Magic Pie - Maestro (2025)

 

The sixth album from this band from Norway.

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

The band returned again after a six years long break. 

I have reviewed their first five albums and very much liked them. The band is one of the pioneers in the Norwegian prog rock scene, having released their debut album twenty years ago.

Maestro is fifty minutes long and it starts with a twenty minutes long opus.. Opus Impferfectus. That sets the tone for this album.

The music is a blend of hard prog and symphonic prog. There are some 1970s blues and hard rock influences here too. Rather lots of it too. Queensryche anno Operation Mindcrime also pops up as a reference here.

The music is pretty epic and bold. It has this 1970s hard rock sound and attitude. The vocals is very good, delivered by one of the better vocalists in Norway Eirikur Haukson, an Icelandic vocalist who debuted well over thirty-five years ago on Artch's debut album.

Maestro is not their best album. It is still a good album who will satisfy their fans and everyone into heavy prog.

3 points

  

 

Perilymph - Deux (2019)

 

The second album from this band from France.

The band was a duo where Fabian Sliwka did the drums and Fabian De Menou did the bass, guitars, synths and vocals.

Their debut album I from 2017 was a pretty good, promising space rock album as I wrote in my review earlier this month.

Deux is the thirty-five minutes long follow up album. 

The music is still dreamy space rock with some dream pop influences. There is also some post-rock influences here.

The space rock here is softly spoken. The synths, guitars, bass and electronics is gentle, but still dynamic. The few vocals are more in the back of the mix and works as an extra layer of instruments.

There are a few guitar solos here who adds some quality and spice to this album. 

There is a lot of small details here who spices of the pretty good melodies. Melodies elevated to good melodies by these small details.

The result is a good album and one space rock fans should check out.

3 points

  

Qumma Connection - Arabesque (2008)

 

The debut album from this band from Finland.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, guitars, chapman stick, cello, keyboards, synths and programming.

Some guests added a female choir.

This band has so far released six albums and they are all up for reviews in this blog in the coming weeks.

..Starting with this, the debut album..

The band's appeal to me was it's inclusion in the neo-prog genre, according to ProgArchives. That is not the case for this seventy-two minutes long album.

Take eclectic prog, King Crimson from their Red era, blend it with some fusion and cinematic prog. That is when you get these seventy-two minutes.

The first one hour is instrumental eclectic prog. The final twelve minutes has a female choir with wordless vocals as in a funeral dirge.

The music is indeed dark and brooding. It even has some hints, menacing zeuhl influences.  

The music is pretty sparse on original, interesting details and themes. It sounds too much run-of-a-mill. The cello is cool and ditto for the female choir. 

The result is a decent enough album. I hope the five remaining albums are better than this album.

2 points 

Cormorano - Obliquizioni d'Autunno..... (2023)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

This band were active in the 1970s RPI scene before they took a break and then album debuted in year 1990 with EP Verde Azzurro and in year 2000 with the full-length album Giro Tondo. Two releases very difficult to find and I have now given up on them.

Folk rock and jazz influenced RPI is what we get on this almost fifty minutes long album. 

The music is very flowery with some Dimitri Stratos influenced vocals. A bit over the top at times, but still very good vocals who adds a lot of colours and quality to this album. The keyboards and guitars are good too.  

The music is melodic and mid-tempo without being hard. Neither is it particular soft and pop orientated.

Lush RPI is the best label here.

This album is sadly a bit overlooked. Nevertheless, this is an album RPI fans should check out. 

3 points 

Balloon Astronomy - Balloon Astronomy (2011)

 

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

The band had some good help from some guests who added percussion, drums, guitars and clarinet. 

This duo recorded this album and has later released three singles between 2021 and 2022. Their further plans is not known.

Mike Keneally and Nick D'Virgilo were among the guests on this fifty minutes long album. The music is melodic neo-prog. US neo-prog, that is. Which means lots of symphonic prog and some art-rock influences. 

Both Neal Morse and Genesis is good references here, indeed. 

The music is also pretty complex and symphonic at times. The vocals is good and ditto for the keyboards.

This album is a bit of a hidden gem, in fact. There is a lot here to be very pleased about. 

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

3 points

 

Edensong - Our Road to Dust (2025)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

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

The band returns nine years after their last album Years In The Garden Of Years. A pretty good album according to my review in # 2 of this blog. I have yet to review their 2008 debut album The Fruit Fallen. A review of that album will follow before the end of the year.

The music on the forty minutes long Our Road To Dust is eclectic to put it nicely...

Take some 'Tull like folk psych rock, add in a lot of vaudeville pop/rock, add in some progressive metal and americana too and you get this album. 

There is a lot of pretty wild vocals here on an album where the music is kicking in all different directions.

The music is not particular logical or linear, let me put it like that. Neither is it melodic as the chaos prevents it from being melodic.

There is some pieces of music which is working here. And some pieces falls a bit short. I am not entirely won over by this album. Check it out if eclectic music is your thing.

