Be Cause - New Knights (2021)

The second album from this band from England.

I am not sure who took part on this album as their website says nothing. But the instruments are drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Their debut album Anima Mundi has also been released this year through Bandcamp together with this album. 

Their music is progressive rock somewhere between symphonic prog and neo-prog. 

The vocals reminds me a lot about the vocals from The Watch and Peter Gabriel. The vocals are really good.

There is a lot of piano here and most of the music is really pastoral and melodic. It is also vocals based.

The same goes for the music which is sometimes pretty close to the art-rock and neo-prog of Marillion. Fans of Marillion and melodic prog will probably like this album a lot.

The end result is a good, seventy minutes long album. An album that has surprised me. Now, I need to get their first album...

3 points

Timelight - Selah! (2020)

The second album from this US band.

The band is a duo of Ron Murvihill and Chris Rudolf with a lineup of drum programming, keyboards, bass, flute, guitars and vocals.

A guest musician does bass on three tracks.

Their 2016 self titled debut album gave us a fine mix of Kansas, Rush and neo-prog. A good album indeed and it was reviewed earlier this month.

The band returns again and they have changed things around a bit.

There is a strong, very strong Yes influence on this album. The album is therefore mostly a symphonic prog with some neo-prog influences. They have mostly ditched the Rush and Kansas influences. 

The music is pretty complex and epic on this one hour long album. The songs, make that compositions, is pretty long too and on average around eleven minutes long. 

The duo knows what they are doing and their contributions and addition to the progressive rock scene is very much welcome. They are one of the more promising acts in the US progressive scene at the moment and both albums is recommended.

This is indeed a very good album.

3.5 points

Tillison Multiplex. The Andy - Electric Sinfonia No. 2 (2020)

The first album from this one-man band from England.

The band is a solo project from Andy Tillison from The Tangent and he does all instruments here. Drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

The Andy Tillison Multiplex is Andy Tillison exploring the world of fusion and jazz. 

I would very much argue the case that this world is already explored by the The Tangent albums. But Andy Tillison want to go further towards jazz. Hence this project and album.

There is a lot of The Tangent on this album, indeed. But as intended, the music is more jazzy than on any The Tangent album. This album is still a The Tangent'ish album.

That is a good thing and fans of The Tangent would very much like this album.

The jazz is pretty much in the lounge jazz vein and not intense full on. The music is pretty laidback and sunny in other words.

The songs are pretty long and Andy adds some short vocal pieces on a couple of songs. 

The album is fifty minutes long and contains everything you can expect from Andy Tillison. But with some more jazzy music than before. 

This is a good album and one I really enjoy. Check it out.

3 points

Marillion - Fear (2016)

The 18th album from this British band.

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

The band was supported by some guests who provided cello, viola, violin and vocals.

This is so far their latest studio album although I have heard they are in studio at this moment. 

Marillion has been following the art-rock formula since Steve Hogarth took over from Fish on vocals many decades ago. Marillion anno 2016 is nowhere near Marillion anno 1984. 

This album is a concept album and is clocking in at sixty-seven minutes.

The vocals is great and the musicians is doing their best on some material which is not their best. 

The songs are good but also a bit anonymous. 

This is a solid, good album but nothing more than that. It is a nice album for both the ears and the brain. It is not one of their better albums.

3 points

Settlement. The - Departures (2021)

The debut album from this US band.

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

This is another album I picked up because it was marketed as a progressive rock album by one of my friends. Sometimes, my friends are right. Sometimes, they are wrong. But I always try review the albums. 

When discovering that the band also added reggae to the list of music on this forty minutes long album, I became a bit less inclined to review this album.

There is no overly reggae on this album, though.

There is hardly any offensive music on this album at all.

The music is pop-rock with a lot of post-rock influences. College rock, I think it is called. Although there is not much rowdy rock here.

The music is pretty elegant and refined. There are some hints of lounge jazz here too. The vocals are good and ditto for the sound.

What this album really does not have is some more good songs. The quality is pretty patchy and I am by no means impressed by this album. Hopefully, the end of the Covid pandemic will see this band express themselves better on stage than on this album. This band need the live environment to grow and develop some better songs.

