Kronstad 23 - Sommermørket (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

Two guests added saxophones.

This band is one of the many new, very good jazz/fusion bands coming out of Norway lately. Their debut album a good debut album.

The album is clocking in at forty-two minutes and the album was more or less recorded live in the studio.

The music is a bit of a mixed bag. 

The first half an hour of this album is a jazz album with some fusion influences. The final five to ten minutes contain some raga rock performed with a sitar.

The music is mainly performed by electric guitars, half-acoustic guitars and organs. There are also some piano, moog and saxophones here too. There are some very good solos here.

The music is pretty understated throughout. The details are subtle and this album demands the full attention of the listener. 

The quality of the music is good and this is another good album from this band. Check out this band.

3 points 

 

 

Katanoia - Dance Of December Souls (1993)

 

The debut album from this band from Sweden.

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

One guest, Dan Swano, added keyboards and backing vocals.

I actually bought this album, released on No Fashion Records, on the day of it's release as I had been pretty impressed by the mini CD Jhva Elohim Meth from 1992. Katatonia were a very exciting band back then and different from most other extreme metal bands. They are still regarded as a very interesting band.

I will review their fourteen studio albums this year, starting with this album.

This album clocks in at fifty-five minutes. The music is doomy death metal. There are also some early black metal influences in their music.

It is fair to say that this band bridges the music of the likes of (early) My Dying Bride and the death/black metal scene anno 1992-93. 

The vocals are harsh black metal'ish, but still pretty good. The music is pretty melodic and at times a bit progressive too.

The music is pretty good throughout and this is a pretty impressive debut album. It is also one of the better debut albums in the extreme metal genre.

2.5 points 

 

Fates Warning - The Spectre Within (1985)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

One guest added keyboards to this album.

Their 1984 debut album Night On Brocken was an Iron Maiden copycat album and did not really indicate where this band was heading. See my review from earlier this month.

The fifty minutes long The Spectre Within moved away from the Iron Maiden type of heavy metal. The break was not complete, though. Nevertheless, the band moved much more in the direction of power metal, German power metal, and progressive metal on this album.

Progressive metal was still in it's infancy back then. The Spectre Within is indeed one of the first albums in this genre. The music is still not fully progressive metal. 

The light, screaming male vocals and guitars are pretty good. The music is pretty powerful and heavy. There are some progressive metal here although most of the music is more power metal than progressive metal. There are still some Iron Maiden heavy metal here too.

The music sounds a bit dated but is still decent enough. The vocals are an acquired taste. I am not really won over by this album. 

2 points  

 

Plantoid - Terrapath (2024)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This has just released their second album. I thought it would be both wise and just to review their debut album before I review their new album sometime next week.

The music on this forty minutes long album is a blend of psych rock and jazz.  

The music is mid-tempo, quirky, melodic and it has some good female vocals. The music has a very good vibe too.

The guitars are really good here too and is, together with the vocals, carrying the music. The vocals are also working as an instrument throughout most of the album.

The music is full of interesting details and this makes this an engaging album.

This is indeed a good album and a more than acceptable debut album. A band I have added to my list of top talents. Check out this album.

3 points 

 

Pacheco. Fernando - Himalaia (1986)

 

The one and only album from this artist from Brazil.

Fernando Pacheco did the guitars here.

He got help from numerous guests on drums, bass, guitars, violin, keyboards, flute, clarinet and voice.

This album was originally released on an half an hour long LP before the CD re-release added another ten minutes of music, making this a forty minutes long album. I am here reviewing the CD re-release.

The music here is symphonic prog with a lot of Latin-folk rock influences. There are also some neo-classical music influences here throughout this album.

Both Kayak and in particular Camel are good references here. 

There is a lot of melodic guitars, flutes and keyboards here. The sound and music are both lush and colourful. It is also pastoral throughout. 

The quality is good throughout and this is indeed a good album. It is also a bit of a hidden gem who deserve a lot more attention.

3 points 

 

Costa. Alfio & Piazzi. Stefano - Morgana 1994 2024 (2025)

 

The debut album from this duo from Italy.

Alfio Costa did the piano, keyboards and vocals here. Stefano Piazzi did the guitars and vocals.

Two guests added drums and vocals.

This forty minutes long album is a radical rework of Prowlers thirty years old album Morgana. An album I have never really rated as a classic RPI album. Prowlers were a good RPI band but never really among the best or more interesting RPI bands in my opinion. 

Both Stefano Piazzi and Alfio Costa played on the original album. 

The music is stripped down and based on piano and vocals. It is also pretty dark and brooding. The music is mostly slow and does not have many interesting details.

The sound is downtuned and not particularly good. The vocals are pretty good. 

The music is too pedestrian and does not have enough variations to hold the attention of the listener throughout these forty minutes.

This is a pretty decent album. I don't think the original album was this bad. Sorry, Alfio and Stefano...

