Border Hills - Border Hills (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

Two guests added drums and bass.

The band is one of the latest additions to the ProgArchives archive of neo-prog bands.  

This fifty minutes long album starts out as a Magenta copycat album before the music changes course and goes more into a more melodic neo-prog direction.

Yes, the music has female vocals. And they are good. There are also some good male vocals here.

There is also a lot of symphonic prog like epic instrumental music here too. Some of the music has some RPI influences too.

Most of all, this is a neo-prog album in the Dutch neo-prog tradition. 

There are some good guitar solos here and the music is really good. Very good at places. 

This band is a welcome addition to the prog rock and in particular the neo-prog scene. This is a debut album which should put the band on the map. This is a borderline very good album but I am bumping it up due to the very good vocals and guitar solos.  

3.5 points 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Tempano - Selective Memory (2008)

 

The ninth album from this band from Venezuela.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violin, clavinet, farfisa organ, piano, organ, mellotron, mini-moog, keyboards, flute and vocals.

This album is strictly not a studio album of new songs. It is a collection of songs from the Seven Samurai Of Prog and the Odyssey projects plus some re-arranged old songs. 

The album clocks in at eighty minutes.

The music is mostly symphonic prog with some Latin-rock at the final four tracks. Those four tracks comes with Spanish vocals while the first eight tracks got either English vocals or are instrumental pieces of music.

There are the usual Yes and Genesis influences here. 

The music is pretty diverse. From instrumentals to more vocals dominated songs.

The musicianship is high and band proves again that they are one of the better bands from this continent. 

The quality is good throughout and this is an enjoyable album indeed. 

3 points 

  

Sangre De Muerdago - O Xardín (2025)

 

The seventh album from this band from Spain.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of percussion, classic guitar, cello, harp, keyboards, woodwinds and vocals.

One guest added female vocals on one track.

Back in 2024, I reviewed their first six albums in # 3 of this blog and liked them a lot. This band is one of the better bands from Spain.

This album is clocking in at fifty minutes and the music is Spanish folk music.

The music is mostly traditional folk music with a few folk rock influences. There is a lot of classical acoustic guitars, flutes and male Spanish vocals here.  

The music is pastoral and slow. The vocals are ethereal at times and very beautiful. The music is performed with old folk music instruments in addition to the guitars and vocals.

The music is therefore very eclectic. The pieces of music are pretty good though and this makes this album a pretty unique, esoteric experience for those of us not living in Spain.

3 points 

 

  

Steeleye Span - Conflict (2025)

 

The 25th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

I have reviewed most of their albums, if not all of them, in previous editions of this blog. Mostly in the # 1 of this blog. I really like this band so I jumped on the chance to review their latest album. An album released one year ago, that is.

This album clocks in at three quarters of an hour and the music is folk-rock. 

Maddy Prior is the vocalist here and she has had a looooong, succesful career. Both with Mike Oldfield and his hit singles, solo-career and as member of Steeleye Span and other folk-rock bands.

The music is classic folk-rock with some fiddle and lots of guitars, bass and drums. The music is a blend of rockers and more pastoral ballads.

The vocals is good and the music is a blend of good and decent songs. It is nice to hear something new, a new album from this legendary band.

2.5 points 

 

Epignosis - Still the Waters (2009)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band was a one-man-band with Robert W. Brown Jr doing the guitars, organ, mellotron, synths, programming and the vocals.

One guest added female vocals on one track.

Robert W. Brown Jr has released three albums under this name and they are up for reviews in this blog in the coming days or week.

Still The Waters is a one hour long album and the music is US symphonic prog. 

The music is melodic and a bit one-dimentional. It is also a bit light on details. 

The music, inclusive the pretty good vocals, reminds me a bit about the Dutch band US and their latest albums. There are some good guitar solos here but the music, and the sound, is suffering from this being a boutique one-man-band.

Robert W. Brown Jr is obviously very talented but although this is a more than acceptable debut album, the talent is not in full bloom on this album.

2.5 points 

 

Det Skandaløse Orkester - No Har De Laget Skandale Igjen! (2014)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

Some guests added marimba, double bass, bass, woodwinds, narration, voices and vocals.

The band has released three albums, the latest one last year, and they are all up for reviews this month.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album can best be described as a blend of Canterbury scene and Frank Zappa's weird music.

The music is jazzy, quirky and very playful. Ditto for the lyrics and the vocals. Lyrics very much in the Frank Zappa vein, although not as controversial and sweary. 