2.5 points

 

Blank Manuskript - Krásná Hora (2019)

The third album from this Austrian band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of drums, glockenspiel, percussion, bass, guitars, flute, saxophone, clavinet, celesta, mellotron, electric piano, piano, synths, organ and vocals.

Two guest musicians added samples and viola to this album.

Their two first albums was pretty good so I was looking forward to this album.

The band has taken a long step towards eclectic prog and this is therefore my third attempt to write a review of this album. On the first two attempts, the first one in 2019, I found it too difficult and tiresome to write a review of this album.

The music is indeed eclectic prog with some different genres thrown into this one hour long album. From symphonic prog to folk music to some more pastoral rock and jazz.

This is indeed an eclectic album.

The melodies are pretty good but there are also some pieces here who simply does not work. 

This album is therefore somewhere between decent and good. It is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

Mekong Delta - Pictures At An Exhibition (1996)

The seventh album from this German band.

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

The classical music piece Pictures At An Exhibition by Modest Mussorsky from 1874 and thereabouts has been a major inspiration for a lot of bands. 

ELP did their version in 1971 and that is perhaps the most famous of the rock bands version of this classical music piece. It is also a version I really like a lot.

Mekong Delta has done two different versions of the same piece on this seventy minutes long album. One with the band as a trio and one for the band plus an orchestra.

Two versions on the same album in other words.

There is no denying that the original classical music is great. ELP also did a great version..... and Mekong Delta....

The band is pretty true to the original version. The trio format does not really fill out the tones and the full spectrum of this piece. The orchestral version is rather better.

This is still a good album and you cannot do much wrong with Pictures At An Exhibition.

This album both stands nicely on it's own feet and serves as a tribute to this piece of music. A piece of music I am starting to like a lot more as I am growing older.

3 points

 

Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here (2010)

 

The ninth album from this English band.

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

The band was helped out by a string orchestra, female vocalists and male vocalist.

Anathema takes another step away from metal on this album. 

There is nothing left of the music who gave us doom metal classics like Crestfallen and Serenades on this album. 

The music is more like dream pop, post rock and indeed art rock and progressive rock on this album. 

There is a lot of strings and female vocals here. The music has an ethereal dreamy feel on this one hour long album. It has a lot of Pink Floyd too but with other instruments and vocals than Pink Floyd used. 

The music is also pretty melancholic. 

There is indeed no metal here and nothing from the old Anathema. It just has this desire to explore new territories and to create unique music. That is indeed like the Anathema who gave us the Serenades album.

This is indeed a very good album and perhaps their best album so far. 

Check out this album.

3.5 points

Laughing Stock - Zero Acts 1&2 (2021)

The fourth album from this Norwegian band.

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

The band was helped by a male and a female vocalist.

Laughing Stock has established themselves as one of the better bands in the Norwegian progressive rock scene. Their first three albums has got them fans all over the world.

The band gives us their own brand of neo-prog. 

The music is pastoral and softly spoken. There is a lot of pop and folk rock influences in their music. 

The vocals are good and the music is melancholic and has some Nordic depressions all over it.

The harmonies are really good here too.

The songs are all good without really having this wow factor I wished they could have.

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

3 points

 

 

MaterialEyes - Three of a Kind (2021)

The third album from this English band.

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

The band was helped out by a quartet who provided drums, bass, flute and vocals.

I have reviewed their previous two albums and cannot be counted among the fans of this band.

So the band has made a new attempt to win me over and to please their fans.

We are again in the middle of neo-prog light land. The songs has a lot in common with rock too. 

Half of rock and half of neo-prog is what I get from this sixty-five minutes long album. There is also some Americana here and I get some vibes of of the other Yorkshire band who sounds like them; namely Wally.

The vocals is good and the band does their best on some songs who simply are not up to a good standard.

This is another decent to good album from this band. It is well worth checking out, though.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Tillett. Nathan Jon - Nomad (2014)

The one and only album from this English singer/songwriter.