1.5 points 

Rostro Del Sol - Rostro Del Sol (2021)

 

The debut album from this band from Mexico.

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

Three guests added djembe, bass and saxophone.

This is another band that has released three albums and whose albums are up for review in the next couple of weeks.  

The music on this forty minutes long album is a blend of fusion and hard rock.

The music is instrumental and it is both loud and hard. 

The music is also wild with some good guitar solos and some good retro sounding organs. The sound is a blend of 1970s hard rock and fusion plus today's more temporary sound. Mostly the 1970s sound, it has to be said.

There are also some more mid-tempo fusion here too. 

The musicianship is very good and the music is really good too. This is another good debut album and one to check out. The album is a name-your-price Bandcamp album. Hence, get it.

3 points 

 

Roolaart. Anton - Dreamer (2007)

 

The debut album from this artist from USA.

Anton Roolart did the guitars, keyboards, programming and vocals.

A number of guests added drums, bass, slide guitars, cello, keyboards, narration and backing vocals.

Anton Roolart has so far released three albums and they are all up for review in the coming two weeks in this blog.

Dreamer is clocking in at fifty minutes and US symphonic prog is the genre here. 

There are some Rennaissance, Genesis, Yes and Kansas in thei music. There are also some Dutch neo-prog in the music here.

The music is songs based and it is melodic. Anton and the guests did a good job on their respective instruments and the vocals is good.

There are some decent stuff and some good stuff here. This is an acceptable debut album and I am looking forward to listen to the two other albums too.

2.5 points 

Major Parkinson - Valesa Chapter II Viva the Apocalypse! (2026)

 

The sixth album from this band from Norway.

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

A number of guests added percussion, guitars, woodwinds and vocals.

The band returned after four years with the second chapter of the Valesa story. 

This three quarters of an hour long album. Their first five albums has been really good and this is one of the best Norwegian bands at the moment.

There is a lot going on here on this album. The music is a blend of heavy prog, art-rock, vaudeville rock and actually... funky brass rock.

There is some brass/woodwinds on this album. This on some songs who clearly are in the brass rock genre. These songs are funky too.

Most of the music is pretty hard and very quirky. There is a strong fun party feeling on this album. Some Frank Zappa influences are also evident here. There are also some Sgt Peppers era The Beatles influences here too.

This is both a strange and engaging album. The quality is also good throughout this album. An album that will win this band a lot of new admirers.

3 points 

  

Man - Endangered Species (2000)

 

The 12th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added percussion.

The band soldiered on with this one hour long album.

The music here is mainstream rock. 

The band, Man, we knew from the 1970s has totally gone away on this album. This despite of still retaining the core of that 1970s version of Man. Deke Leonard is still here.

The vocals are pretty good. The band does a good job on some half-decent songs.

This album is pretty painful, this hour long album is pretty painful for those of us who like their first albums. There are some decent songs here and some pretty dire songs. This album is not worthy their good name and reputation.

1.5 points  

 

 

Jazz Q - Pozorovatelna (1973)

 

The debut album from this band from the Czech Republic.

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

Two guests added violin and vocals.

This is a new band to me and I am reviewing their, so far, twelve albums during the next months. This is something I am really looking forward to do.

This, their debut album is clocking in at forty minutes and the music is fusion. References is the likes of Return To Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra.

There are a lot of guitar and organ solos here. The music is pretty jazzy and fast. 

The music is also very intense at times. There is also some more pastoral, quiet pieces here.

The sound is very good and that makes this album a lot more interesting. 

The quality is good throughout this album. This is an album that fusion and jazz fans should check out.

3 points 

 

 

Skinner Project - Sound Connections (2021)

 

The second album from this band from Brazil.

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

This album clocks in at three quarters of an hour and it has been released through Bandcamp.

I have reviewed both their debut album and their newest album in this blog. Two good albums. That is why I was really looking forward to reviewing this album. 

The music here is neo-prog with some heavy prog influences.

Skinner Project is one of the too few bands who are blending in some pretty heavy Rush influences with neo-prog. That is playing on the heart strings of a Rush fan. Mine heart strings, in other words.  

The music is melodic, muscular and intricate. The vocals are good. 

The overall quality is good and that makes this a likeable album from a very very likeable band. Check out this band.

3 points   

 

Roswell Six - Terra Incognita A Line in The Sand (2010)

 

The second album from this project from USA.

The project was a ten plus members big project with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, cello, violin, keyboards, flute and vocals.

This project was put together by Shawn Gordon from ProgRock Records and he got Erik Norlander and Kevin J. Anderson to write the music and the lyrics.

Two albums were released 2009-2010. Albums I thought I had already reviewed when I got and reviewed their third and latest album, the 2025 opus Terra Incognita: Unchartered Shores at the end of last year (see my review somewhere else in this blog). I was wrong. Hence these two reviews in the last weeks. 

