Welcome to the first regularly updated CD review section I've done in ages, outside of the Scottish and selected English (& Australian) independent music scenes.
This section, however, is devoted to bands who are signed to labels, and outside of the Scottish music scene.
Basically, the thinking behind this bit, although inevitably it's my own humble opinion, is that if someone's produced a CD that is so stonkingly good in its field that no fan of that style of music should be able to live without it, then it's reviewed here - all styles, all artists - all thing considered - but only the best included. Now, read on......

LANA LANE -Red Planet Boulevard CD
No concept - no covers - no single style - yes, Ms Lane returns to doing what she does so well - an album of original, solid, emotive, dynamic and strong prog-rock songs between four and eight minutes long. As the possessor of one of the strongest female voices in prog-rock today, she provides us with a truly superior performance across every one of the album's 12 tracks. Meanwhile, the band, led by 21st century keyboard wizard Erik Norlander, also on bass guitar duties, is simply a trio with the addition of Peer Verschuren on guitars and Ernst Van Ee on drums. But they pull no punches, as the opener, "Into The Fire" testifies. With Lane just taking off like a rocket on the strongest but purest lead vocal performance, the trio provide this rock solid sea of synths, keys, drums, bass and guitar leads that really hit the spot as a five minute slice of strident prog-rock/metal, never sounded so hot. At also five minutes or so, "The Frozen Sea" is similar only more dynamic, a greater presence of instrumental light and shade, merely serving to heighten the effect as this time, Lana Lane croons and soars in a mix of high-flying lead vocals and cruising harmonies, the instrumental work twisting and turning in truly perfect rock-prog settings. At over seven minutes, "Capture The Sun" is the longest track on the album, and as classic a "typically driving Lana Lane" slice of massive-sounding brilliance as they come. With the rhythm section tearing forward, the guitar riffing away and the lead guitar soaring on top, the vocal simply cuts through with emotional eloquence and the strength of confidence as the song unfolds to awesome degree, the epitome of rock solid prog-rock and nothing to hold it back, nothing to criticise, everything to enjoy, behold, amaze and delight as the whole thing drives along making prog-rock sound every bit as epic and inventive as it should be in the hands of people who know how to make their prog, rock, done to perfection. After this, the power ballad that is the six minute "Jessica" is also perfectly positioned, arranged, played and sung, another eye-opening, jaw-dropping, smile--widening lead vocal performance from Ms Lane sending the emotions racing as the adrenaline rises but the passion remains, as immense and impassioned a prog-rock power ballad that avoids cliche and hits the spot with diamond-tipped execution, unfolds before you. With a further 8 tracks on the album, rather than repeat myself endlessly, let me tell you that every song on this album is sung, arranged and delivered to perfection. This is Lana Lane and band doing what they do best - writing as solid and consistent a set of songs as they come, providing them with immense-sounding arrangements that fire up your life and topped with Ms Lane's lead and harmony vocal perfection as the true Queen of 21st Century Prog-Rock stands before us - all hail her majesty - we bow before your brilliance!

