The Oblivion Particle — Spock’s Beard’s 12th studio album set for release August 21, 2015

On By Time LordIn progressive rock music2 Comments

Taken by surprise today with this happy news from Spock’s Beard:

The Oblivion Particle

Spock’s Beard’s 12th studio album set for release August 21, 2015 on InsideOut Music.

01. Tides of Time (7:45)
02. Minion (6:53)
03. Hell’s Not Enough (6:23)
04. Bennett Built a Time Machine (6:52)
05. Get Out While You Can (4:55)
06. A Better Way To Fly (8:57)
07. The Center Line (7:05)
08. To Be Free Again (10:24)
09. Disappear (6:36)

10. Iron Man (special edition bonus track)

From the InsideOut Music press release:

2015 finds Spock’s Beard returning with The Oblivion Particle, scheduled for release August 21st on InsideOut Music. The band’s twelfth studio album sees them drawing from their core essence while stretching out into some exciting new territory.

According to bassist Dave Meros, it’s not a matter of how much the album recalls past Spock’s material, but how much it differs. “I think the opening track ‘Tides of Time’ is classic Spock’s in terms of arrangement and style, but everything else is fairly different. That said, the whole album is still within the parameters of what people expect to hear from us.”

Among the nine new songs are “To Be Free Again,” a dramatic, cinematic epic; “Bennett Built a Time Machine,” a quirky adventure tale about time travel; “Hell’s Not Enough” with its fiery emotive plateaus and “Get Out While You Can,” a more straight ahead yet no less impactful powerhouse.

The Oblivion Particle finds the band answering the needs of their creations by utilizing the considerable versatility of each member. In addition to Ted Leonard’s soaring vocals and Dave Meros’ distinctive bass, Alan Morse adds autoharp, banjolele, electric sitar and mandolin to his array of instruments, drummer Jimmy Keegan takes over lead vocals on “Bennett Built a Time Machine” and Ryo expands his arsenal of keyboard sounds throughout the album. In addition, virtuoso Kansas violinist David Ragsdale lends his touch to the album’s majestic closer, “Disappear.”

As with the previous album Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep, The Oblivion Particle was recorded at The Mouse House and produced by Rich Mouser, Alan Morse and John Boegehold, a band collaborator of many years.

Ultimately, The Oblivion Particle has all the trademarks of a classic “grower,” with a considerable depth that continues to unfold after many listens. This proves Spock’s Beard to be an amazingly compelling band some 20+ years after their formation, and one that continues to be a leader in the prog rock field, just as they have always been…

Their previous album, Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep, was one of the best of 2013, and also one of Spock’s Beard’s best albums ever.

So, I am really looking forward to The Oblivion Particle!

Metal Mondays – First Metal Allegiance Song Released Today!

On By Bryan MoreyIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

safe_image.phpMike Portnoy has been teasing his social media followers all year about a special metal project, and a few months ago, he announced Metal Allegiance, which is exactly what it sounds like. It is a collaboration between some of the biggest names in metal, and they finally released their first song today, “Can’t Kill the Devil”! Holy crap! Portnoy lets loose in a way unlike anything he has ever done, even during his time with Avenged Sevenfold. It is full thrash, and it is some of the best thrash drumming I’ve ever heard. Such speed and power. The vocals on this song are by Chuck Billy of Testament. Some might not like it, but I happen to like Testament.

The musicians on this song:

Mike Portnoy: drums

Chuck Billy (Testament): vocals

Alex Skolnick (Testament): lead and rhythm guitars

David Ellefson (Megadeth): bass

Phil Demmel (Machine Head): additional lead guitar

Andreas Kisser (Sepultura): additional lead guitar

Quite the lineup, and there are even more huge names on the rest of the album. This promises to be the best metal record of the year.