2.5 points

 

 

Gongzilla - Suffer (1995)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, vibraphone, marimba, bass, ebow and guitars.

Three guests added drums and vocals.

This band was a Gong side project that released four studio albums and a live album between 1995 and 2008. I got their first two album for review this summer.

Hansford Rowe, Benoit Moerlin and Allan Holdsworth is three of the members here. The music on this one hour long album is fusion.

...Which does not come as a surprise....

There is still some Gong-like whimsical Canterbury scene stuff here in the fusion. The band is very much true to the Gong ethos.

Allan Holdsworth's guitars are really smoking hot here.  The vibraphones and marimbas are also smoking red hot here.

The result is a playful fusion album and a good album too. This is an album well worth checking out and essential if Gong and their jazz/fusion era floats your boat.

3 points 

 

 

Afforested - Ancient Healing Oakwood Journeys (2022)

 

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is a band I have been following for a while (see reviews in # 2 and # 3 in this blog). They have just released their fifth album. An album I will review this weekend/next week. But before that, it is only right to first review their fourth album.

The music on this fourty minutes long album is a blend of psych rock, folk rock and symphonic prog.

The music is instrumental and has a lot of Trace, Jethro Tull and ELP references.  

The music, which is one long piece, fourty minutes long, has a lot of guitars and whistles too. The music is pretty heavy at times. This is by no means a gentle hippie album. 

Some of the pieces here are pretty cheesy and not really up to an acceptable standard. Too much of this album is cheesy.

This is a decent album and well worth checking out. This album is far from being their best album.

2 points 

 

 

Flower Kings. The - Love (2025)

 

The 17th album from this band from Sweden.

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

A handful of guests added percussion, accordion and vocals.

The masters of the Scandinavian symphonic prog scene returned again with this, a seventy-two minutes long album.

The music is again symphonic prog with some folk rock influences. This is the brand of symphonic prog this band debuted with after Roine Stolt left Kaipa and this is what the band now, thankfully, has returned to. Love is a back to basics album. 

There is not so many jazz and fusion influences on this album as on previous albums. Well, there is none of those influences whatsoever here.

The sound is very good and as expected from this band... the band who, together with Kaipa, invented the Swedish symphonic prog sound.  

The vocals and the guitars, everything here is very good. The music is good to very good. This is still a very good album from the maestros of this scene. 

3.5 points

 

 

 

Magnum - Vigilante (1986)

 

The sixth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Two guests added saxophones and backing vocals.

The album is partly produced by Roger Taylor from Queen too.   

This is the follow up album to their breakthrough album, the 1985's On A Storyteller's Night. That was a good album, indeed.

The three quarters of an hour long Vigilante sees the band change a bit direction again. AOR and arena rock is their new direction. Add in some pop and some pomp rock too and you get the drift.

The music is in short very melodic and based on catchy, shorter tunes.

The title track is pretty good and the best song here. The rest of the songs is of a decent quality and not bad at all. 

Those into AOR and pomp rock should check out this album. An album not living up to the expectitons set on their previous album On A Storyteller's Night. 

2 points

 

Leprous - Pitfalls (2019)

 

The seventh album from this band from Norway.

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

Some guests added cello, violin and a female choir.

The band returned two years after their very good Malina album.

This album clocks in at around one hour. 

It is really difficult to label the music on this album and the band's music in general. Melodic, theatrical progressive metal is my latest attempt on labeling this unique band and their music.

Einar Solberg is one of the best vocalists in the progressive metal genre... and indeed in the progressive rock genre. He is a massive part of their sound and music.  

The music is both very complex and a bit melodic. This is not easy listening. The music is though engaging and fascinating. 

While this album scores high on originality, the quality of the songs is not always great. Nevertheless, this is a very good album and another proof that Leprous is one of the more exciting bands in the scene.

3.5 points 

Artnat - The Mirror Effect (2021)

 

The debut album from this band from Portugal.

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

This band has just released their second album. I hope to review that album later this year. In preparations for that, this is a review of their debut album.

The band's and ProgArchives claim that this is a symphonic prog album made me get this album. We can never get too much symphonic prog.

Hmm...

This album clocks in at one hour and one minute. The music is much more eclectic prog than symphonic prog.

For a start, the vocals are female vocals. The music here has got folk rock, jazz and art rock influences. There are a few symphonic prog influences too but this music is too esoteric to really be labeled symphonic prog.

The music is very, very complex and bold. Hence the esoteric tag this music deserves.

The guitars are also esoteric with some wild solos. They are also good....very good at places. The vocals is also very good.

I really want to give this album a good rating. There are some substandard pieces here I cannot ignore.

This is a very promising debut album and I hope their new album sees the band grow and writing better pieces of music. Check out this album.

2.5 points  

 

Armoury Way - The Ram (2024)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band comes from the south coast of England.... Southampton to be more precise. The band's probable average age is around fifty years.

