Fierce & The Dead. The - News from the Invisible World (2023)

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Some guests added keyboards, piano, saxophones, trumpet and vocals.

The band had a five years long break through the Covid pandemic and emerged on the other side as a different entity.

The math rock has disappeared. Ditto for the melodic, quirky instrumental progressive rock.

All this has on this forty minutes long album been replaced by some hard and heavy prog in the vein of Smashing Pumpkins and Porcupine Tree.

There is a lot of vocals here and the guitars are pretty heavy at times.

There are also some more melodic modern prog pieces here.

There are also some pretty quirky pieces here too. Quirky pieces who really defines this album and gives it it's character and identity.

The result is a pretty good album but still a good album. It is an album well worth checking out from one of the most active bands in the British prog rock scene. The band will soon release their fifth album.

3 points

Kaos Moon - The Goldfish (2024)

The third album from this band from Canada.

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

I have yet to sample their first two albums. They were released in 1994 and 2004. I will try to get them and then review them on a later date. Probably in # 4 of this blog, this summer. 

The music here is a mix of neo-prog and symphonic prog. 

The organ sound is a great one and reminds us about the early symphonic prog bands. The music though is mostly neo-prog.

The band comes from the same city, Quebec, as Harmonium and there is indeed some pretty good Harmonium references here. The main difference is that while Harmonium used French vocals, Kaos Moon is using English vocals.

The music here is catchy and the vocals is very good. They are a bit light and reminds me about Benoit David's vocals.

The songs on this one hour long album is good. This makes this a good album and one to check out if neo-prog and melodic prog is your thing.

3 points

Motorpsycho - Kingdom of Oblivion (2021)

The 24th album from this band from Norway.

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

I have by now learnt that I should expect the unexpected from this band. This band is as predictable as... well, I don't know anything as unpredictable as Motorpsycho.

Hence, the headscratching starts from the first tone. The first tone and indeed the first half of this seventy minutes long album gives us this blend of garage and psych rock the band has made their own.

The music is mid tempo and pretty rough. Their garage rock influences comes to the surface here, loud and clear.

There is a lot of interesting details here.

The last part of this album has got some ambient stuff which is fairly good but mostly falls flat on it's face. This too is a part of the Motorpsycho identity. Expect the unexpected.

The vocals and sound is good. The songs are good and this is a good album. It is not one of their best albums but it is still an album well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Electric Orange - Abgelaufen! (2001)

The third album from this band from Germany.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, clavinet, organ, keyboards, synths, programming, voices and samples.

This winter, I am reviewing the few albums from them I forgot to review back in 2018 for # 2 of this blog. I reviewed their debut album a couple of weeks ago and I gave that a good rating.

Abgelaufen is a different kettle of fish, music wise, than their debut album and most of their albums. 

I have always regarded this band as a space rock band. There is hardly any space rock on this seventy minutes long album.

The music here is electronica based krautrock. 

There is a lot of samples and some voices here. There is also a lot of Tangerine Dream like electronica here. 

The music is pretty pedestrian throughout. 

That said, there is some good pieces of music here too. This album is a mixed bag and a different side to this band. A band I really like. This album is not their finest hour.

2.5 points

Xhol - Motherf***** G.M.B.H & Co. KG (1972)

The third and final album from this band from Germany.

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

This band released two albums under the name Xhol Caravan before they shortened their name to just Xhol for this, their final album.

This band was one of the first ever krautrock bands.... if not the first ever krautrock band. Their 1969 album Electrip is one of the great albums in this genre. I reviewed it back in October 2012 for # 1 of this blog and gave it a great rating. 

This album, where I had to censor the album title so this blog was not removed from the internet, is forty minutes long and starts with a sound collage.

The opening here is slow and the first half of the album is pretty dire, to be precise. The band has let their standards fall like a rock from their second album to this album. The final half of this album has got some good vocals and space rock.

The saxophones on the final half of this album also gives this album a bit of a blues, soul and fusion flavour. But most of the album is space rock flavoured krautrock. 

The result is a decent enough album from a band who never got the attention they deserved and deserve.

2 points

 

Venus Principle - Stand in Your Light (2022)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain & Sweden.

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

This band has three members from Sweden and three members from Great Britain. I guess this is therefore more a studio-project than a band. 

The music on this seventy minutes long album is a mix of atmospheric rock, psych rock and heavy prog.

References are Riverside, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and Anathema. 

The vocals is a mix of female and male vocals. There are some fairly good guitar solos and hooks here. The sound is good throughout this album.

There are also some wailing female vocals here which does not really add anything good to this album. There is also a lack of variation and good songs here.

The result is a pretty dull album who also has some good pieces of music. Hence my lack of real enthusiasm for this album.

2.5 points

Riven Earth - We Got To Get Out (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Germany.

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

Two guests provided drums and flute on this album.

The band returned again after a break of two years.

The band continues on from their 2022 album The World Is Turning.

That means a blend of melodic psych rock in the vein of Pink Floyd and pop rock. The Us references are still here.

