Solstafir - Í Blóði og Anda (2002)

 

The debut album from this band from Iceland.

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

Numerous guests added guitars, piano, keyboards and vocals on some tracks.

This band has so far released eight studio albums and I am reviewing them in this blog during the fall.

Next to Sigur Ros, this band has been regarded as this century's second biggest eclectic music band from Iceland. Solstafir has their roots in black metal and post-metal though. 

This one hour long album does indeed starts out as a pretty primitive black metal album. Early 1990s black metal from both Finland and Norway springs to mind. 

The vocals is black metal screams. The music is fast and furious. 

The music then broadens out and the soundscape becomes bigger. We are now entering the cold and desolate post-black metal landscape. There are some clean and female vocals here and some melodies too.

The result is indeed a post-black metal album and a decent one too. I get the feeling that my journey through their albums will be an interesting journey, indeed.

2 points

  

Baro Prog Jets - Lucillo & Giada & Topic Würlenio (2019)

 

The first and second album from this band from Italy.

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

Some guests added guitars, piano and vocals.

This one and a half album, a double CD contains both the albums Lucillo & Giada & Topic Würlenio. Both of them were released the same year, 2019.

The band has just released a new album. This under the name Baro Prog. I will still use the old name when I review that album next month as I want to keep their albums under one name. 

I reviewed their third album Utopie (2021) for # 2 back in May 2021 and I was not impressed by that album. I gave it a decent rating, two points. Hence, I was a bit unsure about reviewing their two remaining albums.  

Their music is RPI rooted in the 1970s. It is melodic with a lot of early 1970s Italian pop influences. There is also a lot of folk rock and rock influences incorporated in their symphonic prog-influenced RPI.

The music is both lush and pastoral most of the time. There are also some instrumental fusion pieces here.

The vocals are mostly in Italian and they are good. Very good. The standards falls a bit on the two English language songs. RPI in English does not sound as good as RPI in Italian. 

The songs on Topic Wurlenio is not as good as the songs on Lucillo & Giada. But there is not a big difference and the two albums merged into one unity is still a coherent unity.

The result is indeed a good album, bordering to being a very good album. 

This album is a bit of a largely undiscovered RPI gem and it is a recommended purchase.

3 points 

 

 

  

Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso - Greggio E Pericoloso (2024)

The 21st album from this band from Italy.

The band is credited as performers here and the lineup is bass, guitars, synths and electronics. 

This is a soundtrack to an Italian TV series who ran for a while. The band put this out on their Bandcamp page in 2022 and re-released it in 2024 with some enhanced features. Hence my choice of using that version in this review.

The music on this forty-two minutes long album is electronica. 

Goblin is an excellent reference here and the band sounds like a Goblin copycat on this album.

The quality is poor. The sound quality is poor too. There are a couple of decent tracks here.

This is by far their worst album and one to forget unless you are a die-hard RPI and/or Banco collector. 

This is a borderline turkey.... But to be fair, it is a turkey. Sorry....

1 point 

 

 

Akenathon - Crónicas Intrascendentes (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Argentina.

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

The band returned again after a five years long break.

The band returned again as a quartet after two albums as a trio. The music is still pretty muscular heavy prog with some vaudeville rock, eclectic prog and folk rock influences. There is also some blues and jazz influences here. The best label is therefore latin rock.

The vocals on this three quarters of an hour long album are still in Spanish and rightly so. Their music really requires male Spanish vocals. 

There is not much vocals here though as most of the music is instrumental.

This is by no means an easy listening album. It is a hard rocking album. It is also a pretty good album with a lot of good details throughout. It is barely a good album but still a good album. Check it out.

3 points 

Proportions - Conundrum (2023)

 

The fifth album from this Multi-National band.

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

The band, or make that a project, soldiered on after a couple of very good albums. They soldiered on with the usual great album art-works too. These attracted me to this band and I got their albums. This even before I have heard them. Hence the importance of getting the art-works right.

The music on this one hour long album is again a bit of a folk rock take on symphonic prog. The songs are again in the same vein as the Camel album Harbour Of Tears. 

The instrumental pieces here has some fusion influences too in addition of being pretty influenced by Camel. The music is also very elegant throughout with some great guitar solos and licks. The keyboards and vocals is good throughout.

There is also some notable Caravan influences in their music on this album. In other words; Canterbury scene prog.

The music here is very good throughout and this album is cementing my interest in this band. I am being converted into becoming a fan of Proportions.

3.5 points 

Phantom Spell - Immortal's Requiem (2022)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

This band was a one-man-band with Kyle McNeill doing all instruments. 

