The Glaswegians are back with their 11th studio album release. Despite one reviewer's claim that this was a greatest hits album, I have confirmed that it is, in fact, not. Like Steven Wilson, they just draw a lot from their past sounds and styles as well as a lot of history from the music of their childhoods growing up in the UK.

1. "God Gets You Back" (6:40) quite a nice song that has a nice little cinematic opening before turning into something that takes us back to about 1990 when bands like Toad The Wet Sprocket, Trashcan Sinatras, The Pale Saints, Lush, Ride, Slowdive, and The Kitchens of Distinction were having their heyday. I can see why many listeners are extolling this as one of their favorite songs from the past year. It is definitely one of my favorites from this (quite unusual) album. (9/10)

2. "Hi Chaos" (5:24) sounds like good ole fashioned Post Rock with a rock construct (ABABCAB) instead of slow-build, cresecendo, dénouement. (8.75/10)

3. "What Kind of Mix is This?" (4:11) an interesting mix of individual instrument sounds that is squeezed into one more ABABCAB construct. (8.75/10)

4. "Fanzine Made Of Flesh" (4:34) some 1980s New Wave in this one makes it sound like late-1970s fledgling New Wave. Pre-New Order New Order (no: not Joy Division; Cure-ish New Order--or perhaps OMD, Modern English, or Echo & The Bunnymen). Kind of cool if this were 1979. (8.875/10)

5. "Pale Vegan Hip Pain" (4:24) this one sounds like classic early 2000s Post Rock from the likes of Mono or Red Sparowes. Decent but rather simple and unsophisticated. (8.75/10)

6. "If You Find this World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others" (7:22) and I thought the previous song was simple and unsophisticated--sounded like early MONO! Little did I know that this was coming next! Really great build up and brain-annihilating crescendo. (Those crashing cymbals are among the loudest I've ever heard.) The long aftermath is a little unusual: a bit like walking around the streets of Hiroshima a year after the bomb. (13.375/15)

7. "18 Volcanoes" (6:18) vocals! And they're pleasant, melodic, and even dream-poppy! Again: not what one might expect from a Post Rock band--more like something from RIDE, SLOWDIVE, or even The Pale Saints. The weird guitar (or synth?) sounds are cool. A top three song for me. (8.875/10)

8. "Hammer Room" (5:16) interchangeable piano and guitar arpeggi are interwoven giving this the feel of something light and upbeat from NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA or a collaboration between 1970s Brian Eno and early XTC. Or DIF JUZ! Another top three song. (8.875/10)

9. "Lion Rumpus" (3:33) more New Age sounds and melodies driving this one despite the weird industrial screeches and gratings renting the sonic fabric in the second half. (8.75/10)

10. "Fact Boy" (7:02) floaty cutesie stuff meandering around the sonic field while a Crimsoninan Gamelan-like mathematical weave propels the cart along the ribbon of undulating highway. Nice but not enough to make me want to come back. (13.25/15)

Total Time 54:44

While I do love Mogwai's contributions to film and television soundtracks, I do not find the music of this album particularly compelling, innovative, cinematic, or impressive. It's just simpler, more accessible, more melodic, instrumental Post Rock music. A little too down and depressing for me and my tastes--and too diluted and simplistic.

B/four stars; a nice addition of nostalgic New-Wave-oriented Post Rock but by no means a step forward for the sub- genre.

"9 Song Demo" is the first demo recording by US metal act Mastodon. The demo was independently released in 2000. It´s the only Mastodon recording featuring original lead vocalist Eric Saner. The demo was sold as self-prouced CD-Rs at Mastodon´s early shows. Saner left Mastodon after only a few shows, and the remaining members opted to continue as a quartet and divide the vocals between them. All nine tracks featured on this 28:00 minutes long demo were subsequently re-released featuring re-recorded vocals by guitarist Brent Hinds and bassist Troy Sanders, replacing the original vocal tracks recorded by Saner. The "Call of the Mastodon" track was released on the "Demo 2001" demo, three other tracks were released on the 2001 "Slick Leg" EP and the remaining five tracks were released on the 2001 "Lifesblood" EP. All tracks featuring the re-recorded vocals are also available on the 2006 "Call of the Mastodon" compilation album, which makes them more easily accessible than having to find a demo and two old EPs to listen to them.

