Myrath - Shehili (2019)

 

The fifth album from this band from Tunisia.

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

Some guests added violin, viola, nay, gasba, acoustic guitars, clarinet and vocals. 

This band is a pioneer in the metal world as they were the first band to incorporate Arabic and North-African folk music in their progressive power metal. 

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a bit strange. It has commercial rock, progressive metal and folk rock. 

That is folk rock from Northern Africa. As far as I understand it, the band has taken a song from Morocco and recorded it here with their own take on this song.

The commercial rock pieces, which is also pretty gothic too, is not particular good. The rest of the album is pretty good. The vocals is good throughout. 

The band takes a lot of chances on this album and it is most certainly an album that breaks down barriers and genres. The music is pretty good and this album scores high on originality. That makes this a good album, indeed.

3 points

 

 

Borknagar - True North (2019)

 

The 11th album from this band from Norway.

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

The band returned again after a three years long break. The break was used to slim down to a quintet and some members who had been with the band since the start quit the band.

Simen Vortex Hestenes became the main vocalist now, after taking over from Andreas Vintersorg Hedlund. This band is Øystein Brun's band and he has been the constant song writer in this band.

The band has also jumped from black metal to viking metal on this one hour long album.

There are still some harsh black metal like vocals here. Most of the music is far more melodic this time and in the epic viking metal vein. There are still some pretty brutal stuff on this album.... and some progressive rock too.

The keyboards and guitars are good here. Ditto for the vocals.

The opening couple of songs are good before the music drops somewhat in quality. Some of the pieces of music here is a bit too pedestrian and not so engaging.

The result is a pretty good album who just falls a bit short. It is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Moonsoon - East of Asteroid (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

The band is a one man band with Helge Nyheim doing the drums and vocals. Daniel Hauge is listed as a member of the band too but he does not play any instrument or contribute on vocals. 

Helge and Daniel has got help from some guests who has provided bass, guitars, synths, saxophones and backing vocals.

The band comes from Bergen on the west coast and the members are involved in Apollon Records, the label who has released this album. Both Helge and Daniel has been involved in the scene for decades.

The music on this forty minutes long digital album, LP and CD is a blend of art-rock and neo-prog.

Take Pink Floyd and blend them with Airbag and Porcupine Tree. 

The music is mid-tempo with some melancholy and soul. The sound is muscular. There are some Gilmour'ish guitar solos scattered around this album. Ditto for saxophones which adds a dystopian feel and sound to the album. The vocals is pretty good.

My only gripe with this album is the song writing who could have been a lot better. Nevertheless, this is a good album indeed. Let's hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3 points

 

 

Kraan - Flyday (1979)

 

The sixth album from this band from Germany.

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

I have during the last sixteen years reviewed their first five albums plus a couple other albums for ProgArchives and # 1 + # 2 of this blog. I have now got the rest of their albums and will review all of them this year in this blog and the, from next month, upcoming # 4 of this blog. 

Kraan is one of the most important fusion and jazz band ever to come out of Germany and indeed Europe. 

Kraan has always been a more ethno-music band than a classic jazz/fusion band. The result has been some good albums among their first five albums. 

On this forty minutes long album, the band blends fusion with jazz, krautrock, African ethno music, funk and psych rock. There are indeed strong influences from the likes of Osibasa and early The Soft Machine here.

This album more a krautrock album than anything else. The music is very playful at times.

There are some good vocals here and the band does a good job on some pretty decent songs. The sound is also good.

This is a pretty good album although it is not one of their better albums.

2.5 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hermetic Science - En Route (2001)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, sitar, mallet and keyboards.

I reviewed their second album, Prophesies (1999) last month and quite liked that eclectic neo-classical music album. It had some weird takes on Rush and ELP songs in addition to their own material.

The fifty minutes long En Route only have original material. The music is still eclectic neo-classical music in the vein of ELP at their most eclectic neo-classical music pieces.

Hermetic Science takes ELPs most eclectic music and runs further with it... into some really eclectic landscapes. In this respect, they also sounds like the Dutch band Trace. 

But no bands has taken eclectic neo-classical music further towards weirdness than Hermetic Science. The music here is very, very out there eclectic.

The music is still melodic with lots of church organ sounding keyboards. There is also a lot of staccato rhythms here.

The weirdness of this music is my abiding memory of this album (and their previous album). It is a decent album in it's own right although it has a bit of a kitsch feeling.

Check out this album.

 2 points

 

 

Miles From Pangaea - Miles From Pangaea (2009)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

A guest added saxophones.

This band released two albums before they were disbanded. The second and final album was released in 2011 and I will publish my review of that album later this month.

The band plays a mix of space rock, post-rock and psych rock on this almost one hour long album.

There is a lot of post-rock like guitars on the top of some space rock. 

At the end of this album, there is even some pieces of music where the band blend psych rock and jazz.  

The music is therefore pretty eclectic throughout this name-your-price Bandcamp album. 

