Issue 2025-028
Aethellis — Northumbria
We don't usually review albums that came out more than a decade ago. As a general rule, we try to focus on recent releases. That said, we do review re-issues (this album has been made available again on Bandcamp last year), and when a band reaches out directly, even with older material, we're always open to giving it a listen. After all, this is progressive rock we're talking about, a genre where being discovered sometimes just takes a little patience... or a website with a few loyal readers who haven't given up on Mellotrons and 10-minute solos.
So, that brings us to Northumbria, a 2011 release by Aethellis, a band based in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. They also sent us their more recent EP A Home In Your Thoughts, which you can read about below. And while that EP is a decent listen, I have to say Northumbria has left me with a better impression. We also covered their last album from 2023, and their self-titled album from 2003.
The album opens with its title track, a confident, eleven-minute piece that manages to stay engaging without drifting into the self-indulgent. There's a nice blend of symphonic textures, melodic leads, and dynamic changes. The keyboards carry much of the weight here, and while some of the sounds feel slightly dated, it works within the overall retro-prog vibe. As the album moves forward, it continues to show a good range of ideas.
The Penal Colony leans into darker, more dramatic territory, while The Peace Path shifts toward something more optimistic and melodic, including some pop melodies. There's even a bit of funk and fusion influence sprinkled throughout the album that keeps things from becoming too predictable. Aethellis clearly know their prog history, but they also try to add their own voice to the mix.
Vocals are perhaps the weakest point. Not bad, but a bit flat in places, and I missed some changes or nuances here and there. Still, they don't distract, and the instrumental work is strong enough to carry the experience. The production is clear and balanced, giving space for each instrument to shine without sounding overproduced. Even the instrumental songs work fine in the mix, except for the last one, Sounds Good, which doesn't sound so good to me as a last song...
Overall, Northumbria is a good, enjoyable progressive rock album. It doesn't break new ground, but it's crafted with care and a genuine love for the genre. For me, it's a more complete and rewarding listen than the band's later EP, and definitely worth a listen for anyone who enjoys melodic, keyboard-driven prog with a classic touch. Not an essential album, but definitely respectable, and hey, in a niche like prog, that's already saying quite a lot.
Aethellis — A Home In Your Thoughts
I gave A Home In Your Thoughts a listen with some curiosity. I'm always up for discovering progressive rock that dares to be a little different, and while this one has its moments, it didn't exactly blow me away.
The title track is clearly the centerpiece: a 15-minute suite with some nice shifts and instrumental passages that definitely nod to classic Genesis. It's well-structured and pleasant, but it felt like it never fully took off. There's a sense of potential that doesn't quite get there.
Believe In Somebody leans more into pop-rock territory. It's catchy enough, but to me, it came across as a bit too generic. Janice tries to mix it up with some funk touches and a sax solo, which I appreciated for the variety, even if it didn't totally land for me. Maybe it'd be interesting if they tried to follow that funky sound a bit in future releases. That's my free piece of advice.
All in all, this is a decent listen. You can tell there's care and musicianship behind it, and fans of retro prog will probably find something to enjoy. But for me, it's one of those records that's not bad while it's on and easy to forget once it's over.
Franck Carducci and the Fantastic Squad — Odyssey
In 2019 Franck Carducci released the album The Answer. In the first couple of years of the pandemic Franck did some shows to support the album but probably not as many as he would have liked. In 2022, the number of gigs increased, thankfully, and in June 2022, Franck Carducci and the Fantastic Squad opened for Sting in front of 15.000 people. In September 2022 they performed at Poppodium Boerderij in Zoetermeer, and that show was recorded to be released as a video. Yours truly was present at this performance, and DPRP colleague Jan Buddenberg wrote a review about that concert.
The first time I saw Franck Carducci was in 2018. In the meantime, Franck almost completely rebuilt his band. The album The Answer was recorded with his previous band, but somewhere along the way Franck created The Fantastic Squad. The Fantastic Squad features Barth Sky on guitar, Cédric Selzer on keyboard, Léa Fernandez on drums and of course, still present is Mary Reynaud.
The opener of the concert is the title track from the latest album (Love Is) The Answer. Franck walks on stage with his familiar double neck guitar, a combination of a twelve-string and bass. From start to finish of this gig, the band shows they are indeed a Fantastic Squad. Guitar player Barth Sky has the appearance of captain Jack Sparrow with his lengthy beard and eye shadow. On the studio recording Steve Hackett does the solo on Closer to Irreversible but Barth Sky did a perfect job at playing this solo. During Mr. Hyde & Dr. Jekyll he plays the guitar behind his back with such ease that it almost made my jaw drop.
