Foschia - Dalla Citta al Cielo (2019)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This one hour long album is so far the only album from this band.  

The music here is a mix of psych rock and RPI.

...sort of....

The psych rock is pretty evident and there are some soft RPI here in the vein of Locanda Delle Fate. That said, the music is not lush. It is more bare boned and barren.

The vocals is good throughout and they are in Italian.

There are some good piece of music here and some not so good piece of music. 

I am not entirely won over by this album. It is a weird album indeed.

2.5 points

 

Guildmaster. The - Gathering of Souls (2025)

 

The third album from this multi-national band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, bouzouki, mandolin, electric violin, violin, zither, organ, dulcimer, piano, keyboards, synths, recorder, woodwinds and vocals.

Some guests added guitars, chapman stick, flute and vocals.

This band is a side project of the Samurai Of Prog project.. which again is a side project of numerous other bands. 

I have yet to get and sample their first two albums. I am not sure if that will ever happen.

The music here is more folk-rock orientated than the Samurai Of Prog albums. I suspect this is the reason why the project The Guildmaster was set up as the material is not suitable for that project. Fair enough.

That gives us one hour of folk rock with a lot of keltic rock, in the vein of Horslips, and symphonic prog influences.

The music is both elegant and melodic. There are some good vocals in addition to the cascades of various instruments. 

The music is good throughout without really impressing me. This is a good album for those who likes that Samurai Of Prog series and who also likes elegant, proggy folk/Celtic rock.

3 points

 

Pallas - Wearewhoweare (2014)

 

The seventh album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band returned again three years after the disappointing XXV album. 

Wearewhoweare is a one hour long album. It contininues on in the same vein as XXV as the music is hard and heavy. 

The genres are both neo-prog and heavy prog. There are also some prog metal here. Most songs are between five and ten minutes long.

The vocals are pretty good and the band does a good job.

That said... The songs are again pretty sub-standard and very far from being as great as Pallas best songs from the 2005 album The Dreams Of Men and earlier albums.  

It feels like the band is threading water on this album. A decent enough album but still a failure.

2 points 

Kraan - Sandglass (2020)

 

The 14th album from this band from Germany.

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

A quartet of guests added percussion, piano, keyboards, flute, horns and backing vocals.

The band continued on as a trio on this album.

The band has had a long career with Helmut Hattler on bass the longest serving member of the band. A band whose albums has been a mixed bag, both genre wise and quality wise. Krautrock is the most genre who fits this band best.

This fifty minutes long album is also a mixed bag. It has both long instrumental pieces and some songs. 

The music is pretty elegant throughout with some pretty good vocals and some good guitars and drums.

The quality is a mixed bag again. Most of the music is too much run-of-a-mill and does not sound very inspired and sparkling. The music is too laidback and too mainstream likeable. There is a couple of interesting pieces of music here and that is all. That said, this album is not too bad.

2.5 points

 

Perséide - Passages Secrets (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Canada.

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

Some guests added steel guitars, synths and backing vocals.

This band is, as Barrdo is, from Quebec in the French speaking part of Canada. Hence the French vocals.

I have reviewed their first three albums in # 3 of this blog and given them a good to very good albums status.  

The music on this forty minutes long album is a mix of French folk rock and symphonic prog. Harmonium is a band that springs to mind here. It is easy and probably a bit unfair to declare that Perseide is Harmonium's heir apparent. But it feels like it when you are listening to this and their first three albums.

The music is both melodic and intricate. It is also clever and quirky. There is indeed some Canterbury scene influence in their music.

The vocals are very good and the music has some good guitars and keyboards too. The band and the guests do a very good job indeed.

The overall quality is therefore very good and this is another very good album from this band. A band well worth checking out.

3.5 points 

 

Krokofant - Krokofant III (2017)

 

The third album from this band from Norway.

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

I have already reviewed three of their six albums and am now reviewing the remaining three unreviewed albums this summer.

The band, and the music world, sadly lost their drummer Axel Skalstad last month. A big loss indeed.

Krokofant III is a forty minutes long album and jazz is the music here. 

The music is pretty avant-garde with some eclectic prog elements. This is not music for the faint hearted.

Some of the guitars and most of the saxophones are dissonant too. The rhythm section, consisting of drums only, is like thunder and lightning, underpinning the music. 

The music is fast to very fast at times. 

The result is both an eclectic and esoteric album. This is also a good album which is pretty fascinating and endearing too. 

Check out this album.  

3 points 

 

Modern Stars - Silver Needles (2020)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This band has so far released four albums on LP and through Bandcamp. I will review all four of them this summer. 

Silver Needles is just short of half an hour long album. Too short to really be called an album. Nevertheless....

The band has labeled their music as neo-psych. That is a pretty good description of what we get on this album. Add in some spaced out krautrock too and you get this album.