The music has some good organs, bass, guitars and woodwinds. The vocals are good too.

There are some really interesting details here and it is obvious that Hatfield & The North plus Caravan is also a major influence on their music.

The result is a good album, indeed. It is also a bit of a surprise to me as I did not like this album when I listened to it when it was released and therefore forgot about it for twelve years. Life happens....

3 points  

 

Unwritten Pages - Fringe Kitchen (2012)

 

The second album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

This album is their latest and probably their final ever album. 

I reviewed their 2010 debut album Noah some days ago and was not particularly impressed by that rock-opera. A decent enough album. 

Fringe Kitchen is clocking in at fifty-five minutes and the music is progressive metal.

The music is more melodic than hard & heavy. 

There is some hard metal here but most of the music is more in the Dutch neo-prog genre than progressive metal. The music wanders of in various directions and is pretty adventurous. The music is not run-of-the-mill progressive metal & neo-prog.

There are some good stuff here. The vocals are pretty good but there are some pieces of music here that fall well short of the target. This is therefore a pretty good album from a pretty obscure band.

2.5 points 

Ultralyd - Inertiadrome (2010)

 

The fourth album from this band from Norway.

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

I have had two of their albums hanging around in my record collection for ages. I reviewed the first one, their second album Chromosome Gun, some days ago and was not impressed. So I am reviewing their final album today.

The album is clocking in at forty minutes and the music is some sort of post-avant garde jazz. There is a lot of psychodelia and garage in their music too. Krautrock is probably the best label on the music here.

The music is full of dissonance. There are some tortured, screaming saxophones throughout this album.

Easy listening music, it is not.

The music is also haunting and not bad at all. There is a lot to like here.

The result is a decent album and a lot better album than I expected. If avant-garde krautrock is your thing...

2 points 

Trk Project - Alice (2025)

 

The ninth album from this band from Poland.

Trk Project is Ryszard Kramarski on guitars, keyboards and vocals.

He had help from a dozen guests who provided drums, bass, saxophone and vocals.

I have been following his Trk Project for some years. I have though missed out on the album released under the FatherSon name earlier last year, the eight Trk Project album. I will review that album later this month.

The one hour long Alice is a melodic neo-prog album.

There is also a lot of musicals and rock opera vibes and music here. I gather that this album is indeed a musical.

There is a lot of female vocals here. Most of the vocals are indeed female vocals. The music is also elegant and melodic.

The music is also commercially slick too. The guitar solos are melodic too.  

The music is too commercial to really have any good details. There is some good songs here and some decent songs. Hence...

2.5 points 

 

Ankh - Tu Jest I Tam Jest (2018)

 

The fifth album from this band from Poland.

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

Two guests added percussion and violin.

This is their latest album. Hopefully, this is not their final album.

The album clocks in at one hour and the music is eclectic prog.

There is a lot of King Crimson influences here, indeed.

There are some folk rock influences in their music too. But most of the music is quirky with some subtle hints of jazz.

The male Polish vocals are good and the violins are adding a lot of colours to the music.

This album is weird and pretty good. I have really warmed to this band and their music. This is a band well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

 

Alternativ Quartet - Deocamdată Suntem (2023)

 

The fifth album from this band from Romania.

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

This one hour long album is their second album from that year. It is also their latest album but I hope we will hear a lot more from them in the future.

This album sees the band continue to explore a melancholic art-rock and post-rock soundscape. Just as they did on their first album of that year.

There are still some Gazpacho influences here. But the music is a lot slower and a lot more downtuned. Sigur Ros is therefore another good reference here.

The music is also elegant, melodic and classy. The male vocals, with lyrics in their local language, are also adding a lot to the music.

The music is really good and this album proves that this band is one of the better art-rock bands around in today's scene. Get this album.

3 points 

 

 

Nankai Trio - Antarctica (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Japan.

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

This album caught my attention due to its high placement in ProgArchives best album of 2025 list. 

This forty minutes long album can best be described as a trio jazz/fusion album.

The music is more trio jazz than fusion, though.

There are a lot of good bass solos here. The guitar solos are very good.

The drums are really good too and the sound is superb.

The music is really dynamic with a lot of solos. The music is a bit formula based. Nevertheless, this is a good album and well worth checking out if you are into jazz and fusion.

3 points 

Boston - Third Stage (1986)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

The band was a duo at this album with a lineup of percussion, bass, guitars, grand piano, organ, electric piano and vocals.