The quality is decent enough without really being impressive or good. It is still an interesting album and worth a download and some quality time.

2 points

 

 

Magister Dixit - Eldorado Ré Mi Fa Sol La Si So (2000)

 

The second album from this band from France.

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

This band should not be confused with the far more famous Canadian black metal band with the same name.

Magister Dixit is a zeuhl band and I got their final two albums. I have yet to find their self-titled debut album from 1999. My review of their third album will be posted sometimes later this month.

This half an hour long album was recorded live in a studio and only contains new stuff. Which is jazzy zeuhl. 

Their music is far more lighter and less muscular than what Magma has ever done. The music is very sunny compared to Magma's esoteric dark take on the genre.

The music still has all the zeuhl hallmarks. It is super fast and maniac. It has some manic female and male vocals. It really throws a punch, this rather short album.

The result is a good album and one zeuhl fans or even those with a passing interest in this genre should check out.

3 points

 

 

 

Pymlico - Core (2025)

 

The eight album from this band from Norway.

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

The band returned again, three years after their seventh album Supermassive.

I have followed this band with interest and have reviewed all their albums. 

The band started out as an instrumental symphonic prog band in the vein of Camel.

Supermassive saw the band change more towards fusion. 

The fifthy minutes long Core sees the band blending instrumental symponic prog with cinematic rock, fusion and jazz. 

The music is dominated by the saxophones who is the main solo-instrument.

The music is a mix of mid-tempo and faster jazz and fusion. 

The music is pretty good throughout. There is not really enough good music here to make this a good album. Hence....

2.5 points

 

 

 

Hanford Flyover - Source (2023)

 

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is the follow up to their 2021 album Hanford Tape Sessions. A good album and I have reviewed it in this blog last month.

Source is a ninety minutes long album with extended and radio versions of some songs previously not released before.

The music here is a mix of acid folk rock and psych rock.

The music is pretty jazzy throughout. There is a lot of female vocals here and they are good.

The music is really melodic too... although with a quirky bite too. Melodic and quirky, that is the two words best describing the music here.

The music is also good. Their best album so far is Hanford Tape Sessions followed by their debut album. Source is still a pretty good album and well worth checking out. My only gripe here, and a loss of half a point, is that this is not a proper album. Hence....

2.5 points

 

 

Gilmour. David - Luck and Strange (2024)

 

The seventh album from this artist from Great Britain.

David Gilmour did the vocals and guitars here.

Some guests added drums, bass, guitars, strings, harp, keyboards and vocals.

David Gilmour follows up the less than impressive 2015 album Rattle That Lock. 

Nine years later and he has again returned with a mix of folk rock, rock and psych rock.

The music is very softly spoken. The major difference here between these two albums is the Pink Floyd influences on the new album. They are pretty obvious, although not dominating here.

The music is slow and a bit too pedestrian. The introduction of a female main vocalist on a couple of songs does not save this album from it's mediocrity.

There are some good and some decent pieces of music here. I very much prefer Pink Floyd's studio albums to David Gilmour's studio album. His studio albums is not particular interesting.

2.5 points

 

 

Via Modesta Valenti - Suite for The Last Prophet (2024)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This is not really an album as it is only twenty-three minutes long. It is a new RPI band though. Both the album and the band has got a lot of attention and this is why I have decided to review this album.

The music here has been labeled as RPI in ProgArchives. I am not sure if I agree with that. Nevertheless, the guys in ProgArchives is more knowledgable than me in this matter. Hence... respect.

The music is art-rock with some soft, light male English vocals. There are still some Italian lyrics throughout this album.

This album is divided into twelve songs although it is claimed this is one piece of music, the whole twenty-three minutes long album.

The music is mid-tempo with some guitars and keyboards underpinning the vocals. There is a lot of vocals here. 

The music is not particular good... or interesting. The music is pedestrian and is lacking both in good melodies and details.

This is a decent enough album but just that. I am not impressed.

2 points

 

 

 

Fish - Sunsets On Empire (1997)

 

The fifth album from this artist from Great Britain.

Fish did the lead vocals here.

He got help from a lot of guests who provided percussion, drums, bass, guitars, strings, French horn, harmonica, keyboards, samples, electronics and backing vocals.  

His previous album, Suits from 1994, was a pretty dreary pop/rock album. So I did not have much hope for this album, then.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of rock, folk rock and art rock.

The music is quirky most of the times. The songs are not necessary linear and straight forward sounding. There is a lot of playful music here.

His Scottish roots also slips through here and becomes a part of this album.

Fish vocals is very good throughout and it seems like he has found himself on this good album. Some better songs would have benefited this album.... and that is my only gripe with this good album. 

3 points

 

 

 

Tangerine Dream - Quinoa (1998)

 

The 46th album from this band from Germany.

The band was a duo with Edgar & Jerome Froese on keyboards and electronics.

This album was originally a fan-club EP before it was fleshed out with additional, new material and then got an official release.

The music is electronica through and through.

The music is also melodic and has some good melody lines. 