The album is clocking in at sixty-six minutes. The music is a rock opera and it is a blend of progressive metal, heavy prog and more musicals like songs. There is a notable Middle-East ambience here in the music too. The rock opera has a Middle-East/Arabic theme so that is only logical.

The music is a bit heavier on this album than on the debut album. 

Henning Pauly is the main musician here as he is doing the drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and programming. 

Michael Sadler is again involved as a vocalist. He has this time been joined by the likes of Steve Walsh, Arjen Lucassen, Charlie Dominici and numerous other vocalists.  

The sound is good. Some of the music is good too. There are some decent stuff here too. The Middle-East music elements is cool and is adding a lot to this pretty good album. If rock opera is your thing...

2.5 points 

 

 

Polychrome - Someday (2026)

 

The second album from this band from France.

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

Their 2022 debut album Equilibrium was a good album that set some high expectations for their follow up album(s). 

The fifty minutes long Someday takes us into a jazzy art-rock landscape. 

The music is sometimes also pretty trippy too. There is indeed some electro art-rock here. There are also some jazz here in addition to some quirky art-rock.

Quirky and playful is the two words that springs to mind when listening to this album. The music is also melodic and elegant.

The music is very good throughout. There is also a great deal of variation here. The music never feel disjointed though. 

This band is one of the better talents in today's European prog scene. This album and the debut album should be checked out.

3.5 points  

 

 

Boston - Life, Love And Hope (2013)

 

The sixth album from this band from USA.

The band was now it's founder Tom Scholz on drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Some guests added percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, harmonica, flute and vocals.

Their previous album Corporate America (2002) was a pretty disappointing pop-metal album and a disaster according to the band owner Tom Scholz. 

The forty minutes long Life, Love And Hope should therefore be an improvement, if Tom Scholz had learned the lessons from Corporate America.

Some of the music here is reworked ideas and songs from that album. Brad Delph's vocals appear on some tracks, long after his passing. There are also a lot of female vocals here.

The music is a blend of pop-metal and mainstream rock/pop.

The music is wishy washy bland and there is not much to be enjoyed on this album. This is an album even worse than Corporate America and an album best ignored.

1.5 points 

 

  

Cortex - Inedit 79 (2006)

 

The fourth and final album from this band from France.

The band was a duo here with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, strings, keyboards, woodwinds, balafon and vocals.

This album was released in 2006. Despite the good sound, I believe this is an album with archive material from the late 1970s.  

This fifty-five minutes long album takes us back to the brass rock, funk and disco scene in the late 1970s.

There is a lot of woodwinds/brass here and the music is groovy. Very groovy. The vocals are also very groovy.

There are also some ballads here and they are not exactly an improvement on the rest of the stuff here.

This album is by a large margin their worst album and a pretty dire album in it's own right. I will remember this band for their first two albums and rather forget this album.

1.5 points 

 

 

Perevod - The Kingdom of Forgotten Whales (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Ukraine.

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

A handful of guests added narrations and vocals.

I reviewed their 2022 album Sons And Daughters earlier this month and was pretty impressed by it. That album contained some modern prog in the vein of Porcupine Tree.

The three quarters of an hour long The Kingdom Of Forgotten Whales is something different again...

This is a concept album and the story is far out weird. The story is told in pretty heavily accented English narrations.

The music is mostly symphonic prog with some neo classical music and heavy prog influences. 

The vocals are mostly female vocals and the narrations are both male and female voices.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. There are some good pieces here and some not so good pieces. This album is a bit of a step in the wrong direction, compared to their superior debut album.

2.5 points 

 

 

 

Uriah Heep - High And Mighty (1976)

 

The ninth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, tubular bells, bass, guitars, piano, organ, keyboards, electric piano, moog, melotron and vocals.

The band continued on with this forty minutes long album.

The band was by now one of the greatest hard rock bands on this planet. They were touring this planet and got zillions of fans. They still do, actually.

The music on this album were a blend of hard rock, stadium rock and rock'n'roll.

The music is pretty catchy and also pretty melodic.

The music is not particularly interesting though. It is bare-boned rock'n'roll and hard rock. 

The music is decent enough but this album is not their finest hour.

2 points 

 

 

Carpani. Alex - So Close, So Far (2016)

 

The fourth album from this artist from Italy.

Alex Carpani did the keyboards, programming and vocals here.

He had help from a handful of guests who added drums, bass, guitars and additional vocals.

Alex returned after a two years long album break with this fifty minutes long album.

Alex Carpani delivered symphonic prog on the first three albums and I was expecting the same on this album. That is not quite what I got here....

OK, there are some symphonic prog here. But Alex Carpani has moved a lot towards the territory occupied by the likes of Porcupine Tree. The music is a lot more mainstream too.

There is indeed some strong neo-prog influences here too. The music is very melodic. It still has some good details.