Three guests added drums and guitars.

The band returned again with this thirty-six minutes long album after an eight years long album break.

Boston was by now reduced to the two main men in the band, Tom Scholz and Brad Delp. These two were the main composers on the first two albums and the brains behind this band from the very beginning.

The music here is a blend of pomp rock and AOR.

 There is also some notable heavy metal influences in their music and the band is clearly trying to tag themselves to the heavy metal scene on this album.

The songs are well developed.

The overall quality is decent enough. I am not particular impressed by this album.

2 points 

 

  

Tempano - The Agony & The Ecstasy (2002)

 

The eighth album from this band from Venezuela.

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

Three guests added percussion, keyboards, flute and vocals on a couple of tracks.

The band returned three years after their good El Fin De La Infancia album. A return to form and their best ever album as I wrote in my review earlier this month.

The music on this sixty-six minutes long album is a blend of eclectic prog and symphonic prog.

The music is mostly symphonic prog though. The first half of the album is very eclectic and has a dense soundscape normally associated with the likes of King Crimson.

The second half of the album has some nice Camel and Genesis influences. This part of the album is very melodic and engaging.

The music is also visiting the classic Latin-American symphonic prog scene on a couple of pieces of music here. That is adding something extra, something extra good, to this album.

The vocals is good and very pleasing too. The sound and music is very classy and elegant throughout. 

The result is their best album so far and a good album in it's own right. If symphonic prog with some eclectic influences is your thing....

3.5 points 

 

Unwritten Pages - Noah (2010)

 

The debut album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

A handful of guests added percussion, guitars and vocals.

This almost one and a half hour long album is the first of in total two albums this band releaesed. A review of the second album will follow early next month.

Noah is some sort of a rock opera. Maybe it is not... but the music is very much in the progressive metal rock opera mould.

The music is very varied. We got djent, nu-metal, progressive metal and mainstream rock here. 

There are both some rather good male and female vocals here. The sound is good.

The overall quality is decent enough. I am not really impressed by this very long album, a double CD no less. The music is too meandering and has no real good pieces of music.

2 points 

  

 

Ultralyd - Chromosome Gun (2005)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

Last year, I put up my two Ultralyd albums for reviews sometime this winter. I had heard about the band but never listened to their albums. So it sounded like a good idea to review their two albums. 

This forty minutes long album is their second of in total six albums. I will review their fifth album early next month.

The music is a blend of free-jazz and samples. The music is avant-garde and totally out there.

In the middle of this unrelenting avant-garde free jazz assault, there is a piece of Indian pop music. That is complete with the local language male vocals. It feels like this has been lifted from a Bollywood movie. Weird. 

The overall quality is half-decent and this is not really an album I can recommend.

1.5 points 

Laughing Stock - Life In Seven Dreams (2026)

 

The eighth album from this band from Norway.

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

A trio of guests, including Tim Bowness, added trumpet and vocals on a couple of tracks.

As I noted in my review of their previous album, Shelter from 2024, the band started out as an eclectic symphonic prog band before they moved to the art-rock genre.

That is very much evident on this year's Life In Seven Dreams album. A three quarters of an hour long album.

The band is firmly in the art-rock genre with a lot of Tim Bowness and No-Man influences.

The music is really softly spoken and melancholic.

The music is also understated. There are not many good details here. 

This album is not among their best albums. Nevertheless, this is a pretty good album and one for the art-rock crowd.

2.5 points 

Ankh - Expect Unexpected (2003)

 

The fourth album from this band from Poland.

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

Two guests added drums, violin and voices.

The band returned five years after their pretty good 1998 album Bedzie Tajemnica. An album reviewed last week in this blog.

The music on this fifty minutes long album can best be described as krautrock. Krautrock from Poland. Krautrock with Polish and English vocals.

The music is funky, quirky, trippy, a bit hard and pretty melodic. There is also some electronica here.

There are also some proper songs here too inbetween some trippy, quirky pieces of music. 

The vocals is good and the music is really cool and breezy. This is some of the better krautrock I have heard for a while and a good album in it's own right. This is one of the more under appreciated bands in the prog rock scene.

3 points 

 

  

Alternativ Quartet - Departe De Solsti​ț​iu (2023)

 

The fourth album from this band from Romania.

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

This band has had an interesting development over the last couple of albums. So I was looking forward to this album.

This album clocks in at fifty minutes and the music is a blend of art-rock and post-rock. 

