Entropia - Evolve

The first time I’ve heard about Entropia, was through an e-mail by one of the band members from Opensight in the city of Colombia and he asked if I could review one of their debut albums, Simetria. It was an offer, I couldn’t refuse. Now even though I have mixed opinions about downloads and iTunes which I don’t want to get into the politics about it, I thought their debut album released in 2010, was pretty good.

Carrying the sounds of Progressive Metal like no other with weird time signatures, growling voices and storytelling complex that would make it a perfect concept album, now in the year of our lord 2012, they released an EP called Evolve and it shows that while they have a long way to go, they have shown that they are not giving up. Thoughts Confined, the new song, which is a video you can find on Facebook and on YouTube as well, is a rapid yet poundering eruption that is completely a well-balanced shredded roar.

With its growling vocals and guitar sound doing lead solos, will remind listeners and metal headbangers including prog fans of Mastodon and an earlier prog death metal thrash version of Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt. And even though the music video shows a man in a strait-jacket trying to break free from the asylum, shows that Entropia that they’re giving MTV, the middle finger. They still carry a bit of the heavy atmosphere and adding a bit of the synthesizers to the core to make it sound power metal and sounding like its 1984 all over again.

Example, Burden which opens the EP, carries a bit of the Power Metal sound with a bit of vengeance. The keyboards are like a hard energetic force in the power that Entropia have brought to the table and in their sound and vision. But they have brought the heavy guitar rumbling with a dosage of fantasy and mellowing passage way to stream like a bullet train going along for the ride.

As for Fragmented, which has this futuristic thrash attitude of anger that is very sci-fi and twisted compositions with the usage of the guitar and keyboards setting the atmosphere to a thunderous finale to close the curtains with a flash of lightning, Entropia’s new EP is a very powerful yet wonderous adventure of the progressive metal sound in the scene in Colombia. And while they are carrying the sounds of Opeth and Dream Theater, I imagine they listened to Mastodon’s Leviathan before working on the EP. This is a listenable metallic playthrough album from start to finish, yet you might want to fasten your seat belts to enjoy the ride.

The Fierce and the Dead - On VHS

It’s been a while since The Fierce and The Dead have put out a full-length album and an EP. And while I’ve admired what Matt Stevens has been doing since 2010 after reviewing three of his solo albums and The Fierce and the Dead, it has finally shown that Matt himself has now come a long way, and the new EP from The Fierce and the Dead called On VHS, it’s one of the most experimental avant-futuristic rock EP’s to come out this year in 2012. While there’s no singing and vocalization’s on Fierce and the Dead’s music, the band pay a debt to the three genres: Post Rock, Experimental Rock, and a little taste of the Rock in Opposition (RIO) sound of the ‘70s.

Perfect example, 666.6 kicks the album off with a lushful beautiful dream turned into a deadly nightmare. A vicious touch of feedback with an alternative math sound with a blend dosage of Radiohead’s sound, it’s raw, mean, and creepy at the same time. Then all of a sudden, the three pieces that follow along with the opening track, lets you know that this isn’t your grand-daddy’s progressive rock album that he left in the cupboard for a long time.

Hawaii is a full throbbing hardcore Crimson-like punk sound that has a vicious similarity of Matt’s own sound of aloha on the guitar as if he was writing the score for Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. As for the title track, which sees the band going into a mellowing sonic soundscape of some of the late ‘60s psychedelic vibe of the American coast, Part 3 closes the EP with a dooming post- apocalyptic sunrise into the valley including a bass line going off into the mountains as Stevens lay some sounds of The Doors and Radiohead that resembles the Strange Days and Kid A period.

The band have finally done their homework well to expect the unexpected and take the experimentations to lift you up from your feet. While they still are very busy lately, The Fierce and the Dead’s EP is an exquisite, twisted, mad, and out of this world album. Let’s hope what they might have in store for us years to come with a follow up to Morecambe in the future.

Leibowitz - The Beginning of the Endless Search for Oblivion

Already have a solo debut with Guitar for Money that was released last year online, it seems that the internet has been the home for up-and-coming bands/artists to release their music and material on; Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Reverb Nation, to name a few. But for Leibowitz, his follow up album, The Beginning of the Endless Search for Oblivion, a concept album, set in the Sci-Fi universe, about a group called the Fists, who plan to stop corruption from the Music Business by a man named Persona Nongratitus who stole one of their concubines and tries to stop him. So it’s sort of a story set in the Comic-Book world in the realms of the Marvel Universe that could have been written by Stan “The Man” Lee.

