Ange - Cunégonde (2025)

 

The 25th album from this band from France.

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

The fact that Ange has released an album this year is one of the nicest surprises of the year. When we also get both the Christian and Tristan Decamps on this album.... I feel joyous.

Ange is far too often overlooked. But they are still one of the best ever symphonic prog bands ever to have graced this planet.

Not all their albums has been good though and they have had a bleak period with some rather bad pop/rock albums. So which Ange turned up on this album ?

This fifty minutes long album sees the band partly returning to their roots... the symphonic prog era. 

Partly because there are also some art-rock here. There is none of this pop/rock that marred their good reputation. This album is a bona fide art-rock and symphonic progressive rock album.

The sound is also modern and dynamic. The vocals from the Decamps family is very good. They are off course in French, a language who really suits the symphonic prog genre.

The mid-tempo and pretty complex songs here are really good and this album is a really positive surprise. I am pretty impressed.

3 points 

 

 

 

 

Magnum - Escape From The Shadow Garden (2014)

 

The 17th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band returned again with this one hour long album two years after the release of their previous album.

The band continued on with their blend of pomp rock and AOR here.

The music is rocking more as in classic rock on this album than on the previous three albums. We are not talking in particular hard rock here.. but the music is still rocking.

There are some good hooks and riffs here. The vocals is as per usual very good.

The ambience here is a band who are really enjoying themselves and who knows what they are good at and what their core fans want to hear.

The result is a pretty good album and one to check out if pomp rock and hard AOR is your thing.

2.5 points   

Tumbleweed Dealer - Tumbleweed Dealer (2013)

 

The debut album from this band from Canada.

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

This band has, to my knowledge, released three albums and these three albums are now up for reviews in this blog in the coming couple of weeks.

This album is clocking in at close to three quarters of an hour.

The music is a blend of stoner rock and space rock.

The duo format is very limiting here and the result is a rather primitive take on these two genres.

The sound and music is also dry and does not really bring anything original to the table/scene.

This is a half-decent album which is falling well short of the target.

1.5 points 

 

Marmalade Knives - Amnesia (2020)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This band just released their second album and I got both their albums up for review. The review of their new album will be posted in some days time.

Amnesia is clocking in at forty minutes. The music is mostly space rock with some electronica and krautrock incorporated into the music.  

Most of the music is instrumental. The music is mid-tempo with a lot of electric guitars. 

Some of the music is rather dissonant. Most of the music is melodic though.

Most of the music is both eerie and melancholic. The synths are used to add spices to the music.

There are no real good pieces of music here. The music is decent enough. Nevertheless, space rock fans may like this album a lot.  

2 points 

Family Free Rock - In Full Swing (2017)

 

The fifth or so album from this band from Brazil.

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

I am frankly not sure if this is their fifth album as the band has not released a list of their albums. Ten years ago, in February 2016, I did review what I thought was their debut album, the 2015 album Day Of Wrath in # 1 of this blog. I am now mistaken, it seems as there is some albums before that again. You can read that review here.

In Full Swing clocks in at almost fifty-five minutes. The music is a blend of blues and good old 1970s hard rock.

There are also some hints of Rush anno their debut album. Budgie is also a pretty good reference.

The band has also not so stealthily copied the guitar solo on Led Zeppelin's classic Stairway To Heaven here. 

The rest of this album is what we can expect from a power trio. The vocals is pretty good. The music is sometimes pretty melodic.

The music is decent enough without being good or impressive. I will review another one of their albums later this week.

2 points 

Aufklarung - Nell'idea di un Tempo che (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

One guest added flutes. 

The band returned after a thirty years long break. Their 1995 debut album De La Tempesta was reviewed back in August 2018 in # 2 of this blog and you can find the review here. 

That album was a good neo-prog influenced RPI album. I was therefore positively surprised to see them return again this year with this three quarters of an hour long album.

We get four compositions here. Two of them are fourteen minutes long and the other two are sub-ten minutes long.

The music here is classic RPI. References are both PFM and Banco.

The music is mid-tempo with some pastoral pieces too. The music is also very complex at times and demands the listener's full attention. 

The Italian vocals is very good. The musicians does a good job too. 

This is therefore another good RPI album which will please all RPI fans. 

3 points 

 

Steam Theory - Passages (2020)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

The band was a one-man-band with Jason Denkevitz on bass, guitars, mandolin, bouzouki, keyboards, synths and electronics.

Four guests added drums, bass, violin and keyboards.

