Karfagen - Birds of Passage (2020)

The eleventh album from this band from Ukraina.

Karfagen is one of Antony Kalugin's bands and perhaps his main band. He did the percussion, programming, keyboards and vocals here.

He had help from nine other musicians who provided guitars, bassoon, flute, violin, bass, drums, percussion and vocals here.

This is Karfagen's first of second albums this year and his third album as he also released a solo album I will come back to later this winter together with the second of the year Kalugin album.

I guess Antony became restless and bored during the Covid 19 lock-down. A lock-down denying him the chance to tour and travel around. 

So, he got hot holed up in his home studio, then.... Well, that is what I believe and Antony may disagree with me. 

There is no denying that he is one of the best, among the four-five best progressive rock artists these day. And I mean world wide. 

Birds Of Passage is a lush symphonic prog album with some influences from both progressive metal and classical music. 

It has two pieces of music, two suites called Birds Of Passage # 1 and Birds Of Passage # 2. Both are around the twenty-two minutes mark and the album clocks in at forty-four minutes.

There is a lot of details on this album but no real killer tracks or outstanding pieces of music. That is a bit frustrating with some of the Kalugin albums. Nevertheless, there is no doubts that this this band is a great symphonic prog band.

This is indeed a good album and well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

 

 

Submarine Silence - Did Swans Ever See God? (2020)

 

 

The fourth album from this Italian band.

 

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

 

The band was helped out by some guest musicians who provided drums, percussion, flute, bass and vocals.

 

Submarine Silence started out as a side-project of Moongarden. I believe they, four albums later, is a proper band as Moongarden has been very silent for a long time.

 

Submarine Silence, despite of the unusual name, gives us Rock Progressive Italiano of the more classic sort. 

 

The vocals are in English and there are indeed some Brithish classic neo-prog in their sound and music too. They have always had that element in their music.

 

That is mixed up nicely with the 1970s RPI sound.

 

That gives us forty-five minutes of pure class and joy. There is no killer tracks here, though. Nevertheless, I enjoy this album as much as I have enjoyed their first three albums.

 

3.5 points

 

 

 

 

Minasian. David - Random Acts of Beauty (2010)

The third album from this English artist.

David Minasian plays numerous instruments including keyboards, guitars, bass, woodwinds, strings, melotron, moog and vocals himself. 

Five guest musicians including Andy Latimer from Camel contributes to this album with drums, guitars and vocals.

David Minasian releases album every ten years or so. He released one earlier this year, ten years after the release of this album.

David Minasian is heavy involved in so many other project that finding quality me-time may be a problem here. 

Random Acts Of Beauty is symphonic prog in the vein of both Camel and Steve Hackett. There is also a lot of classical music and cinematic music references on this one hour long album.

The musicians does a very good job on this good album. There is no killer themes or tracks here and that is a bit of a shame.

That said, this is a solid good album well worth checking out.

3 points

Haze - Back to the Bones (2020)

The seventh album from this British band.

The band is a sextet on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, mandolin, fiddle, flute, keyboards, piano, electric mandola and vocals.

I have reviewed most of their albums for # 1 of this blog and you can find these reviews here.

The band debuted back in 1984 and has sporadic been alive. They have also released some live albums too.

The band was one of the first ever neo-prog bands. But when the likes of Marillion kicked on and became famous, Haze was withering away. The quality of their albums was nowhere near as good as Marillion and the other great neo-prog bands albums.

Haze became a cult band with some local support and very scattered support around the world.

And we have now arrived at their seventh album. An album recorded mostly in a Covid 19 lockdown.

The music is a mix of folk rock and a lot of neo-prog. The usual fare from Haze in other words and it is a corner of the scene the band has claimed for themselves.

The album is seventy minutes long and the sound is a bit thin. The songs are not their best either. The music is not complex and neither is it particular symphonic.

Quality wise, we are again talking about a barely good album. It is still a good album and well worth checking out.  

3 points

Yob - The Great Cessation (2009)

The fifth album from this US band.

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

This US trio returns again with an hour of distorted and dirty post-metal.

The sound is very dirty and that is done by purpose. This type of music needs a muddy soundscape and this album has just got that.

The vocals is death grunts and very doomy.

There is much more death metal here than on their previous albums. Some of the music is indeed death doom.

There is also a lot of space rock in their take on post-metal. 

The quality is pretty good too. There are some pieces of music here which falls a bit flat on it's face. The rest is good and this is not a bad album at all.

Check it out.

2.5 points

Apogee - Sisyphos (1998)

The second album from this one-man project from Germany.

Arne Schafer is the man using the Apogee name as his artist name. He also played in Versus X on their albums. On this album, he plays all instruments equals bass, guitars, drums, programming, keyboards and vocals.

I have got a handful of Apogee albums and is planning to review them this winter. 

This album is over one hour long and the songs was recorded between 1991 and 1998. The material is coherent throughout and there is no collection of songs feeling here. Hence, I regard this as a normal studio album.

The music is neo-prog and neo-prog of the most basic kind of neo-prog.

The vocals is a mix of Andy Tillisson and Peter Hammill. 

