Anathema - The Optimist (2017)

The 13th album from this British band.

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

The band also had help from a strings orchestra and a trombone player.

This is their so far last album and I hope we will hear a lot more from them in the future. Anathema is an important band who has broken some taboos and made the music scene a lot better with their albums.

Not all their albums has hit home in my office/blog but they have still managed to convert me to a fan of the band.

The Optimist is again somewhere between Pink Floyd, Marillion, post-rock, ambience, electronica and classic music.

The music feels a bit disjointed at first. But this album is a grower and it grows on the listener..... a lot.

The use of grand piano, female and male vocals is very good on this rather laid back album. But there is a method and idea on this album and it soon feels like a proper album. As I said, it is a grower.

The post-rock influences is also good.

This is another good album from a great band. A band I am now following again after becoming a fan after their first two doom/death metal albums 25 years ago and then loosing my interest.

3 points 

Old Dead Tree. The - The Nameless Disease (2003)

The debut album from this French band.

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

The band released three albums from 2003 to 2007 before they folded. I am reviewing all three of these albums in the upcoming weeks. 

The Nameless Disease is about the memory of their drummer who took his own life. 

The mix of death, goth and prog metal on this album therefore has a sad, poignant sound. The music also breaks out in frustrated anger at times.

The music is pretty melodic and reminds me a lot about Orphaned Land at times. But The Old Dead Tree has their own style.

There are some death metal growls which will scare of some listeners. I find them fitting for the concept and music on this album.

I still find this only a decent album as the melodies sounds a bit generic and the whole music genre is a bit too tired for my liking.

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

2 points

 

 

Pohjola. Pekka - Changing Waters (1992)

The eleventh album from this Finnish artist.

Pekka Pohjola did the bass and some synths himself. 

He was supported by some musicians who provided drums, bass, guitars, strings and keyboards.

I did not review the Sinfonia # 1 as it is a classical music album. I feel totally out of my dept there and has moved to this album instead.

The music on Changing Waters is a mix of progressive rock and fusion.

There is a lot of movie soundtrack like music here too. And there is some classical music too.

The quality is pretty poor. Only the last ten-fifteen minutes is decent. The rest is very poor.

This album sounds like a run-of-the-mill album and not really an album from someone who cares.

Hence my lack of enthusiasm for this album.

1.5 points

Mobius - Make The Promise (2021)

The debut album from this UK band.

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

This is a new exciting band from England.

Their music is neo-prog and the debut album is fifty-three minutes long divided on four compositions.

There are one song here and three compositions. The longest composition is touching twenty minutes. The two others are ten to eighteen minutes long. The song is seven minutes long.

This album is certainly not a neo-prog album. The music is a mix of symphonic prog, classic music, jazz and neo-prog. 

The band has bitten over more than they can chew on this album as most of the music is decent to good. The song is a good song. Some of the compositions is a bit all over the place.

The band has made a very bold statement with this album and shall be applauded for that. This although they did not really managed to get up with enough quality on this album.

I hope we will hear a lot more from this band. The scene needs bands like this band.

2.5 points

Hwaino - We Lost Another Moon (2021)

The debut album from this Norwegian band.

The band is a....... I got no idea how many members this band got. But I can hear drums, guitars, bass and some samples here.

The band has released three EPs through their Bandcamp site before they released this album. An album clocking in at thirty-three minutes. 

Quality before quantity.

The music is very much post-rock and shoegaze. There are some psych rock here and a short death metal vocals sample here too.

The music is pretty much a mix of darkness and lights. Just as normal when it comes to post-rock. This is the reason why so many loves this genre.

Those who loves this genre will get what they want from this too short album. 

The band knows what they are doing and they are doing most things right on this album.

This is indeed a good album.

3 points

 

 

 

Needlepoint - Walking Up That Valley (2021)

The fifth album from this Norwegian band.

The band is quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, harspicord, clavinett, keyboards, moog, synths, violin, cello, flute and vocals.

The band has help from a percussion player and a choir.

The band has really developed on their last three albums. That is the only three albums I have heard from them and reviewed (see # 2 for the other reviews).

The band sounds like Caravan. You can also add some of Egg to the band and some jazz and psych.

The band is a psych-pop Canterbury prog band. 

The songs are quirky pop with a lot of jazz undertones and influences.

The music is really clever throughout this album.

There is not a single outstanding song here and is a slight problem with this album.

Nevertheless, this is a good album and this band should now have their breakthrough in the progressive rock scene.

3 points