Evraak - Requiem for Lost Tides (2024)

The second album from this band from Japan.

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

This is the follow up album to their 2021 debut album Evraak 1.

Their debut album gave us a blend of art-rock, eclectic prog, neo-prog and Japanese symphonic prog. 

References were Van Der Graaf Generator, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Genesis and Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso. 

The band returned to the studio and some changes was made.

The music has moved a lot closer to eclectic prog, jazz and..... zeuhl. Yes, there are some very obvious detours into zeuhl here. Their roots in Japanese symphonic prog is still maintained and developed.

The music is also a lot more epic, bolder and heavier here too.

There is a lot of saxophones here this time around. The vocals, and they sound Japanese to me, are a bit thin but still in the Japanese symphonic prog tradition.

To the untrained ears not used to the Japanese symphonic prog scene, the music sounds a bit alien. Ditto for the mix which. I am not sure if the mix is wrong or this is the Japanese take on progressive rock. Some of the instruments sounds a bit muted and that sometimes also includes the vocals.

This one hour long album is still a good album and one to check out as it has a lot of life, quality and good pieces of music. This is indeed a very talented band and a band who, with some better songs, may get an international breakthrough before the end of this decade. I hope so.

3 points

Electric Moon - Stardust Rituals (2017)

The fifth album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, sitar, organ, electric piano, mellotron and voices.

This is so far the final album from this band. My guess we will never hear anything more from this band as the Sula Bassana project is the main occupation for the musicians here. A band/project I will probably cover in # 4 of this blog.

Their 2011 album The Doomsday Machine was a return to form again after their rather dubious Inferno album from the same year. 

The band seems to have maintained their form even after this six years long break. 

We get sitar dominated outer space rock here. There is some piano and mellotron here too in the cascades of bass, drums, guitars and sitar.

The music is both melodic and slightly quirky. There is a lot of interesting details here too. It clocks in at forty-five minutes and does not have much surplus fat... if any.

The result is a good album and one space rock fans should check out. Electric Moon's albums is albums space rock fans should both check out and included in their collection. 

3 points

 

 

Innerspace - The Last Sign (2024)

The third album from this band from Canada.

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

Numerous guests added percussion, guitars, strings, flute, flute, flugelhorn, trumpet and backing vocals.

I have reviewed their first two albums in # 1 and # 2 of this blog. I was not impressed by their 2012 debut album The Village but their 2017 album Rise was a big improvement on that album.

The music here is a mix of progressive metal, heavy prog and neo-prog.

The music is not heavy or metal enough to be simply labeled as progressive metal. It still has a lot of Dream Theater influences and enough to note these influences. 

There is also some pretty substantial neo-prog, or dare I say symphonic prog, elements here. The strings, cheesy as they are, gives us some pretty strong vibes in that direction.

This fifty-five minutes long album has a nice balance between the three above mentioned genres. It is most of all a heavy prog album if I have to just decide on one genre.

The vocals is good and the music is also good. The band has on their last two albums shown that they are on a good level. It is a pity that the band does not release more albums and are more active.

Heavy prog and Dream Theater fans should check out this album.

3 points

 

 

 

Fish - Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors (1990)

The debut album from this artist from Great Britain.

Fish did all the vocals here.

He got help from numerous guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, guitars, strings, bodhran, accordion, whistle, woodwinds, keyboards, programming and backing vocals.

I have finally got around to review all his albums this winter. This while Fish is on his farewell tour/has just finished his farewell tour and will now retire to a small cottage in the Outer Hebridees.... a corner of Great Britain I know well and I may say hello and thank you for the music to him next time I am on his island. 

I have also just discovered that I did review this album for ProgArchived back on the final day of 2011. I never ever do reviews twice... But as I had already written this review in my head today, I will write another review of this album. I will continue with his other albums during this winter and spring.

Fish split with Marillion is well documented. It is also my understanding that some of the songs on this album was presented to the other members in Marillion and rejected. Marillion got Steve Hogarth instead and everyone is happy.

Fish returns to Scotland on this album, his roots on the east coast of Scotland. That with an execption of one song where we find us in Tamla Motown and indeed in Phil Collins soul territory. A pretty bad song who made me, wrongfully, convict this album as a bland pop/rock album. Although I agree with most of that 2011 review, I was wrong here.

