Soup - Children of E.L.B. (2010)

 

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

A handful of guests added guitars, violin and cello.

Erlend Viken (vocals, keyboards) has now expanded Soup into a full band on this one hour and twenty minutes long album.

The music on this double CD and Bandcamp album is art-rock with some strong post rock influences.   

The music is still highly influenced by Airbag, Sigur Ros and Steven Wilson. But Erlend and the rest of the band have managed to carve out their own niche and place in this scene. 

The music is also pretty melancholic with a lot of, intended or unintended, nods towards the neo-prog and art-rock sound from Poland.

The music here is both melodic, elegant, melancholic, a bit eclectic and full of details. The vocals are good. Ditto for the work put into this by the other musicians too.

The result is a good album and one to check out. 

3 points 

 

 

Sky - Sky 3 (1981)

 

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of marimba, percussion, vibraphone, drums, bass, acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards and tuba.

The band returned again and were now facing the 1980s head on. This decade were pretty barren when it comes to interesting music. Melodic music was not a commercially viable genre.

But this band soldiered on and they were surviving on the audience they got on their million selling debut album. I on the other hand never really understood this band. Something I hope will change during my reviews of their studio albums.

Sky 3 is a three quarters of an hour long album. 

The music is mostly acoustic with a blend of neo-classical music, fusion and cinematic music. 

The band's incorporation of fusion is the saving grace on this album as the rest of the material is not particularly interesting. It is downright dire, some of it.  

The result is a decent enough album. It is an unremarkable album, though. 

2 points 

 

    

Insomnia - II (2024)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

I know absolute nothing about this band. It is my understanding that their debut album was a rock'n'roll album. Or perhaps it was a traditional rock album. I don't know as it is difficult to find. 

Their second album, II, which I am reviewing here, has been released through one of my favourite labels, Marahcash Records. Hence my interest in this album.

The music on this fifty-two minutes long album is RPI. Classic RPI. 

The music is both melodic and pretty symphonic. 

The main instruments are guitars and keyboards. There are some programmed saxophones here too. The music is still organic with some good vocals.

There is indeed a lot of classic RPI here blended in with some more contemporary neo-prog. 

The vocals are good and ditto for the sound. This is a good album and one to check out if RPI floats your boat.

3 points 

 

 

Gleemen - Dove Vanno Le Stelle Quando Viene Giorno (2023)

 

The third album from this band from Italy.

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

This band is one of the forerunners of the Italian progressive rock scene, the RPI scene. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1970 and it was a beat album. See my review here.

It took the band forty-three years to return with their second album. It was a rock'n'roll album and you can read my review from # 1 of this blog here.

It took them ten years to return with their third album, the one I am reviewing here. 

This album is one hour long and it has a mix of cover versions and original material.

The album starts with a The Beatles cover.... Tomorrow Never Knows. That quirky song sets the tone for the rest of the album. The music is quirky and 1960s psychedelia throughout. 

The vocals is good and the band does a good job on the decent enough songs here. Gleemen should be appreciated as a pre-historic RPI band. Ditto for this album and their first two albums. 

2 points 

 

 

 

Ambient Den - Ambient Den (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Australia.

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

This band is another outlet for Ben Craven, a profiled artist from down under; Australia. I have reviewed most of his albums, if not all of them, in the three previous editions of this blog. 

Ambient Den is a seventy minutes long album.

The music is a blend of art-rock and Pink Floyd like psych rock. 

The tempo is slow to mid-tempo. There is a lot of guitars here and some synths and programmed instruments. The organic instruments like organs are good, though. Ditto for the vocals.

Not all the music here is good. There is a lot of good music here though. The result is an acceptable debut album. I am not sure if this album is a one off as the band members are busy with other bands. But I hope we will hear more from this band.

2.5 points 

 

 

 

Forbidden Myth - Zantea Chronicles: The Dream Dominator (2021)

 

The debut album from this band/project from Greece.

The band was a ten pieces big band/project with a lineup of drums, theremin, piano, organs, mellotron, keyboards, synths and vocals.

This band has, so far, released two albums between 2021 and 2024. I will post a review of their second album sometime later this month.

This album is a two CDs album and a Bandcamp album. It is one hour and forty minutes long.

The music is gothic hard rock. It is labeled as heavy prog though. That is not the case on this album.

The music is also meant as a rock opera and it has a lot of rock opera like melodies, indeed.  

There is a lot of female vocals here. Fairly decent vocals. There is no guitars and no bass on this album. None whatsoever and that explains this strange 1980s sound. It sometimes feels like peas shaken around in a glass bottle. Thankfully, there are some more muscular soundscapes here too.