NOSOUND - Lightdark CD
I'm about to tell you that this album sounds an awful lot like classic proggy Porcupine Tree without the rock element. Then you're going to query why you should buy something that sounds like Porcupine Tree when you've got the real thing. Then I'm going to look you straight in the eye and say, with all seriousness, "because it's a fantastic album that you'll want to play over and over and over again, that's why!!!"
But it's not a case of copying the Tree - oh no - it's a case of distilling the parts of Porcupine Tree that generally fall into the realms of atmospheric, lush, flowing, harmony-laden, layered and making you feel like you're flying - think of "Piano Lessons" slightly decelerated and without the rock idiom, think of those magical qualities a song like that possesses - OK, now you're on the right track.
This album opens with a brief instrumental intro before "Places Remained" comes ebbing onto your shore complete with that relaxed but firmly solid rhythm, the multi-layered lead and vocal harmonies, perfectly pitched to sound uncannily like Steve Wilson, with lush synthesizer textures to add to the dreamy nature of it all, and finally, out of nowhere, as gorgeous a guitar solo above the atmosphere to take out four and a half minutes of elegance and grace. Another four and a half minute track, "The Misplay", continues this feel with vocals ebbing and flowing above a backdrop of cosmic synth expanse, as the purity of the vocal immediately endears itself to you, a rippling piano lead as icing on the full-sounding, atmospheric cake, and as beautiful a track as they come, as it all slowly builds, the addition of a restrained cello providing extra depth to perfection. Then comes the fifteen minute "From Silence To Noise" - opening with an equally atmospheric drift of synths and fx before the ripple of a strummed guitar chord enters to exquisite effect, the heartfelt and yearning vocal slowly glides on top, then all of a sudden in comes this sublimely rich mellotron, slowly solid drums and deep cosmic bliss, as the vocals gather their harmonies to glorious perfection and the whole thing just spirals to breathtaking effect, as the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and a mile-wide smile - that recognition inside your heart that you are hearing superiority at work - lights up your face. Gradually but purposefully it flies, as the synth clouds gather, textural guitar is added to the mellotron, then it all drops down to a whisper, as almost flute-like distance is heard above the clouds of synthesized bliss. Then, at absolutely the perfectly right moment, a lead guitar soars from nowhere to take it all into the realms of genius, as all the elements of the track come together to produce something that is just out of this world, so amazing that you don't need to categorise or dissect it - this is musical purity of the highest order, nirvana on earth. What separates it from the real Tree is that word "rock" - this has passion, emotion, beauty, depth, strength and direction - but it doesn't rock - and in this case, that's perfect - why take the effort of powered flight when you can glide effortlessly!! The near nine minutes of "Someone Starts To Fade Away" open with cascading piano, distant cosmic synths and hushed lead vocal as mellotron adds the extra texture, lightly chiming guitar gives that necessary edge as yet another example of expansive immensity starts to open up, the beauty of purpose matched only by the elegance of execution. This time a distinctly David Gilmour-esque lead guitar emerges from nowhere and takes things onto a wholly different but totally pleasing realm as the backdrop flows like a river and the piece attains its required magical status, the guitar sending shivers down the back of your neck as it soars and climbs above the slowly flowing background of synths, mellotron, piano and guitar. "Kites", at eight and a half minutes, provides the mix of atmospheric and solid that you'd witnessed in the epic track, only here with more distinction between the two and less of a melange effect as the piece switches back and forth from drifting to driving, all the vocal and instrumental qualities we've by now come to expect, firmly in place. Finally, the album ends on the near nine minute title track to see things out with this huge-sounding mass of mellotrons, keys, lush vocal harmonies, sublime lead vocal and gorgeous electric guitar, the mix of Floyd and P Tree provided with flair, originality and heartfelt gratitude, as wondrous a closer as you'll find. This is one of those rare albums - it doesn't put a foot wrong, there's not a second wasted and once you start to play it, you'll stay with it right to the end. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and the parts are stunning. In short, it's fantastic!

SLAVES TO GRAVITY - Scatter The Crow CD
You've only got to hear the first 50 seconds of this album to fall in love with it - scything riffs, big beefy rhythms, impassioned lead vocals that are not only in tune but sound like they're harmonizing with themselves, scorching metal anthem written all over it. The track is "Heaven Is A Lie", it's four and a half minutes of brilliance and it is but the first of 13 tracks which all conform to the same level of nu-metal excellence. With compositions between two and a half and five and a half minutes long, there's no let-up in the songwriting and arranging qualities that are overflowing out of this band, so expansively sounding, so stunningly arranged and produced, that it's almost like a cross between British nu-metal, classic King's and on-fire emo, the whole lot put in a melting pot and coming out as the best recipe you've tasted in ages. The songs are all powerful yet exhibit a fine set of dynamics as they drive, flow, twist, turn, thunder and just plain rock! It's not an album you need to dissect - it's an album in which you get wrapped up from start to finish, a creature of great quality, a slice of execution that's nothing short of gigantic and a set of nu-metal anthems that will be hitting your decks for years to come - absolutely stunning from start to finish and one of the best albums of its kind you're going to hear in 2008.