The album itself is well made and well produced as Leibowitz carries the sounds of late ‘60s and early ’70 sounds of Baroque, Psychedelic, and Prog all at once with the influences of King Crimson, Cressida, and the Smile-era sessions of the Beach Boys. With hearing loops of the Mellotron and Drum Machines, and the sound of Josh's guitar techniques, Leibowitz himself knows his Progressive musical influences very well and reading comics, fantasy, and a touch of Isaac Asimov.

Opener, We Must Leave the City at Once, takes itself into the melodic groove while having the Retro Rock sound carrying the ‘70s power edge to it as The Fitz featuring Kev Feazey and virtuoso guitarist Matt Stevens, laying down some futuristic upbeat tempos with a sample loop of an alarm synth, that sounds very funky and 21st century resemblance to it, the Organ and Stevens guitar solo, would make you say more. One of the three centerpieces on the Endless Search is Persona Nongratitutus, it has a Beatle-sque ‘60s psych beat tempo with a touch of the Sgt. Pepper sound.

Elsewhere, the chugging acoustical dark tones crisp on A Narrow Escape, has a bit of a heavy uplifting procedure while the 7-minute epic, (get this title) Groove Out at the Grove and the Daring Rescue Attempt of Persona Nongratitutus (Sounds like a Star Trek Episode, doesn’t it?) It has Leibowitz going into a funky hard rock attitude with the 12-bar blues feel as if he was taking the listener for a dance at the prom and having a psych freak out jam session to have the Seniors dance until five o’clock in the morning.

There’s a bit of the Sci-Fi elements in there and suddenly Leibowitz himself could have written this as a Graphic Novel of the album, but he knows his Virtuosity very well and he’s no fluke. He is still going to make it in the Prog circuit one day and go buckwild to make it into outer space and boldly go where no man or prog fan has gone before.

Astra - The Black Chord

San Diego’s own Astra has been pretty busy for three years lately. The last time we heard back from them, was in 2009 when they released their explosive debut album, The Weirding, and it received word of mouth and glowing reviews from MOJO, Record Collector, and Classic Rock Presents Prog and received warm receptions at Prog Festivals and small venues in the States and in Europe and they have finally are taking the Progressive Music genre up a notch.

Now in the year of our lord 2012, it seems that Astra have now come in full circle with the follow up album, The Black Chord it still shows the band have brought a lot of production, time, and effort to come up with the most mind-boggling and volcanic beauty like you’ve never heard it before. And while the cover of the album looks like something that was from 1973, the music itself is sinister, haunting, terrifying, and yet overwhelming that would have been done as a score for a Ken Russell film.

The music from beginning, middle, and end sends you, the listener on a roller-coaster ride of terror like you’ve never witnessed before. Example of it is the blistering opening 8-minute epic instrumental, Cocoon that starts the album off as a dynamite going out in the middle of nowhere as shrieking guitar feedbacks, Mellotron swooshing, ARP Odyssey’s going “Screech!”, and then it becomes a free-for-all as Brian Ellis, David Hurley, Conor Riley, and Richard Vaughan duke it out as the tension and drama fill up the atmosphere to make you get ready for an adventure that you’ve never seen before.

Then it’s a spiritual journey with the 14-minute title track that becomes a dazzling jam session nightmare filled with the void of early Premiata Forneria Marconi and the Lizard-era of King Crimson. The title goes through a mourning atmosphere as the Mellotron goes through sounds of the Organ, Brass, and the String quartet as it goes through a melodic gentle crisp sunny day as they clash through a lot of the thunderstorm clashes of both instruments as the last 3 minutes of the piece go into a haywire mode that is jaw dropping.

Astra has now shown proof that they never made a bad album and even though the Prog genre in the 21^st century has shown a lot of the revival, the sound that they do makes you feel that they have done their homework and know their Prog sound very well! While there’s mixed opinions about them, they have stayed grounded to make sure the arranging and compositions have a lot of air and staying true to the ‘70s roots.

Drift shows the emotional sound to a T. With a touch of the Trilogy-era of ELP and Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, the band goes through an acid folk moogfest with the mellotron filling the way to follow your dreams according to the song. It is a wonderful flowing calm after the storm, Astra makes sure they don’t miss a beat and making sure the grandfathers of Prog have finally given them 100% credit on their final exam.

