The 5th solo album from Airbag co-found Bjørn Riis is called “Fimbulvinter”, and will be out on the 11th of April.
Named after the legendary long winter that heralds Ragnarok, a time of both destruction and rebirth. Bjørn Riis’ new album “Fimbulvinter” is a profound and deeply personal work. Drawing from his own experiences with anxiety, Bjørn explores themes of hopelessness, paranoia, and despair, ultimately finding a spark of hope and gratitude in the darkness. “This isn’t an autobiographical album,” Bjørn explains, “but I wanted to share parts of my own journey and address a subject that I feel is both deeply important and still somewhat taboo.”
Musically, “Fimbulvinter” reflects Bjørn’s diverse influences, blending the atmospheric and introspective tones of progressive rock with the energy and swagger of the hard rock bands he grew up with in the early ’80s. Fans of Kiss, Black Sabbath, and classic progressive acts will find much to love in the album’s rich soundscapes. From the driving, anthemic energy of “Gone” – a track made for blasting on the open road – to moments of introspection and monumental heaviness, “Fimbulvinter” is a dynamic journey through darkness and light.
Bjørn takes centre stage on the album, performing all instruments and vocals, while also enlisting contributions from talented collaborators, including Henrik Bergan Fossum (Airbag), Arild Brøter (Pymlico) and Kai Christoffersen on drums. Longtime partner and co-producer Vegard Kleftås Sleipnes also returns, ensuring the album’s production is as impeccable as its compositions.
With “Fimbulvinter”, Bjørn Riis once again demonstrates why he is a cornerstone of the progressive rock scene, delivering music that is as emotionally resonant as it is sonically captivating.
Tracklist: 1. Illhug 2. Gone 3. Panic Attack 4. She 5. Fimbulvinter 6. Fear of Abandonment
“Fimbulvinter” will be available CD, Digipak, Digital and Black Vinyl LP and Coloured Vinyl LP formats, and can now be pre-ordered at:
The Flower Kings are set to release their 17th studio album on May 2nd, 2025, titled LOVE. With “How can you leave us now!?”, the quintet unveils the first track from their upcoming record that is available for pre-order now.
The band will debut the material from LOVE live in Stockholm, May 29th followed by a European tour together with Neal Morse & The Resonance.
When The Flower Kings played their first show on Aug 20th, 1994, they likely had no idea they would go on to make music history worldwide. With 17 studio albums, numerous live albums, and performances at festivals and countless tours across the globe, their legacy is unmatched in the rebirth of progressive rock. They remain titans of melodic prog, brimming with creativity and vitality, placing them firmly in that royal reign that their name suggested 30 years ago.
Their first song “How Can You Leave Us Now!?” can be listened to HERE
The album features the three original members—Roine Stolt, Hasse Fröberg, and Michael Stolt—alongside relative newcomers Mirko DeMaio and Lalle Larsson. Together, they have crafted an album that embodies the essence of progressive rock from the late sixties and early seventies. This era was marked by a departure from the norm of seeking hit singles, embracing creativity with bell-bottoms, Mellotrons, Moogs, phasing, flanging, and epic compositions. The Flower Kings have always had a knack for writing songs that blend pop sensibilities with experimental and jam band influences.
This new album showcases the Swedish royals with newfound confidence, delivering progressive rock second to none. It promises to take listeners on a journey to the hidden corners of their musical world. Fans can expect to hear more of the experimental side and wild guitar and synth solos reminiscent of the band’s early albums. The album, with a runtime of 75 minutes, features 12 tracks ranging from 3 to 12 minutes, designed to be listened to as a whole.