The music is mid-tempo and with lots of piano and synths.

The quality is only half-decent. There are some decent stuff here. I am not by any means impressed by this album. Goth rock fans may like this album.

1.5 points 

 

  

Coche Vil - Invisible (2021)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

The band has, as I am writing this review, released two albums. Both of them are up for review in this month. A third album has been mooted.

Their music has been described as heavy prog. Something I agree with when I am listening to this forty minutes long album.  

There is lot of good old hard rock from the 1970s in their sound and music. Some Rush influences are pretty obvious throughout this album. 

There are indeed a lot of vintage guitars and keyboards sound on this album. The sound is still contemporary as the band has found a nice balance between yesterday and today's sound.  

The vocals is really good and the band does a very good job indeed.

The result is another, yes, another highly talented band from Spain and a good album in its own right. 

Both hard rock fans and prog fans should get this album.

3 points 

 

 

Finally George - Painter (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Germany.

The band was a one-man-band with Georg Hahn doing the bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

He was helped out by some guests who added drums, percussion, guitars, violin, viola, cello, piano, organ, horns, trumpet and backing vocals.

I have reviewed the first two Finally George albums in # 3 of this blog and I liked them both. Good, softly spoken neo-prog.

Georg Hahn continues down, or up, the same path on this album. We get softly spoken elegant neo-prog on this three quarters of an hour long album. 

The music has a lot of interesting details too. This is therefore not an easy-listening album. There are also some muscular electric guitar themes here.

The vocals is very good and the ambience is very good. The strings and woodwinds is filling in the gaps in the sound.

The music can be a bit too sweet at times. That though is the path this band has chosen and I respect that.

This is a good album indeed and Finally George is a band, and discography, everyone into neo-prog and melodic progressive rock should check out.

3 points 

 

Magnum - Brand New Morning (2004)

 

The 12th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band soldiered on after their comeback. The market was not in their favour. Nevertheless, their fans kept them alive. That and some non-music daytime jobs, I suspect.

Brand New Morning is almost one hour long and we get the usual blend of AOR and pomp rock here. The blend the band almost has copyrighted.... Well, almost. 

Their last albums has been pretty weak. The band had entered the doldrums and were fighting to get out of it and fill their sails again with some wind.

The band does not move anywhere on this album.

The songs are formula based and not in particular interesting. The vocals is still good but that is the best thing I take from this album.

There are some decent songs here. The remaining songs are dire. Hence...

1.5 points  

 

Rolf Zero - Tsunami (2023)

 

The fourth album from this band from Australia.

The band was a trio on this album with a lineup of didgeridoo, percussion, drums, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards, harmonica and flute.

This is their fourth album in a matter of a couple of years and the first album of three albums the band released that year. 

None of their first three albums has been anywhere near impressive.

Tsunami is a forty minutes long album. We get some pieces with acoustic guitars, piano and some keyboards here.  

None of these pieces makes any sense. They are not ready to be recorded as they are pretty raw scetches which require more development.... a lot more development.  

The result is, to be kind, almost like a New-Age album from the 1980s. But to be truthfully, this is a dire album that fails on all accounts. This is the first turkey from this edition of this blog, # 4. 

1 point

X Panda - Reflections (2016)

 

The second and final album from this band from Estonia.

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

Three guests added backing vocals.

This album is the follow up to their 2011 album Flight Of Fancy. That was a decent enough album with a blend of heavy prog, progressive metal, symphonic prog and fusion.

Five years has gone and the band returned with this one hour long album.

The music is a blend of heavy prog, progressive metal, cinematic rock and fusion.

Most of the music is again instrumental. This one hour covers a large area and some genres of music. From soft cinematic rock via fusion, heavy prog to some very heavy progressive metal.

The vocals is good and the band does a good job on some pretty good pieces of music. 

The music is also a bit mired in the 1990s soundscape. 

This album is a bit too incoherent. That said, this is still a pretty good album.  

2.5 points 

 

Crimson Chrysalis - Enraptured (2015)

 

The second and final album from this band from South Africa.

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

I was not particularly impressed by their 2012 debut album Crimson Passion Play. It was an album with some generic, lifeless symphonic metal in the vein of Nightwish.

Hence I had no expectations to Enraptured, their second and final album.

The band continued down the same path on this fifty-five minutes long album. Symphonic metal, commercial and slick symphonic metal.

The female vocals are good. The sound is good. The mid-tempo music is based on keyboards and guitars. There are some sampled strings here too and the usual vocal harmonies.

The band has moved a couple of millimeters towards goth symphonic metal. They still sounds like Nightwish. 

Their version of the Alice Cooper evergreen Poison is rather lifeless and dull.

