| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | Imagin' Aria | Arte o Artificio | In Un Altro Quando | 1996 | Lizard |
| Interesting guitar-based prog with a baroque touch that reminds per of Par Lindh Project - even though keyboards are not very prevalent on the album. The guitar style in this group does sound alot like the style of the guitarist from PLP - on the fuzzed out parts, at least. The guitars are far more diverse on this album, though. The vocals are ok, certainly not bad, but, sometimes they remind me of Adam Sandler when he does his "Opera Man" character. | |||||
| 2 | Standarte | In My Time Of Dying | Standarte | 1995 | Black Widow |
| The album starts of sounding very much like the Moody Blues from the _On the Threshold Album_. The band plays in an early 70's retro style that is very appealing and well done. Some of the bands that I am reminded the most of are Rare Bird, Rare Earth, Deep Purple, and Captain Beyond. Lots of great sounding heavy keyboards. Sounds real nice. Would like to opinions/comparisons with their later releases. | |||||
| 3 | Garden Wall | Immer Unterwegs | Chimica | 1997 | WMMS |
| Complex progressive metal. Unfortunately, it has many of these things that bother me about metal - over-dramatic hair-band vocals, and incessant double-bass drumming. Despite that, there is some very good music on this CD. The are splashes of Holdsworthian guitar, and fine Chapman stick playing. Highly recommended for fans of high energy prog with a metal edge. | |||||
| 4 | Il Castello di Atlante | Il Vesillo del Drago | Sono io il Signore delle Terre a Nord | 1992 | Vinyl Magic |
| Another decent band that has apparently been around since the 70's and only in the 90's has finally been able to record and publish their material. It is very good symphonic music that is spiced with some nice violin playing. Quite good. | |||||
| 5 | Devil Doll | The Girl Who Was ...Death | The Girl Who Was ...Death | 1988 | Renaissance / Hurdy Gurdy |
| This album is a tribute to the 60's television show "The Prisoner". I have never seen any of those shows, so cannot comment about it beyond that. This is the first Devil Doll album that I heard, and it was quite a shock. I was initially very excited by the first couple of minutes of instrumental music, and not sure what to think when I first heard the very unusual vocals. I did not perceive the vocals as bad, bet VERY unusual. Despite the strangeness, I kept going back to it because of it's unique sound. It is the kind of music to expand one's perception of what can be done musically and artistically. | |||||