There are a lot of cinematic rock in the music on this album.

The music is dynamic and has some good details. The percussions here, computer generated, are creates the speed and the dynamic melodies.

The music is a bit too pedestrian at times. In particular during the third and final piece of music here. Nevertheless, this is still a good album. It is also one of the best Tangerine Dream albums I have heard so far.

Check it out.

3 points

 

 

Sorrow - Death of Sorrow (2023)

 

The second and final album from this band from USA.

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

I very much liked this band back in 1992 when they released their debut album Hatred And Disgust through Roadrunner Records. This was during the death and doom metal era where these two genres, mostly death metal, was at it's peak. 

Sorrow was one of the best band in this doomy death metal scene. A scene that, as the name of the genre suggest, populated by a few bands who combined the brutality of death metal with some slow doom metal. 

Xtreem Records released Death Of Sorrow, their farewell album, two years ago and I jumped on the chance to finally hear something more from this band.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is still brutal doom with a lot of death metal influences. The vocals is death growls. The sound is surprisingly good.

There are a lot of decent to good ideas here. The music and sound is very much rooted in the 1990s death and doom metal and is not proggy at all.

The result is a decent enough album and well worth checking out if brutal doom metal is your thing.

2 points

 

 

 

Spectrvm - Teschio Del Mondo (2023)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

Two guests added guitars, piano, keyboards and vocals.

This is another new band in the RPI scene. The members are around fifty years old and they started out as Stratus back in 1974 before they broke up in 1982 without releasing anything.

The band reformed again some years ago under the Spectrvm name and this album is the result. 

The music on this forty minutes long album is mid-tempo throughout. There are also some pastoral pieces of music here. The sound and music is both retro RPI and contemporary. But mostly retro-RPI it has to be said. 

There are still some Rush influences from their Presto era in this music too. The band has their own sound which is slightly harder than most retro-RPI bands. 

The Italian vocals is good and so is the music. The sound is acceptable but could have been a lot better, more muscular. The sound is the only gripe I got with this album. Check out this album if RPI is your scene. 

3 points

 

   

Naxatras - V (2025)

 

The fifth album from this band from Greece.

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

I reviewed their fourth album IV, which was released in 2022, back in April the same year in this blog and I gave it a good rating. I also noted I should have gotten their first three albums too. Which I have yet to do. I will try my best to do so....

The forty-two minutes long V takes us into the world of space rock again. The band is a space rock band, indeed.

There is also a lot of psych rock on this album too. The majority of the music is space rock, though. 

The latest Hawkwind albums is again a good reference.

There are some good vocals here and the music is pretty melodic. It still has this space rock edge.  

Some of the music here is hard and muscular. Some music is rather pastoral. There is a nice mix of muscular and more gentle music on this album.

The result is a good album indeed and a reminder that this band is a band everyone into space rock should check out.

3 points

 

 

Hanford Flyover - Hanford Tape Sessions (2021)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is the follow up to their 2019 debut album FreeFall. A good album and I have reviewed it in this blog earlier this month.

The band is now a duo, Josh and Holly. 

The music on this forty minutes long album is as on FreeFall, a blend of psych rock and folk rock. The vocals is still a blend of female and male vocals.  

The folk rock is a mix of acid folk rock and more straight forward folk rock. The psych rock bits is at times pretty hard edged too. It reminds me a lot about west-coast psych rock and it is indeed in that vein.

Jefferson Airplane is again a good reference here. 

There are a lot of very good guitars, both rhythms and guitar solos, on this album. The vocals is also good.

The pieces of music is both complex and quirky. This is not an album full of straight forward songs. Far from it. The music is still pretty melodic. It is also good, bordering to very good at times.

This is a name-your-price Bandcamp album and one you should download if you are a fan of psych rock and or folk rock.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Gilmour. David - Rattle That Lock (2015)

 

The fourth solo album from this artist from Great Britain.

David Gilmour did the guitars, bass, keyboards, organ,piano, electric piano, harmonica and vocals here. 

He was helped by numerous guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, strings, accordion, organ, piano, electric piano, keyboards, woodwinds, backing vocals and choir. 

Pink Floyd had been disbanded and their keyboards player, Rick Wright, had passed on. David Gilmour was semi-retired but still did a lot of gigs with mainly older material and Pink Floyd standards.

New albums was released every ten years or so.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a mix of folk rock, rock and psych rock.

The music is very softly spoken. It is also pedestrian.

The vocals is good and the musicians does a good job on some sub-standards songs. Some of them are fairly good while the majority is decent.

The result is an underwhelming album. I am not won over by this album.

2.5 points

 

 

Bakullama - Broken Hearts & Troubled Minds (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

The band is a trio with a lineup of guitars, keyboards, electronics, samples and voices.

This band's name was Baku Llama on their first two albums, both released in 2007 until they changed their name to their current name on their third album released last year.

The music on this one hour long album is a mix of eclectic prog, krautrock and avant-garde rock.   