This is a pretty decent album but nothing more than that. Nightwish fans may want to check out this album.

1.5 points

 

Half Past Four - Finding Time (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Canada.

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

Two guests added backing vocals.

I have previously in # 1 and # 3 of this blog reviewed their debut album and an EP by this band. These are good releases. For some reason I do not understand, I have yet to review their second album. I will post a review of that album before the end of this year.

Finding Time is a thirty-five minutes long album and the music is mainly art-rock.

As on their first album, there is also some strong Canterbury scene fusion and rock influences here. 

There is some quirky music here, indeed. That is aided by some very good and quirky female vocals. 

The tempo is mid-tempo with some good keyboards and vocals. The music is also melodic. Still... quirky is the word best associated with this album. 

The quality is good throughout and this is an album well worth checking out. 

3 points 

 

Joviac - Autofiction Pt. 1 Shards (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

Earlier this month, I reviewed their second album Here And Now (2020) and liked it a lot. It is a good neo-prog album in the vein of Frost* first two albums.

The band continues down the same path on their new album, a fifty minutes long album.

There is one subtle difference between Here And Now and their new album. Their music has become harder, indeed they have introduced some hardcore djent elements here. Their most melodic music has also become catchier and more melodic. Their music has therefore become more varied, more multidimensional.

The band has also introduced some more symphonic prog in their music and has moved a lot closer to bands like Spock's Beard. Their music is therefore also more epic here than on their second album.

The vocals is also very good here and ditto for the sound. 

The end result of this upgrade is better music and a better album. Their best so far, no less.

This is really an album well worth checking out if you are into epic neo-prog or even symphonic prog. This album will make your day/week/month/year.

3.5 points

 

 

Edenya - Another Place (2023)

 

The second album from this band from France.

The band was now reduced to a duo with a lineup of guitars, piano, keyboards, programming and vocals.

A trio of guests added drums, bass, violin and backing vocals.

This is the follow up to their 2020 debut album Silence. That was a good album as I noted in my review earlier this month.

Another Place is a fifty minutes long album. 

The band continues on from their debut album with some more elegant, melodic art-rock.

The music is more a blend of neo-prog and art-rock this time around. It is anchored in Clelia Lenoble's excellent ethereal vocals. She is one of the better vocalists in today's scene and her vocals is really impressive on this album.

The music is ethereal too. Elegant is another fitting word.

There are also some cascades of electric guitars here and some of the music is muscular and beefy.

The result is a very good album and one of the best albums from that year. The band has just released their third album and I will review it later this year.

3.5 points    

 

 

Idiogram - Reunion of Broken Parts (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quartet (?) with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards and samples.

This band comes from the Edinburgh area of Scotland and this is a Bandcamp album.

In short, I know nothing about them although they come from my area, the area where this blog is based.

The music on this one hour long album is a blend of post-rock and cinematic rock.

The music is slow and has some Mogwai influences. 

There is a lot of piano here in addition to the usual cascades of electric guitars. There is also some samples, taken from movies, here at the end.

The quality is decent enough with some very good sound.

This is an album well worth checking out.

2 points  

 

  

 

Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition (2010)

 

The fourth album from this band from Poland.

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

Three guests added woodwinds.

The band continued on towards their rightful status as one of the best prog metal bands in the world. 

This is a three quarters of an hour long album. The music is a blend of heavy prog and progressive metal.

References are both Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater. This album sounds like a crossbreed between this two band's music. This without being a copycat. 

The music is both dynamic and melodic. The vocals are pretty light. They are also very good.

As per usual with progressive rock from Poland, the music has a melancholic undertone. The music is also quirky with some Radiohead undertones and vibes. 

The music also sounds, even fifteen years later, very fresh and original. This album is pretty unique and that is a positive sense.

This is therefore a very good album and one to check out. This album really cemented this band's status as one of the best bands in today's scene.

3.5 points 

Solstafir - Masterpiece Of Bitterness (2005)

 

The second album from this band from Iceland.

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

The band continued on from their 2002 debut album I Blodi Og Andi. An album I reviewed last month.

That album was a pretty primitive black metal album with the full black metal package. It was a pretty good album too.

There are five English vocals tracks and two Icelandic language tracks on this seventy minutes long album.

The music still have some black metal influences. But both the vocals and the music are now a lot more dissonant and experimental. The music here can therefore only be labeled and described as experimental metal.

There are some melodies here too. Most of the music is very heavy and dissonant. 

The music is mostly very fast with some black metal tremolo picking. The music is still pretty eclectic.

This is a pretty good album and one to check out if extreme metal is your thing.

2.5 points 

 

 

X Panda - Flight Of Fancy (2011)

 

The debut album from this band from Estonia.

