I hope you will still enjoy the 2600 reviews in this chapter of
the blog.
The new chapter, The Sound Of Fighting Cats # 4 is
available at
# 4 will serve us until 2029'ish when # 5 takes over
The Sound Of Fighting Cats blog lives on
The 11th album from this band from USA.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
This album is their second album this year and I guess the album with the short songs. The album called Time Silent Radio II has three long suites.
Time Silent Radio VII is more songs based as it is three quarters of an hour long, divided on seven songs. The longest song here clocks in at eight and a half minutes.
This band album debuted back in 1991 with their self-titled album. I have reviewed their self-titled 2012 album, their eight album. I have no idea why they have two self-titled albums. But that 2012 album is my only meeting with this band.... until now where I am now listening to and reviewing Time Silent Radio VII.
The music here is basically American symphonic prog with some neo-prog and pomp rock influences. The music is at the melodic side of the prog rock spectrum. There is some pretty good early Elton John influences here too.
The result is a good album and one that makes me wanting to explore this band a lot more. I hope to do soem more reviews of their albums in the coming years.
3 points
The sixth album from this band from Sweden.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
Numerous guests added drums, percussion, guitars, accordian, piano, organ, clavinet, keyboards, woodwinds and vocals.
This is their return after a nine years long album break. I believe they have done some gigs with The Tangent inbetween their last two albums.
Transmutation is a one hour long album. The music continues down the same road the band has always followed. That means one hour of Scandinavian symphonic prog. There are some heavy prog influences here too.
The music is both epic and bold. It is also elegant with some very good vocals.
The music has also got some complex pieces inbetween some very good pieces of music.
There is a very good harmony between the various instruments here and the vocals. Some of the vocals are also vocal harmonies.
Jonas Reingold and Karmakanic has again delivered a very good album which will please all fans of symphonic prog. Check out this album.
3.5 points
The 13th album from this band from Ukraine.
The band is a duo on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
This band is in reality a one-man-band and has been that since the start. The person behind it never gives out information or do any interviews. It still have a big following and is one of the bigger extreme metal/black metal bands in the world.
Drudkh has always been somewhere between folk music, black metal and progressive rock. That is not the case on this fifty-five minutes long album.
What we get here is fast and furious black metal. There are still some hints of folk music and progressive rock here but these hints are very faint, indeed.
There is a great deal of sadness in the music. No wonder taken into consideration the unprovoced Russian attack on Ukrainia.
The result is a decent enough album. I am no fan of black metal but this is an album well worth checking out even for those of us who are not fans of this genre.
2 points
The sixth album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
This is their so far latest album. The band album debuted back in 2006 and I have reviewed all their albums. I have so far not been impressed.
The music on this forty minutes long album is a blend of art-rock and neo-prog. A good reference is Marillion. That is both early and latter days Marillion.
On this album, the band has reverted a bit back to the neo-prog soundscape from the early 1990s. There is therefore far more neo-prog here than art-rock.
This album is therefore a kind of a retro neo-prog album. It is also based on songs. Some of them are pretty short and catchy, make that poppy, too. The final track is an eleven minutes long track.
The qualiy has actually improved on this album and this is their so far best album. I am not yet converted but I still hope we will get some more albums from them.
This is indeed a good album and well worth checking out.
3 points
The third and so far latest album from this band from Finland.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, mellotron, organ, minimoog, piano, synths, clarinet, saxophone and vocals.
The band returned three years after their very good second album with this, their third album.
This band went back to the roots of the Finnish psych and progressive rock scene from the 1970s and created their own brand on their two first albums.
This is something they have done on this almost forty minutes long album too.
Take some cool mid-tempo melodic music with plenty of organ, minimoog, mellotron, guitars, saxophones and some clarinet. Add some cool, good Finnish vocals on the top.
The soundscape is very cool and the music has some very interesting details.
It has to be said that this album is not as good as their second album though. Nevertheless, this is a good album which reeks of class and quality. This is really a band who deserve a lot more attention and one of my best discoveries this year.
3 points
The second album from this band from Poland.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, bouzouiki, keyboards and vocals.
I reviewed their 2018 debut album back in August 2018 for # 2 of this blog and gave it a good rating. I compared the band with Bad Company back then.
This fifty minutes long album takes us through some psych rock. The psych rock has been blended with folk rock, blues, fusion and art-rock too. There is even some Iron Maiden'ish heavy metal blended in with the psych rock here.
In other words, the band is playing on many different strings on this album.
The male vocals is pretty good and the band does a good job on some workman like songs. Songs which has plenty of both keyboards and guitars.
Not all the music is good here and the band has yet to master the art of writing great songs. This is still a pretty good album and one to check out.
2.5 points
The seventh album from this artist from Great Britain.
Fish did the vocals here.