Jason continues down the path of instrumental prog metal and heavy rock on this seventy minutes long album.

The previous album, Asunder from 2015, were a pretty flowery album with lots of acoustic instruments in addition to the prevailing electric guitars.

On Passages, Jason has retreated a bit back to electric guitars based instrumental prog metal. There are still some acoustic instruments here. But most of the music is electric guitars based.

The sound is good and Jason does a good job on his guitars. The music is still decent enough but seventy minutes is too long. 

Steam Theory released their fifth album Chrysalis last year and I reviewed it in February this year in # 3 of this blog. You can read the review here.  

2 points 

 

Starlight Brigade - Beyond The Future (2022)

 

The fourth and so far the latest album from this band from Sweden.

The band was a project lead by Anders Nilsson who did some guitars and keyboards.

He had help from around a dozen guests who provided drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is mid-tempo, elegant, pompous and with lots of vocals.

The music is a blend of pomp rock and pomp pop. Just as on the first three albums.

There are also some AOR here too. 

The sound is good and the music is slightly harder on this album than on the previous three albums.

The vocals is good but the songs are still not really impressive. They are too much run-of-the-mill and is sorely lacking in good details.

Fans of mainstream pop-rock and AOR should check out both this album and the first three albums. 

2 points   

 

 

Cafuné - Tra Le Corde Dei Racconti (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, bouzouki, celtic harp, synths, flute and vocals.

This is a new band to me as I got this album earlier this fall. I got a long queue of new albums to review so this album had to wait for it's turn.

Cafune is a Portuguese word but the band is from Italy. 

This album is forty minutes long and the music here is folk rock in the RPI tradition. 

Bands like Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Amazing Blondel and a more folk version of Jethro Tull are good references here. Ditto for Angelo Branduardi.

The (female) vocals of Irene Lippolis are prominent in their mainly acoustic sound. There are a lot of acoustic guitars, harp and flute here in addition to the vocals.

The music is really flowery and a treat if folk rock is your thing. The songs are also good and this is a rather impressive debut album. The best folk rock album of the year ? Probably yes.

3.5 points 

 

 

 

Triangle - Square The Circle (2000)

 

The debut album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

This band released their new album, their fifth album, earlier this year and also made their albums available as name-your-price Bandcamp albums. Hence it makes sense to review the four albums I have yet to review. 

I have already reviewed their third album, the 2016 album Alert & Alive back in April 2017 in # 2 of this blog and you can read this review here.

Square The Circle is an one hour and six minutes long album.

The genre is neo-prog. The band's music is well within the Dutch neo-prog tradition.

Most of the seven songs are clocking in at just over ten minutes. The music is pretty epic and still pretty melodic. There are also a lot of details here.

The music are pretty good throughout and there is no doubts this is a quality band. Something the good vocals also proves.

This is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

 

 

Tempano - Åtabal Yémal (1980)

 

The debut album from this band from Venezuela.

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

This band released ten albums between 1980 and 2016. They are all up for reviews this winter in this blog.

This band was one of the most productive, prolific prog bands from South America during their time. Not all their albums are progressive rock albums.... but we will come to that during the reviews of their albums.

Atabal Yemal is clocking in at just short of forty-five minutes.

The music is a flowery blend of prog, psych and some fusion.

There are also clear Latin rock influences here too.

The music is quirky and a bit complex. The Spanish vocals is good.

The result is a pretty good album which will really please everyone into South American progressive rock. This is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

 

  

 

Trapella. Alessio - LA Ricerca Dell'Imperfezione (2022)

 

The debut album from this artist from Italy.

Alessio Trapella did the basses, guitar, harmonica, flute and vocals here.

He had help from two guests who provided guitars, piano, organ, clavinet and synths.

Alessio was a bassist in New Trolls and had also played with Aldo Tagliopietra from Le Orme before he set sail on his own as a solo-artist. Two albums have so far been released and I will review his brand new album later this year.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is RPI. 

The music is pretty much classic RPI. There is a lot of folk rock, Italian folk rock and some jazz incorporated into this take on RPI.

Some of the music is a bit funky too. There is indeed an undertone of funk throughout this album.

The music is mid-tempo and pastoral at times. The vocals are good and the guests does a good job.

The quality of the songs is somewhere between decent and good. This is an acceptable debut album and one to build on. Something I hope will be evident on his new album.

2.5 points  

 

Steensland. Johan - Crossfade (2024)

 

The debut album from this artist from Sweden.

Johan Steensland did the drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals here.