There are some melodic jazzy and space rock pieces here inbetween some avant-garde electronica.

Some of the melodic pieces is clearly influenced by both Gong and King Crimson. These pieces are pretty good.

The avant-garde stuff is pretty dire though.

The quality is decent as it has some interesting parts. 

Those of you into avant-garde rock and krautrock should check out this album.

2 points

 

 

Kyros - Vox Humana (2016)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

I have recently got the four albums they have released under the Kyros name and will review three of them this spring. The fourth is a cover-tracks album and not the type of albums I like to review. Hence, I am bypassing that album. The two remaining reviews will be posted later this spring.

This band's self-titled 2014 debut album was released under the band name Synaesthesia. It is a great album and you can read my review in # 1 of this blog from September 2014 here.

The band returned with their new name Kyros two years later with Vox Humana, an eighty minutes long album.  

The music is somewhere between neo-prog, heavy prog and progressive metal. Haken from Sweden is a very good reference for the music we can hear on this album.

The music is melodic and muscular at the same time. The music is also very epic at times. It also has some neo-classical music influences. Some of the music is also pretty poppy and catchy accessible music. 

The vocals is very good and the rest of the band does a great job. The production and sound is top notch.

The result is a very good album and one to check out. I was right in 2014 when I noted that this is a top band. Something this album confirms.

3.5 points

 

 

Borknagar - Winter Thrice (2016)

 

The 10th album from this band from Norway.

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

Two guests added vocals on a couple of songs.

This is the follow up to their rather good 2012 album Urd.

The band continued on. Most of their members were involved in other bands. Bands who were prioritised instead of Borknagar. Hence the infrequent Borknagar albums. 

The band had by now found their formula. That is a mix of black metal, progressive rock and pomp rock.

The music on this one hour long album is both epic, bold and complex. The vocals is a mix of clean vocals and black metal vocals. 

The music is a bit more melodic this time around. A bit more pomp rock too. Some Magnum influences has sneaked into their music.

The result is a bit more attractive and nicer music. The quality has gone up one notch too as the majority of the pieces of music here is good.

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

3 points

 

 

Weserbergland - Sacrae Symphonia No. 1 (2022)

 

The third album from this band from Norway.

The band was a nine piece big band here with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, violins, synths, oboe, French horn, saxophone and programming.

This is the follow up album to their 2020 Am Ende Der Welt which was a decent enough album. I will review their first album, which I have just got, sometimes later this spring.

Sacrae Symphonia No 1. is a forty minutes long dirge. It is one piece of music, one track.

The music is really funeral slow and is a blend of krautrock, jazz and space rock. 

The woodwinds creates an intense sound and cacophony.   

There is some subtle variations and dynamic changes during this piece of music.

There is not many of those and this is an album only fans of avant-garde music and funeral dirges will enjoy. 

It is a decent enough album in it's own right.

2 points

 

 

Tranquility - Silver (1972)

 

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

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

The band was active between 1971 and 1974 before they split up after a succesful career in mostly USA. They were mostly an unknown band in their homeland and in the rest of the world. The good people in USA lapped them up, though....

Their self-titled 1972 album was a decent enough folk rock album with some strong country'n'western influences.

It should not come as a surprise that the band continued with this succesful recipe on their follow up album.

There is also some strong psych rock and pop influences on this forty-two minutes long album. It is not as vocals dominated as their debut album. Some West-Coast psych rock influences is adding colours and indeed quality to this album.

The music is surprisingly complex and proggy too.

The vocals is good and ditto for some of the songs. This album is one of the better albums in the folk rock genre... a genre I am not a big fan of. This album won me over, though.

3 points

 

 

Red Lloyd - Duke (2025)

 

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

Frank Alpeter does the keyboards, drums programming, bass programming and vocals here.

He had help from two guests who delivered guitars and vocals.

Frank Alpeter is a member of a Gary Moore tribute band and now also a solo artist under the Red Lloyd name.

He started Red Lloyd as he wanted to do classic progressive rock in the vein of Genesis and Pink Floyd. 

The music on this fifty minutes long Bandcamp and CD album is along those lines. Melodic progressive rock in the same vein as Genesis.

There are also some Pink Floyd influences here but they are not as strong as the Genesis influences. Some Pendragon and RPWL influences are also evident. There are a lot of neo-prog here, in short.

The vocals are decent and the music is fairly good. The music is far from being rich on details and that is a disappointment. 

That said, this is a fairly good album and should please anyone into melodic progressive rock.

2.5 points

 

 

 

PrototypeLAB - Unboxing Memories (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

Three guests added keyboards.

I reviewed their 2015 debut album Mea Culpa some days ago and I liked that album. An album somewhere between the neo-prog and heavy prog genres.

The band has returned again, ten years later, and the band continues on from their debut album.

The music on this forty minutes long album is still muscular. It is also melodic. And the music is again a blend of heavy prog and neo-prog. The music is both catchy and melodic. 

