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Mike Portnoy, the human drum machine of Dream Theater, Transatlantic and Neal Morse Band needs no introduction and he ranks amongst the greatest rock drummers of his time. In the footsteps of celebrities like Neil Peart (Rush), Bill Bruford (ex-Yes) and Terry Bozzio (ex-UK), he strikes the most complex patterns and he amazes friend and foe with his physical ability to keep on going for three hours or more.

Reflection is the debut album by the Belgian prog metal band Panopticum. Having listened to the album numerous times and having seen the band live at Progfarm in November 2005, there are some remarks to be made. Firstly the production is not state of the art, but it has the quality of a fairly good demo. There's not much depth in guitar sounds and muffled drum sounds. Nor live, nor on the record vocalist Shari managed to impress me.

Gentle Giant, de band die zoveel andere progressieve bands heeft beïnvloed, bracht in 1970 het gelijknamige debuutalbum uit. De zeven tracks bevatten een unieke, gewaagde en bonte verzameling muzikale ideeën. Roy Thomas Baker − later de producer van Queen − was de geluidstechnicus en de band had de legendarische Tony Visconti (onder andere The Moody Blues, T. Rex, Thin Lizzy) als producer, maar desondanks was de geluidskwaliteit niet erg goed. De muziek was echter grensoverschrijdend.

Echoes is the first full-length studio album by the Dutch prog and symphonic metal band Orpheo from the city of Groningen. The album contains seven rather long tracks in the best tradition of old-fashioned progressive rock. Only the sound and guitar riffs are more contemporary. You'll hear influences of Dream Theater, Nightwish and Edenbridge - but hardly any soprano - and also from bands like Arena.

No Name stands for melodic symphonic music from Luxembourg and is to my knowledge the only band in the genre known outside their own country. In celebration of twenty years of the band, the band members ultimately decided that they would rather re-record the majority of the songs for 20 Candles - thus creating a sort of ‘best of’ - than composing a new album. The album had to feature one new track, as well as the first one they ever composed. Adding their live experiences and a more modern sound, the result is an album well-worth listening to.

Adrian Jones is the man behind this solo project. Usually he plays guitar and sings in a band called Lie Big of which he’s also the main songwriter. In Lie Big the music is raised on rock and grunge, while this solo effort is more progressive in nature. Jones plays all kinds of acoustic and electric guitars, bass and he uses MIDI and ‘Drums On Demand’. This rather short eponymous album consists of twelve songs of which most are connected, so it’s easy to listen to the whole album without intermissions.

Ik was opgetogen toen ik las dat de leden van Kansas geen genoegen namen met de mededeling van Steve Walsh en Kerry Livgren dat zij geen nummers meer voor Kansas wilden schrijven. Het resultaat was dat de vier overige heren samen met Steve Rawls de studio indoken om nummers op te nemen die akoestisch de toets der kritiek zouden kunnen doorstaan.

MVP is short for Michael Viscera Project, a heavy metal project involving a great deal of well-known guitarists like Jimi Bell (House Of Lords), Roland Grapow (Helloween, Masterplan) and Robert Marcello (Ironhorse), just to name a few.

Muse are a stadium act for a few years now, so Matt Bellamy, Dom Howard and Chris Wolstenholme don’t need any further introduction. The Resistance, their fifth studio album by this trio, is a very special album, because this time they practically did everything themselves.

The French guitar player Eric Minen is an autodidact. He got interested in composing when he joined a band, many years ago. He was a member of a Frank Zappa tribute band and he released Mélodies Urbaines, his first solo album in 2007. On ElectroMoods, his second solo album Minen plays guitars, bass, keyboards and he does all the programming. He's also responsible for the compositions, the recordings, the production and the mastering. This album offers a variety of accessible melodies with influences from new age, jazz and world music.