Reviews, Pt. 3

Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 4 -- Part 5 -- Part 6 -- Part 7 -- Part 8 -- Part 9
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Next on the playlist!  These are all bands I've reviewed since the end of May.  Clicking on the album covers will take you directly to sites where you can sample or listen in full to each band's material.  The hyperlinks will take you to my reviews of their music.  Let me know what you think.

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Soup - The Beauty of Our Youth (Norway)

Wistful, ambient, and achingly gorgeous, The Beauty of Our Youth is a soundscape of purposeful orchestration, recalling the days of childhood and adolescence in a dreamlike haze of retrospective emotion.

Psycrence - A Frail Deception (Greece)

Psycrence write song-oriented metal, with composition, fury, and melody.  This is a young band with a personal sound, plenty of ability, and the ambition to write quality music in the voice they’ve found.

Yossi Sassi - Desert Butterflies (Israel)

Desert Butterflies has all the elements of music that I love: inventive use of themes, blurring of genre lines, technical performance, attentiveness to melody, and solid performance. The pioneer of "Oriental Rock," Yossi Sassi delivers a memorable sophomore album.

Jeff Green Project - Elder Creek (Ireland)

Elder Creek is a great example of new-wave or crossover prog, and tells a story of memory.  A unique mix of symphonic prog, psychedelic rock, folk ballad, and classical mythology, this is an uplifting album with the power to entertain, encourage, and invigorate.

Paving the Labyrinth - Polyopia (South Africa)

Paving the Labyrinth are a practiced and technical band with a strong debut album.  Polyopia is a combination of technical post-rock and melodic prog with an experimental edge, and will appeal to any fans of gritty, complex music.

Anton Roolaart - The Plight of Lady Oona (New York)

The Plight of Lady Oona is unique and ambitious, and ultimately an impressive album – easily one of my favorite releases of 2014.