Elysium Theory - Modern Alchemy (2010)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

The band released two albums in their short life and I reviewed their second album Event Horizon back in July 2013 in # 1 of this blog. You can read the review here. I was not impressed by that album. I got their debut album a decade ago and should have reviewed back then. But other albums got my attention instead. Hence the album being reviewed far too late.... today.

Modern Alchemy clocks in at sixty-seven minutes.

The music here is progressive metal.

Their take on progressive metal is pretty melodic and not as hard and harsh as most of the newer progressive metal bands.

The music here is therefore pretty close to the heavy prog genre.

The vocals are good. Ditto for the guitars.

There are some good and some decent music here. The result is therefore a pretty good album, well worth checking out.

2.5 points  

 

Fire in Her Eyes - Look into the Sky (2026)

 

The debut album from this duo from Great Britain.

The band was a duo with a lineup of percussion, bass, guitars, piano, organ, keyboards, synths, flute and vocals.

A number of guests added percussion, drums, bass, guitars and backing vocals.

I believe this duo is sisters, Daniella and Natasha Livingstone.

Look Into The Sky clocks in at seventy-two minutes.

The music here is folk rock.

The music also has some pretty strong jazz and dream pop influences.

The driving force here is the sister's great vocals. The music is elegant, melodic and warm.

The music here is good and there is no doubt this band will go far if they decide to go all in and make it big. This is one of the better, most important debut albums of the year.

3 points 

 

VP - The Lunar Stone (2007)

 

The fourth album from this artist from Kazakhstan.

Vyacheslav Potapov (VP) played bass and guitars her in addition to drums, keyboards and woodwinds programming.

I was not impressed by the only other album I have reviewed, the 2003 debut album Sound Dependence. I still have to review his final album and that review will be posted sometime in the coming days.

The Lunar Stone clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is a blend of jazz and fusion.

Mostly jazz, it has to be said. The music is slow to mid-tempo. The music is instrumental. There is a lot of of bass here as this is his main instrument. 

There is a lot of very good xylophones here, programmed or not. 

There are a couple of good pieces here and a couple of sub-standard pieces. I am still positive surprised. This Bandcamp is a decent album and one to check out. 

2 points 

Velvet Underground. The - Loaded (1970)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added drums on some tracks. 

The band soldiered on under the leadership of Lou Reed. This album is regarded as the last true album from this band. The following album Squeeze, is more regarded as a solo album by one of its members. I will review that album in some days time.

Loaded clocks in at forty minutes.

The music here is more straight rock'n'roll than avant-garde rock. The band was told to write some radio-friendly tracks by their record label and the result is this album. None of the tracks became hits, btw.

The music here is indeed a lot more commercially accessible than on any other of their albums. 

The music is still pretty minimalistic and based on vocals and guitars.

The music is decent enough and an improvement on their previous album. The music is therefore pretty OK'ish. The best thing about this album is the stylish art-work.

2 points

 

 

Advent Horizon - Falling Together (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

A number of guests added percussion, guitars, pianos, synths and vocals.

This band is new to me. Prog metal is not among my favourite genres and I am not really on the top of which bands are big in this genre. Bands like Advent Horizon. I have now been offered their first three albums and I will review them next year if everything goes to plan. In the meantime, I am reviewing this, their latest album.

Falling Together clocks in at sixty-seven minutes.

The music here is progressive metal.

The music is a wide variety of some very heavy prog metal and some more heavy prog and even neo-prog pieces of music.

The sound is very good and the guitars are great. The vocals are also great.

This album is therefore a good album and I need to check out their first three albums too. This is one of the better prog metal albums I have encountered during the last couple of years.

3 points  

 

 

 

Sigur Ros - Hlemmur (2003)

 

The sixth album from this band from Iceland.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of synths and programming. 

The band returned again after a one year long album break. This time with another movie soundtrack.

Hlemmur clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is ambient post-rock.

Cinematic rock is another very good label here as this is a movie soundtrack.

These forty minutes consists of small pieces of music which clearly work best within a movie setting. One of the pieces reminds me of the well known Abide By Me psalm.  

The music is both sad and melancholic.

This is clearly not a fully blooded Sigur Ros studio album. It is still a decent enough album and worth checking out if minimalistic cinematic rock is your thing.

2 points  

Rainbow - Straight Between The Eyes (1982)

 

The sixth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Two guests added orchestration.

The band returned again, one year after the Difficult To Cure album, their most prolific album. Joe Lynn Turner was still with the band as the vocalist.

Straight Between The Eyes clocks in at forty-two minutes.

The music is hard rock.