Considering that "9 Song Demo" is a demo recording the sound quality is top notch. This does not sound like a demo at all. Saner is an aggressive hardcore shouting/semi-growling vocalist and the vocal part of the demo is quite effectful and well performed. Mastodon were already this early on a very well playing unit and the instrumental part of the music is very well performed. Although Mastodon still had a way to go before they found their core sound, this is not far from how they would sound on their debut full-length studio album "Remission" (2002). Busy and technical drumming, aggressive raw vocals, unconventional riffs and harmonies, and a good balance between sludgy heaviness and faster-paced semi-thrashy tempos (and even a death metal hint here and there), combined with adventurous and often progressive songwriting ideas.

The tracks are quite challenging and entertaining but a few more hooks and memorable moments wouldn´t have hurt. It´s on power, intensity, and performances where Mastodon shine on this demo rather than in the songwriting department. When all is said an done, "9 Song Demo" is still quite the impressive first demo recording by Mastodon and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Released in 2005, Deadwing is one of Porcupine Tree's most narrative and cinematic albums, and its conceptual basis has a strong literary influence. Steven Wilson, the band's lead singer and creative mind, revealed that the album was inspired by a script he wrote with Mike Bennion, which explains its dense atmosphere and its almost novelistic progression. The album builds a non-linear story, full of symbolism and mystery, presents elements of fantastic realism and psychological horror, with clear influences from David Lynch and authors such as Neil Gaiman and Stephen King. The protagonist seems to move between different states of consciousness and reality. The narrative structure is fragmented, reminiscent of a postmodern novel where the reader (or listener) must fill in gaps.

Songs like "Deadwing" and "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here" suggest a shift between dimensions, as if the character were stuck in a limbo or were a specter wandering through memories. The feeling of displacement is reminiscent of Haruki Murakami's literature, where reality touches on the surreal.

The lyrics of "Lazarus" are an example of introspective and poetic lyricism. The metaphor of the character who "awakens" refers to the biblical myth of Lazarus, but also provokes a reflection on mortality and memory. "Halo" criticizes religious and social hypocrisy with sharp irony, referring to satirical authors such as George Orwell. Meanwhile, "The Start of Something Beautiful" tackles themes of love, addiction and disillusionment with an emotional charge reminiscent of the melancholic prose of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

If Deadwing were a book, it would be a dense psychological novel, with a plot open to interpretation and a protagonist haunted by the past. Its melancholic tone and its references to the supernatural and existentialism bring it closer to Gothic literature and magical realism.

Steven Wilson's latest solo album was much heralded as a return to prog sensibilities in his solo work, and it kind of is and kind of isn't. It consists of two side-long tracks with different subsections, but anyone expecting something high on proggy complexity and a retro sound should remember that Steven Wilson was the original Marillion fan, and Misplaced Childhood had exactly the same structure but also included a bona fide pop hit in that structure.

I don't think there's a Kayleigh here, though - but nor is there a Close To the Edge. Instead, The Overview is a decidedly different animal, weaving its way through ambient textures, propulsive post-rock soundscapes, flashes of the sort of indie-rock-with-prog-inflections style that Porcupine Tree delved into on Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun, easy listening jazz, and more besides.

Wilson doing this project under his own name perhaps makes sense because it really doesn't quite fit into any of his band projects, though there's aspects of many of them here, from dream pop vocals and trip-hop beats worthy of No-Man to New Prog moments that could have come off a late 1990s Porcupine Tree album to the sort of ambient textures that Bass Communion may have touched on, and so on and so forth.

