There are a few bands that are quite the once in a lifetime experiences. King Crimson are certainly one of them, cementing themselves as true inspirators for music to come after the wave of The Beatles and Rolling Stones came and went. Same with Godspeed You! Black Emperor crafting the standard for post rock with new found ideals for minimalism, drone, and chamber. But some groups are less “once in a lifetime” in the whole sense of being very inspiring, and more just how bizarre, ... read more

Trying to understand what John Zorn makes is like finding a straw of hay in a stack of needles while blind and armless, while in an active warzone, whilst covered in molasses. To put it bluntly, it is really hard to even know what this strange man is gonna do next, or what he even did after listening to his music. Simply put, his music is the definition of a fever dream. I have heard plenty of artists who try their hand at more weirder, surreal directions in their musical catalogs, but John ... read more

It is not the most uncommon of me to talk about or rate more newer groups, but this is probably my first one that is NEW new, by like only two years new. So I thought, for today, I would take a stab at a band of this more fresh caliber.

Hailing all the way from Japan, and formed in 2022, we have Kessoku Band, with Ikuyo Kita on vocals and rhythm guitar, Ryō Yamada on bass, Nijika Ijichi on drums, and Hitori Gotō, aka Bocchi, on lead guitar. This quartet plays a strong mixture of J-rock, ... read more

Among Faust’s 1997 releases we would find ourselves upon one of, if not the best Faust album ever made. After the disappointing song and dance that was You Know FaUSt, the group went into something quite new and certainly more enjoyable, which would spark a new Faust that was away from the olden krautrock of the 70s, and into directions that were certainly a lot more thrilling and experimental.

While technically a live album, I consider Faust Wakes Nosferatu to be so original and obtuse ... read more

Now I am certainly not one to review punk. I have reviewed some records that are of a punk nature, like those by Oingo Boingo, Hail The Sun, The Mars Volta, and Chat Pile. However, those are more punk by virtue, as they are certainly a lot more than just the fast paced goonaholic records that more are familiar with in the punk scene. However, I decided to dip my toes in more overtly punk this time, as this record has interested me quite a bit.

This is the 1981 debut record of punk trio ... read more

I never really was too big on Caligula’s Horse. I found their albums quite alright, but never too special for me to want to revisit them. They are kinda within the same threshold as bands like Leprous and Haken, being these newer prog metal groups revitalizing the genre in new ways, however even though I do enjoy some of their songs I never really thought they brought something new and fresh to the table, or something that really wowed me personally. However, with the turn of the decade ... read more

How do you do ladies and gentlemen? My name is Dapper~Blueberries. And this is, Music To Be Murdered By. It is a record made by hit director Alfred Hitchcock, a man most known for many films and stories that have shaped cinema and TV. It is also composed by Jeff Alexander, who has worked on some smaller films of the 1950s, namely works from Elvis Presley’s film catalog. I never really review more mood and novelty music, but I thought to perhaps try my hand at something of a more ... read more

APP (Alan Parsons Project) is quite the band that emerged late within the progressive rock scene. I believe they made quite a mark within the culture of prog rock as a whole, as they seemingly were the spark for the progressive sounds that bands would start to approach within the mid to late 70s through to the 80s. Whilst they would get their marks within the eye of the public’s sky with I Robot, and later on Eye In The Sky, they would start this experiment with something a bit different ... read more

Kaipa is in a weird spot between being a retro prog band, and a classic?symphonic prog group. They started in the 70s with their eponymous debut in 1975. They would go for a couple of years since then, releasing about five or so symphonic prog records before disbanding in 1982 after their new wave flop of Nattdjurstid. They then reformed in the 2000s with Notes From The Past, marking their new shift as what many would consider a retro prog group, with brand new members such as Patrik ... read more

As a fan of Deep Purple, I really enjoy a whole lot of their works, especially their output from 1969 through 1974, crafting some very excellent hard rock movements that dip to all sorts of genres. From the still young heavy metal, to psychedelic rock, to blues, and even sometimes a bit of prog rock. They certainly created a big name for themselves in the rock mythos, especially their late keyboardist Jon Lord, who composed for their very first live record, Concerto For Group And ... read more

