Spidergawd - I (2014)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This band has so far released seven albums and all of them are up for review this autumn on this blog.

The band is a splinter band from the likes of Motorpsycho. Hence, I have heard a lot about them but never heard a single tone from them.... until I put this album through my speakers.

There are some evident Motorpsycho references here. But most of all, the music is very hard and the Led Zeppelin and The Cult influences is also evident. Add some soul and a lot of psych rock and the picture is more or less complete.

So to put it simple: Their music is a mix of hard rock and psych rock.

It is also evident that both their sound and music is rooted in the 1970s. Ditto for their whole ethos. 

The music is a bit retro but it still sounds fresh. 

The music on this forty-three minutes long album is decent to good too. There is just a handful good pieces of music here and the rest is decent enough.

This is an acceptable debut album and well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Tasavallan Presidentti - Milky Way Moses (1974)

The fourth album from this band from Finland.

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

The previous album, the 1972 album Lambertland, gave the band their international breakthrough and is widely regarded as one of the finest jazz/prog albums from Finland.

So, how could they follow up that album ?

The music is still Canterbury prog and jazz. It is quirky, jazzy and slightly eclectic. The mix of saxophones, guitars and keyboards is very good here. The vocals is playful and good.

There is a lot of interesting details throughout this fifty minutes long album. 

There is no great pieces of music here. Nevertheless, the music is good throughout and this album should really put the band on the map again.... which it indeed did when it was released fifty years ago. 

This is an album fans of Scandinavian prog and the Canterbury scene should get.

3 points

 

Eveline's Dust - K. (2019)

The third and so far latest album from this band from Italy.

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

This band's two first albums was pretty good with their 2013 debut album Time Changes the best of them. Their second album, the 2016 album The Painkeeper was a bit of a let down as the band had abandoned the Canterbury scene stuff the debut album was so influenced by.

The band has thankfully abandoned their path down the safe and dull melodic art-rock path they followed on their second album. The band has again done a turn and that back to most of what they did on the debut album.

That has brought a smile to my face.

There are some Caravan influences on this album. There is also some more melodic art-rock and some RPI influences here too. There are even some vocal-jazz influences here too.

There is a lot of variations on this album. Variations that also includes some good female vocals on a vocal-jazz song. The band is a more than competent on their instruments and this band is a rather exciting addition to the Italian progressive rock scene.

This album is a good album and one to check out.

3 points

Phoenix Again - Unexplored (2017)

The third album from this band from Italy.

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

A guest added female vocals.

I am trying my best to complete my reviews of this band's albums. That is five albums.

The reason is that I like to support bands like this. Bands who are a bit undervalued.

The band's music is a mix of instrumental symphonic prog and vocals driven neo-prog. The music is therefore a mix of the two strands of this band. A band who has released both instrumental prog albums and vocals driven neo-prog albums. 

This three quarters of an hour long album also visits the RPI genre too on a frequent basis and is their most RPI like album.

The vocals is good and the and does their best on some very melodic music. There are still some good details here and the various twists and turns makes this an interesting album.

The end result is a good album who should interest both RPI and neo-prog fans.

3 points

Athak - Renaissance (2024)

The tenth or so album from this band from Hong Kong.

The band is a duo with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, organ, piano, moog and vocals.

This band has released around ten albums on their Bandcamp page and all of them are available for downloads. Paid downloads, that is. 

I got this album emailed to me and has decided to review this album as a flavour of what you can expect from this band.

The music is zeuhl. It is a light version of zeuhl and Magma's take on zeuhl. The zeuhl also has some indie rock influences. Hence the light tag I would put on their take on zeuhl.

The music is therefore not partical heavy and the vocals are light. There is a very good Rhodes organ here which is the main instrument. The guitars are also good. 

This is by no means a bad album. It is an half an hour long album and indeed a band which should greatly interest everyone into zeuhl. 

Check it out.

2.5 points

Ten Jinn - Sisyphus (2017)

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added keyboards and vocals.

Trying to label this band is like chasing shadows. Just when you think you got a good label on them, the band jumps over to a new genre. Or back to an old genre. Which is partly the case here.

The band has been listening intently to the likes of Enid. 

The result is this two pieces album which clocks in at just over fifty minutes. The first part has a lot of vocals. The final part is only instrumental with a lot of symphony orchestra instruments. I gather those are sampled on this album. And yes, the name of these two pieces is Sisyphus I and Sisyphus II. Both of them are twenty-six minutes long.

Part I is a mix of neo-classical music, some musicals and symphonic prog. Part II is entirely neo-classical music.

The result is an album somewhere between decent and a good album. There is a lot to be enjoyed here and fans of neo-classical music must check out this album.

2.5 points

 

Segno Del Comando. Il - Il Domenicano Bianco (2023)

The sixth album from this band from Italy.

