Into the Morning with Legend from Jersey and The Dark Place!

So this afternoon I was looking for a new release title Spirit from the Prog Rock band Legend. i went to MOG and found the band and a 2013 release the only thing was I hit download before I went back and checked the title. The title of the album I downloaded was The Dark Place.not Spirit. Here is the website of the Jersey Band Legend. Here is the website of the Prog Rock band Legend Anyway I listened to the album and liked it and while the band appears to be labeled as metal rather than Prog I do…

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“Into the Morning” with the Progressive Sounds of Riverside – Shrine of New Generation Slaves

When my son Andrew told me a several years ago that I should listen to more prog rock, one of the  bands I listened to was Riverside from Warsaw, Poland and I really enjoyed their music. Yesterday I  put their 2013 release Shrine of New Generation Slaves on the iPhone and listened briefly and I listened again today and boy I think I like their music more than before!! Here’s some quick background from ProgArchives: Despite not being the biggest progressive rock powerhouse of Europe, Poland have certainly sprouted great and interesting progressive bands since the heyday of progressive rock, being the biggest…

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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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Hi Ho Hi Ho! It’s off to Work I Go! With the Progressive Rock Sounds of Royal Hunt

So tonight the soundtrack for the whole 30 minute ride to work and back at Target will be from the Danish progressive rock band, Royal Hunt, Show Me How To Live. the band’s 2011 release. Based upon what I’ve heard so far, I don’t think it will be too long before I try to hunt down their latest release….A Life to Die For! Some background for you and me!! Royal Hunt is a progressive metal band based in Denmark, founded in 1989 by keyboardist Andre Andersen. The band is known for creating melodic music with a progressive and symphonic flair. They made…

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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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Life’s Soundtrack – 2013 Prog Rock From Finland’s Lars Eric Mattsson!

So this morning 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 Mattson 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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Life’s Soundtrack – Another Strong Run with Prog Rock from Sweden’s Cloudscape!

Cloudscape – Progressive Metal – Sweden So while I’m not where I want to be yet, tonight’s run was the first time in a long while that I felt strong through the whole run. The four miles seemed to fly by pretty quickly!! The splits went like this: Mile 1 – 10:01, 2- 10:17, 3, 10:15, 4 10:20 not bad at all! Early in the month, the last two miles were like a 1 minute or so per mile slower than the first two miles. Overall, I was about 1:38 faster than the last time I ran this course!! The…

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Life’s Soundtrack (that could have been) – Pictures from a Time Traveler – Marcus Jidell

Evergrey  and Dragonforce are two of my son Andrew’s favorite bands and over the last few years they have been in my music library. Music from both bands often becomes my running music, Dragonforce by choice and Evergrey by happenstance. Many times a track from Evergre4y will come on when the iPod is on random shuffle.When that happens, I usually catch myself thinking this sounds good, then after checking  who the and is, and I discover it’s Evergrey!!  Now the question you may be asking about now is – why are you telling me this?? .The answer lies in the…

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Climbing the “Cosmic Distance Ladder” with Sound of Contact!

So the other day, I wrote that Andrew told me that, along with The Winery Dogs, I should listen to Sound of Contact, and not to read about the band until after I listen. So I did as instructed and about mid-way through the album, the band started to remind me of Genesis. After listening , and enjoying the album I went to read about the band and I found out the reason that they sounded a like Genesis was their drummer…. his name is Simon Collins, yup he’s Phil’s son!!Collins has released three solo albums but he always wanted…

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