The band had noted the emergency of the new wave of heavy metal and that is notable on this album. There is indeed a lot of the new wave of heavy metal in the music on this album.

This is therefore their most heavy album. It is also their most commercial album. 

I got this album on cassette forty years ago and I really liked it back then. I got it again on CD ten years ago and I still like it a lot. Ritchie Blackmore is on top form. Ditto for the rest of the band, include Joe Lynn Turner.

This album is a great blend of 1970s hard rock and 1980s heavy metal. It is a good album in it's own right and one to check out. Yes, I have a soft spot for this album.... Nevertheless....

3 points  

 

Roaring Empyrean - Monuments (2019)

 

The debut album from this band from Iran.

This is a one-man-band with Doomed Shinobi playing all instruments.

I guess Doomed Shinobi is not a real name. Taken into account that Iran is an Islamic republic, using a pseudonym is a very smart move. A life-saving move. 

Monuments clocks in at one hour.

The music here is funeral doom. 

The blurb here is that the music is a blend of new age and funeral doom. Well..... OK, the music is pretty melodic and not as harsh as the most extreme funeral doom. The music is still funeral doom and there is no new age music here.

The sound is good throughout.

The music is also pretty beautiful at the end with some good harmonies.

I have heard a lot better funeral doom albums than this one. It is still a decent album. It is also a name-your-price Bandcamp album and therefore one to check out if funeral doom is your thing.

2 points  

 

 

Rhesus O - Rhesus O (1971)

 

The one and only album from this band from France.

The band was a seven-pieces big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, xylophone, bass, guitars, organ, electric piano, harpsichord, woodwinds and voices.

This band includes two members who later joined Magma. That is this band's claim to fame and the reason why they got my attention.

This album clocks in at thirty-six minutes.

The music here is jazz.

The music is rather traditional jazz. There are some hints of both Canterbury scene and zeuhl here.

The sound is dodgy and sub-standard throughout. 

There are the usual saxophone and organ solos here. There are also some uncredited voices, choirs here.

The pieces of music is jumbled together in a chaotic fashion. That it self spoils a lot of the music here. I am not impressed by this half-decent album.

1.5 points  

   

Eiyen - Sea Of Love (2026)

 

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

Harald Plontke did all instruments and vocals on this album.

One guest is adding female vocals on this album. 

Harald Plontke were involved in some local bands before he went his own ways with Eiyen. The band name means eternity in Japanese and the music very much reflects that band name.

Sea Of Love clocks in at seventy minutes.

The music here is art-rock.

There is a lot of various influences and genres on this album. From symphonic prog to psych rock, cinematic rock, Americana and dream pop.

The music is mid-tempo to slow. It is also songs based. The music is really varied and melodic.

The music is well crafted and the music is really good. Harald Plontke has worked on the music for many years so only time will tell if he want to put himself through this process again and write/record more albums. I hope he does.

3 points 

 

 

   

Tea For Two - Twisted (2006)

 

The third album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, guitars, mandolin, recorder, keyboards and vocals.

A number of guests added drums, percussion, bass, cello and backing vocals.

This is the final album from this band. A pretty unknown band who did not get the success they may have deserved.

Twisted clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is neo-prog.

There are also some folk rock and art-rock influences in their music. The opening track is indeed a Spanish folk rock pastiche. Thankfully, this track is not representative of the rest of the album.

The music on the rest of the album is mid-tempo with some art-rock influences. The German band Argos is again a good reference.

The music is dominated by guitar harmonies and solos.  

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

This is indeed a good album from this rather underrated band. Their three albums deserve a lot more attention.

3 points 

 

 

Tarantula - Muestrame El Camino (2024)

 

The fourth album from this band from Spain.

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

This album is a blend of a demo recorded in the 1980s which was supposed to be their third album and some material which was supposed to be their fifth album. This album has a mix of old and new songs, in other words. 

This album clocks in at fifty minutes.

The music here is mainstream rock.

There are also some rock'n'roll on this album.

The music is indeed in the same vein as on the Tarantula 4 album I reviewed some days ago. 

The vocals are a blend of male and female. The music is pretty hard throughout. The music is not progressive at all. 

The music is decent enough and that is really it.

2 points 

Sulphurous Sea - Flake Of A Memory (2026)

 

The third album from this one-man-band from Sweden.

Elis Ericson played bass, guitars, keyboards and drum programming here.

One guest added guitars.

Elis Ericson returned again after the two albums from last year.

Flake Of A Memory clocks in at fifty minutes.

The music here is instrumental symphonic prog.

Elis has on this album taken a lot of inspirations from bands like Kaipa and distilled these inspirations into his own music. Add a lot of Camel too and you get the picture.