Most of the music falls a bit short, quality wise. The vocals is good and the guests does a good job. This is his weakest album so far. It is still a pretty good album and worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Skinner Project - Stoic Waves Voyage II (2019)

 

The debut album from this band from Brazil.

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

I reviewed their latest album, To Earth With Love (2025) in November 2025 and gave it a good rating. I then found their first two albums and put them on my long list of to-do reviews. Both albums are up for reviews this week, in other words.

This album is clocking in at half an hour and the music is a blend of neo-prog and heavy prog. Mostly neo-prog, though. The Rush influence is bringing heavy prog into play here.

Their take on neo-prog is very much the British 1990s version of this genre. Their take on Rush is also from the same era. The sound is thankfully updated to this side of the millennium.

The vocals are good and ditto for the synths and the guitars.

There is a lot to like on this album. The Rush influences make a Rush fan's heart (mine !) beat a bit faster. The overall quality is really good too. This is a band that deserves a lot more attention.

3 points 

 

 

  

Roswell Six - Terra Incognita Beyond The Horizon (2009)

 

The debut album from this project from USA.

The project was a ten plus members big project with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, cello, violin, keyboards, flute and vocals.

This project was put together by Shawn Gordon from ProgRock Records and he got Erik Norlander and Kevin J. Anderson to write the music and the lyrics.

Two albums were released 2009-2010. Albums I thought I had already reviewed when I got and reviewed their third and latest album, the 2025 opus Terra Incognita: Unchartered Shores at the end of last year (see my review somewhere else in this blog). I was wrong. Hence this review and the review of their second album in some days' time.

This seventy minutes long album is a concept album and the music is a rock opera. To be more precise.. The music is a blend of progressive metal and more poppy neo-prog. There are some ballads here too.

The vocalists on this album are the likes of Michael Sadler, James Labrie, John Payne and Lana Lane. 

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. Those into rock operas should check out this album.

2.5 points 

    

Trk Project - FatherSon (2025)

 

The eight album from this band from Poland.

The band was a father and son band with a lineup of drums, guitars, keyboards, programming and vocals.

Two guests added bass and guitars.

This is a side project of the Trk Project and has also been released as FatherSon - FatherSon (2025). As many others do, I regard it as a Trk Project album.

This fifty minutes long album was released in January 2025, thirteen months ago but I did not become aware of it before I reviewed their most recent album, the 2025 album Alice, earlier this year. 

The music here is a blend of neo-prog and mainstream rock. 

The music is slick, melodic and pretty commercial. There are some mid-tempo songs here and a couple of ballads.  

The music is more or less in line with the latest four of their albums.

The vocals is good and the sound is good. The music is not particular interesting and this album is one of the least interesting albums from this band I have ever head. It is still a pretty good album though.

2.5 points  

 

  

Boston - Corporate America (2002)

 The fifth album from this band from USA.

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

Numerous guests added drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, narrations and vocals.

The band returned again with this three quarters of an hour long album after a break. 

Brad Delph also returned for the final album in his lifetime. He passed on in 2007. His vocals appeared on the following album, the final Boston album, after his passing.

The music here is a blend of mainstream US rock and pop-metal. Or poodle rock as many, in a derogatory way, would label the music here. 

The music is slick and commercial. The soundscape is big and bold. The descent this pretty good AOR and pomp rock band has made into the pop-metal genre is a pretty painful experience. Nevertheless, this is a (barely) decent album. It is also their worst album up to this point. 

2 points 

 

 

Cortex - Pourquoi (1978)

 

The third album from this band from France.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, piano, organ, electric piano, keyboards, saxophones and trumpet.

A handful of guests added electric piano, clavinet and vocals. 

Their first two albums were funky fusion albums with some female voices used as instruments. Both albums are pretty good and gave me some high hopes for this album, Pourquoi.

The album is clocking in at forty-two minutes and the music is a blend of fusion, funk, pop and Canterbury scene.

There is a lot of male and female vocals on the top of this blend. Good vocals too. Some of the music reminds me a lot about disco too.

Some of the vocals are in French and this gives the album a distinctive French vibe. The English vocals drags this album into a much more Anglo-American pop landscape.

Some of the music is rather good. The majority is decent enough. This is a decent enough album and their so far weakest effort.

2 points 

 

Van Dool. Tenk and Paul Sears - Basal Ardor (2026)

The second album from this band from USA.

 

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

 

A handful of guests added bass, woodwinds, flutes and vocals.

 

I got this three quarters of an hour long album submitted to the blog a couple of weeks ago. It has taken this album this long to get to the top of this long list of new albums. A nice luxury problem for a small blog.

 

This duo has an ex The Muffins member (Paul Sears) and a Temple Of Switches member (Tenk Van Dool). I have reviewed the Temple Of Switches albums in all the previous three editions of this blog. Albums I have given good ratings. 