Kyle, who originally comes from Manchester in Great Britain, was the guitarist and vocalist in his previous band Seven Sisters. He also does the guitars and vocals here plus the bass and some drums programming.

Phantom Spell has just released the second album and a review of that album will follow within days. 

The music on this half an hour long album is a blend of hard rock and heavy metal somewhere between Wishbone Ash, Europe, Kansas and Iron Maiden.

The music is rather catchy with some good vocals on the top of it. It also follows the heavy metal formula and does not really venture outside this genre. That includes some football terrace chants too.

The music is far softer than the cover art-work alludes to. There is also some nice details here and a couple of good songs.

I am not entirely won over by this album. Nevertheless, this is a pretty good album.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Sigilu - Beta (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Spain.

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

I really liked their 2017 debut album Singularidad O Barbarie when I reviewed it earlier this month. The music was a mix of psych rock and folk rock.

I was therefore looking forward to reviewing this, their new album.

Beta is a fifty minutes long album and the music is psych rock with some folk rock and heavy prog influences. There is indeed some Rush influences here too and that makes me wonder how Rush would have sounded like if they were from Malaga in Spain instead of being from Canada. 

Sigilu is not a Rush copy, though. 

The music is complex and slightly eclectic. It has some intricate pieces of music and their melodies are not so straight forward sounding. 

There are also some pastoral somber pieces of music here too. They are very much in driven by the great vocals from Nacho Cuesta.

The result is another good album from this band and a reminder that this is a very talented band. I hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3 points 

Lesoir - Transience (2013)

 

The second album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

The band's 2011 self-titled debut album was reviewed in this blog earlier this month and it was a pretty good album. A very promising debut album from this duo.

Transcience is a three quarters of an hour long album and a logical follow up to the music on their debut album.

The music is still modern heavy prog in the Steven Wilson mould. The vocals of Maartja Meessen is still in the front of the mix and very much dominating this album. They are very good vocals.

The music is a bit more balanced and melancholic this time around. There is some art-rock in their brand of heavy prog.

There is no real bass in their sound and that gives this album a bit of a synthetic sound and ambience.  

The songs are a mix of good and decent songs. The vocals is too dominating too. Nevertheless, this is another pretty good album from this band.

2.5 points 

 

 

Monkey 3 - 39 Laps (2006)

 

The second album from this band from Switzerland.

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

This album is the follow up to their pretty good 2003 self-titled debut album. The music was back then instrumental heavy prog.

The band continues down the same road on this fifty minutes long album. 

The band has incorporated a lot of post-rock and stoner rock into their take on heavy prog. There are also some wordless death metal grunts in their music too. 

The music is still pretty melodic and also a bit light and sunny. Most of the album is unsparingly hard and heavy.

The music is a bit too one-dimensional to really making this a great, or even a good album. There are some good and some decent themes here. Check out this album if hard and heavy instrumental rock is your thing.

2.5 points 

Dog Of Panic - ...Of All Ambition (2016)

 

The second and final album from this band from USA.

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

This band from Illinois released two albums through Bandcamp before they split up. I review their 2013 debut album Tip Of The Tongue some days ago and was not impressed. Standard mainstream rock'n'roll.

Of All Ambitions is a forty minutes long album which brings us more of the same.

That means mainstream rock'n'roll. The music is probably a lot better live than as a Bandcamp album, it has to be said. I get the feeling this band has done some gigs in their local pubs and that their two albums were released to promote the gigs.

The vocals are pretty good and it feels like the vocalist has charisma. The music is half-decent but nothing special. Not in the world of progressive rock and eclectic music.

If mainstream americana rock is your thing......

1.5 points 

 

 

Daedalus Spirit Orchestra. The - Tabula Rasa (2012)

 

The second and final album from this band from France.

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

The band returned again after their 2009 debut album Ampulla Magnifying. That was a decent enough album.

The music on this album is a blend of art-rock and vaudeville rock. Add in some funk and folk rock too.

The music is quirky and wild with a rampant flute which sometimes dominates the music.

There is some Frank Zappa vibes throughout this album.

The vocals is good but the music does not really offer anything special... or good.

This is a decent album from a band who gave up after the release of this album and disappeared.

2 points  

 

Pryzme - True Stories... And Other Lies (2025)

 

The third album from this band from France.

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

One guest added synths and samples. 

This is the follow up album to their 2021 album Four Inches which I reviewed earlier this month. A good album, btw.

True Stories And Other Lies is a one hour long album and the music is a blend of psych rock, neo-prog and heavy prog.

The music, as on their first two albums, are melodic and dynamic. The sound is both fresh and youthful. It reminds me a lot about the final three Rush albums.

The songs are on average eight minutes long and pretty complex and full of interesting details. 