The music is soaring throughout. The music is also epic. There are an undercurrent of Scandinavian folk music throughout this album.

The quality is very good throughout this album and this is one of the better instrumental symphonic prog albums I have ever heard. Check it out.

3.5 points  

 

 

 

Yynot - Yynot (2018)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added drums, percussion and violin.

This band got my attention based on their reputation as one of the best Rush tribute bands in the world. That is why I got their three albums. Albums I will review this month.

This album clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is heavy prog.

And yes.... Rush anno their 2112 album is a good reference.

The two major differences here are the contemporary sound. The second main difference is the female vocals. The band also plays modern heavy prog too. There are also some acid folk and Americana influences in their music.

The band does a good job. The vocals is very good. 

This is indeed a good album. An album everyone into heavy prog should check out.

3 points 

Parsons Project. The Alan - Ammonia Avenue (1984)

 

The seventh album from this project from Great Britain.

The band was a duo with a lineup of piano, organ, keyboards, synths, drum programming and vocals.

A number of guests, including a symphony orchestra, added drums, percussion, bass, guitars, synths, strings, woodwinds and vocals.

The project returned again after a two years long album break.

Ammonia Avenue clocks in at forty minutes.

The music here is pomp pop.

With a couple of exceptions, this is the genre this project has been pursuing on their albums. 

This album has got a more 1980s sound than the previous albums. An updated sound in other words.

The music is still a bit outdated. A lot outdated anno 2026. The music is slow to mid-tempo. There is a lot of vocals, good vocals, here. The music is a bit flat and uninspired.

There is some decent stuff here. Most of the music is decent. But this is not among their best albums.

 2 points 

  

RealeaF - Possibly Not (2007)

 

The one and only album from this band from Israel.

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

I have no information about this band at all. Which is a shame...

Possibly Not clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is a blend of heavy prog and psych rock.

More psych rock than heavy prog, to be more precise. There is indeed a lot of Porcupine Tree influences here. Add in some Landberk influences too and you get the picture.

The music is mid-tempo, melodic and a bit quirky. Some of the music is also pretty eclectic.

The sound and the ambience here are very good. The vocals are also very good.

The overall quality is indeed good. This is an album fans of the two above mentioned bands should check out.  

3 points 

 

 

Raices - Raices (1975)

 

The debut album from this band from Puerto Rico.

The band was a seven-piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, electric piano, organ, clavinet, moog, keyboards, woodwinds and vocals.

This band has released two albums. One in 1975 and the final album twenty-three years later in 1998. I am just going to review this album, their debut album.

Raices clocks in at three quarters of an hour. 

The music here is jazz.

The music is also Latin-Jazz with lots of exotic rhythms with some jazz and fusion on the top of these Latin rhythms again. 

Most of it is instrumental. There are some vocals too here.

The music is really groovy with some interesting saxophone and flute solos. 

This is a decent album which should interest everyone into jazz and fusion.

2 points 

 

 

Quivira - Quivira (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band was a trio with a lineup of bass, guitars, keyboards, drum programming, programming and vocals.

Two guests added guitars and violin on a couple of tracks.

This is a supergroup with Lisa LaRue and members of Kansas. A much heralded supergroup too.

This album clocks in at sixty-seven minutes.

The music is a blend of symphonic prog and Americana.

The music is pretty hard at times. It is also epic and monumental. The Kansas influences comes thick and fast too.

The band does a great job. The vocals are great too.

The result is a very good album and one that lives up to the hype. This is one of the more interesting albums so far this year.

3.5 points 

 

 

Tea For Two - 101 (2000)

 

The second album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio with a lineup of guitars, recorder, keyboards, synth-bass, programmed drums and vocals.

Three guests added bass, violin and female vocals on some tracks.

The band returned after a six years long album break. Their debut album Dream Or Reality was reviewed earlier this month and it is a pretty good album.

101 clocks in at fifty minutes.

The music here is neo-prog.

Their take on neo-prog is more in the vein of symphonic prog than the more poppy version of neo-prog. A good reference here is Argos, the German masters of neo-prog. 

There are some short and some long compositions here. They are all well crafted and pretty clever. The music is also elegant and pretty beautiful.

The vocals are also very good throughout. 

 This is a good album and a solid improvement on the debut album. This is indeed an album neo-prog fans should check out.

3 points 

Tarántula - Tarantula 4 (2021)

 

The third album from this band from Spain.

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

Two guests added bass and harmonica on one track.

The band returned again, forty-three years after their second album. A decent album too, it was. See my review somewhere else in this blog.

Tarantula 4 clocks in at forty-two minutes.