With Faust now being back in action after their 1994 release of Rien, the stage was set for more avant-garde rock affairs. 1997 was a particularly big time to be a Faust fan, as that year they released two studio albums and a live album, something you might not fully expect from a legacy group like Faust. These three releases include Faust Wakes Nosferatu, Edinburgh 1997, and the record I will be reviewing today, You Know FaUSt. Sadly, though, one of these three banquets of krautrock supremacy ... read more

This review is the first one of the new year! Holy smokes, what a time to be alive! The last two years have been exceptional for music, and it certainly will continue that streak this year as there seem to be some really stellar records on the horizon. This acquisition of the future does certainly give me some nostalgia, specifically that of the past, looking back on some old records that I have possibly never heard before. This has its ups and downs, you may find some really great ups like ... read more

I find that oftentimes metal music is usually just framed as something that is only just gritty and hard as nails, and while in most cases that is certainly true, I find that metal can certainly share moments of beauty and tranquility, oftentimes in ways many might not see coming. I mean, certainly just this year we’ve had a couple of metal releases that, while still heavy, contain a spark of sheer grace for me that I come back to, craving for more. Woe Unto Me gave a more doom metal ... read more

Get this, imagine the vocal stylings of Leprous, the mixing and production of Devin Townsend, the virtuosity of Haken, the avant-garde weirdness of Pan.Thy.Monium, and a touch of the djent of TesseracT, and you’ll get a vague idea of what The Amensal Rise sounds like. I say vague since there really is nothing like this. There is just no real good way to fully prepare for an effort like this.
Omnerod is a Belgium progressive metal act that formed in the great year of 2009, with their first ... read more

I think in terms of the evolution of progressive rock, neo-prog has had quite the interesting development, beginning in the 80s as a synth based cross between the sounds of new wave with symphonic prog of the 70s, into very stylized collage of symphonic proginess, doses of metal, and focuses on electronics. I do admit the genre is still a bit underdeveloped on my listening part. I have listened to the big dogs like Marillion, IQ, Arena, plus some other groups like Galahad, RPWL, and of course ... read more

Welp, it's time to play a bit of catch-up on my 2023 album reviews, since I haven’t reviewed a lot of albums that came out this year. Anyways, let’s review an album that is a little different from the stuff I normally talk about, that being an ambient chamber folk album from Taiwan, being Cicada’s Seeking The Sources of Streams.

Cicada is a Tawainese chamber group started in 2009, with their debut of 散落的時光 Pieces releasing in 2011. They aren’t quite known ... read more

The mid to late 80s delivered a plethora of amazing music to go around. I mean we got classic art pop beauties like Hounds Of Love, So, and Disintegration; some seriously fantastic prog stuff like On Land And In The Sea, Clutching At Straws, and Les Morts Vont Vite; excellent and heavy metal stuff like Master Of Puppets, Killing Technology, and No More Color. This era of music was a maturing act for many artists, with some slowly morphing their sound into new ways that changed the whole history ... read more

You know, despite my very big love of jazz music, I never really did a full on review of a jazz album. Ok, that may be a bit of a stretch, I have definitely reviewed jazzy records, but they were either records that only incorporated jazz into their sound for style, or of a type of jazz that was, you know, not JAZZY. So I decided to take the reigns of the beast that is jazz, and try to clearly state what I may think. Now, do I take things slow and review some nice, smooth jazz albums, something ... read more

Progressive folk is a genre known for its pastoral, English countryside encompassing rich greens and golds. All that pretty–pretty dandies. But screw all that, let’s talk about Comus.

Comus is a band that was started in 1969 by Roger Wooton and Glenn Goring, who performed in folk shows prior. They would turn from a duo to a six piece band by the 70s, and during that time they would begin writing their first record of First Utterance. They wouldn’t quite gain much threshold in ... read more

After a whole 20+ years of silence, only broken by small doses of archival releases, Rien was Faust’s first new outing, and quite a big one to be sure. Faust could be recognized as the first band to ever make the styles that would later be gone into drone, noise, industrial, and musique concrete that groups like their home’s own Einsturzende Neubauten, as well as Coil, Current 93, Natural Snow Buildings, and Sonic Youth were playing around with at this time. The name and idea that ... read more