This album is sixty-three minutes long and the music is a blend of neo-prog with some early symphonic prog and folk rock. Genesis, Marillion, Jethro Tull and Ange springs to mind when it comes to references.

The vocals, English vocals, still reminds me a lot about Ange's and Magnesis vocals. Yes, two very different languages but the style of vocals is pretty similar. And that is a compliment to Ashley Stone, the vocalist in this band. His vocals are indeed very good.

The music is both epic and a bit complex. There are some nice keyboards generated organ and church organs pieces here too.

The songs are long and twisting.

The music is rather good with the keyboards being the stars here. This is very much a promising debut album and I hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3 points 

 

  

 

 

Miller. Rick - Perspective (2025)

 

The 19th album from this artist from Canada.

Rick Miller did the keyboards, electronics and vocals here.

He got help from a handful of guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, guitars, cello, violin, oboe and flute.

I have had the joy of reviewing all his albums in # 3 of this blog and that was a journey. 

Last year's record One Of The Many was one of his best albums... if not his best album. The music can be compared to the Anthony Philips era Genesis with some folk rock and americana influences.

It was a positive development. A development which continues on this album, the follow up album. 

We get fifty minutes of clever music in the early symphonic prog era. This comes with some very good vocals, guitars and strings. The sound and production is first class. 

Most of the music is hymn like and slow. Slow and elegant with the very good vocals on the top.

The quality of the music is very good and this album is among his three best ever albums. Check out this album.

3.5 points

  

Random Earth Project - Changes (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Some guests added guitars, vocals and drums programming.

This band has so far released two albums. A review of their fairly good debut album was added some days ago in this blog.

The music on this one hour long album is mainstream rock with some folk rock and psych rock influences.

The music is melodic and has some good musicianship and vocals. The keyboards is very good at times. It even has some vintage organ sound now and then.

The sound is also good here.

The songwriting is better this time around and to a good standard.

I just wish the band had moved their songwriting more towards progressive rock.... That aside...

3 points 

 

 

 

Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The - Union Cafe (1993)

 

The fifth and final album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a ten plus pieces big orchestra with a lineup of percussion, strings, piano, electronics and woodwinds.

The band was still on Virgin Records and they were still a disciple of Brian Eno. That makes me believe that the band was not exactly Richard Branson and his Virgin Records top priority.....

We get one hour and fifteen minutes worth of chamber orchestra neo-classical music. There is a nice blend of woodwinds and strings, with the occasional help of piano, on this album. 

The music is melodic and a bit naive. It lacks a lot in complexity.

This band's name is more exciting and interesting than their music is my conclusion based on their five albums and my reviews of them.

This is a decent enough album but just that.

2 points 

 

Zio Crocifisso - Campana di Legno Trappola.. (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

A dozen guests added vibraphone, violin, saxophone, vocals and choir.  

This new band includes members of SKE, Not A Good Sign and Yugen. 

It is disputed if this is their debut album or the second album. A half an hour long EP named Campana Di Legno was released last year. That EP is indeed included in this album and twenty minutes of additional songs has been added to make the album I am here reviewing. Confusing ? Yes, indeed. 

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of RPI, avant-garde prog and post-metal. If pressed, I would still label this as RPI taken into account that Picchio Dal Pozzo and Area is regarded as RPI bands. That again is nitpicking and pedantic. 

The music is very complex. It has a lot of metal and indeed extreme metal stuff too. This in addition to some avant-garde prog and...wait for it.... melodic RPI like pieces.

This is not easy listening, the music here.

The quality is good and this is an engaging and pretty fascinating album well worth checking out. I sincerely hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3 points 

 

Papir Meets Electric Moon - The Papermoon Sessions (2013)

 

The fourth album from this band from Denmark.

This cooperation between Papir and Electric Moon had a lineup of drums, bass, guitars and synths. Altogether six musicians was involved here.

Papir and Electric Moon had released some albums on their own before they decided to combine their talents and record an album together.

The result is two long songs and one shorter song. Altogether, we get three quarters of an hour long album here.

The music is space rock. This is the more outer space variant of space rock.

Long pieces of music with guitars and some sound effects where the bass and the drums are thundering along. The music is neither songs based or melody based. 

The sound is good. The music is really groovy throughout this album.

The music is off course a more compromise between Papir's more structured take on space rock and Electric Moon's more improvisations based space rock.  

The result is still a very good album and one to check out if space rock fuels your spaceship. Check it out.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Pallas - The Dreams of Men (2005)

 

The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

A handful of guests added fiddle, male and female vocals. 

This band from Aberdeen up in the far north-east of Scotland returned again after a four years long break.

This time with a seventy-two minutes long opus. The music is a crossover between neo-prog, symphonic prog and heavy prog.

The music is very muscular at times. It is also epic and very complex most of the times. It has some good Scottish folk rock influences on a couple of tracks, mostly on the great Ghostdancers track. 

