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 

 

 

Torquati. Toto - Vita, Amore e Musica (2009)

 

The second album from this artist from Italy.

Toto Torquati played piano, organ, keyboards and did the programming here.

He had help from numerous guests who added drums, bass, upright bass, guitars, violin, cello and vocals.

This is his second and final album as he passed on in 2023, 81 years old.

I reviewed his 1973 debut album back in December 2014 and liked that RPI album a lot. You can read my review here.

This album is clocking in at seventy-one minutes. The music is a blend of jazz and neo-classical music. 

The music is keyboards and synths based. The music is pretty lush at times. Some of the music is a bit too much elevator and shopping-mall music. The vocals here are mainly wordless and used as instruments.

There are some pretty good pieces here and some pretty dire pieces. 

On average, this is a decent enough album. This is an album that those into more challenging music can bypass.  

2 points 

 

 

 

 

Ergot Project - A Family Secret (2025)

 

The second album from this band/project from Italy.

This is a project from multi-instrumentalist Christian Marras on the island of Sardinia. He did the drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and the programming here. 

Some guests added vocals to this album.

The 2016 debut album was a The Beatles cover album and not particularly interesting. I have not reviewed it and neither do I intend to review it in this blog.

The three quarters of an hour long A Family Secret is to my knowledge an album with original compositions, composed by Christian Marras.

The music is a blend of dark goth and heavy prog. The music is mid-tempo 

Most of the music is dark, gloomy and brooding. The music is also pretty melodic. There are a lot of distorted vocals here in addition to some more normal, pretty good male vocals.

The quality is decent enough without really being convincing. I am not won over at all. 

2 points 

Cen Project - Arcane Sonic (2024)

 

The 10th album from this band from Germany.

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

This is so far the only two Cen Project albums I got in my collection and I have therefore decided to review them before I get some more of their albums.  

The band has the exactly same setup as ELP and the band's music is symphonic prog. That is why I expected ELP like symphonic prog on this fifty-three minutes long album.

The music here is more like Genesis and Porcupine Tree than ELP. 

The music is really elegant, melodic and full of interesting details. The vocals are really good too.

The music it as times pretty epic too and the guitars and the keyboards/synths is well balanced. 

The quality is very good throughout this album. Symphonic prog fans should check out this album.

3.5 points 

  

 

Arcadea - Arcadea (2017)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

One guest added female vocals on one track.

This band came to my attention through ProgArchives. They have released two albums and both are up for review this week here in this blog.

This, their debut album, is clocking in at forty minutes.

The music is a mishmash of djent, heavy prog, electronics and neo-prog.

The music is both vocals heavy and keyboards/synths heavy. There are some samples and electronics here too. Most of all, the music has a nasty, machine-like, synthetic feel. 

The music is pretty unimpressive throughout these forty minutes. This is still a decent album. I hope their second album is far better than this one.

2 points 

  

Arti E Mestieri - D Brane (2025)

 

The ninth album from this band from Italy.

The band was now a nineteen-member big band/project with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violin, piano, keyboards, samples, loops, sax, flute and vocals.

This album popped up totally unexpectedly in my inbox some weeks ago. It was indeed released at the end of last year and that well below my, pretty faulty, radar.  

I believe this is more of a studio project now than a real band. Hence the nineteen contributors to this seventy-four minutes long album.

The music here is fusion.

There are a lot of symphonic prog and some folk rock influences on this mainly instrumental fusion album. Jean Luc Ponty is also a good reference here. 

The balance between violins, guitars, sax and keyboards solos is good here. There is therefore a lot to enjoy here. The very good musicianship here also adds a lot to this album. Even the three minutes of vocals adds something to this album.

The result is a good album. Maybe this is their final album. In that case, the band is leaving us on a high.

3 points 

 

Uriah Heep - Fallen Angel (1978)

 

The 12th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band returned again one year after they had released two albums.  

This album clocks in at forty minutes. 

The band were in a bit of a creative vacuum in this period, according to what their fans have told me. That explains the music here....