The music has a dirty sound and that is done by purpose, I guess. The vocals is OK and the band does a decent job on some half-decent songs. The sitar sound is decent enough.

The quality is only decent but I hope the band will improve on this album on their next albums.

2 points

 

 

 

 

 

Plenilunio - Nascere qui... (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

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

This band's members has an average age of fifty or so. They have established themselves as one of the bands in the new wave of RPI. Their first three albums is indeed well worth checking out.

Pastoral and gentle RPI is what we get on this three quarters of an hour long album. The Trespass album by Genesis is a good reference here. 

The sound is still pretty muscular on these seven songs. One of the songs is a quarter of an hour long suite. That is the best piece of music on this album. An album which is very much vocals and songs based.

Roberto Maggiotti's vocals is superb and one of the best ones in the RPI scene. That says a lot..... The rest of the band does a great job on some pretty good songs. 

The result is still a good album which should please everyone into vocals based gentle pastoral progressive rock.

3 points 

 

 

 

 

Obiymy Doschu - Vidrada (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Ukraine.

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

A handful of guests added guitars, violin, cello and vocals.

The band returned again afther their 2017 album Son. An album I reviewed earlier this month in this blog.

The Son album, and indeed their 2009 debut album Elehia too, was a good album indeed.

Their music on this fifty minutes long album is a dark blend of art-rock and Ukrainian folk-rock. There are some symphonic prog influences here too. 

The music is a bit gloomy. It has been written in a war-torn country and the vocals are in their local Ukraine language. Male vocals and they are a bit operatic and great.

There are some strings here who brings the Ukraine folk rock to the fore here and gives the music a strong local flavour. This band is indeed an Ukraine band and the mid-tempo compositions, songs, here reflect their nationality.

The death metal vocals on one of the tracks adds some good colours to that song and this album. 

The result is a good album and one to check out. I really likes this album but I wish they could release albums on a more frequent basis. Then again, releasing albums and music is very understandable not the first priority these days for the people in Ukraine.

3 points 

Barrdo - Amer Faste (2025)

 

The seventh album from this band from Canada.

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

This band comes from Quebec, the French speaking part of Canada. I have always compared them to Harmonium, the band fronted by Serge Fiore who sadly passed away last month (24. June). 

I have always liked this band as you can read in my reviews of their albums in # 3 of this blog. Hence, a new Barrdo album is something I am always looking forward to.

This forty minutes long album sees the band scaling back again and retreating more into a chanson and French folk rock band. There is not much symphonic prog and not many Harmonium influences either. 

The music is a bit bare-boned and not so progressive. Neither is it that exciting.

This is not among their best albums. It is pretty much their least interesting album. There is still some good stuff here. But not enough to win my approval.

2.5 points  

McKendree Spring - Too Young To Feel This Old (1976)

 

The seventh and final album from this band from USA.

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

This band's long career came to an end with this album. 

This album is just over half an hour long. The music here is a mix of folk rock and country'n'western. There are also some notable arena rock influences here.

This is because of the melodies and not because of the instruments, btw. The music is mainly acoustic with lots of violins and guitars.

The music is dominated by the good vocals and vocal harmonies. 

The result is a likeable, decent album which should give the folk rock fans a lot of joy. It is a decent album in it's own right.

2 points  

Perilymph - Progressions Imaginaires (2024)

 

The fourth album from this band from France.

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

Their first two albums has showcased a band who first started as a one man band and who later developed into a full band. The band was a full quartet or so at the previous album and this has indeed carried over to their new album.... this album.

The music on this forty minutes long album is a mix of French symphonic prog and psych rock. There are also some jazz bits here in their music and sound.

The music is very colourful here. The psych elements has some Latin-American elements too. 

The French vocals is very good and the band does a great job.

The songs are good and has a good ambience.

This band is one of the new talents in the scene and I hope to hear a lot more from them in the future. All their, so far, four albums is well worth checking out.

3 points 

Ultranova - O Eremita (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Brazil.

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

The band returned again after an eight years long album break. I reviewed their 2017 debut album Orion for # 2 of this blog back in January 2018. It was a decent enough instrumental album.

The follow up album, the one hour long O Eremita, is in the same vein as Orion.

The music is a blend of fusion and symphonic prog. There are also some pretty strong Brazilian folk rock and cinematic rock influences in their music.

The music is dynamic with a lot of piano and electric guitars. The music has a Latin-American flavour throughout.

The music is pretty light and bright too. It is pretty symphonic too and in the Latin-American prog rock tradition.

The music is pretty good throughout without really being a great album.

If you like instrumental prog with a Latin-American flavour, this is an album for you.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Proportions - Reboot (2018)

 

The debut album from this band from Sweden/Canada/USA

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, mandolin, piano, keyboards, synths, loops and flute.

