Author Archives: alanjones

Album review: THE TIRITH – Tales From The Tower

Posted on October 3, 2015 by alanjones
THE TIRITH - Tales From The Tower

Convergent Recordings  [Release date: 30.09.15] Ah but had this album been released in 1970 – it would have been up there with the finest progressive rock albums of the day and the band lauded by ‘Sounds’ and ‘New Musical Express’ … Continue reading →

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Album review: THE LAST EMBRACE – The Winding Path

Posted on September 28, 2015 by alanjones
THE LAST EMBRACE - The Winding Path

Longfellow Deeds Records  -  [Release date: 20.04.15] Is there something in the water in France at present? For years our Gallic brothers have singularly failed to produce any progressive rock of any note, or at least any that registered on … Continue reading →

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Album review: RIVERSIDE – Love, Fear And The Time Machine

Posted on September 18, 2015 by alanjones
RIVERSIDE - Love, Fear And The Time Machine

Inside Out Music [Release date: 04.09.15] From the opening strains of the twelve-minute opus ‘The Same River’ from the fabulous ‘Out Of Myself’ album in 2003, Riverside have been in the vanguard of the 21st century resurgence in progressive rock … Continue reading →

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Album review: INNER ODYSSEY – Ascension

Posted on August 29, 2015 by alanjones
INNER ODYSSEY - Ascension

Self-released [Release date: 16.06.15] Over the years, Canada has produced relatively few bands that have made any sort of impact on the world of progressive rock. If you put to one side Rush, Saga and, from the very early days, … Continue reading →

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Album review: RAINBURN – Canvas Of Silence

Posted on August 23, 2015 by alanjones
RAINBURN - Canvas Of Silence

Self released  [Release Date: 31.10.14] Progressive rock music has rarely been in ruder health than it is at present, with exceptional music arriving from all corners of the globe – both to rattle the cage of complacency of western Europe’s … Continue reading →

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Album review: EXOVEX – Radio Silence

Posted on June 23, 2015 by alanjones
EXOVEX - Radio Silence

Self-released: www.dalesimmons.com  [Release date: March 2015] Greenville, South Carolina. Hardly a town known as a creative hub for progressive rock one wouldn’t have thought – but, something is stirring in downtown Greenville and all fans of the genre had better … Continue reading →

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Album review: NICE BEAVER – The Time It Takes

Posted on June 7, 2015 by alanjones
NICE BEAVER - The Time It Takes

Oskar Records [Release Date: 20.02.15] Nice Beaver – presumably named from the classic Frank Drebbin line in ‘The Naked Gun’ – are a Dutch four-piece delivering a brand of sparkling progressive rock that many of today’s so-called ‘prog’ bands would … Continue reading →

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Album review: PENDRAGON – Men Who Climb Mountains

Posted on May 13, 2015 by alanjones
PENDRAGON - Men Who Climb Mountains

Pendragon/Toff Records  [Release date: 13.10.14] Ah, Pendragon – time was when their albums didn’t even need reviewing, such was their generic sound and all round cosy familiarity – it was first-rate, melodic progressive rock and everybody knew what to expect. … Continue reading →

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Album review: HASSE FROBERG AND MUSICAL COMPANION – HFMC

Posted on April 19, 2015 by alanjones
HASSE FROBERG AND MUSICAL COMPANION - HFMC

Glassville Records   [Release date: 16.03.15] Remember your adolescence when you walked everywhere with an LP tucked under your arm to show anyone who was interested just how cool and hip you were? Back then it was ‘The Yes Album’, … Continue reading →

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Album review: KATATONIA – Sanctitude

Posted on April 16, 2015 by alanjones
KATATONIA - Sanctitude

KScope   [Release date: 30 March 2015] Back in the day, it was often espoused by people who didn’t like heavy rock that “it’s easy to make a row – but can they cut it live and acoustic?”. To a … Continue reading →

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Album review: KARIBOW – Addicted

Posted on April 1, 2015 by alanjones
Karibow - Addicted

Rock Werk Records   [Release date: 26 October 2014] Hailing from Germany, Karibow is the brainchild – and, as far as I can make out, the sole preserve of – Oliver Rüsing, an exceptional multi-instrumentalist – who, again as far … Continue reading →

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Album review: STEVE ROTHERY – The Ghosts Of Pripyat

Posted on March 30, 2015 by alanjones
STEVE ROTHERY - The Ghosts Of Pripyat

Self-released  -  [Release date 02.02.15] What’s a reviewer supposed to do when confronted by perfection? Our whole raison d’être here at GRTR! is to give an opinion that informs the reader; (a) whether the music being reviewed is worth a … Continue reading →

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EP review: BLUEMINDED – Blueminded