The guitars are the leading instrument here and they are really good. The vocals are very good. 

The music is not particular innovative or groundbreaking. The music is good though and that makes this album a good album and an enjoyable hour.

3 points 

Akenathon - Como Hormigas (2020)

 

The second album from this band from Argentina.

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

I reviewed their 2009 debut album Peregrino and quite liked their take on latin symphonic prog. Music rooted in the 1970s.

Eleven years later and the band has returned again with this almost one hour long album.

The music is hard, quirky and a bit bluesy. This album is on the more heavier end of the latin prog spectrum. 

There is not much symphonic prog here either and the band has moved a lot more towards hard rock and blues on this album.

There are some very good guitar solos here. Those are the highlights on this album. The rest is decent to good. I am not really won over by this album, I am afraid.

2.5 points 

 

Rezn - Solace (2023)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

One guest added narration. 

The band returned after a three years long break with this forty minutes long album.

Their music was a blend of stoner rock and space rock on their first three albums. Three years has gone and the space rock part of their music has gone.

Rezn anno this album is a stoner rock band with some sludge metal influences.

The music is still pretty melodic with some melodic vocals and themes.

The music is a bit one-dimensional and pedestrian at times. The quality is somewhere between decent and good throughout this album. This is an interesting band and well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

Subspace Radio - Dreams of Shapes and Forms (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Finland.

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

Three guests added backing vocals.  

I have yet to sample their first two albums. However, I did review their third album Aika (2022) back in September 2022 for # 3 of this blog. A good album, it was.

The band returned again this year with this one hour long album.

The music on this album is a lot heavier than the music on Aika. 

The music is a blend of progressive metal and heavy prog. References are Leprous, Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree. The music is a blend of those three bands.

The music is also very heavy at times and is straying into heavy metal territory on a regular basis.  

The music is pretty varied and full of interesting details. 

There is a lot of good themes here. Both the sound and vocals is good.  

That makes for a good album and that is exactly what this album is. Fans of progressive metal should check out this album.

3 points 

 

 

Proportions - The Odd Land of Nod (2022)

 

The fourth album from this multi-national band.

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

Three guests added saxophone and vocals.

I really loved their previous album After All These Years from 2021. It was a very good instrumental blend of symphonic prog and folk rock. There was a lot of Camel influences there as I noted in my review earlier this month.

The Odd Land Of Nod is an one hour long album. The band has moved a lot closer to fusion on this album. There is still a lot of symphonic prog here and it is only right to label this album as a blend of symphonic prog and fusion.

Then we got one song here which is pretty close to Peter Hammill and Van Der Graaf Generator.

The mix of instrumental pieces and songs are very good here. The band has a clear vision and they knows how to carry it out. This is therefore another very good album from this band.

3.5 points 

Sky - Sky (1979)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is a band and indeed a record I observed with great interest in my childhood and youth. But I never got this album until recently. I got all their albums and they will be reviewed in this blog during the coming weeks.

This album and indeed the band was a sensation back in those days and this album sold well over one million copies world wide. That marks out this band as one of the more weird bands in the history of modern popular music. 

The music on this thirty-seven minutes long album is a blend of neo-classical music, electronica and folk music. The music is pretty softly spoken and has a lot of air and elegance. The guitars are both acoustic and electric. I feared this was going to be a new-age album, due to the popularity of everything new-age back in those years. But I was thankfully wrong. The music is pretty dynamic with a lot of details.

There are a lot of Mike Oldfield references here. I believe Mike Oldfield and Sky shares a lot of fans. And this album also spawned a huge hit in the form of Cannonball who closes side 1 on the LP. That song was included in the massive grossing Dear Hunter movie soundtrack and also featured in the movie itself.

The final half is a twenty minutes long opus. A pretty good opus too. 

The result is a surprise to me as I did not expect that it was that good. This is indeed a good album and one to check out.

3 points 

 

Dog Of Panic - Tip Of The Tongue (2013)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This band from Illinois released two albums through Bandcamp before they split up. I will review their second album next week.

The music on this one hour long name-your-price album is pure hard rock'n'roll. 

There are some strong funk, heavy metal and blues here. 

The music is very traditional rock'n'roll and does not bring many interesting details, hooks and themes to the table. The songs are pretty unremarkable and not particular interesting.

The vocals are suitable good and the music is well performed.

This fairly decent album is an album for the hard rock'n'roll fans out there. 

1.5 points

 

 

Daedalus Spirit Orchestra. The - Ampulla Magnifying (2009)

 

The debut album from this band from France.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, vibraphone, bass, guitars, piano, sound effects, flute and vocals.

This band released two albums before they split up. Both of them are up for reviews in the coming days.