He had help from a quartet of guests who provided drums, bass, guitars and female vocals.

Johan has been around the Swedish prog scene since the early 1980s without releasing anything. He had a short spell in USA before he returned to Sweden again. 

Crossfade is a rock-opera he started to write and complete back in 1985. It was only recorded and released last year. Earlier this year, the second rock-opera, Duality was also released and I will review that album later this year.

Crossfade clocks in close to an hour. The music is a blend of neo-prog and art-rock.

There is a lot of Kaipa, the Angling Feelings album era, influences on this album. The female vocals are pretty similar too. 

The music is both elegant and melodic. The vocals are very good. Ditto for the instruments too. 

Despite some of the music being slightly cheesy, the overall quality is good and this is an album well worth checking out.

3 points  

 

 

Arianuova - Volevo Andare Altrove (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This one hour long album is the debut album from this band. The album was released one week ago on Lizard Records.

The music here is RPI. 

This genre has a wide range of bands and Arianuova is straddling both the traditional RPI scene and the modern RPI scene. 

There is indeed a lot of art-rock in their music. That gives their music a light, fresh sound. 

The band's music has indeed it's own identity. The sound is very good throughout. The music is also very varied with some weird, arty instrumental pieces in addition to the songs. The vocals is very good throughout.

The band is indeed taking the RPI scene into a new direction and I hope the band will not be an outlier in this scene as there is a lot to cherish on this album. Not everything is great here. But this is a debut album and a more than acceptable debut album.

This is one of the most interesting debut album in the RPI genre of the year.

3.5 points 

Steam Theory - Asunder (2015)

 

The third album from this one-man-band from USA.

The band was a one-man-band with Jason Denkevitz on bass, guitars and electronics.

Three guests added drums and keyboards.

I am not a big fan of the first two albums. Too much generic instrumental prog metal in my view and the albums was not bringing anything new to the table/the scene.

Asunder is a double CD album clocking in at one and an half hour.

The music is again instrumental progressive metal. This time around, there is a lot of samples and electroncs which adds a lot to the sound on this album.

The music is still based on drums, bass and in particular guitars... electric guitars. 

The music is also dynamic, bold and a lot more varied and symphonic than on the first two albums. This gives me the belief that Jason Denkevitz has turned the corner with his Steam Theory project. 

The result is a pretty good album and a step up in quality. I am pleased with that. 

2.5 points 

 

 

Starlight Brigade - Destination Eternity (2016)

 

The third album from this band from Sweden.

The band was a project lead by Anders Nilsson who did some guitars and keyboards.

He had help from around a dozen guests who provided drums, bass, guitars, saxophones and vocals.

Their first two albums have not really impressed me. They are decent enough albums somewhere between pomp rock, pomp pop and mainstream rock.

Destination Eternity is a one hour long album. 

We get the same type of music as on the first two albums.

The music is elegant, mid-tempo, pompous and with lots of vocals.

The vocals is good, both male and female vocals. There are some good guitar solos here too.

The music is fairly decent but without many interesting details. Hence...

2 points 

 

RaraOvis - ne sveleremo l'essenza (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

The band is really a project with Leonardo Pegoraro on keyboards and Fabio Zuffanti as the musical director.

Leonardo had help from a long list of guests who added drums, bass, guitars, violin, viola, grand piano, keyboards, transverse flute, bassoon, clarinet, flute, male and female vocals.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of rock opera and RPI. This album may be labeled as an RPI rock opera or an RPI musical. 

The music has also a lot of classical music influences. 

The music is mid-tempo melodic, flowery and pretty elegant.

The sound is very good. The male and female vocals is good. There is a lot of good stuff here and the overall quality is therefore good. This is by all means an untraditional RPI album and a new take on this genre. It is an album most prog rock fans will like. Check it out.

3 points 

 

 

Man - Man (1971)

 

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band from Wales soldiered on with this fifty minutes long album.

When I decided to review this band's full discography earlier this year, I thought I was in for some straight forward sounding hard psych albums. I was wrong.... 

This fifty minutes long album is a pretty complex album who also takes in country'n'western. I take it that the band was sarcastic when they wrote and included that song on this album. It sounds like a send up. 

The rest of the album is complex, hard and full of psychedelic rock. California psych rock imported to the north of Wales, Great Britain. Some Welsh grit and grime has been added to the import from California.

The result is the music on this album. An album with a weird album cover art. Cover art which describes the music here pretty well.

The music is not for the faint hearted. 

