Album Reviews
Music Reviews | The material reviewed will not always be “progressive rock”, but will hopefully inspire you to check it out. By definition, what I reviewed, I liked.
-
John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest – Relativity (2025)
BJH, AKA John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest, have been promising a new studio album for a few years now and it is finally here. Released via Cherry Red Records on an assortment of formats, I opted for the bog standard version. Some early reviews kind of give the impression that…
-
Avenged Sevenfold – Life is But a Dream… (2023)
Well, here is something quite incredible. Probably the best progressive rock record I’ve heard all year. Now, I know little about this band other than the occasional thing they have played on Planet Rock radio. Never really grabbed me, though: just seemed like typical modern day metal to me. But…
-
The Tangent – Songs from the Hard Shoulder (2022)
This is the latest album from this UK based progressive rock band and is one of the best in their catalgoue. As usual, we are treated to some very long songs, political commentary, social commentary and all manner of musical styles – often within the same song! Andy Tillison has…
-
Pure Reason Revolution – Above Cirrus (2022)
First album in a couple of years from this most interesting of bands. Always had a soft spot for them since hearing the Bright Ambassadors of Morning and buying it on CD Single! Anyway, they are back in 2022 with a rather excellent new album. No mean departure from them…
-
James LaBrie – Beautiful Shade of Grey (2022)
This is the 4th solo album from the current Dream Theater vocalist and, I must say, by far his best. I was not too keen on his previous works, but he has nailed the heavy acoustic rock thing on this album! Apart from one slight misstep (see main review), just…
-
Porcupine Tree – Closure-Continuation (2022)
As everyone must know by now, this is the first PT album in years. To say it was long awaited would be an understatement. Anyway, here it is and what is it like? The easy stuff: production and performances are absolutely first rate. Staggeringly well produced, as one would expect…
-
Rhapsody Sweden – Strange Vibrations
Many years ago, more than I care to remember, I heard a song on the radio called Belly Dancer. I loved it straight away and managed to record most of it to cassette. DJs being DJs, I never got to find out who it was by. As the years passed,…
-
Public Service Broadcasting – The War Room (2012)
I saw this band in concert on the BBC a few weeks ago and I was severely impressed. They were a trio playing various guitars, drums, keyboards and DJ type stuff. The only ‘vocals’, if you could call it that, were to be found in the spoken word samples from…
-
Spock’s Beard – Live At Sea (2014)
Here we are with yet another entry in the Beard’s live album discography. This differs from the others as it was recorded on a boat(!): the so-called Progressive Nation at Sea cruise and also features a certain Neal Morse on June and The Light. The album features a good mix…