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

Some guests added violin, woodwinds, backing vocals and a children choir.

This band released two albums between 2011 and 2016. Both of them in the progressive metal genre..

... Sort of, that is. The music on this seventy minutes long album is a blend of heavy prog, progressive metal, symphonic prog and fusion.

Most of the music here is instrumental. The sporadic vocals are pretty good. 

Most of the music is both soaring and pretty epic. It has a positive, happy ambience too. The music is mid-tempo to fast most of the time and a lot of it is driven by the keyboards.

The result is a decent enough album which falls a bit short when it comes to quality. Fans of heavy instrumental prog should check out this album.

2 points 

 

 

Crimson Chrysalis - Crimson Passion Cry (2012)

 

The debut album from this band from South Africa.

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

This band released two albums between 2012 and 2015 before they vanished without a trace. I got both of them when they released their final album but never got around to reviewing them before now. The review of their final album will follow later this month.

The music on this almost one hour long album is symphonic metal. 

Nightwish is a massive inspiration here and the band sails pretty close to this band. So much that copycats is a phrase pretty suitable to describe their music.

That means the music is catchy, melodic and full of female vocals and vocal harmonies.  

The music is generic to say at least.

That said, this album is not a disaster. There are some decent stuff here and the music is so commercial it is hard to really dislike this album. 

This is still a half-decent album though and nothing more than that.

1.5 points 

SubLunar - A Random Moment of Stillness (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Poland.

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

I reviewed their 2019 debut album A Welcome Memory Loss back in August 2019 for # 2 of this blog. It is a pretty good album. 

The band returned again six years later with this forty minutes long follow up album.

The music is again a blend of art-rock and neo-prog. 

The music is very melancholic. Even more melancholic than usual for a band from Poland. There are also some elements of harshness in their music too. There is indeed some post-rock in their music too.

The guitars are doing the main job here, helped by some very good vocals. Most of the music is drenched in electric guitar harmonies. There is a lot of interesting details here too. 

The end result is an upgrade on their debut album and a very good album. This album is another example of why art-rock and neo-prog are in such rude health.

3.5 points 

 

 

 

Joviac - Here and Now (2020)

 

The second album from this band from Finland.

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

Two guests added their respective guitar solos.

This band album debuted with a self-titled album back in 2017 before they returned three years later to release this album I am reviewing here. The band has just released their third album and that one is up for review later this month.

I have yet to find their debut album so this is my first meeting with this trio. 

The music on this forty minutes long album is heavy prog with some neo-prog influences. The music reminds me a lot about the first two albums from the British band Frost*. 

This means heavy, muscular melodic progressive rock.  

The music is also based on some catchy tunes. There is a lot of interesting details to make this album interesting too. The vocals is very good throughout.

The overall quality is good and this makes Joviac an interesting band. Check out this album.

3 points 

Edenya - Silence (2020)

 

The debut album from this band from France.

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

A handful of guests added drums, bass and violin.

This band has so far released three albums through Bandcamp and I got, so far, their first two albums. Both are up for review this month.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is melancholic art-rock with some dream pop influences.

The good vocals are female and they are, unfortunately, in English. I would have preferred French as that language is more suitable for their music.

The music is mid-tempo and slower. It is melancholic melodic.

There are a lot of interesting details here and the quality is pretty high. That makes it a good album indeed and one to check out. This band is highly talented, based on this album. 

3 points  

 

 

 

Afargang - Andvake (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

The band was a one-man-band with Olav Mjelva doing the bass, guitars, hardanger fiddle, harp and vocals.

Three guests added drums, percussion and guitars.

There has been some attempts during the last thirty years to blend black and viking metal with traditional Norwegian folk music. Folk music dominated by harp and harding fiddle. A couple of albums has been pretty good.

Afargang is another project in this genre.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is more melodic than esoteric. The vocals is a blend of clean vocals and black/viking metal screams.

There are some pretty strong Enslaved influences throughout this album. The music is more viking metal dominated than black metal dominated. 

There are some good stuff here and there are some less good stuff here. This album is an untraditional album and pretty eclectic. It is an album more for the metalheads than the progheads.

2.5 points  

Lesoir - Luctor et Emergo (2014)

 

The third album from this band from the Netherlands.

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

The band returned again the year after their second album Transcience. That was a pretty good album from then was a duo.

The band has now become a quartet, a proper band. That with the same vocalist and I presume the engine-room in this band.

The music on this fifty-five minutes long album is not as hard this time as on the first two albums. There are still some Porcupine Tree influences here but the band has also incorporated some art-rock and neo-prog into their brand of progressive rock.

