We’re in the 2020s now, a half century since progressive rock’s so-called ‘classic era’, which is at least another twenty years since the musicians that occupied it were born. We live in an odd time where many of these bands…
View More Remembering Alan White
Why should I introduce Avyakta, when the man himself does such a good job? From Avyakta’s Bandcamp page: “Avyakta is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘devoid of form.’ In other words, something without limits. It is a one-person music project —…
View More Avyakta – Somnium Chorus / Desiderium
Reviewing this album honestly feels like cheating. Most albums we humble scribblers have to review require us to take a leap into the unknown to something between the latest sensation and an abysmal waste of time. Scheherazade and Other Stories,…
View More Renaissance – Scheherazade and Other Stories [Remastered & Expanded 3-disc Box Set]
My first brush with Jonesy was in 2011 when I reviewed the bizarre Dark Matter (Inner Space), apparently a mish-mash of old recordings and new sound effects. Looking back, I cannot fathom why I gave it 7 out of 10,…
View More Jonesy – Waltz For Yesterday: The Recordings 1972-1974
During my initial, cursory listen to Meshuggah’s latest album, I sighed inwardly. What had I let myself in for? Every song (bar three instrumental tracks) sounded exactly the same as each other, all featuring that ominous, ugly djent sound that…
View More Meshuggah – Immutable
Warner Theatre, Washington DC, USA Sunday, 6th March 2022 Prologue It was pretty surreal to be at the Warner Theatre at 7:30pm on a Sunday; it was my first concert since the pandemic began two years ago, and for the…
View More Dream Theater / Arch Echo
This year has been a bit of a roller coaster for Dream Theater fans, bringing us a new Transatlantic album, Liquid Tension Experiment 3, and now Dream Theater themselves with their fifteenth studio album, A View from the Top of…
View More Dream Theater – A View from the Top of the World
As popular as progressive metal is amongst fans, it seems even more popular amongst aspiring, talented new artists, all raring at the chance to show off their chops and dazzle with their musicianship. Unfortunately, this has led to a highly…
View More State of Flux – State of Flux
Arabs in Aspic Strange Frame of Mind – 2010 Continuing the theme of prog bands who don’t take themselves too seriously, Arabs in Aspic were firing on all cylinders when they produced their good-natured second album at the beginning of…
View More The Decade in Review – Basil Francis
Sometime in 2011, just before each of Fruupp’s albums reached their respective 40th birthdays, I happened upon two interesting looking CDs in an independent music shop in Leeds. They were the middle two albums from Fruupp’s sadly short-lived career, Seven…
View More Fruupp – Wise As Wisdom: The Dawn Albums 1973-1975