Take Gazpacho and Sigur Ros. Then imagine a crossbreed between these two Scandinavian bands. Then you get this album from Romania.

The music is ambient at the beginning before the music becomes a bit more art-rock and post rock like.

The vocals are in their local language (Romanian ?) and these male vocals are pretty good. They are downtuned and in tune with the music.

The music is really slow and understated. The music is still pretty good.

This album is a bit of a slow burner. Nevertheless, it is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

 

 

Lifting Line Theory - Wonder (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This band has just released their second album and I will review that album sometime next month. 

The band is Chris Caroll on all instruments and Little Miss on vocals. Female vocals. 

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

The music is muscular and songs based. It is keyboards and guitars based.

The tempo is mid-tempo throughout. 

Little Miss vocals are very good and the main attraction on this album.

The sound and ambience are good throughout these fifty minutes. The songs are not always good. Nevertheless, this is a good album and I hope their new album has built on this album and is offering up some better songs.

3 points 

Man - The Twang Dynasty (1992)

 

The 10th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band split up after their last album in 1976 and reformed again in 1983. This one hour long album is their first album since they came back together again. 

The band has largely ditched the psych rock and most of the hard rock.

Americana is the replacement here. There is a lot of country'n'western here and a lot of mainstream US rock. 

The album is hard rocking but not in the British way. This is an album of US rock. In other words, Americana.

The music is songs based, simple and pretty melodic. The music is decent enough but not more than that. This is an unimpressive album.

2 points 

 

Cortex - Troupeau Bleu (1975)

 

The debut album from this band from France.

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

The band has released four studio albums plus a retrospective outtakes album. I will review their four studio albums this winter, starting with their debut album.

Wikipedia has described this band as a jazz-funk band. They also label this album as a cult-classic.

The music on this forty minutes long album is dominated by some soft female French vocals, a rampant piano and the saxophones.

The music is soft jazz, bordering on lounge-jazz at times. The music is really laidback most of the times where the vocals serve as an instrument.

The music is pretty funky despite being slow. There is some interesting details here too. The music is also elegant and classy.

I am not sure about this claim that this album is a cult-classic. Nevertheless, this is a pretty good album and well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

 

 

Witchskull - A Driftwood Cross (2020)

 

The third album from this band from Australia.

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

I have not had the chance to sample their other four albums so this forty minutes long album is my first and only meeting with this band. An album released on Rise Above Records.

The music here, not surprisingly, is stoner rock.

The sound is pretty dirty. The music has a lot of bass and guitars. The vocals is dirty but still pretty good.

The music is very heavy but not particularly extreme.

There is no good stuff here and there is no surprises. The music is run-of-the-mill stoner rock and does not bring anything new to the scene.

This is a solid effort and a decent album.

2 points 

 

Walking On Ice - No Margin For Error (1994)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band is the forerunner of Zen Orchestra, a band that released their debut album last year. An album I reviewed back in November 2025.

No Margin For Error clocks in at one hour and the music is early days neo-prog.

There is also a lot of pomp rock on this melodic, poppy take on neo-prog. References are early IQ and Pendragon.

The music is pretty simple and poppy. There are an didgeridoo interlude halfway through the album which are breaking up the album a bit.

The vocals are rather good. The music is not particular interesting.

This is a decent enough album. It is an album with historical interest for those into neo-prog.

2 points 

 

Discipline - Breadcrumbs (2025)

 

The sixth album from this band from USA.

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

The band returned again after an eight years long break with this fifty minutes long album.

The band is one of the better, if not one of the best, progressive rock bands from USA. It is lead by the charismatic Matthew Parmenter. The band album debuted back in 1988 and has toured Europe and America many times.

The music is US symphonic prog with some Americana influences.

The music is more melodic than on most of their first five albums. The music is also well crafted and cleverly presented.

The vocals is very good and sporadic mellotrong and violins are adding a lot of texture to this album.

This is not their best album. Nevertheless, this is still a good album and one to check out from a band that never really disappoints.

3 points

 

 

 

Dimmornas Bro - Mål (1979)

 

The second album from this band from Sweden.

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

One guest added saxophones.  

This three quarters of an hour long album is the follow up album to their 1977 self-titled album.

Their debut album was a good early symphonic prog album and a hidden gem in the Swedish symphonic prog scene. An album pretty similar to the first Kaipa albums.

The music on Mål is more poppy and rock inspired than symphonic prog. There is still some symphonic prog here, mostly at the end of the album, but mainstream rock has taken over. There is even some folk rock influences here.

