Neo Progressive

The gathering of Arena's famous musicians makes a super-group: Mick Pointer (Ex-Marillion) plays the drums, Clive Nolan (Pendragon) the keyboards, and Keith More (Asia) played the guitar until replaced by John Mitchell (Ex-Kino). Vocalist Rob Sowden has been with the band since Immortal? and the bass player is Ian Salmon. There have also been some guest appearances by Tracy Hitchings (singer of Quasar, Strangers on a Train & Landmarq) and Steve Rothery (Marillion's gifted guitarist).
"Songs From The Lion's Cage" is then a very professional Progressive rock, both close to Marillion and hard-rock. "Pride", their second opus issued in 1996 (one year after the previous one) confirmed the high musical level of this band, at a time when they added a touch IQ to their music…

Haze was formed in 1978 by brothers Chris and Paul McMahon and were one of a handful of groups in the late 70's/early 80's who embraced progressive rock and formed the neo-prog movement in the UK.
Despite the release of their first ever LP and the relatively good success many UK Neo Prog bands were tasting in mid-80's, Haze still struggled to come on the surface regarding their promotion, remaining a pretty underground band yet with a solid fan base. However they toured the whole UK, gigging endlessly and in 1985 another one of the many cassette releases of Haze entitled "The Cellar Replay" sees the light…

RPWL (Risettion Postl Wallner Lung - the band members) is a German progressive rock band. The band was formed in 1997 as a Pink Floyd cover band. After three years they started to make their own music based on their influences from their cover band era. Their debut CD, "God Has Failed" (2000) was met with international enthusiasm, praise and excellent reviews in all the major progressive rock music magazines.
Without a question, the music of their second album "Trying to Kiss the Sun" (2002) is still typically RPWL but with a well-thought out collage of sound and tone, haunting melodies and poetic texts that get under the skin and are not easily forgotten, together with a Brit-pop rock mood, RPWL has made significant steps towards their own style of music with this second album…

This Cologne-based band from the mid-80's plays some fine neo-prog in the best tradition of IQ, Jadis, Pendragon, early Marillion and Saga, but with a subtle and very pleasant flavour of their own. In the end of 1994 they recorded their first demo CD using two DAT recorders. This recording, produced during only at two weekends, served as master-tape for Martigan's first album. The album was named after the village where the bands first rehearsals took place: "Stolzenbach". Martigan then met cologne music-producer Rudolf Nepix who got interested in their music and encouraged them to start recording a second CD called “Ciel Ouvert”, which was released on the Label Floh Dur in 1996.

Formed in 1980, English band Solstice is first and foremost the band project of Andy Glass (guitar), the only musician participating on all the band's productions and the main composer for the band in it's various guises. Similar in style to such bands as Marillion, Twelfth Night, Pendragon, and IQ, they released five studio albums. Their first three studio albums were remastered and reissued with bonus tracks as ‘Definitive Editions’ in 2007.
Still fronted by guitarist Andy Glass, and also featuring Steve McDaniel (keyboards), Robin Phillips (bass), Pete Hemsley (drums), Jenny Newman (violin) and Emma Brown (vocals), the band’s iconic blend of soaring violin and guitar weaving around delicately passionate female vocals, underpinned by driving rhythmic complexity remains true and is much in force on "Prophecy” (2013), their latest studio offering.

Derek William Dick (aka Fish) was the dramatic lead vocalist for prog rock band Marillion until beginning a solo career in 1988. Marillion was initially formed as an instrumental band in 1979 by guitarist Steve Rothery, drummer Mick Pointer, bassist Doug Irvine, and keyboard player Brian Jelliman. Irvine began singing in 1980 on the group's first demos, but a year later Marillion invited Fish to join as vocalist, and he assumed the frontman position beginning with their 1983 debut album, Script for a Jester's Tear. His strong Peter Gabriel-inspired vocals enforced critics' accusations that Marillion owed more than just a heavy debt to Genesis, but six more albums followed. Musical difficulties between Fish and the band caused him to leave after 1988's Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra). He was replaced by Steve Hogarth, a vocalist quite similar in sound and style to Fish himself…

Here is a band who show that America can still match Europe in progressive rock. A neo-progressive rock in a British way but played by an American band which includes six musicians. The music is for the most part high quality and contains crystal clear guitar breaks with the occasional acoustic guitar taking over. The keys and piano are a pleasure to hear. Admittedly these muso's are good with dual keyboards, good sax interludes and tidy arrangements. Yet another band in the Neo-Prog mould which have been influenced by Marillion.

Based in Berlin, Germany, Crystal Palace started out in 1994, formed by Helmut Hirt (vocals), Jürgen Hegner (guitars), Ralf Jaschob (guitars) and Jens Uwe Strutz (bass, vocals). For the first few years of their existence various drummers and keyboardists helped out when needed; for live shows as well as studio work.
In their songs the band describe personal experiences as well general events in the world. The band is also not afraid to make political statements on occasion and give an opinion to the odd state of things. The band's sound is characterized by melodic passages and instrumentally worked-out themes that entice the listener to sink into their own imaginative ideas in an enjoyable musical experience. This is achieved by carefully matched guitar and keyboard sounds…

In the late 80's, a group of friends who usually joined in an Amersfoort (the Netherlands) Pub to talk about music while taking some drinks shouted one day they wanted to form a band. After seven years Bert Heinen (one of the pub guys) had gathered enough material to release an album and he started to send some demos to different magazines and after a good response from Background Magazine and his lead to a contract with LaBraD'or records in 1997.
In 1998 with Bert in the Guitars, Keyboard and vocals plus Marien in drums and additional keyboards, Like Wendy releases "The Storm Inside" with a very melodic approach to Marillion, Pendragon, Pallas and IQ. The albums consisting of the demo tracks plus two new songs, was quite simple but pretty effective and received favorable comments of the critics…

Stunning limited edition box set by this great Swiss neo prog band. Box set includes all 4 studio CD's that are remastered with bonus tracks, booklet with biography and photos as well as an autographed certificate of authenticity. Hand-numbered edition of 1,000.
Many aspects feature in their beautiful music, mainly the outstanding voice of Aluisio Magini, which fits perfectly on top of a well structured instrumentation. Although this band continues the path signed by IQ or Pendragon, they do it in a more bombastic and powerful way, keeping the sense of melody and beauty at the same time. Listener won't find tons of originality, but this album guarantees an excellent hour, specially to neo-prog fans.