This is still a good album though and one of the more interesting psych rock albums from the 1970s. An album that lives up to it's semi-classic status.

3 points 

 

Oberon - Mysteries/ Big Brother/ Anthem (2014)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

The band was a one-man-band with Bård Titlestad doing the keyboards, electronics and vocals.

I have got hold of three of the four Bandcamp albums Oberon has released and will review them before the end of the year. 

This seventy-six minutes long album consists of three shorter album merged into one album.

The music is therefore a bit of a patchwork. 

Take elegant pop/rock and some piano pieces among cascades of ambient drone music. 

The elegant pop/rock music here showcases an artist with lots of talents. The (far too) few proper songs here are pretty good.

Then we get the drone material which is not that interesting. The piano pieces are pretty decent. 

This is therefore (barely) a decent enough album. Check it out at Oberon's Bandcamp page if this sounds interesting.

2 points  

 

Nouvelle Frontière. La - L Hymne Aux Quenouilles (1970)

 

The second and final album from this band from Canada.

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

Their self-titled debut album from the same year was an album full of flowery, vocals dominated folk rock. It was a decent enough album.

On that album, the vocals strangled the music and the result was a bit of a vocals-overkill. 

On this forty minutes long album, the follow up album, there is some more instrumental music. The balance between instruments and vocals is better.

The music is also leaning towards acid-folk with some psych rock and jazz influences.

There are some good pieces of melodies here and some not so good pieces. The vocals are still good.

This is a pretty good album and one to check out. The band split up and some band members formed another band called Le Match. A review of their album will follow later this year.

2.5 points 

 

120 Minds - The Polymath (2022)

 

The second album from this band from Germany.

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

I was not impressed by their 2020 debut album Sound Of Origin. It was a pretty straight forward blend of hard rock and hard core.

This barely half an hour follow up album gives us more of the same.

There are some Eastern Asia influences here though. Not particular big ones, but they are still here.

The music is also more varied this time around with some decent harmonies and melodies.

The guitars are still the main instrument and there are some decent guitars riffs and solos here. 

The music is not progressive rock. It is still pretty quirky at times and has some interesting details.

The result is a decent enough Bandcamp album. It is a bit too short for my liking though but still decent enough.

2 points 

 

Doping Hornets - Delirium Dive (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Canada.

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

The band returned again after a ten years long album break. 

Their 2015 self-titled debut album were a decent enough album with music somewhere between college rock and neo-prog. 

The music on the forty minutes long Delirium Dive is more a blend of art rock and neo-prog. There are also some hints of jazz and folk rock here. There are also some Rush references here too. 

The music is mostly mid-tempo with a pretty organic sound and vocals. The music is also emotional and melancholic. 

There are some good guitar solos here and the vocals is good. There are a lot of interesting details here too. 

The album is a bit of a grower and it takes a bit time and efforts from the listener. Please give it some time and you will be rewarded with a good album.

This is a name-your-price Bandcamp album too. Hence, get this album.

3 points 

November - 6th November (1972)

 

The third and final album from this band from Sweden.

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

This forty minutes long album is following on from their first two albums. 

That means 1970s hard rock.

There are some more variations on this album than on the two first albums, though. We get ballads too and some more mid-tempo rock. There are also some more blues here.

The Swedish lyrics, which I as a Norwegian can understand, is also a bit about the environmental issues. This is therefore one of the first Scandinavian rock albums which were dealing with an issue which is now, fifty years later a mainstream issue.

The vocals is good throughout this album and the band does a good job too.

This is a decent enough album. Their three albums should be included in any respectable Scandinavian hard rock and prog rock collection. 

2 points 

Sólstafir - Hin Helga Kv​ö​l (2024)

 

The eighth album from this band from Iceland.

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

This fifty minutes long album is their so far latest album. I guess we will soon get a new album from them.

The band continued on from their previous album. All their previous albums had been good post-metal albums and well worth checking out.

Their 2002 debut album were an extreme metal album and I did not really expect a return to those days. But that is what the band has done.... half of this album, that is. 

The music is very varied. From Drudkh like extreme metal to some dungeon synths towards the end of the album. We also get some barren landscapes sounding post-metal here. This is what we got on the five previous albums too.

Hin Helga Kvol is still a break, a pretty big break with their previous albums. The music much more brutal. The music is still good though and proves that the band is a quality band, rivalling Sigur Ros as the best band from this island. Check it out.

3 points 

 

Alfa Serenar - Tecnouveau (2025)

 

The fifth album from this band from Brazil.