Besides of moving a bit closer to the melodic Pink Floyd era, not much has changed here. We get a lot more female vocals and some male and female vocals duos.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. The music is pleasant, but it does not have many interesting details. The band deserve a lot of credits for their albums and what they are doing. Their music falls a bit short, though.

2.5 points

 

 

Glass Beach - The First Glass Beach Album (2019)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This band has so far released two albums. Their last album was released one year ago and I will review it this weekend.

The music on this Bandcamp album is a mix of punk, psych rock, quirky pop, melodic rock and eclectic prog.

The sound is very youthful and ditto for the music. The vocals is good and the vocal harmonies adds a lot of sunshine and quality to this album.

The music on this is one hour long album is melodic. It is still edgy and has this ambience of the psych rock scene from California.... Jefferson Airplane and those bands.

The band is very talented and they got the right ideas. The music is a bit too unfocused. Nevertheless, this is a band which may go far and will probably become a cult band. 

This is an acceptable debut album who deserve a lot more attention.

2.5 points

 

 

Fierce And The Dead. The - The Euphoric (2018)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

A guest did some spoken words.

The band returned after a five years long break from the studios. A break they used on solo projects and gigs.

The 2013 album Spooky Action was a fairly good math rock and post punk album. Eclectic and not melodic.

Five years later and the band has changed their sound and music a bit.

The band has ditched the harsh post-punk and gone more melodic. 

This fourty minutes long instrumental album has a blend of heavy prog, eclectic prog and math rock. The music is also melodic.

There is a lot of very interesting details here. Details that makes this album into what it is. A couple of the pieces of music here is a bit cheesy. 

The end product is still a good album and one to check out.

3 points

Desert Smoke Ritual - Lady of the Desert (2025)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

Some guests added sitar and tablas.

This band is from Seattle up in the north-west of USA. This album has been released through Bandcamp and the usual streaming services.

The music on this album is a blend of stoner rock, desert rock, indian subcontinent raga rock and space rock.

There is a lot of sitar here and that gives the music a great deal of Indian subcontinental feel. That feel are floating on the top of some stoner rock. Some of the pieces of music here sounds a bit improvised. 

The stoner rock is well blended with the space rock too. That gives this album a bit extra quality.

There is no real vocals here as this is an instrumental album. It clocks in at forty-two minutes too. This album is not outstaying it's welcome or carrying any surplus fat.

The result is a good album and one well worth checking out. The stoner rock market is overcrowded but I hope we will hear more from this band. 

3 points

Asfalto - Corredor de Fondo (1986)

The eight album from this band from Spain.

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

The band continued on with this album.

The band had by now established themselves as a hard rock band in the vein of the Canadian band Triumph.

The Spanish vocals meant their music did not get much exposure outside Spain and or the Spanish speaking Latin-America. But they were mainly a local Spanish band.

The music on this thirty-seven minutes long album is indeed a mix of hard rock and some ballads. The sound is good and ditto for the vocals.

The music has this 1980s sound and therefore sound a bit dated. The sound sometimes has this plastic fantastic feel and that is a pretty bad sound. 

The songs are not too bad and this is therefore a decent enough album. Hard rock fans should check out this album.

2 points

Electric Moon - Inferno (2011)

The third album from this band from Germany.

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

I reviewed their debut album ten years ago for # 1 of this blog and their second album, the 2011 album Lunatic's Revenge a couple of weeks ago in this blog. I gave both albums a good rating.

The music here is a per usual space rock.

That means outer space rock with distorted bass and guitars. This album has got two tracks. The opening track is clocking in at fifteen minutes and the second track, the title track, is clocking in at fifty-two minutes.

The music has a improvisation feel. That goes mainly for the title track. The opening track Mental Record feel a bit more organised. 

This altogether sixty-seven minutes long album is lacking a bit in interesting details and variations. The quality is not as good as desired.

The music is rather dull to be more precise. The quality is somewhere between decent and good. 

Check it out if space rock is your cup of tea.

2.5 points

Vukovar - Voyeurism (2016)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Their 2015 debut album Emperor was a horrendous bad album. It was a turkey with beak and feathers.

So, I had no expectation to this, the follow up album, and was already preparing to make space for another turkey in my collection of fat, feathered turkeys.

The music on this thirty-five minutes long Bandcamp album is a mix of indie rock, shoegazer, dark eclectic prog, krautrock and some post punk.

The vocals is good and there are some scattered decent ideas around this album. There are even some good ideas and some fairly good pieces of music here.

Some of this stuff also falls flat on it's face.

The result is a vast improvement on their debut album and a decent album in it's own right. I guess this album will not interest the prog rock crowd. I am failing to find anyone who would be interested in this music and it is therefore an album and a band doomed to be among the most obscure entities among the many obscure entities in today's scene.

The music scene is what it is....

2 points

Verto - Reel 19.36 (1978)

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

Jean-Pierre Grasset did the drums, electronics and vocals here.

The music here is electronica based avant-garde rock.

The music is still progressive and it is quirky too. The music is also eclectic with some space rock influences.

There is not much guitars here. Most of the music is made by various electronic instruments and by computers.

Some of the music is pretty decent and quite interesting. Other parts of this thirty-three minutes long album falls a bit flat on it's face.