This band is clearly very influenced by the post-punk scene. 

The music on this sixty-six minutes long album is post-punk with a lot of power-pop and some folk-rock and some French symphonic prog influences.  

The tempo is a blend of fast, mid-tempo and some slower pieces of music. The sound is good. 

The music is youthful and fresh. There are some good details along this album and the vocals is good.

The songs are not really interesting or good. This is therefore a decent album from a band long forgotten but remembered by this blog.

2 points 

 

Numen - The Outsider (2025)

 

The fifth album from this band from Spain.

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

A dozen of guests added percussion, guitars, strings and woodwinds.

Their third album Cyclothymia from 2019 was a great album. Their first two album were good too. Their fourth album was a re-recording of some old songs with new arrangements and mixes. The Outsider is therefore in reality their fourth album. Nitpicking, yes....  

The Outsider is an almost two hours long album, two cds long. It is a concept album too. 

The music is neo-prog in the Dutch and British tradition. 

The sound and music are melodic, light and poppy. The female vocals are in the front of the mix and they are good.

The quality is a bit up and down. From decent to very good. The band has taken a step in the wrong direction on this album as this album is not as good as Cyclothymia. That said, this is still a good album which will please the neo-prog fans.

3 points 

 

 

Akenathon - Peregrino (2009)

 

The debut album from this band from Argentina.

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

Two guests added bass and saxophones on a couple of tracks.

This band has so far released three albums. The most recent one was released some weeks ago. I got all three albums for review in the coming weeks, starting with this, their debut album.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is latin symphonic prog. The music is retro and very much in that genre's 1970s style.

That means lots of folk rock and latin-pop influences in the music. Music which is very melodic.

There are also some good details in the music and the Spanish vocals is good too.

The music is indeed lush and colourful. There are some good music here and some rather not so good music. This is an acceptable debut album and one to build on. I am looking forward to review the remaining two albums.

2.5 points 

Rezn - Chaotic Divine (2020)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, sitar, oud, synths, saxophones, flute and vocals.

Their first two albums, both reviewed in this blog, were two good albums. So I was happy to proceed with a review of their third album too.

Chaotic Divine is just over one hour long and the band is again blending space rock with metal.

There is less stoner rock and more post-metal in this blend this time around. 

The use of oud, sitar, flute and saxophone is adding a lot of colours to their sound. In particular their use of saxophones. 

The vocals are fashionably mixed to the back of the mix. Vocals who does their job and is perfect for this music.

Some of the music feels a bit stale. I get the feeling that the band is running on fumes on parts of this album. This is by no means their finest hour. Some of the music is indeed good... but not all of it. Hence...

2.5 points 

Ghost Of The Machine - Empires Must Fall (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is the follow up album to their 2022 debut album Scissorgames. I gave that album a good review in # 3 of this blog back in December 2022. 

As I noted back then, Ghost Of The Machine is one ex Nova Machine member and five This Winter Machine members.

The music on this one hour long album is muscular neo-prog in the same vein as This Winter Machine. Ghost Of The Machine can therefore be regarded as continuation or a side project of that band. 

The six songs are between six minutes and fifteen minutes long. Most of them are around the ten minutes mark. 

The vocals is good and the sound is very good. The band does a good job on these good songs. This album is therefore an album the neo-prog fans should get.

3 points 

Magnum - Rock Art (1994)

 

The 10th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Three guests added steel guitar and backing vocals.

The band soldiered on with their music which by this time was out of fashion and not troubling the highest echelons of the Billboards lists. 

The band branched out to a more rockers and ballads territory on this almost one hour long album. 

The music here is far more mainstream commercial than their first nine albums. 

The vocals are good as per usual from this band. The music is suffering a bit from an overdose of dullness and is general pretty weak.

This is still a pretty decent album but it has some cringeworthy pieces too. This album is therefore their worst album so far.

1.5 points 

Rolf Zero - Peenah Duture's Cosmic Voyage (2022)

 

The second album from this band from Australia.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, percussion, didgeridoo, bass, guitars, keyboards, electronics, flute and harmonica.

A guest added vocals on two tracks.

This is their second album that year and the follow up to their self-titled debut album. An album that did not impress me much, as I noted in my review of it earlier this month.  

The follow up album is a three quarters of an hour long album. We get a blend of cinematic rock, vaudeville rock and symphonic prog. 

The album includes two cover tracks and two vocals tracks. Female vocals, it is and they are pretty good. The PFM cover track is remarkable dull and a total miss. Their take on Iron Maiden's Halloweed By Thy Name, which is my alltime favourite Iron Maiden piece of music, is quite quirky and has been made into a trivial rock song. I very much prefer the original version.