He got help from some guests who delivered drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, loops, programming, narrations and backing vocals.
Fish returned again with his first post-millenium album.
This album is just over fifty minutes long. The music is a blend of art-rock, folk rock and mainstream rock.
The album is as always dominated by Fish vocals and indeed, personality.
The songs are pretty muscular with where his full range of vocals are being employed.
There is not a bad song here. There is not a great song here either. The music is good throughout. A bit too workman like at times, but still good.
This is also an interesting album with some good details. Hence.....
3 points
The debut album from this artist from Great Britain.
Colin did the percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, trombone and drum programming here.
Two guests added various noises and female vocals.
I reviewed his second and third album fifteen years or so ago for ProgArchives. I also interviewed Colin for the same magazine too. Then I forgot about his albums.... before I found three unreviewed albums in my collection. These three will be reviewed here and in the upcoming # 4 of this blog sometimes in the next couple of weeks. I also hope to purchase a copy of his new album too.
Colin Masson has in total released six solo albums and some albums as a member of The Morrigan.
This one hour and five minutes long album gives us a mix of keltic folk music and symphonic prog. There is a lot of Camel influences here. There is also a lot of Clannad influences here too.
This album has three tracks. There is some very good female vocals from Cathy Alexander on the opening title track. That is the most Clannad influenced track here. The two remaining tracks are more in the vein of Camel.
The guitars are very good throughout this album. The quality of the song writing leaves something to be desired as the final track is a bit of a dead fish.
The result is a good album and one to check out if symphonic rock with some keltic folk influences are your thing.
3 points
The second album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a sextet on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
Two guests added guitars and programming.
Their 2019 debut album New Ghost Orchestra was a pretty good debut album. The music somewhere between electronica and art-rock. Oceanside was a reference for that album.
Six years later and Oceanside is still an influence on this band and this fifty minutes long album.
The music is in short a blend of art-rock, post-rock and electronica. It is the post-millenium's take on progressive rock. It is a break with the 1970s Genesis influenced progressive rock... but still it is progressive rock as far as I am concerned.
The music is mid-tempo with some good guitars. Some of the guitars are dissonant in the vein of post-rock. There is some ebbs and flows here too. The music is still melodic with some good female and male vocals.
The overall quality is good. I hope we will hear more from this band in the future as their first two albums showcases a band with some pretty substantial promise.
3 points
The second album from this band from Spain.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, Spanish guitar, electric guitar and vocals.
The band returned again with their follow up to their 2017 debut album Fiebre. A good folk rock with a lot of flamenco guitars.
That was a pretty wild and hard album. So I was expecting the same again... But I was wrong.
We are still in and around the Spanish folk rock genre again on this fifty minutes long album. Plenty of Spanish guitars delivering flamenco and other wild, local types of folk music.
The band has restrained themselves and gone for a more elegant, sophisticated mid-tempo take on folk rock. This by incorporating Spanish symphonic prog into their music.
The music is therefore pretty melodic. It still has some wild, youthful music. The Spanish vocals are pretty wild but also very good.
The result is a very good album and a confirmation that this band is one of the best bands coming out of Spain in the recent decade. Check out this band and album.
3.5 points
The 10th album from this band from Peru.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, flute and vocals.
Two guests added English vocals on a couple of tracks.
I was not impressed at all by their previous album, the 2023 album Lines Of Nasca. A heavy metal folk rock album and not a good one.
The band seems to have left their roots and gone for a commercial heavy metal sound again on the forty-five minutes long Cosmos.
There is a lot of Spanish vocals and South-American flutes on this album. Somehow, some of the flutes sounds like this band is an Irish folk metal band. Which is strange.... But very commercial.
There are some English vocals tracks here too, two of them, and they leaves a bad taste in the listeners mouths.
There are some folk rock here. But there are not many minutes of folk rock here. Most of the music is heavy metal, almost power metal, and the only saving grace here is the flutes. There are also a couple of pretty good songs here.
The result is a decent enough album. I very much prefer their first albums compared to their latest two albums. Go for those albums instead of this album.
2 points
The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, samples and vocals.
A female vocalist added her vocals on one of the songs.
The band returned again four years after their less than impressive Paralysed And Hypnotised album. I reviewed that album in # 1 of this blog back in September 2015. That was when I gave up on this band until I earlier this year decided to review their remaining five albums. See these reviews somewhere else in this blog.
The Code is a forty minutes long album. The music is a blend of neo-prog and heavy prog. There is even some pub rock and mainstream rock on this album.
The music here is very muscular. It is also heavy at times. The music is also pretty complex and it has a progressive rock edge. Some of the songs are a bit too straight forward and is lacking in details. Too much workman like and run-of-the-mill mainstream rock.
The music is mostly driven by guitars with the keyboards playing a supporting role. One of the songs has some good female vocals too.
