Reviews

Zao was born when Yochk'o Seffer and Faton Cahen decided to leave Magma. Both had worked on the album 1001° Centigrades, each adding their share to the finished piece. But then producer Giorgio Gomelsky decided that

Sweden's Ritual started out as a progressive folk rock band. In that time they put out three solid albums, which most orthodox prog rock fans would probably find a touch too much f

Another warm welcome to the realm of half-step riffing and boundless psychotic rampaging, with a creation of unbearably noisy proportions! This time it's hosted by the youngsters from Long Island (New York, USA) Soldiers. Noise, half-steps,…

Part 1: the backstory behind the concept of "Year Zero" Year 0 has begun. America has turned into a military dictatorship. It keeps its citizens under control with a drug called Parepin, which it pumps into the water supply under the…

Behind the name Devil's Slingshot hide three superheroes, the kind of guys without whom rock would never have become so popular when it comes to winning over the masses through the sheer spectacle of explosive stage shows, through a pure,…

With "Power And The Passion", Eloy made a major stylistic leap toward a more refined, symphonic take on space rock. Their sound up to then, which in many ways was heavily shaped by heavy rock and rested mainly

After the peak of their career (the double concept album Subterranea), IQ could easily have fallen into a creative slump. They might have ended up trying to repeat what they'd pulled off on Subterranea. Luckily, IQ were at the height of…

After their self-titled debut dropped in 1976, Boston rode giant waves of commercial success. The album went down in the US as the best-selling debut in rock history, shifting over 17 million copies

By the time of their third album, "Floating", Eloy had further honed their experimental side and enriched their hard rock heritage, which was built mainly on fiery interplay between Bornemann's scorching guitar riffs

Document And Eyewitness is a live portrait of a band that was going through plenty of inner and outer turmoil at the time, and with it the convulsive bursts of creativity that had previously taken shape so successfully on three, hugely…

1/3 forever and back on the road again. Even though Kreslin's travels no longer uncover a brand-new world the way Kerouac's heroes did on the road, and he sticks more and more to that quiet road where Joužek is waiting, there's still some

Big Foot Mama are heading back into the embrace of the airwaves in a guise that, time-wise, is already pretty well chewed over. Which isn't necessarily wrong in itself, but sadly it comes with a thoroughly mediocre product that, judging by…

On their second album, "Inside", Eloy steered their sound into the multidimensional world of space rock and ditched most of the hard/blues rock sound that ran through their self-titled debut. It was also their first album on

In mid-1972, Gallagher's rowdy band of blues troubadours grew almost overnight from a trio into a foursome of razor-sharp warriors. As far as Rory was concerned, the lineup shake-up couldn't have come at a better

First Blood? The Rambo movie, right? Hell yes, and then some. A new metalcore band from San Francisco, risen from the ruins of Terror, Embrace, Alcatraz (don't mix that name up with G. Bonnet's band Alcatrazz) and Sworn Vengeance! Promising

There's no need to introduce Helloween. Behind them is a career of almost twenty-five years that has made them pioneers and one of the biggest acts in European power metal, one that has put out twelve studio al

Before IQ released their first official studio album, they recorded a demo tape called Seven Stories Into Eight. It's a historic recording that shows a band in development, still looking for its true style. More than fifteen years later

Nora are synonymous with top-tier metalcore. Their second studio album "Dreamers & Deadmen" is an absolute step up from the band's debut "Loser's Intuition" (2001), in every single attribute metalcore demands, and Nora are

Four years have gone by before the guys finally coughed up their third studio album. Why so long? Hell if I know, but there are two facts that might get us closer to the real answer. Drummer Chris Ross lost a daughter in a horrific accident…

Exodus are still one of the greatest and most influential thrash metal bands ever to step on a concert stage, yet they've never (unfairly) been counted among the "Big Four" (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthr

The American trio Baku Llama came together when three old acquaintances ran into each other after a long time. They found they shared musical interests, and after one jam session a new band was born. The album Eris is more or less a result…

It was 1986, and nothing much was happening in progressive rock, neo aside. At least that's how plenty of people saw it, watching prog sink further and further into oblivion. True, a lot of folks forgot about it, but it never actually went…

In the mind of the average Anglo-Saxon, Canterbury is known mainly as the seat of the head of the Anglican Church, whoever happens to be occupying that much-revered post among the God-fearing flock. I doubt that among

Out of the few dozen rock and metal records that have each left their mark on me in their own way, three really stand out among the heavy metal ones: "Streets" by Savatage, "Operation:Mindcrime" by Queensryche, and the record

(review author #2: Peter Podbrežnik) Legendary Canadian art rockers Saga have aged like fine wine with every album they've put out in the new century. After a full renaissance of their sound on "Full Circle" (1999), master

