Interview: ENCELADUS

On By NickIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Enceladus

Texas-based progressive metallers Enceladus have launched their second album titled “Arrival” a few days ago. In the interview below they tell us about this new release, but also about the metal scene, favorite records, and more.

Hey guys. How are you doing?

Hey there, we’re doing fantastic, thanks for having us!

You have just launched a new album entitled “Arrival.” How do you feel about the release?

Pretty stoked! Releasing music is always fun. I think a sophomore album release is quite a milestone, showing the world that we have a lot more to offer! We added a few new elements to this album, so were excited to see how it’s received.

Enceladus - Arrival

How much of a challenge was to put these songs together?

There wasn’t much of a challenge putting the songs together. Some come together easier than others, however. For instance, Universal Century was written in about an hour. We record the songs in our own time, so we’ve had enough time to let the songs breathe a bit before recording them.

What other artists similar to your genre that are coming from Texas are you friends with?

There are a number of good bands in a similar style coming out of Texas. We know some of the guys in Immortal Guardian, Aeternal Requiem, and Jessikill. I met them all in San Antonio actually. Its good to know there are bands getting that style of metal out there.

What is your opinion about the current metal scene?

The metal scene is great because I always feel like I’m in good company at a show or just talking about music. I feel there should be a wider audience and it should just be bigger overall though. Lets see some shows where just as many people come out for live bands as people do for computers! The more metalheads the better. [laughs] Id like to see more melodic power/prog metal bands coming out of the states as well.

Can you tell me something about your influences?

Any artist that dares to be different and step outside the box is an influence. Innovators inspire more than emulators for sure.

Enceladus (band)

What are you listening to these days?

Quite a few things such as classical, Jrock, video game/cinema compositions, and prog bands. We’ve been jamming some Circus Maximus. In between that there’s some chill groovy stuff to get ‘down’ to as well. 😉

Your 5 favourite records of all the time?

Thats too hard for some of us, but here is a selection at the moment:

1) Angel of Salvation by Galneryus

2) The Divine Wings of Tragedy by Symphony X

3) Destiny by Stratovarius

4) Temple of Shadows by Angra

5) Blue Blood by X Japan

Can you tell me a little bit more about the gear you use to record “Arrival”?

Sure. Its been a pretty simple process. We use Cubase 8 for our DAW / ESP LTD Bass/ ESP LTD and PRS S2 Guitars, then Focusrite Scarlett’s as the recording interfaces.

What can we expect from Enceladus in the near future?

Definitely keep on a lookout! You can expect a style that is constantly evolving and never stagnant. We have enough ideas in the works for a third album and beyond already. Some epic stuff, some chill stuff, and most of all more METAL!

“Arrival” is available from Bandcamp.

Big Big Train’s FAR SKIES DEEP TIME Reissued

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock3 Comments
FSDT cover-300x300
To be re-released, March 16, 2018.

According to an email from Burning Shed this afternoon, Big Big Train has redesigned and remastered its 2010 maxi-ep release, FAR SKIES DEEP TIME.  Coming after 2009’s THE UNDERFALL YARD, FAR SKIES DEEP TIME was never seen by the band as a proper studio release, but rather as a compilation of disparate tracks.

Over the last eight years, two versions of the maxi-ep have appeared, one with a remake of Anthony Phillip’s “Master of Time,” and the other with a remake of a very early Big Big Train track, “Kingmaker.”

This 2018 version will be the first to incorporate both tracks onto one release.

Big Big Train is the premier European band of third-wave prog, and this latest release will only add to the group’s massively growing but already sterling reputation.

To preorder from Burning Shed, please click here.

To see our review of “Kingmaker,” please click here.

Belarusian Progressive Metalcore Act THORNYWAY Launch Kickstarter Campaign

On By NickIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Thornyway

Hailing from Belarus capital Minsk, THORNYWAY is a progressive metalcore four-piece emerged in 2010 whose debut full-length album “Absolution” was launched back in 2014. Almost four years later, the band is ready to unleash their sophomore effort entitled “Awaken,” but they ask your help in achieving their goals with this ambitious project. A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign was recently launched where THORNYWAY try to raise $5,000 for mixing the album at the Anthropocide Mixing & Mastering Studio.