The male vocals is good and so is half of this album. This album is an improvement on the Paralysed And Hypnotised album but not by much. The band can do better.
2.5 points
The second album from this band from Finland.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, minimoog, mellotron, organ, electric piano, keyboards and vocals.
Some guests added double bass, violin, octave violin, minimoog and flute on a couple of tracks.
I really enjoyed their 2015 self-titled debut album. An album with some good retro psych and symphonic prog. An album that established this band as one of the best bands in Finland.
The band continues on in the same direction on this forty minutes long album. It has a blend of acid folk, psych rock and symphonic prog. The music is a bit of a return to the 1970s Finnish prog and psych scene.
The male vocals is very good and the sound is great. Ditto for the ambience. The organ, minimoog and the mellotron sound adds a lot to this album. Ditto for the restrained guitar solos where no tones are wasted. That gives this album it's elegant sound. Add in the vocals and the flute on one of the tracks and the listener is being transported to the thousand lakes by the music here.
The music is very elegant too. It has lots of very interesting details too.
The band has grown in confidence on this album and bettered their debut album. This is indeed a very good album, indeed. Check out this album.
3.5 points
The debut album from this band from Chile.
The band was a ten members big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, synths, saxohone, flute, narration and vocals.
I am not really certain if this is a band or a collective of musicians who has recorded and released this forty minutes long album through Bandcamp.
The music here is also all over the place. This album is truly bi-polar.
We start with dream pop, then get some djent, progressive metal, avant-garde electronics, rock and then some jazz.
This album feels like a compilation album where everyone does their own thing and where there is no band and not coherence.
The music is decent enough but this album is too varied and too much kicking in all possible and impossible directions.
2 points
The second album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, flute and vocals.
The band returned again one year after their debut album was released.
The music on this album is a mix of hard rock and pomp rock. Mostly pomp rock, it has to be said. Styx is an obvious and clear reference here as they were on their debut album too.
The vocals is good and the band does a good job on some straight forward songs. Verse-chorus-verse in other words.
The music is pretty hard. It still retains this 1970s hard rock sound too.
There are some pretty good songs here and some sub-standard songs. Not everything has aged well on this album.
The result is barely a decent album. It is also widely regarded as one of their weakest albums and I am glad to hear that the coming albums, and I am reviewing all their albums, may be better than this one.
2 points
The second 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 for their second album. This time with a record deal with Sensory in USA and worldwide. The self-released debut album had impressed a lot of people and this band was regarded as one of the best unsigned bands at that time. And rightly so although I did not really embrace their debut album in my review earlier this week.
Tall Poppy Syndrome is an one hour long album.
The band blends in pomp rock, djent and art-rock into their take on progressive metal here. Bands like Opeth and in particular Riverside is references here. But Leprous has more or less created their own universe here. This is an universe they really never left throughout their career.
The vocals is mostly clear vocals with some screamo djent vocals on the most heavy pieces of music here. Music that in places is wandering into death metat territory too.
The music is very complex and sometimes epic. There is still some melodic pieces here too.
The result is a good album and one that really broke the band as this album was widely regarded as the best prog metal album that year. Check it out.
3 points
The debut album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a ten piece big collective with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, synths, computers and vocals.
This is my first meeting with New Ghost from Sheffield in Yorkshire. A town more known for the birthplace of steel, knives and the zillions of albums selling Def Leppard. New Ghost has so far released two albums and I will publish a review of their second album before the end of this month.
This band started out as a ten pieces big collective on this album before shedding half of their participants on their second album.
The music is a blend of electronica, indie rock and art-rock on this forty minutes long album. Oceansize is a good reference when it comes to bands they sounds like.
The vocals are a mix of male and female vocals. The music is melodic with an electronica edge.
The quality of the music is pretty good. I am not won over by this album but I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into their second album. Hopefully, more albums will follow.
2.5 points
The debut album from this band from Spain.
The band was a sextet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, electric guitar, flamenco guitar, banjo, saxophone, flute and vocals.
This band is a new discovery to me. They have just released their second album and a review of that album will be posted here before the end of the month.
Fiebre is a fifty minutes long album in the Spanish folk rock tradition.
There is a lot of both early Spanish symphonic prog from the 1970s, Latin rock, flamenco and Jethro Tull influences.
The frequent flamenco guitars gives this album a very exotic flavour. In this respect, this band is a very original, exotic band to us from the English speaking part of this scene.
There is also a lot of mainstream folk rock here with the emphasis on the rock part of this genre. We get some rock hooks and rock guitar solos.
The Spanish vocals, male vocals, is good and the band deliver some really good music on the whole spectrum from hard to more softly spoken folk rock.
The result is a good album indeed. One both folk and prog rock fans should check out.
3 points
The eighth album from this artist from Norway.
Anders Buaas did percussion, bass, guitars and keyboards here.
