Pajjama - Womb (2017)

The second and final album from this band from Norway.

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

Their 2014 debut album Karakasa was a decent enough album.

The music there was electronica with some avant-garde elements. 

The music continues on the same path on the barely half an hour long Womb. The music is electronica with some eclectic prog and avant-garde rock elements.

There are some disturbing male vocals, make that voices, on some of these pieces of music.

The music is based on keyboards and synths. It is a bit atonal at times. It also has a lot of repetitions and some weird melody pieces.

The result is another decent album from this band. The album is well short but still worth checking out as either a cassette or a digital download.

2 points

 

Opeth - The Last Will and Testament (2024)

The 14th album from this band from Sweden.

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

Three guests provided spoken words. Ian Anderson was one of this trio. 

Opeth is one of the best bands in both the prog and the metal scene these days. It is a band who are a crossover between extreme metal, progressive metal and symphonic prog. Every new album from them is received with intense interest from these two scenes.

The music on this fifty minutes long album sounds like a rock opera... which it probably is. Not only that.. the music has a lot in common with the heavy, meaty Wagner operas. There is a lot of Wagnerian over the music here.

The mix of growls, operatic and clean vocals also adds a lot of Wagner operas to this album.

The music is both heavy, muscular, epic and very complex. Hence the opera connotations. 

The musicianship is top notch. There are some very good guitar solos here too. The vocals too is superb.

The music is not immediate and does not feel great after the first ten listening sessions. But it really grows on the listener and I get the feeling that this album will, when the dust has settled and people has become used to it, be regarded as one of the great Opeth albums.

It is indeed a great album and one of the best albums from last year, 2024. 

4 points

 

 

Wilson. Steven - The Harmony Codex (2023)

The eight and so far latest album from this artist from Great Britain.

Steven Wilson did percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, sampler, programming and vocals here.

He got help from numerous guests who added drums, bass, guitars, violin, chapmann stick, organ, piano, mellotron, keyboards, synths, programming, woodwinds, voices and vocals.

Steven Wilson is one of the biggest profiles in today's prog scene... and surely one of the biggest profiles in the history of prog rock. That is both stating the facts and a compliment. 

The previous album The Future Bites (2021) saw him strike out in another direction than progressive rock. 

The Harmony Codex is not as big diversion from progressive rock than The Future Bites was. 

The music on this just over one hour long album is a mix of electronica, cinematic rock, psych rock and some more ambient meditations.

Parts of this album, the best parts of this album, sounds like the final two Pink Floyd albums. Floating psych rock, in other words. 

Other parts of this album is pretty pedestrian and rather uninteresting.

This album still has Steven Wilson's and some Porcupine Tree DNAs all over it. It sounds modern. But it is still not a good album. It is just not there.

Steven Wilson is said to be releasing a prog rock album this winter. I am looking forward to that album.

2.5 points

 

 

Stratospheerius - Guilty of Innocence (2017)

The third album from this band from USA.

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

Numerous guests added drums, guitars, cello, violin, viola, keyboards and vocals. Alex Skolnick from Testament is among the guests here.

The band returned after a five years long break. The previous album The New World was released in 2012 and I reviewed it for # 1 of this blog the same year. I have also reviewed their 2007 debut album Headspace some days ago, on the last day of 2024. 

I liked both albums. A review of their new album, released last year, will be posted before the end of this month.

The music on the fifty minutes long Guilty Of Innocence is a bit all over the place. From bluegrass inspired americana to funk, jazz, fusion, eclectic prog to more hard rock. Add in some pieces of neo-classical music and you get my drift. 

There is even a Muse cover here. 

The music is really, really intense at times. It is like a Mahavishnu Orchestra album, only three times faster. 

The violins from Joe Deninzon is the dominating instrument here as this is his band, his vision. They are a bit too overpowering here and the album comes across as a violin hero album. 

There are some good stuff here. But half of this album is decent or worse. 

There are simply not enough pieces of good music here. Nevertheless, check out this band.

2.5 points

 

Lethe. Il - Il Cavaliere Inesistente (2024)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

Two guests added extra male and female vocals.

This is a band I thought I would never hear from again after their 1993 debut album Nymphae. An album I in April 2017 gave a good rating in # 2 of this blog.

