Home Archive by category "Progressive Rock" (Page 12)

Category: Progressive Rock

The Safari finally finds the Progressive Metal of Agora in Mexico!!

So this evening I was searching for some new prog rock, and I went to New Prog Rock Releases and saw that an Italian Jazz-Rock, fusion band named Agora released their new album Ichinen on Monday of this week. So I traveled over to MOG to see if I could find it I found Agora and there was no Ichinen album. I did see however a 2011 release Regresa Al Vértigo. So I continued to search for some information on the band while I was listening. I went to the Prog Archives where I read about Agora…. Read More

Life’s Soundtracks – And She Said Gold from Sweden’s Enbound leads me to a good run!

Well if you told me when I was in the fist half-mile of my run tonight that I would end up running faster and farther than I did on Tuesday night I ay you are nuts!! Obviously I did not feel real spry at the beginning of the run! Part of the reason for that it was a lot colder than i thought it was and I always have trouble breathing when the air is cold. But I had put on an album by what I thought was a progressive rock band Enbound and their 2011 release And She Said Gold and it sounded pretty good, so I tuned in and trudged on!! I clocked in at the first mile point at in 10:16 not bad.So I said let’s just keep moving listening to those guitars. keys and vocals that I could understand!! I asked my self over the course of the next mile, “how was I do” and the answer came back ok!! I really didn’t check my time at any other points. I just kept looking down at my pace and was constantly happily surprised that the pace was for the majority of the time hovering around that 10:30 minute per mile pace!! When I crossed the point where i started and had stopped on Monday night I was almost 2 minutes faster than Monday!! So I kept going and ended up running a full 3 miles compared to 2.8 miles on Monday and the final time was 31:30 for the three miles which coverts to a 10:30 minute per mile pace. I was very pleasantly surprised by both the run and the music! Now like I said the soundtrack for the run was And She Said Gold from Enbound. SAnds she said goldince I knew nothing about the band other than they have a great guitar player and vocalist, I went to their Facebook where I found that they are from Sweden!! I went to ProgArchives and found nothing!! Then I googled the Enbound and found them listed on several metal sites. They label their music on their Facebook page as Hard Rock/Melodic Metal. And when I went to a forum where they discuss what groups they put on the Prog Archives site I read that they liked their music but that tended more to metal than prog. I guess I agree but I thought there were several tempo changes within songs and between songs that they would make it to the Prog Archives!! Anyway the band hails from Boras, Sweden a town of about 66,000 people located in the southwest quadrant of the country. Enbound was formed in 2006 by Mike Cameron Force. His intention was to create something special with Enbound, and Enboundnot just be a normal rock/metal band. The pieces of the band came together over the next several years. bass player Swede was added to the line-up, as well as the extremely talented [then 17, now 20] year old guitar virtuoso Marvin Flowberg. In 2009 the band found their singer in Lee Hunter [Lars Säfsund] who is most famous for his work in the band Work of Art as well as performing in musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar, in the TV program “Singing Bee” on Swedish television and performing with Biondo in the Rumanian Eurovision song contest 2008. So in 2011 the albumAnd She Said Gold mastered by Björn Engelmann [Rammstein, Primal Fear, Sonata Arctica] was released. Ok so now my mind has given up on me ans all I’ll say is that in my opinion this is a great album. Full of hard charging metal that will rock you.. with some terrific guitar by Flowberg and then there are some slow ballads and throughout the whole album, Hunter’s vocals are perfect for band!! So as I say check them out!! Here’s the “official” video for the opening track “Combined The Souls” Read More

Progressive Metal from Philly’s Tungsten – The Reservoir

The Safari did not really travel far today folks, just across the Delaware River to the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia, the city that the new progressive metal band Tungsten calls home! Their debut album The Reservoir was released today, Jan 14th. Tungsten is a progressive metal band whose signature sound according to their biography at their website is. Read More

The Safari finds The Netherlands’… instrumental prog/fusion metal band Exivious!