Where it doesn't particularly touch on is the heavier, crunchier sound of Porcupine Tree's more metal-oriented phase - the In Absentia era and its followups - or any of the aspects of that sound that Wilson has drawn on elsewhere in his solo career; there isn't something like Raider II from Grace For Drowning on here. On the other hand, it can hardly be accused of being a left turn into synthpop either. Ultimately, if there's one lesson that Wilson has taught us with these solo albums, it's that he's going to do what he likes with such releases and not be bound by past precedent or the expectations a band project might carry with it. But for my money, he's put out another top-tier effort.

This sophomore album from ROY HARPER does not seem to have the enduring popularity of his debut, but it does take a few bold steps...in some direction. The concept of using spoken word in music already had a long history, but less so in popular music until the 1960s, with Harper being one of those to experiment with a mixture of sung and spoken messages.

On "Come out Fighting..", the two longest cuts evolve in this way, the better of the two being "Circle", which also tosses in music hall references,. KINKs-like narratives and the highly quotable "The worst thing about the system is the system". For the rest, the Gothic "Highgate Cemetery" is brief and hauntingly heavy on the wails, perhaps my favorite piece of his up to that point. Several more "conventional" numbers also excel in melody and meter, particularly "In Beautiful Rambling Mess" and "All You Need is". On one of the weaker songs, "Ageing Raver", Harper resembles AL STEWART for not the first or last time.

Contrary to the opinions of fans, the breadth of this release marks a notable improvement over his debut, though still not eclipsing 3.5 stars. It does confirm that Harper plans to battle for his art even at this embryonic stage.

45 minutes that last forever.

Listening to Dominic Sanderson's latest album, ' Blazing Revelations' is like stepping into a prog time machine. This album proudly displays its influences, drawing deeply from the wellspring of titans like King Crimson, Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, and Gentle Giant. Yet, it never feels like a mere homage; instead, Sanderson creates a listening experience that is both nostalgic and surprisingly fresh.

From the very start, the dark, opaque mix sets the tone - a deliberate choice, in my opinion, that gives it that authentic "vintage" feel. The production is a masterpiece of balance: with enough classic analog warmth, but also just enough clarity to let each instrument breathe. The dynamic range here is breathtaking, allowing subtle nuances and explosive moments to shine equally. This attention to detail makes each listen rewarding, revealing new layers and complexities with every spin.

The instrumental choices are simply a godsend for any prog fan. The extensive use of the Hammond organ, mellotron, saxophone, and flute transports you straight back to the golden age. One of the most intriguing aspects of the album is the vocal performance. There are moments when Sanderson's phrasing and delivery channel a raw emotion and anguish very much like Peter Hammill, evoking the theatricality and intensity of the 'Pawn Hearts' era. The way his voice tenses and trembles in certain passages adds extra weight to the album's already immersive atmosphere.

While this is my first approach to Sanderson's work -having not yet heard his debut- it's clear he knows the terrain he's treading on. 'Blazing Revelations' is an emotional and sonic journey, the kind of album that begs to be revisited again and again. Each listen brings up new details, whether in the labyrinthine song structures, the play of light and shadow in the instrumentation, or the sheer expressive power of the compositions.

For those who yearn for the spirit of '70s progressive rock but are looking for something with its own personality, 'Blazing Revelations' is a must. Sanderson not only embraces the past, but embodies it, transforming it into something deeply personal and undeniably captivating.

Music: 5 stars

Lyrics: 3 stars

Execution: 5 stars

Emotion: 5 stars

Production: 4 stars

Artwork: 3 stars

Average: 4.16

Further deepening their symphonic approach on the basis of musical structures that intertwine and superimpose the rough guitar riffs characteristic of the various sub-branches of the metal genre of great relevance in their early works, with majestic and atmospheric orchestrations full of epic sonority and an overwhelming preponderance of both female and male choirs, Therion released in 1998 "Vovin", their sixth album (or seventh actually, considering the previous and experimental "A'Arab Zaraq Lucid Dreaming", a patchwork of snippets, covers, and the soundtrack of the untraceable short film "The Golden Embrace").