Halfway through the show, the Fantastic Squad went backstage to have a drink, and Franck Carducci did an acoustic solo version of Beautiful Night. Directly after this song the camera turns toward the crowd, and you can see yours truly together with DPRP colleague Jan. It is clear to see that we are having a good time!
Then it is time for Franck to have drink, and the Fantastic Squad play The Angel with Mary Reynaud doing her angelic dance with her wings of light. Mary is a steady member of the band and she brings just that bit of extra theatre to the show. Besides her wings of light, she also appears in various costumes like from Alice In Wonderland and never ever have I seen any other musician play the theremin with a disco ball bra.
Keyboard player Cédric Selzer is more on the back of the stage and not as extravagant as the performers in the front of the stage but he delivers a very fine performance. Cédric has a nice solo spot in Torn Apart and his playing is also very noticeable in the Alice's Eerie Dream. This is a song that has to be played at a Franck Carducci gig. A lengthy version of this song due to the solos from various Fantastic Squad members, Barth Sky played a nice rendition of the November Rain solo. Drummer Léa Fernandez gets her solo spot during The Asylum. She shows you do not need a huge drumkit to make a whole lot of noise, marvelous drumming. All were wearing crazy glasses during The Asylum, Franck Carducci and The Fantastic Squad always bring some theatrics elements. The concert ends with Franck Carducci's anthem Slave To Rock 'n' Roll. This video release also features a bonus version of Slave To Rock 'n' Roll, a recording from a camera mounted on the neck of his bass guitar.
The Answer Live shows that Franck Carducci and the Fantastic Squad can bring an entertaining rock show. Besides being marvelous musicians, Franck Carducci and the Fantastic Squad also bring some theatric elements. It is very clear that they are having a lot of fun and that shows in this recording. It is also clear each time you see the smiling faces when the camera records the crowd, even yours truly can be seen with a huge smile. The quality of the recording is very good and many cameras were used so you can enjoy this wonderful show from various angles. I may be a bit biased because I was present at this performance but this is certainly a highly enjoyable concert recording. The release is not available as DVD or Blu-ray, a download can be bought directly from Franck or a thumb drive can be bought at the upcoming concerts.
Avi C. Engel — Nocturne (Soundtrack For An Invisible Film)
On Avi C. Engel's Bandcamp page Nocturne (Soundtrack For An Invisible Film) is listed as the latest of the artist's 36 releases. They are a new artist to me and to DPRP.net. Avi is a multi-instrumentalist (voice, acoustic guitar, gudok, talharpa, percussion, melodica, field recording, mixing, and art) and creates music that is stately and aims for the contemplative.
Avi says that Nocturne began under "a spell of sleeplessness and depression, and finished as I was emerging from it. It began as an attempt to soothe my own mind, and I share it with the hope that it might soothe other minds as well, or at least offer an interesting distraction."
The music created, both the instrumentals and the songs, mixes drones and acoustic guitar with more unusual instruments and field recordings. The opening track features a storm by the sea along with, I'm guessing here, the talharpa that sounds like a scratchy cello. Following that is the first of the songs, Where Does A Moth Go?, which Avi sings reverb laded above washes of drones and a repetitive acoustic guitar phrase.
And so on goes the entire album. The use of short repeating phrases and minimalist drones quickly gets a little wearing. The melodies don't really develop at all and leaves me disengaged, and frankly, somewhat bored. I may not be in anything like the right frame of mind for this album of oddball avant-folk. Avi has tagged his music on Bandcamp with the description "downbeat", which is about the most honest tag I've ever seen on the site.
Sorry Avi, not for me.
Red Bazar — Blood Moon
Although the composition of Red Bazar is almost identical to that of Tiger Moth Tales in its full band incarnation, musically, it is an entirely different proposition, however. Not so much the genteel promenades through Chigwick, culminating in a picnic of "cider and walnut cake", as the barely suppressed fury of a bull behind a flimsy wooden gate about to be released into the rodeo ring, steaming breath escaping audibly from its flared nostrils, every sinew straining in a frenzy of anticipation. Not a whiff of whimsy in sight. Blood Moon is their sixth album (the fourth to feature vocals) and the last with founding member Mick Wilson on bass. Its release date coinciding with IQ's Dominion has perhaps meant that it has been unjustly overlooked. 2025 has already distinguished itself as a bumper year for prog, and Blood Moon absolutely deserves its place amongst the very best, showcasing the band's full repertoire of registers and styles, from the propulsive instrumentals Fighting Force and High Velocity, a much-loved staple of the live set, to full-on prog metal in which both components are equally weighted, the "prog" designation for once not a misnomer. Red Bazar allows Peter Jones to give free rein to his inner growler, which he does with a skill only matched by his evident relish. There are literally no limits to his musical and vocal gifts.
