Kingfisher Sky - Arms of Morpheus (2014)

 

The third album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

One guest added bass.

This album is clocking in at close to fifty minutes.

The band were playing heavy prog with female vocals on their first two albums. 

The female vocals is still here and again pretty dominant in the sound. The music has become more like neo-prog with some folk rock and pop influences.

The music has become less heavy and more melodic, more folk rock influenced in other words.

There are some cello here and they are good. There is also the usual guitar riffs and chugging.

The vocals is very good and they are slick and elegant. The band tries to write catchy songs and they are almost succeeding here. A lot of the music is therefore pretty commercial.

There are some good and some decent stuff here. I am again not entirely won over. Hence....

2.5 points 

Norman Haines Band. The - Den Of Iniquity (1971)

 

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

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

The Norman Haines Band was formed on the ruins of Locomotive. That band too only released one album and I will review that album later this month. 

Please note that I am reviewing the original album, the LP, here. The CD and digital version is double the length of the LP version, clocking in at an hour. Get the CD/digital version as it offers better value for money.

This LP is clocking in at thirty-four minutes. 

The music is a blend of hard rock and psych rock. The music is very influenced by blues, which makes sense as this album is from the early 1970s.

The guitars are very good and the vocals are good.

The long guitar solo at the end of this album is the main positive thing about this album. It very much makes this an interesting, pretty good album. An album well worth checking out as it is one of the hidden gems from the British scene.

2.5 points 

Nationalteatern - Barn Av Var Tid (1978)

 

The fifth album from this band from Sweden.

The band was an eight pieces big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, flutes, woodwinds and vocals.

This band was in fact a theater company and they were a part of the Swedish progg movement. The xtra G here means this was on the marxist-leninist-stalinist end of the political spectrum in Sweden/Scandinavia. Some people tends to confuse the progg movement with the prog movement. Those two movements has almost nothing in common, music wise and in most other cases.

The progg movement based their music on the leftist lyrics. I am Norwegian and therefore understand the Swedish lyrics here. The lyrics here are pretty good, although based on the life in the 1970s. 

But back to the music.... 

This album is clocking in at thirty-five minutes. 

The music is mainly pub rock with some strong punk rock and power pop influences. There are also some faint prog rock influences here.

The vocals is pretty good. There are both male and female vocals here where the female vocals are the best vocals. 

The music is pretty decent to decent throughout. There is one pretty good ballad at the end of the album. 

This is therefore a decent album. It does not tempt me to get any more of their albums.

2 points 

Gong - Bright Spirit (2026)

 

The 26th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band returned again after a three years long album break. A break filled with gigs and tours. 

The band founder Daevid Allen died years ago and the band has been, with his blessing before he passed on, been taken over by a new generation of musicians. All of them lifelong Gong fans. This makes Gong an organic band, indeed.

This album is clocking in at three quarters of an hour. 

Psych rock and Canterbury prog is what we get from the band on this album. The music is a lot more melodic and focused on songs than on previous albums. This is a new side of the Gong franchise.

There are some saxophones, vocal harmonies and guitars here which are not normally associated with Gong. These are really an improvement on the normal Gong fare. 

The vocals are good and ditto for the music here. This is a charming Gong album and a very good album in it's own right.

3.5 points   

NoPlaceToHide - Vergangenheit (1995)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This band released two albums before they called it a day. A review of their second album will follow next week.

This album is clocking in at thirty-six minutes and the music is alternative extreme metal.

Take some post-punk and blend it with some avant-garde prog, nu-metal and death metal. 

The music is pretty catchy, melodic, esoteric, epic and monumental. 

The music is both hard and harsh. It is still pretty beautiful at times.

The vocals are harsh throughout. 

This album is one I have always rated as one of the great albums from the Norwegian extreme metal scene. A scene who also gave the world the black metal and the funeral doom metal scene. 

Listening to it now, three decades since it was released, it is still a great album and one to check out.

4 points 

 

Lone Wanderer - The Majesty Of Loss (2016)

 

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

I reviewed their new album Exequiae back in January this year and added in the review that I was also reviewing their first two albums this winter too. 

Well, it is now spring and it is time to fulfil this promise. A bit late but better late than never. The review of their second album will follow in some days' time.

This album is clocking in at three quarters of an hour.

The music here is funeral doom metal. That means slooooow doom metal. 

The vocals are as dark as the devil's paint kit. More like growl than vocals. Guttural growls.

The band is showcasing some potential here. Potential a bit held back by some substandard funeral doom metal. The art of songwriting is still not here.

This is a decent enough album but just that. Decent.

