Prog

When I saw the latest edition of Prog [148] during my weekly Tesco shop, I couldn’t believe my eyes! Was that really Tangerine Dream on the cover? Not only that, but a story about the making of Phaedra and some Edgar Froese postcards to boot. It land

UK prog mainstays The Tangent have announced their 13th studio album, To Follow Polaris – and singer-keyboard player Andy Tillison reveals that it’s a solo record in the truest sense. “It’s what Elon Musk would refer to as ‘absolutist’,” says Tilliso

“The imagery is bold,” ponders Daniel Davies as he recalls how a chance Christmas gift of a book of stills from noir films from the 1940s from John Carpenter’s wife, Sandy, to her husband, came to inspire Lost Themes IV: Noir, which is released via S

Portals Festival, the UK’s leading post-rock, math rock and new progressive festival held in London in May, has unveiled its full bill, with US post-rockers This Will Destroy You announced as Saturday headliners. They join fellow countrymen If These

Singer-guitarist Kavus Torabi has claimed that a “heroic dose” of magic mushrooms not only helped him finish his new solo album, The Banishing, which is released on May 3 via Believers Roast, but also that the experience was “atheism-dissolving”. Bes

“It’s a bit bleak, but this is where the best art comes from: struggles,” says Marjana Semkina about her upcoming solo album Sirin. The title references a half-woman, half-bird creature in Slavic mythology: a harbinger of death and misfortune. “It’s

Pallbearer’s fifth album finds the band at their most “subdued and uncomfortable” according the bassist-vocalist Joe Rowland. Mind Burns Alive is released via Nuclear Blast Records on May 17, with the Arkansas prog-doom quartet focusing on emotional

“It’s always a goal for me to make something interesting from the beginning to the end, to make the listener travel, like a journey,” says Neige, frontman of Alcest. France’s blackgaze pioneers will release their seventh studio album Les Chants De L’

“The first time I heard Meshuggah, I wasn’t into it; it scared me. They were one of the first bands I heard that had screaming, but I liked it because they were singing it, too. I was always in that frame of mind that if it doesn’t have singing then

FORMING A BAND with your dad may not be on everyone’s to-do list, but for siblings Willow and Lula Beggs, it seemed like a natural next step. Nick Beggs fostered his daughters’ love of music from a young age, inspired by his own musical success with

Last year, Peter Gabriel broke his two-decade hiatus with the ambitious studio album, i/o. Released to coincide with the lunar cycles, its tracks were issued as Bright- and Dark-Side mixes, each enhancing a different quality to the music. Both sets o

“I HAVE A THEORY that all bandnames are bad,” says Squeaky Feet guitarist and vocalist Colin Shore. “Once you’ve heard a name enough, you trick yourself into thinking it sounds cool. But I think Squeaky Feet is deceptive: it implies a dancey nature t

THE STORY OF The Bardic Depths is entwined with that of Big Big Train. Helmed by Lanzarote-based Dave Bandana, the quintet was formed among the posts of BBT’s Facebook group. They’ve assembled three albums so far, with studio assistance from Robin Ar

Randy McStine is a man with his fingers in a lot of prog pies. From playing live in Porcupine Tree to solo shows opening for The Pineapple Thief and collaborations with Jane Getter Premonition and Dave Kerzner, McStine is fast becoming one of progres

No one wants to be accidentally tear-gassed onstage, but there are definitely worse places for it to happen than Red Rocks Amphitheatre. It was June 10, 1971, and Jethro Tull were headlining this beautiful, 10,000-capacity open-air venue built into t

There’s a rare moment of pause from Devin Townsend. “Please try not to make this sensationalistic,” the progressive metal maverick asks, looking right down the lens of his video camera. “What I’m trying to do with expressing this is to help people wh

There were celebrations in Scotland when art-rock collective EBB heard they had picked up the Prog Readers’ Poll’s Best New Band award. Speaking from EBB HQ near Dumfries, Erin Bennett and Anna Fraser are still buzzing from this very unexpected accol

In 1977, progressive rock entered a very peculiar year. Although still a great commercial force, circumstances were nudging the genre gently towards obsolescence, as the mainstream gaze was redirected elsewhere. For Gentle Giant, a band with unassail