Eloy were, alongside Tangerine Dream, easily the most popular and important German progressive rock band, one that always operated outside the usual German electronic confines of the so-called krautrock scene and was, after s

They come straight out of hell! Well, okay, Slovenska Bistrica, and they're a brand-new band that formed in December 2006 from an idea by Slovenia's Dean guitar guru Mike Pipenbaher and drummer Simon. They say they want pure energy, no…

Well, this is what we were afraid of, and it happened. "The Caitiff Choir" (2004) got its share of praise and encouragement, and it didn't hide the potential of the young guys who formed this band at an average age of a good 16. Today

It Dies Today, a band formed in 2001 in Buffalo (USA), took three years to get their debut "The Caitiff Choir" out of their system, inspired by Alighieri's Divine Comedy. To be precise, what we have here is a reissue of the album that first…

After a three-year lull, during which he composed new pieces, went to self-improvement courses and caught his breath after some seriously grueling times in his life, in which Mike Oldfield had become one of the biggest stars on the planet

The lads from Bedlight for Blue Eyes, who hail from New Jersey, are easy to shove into the emo core box after just a few bars of the opener, Ephemeral Addictions, on their debut studio album "The Dawn" (2005)

Angry speedhorn. Razor-sharp, relentless as a pit bull, with a hole in its head. British morbidity brilliantly caricatured in a juicy mix of metal riffing and hard core, with detours into punk or dirty Motorhead rock n' roll

Unbelievable. These days, getting more crap for more money is hardly news. How much of it we can stomach is entirely up to us anyway. Judging by the trend, we're gulping down more and more of it, and

After Udu Wudu, Attahk is the next album that doesn't continue the story from the planet Kobaia. Some pieces are set on that imaginary planet, but they weren't meant as part of a larger opus. On this album, Vander instead dev

"Burnt Weeny Sandwich" was the first of two posthumous albums released after the breakup of Frank's original backing band The Mothers Of Invention (the other was "Weasels Ripped My Flesh", which also came out that same year).

With "Chunga's Revenge," maestro Frank strode decisively into the 70s and a creative era that splits his many followers into those who count it as his most prolific and those who argue exactly the opposite and s

1975 was the year of Aerosmith music. After countless gigs and two albums that were, let's say, commercially "interesting" — albums that, besides the occasional burst of creative magic from Tyler as well as

Peter Green's epic journey to blues-rock superstardom kicks off in 1968 with Fleetwood Mac's self-titled debut. Later that same year he follows it up with Mr. Wonderful, which, right on the heels of the breakup of the eminent Cream, opens a…

"Garden Of Chaos" is the fourth studio album from a man whose music career reaches way back before his debut "Rage Of Creation" (2000). For a quick refresher, before going solo Rob Rock did his time as the first singer of acts like…

It's been four years since we lost Pantera, and plenty of distrust has been earned in that time by all kinds of blowhards who promised a spark of Pantera's energy and decked themselves out in the feathers and achievements of fighters like…

Frank Zappa, the legendary composer, guitarist, singer, director, satirist and later public enemy No. 1 of every two-faced guardian of American public morals, tossed hot rats into his bubbling cauldron of musical ingredients in the late…

Rock side of MTV is ruled by emo, post grunge and nu-metal bands. Mötley Crüe, Guns N'Roses and Farrah Fawcett bad hairdays are all but forgotten. Suddenly, a bunch of misftis appear wth a debut album, and change the world back to the…

"Uncle Meat" is the peak of Frank's satirical avant-garde experiments with the first incarnation of his backing band The Mothers Of Invention, which he broke up just a few months after this album came out. Most of the stuff

Burning Brides are yet more rock n' roll kids of the new millennium. "Leave No Ashes" is their second studio album after "Fall Of The Plastic Empire" (2001). With the flood of every kind of post-grunge, post-punk, post-Britpop on

How do punchy guitar duels, the staccato and rough-cut brilliance of System Of A Down's songwriting, and the epic, tantric sprawl of an aesthetic like Mars Volta's grab you? In the opening sum, subtract the politics and the unwavering…

Some might find it odd, but the fact is that Eric Clapton, after practically three decades of making music, countless commercial hits, and playing in numerous supergroups and other similar "silliness", probably never felt so at home and…

Mind's Eye are also adding their new opus to this year's musical map. Quite a few excellent progressive metal albums have already come out this year, and Mind's Eye, with their conceptual new record, only confirm

Canadian art rockers Saga really couldn't have picked a better moment to release "In Transit", their first live album. After the breakthrough album "Worlds Apart" (1981), they hit their biggest com

Since Yes just can't seem to get it together for another studio outing, we've recently been seeing a wave of solo projects from members of Yes. Circa: is one of them, and it's more of a short-lived project than a proper band

Before Marc Bolan, one of the most unique and controversial musicians of his time, picked up an electric guitar, learned to play it more or less, put together a band in the proper sense of the word and renamed it T. Rex, started painting

