2013 Prog Rock from Denmark’s Royal Hunt – A Life to Die For!

The Music Safari first spotted the Danish prog rock  band Royal Hunt a while back, and listened to their 2011 release Show Me How to Live  which was the 11th studio album from the band  I enjoyed the album and have been looking forward to the release of their new album A Life to Die For, which was released on December 3rd!  Since then the album has been on the iPhone and been listening to several times!! If you don’t know….. ROYAL HUNT is a progressive metal band in the style of DREAM THEATER : symphonic heavy-metal with strong classic…

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The Music Safari discovers great Symphonic Prog from Armenia’s Oaksenham!

Yesterday among my “Just for You” recommendations at MOG was  the album Conquest of  the Pacific from the band Oaksenham. The album was released in 2006 and was recommended because I had listened to Kerrs Pink and Dead Heroes Club.Since I had enjoyed both of those bands,  I read the info  about the band. When I read that they were Armenian the hunt became more interesting!  So  I downloaded  the album to the iPhone and what I found was some great symphonic prog-rock!  The highlight for me was the flute! Some background from their website: OAKSENHAM was founded in 2001…

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The Music Safari Lands in Carmarthen, Wales and finds Prog Rockers – 25 Yard Screamer

 This morning’s soundtrack was a little eclectic, as I listened to two albums at the opposite ends of the musical spectrum. The first was Herb Alpert’s new album Steppin’ Out and at the other end of the spectrum was a progressive rock album from a trio from the UK 25 Yard Screamer. I found 25 Yard Screamer’s name among the new prog rock releases early this morning.. Their new album is titled Something that Serves to Remind or Reward. A quick trip to MOG returned only the band’s 2011 release Until All are One. So that one went on the iphone…

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The Safari finds new Neo-Prog in the UK from Freedom to Glide – Rain!

So the Safari travels today to the UK to find some new Prog Rock in two locations. First in the West Midlands we find Andy Nixon and then in Derbyshire we meet Pete Riley. Both musicians are members of the leading Pink Floyd tribute act Dark Side Of The Wall. That though is not the band we had hoped to meet. The band we wanted to meet and learn more about is called Freedom to Glide and we have recently discovered the band and have listened to their latest album Rain.  The album is really interesting on a couple of…

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The Safari Lunches with Persephone’s Dream from Pittsburgh, PA!

So the Safari didn’t have to travel far this week as I’ve been listening to Pan: An Urban Pastoral  from the Pittsburgh based band Persephone’s Dream. From the ProgArchives…… Claiming influences like RUSH, GENESIS and OZRIC TENTACLES, Pittsburgh,PA band PERSEPHONE”S DREAM (named after a Greek myth) was formed initially in 1993 by guitarist Rowen POOLE and bassist Christ SIEGEL. The duo drafted an intern named Judilynn NEIDERCORN to sing vocals and recorded the band’s first album, ‘Evening Mirage’, in Rowan’s dining room. Although the album was not released until 1997, it gained some radio play and a cut off the…

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Music Safari runs with Norway’s Kerrs Pink – Mystic Spirit

There’s good news and bad news from last night’s run. The good news is the headlamp that I bought the other day works great. It makes the road visible to me and me visible to drivers! The bad news is that now I have no excuse for not running when it gets dark at five o’clock!! Last night’s run was pretty good. The first mile was 9:30 and the rest were around 9:50 minutes plus! The soundtrack for the run was a new to me Prog Rock band from Norway Kerrs Pink. I listened to their latest release Mystic Storm….

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The Music Safari finds – 2013 Prog Rock in Greece – Until Rain – Anthem to Creation

Today the Music Safari lands in Greece – Thessalonki, in particular, where we meet – Yannis Papadopoulos,  Theodore Amaxopoulos, Lefteris Germenlis, Bill Gkagkavouzis and Alex Hughes, who collectively form the extremely good and young progressive metal band Until Rain.   Actually, the current band differs slightly from the onethat was formed in  2004 by then 14-year old schoolmates, Orestis FIKOS (Bass), Lefteris GERMENLIS (Keyboards) and Alex HUGHES (Drums).The change came between their debut album “The Reign of Dreams” released in 2009 and the follow-up album  Anthem to Creation released in 2013 (which by the way was released on my wedding anniversary August 23rd)….

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The Musical Safari finds Gandalf’s Fist – Neo Prog from the UK!

Today, well actually yesterday, the Musical Safari flew across the pond and landed in Cumbria, UK   Cumbria is one of the most sparsely populated counties in the United Kingdom, with 73.4 people per km2 (190/sq mi). Cumbria, the third largest ceremonial county in England by area, is bounded to the north by the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders, to the west by the Irish Sea, to the south by Lancashire, to the southeast by North Yorkshire, and to the east by County Durham and Northumberland (Pardon the social studies teacher rearing his head) In Cumbria, I discovered two guys who over the last few years have become good friends and…

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The Safari heads to the Windy City and finds New Prog Rock from Oceanborn!

So earlier this week I created a new rule about the music I listen to during a run. The rule is the music should be more often than not Prog Rock! The reason many-sided.  First there’s a lot of music and fewer vocals, so I don’t have to listen and determine what the lyrics are, instead I can just let the music wash over me. Secondly, there are lots of tempo changes that allow me to speed up and slow down at varying points during the run!  Thursday night was the first night I implemented the rule, and the run…

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The Musical Safari travels to Finland and finds – Lars Eric Mattsson’s Epicentre!

A while back, I was checking the new progressive rock album released in September. What usually catches my attention is the country of origin of the artist. There were several bands from Italy, as well as The Netherlands, the UK, the US and one from Finland Lars Eric Mattsson When I saw that Lion Music released the album, I thought, hey, I know that company! They released another album that I listened to recently, Marcus Jidell’s Pictures from a Time Traveller. When I went back to their website, there was Lars Eric, looking at me from right above Marcus… When…

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