by progrock.com | Jan 23, 2017 | Prog Report
Newcomers Kyros have made quite an impression in the last few years, most notably with their epic double album Vox Humana, which came out at the very end of 2016. With a busy year up ahead including a performance at Rosfest coming up in May, big things are expected from this band out of London. We were able to ask the band about how they got to this point and about the awesome new album.
Prog Report: For those not familiar with the band, talk about the history a little bit. How did you guys form?
Kyros: We’re a bunch of mates. We all happen to have similar interests in terms of musical tastes and interests. We all like progressive music and alternative stuff that stands out from the norm. Originally, this started out as a solo project of mine but I’ve always wanted to form a band so I made it a mission to do exactly that. I met everyone in the band either through uni, through other people or the internet! And well… here we are.
PR:Why the name change for the band?
K: There were other bands that went by the name of ‘Synaesthesia’, and unfortunately when it came to our plans – it made much more sense to make a fresh start with a fresh new name.
PR:Were other London prog metal bands like Haken influences on you?
K: Haken, as well as being mates of ours – are certainly a huge influence on us. Ray (the drummer of Haken) also plays Tuba and can expertly arrange a brass section. So we got him to do exactly that for Vox Humana.
PR: The new album Vox Humana, what drove you guys to come right out with a double album?
K: We don’t really do things by half measures. If it feels right, we do it. Regardless of logistical setbacks or worries. To us, it felt right to release this as a double – both because of the differences in musical styles and approaches between the first half of the album and second half and also because of the way the album is set up story-wise.
PR: What is the album about?
K: The album is about a man who struggles to ever integrate with society. From a young age, he seeks comfort from technology and video games rather than other people. As he grows up, he moves away from society to a secluded shack he finds out in the country away from the city. With his knowledge of technology, he decides to go out of his way in attempts to build his perfect idea of what a human companion should be.
As his android companion comes to life, we discover how this creation feels about human emotions and experiences. Getting to grips with what his purpose is and why he was built. Eventually, we learn that the creation is shunned and punished for his traits being too similar to ‘other humans’ – according to his maker. With these positive feelings being challenged, the creation goes out of his way to seek his purpose. If these feelings were so positive, why are they taught to be so negative? He runs away from his maker after much cognitive dissonance, to the city to see what other human beings are like.
Upon learning the similarities, he further questions his true purpose. These feelings of human emotion become too much for the android creation. As he heads back to his maker and explains that he can no longer carry on with these feelings as they are too overwhelming for a non-human being. His purpose is pointless as he was only built to be The Maker’s idea of a perfect human – but if the creation can’t live up to this, then what is his point in carrying on?
At the end of the album, we learn that the creation switches himself off and shuts down.
PR:How do you guys work as far as songwriting and then recording?
K:We write and record as we go along. It’s certainly a fortunate position to be in as there is much more room for flexibility. Usually one of us will contribute a song or a musical idea and we all develop it together as a band from there, making adjustments and tweaks to the song as time goes by.
PR: The first single “Cloudburst”, what is that song about and how did it come together?
K:The song is somewhat ironic in the sense that it’s somewhat ‘happy’ sounding yet is actually mocking motivational posters and words of positivity. The song itself is more about the idea of contemplating suicide and how these words of positivity mean nothing when you are so close to the idea of offing yourself. Yeah, cheerful – isn’t it?
PR: What’s next for the band now that this album is out?
K: More music. We are releasing our second single, ‘Monster’ on our upcoming ‘Monster EP’ soon which also includes two all-new tracks. We will also be releasing a brand new video to accompany this release. We are also planning gigs in both Europe and the US – but more on that later.
