My lesser known and unknown new prog bands thread

@Atkingani: Novalis? Nice - do you own a copy of Brandung?

@Erik: My wife got me Rush' Replay X3 last year for Christmas

And a shameless hi-jack of your thread again:

Life on Hold - Life on Hold (currently still an unsigned band)

Where time and budget allow, I will buy albums from unsigned bands - supporting the next generation. Today, I reviewed my copy of Life on Holds untitled debut. A very nice debut, worth listening and an interesting outlook for the future of progressive rock in Sweden.

A Parallel World - Nice track, with a bit of a feeling of desperation in the chorus. "The information world is a parallel world to the real one" - Frank Ådahl makes it sound as if that scares him - and succeeds. The vocals in this track really appeal to me, although the choice of words and construction of sentences apparently make it difficult in some points (chorus) for Frank to keep track with the rest of the instruments. A small hint for the drummer: don't over use your cymbals on this track.... Third best on the album for me.

Sign - really shows why the band needs a singer. Alexander makes a good attempt, but his voice isn't my thing. All in all, this track isn't my favourite on the album either. It's 10 minutes long, but fails to keep my attention in the instrumental parts - which is a pity, because the introduction to this track is very promosing. More variation in the instrumental parts would have saved this track, which appears to be the most (the only?) 'metal influenced' one on the album.

You tell me - An instrumental with great rock guitar work (nice solo!) and a very thorough job on the piano/keyboards. I like this a lot, it rocks, but shows some jazz rock influences as well. Second only to The Proud Mr. Smith.

The Proud Mr. Smith - This was my favourite track from the band's MySpace page, and may very well be my favourite on the CD as well. The verses have nice jazzy feel, due to the piano and the laid back rhythm section, which is very different from the rest of the album. The rather heavy guitar that joins in causes a very interesting soundscape. The instrumental midsection is again quite different, more rocky, but still with some sort of jazz rock influence in it.
Only difficulty I have with this track is the vocals. Three people sing their part in this track, which gives something extra. On the other hand I would have loved to hear how this track sounds with Frank Ådahl on all vocals..... Still, Mr. Smith can be proud indeed.

Broken world - Loads of keyboards, and a vocalist which seems to be uttering his discomfort (Tobias Nilsson this time). The dark atmosphere is created in this manner is very well done, but makes the track a bit too 'dark' for me to really enjoy. Still - well done.

Overall, I am very pleased with this first private release of Life on Hold, a band with potential and a few attention points. Getting a vocalist is the band's current top action (Frank Ådahl would be a serious candidate in my opinion), after that, working on the lyrics (sometimes the vocal melodies are slightly off track with the music due to choice of words) - and a bit more bass guitar in the final mix.



Edited by Angelo - November 14 2007 at 17:24

They better do because if you make good music with a mediocre vocalist, it's such a waste!

 They sound good so far.

Discordia IS great You should try their debut ep On a Thin Rope as well.

I just put a thread in the suggest new bands area about another new Finnish band called Circusfolk. They've played a few gigs with Discordia and there will be another one early next year.

DISCORDIA is nice

The latest news on Discordia's site in Finnish tell that their next album is already largely planned out, and they are actively looking for a record company. Their previous releases have been self published. There's no information about when they're entering the studio to record the new stuff.

Keppa4v, I will e-mail the band and ask them what you wrote about, I amsure they are willing to give information because they send me a promo  And congratulations with the 2-1 victory this evening

Edited by erik neuteboom - November 17 2007 at 16:53

Well Tuzvihar, I have listened to Exodus their albums Supernova and The Most Beautiful Day, it sounds pleasant and varied, interesting work on keyboards and guitar but it isn't very memorable music for me, perhaps I will write reviews about these Exodus albums later in order to explain my words a little bit more.

At this moment I am positive about the new Galleon album entitled Engines, a big hand for the Moog Taurus bass pedals 

Not yet but very soon in this thread Paul