A handful of guests added drums, percussion, piano, saxophone and vocals.
I have to admit I had my reservations when I got this fifty minutes long album for review. His previous albums has been instrumental symphonic prog and cinematic rock. There is nothing wrong with the music and his first seven albums but I have grown a bit tired of this type of music lately...
Then Anders Buaas gives me a big surprise. This album is not instrumental symphonic prog and cinematic rock. It is a different kettle of fish.
Take keltic folk rock, blend it with symphonic prog and some cinematic rock. There is even a whiff of americana in this music. Then add some really great female and male vocals. On the top of that again, add a soprano saxophone which really sets the tone.
Anders Buaas guitars too are adding a lot of good things to this folk rock/symph prog crossover album. Both is acoustic and electric guitars is on fire here.
The ambience and mood here is great. The ambience is as described on the album art-work. Melancholic but still pastoral and dignified.
This is no doubts his best album so far and an album who really deserve a more mainstream audience. That if there was any justice in the music business. And we all know that this is not the case.
3.5 points
The 150th or so album from this band from Germany.
The band was a trio with a lineup of violin and synths.
Edgar Froese passed on in 2015 and the albums thereafter was either archive material, scetches or music inspired by Edgar Froese recorded and released under the name of Tangerine Dream.
None of the members here was ever involved in Tangerine Dream when Edgar Froese was alive. A bit suspect and immoral, but.... well, I leave that to the fans and experts on this band.
This album is seventy minutes long. Parts of this album is a long dirge with not much variations going on. Other parts is more uplifting and sunny. The music is at times pretty organic.
This also sounds like a Tangerine Dream album to me. Experts may disagree with me about this.
The violin adds a lot to this album and the music is not bad at all. This is also the final Tangerine Dream album up for review this year and probably in the coming years. I am still not a fan of the band and this genre. A genre I am avoiding as much as possible. But Edgar Froese & co has my full respect. They left a great legacy.
2 points
The second album from this band from Germany.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass and guitars.
I reviewed their debut album, Nola from 2021, some days ago and was not very impressed. A run-of-the-mill post-rock and space rock album.
The band has returned again and that with this forty minutes long album.
The music has changed a bit since Nola.
The music is far more focused on space rock this time. There is hardly any post-rock left here.
The music is pretty groovy and the space rock is in the outer space region. The music is also hard and noisy throughout with as it should have, a dirty soundscape.
The guitars are leading the aural assaults here. The band has some pretty good original ideas too.
The result is a pretty good album and one to check out is space rock is your cup of tea.
2.5 points
The 22nd album from this band from Italy.
The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, organ, keyboards, synths and vocals.
The band returned with this forty-five minutes long album. It is part three of a trilogy which includes the previous two albums too.. Transiberiana (2019) and Orlando (2022). Both of them has been reviewed in both # 2 and this issue of these blogs.
The band has long time ago, decades ago, left their RPI roots behind them and gone for some more simplified and commercial pop/rock. There are still some folk rock here and a whiff of jazz.
The music is easy on the ear and the Italian vocals is good.
This band is one of the pioneers and biggest names in the RPI scene. This is why I am reviewing this album as I have reviewed their previous albums too. That aside, there is hardly anything reminding us about RPI in their new music.
This is a decent album in it's own right but nothing more than that.
2 points
The third album from this band from Finland.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, flute and vocals.
One guest added extra vocals on one track.
I am reviewing the remaining Overhead albums this spring after I did review two of their albums a couple of years ago. Two more reviews will follow this spring in either this edition of the blog or # 4 which will come on line next month.
Overhead is a good band from Finland which I really rate highly. That from what I have heard from them so far.
Originally a heavy prog band, the band introduces art-rock and indeed blends it with their take on heavy prog. A take which on this fifty minutes long album is also a nod to the 1970s prog rock scene in Finland.
There are also some hints, pretty many hints of both folk rock and neo-prog here. There is also some Pink Floyd'ish psych rock here too.
The music has a nice blend of melodic and hard music. Both the male and female vocals is very good and the rest of the band does a great job here. Some narrations gives the music a whiff of rock opera too.
The result is a good album indeed from an underrated band. Check out this band.
3 points
The third album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, samples and vocals.
I am reviewing a handful of their albums, the remaining ones I have not reviewed before, this spring. More reviews to follow either here or next month in # 4 of this blog.
I was not particular impressed by their second album, the 2009 album Head For The Moon. Not good enough songs, in short.
The band returns again with their blend of art-rock and neo-prog. This time with an hour long album.
The songs here are very much in the art-rock genre... far more than they are in the neo-prog. But the music still got some early Marillion inspirations.
