Arjen Lucassen’s Supersonic Revolution - Golden Age Of Music (Album Review)

May 20, 2023 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Melodic Rock, Progressive Rock

When you think of progressive rock/metal concept albums, one name springs instantly to mind, Arjen Lucassen. It could have all been so different for Lucassen, as his 1993 solo album, released under the Anthony moniker, ‘Pools Of Sorrow, Waves Of Joy’ was met with indifference by the record-buying public (finding a copy thirty years later will be a long and expensive search). Seemingly undaunted and already a hard rock veteran after stints in Bodine and Vengeance, Lucassen pushed on regardless, his determination resulting in a slew of projects that played a crucial role in revitalising the progressive rock/metal scene via releases under the Ayreon, Ambeon, Guilt Machine and Star One banners while still finding time for guest appearances and contributions to albums by leading lights of the scene such as Within Temptation and Avantasia. For this project, Lucassen has put his little black book of names to one side (Lucassen has enlisted many performers on his star-studded albums, especially singers) and settled on a band project, it’s still essentially a concept record in the Lucassen tradition, but he looks to be out to have a little fun, and the results are glorious.

Held By Trees - Solace (Album Review)

May 23, 2022 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Ambient, Progressive Rock, Post-Rock

‘Solace’, the debut record from Held By Trees, is a new instrumental project featuring a string of well-known names from the UK and further afield. The man at the heart of Held By Trees is David Joseph, a producer and multi-instrumentalist with aspirations to put together an album that harked back to the seminal recordings of Mark Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Green in Talk Talk and celebrate the natural world.

Envy Of None - Envy Of None (Album Review)

April 06, 2022 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, Progressive Rock, Rock

As a founding member of legendary Canadian rockers Rush, Alex Lifeson sold millions of records and embarked on numerous world tours with bandmates Geddy Lee and Neil Peart. The trio played huge venues to a level of fan adoration that many of their contemporaries could only imagine. The only time I was lucky enough to catch the band was on their ‘Roll The Bones’ tour at London’s Wembley Arena. That night convinced me how special they could be, even if I wasn’t always totally convinced by their varied musical output. Rush played their last shows as a band in 2015, and with the sad passing of Neil Peart in 2020, the Rush story came to an understandable, albeit sad conclusion. This brings us to the question of what do you do when you have been there, done it and bought the t-shirt (and probably a very nice house)?

League Of Lights - Dreamers Don't Come Down (Album Review)

March 12, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Electronic, Pop, Progressive Rock

Farrah and Richard West (Threshold/AudioPlastik) aka League Of Lights refused to let the pandemic stunt their musical growth. Their 2019 album ‘In The In Between’ had received positive reviews and they planned to tour the record in 2020…Needless to say, a rethink was required and the unexpected result is ‘Dreamers Don’t Come Down’ a terrific record that artfully blends elements of 80s pop-rock, electronica and progressive/art rock without missing a beat. The reason I say unexpected is ‘In The In Between’ emerged eight years after their debut album, a gap of Def Leppardian proportions, so League of Lights are seemingly on a creative roll and keen to make up for lost time.

Downes Braide Association (DBA) - Halcyon Hymns (Album Review)

February 04, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, AOR, Classic Rock, DVD, Melodic Rock, Pop, Progressive Rock, Rock

Downes Braide Association aka DBA originally started as a collaborative studio project in 2012 between Christopher Braide a Brit working in the USA writing and producing music for film scores, advertising campaigns and with a host of rock and pop artists (Sia, Lana Del Rey, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Paloma Faith, Britney Spears, Marc Almond) and keyboardist Geoffrey Downes of YES, Buggles and Asia fame. Eight years later and the duo had three albums under their belt while tentative forays into live performance in 2018 (resulting in a live record) and again in 2020 had proved successful. After the live shows in early 2020, Braide found himself in a bit of a funk when Marc Almond called and suggested he look at the possibility of a new DBA record to get the creative juices flowing. Braide delved into some musical ideas from Downes and inspiration struck immediately. Compositional ideas and snatches of melody quickly began to take shape and resulted is Halcyon Hymns, a record that perfectly captures feelings and memories of a time and a place when everything seemed so much simpler.