The music is a blend of hard rock, rock'n'roll and arena rock. The band was trying really hard to keep at least one foot in the US market with this album. An album really dominated by US rock.

John Lawton's vocals are really good. That is the only positive thing about this album. 

Some of the songs are poppy and catchy. Trying to be catchy but failing, that is. 

The songs are pretty sub-standard and not on par with the music on their first albums. The band is threading the water on this (barely) decent album.

2 points 

  

Kikagaku Moyo - Forest of Lost Children (2014)

 

The second album from this band from Japan.

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

This is their follow up album to the pretty good self-titled debut album.

This album is clocking in at thirty-two minutes and the music is a blend of psych rock and space rock.

There is a lot of sitar in their music and that also brings raga-rock into play here as a good reference.

The music is also guitars based and the themes are based on this instrument.

The vocals are more like instruments than proper vocals. The music is mid-tempo. The music is also pretty exotic and Eastern-Asis like.

There are some good pieces here and some not so good pieces. That makes this a pretty good album. It is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

Third Eye - Third Eye (1976)

 

The debut album from this band from The Netherlands.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, congas, percussion, cowbells, bass, piano, keyboards and mellotron.

This band has released three studio albums and one live album. I got their first two albums up for review this week.

The music on this thirty-seven minutes long album is jazz. 

The jazz is pretty much classic jazz. There are some Soft Machine like fusion here too. Some of the jazz here is avant-garde too. 

The music is dominated by organ, piano and mellotron. 

The music is mid-tempo to fast. It is pretty melodic at times too. 

Some of the music is pretty good while other parts does not work at all. This is an album well worth checking out.

2 points 

 

 

 

Time Thief - It's Never Over (2014)

 

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

This album clocks in at forty minutes and the music is a blend of AOR, mainstream rock, pop and a bit of pomp rock. 

The band marketed this album as a prog rock album. Well, they were wrong. But this is how this album ended up in my collection.

The sound is decent enough. The vocals too is decent enough. 

Some of the music is catchy. Some of the music is pretty dire. Some of the music is decent.

This is an obscure, forgotten album. In the case of this album, that status is deserved. This is only a half-decent album and one to ignore.

1.5 points 

 

 

 

Another Realm - Origin (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band is a duo with a lineup of guitars and vocals.

One or more guests added bass, synths and programming.

This duo is Phil Stuckley from the prog band Stuckfish and Steve Morrison from the heavy metal band Tysondog. They released their self-titled EP back in 2023 before they released this album last year.

The result is this three quarters of an hour long album.

The music here is a blend of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) and progressive metal. Mostly heavy metal, it has to be said.

Their take on heavy metal is symphonic metal too with some goth rock influences.

The vocals is very good as we already know from this blog's review of the Stuckfish albums. The music is not particularly interesting. The music is a return to the 1980s-90s heavy metal scene with all it's ills and mistakes. 

This is a decent album but nothing more than that. Those into retro heavy metal should check out this album and their EP.  

2 points 

 

Last Plane Out - Cautionary Tales (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Sweden.

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

One guest added saxophone on one track.

Nils Erikson were a member of Karmakanic on their albums and is hopefully still involved in that band. Their albums is a good reference for both Last Plane Out albums. This is something I noted in my review of the 2024 self-titled debut album some days ago too.

Cautionary Tales is clocking in at thirty-eight minutes. 

The music is a blend of neo-prog and Scandinavian symphonic prog. The music is also melancholic and full of reflections. There are some Kaipa and Karmakanic influences here.

The vocals are good and the music is surprisingly complex taken into account that this is a duo. Well, it is essentially a one-man-band. 

The overall quality is good and an improvement on the debut album. This is a band fans of Scandinavian symphonic prog should check out.

3 points 

 

Equilibrio Vital - Retorno (2010)

 

The third and final album from this band from Venezuela.

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

I was not impressed by their second album Kazmor El Prisionera from 1984 as you can read in my review posted some days ago. 

The band took a long break and returned twenty-four years later with the three quarters of an hour long album.

The music is what we can describe as Latin symphonic prog.

