyboards, flute and vocals.

The 2016 self-titled debut album did not impress me. Latin hard rock with some psych rock influences.

This is again what we get on the follow up album.

There is even some blues and hard acid folk here too.

The music is pretty hard rocking during these three quarters of an hour.  

The vocals is in Portuguese and they are pretty good.

The music is pretty colourful, in other words.

The quality is decent enough and an upgrade from the debut album. It is an album well worth checking out.

2 points

Longhare - Would You Like To Know More? (2020)

The third album from this band from Croatia.

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

Their second album was a turkey where the band was chasing notes all over the album....but not finding them. Bum notes and terrible playing. Terrible songs too.

The band is still releasing their albums through Bandcamp as name your price albums. 

The music on this album is a mix of heavy metal, stoner metal, psych rock and doom metal.

Clocking in at seventy minutes, the album is a test of the listener's patience. The band is at least mostly finding the tones. But there is a lot of misses here. 

Too many.

This is another turkey and one to avoid. Sorry.....

1 point

Monarch Trail - Four Sides (2023)

The fourth album from this band from Canada.

The band was a duo with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards, penny whistle and vocals.

Two guests added guitars.

This album was an album I was really looking forward to. I loved their Wither Down album from 2021. 

The music is again symphonic prog. Long instrumental parts with some vocals on the top... sporadic vocals.

With the exception of the twenty minutes long ambient, electronica track Eris who sounds like Vangelis at the end, this album sounds like the final two symphonic prog bands from Genesis. Yes, and with some heavy Vangelis and Mike Oldfield influences.

The vocals are good and so is the music. The music is long keyboards pieces but there is nothing here that really shines like gold. 

The music is good, safe and ultimate, a bit of a disappointment compared to their 2021 album. It is still an album well worth checking out. 

3 points

 

 

Grand Funk Railroad - We're An American Band (1973)

The seventh album from this band from USA.

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

The band were expanded to a quartet on this album. Craig Frost, the session musician on the Phoenix album, their sixth album, got promoted to a full membership.

With his contributions on both Phoenix and now We're An American Band, this promotion is highy justified.

The music is still pretty much in the hard rock genre. There is also some stadium rock here and some more Americana like rock. 

The result was their best selling and most liked album.

The music is really groovy. They almost got a hit song here in their title track on this album. A good song.

The rest of the album is not that good, despite it's well liked and best selling status. Their problem being writing some good, timeless songs are rearing it's head again on this album.

Fans of US rock should check out this decent album.

2 points

 

 

Wyatt. Robert - Dondestan (1991)

The fifth album from this artist from Great Britain.

Robert Wyatt does everything here. Percussion, acoustic guitar, melodica, piano, keyboards and vocals.

This ex Soft Machine member returned again after a long pause. Pause he was using on dealing with his own personal life and some sporadic contributions to other artists albums. Contributions which was pretty different to what we get on this album.

Robert Wyatt became paraplegic back in the 1970s and had to give up his drums, his main instruments. A new career was forged and his first album after the accident, Rock Bottom, is a classic, monumental album.

Robert Wyatt is droning on again on this album. My reference point is some of the acoustic organ based stuff Neil Young did in the 1990s for MTV. 

Then again, Robert Wyatt and his music is one of a kind. It is very original and his vocals is very original and eccentric. The music is indeed pastoral and at times very hymns like.

The songs are pretty good and ditto for the album. It is also a pretty fascinating album. Check it out.

2.5 points

Blind Orphans - Blind Leading The Blind (2012)

The one and only album from this band from Norway.

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

This is a review of the original version of this album. Please note that this album comes in various different versions. That includes a DVD with a gig and two demos of demos and left over tracks. 

The band was active between 1986 and 1990. The band later released a demo, then the demo on a CD (the one I am reviewing) and finally a big box as described over. Confusing ? Oh yeah.

The music was sold to me as symphonic prog. That is not really what I get here. Maybe there are symphonic prog on the box, but there are nothing here. 

I was also told this is a hidden gem and one who should be re-released again. A re-release is in order, yes. A hidden gem ? Nope.

The music is a mix of heavy metal and heavy prog. The final seventeen minutes long epic has some pastoral progressive rock stuff and is the highlight of the album.

The vocals are pretty good. They are at least muscular and fits the music.

The sound is not particular good. There is still enough good stuff here to keep the listener interested. A re-release of this album, complete with a proper cleanup, is in order. 

2 points

 

 

Alea Dilemma - Within the Clamor of Voices (2015)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

This band released this album and then disappeared without a trace after dropping this album on all platforms.

The band went all out, seventy minutes of music.

The music is hard prog with some notable fusion influences. In this case, it means a mix of Rush, King's X and the likes of Mahavishnu Orchestra. Add a lot of soul too and you get this album.

The vocals is acceptable and ditto for the sound.

It is a shame that the band fizzled out after this album as this album is not bad at all. It is very promising debut album and I would have loved to hear more from them.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good throughout this album. It is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Twenty Committee. The - The Cycle Undone (2023)

The second album from this band from USA.

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

Annie Haslam added vocals on one track and Laura Langley added autoharp on another track.

This band released their debut album ten years ago and I gave it an approval rating the same year in # 1 of this blog.

Most of this band is also the backing band for Neal Morse on his tours. Well, perhaps not any longer. But this his how they were discovered, by Neal Morse, and this is how they got their record deal. 

I noted in my review of their debut album that there is a lot of pop in their take on US progressive rock. That is also true on the follow up album.

Clocking in at almost one hour, the basis is US symphonic prog. Neal Morse is a bit of a reference. So is Spock's Beard. The music is also influenced by the last couple of A-Ha albums. That takes us into art-pop.

Thankfully, the music is dominated by US symphonic prog. The music is elegant though and has the elegance of A-Ha.

The music is also good throughout and Annie Haslam's contribution is a nice inclusion on this album. This band, both albums, is well worth checking out.

3 points