2 points 

 

Liturgia Del Piombo - Volume Primo (2026)

 

The fifth album from this band from Italy.

The band is a one-man-band with Ludovico Maggi Padovan on drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, clarinet and programming.

This is a new band to me as I have been recently made aware of them through ProgArchives. Its first album was back in 2022. I may get their first four albums for reviews sometime later this year.

Volume Primo is clocking in at fifty minutes.

The music here is fusion.

There is a lot of clarinets on this album and that instrument is the dominating solo instrument here. It is helped by a lot of guitars. Some pretty harsh riffing guitars, that is.

The music is indeed hard with some progressive metal influences. 

The music is still pretty melodic and fluid. It is also pretty elegant at times too.

The result is a good album that feels more like a workmanlike one than a great one. Ludovico Maggi Padovan is not fulfilling his full potential on this album.

3 points 

 

 

Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone (2001)

 

The fifth album from this band from Sweden.

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

This album is clocking in at fifty minutes.

The band and their music had been in a transition between doom/death metal and alternative rock on the last couple of albums.

Last Fair Deal Gone sees the band arriving in the alternative rock scene. A genre they were to fully embrace during the rest of their career. I am by no means a fan of alternative metal/rock. 

The music is still heavy and it retains a lot of metal. The label is therefore also alternative metal/rock. There is also a lot of grunge here.  

The vocals are good throughout this album. The guitars too are good and the mellotron is spicing up the music.

The quality is pretty good with a couple of good songs here. I am still not won over by this band's change of direction.

2.5 points 

Fates Warning ‎- Parallels (1991)

 

The sixth album from this band from USA.

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

Two guests added programming and backing vocals. 

This album is clocking in at three quarters of an hour. 

The music has this time moved a lot closer to what Dream Theatre did at that time... and still does. In other words, progressive metal.

This is indeed a pure progressive metal album.   

The music is therefore a lot more melodic on this album than on the previous five albums. There is a lot more harmonies too and a lot more progressive rock influences.

The vocals are also very good at times. The sound is also very good.

The quality is pretty good throughout this album. There is some good stuff here. There are also some not so good stuff here. Hence....

2.5 points 

 

Night Thorn - Pilgrimage (2013)

 

The one and only album from this band from Canada.

The band was a seven-piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, cello, organs, synths and vocals.

Someone in this band has recently visited ProgArchives and is asking for reviews of this thirteen years old album. So I have volunteered, although this review will not be posted in ProgArchives. 

I already got a copy of this album in any case and was planning to review it sometime in the next year or four.  

The songs here are named Journal Entry and there is twelve of them on this one hour long album. That is both original and quirky. 

The music is slow, brooding and gloomy. It is not doom metal as there is no metal here. Nevertheless, the music is doomy.

The music is also pretty melodic too. The music is pretty unique and original. The music and the vocals is also good. 

This is an interesting album and one well worth checking out.

3 points  

Nomadi. I - Collezione (1976)

 

The first compilation album from this band from Italy.

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

Some guests added strings. 

This is the first and best known compilation album from this band who has released numerous, twenfy-five plus albums. I got this album around fifteen years ago when I got interested in RPI. I thought this was a RPI band (it is not) and it has been laying around for fifteen years after I learned that this is not a RPI band.  

I Nomadi was formed in 1963 and is still alive in one form or another.  

This album is three quarters of an hour long and the music is Italian pop/rock.

Yes, the music is not RPI. The music still got a lot of the hallmarks of RPI. 

A couple of the songs are indeed RPI songs as the band latched onto the genre in their quest for relevance and popularity. RPI was indeed very popular in Italy in the beginning of the 1970s.

Most of the album is pop/rock with lots of strings and slow crooning Italian vocals.

The songs should be cringeworthy.... but they are not. Some of the songs are actually pretty good. Other songs again are pretty dire.

Nevertheless, this was and probably still is a good band. This compilation album gives a good overview of the band in the early 1970s and is a decent album in its own right.

2 points 

Different Strings - The Great Divide (2026)

 

The fifth album from this band from Malta.

Chris Malla played the drums, bass, guitars, synths and programming. He also did the vocals here.

He got help from two guests who provided keyboards and vocals on a couple of tracks. 

I have been following Chris Malla and his Different Strings with great interest since the debut album back in 2006. 

The music on this one hour and five minutes long album is neo-prog.

The music is complex and hard most of the time.

There are a lot of Spock's Beard influences in their music. The music is also pretty melodic.

The vocals are all good and this album is indeed a good album. It is not the best Different Strings album. Nevertheless....

3 points 

 

 

Benjamin's Kite - Ingenious Cacophonies (2020)

 

The third album from this band from Canada.