Nathan Jon Tillett does the guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and vocals himself on this album.

Nathan Jon Tillett is the vocalist in the far more known Napier's Bone. This is a very good band. But before they had their breakthrough, he released this solo-album.

The music is a mix of latter days Pink Floyd, rock ballads and some progressive rock.

There is a lot of soaring guitar solos here and some really pastoral rock and prog.

These seventy minutes are a bit long..... a bit too long as some of the material is not cutting the mustard. 

It is an OK ambient like laid back album with guitars solos and good vocals. 

The quality of the songs are decent enough but Nathan Jon Tillett has done far better things than this album as a member of Napier's Bone.

As this is a free Bandcamp download, it is well worth checking out this album.

2 points

 

 

 

 

Atomic Rooster - Atomic Rooster '80 (1980)

The sixth album from this British band.

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

The band had been split for several years before they reformed and released this album and another album before they split for good. I only got this album of the reformed roosters.

The band had started out as an innovative hard prog and psych band ten years earlier. The debut album is pretty good.

Vincent Crane, the band owner before he passed on in 1989, had led the band down the path to getting back again for this album.

The music is pretty much hard rock with organ and guitars. It has a lot of psych too. 

The vocals is fairly good and the organs gives the song a lot of colours. The songs are pretty decent without impressing me. They are saved by the organs. 

The end result is a decent album and one well worth checking out. Atomic Rooster is a band well worth checking out for those interested in the history of hard rock and progressive rock. Start with the first album.

But this album is not bad at all.

3 points

Final Gravity - Surviving Humanity (2021)

The debut album from this US band.

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

A guest artist provides violin on one track.

The band debuted in 2010 with a four tracks EP and then they did nothing. Thankfully, they have again surfaced.

The band has female vocals and those vocals are very good. Step forward, Melissa Jane Dichiera. 

The music on this fifty-five minutes long album is a blend of hard prog and neo-prog. The vocals adds a lot of colours to the music. The songs are on average six to eight minutes long. The sound is really good.

The band operates in an overcrowded market and there is a lot of bands like Final Gravity. 

The band has still delivered a good album which includes some good guitar solos and hooks in addition to the very good vocals. I really hope we will hear more from this band. Give them a lot more attention and they will be around for much longer. Check out their album from this link.

3 points

Blackbirds - No Destination (1968)

The debut album from this German band.

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

This band released two albums before they split up. I intend to review their second album later this summer.

The year was 1968 and the music was beat. That was the music those days.

The music on this forty-four minutes long album is a mix of psych pop and beat.

The music sounds a bit naive and it sounds very innocent. That compared to the sound of the 1970s. 

The music is not too bad. It is half-decent enough but it does not really win over the listener.

This album is a very obscure album and hard to find. There is a good reason for that. Quality. Or the lack of it. 

1.5 points

 

 

Moonrise - The Lights of a Distant Bay (2008)

The debut album from this one-man band from Poland.

Moonrise is Mr Kamil Koneizniak on edrums, bass, guitars and keyboards.

The vocalist from Millenium, Lukasz Gall, does the vocals here.

Moonrise has so far released four albums and I got all of them up for review this summer. Something I have been looking forward too for quite a while now.

This album is fifty-three minutes long and gives us a mix of instrumental symphonic prog and neo-prog with some vocals inbetween.

The music is a mix of elegant simplicity and epic neo-classical music. 

There are also some pure songs here which is pretty elegant and contains some very good vocals from Mr. Gall from Millenium, another great one-man band from Poland.

The result is an elegant album and a really good album. One to really cherish and enjoy while relaxing or doing something else.

Check out this album.

3 points

Pohjola. Pekka - Jokamies (1983)

The seventh album from this Finnish artist.

Pekka Pohjola was on bass and synths here.

He had help from a choir, a drummer, a guitarist, vocalist and a synth player.

This is the soundtrack to the Finnish television film of the same name. I have probably seen it as Norwegian television was only showing Finnish movies at that time instead of movies we wanted to see... American and British movies. But no.... Norwegian television sent Finnish films instead. 

It is not a good memory from my childhood in Norway.