A trio of guests added bass, guitars and cello.

This band, which I guess is internet based, is a true international band which has so far released six albums. All of them has got coverful album art-work and I suspect that they first attracted me to the band. I will review their six albums this summer and I am off course starting with this, their debut album. 

The music on this almost one-hour-long album is also pretty colourful. 

The music is an instrumental blend of cinematic rock, eclectic prog and jazz.

There is a lot of synths and electric guitars here. The sound is good too.

What this album is missing is good music. There is some good ideas here.... but that is what this album is. Ideas and they are a bit disconnected. 

There is a lot of potential here but it has not been unleashed on this album.

2.5 points

 

  

 

Qumma Connection - Unique (2010)

 

The second album from this band from Finland.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, guitars, chapman stick, cello, keyboards, programming and vocals.

The band returned two years after the release of their not so impressive debut album Arabesque. I reviewed that album last month and was not impressed by it's substandard eclectic instrumental music.

Unique is a fifty minutes long album. The music is a blend between symphonic prog and cinematic rock. There are also some folk rock influences here.

The vocals, which are good vocals, are wordless and function as an instrument.  

The music is most of all bold and epic with a lot of keyboards and guitars. There are indeed a lot ELP references scattered around on this album.

The result is a good album that should interest symphonic prog fans a lot. Check it out.

3 points 

Plenilunio - Il Gioco Imperfetto (2021)

 

The third album from this band from Italy.

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

The band returned again after the Covid pandemic with this, their third album.

I have reviewed their first two albums in # 2 of this blog and they are good RPI albums. Hence, I jumped on the chance to review both their brand new album and this album. A review of their brand new album will follow later this week.

This album is three quarters of an hour long and the music genre is RPI.

The music is mid-tempo and pretty pastoral. The songs are pretty short and to the point. There is hardly any solos on this album and the vocals are dominating this album as this is a songs based album.

The vocals, male Italian vocals, are good. Ditto for the sound. 

The music is pretty good too. This is good RPI album and one to check out if melodic songs based RPI is your preferred type of music.

3 points 

Obiymy Doschu - Son (2017)

 

The second album from this band from Ukraine.

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

The band got help from some guests who added their guitars, violin, cello, saxophone, flute and vocals.

This album is the follow up album to their 2009 album Elehia. An album I reviewed back in May 2014, eleven years ago, for # 1 of this blog. I also reviewed one of their many EPs in that blog too. I really liked both of them.

Son is a seventy-three minutes long album. The music is, as Elehia was, dark and brooding art-rock.

The vocals are in the local language Ukrainian. Both the male and female vocals are operatic and superb. 

The music is also a blend of art-rock and Ukrainian folk-rock. There a lot of melancholy and sadness in the music. This mixed with a few really uplifting songs too. Some of the more dark songs are bordering to both hymns and dirges.

The tempo is slow to mid-tempo throughout. The music is far from being catchy and the songs are not overly great. This is though a captivating album with some flaws (not good enough melodies). Nevertheless, this is an album well worth checking out.

The band has just released a new album, their third album, and a review will follow later this week.

3 points

 

Mollestad. Hedvig Trio - Bees in the Bonnet (2025)

 

The tenth album from this band from Norway.

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

Hedvig Mollestad has in the last decade become one of the best guitarists and artists in the prog and jazz scene in Norway. 

The music on this thirty-six minutes long album, and indeed on most of the Hedvig Mollestad Trio albums is neither prog or jazz. The music here is hard rock with a lot of jazz influences.

Take Motorhead and Budgie. Infuse jazz into their music. Well, the late and very much missed Lemmy in Motorhead was a jazz bass player in any case. Something that was a substantial part of the Motorhead sound. Hedvig Mollestad Trio takes this hard rock a lot further into the jazz territory.

The music is very hard here. It is also a bit dissonant at times. The band does a great job on bass and drums, with Hedvig guitars on the top. 

The trio, or Hedvig, has not gone for a guitar hero album. She is indeed a guitar hero and her guitars are great on this album. This though is a band album where all three members works as one unit.

Some of the guitar themes are very good, though, and Hedvig really demonstrates that she is a great guitarist. 

The result is another very good album from this band and a reminder that this is a band, and indeed an artist, who deserves a greater following. The music here is not for the faint-hearted though.....

3.5 points 

 

 

McKendree Spring - Get Me To The Country (1975)

 

The sixth album from this band from USA.

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

The band soldiered on with this forty minutes long album.

The music was again folk rock with some country'n'western and pop influences.

Most of the songs here are straight forward mid-tempo. There are a couple of ballads here too which drags this album over into a more pop and mainstream rock territory.

Guitars and vocals is the main instruments here. Most of the music is electric with lots of drums and bass too.

The music is melodic and not particularly complex. The vocals are good though.