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

This band album debuted in 1997 with a self-titled album. The band has always been on the dark, occult and gothic end of the RPI spectrum.

That is also the case for this album. The music is pretty hard and gothic. The vocals is clean vocals and pretty good. They are in Italian too.

The sound is pretty good too and there are some good guitars here.

The music is a bit straight forward and not particular complex. Yes, there are some gothic keyboards here. Nevertheless, the band sounds a bit like the Swedish band Ghost. 

The quality of the music is somewhere between decent and good. I am not very impressed by this band and this album has not changed my opinion about them. 

2.5 points

Alvarado. Leon - The Changing Tide (2024)

The fifth album from this artist from Venezuela.

Leon Alvarado does the drums, bass, effects, keyboards and vocals here.

He got help from a dozen of guests who provided bass, guitars, cello, viola, violin, saxophone, keyboards and backing vocals.

This is my first meeting with his music as I have yet to sample his first four albums. Leon is now residing in New York, USA where he is active in the world wide music business. 

The music on the first four albums has been mostly instrumental symphonic prog. This is what I have been told. 

His music is also very inspired by Pink Floyd too. The music on this album is very much leaning on this band's three albums Dark Side Of The Moon, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason and in particular..... The Division Bell.

Those three Pink Floyd albums merged together is what is mostly influencing this three quarters of an hour long album.

That means long guitar solos and some more or less distorted keyboards with the rest of the instruments sporadic on the top. At the end of this album, we also get a good version of Brain Damage from Pink Floyd's signature album Dark Side Of The Moon.

The original music on The Changing Tide is both good and entertaining. Pink Floyd fans should and must lap up this album. This album should also make fans of melodic progressive rock happy too.

Check out this album.

3 points

Spooky Tooth - The Last Puff (1970)

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This album was the last Spooky Tooth album with Mike Harrison on vocals. He went on a solo career after that album and this album was announcing that. A bit of strange way of doing it but they still did it. 

The half an hour long album starts with the Beatles cover I Am The Walrus. A heavy, soulful version of that song and decent enough.

The rest of the songs, six songs, are pretty hard rocking with some blues and soul influences. Led Zeppelin is a good reference and so is Man. 

The music is rather meandering and not particular interesting. Mike Harrison's vocals is good and that is the best thing about this album. The organ sound is also good.

This is barely a decent album and not their best album. 

2 points

Taï Phong - Sun (2000)

The fourth album from this band from France.

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

Two guests added bass and guitars.

The band reunited again after a twenty-one years long break. This is the first of their three post-millenium albums. 

There is hardly anything of the pre-millenium version of this band left here. That is, their music.

What we get here is some pretty elegant pop musics. Art-pop if this is a label. If not, that is what I would label the music on this forty-five minutes long album.

The music is half-decent with some cringe worthy moments and some pretty decent songs. This is an album only collectors should get. Preferable without listening to this album as it is not really worthy an hour of your time.

1.5 points

Eveline's Dust - The Painkeeper (2016)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

Three years had gone since their debut album. An album who gave us some music both intricate and quirky. Take King Crimson, merge them with some Gentle Giant, Caravan and Rush. There are also some RPI here... the eclectic prog end of the RPI spectrum.

So I was really believing that I would get the same on this album, their second album.

The music is slightly quirky and there is some RPI influences in their art-rock. But the music is sorely lacking the teeth from the debut album. Neither is the music eclectic or jazzy.

Neither is the music particular heavy although there are some Rush influences here.

The music is melodic throughout. There is still a lot of interesting details on this three quarters of an hour long album.

The result is a fairly good, decent to good album which is failing to live up to the expectations from the debut album. Hence.....

 2.5 points

 

 

 

Darius - Voices From The Crowd (1997)

The second and final album from this band from Germany.

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

This band released two albums in the 1990s before they broke up. A live album was also released by the band.

I reviewed their debut album earlier this month and was not too impressed. 

Their music is early days neo-prog. A very good reference the Fish era Marillion. There is also some strong Saga references here. Saga was a very popular band in Germany at that time and influenced a lot of bands in the 1990s. 

The vocals is good and the band does a good job on some decent songs. 

This album is an album fans of the first generation of neo-prog should check out. Both albums, in fact, is worthy the attention of neo-prog fans.

2 points

Alwanzatar - Engsyre (2024)

The 10th album from this one-man-band from Norway.

Krizla does all the electronics here.

It is my understanding that Krizla is a member of Tusmorke and that this is his electronica solo project.

I was not impressed at all by the ninth album Kosmisk Skrekk from 2022. Hence, I was not too eager to review this album released some months ago.

The music on this fifty minutes long album, which is amongst others also available through Bandcamp, is indeed electronica. But there is more to this album than just electronica.