There is some folk rock influences here too. Most of all, the music reminds me of the RPI genre. There are some Camel influences throughout this album. 

The music is both complex and melodic. It is also sunny and exotic. 

Most of the music is instrumental. There are a couple of minutes with some good male vocals. The vocals are in Spanish, their local tongue.

The music is really elegant and engaging with some good organs, flutes and guitars. If this is their final album, and that is almost a certainty, the band has left us on a high and with a very good album. 

3.5 points 

Fabric Of Reality Project - Still Life (2018)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added narrations. 

Rick Lambe is the man behind this band and he has been active in the music scene for the last few decades. This band and its three albums are his first foray into the progressive music scene. I will review these three albums in the coming weeks.

The music on this seventy-three minutes long album is classic symphonic prog. References are both Yes and Genesis.

There is a bit of a folk rock and an Americana sound in Rick's take on symphonic prog. There is also a long piece of narration (about a terror attack on London) on the nine minutes long Things Need To Change. 

The title track is an half an hour long suite. References here are Yes. The other songs are symphonic and epic too.

The vocals are good. The sound is good and Rick does a good job on the instruments and arrangements of the pieces of music.

Rick and his Fabric Of Reality Project has been flying well under mine and other prog rock fans radar. This album is hidden gem and one to check out. This is a borderline great album. A couple of lesser great tracks "only" makes this a very good album. 

Check out this album if symphonic prog is your thing.

3.5 points  

 

 

 

 

 

Klone - Duplicate (2003)

 

The debut album from this band from France.

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

Two guests added violins and vocals.

This band has so far released nine albums and I am reviewing them this spring and summer. 

I have been warned that their music is very strange and twisted. Hence, I got some trepidations.... 

This forty-two minutes long album takes us into a blend of nu-metal and alternative metal.

The vocals is mostly distorted and heavy. The music is also very heavy at the beginning of this album. After half an hour, we get some ambient music and some rather strange grunge ballads.

The alternative metal is pretty good. The ambient stuff and grunge bits are a bit sub-standard.

The result is not a convincing debut album. It is more like various ideas thrown together and presented as an album. This is a decent album but nothing more than that. 

2 points 

  

Kingfisher Sky - Hallway of Dreams (2007)

 

The debut album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

This band has so far released five albums and they are all up for review this spring. 

I have known about this band for ages, since they released this album no less. But it has taken me this long to review their albums.

This album is clocking in at three quarters of an hour and the music is melodic heavy prog. The vocals are female vocals.

We called it female fronted prog some years ago before we realised this was too sexist. Which it was. There is no denying that the very good female vocals are in the forefront of the mix on this album.

The music is as stated above heavy prog. There are also some neo-prog and some hints for folk rock here. The music is really melodic, yet pretty complex too.

The songs are all good and this is a debut album which raises my expectations for their remaining albums.

3 points  

  

Solteronas en Escabeche - Lenguaje y Comunicación (2019)

 

The debut album from this band from Chile.

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

This is another new band to me. I got this album from a friend in Chile. It has taken me some years to finally get around to reviewing it.

The music on this fifty-five minutes long album is a blend of Latin folk-music, post-punk and avant-garde/RIO rock.

The vocals are in Spanish and they are female vocals. The sound is good.

The instrumentation is sparse to say the least. The music is rhythmic and a bit primitive. 

The music is really eclectic here and has this RIO ethos throughout. The vocals are pretty good.

Those of you into avant-garde/RIO will find a lot to enjoy on this album. This is a decent enough album. I am not entirely won over, I am afraid. 

2 points 

 

  

Sunstain - Modern Nature (2022)

 

The debut album from this band from Austria.

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

This band has released a lot of singles on Bandcamp but only one album, this album. This to my knowledge.

I am not sure where and how I got this album. The music is not really the genre this blog is covering.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is grungy hard rock. 

There is a lot of grunge rock in their hard rock. There is also a lot of blues here.

The vocals are muscular and a bit too strained at the most hard rocking pieces of music. There are some more mellow pieces here where the vocals is very good. The vocals fits the music though.

The music is decent enough and hard rock fans should check out this Bandcamp album and all their singles.