BRIGADE – Come Morning We Fight CD
Just to make sure you don't get the wrong idea about where this band might be heading, they open the album, not with the new single, but with this slice of supercharged roar that sounds like a cross between a less heavy version of Brighton's Dollar Sent and Def Leppard, wrappped up in a nu-metal disguise – and the effect is just sensational, as this wicked riot of a track provides this band with a start to which any self respecting rock fan simply can't fail to be drawn into and headbang to infinity during its raging guitar driven delight. As stunning an opener a any nu-metal band has provided to date. Then we fall into the single, a piece of emo-soaked rock that owes as much to Blink 182's pop-punk only infused with a more metallic backdrop. As if to illustrate by design, the breadth that this band now possesses in terms of its writing, arranging and playing, “Together Apart” is a shot of contemporary AOR with octupus-like feet in the camps of punk balladry, rock dynamics, production intensity and writing cascade, the result a positive anthem of a track that provides power with a brain, muscle with a heart, and it simply soars into the heavens to perfection, lead vocals in that now trademark mix of yearning and angst, the harmonies quite glorious and uplifting. The, for “Res Head”, we revert back to the beginning and the flame is rekindled, only this time the metal is more direct, initially more striped down, with some mighty electric bass work as the track slowly builds, twists and turns with subtlety and the vocal kind of goes everywhere. There's something about this track on first hearing that makes you think “it's too clever for its own good” and I think you have to hear this one a few times to get into its forceful charms. Meanwhile, “Stunning” is exactly what it says on the tin and, while not quite as incendiary as the opening track, certainly comes close, with another roar of anthemic qualities as the guitars flare up, the riffs roll, the rhythms rattle along and the vocal flows with conviction, the presence of a short, sharp guitar break merely adding to the intensity, but somehow there's a glorious commerciality to it all from start to finish. So, it goes - a further 7 tracks that fulfill all of the promise and delivery provided so far, not a foot out of place, nothing adventurous, staying true to what it is and coming up with an album that is simply one red hot nu-metal/emo mix after another. Then you reach the final track of 13 – a ten minute piece entitled “Boundaries”, the fact that it lasts ten minutes, enough to make you wonder what they might be attempting. Bizarrely, rather than treading any new ground, they simply start by turning what they've done so far, into this shining track, with twists and turns through hard and soft, wild and sedate, dynamic and full-on – only for the thing to fade about a third of the way in – and then follows about a minute or two of utter silence – then the band come back and carry on with the song, in pretty well the same vein as it started only harder and with more guitars. That it lifts off to even more enjoyable extent, makes you forgive them for having to sit through two minutes of nothing to get to this point, although why they did this is anyone's guess. Put it like this – if this is the band experimenting, my advice would be to throw the book away guys, and stick to what you know. Anyway, last track aside, the rest is superb and well worth many repeat plays for a long time to come.

PLANET OF ZEUS – Eleven The Hard Way CD
There was a time when the phrase “Greek heavy metal” would have caused a shudder to run through the hearts and minds of most rock fans, fearing the worst and, largely, getting just that! My, how things have changed, for here we have a ten tracker from a hard rockin' Greek trio that delivers the goods with potency, power and quality. Produced to perfection, the sheer energy of the trio comes roaring out of the speakers with all guns blazing, but what really sells it to you is the way they manage to blend elements as disparate as heaviest ZZ Top, stoner rock and driving nu-metal, to come out with a set of tracks that almost can't fail to achieve the admiration and enjoyment of thirty years of hard rock fans. Although you might think it a cop-out in reviewing terms, this really is one of those albums that, once you put it on, you just want to listen to the whole thing from start to finish. The guitar work for starters, is just superb, making the riffs sound huge and dirty, the solos searing, sizzling and on fire, and the whole guitar landscape positively huge and epic. Below this a rhythm section sounds powerful, heavy, crisp, driving and thunderous, with suitably disembowelling bass and solid, crunching drums. Topped with vocals that fit the songs to perfection, this is an album that you'd never expect to make it into your life in a zillion years, yet actually supersedes your expectations to such an awesome degree, that you may end up having it in your top ten rock albums of 2008 – yes, it really is THAT hot!!