The rest of the album is plodding along without really being impressive or any good. This is another decent enough album from this band down under.

2 points 

 

Sigilu - Singularidad O Barbarie (2017)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

The band has just released their new, their second album. I got both their albums and thought it was a good idea to review both albums this month.

The band is clearly a rising star in Spain. They are also starting to get a good name in the rest of the world too.

This fifty minutes long album is a blend of psych rock and Spanish folk rock. There are also some good old 1970s Spanish symphonic prog influences here.

The vocals are in Spanish. The guitars are a mix of acoustic and electric guitars. The violin also plays a central role in their sound.

The music is between mid-tempo and pastoral. The music is still pretty edgy at times. It still has a good ambience.

The vocals is good and the violins is adding a lot of colours and quality to this album. A good album indeed and one that should interest most prog fans.

3 points 

 

 

Pryzme - Four Inches (2021)

 

The second album from this band from France.

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

This band released their debut album Lingus2018 in 2018 under the name Lingus. I reviewed it in # 3 of this blog back in August 2022, almost on the day three years ago. I really liked their mix of heavy prog and melodic symphonic prog. I therefore gave it a good rating.

The band has also just released their third album which I will review next week. 

Four Inches is just over one hour long. The band have retained their Rush influences and added some psych rock influences. They have left Ange and Genesis behind them on this album.

The music sounds fresh and is full of life. The ambience and mood are joyful and positive.    

Some of the music is performed with half-acoustic guitars. Most of the guitars are fully electric though with powerful riffs and solos.

The vocals is good and there is a lot to enjoy on these pretty complex, yet melodic pieces of music. 

The result is a good album from a very talented band. Is this band the next big thing from France ? Only time will tell....

3 points 

  

Hora Prima - Hora Prima (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

This band album debuted in 2020 with the L'Uomo Delle Genti. I reviewed that album in March last year in # 3 of the blog and gave it a very good rating. Good symphonic 1970s RPI. 

Five years has gone and the band is back again with a forty minutes long self-titled album. That normally means the band is marking a new start of the band and a change of direction.

We are still in the RPI genre with Italian vocals and a lot of references to the classic 1970s RPI scene. The symphonic part has largely gone and it has been replaced with both a more heavy prog and vaudeville rock direction.

The music is also quirky and has some funk and jazz influences. 

The music has more a contemporary feel than before although it is rooted in the 1970s. 

The vocals are good and the band does a good job. I still prefer their debut album. Nevertheless, this is a good album and well worth checking out. 

3 points 

 

  

Qumma Connection - Marginal Music from Behind the Black Mirror (2024)

 

The sixth album from this band from Finland.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, warr guitars, guitars, organ, keyboards, programming, trumpet, trombone, saxophone and flute.

This is the so far latest album from this band although I am pretty sure we will hear a lot more from this band in the coming years or even decades. 

The band has been labeled as a neo-prog band. I have reviewed all their albums and I have yet to hear a minute of neo-prog on their albums. 

The music on this one hour long album is cinematic rock.

This time around, the music is very dark. So dark that some of the music is bordering to both zeuhl and avant-garde/RIO chamber rock.

This one hour of music is indeed pretty much an hour full of dark avant-garde rock.  

There is a lot of trumpet in their music. That makes for some harsh, dissonant music. 

The result is a pretty good album. Not everything here is good but this album is one of their better albums. If avant-garde rock is your thing, this is an album for you.

2.5 points 

 

 

Papir - 7 (2022)

The ninth album from this band from Denmark.

 

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

 

One guest added sporadic synths. 

 

The band returned again to the writing processes after the 2021 album Jams. That was an album full of improvised music, also called jams.

 

The music is again space rock. The band has become one of the most popular and best space rock bands by now.

 

Their take on space rock is pretty melodic and elegant on this forty minutes long album. The music is pretty softly spoken and lyrical.

 

The melodies are subtle, a bit electronica influenced and pretty elegant. The guitars are very good and the sporadic synths are adding some colours to the music.

 

The result is another good album from this band. This is also so far their latest album and I hope we will hear a lot more from Papir in the future.

 

3 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possible Worlds - The Pelican (2025)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added bells, bass and keyboards.

I reviewed their 2017 debut album Pilgrim Of The Absolute for # 2 of this blog back in March 2018. That album was a good, promising album with music somewhere between Neal Morse, Porcupine Tree and Rush.

The follow up album The Pelican is just over fifty minutes long.

The music is following in the same vein as their debut album. Some of the music is sunny and some are rather melancholic. Some of the music is rather pastoral too and that is very much typical for the nineteen minutes long opus Working Title. 

