Prog

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of Prog. This afternoon I spent a very enjoyable hour or so chatting with cover star Fish about his final album, Weltschmerz, his impending retirement and his plans post-making music. Towards the end it struck me t

@HackettOfficial Judy Dyble was a genuinely lovely person with a beautiful voice. I’m very sad to hear the news of her death. @AnnekeAnnique Great to be singing in front of a (TV) audience again #methartenziel #metaalcathedraal @markke11y The artwork

Prog is in rude health, I think we can all agree with that, however we choose to define the music. The great and the good continue to release new music or, at least, to tour their old music. New bands, judging by the Limelight pages and plethora of a

Editor Jerry Ewing Deputy Editor Natasha Scharf Art Editor Russell Fairbrother Production Editor Vanessa Thorpe News Editor Martin Kielty Acting Reviews Editor Dave Everley Associate Editor Jo Kendall Online News Editor Scott Munro Content Director S

Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci reveals that the sense of joy emanating from his new solo album, Terminal Velocity, has come partly from his reunion with the band’s former drummer Mike Portnoy. The musician’s latest nine-track recording is out

Jakko Jakszyk has recruited King Crimson bandmates including Robert Fripp and other guests for new solo album Secrets And Lies, which arrives on October 23. The 10-track is headed by lead single The Trouble With Angels, while three other tracks – Sep

Moog’s new synthesiser takes its cues from two of the earliest electronic instruments, both built in the 1930s: the Trautonium – a hulking monophonic beast beloved of prolific German composer Paul Hindemith – and the Rhythmicon, the world’s first ele

Anna von Hausswolff (right) will release an instrumental pipe organ album, All Thoughts Fly, on September 25 via Southern Lord. It’s inspired by the Italian garden Sacro Bosco and she says the theme of the work is “love as a foundation for creation.”

Since March, the coronavirus pandemic has wrought havoc upon the live music scene. Numerous bands – including Pendragon – were forced to abort ongoing tours and many and have now been postponed or cancelled completely. Consequently many artists who d

Crippled Black Phoenix release their new album, Ellengæst, on October 9 via Season Of Mist. It contains a number of guest vocalists including Vincent Cavanagh of Anathema. Band leader Justin Greaves says the title means “strong spirit”. Billy Sheehan

Compiled by 1 PINK FLOYD The Later Years 1987-2019 (RHINO) 2 TAME IMPALA The Slow Rush (FICTION) 3 HAKEN Virus (INSIDEOUT) 4 KANSAS The Absence Of Presence (INSIDEOUT) 5 BE-BOP DELUXE Axe Victim (CHERRY RED) 6 LONELY ROBOT Feelings Are Good (INSIDEOU

The Editor Jerry Ewing ANDY BELL View From Half Way Down SONIC CATHEDRAL The Art Guy Russell Fairbrother OBSIDIAN KINGDOM Meat Machine SEASON OF MIST The Deputy Ed Natasha Scharf PAIN OF SALVATION Panther INSIDEOUT The Musician Jostein Smeby ROSALIE

When the news broke on July 22 that Tim Smith, legendary founder and leader of Cardiacs, had passed away, social media of a certain persuasion was awash with single white flowers and expressions of undying love. He would have rather liked that. Tim S

Locked down in his London home, Steve Hackett is missing the roar of the crowd… if not the smell of the proverbial greasepaint. And when talking to Prog over a temperamental phone line about one particular show, he still has fond memories. It was the

“I love all the different styles on it – even during the first song alone, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight. Pete said he was influenced by Scottish plainsong at the beginning, then it goes into something vulgarian, anthemic, then we’re into tapping o

“I loved doing Spectral Mornings. By then I felt like I had a band who were really good, young and the record company were behind it so there was a freshness to it. And there was a strong spiritual theme, which meant a lot to me. I love Michael Benti

“People who don’t know about me often think I’m a miserable bastard who moans on about dark stuff all the time, a bit of a toff and a bit prog and what have you. But for me, one of the functions of music is to be there and to be something that people

“If Japan, Simple Minds, Tears for Fears, etc, are featured in your mag (I’m pleased they are) then Toyah fits the bill. The Changeling album has prog all over it including the cover. She’s also done gigs with her husband, not sure if they’ve recorde