"Vovin" obsessively delves into the dusty paths of ancestral mythologies, biblical episodes, and esotericism, extracting elements that refer to the constant gods/demons dichotomy to understand and explain them according to the particular vision of the band's multifaceted frontman Christofer Johnsson.

From the dramatic and orientalised chords of the string quartet Indigo in the dramatic and iconic "The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah", the album moves between dense mid-tempos like the rough sensuality of "Birth of Venus Illegitima", the haunting and occultist "Clavicula Nox" with great participation of soprano Martina Astner, the peaceful beauty of the hypnotic "Eye of Shiva" featuring soprano Sarah Jezebel Deva (Cradle of Filth) and a great guitar delay solo by Johnsson, or the obscurantist "Black Sun", and combines them with aggressive metal developments such as the galloping "Wine of Aluqah" or the very fast "Wild Hunt" with the vocal contribution of Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear) and the awakening double bass drum of Wolf Simon.

And for the final section, after the brief and symphonic "Overture" and the sacred choirs of "Black Diamonds", both included in the mini-suite "Draconian Trilogy", the steamy and disturbing mid-tempo "Raven of Dispersion", gives an epic closure to one of the best albums of the Swedes.

Very good.

4 stars

absolute peak Post/math rock.

Even if this is almost all instrumental, this is so theatrical and cinematic, it's just like how you wouldn't want a great movie to be spoiled. The vocal samples and the short bit of singing on the final track add to the album, but this story is told almost entirely through instrumentals. If I had to describe it, I would say "87 minutes of monolithic doomsday post-rock?". This is the most film-like record I have ever heard, and again, despite it being nearly all instrumental, I really get the vision of this apocalyptic world they try to portray, and the emotions they convey, with huge senses of dread and helplessness, with also triumphant highs. Alright, now that you all have listened to the album without spoilers, it is time to talk about my top 4 favorite tracks off of Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven.

This whole album is comprised of simply 4 tracks, all in the 19 to 23 minute range, but they are all filled with multiple movements, (which are very hard to follow with the guideline that comes with my physical copy). The beginning of the opener, "Storm" is the title movement. If Godspeed's reputation of making music for the end of the world is true, then this section is a pre-apocalyptic time, before the Earth went to Hell, because the first approximate 6 minutes is an uplifting flurry of strings and guitars, that is gorgeously layered, and then even more so once the triumphant brass is added in. This ends in an explosion of instruments, and all that is left in the fallout is the violin, faintly droning away in the background. This very smoothly transitions into the "Gathering Storm" segment, where over the wailing violins, the electric guitar performs a cover of the tradition hymn of "Amazing Grace". This song has been covered a million times, but this is unlike any other version, because this will be the darkest and most dissonant version you will hear. This closes on a discordant ends, before passages of sound collages and vocal samples appear. If the end of days haven't started yet, this is certainly where the beginning of the end starts. The samples are further evidence of this too, the first being recorded from a market owned by an ARCO gas station, which could be a critique on the power owned by America's oil industry, and then chanting can be heard from what appears to be a military general, indicating a potential doomsday war, and the whole track finishes with his voice becoming slowly more distorted and indistinguishable.

"Static" has a glooming, mysterious start, compared to the "Storm", with its haunting ambience, and after a short series of soundscapes and shrills, a sample of a preacher plays, which is an incredibly eerie moment. Her voice was pitched down, making it sound like that of a man, while the strings surrounding her sound like they are crying. Her preaching is initially like your typical Evangelical sermonizing, but things then get even more uneasy when she starts yelling about a revelation she's had, and how she knows what isn't even in the Bibles yet. As her voice fades out, the strings remain and transition into the "The World Police and Friendly Fire" movement. They transform into a slow building, densely textured choir of strings, with this weeping guitar lead, that continues until the more traditional rock inspired bass enters. This becomes one of the most intense moments on the record, when all of the instruments start to slowly pick up the speed and the volume. Just when it reaches its full speed, the track reaches its climax, as the tempo drops, and the guitar screams away. At this point, the track lives up to its title, and I don't know how they manage to get the noises they manage to create out of this single guitar. It's hard to describe the exact sounds at this part, but I would encourage anyone to listen to this movement if you were going to choose any on the album.