The vocals is good and the music is pretty much guitars based. The keyboards is in the background, adding textures when needed.

The music is not very complex. It is more songs and melody focused than complex. The result is still a good album and one to check out. I hope we will hear more from this band in the future.

3 points

 

 

Ologram - La Mia Scia (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

Three guests added violin, viola and vocals.

Their 2022 debut album La Nebbia was a very good album, indeed. An album firmly in the classic RPI genre.

The band continues down the same path on this thirty-five minutes long follow up album.

We get classic RPI in the vein of Banco and PFM. Add in some Genesis and Yes too and you get the full picture.

The Italian vocals is great here. The music is mid-tempo and pretty muscular at times. It is also pastoral too at times. 

The eight songs varies in quality between very good and great. There are also some very good details here.

The result is another very good album from this band who does not disappoint me. RPI fans should get both their albums.

3.5 points

 

 

Lawson. Peter - The Witchfinder (2024)

 

The second album from this artist from Great Britain.

Peter Lawson did the bass, guitars, mandolin, keyboards and vocals here.

Peter Lawson is from Manchester and he has been involved in some local bands before he went his own ways with some Bandcamp albums. Some of them as duo with a German drummer. The duo is called Venus Loon and I got a couple of their albums for reviews later this year... or whenever I got time.

The Wictchfinder is about this well ill reputed Mathew Hopkins who, for a large sum of money, went around England and "detected" witches. Women who was then burnt on a stake. All of them were off course innocent. This sorry saga has spawned at least one good heavy metal band (Witchfynder General), numerous songs and now this name-your-price Bandcamp album.

The music on this forty minutes long album is a mix of heavy prog and proggy folk rock. 

The music is mostly performed by electric guitars. There are some vocals at the end.

The music sounds and feels like it was homemade and recorded in a living room. The levels in the sound feels a bit off and the sound is not good. Neither is the music which is guitar solos following guitar solos. None of them are good.

There are some decent music here but most of this album is best forgotten. 

1.5 points

 

 

 

Myrath - Legacy (2016)

 

The fourth album from this band from Tunisia.

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

Some guests also added guitars, strings, piano and backing vocals.

This band has on their last couple of albums been blending in traditional North-African and Arabic folk music into their take on power metal and progressive metal.

This is something you will also find on this fifty minutes long album.

The basis of their music is power metal blended with some progressive metal. Then you get this folk music on the top of that again.

The vocals is good, very good at places and the musicians does a good job on this album. It is an untraditional album and the band deserve a lot of credit for standing by their roots and their musical inheritance.

This is indeed a good album with a lot of good progressive metal and some good folk music too. 

Check out this album even if progressive metal is not your scene.

3 points

 

 

 

High Spy - Rebirth (2006)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band has so far released six albums. I reviewed their fourth album, the 2015 album Paralysed And Hypnotised back in September 2015 for # 1 of this blog and you can find the review here. I have now got a handful of their albums and will review them this winter.

Their debut album is a standard neo-prog album in the British tradition.

The music is melodic with a lot of poppy and rock/pop elements. 

The vocals is pretty bad but the band does a good job on some decent enough songs. There is even a couple of good songs here.  

This is not a bad album at all.

2.5 points

 

 

Weserbergland - Am Ende Der Welt (2020)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, strings, piano, turntables and computers. 

This band has so far released three albums. I was certain that I had reviewed their 2017 debut album some years ago. But it seems like that is not the case and I will therefore do that later this winter. In the meantime, I intend to review their third album before the end of this month.

The band is listed as a krautrock band in ProgArchives and other places. That is not the full story, though.

Cosmic krautrock with a lot of space rock influences is my take on this two pieces of music, three quarters of an hour long album.

The cover art work, featuring a small town up in the Arctic region (Iceland or most probably the Finnmark county in Norway), describes the music well.

Music which is an eerie dirge. Slow and pretty sad.

The music is also pretty monumental and big. There is not any notable variations and differences between these two pieces of music.

This music may sound alien, but it is still a decent enough album and one well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

Tranquility - Tranquility (1972)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band released two albums before they split up. Discos claims they were more popular in USA than in their homecountry. I guess this means they were mostly unknown in Europe and the rest of the world too.

The music on this forty-two minutes long album is folk rock. 

That is pretty uncomplicated folk rock with some pop influences. The music is focused on the vocals and not so much the instruments. Some of the music is also sailing pretty close to country'n'western. Hence this album's popularity in USA, I guess.

The vocals is good and the melodies are both catchy and straight forward. The sound is a bit US like although it clearly retains it's British origins.

The guitars are cleverly played and they are also a mix of electric guitars and acoustic guitars. Mostly electric guitars.

The result is a decent enough album and one folk rock fans should check out. This is an album well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

 

Pattern Seeking Animals - Friend of All Creatures (2025)

 

The fifth studio album from this band from USA.

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

Two guests added violin and female vocals.

This band started out as a side project of Spock's Beard before they became a bit more serious about this project. I believe the band is now a full time project.