The vocals from Ms. Maartje Meessen is as per usual very good. By slowing down the tempo, the band has also given her more space to showcase her vocals and the result is her vocals so far. 

The songs are both quirky and catchy. There is a lot of good stuff here and the result is therefore their best album and a good album in it's own right. Check out this album.

3 points 

 

 

 

 

 

Monkey3 - Beyond the Black Sky (2011)

 

The third album from this band from Switzerland.

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

I have reviewed their first two albums earlier this summer as I intend to reviview their seven albums so far.

We are again in for a solid slab of heavy psych rock.

We get forty-three minutes worth of hard and heavy psych rock here. There is a lot of space rock influences too in their music. 

The band seems to have moved more in the direction of space rock than staying true to their psych rock roots.

The music is largely guitar driven with some keyboards adding some extra details to the music.

The music is very one-dimentional and does not offer up any really good quality pieces of music. 

This is their so far weakest offering and a decent enough album. I hope their fourth album is better than this one.

2 points 

Yuka & Chronoship - Water Reincarnation (2011)

 

The debut album from this band from Japan.

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

This is another debut album I have got after reviewing the rest of their five albums. My reviews of their two latest albums can be found in this edition of this blog and the two others are here and here.

Water Reincarnation is a fifty-five minutes long album. 

The music is a blend of cinematic rock and symphonic prog.

Most of the music is instrumental. There are some female vocals here and they are pretty good. Most of the vocals is wordless and works as an instrument. 

The music is melodic and lacking a lot in interesting details, themes and hooks. The music is in short a bit on the wishy-washy end of the spectrum. 

This album is still a pretty good album. Thankfully, the band improved a lot during their next albums. This is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

 

 

Vimma - Meri ja Avaruus (2019)

 

The debut album from this band from Finland.

The band was a nine piece big band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, violin, piano, woodwinds and vocals.

The band has released three albums. I have earlier this year reviewed their last two albums. It took me some time to get their debut album. Hence the delay in reviewing this album. The review of their second album is here and the review of their brand new third album is here.

Meri Ja Avaruus is a forty minutes long album. The music is a blend of psych rock, acid folk and folk music from Finland.

The vocals, female vocals, are in Finnish. 

The music is very lively with woodwinds and strings adding a lot of colours to the pieces of music. On the top of that again, you get this very good Finnish vocals. The music is so lively that it sometimes borders to zeuh, Japanese zeuhl.

The music is really good throughout and this band really entered the scene with a big bang. Their last album is not as good as this one and their second album, unfortunate. My hope is that the band returns to what they did on this album. Anyway, this is a massive talented band and this is a good album.

3 points 

  

Agropelter - The Book of Hours (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

This band is a one-man-band with Kay Olsen doing the bass, guitars, keyboards and church organ.

He had help from numerous guests who added drums, percussion, duduk, bass, guitars, strings, keyboards, mellotron, harpsichord, grand piano, electronics, bassoon and flute. 

This is one of this year's most discussed and debated albums. I therefore approached this three quarters of an hour long album with some apprehension.  

It is easy to understand why there is a blurb/hype around this album. And for the life of me, I cannot understand why Kay and his record label Laser's Edge used this cover art-work. It is nice but this is neither a horror rock or a metal album. The art-work is great though. 

The music is instrumental and references are Genesis, Vangelis and ELP. 

There are some baroque music here, performed by harpichord, mellotron and church organ. Those pieces are very good, indeed. These pieces are balanced with some not so inspiring pieces.

On average, this is a good album and one to check out. The quality of the music here justifies the hype and I am a happy owner of this album. I still don't understand why they used this art-work....   

3 points 

Ekzilo - Quantum Phase Transition (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Spain

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

This is the follow up album to their self-titled 2020 debut album. The music there was psych rock.

Their new album is clocking in at just under fifty-five minutes. 

We are again being treated to some psych rock. There is also a lot of fusion and some folk music, make that flamenco, incorporated into their music. Not to mention djent too.

The music is mostly instrumental with a nice flowing blend of fusion and psych rock.

The music clearly originates from Spain as there is plenty of flamenco incorporated into this flowing music.

The music is mostly driven by the guitars and the keyboards are playing a more supporting role, filling in the empty spaces in the sound.

The result is another good album from this band. There has been some good albums from Spain this year and it seems like this is Spain's big year in the progressive rock scene. About time !

3 points 

 

 

Danefae - Trøst (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Denmark.

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

A handful of guests added keyboards and vocals.

The band returned again after their 2022 debut album Tro. 

Trøst is a three quarters of an hour long album. The music is again heavy with Porcupine Tree influences and some more diminishing Marillion influences. There are still some Kate Bush influences here in the female vocals.