The soundtrack is brooding and symphonic. It has some choirs and it is epic and dark. Just like Finnish television. The movie was probably violent too as most of the movies from Finland. 

There is some ELP and that kind of symphonic prog here. 

But this is a movie-soundtrack and it shows.

The music is not bad at all. It has some good parts and some decent parts. This is not Pekka's finest hour and can be bypassed with a good conscience. 

2.5 points

 

Gaspard - Vertiges (2021)

The second album from this Canadian band.

The band is a quartet on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, saw, keyboards and synths.

Gaspard is another new'ish addition to the Quebec scene in the French speaking part of Canada.

I really liked their 2019 debut album La Foret De Gaspard and therefore got this album.

Instrumental post rock is what we get here.

No less and no more than that.

The music on this one hour long album is mainly driven by half-acoustic and electric guitars. The music is pretty melodic and has some good ideas on the beginning of this album.

The music is not particular good towards the end of the album. The music is a bit too dull and bleak to really make it's mark.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. 

Post rock fans should check out this album.

2.5 points

 

Bacio Della Medusa. Il - Seme* (2018)

The fourth album from this Italian band.

The band was a sextet on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, saxophones, flute, piano, organ, mellotron and vocals.

This is as I write these lines their last album. Hopefully, the band will soon return with a new album.

The band has gone through some phases on their albums. But they have always been pretty much an RPI band.

This album sees them go back a lot to more rock and folk rock. There is not that much progressive rock here. But the saxophones and some of the songs are still pretty proggy. 

The vocals are also good.

The songs here are pretty warm and pastoral. They are a bit too mainstream rock for my liking and this album is their least interesting album.

The quality is still somewhere between decent and good, though. I hope this band will return to being a more pure RPI band in the future.

2.5 points

Tilt - Hinterland (2016)

The debut album from this British band.

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

This band released two EPs before they released this album. Nothing has been heard from Tilt after the release of Hinterland, I am afraid. That is sad/bad.

The music on this album is a mix of neo-prog, hard rock and progressive metal. 

Porcupine Tree is a good reference here. The band says they wanted to sound like Marillion too and there is some Marillion in their sound and music too.

The music is pretty hard most of the times on this one hour long album. There is a lot of samples and electronic devices here.

There are also some really good electric guitar solos and hooks too. The vocals is very good.

The music is really good and is bordering to very good. A couple of better songs would have elevated this album to something more than a good album. It is still an album well worth checking out if modern progressive rock is your thing.

3 points

 

Baro Prog Jets - Utopie (2021)

The second album from this band from Italy.

The band is Alberto Baro Molesini on bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals + Gigi Murari on drums and percussion.

They got help from some guest musicians who provided bass, guitars and piano.

The band debuted with the double CD Lucille & Giado / Topic Wurlenio back in 2019. 

I have not heard that album but I understand it is pretty similar to Utopie, the album I am now reviewing.

The vocals here are in English and the band has tried to make an album similar to Pink Floyd, Genesis and King Crimson. 

There is some great dissimilarities between those three bands so the band has ended up with this one hour long album.

The music is very melodic with some bombastic symphonic prog influences. There is a lot of Yes influences here and the band most of all sounds like Yes. 

The vocals is pretty poor and the music really fails to fire of the imagination of the listener. The music is simply not good enough although the sound is good.

This is a decent album but nothing more than that. I am not the least won over by this album.

2 points

 

Emerald Dawn. The - Visions (2017)

The second album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, electric violin, upright bass, cello, guitars, keyboards, piano, flute, saxophone and vocals.

I was not a fan of their 2014 debut album Searching For The Lost Key which I thought was too poppy and too light-weight pop/rock.

But I have noted their new album and the three albums they have released after that album and their popularity. So I have returned to the band to review their remaining three albums.

The pop/rock has gone. Totally gone. What we get here is a pretty gothic, epic epos who starts this album. A twenty minutes long epos with saxophones, guitars, keyboards and female vocals. The music is gloomy and pastoral. This is not easy listening. It is a good to very good epic and one well worth checking out.

