Tag Archives: progressive rock

Armonite – The Sun Is New Each Day

by Jeff Nixon

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Released last year on June 22, 2015, Armonite’s second album, and first album in 15 years The Sun Is New Each Day is a vibrant instrumental prog album that is full of both complex and beautiful melodies. The prominent electric violin reminds me a bit of the Dixie Dregs. The album sounds like a Soundtrack at times, which makes sense since the band has published videos of a few movie theme covers from their show The Soundtrack is New Each Day. In fact, it sounds more like a video game soundtrack to me. ‘‘G’ as in Gears’ could easily … Read more

Haken – Affinity, an Analysis Of

by Jeff Nixon

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I wasn’t introduced to Haken until early 2014 when I discovered their 2013 release The Mountain. I loved that album and immediately listened to the rest of their discography. Later that year, they released their EP Restoration which was an awesome look into their past, re-imagining and re-recording songs from their demo with higher production quality. Now, nearly two years later, we’re graced with a new full-length album called Affinity.

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If you followed Haken’s facebook page closely in January of this year, you might have seen them post a few times about the name and content of the … Read more

Rikard Sjöblom – The Unbendable Sleep

by Jeff Nixon

I’ve been into the progressive rock band Beardfish for a while, my favorite album of theirs being their two parter “Sleeping In Traffic.” I also enjoyed their latest album 4626+Comfortzone quite a bit. So I was excited to hear what the band’s frontman Rikard Sjöblom had in store for his second solo album “The Unbendable Sleep”.

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Rikard’s unique and catchy melodies paired with his distinct vocals makes for some interesting music to say the least. This album flows well but also goes unexpected places. One of which being a short interlude track “Building A Tent For Astor” which is a … Read more

Steven Wilson – 4 ½

by Jeff Nixon

Steven-Wilson-Four-halfSteven Wilson surprised me last year with his album Hand. Cannot. Erase. which I absolutely loved. So when I heard that his new EP 4 ½ mostly contained unreleased material from the Hand. Cannot. Erase. sessions I got pretty excited.

And it didn’t disappoint! The lineup that’s been on Steven’s solo albums since The Raven That Refused to Sing has been really solid, and they continue to nail it with this half album.

4 ½ has a nice mix of soft proggy melodies, rocking riffs, and unique solos. The glitchy sounding solo on “Vermillioncore” sounds especially cool and actually has … Read more

Review: Tigran Hamasyan – Mockroot

by Ben Norton
The rhythm section on Mockroot: (from left to right) Sam Minaie (bass), Tigran Hamasyan, and Arthur Hnatek (drums) CREDIT: Maeve Stam

The rhythm section on Mockroot (from left to right), Sam Minaie (bass), Tigran Hamasyan, and Arthur Hnatek (drums)
CREDIT: Maeve Stam

Being a musical genius is hard. Not in the, “Oh, I’m a musical genius, I’m so oppressed, pity me” sense, but rather in the sense that one must live up to the expectations one has created. This is of course not a problem limited to the realm of music; all artists must ultimately struggle with it. If an artist has released material before, their new work is inevitably, and necessarily, put into a particular context. One must walk a … Read more