There is a lot of vocals here. The vocals are in Swedish and they are pretty good. There is also a lot of organ in their sound.

The music is decent enough but this album is a bit of a let down compared to their debut album. The band also released a third and final album. A pop album, no less. I will see if I am bothered to review it later this year.

2 points 

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere (2024)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added piano, organ, mellotron, synths, programming and vocals.

This three quarters of an hour long album sees the band return to the themes on their debut album. 

That means death metal with a lot of psych rock and prog rock influences. One of the Tangerine Dream members is also appearing here and the result is an Eloy'ish like piece of music.  

The album starts out as a death metal album before psych rock takes over. That is how the rest of the album goes with spurts of death metal with more melodic pieces in between.

There is some Tangerine Dream like electronica on this album too.

The music is very varied throughout. The music is also pretty decent. I have yet to be won over by this band but I understand the hype around them. They are not really impressing me.

2.5 points 

Sykofant - Leaves (2026)

 

The second EP from this band from Norway.

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

I got this EP from the band as I have reviewed their previous album and EP last year in # 3 of this blog.  Album and EP I rated highly.

This EP clocks in at twenty-three minutes and has three songs... make that compositions. The first two compositions are three minutes long on average. The final composition is seventeen minutes long. 

The band continues on from the 2025 EP Red Sun with their blend of psych rock, progressive rock and 1970s hard rock. 

Old, classic 1970s rock is what this really sounds like. Music that sounds classy & timeless. Elegant, even.

The music is really complex here with some very good details. This is not easy listening music.

The quality is good throughout and this album should satisfy everybody into complex 1970s rock... not to mention classic progressive rock.

3 points  

Uriah Heep - Wonderworld (1974)

 

The seventh album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band released new albums every year now and toured the albums quite extensively around the world. 

Wonderworld clocks in at forty minutes.

The music is mostly hard rock. There are some psych rock influences in their music too. 

The music is pretty melodic too with some good vocals and musicianship.

There are no real good songs here and this is their least impressive album so far. 

 Fans of 1970s hard rock should check out this album.

2 points 

 

Carpani. Alex - The Sanctuary (2010)

 

The second album from this artist from Italy.

Alex Carpani did the piano, organ, mellotron, moog and vocals here.

Three guests added drums, percussion, bass and guitars.

This fifty minutes long album is the follow up to his 2007 debut album Waterline. A pretty good symphonic prog album.

The music on The Sanctuary is symphonic prog with some ELP and Triumvirat influences. There is a lot of moog and keyboards here. There is also a considerable amount of vocals here.

The music is really melodic. There are some neo-classical music influences here too.

The music is pretty good throughout and the vocals is good. The sound is also very good.

I am not entirely won over by the music here which has some shortcomings when it comes to quality. There are some good moog and melotrons here which elevate this album to a good status. More reviews of his albums will follow in the next couple of weeks.

3 points 

Alto - Happy Ambrosia (1980)

 

The second and final album from this band from Germany.

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

Their music on the self-titled debut album from this Kraan offshoot was a blend of soul, fusion and jazz.

The band has not changed much on the three quarters of an hour long Happy Ambrosia. 

There are less soul this time around and more fusion.

There are still a lot of vocals, female vocals here and a lot of saxophones. There are also lots of guitars and keyboards here. 

The album kicks of as more a rock album than a fusion album. Thankfully, the music then become more fusion than rock after five minutes and the rest of the album is jazzy.

The music is, as with the album art-work, stripped back and a bit bare-boned. That said, this is still a good album with a lot of good details and music.

This is a bit of an underrated band that deserves a lot of credit.  

3 points 

 

Aera - Türkis (1979)

 

The third album from this band from Germany.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, strings, electric piano, organ, moog, keyboards, lyricon, saxophones and vocals.

Two guests added guitars and bass on one track.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is jazz with a lot of fusion influences.

Their music reminds me, as on their second album, which I reviewed some days ago in this blog, a lot of The Soft Machine on their Six and Seven albums.

Most instruments, with the exception of the drums and percussion, have long solos here on their medium-fast dynamic take on jazz. There is hardly any vocals here and they are only used as instruments.

There are a lot of interesting details here and the saxophones are very good.

 This is one of those albums that makes me a lot more interested in jazz. Maybe because this album is a bit of a bridge between jazz and progressive rock. 

