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Back in 1985 Lars Eric Mattsson was first discovered by Mike Varney from Guitar Player Magazine and Shrapnel Records. Now he's a well-known name in the metal scene. His distinctive guitar sound is very recognizable. His frequent use of the wah-wah pedal and his somewhat distorted sound clearly seperates him from all the clones of Yngwie Malmsteen. On Power Games, successor to Another Dimension (2000), he also emphasizes again his abilities as a composer and keyboardist.

For a number of years Guy Manning is one of those multi-instrumentalists in progressive rock, who is able to make very interesting music. Together with Rick Ashton (bass), Jonathan McDonald (drums), Laura Fowles (saxophone, vocals), Neil Harris (keyboards) and Gareth Harwood (guitar), he provides us on The Ragged Curtain (2002) with eight new compositions, the last of them being an epic of nearly 26 minutes! The lyrics are about nature, lives, loves and understanding each other.

The French prog metal outfit Manigance deserves our honest and critical attention. Some excellent musicians and Didier Delsaux, a fine vocalist, provide us with twelve solid tracks, an intro and a good but short drum solo. Superb battles between the guitarists Francois Merle and Bruno Ramos and keyboardist Florent Taillander, catchy melodies and an almost perfect sound quality.

The Netherlands are one of the many countries with a solid historically established prog scene with many great bands such as Focus, Kayak, Finch, Trace, Ekseption, Alquin, Earth & Fire and Supersister.

The Living are a bunch of classically trained and thus skillful Canadian musicians who want to explore artistic freedom in rock music, blending influences of composers like Maurice Ravel and Igor Strawinsky with primal rhythms and rock from bands like Muse, Queen, Mahavishnu Orchestra and artists like Björk and Karnivool. Between this EP and the present day, the line-up changed.

A considerable time after the release of Thunderstruck, the first live album by British prog band Landmarq, the second live album has been released. The music on Aftershock contains tracks from the same live recording sessions from 2000 and early 2001. It has been released because it says to bare proof of Landmarq with Tracy Hitchings instead of Damian Wilson, being able to play music from the older albums as well.

Four years have passed since the third album Faded Leaves (2002) by the Greek progressive outfit La Tulipe Noir saw the light of day. Guitarist Kontakis left the band after thirteen years, right after the release of Faded Leaves. His successor Pertsidines had other obligations before he could join the band. Even more important, drummer Nick Kassavetis had some nasty health problems that required half a day of surgery and a long recovery, so this hiatus was forced upon the band.

Serge Keravel is a French-Canadian multi-instrumentalist, born from a French father and an Italian mother. Influenced by artists like Keith Jarett and Joni Mitchell and admiring artists like Peter Gabriel and Björk he began to explore music at a young age. Must is his third effort consisting of relaxing, instrumental music. By using electronics for effects, percussion and drum sounds a musician like Keravel gets the opportunity to do everything himself.

The Finnish band Kaliban presents on The Tempest Of Thoughts eight heavy metal tracks on the same label as Embraze, another heavy metal band from that country. Their music is in the vein of classic heavy metal with lots of familiar chords. The main composer, guitarist and grunt-voice is Henri Peltola.

Notes From The Past (2002) was already an impressive album, but as far as I'm concerned the Swedish masters of progressive symphonic music hit the big one with their new, seventh studio album Keyholder. The album contains a delicate balance between classic symphonic rock (Fields, Yes) and the contemporary progressive music as played by The Flower Kings orTransatlantic with some influences of Jazz and fusion.