The band was a one-man-band with Rafael Senra doing the bass, guitars, synths and vocals.

I had the joy of reviewing their first four albums in # 3 this blog in August - September 2023 and I quite liked them.

This album is forty minutes long and the music is a blend of Latin folk rock, Latin pop and symphonic prog.

Anthony Phillips springs to mind here as a reference. 

The music is softly spoken and pretty elegant. Make that... very elegant. The music has a lot of classical music influences too.

There is a nice mix of instrumental pieces of music and songs here. The songs comes with Portuguese vocals and are very good.

This is another good album from an underrated band that has so far released five interesting albums. Check them out and most of all... check out this album.

3 points  

 

 

 

Stuckfish - The Watcher (2019)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Three guests added bass, keyboards and flute.  

This album is the follow up album to their 2018 debut album Calling. That was a good album and this band has understandable become quite popular over the last years.

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

The dominant genre here is neo-prog, though. 

The music is dynamic, pretty muscular and melodic at the same time. The vocals is very good and there are some good guitar harmonies and guitar solos here.

The music is also elegant and the sound is very good. 

The result is a another good album from this band. A band that deserve a lot more attention and praise.

 3 points

Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, pedal steel guitars, piano, electric piano, synths, harmonica and vocals.

A number of guests added bass, guitars, slide guitar, woodwinds and backing vocals.

This is the follow up to their very successful 1972 debut album Can't Buy A Thrill. 

The music on this, the forty minutes long follow up album is quirky, jazzy 1970s rock. There is also some funk here.

The band was and still is regarded as a band who brought a lot of intelligent sophistication and class to the rock genre. That comes through on this album. The music is indeed sophisticated and elegant. Add quirkiness and funky too.

In this respect, Steely Dan is in their own class. Something I have noted from their first two albums. 

The music here is well-crafted and with some details and quirks you will not find in any other mainstream bands in the 1970s. 

The vocals is also good and the eight songs are all good. Yes, I understand why this band is so revered. Quality and class is timeless. 

3 points 

 

   

 

Nouvelle Frontière. La - La Nouvelle Frontière (1970)

 

The debut album from this band from Canada.

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

This short-lived band released two albums before they gave up the ghost. A review of their second album will follow next week. 

Members of this band later formed another band called Le Match and I will review their album later this fall.

This album, their debut album, clocks in at half an hour. The music is folk music with lots of female and male vocals. 

The music is soft and pretty elegant. All vocals are in French and they are very good, both the male and the female vocals.

The music is decent enough. There are a lot to be happy about there. The music is a bit too wishy-washy though. This is still a decent album and one to check out.

2 points 

 

120 Minds - Sound Of Origin (2020)

 

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

As far as I know, this band has released two albums through Bandcamp. I will post my review of their second album in some days time.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of hard rock and hardcore.

The music is also pretty typical for the power rock trio format too.

The guitars and vocals is pretty good and ditto for the sound.

The album was said to have some world-music too. It does not as the music is straight forward hard rocking.

The music is pretty decent but does not offer anything special. Unless hard rock and/or hardcore is your thing, this is not an album I can recommend.

1.5 points  

Flying Fish. A - El Pez Que Voló ACT II (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Mexico.

This is a one-man-band with Rahoola on bass, guitars, piano, keyboards and drums programming.

He had help from some guests who provided drums, violins, trombone, flutes, narration and vocals.

Act I was released in 2023 and I rated it as a turkey in my review for # 3 of this blog back in October 2023. So I had no expectation to Act II, this album....

Rahoola has moved the music more towards rock in Act II. The result is more a rock opera than a neo-classical piece of music. There is even some goth metal influences here. Not to mention symphonic prog influences.

The music is pretty elegant and it still retains a lot of neo-classical music.

It is fair to say that this album contains some very special music. It is not what I would call the normal fare. This album is also an improvement on Act I and a decent enough album in it's own right.

Those who likes rock operas should check out this album.

2 points   

  

November - 2nd November (1971)

 

The second album from this band from Sweden.

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

Two guests added piano and organ.

The band returned again the year after their debut album with this forty minutes long album.

November played hard rock. There are some piano and organ here too but most of the music is delivered by this trio format.

That means fast, wild and loud guitars. The rhythm section is hard and tight. 

On the top of the music, we find some pretty good Swedish vocals. 

The music is pretty primitive... on the surface. But there are still some interesting details here and the music is not bad at all.

This is a decent album and one 1970s hard rock fans should check out.