The music here is mainstream rock.

The music is pretty hard rocking with some ripping bass and guitars. There are some harmonies and some more ballads like music too. 

The vocals are pretty raw female and male vocals. The lyrics are Spanish.

The result is a decent enough album which has no progressive rock whatsoever but still works as a rock'n'roll album.

2 points 

 

 

 

 

ViaMedia - Lullabies for the Marooned (2026)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

The band was a duo with a lineup of double bass, bass, guitars, keyboards, concertina, effects and vocals.

A number of guests added drums, violins, strings and trumpet.

This is the follow up album to their 2024 debut album Bridge Of Sighs from 2024. An album I reviewed back in April 2024 for # 3 of this blog. I gave it a Good award. See the review here.

Lullabies for the Marooned clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music here is art-rock.

The band, I mean duo, has retreated from the more rocking soundscape on their debut album into a much more intimate, softly spoken and refined soundscape on their new album, the follow-up album.

Early Genesis, Procol Harum, Sylvan, Talk Talk and Peter Hammill are good references here. There are even some Steve Hogarth era Marillion lurking around in their music too. 

There is a blend of acoustic and electric instruments here, including guitars. The strings is adding a lot of colours and are complementing the great vocals.

This is an album where a piece of music crosses over to becoming an artwork. 

The result is a very good album and one of this year's better albums from Norway, the new powerhouse in art-rock and prog rock.   

3.5 points 

VP - Sound Dependence (2003)

 

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

VP abbreviation of Vyacheslav Potapov and he has released a handful of albums under this name. He plays bass, guitar and programming here.

I am reviewing three of his albums in the coming week.  

Sound Dependence clocks in at fifty-four minutes.

The music is a blend of electronica and psych rock.

There are indeed some strong krautrock influences in this pretty wild music too.

There are some distorted guitars and bass here in addition to the programmed synths. 

 The music is very minimalistic too. It has some good ideas though...

I am not overly enthused by this album. It is a free download from Bandcamp and well worth checking out although I will only give it a fairly decent rating.

1.5 points  

 

 

 

 

Velvet Underground. The - The Velvet Underground (1969)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

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

John Cale had left the band but Lou Reed kept on going with this band. The result was this album. I have not been impressed by their first two albums. But this band is, for good and worse, an icon and it is only right to review all their studio albums.

The Velvet Underground clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is acoustic psych rock.

The music is pretty downtuned and minimalistic. Most of the music is performed by acoustic guitars and vocals.

Lou Reed is the lead vocalist here. He is helped by two female vocalists too. There are some sporadic organs here.

Most of the songs are pretty dire. There are three decent songs which is the saving grace on this album. 

This album is only a half-decent album and best avoided.

1.5 points 

Thy Listless Heart - Pilgrims on the Path of no Return (2022)

 

The one and only album from this band from Great Britain.

This was a one-man-band with Simon Bibby playing the bass, guitars, drum machines, programming and vocals. 

One guest adds whistles, recorder, pipes and female vocals. 

Simon Bibby was/is a member of the still-active My Silent Wake who has released numerous albums. Albums I should review and am planning to review next year. He was also a member of Seventh Angel around twenty years ago.

Pilgrims on the Path of no Return clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music here is doom metal.

Simon Bibby's take on doom metal is pretty symphonic. It is also pretty progressive and melodic too.

There are some funeral doom influences here and some more cinematic rock influences. Pink Floyd also springs to mind.

The music is still complex and still rooted in classic doom metal.

This area between funeral doom metal, cinematic rock and symphonic prog is a pretty exciting area. It is one of my favourite areas too. There are just so few bands/entities in this area. Thy Listless Heart is one of the bands in this area.

The music here is good. This is an album both fans of atmospheric metal and doom metal should check out. The same goes for the progheads.

3 points 

 

Three Colours Dark - Love's Lost Property (2021)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a duo with a lineup of keyboards and vocals.

A number of guests added bass, guitars, violin, oboe, saxophone and drum programming.

The duo is Jonathan Edwards and Rachel Cohen from Karnataka. I have yet to find a copy of their debut album but I am still looking. Hopefully, a review will be posted later this year/early next year.

Love's Lost Property clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music here is neo-prog.

There are a lot of folk rock influences in their take on neo-prog. At their worst, there are some The Corrs influences here too.

The music here is built around the Rachel Cohen's vocals. The music reminds me a lot about the softer, poppy and more elegant side of Karnataka's music.

The original material here is mostly good. Their take on Duran Duran's song Ordinary World is both elegant and good.

Although this album is pretty poppy, it is still a good album and one worth checking out if melodic prog is your thing.