 

I have yet to sample their 2024 debut album Aperiodic Grok. The music on Basal Ardor is a blend of dream pop, jazz and art-rock.

 

There are some dreamy female vocals here who works as instruments. The flutes is also adding some colours to a rather sparse soundscape. There are some half-acoustic and electric guitars here. The guitar solos are understated but still good.

 

The music is eclectic and bordering to being avant-garde. The music is still pretty melodic and the quality is good throughout.

 

This is not an album for everyone. It is still a rewarding album and one to check out if eclectic prog is your cup of tea.

 

3 points 

   

 

 

 

Idioverse - Resin (2012)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

I cannot really explain (to myself) how and why I ended up with their five albums. But that is how it is. I will review them in the upcoming weeks.

This album clocks in at forty-two minutes and it is a name-your-price Bandcamp album.

The music is a blend of art-rock and indie in the vein of Radiohead and The Verve. A primitive version of the two above-mentioned bands, that is.

The music is primitive and pretty dissonant. There is no bass here and that is noticeable. The vocals are pretty good.

The songs are pretty hard and again... dissonant.  

The quality is not impressive. There are some decent pieces of music here and some pretty dire ones too. This is therefore only a half-decent album. I hope their four follow up albums is better than this album.

1.5 points 

 

 

Garybaldi - Nuda (1972)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This band's real debut album was the self-titled Gleemen album from 1970. That was a decent beat and blues album. See my review here.  Gleemen has released three albums and I have reviewed them in # 1 and in this edition of the blog back in September 2025.

I reviewed the second Garybaldi album back in January 2015 in # 1 of this blog and you can read the review here. It was a pretty good album. I have now got the remaining five Garybaldi albums and will review them in the next few weeks.

Gleemen were a blues and rock band. Rhythm'n'blues to be more precise. The change of name to Garybaldi means the band has implemented a lot of Italian pop and prog on this forty minutes long album. The music still has a lot of rhythm'n'blues too.

There is some good vocals and guitars here. Some of the music here is pretty symphonic. This album is indeed an RPI album. 

The music is also pretty good with some really good pieces. 

This album is regarded as an RPI cult classic and I can understand it's status. This is a pretty good album and one everyone into RPI should have in their record collection.

2.5 points 

  

Daltonia - Observador De Un Uni Verso (1999)

 

The debut album from this band from Chile.

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

One guest added vocals on one track.

I got this album through the ProgShine Records 2024 re-release through Bandcamp. I have noticed that the band released their second and final album in 2007 and I have got that album up for release next month.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is a blend of eclectic prog and symphonic prog.

The vocals here are spoken words on the top of some pretty melodic progressive rock.

The spoken words are in Spanish. There are also some King Crimson like pieces here too. 

The music is a bit too pedestrian at times. There is not many good pieces here.

The result is a decent enough album which does not impress. It is still a pretty unusual album due to the spoken words and well worth checking out.

2 points  

 

 

 

 

Circu5 - Circu5 (2017)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a one-man-band with Steve Tilling on drums, peercussion, bass, guitars, piano, calliope, synths and vocals.

A number of guests added drums, guitars, synths and backing vocals.

This is a new band in the UK scene and they have released two albums. I will review the second album sometime in the next couple of weeks.

This fifty minutes long album has a mix of neo-prog, heavy prog and modern mainstream rock.

The music is dynamic with some heavy pieces and some distorted vocals in addition to the pretty good normal vocals. There are some funky stuff here too. I think this is what they call modern prog.

The music is not too bad. Some of the stuff is pretty good. There is also some stuff here who falls flat on it's face. This is therefore a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points 

  

Winter Of Our Years. The - Soundscapes II (2026)

 

The fourth album from this band from Puerto Rico.

The band was a trio with a lineup of bass, guitars, violin, cello, keyboards and drums programming.

This fifty-five minutes long album is the follow up album to last year's Soundscapes album. A pretty good album I reviewed last year.

The piano has gone from this album and we got a largely violin and guitars based album. Add in some keyboards too and you get the picture.

The music is slow to mid-tempo with a couple of faster pieces inbetween.

Camel is a good reference here. Camel with violins, that is.

The music is instrumental and pretty dynamic. There is not many good pieces of music here. But there is some of them and there is some decent pieces here too.

This is therefore a pretty good album but not as good as the first Soundscape album.

2.5 points 

Epignosis - A Month Of Sundays (2019)

 

The third 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 returned again after an eight years long break with this one hour long album.

The music is again US symphonic prog. Robert has not changed much, music-wise, during his three albums under this name Epignosis. 

Again, the music reminds me a lot about the Dutch band US. 

The music is a bit pedestrian singer-songwriter and not so symphonic. The guitars does not have an appealing sound. 

The vocals, both male and female, are good. The songs are pretty long. The longest song is clocking in at twenty-two minutes.