2 points 

Outernet. The - The Light & The Fury (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Australia.

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

This is a new band to me and I discovered them through ProgArchives. 

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of jazz and fusion.

The jazz and fusion here is fast and technical. It is also groovy. 

The keyboards is the dominant instrument here, helped by the three other instruments.

The music is pretty much mainstream jazz/fusion. The music is also slightly eclectic. There is also some good melodies here.

The music is very much how I envisage my jazz/fusion. The music is really good throughout. I very much enjoy the music here and I recommend this album to anyone into fusion and jazz.

3 points   

 

 

Last Plane Out - Last Plane Out (2024)

 

The debut album from this band from Sweden.

The band was Nils Erikson on keyboards, vocals and programming.

Jonas Reingold added bass and guitars on one song and Aida Jabbari added female vocals on another song.

Nils Erison (ex Karmakanic) and his Last Plane Out project has so far released two albums and I am reviewing both of them this week.

Nils has taken parts of the Karmakanic sound and music with him on his new adventure, Last Plane Out. 

The music on this thirty-five minutes long album is a blend of singer/songwriter and Scandinavian symphonic prog. There are also some latter days Pink Floyd in the music on this album.

The music is light, fluffy and uplifting. There is some good music here. Most of the music is a bit too pedestrian. This is still an album well worth checking out. This is indeed a pretty good album.

2.5 points 

 

Equilibrio Vital - Kazmor El Prisionero (1984)

 

The second album from this band from Venezuela.

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

Four guests added backing vocals.

I reviewed their 1983 self-titled debut album back in May 2011 in ProgArchives and gave it a good rating as you can see here in my review.

It has taken me almost fifteen years to decide that their remaining two albums also should be reviewed and that is what I am doing this week.

The music on this forty minutes long album is a blend of Latin rock and symphonic prog. 

The sound is a bit 1980s and pretty flat. The music is very hard at times. It is also symphonic at times too. 

The vocals is pretty good. The music is at times good. There are also some pretty dire pieces of music here.

This album is a notable drop in quality compared to the debut album. This is a decent enough album and not an album I would recommend.

2 points 

 

Jaime - Above And Beyond (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This band was formed by five Norwegians. One of them moved from Ecuador to Norway when he was a toddler. Twenty years later, this man wrote the lyrics and the music for this one hour long album. An album about alienation and mental health. This is also a theme I know well myself.

The album starts with a bold, epic instrumental symphonic prog metal piece before we get some female vocals and then some more symphonic prog metal.

The music is epic and bold throughout. This album is not a standard prog metal album. The music is too symphonic for this to be a standard prog metal album.

The musicians does a great job. The music is pretty unique and the vocals is great.

Not all the music is great here. Nevertheless, this is a pretty unusual album and a very good one too. This album should interest both the symphonic prog and the prog metal fans. Check it out.

3.5 points 

 

 

 

Katatonia - Discouraged Ones (1998)

 

The third album from this band from Sweden.

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

Three guests added bass, keyboards and backing vocals.

I am continuing to explore this band. Their debut EP and then debut album made a pretty big impression on me thirty-two years ago. Then I forgot the whole band as I moved to a new country and became more into progressive rock than metal. But I have returned to the band now to review their albums.

The three quarters of an hour long Discouraged Ones is a total break with their past as a death/doom metal band. The music here is more like gloomy indie rock.

The band is here doing the same journey as Anathema also did at the same time as Katatonia underwent their journey of transformation.

Most of the guitar sound is still rooted in the sound on their first two albums. That means a death/doom metal guitar sound underpinning the dark, gloomy indie alt-rock on this album.

That means there are still some similarities between this album and their first two albums.

The vocals are clean vocals and pretty good. 

The music is pretty good. This after overcoming the shock this sudden break with the past on this album. There are indeed some good stuff here and some decent stuff. This is an interesting album, indeed.

2.5 points 

Fates Warning - No Exit (1988)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

One guest added keyboards to this album.

I have not really been impressed by their first three albums and was not really looking forward to spending some quality time with this album.