The music is pretty symphonic and pretty complex throughout. It is also both organic and melodic. It also has some flowery, pastoral bits.

The songs and the music is good throughout and I my first meeting with an album from Apogee has left a good taste. Check out this album.

3 points

 

 

 

Gungfly - Alone Together (2020)

The fifth album from this Swedish project.

Gungfly is Richard Sjoblom from Beardfish on guitars, keyboards and vocals.

He had help from Petter and Rasmus Diamant on drums and bass.

This project has been around for a while but this is my first meeting with Gungfly. I will also give Beardfish my full attention later this winter.

This is a one man project and it has this singer - songwriter stamp all over it. 

It is by no means a simple sounding album. The music is indeed neo-prog with some Swedish folk rock and symphonic prog influences. There is also some hard rock influences here.

The sound is very much a Swedish fresh folk rock sound with some good guitar solos and sounds.

The vocals are very good and that makes me look forward to reviewing the Beardfish albums.

I am surprised by this album and it's good quality. Me thinks I should get some more Gungfly albums and give them a go too.

Check out this album.

3 points

 

 

Maschera Di Cera. La - S.E.I. (2020)

The seventh album from this Italian band.

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

Two guest musicians provides drums and saxophones.

Fabio Zuffanti, whose solo albums I am also reviewing these days, is the bassist and a regular member of this band. A founding member of this band too, he is. Great !!

The music on this album as on their previous albums is unashamed Rock Progressive Italiano.... RPI.

The band has inherited the sound and music from the 1970s great bands like Banco and PFM. And they have developed it and made it their own.

La Maschera Di Cera is one of the great and best bands of the second wave of RPI. Listen to their previous albums and you will agree.

S.E.I gives us forty-five minutes of great Italian vocals and some really flowery RPI. The band is unashamed looking back to the 1970s here and is adding their own bits too.

The songs are pretty long too and has a very lush feel. A very......... Italian feel. And there is no great shame of being an Italian and expressing the flowers, smell, language and the music of this country.

Fans of RPI will adore this album. I think it is an album somewhere between very good and great. I really like this band and I need to give their other albums, long ago reviewed albums, a spin or more.

Check out this album.

3.5 points

 

 

 

 

Picton. Chris - Still Life (2012)

The second album from this English artist.

Chris Picton did the drum machine, bass, guitars and keyboards himself. 

He had enlisted another guitarist who chimed in on two tracks and a female and a male vocalist who did one track each.

I was very unimpressed by his 2010 opus See Me Thru. An album just about surviving not being admitted in my turkey yard. 

My hopes for Still Life was therefore nill, null, zilch and not there. 

The album opens and several improvements has been noted. Most of all the ability to write a piece of music without being the object of a turkey yard. 

The first instrumental pieces is solidly in the one-man symphonic prog genre. The music is instrumental and laidback with some ambient pieces too.

The album provides a pretty big shock on the female vocals song Face To Face. It is a good song. The title track completes with male vocals is also a good song. 

There are also some more solid guitars and melodies on the instrumental tracks too and that makes this album a very solid upgrade on the debut album. So much that I should probably get the third and final album too.

Still Life is a decent to good album and well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Three - The End Is Begun (2007)

The fourth album from this US band.

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

This is one of the US bands who has been flying below the radar for some years. Their music is pretty commercial and that is not a problem.

I reviewed their third album, the 2005 album Wake Pigs earlier for this blog and I was not a big fan.

The End Is Begun takes us through a landscape full of power teenybop pop, a bit Radiohead art-rock and some metal. 

The music is more melodic on this album than on the rather harsh and naked sounding Wake Pigs. There are more vocal harmonies here. 

The music is still too much nu-metal sounding and does not have much quality. Linkin Park springs to mind and I am not overly impressed.

Check it out if all above sounds like your kind of music.

2 points

Homunculus Res - Andiamo in Giro di Notte e ci Consumiamo nel Fuoco (2020)

 

The fourth album from this Italian band.

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

The album also had contributions from guest musicians providing woodwinds, vibraphone, viola, banjo, bass, vocals and electric piano.

This band is one of the more remarkable bands in the new RPI scene. Yes, their music is Rock Progressive Italiano.

It is not RPI as in symphonic prog, though.

Take a lot of Caravan, the early Soft Machine and add some Picchio Del Pozzo and Area to the mix too. The result is Canterbury scene prog with some Italian avant-garde and folk rock implemented into the sound.

The Italian vocals are both good and quirky. The music is quirky and eclectic. 

The band has found their sound and their niche and I hope they are not giving up as this band has again given us a very good album, rich on originality, quality and quirkiness. 

Check out this album.

3.5 points

Stray - Mudanzas (1973)

The fourth album from this English band.

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

This album is their socalled progressive rock album. An album the band spent and overspent their studio budget with zillions....well, several thousands of pounds... to record and finish. It is said that some of these zillions came from the English mob at that time. That include the Kray Twins and his brother.

I had really been looking forward to find out if the Kray Twins had invested wisely. 

The answer is no as this album was a flop in all senses of the word.

