Sometimes you can find yourself liking an album without having the faintest idea why. This is exactly where I started with the third studio album, The New Routine, from Swedish trio Port Noir, newly signed to InsideOut Music. By rights,…
View More Port Noir – The New Routine
There is an episode in The?Lie which contains one of the most emotionally punishing songs I think I have ever experienced. Certainly, on hearing it for the first time, the sheer force of its brutality stopped me dead in my…
View More Seven Steps to the Green Door – The?Lie
Looking back over the moments which make up a life. Memories, despite what we succeed in telling ourselves, still surprisingly raw even with the passing of time; the wincing pangs of embarrassment which, years later, still flush our faces red…
View More Cyril – The Way Through
Progressive metal is enjoying something of a spectacular resurgence. Whether the sheer scale of the output from progressive metal bands, both established as well as new, is entirely healthy remains to be seen. What is undoubtedly true, however, is that…
View More Lost In Thought – Renascence
Endings are nearly always beginnings. The thought is worth bearing in mind as you approach Solipsystemology, the seventh studio album from the provocative and challenging Thomas Thielen or ‘t’ as the German multi-instrumentalist is otherwise known. Certainly it is not…
View More t – Solipsystemology
Art-pop: “progressive rock without the rock attitude”, explains Marek Arnold when I question him further. The instrumentation and the way the songs have been arranged, combined with Manuel Schmid’s interpretation and singing of the lyrics inclines it toward being pop.…
View More Manuel Schmid & Marek Arnold – Zeiten
Some albums you encounter have such an arresting sparkle, the impact immediately captures your attention and simply refuses to let you go. Nightscape is just such an album. From the very beginning you are unwittingly exposed to a captivating exultation…
View More Pymlico – Nightscape
Symphonic melancholy. Damn! If it sounds this intelligent, this enticing and this beautiful then please go right ahead and sign me up. Patrick Moleswoth’s debut album is an elegant, refined and frankly quite magnificent tour de force of musical finesse…
View More Zeelley Moon – Zeelley Moon
The First 40 Years 229 The Venue, London Friday, 9th November 2018 An enthusiastic capacity audience of 600 gather in what has become the London ‘home’ of Pendragon at 229 The Venue to celebrate what the special edition t-shirts triumphantly…
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As you listen to On Track, the debut album from Damanek, the words and then the sentiment of an arresting lyric jump from the music and instantly capture your attention; “But modern progress overflows and the song is somehow altered…
View More Damanek – In Flight