Take some neo-classical music and add some space rock and cinematiic rock too. Then add lots of electronica.

The music is pretty melodic throughout. It is also pretty clever too. 

The main theme on this album is North-African and Middle-East folk music. That adds a lot of value to this music. This clever music.

The result is a decent album. I am still not won over by Krizla. Nevertheless, this is album is not bad at all.

2 points

Ten Jinn - Alone (2003)

The third album from this band from USA.

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

Several guests added drums, bass, guitars, mandolin, keyboards, harmonium and narrations.

Their second album, the 1999 album On A Darkling Plain, was a really good symphonic neo-prog album and a big improvement on their 1997 debult album Wildling. 

I was therefore given some hopes.

The band returned with this one hour long album. The music is a mix of art-rock and straight forward mainstream rock.

The vocals is good. The sound is big and pretty bold. It is also OK.

The songs are not really up to a good level and the only memorable thing about this album is the good vocals. The songs are pretty forgetable. The musicianship is good though and the band does their best on these sub-standard songs.

This is decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points 

Segno Del Comando. Il - L'Incanto Dello Zero (2018)

The fifth album from this band from Italy.

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

Three guests added guitars, keyboards and vocals.

I reviewed their third album earlier this month and was not that impressed. So I am bypassing their live in studio album and going straight to their fifth album, this album.

The music is again goth rock. The music is dark at times. The mood is gloomy. 

The vocals is a mix of dark male vocals and female vocals. The balance between keyboards and guitars are good.

Most of the music is mid-tempo with some pastoral songs inbetween. 

The quality is again somewhere between decent and good. I have yet to really fall for their music.

2.5 points

Focus - 12 (2024)

The 15th album from this band from Holland.

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

This band is still alive, fifty years after their debut album.Two of the original members is on this album, indeed. 

Focus has a special sound and their own take on progressive rock. Very few, if any other bands, sounds like them. I cannot recall any other bands who sounds like Focus, in fact.

The band sticks to what they know best on this album. That is sticking to their own brand of progressive rock. That is a folk rock influenced symphonic prog. There is some fusion here too.

The music is entirely instrumental and it is dynamic with the exception of some mindless, album filling piano at the half an hour mark on this forty minutes long album.

This album is a reminder how lucky we have been to have this band in the scene. This album is not this band at their finest. Nevertheless, the music is good throughout and a reminder about how great this band has been.

This is also an album that will give their fans what they want plus a lot of pride and joy. Check out this album.

3 points

 

 

Runemagick - Dawn of the End (2007)

The 10th album from this band from Sweden.

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

The band soldiered on. Not with much success but they still soldiered on.

The band had changed style and genres from a pretty basic not so technical death metal band to a more doom metal band.

After flirting with some more colourful goth metal on the previous album, the band moved back to a more dirty, bare bones doom metal.

There is a lot of death metal influences here although the music is slow throughout this one hour long album.

The mood is dark and bleak. The music is gloomy and doom. Ditto for the vocals, the pretty good growling vocals.

The result is a decent album and one to check out if doom metal floats your boat to the end of the world.

2 points

Sleeping Pandora - Yellow Sphere (2019)

The fourth album from this one-man-band from Germany.

Mathias Rosman does the guitars and electronics here.

The music is space rock. Electronica space rock, that is. 

The music is still pretty dynamic on these three pieces of music, the forty-five minutes worth of music long album.

The guitars are dominating the music. There is still a lot of computers and keyboards around, supporting the guitars.

The three tracks is in the same vein and there is not much variations here.

The result is an album that fails to engage as the music sounds too standard, too much of the same.

This is still a decent album, but barely that. Some more variations would have benefited this album a lot.

2 points

Eveline's Dust - Time Changes (2013)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This band released three albums between 2013 and 2019. All of them will be reviewed in this blog in the coming weeks.

This band is an interesting band and deserves a lot more attention than given to them. Hence these reviews. 

Their music on this album is both intricate and quirky. Take King Crimson, merge them with some Gentle Giant, Caravan and Rush. There are also some RPI here... the eclectic prog end of the RPI spectrum.

The music is both eclectic and pretty playful throughout. There is no direct jazz here. Nevertheless, this music's ethos shines through this album.

Most of the music is mid-tempo. There is also a few hard rocking bits here. The songs are between three and eight minutes long. This album is best as one piece of music and should not be chopped up in small bits.

The vocals is good and the band does a good job on their instruments.

Eveline's Dust is a new discovery for me and one of the reason why I love running this blog. 

This is indeed a good album and one to check out.

3 points

Darius - A Poet's Soliloquy (1994)

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

This band released two albums between 1994 and 1997. I got both of them for reviews and the second review will follow next week.

This album is a seventy-four minutes long album. The music is early, mostly first generation neo-prog. 