There are some good stuff here and some not so good stuff. The result is a pretty good album. I am not really won over by these three Epignosis albums, I am afraid.

2.5 points 

 

 

Det Skandaløse Orkester - Legenden om Boblemus (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Norway.

The band was a seven pieces big band on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, organ, keyboards, synths, flutes and vocals.

One guest added lead vocals on one track.

I was not particular impressed by the previous album Tenk Om Noen Ser Deg (2018). It was a decent enough album full of Frank Zappa like vaudeville prog. 

Legenden Om Boblemus is clocking in at half an hour and this album marks the band's return after a seven years long album break. 

The band and production is stripped down here and the list of muscians is much reduced from the previous album.

The music is a blend of Frank Zappa ditties and Canterbury scene jazz. There is a lot more instrumental music here too and the amount of vocals has been reduced. The last half of this album is mostly instrumental vaudeville jazz in the Canterbury scene mould.

The music is weird and quirky. This album is also an improvement on the previous album. This is a pretty good album in it's own right.

2.5 points 

 

Spirergy - Wherever Forever (2026)

 

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a one-man-band with Dave Allen on bass, guitars, keyboards, drum programming, programming and vocals.

Dave Allen has had a nice progress on his first two albums. Those two albums have gotten him some fans and positive reviews. Positive reviews in this blog too. 

This album is clocking in at seventy-two minutes and the music is symphonic prog.

The pieces of music are long and epic. They are also melodic and pretty complex too. The vocals and the musicianship is good.

Yes is a good reference here. More so on this album than on the previous two albums.

My only gripe here is that the music could have been a bit more complex and adventurous. Nevertheless, this is a good album. Spirergy's three albums should be checked out by all symphonic prog fans.

3 points 

Boston - Walk On (1994)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

A handful of guests added percussion, guitars and backing vocals.

The band returned again after an eight years long break. This time without Brad Delph who left the band before the recording of this album. The band therefore has a new vocalist. 

This three quarters of an hour long album is a blend of US hard rock, AOR and pomp rock.  

The sound and production are big with multitudes of layers. There are a lot of vocals and guitar harmonies here too.

The music is pretty commercial too.

There are a couple of good songs here and a couple of half decent songs here. Most of the music is decent enough and that makes this a decent album.

2 points 

Fates Warning - Night On Brocken (1984)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

Fates Warning... Thirty years ago I was a big fan of Dream Theatre, another big progressive metal band, and I'm still a (kind of) fan. But Fates Warning never really interested me... before now. I am reviewing all their studio albums this year, starting with their debut album.

The band started out as an Iron Maiden copycat on this three quarters of an hour long album.

The music is in other words early NWOBHM.... New wave of British heavy metal. This translated to the east coast of USA. 

The vocals are a light, shrieking version of Bruce Dickinson/Rob Halford but not as great as those two vocalists. The vocals here is still pretty good.

The guitars are pretty good. Ditto for the bass and drums.

The quality of the songs is pretty decent. The result is a decent album which showcases a need for rapid improvements.

2 points  

 

Nerve Institute. The - Fictions (2015)

 

The third and final album from this band from USA.

The band was a one-man-band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards, organ, synths, tape loops, saxophones, programming and vocals.

Jacob Holm from Norway did keyboards and guitars on a couple of tracks. 

Michael S. Judge is the man using The Nerve Institute as the name for his music. He released his debut album Ficciones under the name Sinthome in 2010. I reviewed the second album, the first album under the The Nerve Institute name, some days ago and really liked that album.

Fading Records, a sub-label of AltRock Productions was again the record label and that means this almost one hour long album contains some really eclectic music.  

Indeed it does. The music is a blend of jazz, eclectic prog, Canterbury scene and art-rock.

The music is both quirky and melodic. The music is flowing nicely and it has a lot of interesting details. The vocals is also good and this makes this album both interesting and pleasing.

This is a good album and it is a shame that this band is no more.

3 points 

 

 

 

Meliora - Viaje Holistico (2018)

 

The debut album from this band from Mexico.

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

This band has so far only released this album. I fear that this band has split up for good.  

This one hour long album came to my attention through a review in ProgArchives three years ago and I got a copy of it through Bandcamp. 

The music here has been labeled as Eclectic Prog in ProgArchives and I agree with that label.

The music is really eclectic with some folk rock, goth rock and jazz influences. The pretty operatic female vocals, good vocals btw, are both in English and Spanish.

The sound is a bit muddy. Ditto for the guitars which has a goth rock sound... at best. A plus for the violin who are adding a lot of colours and indeed quality to this album.

This is an interesting album and also an unusual album. The quality is somewhere between decent and good. Check out this album if eclectic prog is your thing.

2.5 points 

 

 

Lifting Line Theory - The Last Goodbye (2026)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

In other words, Lifting Line Theory is Chris Caroll on all instruments and Little Miss on vocals. 