The music is still a mix of US symphonic prog and US neo-prog. There is a lot of Spock's Beard influences here. Ditto for Kansas and Yes influences.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is epic, bold and melodic. There are also enough technical complex stuff here to satisfy the progheads too. Us progheads, I have to add as I am one myself.

The mellotron and the synths generated organ sound is setting the tone for this album and it really gives it a good retro-feel too. The vocals is very good too.

The music is a mix of retro-prog and more contemporary prog. 

There is no great songs here. Nevertheless, the music and this sound is very good and that makes this a very good album. This album is a new reminder why this band should be regarded as one of the better bands in today's prog rock scene.

3.5 points

 

 

PrototypeLAB - Mea Culpa (2015)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This is a new band to me. They released their second album earlier this year and I got both their albums for review. I will review their new album later this month.

The band has been described and indeed sold to me as a neo-prog band. The Italian neo-prog scene is indeed both big and strong.

There are indeed some neo-prog in their music. I would still put this band, and indeed this forty minutes long album, in the heavy prog genre.

The music is both muscular and complex. It is melodic too but most of the album is too epic and complex to be labeled as melodic.

The English vocals is pretty good and the band does a good job. The sound is contemporary and not retro-prog at all. There is not even a faint of RPI here.

The result is a more than acceptable debut album and a good album in it's own right.

This too is a band I will follow in the coming years as they are very talented.

3 points

 

  

Ologram - La Nebbia (2022)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

Lots of guests added drums, viola, violin, moog and vocals.

This band from Sicily, Italy have so far released two albums and both of them will be reviewed in this blog this winter.

Italian vocals.... That normally means RPI. That is indeed the case for this album.

The music on this forty minutes long album is a modern take on classic RPI. You get the folk rock influences and the Yes, Genesis, Banco and PFM influences here. The sound is contemporary and the vocals is very good.

The songs here are mid-tempo and pretty pastoral at times. Some of the songs are also pretty muscular and full of passion. Italian passion.

The moog, violin and viola adds a lot to these songs. Ditto for the angelic choir too. 

The result is a very good album from a band who I hope will stay around for some albums. In Ologram, I have found another Italian band worth following.

3.5 points

 

 

Cheat the Prophet - Redemption (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added extra guitars and keyboards.

This is a new band in the US neo-prog scene. Their album has been produced by Brett Kull and the band themselves. 

The three members of this band previous played in Nepenthe who released one album in 1997. I cannot remember if I have ever reviewed that album or if I even got the album.

This US band has managed to give their album a Dutch neo-prog sound. That means a lot more restrained and modest sound and take on neo-prog than the US take on neo-prog.

That is what we get here.... some restrained, poppy and catchy neo-prog. The music on this almost forty minutes long album has got a melancholic feel too.

The vocals is good and ditto for the sound. Well, the sound is actually great. 

The quality of the five pieces of music, and one of them are eleven minutes long, is good throughout. 

Neo-prog fans should and must check out this album.

3 points

 

 

Hermetic Science - Prophesies (1999)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, xylophones, mallet, bass and keyboards.

This band is a new band to me but I have got three of their six albums and will review them this winter.

This seventy-two minutes long album is one of the weirder albums I have heard this year.

The opening track is a xylophones driven version of the Rush classic Jacob's Ladder. Weird, but still pretty good.

Then we get some of their own material which comes across as a blend of neo-classical music and symphonic prog. Not to mentio eclectic prog. There is a lot of bass and piano here in addition to the xylophones.

The closing track is a cover of ELP's Tarkus... performed on piano. Yes, the full twenty minutes long Tarkus performed by piano. Not even Keith Emerson dared to do this. But this US band has done it and their version is decent enough.

Those into eclectic weird but still melodic music should check out this album. It is a decent enough album which will raise the listener's eyebrows.... a lot.

2 points 

 

Gilmour. David - On an Island (2006)

 

The third album from this artist from Great Britain.

 

David Gilmour did the percussion, bass, guitars, piano, electric piano, organ, harmonica, saxophone and vocals here.

 

He had help from some guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, harmonica, piano, organ, keyboards, strings, woodwinds, programming, electronics and backing vocals.  

David Gilmour gave his main job as the band leader in Pink Floyd his full attention after the release of his second studio album back in 1984. Pink Floyd then disbanded and David were left unemployed... sort of.

 

So back to a solo-career in other words and some more regular album releases.

 

The result is this one hour long come-back album.

 

The music is softly spoken and pretty slow. It is not particular focused on ballads. The music is really slow and has some neo-classical music influences. Not to mention musicals influences.

 

There is still some Pink Floyd influences here too.

 

The music is not technical, epic or bold. It is too pedestrian for that. There are some good pieces of music here and some pieces which is a bit poor.

 

The result is a decent to good album which fails to impress. I had expected a lot better music than this.

 

2.5 points

 

 

JB Fairfield - A Time for Heroes (2024)

 

The fifth album from this artist from Australia.