References is early Marillion. The vocalist tries his best to sound like Fish. That without having as good vocal chords and pipes as Fish. Hence the vocals is decent but not good.

The songs are more in the pop songs vein than in the symphonic prog epics vein. The music is therefore very melodic. The guitars has this unfortunate 1990s guitar sound and that is not good at all.

The band has tried to make catchy songs. They have failed. The sound is at least pretty good.

The result is a decent enough album well worth checking out if the 1990s neo-prog sound floats your boat.

2 points

Returned to the Earth - Stalagmite Steeple (2024)

The fifth album from this band from England.

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

I had the pleasure of reviewing their first four albums back in the final months of 2022 in this blog. 

The music here is melancholic ambience inspired art-rock with some psych-rock influences. 

References are Marillion, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead and Pink Floyd. 

The music is pretty slow and melancholic. There is a lot of good vocals here.

The music is in short softly spoken. The music is also elegant too.

The result is a good album and one who should please old fans and get them some new fans. Check out this band and album.

3 points

 

 

Magick Brother and Mystic Sister - Tarot, Part I (2024)

The second album from this band from Spain.

The band is a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, sitars, mandolin, organ, piano, keyboards, mellotron and vocals.

A handful of guests added percussion, sitar, flute, narration and vocals.

I reviewed their 2020 self-titled debut album last weekend and I liked that album a lot. The music was psych rock with a lot of Canterbury prog and acid-folk rock influences.

The band returned again with this album and a slight change of style. Or make it a development. 

The sound and music is still very much rooted in the late 1960s psych rock scene. There is though some space rock here and some krautrock too. The acid-folk rock influences is still here. The pretty extensive use of sitar brings us some Indian and Asian flavours.  

The music is also floating a lot as in dream pop. The vocals are in the dream pop vein.

The music is both melodic and full of interesting ideas and details. 

This is a very good album from this band and a reminder that this band is one of the bigger talents in the scene. 

3.5 points

 

 

Ikan Method. The - Perfect Tyranny (2024)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

Two guests added keyboards and flute on two songs.

The band album debuted in 2020 with Blue Sun. I was not very impressed by that album and you can read my review from earlier this week somewhere else in this blog.

Their music is a mix of art-rock and neo-prog. On Perfect Tyranny, they are closer to neo-prog than art-rock, though.

The music is really melodic and has some long, good guitar solos. The vocals is also good and there is even some good vocal harmonies here.

The sound is good on this one hour long album. 

There is a lot to enjoy on this album and the band is one of the new talents in the neo-prog scene. A band well worth keeping an eye on. 

Enjoy this good album.

3 points

Brøter. Arild - A Spectre Of Sounds (2024)

The debut solo album from this artist from Norway.

Arild Brøter does the drums, percussion, bass and some guitars here.

He got help from some guests who added percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, horns and trumpet.

Arild Brøter is a member of the Norwegian band Pymlico and they have so far released seven albums. I have reviewed most of them, if not all of them. I believe A Spectre Of Sounds is his debut solo album and it has been released through the impressive Apollon Records in Norway, the home of so many great Norwegian prog rock bands these days.

This ninety minutes long album is his take on some of the James Bonds movie soundtracks. Arild Brøter is a big fan of these movies and soundtracks, according to the record label.

This album is his take on these soundtracks and they are reproduced according to his takes on them and according to what resources available to him. So no big symphonic orchestra. They are replaced by electric guitars, keyboards and some sporadic horns and trumpet.

The result is cinematic rock. The result is also instrumental music and not really that exciting or even progressive. 

James Bond soundtrack fans will and should lap up this album as it has a great deal of a novelty factor. It is also OK as background noise, in other words as muzak. It is not a good album in itself. Nevertheless, it is worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

 

 

Motorpsycho - Black Hole Blank Canvas (2006)

The 12th album from this band from Norway.

The band is now reduced to a duo with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

A guest added drums on one track.

This is a double album, clocking in at over eighty minutes.

You never know what you get from this very unpredictable band. Unpredictability who makes this band so interesting and never boring. 

The album starts out with some psych rock in the vein of good old west coast psych rock. It mostly stays in the same vein too. Add some power pop and some garage rock and you get this album.

The music is pretty hard at times and has a loose, dirty sound. That with intent. Some songs has a cleaner sound. Most of the songs, make it all of them, are really quirky and weird. That for those of us who has not grown up with this band. Some of you have done just that.

The vocals is good and the guitars are cool.

The result is a bit of an overkill, eighty-five minutes of this music, that is. I am a bit doubtful here but I am still landing on a good, a weak good rating. This is an album well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Ten Jinn - As On A Darkling Plain (1999)

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, double bass, guitar, midi guitar, piano, keyboards and vocals.

Two guests added guitars and backing vocals.