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is, as on the debut album, a blend of heavy prog and US symphonic prog.

Little Miss vocals are both very good and prominent in the mix. The sound is very good and there is a lot of harmonies, vocals and guitars, on this album.

The music is mostly mid-tempo and the ambience is both warm and inviting.

The music is melodic too. 

The overall quality is good. I had hoped that this duo had kicked on and taken more chances and expanded their music a bit after the release of their debut album. But I cannot complain about this album, though.

3 points 

 

Epignosis - Refulgence (2011)

 

The second 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.

This album is the follow up to the 2009 album Still Water. An album I reviewed earlier this year in this blog. It was a pretty good album.

Refulgence is a fifty minutes long album and the music is again US symphonic prog... sort of. 

The music is mid-tempo with some strong Americana influences in this take on US symphonic prog. 

The music has again some references from and to the Dutch band US. 

The guitars and vocals are pretty good. The female vocals are adding a lot of colours to the music. The sound is pretty good although it is not flawless.

This album is most of all suffering from being the product of a one-man-band. There are not many good details here and the music is a bit pedestrian.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I am still to be won over by Robert...

2.5 points 

 

Det Skandaløse Orkester - Tenk Om Noen Ser Deg (2018)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

The band was a ten pieces big band with a lineup of marimba, percussion, drums, bass, guitars, piano, electric piano, organ, flute, clarinet, saxophones, programming and vocals.

Some guests added bass, musical saw, cello, viola, violin, harp, woodwinds, narration, voices and vocals.

Their 2014 debut album was a good album somewhere between the Canterbury Scene and Frank Zappa's bizarre world. That album were mostly in the Canterbury Scene though and had some good jazzy parts as I noted in my review earlier this year.

Tenk Om Noen Ser Deg is clocking in at thirty-five minutes. 

The band has moved far more towards Frank Zappa's bizarre world on this album. There is a lot of bizarre lyrics and vocals on this album.

The music is indeed quirky and bizarre with a lot of vaudeville rock. The music is drowned out by the vocals and voices. That is my main gripe with this album and why this album is nowhere as good as their debut album. Frank Zappa fans should check out this album.

2 points 

 

Gjenferd - Black Smoke Rising (2026)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

As I wrote in my review back in April 2024 (in the # 3 edition of this blog), their self-titled 2024 debut album was a very good retro-hard rock album. I was therefore happy to review their new album too.

Black Smoke Rising is clocking in at forty minutes.

We still get 1970s hard rock here. The band has moved a lot closer to stoner rock though and the ghosts of Black Sabbath sometimes come through in their music.

There is also some arena rock here too and the sound is very much the 1970s sound.

The vocals are good and ditto for the guitars. The Hammond organ is vintage and very good.

The overall quality is not as good as their very good debut album. This is still a good album and an album fans of 1970s hard rock will love.

3 points 

 

 

Man - Call Down the Moon (1995)

 

The 11th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This one hour long album is their second album after they reformed in 1983.  

Their comeback album, the 1992 opus The Twang Dynasty was an Americana based album and a decent one. It was an album which did not have much in common with the band's music from the 1970s.  

The band has thanfully replaced a lot of their Americana with some more hard rock and psych rock. The band has tried to replicate some of the music from the 1970s. 

There is still some Americana here and the music is songs based. The music is chorus-verse-chorus based in other words.  

Although this album is a slight improvement on The Twang Dynasty, the music here is still not particular good. This is a decent enough album but nothing more than that.

2 points 

Cortex - Vol. 2 (1977)

 

The second album from this band from France.

The band was a seven-piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, Fender Rhodes, piano, organ, MiniKorg, clavinet, saxophones and vocals.

Their 1975 debut album Troupeau Bleu is regarded as a cult-classic in French and European prog rock and fusion. It is a pretty good album as I wrote in my last month's review of this album.

Vol 2 is much more a straight fusion album than the Troupeau Bleu album. It clocks in at forty minutes and the music is groovy fusion. 

There are some female voices here used as instruments. Besides of that, the music is instrumental.

The music is also pretty funky throughout.

The music has some good organ, guitars, piano and saxophone solos.  

The fusion here is pretty standard but still pretty good. It is an interesting album, indeed.

2.5 points 

 

   

 

Nerve Institute. The - Architects Of Flesh Density (2011)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a one-man-band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards, organ, synths, tape loops, saxophones, programming and vocals.

Michael S. Judge is the man using The Nerve Institute as the name for his music. He released his debut album Ficciones under the name Sinthome in 2010. I have not been able to find that album yet. The third and final album Fictions was released in 2015 and I will post a review of that album next week.

Architects Of Flesh Destiny is clocking in at one hour and the music is eclectic, as you would expect from an album released on the Fading Records label, a sub-label of AltRock Productions in Italy. 