The band is listed as a seven pieces big band on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, saxophones, flutes and vocals.

I reviewed their second album Antediluvian Euphonies (2018) some days ago. I gave it a good album rating. That is why I was looking forward to sink my ears into the follow up album.

Ingenious Cacophonies is clocking in at one hour and we get much the same as on the second album.

That Phil Collins era Genesis, the Duke album and infuse a lot of neo-prog into the blend. That is where we find this band and this album.

The music is very slick with slick male vocals and some slick pieces of music. Commercial is the word most people will use on this album. The music is still progressive.

Towards the end of the album, there are some instrumental saxophone and flutes dominated pieces. They are very good, indeed.

The vocals on the songs are also good. There are a lot of good pieces of music here. Enough to make this another good album from this band. I will review their album in some days time.

3 points 

Fabric Of Reality Project - Carpe Diem (2023)

 

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

The band is a one-man-band with Rick Lambe doing the drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, synths, samples and vocals.

He got help from a handful of guests who added drums, guitars, narration and female vocals.

This is the latest album from Fabric Of Reality Project. It is also a one hundred minutes long album. In other words, a one hour and forty minutes long album.

The music is epic symphonic prog.

The album starts with some ten minutes of Eloy inspired pieces of music. This is before the music takes a more conventional symphonic prog route. 

The music is also folk rock influenced too. The sound and music are both epic and earthy at the same time.

There are an half an hour long suite about the Covid pandemic on this album which is both good and poignant. Too many people perished in that pandemic.

The result is a very good album and one to check out if you are into epic, yet melodic symphonic prog. 

3.5 points  

 

Floating Nest - Blow Off Steam (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

This band was formed in Sweden of all places. Sweden is at the other end of Europe from Spain. My mind boggles...

This album is clocking in at three quarters of an hour and the music is heavy prog.

Their take on heavy prog is spiced up with some electronica, djent and death metal brutality, including some male death grunts.

The vocals are female vocals and they are very good. There are also some male vocals here.

Most of the music is still pretty melodic. The music is at times harsh and dissonant. 

The sound is modern, cutting edge and contemporary. 

The songs are all good. This band is talented and I hope we will hear a lot more from them in the future.

3 points  

 

 

 

Marbin - Aggressive Hippies (2015)

 

The fourth album from this Israeli-American band.

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

Gosh, it is nine years since I reviewed four of their first five albums. They were on MoonJune Records back then and I got promo copies of their albums. After these reviews in # 1 of this blog, I moved on to some other bands. I did not even know they were still with us until I found some of their remaining albums at the end of last year. 

I put the rest of their album on the list of albums I should review this year. I will review these albums this spring and early summer.

Aggressive Hippies are clocking in at fifty-five minutes.

The music is a blend of jazz and fusion. 

The music is fast and has a lot of saxophone and guitar solos. The music is really dynamic with some hints of gypsy music throughout. The music is also pretty harsh, dissonant and esoteric.

Melodic is not the word I would use on their music. The music is still good and this is a band well worth checking out.

3 points 

 

 

Jazz Q - Zvěsti (1978)

 

The fifth album from this band from the Czech Republic.

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

One guest added soprano saxophones on two tracks.

Martin Kratochvil was the piano, organ and keyboards player on this album and the record label/the authorities/the band, for reasons unknown to me, decided to name themselves Martin Kratochvil & JazzQ on this album. In this blog, they are only Jazz Q.

This album is clocking in at three quarters of an hour. 

The music is again fusion. The take on fusion here is not as intense and jazzy as on previous albums. There are indeed some progressive rock here and some cinematic rock.

The music is very melodic throughout. There are some good organs, keyboards and guitar solos throughout this album and the music is rich in interesting details.

The result is a good album from this band. This is not among their best albums but it is still worth checking out.

3 points  

Turcotte. Guillaume - Anomalies (2022)

 

The debut album from this artist from Canada.

Guillaume Turcotte did the bass, guitars, piano, organ, Rhodes keyboards and vocals.

A handful of guests added drums, percussion, guitars, violin, piano and vocals.

I have been a fan of the Quebec prog rock scene for the last decade and a half. So when I heard about this name-your-price Bandcamp album, I was pretty quick to download this album.

I know nothing about Guillaume Turcotte. Anommailies is clocking in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is a blend of folk rock, chanson and symphonic prog. Good references are Harmonium and Jelly Fiche.

The sound is lush and colourful. There are a lot of piano on the mid-tempo music. 

The music is melodic and folky. There is still a lot of interesting details and the album really makes an impression. 