Get your thrash on, Progarchy.

http://metalallegiance.com

 

Trey Gunn – The Waters, They Are Rising

On By Connor MullinIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

Trey-4-21

If ever there was an album that deserved the classification “avant-garde,” this one would be it. Trey Gunn, former bassist and Warr guitarist for King Crimson, performs with various touch guitars on this album – and nothing else. A risky move in my opinion, but I believe Gunn pulls it off. Vocalist Dylan Nichole Bandy performs on the first and last tracks, but otherwise, this album is truly a solo effort. It is unlike any album I have listened to before: it has a haunting, ambient atmosphere, like some of Robert Fripp’s solo work, but with the unique touch of, well, touch guitars. The album comprises eleven tracks, four of which are live performances of a piece titled “Flood.” The first track, “Not Dark Yet,” is actually a Bob Dylan cover! It is a haunting piece, beautifully sung by Ms. Bandy. Tracks 2-10 are all gentle, eerie, ambient pieces, none of which are particularly memorable, although each is performed well. The final track, “The First Return,” features wordless vocals courtesy of Dylan Nichole Bandy. This is not an album that will get your adrenaline pumping, but it is a solid effort put forth by Gunn, a wizard with the touch guitar. Highly recommended for those who appreciate ambient music, or for those just looking for something different.

warrguitar

Pre-order Advent’s SILENT SENTINEL

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

This just showed up on Advent’s official website:

new album pre-sale launch on July 15th/official release a month from now!

by ALAN on JULY 11, 2015

Advent is very pleased to announce the upcoming release of our new album, Silent Sentinel. The official street date is scheduled for August 11th, however the band will be offering a special pre-sale bundle for purchase beginning on July 15th. This limited-time offer will include:

  1. A copy of the 77.5-minute Silent Sentinel CD
  2. 24-bit/96-kHz audiophile files of the entire album (sent electronically)
  3. A five-track bonus CD-R with exclusive remix content from the album and two other full-length tracks
  4. Early shipment of physical media* and 24/96 audio file delivery

*For those optionally requesting autographed copies of the CD (instructions on order form), shipment of physical media will likely be postponed a little to allow for personalized signatures–however 24/96 audiophiles will be delivered without corresponding delay.

The pre-order page should go live (here on our website) at midnight EDT on July 15th. Please stay tuned!

***

To read it at the actual website (rather than in shadow form here at progarchy), go here: http://www.adventmusic.net

The Earnestness of Drifting Sun’s Trip the Life Fantastic (2015)

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock music1 Comment

A Review of Drifting Sun, Trip the Life Fantastic (2015).

Drifting Sun's 2015 album, TRIP THE LIFE FANTASTIC.
Drifting Sun’s 2015 album, TRIP THE LIFE FANTASTIC.

Drama.

This is the best word to describe Drifting Sun’s 2015 release, Trip the Life Fantastic.  From its opening note to its final one, Drifting Sun’s album brings a sense of drama and theater to rock.  There’s a Queen, Ordinary Psycho, and Muse feel to the drama, but Drifting Sun are too interesting to be derivative.  Respectful of the past, for sure.  Derivative, no.

The prominence of the grand piano helps define the drama of their sound, but so does the lead singer’s voice.  Peter Falconer (what a great name!) possesses a warm and captivating voice.  It’s not necessarily a beautiful voice, but it is a compelling one, one that effectively invites the listener to become a part of the story.

In addition to Queen and Muse, already mentioned, I’m also reminded of mid-70s Supertramp and mid-80s Tears for Fears when I listen to Falconer’s vocals.  When I listen to the variety and flow of the album, I’m reminded of Fragile from Yes.

Based in the U.K., Drifting Sun has been in existence for almost twenty years, but Trip the Life Fantastic features a brand-new line up of musicians with only the keyboardist, Pat Sanders, remaining from earlier incarnations of the band.  It’s rather clear—even from the most cursory listen—that each musician in this band takes his craft very seriously.

If I had any complaint about the album—and, believe me, it’s a minor one—it would be that some of the keyboard sounds, especially when imitating strings, sound a bit forced.  The band is at its best when it simply plays piano, guitar, bass, and drums.  There’s such a raw honesty to the album that the employment of synthesizer seems out of place.  Perhaps, however, this is merely a production, engineering, and mastering issue rather than a song-writing one.  And, the synths only appear a few times on the album.  It is, thankfully, the grand piano that predominates.

