I think some reviews may be too harsh dismissing the prog elements of Tai Phong music. It is true that both the debut and Windows are not great masterpieces of the progressive rock genre, but it is not like the albums are not prog.

In case of Windows, it has two most pop-rock songs: Games and Last Chance. But the others are very good, especially When It's the Season and Gulf of Knowledge. The sounds and arrangements are more on the mellow side, with keyboards and synthesized usually providing lush soundscapes instead of hard riffs and solos. Except for the opener and the third song, all the rest is more on the mellow side, but except for the two aforementioned pop rock songs, the others are prog with great keyboard arrangements, slow guitar solos and some nice drumming parts.

Unfortunately, it seems like the band had many problems for recording and releasing their albums, so after two good efforts, they stayed three years to release the following album and, by the time it happened, it was already 1979 and the effort is less prog, as expected. Anyway, I think their debut and Windows are two good prog albums worthy checking by prog fans.

— First review of this album —

Via Modesta Valenti is a progressive rock band based in Rome that took form in 2017 inspired by the likes of Genesis, Yes or Pink Floyd with a line up featuring Matteo Zanuzzi (vocals and lyrics), Adriano Sabatucci (acoustic and electric guitar), Francesco Mongatti (piano, keyboards), Gianmarco Palma (electric bass) and Luca Santi (drums). The name of the band refers to a homeless woman who, in 1983, died in poverty and in the cold of Rome Termini station, arousing much indignation for her state to the point of becoming a symbol, a kind of secular saint to whom the homeless people of the Italian capital turn. In 2002 the Municipality of Rome named in her memory a fictitious street where the homeless can apply for residency registration, via Modesta Valenti.

In 2024 the band self released a debut EP, entitled Suite For The Last Prophet, containing just a long piece divided into twelve short sections for a total length of twenty-three minutes. It tells in music and words a surreal story, a kind of psychedelic dream where the band showcase their instrumental skills and a strong sense of humour. To be honest, in my opinion vocals and lyrics are not the strength of this work but the music is good and worth listening to, a nice patchwork of different styles and atmospheres stitched together with passionate coherence even if following a plot a bit confused...

The suite begins by a piano solo introduction. Then the vocals on a marching beat evoke the image of a boy who enters in a public library and asks for a book about the human common denominator ("The Eternal Story"). The librarian gives him a copy of the Quran and while reading it the boy falls asleep and begins to dream. In fact, the following section tells of a crazy journey on camel back through the Arabic Desert ("Desert Trip"). When the boy arrives in La Mecca he can hear the voices and noises of the bazaar in a foreign language (here the lyrics turn from English to Italian) ("Bazar Blues"). Then the protagonist enters in a Turkish bath and the dream gets more and more blurred ("Jazzy Smoky Snake") going on between mystical ravings about gods and prophets ("Pristine soul"), tempting and deviously enchanting women ("Barbara"), pseudo-scientific digressions ("Origins"), delirious political rantings about a borderless and endless world ("Silk And Mohair"), mysticism trapped into the unconscious ("The Final Fork") and geometrical transcendentalism ("In The Mist Of Tempo Changes: Trying To Connect Two Dots"). Then it's time to wake up, the protagonist is back in the library, in a world where you can find the words of God in the bookshops for sale ("La Mecca Conquest"). A short instrumental section ("A.C.U.C. Almost Completely Useless Coda") ends the suite...

On the whole, a nice work that deserves a try.

1969 is considered one of the best years for music and this album is just one of the legendary albums coming out that year. Definitely in the running for the greatest debut albums in my opinion. Led zeppelin got their sound in the first swing with this album. The lineup includes iconic vocals by Robert Plant crispy percussion by John Bonham, John Paul Jones on bass and Jimmy Page from the Yardbirds on guitar. Speaking of Jimmy Page he would actually use riffs he used from his time with the Yardbirds on "How Many More Times". Led Zepplin would later become one of the essential Classic rock bands and even people who don't listen to Rock have Led Zep t-shirts. The personal highlight for me is the closing track "How Many More Times" however this is NOT the song to introduce yourself to Led Zepplin to. I would suggest listening to this album first and then Led Zepplin II III and IV right after. great start and would be foundation for the band Led Zepplin. 4 stars.

— First review of this album —

ANGE, the most famous band to have remained unknown in the French music scene, the most controversial of the last 50 years. The quintessence of progressive rock at the start with an A'dieu in 1996, a rebirth and 24 albums to the counter today before this EP to wait for the after ANGE.