But the band resurfaced again with this seventy minutes long album.

We are again deep into RPI territory. The music is very melodic RPI with Italian vocals. Good vocals, btw. The flutes is, besides of the vocals, the dominant instrument here. 

On Nymphae, the band sounded like a mix of Jethro Tull and ELP. Now, the band sounds like... well, a bit proggy pop/rock where there is no longer any similarities with ELP and Jethro Tull.

The music is a bit pedestrian and not particular exciting or even interesting.

There are three good songs here. The rest is decent enough. Hence, this album is not as good as their debut album. RPI fans would rightly so get this album. I am not won over by this album.

2.5 points

Motorpsycho - The Crucible (2019)

The 22nd album from this band from Norway.

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

A handful of guests added reeds, electronics and vocals.

This is the second album in a trilogy of albums, it is claimed by their fans. The album art-work comes from the same painter.  

The music here is not particular different from their previous album The Tower. 

Take psych rock, add some garage rock, art-rock and space rock. The result is this three pieces of music, forty minutes long album.

Some of the music here is also pretty epic with undertones of symphonic prog. 

In a weird way... the music is pretty melodic. It is also fascinating and compelling listening, their music.

That also goes for this good album. An album with a lot of good details and melodies. It is another reason why I last year, due to the reviews of their twenty-two first albums, starting to become a convert to their music. This is indeed a great band.

3 points

Eatliz - Violently Delicate (2008)

The debut album from this band from Israel.

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

This band released three albums between 2008 and 2014. They are up for review this month in this blog. 

I am off course starting with their debut album, this album.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a mix of dream pop, indie rock and eclectic prog. 

Their sound is very much dominated by the vocals from Lee Triffon. Her vocals is very good and it is all over the album.

Their music is both melodic, eclectic and quirky. The songs are far from being straight forward. The drummer is also very busy throughout this album.

There are some avant-garde dissonant pieces here too. Not long ones but they gives this album an edge.

The result is a decent enough album without any really good songs. It is an album worth checking out, though. It is still available from their Bandcamp page.

2 points

PRP - No Pristine Rubbery Perception (2021)

The debut album from this band from Finland.

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

PRP stands for (The) Petteri & Rami Project. Which is the two first names of the musicans here.

The band released their second album in 2024 and I will review it sometimes before the end of this month.

The music on this almost forty minutes long album is a mix of art-rock and heavy prog.  

Take a blend of Porcupine Tree and Rush. Add some sprinklings of psych rock and the Hogarth era Marillion too and you get my drift.

The music is pretty melodic with some sprinklings of retro organs and electric guitars.

The music is pretty good. There are some decent stuff here and some good stuff here.

This is a more than acceptable debut album and I am looking forward to getting the chance to listen to their new album.

2.5 points

 

 

Pajjama - Karakasa (2014)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This is a another Norwegian band who has flown under my radar until I discovered them half a year ago. Says everything about the big Norwegian fusion, prog and art-rock scene these days. 

The band released two albums before they gave up the ghost. I will review the second album later this month. Both albums released as cassette albums through a cassette record label in USA. My memories of cassettes is not good. Bad memories, indeed.

The music is a blend of electronica (mostly), cinematic rock and some jazz and art-rock.

There are quite a considerable amount of organic instruments here inbetween the electronica computers. 

The music is a bit pedestrian and does not offer up a lot of good stuff. The music is eclectic, but not particular interesting.

The result is a decent enough album and one to check out of eclectic electronica keeps you warm at night.

2 points

 

 

Tesuji - Mirage (2024)

The debut album from this band from France.

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

Two guests added vocals.

This duo comes from Antibes, a place just between Cannes and Nice on the French Rivera. A very sunny part of France/Europe. 

There is a lot of sunshine in their music too. Which is good and well in my cold office on the first day of the year.

To be more precise... The music is a pretty muscular blend of art-rock and harder prog. A blend of Marillion, Porcupine Tree and Rush.

The good vocals has a heavy French accent. Something that comes across as charming and adds a lot of sun and lights to this album.

The two musicians is doing a good job with some solid piano and guitars playing here.

The overall quality on these fifty minutes of music is good. 

This is a name-your-price Bandcamp album and an album everyone into art-rock and prog should download. It is a bit of a charming album.

3 points