Posted on March 28, 2015 by alanjones
Blueminded

Self-released  [Release date: April 2014] Blueminded describe themselves as a ‘poprockband’ but really they are doing themselves a disservice as this debut EP definitely has a vein of progressive rock weaving its way through the four tracks on offer here. … Continue reading →

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Album review: STEVE HACKETT – Wolflight

Posted on March 20, 2015 by alanjones
STEVE HACKETT - Wolflight

David Randall chatted to Steve Hackett in early March 2015 for Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, about the new album and the new tour ‘Acolyte to Wolflight’ (27:46) Inside Out [Release Date: 30.03.15] Steve Hackett’s star is definitely in the … Continue reading →

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Album review: CREPUSCULE – Vivv

Posted on March 13, 2015 by alanjones
Crepuscule - Vivv

Self-released – Release Date: 18 July 2014 This is definitely an album of despites. Despite having a name that sounds like a pustulent sore, despite having a cover that Slipknot might well have found too scary and despite the entire … Continue reading →

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Album review: ESOSOME – What We Thought Would Save Us

Posted on March 9, 2015 by alanjones
ESOSOME - What We Thought Would Save Us

  Self-released – [Release Date: 10.07.14] One of the joys of writing reviews is that every so often a little gem appears amid the general ordinariness of new material that arrives (mostly as a result of the joys of self-release … Continue reading →

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Album review: JEFF HEALEY BAND – Live At The Horseshoe Tavern 1993

Posted on March 7, 2015 by alanjones
JEFF HEALEY BAND - Live At The Horseshoe Tavern 1993

Eagle Records – [Release Date: 26.01.15] Around eighteen months ago I reviewed Jeff’s ‘Live In NYC’ and questioned whether the world needed yet another Jeff Healey Band live album – given that there had been four releases of live and … Continue reading →

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Album Review: TIN SPIRITS – Scorch

Posted on January 18, 2015 by alanjones
Tin Spirits - Scorch

Esoteric Antenna/Vibrola Records  [Release date 15.09.14] Every so often an album shows up that takes you completely by surprise. I don’t know why, but my expectations of Tin Spirits second album were not that high – despite the fact that … Continue reading →

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Quick plays: LEON ALVARADO, KNIGHT AREA, SHADOW MERCHANT

Posted on November 30, 2014 by alanjones
LEON ALVARADO

LEON ALVARADO – 2014: Music From An Expanded Universe Melodic Revolution Records – [Release date: 30.10.14] The title says it all really as this sounds like it was written in space, played in space and beamed down for spaced-out people … Continue reading →

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Album review: CORVUS STONE – Corvus Stone ll

Posted on November 27, 2014 by alanjones
CORVUS STONE - Corvus Stone ll

Melodic Revolution Records [Release Date: 30.09.14] Back in November 2012 I had the pleasure of reviewing Corvus Stone’s first album – and some album it was too, having progressive rock at its heart but incorporating a myriad of other styles … Continue reading →

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Gig review: LEVELLERS/The Selecter – William Aston Hall, Wrexham, 18 November 2014

Posted on November 20, 2014 by alanjones
LEVELLERS - William Aston Hall, Wrexham, 18 November 2014

There is something wonderfully timeless about a Levellers gig. Every time I have seen them over the past twenty-odd years they have always been the same, giving a full-on performance for their adoring fans and leaving nothing on the stage … Continue reading →

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Album review: FREQUENCY DRIFT – Summer

Posted on October 25, 2014 by alanjones
FREQUENCY DRIFT - Summer

[Download only from band website - Release date: 12.09.14] There are certain bands and artists, aren’t there, to whom you turn to capture your prevailing mood? One brings to mind Buddy Guy for blues, Zeppelin or AC/DC if you want … Continue reading →

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Album review: PHI – The Waves Of Sound Remain

Posted on October 7, 2014 by alanjones
PHI - The Waves Of Sound Remain

Gentle Art Of Music   [Release Date 03.11.14] Despite being described by Phi themselves as ‘art rock’ this Austrian 3-piece’s musical debut screams progressive rock all day long – although, it has to be said, the prog metal template of … Continue reading →

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Album review: OPETH – Pale Communion

Posted on September 30, 2014 by alanjones
Opeth - Pale Communion

Roadrunner Records [Release Date 25.08.14] Mikael Akerfeldt – the debate rages… Rather like Steven Wilson and Mike Portnoy, there are sections of the music press which are so sycophantic and so over the top in hyping up the Opeth frontman … Continue reading →

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Album review: A SECRET RIVER – Colours Of Solitude

Posted on September 24, 2014 by alanjones
A SECRET RIVER - Colours Of Solitude

Self released  [Release Date: 25.06.14] Given the lineage of great progressive bands from Scandinavia and the form of progressive rock music that tends to be their stock in trade – think Katatonia, Opeth, Beardfish and their brooding melancholia punctuated with … Continue reading →

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