The other great track here is Invincible, an eleven minutes long epic symphonic prog piece of music.

The vocals is great and ditto for the guitars.

This is by far their best album so far and a great album in it's own right. This is also one of the better albums ever to come out of Scotland.

4 points

  

 

Apokalypsis - 1975 (2005)

 

The one and only album from this band from Brazil.

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

This fifty minutes long album is the only sign of life from a pretty influential band in the prog rock scene in Brazil. The band has later surfaced and released three more albums. The last one only some years ago.

The music is a mix of psych and space rock.

The sound is pretty poor and most of this album is a live recording. I believe every single minute of this album is a live album, although this is not stated at all in the blurb around this album.

The music is hard rocking and a bit improvised at times. 

The music is decent enough with some decent vocals. The sound is pretty bad and a big downer. 

This is an archive album, just to prove that this band, who are still active I have been told, were there and alive in the 1970s. That is mostly the only value this album has got.

1.5 points

Alpha Centauri - Walk Into Light (2014)

 

The debut album from this band from Argentina.

The band was a one-man-band with Cristian Abaca on drums, percussion, synths and computers.

Some guests contributed with bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

Cristian Abas has released some albums under this name through Bandcamp. I only got this album and I don't think I will get his other albums.

It is pretty obvious from the chosen bandname that Tangerine Dream is a big inspiration for this thirty-five minutes long album.

There is a lot more to this album than progressive electronics. A lot of space rock, in fact. The label I would put on this album is still progressive electronic with some avant-garde and space rock influences.

The music is still pretty melodic, though.

The music is decent enough, but just that. If Tangerine Dream is your thing, this album may be a good purchase.  

2 points

 

Paatos - Ligament (2025)

 

The sixth album from this band from Sweden.

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

Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth added guitars and vocals on one song.

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

Paatos has so far delivered five good albums. And then there was total silence from the band after their V album in 2012. The band probably split up.

They have now returned with some fresh sounding music. Music which is a mix of art-rock, neo-prog and dream pop.

Petronella Nettermalm's vocals is excellent. The music is complex and intricate. The addition of Mikael on one track and his clean vocals is very good. The sound is good and the band does a very good job on some songs which is pretty good.

The result is a good album. It is great to have this band back again as they are one of the better bands from Sweden. 

3 points 

 

Random Earth Project - Airwaves (2023)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Two guests added guitars, vocals and drums programming.

This band has so far released two albums. A review of their second album will be added in some days time.

The music on this one hour long album is basically straight forward rock with some blues, psych rock and some neo-prog influences incorporated into their take on mainstream rock.

Amanda Lehmann does vocals on one track. They are great. The regular vocalist Kym Blackman also delivers some very good vocals. 

The music is melodic, mid-tempo and pretty muscular. There is one blues track here among these ten tracks.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. This album is a Bandcamp album and worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The - Signs Of Life (1987)

 

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a ten pieces big band with a lineup of percussion, bass, guitars, ukulele, strings, piano and whistle.

The band returned again three years after their last album. That album, Broadcasting From Home, was a bit of an underwhelming album.... see my review.

Signs Of Life is a fifty minutes long album in the chamber orchestra mould. With exception from some percussion, piano and whistle.. the music is performed by strings. That also means guitars and bass. 

The music is very esoteric. It is also melodic and in the neo-classical mould. There is no rock, pop or progressive rock here. Not even some jazz....OK, there are some traces of gypsy jazz here. Django Reinhardt springs to mind on a couple of the tracks here.

The music is also pretty avant-garde at times.

The quality of the music here is decent enough. Their neo-classical music is a bit too esoteric and therefore not really more than decent enough. Hence...

2 points

 

 

Great Wide Nothing - A Shout Into the Void (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

This band album debuted back in 2019 and I have reviewed all their albums in # 2 and # 3 of this blog. Their albums has got favourable, good reviews too. They are all good albums.

This three quarters of an hour long album starts out as a djent album with some extreme metal vocals before the album reveals it's true colours..... neo-prog. 

The band is a neo-prog band and that is what we get here. Early 1990s British neo-prog.

The music is not particular complex. Neither is it poppy or teenybopper as some of the neo-prog albums from that scene were (too) full of. 

The music is melodic, a bit complex and has this naive type of neo-prog we found in the 1990s. The vocals is very good and the best thing here. The songs are a bit on the sub-standard side of the spectrum. This album is their weakest album so far, I am afraid to report. It is still worth a punt.

2.5 points

 

Kraan - Through (2003)

 

The 11th album from this band from Germany.

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

This is their comeback studio album after a twelve years long break. Yes, yes... The band released the Berliner Ring album in 2001. That was a stop-gap studio leftovers album from sessions going back to the 1970s. See my review of that album.

Through is a fifty minutes long album and the music is fusion. There are some minor funk and krautrock influences here too.