3 points 

 

 

 

 

Rupert Selection. The - Music For Horses (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

A number of guests added keyboards, synths, soundscapes, woodwinds and vocals.

I have reviewed the first two albums but not the third album if my memories serves me right. I may review that album sometimes later.

Music For Horses clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music here is best described as art-rock.

There is a lot of Americana in their music too. Based on the sound and music, there is no mistake about which country this band comes from.  

The music is rocking and lively with some woodwinds throughout this album in addition to the usual guitars and synths.

The quality is pretty good throughout. There are not enough good songs here and that is my gripe with this album. It is an album art-rock fans should check out.

2.5 points 

 

 

Sulphurous Sea - Sulphurous Sea (2025)

 

The second album from this one-man-band from Sweden.

Elis Ericson played bass, guitars, keyboards and drum programming here.

Elis Ericson has so far released three albums under this band name. I was not impressed by the debut album. But I am still reviewing the three albums.

Sulphurous Sea clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is symphonic prog.

The music is also instrumental on this album too.

The music is mostly mid-tempo. The music is pretty symphonic too. There are some soaring melodies throughout this album. 

The main instrument here is the guitars. There is a lot of piano here too and some synths.

This album is an improvement on the debut album. I am not a big fan of instrumental albums. This is one of the better new instrumental symphonic prog albums I have heard for a while and a pretty good album in it's own right.

2.5 points  

  

String Driven Thing - Keep Yer And On It (1975)

 

The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a line-up of drums, percussion, bass, banjo, guitars, violin, viola and vocals.

Two guests added piano and harmonica.

The band returned again after only a one year long album break. I was not impressed by their previous album and had no expectations for this album.

Keep Yer And On It clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is a blend of mainstream rock and folk rock.

Add in some Americana too and you get the picture.

The music is pretty hard rocking and groovy. There is a lot of violins in the music. The Kansas influences are subtle but still there. 

There are a lot of guitars and vocals too here.

There are a couple of pretty good pieces of music here. And there is some songs here which deserves to be forgotten.

This is a decent enough album from a band who were pretty popular in the beginning of the 1970s. A band worth checking out.

2 points 

  

Pattern Seeking Animals - Grimalkin (2026)

 

The sixth album from this band from USA.

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

The band returned again after a one year long album break. The band is a side project of Spock's Beard... or is it the opposite way around now ? Pattern Seeking Animals is a very productive, prolific band and is threatening to overshadow Spock's Beard. Something I think everyone is very happy about. 

This album clocks in at fifty minutes.

The music here is US symphonic prog.

The music is melodic and a bit symphonic. There are both a lot of Kansas and Spock's Beard vibes and influences throughout this album.

There are some strings here in addition to the synths and guitars. The mood is mellow. The music is mid-tempo.

The male vocals are very good. They are complemented by some very good female vocals too.  

This is not their best album. The overall quality is still good. This is an album fans of US symphonic prog should check out.

3 points  

 

 

 

 

 

Tea For Two - Dream Or Reality (1994)

 

The debut album from this band from Germany.

 

The band was a quintet with a line-up of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, flute and vocals.

 

This band released three albums between 1994 - 2006. All three of them are up for review in the coming weeks.

 

Dream Or Reality is clocking in at one hour.

 

The music here is neo-prog.

 

The music is melodic, light, poppy and song-focused. There are a symphonic prog instrumental piece at the end of the album.

 

The band was very inspired by the like of Marillion and Pendragon. That is evident in the music.

 

There are a few keltic folk music influences here too.

 

There is some decent and some good music here. I am not entirely won over. Neo-prog fans should check out this album.

 

2.5 points 

 

 

 

Thollot. Jacques - Quand le Son Devient Aigu, Jeter la Girafe à la Mer (1971)

 

The debut album from this artist from France.

Jacques played drums, percussion, piano, organ and effects here.

Jacques is the brother of Francois Thollot, a more well-known zeuhl artist than Jacques. 

Jacques released five albums before he passed on twelve years ago. I will review them all in the next two-three weeks.

This album clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is avant-garde rock/jazz.

I am not denying that I am sceptical to most of the avant-garde music. Albums like this are one of the reasons for this attitude.

The music is a bit too pling-plong unhinged. There is not much of a method in this madness. The music is too dire to really win my approval.

There is some decent music here. But most of the music leaves me cold. Hence....

1.5 points 

 

Pinnacle - Assasin (1974)

 

The one and only album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a line-up of drums, bass, guitars, organ, moog and vocals.

This band from Liverpool, England was a short lived band who released this album and then disappeared again. This album has been re-released seven times as bootlegs and more official releases. The band left a mark, at least. 