The progressive rock aspect here is the inclusion of some piano and a couple of songs which is a bit slow down. They are leaning more towards pop and soul than progressive rock.

The album is a mix of teenybopper pop, soul and harder rock.

The quality is decent enough but there is nothing here which is improvements on previous albums. It is slightly different from the other albums, but not an improvement.

2 points

 

 

Zuffanti. Fabio - Ghiaccio (2010)

The third solo album from this Italian artist.

Fabio Zuffanti does all instruments and vocals here himself. That means guitars, bass, keyboards and computers.

Fabio Zuffanti is a legend in the Italian Progressive Rock scene. As much of a legend as Steven Wilson and Roine Stolt is legends. 

During his remarkable short life, he has been involved as musician, mentor and publisher in a lot of the new bands in the RPI scene. 

I am not fans of his first two albums Merlin and Fabio Zuffanti. The first one was a rock opera which did not hit the right notes and the latter one was a more electronica album.

Fabio Zuffanti returns with an album where the music is somewhere between electronica pop and electronica rock.

There is some hints of RPI here and the Italian vocals is very good. 

There is a lot of moods, shades and lights on this album and the music on this one hour long album is actually pretty good.

This album is still not exactly good. But it has some good pieces of music and is his best solo album so far. 

2.5 points

 

  

 

Matterhorn - Outside (2020)

The debut album from this Norwegian project.

Matterhorn is Tommy Halseth on most instruments. That means keyboards, bass, guitars and vocals.

He got help from guest musicians who provided drums, violins and extra vocals.

This is an album released on Appolon Records prog rock sub-label. 

There is some doubts about this being a progressive record or not. Let me explain...

The music takes us back to some of the art-pop from the 1970s and 1980s. The organ sound is old style. 

The vocals too is pretty old style. 

Nevertheless, the music is somewhere between pop and rock. There are some progressive rock here but not much.

The songs are all decent to good. I am not entirely won over but wish Tommy all the best with this project.

2.5 points

Mad Crayon - Drops (2020)

The fourth album from this Italian band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

The band was helped by some guest musicians who provided drums and backing vocals.

Mad Crayon debuted back in 1994 with an album called Ultimo Miraggio. They then released an album in 1999 and 2009 before a long break followed.

The band is an Italian band and has been associated with the Rock Progressive Italiano - RPI - scene. I also believe I have reviewed their other albums too. 

.... And I am wrong as I have actually only reviewed their 2009 album Preda an a review can be found at this link. A review of Ultimo Miraggio will follow next year. 

Drops gives us one hour of everything from pop to some rock, funk, jazz, vaudeville rock and a bit of Italian progressive rock.

The quality is not really that good and I am having really difficulties finding many positivities from this album. It is a name your price album from this link and it is well worth checking out, I guess.

This is a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Millenium - The Sin (2020)

The 16th album from this band from Poland.

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

This band released their self-titled debut album back in 1999 and had released albums on a regular basis since then. The vocalist Lukasz Gall has also released some solo albums too if I am not much mistaken.

The music is Polish neo-prog. 

The music is on this album very commercial, slick and melodic. The lyrics and music is a concept album about those who sins. The seven song titles is lifted from the ten commandments. 

The English vocals is very well pronounced and perfect. The songs is therefore out there and in your face for those who cares about lyrics.

The music is a bit too slick and there is not that much intricate thought provoking music here. Which is a bit of a shame and that makes this album less than good

This band has moved a lot towards commercial rock on their last albums and this album is in that trend. Not all the songs are good either so the album lands somewhere between decent and good.

But check it out.

2.5 points

Marathon ‎– Mark Kelly's Marathon (2020)

 

The debut album from this British project.

Mark Kelly is the keyboard player in Marillion and his band consists of two other members with a lineup of drums, bass, keyboards, guitars and vocals.

Some guest musicians is also adding their talents to this album. That include most of Marillion.

This album and band has been described as a Covid pandemic project. It is done by bored musicians who has nothing to do while self-isolating and trying to stay alive. 

The music is a mix of AOR, art-rock and neo-prog. It is not a million miles away from Marillion. There is more AOR in Marathon than in the far more arty and progressive Marillion.

The musicianship is top notch and the vocals are good.

The music too is good and Mark Kelly has spent his time in isolation very good. 

This is not an album full of exciting music. Nevertheless, the music is good and this album is well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Lucifer Was - Underground and Beyond (1997)

The debut album from this Norwegian band.

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

This band has been around since the 1970s in the Telomark region before they released this and six more albums. I will review them this winter.

The band is one of the first Norwegian bands in the progressive rock genre. The music here is not purely progressive rock.....

Take a marriage between Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull and add some Norwegian folk music and some symphonic prog as bride-maids in the wedding photo. 

There are also some Edvard Grieg here too.

The music is muscular and pretty heavy throughout. It is also pretty melodic and the folk rock is pretty refreshing and very much working.

The flutes are cool too and the vocals pretty good.

This forty minutes gives us a mix of decent and good music. It is a surprisingly good album though. Check it out.