The band sounds very refreshed on this album. The music is positive and elegant. This is indeed sunny music and perfect for a sunny day in June... but it is raining here tonight. Still...

The sound is excellent and the vocals is good. The guitars are great and the keyboards is adding a lot to this album too.

The fusion here is very elegant. It is also pretty complex, besides of being melodic. The vocals also gives the music some good teeth. The vocals reminds me a lot about The Tangent. There are indeed some good The Tangent references on this album.... although this album was released before The Tangent album debuted.

The result is a very good album and one of their best ever albums. I am impressed, indeed.

3.5 points

 

 

McKendree Spring - Tracks (1972)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

A couple of guests added pedal steel guitars, woodwinds and vocals.

This forty minutes long album is the second album they released that year. Third (3) was their first album that year and it is a decent enough album. See the review from the 30. May this year.

The music this time around is a blend of country'n'western, folk rock, country rock and psych rock.

Yes, the band branched out and developed their music between these two albums. This album is a bit more hard edged rocking. It is a harder rocking album. The music has some edgy, wild guitar riffs and solos.

The sound and vocals is good. The band does a good job on some decent enough material. There is no prog here but the music is still pleasant enough.

Folk rock fans should check out this album.

2 points

 

 

 

Prowlers - Orchidea (2024)

 

The seventh album from this band from Italy.

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

A handful of guests added acoustic guitars, violin, cello and vocals.

The band returned again after a seven years long break. 

I have in ProgArchives and in # 1 and # 2 reviewed their previous three albums. I have yet to find and review their first three albums and will try to do this now for reviews later this year.

This is album is an almost one hour long album in the good old RPI genre & tradition.

The music is very lush and some of this can be credited Ms. Christina Lucchini's great vocals. 

The music is very much in the same vein as good old Banco and PFM. It is lush with some hints of Italian folk rock and pop. The music is also very complex at times.

The music is good throughout without really delivering great pieces of music. This is an album which is on par with their previous good albums. RPI fans should check out this band.

3 points

 

 

Plackband - After the Battle (2002)

 

The one and only album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

This band was pretty active in the 1970s but did not release anything as they did not get a record deal and the underground scene was not particular big... or healthy enough to sustain self-released LPs. Hence, the band only album debuted a quarter of a century after their best days.

The band and this album has therefore got a semi-classical status. 

The music on this one hour long album is pretty similar to what Genesis did on Trick Of The Tail and that era.

The music is mid-tempo, mellow and pretty complex. It is also melodic and it has got a good ambience. 

The vocals are decent enough but the weakest link on this album. The other musicians does a great job though.

The sound is very good and is adding a lot of quality to this album.

The music is good throughout this album. Genesis and melodic symphonic prog fans should check out this album. It is a semi-classic album and I totally get why it has this status. A status it deserve.

3 points

 

 

 

Ghost - Skeletá (2025)

 

The sixth album from this band from Sweden.

The band has numerous members with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, synths, electronics, choirs and vocals. 

The band returned again after a short break to release this fifty minutes long chart topping album. It has topped the Billboard charts in USA and numerous other charts. It is a best selling album.

We still get some satanic imagery on the top of some boyband and arena rock like music. Well, not so much arena rock as there is substance in arena rock. The music is more boyband like than arena rock.

The music is flat and just based on cheap and nasty verses and choruses. There are some guitars here but most of the music is nasty and cheap vocal harmonies in the vein of Westlife. 

Ghost is a hype and a money printing machine. Ghost is everything progressive and art rock is not. Ghost is everything I do not like about the music business these days. 

There are a few decent pieces of music here. The rest is pretty poor and this is an album well worth avoiding like the plague for those into fusion, art rock and progressive rock.

1.5 points

 

Yuka & Chronoship - Ribbon Butterfly (2025)

 

The fifth album from this band from Japan.

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

This band is no doubts one of the finest/best melodic progressive rock bands ever to come out of Japan. Something they also proved on their fourth album, Ship from 2018. See my review from last week.

Ribbon Butterfly is a fifty-five minutes long album which again bring us some very elegant symphonic prog.

References here are Genesis, Pink Floyd and in particular ELP.  

There are some sporadic vocals here and most of the album is instrumental. Instrumental with a lot of keyboards and guitar solos. The keyboards sound is the 1970s organ, moog and mellotron sound.

The quality of the song writing is pretty good. The stars here is the keyboards and guitars who adds a lot of extra quality to this album.

This is a band everyone into melodic symphonic prog should check out.

3 points

 

 

Winter of Our Years. The - The Winter of Our Years (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Puerto Rico.

The band is a duo with a lineup of bass, guitars, violin, keyboards, vocals and a drum machine.

Their 2024 debut album In The Edge Of Sanity was pretty good with a blend of Kansas and Genesis inspired symphonic prog. I reviewed here last week.

On the follow up, this one hour long album, the hard edged Kansas influences has gone. It has been replaced by some neo-prog in addition to still retaining the symphonic prog influences.