This is a decent enough album and well worth checking out if US folk rock is your thing.

2 points 

 

Perilymph - Tout En Haut (2021)

 

The third album from this band from France.

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

Two guests added keyboards and flute on one track.

This album sees the band double up from being a duo to becoming a quartet. The band was a one-man-band on the debut album and then became a duo on their second album...... Hmm...

Fabien De Menou is still the mainman and is doing most of the tasks here, including the vocals. Good vocals, btw.

The music has developed too during these three albums. Take some chansons, dream pop and add a lot of psych rock too. Then you get this three quarters of an hour long album.

The music is very flowery with some Ange influences too. The French vocals are adding quality to this album.  

This album is marginally better than their second album Deux and a good album in it's own right. This is a band I really like a lot.

3 points 

 

Panzerpappa - Landsbysladder (2025)

 

The eight album from this band from Norway.

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

The band got some help from a handful of guests who has provided percussion, accordion, synths, flute and clarinet.

Panzerpappa is celebrating twenty-five years as recording artists these days. The band are veterans in the scene as the members also ran a progressive rock fanzine in the 1990s (which also included Jacob Holm-Lupo from White Willow). I have reviewed some of the first Panzerpappa albums but I gladly admit I am not really up to date with their albums. Anyway... The band is one of Europe's leading lights in the avant-garde/RIO scene.

Landsbysladder means "village gossips" in English and I can, as I have lived in villages all my fifty-seven years, releate to the excellent album art-work and the album title. You see a lot of park benches with gossiping men and women. Gossips which can be hurtful and damaging. But they also have a positive function and they are what we villagers have to live with. For good and worse.

The band is nominally a chamber rock band and that is the genre best describing this fifty minutes long album. There are also some more cinematic rock here too. 

The music is not as dense avant-garde as I did expect, based on the few previous albums I have reviewed of them. The music is pretty melodic without really being easy listening and commercial.

The music also reflects the album title and the album art-work. It is both dark, melancholic and sinister. There are also some more playful music here too.

The result is a good album and one even those who are not avant-garde/RIO fans should check out. 

3 points 

  

Magnum - Wings Of Heaven (1988)

 

The seventh album from this band from Great Britain.

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

A male vocalist and a choir added backing vocals on a couple of tracks. Another guest added some programming too.

I believe I bought this album on cassette back in Norway when it was released in 1988. I was not overly impressed by it as I was in a metal phase (Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer etc) back then. The music here was too soft for me.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is pomp rock with a lot of AOR influences and some hints of progressive rock.

The music is very melodic with some catchy tunes. That is the first thirty-five minutes of this album. The final ten minutes is a ten minutes long epic which has some symphonic prog influences and is a pretty good album.

There is also a couple of songs which is very much, at best, half-decent and makes me cringe.

This makes this a decent album but nothing more than that. If pomp rock/AOR floats your boat...

2 points

  

Robe - Lo Que Aletea En Nuestras Cabezas (2015)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, violin, keyboards, woodwinds and vocals.

This band has so far released four albums and they are all up for reviews this summer on this blog.

Robe is the brainchild of the vocalist and guitarist Roberto Iniesta. He was previously a member of the Spanish band Extremoduro. 

Robe has got a large following in Spain and has done some shows they have released as a double CD live album too. I do not review live albums but that album should be checked out.

Back to their debut album...

The music on this forty-five minutes long album are a blend of symphonic prog and folk rock. It reminds me about the first Spanish symphonic prog albums from the 1970s. It is a mostly symphonic prog album. 

There is a lot of violins here and some saxophones. This in addition to the other instruments. 

The music is a mix of mid-tempo and some more pastoral music. The vocals, Roberto's vocals, are in Spanish. These are good vocals too and is adding a lot of good flavours to this album.

The result is an album bordering between good and very good. 

This debut is probably the start of something really good, something really big, a new big band in the scene. 

3 points 

 

 

 

M.O.T.U.S - Machine Of The Universal Space (1972)

 

The one and only album from this band from France.

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

This band released this thirty-five minutes long album and then disappeared again. Not that anyone noticed that this band were around and releaesed this album. This album is a very obscure album, indeed. It has yet to see a re-release on CD too.

The music here is basically americana with a mix of folk rock, blues, jazz and some rock'n'roll.

The sound is good, the vocals is good and the band does a good job on what back then were some really commercial songs. 

The songs sounds very much like run-of-a-mill songs and the origiality factor is very low.

This is a fairly decent album that deserves its status as an obscure, forgotten album.

1.5 points 

 

Magick Brother & Mystic Sister - Tarot, Part II (2024)

 

The third album from this band from Spain.

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

A handful of guests added percussion, guitars, sitar, narration and vocals.

This was the second album in the Tarot series the band released last year. I reviewed Tarot, Part I last August in # 3 of this blog and gave it a very good rating.

