Rock Music

Review by b_olariu — The gathering light is the forth album of this UK act, released in 2010 with an almost completly newline-up. Sole survivor Ian Jones recruted new musicians and they compose and performed this albumtaht is to me almost same as previous one, in manner of composing, only that is some sections, somearrangements are little more up tempo and with more electronic keyboards added in the mix. Still isvery melodic, pleasent and accesible kind of prog. This is no better no worse then Delicate, I likeboth albums almost equaly. Pieces like State of Grace or The Serpent and the Sea are instanly catchyand has all the ingredients to be great tunes, both are excellent performed, with top notchmusicianship. Some fantastic keyboards and guitars on State of grace, maybe the best track of thealbum. The new voice who appears here, of Lisa Fury is more then ok, but I like more Rachel, shehad a more deeper profound type of voice then Lisa, but in the end this is more then ok vocal lines.All in all decent towards great in places, Karnataka proved with each album, despite the line upproblems, that is a band to watch in the future, they had enjoyble, pleasent and warm music tooffer. 3-3.5 stars. For fans of Iona, Mostly Autumn and alike.

The Winery Dogs have released their track We Are One for streaming. Hear it below. The band consists of Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan and Richie Kotzen and aims to be a classic rock power trio, citing influences ranging from Led Zep and Cream to Soundgarden and Lenny Kravitz. Drummer Portnoy and bassist Sheehan brought Kotzen in to front the outfit after failing to establish a working rapport with John Sykes. The Winery Dogs’ self-titled album was released last week.

Review by b_olariu — Karnataka is a progressive folk/celtic band from UK with 4 albums released so far. Delicate flame ofdesire is their third album and I think , at least for me their best. Also this is their final albumwith original line-up, the female vocalist Rachel Jones will join The Reasoning on the first album,the rest of the musicians minus Ian Jones - the keyboardist Jonathan Edwards and the drumer GavinGriffiths will form later on the band Panic Room. As the title implies the album is very delicate,gentle with many melodic lines, the voice of Rachel Jones being quite intresing and catchy speciallyon Time Stands Still. The music is moderatly complicated with celtic and folk passages, remind me ofIona or Mostly Autumn. A pleasent album with enough memorable arrangements to be intrsting for mostof the prog listners. Nice instrumental sections combined with dreamy vocal lines Delicate flame ofdesire is a good album for sure. 3-3.5 stars for this one.

The version of Queensryche fronted by Todd La Torre have released new track Where Dreams Go To Die. Hear it below. It’s taken from their self-titled album, due out on June 24 via Century Media. Two versions of the band exist, the other fronted by sacked singer Geoff Tate, until a legal battle over the band name is decided in November. La Torre recently lashed out at Tate for calling his album Frequency Unknown and illustrating it with an image concentrating on the initial letters “FU.” “A monkey can decipher what that is,” he said. “It’s below the belt. To me, it’s not what Queensryche was about. Queensryche wasn’t about the cheap shots; it was always more respectful and intelligent than that. It’s immature, it’s angry – it’s stupid.” Tate launched an online rant contest after some fans objected to the quality of the Frequency Unknown recordings. His label offered a free disc containing a new mix to all those who were unhappy. Meanwhile, La Torre’s Queensryche are set to tour the UK in October. Queensryche tracklist 1. X2 2. Where Dreams Go To Die 3. Spore 4. In This Light 5. Redemption 6. Vindication 7.  Midnight Lullaby 8.  A World Without 9.  Don’t Look Back 10. Fallout 11. Open Road UK/Ireland tour Oct 12: London O2 Academy Islington Oct 16: Manchester HMV Ritz Oct 17: Nottingham Rock City Oct 18: Dublin The Academy

