Katatonia - Viva Emptiness (2003)

 

The sixth album from this band from Sweden.

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

The band returned again after their 2001 album Last Fair Deal Gone Down. A pretty good album, it was.

Viva Emtiness is clocking in at fifty-five minutes.

The band continues down the alternative rock and alternative metal path.

The vocals are mostly clean with some djent vocals in the beginning.  

The music is mid-tempo and pretty hard & heavy. The guitars are chugging riff-based. 

The music is also pretty melodic at times.  

The quality of the music is again pretty good. There are some decent and some good songs here. Hence...

2.5 points 

 

 

Fates Warning - Inside Out (1994)

 

The seventh album from this band from USA.

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

A number of guests added extra vocals and some synths.

This album is clocking in at fifty minutes.

The band returned again three years after releasing the pretty good Parallels album. An album reviewed in this blog.

That album saw the band turning more into a progressive metal band instead of a heavy and power metal band. 

That development is continuing on this album too. There is indeed a lot of hard progressive rock here. There is also a lot of metal here.

This album is their most melodic album up to that point. The vocals and the guitars are good. Ditto for the sound.

This is indeed a pretty good album. I am still not won over by this band...

2.5 points 

 

Edge - Sarcastic Fringeheads (1991)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is their second and final album. Which is a bit of a shame as the band were talented. Both their albums was also self-released but deserve re-releases.  

I really liked their first album which I reviewed some days ago. 

Sarcastic Fringeheads is clocking in at one hour.

The music is again a blend of neo-prog, art-rock and fusion.

There is a lot more fusion this time around though. There are also a lot of lounge jazz here and some cinematic prog. All this is quite a blend.

There are some very good female vocals here from Frances Pearless. The flutes are also very good. The rest of the band also does a good job here.

There are some long instrumental fusion pieces here in between the vocal pieces. Those are really cool/good.

There is a lot of good music here. This is indeed a very good album and one who deserve a proper re-release. Or at least a Bandcamp release. I live in hope...

3.5 points  

 

Flying Norwegians - Wounded Bird (1976)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

Their 1974 debut album New Day was a decent enough album as you can read in my review from last week.

Wounded Bird is clocking in at almost forty minutes and it got the band some international popularity. Flying Norwegians and their first two albums were pretty popular in USA and Canada. It was the first time Norway's pop and rock scene got some considerable international exposure. 

The music is country rock, a much maligned genre.  

There is a lot of country'n'western style vocals and slide guitars here. The music is very melodic. The music is also mid-tempo.

There are not many interesting details here. Neither is the music prog rock influenced.

The quality is slightly lower than on the New Day album. This is still a decent album. These two albums are the only two albums from this band worth checking out. 

2 points 

Purple Skies - A Million Years (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This forty minutes long album is another album I have received from Apollon Records, one of this planet's leading, best record labels.

This band is new to me. Then again, that is not a bad thing as I have lost touch with the Norwegian scene many decades ago.

The music here is retro-hard rock with a lot of stoner influences.

Someone, I think it is either the band or their record label, has labelled this album as proto-stoner rock. This is indeed a good label, fitting the music here.

The vocals are good and the music are guitars dominated. There are some cool guitar themes and harmonies here. The music is mid-tempo and pretty hard.

The quality is pretty good and this is an album stoner rock and hard rock fans should and must check out. I hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

2.5 points 

  

Hemlok - Of Entropy And Illumination (2025)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

I reviewed their 2023 debut album Reflections some days ago and that is a pretty good album. The music were a mix of art-rock and heavy prog. I therefore had some hopes about this, the follow up album.

Of Entropy And Illuminations is clocking in at fifty minutes.  

The female vocalist has left the band and the music here is instrumental.

The music is a blend of psych rock and heavy prog. It is quite a change from their debut album. Which makes me wonder... is this the same band ? It probably is.

The sound is slightly retro. There is a lot of fuzz guitars here and some moog. 

The music is mid-tempo and the sound is good.

There are some good themes here and some not so good themes. The overall quality is in other words pretty good. I have yet to be won over by this band but I hope they will release some more albums in the coming years.

2.5 points  

Golem - Gathering Of the Legendary Elephant Monsters (2024)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

This band was formed from the ashes of Wicked Minds, a band that released some albums. Albums I have reviewed in previous editions of this blog. I should have included this information in my review of their debut album some days ago... An album I really liked.

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

The music is again heavy prog. 