Nick D'Virgilio (NDV) - Invisible (Album Review)

June 25, 2020 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Progressive Rock, Rock, Singer-Songwriter

In these days of short attention spans and instant gratification, there’s something very refreshing about sitting down with your favourite beverage, placing an album on/in the stereo and letting an artist take you on a musical journey. Nick D’Virgilio has been on a personal musical journey that began a few years before the release of his debut solo album back in 2001. Nick is probably best known for his time in Spock’s Beard where he started as the drummer and branched out into frontman duties. But this association barely scratches the surface of a varied and interesting CV; there’s an ongoing relationship with Big Big Train – and fifteen years working with Tears For Fears - while still finding time to record and/or perform with many of the best in the business including the late Kevin Gilbert, Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa) and a five-year stint as drummer/singer/assistant bandleader with the Cirque Du Soleil organisation touring their Totem show. For ‘Invisible’ Nick D’Virgilio (NDV) pulls together elements from all of his various musical endeavours and throws in a left turn or two on an obvious labour of love that finds the singer/drummer/multi-instrumentalist at the top of his game.

Unruly Child - Big Blue World (Album Review)

August 05, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, AOR, Classic Rock, Melodic Rock, Progressive Rock

Since reassembling their original five-piece line-up nearly ten years ago, Unruly Child have given us three top-notch slices of gently progressive AOR in the vein of their classic 1992 debut. Worlds Collide (2010) and Can’t Go Home (2017) were both put out by Frontiers while 2014’s Down The Rabbit Hole was independently released but all three albums showed a band that still has plenty to offer. Now, in their 27th year, the band return with Big Blue World. Marcie Free’s indestructible, made-for-rock voice has lost nothing and it’s this voice - along with Guy Allison’s upfront keys and Bruce Gowdy’s ability to fuse acoustic and electric guitar textures - that make Unruly Child so unmistakable.

Ultraphonix - Original Human Music (Album Review)

August 03, 2018 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Rock, Funk, Progressive Rock, Hard Rock, Metal

Guitarist George Lynch recently claimed the following about Ultraphonix and their debut release ‘Original Human Music’ “The album sounds like a fusion of early Chili Peppers meets King Crimson meets Judas Priest! It’s a super fun band”. Throwing such an eclectic mix of names into your press release definitely creates interest, which is sure to increase when you find that the ex Dokken guitarist has partnered with Living Colour vocalist Corey Glover for this project. Add in a rhythm section that consists of bassist Pancho Tomaselli (War/PHILM) and drummer Chris Moore (Cry Wolf/Damage/DeathRiders) and you've got the majority of the musical genres hinted at covered. If the rhythm section looks familiar then you probably own the 2016 album by Project NfidelikAh a band that featured Lynch, Tomaselli, Moore and Fishbone singer Angelo Moore.

Vangelis - Delectus (Album Review / Box Set)

February 09, 2017 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Ambient, Instrumental, Progressive Rock, Soundtrack, Electronic, Box Set

For those of us who only associate Greek composer Vangelis with his soundtrack music, most notably the Oscar winning ‘Chariots Of Fire’ (included here) and ‘Blade Runner’ then ‘Delectus’ is a bit of an eye opener. This thirteen CD box set brings together his recorded output for the Polydor and Vertigo labels over a twelve year period 1973-1985 and really does a great job of highlighting the range and diversity of the prolific composer.

Ray Wilson - Makes Me Think Of Home (Album Review)

October 06, 2016 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Pop, Progressive Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Rock

Makes Me Think Of Home’ is the second album of 2016 from singer-songwriter Ray Wilson following the acoustic ‘Song For A Friend’ release and for some artists they’d be stretching themselves a bit thin. This is not an issue for Ray Wilson as the inspiration well is far from dry and ‘Home’ is another fine addition to his solo discography that brings together multiple influences from the worlds of pop, rock and prog.

Kansas - The Prelude Implicit (Album Review)

September 19, 2016 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, AOR, Classic Rock, Melodic Rock, Progressive Rock

Sixteen years since their last studio album is an awfully long time but for Kansas, who can chart their history back to 1970 and released their debut album in 1974, it just feels like a small part of the overall plan. With a quite staggering 30,000,000+ album sales worldwide Kansas are one of the biggest acts of the classic rock era but for all such acts, Journey instantly spring to mind, longevity is a double edged sword as the sands of time can catch up with a band, members leave for a variety of reasons and the musical landscape is forever changing. Kansas have kept themselves busy as they still play around a hundred shows a year and recent releases have included a feature length documentary ‘Miracles Out Of Nowhere’ that charts their long career. Founder members Richard Williams (guitar) and drummer Phil Ehart don’t look to be retiring anytime soon and on the strength of ‘The Prelude Implicit’ it looks like the band are about to embark on an impressive new chapter in their illustrious career.