Fall On Your Own Sword flies like a greyhound from the traps with Paul Comerie's energetic drums, Andy Wilson's guitar and Mick Wilson's bass adding a serrated edge. There could be no more powerful or thrilling illustration of Red Bazar's intense darker side than this, a pleasingly proggy transition preceding a funkier wah-wah guitar and keys-dominated section, before peaking with Peter's full-throated metal vocals. All of which perfectly mirrors what Peter has described as "more of the vaguely political anti-establishment ranting (or an old man shouting at clouds) which seems to possess my lyric writing at times".
At 5 minutes 30, following Peter's cry from the visceral depths, the outrage subsides, and a mellow, lushly melodic passage ensues, Mick's bass sublimely intertwining with Andy's guitar, with the curlicued grace of a medieval illuminated manuscript, bringing us back down to earth like a dandelion seed tenderly deposited by a spring breeze. Meticulously crafted, there are no conspicuous soldering joins, the changes in mood and accompanying style flow naturally.
With its exquisite acoustic guitar, suffused with an almost unbearable melancholy, When The World Burns softly caresses the senses, its gently meandering quality in poignant juxtaposition to the lyrics. Peter recalls that he was inspired to write them in 2020, while out walking the streets one evening: "Meanwhile on the news there was rioting, conflict and half the world hating the other half. The contrast was striking, yet it seemed that maybe all the noise and potential destruction might just be on our doorstep at any time". Quietly devastating in their understatedness, their very simplicity cuts to the quick:
Here in the humdrum
The noise seems so far away
It's just a talking point
That nobody hears
And somewhere a bird calls
A lone voice to pierce the night I shed a single tear
That nobody sees
The heart-wrenching electric guitar solo at the 3-minute mark stirs the listener from their dream-like introspection, the delicate, muted keys in the background adding a further layer of concentrated existential despair culminating in vocals conveying unalloyed anguish. The image brought to my mind is not so much police armed with batons behind riot shields facing off against angry mobs, as a lone orang-utan in a field of barren stumps where the lush green canopy once provided shelter verdant and vibrant with life, its orange rendering it more vulnerable against the ashen grey of the viciously denuded soil, defenceless against the ominous rumble of loggers.
Or of the qualmless cynical trillionaire elite, the glint of profit in their voracious eyes, who have amassed fortunes which cannot be spent in a thousand lifetimes, polluting the atmosphere with their private jets and phallic rockets on a quest to conquer space, having laid waste to our beautiful planet. Supremely confident in their divinely sanctioned right derived from what has (perhaps inadvertently) proved to be the single most toxic statement in Western history, interpreted by the plunderers as a blank cheque from the Supreme Being: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth". The sadness, the very restraint and resignation which pervade the song, serve only to amplify its impact. It never preaches, preferring dignified composure to lapel grabbing.
Harking back to Tales From The Bookcase, my favourite track is The Baron's Eyes. Based on the Sherlock Holmes story, The Illustrious Client (what could possibly be proggier?) it offers a slice of Victorian melodrama and Peter hams it up gloriously, his soothing voice spiked with a sinister undertone, the in-your-face metal brashness giving way to a quieter section, functioning almost as an interlude, until the spectacular moment of Miss Winter's revenge, replete with thrashing vitriol (literally hurled into the titular villain's eyes), a second's silence heightening the tension and dramatic effect before Peter lets rip a blood-curdling scream. Sheer genius.
Closing track Blood Moon is satisfyingly epic in proportions, Peter heralding the apocalypse with a howl. The blood moon acts as a metaphor for the end of days, the price we will have to pay for our foolish complacency. The hypnotic repetition of "It's coming" emphasising the relentless inevitability of humanity's demise, the menacing bass accompanied by drums reminiscent of a faltering heartbeat disrupted by palpitations. No greater power will intervene to save us. Harsh winds blow, Peter again repeating "It's coming" like an incantation to ward off impending doom, but there is no escape, a lightning bolt cracks the heavens open, a searing guitar solo and celestial chorus keys carry us onwards until they are overwhelmed by lightning strikes, like a vengeful god exacting retribution, hurling bolts, until all that remains is utter desolation, no more music, nobody to hear it, only the roaring swirl of the naked gale until it fades out: pure goose bumps territory.
Boasting some of Red Bazar's finest work, Blood Moon is an album of contrasts, shifting effortlessly from the contained and understated to the bombastic and bulge-eyed, in short the entire gamut of human emotions concentrated into just over an hour of top-notch musicianship, ambitious, inventive, flamboyant, bold and boisterous. Trust me, you need to add this to your collection.
Riverside — Live I.D.