The lyrics are in Danish. The vocals are pretty muscular and ditto for the music.

The music is a lot heavier this time around. There is even some djent here. There are also some more lyrical pieces here. Most of this album is heavy, though.

The overall quality is pretty good with the vocals adding those extra sparks to their music. This is therefore a good album and one to check out.

3 points 

Cormorano - L'inciampo Dell'Uovo (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Italy.

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

Two guests added guitars and vocals.

Two months ago, I reviewed their second album Obliquizioni D'Autonni (2023) and gave it a good rating. It was an album with a blend of jazzy and folk rock influenced RPI.

The band very much continues down/up the same path on their new album. A forty minutes long album.

The Dimitri Stratos influenced vocals give us a lot of Area vibes here.  

The music is slightly more avant-garde orientated and less melody focused on this album. Not at least because of the first five avant-garde rock focused minutes.

The music then becomes a bit more melodic. It also becomes a bit more folk rock and jazz focused. 

Half of this album is good while the rest is not really up to a good standard. The vocals is good and that is what I take from this album. This album is not as good as their last album.

2.5 points 

Soup - Come On Pioneers (2005)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

The band was a one-man-band on this album where Erlend Viken did the bass, guitars, electronics and vocals.

This band started out as a one-man-band before it branched out to a full band. It has so far released six albums and they are all up for review this fall. 

I do not yet know if this half an hour long album is representative for this band as there is only one man in the band at this time. Nevertheless, the music here is a blend of art-rock, electronica and post-rock.

References are Airbag, Sigur Ros and Steven Wilson. 

The tempo is slow and melancholic. There is some organ and moog sounds here in addition to some flutes sounds. All this generated by the electronics.

The vocals is really good and they are also adding a haunting ambience to this album.

The music is pretty good throughout. This is indeed a more than acceptable debut album and I am looking forward to sampling their other albums.

2.5 points 

  

Sky - Sky 2 (1980)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

I was positive surprised by their debut album. The music was surprisingly dynamic. I had since it's release in 1978 avoided it as I thought it was a wishy-washy new-age album. It is not.

Hence I was looking forward to review the follow up album.

Sky 2 is clocking in at eighty minutes. It is a double LP and a double CD album. 

The music here has been described as prog rock lite in some other magazines. There is a lot of truth in those observations.

Take neo-classical music and blend it with symphonic prog and cinematic rock. This is what we get here.

Most of the music is neo-classical music though. The music is pretty dynamic throughout and there is some interesting pieces here. 

This album is not as good as their debut album. It is still a decent enough album though. I am not won over by these eighty minutes, I am afraid.

2 points 

Música Urbana - Iberia (1978)

 

The second and final album from this band from Spain.

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

A guest added percussion.

The band blended jazz, fusion and folk rock on their self-titled 1976 debut album. This as I noted in my review earlier this month.

The band has changed a bit since then. The forty minutes long Iberia is mostly a fusion album. There are some neo-classical music here too. Some of the music is a blend of those two genres.

The music is therefore commercial, melodic and a bit easy-listening.

The music is still pretty decent with some pretty good fusion and some not so decent easy-listening music.

The fusion bits is this album's savior. Their debut album was slightly better than this album. Nevertheless...

 2 points 

  

 

Penaguin. Tom - Tom Penaguin (2024)

 

The second album from this artist from France.

Tom Penaguin did the drums, bass, guitars, electric piano, synths and tapes here.

After being a member of several bands, he album debuted in 2022 with the Soundtrack For Places I Have Never Been, Vol 1. A decent enough electronica album as I noted in my review earlier this month.

Tom Penaguin is a forty minutes long album. The music is instrumental and in the Canterbury scene genre.

There is alot of Hatfield & The North, National Health and Egg references in the music here. In particular is the Egg references notable.

There is a very good organ sound here and this organ sound is as distorted as the organs used by Egg and the two other above mentioned bands.

The music is a bit short in variations and details. It is still a pretty good album and one to check out if the Canterbury scene and instrumental organ based music is your thing.

I hope to review Tom's new album later this year.  

2.5 points 

 

 

 

Tagliaferro. Paola - Il Suono Delle Sfere (2025)

 

The fifth album from this artist from Italy.

Paola Tagliaferro did all the vocals herself.

She got help from a trio who added drums, bass, guitars, piano and keyboards.

I know absolute nothing about this artist as I got this album as a promo download. I only know that one of the leading lights in the RPI scene, Luca Scherani did the piano and keyboards on this album.

This album was released as an eighty minutes long album, split into two parts with the same songs in English and Italian. The only difference is the language. A pretty hopeless concept so I am only reviewing the forty minutes long Italian vocals part of this album. The English vocals part of this album deserves to be bypassed in silence and without a word.