This album is forty minutes long and the music is a blend of heavy metal, power metal and progressive metal. 

The sound on this album is mired in the 1980s heavy/power metal sound. The guitars sounds plastic fantastic and the vocals are screaming more than being melodic.

There are some Watchtower and early Queensryche influences here. The quality of the music on No Exit is not on the same level. 

Albums like this is one of the reasons I cannot stand power metal. There are some decent stuff here but most of the stuff is pretty dire. Hence...

1.5 points 

 

 

 

Travelers Of Tyme - Someday In The Ancient Future (2023)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a duo with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, programming and voices.

This band/duo has released three name-your-price Bandcamp albums. I reviewed their first album some days ago and quite liked it. But I had no plans of reviewing any more of their albums. Then a couple of albums got lost and I ended up with this album anyway.

This album is clocking in at thirty-four minutes and it is very much following in the footsteps of their 2015 debut album Chronomads. 

The music is a blend of surf rock, garage rock and psych rock. The music is very quirky and weird with some weird sampled voices.

The music is mainly performed by guitars. There are some keyboards and programmed woodwinds here too.

Most of the music is surf rock and this makes the music quirky indeed.

The quality is again pretty good and both the albums I have reviewed should be downloaded and enjoyed.

2.5 points  

 

 

 

 

Transcendence - Eternal Stream (1997)

 

The debut album from this band from Canada.

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

This band has released two albums but I only got this album and I got it back in 1997. I reviewed it for a couple of now defunct fanzines and then sold the CD after I had copied it over to my first ever external hard-disc, a then 40 GB big monster. The album has now found it's way to my recent home server and the list of to-review albums.

The band was formed in admiration for the likes of The Gathering and The Third And The Mortal. The music on this fifty minutes long album is more a goth version of The Gathering's debut album. The music is nowhere near The Third And The Mortal, though.

The album comes complete with female and male vocals. The guitars are pretty bad and the same goes for the sound which is the 1990s goth metal sound.

There are also some acoustic pieces here. They are not interesting at all. 

This is one of the least interesting goth albums from the scene and a borderline turkey. There are some decent stuff here. Hence...

1.5 points 

 

   

Perfect Beasts - Perfect Beasts (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band is a supergroup with John Mitchell (It Bites, Arena, Lonely Robot, Frost*, Kino etc) as the main force behind this band/project.

John Mitchell is a purveyor of muscular neo-prog and that is what we get here.

Fifty minutes of muscular neo-prog with some John Mitchell's vocals, it is.

The ten songs are short and pretty punchy. They are not particular catchy, although I get the feeling they were meant to be that.

The guitars and the vocals are very good. The music is pretty melodic and mainstream neo-prog.

There is no surprises here and no really great pieces of music. The music is good and this is a good album.

3 points 

Idioverse - Red Buzzer (2024)

 

The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This fifty minutes long album is their so far latest album. 

Their first four albums have been a mixed bag, quality wise. From half-decent to pretty good. 

Their music has always been a blend of the esoteric art-rock of Radiohead and post-punk. 

On Red Buzzer, the band sounds like a blend of Radiohead and Thumpermonkey Live. 

The music is still pretty harsh and esoteric. It is also hard too. The music has some dissonant guitars too. 

The vocals are good. The contrasts between the melodic vocals and the harsh, dissonant music are the band's modus operandi.   

The quality is decent enough. This is not their best album. It is well worth checking our their name-your-price Bandcamp albums if challenging dissonant music is your cup of tea.

2 points 

 

Garybaldi - Storie Di An'altra Città (2016)

 

The sixth and latest album from this band from Italy.

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

A number of guests added percussion, bass, guitars, viola, violin, cello, French horn, bassoon, flute, saxophone and vocals.

This fifty minutes long album is the bands latest album. It is perhaps their final album too. 

I have not been impressed by their albums. Albums in the blues, rock'n'roll and pop vein.

Bambi Fossati, the main member of the band on the first five albums is no longer a member of Garybaldi on this album. He only guests and add guitars on one of the tracks, track six. 