Review by Mr. Mustard — Kaipa's second album sees the band still toying with the sound of their debut, but in a more structured and focused manner. Inget Nytt Under Solen is probably equivalent sonically to their debut. In fact, nothing much at all is different here. But I believe the band uses their great songwriting abilities and musicianship a bit more effectively here. The 22-minute epic 'Skenet Bedrar' is the obvious centerpiece of the album, which is able to deliver melody after melody while still having a sense of cohesiveness. Not to mention the multiple dynamic sound, tempo, and mood changes which make this a rather interesting song.The remaining tracks are all great in their own right. '?mson Sken' and 'Stengrodornas Parad' are both light and fun tracks, with the former having little Marimba melody near the end, and the latter being short, but quirky. 'Korst?g,' and the title track are probably the strongest, and definitely show the strongest influence from Roine for which his signature guitar sound is all throughout both. The latter also has a few melodies which would be later reused in Roine's solo debut The Flower King.Overall, I believe this to be a slightly stronger effort than the debut, even though it still isn't ambitious as some of the classic prog or some of the Flower King's output. Whatever it lacks in this area it certainly makes up for in melodic prowess. 7/10

Review by Mr. Mustard — The eponymous deput from the band Kaipa represents one of Sweden's earlier ventures into prog rock, and is a probable answer to the Genesis and Yes of Britain. It also marks the first appearance of guitarist Roine Stolt, who has made his presence well known with bands like The Flower Kings and Transatlantic . I noticed a few things initially about the album which make it rather unique. Firstly, in addition to the overall symphonic sound, there seems to be heavy use of classical influenced technique and sound throughout, such as the main theme of 'Ankaret,' and the Harpsichord use in 'Allting Har En B'rjan,' which is no doubt due to Stolt and company's admiration of music from that era. Much of the album is instrumental, though vocals in the native language of Swedish do appear throughout most songs. I don't dislike the vocals for this reason; rather that they don't really add anything of interest, and seem mixed too loudly in parts. Besides this, the music is pretty similar to existent prog of Britain and North America, often relying heavily on keyboards, highly mixed and wandering bass, and diverse song structures. The real treat here, however, is the myriad of pleasant melodies throughout. Albeit there isn't much in the way of complexity, but there is a non-stop flood of catchy riffs.Overall, I believe this to be a very fine debut. As mentioned, it's filled with fun melodies and great musicianship throughout. However, I do not find it to be terribly adventurous. Therefore I would conclude by saying this is simply a pleasant, inoffensive album.6/10

By Larry Jaffee Maybe it’s the recent renewed appreciation for nostalgia in popular culture (e.g., the 1920s in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby; the 1930s and 1940s in Downton Abbey; the 1950s in Call the Midwife; the 1960s in Mad Men and Pan Am), but the timing seems to be perfect for the new various artists’ compilation The Beautiful Old (Doubloon Records). Executive producer Paul Marsteller focuses on turn-of-the century songs, some with recognizable melodies that survived the past century, but the composition dates actually range from 1805 until 1918. The album, due June 4, kicks off perfectly with guitar virtuoso Richard Thompson on lead vocals. He’s no stranger to tackling music from bygone eras, having recorded an album called 1000 Years of Popular Music and then toured around its release. Thompson leaves his guitar at home on “The Band Played On,” and you really get the sense that he relishes singing the tale of Matt Casey’s social life circa 1895, courting the strawberry blond “he ador’d” in a manner and style probably not that different from the crooners of the day. Graham Parker, on the other hand, retains his rock voice on “The Flying Trapeze,” almost chuckling over the collision of centuries amid the familiar sounding traditional melody, most likely thanks to Warner Bros. cartoon soundtracks of the 1960s. Thompson and Parker are two of the more familiar names, contributing to the album, whose ranks also include The Band’s Garth Hudson (on 10 tracks), Kim Richey, and Dave Davies, who also left his guitar at home. While big brother Ray, who had been playing the British dance hall card since the early 1970s with The Kinks, Dave Davies nails the pathos and delivery on “After the Ball.” Many of the other lead vocalists aren’t as well known (exceptions being Jimmy Lafave and Kim Richey), but there’s a seamless quality to the 19-track repertoire, with a house band supporting each special guest, all whom no doubt were loving selected by Marsteller the musicologist. The beautifully designed packaged by Grammy-winning art director Susan Archie provide the complete lyrics and sheet music art. Perhaps the best indication that Marsteller is onto something special was sitting down to listen the album with my 85-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia. A smile came to her face, and she hummed along to almost every song. Bravo.