Guillaume's French vocals are great. There is one great song here too..Il m'arrive. The rest of the songs are good to very good.

This is a very good album and one you should download. I hope we will hear a lot more from this artist.

3.5 points 

 

 

 

Turning Virtue - A Temporary Human Experience (2016)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This band has only released this album and I fear that this band is another one-album only band.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is a blend of heavy prog and neo-prog. 

The first couple of Porcupine Tree albums are a good reference. There are also some Rush references here.

The music is mid-tempo with a good sound and some really good guitars.

The vocals are good and the rhythm section is doing a good job.

There is not really anything that sets this band apart from any other bands. The songs are decent enough but not really that interesting. My guess is that the band did not sell many of their CD Baby (R.I.P) albums and split up due to the indiference from the scene. The band were talented so that is a shame.

2.5 points 

 

Czycsy - Secret Clockwork (2025)

 

The ninth album from this band from Poland.

This is a one-man-band where Marek Krol does the guitars, synths, saxophones, percussion, programming and vocals.

I reviewed the sixth album Uwu Slaughter (2022) back in January 2023 for # 3 of this blog and gave it a good rating. I will also review the new album Aftermoon in some days' time. 

This album is three quarters of an hour long. 

The music is a one-man-band version of symphonic prog. The music is surprisingly organic. That is something I also noted in my review of the 2022 album as you can read in my review above.

The music is really melodic but also pretty symphonic. Symphonic enough for this to be a symphonic prog album. 

The vocals are a bit weak, but still passable. The organ sound is very good and the star of this album. The organ sound gives the album slightly a 1970s feel.

The result is barely a good album, but still a good album. It is an album well worth checking out.

3 points 

 

Benjamin's Kite - Antediluvian Euphonies (2018)

 

The second album from this band from Canada.

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

One guest added saxophones.

This band album debuted under the name The Kite back in 1991 with a self-titled album. An album I have without any success tried to get hold of. I have managed to get hold of their latest three albums and they will all be reviewed here this month.

This album clocks in at fifty-three minutes and the music is neo-prog.

There are some strong art-rock influences here and some rather faint heavy prog influences.

The music is mid-tempo, melodic and has got a lot of interesting details. 

The vocals are very good. 

This is a good album and I am really looking forward to reviewing their remaining two albums too.

3 points 

 

 

 

Fabric Of Reality Project - Unforseen Circumstances (2019)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added a Chinese voice to the album. 

 I reviewed their 2018 debut album Still Life last month. That album is a very good symphonic prog album. 

This month, I am reviewing their two remaining albums, starting with this one hour and five minutes long album.

The music here is much more closer to mainstream rock than symphonic prog. Melodic rock is the correct term for the music.

The vocals are still good and the band does a good job. There are still some Yes and Genesis influences here. There are far more Procol Harum influences here, though. 

There are some good details here and the music is pretty progressive. 

The quality is good throughout this album. This is an album well worth checking out.

3 points 

 

 

 

 

Nudge Unit. The - The Nudge Unit (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

One guest added keyboards to one track.

The Nudge Unit is a side-project of Pentesilea Road, a heavy prog band that has released two albums so far. 

The album is clocking in at forty minutes. 

The music is heavy prog.   

The album starts with some very heavy guitar riffs. The music is progressive metal before the vocals come in and the music becomes a lot softer and a lot more progressive. The music is bordering to progressive metal throughout these forty minutes. The guitars are very heavy.

Both the guitars and vocals is very good. There are some keyboards adding some colours to the music. 

The quality is good throughout and this is a debut album who showcases a talented band. I am not sure what will be these guys main priority now; The Nudge Unit or Pentesilea Road. Only time will tell.

3 points 

 

  

Uriah Heep - Conquest (1980)

 

The 13th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band returned two years after their last album. 

Conquest is clocking in at three quarters of an hour.

There is a new vocalist in the band, John Sloman. He stayed in the band for two years and later released around ten solo albums, the latest one last year.

His vocals are softer and more rounded than their original vocalist. The music is therefore more like stadium rock on this album. The music is still hard, but still softer than on their previous twelve albums.

The sound is also very commercial and this album is the band going mainstream, seeking commercial success.

Maybe they got commercial success with this album. The music is decent enough. This album is still a bit of a low for this band. It is an album best avoided.

2 points 

 

 

Kikagaku Moyo - Mammatus Clouds (2020)

 

The third album from this band from Japan.

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

I have quite liked this band's blend of psych rock, raga rock and space rock on their first two albums. So I was looking forward to review this album too.

This album is clocking in at fifty minutes. The album is a break with their past, their first two albums.