So this afternoon the soundtrack of the work was the 2013 release from Exivious –  Liminal. When I first spotted the album on the iPhone at the beginning of the afternoon, I didn’t even remember downloading it to the phone let alone where I saw the album in the first place!! I had a vague memory of the album being on the ProgArchives’ list of Top 2013 Albums, but I wasn’t sure, then the music started and I was sure that I saw the album at ProgArchives!   The album is in fact on the list well hidden down at number 86, tucked between the Neo Prog of Ego and the Psychedelic Space Rock of Drago. <(Note to self – Neo prog of Ego – check them out) Read More

The Safari listens to Crossover Prog from Norway’s Fatal Fusion – The Ancient Tale

Today I was reviewing the Top Albums of 2013 at the ProgArchives  at number 16 was a band that I had listened to earlier this year, Fatal Fusion. Their 2013 release is The Ancient Tale and was the soundtrack for several periods of time today. Earlier in the year I had listened to their 2010 release Land of the Sun. I liked both of the albums. Fatal Fusion is a Norwegian crossover prog rock band strongly influenced by bands like  King Crimson, Camel, Pink Floyd, ELP, Yes, Genesis, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Deep Purple from the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s and 90’s bands like Anekdoten, Spocks beard, IQ, Marillion, Toto, Dream Theater, Iron Maiden According to their biography the music cover a wide landscape, combining many musical styles from Jazz, Blues, Rock, Metal, Funk, Psychedelia, Ambient, Latin, and Classical music! No wonder I like their music!! The Ancient Tale is composed of only five tracks and yet the combined length of the album is over 65 minutes!! Three of the tracks are over 14 minutes in length and the other two are over  8 minutes!! Each track is full of tempo and musical changes, that keeps the music continuously interesting! The two core members of the band keyboardist Erlend Engebretsen and bassist Lasse Lie first played together in a band called No Name way back in 1986. After that band disbanded in 1993, they created a new band in 1997 called Hydra with Erlend’s younger brother Audun as the drummer. After the formation and disbanding of  two more groups,  Moonstone  and  Chrystal Blues, Fatal Fusion was born because of their desire to play more progressive material! Along the way the band recruited the other two members of the band: Knut Erik Grøntvedt was added to handle the vocals. He had only played in a few cover bands, and guitarist Stig Selnes  who played in The Rumbling Tubes in the 1990’s, and Agathe in the 2000’s, before joining Fatal Fusion in mid 2008, he continued to play in both “Agathe” and “Fatal Fusion” for a while, before quiting “Agathe” in 2010, to fully concentrate on “Fatal Fusion”  Got all that!!! So the current line-up for the band is

Knut Erik Grøntvedt – Vocals
Erlend Engebretsen – Keyboards
Stig Selnes – Guitars
Lasse Lie – Bass
Audun Engebretsen – Drums & Percussion

Fatal Fusion;’s first album Land of the sun was released November 2010 as a private release only, and was nominated for”best debut album 2010″ by Prog Awards. Since that release, the band has shared the stage with bands like “Agents of Mercy” in 2011, and “The Watch” in 2012. The band got a full time manager in 2012, and was signed to a record label in 2013. Over 55% of the reviews at the ProgArchives are 5 star which carries a label as  an “essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music”!!

So check them out at all the normal locations Facebook, MySpace and Reverbnation. Here’s a video for “Cry No More” from Land of the Sun Read More

The Music Safari meets the Dutch Crossover Prog band Tumbletown!

Over the last week or so I’ve listened to the debut album from a band named Tumbletown Done with Coldness  and enjoying it more with each listen. Of course this leads to the ubiquitous question: Who are these guys and where in the world  do they hail from?  The answer to  the who is Han Uil and Aldo Adema, two skilled producers, guitarists and composers and the where is the Netherlands. Uil and Adema both were members of the band Egdon Heath and its continuation Seven Day Hunt. Uil also played with the band Antares and has released some solo works. Seven Day Hunt released their debut album  File This Dream  in 2008. The album was produced and mixed by Adema and well received! Both Uil and Adema left Seven Day Hunt in 2009. Adema to concentrate on production work and Uil to work on his solo career. In 2010 Han released his solo album Dark in the Light. Adema worked with  Uil on the track “Memento” on the album and the two hit it off well, and the result was the birth of Tumbletown! Read More

Archives: Prog Rock from Glasgow – Comedy of Errors – Fanfare & Fantasy!

Fanfare and FantasySo I had to go today for a follow-up visit for my new hearing aids. While the trip is longer than the trip to the old place,I got a hearing aid from, the trip does give me time to listen to some music! The trip there was Prog Rock from Glasgow, UK and the way back was nuevo flamenco First the prog rock from Comedy of Errors and their 2013 release Fanfare & Fantasy. Evidently the band formed in 194 had various line-up changes and released a few albums then disbanded and reformed in 2011. And according to the bard at their website: Read More

The Safari finds Crossover Prog from Argentina’s Vanished from Earth!

So one of the things that I like about prog rock are the album covers. The majority of them are very artsy and very interesting and the one to the left of me is no exception! It was one of the reasons that the band and album Vanished from Earth caught my eye this more at progstreaming.com. Of course it was the music that ultimately sealed the deal and made resulted in the album becoming the soundtrack while doing some chores this afternoon. Read More