The remaining album is a mix of neo-prog and symphonic prog. It is still gloomy and gothic. It is music well worth listening too. 

This album reminds me a lot about the more occult, gothic Italian progressive rock albums the record label Black Widows releases. And that is not a bad thing.

This is indeed a very good album and I have changed my opinion about this band.

3.5 points

 

 

Black Strat Band - Absence (2018)

 

The second album from this band from Hellas.

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

The band debuted in 2013 with their self-titled album but I have not been able to get this album. So I am starting with this album, their second and newest album.

This band is unknown for most of you and I have yet to see a review of this album. So let me start..

The music here is a mix of neo-prog and rock. I would label it in the German neo-prog sound and tradition.

The sound is warm with hints of Americana. The vocals is good although a bit limited when the vocalist goes for the high tones.

The songs on this fifty minutes long album are good. The sound is good and the band knows what they are doing.

It is not the most exciting album around but it does the job. 

3 points

 

 

Clepsydra - Hologram (1991)

The debut album from this band from Switzerland.

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

This band has released five albums so far and I got them all for reviews this summer.

That means starting with this album, their debut album.

Clepsydra does neo-prog in the British tradition from the 1980s. That means lots of Pendragon and Marillion references here.

The music has got this 1980s sound and it is not a good sound. It is a thin, weak sound. 

The songs are pretty short and is supposed to be catchy. They are failing that task. They are also pretty poppy and does not give the listener many interesting details.

The vocals is really good though.

This album is a child of it's time. The songs are still decent enough but this is not an album this band should be judged by. It is a decent debut album.

2 points

 

 

Beardfish - Sleeping in Traffic Part Two (2008)

The fourth album from this Swedish band.

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

The band is back again from the good 2007 part one of Sleeping In Traffic. An album that surprised me as I am new to this Swedish band.

I was a bit better prepared this time after part one and knew what to expect.... more or less.

We get again seventy minutes with a mix of Gentle Giant, Kaipa, Frank Zappa and The Flower Kings. That is the inspirations you can hear in their music and a mix of these bands is what we get.

The music is both eclectic and symphonic at the same time.

The music is really quirky and all over the place. It is also pretty funky with elements of 1970s funk. 

The music is also very good. It is engaging and makes the listener really guess where the songs is of to in the next minutes. The quality is also very good.

This album is well worth checking out as it is one of the better albums from Sweden.

3.5 points

Pentesilea Road - Pentesilea Road (2021)

 

The debut album from this Italian band.

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

Three guest musicians added their drums and vocals.

This band is a new band on the scene. A scene that gives us new bands all the time. The progressive rock scene in Italy is well and alive.

This band does not play Rock Progressive Italiano (RPI) though. 

Take Fates Warning and add some Porcupine Tree and neo-prog to the music. That is where you find this album. This seventy minutes long album.

Hard progressive rock is the proper label on this album and band. 

It has a very good organ sound which gives the music and album a good 1970s hard progressive rock vibe. The vocals and guitars is also a good throwback to the 1970s.

The music is good throughout without really impressing me. This is a good, solid debut album and something to improve on. This band has the right sound and attitude. Better songs next time, please.

3 points

 

Timelight - Timelight (2016)

The debut album from this US band.

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

Timelight is a new US band who so far has released two albums. A review of their second album will follow in due course.

Their music is a mix of Rush, Kansas and neo-prog. 

It is at times a bit heavy, but not very heavy. 

The music is muscular, but not overly heavy. The vocals is good and the sound too is good.

The music is indeed melodic and has a lot of interesting details. The songs are pretty long on this fifty-five minutes long album. 

The songs are indeed more like compositions than songs as they are pretty complex with multiple themes. The keyboard sound is very good as it sounds more like an organ than a traditional keyboard. This gives the band a pretty good retro-sound. This album has indeed quite a bit retro-sound and that gives this album an edge and some extra quality.

This is indeed a good album and a promising debut album. Timelight is indeed a new talent in the US scene and a welcome addition to the scene.

3 points

Titus Groan - Titus Groan (1970)

The one and only album from this British band.