"Sleep" is the third track, which kicks off the second disc, and it begins with the audio of an elderly man rambling on about Coney Island. This clip is meme'd to death by the Godspeed fanbase, but it is actually a depressing segment of sorts. He is reminiscing about his past, when he used to sleep on the beach as a child, but Coney Island was never the same after WWII, and he is disappointed that no one else will get to have the same experience. The final line of "They don't do that anymore. Things changed, you see. They don't sleep anymore on the beach..." is such a depressing moment and the music to follow is equally as sad. The guitar is strumming these eerie minor chords, with only a few bass hits, and more and more layers of instrumentation is added on top over the track's 23 minutes. It reaches as a small crescendo as the drums enter with a cymbal hit, and the guitar is playing this haunting, ghostly lead melody. Something I love about Godspeed is captured especially well on this track, and that is their ability to always come back with an even bigger crescendo once you think you reached the song's peak. This happens countless times in this track alone, and they still manage to surprise me with every listen. After numerous climaxes, they reels things back in with the "Broken Windows, Locks of Love Pt. III" portion, but this still has larger than life crescendos, especially when the trumpets and drums enter, and it sounds hopeful and triumphant, despite the feeling of loss and grief in its first half.

The only account of signing to appear on the LP begins the closer, "Like Antennas to Heaven...", which features then ex-guitarist, Mike Moya singing the nursery rhyme of "Baby-O", over a bare acoustic guitar. The lyrics of giving the baby a bottle of gin, and sticking a finger in the baby's eye, is very unsettling, which continues on the ambient section of sound collage and chimes, before the voices of Quebecois children singing can be heard. It's an off-putting and unassuming start to the track, but this transforms into what is likely the loudest and most unpredictable crescendo on the album, where it seems like things are fading out, but wailing harmonized guitars come out of nowhere, with surprisingly beautiful results. I love the drone that progresses from this point, not only because of the guitars and the drums added in around the 10 minute mark, but to me, this is the perfect way to finish off the album. The drone has that sad sense of despair I was referencing on earlier tracks, but it ends on an ever so slightly uplifting notes. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but it sounds like Godspeed is saying that even if the world sucks, maybe there's a chance for a little bit of hope going forward. This could be completely wrong, but that's just the way this read to me, just like any previous analysis I've mentioned for this record.

It is impossible for me to go over every single detail, because Lift Your Skinny Fists is so dense with musical ideas across its 4 tracks, I wouldn't be able to write about them all. 5.0 I enjoy ambience at times

Mr. Wilson's 2025 offering shows his return to science and space perspective themes as well as a return to the kind of music he was making in the early years of his Porcupine Tree infancy: the Pink Floyd and Beatles-inspired stuff before his collaborators became as important to the music as his own ideas and inputs.

1. "Objects Outlive Us" (23:17) (44.25/50): - "No Monkey's Paw" (1:59) - opens with electronica vocal, sounding like Steven's attempt at a James Blake song. Not bad! (4.375/5) - "The Buddha of the Modern Age" (2:26) - Paul McCartney-sounding piano, cymbal play, chant-proclamation vocals delivered at first via solo voce but then with banked full "world" choir. (4.375/5) - "Objects: Meanwhile" (6:31) - harkening back to Steven's "current events" perspective songs with acoustic guitar strumming, piano chord hits, big synth and guitar chords and Steven's astute and poetic observational commentary over the top. Randy McStine's microtonal guitar play in the instrumental section, pedal steel guitar beneath the second verse. Macho-bass leads the way into a heavier motif in the second half of the instrumental passage. Then strumming acoustic guitars, synth and piano inputs resurface for Steven to continue his observational rant. (8.875/10) - "The Cicerones / Ark" (3:42) - a mathematical weave of arpeggiating piano and guitar guitar chords peppered with bouncy synth and distorted electric guitar flourishes leads into this slow build motif over which Steven & Co. chant a list with repetitious urgency. (8.75/10) - "Cosmic Sons of Toil" (3:00) - continue the bouncy (fast-oscillating volume control) synth chords only add chunky jazz bass, sophisticated syncopated drumming, complex chord progressions, and solos from rhythm guitar (Steven), lead guitar (Randy), keyboard (Adam), and some pretty awesome bass and drum play. This is pretty fresh: not unlike the genius Steven was trying to express on Grace for Drowning. (8.875/10) - "No Ghost on the Moor / Heat Death of the Universe" (6:00) - opens with deep space synth before Steven (or some other male voice) joins in with a high falsetto voice at 0:30. Steven's normal voice (sounding a lot like Steve Hogarth) proceeds over "Sky Moves Sideways" echo snare beat and synth washes. Randy McStine microtonal infinity guitar solo in the third minute is interesting and unusual. Pink Floyd/Radiohead "Subterranean Homesick Alien" sound and chord palette rises to dominate the fifth minute as Randy's guitar goes Frippertronic. I like it. (But then, I loved "Sky" and "Homesick Alien.") (9/10)