Assassin clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is hard rock with some psych rock influences.

The music is really hard rocking and pretty wild with some good solos.

There are also some more mid-tempo and slow psych rock here too. Some Moog-dominated psych rock.

The vocals are pretty good.

The result is a decent enough album which will appeal to hard rock fans. Check it out.

2 points 

 

 

Pandora - Measures of Time (1974)

 

The one and only album from this band from Sweden.

The band was a sextet with a line-up of drums, bass, guitars, piano, synths and vocals.

This band was a pretty short-lived band. The LP was released in 1974 and re-released on a German label in 2015.

Measures Of Time clocks in at thirty-four minutes.

The music is early days symphonic prog. Proto-symphonic prog, to be more precise.

The music reminds me a lot about Procol Harum. There is also some hints of Kaipa, Camel and early Genesis here.

The music is melodic throughout. It is also mid-tempo with some good guitars and keyboards.

The vocals are pretty good.

Some of the music is good and some of the music is decent. I am positively surprised, indeed.

2.5 points 

 

 

 

Osiris - Within a Dream (2026)

 

The sixth album from this band from Bahrain.

The band was a seven-pieces big band with a line-up of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards and vocals.

I have reviewed all of this band's albums both in ProgArchives and in this blog. I like their albums a lot. This band deserve a lot more support.

Within A Dream clocks in at almost an hour.

The music is symphonic neo-prog.

The songs here are long, symphonic and complex. It can therefore be argued that this is symphonic prog album. And that with a great deal of justice.

The sound is still neo-prog and the core of the songs are very much in that vein. There is nothing wrong with that in my view.

The music is also mid-tempo with some good solos from the keyboards and the guitars. There is also a great organ sound here.

The vocals are good.

There are no real killer tracks here. This is still a good album and one of their better albums. 

3 points 

 

 

 

Hackett & Rothery - The Roaring Waves (2026)

 

The debut album from this duo from Great Britain.

Steve Hackett and Steve Rothery does the guitars, bass, keyboards and harmonica here.

Three guests added drums, bass and keyboards.

This is the long awaited album from these two super-guitarists. Two legends from the symphonic prog and neo-prog scene. Neither of these two guitarists needs any introduction.

The album clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is symphonic prog. Instrumental symphonic prog, that is.

References are both Steve Hackett solo albums and Camel.

The two guitars complement each other on the melodic music here. There are one more bluesy rocker here too and some more folk-rock inspired melodies.

This album is a bit of a grower as the music sounds uninspiring during the first listening sessions. The music, the flower, then starts to open up and some new details emerges.

The result is a very good album and one to check out if melodic prog is your thing.

3.5 points 

 

 

 

Sulphurous Sea - Tadmor (2025)

 

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

Elis Ericson played bass, guitars, keyboards and drum programming here.

Elis Ericson has so far released three albums under this name and I am reviewing them this month. The two other reviews will follow within the coming week.

Tadmor clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is symphonic prog.

The music is instrumental with a lot of guitar harmonies and solos. The music is in other words guitars dominated. There are some short ambient keyboards pieces here too.

The music is mid-tempo. The music is not particularly varied or expansive.

The music is too much run-of-the-mill to be of any great interest. A couple of good themes is the only positive pieces of music on this decent enough album.

2 points 

 

 

String Driven Thing - Please Mind Your Head (1974)

 

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a line-up of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, banjo, viola, violin and vocals.

Three guests added keyboards, saxophones, flute and bagpipes.

I have reviewed their latest two album of their first three albums and have quite liked them. So I am planning to review a couple more of their albums too in addition to this album.

Please Mind Your Head clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is a blend of folk rock and 1970s mainstream rock.

The music is pretty hard throughout. There are some hard guitars here.

There are also some violins here and they are adding a folk rock feel to the hard rocking music.

The vocals are pretty good. There is one good song here, Mrs O' Reilly. The rest of the music is decent enough.

This is a decent enough album which may please those into the 1970s scene.

2 points 

 

Galasphere 347 - The Syntax of Things (2026)

 

The second album from this Anglo - Scandinavian band.

The band was a trio with a line-up of drums, guitars, lap-steel guitars, keyboards, synths, programming, flute and vocals.

A number of guests added bass, guitars and sax.

I liked their self-titled 2018 debut album a lot and was pleased when the band returned eight years later with this album.

The Syntax Of Things clocks in at fifty-six minutes.

The music here is symphonic prog.

The music is both complex and melodic. It is also pretty symphonic. Genesis is a good reference throughout this album.

There are some good keyboards harmonies and guitar solos throughout this album. 