Melodic symphonic prog is what we get here. 

The sound is still too thin and flimsy. That is my major gripe with this album. The drums are far, far too watery and thin/flimsy. 

The female vocals here are good and suits the music. The music is melodic but it is also at times pretty complex. 

It is difficult to ignore the far too thin sound. A sound that is letting this album down. The music itself is pretty good. Nevertheless..... this album is another victim of "the difficult second album" syndrome which has been a plague in this business since long play albums was invented in the 1950s. 

It is an interesting album which just falls a bit short.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Soft Ffog - Focus (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

This is the followup album to their self-titled 2022 debut album. I reviewed this album three years ago, in July 2022 for # 3 of this blog. I gave it one of my few great album ratings. It was indeed one of 2022s best albums.

It is with sadness I have just learnt that their drummer Axel Skalstad passed away last week. He was also the drummer in Krokofant and a great drummer. Rest In Peace, Axel.

Their debut album was a fusion/jazz attack with high energy fusion. A very refreshing album that impressed a lot of people.

The tempo has been taken down a notch on this forty minutes long album, the follow up album. Their take on fusion is more mellow this time around. 

All four band members does a good job on some very good stuff. The music is not as immediate and fresh as on their debut album. The quality has dropped a notch too. Nevertheless, this band has on this album established themselves as one of the best new fusion bands from Scandinavia, dare I say Europe too. 

This is an album well worth checking out.

3.5 points

 

Perilymph - I (2017)

 

The debut album from this band from France.

The band started out as a one-man-band with Fabien De Menou doing the bass, guitars, keyboards, electronics and vocals himself.

A guest added drums to this album.

This band has so far released four albums and they are all up for reviews in this blog during the remaining weeks of this summer.

The band's music on this half an hour long album is psych space rock with some strong dream pop and cinematic rock influences. There are also some notable post-rock and avant-garde influences here too.

The music is pretty laid back and not so intense. It has some good dream pop vocals here. The half-acoustic guitars and the keyboards is good too.

The music is pretty melodic. The opening piece of music has copied the middle part of Led Zeppelin's masterpiece Stairways To Heaven. A good piece of music and opening track.

The rest is not on par with the opening track. The quality is not bad at all and the sound is very good.

This is an acceptable debut album and one that makes me wanting more. Lots more.

2.5 points

Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The - Broadcasting From Home (1984)

 

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a ten pieces big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, strings, keyboards, electronics and woodwinds.

This band, one of the strangest bands I have ever come across as a reviewer, continued on with releasing albums on this Virgin Records sub-label. A sub-label run by Brian Eno. In other words, we know what we get on this album...

This fifty minutes long album is a chamber neo classical music album. 

Both Aranis and Flairck is good references here. Brian Eno's minimalism is also something this band follows. Something I have noted in my reviews of their first two albums too. The band has not deviated that much from those two albums when it comes to this, their third album.

There are some jazz inserted into this chamber music and that is the main difference here.

The music is decent enough but it never really lives up to the expectations set by the cover art-work and the name of the band. 

If utterly weird but still meaningful pretty melodic music is your thing, check out this album.

2 points

 

 

RC2 - Future Awaits (2008)

 The second and final album from this band from Venezuela.

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

I was not overly impressed by their self-titled 2003 debut album. Progressive metal in the vein of Dream Theater. At times, the music was Dream Theater copycats. It is a decent enough album though... see my review, posted earlier this month.

We still get some pretty strong Dream Theater influences on this one hour long album, the follow up album.

This album has a lot of strong symphonic prog influences too. 

The music is not as metal as on their debut album too. The vocals is also a lot better too and ditto for the sound.

The music is still elegant melodic but it is also pretty complex.... and symphonic.

The quality of the music is an improvement on their debut album. It is an album somewhere between decent and good. Their two albums deserve some attention and to be checked out.

2.5 points

 

 

Paatos - V (2012)

 

The fifth album from this band from Sweden.

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

This forty minutes long albums is really only an EP with four new tracks, fleshed out to a full album with four remixes of older songs. We then get eight songs altogether.

The band ditched the dream pop and neo-prog from the 2011 album Breathing (see review). The music here is a blend of art-rock and heavy prog. 

The vocals is still female vocals and they are good. The heavy guitars is more dominating this time around though and the sound is more naked and far more muscular.

The songs are not really up to their normal standard. The remixes are OK'ish while the new songs are not really cutting the mustard.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I hope their brand new album is better than this and a review will be published later this month.

2.5 points

Uncle Weevil - Uncle Weevil (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Sweden.

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

This band is a new band from Sweden, formed of members with a probable average age of 50 years or so, according to the band photo I got.

This is not a boyband, in other words.

The music on this fifty-four minutes long album is melodic neo-prog. 

There are some pretty big Kaipa and Agents Of Mercy influences in their music. 