The result is only a half decent album from an artist largely forgotten and ignored. Even among the avant-garde prog crowd. 

I would still recommend avant-garde prog fans to check out the two Verto albums.

1.5 points

 

Lopes. Mario - Quimera (2024)

The debut album from this artist from Portugal.

Mario Lopes did the drums, percussion, bass and piano here.

He got help from numerous guests who added bass, guitars, mandolin, accordion, strings, piano, woodwinds and voices.

This album is a bit of a strange one.

It is first of all a debut album from a musician, artist and a composer who want to show off, and rightly so, all his abilities. This is when you get multi-genres albums like this one.

The basis here is fusion, or jazz rock as he prefers to call it, and latin jazz. Add in some cinematic rock and...... progressive metal and djent.

Yes, we get some pretty harsh and extreme metal here. 

But most of this forty minutes long album is a mix of latin jazz and fusion. The flutes and tin whistle is also adding some celctic flavours to this music. 

There is a lot of twists, turns and interesting details on this album. That makes this quite a punchy, short album a good album and one well worth checking out even for those of us into progressive rock. Indeed... the Canterbury prog fans and the fusion fans will find a lot of enjoyments on this album.  

3 points

Riven Earth - The World Is Turning (2022)

The third album from this band from Germany.

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

One guest provided drums on this album.

The band returned again after a two years long studio break. I reviewed this album, Space Of Time, earlier this week. A review of their new album, from last year, will follow next week.

The band has got a settled sound on their albums. A sound continued here.

That means a blend of standard pop/rock and neo-prog. They sometimes sounds like the Dutch neo-prog band Us. That at their best.

Most of the music on this sixty-six minutes long album is uncomplicated, straight forward melodic rock. 

The vocals is good and there is some good guitars and keyboards here.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I can well understand why the prog websites does not rate this band and their albums as progressive rock. Nevertheless.... They are well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

Madrigal Project. The - 11th Hour (2024)

The third album from this band from USA.

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

A handful of guests added bass, guitars and keyboards.

This band released their first two albums as Madrigal before they changed the name to The Madrigal Project on this album. Oliver Wakeman, Billy Sherwood and Adam Holzman were among the guests here.

I reviewed their second album, the 1996 album On My Hands, earlier this week and gave it a good rating. Prog with some Kansas, ELO, Genesis, Yes and Gentle Giant influences.

The band returned again almost thirty years later. The music is more or less the same as on their second album. Melodic progressive rock.

We get seventy-five minutes worth of music here. Quirky, melodic progressive rock with some art-rock, read Marillion influences. There is also some substantial Van Deer Graf Generator and Peter Hammil influences here.

The vocals is very good here and a big plus. The overall quality is good throughout this album and this album is well worth checking out. It is a good album, indeed.

3 points

Excessive - Cycles (2024)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This band, as so many other Norwegian metal/prog/fusion/jazz bands, comes from Trondheim in the middle of Norway. A couple of the members has been active in some other local bands.... before they formed Excessive.

This album was released through Bandcamp exactly one month ago, on the 25th of December. 

The music here is progressive metal.

The band's sound and music is very influenced by Threshold, the band from Great Britain. There are also some extreme metal, symphonic prog, eclectic prog and power metal influences here. Influences heard loud and clear throughout this three quarters of an hour long album. 

The vocals are very good and the band does a very good job on the very complex music here. 

The music is indeed very complex and dense. It is not easy to grasp the twists and turns of the music here. It is indeed one of the most eclectic, complex pieces of music I have ever encountered in the progressive metal genre.

The music is good though and that makes this an album the progressive metal fans, and indeed those into eclectic prog, should check out. It is a pretty impressive album and I hope we will hear more from this band in the future.

3 points

Fierce & The Dead. The - Spooky Action (2013)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Two guests added cello, saxophone and trumpet.

I have known about this band since they started up as one of their members are a Facebook friend of mine. But I did not try to get their albums before now and it seems like their 2011 debut album is no longer available. Hence, I have to bypass that album and instead review their three other studio albums this winter.

The music here is a mix of math-rock and post-punk. 

All of the music on this forty minutes long album is instrumental.

The music is very brutal at times. But most of the album is not that brutal. It is more gentle.

The music is far more eclectic than melodic. That means... the music is not melodic at all. There are some weird, almost flamenco rock piece here. That is what goes for melodic here.

The saxophone and trumpet is sporadic adding some more weirdness to the mostly guitars driven music. 

The result is decent to good album. There is no really interesting details here but it is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Tangerine Dream - Thief (1981)

The 13th album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio with a lineup of guitars, keyboards, synths and electronics.

This is the soundtrack to a movie of the same name. This album comes in three different versions. I got the extended version, clocking in at eighty minutes as their two other formats are sold out. The normal versions, both sold out, are around half of that length again. 

The music on this album comes a bit of a surprise to me and has made me rethink what this band is about.

The music starts and indeed ends with some outer space rock. Music really driven by guitars. There is also some more cinematic rock here and some ambient music.

The music here is miles away from Tangerine Dream on their seven first albums. Then again.... the music still got all the hallmarks of Tangerine Dream. It is just much more melodic, much more space rock and a lot more proggy.