The band released two more albums before they split up and I will try to find them and review them later this year.

This is a good album in it's own right. 

3 points 

 

 

Cosmograf - The Orphan Epoch (2025)

 

The 10th album from this band from Great Britain.

Cosmograf is Robin Armstrong on bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Two guests added drums, saxophones and vocals.

I have followed Robin Armstrong's Cosmograf for the last fifteen years with great interest and you will find my reviews of his first nine albums in my blog and in ProgArchives.

Cosmograf is one of the more interesting British acts today. 

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of neo-prog and art rock. 

The music is melancholic and sombre at times. It is also melodic throughout with some soft, very good vocals from Robin Armstrong. There are also some good vocal harmonies, piano and guitar solos here. There is saxophones on one track too.

The overall quality is good throughout and this album proves that Robin Armstrong always delivers the goods. 

3 points 

 

 

Cholo Visceral - Quimera Huaycotrópic (2023)

 

The third album from this band from Peru.

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

This is the come-back album after a seven years long album break.

This album is clocking in at forty minutes and the music is instrumental heavy prog.

There are still some subtle folk rock influences in their music. But they are only faint and it is fair to say that the band has changed a lot since their first two albums.

The music is slick and has lost most of the charm and Latin folk rock influences from their debut album. Some of the music on this, their third album is a bit run-of-the-mill instrumental heavy prog.

The music is still pretty good. It is dynamic and a bit colourful too. There are some good riffs/themes here too. I still think their debut album is their best album. You can find my reviews of their first two albums somewhere else in this blog.

2.5 points 

  

 

Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero (2022)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

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

The band has so far given us three very different sounding albums. The debut was progressive death metal, the second album was pretty much bare boned Morbid Angel influenced death metal and this album... is electronica.

That means forty minutes with electronica in the Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze territory.  

There are two movements here. Both of them are pretty dull and not interesting at all.

There is some decent stuff here and that's at the end of the album. That makes this a half-decent album. I guess this is not an album they are playing live...

1.5 points 

E.D.O. - The Past Is A Foreign Country (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from The Netherlands.

This band is a one-man-band with Edo Spanninga and he did the synths and the programming.

Edo Spanninga were a member of both Trion and Flamborough Head before he set out on his own with E.D.O. For all I know, he is still involved in those two bands. I hope so as both Flamborough Head and Trion was and are great bands.

The Past Is A Foreign Country is a forty minutes long concept album based on the western world from 1945 to this date. There is a lot of sampled speaches from Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and unfortunately.. this odious Donald Trump, a man who has insulted everyone here in Europe during the last 48 hours. 

The music is a blend of symphonic prog, neo-classical music and cinematic rock. The music feels like one long piece of music although it is supposed to be seven different pieces of music.

The music is very melodic. It is also a bit meandering and pedestrian.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. This is therefore an acceptable debut album.

2.5 points 

 

Ankh - Bedzie Tajemnica (1998)

 

The third album from this band from Poland.

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

The band returned again after a three years long break.

The band has come on in leaps and bounds after their not so impressive debut album. 

This almost seventy minutes long album is jumping along in most directions. From some cover versions of King Crimson and the Norwegian classical music composer Edvard Grieg to some more folk rock and hard rock. 

The music is eclectic in other words. The music is also quirky. 

The Polish male vocals are also adding a lot of quirkiness to the music. The violins are also rampant and is adding a lot of quality to this album.

Not everything here is good. Nevertheless, there is some good stuff here and that makes this a pretty good album from a pretty obscure band who deserve a lot more attention.

2.5 points  

  

Alternativ Quartet - Cand Nu Cant (2012)

 

 The third album from this band from Romania.

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

The band returned again one year after their good 2011 album Aripi. An album I reviewed one week ago in this blog.

The music on this fifty-five minutes long album are a mix of art-rock and post-rock.

The music is melancholic, slow to mid-tempo. The music is also sad and understated.

There is a lot of piano here. The piano is also supporting the good vocals.

The music is like a more simplified, melancholic version of Gazpacho's music. But there is still a lot of good details here though and the music is good throughout.

This band is one of the more underestimated bands in today's scene and this album proves that point.

3 points 

 

 

  

Alto - Alto (1978)

 

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

This band was a Kraan splinter group who released two albums between 1978 and 1980. Both of them are up for review in this blog.

I have reviewed all the Kraan albums in the previous three editions of this blog in addition to one review in ProgArchives.   