The music is a bit more melodic and more symphonic progressive influenced this time around. There is a lot of the 1970s organ sound on this album.

There is indeed a great 1970s retro sound on this album. This despite the lack of guitars in their sound. Some of the music is even bordering on stoner rock.

The vocals are good. Ditto for the sound.

This is another good album from a band who I really like a lot. This is a band I hope we will hear a lot more from in the future.

3 points 

 

Fälaren - Ljora (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This is a new band from Norway, debuting on Apollon Records. This label is one of this planet's best prog, metal and rock label these days. It says a lot about this band that this label has picked them up.

This album is clocking in at forty minutes.

The band has labeled their music as "folkgaze". I would not disagree with that. Post rock is the more wider and more inclusive label on music like this.

There is a lot of indie, fusion and folk rock in their music. The music is dissonant at times.

The music is in other words eclectic.

The vocals is pretty good throughout. The guitars are the stars here and there is some really good half-acoustic and electric guitar themes here.

The music is unusual and eclectic. It is also pretty original too. The quality is good throughout and this is an album worth checking out.

3 points  

Marbin - Israeli Jazz (2018)

 

The sixth album from this band from Israel & USA.

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

I have reviewed their first albums in both ProgArchives, # 1 of this blog and during the last weeks, also in this edition of this blog. I have really liked their albums and given them good ratings.

I suspect this is one of the bands who ten-fifteen years ago made me interested in jazz and fusion. Something I am grateful to Marbin and their then record label MoonJune Records for.

This album is clocking in at one hour. 

The music is guitars based jazz and fusion. There is also some saxophone here. But Dani Rabin's guitars are the dominant solo-instrument here. The guitar solos are really good. The guitars are a bit dissonant too. 

The rhythm section is very tight and the saxophone is adding lots of extra textures and colours. 

The music is still pretty melodic. There are lots of interesting details here too.

This is not their best album. Nevertheless, this is still a good album and one to check out for those into jaz and fusion. 

3 points 

 

 

 

Jazz Q - Hodokvas (1979)

 

The sixth album from this band from the Czech Republic.

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

Two guests added percussion, whistle and harmonica.

The band returned again for this three quarters of an hour long album.

The band was one of the better jazz and fusion bands from behind the Iron Curtain. In other words, a band not widely known in the rest of the world. Which is a huge injustice to this band and the musicans who graced this band.

The music is this time pretty slow to mid-tempo fusion. 

The music is pedestrian at times with some slow and lingering guitars and organ solos. The music is still pretty dynamic throughout.

The result is another good album from this band. A band well worth checking out if you are into fusion.

3 points 

 

Edge - Suction 8 (1986)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

 

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

 

This band released two albums between 1986 and 1991. Both of them essentially self-released if I am not mistaken. I will review their second album in some days time.

 

Suction 8 is a one hour long album.

 

The music is a blend of neo-prog, folk rock and fusion.

 

An eclectic blend in other words.

 

The sound is pretty flat and pretty poor during the first quarter of this album. It improves a bit but not much. The sound quality is my main gripe with this album.

 

The flutes, guitars and keyboards are very good. The female vocals sounds a bit flat too. They are pretty good but not impressive.

 

The quality of the music is pretty good too. There is some good stuff here and some decent stuff. This is another album who deserve a remix, remaster and a re-release.

 

2.5 points  

 

 

Flying Norwegians - New Day (1974)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

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

This band was one of the more internationally known bands from Norway in the 1970s. They released six albums between 1974 and 1996. I got their first two albums up for review this month. 

The music here is country-rock. This genre, or rather this sub-genre was established by the likes of Poco and Eagles. It was a very popular genre in Norway back in the 1970s. It is still a popular genre in Norway. It is much derided by the music critics. The likes of me, for example.

The music on New Day has the hallmarks of the country'n'western genre. Slide guitars, vocal harmonies and some sugary sweet ballads. There is also some faster country-rockers here.

The music is very melodic in other words. The vocals are good. The musicians does a good job. The sound is very much the US country-rock sound. 

The result is a decent enough album. An album that does not change my not-so-positive views on this genre.

2 points 

 

 

 

Czyszy - Aftermoon (2026)

 

The tenth 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 have previously reviewed two of his albums, the Uwe Slaughter album in # 3 of this blog and the Secret Clockwork album, which I reviewed earlier this year in this edition of the blog. I gave both albums a good rating.