2.5 points

 

 

Knight Area - Heaven And Beyond (2017)

The sixth album from this Dutch band.

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

I have been reviewing a couple of their albums as this is pretty interesting band.

They are listed as a neo-prog album in most archives.

The music on this one hour long album is more leaning towards symphonic progressive metal than neo-prog.

There is a lot of metal with a great deal of progressive metal orchestration.

The sound is pretty sparse with only the keyboards, which also acts as a piano, guitars and the vocals on the top of the bass and drums.

The music is good throughout and this album will find fans among those who likes their music somewhere between neo-prog and progressive metal.

Check out this album while I will do and publish my review of their last album sometimes before the end of the year.

3 points

 

 

Anathema - The Silent Enigma (1995)

The second studio album from this English band.

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

Two guest musicians added vocals and spoken words.

I did review their 1993 debut album Serenades for ProgArchives some eleven years ago. I also reviewed their Crestfallen EP for ProgArchives the same year.

It has taken me eleven years to return to Anathema. Those eleven years has been filled with thousands of reviews of more standard prog and fusion albums.

Anathema was a very big band in my world when their debut album Serenades arrived in 1993. It was a revolution, that album. And I loved it. I did not love it that much in 2009 when I did the review for ProgArchives.

The Silent Enigma sees the band trying to break out of the doom/death metal genre and into a much more Pink Floyd like genre. Just as Opeth did later although Opeth embraced the old symphonic prog genre.

The Silent Enigma gives us one hour of a transition between doom death metal and Pink Floyd. There is more doom metal here than anything else and there is some death grunts.

The songs and the pieces of music is still decent enough as this album is not an impressive album. I am now going to review all their album during this winter and spring and I hope I will see a much more progressive rock band on the albums that followed this album.

This album is a decent album, though.

2 points

Gazpacho - Fireworker (2020)

The 11th album from this Norwegian band.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, mandolin, guitars, violin, bass, keyboards and vocals.

The band has been pursuing their own style and sound since their second album. Their fans, and I am an admirer of this band, knows what they are getting from an Gazpacho album.

Take Marillion, add some art-rock and then some post-rock and add some electronica and shoegaze.

This is what we get from them. 

On this album, the band has added another string to their bow.

Some light opera in the beginning heralds some gloomy, doomy rock too. The twenty minutes long Space Cowboy is therefore a quite unsettling piece of music.

The rest of the album is not as gloomy. But that is the direction the band has taken.

Gloomy and majestic is what this album sounds like. The quality is very good and the band is in great form.

Gazpacho has again delivered the goods and my faith in them has again been rewarded.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Picton. Chris - See Me Thru (2010)

The debut album from this British multi-instrumentalist.

Chris Picton plays the guitars, bass and keyboards here. He has also fixed a drum sound.

He has so far released three albums and I got two of them to review.

The music on this album is instrumental prog and rock. 

The music is pretty dynamic and a bit hard. The music is dynamic with some pastoral pieces inbetween. There are some guitar solos here too. They are not particular interesting.

The performance is OK enough.

The music is pretty dull and uneventful during these twenty-seven minutes. It is a half-decent album and nothing more than that.

1.5 points

Homunculus Res - Della Stessa Sostanza Dei Sogni (2018)

The third album from this Italian band.

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

The band was supported by contributions from numerous guest musicians who provided woodwinds, strings, keyboards, organ, mellotron, mandolin, guitars and vocals.

I have praised their first two albums in my reviews of their albums in # 1 of this blog. You can find the reviews in this blog at this link.  A review of their new album will be added too before the end of this year.

There is no doubts that this band is one of the more exciting bands from Italy right now. 

The band has taken a lot of their music from bands like Area, Picchio dal Pozzo and the more symphonic RPI bands. Add some old Caravan too and you got them.

Quirky, eclectic RPI with a lot of Canterbury scene takes us and the band over to the Canterbury scene genre and drop them there.

The vocals is a mix of male and female vocals. The music is quirky with a slight jazz and folk feel too.

There is a lot of things going on at this album and the music is very good. The band is still one to really follow for all Canterbury scene and RPI fans. 

This is indeed a very good album.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Opium Cartel. The - Valor (2020)

The third album from this Norwegian band.

The band, or make that a project, were a ten pieces big band with a lineup of programming, drums, percussion, strings, bass, guitars, saxophones, synths and vocals.

The Opium Cartel is one of Jacob Holm Lupo's projects. I would not say one of his many projects as he only have a handful projects.  

Jacob Holm Lupo has taken this project down a much more power pop and art-pop direction than on his other projects.

There is a lot of female vocals here and a lot of dream pop.

There is also a lot of electronica here and music that reminds me about the good old horrors of disco music. 

Some of the music here can indeed be played in a club where people comes to dance. But most of the album is thankfully as bad as that as there is some more pastoral parts here.

The album is forty-five minutes long and it is a decent to good album. I am not fan of the more disco parts here and those pieces of music is not good. Hence the restrained joy about this album.

2.5 points

 

Osiris - Take a Closer Look (2020)

The fifth album from this band from Bahrain.

The band is an eight piece big band on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, synths, keyboards and vocals.