Artwork by Joey Tessier
Track list 1.We Claim The Moon 2.The Elder 3.How Can You Leave Us Now!? 4.World Spinning 5.Burning Both Edges 6.The Rubble 7.Kaiser Razor 8.The Phoenix 9.The Promise 10.Love Is 11.Walls Of Shame 12.Considerations
The Flower Kings line-up: Mirko DeMaio: Drums & Percussion Lalle Larson: Grand Piano, Rhodes Piano, Hammond B3 & Synthesizers Hans Fröberg: Vocals, Guitar Michael Stolt: Bass, Moog Bass, Vocals Roine Stolt: Vocals, Electric & Acoustic 6 & 12 String Guitars, Ukulele
The album will be available in the following versions: Ltd. CD Digipak Ltd. CD Digipak (US version) Standard CD Jewelcase (Japanese Version) Ltd. Gatefold Black 2LP Ltd. Gatefold Neon Orange 2LP– Limited to only 500 copies worldwide Ltd. Gatefold Transp. Light Blue 2LP– Strictly limited to only 300 copies worldwide
Progressive pioneers Haken spent 2024 celebrating their most recent acclaimed studio album, ‘Fauna’, in the most comprehensive way possible, as part of their ‘An Evening With’ run throughout the world. Playing two full sets each night, the band performed ‘Fauna’ in full, before returning to the stage to run through a selection of the best-loved cuts from their catalogue. In a homecoming of sorts for Haken, on September 21st, 2024 the band played London’s legendary O2 Forum, and the document of that special evening is what’s witnessed on ‘Liveforms: An Evening With Haken’ – released May 9th, 2025.
To coincide with this announcement, the band have launched a video clip of their performance of ‘Beneath the White Rainbow’ which you can watch now here:
The band comments of the release: “The Evening With Haken tour across North America and Europe was without a doubt one of our favourite tours we’ve done, showcasing 3 hours of music from our entire discography, including our latest record ‘Fauna’ performed in full which was an absolute blast! Conducting an ‘evening with’ format is something that we’ve seen tried and tested by some of our favourite artists, and it felt like an important band bucket list item to tick off at this stage in our career, to celebrate all we’ve achieved in the last 15 years. When discussions arose as to which show we might document on film, it was a no-brainer for us that our homecoming show in London, at the legendary 02 Kentish Town Forum, should be the one. And the home crowd did not disappoint, on what turned out to be such an electric atmosphere, we just so happened to capture one of our best performances from the entire tour for our fans to relive again and again.”
Filmed by Paul Green Productions (Devin Townsend, Steve Hackett) & mixed by Jens Bogren (Between The Buried and Me, Ihsahn), the 3CD+Blu-ray release comprises all the music played on that evening, in both stereo & 5.1 Surround Sound, as well as bonus behind the scenes interviews with each band member. The Gatefold 2LP edition features the entirety of the ‘Fauna’ album performed that night. Both formats featuring iconic artwork from Dan Goldsworthy, whose work also graces the cover of ‘Fauna’.
The full setlist is as follows:
Set 1: The Last Lullaby Taurus Nightingale The Alphabet Of Me Sempiternal Beings Beneath The White Rainbow Island In The Clouds Lovebite Elephants Never Forget Eyes of Ebony Crystallised
Set 2: Puzzle Box Earthrise Cockroach King Nil By Mouth 1985 The Strain Strainwreck Canary Yellow Drowning In the Flood Visions
The band will be performing on Cruise To The Edge 2025, before heading to Latin America for a run of shows. Following this the band will continue work on a brand-new studio album
4th-9th April – Cruise To The Edge 2025, Miami, USA 25th April – Club Peppers, San José, Costa Rica 27th April – Sale Puebla, Mexico City, Mexico 29th April – El Teatro Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina 30th April – Live Era, Montevideo, Uruguay 2nd May – Teatro Cariola, Santiago, Chile 4th May – Bankers Open Air, São Paulo, Brazil
HAKEN are:Ross Jennings Richard Henshall Charlie Griffiths Pete Jones Conner Green Ray Hearne
Prog collective Unitopia have announced they will release a new live Blue-ray/CD and USB, Alive And Kicking, through Progrock.com’s Essentials label on March 7.
The new release was recorded on the band’s tour in support of 2023’s Seven Chambers album at a gig at Zoetermeer’s famous Boerderij venue in the Netherlands on September 14, 2023.
A 15th-anniversary edition of Unitopia’s 2010 album Artificial is also to be released in 2025 along with Truack’s own Save US EP.
