Nick Fletcher – The Cloud of Unknowing

British guitarist Nick Fletcher (a.k.a. John Hackett Band) has been active in music for over forty years. His new album is based on Dante’s Inferno, the contrasts between “light” and “dark” are much greater here than on his previous album (Cycles of Behaviour from 2021). Nick says of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’: “Perhaps because of … Read more, available in English and Dutch

Crystal Palace – Still There

Germany’s Crystal Palace (art rock) has been around for over 30 years. Their previous studio album, ‘Scattered Shards’, was released in 2018. On their new album ‘Still there’ from, all the tracks flow into each other non-stop. The concept is about a young woman, she had written on the inside walls of a lookout point, … Read more, available in English and Dutch

Sammary – Monochrome

Monochrome is the debut album by the German band Sammary. Multi-instrumentalist Sammy Wahlandt founded this art rock/indie project. He started with electronic, musical experiments. ‘Monochrome’ is a concept album and is about the gloomy versus the happy side of man, and hate versus love. ‘Black And White’ has a special, mysterious start, the sound is … Read more, available in English and Dutch

Iris Divine – Mercurial

‘Mercurial’ is the fourth album by the prog metal band ‘Iris Divine’, but the first album to be released through Layered Reality Productions. Drummer Scott Manley took the place of Kris Combs (drums, keyboards and programming) he left the band in the Corona era. That doesn’t mean you won’t hear any keyboards/programming on ‘Mercurial’. Singer/guitarist … Read more, available in English and Dutch

Iron Maiden flipped Navid Rashid over to the ‘dark side’

Navid Rashid is frontman (vocalist and guitarist) of Iris Divine. Sometimes people mix up his first name and surname. Navid is his first name and Rashid is his surname. Navid grew up in the ’80’s, in those days hard rock was very populair. Navid had plenty of exposure on radio and MTV.  He still loves what … Read more, available in English and Dutch

Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella – Invoke The Ghosts

Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella are getting more and more known in the prog circuit, and that is well deserved. Recently ‘Invoke The Ghosts’ was released, this is the second album on which you can only hear their own compositions. They call their style acoustic metal. ‘Nur Ein Spiel’ starts with a vocal solo by … Read more, available in English and Dutch

Lobate Scarp – You have it all

The prog album ‘You have it all’ is an extension of the EP ‘Spirals and Portals’, which Lobate Scarp released in 2019. From that came the singles ‘Nothing Wrong’ (remixed) and ‘Beautiful Light’. These are interwoven within the new album to create more cohesion. Several very well-known guest musicians participate. Like Ryo Okumoto (Spock’s Beard) … Read more, available in English and Dutch

Project: Patchwork – Ultima Ratio

About ten years ago Gerd Albers founded a prog project called ‘Project: Patchwork’. On each album a large number of guest musicians worked together, more than 45 in total. These musicians come from prog bands such as Mystery, Subsignal, and many others. Also on the latest album, ‘Ultima Ratio’, a large number of musicians worked … Read more, available in English and Dutch

Phil Bee – Live at Tivoli Vredenburg

Phil Bee has been on stage at home and abroad for over 30 years. He has won several awards and reached the (semi) finals of several singing competitions. Last year he was the winner of ‘The Voice Senior’. Just before the Dutch winter lockdown of 2021, the 11-piece Phil Bee band (including horn section) performed … Read more, available in English and Dutch