The music on this forty minutes long album is melodic pop/rock with a lot of RPI influences. It can be argued that this is indeed a RPI album. 

The music is not complex. It has a lot of symphonic prog influences.... which indeed makes this a RPI album. It is a bit RPI-light and based on Paola's good vocals.

The songs are decent enough and focused on the vocals. I am not won over by this album which I guess will do well in Italy but nowhere else. 

2 points 

Ekzilo - Ekzilo (2020)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

This band has so far released two albums. The last one was released earlier this year and that one too is up for review sometimes later this month.

This forty minutes long album is mainly a psych rock album. There are a lot of folk rock and jazz influences in their music too.

The album starts with an eclectic piece of acoustic guitars driven piece of jazz and psych rock. A strange piece of music and a warning that this band has chosen its own path.  

The music becomes a bit more melodic with English vocals. The music is still psych rock.

The music is muscular and mid-tempo. The guitars are good and ditto for the vocals and the sound.

The music is very intricate and eclectic at times. This makes for an interesting and not at least a good album. This is another very talented band from Spain. 

3 points 

Danefae - Tro (2022)

 

The debut album from this band from Denmark.

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

The band is a new discovery for me. They have released numerous EPs and two albums. Both albums are up for review this fall on this blog.

The vocals on this forty minutes long album are female and in Danish. That is a refreshing take on this muscular blend of heavy prog and art-rock.

There are some Porcupine Tree and some Marillion influences here. Kate Bush has also left her marks on this band.

The music is mid-tempo with some good tempo. The guitars are pretty heavy and hard rocking. The vocals and vocal harmonies are very good indeed.

The band's music is pretty original and refreshing. The result is indeed a good album and a pretty impressive debut album. Add this band to your list of new talents well worth following. They are on my list.

3 points 

Baro Prog Jets - Prog Jet IV Aionverse (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

Baro Prog is Alberto Molesini on bass, guitars, keyboards, drums programming and vocals.

Four guests, including Heather Findlay, added vocals to this album.

The band, make that Alberto "Baro" Molesini, returned again four years after the Utopie album. An unimpressive album I reviewed back in 2021 in # 2 of this blog. I have reviewed their good 1 & 2 album in one review last month. An album I really like a lot.

IV Aionverse is a one hour long concept album. The music is still RPI. There are some cinematic rock and neo-prog here too.

The music is pretty epic at times. A bit baroque music influenced at times too. The music is still melodic with a rock opera feel at times. 

The sound is missing out on some organic drums. That gives this album a bit of a light-weight fluffy feathers feel. 

The vocals are in English.... unfortunate. The Italian language is excellent when it comes to music like this and Alberto has missed a trick here.  

There are some very good pieces of music here and some not so good pieces here. This is therefore on average a good album and one to check out for anyone into concept albums, neo-prog and RPI. I hope we will hear a lot more from Alberto Molesini in the future. 

3 points 

 

 

Magnum - Breath Of Life (2002)

 

The 11th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band was back after an eight years long break. Eight years where the AOR and pomp rock scene were really struggling with catastrophic falling record sales and gigs attendance. Bands were playing gigs where only a man and his dog showed up.

Better to take a break, a well deserved break, in other words.

Magnum returned again with this one hour long album. 

The music is a blend of AOR and pomp rock. The music is melodic and not particular intricate. There is not many interesting details here.

The music is a bit catchy with some very good vocals.

This is not their best album. Neither is it their worst album. It is a decent enough album which includes no surprises.

2 points 

Rolf Zero - Rex Migius (2022)

 

The third album from this band from Australia.

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

I gladly admit that I was nowhere near won over by their first two albums. Hence my expectations to Rex Migius were pretty low.

Rex Migius is a three quarters of an hour long album. The music is a blend of folk rock, baroque classical music and symphonic prog.

The music is majestic, big, bold and epic. It is also pretty melodic too. 

The sound on this Bandcamp album is not particular impressive. The electric guitars are so far back in the mix that this is clearly both a mixing and a mastering issue. An issue which has largely killed this album stone dead.

The music is largely good. This album is an improvement on their first two album. A pretty impressive improvement, too. But it is impossible to overlook that bad sound. Hence....

2.5 points 

Musica Urbana - Musica Urbana (1976)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of marimb, percussion, drums, bass, guitars, piano, organ, keyboards, synths, woodwinds and voices.

Two guests added percussion, grand piano, organ and moog. 

This band released two albums between 1976 and 1978. Both are being reviewed in this blog. 

The music on this forty minutes long album is a blend of fusion and local folk music. The Weather Report with flamenco is a pretty precise description of this album.