This band with it's long winded name is one of the best bands who has come out of Europe in the last ten years. Both their first two albums are highly recommended.

This fifty minutes long third album is a psych rock album with a lot of acid-folk and Asian folk music influences.

The music is melodic and has some good vocals too.

The music here is not as good as on Tarot Part I. It is still a good album and one to check out. 

3 points

 

 

 

Petrini. Diego - La Materia Del Suono (2025)

 

The debut solo album from this artist from Italy.

Diego Petrini did the drums, piano and keyboards here.

He got help from a handful of guests who added their bass, accordion, guitars, saxophone, flute and vocals.

Diego Petrini is better known as a member of the Italian RPI band Il Bacio Della Medusa. This band has released five albums between 2004 and 2023. All of them have been reviewed in this blog, #1 - #3. Five good albums in the classic RPI style. 

The one hour and five minutes long La Materia Del Suono is an instrumental album, with the exception from the final track, which is a classic RPI song with vocals from the vocalist in Jumbo. The music is a mix of RPI, jazz and cinematic rock.

The music is pastoral and softly spoken with a lot of piano. That instrument is dominating this album. There are some other instruments here but they are mostly playing a supporting role.

The music is decent enough without really being impressive... or good. I hope this album is not the end of Il Bacio Della Medusa. I am not impressed.

2 points

 

 

 

Lux Terminus - Cinder (2025)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

A handful of guests added guitars, keyboards, saxophones, flutes and vocals.

The band returned again, seven years after the release of their debut album The Courage To Be. That was a good album somewhere between cinematic rock, fusion and neo-prog.

The fifty minutes long Cinder is the follow up album and we get more of the same.

Take cinematic rock and blend it with some fusion, progressive metal and bold US symphonic prog.  

The music is hard and heavy. But it is never ever a metal production or album. The cinematic rock aspect is always on the forefront of their music.

The music is bold and epic. This band does not do modesty. 

Most of the music is instrumental. There are some vocals here. They work more as instruments than anything else.

The overall quality is good and this album is well worth checking out.

3 points 

  

Leprous - Melodies of Atonement (2024)

 

The ninth album from this band from Norway.

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

This fifty minutes long album is the so far latest album from this band.

Theatrical extreme progressive rock is what we get again on this album. Just as on their previous albums.

The vocals is as per always superb and the music is big, bold and epic.

There is a difference between this album and the previous albums though. A subtle difference but still one to be noted.

The music on this album is darker, more gloomy than on any of their first eight albums. The music is bombastic dark with some doomy melodies.

The music is still pretty melodic. They are most of all very complex and not easy listening.

The result is a good album. A good album but not among their best albums. Every albums from this band should be checked out as the band is one of the great, and one of the most unique bands in the prog metal genre.  

3 points 

Hadal Sherpa - Void Weaver (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Finland.

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

I had the joy of reviewing their 2017 self-titled debut album for # 2 of this blog back in December 2017. It was a very good album. Hence I jumped on the chance to review the follow-up album too.  

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is space rock.

The band has incorporated a lot of Arabic and Asian folk music and popular music into their take on space rock. This is still not a raga-rock album, though.

The music is dynamic, psych rock at times and colourful with a lot of, for us here in the west, foreign sounds and instruments.

The vocals here work as an instrument and not much else. Good vocals, though.

The music is lively and full of interesting details. 

The music is also good throughout and this makes this album an album well worth checking out.

3 points 

 

Papir - IIII (2014)

 

The fifth album from this band from Denmark.

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

A guest added synths on one track.

This is the fourth band album but the fifth album taken into the cooperation album with Electric Moon from the year before. Hence a bit of confusion... Just a bit...

The band's first albums were some fine, elegant space rock albums. 

Most space rock albums has dirty sound and distortions. Papir has gone for a cleaner, more elegant sound.

The music is still outer space rock based on bass and guitars. The guitars are at times half-accoustic too. The music on this forty minutes long album still has a bite. This is not easy listening, pretty music.

The quality is good throughout and this is another good album from a band who surely must be regarded as one of the best space rock bands now.

3 points  

 

Pallas - XXV (2011)

 

The sixth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Two guests added additional male and female vocals. 

This is the follow up album to their best album so far... the 2005 opus The Dreams Of Men. That was a truly great album and one of the better albums in the neo-prog genre.

The band returned six years later with the one hour long XXV opus.

We are still deep into the neo-prog territory. No less and no more.

Some of the music sounds like it has been hibernating for the last quarter of a century too. Some of the music is big, bold and heavy too. It is theatrical too with some narrations and rock opera stuff.

Then we get some 1980s like thin vocals which is not particular good. The sound also leaves a lot to be desired.

There are some good stuff here. But most of this album falls flat on it's face and this album is one big disappointment.