There are many splendid things about the new version of Gentle Giant epic Proclamation that the band posted online on July 15. But the biggest and best is surely the sight of all seven surviving members of the classic line-ups bellowing ‘Hail!’ onscr

[email protected] It’s all very well tinkling out Silent Night, Stairway To Heaven and Eleanor Rigby, and cracking jokes for a living, but Rick Wakeman has grasped that prog fans crave something a little more ambitious from their number one

Scots veterans make their first, belated concept album. For the first time in their four-decade career, Abel Ganz have taken on the challenge of making a concept album. It’s all about the relationship between memory and loss, and existing in the spac

Bastille collaborator’s third solo outing. “Don’t give up the day job” is the perennial anti-advice for aspiring musicians, but when your day job is as a multi-instrumentalist touring with British arena-popsters Bastille, you don’t have to. It has al

Brit pair strike balance between melodic rock and symphonic prog. The musical relationship between vocalist Doris Brendel and guitarist Lee Dunham has been quietly blossoming over three albums, but with Mass Hysteria, it takes flight. The best compar

What he does in the shadows. After his gleeful 2018 Television Themes excursion, Matt Berry’s sixth solo album is pared back and introspective. It’s typified by the opener Something In My Eye, a song that, despite its musical dash, is about putting o

Djent denizen plunders his pioneering vaults. As the first of 10 releases compiling material recorded under Periphery founder Misha Mansoor’s Bulb moniker over the last 15 years, Archives: Volume 8 is as full of brilliant ideas and bendy riffs as you

Asia offshoot’s stumbling attempt to resurrect that band’s legacy. Those with good memories will recall the Great Asia Wars that flared after the AOR-prog kingpins slid off the charts and splintered apart. In 1991, keyboard player Geoff Downes brough

Acclaimed Faroese vocalist/instrumentalist sets sail on a new course. Fans of the shipping forecast might know the Faroe Islands as the North Atlantic archipelago located between Scotland, Iceland and Norway; a volcanic land dense with wildlife in it

Electronic iconoclast crafts astonishing psychedelic folk opus. Renowned electronic sound designer Amon Tobin has released 10 albums under his name over the last 23 years, while his aliases thrive at a staggeringly-prolific rate: 2020 has already see

Prog supergroup’s set from December, crisply captured. No one imagined a day when live albums were more prevalent than actual shows. Still, if all stage recordings were as stirring as this one – from Shepherd’s Bush Empire in December 2019 – it might

Long-awaited debut from lively Aussie proggers. This Sydney quintet have gained quite a few friends on the live circuit Down Under thanks to an energetic stage act, led by charismatic frontman Tobias Atkins, that makes more ponderous prog counterpart

Sheffield’s cult neo-proggers return to the fold in fine style. In the 80s heyday of the neo-prog scene one would see Sheffield’s Haze on the bill at the Marquee with Solstice or Pendragon, or playing clubs up and down the UK with the likes of IQ and

French experimentalists use their lockdown time wisely. French trio Hifiklub recorded Rupture at their respective homes during quarantine yet still managed to collaborate with guest drummer Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam/Soundgarden), Australian improvisati

Norwegian maverick pivots from dark to light on second EP of 2020. Considering his journey from black metal malcontent to prog metal linchpin, nothing Vegard ‘Ihsahn’ Tveitan does should come as a surprise. So it proves on the second of three EPs he

Neo-prog veterans in top live form. A couple of months ago, IQ decided to stream a recent live performance from Germany to make up for having to cancel shows due to the pandemic. Now, they’ve gone one stage further and released the audio from the gig

German trio hit home with their dramatic second full-length set. Listening to the follow-up to Koj’s 2017 debut All We Have Is Gold, it’s understandable why they have been dubbed ‘dark indie’. They favour minor keys and low-to-mid tempos; their guita

It’s 34 years since Throwing Muses’ debut revealed a band whose music took startling switchbacks and twists, and the current trio, together since ’92, just keep getting bolder. Sun Racket (Fire), their first for seven years, merely tries to (in Krist

Third time’s a charm for the brothers D’Addario. Rock was once a magnet for weirdos. Long Island siblings Brian and Michael D’Addario – aka The Lemon Twigs – know this. Multi-instrumentalists schooled in 70s rock auteurs, they’re playful, astonishing