Indeed, one of the things I most appreciate is the lack of irony in the album.  Though these guys are singing about wizards, witches, and other unworldly and other-worldly things, they do so with grand seriousness.  This is quite a nice contrast to our post-modern world which tends to wink “knowingly” at all such things.

Drifting Sun is a fine band, and it’s a band that bears much watching.  It will be interesting to see how it develops from here.  Kudos to them for the achievement of Trip the Life Fantastic.

Pre-Order Neal Morse: Morsefest 2014

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

[Ed. note–For those of you who have purchased anything from Radiant, you know that the packaging is always beautiful and well worth owning.  I have no doubt this set (in which ever version) will be the same.

And, this year, two progarchists–Tad Wert and I–will be posting and tweeting live from MorseFest, September 4-6.  Should be very exciting.–Brad]

MorseFest 2014
MorseFest 2014

Over 5 hours of great performances including the entire Testimony and One albums plus special encores of the Spock’s Beard classic, “The Light” featuring Alan Morse, and the Transatlantic epic “Stranger In Your Soul.” Also included is a behind-the-scenes documentary with footage of Neal’s exclusive acoustic concert, rehearsal footage, “Name That Prog Tune” game with Mike and more!

Complete with 4 piece horn section, 6 member female background vocal section, violin and cello, full orchestra percussion with timpani and chimes, dancers, special guests and special staging, this is the most elaborate live release of Neal Morse’s career!

Neal even flew out Rich Mouser who mixed the original studio albums to do the front of house mix! Neal says “We really went all out this time. I wanted it to be the quintessential presentation and performance of this music.” And so it was…and is!

Says Mike Portnoy – “I’ve got to say… as a fan of this wonderful music, how incredible this is! I am so happy to see this come to fruition. This music really deserves this… everything from the incredible presentation, and all these amazing musicians…it’s great to hear this music come to life on stage like this. To be doing it in his hometown with all his friends and family present and to be doing it here in this building that has such incredible importance to him and his story, it’s elevated the music to a whole new level. This is just been an amazing experience!”

Offical release date: August 21st, 2015

Pre-orders begin July 21st at 8:00 AM (CST)

Be one of the first 200 to pre-order and receive a free graphic autographed by the entire band!

PLUS, if you pre-order on the 21st, you will be entered to win a [Morse]fest 2015 VIP Gold Package (a $350 value!)*!

*(Order must be placed on the 21st to be eligible to win. Package is for the Friday Meet & Greet and does not include travel or accommodations. See all that the VIP Gold Package includes HERE)

Double Blu-Ray

BLU-RAY Disc 1  

Morsefest 2014 Night 1

Testimony Live plus Encores

– Part One –
01. The Land of Beginning Again
02. Overture No. 1
03. California Nights
04. Colder in the Sun
05. Sleeping Jesus
06. Interlude
07. The Prince of the Power of the Air
08. The Promise
09. Wasted Life

– Part Two –
10. Overture No. 2
11. Break of Day
12. Power in the Air
13. Somber Days
14. Long Story
15. It’s All I Can Do

– Part Three –
16. Transformation
17. Ready to Try
18. Sing it high

– Part Four –
19. Moving in my Heart
20. I Am Willing
21. In the Middle
22. The Storm Before the Calm
23. Oh, to Feel Him
24. God‘s Theme

– Part Five –
25. Overture No. 3
26. Rejoice
27. Oh Lord My God
28. God’s Theme 2
29. The Land of Beginning Again

– Encores –
30. Jayda
31. Time Has Come
32. Jesus’ Blood

BLU-RAY Disc 2

Morsefest 2014 Night 2

One Live plus Encores

01. The Creation
02. The Man’s Gone
03. Nothing To Believe
04. Author Of Confusion
05. The Separated Man
06. Cradle to the Grave
07. Help Me/Spirit and the Flesh
08. King Jesus
09. Father Of Forgiveness
10. Reunion