I have both reviewed their latest album and their first album earler this year. My review of their latest album made me return for their first albums. Hence my review of their debut album, this their second album and two more albums later this autumn.

I was not that impressed by their 1997 debut album Wildman and had no expectations for the follow up album.

As On A Darkling Plain is over seventy minutes long and the title track is a forty minutes long suite. It also opens the album. The other pieces of music is shorter songs.

The music is a mix of symphonic prog and some glam prog, neo-prog and art-rock influences. 

The symphonic prog is of the US brand and is bold and epic. In the middle of the suite, the band comes across as Saga. There is also some pretty strong Glass Hammer influences here. Strange... but also fun and it adds some spices to this suite.

The result is a good album which surprises me as I had not expected an album like this from this band. This is therefore an album well worth checking out. 

I like surprises like this album.....

3 points

 

Red Sand - Crush the Seed (2020)

The ninth album from this band from Canada.

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

I am a bit of an admirerer of this band from Quebec, Canada and I have got almost all their albums. Albums I have reviewed in ProgArchives and in the # 1 - 3 editions of this blog. I have yet to get their new album but that is on my schedule for this autumn.

The band started out as a neo-prog band but later moved towards art-rock. It is not a large change. It is more like a natural development.

On this album, the band has moved on again. This time to psych rock and the likes of Pink Floyd. Well, psych rock may be the wrong label. Melodic prog in the vein of the latter days Pink Floyd is a better description of their music.

The vocals and the guitars are good on this one hour long album. The music is good too and this is album is a nice addition to the rest of their albums. Eleven albums now including their new album.

Check out this album if latter days Pink Floyd and/or melodic prog is your thing.

3 points

 

 

Phoenix Again - Vision (2022)

The fifth album from this band from Italy.

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

Around ten guests added glockenspiel, woodwinds and chorus.

I reviewed their second album for # 1 of this blog back in October 2014 and their fourth album for # 2 of this blog back in April 2019. I should really get hold of their debut album and their third album too. If successful, I will review them later this year.

The music here is instrumental prog. There are some vocals but they are used as sound effects and instruments as they are non-words vocals.

The music is both dynamic and muscular throughout this album. In progressive rock is pretty cinematic with some strong fusion influences and some progressive metal influences.

The music is pretty good with some tasty keyboards who sporadic, too sporadic, adds some classic RPI keyboards.

Too much of this one hour long album is just pedestrian and not so engaging. The result is therefore a decent to good album.

2.5 points

 

Matos. Alejandro - Carnaval de las Victimas (2024)

The sixth album from this artist from Argentina.

Alejandro Matos did the bass, guitars, keyboards, computers and vocals here.

He got help from a handful of guests who added drums, double bass, saxophone and narrations.

I was contacted by Alejandro who wanted me to do a review of this album. I was convinced that I had already reviewed his five first albums. That is not the case, though. Hence.... I will do this review now and come back to his first albums sometimes later this autumn or next year. 

The music on this almost one hour long album is a crossover between Latin-rock, psych-rock, neo-prog and art-rock.

The vocals are Spanish as Argentina is a Spanish speaking country. There is a lot of vocals here as the music is songs based. The vocals is good throughout.

There is also a lot of guitars here but not that many guitar solos. The keyboards has a fat, endearing organ sound and is adding a lot to the enjoyment of the music. Some of the music is also a bit distorted as in psych rock.

The music here is good throughout and this adds up to an enjoyable album. Check out this album.

3 points

Magick Brother and Mystic Sister - Magick Brother and Mystic Sister (2020)

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

This is a new addition to the Spanish psych and prog rock scene. They released their second album earlier this year and I will review it next week. In the meantime, this is my thoughts about their debut album...

The music here is psych rock with a lot of Canterbury prog and acid-folk rock influences.

There is a lot of late 1960s psych rock vibes here. The music is indeed in that vein.

The vocals are ethereal and in the dream pop direction. There are a lot of good organs and guitars here too. Not to forget the good flutes.

The music is very melodic and harmonic. The forty minutes worth of music here is also pretty pastoral.

The result is indeed a good album and should put this band on the prog and psych rock map. Get this album.

3 points

Ikan Method. The - Blue Sun (2020)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This band released their second album earlier this year. As this band is new to me, I got hold of their debut album first and decided to review that album before I review their new album next week. Hence this review.

Their music is a pretty muscular blend of art-rock and neo-prog. Their music is not far from this day and age Marillion. 

The sound is good and ditto for the vocals. The rest of the band does a good job too on this one hour long album. The guitarists does a very good job at times with some tasty guitar solos.

Most of the music is pretty good. There are some pieces here which is too pedestrian and too bland. Other parts are good and heralds a band with some good talents. A band who can do better. 

Hopefully, that "better" is their new album. Blue Sun is an acceptable debut album and one to check out.