The music is also a bit poppy and verse-chorus-verse orienated. There are some good vocals here too. There is also some samplings here from the 9/11 atrocity in New York and that song is poignant. I remember that day as the nightmare/pure horror it was. Even in Northern Ireland where I then lived. That song is good and respectful.
The quality is somewhere between decent and good. This album is a small improvement from their second album but not by much. Better songs are required.
2.5 points
The one and only album from this band from France.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
This one hour long album is one of the more obscure albums released in the last twenty-five years here in Europe. It was released on a sub-label of Musea in France. It has also been labeled as neo-prog in ProgArchives and other places. Nobody agrees with that label.
The music here is basically heavy prog with some symphonic prog influences and some faint hints of neo-prog influences.
The vocals are in French and the music is in the French symphonic prog tradition. It is just a bit more heavy and has more catchy songs than being outright symphonic prog.
The sound is not particular impressive, but it still an acceptable sound.
There is a lot of chugging, heavy guitars here with the keyboards playing a supporting role.
There are also a couple of pastoral songs here which reminds me about the RPI scene. There is some RPI influences here indeed. Of the French bands, Nemo is the one I would compare this band and their music with.
The songs are pretty good and this album therefore deserve a lot more attention. There is a lot to like here although some of the songs are not up to an acceptable standard. Check out this album. An album deserving a re-release and some proper promotion.
3 points
The debut album from this band from Norway.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, electric sitar, flute, clarinet, samples, synths and programming.
Some guests added guitar, clavinet, synths, trombone, trumpet, saxophone and effects.
I have earlier in this blog reviewed their second and third album. This because I thought I already had reviewed this album, their debut album. I had not so I have now returned to this album for a review.
The music on this forty-five minutes long album is cinematic rock.
There are also some psych rock here in this funeral dirge sounding piece of music. It is really one piece of music, one theme, as there is not much variations here.
The soundscape is busy with sitars, guitars, woodwinds and electroncs filling the sound and making a busy sounding slow dirge.
The result is decent enough. This is a good debut album and this is what it is. Check out their two other albums too.
2 points
The second album from this band from Poland.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
I have missed out on their 2020 debut album 2Years 2Late. So this album is my first meeting with them.
This album is forty five minutes long.
The music is a blend of art-rock and neo-prog. It is very much in the same vein and genre as other Polish bands like Millenium and Believe.
That means a bit somber music with some good vocals. Let See Thin's music is not as melancholic as the music from most other bands from Poland. It is still not dance in the sunshine.
The music is also pretty muscular too. It is pretty heavy at times.
The music is also good throughout this album and this band is another good addition to the scene in Poland... and the worldwide scene.
3 points
The 100th (??) or so album from this band from Germany.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of bass, guitars, violin, keyboards and synths.
This album was the first album released in the Tangerine Dream name after the passing of Edgar Froese, the founder of this band. Hence it got some media attention, this album.
Edgar Froese features on this album. A seventy-five minutes long album.
The music is left overs and unfinished ideas from the last years of Edgar's life.
The music is also light and fluffy ambient electronica with some elements of cinematic rock.
The music is synths dominated with some pulsating bass driving the music forwards. There are some violins and guitars too.. but not enough of them.
The music is decent enough and one can only wonder what would have happened to these pieces of music if Edgar had not passed on before these ideas was fully developed.
2 points
The debut album from this band from Germany.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass and guitars.
This band has so far released two albums through their Bandcamp site and I got both of them up for review this month.
The music on this thirty-four minutes long album is a mix of post-rock and space rock. Most of all, this is a post-rock album.
The music is pretty hard and guitars driven.
There are some harmonies here but the majority of the music is hard riffs.
The band and this album does not really add anything to the genre as the music here is too much run-of-the-mill. Nevertheless, this is a decent enough album.
2 points
The eight album from this band from Germany.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, piano, keyboards, programming and vocals.
A trio of guests added drums and female vocals.
I have had they joy of reviewing all their albums in this blog and you will find these reviews somewhere else here.
Everybody thought their 2008 album North was their final album. But the band returned again earlier this year with their eight album, their comeback album. I have no idea why this band took so long. I am just happy to see them back again as this band is a very underrated and underappreciated band in the scene.
The band continues on from North on this seventy minutes long album. That is heavy, monumental and elegant pomp rock and progressive rock with a lot of progressive metal influences.
The music is not progressive metal though. It is more musicals and elegant pomp rock driven than progressive metal.
The male and female vocals is very good. There are some great pieces of music inbetween the good pieces of music too.
This is therefore another very good album from this band and I hope they will release albums on a more regular basis from now on.
3.5 points
The seventh album from this band from Germany.
The band was quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
A guest did the drums on three tracks.
The band continued on with this forty minutes long album.
Kraan is a band who has never confined themselves to one genre. The have been moving around from psych rock to fusion, jazz and krautrock. They are most of all the German's answer to Gong.
