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 

 

  

Solstafir - Í Blóði og Anda (2002)

 

The debut album from this band from Iceland.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 points

  

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

 

The first and second album from this band from Italy.

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

Some guests added guitars, piano and vocals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points 

 

 

  

Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso - Greggio E Pericoloso (2024)

The 21st album from this band from Italy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 point 

 

 

Akenathon - Crónicas Intrascendentes (2025)

 

The third album from this band from Argentina.

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

The band returned again after a five years long break.

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

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

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

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

3 points 

Proportions - Conundrum (2023)

 

The fifth album from this Multi-National band.

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5 points 

Phantom Spell - Immortal's Requiem (2022)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points

 

 

 

Sigilu - Beta (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Spain.

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

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

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

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

Sigilu is not a Rush copy, though. 

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

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

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

3 points 

Lesoir - Transience (2013)

 

The second album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points 

 

 

Monkey 3 - 39 Laps (2006)

 

The second album from this band from Switzerland.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points 

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

 

The second and final album from this band from USA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.5 points 

 

 

Daedalus Spirit Orchestra. The - Tabula Rasa (2012)

 

The second and final album from this band from France.

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

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

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

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

There is some Frank Zappa vibes throughout this album.

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

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

2 points  

 

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

 

The third album from this band from France.

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

One guest added synths and samples. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points 

Akenathon - Como Hormigas (2020)

 

The second album from this band from Argentina.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points 

 

Rezn - Solace (2023)

 

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

One guest added narration. 

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points 

Subspace Radio - Dreams of Shapes and Forms (2025)

 

The fourth album from this band from Finland.

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

Three guests added backing vocals.  

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

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

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

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

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

The music is pretty varied and full of interesting details. 

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

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

3 points 

 

 

Proportions - The Odd Land of Nod (2022)

 

The fourth album from this multi-national band.

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

Three guests added saxophone and vocals.

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

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

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

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

3.5 points 

Sky - Sky (1979)

 

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points 

 

Dog Of Panic - Tip Of The Tongue (2013)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.5 points

 

 

Daedalus Spirit Orchestra. The - Ampulla Magnifying (2009)

 

The debut album from this band from France.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 points 

 

Numen - The Outsider (2025)

 

The fifth album from this band from Spain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points 

 

 

Akenathon - Peregrino (2009)

 

The debut album from this band from Argentina.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points 

Rezn - Chaotic Divine (2020)

 

The third album from this band from USA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.5 points 

Ghost Of The Machine - Empires Must Fall (2025)

 

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points 

Magnum - Rock Art (1994)

 

The 10th album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Three guests added steel guitar and backing vocals.

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

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

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

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

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

1.5 points 

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

 

The second album from this band from Australia.

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

A guest added vocals on two tracks.

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

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

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

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

2 points 

 

Sigilu - Singularidad O Barbarie (2017)

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 points