2 points  

Sólstafir - Endless Twilight of Codependent Love (2020)

 

The seventh album from this band from Iceland.

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

This band is one of the true original, weird bands in the prog and metal scene. Their last albums has been... interesting.

This one hour long album follows in that tradition.

Take some extreme metal, add in some folk rock, vaudeville art-rock and some psych rock. 

The music is not so barren, naked desolate on this album as on the two previous albums. Then again, there is more extreme metal, black metal to be more precise around on this album. Not much but there are some minutes of it.

There is also some folk rock like vaudeville art-rock here too. Most of the album is dominated by that. The vocals are weird, but still the only type of vocals fitting this kind of music.

This is a weird album, as per usual from this band. It is also a good album and one well worth checking out.

3 points  

Skinner Project - To Earth, With Love (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Brazil.

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

This band was formed by Leo Skinner who ran it as a project before a proper band was established. That is all I know though from their Bandcamp site.

To Earth, With Love is a fifty minutes long album.

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

The band has compared this album to a softer version a Rush album. That is a pretty good way of describing the music here. 

The music is indeed melodic. The music also has a lot of teeth and is pretty hard rocking at times. The sound is organic inbetween some electronica pieces. Those are thankfully both short and sweet. The vocals is pretty good.

The songs are all good and there is a lot of interesting details here. 

That means a good album and one to check out. 

3 points   

Magnum - On The 13th Day (2012)

 

The 16th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

One guest added woodwinds on one track.

The band returned with this one hour long album.

The band continued with their blend of AOR and pomp rock. This album have more AOR than pomp rock, though. There is also some good old style heavy metal here too. 

It seems like the band had now found a new audience plus that they were getting their old fans back into their fold. 

The music is mid-tempo with some catchy tunes. The vocals is very good throughout and there are some good harmonies here.

The result is a pretty pleasing album. There is no really outstanding tracks here. This album is still a pretty good album and one to check out.

2.5 points 

 

Steam Theory - Helios Rider (2012)

 

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a one-man-band with Jason Denkevitz on bass and guitars.

Three guests added drums and keyboards.

This one hour long album continues on from their 2010 debut album Enduring Delirium. That was a decent enough album that I reviewed earlier this fall.

The music here is instrumental heavy prog. 

It is mostly driven by electric guitars, Jason Denkevitz's favoured instrument. 

The music is mid-tempo and melodic. It has a few interesting pieces too. The pieces of music is well constructed.

Most of the music is pedestrian and not particularly interesting. The result is a decent enough album which does not bring anything new to the scene.

2 points 

 

Stud - Stud (1971)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band released two albums between 1971 and 1972 on the legendary Deram label. The band were a kind of a supergroup with members from Animals, Family and Taste. 

The music on this forty minutes long album is a blend of blues, hard rock and even avant-garde rock.

The album is starting pretty gently with some melodic blues before it enters hard rock territory. 

There is a weird avant-garde drum solo and some other avant-garde stuff halfway through this album before the music makes a retreat into hard blues again.

That makes this album pretty weird. Not to say.... progressive.

The vocals is good and the band does a good job. The sound is also good.

That makes this a decent enough album and one to check out if 1970s rock is your thing. A review of their second album September will follow later this winter.

2 points 

 

Satan - Satan (1973)

 

The one and only album from this band from France.

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

This band is not to be confused with the British heavy metal band of the same name. 

This album was recorded in 1973 and then forgotten until the obscure-albums label Monster Melodies Records released it in 2016. I have gone with the year 1973 as the music is very much early to mid 1970s prog rock.

To be more precise, the music on this thirty-five minutes long album is French symphonic prog, complete with French vocals.

References are Mona Lisa and Ange.

The music is mid-tempo and very much in the 1970s symphonic prog tradition. A tradition that this band probably helped to establish.

The songs are long and complex. They are mid-tempo with some very good musicianship and great vocals. There are some narrations and pastoral pieces here too. The moog sound is great. 

This album is obscure, but still a hidden gem. It is an album that takes the breath away from a symphonic prog fan and a borderline great album. Well, it is a great album and one of the best ever French symphonic prog albums.

4 points 

 

 

Hypnotic Floor - The Friendly Moss Forest Creatures Lived Happily In Perpetual Twilight (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Austria.

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

Two guests added violin and female vocals on a couple of tracks.

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

The music here is a blend of psych rock, heavy prog and some folk rock and desert rock. That is a heady mix, indeed. 