2.5 points

 

 

Macky Ar - The Lying Lexicon (2024)

The third album from this one-man-band from India.

Mahesh Arora does the keyboards, guitars, computers and vocals himself.

I have yet to be very impressed by the two first albums from this very young man from India. This is so far his latest album too.

His music is slow melodic progressive rock. There is some electronica, cinema rock, neo-prog, symphonic prog and psych rock here. 

The instruments are mainly keyboards and guitars. Half-accoustic guitars and electric guitars.

The vocals is thin, female like but still pretty good. The vocals suits the music and works as an instrument here. 

There is not a lot of interesting details here as the music on this half an hour long album is pretty slow.

The quality is therefore somewhere between decent and good. 

Macky Ar is still an interesting one-man-band and the three albums deserve your attention.

2.5 points

 

 

Segno Del Comando. Il - Il Volto Verde (2013)

The third album from this band from Italy.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, theremin, electric piano, organ, keyboards and vocals.

Numerous guests added drums, guitars, keyboards, organ, moog, mellotron, saxophones, flute and vocals.

This band has so far released six albums and I got their three last ones for review in the coming weeks. 

I reviewed their two first albums ten years ago for # 1 of this blog and gave the debut album a decent rating and the follow up album a good rating.

Their music is dark, gothic RPI. 

The music on this one hour long album is complex indeed. The sound is OK but not as fat as most RPI albums. 

The mostly female vocals is leaning towards opera and ditto for the music which sounds like a rock opera. That is probably what this album is.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I am not won over by this band.... yet.

2.5 points

Tasavallan Presidentti - Lambertland (1972)

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

The band returned again with a new album and a new vocalist. Frank Robson was gone and he was replaced by Eero Raittinen. His vocals is nowhere as good as Frank's vocals although they are OK. 

The music here is a mix of the Canterbury scene and folk rock. 

That is.... the jazzy and fusion part of the Canterbury scene. There is a lot of fusion here and this is mainly a fusion album with spicy pieces of the Canterbury scene.

Just to confuse the listener a bit.... there are also some more folk rock influences here.

The music on this forty minutes long album is very good throughout and this album is clearly their best album and their claim to fame and international recognition.  

Check out this album.

3.5 points

Rose - Judgement Day (1977)

The fourth and final album from this band from Canada.

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

The band started out as a folk rock band and had next to no success. The 1973 debut album Hooked On A Rose is now in retrospective regarded as a minor classic. 

That does not goes for the rest of their albums.

The band was about to lose their record deal and as a last throw of the dice, the band went commercial rock on Judgement Day. 

The result is a lesson in how a band in desperation made a really bad commercial rock album. The music is a mix of 1970s pop and rock.

There is no really good or even a decent song here. The band then lost the record deal, split up and the four band members then got commercial success in other bands.

This album though is a turkey. 

1 point

Ubi Maior - Bestie, Uomini e Dèi (2020)

 

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

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

This is so far their latest album and I really hope they will soon release a new album as their first four albums has proven their status as one of the best post '70s RPI bands.

The music is again classic RPI in the same vein as Banco, PFM and Biglietto Per L'Inferno. Three bands who to a large degree defined and refined the symphonic prog part of the RPI scene. 

Ubi Maior and this three quarters of an hour long album is both following in their footsteps and renewing this scene and brand of RPI.

The vocals is very good and the band gives this album a classic RPI sound. 

The music is muscular and complex. It also has this Italian passionate take on progressive rock. This album has both class and passion. 

The music is very good throughout and this is an album everyone into RPI should have in their collection.

3.5 points

 

 

Karfagen - Land of Chameleons (2024)

The 20th album from this one-man-band from Ukraine.

Antony Kalugin did the keyboards and some vocals here.

He had help from a long list of guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, guitars, accordion, saxophones, male and female vocals.

Antony Kalugin is in my humble opinon a true maestro and one of the best and most prolific artists in the progressive rock genre. He is also one of the far too many victims of Russia's cowardly attack on his country. 

Antony Kalugin has so far released three albums under the Karfagen name this year. I reviewed the Message From Afar: Second Nature album earlier this year and was not too impressed. It was a bit wishy-washy musicals like music.

The music on Land Of Chamelons is a bit different again as it is a mix of Pink Floyd, Genesis and musicals. 

The female and male vocals is very good. There is hardly any of the Antony Kalugin's trademark neo-classical music here though although the music is melodic and has his fingerprints all over it. The album also has some good details

The music is good on this fifty minutes long single CD version of this album (there is also a double CD version of this album). It is an improvement on the previous albums and one to check out.

3 points

Scarlet Thread - Dreamcatcher (2014)

The fourth and final album from this band from Finland.

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

Their third album, the 2013 album Never Since, was a very promising and good album with it's mix of folk rock and prog. The female vocals was very good too and that album was something to build on.