Poll created by Metalmarsh89 — What's your favorite album by Muse. Muse is rarely discussed here, and I'm curious about the proggers' input. My favorite is the Resistance, easily. Bellamy's vocals fit nicely with the mood of the music, and there's not a song on it that is less than decent. Their most recent album was okay, and quite eclectic which was nice. Some of it wasn't quite my taste though, a little too electronic sometimes. I know many people can't stand the bombast which is Muse, though frankly I don't mind it.

Review by tarkus1980 — As suggested by the title, this particular Hackett offering (one of his classical guitar albums, featuring contributions from a chamber orchestra) is a musical interpretation of the Orpheus myth from classical mythology. I won't go into extensive detail about the story in this review; if you're not familiar with the basic story (there are some variations on it in different contexts, but the core story is pretty standard), you should take the time to become familiar with it. Suffice it to say that the story is a classic, featuring love, loss, near recovery, loss again (after an epic failure to follow instructions as given), and eventually a disembodied singing head. The Greeks were awesome.The first half of the album is nice, with some lovely themes (some of which get reprised later in the album, most notably the main theme in "To Earth Like Rain"), but because it covers the part of Orpheus' life before he experienced pain and sadness, it's a little monotonous in its cheeriness (and it doesn't even cover his time spent with the Argonauts). The only real moment of tension is in "The Dancing Ground," which breaks up a cheery minuet with a disturbing premonition of Eurydice's; otherwise, it's all happy happy happy, culminating in the upbeat but still overlong 12:27 of "That Vast Life." At least this track moves through several ideas, but it never shifts in tone, and thus it becomes more background-ish than I'd prefer for something with its length.Naturally, the story gets darker once Eurydice dies and Orpheus descends into the underworld to try and get her back, but I like that the music goes beyond formula in depicting these passages. Look, if you're going to make a musical depiction of the Orpheus myth, the quality of your presentation will ultimately rest on how you handle two parts: the attempted ascent from the underworld with Eurydice, and Orpheus' eventual horrible death at the hands of the Maenads. Given this, Steve's decision to write "Under the World - Orpheus Looks Back" as a clear homage to "Mars" strikes me as nothing elss than brilliant. The inecessant rhythm gives a maddening tension to the track, and the ascent portion, first moving in darkness, then briefly moving into triumphant cheer, then briefly moving into doubt, then clearly showing the moment where Orpheus screws up, gives a perfect depiction of the story. And "Severance," well, that's just fun dramatic darkness, hinting at but not fully playing up his horrible death; it might not be great by the standards of classical, but it's just fine by the standards of a rock guy writing a small amount of classical.The album then works through the happy ending of the story: Orpheus is buried, Orpheus' spirit is reunited with Eurydice, Orpheus' head keeps on singing, and his lyre becomes a constellation (with reprises of happy themes from earlier). Overall, then, it's not an amazing experience, but it's definitely one I like more than his 80s classical guitar albums (as of this writing I haven't heard the other classically-oriented albums he'd done in between those). Steve definitely shows himself as much more adept at writing for a classical ensemble than most rock musicians would be, and the presence of a coherent (and classic) story ends up providing a beneficial framework. Plus, a lot of the music here could have been reworked for use on one his "conventional" albums without a lot of fuss. If you're into later-period Hackett, this is a worthy purchase.

Photo: www.GeneSimmons.comHere's a photo of Gene Simmons and a few young Naval officers at Preakness 2013 in Baltimore on May 18, 2013.