Aftermoon is clocking in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is a blend of neo-prog and symphonic prog. There is also some electronica and neo-classical music here. Some of the music sounds like ELP too.

The vocals are pretty good. The music is a bit weird due to the electronica. Some of the music is organic and based on organs.

The quality of the music is not as strong this time around as on the two albums I have reviewed. It seems like Marek Krol has run out of good ideas here. Some of the music is good though and this is therefore a pretty good album.

2.5 points 

 

 

Hemlok - Reflections (2023)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, violin, piano, moog, mellotron, synths, programming and vocals.

This is another band who has released two albums and whom I became aware of through ProgArchives. The review of their second & latest album will be posted in some days time.

This album clocks in at fifty minutes.

The music is a blend of quirky art-rock and heavy prog.

The music is pretty weird throughout with some psych rock influences. Strong psych rock influences. There are also some raga-rock influences here. There are a lot of violins here and they are pretty dissonant throughout.

The vocals are female vocals and they are pretty good.

The result is a pretty good album. It is an album for those into weird art-rock. If this is your cup of tea..

2.5 points 

Golem - Gravitational Objects of Light, Energy and Mysticism (2022)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This is a new band to me and I discovered them through ProgArchives. Something I am grateful for.

The band has so far released two albums. This one and their second one in 2024. A review of that album will follow in some days time.

This album with the long winded title is clocking in at three quarters of an hour.

The music is good old 1970s hard rock with a lot of psych rock, folk rock and progressive rock influences. Heavy prog is the correct label here.

The sound is vintage 1970s with a great organ and mellotron sound. There are no guitars here at all. That is strange, but it really works.

The Swedish band Agusa is a good reference here. 

The vocals are very good and ditto for the sound.

The result is a good album and one heavy prog fans should check out. 

3 points 

 

 

 

Benjamin's Kite - Celestial Indulgences (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from Canada.

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

I have really enjoyed their second and their third album as you can read in the reviews of them in this blog. So I was looking forward to reviewing this, their new album too.

This album is three quarters of an hour long. 

The music is a blend of neo-prog, old Genesis and Rush, the Presto era.

The music is melodic, slick and a bit commercial.

The vocals is very good and ditto for the guitars. The mellotron and organs is adding a lot of extra texture and details to the music.

The result is another good album from this band. A band I hope we will hear a lot more from in the future.

3 points  

 

 

Uriah Heep - Abominog (1982)

 

The 14th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is the follow up album to the pretty dire 1980 Conquest album. 

Since that album, the main composer Ken Hensley had left the band together with three other members. Only the guitarist Mick Box were left and he had recruited four other musicians for this album.

The album art-work is pretty iconic. It is a pretty bad album cover. This was the 1980s, the age of bad taste and this art-work is very much in bad taste.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is a blend of hard rock and heavy metal.

The music has this 1980s heavy metal sound and most of the other ills of this decade. The Uriah Heep DNA still shines through at times.

The vocals is pretty good. The quality is pretty decent. There are some dire stuff here and this album is their weakest effort so far. 

1.5 points 

  

Kikagaku Moyo - House In The Tall Grass (2016)

 

The fourth album from this band from Japan.

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

This is the follow up album to the 2014 album Mammatus Cloud. A good album I reviewed earlier this month.

House In The Tall Grass is clocking in at fifty minutes.

The music here is psych rock. 

The band has changed the music a lot since the Mammatus Cloud album. There is hardly any sitar any longer. It has been replaced by acoustic guitars and proper vocals.

The music is much more songs based. There are a lot of folk rock influences in their psych rock too.

The music is quirky with some quirky electric and acoustic guitars. Those are good and the same goes for the vocals.

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

3 points 

 

 

 

Aliscioni. Alessandro - Il Rivoluzionario (1977)

 

The second album from this artist from Italy.

The musicans lineup is not entirely clear here. But I guess Alessandro played the keyboards and some vocals. Renato Biagioli contributed vocals too while some uncredited musicians did the percussion, bass, guitars, orchestrations and children's choir.

This album is clocking in at half an hour.

The music is a blend of pop, folk-rock, gospel and RPI. 

The record label was a Christian record label and the lyrics, which is in Italian, is preaching Christian. 

The children choirs is a bit cheesy to say at least. 

The male vocals, which is Alessandro's or Renato's, are very good.  