This album is a space rock album with sitar as the dominant instrument.

There are one or two minutes with vocals, make that a voice here. The rest of the music is pure instrumental space rock.

Their take on space rock is at times gentle while it is pretty harsh and brutal at the end of the album.

The music has a great Indian and Eastern Asian feel and ambience. The music is also appealing and good.

This is an album space rock fans should check out.

3 points 

Cravinkel - Garden of Loneliness (1971)

 

The second album from this band from Germany.

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

This is the final album from this band.

Their self-titled 1970 debut album was a pretty poor album as I wrote in my review some days ago. But I still had some hope for Garden Of Loneliness, the follow up album.

This album clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is hard rock with a lot of psych rock influences.

Some of the songs are fluently running into psych/space rock improvisations. There are some wild guitars and vocals in these improvisations. 

Those improvisations are probably why Cravinkel has been put in the krautrock genre/label. Which is justified in my view. The vocals are still in English though and pretty bluesy. 

The music is still pretty melodic and in the 1970s rock and psych tradition. This is by far their best album and a decent album.

2 points 

Corvus Stone - Corvus Stone Unscrewed (2015)

 

The third album from this multi-national band.

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

A handful of guests added drums, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

This is the latest album from this band and very probably their final album. 

This fifty minutes long album has four new songs and nine remixes of old songs. This is strictly not a proper new studio album. 

Stef Fleming and the late Colin Tench were the main people in this project. Stef Fleming, Blake Carpenter and Sean Filkins are some of the vocalists here. 

The music is a blend of heavy prog, folk rock and symphonic prog. The organ sound is great here and the band has got that one right.

The vocals are good. Most of the music is instrumental though and remixes has taken the music more into a symphonic prog direction than the original songs.  

The result is a good album and that is a surprise as the remixes and the new songs are superior to their first two albums. Their journey ended with Colin Tench's tragic passing. This album is another tribute to him and his musical visions.

3 points 

Telegraph - Topography of Mind (2026)

 

The second album from this band from Israel.

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

One guest added flute.

I reviewed their 2018 debut album Mir back in December that year for # 2 of this blog and that was a good album. You can find my review here.

I was back then hoping for a new album a lot sooner than eight years. However, that is how long it has taken to release Topography Of Mind.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is again mostly instrumental. 

There are four songs here. Each of them is eleven minutes long. 

The music is again a blend of Eloy, Genesis and Focus. Add Camel to this list too. There is some cinematic rock and some hints of fusion here. The right label on this music is symphonic prog.

The music is mid-temp, pastoral and melodic. It is also at times, beautiful. 

The result is a very good album indeed. It is a bit of a surprise of an album too and one that will rank pretty high anyone's list of album of the year. 

3.5 points 

  

 

Scree - August (2025)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a nine-pieces big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, glockenspiel, bass, guitars, pedal steel guitars, violin, cello, organ, keyboards, clarinet, saxophones, loops and programming.

I reviewed their 2023 debut album Jasmine On A Night In July some days ago and that was a pretty good album. The music was a blend of jazz and post-rock.

August is clocking in at forty-two minutes and we are getting more of the same here.

That means minimalistic jazz with a lot of post-rock influences.

It can in fact be argued that the music here is a blend of jazz and folk-rock. An argument I will make here. 

The music is mostly acoustic with some woodwinds in between the acoustic and half-acoustic guitars. 

The music is very subtle and modest. 

There are some good stuff and some not so good stuff. I am still a bit unsure about this band. Nevertheless, check out this band.

2.5 points 

Man - Anachronism Tango (2019)

 

The 17th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is their latest album and very probable the final ever album from Man.

I have not been impressed by their latest five albums and did not have any expectations for Anachronism Tango.

This album is clocking in at three quarters of an hour. The music is a blend of mainstream rock, Americana and rock'n'roll.

The vocals here only pretty decent and a drop in quality from the previous albums. The music is pretty uninteresting. One old-school rock'n'roll track livens things up a bit. 

This album is a good candidate for their worst ever album. A couple of decent tracks are the only saving grace on this album. Man was a good band in the 1970s and their albums from that era should be purchased. The rest of their albums are a waste of time and money.

1.5 points 

 

35 Tapes - Veil On Life (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from Norway.

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

I have really been impressed by their first three albums and I was therefore more than willing to review their new album when I got the offer.

The music on this forty minutes long album is an earthy take on symphonic prog.  

The music is melodic with a lot of neo-prog influences too.

The music is melancholic and brooding with some good male vocals on. There are some Gazpacho influences throughout. The music is therefore not really clear-cut symphonic prog. More like a crossover between neo-prog, art-rock and symphonic prog.

