Progressive Metal from NYC’s – Infinite Spectrum – Misguided

Misguided
Infinite Spectrum

Infinite Spectrum is a progressive metal band from New York City formed by two college students bass payer Alex Repetti and guitarist Alex Raybin soon after they met they began collaborating on musical tracks that laid the foundation for their debut album. After the instrumental tracks had been composed and recorded singer and composer Will Severin joined the party and wrote and recorded the vocals for their debut album Misguided. Everything was assembled and mixed by Grammy Award winning engineer, Chris Theis and the album was released in 2012! According to ProgArchves: Read More

Prog Rotation Part 2 – Eclectic Prog from Texas’ Herd of Instinct – Conjure!

The other instrumental prog rock band that has been in my listening rotation over the last week or so is the Texas eclectic prog band Herd of Instinct. I have listened to their second release Conjure. The band’s self-titled first release was released in 2011 and was four years in the making. Flashback to 2007 – Wow- that was a long trip – the band 99 Names of  God had disbanded after ten years on the Texas Music scene as an Art Rock band – yeah right?? How do you get beer drinking into that music! But I digress back to 2007 where drummer Jason Spralin and WARR Guitarist Mark Cook are trying to form a new band. Soon they joined forces with ex-Nervewerks guitarist Mike Davison and got down to work!!  Four years later they produced that self titled album (hum about two times as long as the gestation period of the elephant) Anyway, critics praised the album and comparisons were made to King Crimson. The band’s music is drawn from a variety of influences including: multi-cultural music, literary clues, Horror and cinematic film scores, and obscure elements of Rock, Avant-garde, Electronic, Prog, and Psychedelic music. (Horror films and Psychedelic music may survive on the Texas Music scene, no wait – psychedelic music is that hippie music!) Read More

Crossover Prog from Canada’s AsZension – Biosphere!

One of the albums that has been in my prog rock listening rotation over the past several days is Biosphere the sophomore release from the Canadian Crossover Prog band AsZension. The band is currently a studio-based band but there are plans to make it a live band. The band was founded by multi-instrumentalist Kevin Thiessen after he completed his studies in Contemporary Music and Technology, audio engineering, production and guitar at Selkirk College in Nelson B.C. After finishing his studies Thiessen set out to find like-minded musicians. First he met and then added guitarist and engineer Calvin Shiu, a martial arts practitioner and at the time, a recording arts student at the University of Lethbridge to the band. Shiu brought with him  his ”Shamisen”, a Japanese fretless lutelike instrument. This led to inspire Thiessen to use more world instruments in his miusic. In today’s recording era this is accomplished through “Virtual instrument technology or Vst’s. The final member of the band drummer Kyle Sheppard was an easy choice for the band since he had worked with Thiessen and was a life-long friend of Shiu’s. Their self-titled debut album won rave reviews and was nominated for Best Début Record at the 2012 ”Prog Awards” The Web World Awards dedicated to Progressive Rock. Read More

The Safari Explores the Music of the Brazilian Progressive Metal band Angra!

So the other day, Spotify suggested that I listen to the song “Reflective” from the album Sounds of Innocence by Kiko Loureiro. Since the name looked interesting and he appeared to be a guitarist I downloaded the album onto the iPhone and it became the soundtrack for my ride to the Motor Vehicle Inspection Station. I discovered that Kiko is a very, very talented progressive rock guitarist and a member of the Progressive Metal band Angra. So after listening to Loureiro’s solo album, I downloaded Angra’s latest release Aqua and gave it a listen! Both of the albums are very good, but I think I prefer Aqua. Sometimes solo prog rock guitar albums seem a little boring to me. So here’s what I discovered about Angra. Read More

The Safari Explores the Music of Germany’s Frequency Drift – Over!

Over the last few days I’ve been exploring the music of the German Grossover Prog Band Frequency Drift; I stated with their current release Over. On my first few listens I wasn’t to sure about the vocals. The female lead singer’s voice was just a little too high and operatic sounding than I  like. What I was sure of was the music,I know I heard some instruments that you don’t normally hear like violin and flutes.Here’ what I read about the band at their website: Read More

The Safari revisits Finland and Explores the Music of Cardiant – Verge

Today the Safari returned to Finland and explored the music of Cardiant a power metal band that was formed in the city Hämeenlinna by Antti Hänninen and Dave Alberti in 2000. Today I listened to Verge the third album from the band. The line-up of the band has changed drastically from the first album when the band didn’t have a lead singer and was forced to use a session singer. This resulted in the album Midday Moon only being released on Japan! Read More

The Safari explores the Progressive Metal of America’s – Thought Chamber – Psykerion!

As I listened to Psykerion the second album from Thought Chamber, I came to the realization that maybe the best way to listen to Thought Chamber is with headphones on, because with headphones on you can catch all of the intricacies of their music!. I am listening to the track “Transcend” and the music is coming at me from each side,guitars in the left ear, drums in the center, it’s great! Read More