There is a lot of jazz influences on this album. Strictly speaking, this is not an eclectic prog album as the music is far too melodic for that. There is indeed some symphonic prog here, blended pretty good with the jazz. There is also some notable Canterbury scene influences in this music.

There are some sporadic vocals here. Most of the music is instrumental. The music is also playful and quirky throughout. It is also pretty heavy at times.

The overall quality is pretty good. There are some decent stuff here and some good stuff. This is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

    

  

Meliora - Everything's Amazing Nobody's Happy (2018)

 

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

I have no idea who this band from Denver, Colorado is and what became of them after the release of this Bandcamp album. An album that has been hanging around in my collection for years. 

The music on this forty minutes long album is a blend of indie rock and dream-pop. 

The vocals are female vocals and they are on the top of the bass, cello and guitars. The vocals are also pretty dominant on this songs based album. 

The album title very much describes the music and the mood here. The music is melancholic. It is also at times pretty beautiful. There are also some contrasts here with some infrequent screamo vocals and dissonant guitars.

Indie and dream-pop are not really my genres. I still find this album pretty good and enjoyable. This is not progressive rock. Still.....

2.5 points 

 

 

Millenium - The Lost Melodies (2025)

 

The 19th album from this band from Poland.

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

Two guests added extra vocals on a couple of tracks.

This band has been around and releasing albums since 1999. I have reviewed most of them, if not all of them. A leading member of Millenium, Ryzsard Kramarski, also has his own project called Trk Project and I reviewed their last album some days ago.

Millenium is the most prolific and productive band in the Polish prog-rock scene today.  

The music on this one hour long album is melodic, elegant and slick.

The vocals are light and good. The music is very slick and pop-music like at time. Millenium's last albums has been bordering to pop-music and this album is no exception. There are some soppy ballads here with ditto soppy lyrics.

That said, the music is pretty good throughout. The ballads are pretty poor and the music is too slick. Nevertheless, this is a pretty good album.

2.5 points 

Tempano - Nowhere Now Here (2017)

 

The tenth album from this band from Venezuela.

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

Two guests added violin and sax on one track.

This album is probably the final album from this band, whose debut album was released back in 1980. Their albums are a mixed bag of dire pop albums and good progressive rock albums. 

This fifty minutes long album has a mix of neo-prog and Porcupine Tree like art-rock.

The vocals are all in English and the vocals are good. All their previous Latin-Progressive rock influences are absent on this album and it feels like this album could have been released by a US or a British band.

There is lot of keyboards and and guitars here. The music is mid-tempo and pretty elegant. 

The overall quality is good. If this is the final ever album from this band, they have left the scene on a high.

3 points 

   

Sigmund Freud - Risveglio (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, moog, mellotron, synths, flute, sax and vocals.

This band were founded in 1972 and did some gigs in the 1970s. But the band did not enter the studio. Then there was a long silence before the band resurfaced with a studio recording of their 1970s songs. 

This seventy minutes long album contains fifty minutes of a new studio album and twenty minutes of some cobbled-together sounds from the 1970s. Mostly live tracks. 

The music here is classic RPI.

The music is mid-tempo with some strong symphonic prog influences. There is still some folk rock influences here too.

The Italian vocals is really good and the flutes are good too. 

There are also some good moog, mellotron and guitars here. 

The result is a very good album and one of the best RPI albums from last year. I doubt this band will release any more albums so this is a one-off album and one to be treasured.

3.5 points 

 

Maze Of Time - Look Beyond The Shadows (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Sweden.

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

The band returned a couple of months ago after a thirteen years long album break.

The music on this forty minutes long album is classic Scandinavian symphonic prog. 

The band is walking down the same path they walked on in their first three albums.

The music is melodic with a lot of guitars, guitar solos and keyboards. The vocals are melodic and earthly. Their music is more in the vein of Kaipa than the other big band in the scene, The Flower Kings.

The music is pretty muscular, but never really heavy. The music is both elegant and classic. It still has some bites and it is never uninteresting. It has a lot of interesting details.

This album is one of the biggest surprises of last years. Firstly because I did not expect this album and secondly because of the quality of the music here.

This indeed a very good album and a Scandinavian symphonic prog smorgasboard. 

3.5 points 

Uriah Heep - Return to Fantasy (1975)

 

The eight album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Two guests added pedal steel and saxophone on one track.

The band were on a one-album-every-year album cycle. Albums followed up with endless tours. No rest for the band, in other words.

This forty minutes long album follows on from the previous albums. That means a blend of hard rock, psych rock and arena rock.

The vocals is very good and the band does a good job here. The music has the typical 1970s sound. There is one song, the one with the saxophone, who are leaning towards pop music. It is a pretty bad piece of music. The rest of the songs are catchy enough and decent enough. The title-track is pretty good.

This is not among their better albums.

2 points