2. "The Overview" (18:27) : - "Perspective" - trip-hoppy instrumental space music with astronomy science facts & distances being recited over the top. Steven is using a lot of very familiar sounds, chords, and chord progressions (from his own previous works). - "A Beautiful Infinity I" - strumming acoustic guitars with Steven singing over the voice. Again, so much of this we've heard before in Steven's previous works; the effects, the voice styling, the guitars, the Pink Floyd chords, the Beatles/XTC sound effects and engineering techniques. - "Borrowed Atoms" - - "A Beautiful Infinity II" - Some of this even goes back as far as "The Sky Moves Sideways" and "Every Home Is Wired" and "Stars Die." - "Infinity Measured in Moments" - the coolest movement of the suite with its syncopated rhythm pattern, layered synths, guitars, and choral vocals. There feels some originality in this mélange. I love the presence/use of ukelele/mandolin and banjo! - "Permanence" - space ambient synth chords that sound like the sexy love music Vangelis put in his Blade Runner soundtrack. Even the love-time sax is fitting. Just waiting for Barry White's voice to enter to narrate the foreplay. There is so much that I love about this song--just as there is so much that I love about everything Steven did in the 1990s and his more recent solo discography--yet there are elements of everything that rub me a little the wrong way: much of which results in my disappointing reaction of "I've heard this before" or "he's used this before." (35.5/40)

Total Time 41:44

My single most dominant "complaint" about the music on this album is how cut-and-paste patchworked it is with so much of Steven's past sounds, riffs, "tricks," and styles. Otherwise, this is another brilliant "time capsule" of art. My second much smaller "complaint" is that the perspectives offered here on The Overview are not as obvious as they were on Fear of a Blank Planet or Hand. Cannot. Erase. --two albums that I consider among the best representatives of 21st Century "first world" Homo sapiens sapiens. Perhaps Steven's perspectives are a bit more subjective and isolated than before and, thus, sometimes tough to interpret.

B-/3.5 stars; despite the rather low rating, I still greatly admire this album as a wonderful representative of the genius of the one and only Steven Wilson. I'll rate it up to four stars as it is an excellent exhibition of progressive rock music that most every prog lover will enjoy and despite the over-familiarity of a lot of its ideas and sounds for we who know Steven's discography fairly well.

I was really looking forward to this album as I have booked tickets for the 2025 tour,plus it has been well prophesied as a pure prog rock album. The album is certainly well produced which you would expect from Steven. I would say the sound is Pink Floyd-ish but not at their classic moments - yes ,more the Endless River. I don't think it's a very adventurous album with classic phases or moments - more of a late night listening experience. Of the two tracks, I prefer The Overview - Track One doesn't seem to go many places. Of Track Two - one sequence : A Beautiful Infinity 11 - I love this sequence with the synth solo all too short -but superb. I will certainly pick this part out as something to look forward to live,otherwise nothing to make you jump out of your chair