For more on Kyros visit them at: https://www.facebook.com/KyrosOfficial/
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by progrock.com | Jan 23, 2017 | Prog Report
Opeth are gearing for more shows in the US and in advance of that, they have released a new video from their successful album ‘Sorceress’. The track “Era” is the new single and Mikael had this to say about it on their Facebook page:
”I have to say our involvement in the making of the ”Era” video was so minimal we can’t take credit either for or against its brilliance. We did 3D scans of our bodies (clothed) in Munich during the last European tour. I remember everyone’s extremely tired and probably slightly hungover. The director just placed us in a ice-cold room and then scanned us with something that looked like a flashing hairdryer. Done! We’ve done our part for the video. Next! During the process of finishing the piece it got clear to me that it really works with the song. That’s something I was involved in actually, picking the song. It’s extremely difficult. Which song to choose? How do I know what works best for this format? Well, I don’t. I picked a song from the record that has a strong chorus. Slightly old school way of thinking I guess, but ultimately it didn’t matter all that much to me. The video is nice. I dig it. It’s slightly on the pretentious side, but hey, works for me! And like I said, it really works with the overall vibe of the song. Lyrically and musically and definitely emotionally.” – Mikael Åkerfeldt
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by progrock.com | Jan 23, 2017 | Prog Report
Coming off their 2016 return with Falling Satellites, Frost* are set to reissue their 2010 live album The Philadelphia Experiment as a 2 CD version with a new tracklisting. The group is scheduled to perform on Frost* the Cruise To The Edge which sails Feb 7-11 out of Tampa, FL and were just announced as part of the SUmmer’s End Festival on Oct 7th.
Pre-orders for The Philadelphia Experiment are being taken at www.themerchdesk.com.
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by progrock.com | Jan 21, 2017 | Prog Report
On January 21st, 2013 Riverside released their fifth full-length album, Shrine of New Generation Slaves. The album saw a shift towards a more organic approach, with less focus on the metal aspects of the band’s music and a greater focus on melody. The result was one of their more eclectic and diverse albums.
Singer Mariusz Duda said this about the album in a recent interview with The Prog Report, “with Shrine of New Generation Slaves I started to produce us, and not just in the rehearsal room. I wanted to open the window and let the air come and to refresh something in our arrangements, and I really wanted to get rid of unnecessary things. I based it all on the songs because Shrine of New generation slaves is an acronym for Songs and I wanted to focus on melodies. I wanted to bring back our melodies that disappeared a bit on Rapid Eye Movement and on Anomi High Definition.”
Songs like “Depth of Self-Delusion”, “Celebrity Touch” and “Feels Like Falling” conveyed this new approach while the 12 minute epic “Escalator Shrine” is one of the highlights of the album with its dynamic elements and grand ending.
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by progrock.com | Jan 20, 2017 | Prog Report
Tim Bowness recently announced the release of his fourth solo album, ‘Lost In The Ghost Light’ for February 17th, 2017, through InsideOutMusic. Now he is pleased to reveal the second track to be taken from the album.
Tim had this to say: “Distant Summers is the most optimistic song on Lost In The Ghost Light. It’s a recollection of the moment when the musician the album revolves around falls in love with music. It’s the song that answers the questions regarding why he made music in the first place and why he’s sitting in a dressing room 40 years later.
Appropriately, the song features a superb Ian Anderson flute solo. Ian’s music had been something I admired greatly when I was growing up and I did indeed walk around the school playground with a copy of Aqualung under my arm! As such, the song is as much about how and why I became interested in music as it is about the character the album concerns.
Steve Bingham’s evocative violin parts and the sedate feel make this the Ghost Light song that most resembles my work with no-man. Lyrically, it’s the one time on the album where I partially recycled an earlier song that related to the concept (Songs Of Distant Summers from 2014’s Abandoned Dancehall Dreams). I felt that the sentiment of the song was necessary to Ghost Light, so over a completely different piece of music I re-wrote the lyrics and added a reference to another song (The Great Electric Teenage Dream from 2015’s Stupid Things That Mean The World).”
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by progrock.com | Jan 19, 2017 | Prog Report
Neal Morse Band just kicked off their North America tour for ‘The Similitude of a Dream’ in Nashville, TN on Jan 14th. The album has been a huge success for the group and they have already released 5 videos from the album thus far. Now comes video number 6 for “Makes No Sense”, one of the album’s central themes. The video, made by Christian Rio, who did “The Ways of the Fool” video, is comprised of visuals from the first night of the tour and you can check it out here:
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