"Living With The Past" is not a sequel to "Living In The Past" (1972), the compilation album so beloved among the band's followers, but Jethro Tull's third official live album, released ten years after

When I heard Springsteen's new song Radio Nowhere late this summer, I was genuinely scared that his best days were behind him. The not-so-tasteful ego trip with the Seeger Session Band had let me down, so I was hoping the rumors about a new…

"My People Were Fair…" absolutely did not survive the test of time. It sounded backward-looking just a few years after its release, the moment Bolan switched to electric guitar and discovered glam rock, which happened to coincide with the…

There's no need to waste a lot of words on Primal Fear. They're a very good band, especially when you catch them live on stage. When it comes to album releases, Primal Fear are seriously prolific. Practically, we get n

Jorn Lande, as I always like to say, is one of the finest singers of the new-generation wave of melodic hard rock, a member of many bands who practically brawl over him whenever the guy puts himself forward for the vocalist spot, has…

"When we talk about the best albums of all time, I'm one of those guys who'll mention Led Zeppelin first, and ahead of anything by Refused." (Brandon Rike) Daytona has more to offer than just Indy car races and huge

Good morning, lost Australian souls! The album "Embrace The Silence" (2005) acted as an early herald, the first swallow of spring, and finally brought Vanishing Point back from the dead, a band every trace of whom had vanished after the…

»Lumpy Gravy« is the first album Frank recorded under just his own (full) name, i.e. as Frank Vincent Zappa, and the first one without his then backing band, The Mothers Of Invention. The only two of its members who appear on the album as

A bassist who's positively bonkers in every way, a voodoo-packaged canary named TM Stevens, whose roots go back to Jamaica, is once again blowing us away in a big way! After a six-year break, he's back with his hard-hitting crossover band…

After four years, Poland's champions of progressive rock and metal are back with a new album, Rapid Eye Movement, which wraps up the Reality Dream trilogy they kicked off on their debut, Out of Myself (2003). That one brought them…

Although Ian Gillan didn't enjoy luck on a par with his Purple colleagues Blackmore and Coverdale in the post-Deep Purple years, we still can't overlook the excellent achievements that, despite alarming signs that

A full six years have gone by since the veterans of the British hard rock scene The Cult last showed any signs of life worth mentioning. And if Beyond Good And Evil made it seem like the guys had been hit around the turn of the millennium…

Label: Inside Out MusicRelease date: 24.09.2007Production: RiversideAlbum length: 55.51 minGenre: Progressive Rock / Progressive Metal Poland's champions of progressive rock and metal are back after four years with a new album,…

Century Media is serving up an almost unmanageable pile of metal this year, all of it decked out with genre-busting labels, and the label's golden rule of ear-testing the outer limits wasn't betrayed even in th

Frank's third album, "We're Only In It For The Money", is without a doubt one of his most notorious works, ranking among the best and most provocative masterpieces by a sly artist who spent most of his music mocking the social reality of…

Although the band's very beginnings were far more tongue-in-cheek, and the guys from Santa Cruz cooked up a pretty demented brand of goofing around to kill the boredom of their daily grind, the members of Arsonists Get All The Girls…

If the Topalovićs were the strangest funeral crew in the former Yugoslavia, and Laki's distant cousin Paul Bearer and his urn definitely stood out in the professional "sport", then in the music world, or

This fall wraps up the year's cycle with an outstanding run of the last big albums, which will make 2007 go down in the annals as one of those years with the most fruitful metal harvest. Its share in the jigsaw m

"Absolutely Free" is the second album from the legendary Frank Zappa: brilliant composer, excellent guitarist, occasional singer, social satirist, director and a whole lot more. After the release of his first

"The Cheerful Insanity" is first and foremost a historical document, and it'll be most interesting to King Crimson fans and anyone digging into the early roots of prog rock, while I doubt it'll draw any raves even from the biggest fans of…

Porcupine Tree have been a "hot commodity" in recent years, both among plenty of progressive rock fans and among listeners following certain modern music trends. The phenomenon around the huge commercial success of a once totally obs

Ohoho - a new batch of Haribo gummy candy! Ever since Nick Oliveri left, it's been all downhill for Queens Of The Stone Age. Homme tries to patch things up by inviting special guests, sure. You can feel the influence of ideas "from the…

"10,000 Days" might, if you believe the word coming out of their camp in recent months, be the last studio album from the legendary Canadian art rockers Saga. Not so long ago I still believed that Saga's saga n

The last record from Sweden's melodic death metal champions, Doomsday Machine (2005), was their most ambitious effort up to then and also their most successful album, the one that catapulted them into the ranks of metal's big names

Jethro Tull are back after a three-year break with a thoroughly solid album, whose downright odd title is actually the address of their brand-new website at the time. "J-Tull Dot Com" is their first album that