The vocals are also good.

This is another good album from this band and I hope we will hear a lot more from this band. Hopefully sometime this decade.

3 points 

 

 

Long Earth - Towards The Sky (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a line-up of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

This band is from Glasgow, a town about ten kilometres up the River Clyde from this blog's lavish head office. Glasgow is also the biggest town in Scotland and the home of a dozen of prog rock bands.

I have reviewed the first three Long Earth albums and I have liked them a lot. 

Towards The Sky clocks in at sixty-seven minutes.

The music here is neo-prog.

The music is songs based. They are mid-tempo and pretty melodic. 

The songs are each in the region of five to twelve minutes long. 

Maalke Siegerist's vocals is an important part of this band's music. I gather she is from The Netherlands and has found a new home here in Scotland (I hope). Her vocals are great.

This is not their best album. It is still a good album and one melodic prog and neo-prog fans should check out.  

3 points 

 

Procol Harum - Something Magic (1977)

 

The ninth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a line-up of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, organ and vocals.

I have so far been surprised, positive surprised, about the quality of their albums as I have never really rated this band. I have been proven wrong and I now look at the band and their albums with fondness.

Something Magic clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is art-rock.

Half of this album is songs based while the final half is the nineteen long The Worm And The Tree suite.

The songs are pretty pastoral and melancholic with some great vocals from the late Gary Brooker. These songs are very good.

The suite is a bit lacking in quality. It has some great organs and vocals. Those are it's saving grace. The melodies in itself is not that good.

The result is another good album from this band and one to check out. It is another album that has proven that I was wrong not to rate this band. 

3 points 

 

Sigur Ros - () (2002)

 

The fifth album by this band from Iceland.

The band was a quartet with a line-up of drums, glockenspiel, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Four guests added violin, viola and cello.

I have had the joy of reviewing their first albums and am planning to review all their albums before the end of the year.

This album clocks in at seventy-two minutes.

The music is post-rock.

The music is slightly ambient post-rock with lots of sombre, melancholic melodies. One of my friends (yes, I got some) from BBC has called this band's music as the most beautiful music in the world. Listening to this album, I concede that she has got a point. 

The music is indeed very beautiful.

There is no doubts this band is the leading band in the post-rock genre. This album is up to this point their best album and a reason why I really like this genre.

3.5 points 

 

  

Pansies - Cascade of Colors (2017)

 

The one and only album from this band from USA.

The band was a trio with a line-up of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

The band comes from California and they released this album through Bandcamp. The album was also recorded in their home studio. That is all I know.

The album clocks in at forty minutes.

The music here is psych rock.

The late 1960s psych rock scene seems to be the inspiration for their music.  

The music is melodic, flower power, pastoral and folky. The music is song-based. The organ sound is great.

The sound is surprisingly good and more than acceptable. 

The vocals are very good too.

The overall quality is good with a couple of very good songs too.  

This album is a positive surprise and another hidden gem among the many unknown Bandcamp albums. This album is indeed a credit to the Bandcamp business model and platform.

3 points 

Palco Numero Cinque - Carta Straccia (2014)

 

The one and only album from this band from Italy.

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

This is another new band to me. The band is still alive and playing gigs in Italy, I have been informed. 

Carta Straccia clocks in at forty minutes. 

The music here is a blend of alternative rock and psych rock. There is also some folk rock influences here.

There is a lot of RPI influences in their music too and I was very tempted to label this album as an RPI album. The reason is that RPI is a wide-ranging genre. There is a case for this album to be labelled RPI.

The music is both melodic and a bit edgy. It is also a hard rocking album at times. There are also some more pastoral pieces here.

The male Italian vocals are great.

There is no doubts this album is a bit of a gem. It is also a good album RPI fans should check out. This is an underestimated/undervalued album and indeed, band. Check out this album.

3 points 

  

 

Esp - Extra Sensory Perception (2026)

 

The tenth album from this band from Great Britain.

 

The band was a trio with a line-up of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

 

Back in April & May 2018, I review their first two albums in # 2 of this blog. The reviews can be found here and here. I liked those two albums and it is therefore a bit of a mystery to me why I have not reviewed the rest of their albums too. I should do that next year or so. In any case, I got their new album and I am reviewing that album here...

 

Extra Sensory Perception clocks in at fifty-two minutes.

 

The music here is neo-prog.

 

There are some Porcupine Tree influences and some psych rock here too.

 

The music is melodic and a bit complex. The music is pretty light with some mainstream rock influences.

 

The vocals are good and there is a good guitar sound here.

 

The overall quality is good. The songs are a bit workmanlike. Nevertheless, this is a good album.