The music is catchy, mid-tempo, quirky, intricate and slightly jazzy. There is a hippie flower power ambience running throughout this album.

The sound is both organic and great. The vocals is good. The band does a good job too. 

The overall quality here is very good and this is one of the better albums of the year. 

Check out this and their first two albums too. This is a band who deserve a heck of a lot more attention.

3.5 points   

  

Mysteria Noctis - Vespro (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Italy.

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

I have not been particularly impressed by their first two albums. Their debut album was a black metal album and their second album was a goth rock/metal album. 

The one hour long Vespro continues in the same vein as the previous album Vulnera from 2020. That means more goth metal and goth rock.

The music is mid-tempo with some sporadic faster pieces of music inbetween. 

The vocals are both male and female. They are thankfully all in Italian as the English vocals on Vulnera were excruciatingly painful. 

The guitar sound is again not particularly pleasing. But it is still an improvement from the previous album.

The result is a decent enough album which will interest those into goth metal and goth rock. 

2 points 

Zen Orchestra - Zen Orchestra (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Three guests added bass and guitars.

The band were formed on the ashes of Walking On Ice who were active some decades ago and released an album back in 1994. An album I have yet to review and I will get onto that this winter.

Zen Orchestra is therefore formed by some experienced musicians. Tragically, their bassist Stewart Milne passed away during the recording and Alberto Rigoni stepped in and helped the band to complete this album.

This fifty minutes long album can best be described as a classic British neo-prog album.

The music is both muscular and bold. There are a lot of multilayered guitars here. The usual Genesis and Yes influences are here too.

The vocals are good and the band does a good job. There are no outstanding tracks here. Nevertheless, this is a good album and one to check out if classic neo-prog is your thing.

3 points 

 

Starlight Brigade - Into The Light (2014)

 

The second album from this band from Sweden.

The band was a project lead by Anders Nilsson who did some guitars and keyboards.

He had help from around a dozen guests who provided drums, bass, guitars, saxophones and vocals.

I reviewed their 2013 debut album Under The Velvet Sky last month and gave it a decent album rating.

Their music is a blend of pomp rock and pomp pop. There is a lot of mainstream rock in their music too. That is the case on their debut album as well as on this fifty minutes long album, the follow up album.

The music is mid-tempo to slow, slick and pretty poppy. There is a lot of pretty good male and female vocals here. There are some guitar solos here too.

The music is pretty pedestrian without any really interesting details. This is by no means a progressive rock album.

The result is still a decent album which may be of interest to those who like pomp pop.

2 points 

 

Solstafir - Berdreyminn (2017)

 

The sixth album from this band from Iceland.

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

The band returned again after a three years long album break with this one hour long album.

Their music is pretty weird. The band too is pretty weird, come to think of it. The music is most definate rooted in the barren Icelandic nature and landscape.   

The music here is a blend of post-metal and art-rock. There is even a ballad here and that ballad is very good.

The vocals is both weird and good. They are perfect for their weird music. A more classic rock vocal would have been wrong in their music. 

The music is mostly mid-tempo too with some faster and some slower songs. 

The result is another good album from this band. A band as weird as Iceland itself. Yes, visiting Iceland is on my bucket list. And Solstafir and Sigur Ros will be the soundtrack to that visit.

3 points 

Solum - Avlägsenheten (2024)

 

The second album from this one-man-band from Sweden.

Christian Fredrikson did the drums, percussion, bass, guitars and synths on this album.

He got some help from some guests who added drums, percussion and piano.

I reviewed the 2021 debut album Encountering Murk last month and that was a decent enough album.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is instrumental heavy prog.

The music is heavy, bold and soaring majestic. There is indeed some symphonic prog influences throughout this album. 

The music is mainly performed with electric guitars. There riffs, harmonies and multi-layered guitars here. 

The music is also pretty melodic.

The music is a bit run-of-the-mill as there is not much in the way of interesting and exciting music here. The music is not bad. It is just a bit average and workmanlike. This is a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points 

 

Skyed Pillars - Cloud Opus (2013)

 

The second album from this one-man-band from Germany.

Christian P. Bassett did the bass, guitars and electronics on this album.

He hasreleased two name-your-price Bandcamp albums under this name. My review of his decent enough debut album was posted last month in this blog.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is a blend of instrumental post-rock and space rock.

The music is mid-tempo and pretty pedestrian. The music is based on chugging post-rock like guitars. There are some sporadic variations in the music. Some outbreaks of Sigur Ros like colourful post-rock harmonies. 