London proggers tackle some “dark, ugly” realities in bright, pleasing style. The Mighty Handful’s compelling concept collection Still Sitting In Danny’s Car consisted of five albums released from 2013-17. For the follow-up they’ve freed themselves o

Predictably profound companion to 2007’s Sola Scriptura. Since becoming a born again Christian almost 20 years ago, Neal Morse has been imparting theological solo prog rock statements while keeping a foot in the secular world via supergroups Transatl

Texan prog metallers rebuild themselves on album number four. Since recruiting singer Cammie Gilbert in 2014, Oceans Of Slumber have been writing progressive metal that flips between death, black and gothic markers. What ties their sound together are

Urban spacemen return after more than a decade in the wilderness. When guitarist and founder member Benjamin Curtis left Secret Machines in 2007, the New York-based band puttered to a halt the following year. Sadly, Curtis died of cancer in 2013, but

Swedish prog polymath revels in the power of three. There are few more thrilling things than the sound of a great band surfing on waves of shared chemistry. The third Gungfly album since the demise of Sjöblom’s former band Beardfish, Alone Together s

Once described as a ‘prog-jazz super trio,’ Rymden more than live up to the hype on their second album, Space Sailors (Jazzlands). Bassist Dan Berglund, drummer Magnus Öström – both formerly with EST – and Norwegian keyboard maestro Bugge Wesseltoft

For the glory of shred. Nine years after their last collaboration on 2011’s excellent Oceana, keyboard player Derek Sherinian and drummer/producer Simon Phillips have reunited for another blast of high energy progressive fusion. Joined by an all-star

Dense yet beautiful instrumental jams from Australian trio. Originally released as a series of three limited edition EPs, Australian trio Sleepmakeswaves’ fourth album plays out like the soundtrack to an especially vivid fever dream. From the crushin

Andy Tillison and crew cook up more bubbly gems. The follow-up to 2018’s Proxy upholds The Tangent’s flair for lively prog rock voyages packed with shifting styles and humorous social commentaries. Once again, mastermind Andy Tillison is joined by St

New studio album plus the 2018 Quiet Room session. Still Alive was born in lockdown but Peter Jones clearly realises that an album of material that just addresses the current state of the world would be about the last thing that listeners emerging ou

Four track taste of jazz-fusion titans’ final line-up. Founded in 1970, Weather Report were among the most successful of the fusion bands to emerge from Miles Davis’ star-studded jazz boot camp. By the early 80s, Austrian-born keyboardist Joe Zawinul

More Swiss precision engineering on electro pioneers’ 14th studio album. At 75 and 68 respectively, Yello’s Dieter Meier and Boris Blank are growing old disgracefully. Part-playboys, part-mad scientists, theirs is one of the most singular sounds in p

As the singer for the Steve Rothery Band and Dave Kerzner’s project In Continuum, Gabriel Agudo has been eclipsed by the ‘name’ members of these groups. With his self-released solo debut New Life (gabrielnewlife.bandcamp.com) however, Agudo can at la

Fascinating dip into an overlooked period of the Spirit guitarist’s career. The late Randy California’s impact on American music, both as a solo performer and also with Spirit, was enormous. This six-CD box set concentrates on the years between 1979

Double vinyl reissue for neo-proggers’ troubled third album. Originally released in 1995, Galahad’s third album had a rather tortuous and testing gestation. As the band tell it, producer Tony Arnold was working on King Crimson’s Frame By Frame box se

Expanded reboot of cult Californian psychsters’ gnarly lo-fi debut. Originally recorded in a windowless San Francisco rehearsal space in 2009 and released the following year, the psychedelic duo’s debut mini-album seems to have gained an extra layer

Shape-shifting Norwegian jazz-rockers’ funky 1978 album revisited. Leading lights of the Norwegian prog scene in the 1970s, Oslo’s Ruphus went through a stylistic evolution during a recording career that spanned six albums in as many years. Their lin

Four-disc box set from David Gilmour’s favourite fantastic beasts. Anyone would be forgiven for being unfamiliar with Unicorn. The UK country rockers made four records in the 70s, but never found the popularity that sustained their contemporaries pas

An Aussie prog metal milestone revived on vinyl. It remains a source of considerable embarrassment and regret that the prog world didn’t pick up on Voyager a lot sooner. Shimmying into the spotlight from the outer reaches of a post-djent universe, th