The result, all three versions, is a very good album which has surprised me and brightened up last days a lot.

Get this album and get the extended version as there is some goodies there.

3.5 points

 

 

 

 

Vukovar - Emperor (2015)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Five guests added drums, bass, guitars, piano, synths, electronics and vocals.

This band released two studio albums, a live album and some EPs before they gave up the ghost. I am reviewing their two studio albums this month. A review of their second album will follow in some days time.

Both albums are name-your-price Bandcamp albums.

The music on this album is a blend of the campfire acoustic music from Amon Duul, the first incantation of that band whose four albums are awful, add some post-punk, indie rock and lots of krautrock.

The music on this forty minutes long album is pretty bad to be honest. 

This album is a turkey and I do not have anything good to report here. Avoid.

 1 point

 

Verto - Krig/Volubilis (1976)

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

Jean-Pierre Grasset did the drums, guitars and electronics here.

He got help from ten guests who added drums, bass, guitars, violin, piano and voice.

This guitarist released two albums under the Verto name between 1976 and 1078. I got both albums up for review this month and the review of the second album will be added soon.

The music here is a mix of down-tuned space rock improvisations and some avant-garde ambient electronica.

The first half of this three quarters of an hour long album has some decent down-tuned space rock. The guitars are on overdrive here and this is not bad at all.

The final half of the album with this ambient stuff is pretty poor fare indeed. Some of the music sounds like it has been recorded in an industrial estate... with all it's ambient sounds.

The result is not particular good. This is a half-decent album and just that. I am not won over.

 1.5 points

Phonya - Heli1025 (2024)

The debut album from this band from Belgium.

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

A guest added bass on a couple of tracks.

This is a new band to me and they have released this fifty minutes long album through LP and Bandcamp.

The music is instrumental and somewhere between symphonic progressive rock, cinematic rock and fusion.

Camel is a good reference here. So is Jan Hammer. 

The music is dynamic, muscular, elegant and pretty slick.

The keyboards works as both on driving the melodies forward and as a replacement for drums. There is no organic drums here. The guitars are also driving the music forward.

The music here is a bit too much run-of-the-mill instrumental cinematic rock/prog/fusion. This album brings nothing new or original to the market.

Nevertheless, this is a decent album and well worth checking out.

2 points

Riven Earth - Space Of Time (2020)

The second album from this band from Germany.

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

Two guests provided drums and flute on this album.

I reviewed their 2018 debut album Project One exactly six years ago, in January 2019 for # 2 of this blog. I gave it a decent to good rating.

I have now got their three latest albums and these will all be reviewed before the end of this month.

The band is offering up some pop/rock flavoured neo-prog on this one hour and five minutes long album.

The vocals is good and the music is not too complicated. The music is ticking of nicely....

... but the band has pushed the boat out on a couple of songs which starts out as two well known Genesis songs before the band changes the songs and is adding on their own stuff onto these tone-for-tone Genesis songs. Hence they are not cover tracks. These are original compositions from Riven Earth. Nevertheless, these two songs smells a bit fishy to me. Just as a minor complaint.......

The songs on this album is a mix of decent and good songs. The songs are more workman like than really creative progressive.

Check out this album if melodic neo-prog sounds tempting.

2.5 points

 

 

Madrigal - On My Hands (1996)

The second album from this band from USA.

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

This band released two albums under this name and a third album last year under the name of The Madrigal Project. I got a copy of that album and will review it later this week or next week.

The music here is melodic US prog with clear and loud Kansas, ELO, Gentle Giant, Genesis and Yes influences.

The music is not particular complex. Some of the songs are a bit epic at times. 

The woodwinds adds a lot of texture to the melodic songs on this forty minutes long album.

The vocals is very good and the music is both warm and good at the same time. Not everything is good but this is still a charming album and I am won over by it's charm and warmth.

This is an album well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Octopie - Green Divine (2024)

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

A guest delivered flute on some tracks.

I did not expect to get another album from this band after their very good 2012 debut album Fresh From The Oven and the self-titled EP from 2013. Both of them reviewed in 2014 for # 1 of this blog.

I have just recently also discovered, well after I was starting to listen to their new album Green Divine that they had indeed released their second album in 2015. I will review that album sometimes next month.

Green Divine is a two CDs, eighty-six minutes long album.

The music sounds like a rock opera as the music is all over the place and got this concept album/rock opera almost screaming at the listener.

Eclectic prog is also a label worthy this album. The music and the good vocals is in the vaudeville theatres genre with some falsetto opera singing, a bit classical music, some very quirky prog and some laidback jazz and rock too.

The music is in other words weird. It is still a rewarding experience, this almost one and an half an hour long album.

Not all here is good but it deserve some credit for it's audacity and weirdness. Hence it deserves a good rating as one of the more weird and original albums from last year.

3 points

 

 

Bodin. Tomas - Cinematograaf (2008)

The fifth album from this artist from Sweden.

Tomas Bodin does all the piano, synths and electronics here.

This is a true solo album with only himself doing everything. 

We get three pieces of music here. They are on average just around sixteen minutes long and that means the album is clocking in at just under fifty-two minutes.