Jeff Brunne plays all instruments here as he has done on most of his albums. That is guitars, keyboards,  electronics and the vocals.

His genre, his style is a mix of psych rock and art-rock. Pink Floyd meets Marillion, the Hogarth era. 

The music on this one hour long album is melodic.

Due to being a one-man-band, there are not much technical difficult stuff here. The music is therefore not really complicated and complex.

The music is also pretty melancholic and somber at times. It very much mirrors the album art-work as shown above.

There are some good songs here and the overall quality is indeed good. Barely good but this is perhaps his best album of the six he has so far released. Get this album from his Bandcamp page.

3 points

 

 

 

Igginbottom - Igginbottom's Wrench (1969)

 

The one and only album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This was the late Allan Holdsworth's first band. He did indeed write most of the material on this album too.

The year is 1969 and Allan was a young blues guitarist. The Beatles was still around, although just about to record and release their final album.

Igginbottom was one of the many, many blues/jazz bands from Great Britain those days. They got a deal with the, these days, very popular record label Deram. Back in those days, this record label was just trying to survive by releasing cutting edge albums. Albums now revered as classics.

This album is not one of them, though.

This three quarters of an hour long album is a blend of light and fluffy jazz and blues. 

The vocals is good and the guitars are pretty good. There songs here are pedestrian and not really up to a good standard. This album is Allan Holdsworth's debut album and that is what it should be remembered for and collected for by those who want everything from one of Great Britains finest ever guitarsts. 

2 points

 

 

LAB Experience. The - The LAB Experience (2025)

 

The debut album from this one-man-band from Brazil.

Luiz Alvim did keyboards and bass here.

He had help from some guests who added drums and bass.

Luiz Alvim has been around in the Brazilian scene since the 1980s. Mostly in bands who never released any albums. He was though a founding member of the great band Sleepwalker Sun who released two albums fifteen years ago before they split up. Both their albums is highly recommended.

Luiz has also been involved in the Marillion conventions and this is how his new band, The Lab Experience, came about.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is a blend of symphonic prog and cinematic rock. Mostly symphonic prog, it has to be said.

The music is entirely instrumental and based on Luiz's keyboards. The music can be compared to Trace and ELP. 

The quality is good throughout. This is one of the better instrumental prog albums I have encountered during the last five years and one to check out.

3 points

 

 

 

Electric Orange - Ada (2024)

 

The 16th album from this band from Germany.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, mellotron, synths and voices. 

This is the most recent album from this prolific band. A band whos has released a couple of great albums and a lot of good to pretty dire albums. The whole scale has been used by me in my reviews of their albums.

Ada is forty minutes long album who sees the band go avant-garde krautrock and space rock again.

The album are also leaning towards avant-garde electronica too as the music is mostly based on electronica. 

The music is still pretty melodic at times. Some of it is still dense avant-garde. Nevertheless, there are some good space rock here too.

The space rock is good. The avant-garde electronica is not particular interesting. Hence.......

2.5 points

 

 

 

Asfalto - Cronicas De Un Tiempo Raro (2017)

 

The 13th and final album from this band from Spain.

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

A guest added saxophone on one track.

The band continued on from their 2014 album El Color De Lo Invisible. That was a decent enough pop/rock album.

Three years passed and the band changed direction again on this, their final album.

The pop music elements has mostly gone. The band is now a rock band. 

The music is pretty muscular at times. There are even some Latin rock here too.

Most of this is muscular rock... this genre so out of fashion in the media, but still popular with the general public. Classic rock is the name of the genre I would put this album in. 

The vocals are good... the music is decent enough but nothing more than that. There is no good songs here. But the band's final album is true to this band's career and indeed identity. This band was a fine classic rock band.

2 points

 

 

Dream Theater - Parasomnia (2025)

 

The 16th album from this band from USA.

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

This album hails the return of their classic lineup. Yes, Mike Portnoy has returned to the fold.

This is a long awaited album and it has caused a lot of ripples in the scene. Numerous reviews has been posted and I have been holding back for some time as there is a lot unreviewed albums in the scene that need my attention more than this album and this band.

This album is well over seventy minutes long. The music is very complex with lots of layers. There is no hits and no immediate pieces of music that jumps out of this album. The signature track, I am afraid, will be the rather tacky and crass Midnight Messiah who sometimes sounds like a track from early era Metallica. Not impressive.

This album really require the full attention of the listener. The best piece of music here is the closing twenty minutes long track The Shadow Man Incident where the band sounds a bit like early era Dream Theater.

Besides of that, the music is too complex, too heavy and simply not up to their normal standards. This is one of their weakest ever efforts, I am afraid.

2.5 points

 

  

Fish - Suits (1994)

 

The fourth album from this artist from Great Britain.

Fish did the lead-vocals here.

He had help from numerous guests who added drums, percussion, bass, guitars, fiddle, harmonica, bag pipes, keyboards, flute, whistle, saxophone, backing vocals and a choir.

