While many other prog-prone artists prefer to take their time working on a particular project, Clive Nolan has always been quite prolific, which doesn’t impinge on the quality of his work. So even though it’s been a little more than six months since the English musician issued a third installment of his "Alchemy" saga, here comes another concept album, this time with a Viking theme at its core.
To call Rick Wakeman a voluble person would be a severe underestimation: when he speaks, he cannot be stopped – and it’s for the better, because the tales the veteran tells during his various outings, including live shows, are vastly entertaining. No wonder the legendary keyboard player once penned an autobiography; it’s surprising, however, that 1995’s “Say Yes!” – which became a collector’s item – has never been reprinted.
Sometimes it pays to abandon a prominent band and strike out on your own – even if the payment isn’t exactly financial. Ask, for instance, Muddy Manninen, who left WISHBONE ASH a little less than ten years ago to deliver a couple of solo albums, his latest being "River Flows" from 2020, and get involved in a couple of projects, including BLACK PEARL and VOODOO RAMBLE. The guitarist has also been performing with sax player Patsy Gamble, and it’s really surprising that their rapport didn’t take the two to the studio earlier – yet finally the friends went there and emerged with ten pieces.
There have been quite a few DEEP PURPLE tribute albums released over the past few decades, but not enough for a band of such enormous influence, and most of those records underperformed anyway. This may change on November 13th with the appearance of “Purple Storm”: a platter with truly appalling cover artwork, yet one featuring a stellar line-up that includes members of RAINBOW, WHITESNAKE and URIAH HEEP, among other prominent musicians.
While many ensembles with prog intent bank on pseudo-intellectual approach and bombastic expression, HELD BY TREES have been seeking divinity in details from their very beginnings, although minimalism became only a small part of the British collective’s method, as the fittingly titled "Hinterland" proved so brilliantly. One year after that album saw the light of day, its follow-up is set to hit the shelves on October 2nd to mark the band’s further advances into heartbreak and beauty.
