Telegraph - Topography of Mind (2026)

 

The second album from this band from Israel.

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

One guest added flute.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5 points 

  

 

Scree - August (2025)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The music is very subtle and modest. 

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

2.5 points 

Man - Anachronism Tango (2019)

 

The 17th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.5 points 

 

35 Tapes - Veil On Life (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from Norway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5 points

 

 

 

 

Klone - All Seing Eye (2008)

 

The second album from this band from France.

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

One guest added vocals on one track.

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

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

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

The vocals are harsh and screamo.

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

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

2.5 points 

  

 

 

Kingfisher Sky - Skin of the Earth (2010)

 

The second album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

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

The music is at times both muscular and heavy. 

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

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

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

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

3 points 

 

 

Cravinkel - Cravinkel (1970)

 

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

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

This album is clocking in at forty minutes.

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

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

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

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

1.5 points 

 

Corvus Stone - Corvus Stone II (2014)

 

The second album from this multi-national project.

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

A dozen guests added percussion and vocals to this album.

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

Corvus Stone II is clocking in at eighty minutes. 

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

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

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

3 points 

 

 

 

Dødsego - Reisen Vol 1 Beyond The Void (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

Three guests added hardanger fiddle, harmonica and vocals.

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

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

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

The music is pretty eclectic and quirky throughout.   

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

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

3.5 points 

 

Scree - Jasmine on a Night in July (2023)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points 

 

Man - Reanimated Memories (2015)

 

The 16th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added pedal steel guitar on three tracks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.5 points 

 

Diaspro - Diaspro (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points 

 

 

Katatonia - Tonight's Decision (1999)

 

The fourth album from this band from Sweden.

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

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

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

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

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

The music is still hard and heavy. 

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

2.5 points 

Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry (1989)

 

The fifth album from this band from USA.

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

Two guests added keyboards and a violin on one track.

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

This album is three quarters of an hour long.  

The music here is progressive metal.

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

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

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

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

2.5 points 

 

Dracula - Dracula (1996)

 

The debut album from this band from Romania.

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

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

This album is three quarters of an hour long. 

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

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

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

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

2 points 

Daltonia - Fragmentos De Un Viaje (2007)

 

The second album from this band from Chile.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.5 points  

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

The debut album from this band from Iceland.

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

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

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

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

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

The music is therefore slightly weird and avant-garde. 

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

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

3 points 

Cen Projekt - Dawnbreak (2024)

 

The 12th album from this band from Germany.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points 

  

Arcadea - The Exodus Of Gravity (2025)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

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

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

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

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

The sound is good throughout.

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

2.5 points 

  

Hällas - Panorama (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from Sweden.

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

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

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

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

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

The music is also melodic and elegant.

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

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

3 points  

Man - Kingdom Of Noise (2009)

 

The 15th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added drums on two tracks.

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

The music is a blend of mainstream rock and Americana. 

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

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

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

1.5 points 

  

Jazz Q - Elegie (1976)

 

The fourth album from this band from the Czech Republic.

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

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

The music on this forty minutes long album is fusion.

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

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

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

3 points

 

  

Third Eye - Connexion (1977)

 

The second album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points 

 

 

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