The USB version of Alive And Kicking includes a high-quality mp4 of the concert video, 48kHz 24-bit stereo audio tracks, and lyric videos. The Blu-ray, in addition to the stereo mix, includes a selectable DTS surround mix by band violinist Steve Unruh.
Tracklisting CD1 and Blu-ray Set 1: 1. Broken Heart [8:32] 2. Introduction of Seven Chambers [0:46] 3. Something Invisible [6:46] 4. The Stroke of Midnight [9:49] 5. Mania [12:35] 6. The Uncertain [20:23] CD2 and Blu-ray Set 2: 1. Tesla [16:08] 2. The Garden [23:41] 3. The Great Reward [6:15] Total time: 1:44:59
Lineup Mark Trueack – Vocals Sean Timms – Keyboards, Vocals John Greenwood – Guitars, Vocals Steve Unruh – Violin, Flute, Guitar, Percussion, Vocals Don Schiff – Stickbass Chester Thompson – Drumkit
Credits Video Editing: John Vis Video production: John Vis, Geert Jan Schoonbeek Video operators: Meriam Verkleij, John Vis, Geert Jan Schoonbeek, Rob Ditmar Lighting operator: Pim Besseler Front of house sound engineer: Sam Walker Monitoring engineer: Aaron Kroos Techs: Boris Stipdonk, Lucas Kos Stage Managers: Bert Broere, Roel de Ruiter Concert promoter: Arie Verstegen Production manager: Tessa Kampman Production: Martin Duimel Projection video production: Aaron Nassau (Artworks in this package are images from the projected video) Photos credits: Bert Treep (BT) (including front and back covers), Arie van Hemert (AvH), Ron Kraaijkamp(RK), Christian Arnaud (CA), Giovanni Cionci (GC)
Founded in 1996 by vocalist/songwriter Mark “Truey” Trueack (United Progressive Fraternity) andmulti-instrumentalist/songwriter Sean Timms (Southern Empire, Damanek, UPF), Australia-based sextet Unitopia have always been at the forefront of adventurous and altruistic modern progressive music.
Be it 2005’s More Than a Dream, 2023’s Seven Chambers, or any release in-between, the troupe—now completed by UPF maestro SteveUnruh, guitarist Dr. John Greenwood, drummer Chester Thompson, and bassist (Chapm Chapman Stick® and NS/Stick™) Don Schiff—never fail to infuse their work with thought-provoking contemplations of universal topics (politics, relationships, environmentalism, etc.) and captivatingly diverse and sophisticated compositions (that incorporate jazz, classical, heavy rock, World music, symphonic rock, and traditional prog rock). Now, they’ve once again teamed up with boutique label Progrock.com’s Essentials to announce three more fantastic upcoming releases: Alive and Kicking (which represents the 2023 Seven Chambers tour); an expanded and remixed 15th anniversary edition of Artificial; and Trueack’s first-ever solo project, the charity-based Save US EP.
Big Big Train will release a six track digital download only E.P. titled Scop on 21st March 2025. Scop is a companion release to accompany the re-issue of the band’s third studio album Bard on the same date.
Scop – the old English word for ‘bard’ – consists of five demos from the Bard recording sessions plus The Sundial. This song was written and demoed in 2001 but has been newly recorded by three members of the band’s current line-up – Alberto Bravin (lead vocals), Gregory Spawton (guitars, keyboards, bass) and Nick D’Virgilio (drums) – and mixed by Rob Aubrey, the band’s longstanding engineer, who has also completely re-mixed Bard.
Four of the five Scop demos – The Last English King, Her Words, This Isn’t Rocket Science and Blacksmithing – are being released for the first time, while the demo of British Racing Green was made available to members of the band’s Passengers Club in 2021.
All four demos on Scop feature the band’s first singer Martin Read on lead vocals, while the Bard studio versions of The Last English King and Blacksmithing were sung by keyboardist Tony Müller. Her Words does not feature on Bard, while This Isn’t Rocket Science went on to become a section of the song For Winter on the album. Finally, British Racing Green did not emerge until the band’s 2010 Far Skies Deep Time E.P. and was sung by the late David Longdon.
