In The Electric Mist

…There are so many abrupt twists in the music here that you don't know what's coming next. The brilliant 'Man's Best Friend' (it's a gun, according to the ironic lyric) begins with a startling Spanish guitar intro before fuzzed up electric guitar and drums bludgeon their way in. 'Oriented' is a marvellous instrumental, as exotic as the title suggests. And, although there's a lot of experimentation going on, the tracks are well-crafted and accessible. DJH Thorn

Not since Michael Hedges shook the foundations of the acoustic guitar world 23 years ago with the release of Aerial Boundaries has a guitarist created such unique music as 25-year-old UK native James Blackshaw. On The Cloud of Unknowing, his sixth full-length album in less than four years, Blackshaw masterfully paints landscapes of sound with his 12-string guitar and a variety of alternate tunings. The CD begins with Blackshaw chiming rich harmonics from his paired strings, as if sounding a call to morning prayer, beautifully setting pace for the epic title track. In Blackshaw’s hands the guitar becomes otherworldly, and his music truly ascends to new places.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.
Grobschnitt have always been a dificult band to classify because they have always been, at least until Rockpommel's Land, a borderline symphonic / space rock band. However, in Rockpommel's Land the band incorporated many symphonic prog influences, mainly from Yes, in their music, resulting in a full symphonic masterpiece.

GHOST BRIGADE return to deliver a perfect lecture in dark melancholy and heart wrenching pain. "IV - One with the Storm" takes exactly those subtle steps ahead that makes the Finns sound exciting and fresh again. While their previous full-length "Until Fear No Longer Defines Us" (2011) successfully dwelled on the themes and ways established by the "Isolation Songs" (2009) masterpiece, the band understood they had to move on or fall into the trap of repetition. Sure, GHOST BRIGADE remain in essence true to the formula already established by their acclaimed debut "Guided By Fire" (2007), which amalgamates Post-Rock, Metalcore, Progressive Rock, Death and Doom Metal into a highly emotional musical experience. Yet the changes in their line-up can be felt such as new keyboard patterns by Joni Vanhanen. Adding to this, singer Manne Ikonen's hard work on his performance reveals itself remarkably in the enhanced clear vocal passages. "IV - One with the Storm" furthermore comes with a state of the art production by the band and Tuomas Kokko at Electric Fox Studios, Finland.