RPWL – The RPWL Experience
That's about right – the title, that is!! Because this is certainly an experience – especially so, for the fans who have stayed with them on the journey so far, since this is a whole new ball game. With Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree before them, it becomes increasingly obvious that if you're a wide-eyed prog band with visions of space and all things psychedelic, that, at the point when you've tripped out to the nth degree, explored every avenue of the cosmos possible, journeyed to the heights – when you've achieved all that and explored the limitless boundaries it all has to offer, there's one inevitability – you fall back to earth – and fight back!! The Floyd found the past, or more specifically, Waters' past. Porcupine Tree found heavy metal. This lot have found themselves – and they like what they see – but will you? You should – you really should – since this is one quality album with a capital “Q”.
Forget whether it's prog rock or rock prog or prog or rock – stuff like that just goes out of the window when you get something as amazing as this album. It opens with the near ten minute “Silenced” that is one gigantic epic of a track, enveloping you in layers of emotion, passion, power, strength, grace and absolute magic not to mention a spine-tingling arrangement, wide-eyed delivery, dynamic playing, truly sung vocals with meaningful lyrics – christ, it's all here and it's all good. The guitars and synths shine, but in a tight, controlled and thoroughly tight manner, with not a note out of place, while the rhythm section lay down foundations that are simply sublime. That this is followed by four minutes of the best song that Porcupine Tree never recorded will tell you just how stunning this album this is. It's got a hook that makes “Piano Lessons” look difficult, a flow that is absolutely glorious, a full sound that covers you in warmth, an adrenaline rising build of an arrangement and feeling much longer than its four minute running time, in the best possible way. Seven minutes of “Where Can I Go” put you in seventh heaven as the lurching stridenmt rhythmic propulsion introduces a vocal that sails out of the speakers, underpinned by a sea of chiming guitars, with an almost classic Beatles feel to it, as sixties meet contemporary in a blaze of epic sounding prog-goes-nostalgic songwriting. The whole thing just cruises effortlessly on this impassioned open-top drive which allows you to take in the full majesty of the surroundings, harmony vocals that lift you up, guitars that take you off, synths that sweep you away and heartfelt lyrics which are sung to perfection. In short, this is a song which can't fail to move you in the best possible way, a song that is huge and yet somehow emotionally fragile at the same time, but filled with an inner strength and a flame that refuses to die. The six minute “Masters Of War” starts with a decidedly “Lapse/Division”-era Pink Floyd styled arrangement with lush synths, deeply warm and emotive Gilmour-esque vocals, spacious synths, and bursts of searing guitar that are punctuated with power and yet filled with passion, the song slowly flowing forwards with more hypnotic lyrics which take you into their world in the best possible way, once again, the vocals sung perfectly, and the whole thing as perfect a Floyd-styled slice of angst and strength as it's possible to have but the originality taking nothing away from the fact that this is yet another gem of a track. A stunning guitar break puts the icing on the cake as you sit there open-mouthed at the sheer brilliance of it all – and you're less than halfway through the album!!
The fact that the 5th track is a five and a half minute slice of driving magic called “This Is Not A Prog Song” signals that this band has both humour and a point to make. In this case, the point is that a prog band can record a song that is totally commercial and yet serious listening at the same time, this one having choruses that lift you up and take you off above arrangements that exude the joy of delivery, the lyrics actually about the band's music and even name-checking Pink Floyd along the way, but in a way you'll just have to hear to find out. With a razor sharp guitar break during the flying song, this is simply a dream, and never has this style of music sounded so commercial and yet so accessible and long-lasting enjoyable at the same time – it's genius!!
That's half way – there are 5 tracks to go and every one of them is brilliant – I'm not going to go into any more detail as this review's already long enough and if you've not yet got the fact that this is one absolute 100% gem of an album by this point, then you're either ignorant or dead! Essential listening for anyone into great songs, great arrangements, great vocals and superb production with enough invention and enjoyment to make this album occupy a place on your favourites list for years to come.

Continued....

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