The music is piano and synths based. 

The tempo is slow and the music is ambient cinematic neo-classical music. There is no prog rock here and no rock here.

The music is simply said not that interesting or any good. 

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

1.5 points

 

 

Borknagar - Empircism (2001)

The fifth album from this band from Norway.

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

This band started out as an epic, symphonic black metal band. It moved towards more melodic, symphonic black metal on their third and fourth albums. 

Empircism sees the band changing vocalists again. Simen Hestnas chose to concentrate more on his daytime job in Dimmu Borgir. He was replaced by Vintersorg, a Swedish vocalist who also ran a band with the same name. 

The changed Borknagar returned with this album.

The music is a pretty big development towards more melodic metal. Melodic symphonic black metal, that is.

There is more clear vocals, acoustic guitars, synths, organ and piano here than on previous albums. This on the top of the rasping black metal vocals and the mid-tempo to fast black metal guitars. 

The result is both a pretty epic and melodic album. This is still extreme metal and not for the faint hearted. But the melodies is here and there is a couple of pretty catchy songs here too. 

The result is a decent to good album and their best album so far. 

This is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Far Meadow. The - Given The Impossible (2016)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band album debuted in 2012 before they released this album I am here reviewing and their third and so far last album back in 2019. 

I reviewed their first album in # 1 of this blog and their third album in # 2 of this blog. Somehow, I forgot to review their second album.... until today. 

I really like their other two albums and was looking forward to finally review this album. 

The music on this album is neo-prog in the vein of Magenta. Marguerita Alexandrou's vocals is pretty similar to Christina Booth's vocals. 

The instrumentation is also pretty similar and so is the sound too.

The Far Meadow still got their own sound and is by no means a copycat band. 

The music here, neo-prog, sounds fresh and is in the mid-tempo range. It is more elegant melodic than heavy and epic. It still got a lot of interesting details in addition to the very good vocals and some good guitars.

The music on this one hour long album is good throughout. Neo-prog fans should get their three albums. 

3 points

 

 

Disequazione - Progressiva Desolazione Urbana (2016)

The one and only album from this band from Italy.

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

This is an obscure band whose one and only album has got next to no attention and reviews. Which is a shame.

The band started up in 1980 as a tribute to Yes and Genesis. It took a long break before reforming again in 2012 and this album was then written, rehearsed and then recorded. I guess the band has now split up again.    

The music on this album is RPI. 

In this case, that is melodic RPI with some Banco and PFM references. There are still some Yes and Genesis references here. The music is still not all out symphonic. There are indeed some Italian rock and folk rock influences here.

The Italian vocals is good and the sound is pretty much vintage RPI. The keyboards has a nice organ sound throughout this album.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is pretty good throughout. It is lacking a bit in quality. Nevertheless, the sound and the vocals is making up for the not so good songs.

This is an album RPI collectors should have in their collection.

3 points

TheDEEPstate - Days of Delirium (2024)

The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This album is, as the cover art-work alludes to, a weird one. I will explain...

This band is a side project of Drifting Sun whose albums I have reviewed in # 1, # 2 and this edition of this blog. That includes their album Veil which was released to very positive reviews everywhere back in March 2024. 

This trio then took the lyrics from Veil and simply wrote new music, a new score, to these lyrics. Hence this thirty-seven minutes long album.

Weird and slightly wonderful.

The music is off course pretty similar to what Drifting Sun has been giving us in the last decade. That means neo-prog. 

The difference here is that the music on this album is a bit darker, has a coupe of unnerving samples and is more art-rock influenced.  

The music is also melodic and very well crafted. Is this a better album than Veil ? In my view.... yes. 

This is also a name-your-price Bandcamp album and one you should all get. 

This is indeed a very good album and one of the biggest surprises from last year.

3.5 points

Isbjörg - Falter, Endure (2024)

The second album from this band from Denmark.

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

Their 2019 debut album Irisdecent was a good neo-prog album in the good old British neo-prog tradition. And I went to my first listening session of the follow up album Falter Endure in the belief that the band would continue with more of the same.

Wrong.

The British band Muse has been a big inspiration for this one hour long album. Add some Marillion (the Hogarth era), Queen, Porcupine Tree and some hints of Rush. 

The music is big, pomp and bold. It is also bordering to progressive metal at times and it has indeed some djent influences.

The music can be labeled as heavy prog. 

The vocals are mostly male vocals and they are good. There are also some female vocals here. There are indeed some male and female vocals duets and vocal harmonies on this album.

There are eleven songs here. None of them are particular long. Nevertheless, the music should be regarded as one piece of music and not a collection of eleven songs.

The music is at times not for the faint hearted. The quality of the songs leaves something to be desired. Nevertheless, this is another good album from this band and a proof that this band is very talented and has the ability to become one of the biggest band in Europe this decade. That with some better marketing and song writing. 

Check out both their albums.

3 points

 

 

 

Ekos - Instinto (2020)

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

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

The band returned again after a three years long break from the studio. A break they must have used to re-think what they were doing.

There is some pretty substantial changes between their 2017 album Otra Dimension and this album.