(review #2 by Peter Podbrežnik) After their stylistic rebirth in 1999, Saga hit a marathon pace of putting out quality albums that blended their classic, original sound with immaculate producti

The mischievous bearded old man in the pirate hat and his crew were surely none too happy with the general reaction of the crowd when »Catfish Rising« (1991) came out, a rather unnecessary and not very successful blues experiment

(review #2 by Grega Šujica, posted 4.10.2007) One of Slovenia's most controversial and at the same time most unknown and "mysterious" bands finally gets a proper introduction with the album In Your

»Phase One 1978« is a collection of previously unreleased recordings and demo versions of some already-released songs that Saga recorded in 1978, while working on their second album »Images At Twilight« (1979). Most of

Gentle Giant rose from the ashes of the British pop act Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, led by the three Shulman brothers (Derek on vocals and bass, Phil on backing vocals and saxophone, and Ray on bass and violin). The band even had some…

Eric Clapton was very active musically in the seventies, maybe even too active for someone so weighed down by an identity crisis. Despite a constant, self-destructive pile-up of problems and other related tangled situations,

After their triumphant comeback on "Full Circle" (1999), where they swore eternal loyalty to their own particular brand of art rock, Saga kept going at the same pace, if not an even faster one, making artistically high-caliber vi

Fish's solo career has more than clearly been getting a fresh burst of energy in recent years. After a bunch of more-or-less average albums in the '90s, of which "Sunsets On Empire" (1997) and "Raingods With Zip

Progressive metal is enjoying a real boom in the Scandinavian countries, which are thereby taking over the role of the genre's global standard-bearer. Bands like Platitude, Seventh Wonder, Circus Maximus, Mind's Eye,… are all serving up…

Blues in its purest, most authentic form has probably never sounded as raw as it does alongside the legendary bark of the great Howlin' Wolf. "Lovable" Chester Burnett, with his famous "falsetto yodel

Three hundred fat-assed flying Uzbek spike-nosed beavers! And the wonder of wonders to close out this week? Punk-ass sons, BS' T.T., extended to BS' Titty or stretched out to Bastard Son Of Titty Twister, hailing

With "Full Circle", the legendary Canadian art rockers Saga went back to the progressive rock of their best years and finally got their rebirth, which also kicked off what is most likely the most prolific

Germany's Sieges Even are an intriguing presence on the prog rock horizon. Metal fans do everything they can to stick the "metal" genre tag on them, and what drives them to it, subconsciously, is the past and present reputation of the…

In the seventies, Italy had dozens of bands that released only one album (or only one good album). Many of them made some of the best records in the country, then vanished as quickly as they appeared. Tud

You could sum up the music on this album in a single sentence: lots of pain, zero joy. One look at the hideous, utterly banal cover of »Pleasure And The Pain« is enough to kill your urge to listen&scaron

The success story of one of the greatest rock bands of all time starts off in a fairly cautious, maybe even too bashful tone. Aerosmith, the debut from the legendary American outfit, shamelessly lays bare all the traits of a young,…

Canadian art rock icons Saga delivered yet another big shock to their listeners with the concept album »Generation 13« when it came out. This time, thankfully, in a good way. After the painfully pale »

"Steel Umbrellas" is a prime example of how a sudden itch for quick, easy cash can spawn a half-baked record that's unworthy of the band's musical legacy up to that point. The answer to how the legendary

Irish Tour is Gallagher's second live album. Unlike the first, Live In Europe, which is just as convincing as a performance document, it vividly captures the lively back-and-forth between audience and performer. Recorded in 1

It's rare to come across a metal band's debut that has a fully worked-out sound from the very first chord. It's rarer still to find fully fleshed-out substance that can carry the weight of ideas

»Live Archive« is the long-awaited collection of live recordings from legendary guitarist Steve Hackett. The release features four CDs covering three different eras of Hackett's live career (the 70s, 80s and 90s) with t

After "The Beginners Guide To Throwing Shapes" (1989), a thoroughly solid return to their progressive rock roots, Saga took a few years of well-earned rest. In that time, two members came back to the band after years away:

Label: Charisma RecordsRelease date: 12/14/1970Production: John AnthonyAlbum length: 47:15 minGenre: Progressive RockRating: 9.5/10 With their third album, “H To He, Who Am The Only One,” Van Der Graaf Generator wrote themselves…

The Lec Zorn Project is an ambitious little beast. Its mastermind Lec Zorn, a bassist and keyboardist who also writes the lyrics and arranges the music, has gathered a whole pile of melodic hard rock virtuosos under one roof. "It Began In

After a long flirtation with pop on the albums »Behaviour« (1985) and »Wildest Dreams« (1987), which had quite a few interesting musical moments and brought the band noticeable commercial success, but left many longtime fans, who missed…