Progressive Rock

Kayak – Seventeen Review

By Huck N Roll on January 11, 2018 in 2018, Dutch Metal, InsideOut, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Progressive Rock, 54 comments

“I consider myself fairly well-versed on the subject of 70s prog. I’ve got scores of albums by dozens of bands, and what I don’t have I can usually recognize. So when something comes about that I haven’t heard of (like last year’s Sea Goat record), it’s gotta be for a good reason — like the band not recording anything, or sucking. So here we are with Dutch outfit Kayak, probably spelled backward, and their latest album Seventeen, which I have found out has nothing to do with Kip Winger strutting around partially clothed.” No Winger, no hairpiece!

Yer Prog Is Olde! Camel – Rain Dances

By El Cuervo on December 17, 2017 in Blog Posts, English Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Progressive Rock, Yer Prog Is Olde, Progressive Rock, 36 comments

“You know Genesis right? And Yes? And Pink Floyd? And King Crimson? The big names of the English progressive rock scene which is more or less the best ‘scene’ to have ever existed (in music or otherwise). One name which flew relatively close to the ground during this era is Camel. It was only in retrospect that they began to enjoy their utterly deserved praise, thanks, in no small part, to the adoration of one Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth.” Camels!

Laser Flames on the Great Big News – Laser Flames on the Great Big News [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]

By Saunders on December 12, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Doom Metal, Progressive Rock, Retro Metal, Reviews, Sludge, Stoner Metal, Things You MIght Have Missed 2017, Doom Metal, Progressive Rock, Retro Metal, Sludge, Stoner Rock, 30 comments

“The term retro metal/rock gets bandied around a lot, due to the over-saturation of bands mining the freewheeling creativity of ’70s rock to varying degrees of success and very little originality. Lumping Laser Flames under the retro label would be a great disservice to the creativity and inventiveness the band conjures throughout the epic stoner odyssey of this self-titled release.” Retro rock with freakin laser beams!

Operation: Mindcrime – A New Reality Review

By Swordborn on December 10, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Frontiers Records, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, 62 comments

“To be honest, I have remained only peripherally up to speed with the court proceedings and inter-band politics between the original Queensrÿche and Tate’s new Operation: Mindcrime as relationships (and Tate’s musical sanity) spiraled into decline. Hence, The New Reality is my first concerted exposure to Tate’s post-Queensrÿche work.” Here in the now…of hazing.

Sea Goat – Tata Review

By Huck N Roll on December 2, 2017 in 2017, German Metal, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Swan Lake, Progressive Rock, 59 comments

“Now here’s a strange and interesting story. Imagine forming your band in 1973, naming yourself after a Pete Sinfield song from his Still album. Imagine working on your first album for forty-three years. Imagine playing and writing for nine years, then sleeping for two dozen. And imagine recording the songs you’ve been writing for all these years over a number of sessions scattered across eight years and five different locales. Clearly, time moves at a different speed for German progressive rockers Sea Goat.” Vote Goat.

Yer Prog Is Olde! Pink Floyd – Animals

By El Cuervo on November 12, 2017 in English Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Progressive Rock, Yer Prog Is Olde, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, 83 comments

“I hear Pink Floyd in so much of the music that I love. They’re a profoundly important and influential band generally but for me personally too. Their capacity to develop and retain quality through styles and songwriters is virtually unparalleled, one example of which is the subject of this post: Animals, which turns 40 this year.” Prog before swine.

Wobbler – From Silence to Somewhere Review

By Huck N Roll on October 30, 2017 in 2017, Karisma Records, Norwegian Metal, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Progressive Rock, 57 comments

“I have a confession: I’ve always wanted to listen to progressive rockers Wobbler, but haven’t. Their 2011 album Rites at Dawn has been sitting in my iTunes wish list folder for six years now, but life/time/priorities kept me from ever clicking on “Buy.” So naturally when I saw them pop up on our feed as having a new album coming out, I grabbed it. And then I had to go back and listen to their older stuff as well. All of which is a good thing if you’re into 70s prog rock done right.” Wobbler at the gates of dawn.

Enslaved – E Review

By Angry Metal Guy on October 13, 2017 in 2017, Black Metal, Norwegian Metal, Nuclear Blast, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Black Metal, Progressive Rock, 149 comments

Enslaved is Norway’s biggest and most successful (currently active) metal band. They have garnered a following of intensely loyal fans who adore their every release with the fervor of the newly converted. In fact, I once counted myself a huge fan. There was a string of records that Enslaved released between 2000’s Mardraum: Beyond the Within and 2008’s Vertebrae which are practically unassailable. Not every one of those albums was perfect—Isa and Ruun were both only great records when sat side-by-side the excellent Below the Lights and Vertebrae, but they were consistently addictive listens from a band that could do no wrong. And I, along with everyone else, lathered Axioma Ethica Odini with praise, only to declare it one of my biggest disappointments of the year in 2010. I meh’d the hulking RIITIIR, and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯’d its follow-up In Times, declaring it a testament to the excesses of the modern recording industry. In sum: Enslaved went from being one of my favorite bands in 2008 to being a band whose newest release almost didn’t get reviewed by me. But with all the ranting and raving about how E is the best album they’ve put out in a while, I couldn’t keep myself away.

Hällas – Excerpts from a Future Past Review

By El Cuervo on October 6, 2017 in 2017, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Reviews, The Sign Records, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, 69 comments

“The illustrious Huck N Roll wrote recently that he spent his summer looking for the next great retro album. I write today that he needn’t have bothered; that album is to arrive after the summer and it’s called Excerpts from a Future Past. Wolverine blues.

Caligula’s Horse – In Contact Review

By Kronos on September 29, 2017 in 2017, Australian Metal, InsideOut, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Progressive Rock, 118 comments

“‘I am convinced,’ Nietzche wrote, ‘that art represents the highest task and the truly metaphysical activity of this life.’ Though he wrote this in a preface to his first work, The Birth of Tragedy, he was certainly not referring only to the written word — an art that few can claim more ownership of than him. That preface was written by none other than Richard Wagner, and though Nietzche would sour on him later in life, this profound appreciation for art in a broad sense would not end. The love of aesthetic creation, the belief in its power to affect the heart and erode human differences, is the very core of In Contact, a starry-skied series of extended vignettes on love and revolution, passion and loss, fragility and courage, rain-soaked in the joy of creation.” Creationism ascendant.