The finale, Barefoot in the Head, has the Space Rock sound that sets the tone to close the curtain. I could tell they were watching Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyseey and the Tom Baker-era of Doctor Who and wrote this Sci-Fi mini rock opera that takes the tension between keyboard, drums, and guitar to a different level on the rhythm section. While the sounds of ‘70s Italian Prog, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and early Genesis are in there, Astra have now taken the Prog torch up to the Olympics to light it and watch the flame go in and burn in the night-like sky.

The Black Chord is a wonderful and dangerous album to listen to. It is wonderful and secret to make you want to play it over and over again. Astra show no sign of stopping, and even though they have a long way to go, this follow up is hard to describe and the sound and music is obscure, vicious, and impressively Doom Prog like no other.

Romantic Warriors: A Progressive Music Saga

It’s been a while since there has been a documentary on the genre of Progressive Rock. There had been some sort of a mini documentary that the BBC did including the top ten Prog Rock bands recorded back in 2001 hosted by comedian and Prog fan, Bill Bailey. And another one back in 2009 where the Britannia scene of the Prog genre raging from bands like; ELP, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Soft Machine, and Caravan to name a few. When you hear the phrase, “Documentaries”, you think of people like The Maysles Brothers, D.A. Pennebaker, or Murray Lerner to name a few. However, one of the most interesting documentaries I’ve seen is a movie called, Romantic Warriors: A Progressive Music Saga.

Directed by Adele Schmidt and Jose Zegarra Holder, who’ve filmed in the East Coast area of the States back in 2009 shows the cities of; Gettysburg, Bethlehem, Chapel Hill, and Baltimore, four of the cities in which they do Prog Festivals from ProgDay, RoSFest, and the festival of all festivals, NearFest, in which it is in its series finale to close the year off in 2012. Ignored by the so-called rock critics and today’s music industry, the Prog genre could never die. With the help of the internet, YouTube, and online stores including the Laser’s Edge, Wayside Music, and Syn-Phonic Music to name a few, have shown that the Prog sound isn’t dead, it just keeps growing, and these up-and-coming bands to follow in the footsteps of the bands in the ‘70s, shows that they not just love the music, but they have shown the passion and the enjoyment that these bands to create their own technique.

Bands and artists featured in the documentary are; Deluge Grander, Cabezas De Cera, Phideaux Xavier, D.F.A, Cheer-Accident, and La Maschera Di Cera to name a few, captures some of the performances that they did in the festivals that are Close to the Edge. Cabezas De Cera, from Mexico, has this middle-eastern atmospheric rock sound in World Music, will take your breath away while Italian band, D.F.A, show their love of Canterbury Jazz Scene of the late ‘60s and the golden era of the 1970s, however it is the dynamic Pronk Avant-Garde roar of Cheer-Accident’s performance at Orion Studios, will remind listeners of King Crimson’s Red period.

I have watched this documentary about 17 times already on DVD and I’m completely blown away by how not only the Schmidt and Holder have done their homework well, but showing how Prog can take the old and young generation of people to understand this is a genre that keeps on truckin and there is not a single stop sign anywhere for them. Not to mention some interviews from fans and musicians including Phideaux Xavier, Gary Green from Gentle Giant (featuring amazing rare footage of the band performing in Germany), Roine Stolt, Paul Sears, and the master of Orion Sound Studios, Mike Potter, sharing their view on the present and the future of Progressive Music.

And now Schmidt and Holder are in working mode to finish up the follow up in which they cover the Rock in Opposition scene in Europe. Let’s see what they have up their sleeve for this year in 2012 to have their full and honor support of Prog and RIO.

My Brother the Wind - I Wash My Soul In The Stream of Infinity

Formed in 2009, My Brother the Wind features Nicklas Barker, Mathias Danielsson, and Ronny Eriksson and his brother Tomas, decided to create this mythical yet strange musical atmospheric landscape that some of the prog and experimental bands were doing then back in the 1970s, and in the 21st century, are following in the footsteps and passing the torch to them. The band pay homage to the Space Rock sounds of early Floyd and Krautrocker’s Ash Ra Tempel and early Tangerine Dream as they would take the sounds by making their own soundtrack of the future.

The sound of My Brother the Wind is more of a mystical yet touch of 70s prog rock as they went back and listen to some of the music for research before making a touch of soothing yet dramatic work that would send a shiver down your spine. Even though the band have put two albums in the can, they could take the Prog-Rock structures with an eruption so big, you would definitely have a psychedelic freak out session that could almost make it as a double album and last throughout from dusk till dawn.