The music on this album is also a total break with the first five albums too. The music is muscular, melodic RPI. Classic RPI in fact with male Italian vocals.

The vocals are very good and there are a couple of very good songs here too. The overall quality is good and this is a very enjoyable album. 

This album is by far their best album and it is a shame that the band never really explored classic RPI before they recorded this album. This is indeed a good album and a nice epitaph if this is their final album.

3 points 

 

Bladverk - Monumental Thrill, Monumental Chill (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

Bladverk is the guitarist and vocalist Henrik Schmidt. 

He got help from three guests adding vibraphone, keyboards and woodwinds.

I got this three quarters of an hour long album from their record label Apollon Records. Hence this review although the music is not really my cup of tea or something I really review in this blog.

The music is a blend of acoustic guitars and vocals singer/songwriter music and art-rock. Mostly singer/songwriter, it has to be said.

The music is pastoral and softly spoken. The music is also lyrical and fully acoustic.

The vocals are good. The music is too pedestrian for my liking although there are some good keyboards and woodwinds here.

The music is decent enough. This album is not really my cup of tea. Fans of acoustic guitars and vocals based music should give this album a chance.

2 points  

 

Man - Diamonds And Coal (2006)

 

The 14th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added percussion.

The band's latest albums has not been impressive. The band had long abandoned the psych rock that made their name in the late 60s - early 70s. It had been replaced by mainly mainstream rock.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is mainstream rock with some smaller blues rock and americana influences.

The album is songs based with a lot of vocals. Some of the songs are a bit hard rocking. Others are more like ballads.

The music is pretty pedestrian and not interesting at all. This is everything progressive and psych rock is not. 

There are some decent songs here and some pretty dire pieces of music. This is not an album this band should be remembered for or even be associated with.

1.5 points 

 

Jazz Q - Album, Které Nikdy Nevyšlo (1975)

 The third album from this band from the Czech Republic.

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

Numerous guests added guitars and vocals to this album.

I have really liked their first two albums and there is no doubts that this band is one of the better jazz and fusion bands from the Eastern Europe, if not the whole of Europe.

This album is clocking in at seventy minutes and the music is a blend of fusion and jazz.

The music is mostly mellow with some sporadic faster piece of jazz and fusion.

The guitar solos here are great and one of the aspects of this album that draws me in. My air guitar has been dragged out of the closet and used when listening to this album. 

The organ sounding keyboards are also very good here.

There are some vocals at the end of this album. Most of the album is instrumental jazz and fusion.

The quality is very good throughout. This album is pure joy if fusion and/or jazz is your thing. Check it out.

3.5 points 

 

Traumwolf - Aussen (1982)

 

The one and only album from this band from Germany.

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

I know nothing about this band. I suspect this band is from the then DDR - East Germany. The part of Germany which was behind the Iron Curtain then and run by the Communist Party. I have my suspicions based on the sound and the music.

This album is three quarters of an hour long and the music is soft mainstream rock with female German vocals.

There are some early 1970s symphonic prog influences in the music. They are pretty faint, though.

The music here was already pretty much outdated when this album came out and the sound is not particularly pleasing. Hence my suspicions about this album being released behind the Iron Curtain.

The vocals are good, although a bit too light. The musicians do a decent job. The poor quality of the music makes this a borderline turkey. There are a couple of decent songs here though. This is not an album I would recommend. There is a good reason why this album is so obscure... it's lack of quality. 

1.5 points 

 

 

 

 

Travelers Of Tyme - Chronomads (2015)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band was a duo with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, programming and voices.

This band/duo has released three name-your-price Bandcamp albums. I only got this album and I doubt I will get their two other albums... let alone review them.... or maybe I will/should.

The music is a blend of surf rock, garage rock and psych rock on this thirty-six minutes long album.

The music is very quirky and weird.

The music is also melodic at times with some weird voices and samples included in the melodies.  

There are some space rock guitar solos here and some organs. The guitars are pretty good.

There are some good stuff here and this album comes a bit of a surprise as I did not have any expectations to this album at all. There are some hidden goodies in the scene and this album... and probably band too... is one of them.