Fish returned again after a pretty poor album with covers. The 1993 album Songs From The Mirror was that dire and waste of time.

Suits sees him return with his own material and on his own record label. Fish went it alone and had nobody but himself to blame if this did not work out.

Suits is also seventy-five minutes long too. Which is very long for an album with this kind of music.

The music is a mix of 1980s/1990s pop music, folk rock and a faint hint of neo-prog.

The music is catchy, poppy and a bit teenybopper at times. There is also a couple of folk rock leaning songs here. There are some interesting details too here.

Nevertheless.... There is not much quality here. This album is a decent enough album but nothing more than that.

2 points

 

 

Tangerine Dream - Green Desert (1986)

 

The 22nd album from this band from Germany.

The band was a duo, Edgar Froese and Cristoph Franke, with a lineup of percussion, guitars, synths, computers and drum machine.

This album was orginally recorded in 1973 and then remixed in 1984 before it was released two years later.

I have learned to understand some of their music after a year of reviewing their albums. Ten or so reviews. Their genre, progressive electronica, is not a genre I really enjoy, though. But they are a big name in the progressive rock genre.... hence these reviews.

This album is a bit more in the cinamatic rock genre than their earlier stuff. This album was written in 1973 but it does not really sit that well with their earlier albums. Hence, I think this album has been a bit more than remixed. Some of their 1980s approach to music has been incorporated into the music.

The title track has some good guitars and a lot more than just electronica. It is a good twenty minutes long track and more than half of this album. An album clocking in at almost forty minutes.

The rest of the album is not of the same standard. Nevertheless, the quality is somewhere between decent and good. This is one of their better albums.

2.5 points

 

 

Sunhillow - II (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Finland.

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

This is the follow up to their 2020 debut album Eloise Borealis. That was a good album. The band released a single in 2022 called The Beast From The East and that song is opening this album.

The album is a bit short... half an hour long.

The music is again a mix of good old Finnish progressive rock and fusion from the 1970s and their local folk music/rock.

The music is very much retro rock. The vocals are good and the band does a good job.

The above mentioned song are the best piece of music here. A good, catchy song. Some of the pieces of music is not up to the requested standard. Hence... this album is a bit of a disappointment. Nevertheless, fans of retro progressive rock and the Finnish/Scandinavian scene should pick up this album.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Sub Rosa - KriTherion (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Brazil.

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

Three guests added violin and keyboards.

This album was released four months after the release of the AniGmA album. I reviewed that album earlier this month and was not impressed.

KriTherion is the soundtrack for the movie about this band. I did not know they were that famous but there is a lot of bands now getting their own movies. Hence, I should not be surprised.

The music on this one hour long album is somewhere between acid folk and pop/rock. 

The female vocals is pretty poor. The male vocals is a bit better but the overall vocal deliveris is at best decent and just that.

The music is pretty simple and pedestrian. The result is therefore a decent album and a disappointment. Only the guitar solos is saving this album's bacon.

2 points

 

 

Untold Stories - Wind and Memories (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Bulgaria.

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

A guest added vocals.

The band was formed by Daniel Elieseev whose solo project DEP is pretty known. I have yet to sample his solo albums, though. But I will do that on the back of this album.

The music on this one hour long album is a blend of neo-prog and art-rock. 

It has to be said that neo-prog is the dominant genre in their music. Their music is not as rooted in Genesis and old Marillion as most other neo-prog bands are. Hence the art-rock genre also coming into the picture.

The music is mid-tempo melodic with some good guitar solos, vocals and keyboards.

The sound and music is both slick and a bit workman like. The band sounds well traveled on their instruments and in this kind of music.

This is a good album from a band I feel can and should do a lot better in the future. A bit of an under-whelming album but still a good album.

3 points

 

 

Electric Orange - Gap (2023)

 

The 15th album from this band from Germany.

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

The band has been operating somewhere between krautrock and space rock throughout their whole career. Some of their music has been overly dense avant-garde and electronic.

So you never know what to expect from an album from this band.

This time around, the band has gone down the space rock route.... sort of.

The music on this forty minutes long album is rather a mix of electronica and space rock. 

The music is understated with some careful uses of the instruments instead of a full on assault.  

The use of Farfisa organ is very clever and creates a lot of quality here. The music is not particular good though and the result is pretty pedestrian.

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

2 points

 

 

Asfalto - El Color De Lo Invisible (2014)

 

The 12th album from this band from Spain.

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

The band returned again after a six years long break.

Their 2008 album Utopia was a fairly good Latin pop/rock album. It was also a return to form again after some pretty poor albums.

This, the follow up album takes us down a more modern Latin pop/rock path..... make that motorway.

The music is very commercial with some funky, jazzy rhythms and influences.

The eleven songs on this fifty minutes long album is catchy and commercial. 

The music are in the mid-tempo range and the vocals is good. They are in Spanish too, which is a good thing. There are no really good songs here and not so many good details.

This is a decent enough album but not particular interesting for the prog rock crowd.

2 points