That is the side of Kraan you find on this album. Some weirdo post-punk influenced krautrock mixed u with jazz.
The vocals are in German and I guess the lyrics is bit wild, taking into account the mad delivery of the vocals. The vocals are pretty good, btw.
Then we also have some good jazz here.
Yes, this album is a bit mad and weird. The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I have heard better albums from this band than this one.
2.5 points
The debut album from this band from Finland.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, grand piano, organ, mellotron, keyboards and vocals.
Three guests added mellotron and flute.
This band is among the many new bands from Finland who has taken up the inheritance left by the great Finnish prog rock bands from the 1970s. Finland had and has a good scene now and Malady was and hopefully still is a part of this scene.
The band has so far released three albums and they are all up for reviews in this blog, either in this edition or in the upcoming # 4 of this blog.
The music on this forty minutes long album is a mix of psych rock, folk rock and a bit of symphonic prog. The album has got male Finnish vocals/lyrics and the vocals are all good.
There are some good organ and mellotron harmonies here and the guitars too are good.
The music is both complex and melodic. It also has a great ambience and feel.
The result is a good album and one that makes me look forward to getting my teeth into their two other albums too.
3 points
The second and final album from this band from Argentina.
The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, e-bow, electric piano and keyboards.
Their debut album were very much like a King Crimson tribute or even a copycat album. The band still inserted some jazz into their eclectic prog.
Thirteen years later, the band returned again with this seventy-five minutes long album. A live album with songs never recorded in a studio. Hence, I am reviewing this album.
The music here is jazz with some fusion and eclectic prog influences.
The band has included a jazzy take on the King Crimson classic Frame By Frame as a part of a nine minutes long improvisation. The rest of the album is jazz. Latin jazz, that is.
The sound is pretty good. The guitars and piano is good. The quality of the tracks is not bad at all.
This band deserve a lot more attention and the same goes for this album. Check out both albums.
2.5 points
The second album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a one man band with Patrick Molesworth doing piano, keyboards and vocals.
He got help from some guests who added drums, bass, guitars, cello, violin, flute and backing vocals.
Patrick returned again six years after his decent enough self-titled debut album. An album I reviewed some days ago in this blog.
The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is again mainstream rock with some art-rock and neo-prog influences. There are now some psych rock influences too and the band's admiration for Pink Floyd shines through this album.
There are also some mid 1970s Jethro Tull folk rock influences here too.
The music is better this time around. Ditto for the sound.
This album is an improvement on their debut album. This band is not setting the world on fire but their albums, in particular this album, should still be checked out.
2.5 points
The fourth album from this band from Italy.
The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
One guest delivere additional vocals on one song.
I reviewed their first three albums last year in this blog and gave them good ratings throughout.
The band started as a Canterbury scene band before they moved to neo-prog on their second album. They returned to their Canterbury scene roots on the K album from 2019 and was hoping that they would stay there for good.
.... But my hope was dashed on this thirty-seven minutes long album.
The music is mostly art-rock here with some neo-prog and some psych rock influences. No wonder the band has self-titled this album as there is hardly anything left from the old band called Eveline's Dust.
The music is mid-tempo and pretty gloomy. That is helped by the pretty gloomy male vocals too.
Some of the music is decent and a couple of the pieces of music here is good. This album is for me a bit of a disappointment, though.
2.5 points
The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
I have had the joy of reviewing their studio albums. The first one ten years ago in # 1, when the band went under the name Synaesthesia, and the more recent ones in this edition of the blog.
Their latests album is an one hour long album.
The music is a muscular and pretty heavy blend of pomp rock, art-rock and neo-prog. Haken from Sweden is a good reference again.
The music is epic, bold, theatrical and complex. There are some catchy pieces of music here too. They sounds a bit like Ghost now and then.
The vocals is good and the band does a good job.
The result is another good album from this band. Kyros must surely be regarded as one of the leading/better bands in the British scene these days. Something this album proves.
3 points
The sixth album from this band from USA.
The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, bass and keyboards.
This trio has released some of the strangest albums I have ever reviewed. I am not sure if they are progressive rock at all. Well, they are not progressive rock. They are eclectic neo-classical music albums.
This album clocks in at just over forty minutes and we get a lot of ELP and Trace influenced music here. The Pink Mice should also be included here although their music were more cheesy and sunny than the music on this album.
The music on Deliria, which comes as nine different pieces in this suite, is pretty dark and brooding.
Piano and keyboards is the main instrument here.
There is no denying that this music is not particular good. The music is too pedestrian. Nevertheless, the gloomy soundscape adds some quality to this half-decent music.
I admire the band for their guts and original approach to their craft. This album is only a half-decent album though...
1.5 points
The second album from this band from USA.
The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards, synths and vocals.