The music is very good, no matter what label and genre this album should be put into. The sound is excellent and this band has again delivered the goods.

3.5 points

 

 

 

 

Klone - All Seing Eye (2008)

 

The second album from this band from France.

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

One guest added vocals on one track.

I was not impressed by their debut album Duplicate from 2003. An album I reviewed earlier this month. I have heard a lot of good things about this band. I am soldiering on again through their albums.

The music on this fifty-five minutes long album is again a blend of djent and alternative metal. There are still some nu-metal influences here although they are a lot less prominent on this album.

The music is also epic at times with some muscular melodic themes.

The vocals are harsh and screamo.

There is a lot of contrasts in the music here. The added saxophones are also adding contrasts here.

The music is somewhere between decent and good. I am not won over by the band... yet. 

2.5 points 

  

 

 

Kingfisher Sky - Skin of the Earth (2010)

 

The second album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is heavy prog with female vocals.

The music is at times both muscular and heavy. 

Both the vocals and the cello are softening the music and are making a lot more melodic. More neo-prog'ish, in fact.

The music is pretty complex at times too and pretty epic.  There is indeed a lot of the symphonic elements from the neo-prog genre present on this album. Other parts of their music are more melodic, catchy and poppy.

The vocals are superb and the band does a good job on some good pieces of music.

 This is a good album which should please everyone into muscular, yet melodic progressive rock. 

3 points 

 

 

Cravinkel - Cravinkel (1970)

 

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

This band released two albums between 1970 and 1971 before they split up. I got both albums and will review the second album sometime later this week.

This album is clocking in at forty minutes.

The music is mainstream rock with some country'n'western and psych rock influences. 

The male vocals are in English which means the band had some international aspirations. 

The music has a psych rock vibe throughout and that makes the rather pretty decent music slightly more appealing.

There are not many positives on this album. There are some dire country'n'western like songs here and some decent psych rock influenced mainstream rock pieces here. Hence....

1.5 points 

 

Corvus Stone - Corvus Stone II (2014)

 

The second album from this multi-national project.

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

A dozen guests added percussion and vocals to this album.

This band has in total released three studio albums. I reviewed the debut album back in October 2012 in # 1 of this blog and you can read the review here. I will review the third album sometime later this week. 

Corvus Stone II is clocking in at eighty minutes. 

The music is a blend of heavy prog and neo-prog. Stef Fleming and the late Colin Tench were the main people in this project. Stef Fleming is still around and writing new music, btw. Stef Fleming, Blake Carpenter and Sean Filkins are some of the vocalists here. 

The music is mid-tempo and their take on melodic progressive rock has a lot of Americana influences.

This is a long album and not everything is good here. There are also some very good pieces here. The quality is on average good and this album offers a lot of value for money. Check it out.

3 points 

 

 

 

Dødsego - Reisen Vol 1 Beyond The Void (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

Three guests added hardanger fiddle, harmonica and vocals.

This band is new to me. They toured Norway and released this album at the same time. Their activity level is high although they are doing everything themselves.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of psych rock and heavy prog. 

The music is muscular, pretty complex and pretty melodic. The music is also varied and has many different expressions. Despite of the many expressions, the music never feels disjointed. There are a lot of very good details here.

The music is pretty eclectic and quirky throughout.   

The vocals are good throughout. The saxophones and flutes are adding a lot of spice to the music. The rest of the instruments are good too.

The music is very good throughout. There is no doubts this band are talented enough to become one of the leading band in the now crowded Norwegian prog rock scene. Check out this album.

3.5 points 

 

Scree - Jasmine on a Night in July (2023)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

Scree is a new band in the fusion/jazz genre and they have so far released two albums. I will review their second album at the beginning of next month.

 Jasmine On A Night In June is clocking in at thirty-four minutes and the music is jazz.

The music is minimalistic with a half-acoustic guitar and some piano, making most of the music. The music is influenced by post-rock. The music is indeed a blend of jazz and post-rock during most of this album.

Most of the music is also acoustic and eclectic. Eclectic for those of us who approach this album from the  prog rock perspective. Or from the rock and metal perspective. This music sounds a bit alien to our ears, in other words.

The music is pretty good. This is a more than acceptable debut album and I am looking forward to this band's future. Not at least, to review their second album early next month.

2.5 points 

 

Man - Reanimated Memories (2015)

 

The 16th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added pedal steel guitar on three tracks.

After the last couple of pretty dreadful albums from this band, I had no expectations for this one hour long album at all. 

There are no original members of this band left. The music is also very different from their best days in the 1970s. 