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

This album is very obscure and a highly valued album among those who likes quirky progressive rock. 

The music on this album is indeed a bit of an oddity.

Take some simple 1960s pop, add some symphonic prog and brass rock. Add some jazz and eclectic prog too and you get this album.

There are some saxophones on the top of some naive, simple melodies made into longer songs. Songs who then becomes pretty quirky as layers of melodies is added to each other. Hence, the songs are pretty symphonic prog'ish.

The vocals are nice and in the 1960s pop vein.

The music is decent enough and is pretty alien to those used to today's songwriting and melodies. It is still an album well worth checking out. 

2 points

 

 

Konom - Konom (2021)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Another new band has entered the British progressive rock scene and we should all be happy about that. The scene always needs new blood, new bands and new albums.

The band released an EP under the name Ascent back in 2015 before they changed their name. Their new album has been released through Bandcamp.

This album is fifty minutes long and has one long suite who takes half of the album and three other long songs.

The music is heavy and their music is somewhere between progressive metal, hard prog and neo-prog. Dream Theater, Pallas and Porcupine Tree springs to mind here. 

There are some good guitars here throughout these epic songs and a lot of interesting details. The vocals are good too and the musicians is doing a good job.

This album grows on the listener and the listener gets more from it every time. This is indeed a good album and this band is added to my list of new talents well worth keeping an eye on.

3 points

 

Marillion - Sounds That Can't Be Made (2012)

The 17th album from this British band.

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

The band was helped by a handful of extra vocalists.

Marillion has been going on since the early 1980s as recording artists. First with Fish and then with Steve Hogarth on vocals.

The band has adopted a more art-rock sound after Steve Hogarth joined the band. 

And that is what we get here. 

That means some epic art-rock with complex songs based on good melodies. 

The vocals are as per usual very good and the band really hits it off during these sixty-five minutes. 

There is not a bad song here and parts of this album is really interesting. There is no real great songs here and that is my only gripe with this album. Nevertheless, this is a good album. A solid one too and one I will listen to again and again.

3 points

Blackfoot - No Reservations (1975)

 

The debut album from this US band.

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

Blackfoot was a southern rock band who operated in the shadows of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Allman Brothers Band. The leader, Rick Medlocke is now a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

I got a handful of their albums and will review them this summer as I find this an interesting genre and band.

The band debuts with some pretty melodic hard rock on this album. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Allman Brothers is good references here.

The guitars are really good and Rick Medlocke, one of the bigger personalities from the 1970s rock scene, is a good vocalist and guitarist. He is very much carrying this album.

There are a lot of good guitar solos here. 

The end result is a good US hard rock album which will interest everyone into this scene. For the rest of us, this is a decent album.

2 points

Arco Iris - Los Elementales (1977)

The seventh album from this band from Argentina.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, bandura, saxophones, flute, organ, synths, piano, mini moog and vocals.

Arco Iris has so far given us two classics and some not so brilliant albums. Their mix of fusion, folk and prog has engaged me and it has been fun reviewing their first six albums.

We are now at their seventh album and that one starts out with an epic piece of fusion. The music is pretty close to where we found Mahavishnu Orchestra. 

Is that the whole story of this forty minutes long album ?

No.

The band then switches over to some funky, Spanish vocals driven rock and pop. There is some folk rock and progressive rock in these songs before we get some more fusion.... or Arco Iris take on fusion.

The music is pretty good throughout and this album is giving me a lot of food for thought. Just like I prefer music to be. The music is also groovy too. It is very much a satisfactory album.

Check out this album.

3 points

 

 

Ainur - War of the Jewels (2021)

The fourth album from this Italian band.

The band is a twelve members big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, contrabass, guitars, violin, viola, cello, horns, flute, keyboards and vocals.

Three guests added their keyboards, narration and vocals.

Ainur is a kind of band where J.R. Tolkien has inspired. I have reviewed two of their albums. Their first one was a turkey and the second one was pretty good.

This seventy minutes long album opens up with an epic, goth like piece of music and that sets the tone.

The music is a mix of neo-prog and goth metal.