Check out this pretty good album.

2.5 points 

Budjana. Dewa & Czech Symphony Orchestra - Praguenayama (2026)

 

The 14th album from this artist from Indonesia.

Dewa Budjana did the soundscapes and guitars here. The symphonic orchestra delivered a full symphonic sound.

Three other guests added bass, hanpan and kendang.

I have got a lot of his album still unreviewed but I will get onto it later this year/early next year. I should have done this years ago, but other artists and bands has come in the way...

This album is clocking in at half an hour. The music is neo-classical music with some Indonesian folk rock and guitar solos. 

The music is both elegant and melodic. It has some good details, mostly delivered by the Indonesian instruments and the guitars.

I am pretty much dead against rock and jazz bands adding classical orchestras to their sound. The result is mostly dreadful bad albums. This album is an exception that confirms my opinion. The music is pretty good throughout and this album is quite a pleasant album.

This is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

 

Idioverse - Sook (2018)

 

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added drums on the first song.

The 2014 album Water Bomb was a pretty good album and I had some high hopes for Sook.

Sook is a three quarters of an hour long album and it is a compilation album of unused songs going back many years. Something I did not know when I put this album up for review.

There is a lot of Radiohead in their music and some post-punk. Nirvana, the big grunge band from the 1990s springs to mind here too.

The album is full of contrasts between the more harmonic Radiohead'ish tunes and the angry dissonant post-punk.  

The vocals are good and that is the only part of this album that is good. 

The quality is decent. This album is a disappointment. It is also a name-your-price Bandcamp album.

2 points 

 

 

Garybaldi - La Ragione E Il Torto (2000)

 

The fifth album from this band from Italy.

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

Two guests added drums on this album.

The band returned again four years after the release of the fairly decent Blokko 45 album. An album I reviewed here one week ago.

The music on this one hour long album is again a blend of rock'n'roll and blues. There is also some Italian pop here.

The Italian vocals are pretty good. The music is hard and pretty primitive.

The songs are not too bad. The music is again decent enough. Garybaldi is failing to impress me, I am afraid. Nevertheless...

2 points 

Danakil Safari - From The Soil (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This is a new band to me and another debut album from the very impressive Apollon Records, Norway.

The band is named after a geographical feature in Ethiopia, Africa. A depression in the earth, no less.

This is a three quarters of an hour long album. The music is a blend of ethno jazz, fusion and eclectic prog. 

The music is very eclectic and quirky.... but still somewhat melodic. 

I am normally not a big fan of woodwinds. But the band's use of woodwinds is very cool and almost makes me forget that I am no fan of these instruments. 

This album is not for those who want clear and concise melodies. It is an album for the fans of jazz and fusion. It is also a good album in it's own right and one to check out. I hope to hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3 points 

 

  

 

Uriah Heep - Innocent Victim (1977)

 

The 11th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band returned again for their second album of the year, the year of 1977.

The last albums have not really been interesting albums and I did not have many, if any expectations to the forty minutes long Innocent Victim.

The music is quite plain and simple 1970s hard rock.

This album is really hard rocking. The not-so-pleasant album art-work is really fitting, indeed. 

John Lawton's vocals are the only really aspect of this album. The hard-rock is a bit one-dimentional and not so interesting.

The songs are simply not good enough here. This is still a decent enough album but it falls a bit short of the mark.

2 points  

 

Kikagaku Moyo - Kikagaku Moyo (2013)

 

The debut album from this band from Japan.

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

This band has released six albums and they are all up for review here throughout this spring. Something I am really looking forward to.

This album is just short of half an hour long.

The music is a blend of psych rock and space rock.

The use of sitar also brings the raga-rock genre into play here.

The music is at times pretty heavy space rock. Other parts of the album is more pastoral psych rock.

The music is on average melodic. The sitar is adding a lot of colours and indeed life to this album.

This is therefore a pretty good album which is lacking a bit when it comes to melodies. This is more than an acceptable debut album, although a bit too short.

2.5 points  

  

Prognoise - Lacrimal (2021)

 

The second album from this band from Brazil.