Speaking about this new material, the band commented: “‘Awaken’ is expression of our attitude towards Human Nature: Striving, Faith, Love, Forgiveness. The album reflects the events taking place in the modern world. Each listener will find in it something close for themselves. ‘Awaken’ is a logical follow-up to our first album, ‘Absolution,’ which was released in 2014.”

All songs on “Awaken” are recorded, and the album is to be delivered to the mixing and mastering studio for further treatment. You can head over to THORNYWAY’s Bandcamp profile to hear their first album which also gives a small hint what can be expected from “Awaken.”

Visit the Kickstarter crowdfunding page and help the band in reaching their goal by contributing and receiving fine perks in return. A video where the band talks about the campaign can be seen below.

THORNYWAY on-line:

Facebook
Bandcamp
Instagram

Wilson & Wakeman: Delicate Vigor

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment
wilson and wakeman
Not in the least what I expected, but absolutely what I needed.

Being a rather huge (gargantuan?) admirer of Damian Wilson–especially his work with Arjen Lucassen–and, most especially, in his [headspace] collaboration with Adam Wakeman (another favorite), I eagerly preordered and helped crowd fund the new Wilson & Wakeman album, “The Sun Will Dance In Its Twilight Hour.”

The CD landed on my doorstep from Germany last week.  With Wilson, Wakeman, and such a Crimson-esque title, I was expecting a scorching experimental prog metal masterpiece of galactic proportions.

The last thing I expected was what I actually received, an album that sounds as though it could have been written, at various points, by Paul Simon, Seals and Crofts, or Natalie Merchant.  I’m not in any way suggesting that Wilson & Wakeman advertised falsely.  Frankly, I’m sure I just missed some memo, here or there.  It wouldn’t be the first time my 50-year old spaciness got the best of me.  Additionally, Wilson & Wakeman are each too earnest to be deceptive.

And, that’s the best place to start an actual review of this rather beautiful album.  The album is raw, earnest, sincere, heartfelt, and, from a prog perspective, absolutely minimalist.  Vocals and piano dominate this album, with only the odd strings, backup vocals, and drums coming in from time to time.

Continue reading “Wilson & Wakeman: Delicate Vigor” →

Three Decades

On By Mahesh SreekandathIn Heavy metal2 Comments

Morbid Angel to Archspire is an interesting shift – from morbid dissonance to morbid like precision in about 30 years. There are numerous incremental steps between them, but this systematic dial up in technical intensity is a broader pattern evident across all metal genres. But, whether this is a progression or regression is a matter of perspective. Definitely there is no absolute hierarchy for benchmarks, they are always personal and often idiosyncratic.

These broader genre shifts are eventually propelled by all aspects of the music industry — listeners, artists, labels — everyone plays their own structural role. Within the economic constraints of the real world, music evolves only when all the involved factors reinforce each other. In other words, independent of our personal opinion, aggregate benchmarks are constantly emerging. It’s sort of a dispersed process with its own layered feedback loops. Artistic shifts experiencing positive feedback simply thrive. And in turn also become a factor propelling broader genre trajectories – just like any other interconnected ecosystem.

Image Attribution
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By invisibleoranges (IMG_1643) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

soundstreamsunday #101: “Those Shoes” by the Eagles

On By Craig BreadenIn hard rock, Rock and Roll2 Comments

eagles3The dark end of late 70s rock culture makes for strange bedfellows on the weekly infinite linear mixtape.  One week after Judas Priest released Unleashed in the East in September 1979, a career milestone kickstarting broad commercial success, the Eagles issued The Long Run, a (mostly) career-ending album that took too long to make, wore on too many nerves in a group of too many egos, and while feeling generally sapped of energy was still a giant hit.  Go figure.  They were a beloved band at the end of their (Seven Bridges) road.  But while the album may not have been as strong as its predecessor, 1976’s Hotel California, pieces of it shared qualities with those other California-centric, dark star rock albums of the era, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (1977) and Steely Dan’s Gaucho (1980).  The party goes unexpectedly wrong, and as night sets in the sparks that fly leave an even darker fringe.