2 points

 

 

Celeste - Anima Animus (2025)

 

The eight album from this band from Italy.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, minimoog, keyboards, mellotron and flutes.

Some guests added percussion, guitars, piano, woodwinds and vocals. 

This band started out in the 1970s, then took a long break but have released albums on a regular basis in the last ten years. That includes an album last year which I reviewed earlier this month. See the review.

The music on this one hour long album is a blend of symphonic prog, neo-classical music and cinematic rock. 

Most of the music is instrumental. 

The music is also complex. It still has some melodic pieces of music.

The flutes and synths is the leading instruments here. Some of the pieces here are dominated by some dark woodwinds.

The vocals here, female vocals, is added as an extra instruments who works as jazzy scatting. They are wordless.

The overall quality is good. The music is eclectic and a bit of a mouthful. It is an album fans of instrumental, eclectic prog should check out.

3 points 

Brass Camel - Camel (2025)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

This is their follow up album to the pretty good Brass album from 2022. That was an album with a lot of promise.

Hence, I was looking forward to sinking my teeth into their new album Camel.

This forty minutes long album really throws a punch with it's 1970s hard rock. 

Yes, this is good old US hard/arena rock from the 1970s with it's riffs and hooks. It is hard rock, not heavy metal, though. That is an important difference here as their music never strays into heavy metal.

The music is nostalgic and retro. It has a very good ambience and sound.

The vocals are good and very much mirrors the big vocalists from that era. The music is also good and this is an album fans of vintage US hard and arena rock should check out. 

3 points

   

Hiccup Heart - Gravity Racer (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

The band comes from Oslo in Norway and this short album has been released both on Bandcamp and through Appollon Records in Norway. Hence, I got a download promo copy of this album. 

This album is clocking in at twenty-eight minutes and that is well short. Too short in my opinion.

The music is a blend of dream pop and indie rock. There are some psych rock influences here too.

The vocals are mostly female vocals. They are good.

The songs are decent enough. The music is not particular interesting and this is an album only the indie and dream pop crowd will find enjoyable. This is not for me.

2 points

 

 

 

Lux Terminus - The Courage To Be (2018)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, keyboards and piano.

Some guests added guitars, cello and vocals.

This band has released two albums and both of them are up for review in this blog this summer. 

This album is an one hour long album and the music is eclectic...

Take cinematic rock, add in a lot of jazz and then some neo-prog at the end of the album.

The piano is the dominating instrument here and it is driving the music forward. The music is very elegant and classy most of the time.

The music is mid-tempo too and pretty bold and epic at times.

Anneke Van Giersbergen's (The Gathering, solo) vocals at the end is very good. So are the strings too scattered around this album.

The result is a pretty good album and one that should interest those into elegant instrumental music. Check out this album.

3 points  

Leprous - Aphelion (2021)

 

The eight album from this band from Norway.

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

Some guests added cello, violin and woodwinds to this album.

The band did not let up on their schedule. Something that were to the benefit of us all as this is a serious interesting, exciting band.

This just under one hour long album delivers more of what is the trademarks of this band....

..Which is operatic progressive metal with some djent and some operatic pieces of music too.

The music is very complex and at times, very eclectic and a bit esoteric too. 

The contrasts between the extreme metal and the more softly operatic progressive metal is what drives their music forward. This an the excellent vocals from Einar Solberg.

The songs on this album is perhaps not as good as on their best albums. Well, they are not that good. The band still manages to add some good strings and the excellent vocals to these songs. That elevates this album to a higher level again. 

This is another very good album from these masters of progressive metal.

3.5 points 

Somewhere - Bridges (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Sweden.

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

This band was formed in the Stockholm area by five men who had an interest in the 1970s prog scene and who wanted to play this type of music. To my knowledge, the band members have no experience from other bands.

The result is this thirty-five minutes long album.

The music can best be described as softly spoken symphonic prog. There are some good mellotron and vocals here. The guitars too are good.

There are some Kaipa and Genesis influences here. Pretty strong ones too. 

The music is medium complex. It is not an easy listening album.

The quality is pretty good throughout. I am not entirely won over by this album but it is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

Kraan - Psychedelic Man (2007)

 

The 12th album from this band from Germany.

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

Their previous album Through from 2003 is one of their best albums and I was very impressed by it as I expressed in my review last month. Hence I had a great deal of hopes for this album.

The first impressions, the first listening sessions, led me to believe this album was a huge disappointment. But it has grown on me and it has become better...

The music on this fifty minutes long album reminds me how similar Kraan really is to Gong from Great Britain. You get some funk, jazz and then some naive pop music here. 

This is a weird combination and only Gong has done the same type of music. Hence, in the case of this album, we are somewhere between Canterbury scene and krautrock.