Yes, the music here is a bit too much singer/songwriter pop/rock, the songs are pretty good though. There are some lyrics and songs dealing with alcohol and the damages it inflicts on families and people. Great lyrics indeed and very much Scottish lyrics.

The songs are somewhere between mid-tempo and slow ballads. It has a Scottish feel, this album as it has some Scottish folk music influences. 

That said, not all songs are good here and these fifty minutes contains a mixture of decent and good pieces of music. I am not won over by this album.

2.5 points

 

 

 

 

Tangerine Dream - Hyperborea (1983)

The 15th album from this band from Germany.

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

You never really knows what to expect when it comes to Tangerine Dream albums. The music, and quality, varies album by album.

This is their final album on Virgin Records after Richard Branson signed them on the basis of Mike Oldfield's massive commercial success Tubular Bells. Virgin/Richard Branson thought Tangerine Dream would give him the same financial return. He was very much mistaken.

Commercial, cathcy music is not what we get from Tangerine Dream. 

The music is melodic and has got some instruments here too. It is not a drone or an overly ambient album.

The music is rather dark melodic though. Depressive and gloomy is what most of the music on this forty minutes long album is.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. The band has released better albums than this one. 

2.5 points

Legs On Wheels - Legroom (2023)

The second and final album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Four guests added backing vocals.

I was not impressed by their 2018 album Iguana Salad. So I had no expectations to the follow up album. A follow up album released five years later through their Bandcamp website.

The music is again indie rock.

Take indie rock, add in some Canterbury prog, some elegant pop, funk, jazz and post-punk.

The result would then be pretty similar to this fifty minutes long album.

There are not many instruments in their sound and music. The music is both melodic and quirky. There are some dissonant post-punk here too. The music is pretty much influenced by jazz and funk throughout this album.

The vocals and the half-acoustic guitars is good.

The music is decent enough and should be of interest to both indie rock and Canterbury prog fans. Check it out.

2 points

Lady With - The Lodge (2018)

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

Camille Petit played keyboards here and composed all the music here.

He had help from numerous guests who provided drums, shakuhachi, bass, guitars, harp, strings, flute, woodwinds and voices.

This band releaesed two albums before they broke up. I reviewed the 2014 debut album The Lady With The Monkey earlier this month. A decent album.

Lady With was a side project of the French band Ghost Rhythms. This band has so far released six albums.

The music on this seventy-five minutes long album is cinematic rock.

There is a lot of neo-classical music and laidback fusion here too. Add in some shoegaze post-rock too and you get this music.

The music is softly spoken with some elegant use of woodwinds, harp and strings on a frequent basis.

The music is neither good or exciting. The music is decent enough and very good as a relaxing background noise. 

This is another decent album from this band. It is a digital album and well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

Limite Acque Sicure - Un'Altra Mano Di Carte (2025)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

The band returned again after a three years long break. 

Their 2022 self-titled debut album is a very good album as I found out when I reviewed it in this blog back in December 2022. 

Their music is RPI in the same vein as Banco Del Muteo Soccoroso. The band did indeed start out as a Banco Del Muteo Soccoroso tribute band before they started to write their own stuff. The 2022 album then followed on Minotauro Records in Italy. A label who also released their new album.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is melodic, still pretty epic RPI. Yes, Banco Del Muteo Soccoroso is again a good reference.

The band and their mix of female and male Italian vocals still have an original sound and is by no means copy-cats or too much influenced by these giants from the 1970s RPI scene.

The music is clever, quirky and melodic too. The vocals is great and the band does a great job. 

There is no real killer tracks here. Nevertheless, this a very good album with lots of interesting, very good details.

This is surely one of the best RPI bands in today's scene.

3.5 points

Evraak - Evraak 1 (2021)

The debut album from this band from Japan.

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

This is a new band to me and to most people outside Japan. They have released two albums... the last one was released last year and a review of that album will follow later this month.

This one hour long album was first released through their Bandcamp page and then, one year later, released on CD and LP through a record label.