Bahrain or the Arabian peninsula is not a hotbed for progressive rock. But Osiris has been around since the late 1970s and has released five studio albums and two live albums. That is impressive.

I believe they are the only recorded progressive rock band from this area too. 

The band started out as a symphonic and neo-prog band. They did evolve a bit and I have had the pleasure of reviewing some of their albums.

The music here is a mix of neo-prog and art-rock.

There are a lot of pretty subtle Arabic influences here in the sound and in the melodies. 

The sound is not particular good though. The sound is a bit murky.

The songs are somewhere between decent and good as some of the songs are really not up to standards. This addition to the pretty poor guitar sound.

Their take on neo-prog and art-rock is different than the rest of the scene so it is always worth checking out their albums, including this album.

2.5 points

 

 

 

 

 

Marillion - This Strange Engine (1997)

The ninth album from this British band.

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

The band had help from guest musicians who provided balalaika, trumpet, saxophone and a choir.

Marillion post Fish had really established themselves now. Fish was doing his own thing and releasing some good albums. Ditto for Marillion with Steve Hogarth at the microphone. 

 It was a win win situation for everyone. I am not complaining, at least.

Marillion was now more leaning towards art-rock than neo-prog on this album.

Steve Rothery gave us some very good guitars and the rest of the band was firing on the cylinders too. Perhaps not all of the cylinders.

Not all the songs are good on this album. The sound is good though and a couple of songs are a step above the rest of the songs.

The end result is another good album from Marillion and another album well worth checking out. This band has so far delivered and I hope they did that on the remainder of their studio albums. Reviews of them will follow this winter.

3 points

White Willow - Signal To Noise (2006)

The fifth album from this Norwegian band.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of drums, glockenspiel, percussion, woodwinds, bass, guitars, keyboards, moog, mellotron, organ, piano, ebow, electric sitar and vocals.

White Willow is one of the pioneers in the Norwegian symphonic prog scene.

Their sound, as featuring on Signal To Noise too, is a mix of Scandinavian symphonic prog, Scandinavian folk music, electronica and more Radiohead like rock. 

The vocals are female and they are pretty prominent.

The sound has a lot of 1970s vibes too.

The music is at times very pastoral and with some additions of electronica.

This is one of the better White Willow albums and a very good album too. This although the songs are not that long. They are much more punchy than normal and that suits this sound. 

This may be the first White Willow album you should check out.

3.5 points

Pineapple Thief. The - Magnolia (2014)

The eleventh album from this English band.

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

The band is back again with their eleventh album and a very nice looking art-work.

Art-work that says something about the music too. 

The band still sounds like a crossover between Radiohead and Marillion. 

There is also some progressive metal here and some more pop and melancholic rock here.

Bruce Soord's vocals are very good and they carry this album to a large extent. There is also a lot of vocals here and not so much vocals free pieces of music.

The musicians is doing a good job, though.

The music is good. Some better songs is what this album is missing.

This is still a solid album which will please a lot of progressive rock fans.

3 points

Arabs In Aspic - Madness And Magic (2020)

The sixth album from this Norwegian band.

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

Arabs In Aspics has given us five good to great albums before they went into studio again to record Madness And Magic. I think it is fair to label them as one of the best musical exports from Norway. 

They are indeed highly rated outside Norway. They also have a pretty good Norwegian following too.

The music on Madness And Magic is psych rock with a lot of symphonic prog and folk rock influences.

The songs, make that compositions or pieces of music, is pretty long. The final track Heaven In Your Eye is clocking in at seventeen minutes. 

The music has got a good 1960s hippie psych rock sound. A sound I am pretty sure is their own sound. It is easy to recognize a piece of music from this band. The band has found their own niche.

This album is a good album. It not on par with their previous two albums when it comes to quality. It is still an album well worth checking out because of the sound and the fact that Arabs In Aspic always deliver the goods.

3 points

Karfagen - Echoes From Within Dragon Island (2019)

The tenth album from this band from Ukraine.

Karfagen is Antony Kalugin on keyboards, whistle, programming and some vocals. 

He had got help from a lot of guest musicians who provided drums, bass, guitars, woodwinds, violin and vocals.

This album was re-released with a second CD some months later as the second edition and that second CD is not as interesting. So I am just going to review the original album.

I have reviewed most of the Kalugin albums and I regard Antony Kalugin as one of the greatest artists in today's progressive rock scene. He is among the top 5. 

This album is the first of a trio of album Karfagen has released during the last 18 months. I hope to review all of them before the end of the year.

Antony Kalugin gives us what he normally does through Karfagen. That is dreamy symphonic prog with some strong Genesis and Steve Hackett influences.

This album is pretty dreamy and very symphonic. There are indeed strong Hackett and Genesis influences here.

The music is very interesting if you are a symphonic prog head. The songs are very pastoral and flowery throughout. 

Antony Kalugin sometimes sounds like Mr Banks on this album and that is a very good thing.  

This is one of the better albums from Kalugin and a very good one too. Check it out !

3.5 points

 

 

Yob - The Unreal Never Lived (2005)

The fourth album from this US band.