The band is still mostly a psych rock band. Psych rock with Spanish vocals. The music is a bit muscular this time around with some pretty strong heavy prog and indie rock influences. Add in some pretty strong 1970s Latin prog influences here and you get my drift.

The guitars is being let loose here and they sounds a bit like Rush anno Presto in this respect. The music is still elegant and has some more pastoral bits too.

There is also some good details here too. 

There is a lot to really like and enjoy on this three quarters of an hour long album. A lot to build on for the band. But as their website has gone off line, I fear this is the final album from this band. That is a loss to the scene, indeed.

This is a good album from a good band whose three albums deserve some love and attention from the general prog and psych rock scene.

3 points

Millenium - Hope Dies Last (2024)

The 18th album from this band from Poland.

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

These veterans returned again after a two years long break. A break used by some of the members here on side projects.

Their 2022 album Tales Of Imaginary Movies was a good album indeed. It was a melodic neo-prog album.

The follow up album, the one I am reviewing here, gives us more of the same. Millenium has settled as a melodic, songs orientated neo-prog band. 

Their music is a bit short on surprises and excitement. The music on this one hour long album still offers up some good vocals, good keyboards and some good guitars and woodwinds.

The band knows how to write good melodies. Some of them are well soft and bordering to being cheesy. Nevertheless, this is still a good album from one of the veterans in the world wide neo-prog scene.

3 points

Motorpsycho - The All Is One (2020)

The 23rd album from this band from Norway.

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

Three guests added guitar, violin, saxophone and clarinet.

This is the third and final album in the Gullvåg trio of albums.... That is with the art-work done by the Norwegian painter Håkon Gullvåg. The first two albums is the The Tower (2017) and The Crucible (2019). The music on these three albums is pretty different although there is a lot of similariites between the two above mentioned albums.

The All Is One is a different kettle of fish again. And just when I thought I had this band figured out, this eighty-five minutes long album throws me a curveball. At least during the first listening sessions.

All the Motorpsycho hallmarks is still here. Their take on psych rock and eclectic prog. Their sound.... all is here. 

The curveball is the forty minutes take on Pink Floyd'ish psych rock we get during the middle of this album. Both the old Pink Floyd and the new Pink Floyd is well represented here. That is the thing I did not expect from Motorpsycho. Then again.... I should have known better as I should always expect the unexpected from this band. And that is why this band is so fascinating.

There is a lot of good melodies on this album too. The vocals too is good.

The result is a different album but still a good album. Another album confirming their status as one of the most interesting bands in Norway.

3 points

 

Electric Orange - Electric Orange (1993)

The debut album from this band from Germany.

The band was a one-man-band on this album where Dirk Jan Muller did the drums, percussion, farfisa, clavinet, synths, mellotron, organs, samples and voices.

He got help from some guests who added their drums, percussion, bass, guitars, flute, tenor saxophones and vocals.

I reviewed most of their albums back in 2018 for # 2 of this blog. Albums I really liked. But I forgot their debut album and a couple of other albums too. The band also released new albums and that means I will review this handful of albums this winter. 

We get seventy minutes of music on this album. Space rock is the genre here. 

There is some psych rock here too as the band was not as all-out outer space rock as on their following albums. 

The music also got some retro flower power and hippie feel too. The music is surprisingly melodic and has got a lot of very interesting details.

The sound are very good here. The music is multi-dimentional and surprisingly good. 

The result is a good album and a pretty fascinating album too. Check it out.

3 points

Autumn Breeze - Going to Jamaica (2016)

The fourth and final album from this band from Sweden.

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

A guest added a guitar solo on the final track.

This is the follow up album to the good 2015 album The Molotov Rippentrop Pact album. A rock opera about the second world war, no less. I posted a review of this album earlier this month.

Autumn Breeze is an interesting band in the history of Swedish symphonic prog and their prog rock scene in general. Their 1979 debut album Hostbris was an influential album in the scene and one every fan of the Swedish prog scene should have. The two following albums were good too.

Then the band went to Jamaica and totally lost the plot. 

This forty minutes long album gives us a mix of cheap, very cheap reggae and Swedish showband pop music. The latter one is among the worst genre of music ever invented. There is a lot of that on this album.

The music here is far, far remote from what the band did on their first three albums. 

This album is in short a turkey.

1 point

Aurora Observatory. The - Fabric of Reality (2015)

The second and final album from this band from USA.

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

Their 2010 debut album Failure Of Imagination was a decent blend of indie rock, eclectic prog and post punk.

Five years had gone and the band returned again after loosing their drummer (r.i.p) in a car accident back in 2012. 

The music is again a mix of post punk and indie rock. The prog elements has largely gone by now.

The music is both hard and heavy. Most of it, that is. There are also some more mid-tempo indie rock here too. 

The vocals are muscular and a bit screamo when required by the music.

This album is clocking in at just under thirty-five minutes and it is indeed packing a punch. The music is decent enough but this band will not go down as one of the great bands from USA, I am afraid.

2 points

Days Between Stations - Perpetual Motion Machines (2024)

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

Two guests added drums and lead vocals.