– Encores –
11. It’s For You
12. Wind At My Back
13. The Light
14. Stranger In Your Soul

Special Documentary – “The Morsefest Experience” created by Randy George

Pricing not yet available

Special Edition 2DVD / 4CD Set

A 6 FOLD DIGIPACK WITH EXPANDED ARTWORK AND 16 PAGE FULL COLOUR BOOKLET

DVD Disc 1

Morsefest 2014 Night 1

Testimony Live plus Encores

DVD Disc 2

Morsefest 2014 Night 2

One Live plus Encores

Special Documentary – “The Morsefest Experience” created by Randy George

Audio Disc 1

Morsefest 2014 Night 1

Testimony Live plus Encores

– Part One –
01. The Land of Beginning Again
02. Overture No. 1
03. California Nights
04. Colder in the Sun
05. Sleeping Jesus
06. Interlude
07. The Prince of the Power of the Air
08. The Promise
09. Wasted Life

– Part Two –
10. Overture No. 2
11. Break of Day
12. Power in the Air
13. Somber Days
14. Long Story
15. It’s All I Can Do

Audio Disc 2

– Part Three –
01. Transformation
02. Ready to Try
03. Sing it high

– Part Four –
04. Moving in my Heart
05. I Am Willing
06. In the Middle
07. The Storm Before the Calm
08. Oh, to Feel Him
09. God‘s Theme

– Part Five –
10. Overture No. 3
11. Rejoice
12. Oh Lord My God
13. God’s Theme 2
14. The Land of Beginning Again

– Encores –
15. Jayda
16. Time Has Come
17. Jesus’ Blood

Audio Disc 3

Morsefest 2014 Night 2

One Live plus Encores

01. The Creation
02. The Man’s Gone
03. Nothing To Believe
04. Author Of Confusion
05. The Separated Man
06. Cradle to the Grave
07. Help Me / Spirit and the Flesh
08. King Jesus

Audio Disc 4

01. Father Of Forgiveness
02. Reunion

– Encores –
03. It’s For You
04. Wind At My Back
05. The Light
06. Stranger In Your Soul

Pricing not yet available

If 1982 Came to 2015: The Receiver’s ALL BURN (Kscope)

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

Review of The Receiver, All Burn (Kscope, 2015).  11 tracks.

All Burn (Kscope, 2015).
All Burn (Kscope, 2015).

Formed a decade ago, The Receiver is the brothers Cooper – vocals, synths/keyboards, bass.  Each of the brothers handles vocals while Casey plays keyboards and bass and Jesse plays drums.  ALL BURN is the band’s third album, the first with Kscope.  The thing that strikes the listener immediately upon hearing the new album is the quality of the vocals and the vocal lines and melodies.  They are gorgeous.  Absolutely and completely gorgeous.  So gorgeous in fact that one could drown in their beauty.

Kscope has labeled The Receiver as “symphonic dream-prog” and if they had to be compared to another Kscope band, they would come closest to Sam Healy’s always-stunning North Atlantic Oscillation.  The Receiver resides on the pop end of Kscope’s offerings, they’re still far more pop than NAO.  Indeed, the best comparison would be to Thomas Dolby’s first album or something from mid-period OMD. Though the production—for the most part—is 2015, the sound is very 1982.

[As a side note, I’ve often wondered what a Big Big Train or a Porcupine Tree would do with One of Our Submarines.]

A moment ago, I mentioned the vocals.  Again, let me state: they are amazing, and these two brothers know how to sing together, and they especially know how to write vocal lines.  They use their voices rather perfectly for the lyrics.  In this way, they are far superior to Dolby or OMD.