Most of the music is straight forward and not particular interesting. 

This is barely a decent album which may be a worthy download if post-rock is your thing.

2 points 

 

 

Zebulon - Come Day Of Reckoning (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

I am pretty fond of doom metal. Classic doom metal, that is. So I jumped on the chance to review this band's debut album.

This album is forty minutes long album and their record label has described the music as epic doom metal. 

I would call it classic doom metal in the same vein as Solitude Aeturnus. Zebulon's sound and music is more gritty and dirty than Solitude Aeturnus. Ditto for Zebulon's raw vocals.

The music is slow and heavy. The sound is dominated by the walls of guitars. The raw and pretty good vocals is also in the forefront of the mix.

The music is pretty good and the band is talented. This is an acceptable debut album which unfortunate is a bit short of good songs. 

2.5 points 

 

Hypnotic Floor - Odd Conjectures (2021)

 

The second album from this band from Austria.

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

I had the joy of reviewing their 2020 debut album Foggy Bog Eyes back in July 2020 in # 2 of this blog. That album was a good krautrock album. 

The band has just released a new album, their third album, and I will post a review next week.

Odd Conjectures is a forty minutes long album. The music is a blend of psych rock and heavy prog. It is a kind of krautrock too as it has a lot of jazz influences too. Canterbury prog springs to mind here.

The music is very quirky, yet also melodic. The music is also playful and has a lot of good vocals and details.

The result is a good album and one to check out if quirky, playful prog is your thing.

3 points 

 

 

Mysteria Noctis - Vulnera (2020)

 

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

The band debuted in 2015 with the Higher Dimension, which was largely a black metal album. So I did expect something similar on Vulnera, the follow up album.

I got a big surprise.

The music on this forty minutes long album is goth progressive metal with some goth rock and progressive rock influences too. There are still a couple of minutes of some extreme metal here.

The sound is a bit dissonant and ditto for the guitar sound. The goth rock sound is evident here.

The vocals is pretty bad and the guitars are poor. There are some decent music here. There are also some poor music here. The music here sounds half-baked and the result is this half-decent album. An album which is pretty close to being a turkey.

I hope their new album, to be reviewed soon, is better than this album. 

1.5 points 

 

Fallen Letters - Mindfractures (2025)

 

The debut album from this band from India.

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

The metal and prog scene in India is an emerging scene and one to keep an eye on. We will hear a lot more from this scene in the upcoming years. 

The band has released four EPs and singles before they finally released this album. 

This fifty minutes long album has a lot of variety. The music range from extreme metal to djent, progressive metal and art-rock. All this crammed into fifty minutes.

Their take on progressive metal are more in the Porcupine Tree vein than in the traditional Dream Theater vein. Modern progressive metal is a good label on their music.

The vocals are good and the band does a good job.

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

3 points 

Man - 2 Ozs Of Plastic With A Hole In The Middle (1969)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This forty minutes long album was their second album that year. Which was not particularly unusual those days.  

Their debut album, Revelation, was a pretty good album and one that gave me an appetite for the rest of their albums. The music there was a blend of psychedelia, blues and some early symphonic prog. 

The band continued down the same route on this, the follow up album. The symphonic prog has largely gone though and the music is a lot harder this time around. There is indeed some hard rock here.

Hard psychedelia is a better label on the music here.

The album opens with a weird twelve minutes long psychedelic track. Then we get some more songs focused harder rock. 

The sound is good and ditto for the vocals. There is a lot of guitar solos here. 

There is no outstanding songs here and the music is not as good as on the debut album. This is still a decent album and one to check out.

2 points 

November - En ny tid är här (1970)

 

The debut album from this band from Sweden.

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

Two guests added vocals and keyboards.

It is appropriate to start November with the debut album by a band called November. This happened by pure accident and I have been lucky here. The band released three albums before they split up and they will be reviewed in this blog.

The main man in this band passed away earlier this year. The band was also one of Mikael Akerfeldt in Opeth's favourite bands. Hence, the band has renewed attention this year. 

The music on this forty minutes long album is hard rock. References are both Budgie and (early) Deep Purple. 

The music is hard and heavy. There are still some melodies here. The guitars are hard and there are some solos throughout this album. The sound is good and very much acceptable.  

The lyrics are in Swedish. The vocals is pretty good. 

The music is decent enough. This album is more of a historic interest as it is one of the first ever hard rock album from Scandinavia. It is still an enjoyable listen in it's own right. 

2 points