'Hadar Mumbai Lhassa' and the instrumental that served as an intro for the last tour 'Cunégonde Tour': crystalline air of the xylophone on the solemn climb; 7 minutes of atmospheric-ambient prog variation to settle down, wait for Christian's last concert; in short for all those who were able to attend, it is the opportunity to awaken your memory and vibrate already. 'The tears of the Dalai Lama' with the Tibetan trumpets, the fat, calm sound, Tristan takes the voice first; the father and son duo that should have been exploited well before I think to make a little more room for him ... to the son, but it is only my opinion that I share, in short bewitching with the ear that is already getting used to this smooth transition. Well the symphonic finale as usual.

'Leaving the pack' with this ethereal Wilsonian riff and Tristan on vocals since that is the goal; the most this solo halfway through giving a more modern vision of the sound to come, that of the after? Hassan since it is indeed him I am talking about, strikes swirling notes making the sauce rise; the alkaline piano then the keyboard fit into this new, nervous, shivering progressive space. Avant-garde ANGE. 'Cunégonde' with Christian on strange vocals, will it be on the album? Words worthy of him, a bewitching ballad, a way of putting his mark on the future album; ambient break with his phrasing voice, bawdy with an angelic sauce. Will they be able to save today's increasingly bland music world? The untrained audience applauds before the apocalyptic end with the pharaonic, powerful, redundant crescendo. An intense instrumental and progressive moment showing that it is still possible in 2025. 'Pace nobilis' delicate ballad, crystalline keyboard accompanying tristan and his sensitive voice; a crescendo that gives pride of place to the air above all, a captivating, heady chorus, a little latency and the mantranic vocal-synth finale that rises, rises, modern. (3.5)

Whilst I don't put it on the same pedestal as Twilight and Forsaken Innocence - the two albums I regard as Drifting Sun's masterpieces - you deliver an album which doesn't attain those heights and still be very, very good indeed. That's exactly what Drifting Sun have done on this latest release, a fairly theatrical-sounding take on their particular style of neo-prog. At some 47 minutes, it's their shortest album since their self-titled debut, but to me this just shows confidence - a willingness to focus on quality over quantity in part because they have faith that the standard of material is high enough that people won't feel short-changed in comparison to prior works.

"Over and Out" is the fifth full-length studio album by Polish progressive rock act Collage. The album was released through Mystic Production in December 2022. Collage formed in 1985 and released four studio albums before disbanding in 2003. After the demise of Collage, some members formed Satellite and released four albums with that project before Collage was revived again in 2013. Initially in the same quintet lineup who recorded the 1995 "Safe" album (which was the last Collage album before they disbanded), but lead vocalist Robert Amirian and guitarist Mirek Gil were soon replaced by Bartosz Kossowicz and Michał Kirmuć respectively.

So 27 years down the line from the last Collage album and 19 years since Collage disbanded, what does a new Collage album sound like? Both Amirian and especially Gil were after all pretty important parts of the sound of Collage. "Over and Out" opens with the 21:50 minutes long title track, and although Kossowicz has a different voice and singing style to Amirian, Collage still very much sound like themselves. Melodic neo-progressive rock with both subtle melancholic moments and more bombastic/dramatic epic atmospheres (artists like Marillion, Pendragon, and Arena are valid references). They´ve become a bit more progressive oriented over the years though and the tracks on "Over and Out" are generally a bit more complex in structure and also feature more diverse songwriting than what was the case on the previous releases.

I don´t know what I was expecting from "Over and Out", because Collage didn´t exactly go out with a bang with the relatively powerless and anonymous "Safe" album, but any fears that "Over and Out" wouldn´t deliver are immediately swept away when listening to the album. Collage are back with a vengeance...high level musicianship (Kossowicz is a great replacement for Amirian), a top notch production job, and some memorable and intriguing songwriting are the ingredients which make up "Over and Out". Fans of neo-progressive rock are recommended to take a listen to this release. It features a good balance beween melodic pop/rock-oriented neo-progressive rock elements and more challenging and adventurous progressive rock elements. A high quality release through and through and a 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