I reviewed their 2021 debut album If Only... in August last year and was not won over by that pretty good album. That album has a mix of cinematic rock and neo-prog.
Four years has gone since the release of that album and the band is back again with this sixty-five minutes long album.
The music is classic progressive rock. It is a blend of neo-prog and symphonic prog. References are Yes, Genesis, Kansas and a bit King Crimson.
There are still around five minutes of cinematic prog here. Those are an interlude between two major pieces of music.
The music is mid-tempo and pretty complex throughout. The music is also at times pretty hard too.
The vocals and guitar solos are good here. Very good at times. Ditto for the sound.
The music is at times a bit too pedestrian for my liking. There are also some great pieces of music here. The major problem I have got is the quality of the music which is not always good.
This is a very good album which I am sure fans of classic progressive rock will love. Get this album.
3.5 points
The sixth album from this artist from Great Britain.
Fish did all the lead vocals here.
He got help from numerous guests who added drums, percussion, bass, guitars, fiddle, violin, cello, keyboards, harmonium, piano, organ, narration and backing vocals.
Fish returned again two years after the good Sunsets On Empire album, his best album up to that point.
Raingods with Zippos is an one hour long album. It comes in two parts with some cathchy opening tracks. Thankfully, these soulful songs has not been killed by brass and woodwinds. Hence, they are pretty tasteful good. Full of life too.
Then this album takes a bit of an unexpected turn....
Fish now starts to deliver his best vocals ever on a half an hour long suite.
This suite deliver some mid-tempo to slow melancholic music with some good strings, guitar solos and great vocals. Music bordering too symphonic prog.. well, this is symphonic prog. This on Fish own terms.
This is a good suite and an endearing one who showcases a far better side of his talents than previously showcased.
The result is an album less chasing the trends and a more prog rock orientated album. A good album indeed and one that betters his previous album. Check out this album.
3 points
The 50th (??) album from this band from Germany.
The band was a duo with a lineup of Edgar and Jerome Froese doing all the synths and computers.
I know very little about Tangerine Dream and the development and the different phases of their music and career. From what I gather, this fifty minutes long album, their first post-millenium album, was a break with their 1990s tradition of more disco and techno dominated albums.
The album title reminds me about the famous book and movie of Heinrich Harrier, the conquerer of the Eiger Nordwand (the most infamous big wall climb in Europe) and his years in Tibet after escaping the POW camp in India. A classic book I have read many times.
The music is really positive and uplifting. I was expecting a lot of Tibetan and Asian music here. I was wrong. The music is mostly ambient with an European soundscape throughout. Hence, I am left a bit disappointed.
OK, there are some, but still far too few references to Tibet here as the music takes in the massive ambient landscapes of the Tibetean plateau. A vast barren landscape thousands of meters above sea level.
The music is still bright and is full of light.
The music is also decent enough but does not offer much else than ambient landscapes. This is not a bad album at all.
2 points
The debut album from this band from Argentina.
The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, ebow guitar, chapman stick, guitar synths, keyboards and effects.
A guest added guitars and effects.
This is a new band to me who has released two albums. Both of them are up for reviews in this blog this spring.
This album is seventy minutes long and the music is a blend of latter days King Crimson and jazz.
There is a lot of eclectic prog in their music and the King Crimson influences shines through in their guitars and the rest of their sound.
There is also a lot of jazz, not to mention fusion, on this album too. In particular on the pieces of music which is driven by long guitar solos.
The sound is good with the exception of the three bonus live tracks which is not up the standard set by the rest of the album.
This album would be of special interest to all King Crimson fans. The music is pretty good and this is an album well worth checking out.
2.5 points
The debut album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a one man band with Patrick Molesworth doing piano, keyboards and vocals.
He got help from some guests who added drums, bass, guitars, narrations and backing vocals.
This is a new addition to the art rock scene in Great Britain. They have so far released two albums and both of them are up for review in this blog.
The music on this almost one hour long album mainstream rock with some neo-prog and art-rock influences.
It is based on some good vocals, piano, keyboards and guitars.
The music is very melodic but also slightly muscular. The music is also mid-tempo throughout.
The music is workman like straight forward and does not have any real interesting details. The quality is simply not here.
This is a decent enough album which does not sparkle and offer up any nice surprises.
2 points
The sixth album from this band from Italy.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
The return of this band after a thirty years long break... or so I thought... I have now learned that the band released their fifth album nine years ago. An album I have now ordered and will review later this spring. I must have had a brainfade as I am a bit of a fan of this band.... Yes, a proper brainfade.
20.000 Leghe Sotto I Mari, the album reviewed here is a fifty-three minutes long album in the classic RPI mould.
We get some great Italian vocals on the top of some mid-tempo and pastoral RPI.
The sound, although updated, is in the classic 1970s style. That means some good folk rock, Italian pop and symphonic prog influences.