Alto is clocking in at forty minutes and the music is a blend of soul, jazz and fusion. 

There are a lot of a alto-saxophones here in addition to the electric and half-acoustic guitars. 

The music is dynamic and pretty melodic. There is a lot of drive and progression in the music. There is also a lot of good, interesting details here.

The female vocals are still good. Half of the album has vocals, indeed.   

The result is a good album and a bit of a hidden gem. A gem jazz and in particular fans of fusion and indeed the band Kraan should check out.

3 points 

 

 

Aera - Hand und Fuss (1977)

 

The second album from this band from Germany.

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

I reviewed their 1975 debut album Humanum Est in December 2012 for # 1 of this blog and gave it a good rating. I have now got hold of their second and third album. Albums I will now review here this week.

The music on this forty minutes long album is jazz with a lot of fusion influences. The Soft Machine is a good reference here. The Soft Machine from their Six and Seven era, that is.

The music is dynamic and mostly instrumental. There are some wailing vocals here at the end of the album and that is all there is of vocals.

The solos are a mixed bag of guitars, violin and woodwinds. They are all pretty good.

There are also a couple of pastoral pieces of jazz here.

The quality is pretty good with a mix of decent and good pieces of music. This album is a worthy addition to anyone's jazz collection.

2.5 points 

 

O'Man - 81 (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Finland.

This is a one-man-band where Pekka Ranta did the bass, guitars, synths, effects and drum machine.

Three guests added drums, percussion, keyboards and synths.

This half an hour long album is his second album from 2025. His debut album Katoaminen was a good album and one I reviewed earlier this month.

The music on that album had some dynamic music with a blend of psych rock and cinematic rock. A good blend.

81 is a much more ambient music dominated half an hour. The music is pedestrian and not ambient at all. This album feels like a left-over pieces and outtakes album from the Katoaminen album sessions.

In short, this is just a half-decent album and a considerable disappointment.

1.5 points 

Tritop - Tritop120 (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

Three guests added backing vocals and choir.

This is their follow up album to their 2023's debut album Rise Of Kassandra. An album I gave a very good rating back in August 2023 for # 3 of this blog.

The music on this almost fifty minutes long album is a blend of heavy prog and neo-prog.

The music is epic and pretty hard throughout this album. The music is muscular in other words. It is still pretty melodic too. There is a lot of interesting details here too.

There is a lot of long keyboards runouts and some guitar solos. The vocals are good. Ditto for the sound. 

This is an enjoyable album and a good one in it's own right. I really like this band.

3 points 

 

Trigemino - Corre Hacia Tu Vida (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Argentina.

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

Three guests added steel guitars and vocals.

The band released their debut album Trampas Para Enganar back in 2018 and I gave it a very good rating back in May 2019 in the # 2 of this blog. I was surprised that the band returned again at the end of last year with their second album.

This album is clocking in at just under forty minutes and the music is South-American/Latin symphonic progressive rock.

The music is both quirky and melodic. It is also very much in the 1970s South-American/Latin symphonic progressive rock tradition.

The music is mostly mid-tempo. The music is not overcrowded by instruments. The Spanish vocals are good and the sound is very good. 

There is a nice ambience here and the overall quality is good. This is an enjoyable album from one of the better bands from Argentina.

3 points 

 

 

Leap Day - When Gravity Wins (2025)

 

The seventh album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

I have reviewed their first six albums in my blogs and I rate this band as one of the better Dutch progressive rock bands. 

This sixty-seven minutes long album takes us back to the Dutch neo-prog scene.  

The music is also both symphonic and melodic. There are also some neo-classical music influences here.

The music is also elegant throughout with some epic pieces of symphonic prog. The guitar solos are very good. The vocals are pretty good.

The music is pretty intricate and complex. The music is more like pieces of music than songs in the traditional sense.

The quality of the music is good throughout and this is an album well worth checking out although this album is not their best album.

3 points 

 

 

 

Boston - Don't Look Back (1978)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added additional percussion.

Their debut album is regarded as one of the better debut albums of all time. It is most certainly one of the best selling debut albums of all time and an iconic album from the 1970s. 

Don't Look Back clocks in at thirty-four minutes and we get a blend of stadium rock, pomp rock and AOR on this album.

The music is bold, hard and pretty heavy. The sound is polished and the band's reputation as perfectionists rings true on this album.

There is no big hits here but the music is still decent enough. This album is a bit of a letdown compared to their debut album.

