Neo 6.54

The German rock band Solar Project was founded in 1988 by Robert Valet, Volker Janacek and Peter Terhoeven. The music has a small amount of neo mixed with some elements of symphonic and melodic. The result is nice vocals (male, female and choir) melodic prog style and heavy rhythms. Many albums are marked by Pink Floyd's influence.

Appearing near the dawn of the 21st century, Atlanta's Mastodon established themselves as one of the most original and influential American metal bands. Their wide-angle progressive approach encompasses stoner and sludge metal, punishing hardcore and metalcore, neo-psych, death metal, and more - sometimes in the span of a single song. The group's playing style incorporates heavy, technically complex guitar riffs, lyric hooks, long, melodic instrumental passages, and intricate, jazz-influenced drumming with syncopated time signatures. Their second album, 2004's Leviathan, was a concept offering based on Moby Dick, Herman Melville's iconic novel of whaling and obsession, and proved the band's commercial and critical breakthrough. Since its release, the record has attained status as one of the most important albums in heavy metal's history…

Neo-prog band Pendragon formed in London during the heady days of punk, but didn't coalesce until 1983, when the band began playing around London and earned a small spot at that year's Reading Festival. The lineup stabilized, after the 1985 album Jewel, around vocalist/guitarist Nick Barrett, bassist Peter Gee, drummer Fudge Smith and keyboard player Clive Nolan. Pendragon recorded the live album 9:15 in 1986 and began to establish a continental fan base the following year. European audiences proved enthusiastic, spawning a contract with the French M.S.I. label; nevertheless, the group was forced to form its own Toff label just to release material in England.

Created in 1988 in Moutier, in the Swiss Jura, Galaad died at the beginning of 1997, leaving two orphan albums, "First February" in 1992 and especially "Vae Victis", album which, in 1995, makes recognize the group with bigger scale, especially for its innovative qualities in the progressive genre. Galaad gives this style - truly popular in the 70s - a note of renewal. The poetic texts in French are melted in metal and groove, the group explores the pop rock by rendering it a unique form. Songs are of full of shifting moods, aggressive singing, complex rhythms, soaring guitar solos, fantastic Moog lines, and beautiful pastoral flute and piano duets. Another group in the new wave of French neo-progressive bands.

Fans of Leonard Bernstein will not want to miss the chance to snap up this limited edition 60-CD set, Bernstein Symphony Edition. With a list price of just over two dollars per disc, it's a bargain not to be missed. What's most impressive about these recordings of well over 100 symphonies made between 1953 and 1976, almost all of which feature the New York Philharmonic, is the scope and depth of Bernstein's repertoire.

The blues have been imported into Poland by multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and festival producer Irek Dudek (born Ireneusz Dudek). His group, the Silesian Blues Band, featuring Apostolis "Lakis" Antymos, Josef Skrzek, and Jerzy Piotrowski, was one of Poland's top blues-rock bands of the 1970s.