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

This is their fourth album after three pretty good albums.

Albums which has garnered them a pretty solid fan-base.

The music is again pretty doomy and gloomy post-metal with some space rock elements and influences.  

The sound is really dirty and ditto for the vocals.

These fifty minutes may feel like torture for some. And that is partly the point. This album feels like the end of the world in it's desolate soundscape.

There is a lot of bass here and the guitars are downtuned.

The songs are good though and the band has again delivered the goods, the end of the world.

Check out this album.

3 points

 

 

Airbag - A Day At The Beach (2020)

The fifth album from this Norwegian band.

The band is a trio on this album with a lineup of guitars, drums, keyboards, programming and vocals.

A guest musician provided bass.

Airbag, with Bjorn Riis at the helm, has released four good albums before they released this album and has got themselves a very good reputation and a pretty big following. I am pretty fond of this band too and is loosely following them.

I have reviewed their previous four albums in this blog and # 1 of this blog. 

The band plays a mix of art-rock and neo-prog with some electronica. Radiohead meets Marillion.

The music is really laid back and elegant. The music is also slightly pastoral.

The songs are all really good and this makes this album a very pleasant listening experience and one who calls for a lot of repeat listening. 

There is no really great songs here and that is my only gripe with this album. Besides of that, the band has again delivered a solid album who does not shame them.

3 points

 

My Tin Apple - The Door (2018)

The third album from this Italian band.

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

I made this mistake years ago to review their debut album in the belief that this was an Italian neo-prog band. I was wrong. 

I never give up though and I also reviewed their second album earlier this month.

The band plays some sort of power and pomp pop.  

They have moved a lot closer to neo-prog on this album though. There is also some happy chappy pop on this album.

The album is forty minutes long and I am again struggling really hard to find some good music here.

Pop and art-rock fans will find something good here. I am not. 

2 points

 

 

 

 

Three - Wake Pig (2005)

The third album from this US band.

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

The band had help from a guest musician who provided bass.

I have never had the chance to review their albums before although I have been aware of them for the last ten years. I did get three of their albums but they have not popped up in my to-do reviews before now. I will try to review their two other albums before the end of this year.

This album is one hour long. It is being described as a crossover prog album in ProgArchives. Metal Blade picked up this album and re-released it not so many years ago.

Conflicting signals here, indeed. 

The music is a mix of Radiohead art-rock, a bit metal and some teenybopper rock. Blink 182 springs to mind.

The songs fails to shine and I am left with some not so good vocals and one hour of decent music I do not really find that appealing.

I hope the two other albums are better than this one.

2 points

 

 

Opium Cartel. The - Ardor (2013)

The second album from this Norwegian band.

The band was a ten piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, saxophones, fujara, flute, keyboards and vocals.

The band is Jacob Holm-Lupo from White Willow with friends from that band and other bands like Wobbler, Anglagard, Pixel, No-Man, Henry Fool and Jaga Jazzist.Tim Bowness is one of the artist who gives their contribution to this album.

I reviewed their 2009 debut album Night Blooms for ProgArchives ten years ago and you can read my reivew here.  I also intend to review their new album sometimes before the end of the year.

The Opium Cartel is a younger sister of White Willow. The music on Ardor also sounds more innocent and much more like art-pop and art-rock.

There is a lot of male and female vocals here. That on the top of some rather pastoral music.

The music is indeed pastoral.

The vocals are all great and they add a lot to the music. Music which is very good most of the times. This album is indeed one heck of bright light in the darkness.

Check out this very good album.

3.5 points

 

Abel Ganz - The Life of the Honey Bee and Other Moments of Clarity (2020)

The seventh album from this band from Glasgow, Scotland.

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

They were supported by numerous guest musicians who provided woodwinds, strings, percussion, vibraphone, harmonica, keyboards and female vocals.

I was not at all impressed with their self-titled 2014 album. You can read my displeasure here.

It has taken this neo-prog band, which they were in the beginning of their life, six years to return again.

These six years has done them a lot of good. Gone are the worst excesses from their 2014 album. 

This album gives us a mix of rock and progressive rock. There are some americana and some jazz lurking around in the music too.

This is very mature rock.

The music is not particular exciting and I am having problem working up a pulse when listening to it... many times listening to it.

There are some good stuff here and not so good stuff here. The end result is a decent to good album. It will not feel like a let down for Abel Ganz fans.

2.5 points

 

 

 

 

 

TCP - Temporal Chaos (2016)

The third and final album from this US band.

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

I have really enjoyed their first two albums and was therefore off course looking forward to sink my ears and brain into this album.

The band still sounds like a crossover between The Watch, Genesis, Marillion and King Crimson. That is their sound and music.

The vocals still sounds like Peter Gabriel and the vocalist in The Watch too. 

The music is pretty complex but it is also melodic. There is a lot of bite on this album.

This album is sorely missing a great track or two. The vocals and the sometimes pastoral sound makes this a very good album though and I have noted down TCP as one of the better US progressive rock bands. They have certainly impressed me.

Check out this album.

