Tag Haken
Thanks to considerable publicity, I have read a lot about modern metal band Brutai and was surprised to learn that this is their debut album. I was particularly interested in this release as they are due to play at ProgPower… Continue Reading →
The prospect of seeing three different types of prog band was enticing. The Garage at Highbury is one my favourite venues, so the signs were good. I very much looked forward to this evening. First on was Arkentype from Norway…. Continue Reading →
Like many, I have always enjoyed Haken’s original take on progressive music and their live shows. Their 2013 album “The Mountain”, which was full of feeling and originality, knocked me out and added to an already impressive portfolio. So I… Continue Reading →
This version of Messenger is the London-based progressive rock band. I’ve heard of them but I confess that this is the first time I’d listened to any of their work. What struck me at first was the clean and dreamy… Continue Reading →
My most recent encounter with Between the Buried and Me was via a guest appearance by the vocalist Tommy Rogers on Abnormal Thought Patterns’s latest album. That didn’t work for me but the thing with this band, whose seventh album… Continue Reading →
Sometimes you hear a story and it’s just a load of whinging, while on other occasions the person or musicians telling the story have something to say and I feel a connection. I find I can make that distinction in… Continue Reading →
I sat bolt upright and took notice. This is the strange and remarkable world of Kekal, the band from Indonesia who have existed since 1995, have released nine albums and yet have no members after they all left in 2009…. Continue Reading →
Part 1 Friday and Saturday ProgPower Europe has been part of my calendar since 2005. I’ve always looked forward to my annual pilgrimage to this top quality event. In the main, this year’s list of bands left me a bit… Continue Reading →
There are so many contributing musicians here on this progressive metal work that it needs one person to hold them together. That one person is Frenchman Vivien Lalu, and what an impressive group of musicians he has assembled. The supporting… Continue Reading →
Tesseract, or TesseracT if you prefer, are a respected Prog band who can lay claim in part to the foundation of the style known as “djent”. This album, their second full work, is split into four groupings: “Of Matter, Of… Continue Reading →
With a title like this, it’s perhaps inevitable that the basic fare on offer is slow and sludgy doom. Malta’s Victims of Creation are an interesting band, having started out in 1992 but having a 13 year gap before re-starting… Continue Reading →
Let the progressive metal begin. “Athens” is about … Athens and the dead ends of modern Greece, where Playgrounded come from. This is not parochial however. Anyone can associate with this album. “Athens”, which starts with the title track, hit… Continue Reading →