Many bands don’t recover from the death of a lead vocalist. Especially when it’s someone who also wrote a good chunk of the band’s songs. Big Big Train lost David Longdon on November 20, 2021. They were preparing to release “Welcome to the Planet” at the beginning of the following year. Ultimately that album served as a glorious farewell to an extremely talented and unique singer. The band were at a crossroads. They were arguably as popular as they’d ever been yet they had to decide if they could continue and if so, how? Enter the multi-talented Alberto Bravin of PFM from Italy for the new alb ..read more

I’ve been a fan of The Pineapple Thief since 2002. It has taken a while for the world to catch on to Bruce Soord and team but adding Gavin Harrison to the band has definitely helped with visibility. Initially Harrison was a hired gun but now he co-writes with Soord so this is a true collaboration. “It Leads to This” is the fifth album with Harrison (not including “8 Years Later”) and the fourth with him as a full member. The biggest thing that I noticed was the length of the album and the songs. The album is 41 minutes long and the longest track is a second under 6 minutes. Neither the album n ..read more

Kentucky has little going for it. Well okay at least when it comes to progressive rock! Dream the Electric Sleep are the exception. I’ve been into them since they released their second album, “Heretics” in 2014. It’s hard to believe it has been 9 years! “Beneath The Dark Wide Sky” was their last album of new music and it maintained the high quality of music that was set by “Heretics” and their debut album “Lost and Gone Forever.” Finally DTES have some NEW music! Obviously the pandemic delayed things as did their lives outside of music. Bands like them have to work after all. Now we have “Amer ..read more

I am a massive Toto fan and of course a huge fan of Steve Lukather. Might as well get that out of the way. When I heard that “Bridges” was a bridge between a Toto album and a Lukather album, I was definitely excited. Toto has no plans to release another album, though all three current members worked on “Bridges.” David Paich and Joseph Williams co wrote a few songs on here and guest as well. And the album is definitely more like latter day Toto than Luke’s more recent albums. Though he is a huge part of the Toto sound, so it’s hard to separate the man from the band and vice versa. “Far From Ov ..read more

There are artists who are so identifiable with their bands that it’s hard to separate their solo work from their band work. Singers fall into this category most frequently. Singers with voices as instantly recognizable as Einar Solberg of Leprous stand out that much more. “16” is Solberg’s debut solo album and if people didn’t know it was solo, they would definitely assume it was a Leprous album. BUT they’d also wonder why the band was taking so many chances. On “16,” there are songs that would sit quite comfortably on a Leprous album and others that definitely show Solberg doing his own thing ..read more

After six years, the very talented Norwegian band Seven Impale are back with their third full length album “Summit.” One reason for the delay is that their keyboardist Håkon Vinje joined Enslaved and has recorded 3 albums with them. Other members finished school and had kids. Life happens. The good news is that the band never broke up. They mix a very technical ability with a fondness for old school prog and jazz without sounding derivative. Quite an accomplishment in this day and age. Soundwise they mix old King Crimson with Van der Graaf Generator with the jazz leanings of each. PLUS the ban ..read more

I don’t really write reviews unless somehow I am motivated. I am motivated in this case because Riverside is back. I mean really back. Following the death of guitarist Piotr Grudziński in 2016, it was unclear how or even IF Riverside would continue. The band initially decided to proceed as a trio with guest guitarists assisting them. This seemed like a tentative step forward but made sense for sure. In 2018, they released “Wasteland” which just didn’t click with me. They clearly missed Grudziński and his sense of melody. The guitar work was mostly handled by Mariusz Duda and it was good but th ..read more

My top studio album of 2022 is the new album by Elder, “Innate Passage.” Highest possible recommendation. This band just gets stronger and stronger ..read more

I am a huge fan of John Mitchell, the man behind Lonely Robot. I am glad he does all of these projects outside of Arena. What projects? Lonely Robot is one but also he’s had supergroup Kino and the resurrected It Bites. Each benefit from Mitchell’s immense talent. The songwriting is always TOP notch. He’s a great guitarist for sure, but I really love his distinctive vocal style. “A Model Life” is the fifth Lonely Robot album and possibly the best so far. Lonely Robot was initially conceived as a musical trilogy but InsideOut pushed for more. And I am glad they did. From the opener “Recalibrati ..read more

It’s no secret that Pink Floyd is a massive influence on the band Airbag and their guitarist Bjørn Riis. Riis has had a very busy solo career and just released an album in April of 2022 called “Everything to Everyone.” And he is back again! This time with an EP/mini album which is intended as an homage to Pink Floyd. I suppose there’s no reason to try to hide the influence. Why not celebrate it? And that he does on “A Fleeting Glimpse.” Adding to the connection is Floyd backing vocalist Durga McBroom who guests on the opening track, “Dark Shadows (part 1).” She does some wordless improv vocals ..read more