3.5 points

Tammatoys - Conflicts (2020)

The third album from this Norwegian band.

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

Tammatoys released their debut album in 1999 and the follow up album in 2004. These two and this year's Conflicts is available from their Bandcamp page. 

Six songs and in total three quarters of an hour is what we get here.

There is some narrations and spoken words here and that confuses the matter. But when overcoming that confusion about this being a concept album or not.... and it is not, the music starts to speak it own story.

The music is a mix of art-rock and symphonic prog. In particular, Yes springs to mind. And so does Marillion from the mid 1990s and onwards.

The vocals are good and the music is pretty arty and symphonic. A mix of those two genres in my humble opinion. There are some hints of melotron and the keyboards sound is very cool with some use of sampled strings.

The music is pretty complex. It is also melodic and has some pieces who are sailing close to Yes. 

The end result is a very good album and one I think will surprise a lot of people. 

Norway has got a new great band and I hope we will hear a lot more about this band in the future. 

3.5 points

 

Lady Lake - SuperCleanDreamMachine (2005)

The second and final album from this Dutch band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of grand piano, minimoog, organ, melotron, guitars and drums.

This is the follow up to their 1977 debut album No Pictures. An album I reviewed last month. A pretty good album too.

SuperCleanDreamMachine is an instrumental album. It is fifty-five minutes long too.

The music is very much based on keyboards and guitars.

References here are Camel and some fusion. Well, mostly Camel and other Camel sounding bands and albums.

There are not any good pieces of music here, I am afraid.

The music is pretty much mid-tempo and not particular technical impressive. 

This is a pretty dull, half-decent album and just that. It is not something I would have checked out if it was not for the debut album.

1.5 points

 

Stray - Saturday Morning Pictures (1971)

 

The third album from this British band.

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

The band had help from some guest musicians who provided harmonica and backing vocals.

This album was actually produced and engineered by the late Martin Birch. He is most known for his work with Deep Purple and in particular; Iron Maiden. A great producer and a legend who recently passed away. Four months ago, in fact.

The sound on this album is very good and the best thing about this album. 

Stray was a hard rock band with a limited success. Mostly due to the very poor management. Management provided by gangsters. Yes, one of the infamous Kray brothers managed them for a short while.

The band combines hard rock with blues, psych rock and progressive rock on this album. 

The songs on this forty-two minutes long album is better this time than on their first two albums. The music has a lot of interesting details. 

The quality is therefore between decent and good. More good than decent, though. It is very much an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Zuffanti. Fabio - Fabio Zuffanti (2009)

The second solo album from this Italian artist/legend.

Fabio Zuffanti does all the instruments here and I guess from the sound that this means programming, keyboards and vocals. Italian vocals.

Fabio Zuffanti is a legend in the Italian Progressive Rock scene. As much of a legend as Steven Wilson and Roine Stolt is legends. 

During his remarkable short life, he has been involved as musician, mentor and publisher in a lot of the new bands in the RPI scene. His stamp mostly means quality although I did not like his debut album Merlin at all.

I am much more a fan of the likes of Finisterre and Hostsonaten... some of his other bands.

This album is forty two minutes long and the music is mostly electronica and ambient music.

There are some piano and keyboards in addition to his own very good vocals.

Minimalism is the keyword here and there is a lot of that here. A lot of it is created by computers, it has to be said. There is a lot of electronica here. 

I am not really won over. But this is a decent album and worth checking out.

2 points 

Wild Geese - In Full Flight (1985)

 The third and final album from this Irish band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of whistle, guitar, flute, fiddle, bodhran, bouzouki and vocals.

I have had the reasonable pleasure of reviewing their first two albums and this is my final review of their albums. 

The band is still touring.... well, not in these Covid 19 times, but they were active one year ago before the world was turned upside down. 

The band is an Irish folk music band and I still do not remember/understand why I decided to review their three albums. I have a bit of a weakness for Irish music and the likes of Thin Lizzy who brought their Irish folk rock roots with them when they became a hard rock band.

In Full Flight gives us a mix of ballads and more traditional full on Irish folk music. This much more than on their two previous albums.

There is more ballads here and a better balance between the fast and the more ballad stuff.

This is their best album by far. It is still a decent album but still worth checking out.

Wild Geese flies the flag for traditional Irish folk music and they are well worth checking out.

2 points

 

Temple of Switches - The Wings of Mind (2020)

The second album from this US band.

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

The band had help from some guest musicians who provided drums, keyboards and vocals.

I reviewed their self-titled 2015 debut album back in the summer of 2016 and was not overly impressed.

I has also reviewed a compilation album from this band and that one did not impress me either.

The band was an US neo-prog band back in those days. There is also some larger than life US neo-prog on this album too. 

The Wings Of Mind, this album, sounds like a concept album as there is a lot of strange twists and turns on this album. It goes from a bit neo-prog to power metal and some vaudeville and symphonic prog. Then it does a turn to rock music and some Broadway musicals too.

The vocals are mostly male although there are some female vocals here too. 

This album is very much a twisting and turning album. It lacks a great deal of quality and I am yet to be won over by the band. 