By the time Guy Garvey joined his guitarist mate Mark Potter’s band, Mr Soft, in 1990, his music-savvy sister, Becky, had already ensured the 16-year-old was schooled in the good stuff – from Genesis’s Selling England By The Pound onwards. “I have a

Jane Getter is a jazz guitarist at heart. For the New Yorker, who’s been playing guitar since she was eight years old, that means long, winding compositions rich with improvised solos come as second nature. Yet, on her latest album with her Premoniti

Last year, Fates Warning frontman Ray Alder let slip in an interview with Prog that guitarist Jim Matheos, his bandmate for over 35 years, had neither any plans nor the desire to write new music for the progressive metal pioneers. It appeared that a

“I don’t think we went into it planning to make a heavier album,” says vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Elizabeth Heaton about Cold Waves Divide Us, the fifth album from Midas Fall. Since 2018’s Evaporate, the Scottish proggy post-rocker

Mike Vennart had a bit of a revelation recently. On releasing his new solo album, Forgiveness & The Grain, he realised it was his 10th record in 20 years, stretching across different bands and genres, from Oceansize when he was in his 20s through to

Fans of progressive rock are perfectly used to bands taking their sweet time. Such is the nature of ambitious, complex and forward-thinking music. But even by normal prog standards, Norwegian supergroup The Chronicles Of Father Robin have really stre

For a lot of bands, coming up with a name is an unceremonious thing. Quite often it boils down to questions as simple as “What sounds cool?” or “What rolls off the tongue well?” Such is not the case with Zombi. The Pennsylvanian synth-prog duo, made

Even at the height of the first wave of prog rock, Van der Graaf Generator were a breed apart. Driven by Peter Hammill’s idiosyncratic songwriting, Hugh Banton’s expressive and expansive organ playing and Guy Evans’s declamatory drumming, there was d

Available from all good newsagents and supermarkets NEW ISSUE ON SALE NOW THE BIGGEST BANDS. THE HEAVIEST MUSIC. WORLD-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS. BUY YOUR ISSUE TODAY PRINT EDITION AVAILABLE FROM HTTPS://TINYURL.COM/METALHAMMERMAG DIGITAL EDITIONS AVAILAB

VENUE THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE, LONDON DATE 27/02/2024 Part way through Wakeman & The English Rock Ensemble’s invigorating version of Roundabout, which opens a set of Yes material, one almost feels a sense of relief that it’s neither being performed

VENUE RIVOLI THEATER, THE WILLIAMS CENTER, RUTHERFORD, NJ, USA DATE 02/03/2024 SUPPORT DAVE BAINBRIDGE Tonight’s performance from Big Big Train is quite special. Not only is it celebrating The Likes Of Us (their first studio album with vocalist Alber

VENUE O2 RITZ, MANCHESTER DATE 24/02/2024 SUPPORT UNPROCESSED TesseracT are coming to the end of a run of more than 30 shows throughout Europe and the UK, and tonight it’s the turn of the north of England, with the quintet swinging by a dreary Manche

VENUE CIVIC CENTRE, STOURPORT DATE 02/03/2024 Part of the thrill of festivals is that anything can happen. So, when a fire alarm forces everyone at the Fusion Festival out into sub-zero conditions for 15 minutes during headliner Franck Carducci’s set

EXCLUSIVE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OFFER FREE BOOMPODS BASSLINE TWS EARBUDS!† WORTH £49.99! RRP ✦ Secure fit creates a passive noise-cancelling, bringing clarity and premium audio. ✦ Effortless touch-sensitive control, long battery life, stable connection, f

VENUE O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON DATE 16/03/2024 SUPPORT RANDY McSTINE As a measure of the level of excitement preceding tonight’s show, an audible gasp from the stalls is swiftly followed by the kind of enthusiastic cheers usually reserved fo

Where’s home? Sunny Wigan in Greater Manchester! What’s your earliest memory of prog? My oldest brother was in university by the time I landed on the planet, and I remember he was very immersed in all kinds of music, including ELO, Fairport and Kate

While not all religious experiences lead to conversion, there are those powerful enough to merit artistic exploration. Ergo Northodoxian is a project that’s been put together by Estonian promoter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Lauri Laubre after