Genre wise, this album is a blend of heavy prog and art-rock. Add in some US symphonic prog too and you get the picture.

The vocals are good and the band does a good job too. The woodwinds here are adding a lot of colours to the music too. 

The result is a very good album from this very underrated band. Hopefully, it will not take them eight years to release a new album as this is a talented band.

3.5 points

Riverside - Out of Myself (2003)

 

The debut album from this band from Poland.

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

A guest added trombone.

Gosh, this is one of the bands who introduced me to progressive rock about twenty years ago. I reviewed their second album for ProgArchives fifteen years ago.... and then almost forgot about the band in this jungle of exciting prog, fusion and metal albums I have encountered in the last two decades. 

I am now going to review the remaining seven albums in this blog during the next couple of months.

Out Of Myself is an almost one hour long album which offers up a lot of variety. From Marillion like art-rock via Porcupine Tree like modern prog metal to some djent and more extreme metal.

The music is melodic, muscular and elegant. The music is full of contrasts... from extreme metal to almost pastoral at times. This makes for an engaging, very interesting listening experience. 

The vocals is great and the band does a good job here.

This is a good album and an almost sensational debut album from one of the biggest and most respected bands in the scene.

3 points 

 

Rezn - Calm Black Water (2018)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

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

Their 2017 debut album Let It Burn was a pretty good album. It was mainly a stoner rock album.

They returned again with Calm Black Water, a forty minutes long album.

The sitar has gone and it has been replaced with some very sporadic saxophones.

The music is still a blend of space rock and stoner rock. Some of the pieces of music is in the metal genre. Other pieces are more softly space rock.

The band uses the contrasts between softly spoken space rock and harsh stoner rock to a good effect on this album. The vocals is melancholic and chanting. They are also good and very much suitable for their music.

The result is a pretty good album and an improvement on their debut album. It is an album well worth checking out. 

3 points 

 

 

Nouvelle R - Sénescence (2018)

 

The second and final album from this band from Canada.

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

Their 2015 was a pretty decent album. Trio jazz with half-acoustic guitars and with some Django Reinhardt influences.

The band returned three years later with this album called Senescence. 

We get one hour of music here and the music is a lot more developed this time around.

There is a lot of electric guitars here in addition to the half-acoustic guitars. There is even a couple of good guitar solos here.

The bass is also pretty melodic at places and a part of driving the melodies forwards. The melodies are pretty good. Some narrations, in French, halfway through this album add some colours to the album.

The band has almost crossed over to fusion on some parts of this album. That makes this a pretty enjoyable album and one well worth checking out. Both albums can be found at this link. Both jazz and fusion fans should check them out.

2.5 points

 

Neural Mass - Final Warning (2010)

 

The fifth and final album from this band from Canada.

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

Three guests added bass, guitars, clarinet and saxophone.

Their last album, the 2006 album Opposite Control, was a pretty dire album. The music ranged from thrash metal to cinematic rock. All of it pretty poorly performed too.

Hence, I had no expectations to Final Warning, this one hour long follow up album.

The music here is mostly cinematic rock. The music is never straying into thrash metal..... thankfully.

There is a lot of samples here and the cinematic rock is a bit all over the place. It has also got some strong electronic prog influences too.

Most of the music here is decent enough and an improvement on Opposite Control. I am not won over and probably never will be.

2 points

 

Hangover Paradise - Lost In Reality (2025)

 

The third album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

It is today ten years and eight days ago since I reviewed their 2013 debut album Mirrors in # 1 of this blog. My review of the 2017 follow up album Out Of Sight followed in February 2018 in # 2 of this blog

Neither of their first two albums impressed me. 

Hangover Paradise's music is neo-prog with some strong mainstream pop/rock and AOR influences. That has been their genre and style since their debut album and the band continues this style on their one hour new album.

Their weakest spot on their first two albums was their vocals. That has been fixed on their new album as the vocalist now sings within his limits and does not run out of abilities.

The sound is pretty fluffy and light.

The music is pretty good at times. This is their best album so far although it is not an impressive or a good album. Neo-prog fans should perhaps give this album a try.

2.5 points 

  

Qumma Connection - Equilibrium (2022)

 

The fifth album from this band from Finland.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, Warr guitar, Chapman stick, organ, keyboards and programming.

Their albums so far has been pretty eclectic to say at least. This from a band I thought was a neo-prog when I started reviewing their albums, based on their label as a neo-prog band in ProgArchives. 

There is not a second of neo-prog in their music.

The music on this one hour long album is cinematic rock with some strong eclectic prog and some lesser strong fusion and Finnish folk music influences.

The music is driven forward by guitars and keyboards. It is mid-tempo throughout.  

