Harvest 豐年雜誌 三月 2021

In four short years of existence, Green Lung have risen from the murk of the UK heavy underground to become a true cult band with a devoted following. Debut album Woodland Rites, released independently in early 2019, quickly garnered attention, resulting in a single being named ‘Track of the Week’ in the Guardian, plays on Daniel P. Carter’s Radio One Rock Show, a tour with fellow UK heavies Puppy and festival appearances across Europe.
This brought the band to the attention of the wider music industry, and after multiple offers from a variety of labels, the band decided to stay true to their roots and sign with the Finnish audio wizards at Svart Records, home to several of their doomy inspirations including Reverend Bizarre and Warning. Svart’s deluxe reissue of the album, and the preceding EP Free the Witch, sold out several pressings…

Greek progressive rock band Ciccada has released this, its third album, Harvest. The bands influences are very much the progressive rock acts of the 1970’s, including very classy bands such as Camel, Jethro Tull, Gryphon, Gentle Giant, Strawbs, Renaissance, Hatfield And The North, Curved Air and Spirogyra. These are lushly interwoven with traditional Greek folk music. The resulting sound is a quite pastoral other-worldliness, bathed in rock, jazz and folk colours.
The overall sound sees the band balancing acoustic instruments with electric ones, allowing the music a seeming simplicity whilst actually being somewhat more profound. At times there’s an almost childlike air on display, then something more jazzy but playful, then the kind of piquancy that a heartfelt folk song can produce. The vintage prog-rock and the folk in many ways makes this a nostalgic, wistful sounding album…

Even IQ's most dedicated fans don't expect the group to top its third-period crowning achievement, Subterranea, but does Dark Matter ever get close! This album makes The Seventh House (IQ's previous album, released three years earlier) appear very, very average. The melodies are catchier and more moving, the writing stronger, the arrangements more varied. The album's strength mostly resides in the 24-minute closing epic, "Harvest of Souls," surely IQ's best epic song, arguably their best song, period. After the oblique meanders of the cluttered "The Narrow Margin" (from Subterranea, that album's weaker point), "Harvest of Souls" offers a much clearer structure, a generous number of memorable themes, and a dark political subtext referring to American politics post-9/11.

It isn’t unusual for a band to go on hiatus after an album release. Nor is it remiss for there to be a level of expectation upon that band’s return. Missouri rockers SHAMAN’S HARVEST release Rebelator, their first album in five years, this Friday…