The music on this one hour long album is a mix of eclectic prog, neo-prog, art-rock and Japanese symphonic prog. 

There are a lot of Van Der Graaf Generator in their music. Ditto for Genesis and Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso too. 

The vocals is thin and not particular impressive. Ditto for the guitars who sounds weak and too far back in the mix. There is a lot of saxophones here and those has got a far too prominent place in the mix. More guitars and less saxophones would have made the sound a lot better.

There are some good melodies and pieces of music here though and this album is somewhere between a decent and a good album. I am looking forward to sinking my ears into their second album. This band has both guts and talent. 

2.5 points

Electric Moon - The Doomsday Machine (2011)

The fourth album from this band from Germany.

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

A guest did the drums on a couple of tracks.

This is their second and final 2011 album. I was not particular impressed by their Inferno album from earlier that year. Hence....

.. I did not have any expectations for their second album that year. In particular about an eighty minutes long album as this one... The Doomsday Machine.

That is eighty minutes of improvised outer space rock with a fuzzy garage rock sound. Just what the doctor warned you against...

The first half of this album is as dull as Inferno was. Then.... the music get some melodic guitar solos infused into this fuzzy, muddy music. Some very good melodies, indeed.

The final half of this album is the best thing this band has ever done. This when I was about to give up on this band....

The end result is a fairly good album which will make space rock fans happy. The final half of the album will make space rock fans happy, that is.

Check out this album.

3 points

Toy Weather - Feathers In A Strange Wind (2025)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This band is Svein Hovland's new band. Forty years ago, I was a big fan of his first band Blind Date, a pop/rock band who released two albums before they broke up. 

Svein has again teamed up with his brother Frank on a new band... Toy Weather. Frank is on bass and Svein is on vocals and guitars. Their friend Rune Kogstad is on drums.

Appolon, their record label, gave this album to me and told me Svein and the band was big Van Der Graaf Generator fans and that this album was very influenced by them.... as in (almost) copycats. That gave me a high bloodpressure as I am a fan of that band.

The music on this album is a mix of pop and art-rock. And there is indeed some strong Peter Hammill influences in their music. But they are far, far from being Van Der Graaf Generator copycats. That band used saxophones as a part of their sound. Toy Weather does not.

Nevertheless.... there are still some Van Der Graaf Generator influences and moods here. The music is dark and Svein's vocals is at times pretty close to Peter's vocals.

The music is art-rock though and these forty minutes of music have a mix of decent and good songs. This is an acceptable debut album. I hope we will hear more from band. Check out this album (available on Bandcamp) if a poppy take on Peter Hammill's music floats your boat.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Bodin. Tomas - Eggs & Dogs: You Are (2009)

The sixth album from this artist from Sweden.

Tomas Bodin did the kazoo, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals in a quartet big band who also included drums, percussion, bass, guitars and lead vocals from Michael Stolt. 

They again were helped out by numerous guests providing guitars, cello, woodwinds, backing vocals and narrations.

I guess this is one of the band constellations Tomas Bodin did throughout his career. His new album is indeed a band constellation and I will review that album later this month.

The album starts out as a The Tangent album and then takes of in the direction of Neal Morse and The Flower Kings.

US symphonic prog meets Scandinavian symphonic prog in other words.

This seventy-seven minutes long album got some long songs, the longest one topping out at twenty-two minutes and some shorter ones.

The vocals is very good and this album has some very good music. 

This album is in short a modern US and Scandinavian symphonic prog feast.. indeed a fest and a smorgasboard.

It is a very good album in it's own right and the best Tomas Bodin album so far. 

3.5 points

Borknagar - Epic (2004)

The sixth album from this band from Norway.

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

The band returned again after at three years long break.

Their 2001 album Empiricism was a pretty melodic epic black metal album. It had some good songs too and it really sold well too. A commercial and critical success in other words.

Hence the scene was set for more of the same.

It seems like the band had retreated more into the black metal scene and sound on Epic. This album has a lot of harsh black metal music and vocals.

The more melodic stuff here sounds a bit of an afterthought and not as well integrated into their take on black metal as on the previous two albums.

There is no real good songs here either and the band runs on fumes here instead of the proper fuel.