 

3 points 

 

Moonrise - No Rewind (2026)

 

The fifth album from this band from Poland.

The band was a one-man-band with Kamil Konieczniak doing the drums, bass, guitars and keyboards. 

Three guests added guitars and vocals.

I have reviewed the first four albums and have liked them a lot. 

No Rewind clocks in at fifty-two minutes.

The music is neo-prog.

The neo-prog is in the Polish neo-prog tradition with a lot of art-rock influences.

The music is melodic, slick, elegant and slightly melancholic. The music is also commercial and should appeal to the melodic rock scene outside the prog rock community.

There is a lot of male and female vocal harmonies in their music. The vocals are good throughout this album. 

The music is pretty good throughout. There is a blend of good and decent songs on this album. I am not entirely won over, though....

2.5 points 

 

 

 

 

Sume - Persersume (1994)

 

The fourth and final album from this band from Greenland.

The band was a seven-piece big band with a line-up of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

The band ended their twenty-one year long recording artists career with this album. I have not been impressed by their first three albums. It is though remarkable that a barren island like Greenland managed to produce a band like Sume. I take my hat off to this band and the people on Greenland.

This album clocks in at three-quarters of an hour.

The music here is mainstream rock.

There are some folk rock influences here. But most of the music is run-of-the-mill mainstream rock.

The lyrics and vocals are in their local language Greenlandic. This language is spoken and written by around one hundred thousand people. 

That is the only remarkable thing about this album. The music is pretty decent. A couple of pretty good songs elevates this album to a decent album. 

2 points 

 

 

Stubbs - The Prime Moving Lumps (1985)

 

The third album from this band from Japan.

The band was a quartet with a line-up of drums, bass, guitars, piano, organ, synths and samples.

One guest added vocals.

I have really enjoyed their first two albums. Albums I regard as hidden gems in the prog rock scene. Both of them have been reviewed in this blog.

 The Prime Moving Lumps clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music here is Canterbury prog & jazz.

The music is quirky, instrumental, jazzy and pretty eclectic. It is still melodic too.

Egg is a very good reference here. 

The sound is good. The organ sound is really the star on this album and makes a Canterbury scene fan's heart beat a lot faster. 

The overall quality here is good and it is a crying shame that this band's three albums has not been re-released. They deserve that. Stubbs is my find-of-the-year.

3 points 

 

Gardening Club. The - The Insubstantial Pageant (2026)

 

The eleventh album from this band from Canada.

The band was a seven-piece big band with a line-up of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards, saxophone and vocals.

The band returned after a two years long album break. I have reviewed some of their albums. Albums I like a lot. I was therefore jumping at the chance to review this album too.

The album clocks in at just over one hour.

The music is art-rock.

The music is also a blend of symphonic prog, folk rock, vaudeville rock and psych rock. Art-rock in other words.

The music is elegant and melodic. It is also complex and epic too.

There are some great vocals here, both male and female vocals.

The overall quality is good and that makes this another good album from this band who is slowly becoming one of the best bands from Canada. Many would argue they are already one of the three best bands from this country.

3 points  

 

 

Triosphere - Oceans Above Stars Below (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from Norway.

The band was a quartet with a line-up of drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

 

I have yet to sample their first three albums. The reason is that I am not a fan of hard progressive metal, the music this band plays. I got this album directly from their record label and have therefore decided to review it.

 

This album clocks in at fifty minutes.

 

The music is progressive metal.

 

The music is very hard and heavy in the beginning before it becomes a lot more melodic towards the end of this album.

 

The overall impression is that this is a really heavy progressive metal album. The music is not as progressive as I would have wanted either. The music is more like straight heavy metal.

 

The vocalist is a female vocalist. The vocals are still raw and take no prisoners. The vocals is good.

 

The rest of the band does a good job too. 

 

I am not really convinced by this album. The quality is somewhere between decent and good. Heavy metal and progressive metal fans should and will check out this album.

 

2.5 points 

 

 

 

 

 

Tarantula - Tarantula 2 (1978)

 

The second album from this band from Spain.

The band was a sextet with a line-up of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, moog, melotron and vocals.

The band returned after a two years long break. I reviewed their debut album around twelve years ago. I have their latest two albums up for review sometime in the next week. 

This album clocks in at three quarters of an hour.

The music here is a blend of symphonic prog and heavy prog.

The music is very hard at times and it reminds me a lot about the heaviest bands in the RPI scene. The main difference here being that Tarantula's vocals are in Spanish.

The music is wild. The vocals, male and female, is pretty good.

This album is not as good as their debut album. It is still a decent enough album and well worth checking out.

2 points