The music is pretty symphonic at places although the songs are pretty short, on average five minutes long. The organ sound is good and ditto for the vocals.

My main gripe is the quality of the songs which is not on a good standard. That said, this is an acceptable debut album and neo-prog and fans of Scandinavian neo-prog and symphonic prog should and must check out this album.

3 points

Yuka & Chronoship - Ship (2018)

 

The fourth album from this band from Japan.

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

Two guests, including Sonja Christine from Curved Air, added vocals on a couple of tracks.

I have had the pleasure of reviewing their second and third album in # 1 of this blog back in 2013 and 2015. The band has recently released their fifth album and a review will follow later this month. A review of their debut album will follow later this summer too.

I am not sure why this band is labeled as a neo-prog band in ProgArchives and other places. The band's music is and has always been ELP influenced symphonic prog.

There is also some cinematic rock influences in their symphonic prog too. 

There are some sporadic vocals on this one hour long album. Most of it is instrumental though and the music is both bold and majestic. It is a bit cheesy at times. The excellent organ sound is a joy to behold. There is a lot of Keith Emerson influences here. There is also some good guitar solos here.

The result is another good album from this band. A band who surely must be one of the best prog rock bands from Japan.

3 points

 

 

Winter of Our Years. The - In the Edge of Sanity (2024)

 

The debut album from this band from Puerto Rico.

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

Two guests added guitars, piano and keyboards on a couple of tracks.

This band from Puerto Rico, an US run territory in the Caribbean Islands, just released their second album and I got both their albums from them for reviews. A review of their new album will be posted later this month.

This one hour long album offers up a blend of symphonic prog and folk rock. Add in some neo-prog too and you get the drift.

There is some Kansas influences here and some Genesis too. 

The female vocals here is very good. The violin, guitars and keyboards are good too. 

The sound and music is a bit raw and unrefined. That makes this album not as elegant as the pieces of music here should have been and gives this album a bit too much DIY feel.

The album is still charming although the music is undercooked. On balance, this is a good album and one to build on. Which I hope the band already has done...

3 points

  

 

Cosmic Cathedral - Deep Water (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

Some guests added woodwinds, strings and female backing vocals.

This is another band from Neal Morse. This time, he has teamed up with some veterans from the scene, including the drummer Chester Thompson. The two other members are Phil Keaggy and Byron House.

New band... same stuff.

Yes, the music on this seventy-two minutes long album is US symphonic prog in the vein of Neal Morse's solo albums. The prog solo albums, that is. Not the praise albums.

The lyrics is very Christian and preaching. The music is still melodic symphonic prog. The music is also very slick and not particular complex.

The quality is good, barely good. This is still a good album. I still feel Neal Morse should consider renewing his music and then add some fresh blood into a body which is now running on fumes. He is better than this album... far better.

3 points

 

Magnum - On a Storyteller's Night (1985)

 

The fifth 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 backing vocals.

The band returned again for their fifth album.

This album is a semi-classic, some says classic, album from the 1980s and the album that was their breakthrough album. The cover art-work is classic and one of the best cover art-works from the 1980s and the pomp rock scene.

We get forty-five minutes of pomp rock on this album. Unashamed pomp rock with a lot of 1970s hard rock influences.   

The sound and the vocals is very good on this album. 

The opening track How Far Jerusalem is one of their best ever songs too. That and the title track are some good, make that two very good songs. The rest is not up to the same standard.

This is their best album up to that point and I would be positive surprised if I, at the end of my reviews of their albums sometimes later this year, find a better Magnum album than this.

This is indeed one of the best pomp rock albums ever released. Not that this genre is that great.... Nevertheless...

 3 points

 

Leprous - Malina (2017)

 

The sixth album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest added strings.

The band returned two years later after their The Congregation album with this one hour long album.

The music is again somewhere between extreme metal, progressive metal and rock opera. Theatrical progressive metal is the label most fitting here.

Malina sees the band to a large degree getting rid of the most extreme metal aspects from their previous albums. Malina sees the band move more towards theatrical operatic progressive metal.

That means complex but also strangely some pretty melodic music. The band reminds me in this aspect a bit about both Queen and Muse.

Einar Solberg's vocals is again operatic brilliant. He is one of the best vocalists in this scene.. if not the best.

The music is good throughout and the band was cementing their position as one of the most original and best progressive metal acts in the world with this album. 

3.5 points   

RC2 - RC2 (2003)

 

The debut album from this band from Venezuela.

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

A guest added drums and percussion.

This band from Caracas released two albums between 2003 and 2008. Both will be reviewed in this blog this summer.

The music on this seventy minutes long album is progressive metal.

The vocals are Spanish and they are decent enough. The music is pretty much soft and in the same vein as Dream Theater. That as in Dream Theater's first three albums.

Their, RC2's, musicial abilities is not in the same league as Dream Theater. The guitarist is a good example. 