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. But check out this album if you get the chance and you are into concept albums.

2.5 points

White Kites. The - Devillusion (2020)

The second album from this band from Poland.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, flugelhorn, flute, keyboards, organ, piano and vocals.

The band was helped out by guest musicians providing clarinet, banjo, guitars, percussion and vocals.

The band released an LP some years ago. That and Devillusion is available from their Bandcamp page.

The music on this album is a mix of rock, 1960s pop and psych rock.

The music is pretty lively and the vocals are good.

It is not progressive rock though although there are some hints of psych rock here.

The music is pretty good though and I would not dismiss the qualities of this album.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. 

For those into melodic rock, this album should be checked out.

2.5 points

Starfish64 - The Crimson Cabinet (2020)

The eight album from this German band.

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

The band was helped out by some guest musicians who provided glockenspiel, guitars, choir and vocals.

The band releases their albums and EPs through Bandcamp and that is the sensible thing to do these days as the CD medium is dead and LPs manufacturing costs a lot. So it is better to spend these money in the studio instead of in manufacturing. 

... That is my view...

As on their 2018 album, reviewed here, the music is neo-prog with some German neo-prog influences and a lot of Marillion influences.

The vocals is good and the music is elegant with some melancholic undertones. In this respect, there is a lot of Polish neo-prog influences too.

The music is really good throughout and this is one of the better current neo-prog bands around. This despite of not delivering a great song on this album. But this is still a solid, good album.

Check out this band and this album.

3 points

 

 

 

 

KingBathmat - Dark Days (2017)

The eight album from this English act.

The band is John Bassett on keyboards, bass, guitars and vocals.

He is helped out by a guest musician on drums.

John Bassett's output through the first seven Kingbathmat albums has been decent to very good from what I have heard. The band has a good fanbase and me too really like KingBathmat.

We are again getting a mix of neo-prog and psych rock from this band.

Half an hour of this mix. A very potent mix.

The vocals are good and the other instruments also played by John is also good here.

There is no surprises and no great tracks on this album. Nevertheless, this is another good album from this act and their albums is well worth checking out.

3 points

Violent Silence - Twilight Furies (2020)

The fourth album from this Swedish band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of keyboards, vocals, bass and percussion.

I very much liked their previous album, the 2013 album A Broken Truce. See my review here.

Seven years has passed and the band is back again.

This time with a pretty muscular album.

Take symphonic prog in the vein of Yes, Genesis and Anglagard. Mix it with some progressive metal and a lot of Canterbury prog and Canterbury jazz.

The music is very dynamic throughout. 

The use of vibraphone (?) is very, very smart and effective.... and great. The vocals is not that good.

The music is fast and dynamic and showcases some great musicianship. Mostly on keyboards and vibraphone.

The seven years long break has not blunted the instruments of this band at all. This album is not as superb as A Broken Truce.

Nevertheless, this is a great album and one of the best albums of 2020.

4 points

My Tin Apple - A Strange Carousel (2015)

The second album from this Italian band.

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

For some reasons, I got it in my head that this is a neo-prog band. Hence I reviewed their debut album for # 1 of this blog some years ago.

The band is more a pop-rock band.

There are a lot of Linkin Park influences here at the more heavy songs on this album. Well, the band sounds like Linkin Park without their death metal vocals.

The vocals here are clear and quite teenybopper at times.

The music is melodic throughout. There are some pomp pop here too.

The music is decent but just that.

I am not impressed.

2 points

Knight Area - Under A New Sign (2007)

The second album from this Dutch band.

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

Two guest musicians provided cello and guitars.

I reviewed their 2014 album Hyperdrive some years ago and quite liked that. After I reviewed that album, I got three more Knight Area albums and I am reviewing them this winter. Hopefully this year.

Knight Area is a classic neo-prog and whose music is classic, standard neo-prog. 

The music is not overly aggressive or heavy. 

It is still pretty epic, but mid-paced and a bit soft too.

The sound is based on the good vocals, guitars and keyboards. The sound is electric and not so much acoustic.

There is nothing I can fault this album on. It is a solid, good album. A bit unspectacular too, but still a good album.

A bit more spice and better songs would have been nice. That is not happening here, though. Nevertheless.......

3 points

 

 

 

TCP - Fantastic Dreamer (2011)

The second album from this US band.

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

The band was helped by three guest musicians who provided bass, keyboards and female vocals.

I very much enjoyed their 2009 debut album The Way. You will find the review somewhere else in this blog. I will also review their third and final album before the end of the year.

The band plays a mix of Genesis like prog and neo-prog. 

The vocals reminds me a lot about the Italian band The Watch. Ditto for the music. I am indeed a fan of The Watch and finds TCP a band who shares my views..... sound wise.

The music is both muscular and melodic. It is also pretty epic although the music is songs based. There is no long suites here.

The sound is very good and I love the vocals.

The rest of the band also does a good job.

The songs are all good and this is a joy to behold for Genesis and neo-prog fans. A couple of great tracks would had been great and is sorely missed from this album. 

Nevertheless, this is a good album and well worth checking out.

3 points