A Song For All Seasons is amazing! I get so welled up inside... The 2021 release date of Renaissance's new four disc collection (and mouthful of a title) 50th Anniversary – Ashes Are Burning: An Anthology – Live In Concert actually finds the band fifty-two years in to their remarkable history. But for the sticklers..
The 5th Season: Resistor’s Steve Unruh talks life, death, and music
The 5th season is where someone's life lives on in the influence they've had in other people... There's an air of refinement to The 5th Season, the new album from American quartet Resistor. If previous albums displayed the band traversing well-worn paths of epics, zaniness, and plain ol' heavy rock riffage, this latest platter sees..
Jordsjø – Pastoralia (Karisma)
There came a point midway through Pastoralia, the new album from Nordic folk-proggers Jordsjø, where I realized they might be on to something with the switch from monochromatic cover art to a decidedly more vibrant impression. The Oslo-based outfit have been on a steady incline for several years, with recent albums Jord and Nattfiolen garnering..
Peter Hammill – In Translation (Fie! Records)
I was once referred to as “the Shirley Bassey of the Underground”. Then and now I’m happy to live with that. Curious was the news that P.J.A. Hammill, esteemed and prolific British songsmith, had announced at the age of 72 that he was releasing an album consisting entirely of other people's compositions. What should not..
Jon Anderson – Animation – Expanded & Remastered (Esoteric)
Here endeth the decades-long wait for a decent CD version of Animation... Artists often find themselves at a crossroads by their third release (there's even an unofficial syndrome named for that very quandary), and when change is afoot, the fan base can quickly become disenchanted. But Jon Anderson was on a creative ascent at the..
Jethro Tull – [A] A La Mode (The 40th Anniversary Edition) (Parlophone)
The controversial [A] gets the deluxe remix treatment… Few albums in the Jethro Tull catalogue are as controversial as 1980's A, with its slicker sound, infamous personnel shift and subsequent disgruntled alumni. Further erosion of public opinion came with the news that the intended solo album was in fact grudgingly presented as a band project..
Liquid Tension Experiment – LTE 3 (InsideOut)
It's almost beyond comprehension that the last time muso quartet Liquid Tension Experiment recorded an album was 22 years ago. Yes, more than two decades. A pre-9/11 world. Five U.S. presidents ago. People not yet born then are now adults… you get the drift. In those days, Jordan Rudess was a long-haired newcomer to the..
Jon Anderson – Olias Of Sunhillow: Remastered & Expanded Edition (Esoteric)
'Olias for me was like going to music school for three months solid without breathing.' Of the solo debuts released in fairly quick succession by Yes members following their Relayer era, it's long been Jon Anderson's otherworldly concept album Olias Of Sunhillow that gets mentioned at the top of the heap more often than not...
Melodic Prog outfit Azure release scenic video for dramatic song ‘Mistress’
Latest release from Azure is "Mistress" "Super chromatic and bright progressive metal/rock FFO Rush, Genesis, Rainbow, etc. Fuck, this track rules!!"- Eden Kupermintz, Heavy Blog is Heavy Azure's furiously idiosyncratic approach to melodic prog songwriting has been little more than a curiosity, bubbling under the surface of the modern prog scene for several years since..
Transatlantic – The Absolute Universe: Forevermore (InsideOut)
They make Tales From Topographic Oceans look like a 45 rpm single... It's fair to say that Transatlantic are not exactly renowned for subtlety or brevity. The much-lauded supergroup doesn't do anything small, consistently crafting immense prog epics that seem loftier with each new release. Now, twenty-something years into their existence, they are taking 'epic'..