Well, the band ripped themselves apart on the follow up album. 

Gone is the flutes, violin, female vocals and the folk rock. In comes some Bruce Dickinson like vocals and some Tony Iommi, the Heaven & Hell era, guitars. 

The music is now hard rock with some heavy metal and progressive rock influences. 

The vocals and the guitars are rather good. The songs are not really that good. The band has retreated to the grey masses of hard rock bands and is not standing out from that crowd. What was once an interesting band is just a grey, anonymous band. Ditto for this album.

This is not a bad album but I feel the band was onto something great on the previous album and that the band has simply stepped away from it all. I am disappointed, indeed.

2 points

Phog - El Castillo (2021)

The fourth album from the one-man-band from France.

Philippe Ogier did the bass, guitars, keyboards and flute on this album.

Phillippe started this project in his love for the likes of Genesis and Camel. Influences very much evident on all his Phog albums.

El Castillo is a lot more monumental and epic than I can remember from previous Phog albums. Just a look at the cover art-work and that lovely art-work says a lot about the music here. 

The music is really dynamic here too on these fifty minutes. The music is also elegant too.

There is some good variations on this album although it never deviate from the bold, epic and elegant concept it sets out from the first couple of minutes.

The music is also complex throughout and full of interesting details.

The result is a good album and one I would recommend to everyone into symphonic prog.

3 points

Isildurs Bane - The Pearl of Ever Changing Shell (2024)

The 14th album from this band from Sweden.

The band/project was a nine piece big with a lineup of drums, marimba, percussion, bass, guitars, viola, violin, keyboards, woodwinds and vocals.

This album is a cooperation between this band and the vocalist Jinian Wilde. This after two cooperations with Peter Hammill on the previous two albums.

Isildurs Bane has done a lot of cooperations with other artists and it is therefore a bit difficult to rate their career. It is an interesting and a boundaries bending band, that is for sure. I like what they are doing. 

Jinian Wilde, who comes from England, is the vocalist in David Cross band and has also been the vocalist in some other project. He is indeed a very good vocalist and that is proven on this album.

The music on this album is a mix of art-rock and more elegant musicals/concept rock. There is also some bits of Pink Floyd in their music and some symphonic prog.

The sound is big and bold. Nothing is spared in a sound full of various instruments.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. There is not enough good music here to really label this as a good album. What is missing is the art of good song writing, in short. 

This album is not this band's finest hour.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Spooky Tooth - Ceremony (1969)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Pierre Henry added electronics.

This album is a cooperation between Spooky Tooth and the electronics artist Pierre Henry from France. This is like the cooperation between Metallica and Lou Reed...... or Metallica and Lulu. Those happened forty years later, though.

The music is therefore a bit different from what we could expect from a Spooky Tooth album.

The music here is a mix of psych, electronic prog and space rock. It is like one big spacy piece of music.

There is a lot of dissonant electric guitars solos and electronics here. There are also some vocals here.

The music is not melodic and therefore a big departure from the normal goods from this band. It is indeed a weirdo album.

The quality is decent enough and space rock fans should check out this album. It is an intriguing album, indeed and better than Metallica's two cooperation albums. 

2 points

 

 

Tai Phong - Last Flight (1979)

The third album from this band from France.

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

Two guests added guitars and saxophone on one track.

I reviewed their two first albums back in November 2013 for # 1 of this blog.... and then I promptly forgot about the band. The band has in total released six albums and I will review the remaining four albums this autumn.

Last Flight is the final of the three albums released in the 1970s. The band started out as a symphonic prog band and then developed into a more chanson pop band on their second album, the 1976 album Windows.

The band has again developed a bit during these three years. There is some west-coast California psych rock and pop in their music too. There is even some Canterbury prog here and Caravan springs to mind. So does AOR.

The vocals is good. The music on this fifty minutes long album is rather elegant too. That is mainly because of the thin sounding vocals and the chanson pop which there is a lot of on this album.

The result is a rather charming, likeable album who lacks a lot of quality but still is a decent to good album. 

2.5 points

Rose - A Taste of Neptune (1977)

The third album from this band from Canada.

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

I reviewed their 1973 debut album Hooked On A Rose a couple of weeks ago and I quite liked that album. The music there was a mix of acid folk and blues rock.

Four years passed and the band had moved on.

There are still some Deep Purple influences here. But most of the music is a mix of hard rock, blues and arena rock. 

The music is pretty much mainstream US arena rock, in other words.

The music also includes a couple of ballads. The more uptempo songs are pretty catchy. The vocals are pretty good.

The result is a decent album well worth checking out. The band released four albums and I will bring my review of their fourth and final album in some days time.

2 points

 

 

 

Ubi Maior - Senza Tempo (2009)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

This band has so far released four albums. I reviewed their 2005 debut album Nostos back in 2010 for ProgArchives and their third album back in 2015 for # 1 of this blog. I really liked both of them.