There is a lot of very good female vocals here and some good male vocals. The guitars are mostly in the progressive metal vein and that too sets the tone.

The songs are OK and follows the normal goth metal formula. This is a sort of a rock opera... well, it is a rock opera.

It feels a bit bloated, the music. I am no fan of goth metal but I guess this album will be very popular among those vast numbers of people who like that genre and lives for that genre.

This is a decent to good album and nothing more than that.

2.5 points

 

MaterialEyes - Strange Road (2018)

The debut album from this English band.

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

This band has just released their new album and I felt it was appropriate to review their debut album before I reviewed their new album. 

I reviewed their second album In Focus two years ago when it was released and was not impressed.

That album gave us some very melodic prog in the vein of Pink Floyd and Camel. 

Strange Road though gives us one hour of pop-rock. There is some Americana/Country in the sound too. But there is not much, if any, progressive rock on this album.

The music is inoffensive middle of the road pop-rock and just that. It is a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points

 

Atomic Rooster - Nice 'n' Greasy (1973)

The fifth album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, strings, arp synth, electric piano, organ, piano and vocals.

A new album from this band. An album also named IV for some reasons.

This band was at this time a start-stop band from now one as they took a looong break after this album.

The great Chris Farlowe did the vocals and Vincent Crane did the arrangements and the tangents here. 

The band had ditched their progressive rock roots and gone for hard rock and blues on this album. Most of the music is pretty dirty and raw.

The more calm and controlled Goodbye Planet Earth is a good track by far the best piece of music on this album. It is a semi-classic track too. 

The rest of the album is run-of-the-mill songs and pretty much worth forgetting.

The result is a decent album but nothing more than that. 

2 points

Saga - Symmetry (2021)

The 22nd album from this Canadian band.

Saga is a quintet on this album with a lineup of drums, clarinet, keyboards, bass, guitars and vocals.

Why ?

That is my question when I listened to this album for the first time. Saga was my introduction to progressive rock forty years ago and I have been more or less a fan of them since the late 1970s. More or less. 

The band has released some great albums and some turkeys along the way. At their best, very few bands beats them in my opinions. I am listening to their great song Tired World from their debut album when I am now writing these lines and that song is up among the ultimate best of them in the pomp prog genre.

That song and many other great Saga songs is included on this "new" album from Saga. The difference between a best-of album and Symmetry is that Saga, which is Jim Gilmour, Ian Crichton and Michael Sadler from the original Saga + two other musicians, has made acoustic versions of these tracks and labeled it as a new album.

Acoustic and semi-acoustic versions, that is. Most of the electricity has been removed from the songs. When comparing their new version of Tired World with the original 1978 version of this song, most of the sparkling and fizz has been removed from this song. It is still a very good song, but not a superb song as the original song is/was.

That goes for most of the other great and superb songs here. The fizz has gone and the songs sounds a bit stale. Saga has also added some less great songs here from their long career and they do not sound that good.

I was a looking forward to new songs from Saga. What I got was a reminder who great band Saga is... by comparing the far better original songs with the songs on Symmetry.

I am still a life-long fan of Saga. But this album lack the sparkle and fizz I associate with Saga at their best. 

BUT it hard to argue against great melodies though and this is why I give this album a good rating. Simply because the melodies, no matter who much the sting has been removed from them, is great and i can therefore live with second rate versions of them and some duds/songs who is not among their great stuff.

But this is still for fans only as there is best-of and live albums there much more worthy your attention than this one.

3 points

 

Bacio Della Medusa. Il - Deus Lo Vult (2012)

The third album from this Italian band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piccolo, saxophones, theremin, flute, harp and vocals.

This band is not particular productive. Nevertheless, each of their four albums has put the band on the map as one of the best new RPI bands out there.

Rock Progressive Italiano is an own genre and it can have a lot of various expressions.

Il Bacio Della Medusa mixes up English and Italian folk rock with some occult hard rock and a lot of RPI.

The music has a mix of harsh sounds and more pastoral and epic sounds. The vocals is a mix of pastoral and harsh. The folk rock and the flutes reminds us a lot about Jethro Tull and that also goes for some of the music.