A tribute .. but not just any .. With Martin Barre already it speaks .. With a heavy return for the continuation .. think so ... vinnie Moore, Jordan Rudess, with Pat mastelotto and kasim of UTOPIA for a slow captivating derivation ... The keyboard which overwhelms yes one cannot remain insensitive, the guitar solo which spurts higher ... With an explosive pigs .. think James Labrie, Al Di meola ouh là là, Joe Bouchard of the BLUE OYSTER CULT, Billy Cobham of the MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA, a group that I reviewed no later than last week. And Patrick Moraz famous for having been keyboardist for YES .. and later for the MOODY BLUES since before it was mainly in the jazzy movement that he worked .. With the great, the illustrious Arthur Brown .. the legendary 'fire' ... Accompanied by Rick Wakeman quite simply. Let's mention Jan from FOCUS and Carmine Appice for a completely crazy cover that is a pleasure to hear.. what, you haven't started listening yet?? With Jon Davison accompanied by Billy Sherwood for the nostalgic finale before being bucolic.. A tribute album above all to remind us that good rock is always present in our heads. In short, a good time revisited!!! (3.75)

Talk about your dramatic turns of events! With Mike Portnoy returning to Dream Theater out of the blue and Mike Mangini bowing out with good grace (so far as we can tell), expectations where high for this album. It's not that the Mangini era of the band is outright bad, so much as it's rather mixed; A Dramatic Turn of Events was pretty solid, but their self-titled album was less celebrated and The Astonishing met with a serious backlash.

Notably, with the latter they abandoned their usual full-band collaborative approach to songwriting, Petrucci and Rudess handling all the music themselves and Petrucci writing the lyrics solo, further contributing to the sense that the well-honed Dream Theater creative engine wasn't quite working as it should. Then again, Distance Over Time and A View From the Top of the World seemed to find the band back on an upward swing - the question was, would the return of Portnoy reinvigorate the band or disrupt them just as their creative process was recovering from the weird experiment of The Astonishing?

Before you even get to the music here, you're confronted with cover art that seems designed specifically to build high expectations. Sure, it's a spookier, gloomier image than we've become used to from Dream Theater (though not so much that it feels completely uncharacteristic), but what really jumps out about it is that it's a big riff on the Images and Words cover; we've got an older girl stood next to her bed, and whilst the surreal features of the Images and Words cover suggested the colourful imagery of dream, here we're stepping more into the realm of nightmare.

So not only is this Portnoy's big comeback, but it's being set up as this big thematic sequel to the band's breakthrough album - if Images and Words was Songs of Innocence, this is Songs of Experience. Lyrically and thematically, this continues right into the album itself; "Parasomnia" is a term for a particular category of sleep disorders, and the songs here are all about sleep paralysis, nightmares, and other things of that nature. It's not a narrative concept album so far as I can tell, but it's definitely a thematic one, with the band taking us all on a thrilling trip through the realm of nightmare.

If the album's cover and lyrics showcase thematic unity, the credits suggest the return of the fivefold creative partnership responsible for the success of this lineup's successful run from Metropolis Part II to Black Clouds & Silver Linings. To the extent that Mangini got credits for songwriting, he did because Dream Theater typically share the credit for all of their musical compositions and generally only go for individual credits when it comes to song lyrics - which Mangini notably contributed much less of than Portnoy had. Portnoy's back on the lyrics again here, and one can only assume that he's settled back into making contributions to the musical compositions too, since all five men in this lineup had become well-used to workshopping ideas with each other.

All of this show of unity and co-operation would come to nothing if the music didn't hold together of course, and I'm happy to report that this is a decidedly strong Dream Theater album. It's not on the level of albums I'd personally put on the absolute tippy-top tier of the band's output - Images & Words, Metropolis Part II, and Octavarium - but it's a decidedly solid effort which refreshes their customary style with the combination of a well-defined and tightly targeted atmosphere and mood on the one hand, and on the other an injection of a few more gleeful retro-prog influences into the mix than we've heard on recent albums from the group.

One suspects Portnoy may have had a hand in that, given that he'd spent much of his time away from the group working with Neal Morse (both on Morse's own projects as bandleader and in more collaborative contexts like Transatlantics), and anyone who's that keen to keep contributing to Neal's prog projects probably has a healthy appetite for old-school prog stuff, but at the same time this isn't so much of a divergence from A View From the Top of the World as to represent an outright repudiation of that album, or the Mangini era as a whole.

Really, my biggest criticism of it is the needless Images and Words nod on the front cover - I think it's silly of the band to implicitly invite such comparisons when this isn't really a throwback to that era. The group aren't rewinding the clock here or pretending the last few albums didn't happen - they aren't hopping back to a pre-Mangini period, it's more like Mangini tagging out and Portnoy tagging in back in, the group carrying the lessons learned forward. It remains to be seen whether this new era of the band will have the staying power of the last time this particular lineup was all together - like I said, the Mangini era did start strong before it got into the weeds a little - but whilst this isn't a revolution in the band's sound, it's still a promising start.