I am now reviewing their second and fourth album in the coming days... starting with their second album.

The music is classic RPI in the same vein as Banco, PFM and Biglietto Per L'Inferno. Three very good bands and this one hour long album is in that vein.

The music is mostly muscular mid-tempo with a modern soundscape and some very good Italian vocals. There is a lot of interesting details here and the electric violins adds a lot of spice to the music.

The album is some sort of a concept album as the songs feels more like one hour long piece of music rather than a collection of songs.

The result is a very good album from one of the better modern RPI bands. A band who still follows in the footpaths of the old masters from the 1970s. In short, RPI fans should get this album.

3.5 points  

Airbag - The Century of the Self (2024)

The sixth album from this band from Norway.

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

Three guests added bass, guitars and keyboards.

This band album debuted fifteen years ago and has become one of Norway's better art-rock bands. It's guitarist Bjorn Riis is also a prolific solo artist. 

Forty-seven minutes, five songs. That is what we get here. 

The music is melancholic art-rock. I have always compared this band to Gazpacho and that is still a relevant comparison on this album too. Airbag's music is more songs based, though. 

The five songs here are both clever and full of interesting details. There is no killer tracks here, though. The standard is still good and this makes it a good album.

3 points

Scarlet Thread - Never Since (2013)

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

Three guests added keyboards, flute and female vocals.

Seven years had passed since the last album. A violin driven instrumental album which did not impress me when I reviewed it last month.

There is still a lot of violins here. Some flutes has been added too. The music is more songs orientated folk rock this time with the emphasis of good songs.

The big, big difference is the addition of Ms. Mari Vuortitie's great vocals. Those vocals is pretty much dominating this album.

The rest of the band is also doing a good job on some fairly good songs. Fairly good songs but still a bit unremarkable songs. 

The result is still a good album and one to check out if female vocals driven folk rock is your thing. 

3 points

Phog - Evidence (2019)

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

Philippe Ogier did all the bass, guitars and synths himself here.

I have reviewed a couple of Phog albums before and recently found two more Phog albums in my collection. Albums I am reviewing in the upcoming days.

Philippe is very inspired by the likes of Genesis and Camel. Hence this project who has so far released five albums. 

There is a lot of Camel on this album. That is for sure. There is also some French chanson here too, although this is an instrumental album.

This album is fifty minutes long and the music is laid back and relaxing. There is some interesting details here but there are not many of those. The music lacks a bit teeth and good songwriting. 

The result is a decent enough album but nothing more than that.

2 points

Macky Ar - A Call for Fantasy (2024)

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

Mahesh Arora does the guitars, synths, electronics and vocals here.

The music, this band in fact, has been labeled as symphonic prog in ProgArchives, the major progressive rock website and reference source. Hence I got the three albums.

The 2023 debut album was a bit simplified mix of pedestrian fusion and neo-prog. The music was very laid back and only half-decent. The full review was posted last month.

Mahesh has added some more details to his music on this, the follow up album.

There are some vocals here and some electric guitars. The music is more varied and not that pedestrian.

The music remains a bit simple and the product of one man and his vision. This album is an improvement but it is still not going to impress many prog rock fans. Check out this album if this sounds interesting.

2 points

 

 

Runemagick - Invocation of Magick (2006)

The ninth album from this band from Sweden.

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

The band changed from being a death metal band in the vein of Grave and Bolt Thrower on the previous album. They moved in the direction of My Dying Bride. Slow doom metal in other words.

Invocation Of Magick sees the band sticking to some of the same. The band has moved a lot further towards more gothic doom metal, though. 

There is some hints of very early Paradise Lost here. But most of the music here is muddy, slow gothic doom metal. There are also some avant-garde metal and dark metal influences here.

There are even some melodic pieces here on this fifty minutes long album. 

The vocals is not as guttural as on their first eight albums. They are not good but the vocalist is trying out something new here. 

The quality of the music is pretty decent throughout. This is not their best album. Nevertheless, those into doom metal should give this album a spin or two.

2 points

 

 

 

Sleeping Pandora - From Above (2018)

The third album from this one-man-band from Germany.

Mathias Rosmann did all the guitars and electronics here.

I have yet to be impressed by Mathias musical outputs under the name of Sleeping Pandora. He is not making it easy to be liked when releasing a ninety minutes long album either. 

Or eighty-eight minutes to be more precise.

The music is dreamy space rock with a lot of electric guitars with plenty of echoes in the riffs and some electronica. The music is almost as pedestrian as new-age music. 

He is not there, in the new-age music territory. I have my fears for the next albums.

The music has some qualities though. But it is hard to keep concentrated throughout this album as some of the music sounds too much like muzak. 

2 points