Like the Space Rock/Atmospheric Experimental twist that would give goosebumps to the listener, they could almost could have wrote the entire album as a film score to one of Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings back in 1978 and would have made it a cult classic with the wonderful sound and psychedelic sessions that would have made the film and music lovers jaw dropped. Starting off with the dooming session of the utopian world gone wrong on the 13-minute Fire! Fire!! Begins with the guitars and drums going haywire in a crescendo including a wall of feedback, it goes into the futuristic adventure through time and space with both of the guitar players paying tribute to Manuel Gottsching and Dave Brock also features a mellotron to set the roller-coaster ride off with a bang.

Meanwhile, Pagan Moonbeam has this melodic yet haunting raga-rock sound featuring the sitar and Ronny Eriksson’s spooky organ sound, makes it sound like 1968 all over again. You have to give credit for Nicklas Barker, because he’s not doing this for the money, he’s doing this because he wants to do other things like film scores and working with other artists alongside Anekdoten.

The delivery on The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart which features Nick, Tomas, and Ronny doing a terrifying composition that almost could have been a part of the El Ultimo sessions. Featuring a wah-wah bass solo, dooming mellotron work, Fripp-sque guitar work, and Tomas’s drumming is jazzy and almost sounding like a machine gun, makes you begin to realize that these men have done their homework very well.

The 10-minute pieces of Torbjorn Abelli (who was a bassist for this band called International Harvester back in the late ‘60s, passed away back in 2010) is a mourning egyptian rock beauty as Under Crimson Skies, makes some very good moves of ‘70s guitar groove jam sounds between Nicklas and Mathias Danielsson taking their tribute to King Crimson a step further into the voyages in the milky way. Meanwhile, the closing title track, is one of the most laid-back sounds that has this guitar layered and keyboard scenery that reminisces of the Phaedra period that makes you feel you are home back on earth and relaxing at home.

IO Earth - Moments

Since they launched into the prog scene back in 2009 and considered by Classic Rock Presents Prog as “Best New / Unsigned Band” in 2010, IO Earth have finally come in full swing since the launch of their sole self-titled debut album, it became clear that their next album would be something different beyond the musical structures of the IO Earth sound. Their second album, Moments, released this year, sees the band going into more of the symphonic, atmospheric and ambient sounds that they brought to the table from their previous one.

Mixing with '70s influential sounds of the progressive scene and the middle-eastern crossover of ambient classical music, Moments has some of the boundaries as what the bands were doing during that time period. Most of the pieces go through a passageway to open the door and seeing what the light will lead us to as the band will take us to another dimension that we have never seen for the rest of our lives.

The power between Dave Cureton and Adam Gough, who’ve been around since their school days, shows that they’re not ripping off the bands, but showing how they would take it up a notch and taking the levels of speed and motion throughout their instruments between the guitar and the keyboard. The sounds of the instruments don’t go into a thrashing mode, but a lush-like beauty that is filled with emotional touches and epic boundaries that they would do to have listeners jaws dropping, thinking, “How in the hell did they do that?”

Pieces like the two-part suite of Live Your Life goes through various modes of ballads, electronic mourning, and a reminiscent of the guitar riff of Pink Floyd’s Run Like Hell that becomes a shining achievement in the ‘80s rocking sound as it goes into a melancholic finale that would send a chill down your spine through a spoken-word about the loss of a loved one and find true love. However, on the haunting and moving Drifting, starts with a Middle-Eastern vocalization before pushing through a strict rhythm section and then the sax solo which would remind listeners of the King Crimson’s Lizard-era to set the eerie post-apocalyptic background setting this dark and haunting scenery before the male and female vocals kick in the ending for a piano swansong.

Then, everything goes through a metallic run through a classical guitar melody into a symphonic explosion on Cinta Indah while the bossa-nova drum beat kicks into a smooth jazz tempo on Come Find Love that a psychedelic swing to it that includes part of the middle-eastern hip-hop sound that almost seems out of place for IO Earth to do. It took me a while to accept it and even though I’m not crazy about it, it’s not good, but it’s okay.

And now, we come to the 11-minute epic finale, Turn Away. It blends with a sinister piano work and dark vocals as it becomes an electronic fantasy exploration with synth computers, classical string quartet done on the keyboard, and then turning into bright starlight, clearing the clouds away with a thunderstorm. Even though the band has a long way to go, this album is hard to tell, but the sound and vision is all there.