The music is mid-tempo though and not particular intense.

The music is also melodic with some weirdo voices, guitars and rhythms. This is by no means a run of the mill fusion album. 

The quality is decent enough throughout this album. This is an album well worth checking out if fusion floats your boat.

2 points 

 

Penaguin. Tom - Soundtrack for Places I've Never Been, Vol. 1 (2022)

 

The debut album from this artist from France.

Tom Penaguin did the drums and moog on this album.

Tom has so far released three albums and I got his first two albums up for review this month. 

He has been a member of several French bands before he went solo. He has just released a new album which I hope I will be able to review later this fall.

The music om this forty minutes is electronica performed with drums and moog. Tom recorded the core of this album some time before he decided to finish it and release it through Bandcamp. 

That is a good choice as this piece of electronica is pretty melodic. There is some Tangerine Dream influence here. Nevertheless, the electronica has some jazzy, cinematic rock influences.

The music is also pretty ethereal too. 

The result is a decent enough debut album and one to check out. 

2 points 

 

 

Ring Van Möbius - Firebrand (2025)

 

The fourth and final album from this band from Norway.

The band was a trio with a lineup of glockenspiel, drums, percussion, bass, timpani, piano, organ, keyboards, synths, electronics and vocals.

This is the swansong from this band who have now split up. This after some very good albums and a short, but still great career. 

Three tracks, fifty minutes of music. The music on this fit album is symphonic prog deeply rooted in the early to mid 1970s.

References are ELP, but also Yes.

The music is big, bold, bombastic and pretty epic. There are a lot of moog and organs here. There are also some mellotrons. That gives this album a great retro sound.

The vocals is pretty good. There is not much vocals here, though. Most of this album is instrumental with cascades of instruments.

The music is good throughout this album and this band is leaving the scene after four good albums. Check out this album and their first three albums too.

3 points  

 

 

 

 

Proportions - The Power Of Ten (2024)

 

The sixth album from this multi-national band.

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

A guest added guitars on one track.

The band/project returned again after the previous year's very good Conundrum album. Their last three album had been on a very high standard and I am slowly becoming a fan of them.

The Power Of Ten is a fifty minutes long album. The band is still exploring the symphonic prog genre. There is a lot of Camel influences here.

There are also some notable Canterbury scene influences here with some good Caravan influences.

The music is symphonic, melodic and elegant. There are some  good vocals here inbetween some long instrumental pieces of music. The songs are all elegant and very good.

This is another very good album from this band/project. I hope we will hear a lot more from them in the future.

3.5 points 

 

 

Phantom Spell - Heather & Hearth (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Spain.

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

Kyle is originally from Manchester in Great Britain, but moved to Spain sometime before he released the Phantom Spell debut album Immortal's Requim back in 2022. That was a pretty good album as I noted in my review of it last month.

The music on this just over half an hour long album is a blend of hard rock and heavy metal. References are again Kansas, Wishbone Ash, Europe and Iron Maiden.

The music is still melodic hard rock and heavy rock with the emphasis on good melodies and hooks. There are even ballads here. 

The music is pretty retro with a 1990s feel over the sound, music and vocals. 

The music is also pretty good throughout this album. I believe heavy metal fans will enjoy this album a lot more than I do. Nevertheless...

2.5 points 

 

 

Glutton - Skiva Heter Vishnu! (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This is a new band to me. The album has been released through the Norwegian prog rock label Apollon Records and they have described it as instrumental progressive rock. 

The album title however alludes to Mahavishnu Orchestra, a fusion band. One of the greatest fusion bands of all time, no less.

The music on this forty minutes long album does indeed have a lot of Mahavishnu Orchestra influences. It is however most of all more similar to Hedvik Mollestad's music. 

This means forty minutes with heavy and eclectic fusion.

The music is heavy throughout and has a lot of interesting details. The music is also good throughout.

Glutton is another addition to the list of Norwegian fusion and jazz bands. Those of you who are fans of this genre should check out this album.

3 points 

Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement (2007)

 

The third album from this band from Poland.

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

Two guests added percussion, guitars and keyboards.

I reviewed their debut album last month and I liked it a lot. I have also reviewed their second album Second Life Syndrome for ProgArchives back in 2008 and the link to that review is here.

Rapid Eye Movement, which also shortened means R.E.M and became famous as an US band twenty years ago, is a one hour long album.

The music is a blend of heavy prog and art-rock. 

The music has a lot of similarities with Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson. Riverside's music is a lot more melancholic than those two abovementioned entities.

The music is both catchy and melodic throughout with some good vocals.

There is no real great pieces of music here. That aside, this is a good album.

3 points