Borknagar - Fall (2024)

 

The 12th album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest added cello, double bass and violin.

The band returned again after some years of inactivity. A couple of new members has replaced older members. Some strings has been added to their sound and music.

The music on this one hour long album is again a mix of viking metal and some progressive rock.... although not quite progressive rock. 

The band ditched their black metal on the previous album, the 2019 album True North and went over to the viking metal camp. There was some strong Bathory, the Hammerheart era, influences on that album. These influences has been carried over to Fall too.

The music is still brutal and has some black metal vocals in addition to the clean vocals.

The melodies on Fall has been simplified too and most of their progressive rock has gone. They have been replaced by art-rock and psych rock. Mostly the latter one. 

The result is a pretty good album. A killer signature track is missing and that is my only gripe with this album. 

This is a band well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Shepherds Of Cassini - In Thrall to Heresy (2025)

 

The third album from this band from New Zealand.

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

This is the third album from this band and my first meeting with their music. I am seriously considering getting their first two albums too based on this album. If I do so, reviews will be posted later this year.

Their music has been described as post-metal by several reviewers. Something I agree with. Tool is a good reference, indeed.

The music on this one hour long album is complex and pretty bold at times.  

The music varies from extreme metal with death growls to some more folk rock pastoral pieces. There is also some avant-garde ambient stuff here. Not long pieces but still, they are here.

This album is full of contrasts. Contrasts also helped by the frequent use of electric violins. That gives this band some originality and personality.

The vocals is good and the music varies from some decent to good stuff. This is an interesting album for those into post-metal and prog rock in general.

2.5 points

 

 

Overhead - Zumanthum (2002)

 

The debut album from this band from Finland.

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

Two years ago, I reviewed a couple of their albums and both of them were good albums. I refer to my reviews somewhere else in this blog. I have now got their remaining four albums and they are all up for reviews this spring.

The music on this one hour long album is heavy prog. References is Rush and a bit Porcupine Tree. There is also a lot of good old Finnish prog here and a good reference is Wig Wam.

The music is a mix of hard music and some more mid-tempo music.

The vocals is decent enough but could have been a lot, lot better.

There are a good organ sound here and the guitars reminds me about Alex Lifeson in Rush.

The songs are good and has a lot of interesting details and hooks. Hence, this is a good debut album from a pretty underrated band.

3 points

 

 

 

High Spy - Head For The Moon (2009)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is the follow up to their 2006 debut album Rebirth. An album I reviewed last month in this blog. It is a pretty good album.

The band continued on with their poppy neo-prog on this almost one hour long album. 

The music is in the 1980s vein of British neo-prog when pop music met symphonic prog. The result is this British take on neo-prog.

The music is catchy melodic without many symphonic prog influences.

The vocals is good and ditto for the sound. 

The quality of the music is only decent with a few, handful of good pieces of music here. There are also some pretty dire pieces of music here. The result is a less than impressive album. A decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points

 

 

 

Miles From Pangaea - In/Pulse (2011)

 

The second and final album from this band from USA.

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

A guest delivered female vocals on one track.

This forty minutes long album is the follow up to their self-titled 2009 debut album. That was a decent album who blended in psych, post-rock and jazz. 

The band has retreated a bit on In/Pulse and gone for a blend of post-rock and psych rock here. This before the final ten minutes of this album which is a mix of avant-garde electronica and psych rock. 

The vocals is voices without any words and is wailing female voices.

There are some decent stuff here. But most of it is very forgetable and pretty bad. 

This band is at best only a footnote in the history of US post-rock and psych rock. Both their albums are available from their Bandcamp page.

1.5 points

 

 

Magister Dixit - Cellule De Crise (2006)

 

The third and final album from this band from France.

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

The band returned after their second album which I reviewed earlier this month in this blog. A good album in the zeuhl genre.

Their albums are very short and could have been a lot longer. Twenty-eight minutes is bordering to ripping off the record buyer. 

The music is again softly spoken zeuhl. The jazzy end of the zeuhl spectrum comes to the forefront here. Despite of being labeled as a jazz album by many others, this is still a proper zeuhl album.

The tempo is fast. The music is rather light and fluffy.

The vocals, both male and female vocals, are fast and a bit staccato. They are in the proper zeuhl tradition in other words.

The music is good throughout. The band should have delivered a proper length album and that is a major problem with this album. Hence....

2.5 points

 

 

Jemma - Jemma (2023)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

The band was a ten piece big band/orchestra with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violin, synths, flute, saxophone, trumpet and vocals.

This is a new discovery to me and I am putting it into the new albums que as a friend in ProgArchives made me aware of this album and wanted a review.  

This fifty minutes long album has female Italian vocals and lots of woodwinds. It is a jazz or a fusion album then... Well, not quite that although the basis of their music is jazz.

Blend this jazz with some folk rock and dream pop and you are there.... somewhere in that ballpark.

The music is slow and gentle. It has a lot of details too. There is not much vocals here but it is very effective. The violins too is very good and among the main attractions on this album.

The instrumental pieces here are very good. The album has a good ambience and the band/orchestra does a good job on some not so great songs.

The overall result is a very good album and one to check out if light and pastoral jazz is your thing.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Myrath - Shehili (2019)

 

The fifth album from this band from Tunisia.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points

 

 

Borknagar - True North (2019)

 

The 11th album from this band from Norway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points

 

 

 

Moonsoon - East of Asteroid (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points

 

 

Kraan - Flyday (1979)

 

The sixth album from this band from Germany.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hermetic Science - En Route (2001)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Check out this album.

 2 points

 

 

Miles From Pangaea - Miles From Pangaea (2009)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

A guest added saxophones.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 points

 

 

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

 

The second album from this band from France.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points

 

 

 

Pymlico - Core (2025)

 

The eight album from this band from Norway.

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

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

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

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

Supermassive saw the band change more towards fusion. 

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

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

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

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

2.5 points

 

 

 

Hanford Flyover - Source (2023)

 

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points

 

 

Gilmour. David - Luck and Strange (2024)

 

The seventh album from this artist from Great Britain.

David Gilmour did the vocals and guitars here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points