CD 2: Post-Truth (6:40), The Place Where I Belong (15:45), Egoist Hedonist (11:12), Friend Or Foe? (8:46), Self-Aware (9:45), Conceiving You (12:07)
You can't really get more consistent than Riverside when it comes to positive reviews on DPRP. The 13 CD releases have had a total of 27 reviews with an overall average score of 8.5. Only one of those released, only the more experimental Eye Of The Soundscape failed to receive at least one recommended review. Live I.D., recorded in Warsaw on the 1st June 2024, is the band's sixth live release and comes on the back of their well-received 2023 album ID.Entity.
Not surprisingly, the live album focuses on this latest release with all but I'm Done With You and the two way-too-good to be limited to a special edition CD tracks Age Of Anger and Together Again not being represented. Most of the live versions are longer than the studio versions with Landmine Blast and the epic The Place Where I Belong being significantly extended by approximately 2.5 minutes each. The remaining six tracks have all appeared on at least one previous live album, with Panic Room being a particular live staple.
The quartet of Mariusz Duda (vocals, bass), Michał Łapaj (keyboards, backing vocals), Piotr Kozieradzki (drums) and Maciej Meller (guitars) are in fine form with Meller in particular giving a great performance throughout and Duda being in excellent voice. The new pieces slot in comfortably alongside the older songs giving the live album a great consistency, particularly as the group have eschewed the modern trend of presenting the album in it's entirety as one piece. This is fine for classic albums that have stood the test of time but can be somewhat indulgent for new releases, unless it there is a great concept holding the album together (one's thoughts tend towards The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Subterranea rather than Tales From Topographic Oceans!)
Although I have other live albums by Riverside, Live I.D. seems to stand above the others as being more instantly memorable and a totally complete performance with each band member at the top of their game. There is not much point going through the album track-by-track as fans will be familiar with all the tracks and reviews of the studio albums will offer a better indication of the pluses, and occasional minuses, of the songs. Having said that, The Place Where I Belong deserves a special mention as this live performance is a killer and seems to escalate the song above the studio version. Do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy, I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I and the audience on the night did.
Unwanted Guest — Bonedead
Unwanted Guest is the brainchild of Seventh Son guitarist Dave Fox, where he writes, records and produces everything. So it really is a solo project. The first album, Grave Metallum was met with positive praise (even entering number 10 on Amazon's New Release Metal Char), so no pressure for album 2 then!
Mary Had A Little Lamb introduces us to the album a throw back to early 90s metal mixed with modern productions. Sounding at times like a cross between Avenged Sevenfold and Grim Reaper (which isn't surprising, considering Grim Reaper formed shortly before Seventh Son). This continues with Six Degrees Of Saturation, the pacing, drums and guitar work drips with early 90s grunge and metal sensibilities. The Alchemist picks the pace up as a catchy tribute to old school driving rock — catchy and filled with moments to shred on an air guitar or sing along.
Following this, we slow down slightly with Dead End which has a more modern alt-metal feel to it, but no less of a punch to it. Beneath the Broken Shell is a quasi-ballad, with a gentler approach to it, with more clean guitars to it. It still retains the energy from before though, so maybe don't wave the lighters let. Imposter Syndrome is one of the main singles and the halfway mark. Again, it features the modern heavy metal sound mixed in with an almost glam rock swagger.
For side 2, we start with I'm Just a Guy which is a balls-to-the-wall hard rock track, full of grooving drums and riffs. Show Yourself kicks off with some guitar lines that would be right at home on The Best Air Guitar Album In The World series, and this power-chord-fueled groove takes us into a Kindred State of Mind. More quick licks and some interesting drum fills help to break things up between the big choruses.
Future Skeleton lands next and is carved from the same mold: big choruses with a few lead licks here and there for added excitement. Funeral In My Brain sticks to the pattern present in the album, and throws melodic passages at you left right and centre. And finally, Wrap Me Up hits the ground running as the album closer, bringing us back to a more traditional heavy metal pace and sound, with some superb soloing from Fox, mixed with a bit of a playful vibe to the music. Absolutely the stand-out track.
Unfortunately, I found a lot of the tracks had a similar sound. They all come across with the same sort of structure, similar drum lines (a lot of bass-snare-bass-snare rhythms) and an almost “hard rock 101” style of guitar work. It is fantastically produced; everything is crisp and clean — and major props to Fox for doing everything himself. The album is certainly a good, solid hard rock album that showcases why the late 80s/90s were good for heavier music and brings it to a modern audience. So, for folk who like the style, or are looking to explore the genre it would probably land quite highly for them.
A definite recommendation for fans of groups like (early) Alice in Chains, Alter Bridge, modern Avenged Sevenfold, or Annihilator.