The music is still RPI and takes a lot of inspirations and sounds from the old RPI scene from the 1970s.

The end result is a rather short album clocking in at just over half an hour. But there is no dead wood here and not a waste of time here. This album packs a punch and it hits home.

This is a good album and well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Apogee - Endurance of the Obsolete (2020)

The tenth album from this German one-man band.

It is actually a duo now with the drummer Eberhard Graef helping out the band owner Arne Schaefer who does the keyboards, bass, guitars and vocals.

I have reviewed a handful Apogee albums this winter and have found them quite a pleasure.

Sixty-five minutes divided on six songs. The longest one is clocking in at sixteen and a half minutes.

Arne Schaefer has managed to create some quite dramatic, epic neo-prog on the previous albums. Yes, this album is in the German neo-prog tradition and sound. Apogee is one of the leading acts in that scene. 

This time around, the sound is a bit stripped down and the music is not that bombastic. 

The music is pretty melancholic and vocals based. There is still enough details around here to make it pretty interesting.

This time around, I am not entirely won over by an Apogee album. There is not enough good stuff here to satisfy me. 

The quality is somewhere between decent and good on this album. Nevertheless, it is still worthy checking out for all neo-prog fans. 

2.5 points

Mekong Delta - Visions Fugitives (1994)

The sixth album from this German band.

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

Mekong Delta occupies the position as the most exciting progressive thrash metal band around. It is a small scene which also includes bands like Cynic, Coroner and Voivod. 

There is new bands and new growth in that scene, though. But Mekong Delta is still the kings of that scene.

This album starts with a couple of thrash metal songs. They are a bit quirky as this band does not do straight thrash metal. I am no big fan of the scene but this is not bad.

Then we get a symphony of some sort. Dark and brooding symphony with some zeuhl influences too. This symphony is rather good.

The album closes with a couple of more progressive thrash metal songs. They are more progressive rock than thrash metal, it has to be said.

Mekong Delta surprises me and that in a good way. This is actually a good album and a pretty remarkable album too. 

Check out this album as it is very progressive and quirky. And we all like that.

3 points

 

Anathema - Hindsight (2008)

The eight album from this English band.

The band is a sextet on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, vocoder, keyboards and vocals.

The band continues on their way in exploring the more ambient, somber parts of the progressive rock genre.

Take some Pink Floyd, a lot of Marillion, Gazpacho and Radiohead. Well, Anathema has got their own sound and niche in the progressive rock scene. 

There is no metal here.

The music is rather somber, gloomy and doomy. 

It is also pretty epic and majestic at times.

The male and female vocals and the guitars are good and the band has painted a nice soundscape on this fifty minutes long album.

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

3 points

35 Tapes - Home (2021)

The second album from this Norwegian band.

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

The band is back again after their very good 2019 debut album.

The band has not changed genre or style either.

We get a mix of Camel and Genesis here with some Yes and other British symphonic prog influences. There is also some influences from the US band Cathedral's debut album.

The songs are mid-length and pretty intricate and quirky. The vocals are very good.

The mellotron and guitars gives this album a 1970s sound and that is indeed what this album sounds like. A 1970s symphonic prog album.

The music is very good throughout and Norway has again got a very good symphonic prog band. Something their two albums proves. 

Get this album.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Tonton Macoute - Tonton Macoute (1971)

The one and only album from this British band.

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

There is a lot of pretty obscure albums in the history of British rock and prog. Not to mention bands.

Some of them are obscure because they have not dated that well. Some are obscure because of the lack of quality.

This album clocks in at three quarters of an hour. During those minutes, we are being treated to some naive pop from the 1960s, jazz, blues and some hard rocking progressive rock.

The vocals are good and the band is doing their best on songs with a limited amount of quality.

In short, this is a pretty interesting album with a lot of woodwinds and piano. The songs are pretty quirky too.

But the quality is not there and this album is just a decent, although a pretty interesting album with it's own style.

Check it out if you want obscure albums from the early 1970s.

2 points