The music is a bit run-of-the-mill like and does not offer up a lot of exciting details and themes. It has a bit of a Scandinavian ambience and that is giving this album a bit of an identity.

This is a decent album and by far not their finest moment.

2 points

 

 

Papir - Jams (2021)

 

The eight album from this band from Denmark.

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

This eighty minutes long album is a compilation of six jams this band did during three days in January 2020. 

The music is space rock. Outer space rock but still with a pretty clean sound.

These pieces of music is improvised and not particularly composed and written down before they let the tape/computer disc roll. 

The band proves that they are a great space rock band. The quality is not on par with the albums they actually composed and wrote the music for. 

Nevertheless, there are some good pieces of music here and some not so good. I still prefer their proper studio albums to this one. Check it out if this and/or space rock is your thing.

2.5 points 

Ujig - Delta (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

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

Two guests added woodwinds and female voices.

The band were crossing over to cinematic rock and symphonic prog from their jazz on their last album Ujigami in 2022. So I thought this was were the band was heading. They had also associated themselves with a progressive rock label... MaRaCash Records.

I was mistaken. 

The fifty minutes long Delta sees the band retreating into their jazz landscape. The music is not particular intense. It is at times rather laidback and elegant.

That is not a bad thing though. The sound and music is also been fleshed out by some trumpets and female voices. That adds a lot to this album, indeed.

The music is still pretty melodic with a lot of good themes driven on by piano, trumpet and guitars.  

The result is a likeable good album which will win fans also among fans of progressive rock. 

3 points 

Lesoir - Lesoir (2011)

 

The debut album from this band from the Netherlands.

The band was a duo on this album with a lineup of guitars, piano, synths, flute, drum programming and vocals.

This band has so far released seven albums and this band is new to me. This is why I will review their seven albums in the coming weeks. That off course means starting with this album, their debut album.

This band is one of the most popular bands in the new generation of progressive rock. Hence my interest in this band.

The music on this forty minutes long album is mostly hard prog. Chaotic hard prog when it comes to this album. References are Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree.

The music is also coloured by the female vocals delivered by Maartje Meessen. Her vocals are both intense and good.

Not all music here is good. There are clear signs here that this band is talented and there are some good pieces of music here. This is an acceptable debut album.

2.5 points

 

Monkey3 - Monkey3 (2003)

 

The debut album from this band from Switzerland.

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

This band is a new discovery to me. I will over the next weeks and months review their seven albums, starting with this album. 

Their music is heavy prog. Instrumental heavy prog on this one hour long album.

The music is muscular and very heavy at times. It has also got a great deal of fusion influences too.

The music is electric guitars driven with a lot of riffs and other short themes. 

The band does a good job on some not so great or even good music.

The band has yet to master the art of writing enough good material for a one hour long album.

That said, this is an acceptable debut album which has raised my hopes for the remaining six albums.

2.5 points  

Nouvelle R - L'emporte Pièce (2015)

 

The debut album from this band from Canada.

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

This band came from Quebec and their two albums was only released through Bandcamp. I have had them hanging around for years before reviewing both of them this week.

The music on this half an hour long album is trio based jazz.

Their take on jazz is rather traditional with half-acoustic guitars driving the music forward. 

The music is therefore a bit alien to those of us who are not totally into jazz...... although I like jazz a lot.

The music is eclectic but also pretty melodic and engaging.

The music is a bit too one-dimentional to being good. Nevertheless, this is a decent enough album and one well worth checking out.

2 points 

 

Neural Mass - Opposite Control (2006)

 

The fourth album from this band from Canada.

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

I have yet to sample their first three albums as they are impossible to find. But I have had their final two albums hanging around for years and it is about time to review both of them. The review of their fifth and final album will follow in some days time.

Opposite Control is a one hour long album with music ranging from cinematic rock to full on thrash metal.

The band is blending all kind of music genres here. This in the hope it will make any sense and that this will be a great album. They were much mistaken.

Some of the music is decent enough. Some of it is pretty dire. The sound too is not particular good. Hence...

1.5 points 

Avkrvst - Waving at the Sky (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest did additional vocals on one of the tracks. 

Their 2023 debut album Approbation was given a very good rating when I reviewed it in # 3 of this blog. The album also broke the band and gave them a status as the new big thing in the prog metal and prog rock scene.

The follow up album Waving At The Sky is a forty-five minutes long album.

The music is a blend of Opeth and Porcupine Tree. Add some djent to the music too and you get the drift.

The music is dynamic, muscular and also pretty melodic. The music is widely influenced by symphonic prog as well as eclectic prog.

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

This is another very good album from this Norwegian band and an album which should cement their status.