This is a decent enough album but still a step or two backwards. This album is a bit of a disappointment.

2 points

Legs On Wheels - Iguana Salad (2018)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a one-man-band on this album where Danny Murgatroyd did the bass, guitars, drums, keyboards and vocals.

One guest added trumpet here.

In my quest to review prog related music, I sometimes find bands who are at best on the fringes of being progressive rock.

This band are a good example. 

This band released two albums. Both of them are up for reviews here. This album is at least very much on the fringes of art and progressive rock.

Take some vaudeville and indie rock, add some whimsical pop and some funk. This is somewhere near what you get on this half an hour name-your-price Bandcamp album.

There is a lot of half-acoustic guitars here and a lot of good vocals. 

Some of the music is mindless noise and pretty much a waste of time. The more melodic stuff here are decent enough.

This album is a half-decent album and well worth checking out as it is a free download. That is... if you like whimsical indie pop.

1.5 points

Lady With - The Lady With The Monkey (2014)

The debut album from this band from France.

The band was ten members plus band with a lineup of drums, congas, bass, guitars, flute, woodwinds and voices.

This band releaesed two albums before they broke up. I will review their final album, The Lodge from 2018, sometimes next week.

The band is a side project of the far more prolific French band Ghost Rhythms. This band has so far released six albums, the last one was released last year. It is still an ongoing band.

The Lady With The Monkey was only relesased digitally through Bandcamp. 

The music on this album, The Lady With The Monkey, is cinematic rock. 

There is a lot of shoegaze post-rock, jazz, psych rock and in particular neo-classical music influences here. The final half of this one hour long album is indeed mostly a neo-classical music album.

The first half of the album is most definate a cinematic rock album with a lot of lounge jazz and post-rock influences. Some modeste female voices also adds a bit psych rock to the music.

The music is soft and softly spoken throughout this album. There is some cool, soft woodwinds and flutes throughout this album. Most of the music is also very introvert and shoegazing.

The best pieces of music can be found during the first half of this album. The album are fizzling out at the end through some uninteresting neo-clasical music pieces.

This is a decent album and one well worth checking out if cinematic rock and art-rock floats your boat.

2 points

Timelock - Atomic Swap (2024)

The seventh album from this band from The Netherlands.

The band was an eight piece big band/project with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards, synths, programming and vocals.

One guest added vocals on one track.

This is a band I only became aware of when they released their fifth album, the 2022 album Sygn Yn. I gave it a decent to good rating in my March 2022 review in this blog. 

Their sixth album, the 2023 album Contemporary Vintage, was a re-recording of older songs and I bypassed that album. I should really also review their first four albums and I may do that in a later edition of this blog.

The music here is a mix of neo-prog and heavy prog. There is indeed some prog metal influences here too.

The vocals are a mix of male and female vocals. The guitars are pretty much chugging and riff based.

The music here is bold and heavy. There is a lot of instruments and vocals layered on the top of each others. That gives the music an almost opera feeling. Rock opera.

Half of this one hour long album is good and the rest is decent enough. I have yet to be won over by an album from this band. Maybe their first four albums will change that.....

2.5 points

Glass Beach - Plastic Death (2024)

The second album from this band from USA.

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

The band was helped by a handful of guests who provided marimba, violin, trumpet, trombone and vocals.

Their 2019 debut album was released as a more or less private pressing before the word of mouth and their gigs gave this album the attention and the sales figures it deserved. It became a bit of a mini-sensation, this album. 

So the band returned to the studio and recorded this one hour long album.

The music here is still a blend of indie rock, shoegaze, art rock and psych rock. Add in some electronica here too and you get my drift.

The band reminds me a lot about Radiohead, their latest albums. It is almost like Glass Beach is the US answer to Radiohead.

The music is both complex and very eclectic throughout most of this album. There are some melodies here too and some good vocals.

There is no doubts this band deserve the praise they are getting. This album is almost too dense eclectic and too shoegazing to really being a good album.

It is still a good album because most of the music is really good and there is some really intersting details here. Their next album needs to be better if the band want the breakthrough they deserve.

Check out this album if Radiohead and eclectic indie rock is your thing.

3 points

 

 

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