“Re-visiting the Bard era after so many years has been fascinating,” comments Andy Poole, the band’s former bassist and Bard’s producer. “With the release of Scop, the picture of that period is now complete. While the demos of The Last English King, Blacksmithing and This Isn’t Rocket Science show some of the technical limitations we were working under at the time, it’s interesting to hear the songs at an earlier stage before they evolved into the final studio versions. Many years later, The Last English King has really come into its own as a live song and has therefore been included on the re-issue of Bard.
“When we were finalising Bard back in 2002, Her Words didn’t make the cut for reasons lost to the mists of time,” Andy continues. “British Racing Green had been written for the band’s previous album, English Boy Wonders, but was demoed for Bard. Back then I found it just too depressing. Subsequently of course David completely transformed the song with his brilliant arrangement and production ideas.”
“With Big Big Train my outlook is to celebrate the past, live in the present and look to the future,” says lead vocalist Alberto Bravin. “On this occasion and as a break from working on our next studio album, it was fun to help to dig back into the ancient past and create a new recording of The Sundial.”
Bard will be released via the band’s own label English Electric Recordings on CD and 2LP and via Bandcamp high resolution download. The CD and vinyl versions will be strictly limited editions and Bard will not be made available on streaming or other download platforms. The 2LP version of the album will be available as 180 gram “shark” blue vinyl (exclusive to Burning Shed and The Bandwagon USA) and 180 gram black vinyl.
The CD/2LP versions of Bard will include extensive 4,000 word liner notes by Andy Stuart (author of the book A View From The Embankment, A View From The Line, which documented the band’s 2023 tour) using material from a new interview with Gregory Spawton.
SCOP 1.The Last English King (Demo) 2.Her Words (Demo) 3.Blacksmithing (Demo) 4.This Isn’t Rocket Science (Demo) 5.British Racing Green (Demo) 6.The Sundial
BARD 1.The Last English King 2.Broken English 3.This is Where We Came In 4.Harold Rex Interfectus Est 5.Blacksmithing 6.Malfosse 7.Love Is Her Thing 8.How The Earth From This Place Has Power Over Fire 9.A Short Visit to Earth 10.For Winter 11.A Long Finish 12.Headlands 13.The Last English King (Live 2024 version)
SCOP AND BARD WILL BE RELEASED on 21ST MARCH 2025 See www.bigbigtrain.com for more information
The highly-anticpated album from Jason Bieler and the Baron Von Bielski Orchestra, The Escapologist, is out today!
The Escapologist is a wild, unpredictable ride through Bieler’s ever-expanding sonic playground, where genres are merely suggestions and rules are meant to be laughed at. Each of the 10 tracks takes its own distinct path, yet together they create one of Bieler’s most cohesive and compelling collections to date.
“I was advised that my quote for this press release should be short and at least vaguely related to the album. So here goes…I appreciate that most companies now label pants as a 34-inch waist when they’re really a 36 or 38. We all know the game they’re playing—but I respect it. I consume an alarming amount of full-fat Greek yogurt daily, and to this day, I have never had a cavity. Coincidence? I think not.
“As for the album—music, music, blah blah… Recording this was unlike any other record, except for all the ways it was exactly like every other record. It’s heavier than our previous stuff, yet somehow lighter. Hope you dig it!” – Jason Bieler
Recorded at the illustriously named Baron Von Bielski’s Audio Propulsion Labs, the album features an all-star lineup of musicians, including long time collaborators guitarist Andee Blacksugar (Blondie, KMFDM, Peter Murphy), drummer Edu Cominato (Geoff Tate, Mr. Big, Soto), as well as new friend and bass player extraordinaire Johan Niemann from Evergrey.
To celebrate the album’s release, Bieler has released the haunting new single “Hollow.” You can watch the video here:
With a discography that has already garnered critical acclaim in progressive and alternative music circles, The Escapologist takes Bieler’s artistry to deeper, more introspective levels—lyrically dark and rich, musically adventurous, and brimming with unexpected turns.
“The Escapologist” has a good mix of genres from rock to prog, even synthy dance, sure to make anyone who listens enjoy it.” My Global Mind
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