Most of the music is very cheesy, preaching and pretty dire. There is some decent stuff here. There are far better Christian Italian and RPI albums out there than this album. Don't bother about this album.

1.5 points 

 

 

Also Eden - It's Kind Of You To Ask (2008)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is an album which has been hanging around in my collection for the last fifteen years. As the band is now active again, releasing some EPs this year, it's about time to review this album as I have also reviewed their three other albums.

This album is clocking in at one hour.

The music is classic British neo-prog.

The music is pretty epic and symphonic. There are still some pop sensibilities here.

Genesis is a massive influence on this album together with early Marillion, which again is massive Genesis influenced.

The vocals and the guitars are all very good to great. The quality of the music is very good and this is one of the British neo-prog albums you should have in your collection.

3.5 points 

 

Mai Più Inverno - Lassù Gli Ultimi (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

A handful of guests added drums, percussion and vocals.

This is another new band to me. I became aware of it through ProgArchives and got a copy of this album.

This album is forty-two minutes long and the music is largely folk-rock.

That means folk-rock with some RPI influences. The singer/songwriter influences are far stronger than the RPI influences, though.

The music is a blend of electric and acoustic guitars. Add in the flutes and the vocals too. The music is therefore pretty gentle and pastoral. There are some good details here too.

There is a lot of vocals here and they are good.

Some of the stuff here is good and some is rather decent. This is an interesting debut album and I hope the band will release some more albums in the future.

2.5 points 

NoPlaceToHide - Zukunft (2005)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

This is the follow up album to their great 1995 album Vergangenheit, one of the best extreme metal albums from the 1990s Norway. 

Zukunft is clocking in at forty minutes. The album was recorded and mixed in 2001-02. 

The music is very dark and industrial metal like. The genre is more industrial metal than alternative extreme metal. A blend of those two genres is the best description of the music here.

The vocals are very dark and harsh. The music is very fast too.

The music is both ugly and brutal. There is still some decent to good themes here. The music is leaning towards punk inspired black metal at the end.

The result is a decent enough album which is nowhere as good as the debut album. Both albums are now on Bandcamp. I think both albums deserve proper re-releases.

2 points 

  

Lone Wanderer - The Faustian Winter (2020)

 

The second album from this band from Germany.

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

This is the follow up album to the 2016 album The Majesty Of Loss and precessor of this year's album Exequiae. Both of them have been reviewed this year in this blog.

This album is clocking in at one hour and the music is funeral doom metal.

The music is slow, majestic and epic. 

The music is also harsh and heavy. It is like a funeral dirge. The vocals are throaty and harsh. They are more like an instrument than proper vocals.

There are some acoustic guitars and acoustic melody lines here. The vast majority of the music is slow, grinding electric guitars dominated. 

This is their best album and slightly better than their two other albums. It is still a decent album and one worth checking out.

2 points 

 

Morse. Neal - NMB Lift (2026)

 

The 35th album from this artist from USA.

Neal Morse did the guitars, keyboards and vocals here.

He had help from his band who added drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Neal Morse has released a lot of albums and they have been split between Gospel praise albums and symphonic progressive rock albums. I only review his progressive rock albums. 

NMB Lift is clocking in at seventy minutes.

The music here is symphonic prog. US symphonic prog, that is. 

Neal Morse has created his own sub-genre within the US symphonic prog genre. A genre which again is a sub-genre of the symphonic prog genre. 

The music is majestic, epic and uplifting sunny symphonic. 

The vocals are very good and there are some very good guitar solos and themes here. Neal Morse is repeating himself and recirculating some old ideas on this album. Some of the stuff is too familiar for those of us who has followed and are following his career. To a certain degree, Neal Morse is threading water here.

That said, the music is very good and this is one of his better albums. Hence....

3.5 points 

Klone - Black Days (2010)

 

The third album from this band from France.

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

One guest added bass on one track.

I have not been particularly impressed by their first two albums. But I am here to be impressed so I am continuing to review their albums.

This album is clocking in at fifty-five minutes. 

The music is a blend of djent, alternative extreme metal and progressive metal.

The music is more melodic than on their previous album All Seing Eye from 2008. A good reference is Tool.

The vocals and the guitars are still harsh and not everyone's cup of tea. There is a lot of good details here though and the music is pretty good throughout.

I am not yet won over. This is the best of their first three albums though and the band is improving. I hope that continues on their next albums too. Albums to be reviewed later this spring/summer.

2.5 points 

 

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 (2014)

 

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