2 points 

 

 

Tempano - El Fin De La Infancia (1999)

 

The seventh album from this band from Venezuela.

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

One guest added cello.

Their last albums were some pretty poor pop albums. I therefore had no longer any hopes for this band. Then this album arrived.

This one hour long album feels like an album from a different band. As the band had taken an eleven years long break before they recorded and released this album, that may be the reason for what we get here.

The music is a blend of symphonic prog, fusion and neo-classical music.

There are some good Spanish vocals here. Most of the album is instrumental, though. 

The music is dynamic and quirky. It is also pretty melodic with a couple of normal songs inbetween the cascades of instrumental, pretty epic pieces of music.

The result is a good album and a big surprise after those pretty dire preceding pop albums. The band is back and this is the best of their albums.

3 points  

 

 

  

Villblomst - Villblomst (1979)

 

The one and only album from this band from Norway.

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

This album was originally released on LP in 1979 by the local Norwegian record label Briskeby Records. It was then re-released on CD through the NAKCD re-releases series in 2024 (see cover above). That is how I got my copy hos I became aware of this short-lived band.

The drummer here, Pål Søvik, is one of the veterans in the Norwegian progressive rock scene and the owner of Briskeby Records, a good prog rock label who has released some albums.

This album is clocking in at fifty-six minutes and the music is a blend of neo-prog, funk and new-wave rock. 

Both the sound and music are youthful and brash. That is, on the first tracks. The music become a bit more pastoral and mellow on the final half of the album.

The vocals are both in Norwegian and English. They are pretty good.

The band-name Villblomst translates to Wild Flower in English and the band-name really describes their music very well. The music is wild but still flowery. The quality is decent enough and this album is an interesting wild flower in the garden of Norwegian progressive rock albums.

2 points   

  

V.A - Østerdalsmusikk75 (1975)

 

The debut album from this project from Norway.

The project included eight musicians with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, fiddle, keyboards, woodwinds and voices.

This album is a strange one. It was released by the record label Mai back in 1975 on LP. A new updated version with extra tracks was then released in 2015. The original 1975 version was then re-released on CD six years later, in 2021 through the NAKCD series. A series of Norwegian re-releases who has released 680 albums. 

The music here is old folk music from one of the central valleys in Norway, a 400 km long valley in the east of Norway towards the border to Sweden. That valley had/has a rich cultural and music scene.

Participating musicians like Jan Garbarek then took this music and added a lot of jazz to the folk music. A bit of a novel way of approaching this music, indeed.

There are a lot of trumpets and saxophones on this thirty-seven minutes long album. The music is very eclectic throughout with some intense jazz at times.

This is indeed a weird, eclectic album. It is also a decent album which is more of a jazz workout than anything else. If eclectic jazz is your thing....

2 points  

Cervello - Chaire (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

One guest added drums.

This album comes as a thirty-six minutes long studio album with a twenty-eight minutes long live album as the second part of the album just to flesh this album out to a one hour long album. 

This is a review of the studio part of this album and I have ignored the live part of this album as I never review live albums. 

Chaire is the name of the studio part of this album and the songs are from 1974-83. They were spliced and collected over the last four years by the members and made into Chaire. 

The music here is RPI. Good classic RPI as they did on their 1973 debut album Melo. That is a semi-classic album in the RPI genre.

There are a considerable amount of saxes and flutes in their music in addition to the guitars and keyboards. The Italian vocals are then added to the top of the sound. 

Despite of being old songs, the music feels contemporary post-millenium. The music is also mid-tempo and melodic.

There are some good and some sub-standard songs here. This album is not as good as Melo. It is still a pretty good album though. RPI collectors should check out this album.

2.5 points   

Eckemoff. Yelena - Scenes From The Dark Ages (2025)

 

The tenth or so album from this artist from USA.

Yelena Eckemoff did the piano, keyboards, synths and clavinett here.

She had help from some guests who added drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violins and flutes.

I got this one hour and forty-five minutes long album recommended to me as was described as a symphonic prog album. That got my attention... The album art-work sealed the deal and I got this album. 

The music is mostly baroque neo-classical music with some neo-folk influences.

There is a lot of violins and clavinets here. There are also surprisingly some guitar solos here. The music is indeed pretty electric and not so acoustic as I thought it would be.

The music is very melodic with some great musicianship. 

I would not really describe this album as an interesting album. It is also not a particular good album. This neo-classical genre is not an interesting genre. Nevertheless, this is a decent enough album.

2 points