3.5 points 

Last Knight - Seven Deadly Sins (2019)

 

The fifth album from this multi-national project.

The project, lead by Jose Manuel Medina from Mandalaband, had over twenty contributors and a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, strings, piano, organ, keyboards, synths, programming, woodwinds, flute and vocals.  

Their fourth album, Talking To The Moon, was an almost four hours long album. A total over-the-top album which I reviewed some days ago. An album kicking wildly in all directions. An incoherent piece of music, in other words.

Jose Martin Medina has scaled back a bit when it comes to Seven Deadly Sins, the seventy minutes long follow up album.

The music is a blend of symphonic prog and cinematic rock. Mostly symphonic prog, album it has to be said. This is therefore their symphonic prog album.

This album has four medium long tracks, eight to fifteen minutes long, and three suites. All of them with lots of instruments and vocals. The music is still coherent and melodic. The music is not particularly overly bloated either.

The result is their best album and a good album in it's own right. This to my surprise, it has to be said. But I am happy when I get a postive surprise and this album is one of them. 

If symphonic prog is your favourite genre, this is an album well worth checking out. 

3 points 

 

Modern Stars - Termination (2024)

 

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

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

The band soldiered on again with their low-tuned psych rock. This time with this thirty-five minutes long album. 

The sound is detuned with the vocals and guitars pretty low in the mix. The sound is muddy too.

We get some mid-era U2 influences, strong influences in their music. 

The music is pretty one-dimentional and it has some Raga-Rock influences too. 

The vocals is good but that is the only good thing here. This is a decent enough album but nothing more than that.

2 points

 

 

 

People Of The Sun - People Of The Sun (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from New Zealand.

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

This is a new name on the scene and I became aware of them, and got a download link, when they suggested themselves included in ProgArchives long list of progressive rock bands. That suggestion has not yet been moved and I have my doubts if they will ever be included in ProgArchives.

That doubt is based on the music on this three quarters of an hour long Bandcamp album.

The music is a blend of Pearl Jam on their first two albums and psych rock in the vein of Man.

The music is both pretty hard and grungy throughout this album. It has a psych rock undertone and theme too. Psych rock from the early 1970s.

The music is melodic with some good vocals and some very good, intense guitar solos. The guitarist is the star on this album.

This is clearly a talented band and this album really deserve a big audience. How the band are going to find this audience, I do not know. But check out this very good album from this link yourself.

3.5 points 

  

Proportions - After All These Years (2021)

 

The third album from this multi-national band.

The band, or make that the project, were a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and flute.

A handful of guests added guitars, narration and vocals. 

This album is the follow up to the good album Visions From A Distant Past, released in 2019. An album which was a substantial improvement on their debut album again.

That album had two vocals based songs and ten instrumental pieces of music. It seems like that is a recipe and an identity the band/project is comfortable with.

This is why this album, the just over one hour long After All These Years album, is following the same recipe. We get a couple more songs here and the vocals is very good. Both the male and female vocals.

The music reminds me a lot about Camel. The music this time around is therefore symphonic prog and it even comes with some Yes influences.

The music is as flowery and lush as the cover art-work. It is also a bit "green" as in being influenced by Irish folk rock.

The music is bordering to being great at times. This is though a very good album and an album which should earn this band a lot of fans in the symphonic prog scene.

3.5 points

 

Qumma Connection - Flesh Limits (2021)

 

The fourth album from this band from Finland.

 

The band was a one-man-band with a lineup of guitars, bass, synths, programming and voices.

 

Rami Talja continued with this band. A band who strangely enough has been labeled as a neo-prog band. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

This band operates well within the eclectic prog genre with a lot of nods and winks to King Crimson.

 

That too is very much the case on this fifty minutes long album.

 

King Crimson, the Beat era is well represented on this instrumental album. The music is driven by guitars and synths.

 

There are some female voices here but no words.

 

The music is neither good or interesting. This is a decent album, another decent album and another step in the wrong direction from their promising second album.

 

2 points   

 

 

 

Edena Gardens - Dens (2023)

 

The third album from this band from Denmark.

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

I have reviewed their first two albums in # 3 of this blog and have given them good ratings. 

Their first two albums were a blend of psych rock, eclectic prog and electronica.

The band has scaled back and retreated into the space rock genre on the fifty minutes long Dens. 

The music is pretty bare boned throughout this album with the guitars, half acoustic and fully electric, knocking out the music. The bass is also pretty melodic at times.

There is really not much going here. The pieces of music is decent enough.

Nevertheless, this album is a step in the wrong direction for this promising band and I hope theire new album, to be released next month, will be an improvement on this album.

2 points