The vocals and the band does a good job. The music is a blend of some really good jazz and some not so good pop tunes. 

This is indeed a weird album. It is more weird than good as some of the pieces of music here is not up to an acceptable standard. Nevertheless... check it out.

2.5 points

  

McKendree Spring - Spring Suite (1973)

 

The fifth album from this band from USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of bass, guitars, violin, viola, synths and vocals.

The band continued on with releasing some pretty succesful albums. 

Spring Suite is a thirty-three minutes long album.

The band had scaled back to a more pure folk rock sound and soundscape this time around. The lush cover art-work is therefore misleading. 

There is a lot of violins and acoustic guitars here in addition to the vocals and vocal harmonies.

The music is still a bit on the bare-boned end of the folk rock spectrum.The music is not particular complicated.

The songs are decent enough and the vocals is good. 

The result is a decent enough album and one to check out if folk rock is your passion.

2 points 

Celeste - Echi di un Futuro Passato (2024)

 

The seventh album from this band from Italy.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, organ, minimoog, mellotron, keyboards, recorders, saxophones and flute.

A handful of guests added violin, piano, saxophones and female vocals.

This band album debuted back in 1972 with their semi-classic album Principe Di Un Giorno. They split up for a while before they returned again in 2016 and started to release albums on a regular basis. I have reviewed most, if not all of them, and will later this month also publish my review of their brand new album.

Echi Di Un Futuro Passato is a one hour and four minutes long album. 

The music is in the instrumental RPI and symphonic prog genre. There are some female vocals towards the end of the album. 

The music is also quite leaning toward cinematic rock. It is mellow and pastoral. 

Some of the music is good and the rest is just decent enough. This is by no means their best album and I hope their new album is better than this album.

2.5 points 

Brass Camel - Brass (2022)

 

The debut album from this band from Canada.

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

Four guests added guitars, grand piano, saxophone and vocals.

This band from Vancouver on the west coast of Canada has so far released two albums and both of them are up for reviews this summer in this blog. 

The band has really done a good job of marketing themselves in the social media and that caught my attention. Hence my reviews of their albums.

The music on this forty minutes long album can best be labeled as heavy prog. 

There are some Deep Purple, arena rock bands and 1970s pop/rock influences here. Even the first Elton John and Queen albums spring to mind here. Yes, this Canadian band has taken a lot of inspiration from both Queen and Elton John. 

The vocals is good and the band does a good job on some pretty good songs. Some of them are a bit below an acceptable standard, though. Nevertheless, this band has something to offer and this album should be checked out.

2.5 points

 

 

Selvini. Phil & The Mind Warp - Tetrus (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This is a new band to me. The respective members in this band has got a lot of experience in the scene before the joined forces and became this band.

This one hour long album is the first album from this band. The first of many albums, I hope.

The music is art-rock with some heavy prog and neo-prog influences.

References are Marillion, Gazpacho and Porcupine Tree. 

The music is mid-tempo with some sporadic faster pieces of music too.  

The vocals is really good and distinctive as they are giving this band their own identity.  

The overall quality is good throughout and this is a debut both the band and the scene should be happy about. Check out this album.

3 points

 

Gongzilla - Thrive (1996)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added guitars and loops.

This fifty-five minutes long album is the follow up album to the Suffer album (1995) which I gave a good review last month.

The band is a Gong splinter group where the jazz/fusion elements from that band has been carried over into Gongzilla.

That means off course a bit quirky jazz and fusion. 

Allan Holdsworth has left the band by now and has been replaced by two different guitarists. One as a permanent member and one as a guest here. That is a loss to this band as Allan Holdsworth, who sadly left us a few years ago, was a great guitarist. The same cannot be said about the two replacements. Hence, no great guitar solos here. 

The music is pretty funky and it has some avant-garde elements too.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. This album is a step backwards compared to Suffer, I am afraid.

2.5 points

  

  

Afforested - Moss Covered And Time Worn (2025)

 

The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a duo with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, mandolin, accordion and keyboards.

This their follow up album to their 2022 album Ancient Healing Oakwood Journeys. An album I reviewed last month and was not particularly impressed by. 

The music on the 2022 was pretty cheesy... too cheesy for my liking. The band's music is still a blend of Trace, which means synths based symphonic prog, and folk rock.

The music is a bit more folk rock orientated this time around. 

The music is still instrumental and is based on accordion, guitars, synths.

The music is mid-tempo and melodic.

The music is not particular good although this album is a slight improvement on the 2022 album. There is still some cheese here too. This makes this a pretty decent forty minutes long album who may appeal to the folk rock crowd. 

2 points

 

 

Magic Pie - Maestro (2025)

 

The sixth album from this band from Norway.

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

The band returned again after a six years long break. 

