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Connection Theory - 2025 - Entropy

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(40:51; Connection Theory) It is unusual to find a band listed on ProgArchives with multiple albums but not a single review or rating, but that is the case with Connection Theory, and even though they were only added to the site a few months ago I would have thought someone would have stepped up by now. So when I saw a request from Duncan Cooper asking for reviews I thought “why not?” which is why I am now listening to his latest release. Duncan is a multi-instrumentalist who on this release provides guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, saxophone, flute, cello and drum programming and he has used the talents of singers Carolina Padron (who is the main lead) and Denisse Ferrara. Unlike many who use programmed drums he has done his best to make them sound like a human, with the result being very effective and one doesn’t really realise they are not the real deal. This is a very melodic release, with a concentration on proper songs, very much crossover prog for the most part although there ar...
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Agusa - 2026 - Panacea

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(45:54; Karisma Records) I am finding it incredibly difficult to wrap my head around the fact that Agusa were only formed in 2013 as if you had told me this was from the Seventies, or at the very latest from the Swedish retro prog revival in the Nineties, then I would have totally understood. During that time they have released six studio albums and four live, of which this is the latest and contains just three songs. There have been various membership changes over the years, but this particular line-up has been together for the last two albums, and it shows in the way they link together. Mikael Ödesjö (guitar) is the only person still there from the very beginning, but Jenny Puertas (flute, vocals), Mikael Ödesjö (guitar), Roman Andrén (keyboards), Simon Ström (bass) and Nicolas Difonis (drums, percussion, vocals) are joined in a way which only comes from countless hours playing together in rehearsal and on the road.  Take middle track “Den Förtrollade Skogen” for example. When it...
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Grace and Fire - 2026 - Live at De Boerderij

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(32:25; OOB Records) Recorded at Poppodium Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands on 12th October 2024, this captures the British prog metal quintet when they supported Threshold on the ‘Through Time’ European tour. Founder and guitarist of that band, Karl Groom, produced and mixed their debut which led to being invited onto the tour, and he has also mixed this six-track release and will be on deck for the second album as well. For the debut André Saint (vocals), Aaron Gidney (guitars),  Tim Ashton (bass) and Graham Brown (drums) had a few different session musicians providing keyboards, but they are now settled as a quintet with the arrival of Joshua Gidney.   Although they are regarded as many as prog metal, to my ears they have more of the progressive hard melodic rock style which came out in the Nineties, often linked to the Neo Prog movement, especially the likes of Galahad (where Tim was a member, twice) from that period or Walking On Ice, and is a very British sound. T...
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Gutvoid - 2026 - Liminal Shrines

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(49:05: Profound Lore) As a reviewer I am constantly bombarded with requests to review albums, but unless I already know the band (or they are on a label I admire) I just cannot take all of them, so these days it is unusual for me to grab a band at random. However, that is what happened with this band as I felt their name was just so cool I had to discover more about what was going on. I must have missed them first time around as this is their second album, although their first for Profound Lore, following on from 2022’s ‘Durance of Lightless Horizons’. Gutvoid was formed by guitarist Daniel Bonofiglio and guitarist/vocalist Brendan Dean, followed shortly thereafter by bassist Justin Boehm and drummer D. W. Lee, and according to Encyclopaedia Metallum the name “refers to the void of outer space, but if it were made of guts and other living matter.” But although the name is indeed what made me interested in the first place, I do think it may also possibly be turning people away who woul...
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Yelena Eckemoff - 2026 - Rosendals Garden

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(88:00; L & H Production) This is only the second album I have come across from Russian pianist Yelena Eckemoff, but this is her 23rd since 2010! Born and raised in Russia, Yelena’s mother was a professional pianist and teacher, so she started playing by ear from a very early age. Yelena became a classical concert pianist yet after graduation from the Moscow State Conservatory she kept looking for new styles and played piano in progressive rock and jazz-rock bands. She stopped playing to have a family, and then emigrated to rural North Carolina, and with her children growing up she returned to music. This album was recorded over two days in Benny Anderson’s (yes, ABBA) studio in Sweden and is co-credited to the other two musicians who were involved, Svante Henryson (cello, double bass, electric basses) and Morgan Ågren (Karmakanic, ex-Devin Townend-live, ex-Magma-live) on drums and percussion. Yelena provided all compositions and arrangements, played all piano and keyboards, and ev...
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Wayne Kozak & Martin Springett - 2026 - Friendship

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(63:32; Melodic Revolution Records) I have been racking my brain, but I don’t think I have ever come across an album quite like this one. Ian Anderson famously wrote some songs about his old friend, bandmate and artist Jeffrey Hammond (“A Song for Jeffrey”, “Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square” and  “For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me”) prior to him gaining an extra Hammond and joining Jethro Tull, but this album is different as Martin has brought together a compilation to celebrate more than five decades of friendship with Wayne Kozak who sadly passed away earlier this year. An accomplished saxophonist, he recorded with Martin many times over the years, while he is renowned by Canadians for being the tenor sax man for the legendary Powder Blues Band, as well as a sought-after session musician and performer who worked with the likes of Tina Turner, Tom Jones, Bryan Adams, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Loverboy, and Randy Bachman.    This compilation includes rare/unrelease...
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Sound Of Strangers - 2023 - Crossing Borders

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(44:40; OOB Records [2026 Edition] ) This debut album was originally released in 2023, but the Dutch outfit have just signed with OOB Records for their second album, which will be out later this year, so this one has now been reissued. Comprising Raymond Vermij (vocals), Paul Peperkamp (bass, bass pedals, backing vocals), Paul Krempel (guitars, backing vocals), Oscar Alblas (drums, percussion) and Ron Mozer (keyboards) this is a Neo Prog who have been heavily influenced by the likes of Credo, and given I used to arrange gigs for that band I found this a fascinating release. It certainly never sounds as if it was released towards the end of the first quarter of the 21st century as it definitely belongs to the last decade of the 20th, but even though I was a teenager in the Seventies I have a very strong attachment to the music of that decade so it is fascinating to hear a “new” band produce that sound so well. Aside from Credo one could argue there are some influences from Pallas, Comed...
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