The band's debut album was released in 2007, the second one in 2013 and their third one in 2020. You will find reviews of both the debut and their third album somewhere else in this blog. I will add a review of their second album later this winter.

The band has been operating somewhere between Marillion and Pink Floyd on the two albums I have so far reviewed. Then add some cinematic rock too and you get the drift.

This time, the band has actually written a movie score and the soundtrack is this album. That means most of this album is instrumental cinematic rock.

The final piece of music on this thirty-five minutes long album is a song with vocals. That mid-tempo song has a blend of Marillion and Pink Floyd. Mostly Marillion, it has to be said. It is a good song which adds a lot of quality to some decent instrumental music. 

The result is somewhere between a decent and a good album. This is by far not their finest hour and I hope they one day will return again with another, better album.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Isbjörg - Irisdescent (2019)

The debut album from this band from Denmark.

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

This band released their second album last year and I got both their albums for review. The review of their second album will be posted later this month.

This is an unrepentant neo-prog band. 

This is neo-prog with some art-rock and heavy prog elements. Add in some psych rock too.

Take a mix of Genesis, Rush, Porcupine Tree, Gentle Giant and Yes. Then you get this album.

The band uses piano where others would have used keyboards. That is a major difference between this band and other neo-prog bands.

The music on this album fifty minutes long album is pretty epic, lively, hard and melodic. It also got some interesting details. 

The vocals is very good throughout and there is a lot of very good piece of music on these nine tracks. None of them are long but this album should still be regarded as one unit instead of nine songs.

Their music also sounds very fresh and this album is indeed very refreshing. So much that this indeed a very good album indeed. This is a highly talented band with a great future ahead of them..... I hope.

3.5 points

Ekos - Otra Dimension (2017)

The second album from this band from Mexico.

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

The band returned again after a five years long break from the studio. 

Their 2012 debut album Luz Interna was a pretty good psych rock album as you can read from my review of this album earlier this year/month.

The music is again psych rock. Slow to mid-tempo psych rock, that is.

The final Pink Floyd albums comes to mind here. Ekos has just stripped down the music and their music does not have as many instruments as on a fully blown Pink Floyd song/album.

Ekos also brings us male Spanish vocals too. 

As mentioned above, the music on this fifty minutes long album is pretty slow. It is also complex too. It is also at times pretty epic too. In particular at the end after the slow start of the album.

The music starts slow and very ambient like. Then it grows in intensity throughout the album before it really get into full bloom at the end. That is a pretty neat way of mixing and mastering an album. 

The band has yet to full master the art of song writing. Nevertheless, this album really grows on the listener and it is indeed a good album. It is also a rewarding listening too.

3 points

Kronstad 23 - Jobber Overtid (2024)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

The band was a trio with a lineup of percussion, bass, guitars, organ, electric piano and moog.

Several guests added drums, percussion, cornet and saxophones.

Norway has established some jazz academies in the last twenty years. The result is that the jazz and fusion scene has grown a lot in the last years and is perhaps the most vital jazz and fusion scene in the world at the moment.

The result is also a lot of new bands. Some of them only releasing one album as a part of the musicians exams. Some bands and indeed artists has gone on to releasing many albums. 

I sincerely hope Kronstad 23 will join the list of the bands with more than one album. 

The music here is playful and intricate jazz with some fusion influences. I am not an expert on jazz. But the half-acoustic guitars and their interplays with the organ and woodwinds is really good and very enjoyable. 

We get fifty minutes of intricate mid-tempo jazz here. The music is not particular melodic. There is a lot of very interesting details and riffs inbetween some rather quirky, short pieces of melodic harmonies. 

The result is a pretty good album which should also interest the prog rock scene. Check it out.

3 points

Asfalto - Cronophobia (1984)

The seventh album from this band from Spain.

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

This is the follow up album to the album released the year before. A pretty decent melodic rock album.

The band has for some reasons left the melodic rock scene behind and gone on a full frontal hard rock attack.

We are not talking about heavy metal here though. The music is hard, but not heavy. It is also very lively and fast. Some of the music reminds me about Triumph and that Canadian band is indeed a good reference.

The Spanish vocals is good throughout. The sound is good too.

There are a couple of good pieces here. Most of the music on this forty minutes long album is decent enough.

Those into hard rock should check out this album.

2 points

 

 

Electric Moon - Lunatics Revenge (2011)

The second album from this band from Germany.

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

This band was a side project of Sula Bassana, a band still releasing albums. 

Their very good debut album Lunatics was released in 2010 and I reviewed it for # 1 back in January 2013, exactly twelve years and two days ago. I was meant to review their other four albums too but I never came around to do that.

Twelve years later... and I will complete my reviews of their four albums this month. 

The music here is space rock. Outer space rock driven by long guitar themes and solos. There are some vocals here. The vocals works more like an additional instrument than vocals.

The organ is supporting and supplementing the guitars throughout. The bass and drums has the customary dirty space rock sound and is really driving the music forward.

The sound on this fifty minutes long, four pieces of music, is the usual space rock sound. There are a lot of good ideas throughout this album. 

The result is a good album and one space rock fans should check out. This album has now been re-released together with the debut album as one album and that is very good value for your money. 