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

A number of guests added percussion, guitars, violin, keyboards, synths, flute and effects. 

I really like their 2018 debut album Solar and gave it a good review back in June 2020 in # 2 of this blog. I also mistakenly wrote that this was the one and only album from the band. The band proved me wrong one year later when they released Lacrimal. My mistake... Sorry.

The band is from the far north of Brazil, far away from the main prog scene in Brazil. It is a major achievement that the band has released two albums and one EP. 

Lacrimal gives good value for money as it is clocking in at seventy minutes. The music is a blend of King Crimson like ecletic prog on the opening ten minutes before it becomes a more Latin-American symphonic prog album. The music is returning to eclectic prog on a regular basis throughout this album.

The balance between symphonic prog and eclectic prog means there is a lot of very good details on this album.

The sporadic vocals here are good. Most of the album is instrumental. There are some proper songs here too and they are very good. 

The sound is good and the music is very good. This is one of the hidden gems that makes running this blog so much more interesting and rewarding. Check out this album.

3.5 points 

 

 

 

 

 

Penguin Cafe - A Matter Of Life (2011)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was an eleven pieces big band with a lineup of percussion, bass, cello, viola, violin, ukulele, dulcimer, cuatro, piano, melodica and northumbrian pipes.

This band was formed by a son of two members from The Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Penguin Cafe has so far released five albums. I have only got this album from them. I have reviewed all the The Penguin Cafe Orchestra albums in this blog.

A Matter Of Life is clocking in at almost fifty minutes and chamber avant-garde neo-classical music is what we get here.

There are a lot of strings here and some piano.

The music is pretty slow and a bit pedestrian. 

Is this rock ? Is this progressive rock ? No. It is chamber music.

The music is decent though with some interesting pieces of music. The music never really becomes good and I think this is the only one of their albums I will ever review.  

2 points 

 

 

Solstice - Clann (2025)

 

The eighth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was an eight-piece big band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, violin, keyboards and vocals.

One guest added vocals on one track.

I have reviewed some Soltice albums in the previous editions of this blog and were therefore interested in this album when I got it. Somehow, it fell through the cracks in my office, and it is only now that I have finally been able to review it.

This album is, including the bonus track, forty-five minutes long. 

The music is neo-prog influenced celtic folk rock.

The music is both dynamic, colourful and melodic. There is a lot of very good female vocals here and the guitars and the violins are good.

The songs are pretty long and a bit complex.

The quality is good throughout this album. This is another good album from one of the better bands in Great Britain right now.

3 points  

 

 

 

Soft Machine. The - Thirteen (2026)

 

The 14th album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, duduk, mellotron, flutes, saxophones and electronics.

Two guest added guitars and organ.

According to the band, this is their 13th album. However... most of us regard the 1976 album Rubber Riff as a Soft Machine album. Hence, this is their 14th album. This as a clarification.

Thirteen is clocking in at sixty-five minutes and the music is a blend of pure jazz and fusion.

The music is mostly pretty dense jazz.

Daevid Allen and his guitar appears as a guest musician here on one track, some forty five years after he left the band. 

There are some melodic stuff here but there are not many of those. The music is driven by guitars, flutes, organs and mostly saxophones. Theo Travis is the most prominent member of the band on this album.

This album is the least accessible, the least melodic of their albums, going back to 1969. The music is good though. This album is not among their best albums though. I am still glad that this band is alive, touring and releasing new albums. 

3 points 

 

 

 

Pymlico - No More No Less Live Stud... (2026)

 

The ninth studio album from this band from Norway.

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

I have reviewed all their albums in previous editions of this blog and I therefore jumped on the chance to review this album, their newest album.

This album is forty minutes long and the music is a blend of cinematic rock and symphonic prog.

The music is also instrumental, gentle and melodic. The music is also mid-tempo and dynamic.

There are a lot of guitars, organs and saxophones here. 

There are some good harmonies here and some good solos.

The music is wishy-washy at times. The quality is decent to good throughout this album.

This is not their best album. It is still an album for those who love instrumental prog.

2.5 points