Panzerballett – Breaking Brain

Munich, Germany’s Panzerballett has been one of my favorite bands for some time now. Merging the intricate brutality of progressive metal with the grace and elegance of modern jazz together with a dash of German humor and a healthy awareness of how bizarre this combination is, they are in my opinion one of the most original and virtuosic bands active at this time. Their fifth full length album, Breaking Brain, sufficiently expands on the formula that they’ve developed over the years and manages to meet my high expectations yet again.

Featuring a sax player in what would otherwise be … Read more

Thieves’ Kitchen – Clockwork Universe

Prog rockers Thieves’ Kitchen hail from the UK and Sweden. Their sixth full-length album,  The Clockwork Universe, charts a course through spacetime to a destination somewhere in 1970s Canterbury, UK. The jazz and folk infused style of progressive rock particular to this spacetime neighborhood, rather than being an obsolete relic of the past, still boasts untapped veins of creative gold. Along the journey, we’re treated to a sprawling 20 minute prog epic, as well as a couple instrumental and percussion-less tracks that sound more like contemporary classical chamber music than any kind of … Read more

Review: Upsilon Acrux – Sun Square Dialect

True math! Upsilon Acrux is one of these bands that really mesmerize you, on every listen. Their music is so dense and complex, both harmonically and rhythmically, that it’s difficult to listen to their album, Sun Square Dialect, as background music, while doing other tasks. You might find yourselves trying to keep track of the changing time signatures or just trying to figure out what’s happening, and how it got there! It’s truly music for the brain.

Using two drummers has many advantages and disadvantages, the formers being for the listener, and the latters being more technical, and for … Read more

Review: M-Opus – 1975 Triptych

[Preview the album here]

Do you like 70’s prog rock? I have to agree that its flourishing of ideas is still to this day memorable and unmatched. M-Opus is a conceptual band that aims at recreating the aural experience of a certain year in prog. 1975 Triptych is, evidently, a collection of three songs that were made to mimic the sound signature of 1975.

First of all, I have to say that their singer, Jonathan Casey, toured and recorded with the David Cross band (ex-King Crimson) so that’s something to keep in mind!

The sound of the album is pretty … Read more

News: Upcoming awesome band alert! Vvon Dogma I

Funky, djenty, proggy, those are the three words that I can put on this project for now. There’s next to no information available on the project, apart from the bass demo video… by no less than the monstrous bassist from Unexpect but rather than play on a 9 string bass guitar, it’s on a more standard 6 string. And he still totally kills it, even though it’s quite remote from Unexpect’s sound.

As for now, I believe they are actively looking for an 8-string guitarist with high-end gear, who thinks outside the box, and who has a clean criminal record … Read more