The Long Run’s spark is “Those Shoes.”  As an airtight funk backs a story parallel to Judas Priest’s “Victim of Changes” — delivered with icy remove by Don Henley — Joe Walsh and Don Felder twine their talk-boxed guitars together in a dual attack as hard-hitting, in its way, as anything delivered by K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton.  It’s the swing of it, still in the late 70s a rock’n’roll staple embraced by blues to punk, country to metal, and too soon largely abandoned by the harder end of rock, that moves both songs forward.  Just as Priest’s rhythm section, with Les Binks drumming, made you pump your fist and shake your butt, when the Eagles got down to business they were masters of the hard groove.  But this is no good times, party-on disco boogie.  The song’s power is multiplied by its downer lyric, a troubling view of the predator-prey club hookup scene, ringing at once with compassion, cynical chauvinism, and studious intention.  If it’s revealing of the seamier side of the west coast lifestyle as the 70s limped to an end, in it also is the last flash of a band who commanded the era.

soundstreamsunday presents one song or live set by an artist each week, and in theory wants to be an infinite linear mix tape where the songs relate and progress as a whole. For the complete playlist, go here: soundstreamsunday archive and playlist, or check related articles by clicking on”soundstreamsunday” in the tags section.

An enlightened musical journey: John Holden

On By alisonscolumnIn progressive rock1 Comment

2CD Wallet with Spine (slot cut).pdf

 

Now here’s an interesting thought to ponder. Out there in the home studios – namely the studies, spare rooms and sheds of the Western world and beyond, a legion of creatively inclined souls are currently working hard, writing, playing and developing compositions and songs, which, they hope, will be subsequently released to a wider audience.

Because of the miracles of modern technology and the close camaraderie that exists in the greater prog community, this initial concept can be taken a step further so that as well as making your own music, you can invite other artistes to provide their own contributions. I have seen countless examples of this taking place where the global village concept of music is now a reality rather than prophetic line from Marshall McLuhan in the early 60s.

This ease of connection has been key to John Holden, a multi-instrumentalist and composer from the north of England, following his star and capturing light for a musical project, which, in terms of dramatis personae, is right up there with any line-up Alan Parsons ever assembled.

Continue reading “An enlightened musical journey: John Holden” →

Sarah McLachlan’s FUMBLING at 25

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock13 Comments
sarahmclachlan fumbling
1993’s FUMBLING.  One of the all-time great albums of the rock era.

Let me throw down the mother of gauntlets as I start this piece.

Of all the bands and artists I’ve seen perform live over my fifty years of life, no one has ever exceeded Sarah McLachlan in intensity and performance.  And, yes, I’m comparing her to Rush, to Yes, to Tears for Fears, to Neal Morse, to Kansas, and to a whole host of others.  I’ve seen McLachlan numerous times, and I’ve yet to see anyone give as much as she does.

She gives every single thing she has, and she always has.

There.  The gauntlet has been thrown down.

Sadly, too many readers—and, undoubtedly, progarchy readers—know her for her somewhat sappy and quasi-ideological songs from the late 1990s and after.

Yet, to look at her first three studio albums is to see an artist as artist, an artist before the fame, an artist who knew and loved the art, an artist who simply wanted to become one with her art.  No angels, no building mysteries, and nothing fallen.  Just pure intensity–an artist, her heart, her soul, her words, her bandmates, her engineer, and her producer.

touch
McLachlan’s first, TOUCH (1989).

McLachlan’s first album, 1989’s TOUCH, remains a delicate masterpiece, fragile yet held together invincibly by sheer force of honesty.  Just in her 20s, she already offered the Canadian equivalent of Mark Hollis on this album, full of proggy pop worthy of XTC and Tears for Fears.  Indeed, TOUCH—with its piano and 12-string guitars—might very well have been the perfect mix of Hackett-era Genesis and later Talk Talk.  Though each song on TOUCH is a pop song, the album as a whole is a prog album, having created the most coherent and unique of atmospheres.

Continue reading “Sarah McLachlan’s FUMBLING at 25” →

SPOCK’S BEARD announce new album ‘Noise Floor’

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

SPOCK’S BEARD announce new album ‘Noise Floor’

SPOCK’S BEARD announce new album ‘Noise Floor’


— Read on therockinchairblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/01/spocks-beard-announce-new-album-noise-floor/

Stay Classy, Prog Community

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Stay Classy, Prog Community

Stay Classy, Prog Community


— Read on theprogmind.com/2018/03/02/stay-classy-prog-community/

I don’t know the band or the controversy, but, as usual, Prog Mind seems to nail a problem-our ridiculous sense of entitlement.