I have reviewed their first five albums and very much liked them. The band is one of the pioneers in the Norwegian prog rock scene, having released their debut album twenty years ago.

Maestro is fifty minutes long and it starts with a twenty minutes long opus.. Opus Impferfectus. That sets the tone for this album.

The music is a blend of hard prog and symphonic prog. There are some 1970s blues and hard rock influences here too. Rather lots of it too. Queensryche anno Operation Mindcrime also pops up as a reference here.

The music is pretty epic and bold. It has this 1970s hard rock sound and attitude. The vocals is very good, delivered by one of the better vocalists in Norway Eirikur Haukson, an Icelandic vocalist who debuted well over thirty-five years ago on Artch's debut album.

Maestro is not their best album. It is still a good album who will satisfy their fans and everyone into heavy prog.

3 points

  

 

Perilymph - Deux (2019)

 

The second album from this band from France.

The band was a duo where Fabian Sliwka did the drums and Fabian De Menou did the bass, guitars, synths and vocals.

Their debut album I from 2017 was a pretty good, promising space rock album as I wrote in my review earlier this month.

Deux is the thirty-five minutes long follow up album. 

The music is still dreamy space rock with some dream pop influences. There is also some post-rock influences here.

The space rock here is softly spoken. The synths, guitars, bass and electronics is gentle, but still dynamic. The few vocals are more in the back of the mix and works as an extra layer of instruments.

There are a few guitar solos here who adds some quality and spice to this album. 

There is a lot of small details here who spices of the pretty good melodies. Melodies elevated to good melodies by these small details.

The result is a good album and one space rock fans should check out.

3 points

  

Qumma Connection - Arabesque (2008)

 

The debut album from this band from Finland.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, guitars, chapman stick, cello, keyboards, synths and programming.

Some guests added a female choir.

This band has so far released six albums and they are all up for reviews in this blog in the coming weeks.

..Starting with this, the debut album..

The band's appeal to me was it's inclusion in the neo-prog genre, according to ProgArchives. That is not the case for this seventy-two minutes long album.

Take eclectic prog, King Crimson from their Red era, blend it with some fusion and cinematic prog. That is when you get these seventy-two minutes.

The first one hour is instrumental eclectic prog. The final twelve minutes has a female choir with wordless vocals as in a funeral dirge.

The music is indeed dark and brooding. It even has some hints, menacing zeuhl influences.  

The music is pretty sparse on original, interesting details and themes. It sounds too much run-of-a-mill. The cello is cool and ditto for the female choir. 

The result is a decent enough album. I hope the five remaining albums are better than this album.

2 points 

Cormorano - Obliquizioni d'Autunno..... (2023)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

This band were active in the 1970s RPI scene before they took a break and then album debuted in year 1990 with EP Verde Azzurro and in year 2000 with the full-length album Giro Tondo. Two releases very difficult to find and I have now given up on them.

Folk rock and jazz influenced RPI is what we get on this almost fifty minutes long album. 

The music is very flowery with some Dimitri Stratos influenced vocals. A bit over the top at times, but still very good vocals who adds a lot of colours and quality to this album. The keyboards and guitars are good too.  

The music is melodic and mid-tempo without being hard. Neither is it particular soft and pop orientated.

Lush RPI is the best label here.

This album is sadly a bit overlooked. Nevertheless, this is an album RPI fans should check out. 

3 points 

Balloon Astronomy - Balloon Astronomy (2011)

 

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

The band had some good help from some guests who added percussion, drums, guitars and clarinet. 

This duo recorded this album and has later released three singles between 2021 and 2022. Their further plans is not known.

Mike Keneally and Nick D'Virgilo were among the guests on this fifty minutes long album. The music is melodic neo-prog. US neo-prog, that is. Which means lots of symphonic prog and some art-rock influences. 

Both Neal Morse and Genesis is good references here, indeed. 

The music is also pretty complex and symphonic at times. The vocals is good and ditto for the keyboards.

This album is a bit of a hidden gem, in fact. There is a lot here to be very pleased about. 

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

3 points

 

Edensong - Our Road to Dust (2025)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

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

The band returns nine years after their last album Years In The Garden Of Years. A pretty good album according to my review in # 2 of this blog. I have yet to review their 2008 debut album The Fruit Fallen. A review of that album will follow before the end of the year.

The music on the forty minutes long Our Road To Dust is eclectic to put it nicely...

Take some 'Tull like folk psych rock, add in a lot of vaudeville pop/rock, add in some progressive metal and americana too and you get this album. 

There is a lot of pretty wild vocals here on an album where the music is kicking in all different directions.

The music is not particular logical or linear, let me put it like that. Neither is it melodic as the chaos prevents it from being melodic.

There is some pieces of music which is working here. And some pieces falls a bit short. I am not entirely won over by this album. Check it out if eclectic music is your thing.

2.5 points