Praying Mantis: Defiance (2024) Back in 1979 NWOBHM was in full swing in the UK, the year I became 16, so I was very much the target market and I was doing whatever I could to discover […]

Vanden Plas: The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things (2024) I have been reviewing Vanden Plas for more than quarter of a century, and while there are times when their albums are somewhat workmanlike, there are […]

John Paul McGee: A Gospejazzical Christmas (2023) I’d rather not think of myself as being so far behind on reviewing that this is for a Christmas record which should have been written about in 2023, b […]

Gridfailure: Shards In The Wire (2023) I’ve lost track of how many of Dave Brenner’s releases I have reviewed, but it must be most of them (at least in recent years) yet I still find mys […]

Grant Haua: Mana Blues (2023) A few years ago I came across Grant Haua and I was blown away by the Maori bluesman who for me is the living epitome of the classic style. His last […]

ECHOES (EIRE-FRANCE) Part.1 ECHOES (EIRE-FRANCE) Part 1Vocalist, lyricist, and composer James McGregor is an Irish nomad who seems to be travelling a bit around Europe lately, from […]

ROB HARRISON (UK) Explode My Head Debut offering from this talented musician, composer, and producer, pretty much a one-man show with a lot of help from various friends, namely Gong’s f […]

MARCO GLÜHMANN (GERMANY) A Fragile Present Can there by a finer voice currently in the prog scene than Sylvan ‘s lead lung? Besides the impeccable technique, he also is arguably one of the m […]

JOHN HOLDEN (UK) Proximity & Chance Since 2018, this composer and multi-instrumentalist has not only been consistently delivering standout albums that I am proud to possess and review, […]

RETURNED TO THE EARTH (UK) Stalagmite Steeple The previous album “Fall of the Watcher” released in 2022 made my heart flutter so deeply that an EKG was not necessary in determining the workings of […]

OCEANS OF NIGHT (USA) Mindstorm When discovering rock back in the very early 70s as a teenager, the exploding hormones certainly found a haven within loud and crunchy power riffs, […]

CELESTE (ITALY) Echi di un Future Passato Two words to start: flute and mellotron. If for whatever odd reason, these two instruments are not among your favourites, please stop reading promptly. […]

VIOLENT JASPER (GERMANY) Control The much-vaunted German group Sylvan decide to go on a mini-sabbatical, subsequent to releasing their latest album, “One to Zero” in 2021, a mas […]