The music is mainstream rock with a lot of Americana and rock'n'roll influences.

The vocal is good and that is the only good thing on this album. 

The steel pedal guitar is adding a lot of country'n'western feel to this album. And that is not a good thing.

There are some decent songs and some pretty dire stuff here. This album is a half-decent album and a borderline turkey. This is another album that does not live up to this band's good reputation.

1.5 points 

 

Diaspro - Diaspro (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This is another band I have been aware of through ProgArcives. 

There is still life in the RPI genre and this band is proving just that.

This album is half an hour long. The band's take on RPI is the classic variant of RPI. 

The music is lush and colourful. It is melodic, pastoral and a bit muscular at times. 

The male Italian vocals are very good, indeed. The keyboards generated violins are a good bonus on this keyboards and guitars dominated album.

Half an hour is a bit on the short side when it comes to value for money. There is no surplus fat here and the music is punchy and to the point.

The quality is good throughout and this band is a talented band with a good future if they want to soldier on and release some more albums. RPI fans should get this album.

3 points 

 

 

Katatonia - Tonight's Decision (1999)

 

The fourth album from this band from Sweden.

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

One guest, Dan Swano, contributed with drums throughout this album.

The band changed from being a doom & death metal band on the previous album Discouraged Ones (1998) to a more grunge and alternative rock on that album. A big break with their first EP and their first two albums indeed.

Tonight's Decision is clocking in at just short of one hour and the band continues down the alternative rock and grunge path.

There are only clean vocals here. The music is also clean. All the death and doom metal influences have been done away with on this album. 

The music is still hard and heavy. 

The music is pretty good throughout. There are some stuff here who falls well short. Nevertheless, this is a a pretty good album. I am yet to be won over by this band's conversion.

2.5 points 

Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry (1989)

 

The fifth album from this band from USA.

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

Two guests added keyboards and a violin on one track.

Their first four albums are a blend of heavy metal, power metal and progressive metal. Mostly heavy and power metal, it has to be said. The quality of the music is pretty poor.  

This album is three quarters of an hour long.  

The music here is progressive metal.

The vocals are both thin and shrieking. It is also pretty melodic when the music is slowing down. 

The music is guitars based. There are some keyboards and violin on one track. The tracks are reasonable long here.

This is the first album where the band has gone fully progressive metal. There are some good tracks here and some not so good tracks. The vocals, when strained, are not good at all. 

This is the best of their first five albums and by quite a margin. This is indeed a pretty good album.

2.5 points 

 

Dracula - Dracula (1996)

 

The debut album from this band from Romania.

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

This is the only album this now disbanded band has released. It is also a concept album about probably the most famous man from Romania ever..... Dracula. He lived in the Transylvania province of Romania and has been the subject of fascination for the last one hundred year.

This album is three quarters of an hour long. 

First of all, the music sounds like it was written and recorded in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The music has the feel of a proto-psych rock album, one of the early psych rock albums in the scene. 

The music is indeed eclectic psych rock with some folk rock influences. The music is really, really weird with female and male vocals and narrations in their local language. Hence, is is not possible to follow the Dracula story on this album. It is a story everybody knows so that is not a problem.  

This is one of the weirder, most bizzarre albums I have reviewed in this blog during the twelve last years. 

The music is working though and this is indeed a decent album. It scores pretty high on originality too. Check out this album.

2 points 

Daltonia - Fragmentos De Un Viaje (2007)

 

The second album from this band from Chile.

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

I was not particulary impressed by their 1999 debut album. As I also had this, the follow up album in my collection I decided to also review this album.

This album is a three quarters of an hour long album.  

The music is a blend of electronica and some rather quirky art-rock.

There is still a lot of spoken words here and some normal vocals. 

The music is pretty pedestrian and bereft of noticeable interesting details. The music is therefore pretty primitive.

There is some decent music here. But not enough to make this even a decent album. This is a half-decent album and just that.

1.5 points  

Blöndal’s C4therine. Bjorg - Wild Blue Yonder (2025)

The debut album from this band from Iceland.

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

This band was included in ProgArchives two months ago and I got this album based on the description of the music.

The music on this forty minutes long album is jazz..... sort of.

Bjorg Blondal's vocals are pretty dominating here and her vocals are in the dreampop vein. Hence, this album is a bit of a blend of jazz and dreampop.

There is also some avant-garde influences here. The music is therefore not particularly melodic or easy-listening. Some of the music even got some harsh guitar riffs. 

The music is therefore slightly weird and avant-garde. 

The vocals are superb. The music is a blend of good and decent. This is an interesting album and on balance, this is therefore a good album.  

I hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3 points 

Cen Projekt - Dawnbreak (2024)

 

The 12th album from this band from Germany.

Chris Engels did the guitars, synths, programming and vocals here.

He had help from two guests who added bass, piano and keyboards.

I reviewed the tenth album Arcane Sonic (2024) some days ago and really liked it. I gave it a very good album rating.

This album is clocking in at fifty-five minutes. The music is again heavy influenced by Genesis.

There are also some notable Yes influences here. There are also some Argos influences here. Argos is another German band and Chris Engels sounds like he is influenced by this band. That is not a bad thing as Argos is a good band.  

The music is melodic, elegant and pretty complex. The music is also slightly melancholic. 

The music is good throughout and this makes this an appealing album for those of us into symphonic prog and neo-prog. I should really get the rest of the albums from this band/project.

3 points 

  

Arcadea - The Exodus Of Gravity (2025)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, keyboards, synths, samples and vocals.

Their self-titled 2017 debut album was not particularly interesting or good. I therefore had no expectations for this, the follow-up album.

This fifty minutes long album is another blend of heavy prog, neo-prog and electronica.

The music is very bombastic and heavy throughout these fifty minutes. 

The vocals are pretty good and there are some pretty good vocal harmonies too.

The sound is good throughout.

This album is an improvement on the debut album. The djent and the more primitive shouty post-punk influences have been ditched. The quality of the music is pretty good. I am not sure if I can really recommend this album. But visit their Bandcamp site and listen to this album first.

2.5 points 

  

Hällas - Panorama (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from Sweden.

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

I reviewed their first three albums some three years ago in # 3 of this blog and liked them a lot. The first two albums were in the Scandinavian symph prog vein. Their third album was more of an art-rock album.

Panorama is clocking in at three quarters of an hour and the music is a blend of art-rock and old hard rock.

There is still some pretty obvious Kaipa influences in their music too.

The ambience and sound are very much the 1970s hard rock sound. 

The music is also melodic and elegant.

The major piece of music here is the twenty-two minutes long opening track Above The Continuum which is a fine piece of epic art-rock.

The rest of the album is also good. This album is not as good as I thought it would be based on their first three albums and the reviews I have so far read. This is still a good album and one to check out.

3 points  

Man - Kingdom Of Noise (2009)

 

The 15th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added drums on two tracks.

I have not been impressed by the latest albums by this band. The last album Diamonds And Coal from 2006 was their first without any original members. It was also a dire album. So I had no expectations to the three quarters of an hour long Kingdom Of Noise.

The music is a blend of mainstream rock and Americana. 

The music is pedestrian and pretty basic. The music is meant to be catchy..

The vocals are pretty good. The lead vocals are male vocals but there is also some female backing vocals. The latter one is pretty naff and cheesy.

Cheesy... That describe most of the music here. There are some decent songs here inbetween some pretty dire songs. This is not an album this band should be remembered for.

1.5 points 

  

Jazz Q - Elegie (1976)

 

The fourth album from this band from the Czech Republic.

The band was Martin Kratochvil on synths, moog, electric piano, organ and keyboards. He was helped by the fourteen pieces big Jazz Q with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, cello, violin, electric harp and vocals.

I was impressed by their 1975 album named Album as you can read in my review from last week. Jazz Q is a band that I find both impressive and interesting. It is obvious from listening to many other bands that the music scene from behind the repressive Communist regimes behind the Iron Curtain was pretty impressive. Thanx to ProgArchives, this scene has no come to mine and others' attention.

The music on this forty minutes long album is fusion.

There are a lot of short guitar solos and some bass solos here. The keyboards, organ and electric pianos are adding a lot of themes here too.

The music is mid-tempo, complex and quirky. It has a lot of interesting details too.

This is therefore another good album from this band. An album that should get this band some more admirers. More Jazz Q album reviews to follow this spring and early summer. 

3 points

 

  

Third Eye - Connexion (1977)

 

The second album from this band from The Netherlands.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, congas, bass, organ, keyboards, saxophones and flute.

I was not impressed by their debut album which was a pretty messy jazz album which had some avant-garde pieces too.

Connexion is clocking in at just over forty minutes and the music is somewhere between jazz and fusion.

There are four pieces of music here, averaging ten minutes long each.

The music is pretty fast with mostly saxophone solos. There are also a couple of flutes and Fender Rhodes solos here.

The music is groovy and engaging. There is a lot of interesting details here and even progheads will find this album highly enjoyable.

The quality is good throughout and this album is a bit of a hidden gem in the scene. Check out this album if fusion, prog and jazz is your thing.

3 points