3 points

Autumn Breeze - The Molotov Ribbentrop Pact (2015)

The third album from this band from Sweden.

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

One guest delivered guitar solos on two tracks.

I have reviewed their first two albums in # 1 and # 2 of this blog. Two good Swedish symphonic prog albums released in 1979 and 2010. The band has released two more albums, altogether four albums, and I have both up for reviews this month. 

This album is..... a rock opera about world war II. A rock opera about one of the biggest manmade disasters ever to happen to us humans (and animals). A five years long world war which included genocides and the loss of seventy million lives. Lives lost on the most violent way possible.

The Molotov Rippentrop Pact was a pact signed in 1939 between two of the most despicable, evil men ever been alive, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Molotov and Rippentrop, the foreign ministers of Sovietunion and Nazi Germany signed it and gave it's name to this horrible pact where Poland was partitioned up by these two evil empires and Sovietunion was given the four countries around the Baltic sea; Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Litauen. A most despicable act, this pact.

So this Swedish band made a rock opera about it. It is a bit surprising that this is more or less the only rock opera about world war II. Maybe it is still too fresh in people's memories. I am pretty sure we will see a lot more rock operas about this theme in the next years and decades.

The music here is all over the place. From Swedish symphonic prog to folk rock, whimsical eclectic prog, vaudeville rock to fusion and chamber rock/RIO/Avant-garde prog.

There is indeed a lot of avant-garde prog here. There are also some catchy, quirky songs here.

 This rock opera is one hour long and it is surprisingly good. This is indeed a very weird album and one of the weirdest albums I have ever reviewed. It is still a good album. Barely a good album but the audacity of the band to go for a project like this elevates this to a good album status. 

Get this album.

3 points

Aurora Observatory. The - Failure Of Imagination (2010)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added guitars and vocals.

This band released two albums between 2010 and 2015. They lost their drumer in a car accident in 2012 too and is now no longer active. I will review their second album in some days time.

The music on this one hour long album is a mix of post-punk, indie rock and eclectic prog. 

The music is hard and noisy throughout with lots of hard drumming, bass and guitars. 

The pieces of music here has some weird melodies and rhythm patterns. 

The vocals is decent enough. Some of it is screaming vocals too.

The result is decent enough. I am not entirely won over but those into weird post punk should check out this album.

2 points

Believe - The Wyrding Way (2024)

The seventh album from this band from Poland.

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

Believe is one of the veteran bands in the progressive rock scene in Poland. They released their first album in 2006 and I believe I have reviewed all their albums.

This is also a band I really like. The band has on some album set the standard for the Polish neo-prog scene.

The music on this one hour long album is mostly neo-prog with some strong art-rock influences.

The music is really elegant throughout. Some of the music is pretty melancholic but not as melancholic as on earlier releases. The violin is here but not as well used as on previous albums.

The vibe is more upbeat this time. The vocals is very good.

The music is at times very good. But most of this album is a bit lacking in quality and identity. This is therefore a good, nice album but not their finest hour.

3 points

Eatliz - All of It (2014)

The third and final album from this band from Israel.

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

A handful of guests added drums, percussion, bass, synths bass, keyboards, programming and vocals.

This is the final album from this band, released during the summer of 2014. The band then split up.

The band had got a new vocalist, Sivan Abelson now being the new vocalist.

Female vocals, her vocals, is still dominating the music here. Music somewhere between dream pop and indie rock.

Sivan's great vocals are more controlled and not so dominating. That leaves plenty of space to some half-acoustic guitars and other instruments. It also lets the pieces of music here live a bit more freely.

There are some good pieces here and some not so good pieces on this three quarters of an hour long album. This is their best album and a good end of their career. This is an album well worth checking out too.

2.5 points

Drifting Sun - Veil (2024)

The eight album from this band from Great Britain.

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

A dozen of guests were adding violin and vocals.

The band continued on with their mix of neo-prog, art-rock and symphonic prog.

Eight songs... the longest one is clocking in at twelve minutes. Then we get some shorter ones too. We get altogether almost fifthy minutes of music here.

The music is both melodic and epic. The opening track has a nice nod towards Yes. It is indeed a lot of nods towards Yes, the Drama era, on this album. The usual Genesis and Marillion influences are still retained on this album.

The music is also very elegant. The songs are short but this album should still be regarded as one fifty minutes long piece of music. It is that symphonic and complex. 

The vocals is good and the band does a really good job.

This is another good album from this band. A bit underrated band who deserve a lot more praise and attention.

3 points

 

 

Astral Bazaar - Hypnosis of the 12th Degree (2024)

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

This band has gained themselves quite a fanbase over the last years. I have reviewed their first two albums for # 1 and # 2 of this blog and really liked them.

The music here is space rock with some pop and indie rock sensibilities.

The space rock is melodic and pretty fluffy and light. Lots of vocals here too. Some good half-acoustic guitars too.

The saxophone adds some weirdness to the music too.

There is a lot of surf rock here too. 

The sound is sparse and there is no walls of sound here on this forty minutes long album.  

The result is a pretty good album... make that a good album indeed. Space rock fans should check out this album.

3 points