The vocals are light and a bit strained at times. Strained means also a bit annoying if castrato metal vocals is not your thing.

This is a decent enough album but nothing more than that. If early days Dream Theater is your thing, this album is something for you.

2 points

 

 

 

Paatos - Breathing (2011)

 

The fourth album from this band from Sweden.

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

This band has just released a their sixth album. An album I will review later this summer... after reviewing this and their fifth album.

I have previously reviewed their third album in # 1 of this blog. I am still looking for their first two albums and will review both of them if I get them.

Their music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of dream pop and art-rock. There is also some good neo-prog influences here.

Petronella Nettermalm's (female) vocals reminds me a bit about Bjork at times. They are good too and that is the most important thing here.

The music is melodic. The songs are pretty short, at around five minutes each. The songs are mid-tempo and pretty muscular. There is a good mellotron sound here too, supporting the guitars and vocals.

The result is a pretty good album where the mellotron and the vocals is the best bits. 

3 points

 

 

Chiave Di Volta - Ritratto Libero (2004)

 

The one and only album from this band from Italy.

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

This album has bypassed me for many years until Ma.Ra.Cash re-released it earlier this year on their Bandcamp page. Hence, I got a copy.

RPI, classic RPI is what's on offer here.

The band mixed jazz, folk rock with symphonic prog, RPI symphonic prog on this fifty-five minutes long album.

There are plenty of flutes here and some good vocals too.

The music is very colourful and flowery. Lush is the word I am looking for and the word who describes this album best.

The music is mid-tempo and very complex throughout. This is by no means an easy listening album.  

There is a lot of very good details here and that is the main positive we can take from this album. The overall quality is very good and this makes this album one of the golden nuggets among the post-millenium RPI albums.

Check out this album.

3.5 points

 

Fish - Weltschmerz (2020)

 

The 13th and final album from this artist from Great Britain.

Fish did the vocals himself here.

He got help from some guests who added drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, strings, brass, saxophones, programming and backing vocals.

Fish retreated to an island in his homeland Scotland (where he runs a pub and a B & B I plan to visit next year) earlier this year after the release of this album and a re-scheduled farewell tour after the pandemic had scuppered the original tour.

This album is a double CD, clocking in at eighty-five minutes. 

The music is a return to some of his roots. The sixteen minutes long Rose Of Damascus reminds me a lot about his work on his final Marillion album Clutching At Straws. A great song btw and the best piece of music he has recorded as a solo artist.

The rest of the music is leaning more towards folk rock than any of his previous albums.

The result is his best album. He is ending his career on a high, indeed. This is a borderline great album but it has a couple of substandard tracks too. Nevertheless....

3.5 points

 

Drage. Andre - Wolves (2025)

 

The second album from this artist from Norway.

He got help from a quartet of musicians who added bass, guitars, violin, organ, synths and effects.

Andre Drage has been active in the jazz and rock scene for many years before he started his own record label Drage Records and released no less than two albums this year... so far. Maybe several more albums are under way... ? I hope so.

I reviewed his debut album Journeyman last month and gave it a good rating.

That album was pretty much a hardcore jazz album. A complex jazz album. Some months has passed and we get a bit of a change of direction here.

Wolves is a thirty-five minutes long fusion album. Mahavishnu Orchestra is a very good reference here. 

The music is very playful and catchy. There is a lot of good solos here and Andre is doing a very good jobs on the drums.

This is a very good album from Andre Drage and the fusion fans should check out this album. Maybe a new star has been born.... I hope so.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Wilson Project - Atto Primo (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

The band has returned again with the follow up to their pretty good 2022 II Viaggio Da Farsi album.

Their debut album gave us a mix of symphonic prog and hard rock. The songs were not particular good either. Hence my lack of enthusiasm for that album.

The fifty minutes long Atto Primo sees the band ditching their hard rock. That is replaced by a more cleaner RPI sound and take on the progressive rock genre.

We still get some very good vocals from Annalisa Ghiazza here. The music is pretty muscular too.

The music is also very complex and Yes is a pretty big influence here. Add in some ELP and Osanna too and you get the drift.

The result is an improvement on their debut album and a good album in it's own right. This is a band well worth checking out and I hope we will hear a lot more from them in the future.

3 points

 

 

Papir - Papir III (2013)

 

The third album from this band from Denmark.

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

This is their follow up album to their 2011 Stundum opus. An album I gave a good review last month.

Papir III is fifty minutes long and offers up some space rock opuses. Five of them, to be precise. Four short tracks and one long track. The latter one is clocking in at sixteen minutes.

Instead of distortions and fuzz, the band has chosen to go with clean and non-distorted guitars. Some of them are even half-acoustic.

The main parts are electric guitars and they are really delivering some good themes and melodies here. 

Yes, this album is true to the space rock formula, invented decades ago by the likes of Hawkwind. But Papir really makes some good space rock and that is why this is such a good album. It is recommended.

3.5 points