Marillion Breaking Records

Marillion emerged from the brief progressive rock revival of the early '80s to become an international recording and touring phenomenon who have sold more than 15 million albums and host fan clubs in ten nations. The band helped pioneer the development of fan-funded music and touring support, beginning in 1997. Marillion's music, while remaining on the progressive, artful side of rock, has evolved to embrace post-punk pop, indie and experimental rock, and even funk and electronica. Each album is different than its predecessor.

Window Of Life sounds very much as a logical follow up to the acclaimed The World, and justifiely so. Te production is better, the artwork is more intricated and the songs are more a unit them just a bunch of different ideas thrown together. Wheter if their quality is better than the previous one is debatable. For me both CDs are fantastic and clearly showed how much Pendragon in general and Barrett in particular have evolved…

Bloodbound is a Swedish power metal band formed in 2004. They released their first album, Nosferatu, in 2005 and their second, Book of the Dead, in May 2007. The brainchild of former Street Talk members Fredrik Bergh and Tomas Olsson, the band has also included Michael Bormann (Jaded Heart), Urban breed (Tad Morose) and Pelle Åkerlind (Morgana Lefay). Their debut album Nosferatu featured former Tad Morose singer Urban breed on vocals. Released on 16 December 2005 (in Japan; European release date 24 February 2006), Nosferatu features artwork by Mark Wilkinson (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Marillion) and received an early rave review from the Swedish rock magazine Power Play. Based solely on the strength of their debut album, the band opened for Evergrey and headlined day one of the Gothenburg Metal Festival.After Urban breed announced his departure from Bloodbound in fall 2006, former Tad Morose singer Kristian Andrèn briefly joined the band for some live dates. In March 2007, they announced their new singer, German Michael Bormann, who laid down vocals on the band's second album Book of the Dead. Bormann, however, played no live shows with Bloodbound: for their first performance after releasing Book of the Dead (9 June 2007 at Sweden Rock Festival), Urban breed handled the vocal duties. Urban also performed with the band at subsequent shows, including Bollnäs Festivalen, 21 July 2007. Bloodbound played two sets, both backed up by a symphony orchestra. For the second set they backed Paul Di'Anno of Iron Maiden fame.

Richard Barbieri (Japan, Rain Tree Crow, Porcupine Tree) returns with his new album Under A Spell. The man whose illustrious career began in the late 70s with synth-pop visionaries Japan and more recently as a member of influential art-rock band Porcupine Tree follows up 2017's Planets + Persona with new album Under A Spell.

Considering the `boom' period of what would later become referred to as the `Neo Prog' sound was the early Eighties and encompassed such groups as Pendragon, I.Q, Twelfth Night, Marillion and others, there's earlier examples of groups that were already playing in a classic-period Genesis manner, a band all those above mentioned groups used as a starting point…