I knew early into my love affair with Rush that I was mainly a fan of their 80's synth-heavy era. As a long-time prog fan, I gravitated to albums like 'Grace Under Pressure', 'Moving Pictures' and 'Signals'. That's not to say I disliked the bands more hard rock material, I just had a firm belief of what my preferences were. So, going through the bands discography from the start, 1974's self-titled debut is a solid hard rocker that holds up today, but after that, it's been all downhill so far.

1975's 'Fly By Night' didn't really do much for me, and sadly, neither does this, the bands third studio album, 'Caress of Steel'.

Which is a shame, because Rush are one of my favourite bands, and the trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart have created some absolutely stellar albums over the years. But there's just nothing about this one that clicks with me. There's a couple of decent tracks, such as 'Bastille Day' and 'I Think I'm Going Bald', but I'm really not likely to listen to any of these by choice.

And to top it off, the Canadian's make their first foray into full-on progressive rock territory, with two tracks reaching durations of almost 13 and 20 minutes respectively, but holy hell these tracks are boring! I absolutely struggle to keep listening without losing interest, oftentimes forgetting it's even the same song I'm listening to.

And sadly, that's 'Caress of Steel'. As much as I love Rush, this album just isn't resonating with me, and since their next studio album is a firm, prog classic, I think it's time to move on to that one?

"Inuit" starts atmospheric, S-F, a neo-prog keyboard, Arjen at the controls, Ruud on vocals; its fat heavy prog metal, very fat, captivating and reminiscent of ARENA; Icelandic break for the Inuit voices, the progressive, solemn atmosphere, choirs of Olympus. The emphatic, grandiloquent restart with sampled trumpets, energetic rhythm and keyboard solo; aerial finale that rocks. "Baychimo" fat synth intro is the word, on COLLAGE with Genesisian hints, the rhythm guitar recalling SAGA. The riff on good energetic prog metal, ARAGON and KNIGHT AREA for the atmosphere; nostalgic, symphonic neo from yesteryear. Quick break with sonar then the keyboards come back, frenetic, hard rock with Martin on guitar; vocal choir of Laura and Coby for the phrased outro. "Stranger Within" and the arrival of witches, on "Harry Potter"; the keyboard in a cathartic wall, the latent atmosphere, the enjoyable progressive instrumental. The nervous and haunting guitar guides the air; the keyboards round off the metallic angles, very/too fat, pregnant. An acoustic arpeggio slows everything down, the time to hear Ruud whisper, between singing and phrasing. Solo guitar variation launching velvety, fluid keyboard notes, exploding from a musical crater in fusion. This plus these keyboards and the heavy tone of electric ARAGON "Mouse" period; seaside finale in aerial fade.

"Lost in Your Mind" with Laura vocal in basic air, highlighting her bewitching vocal power, reminiscent of Hayley GRIFFITHS. A mid-tempo on a latency with the melting Moog and the dreamlike crescendo; solemn final piano. "The Universe" begins the last short, calibrated titles, fast intro, easy chorus, so as not to waste time. A melodic AOR piece with the little progressive break on the synth. "Artificial Intelligence (Akili Ya Bandia)" contradicts me, five minutes of solemn, military intro; a title narrated more than sung, monolithic with another prog metal air, on the overboosted MYSTERY. "A Passage to Rapa Nui" same modus operandi, high-pitched vocal, Teutonic prog metal rhythm, with its hard rock solo, astonishing with the velvety keyboard behind. "Until Darkness Calls" bis repetita, consensual air, dated pop rock chorus, nostalgic, energetic but redundant, with Julian's keyboard filling the ears. The whispered voice disturbs or helps to go on this fruity S-F journey. "Watch the Crime (Do We Care?)" opens with a grandiloquent symphonic sound; piano in variation with the fat keyboard, the one that bewitched the ears during the 80s, the sound is affected. The theatrical voice smells of ICE; very rock pop. "Insomnia" in the end, a rhythmic instrumental piece with its Dantesque keyboard solo, twirling and vintage to the end of the synth keys.

TIMELOCK offers a neo-prog narrative album with a heavy rhythm, a softer THRESHOLD with a heavy guitar and invasive fat keyboards, PALLAS more nervous. Three great excellent titles followed by the other melodic ones lacking a little soul. A pleasant sound journey agreed. (3.5) Origin on Progcensor.