If there’s a problem with the album, it’s the production of the bass and keyboards.  The musicianship is excellent, but the end product sounds tinny.  Frankly, I’m having a hard time gauging what’s exactly “not right” with them.  I think it’s that the vocals are so good and so well done that the bass and drums sound a bit thin and superficial, as though they were added on merely to make this a pop album.  It’s possible this is also due to the limitations of streaming the music—I’m listening to it streamed through an online promo on my MacBook Pro.  So, not ideal listening conditions.

Back to the good.  All Burn is pop in the best sense.  There are lots and lots of catchy hooks and lots of returns and repeats to key sections in the music. Still, there’s enough mystery and variety in the music to make it not simply another pop outing.  Songs such as “Dark Matter” have a Steven Wilson feel, and “April Blades” might have come from a Vangelis album.  The music grows moodier and moodier as the album progresses.  My favorite song, by far, is the penultimate track, “How to Be Young,” an existentialist pop navel gazer with lots of backwards production.  The final song, “These Days,” is probably the poppiest, taking us back to an Alphaville moment.

Don’t let my criticisms hold you back.  If you like good pop or pop prog, this album is for you.  If you want to imagine what a “Golden Age of Wireless” would sound like in 2015, buy this.  Or, if you simply love glorious vocals and vocalists, get this.  I probably won’t come back to this album too often, but I am quite interested to see what they do next.

In Vaults by District 97

On By Craig BreadenIn art rock, jazz rock, progressive rock3 Comments

District97-InVaults-Frontcover-Preview2_0There are times on District 97’s new album, In Vaults, when a “because it’s there” vibe rises like a Himalayan peak from the Plain of the Killer Riff: a successful descent doesn’t always follow the climb. But that’s what this band has signed itself up for, and the risk-taking on record plays, happily, with the irony of vocalist Leslie Hunt’s American Idol background. All the nonsense that is associated with Hunt’s alma mater plays a like a game of One of These Things Is Not Like The Other, as the singer, evidenced by her work with District 97, is about the last thing you’d expect to come out of the Idol scene but simultaneously the kind of artist you’d want to actually win. So, In Vaults is downright, and mostly satisfyingly, weird, something that maybe could only come out of a Chicago-based metal band with a conservatory pedigree and an Idol runner-up with some serious jazz chops. It is an exhaustive — at times exhausting — record that, despite its bumps and its occasional tendency for showing off chops over songs, brims with an energy that damns torpedoes and old dudes like me.

It’s no surprise that the band has been embraced by the likes of Bill Bruford and John Wetton, with whom District 97 has toured and recorded. King Crimson and Yes is in the lineage for sure, but Soft Machine, Opeth, and Abbey Lincoln all have a claim to some of the ground District 97 has planted its flag on. The lurching, Coltrane slabs of sound erupting from Jim Tashijian (guitar), Patrick Mulcahy (bass) and Jonathan Schang (gonzo drums) back-and-foreground Hunt’s jazz phrasing and hard rock smarts with an inventiveness that can move instantly from crushing doom metal to modal jazz and all stations in between, not least of which is strong affinity for pop melody in (often too) small doses. Rob Clearfield’s keyboards are like a less bitchy version of Roxy Music, less self-important than Kansas or ELP — for the volume of notes he pumps out, none seem wasted.

In Vaults ups the ante on District 97’s more melodically charged Trouble with Machines. This is a band not short on ideas, and Jonathan Schang’s songwriting is up for articulating a range of lyrical emotions over arrangements that don’t let up. There’s no getting bored, although there’s also little room to slip into a groove of any duration, something that would build tension in songs as long as these, and something I think the group would be really good at (when it happens in “Learn From Danny,” the moment really pops). What we do get, though, is a hyper-shifting Zappa-fueled jazz rock buffet that goes to new places on the shoulders of giants, so that in “Takeover” the nod to Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” is like Zeppelin nodding to Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.” There is a lot going on in In Vaults, and District 97 is on to something fairly unique in the prog scene, matched really only by Seven Impale (and perhaps it is the youthfulness of both bands that accounts for this): a palpable search for that seam that both delivers the goods while not dwelling on long-worn paths.

http://www.district97.net/