It only makes sense to listen to Birth with a chaser of Birth Control. While one is a new band playing retro-prog, the other is an ancient group playing… funk, apparently. But are they hip, or hip replacement? I have…
View More Birth Control – Open Up
Serendipity! No sooner had I finished my review of Amanda’s Weltenraum – in which I lamented that the similar retro-prog act Astra had been offline for a decade – than I discovered Astra had been revived… sort of. Astra released…
View More Birth – Born
Introducing Amanda. Here are a bunch of Austrians that must have sat down and listened to Shine on You Crazy Diamond and thought, “That sounds bloody nice!”. The title of this album loosely translates to “Space” and so it shouldn’t…
View More Amanda – Weltenraum
With the simultaneous explosion of popularity in both video games and streaming, the phenomenon of speedrunning has never been more popular than it is now, with pro speedrunners streaming their attempts live for curious fans to watch at home. Speedrunning…
View More Atlantis Chronicles – Nera
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 Theater, Washington DC, USA Sunday, 6th March 2022 Prologue It was pretty surreal to be at the Warner Theater 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