The pastoral parts sounds like Angelo Branduardi. The more mid-tempo parts sounds like Banco and PFM.
The result is a great album. My only gripe is the lack of a signature song, a superb song.
This is a highly recommended album and surely one of the better RPI albums of the year.
4 points
The third album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
I reviewed their debut album ten years ago for # 1 and then their second album Vox Humana (2016) a couple of weeks ago in this edition of the blog. Both of these albums are very good.
The band returned four years later with this one hour long album.
The music here is muscular and pretty heavy progressive. It is also epic, monumental and bold. There is indeed a lot of pomp rock here mixed in with heavy prog and progressive metal. The music is also elegant throughout this album.
The Swedish band Haken is again a good reference.
The vocals is again good. The music is very good throughout this album. There is some catchy pieces of music here which is drawing in the listener.
Their music may be a bit un-british brash and bold. But this is still a very good band and this is a very good album.
3.5 points
The fourth album from this band from USA.
The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, mallet and keyboards.
Hermetic Science is one of the more... ehh.. weird bands I have encountered in my thirteen years or so in this blog. Something I have noted in my reviews of their first albums.
Their music is hardly progressive rock. It is more like neo-classical music. Or cinematic rock. Or a mix of all this.....
Yes, this fifty minutes long album contains mainly neo-classical music with some symphonic prog and cinematic rock influences.
ELP and Trace is good references. The band called The Pink Mice is the band I am most of all reminded about here. The difference is that the music here is not as cheesy as most of the music from The Pink Mice.
The music is mainly being performed by piano. The other instruments are playing a supporting role during these onslaugths of the piano. The music is mid-tempo to fast.
The music is very complex here. Complex and not particular good, I am afraid.
This is a half-decent enough album. I am not won over by this band.
1.5 points
The debut album from this artist from Canada.
Jacob did the drums, percussion, bass, bouzouki, keyboards and vocals himself.
He has help from some guests who added bass, guitars, violin, cello, keyboards, trumpet, programming and backing vocals.
This is a new name on the symphonic prog scene and this one hour long album has already got some world wide attention.
Jacob was inspired by the likes of Genesis, Yes and Pink Floyd to make this album. And so he did....
The music is very melodic on the beginning of this album with lots of strings and vocal harmonies. There are some progressive metal too and the music becomes a bit more muscular and harder after a while.
The music is not particular complicated and technical. It is mostly melodic throughout.
The vocals is good throughout. There are a lot of very good piano pieces incorporated into the music. The music is rather clever and well put together.
The result is a good album from an artist many has described as a young prodigy. I hope to hear more from Jacob Roberge in the future.
3 points
The debut album from this band from Great Britain.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, flute and vocals.
A guest added vocals on a couple of tracks.
This is a band that should have interested me decades ago. I bought one cassette, Wings Of Heaven, on it's release but did not fancy it as Iron Maiden and extreme metal was my thing back then. I have now decided to review all their albums and reviews will be added on a regular basis.
I am not entirely sure what to expect from their albums...........
Their forty minutes long debut album gives us a blend of heavy metal, hard rock and pomp rock. There is also some quite substantial folk rock hints here too.
The music is pretty linear and does not offer much deviations from the chorus-verse-chorus formula. The vocals is pretty good and there is some good stuff here. Most of the music here is decent though.
This is a decent enough debut album which is still mired in the heavy metal scene. Check it out.
2 points
The debut album from this band from Norway.
The band was a quintet on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, synths and vocals.
I am reviewing their nine albums this year and their debut album is a good start. I reviewed their third album Bilateral for ProgArchives back in August 2011 and liked that album.
This one hour and five minutes long album was self-released. This was before they hit the big times.
The music on this album is a mix of vaudeville art-rock and progressive metal. There is even some extreme metal and post-metal on this album.
An eclectic mix, in other words.
The music is also quirky and is kicking in all directions.
The vocals is good and there is some good music here too. This album falls a bit short, though. It is still an album well worth checking out.
2.5 points
The one and only album from this band from Germany.
The band was a duo with a lineup of drums, percussion, keyboards and vocals.
This band was active as a quartet between 1971 and 1972. Just before the band recorded this session for SWF in 1972, the two other band members quit the band. Hence the name, strange name of this duo of Gunter Kuhlwein and Walter Helbig.
There is a live track with the quartet added on as a bonus track at the end.
The rest of this thirty-seven minutes long album is keyboards and organs dominated. The music is indeed heavy, heavy influenced by ELP.
But where ELP had several other strings to play on, bass and guitars springs to mind, plus the three genious musicians in that band, Minus Two is a bit more bareboned and restricted by their not entirely sufficient talents.
There is a lot of vocals here and they are decent enough. The same goes for the music too which is in the German symphonic prog tradition.
This is a decent enough album and well worth checking out.
2 points