Progressive rock quartet Dhärä return today with their expansive new single ‘A PLACE IN TIME, (the entities, divided)’, offering the next glimpse into their forthcoming full-length album Elemental Four, arriving January 11, 2026.
Known for their immersive instrumental storytelling and dynamic compositions, Dhärä continue to push beyond strict genre boundaries on ‘A PLACE IN TIME, (the entities, divided).’ The track unfolds with patience and atmosphere before erupting into driving rhythms, soaring guitar interplay, and a powerful sense of momentum—highlighting the band’s signature balance between precision, emotion, and scale.
The band shares: “This is the opening of our concept album Elemental Four. ‘A PLACE IN TIME, (the entities, divided)’ introduces many themes that are heard throughout the album. This album is also a concert movie that features five ballerinas who perform modern lyrical dance to the music. Elemental Four is a journey of four entities whose world is shaken by a meteor which threatens their existence. They are separated by a great earthquake, and the only path to saving the planet and themselves is to unify and summon The Conduit, whose power can hopefully vanquish the threat.”
Watch the video for ‘The conduit, A PLACE IN TIME’ here:
Big Big Train, the award-winning, progressive rock band, will issue their 16th studio album via InsideOutMusic on 6th February 2026. Woodcut is a landmark release for the group, whose line-up draws together members from England, Scotland, Italy, the USA, Sweden and Norway, in that it marks their first ever full-length conceptual piece – quite a statement given the musical depth and storytelling qualities of a band formed in Bournemouth way back in 1990. Woodcut is a continuous narrative exploring creativity, sacrifice and the thin line between inspiration and madness and featuring a character called The Artist.
Today they launch a second single from the album, titled ‘The Sharpest Blade’, a track that sees violinist Clare Lindley sharing lead vocals with the band’s frontman – and Woodcut producer – Alberto Bravin.
Lindley, who also wrote the lyrics for ‘The Sharpest Blade’, explains: “Having gone for a walk in the woods and happened upon an amazing piece of heartwood, lit by a natural beam of sunlight, the Artist has taken it home. In the song ‘The Sharpest Blade’, he begins to carve the heartwood. Although he still has doubts and dark inner thoughts, he finds himself carving a wonderful scene. It’s so good that he feels it is perhaps not of his own hand…”
Watch the video for The Sharpest Blade, once again created by Crystal Spotlight, here:
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Additionally the band have just announced a UK/European headline tour for September/October 2026, including their biggest headline show to date at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Find the full list of dates below:
BIG BIG TRAIN – THE WOODCUT & OTHER STORIES TOUR
Friday 25th September – The Stables, Milton Keynes, UK
Saturday 26th September – The Asylum, Birmingham, UK
Sunday 27th September – Komedia, Bath, UK
Monday 28th September – The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, UK
Wednesday 30th September – The Spirit Of 66, Verviers, Belgium
Thursday 1st October – Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg, Germany
Friday 2nd October – Poppodium Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
Saturday 3rd October – De Pul, Uden, Netherlands
Sunday 4th October – TBA, France
Tuesday 6th October – La Sala, Madrid, Spain
Wednesday 7th October – Razzmatazz 2, Barcelona, Spain
Friday 9th October – Teatro Astra, Schio, Italy
Saturday 10th October – Phenomenon, Fontaneto d’Agogna, Italy
Sunday 11th October – Z7, Pratteln, Switzerland
Tuesday 13th October – RNCM Theatre, Manchester, UK
Wednesday 14th October – Playhouse, Whitley Bay, UK
Thursday 15th October – Slay, Glasgow, UK
Saturday 17th October – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, UK
‘Darkest Day’ is the opening track from Rhys Marsh & Mandala’s new album, Until The End Of Time — a dark, expansive and cinematic journey that explores themes of loss and love, along with the notion that when you lose someone you love, you still love them until the end of time.
With songs ranging from ten to eighteen minutes in length, the album’s soundscape is largely dominated by majestic analogue synthesisers and led by Mandala’s trademark dynamics — ranging from whisper-quiet to wall-of-sound. Until The End Of Time will be available on all streaming and download platforms, alongside a strictly limited-edition CD, available exclusively from Burning Shed, on November 14.
Rhys Marsh has released eleven albums in the past — both solo, and as the singer-songwriter in bands — and this is the third Mandala album. It was decided to call this a Rhys Marsh & Mandala album, as thematically and stylistically it follows on from Marsh’s previous solo album, Towards The West, which was a direct refection on the loss of his Dad.
Formed in London in 1997, Mandala have toured the UK, Scandinavia and North America over the years, playing at iconic venues such as CBGB’s in NYC and The Marquee Club in London. Their blend of folk-noir, progressive rock, psychedelia — all wrapped in Marsh’s atmospheric and dynamic melodies — has garnered acclaim and airplay across multiple countries, with singles A-listed on Radio Caroline, and chart success on iTunes in the UK and Canada.
Critics have called Mandala’s sound “a kaleidoscope of prog, psychedelia, and folk”, and praised their “knife-edge atmospheres and Eastern-tinged melodies” (The Independent), with The Guardian describing their music as “folk-noir”, and Time Out highlighting their “melancholy laden melodies”.
Until The End Of Time is the kind of album that needs to be listened to from start to end. The songs are long, and the themes expand and unfold gradually. There are elements of post-rock with the long build-ups, progressive rock with the sweeping Mellotrons, and a deep sense of melancholy.
The album features spoken word in three languages: English, Norwegian and Welsh. Marsh says that this verse can sum up the overall feeling of the album:
CERESIAN VALOT release a visualiser for the next single ‘Valojuovat’ (‘Tracers’) taken from the forthcoming debut full-length Uumen (Depths). The first album of the Finnish heavy alternative band has been scheduled for release on May 23, 2025.
Wille Naukkarinen writes: “The new advance single ‘Valojuovat’ is one of the most recent songs that I wrote for Uumen and my personal favourite on this album”, the guitarist and main songwriter reveals. “I don’t have much to tell about the composition process, because this was one of those rare cases where the song basically wrote itself. The instrumental version was completed pretty quickly. It’s a mix of prog and melancholia, showcasing both our quieter and heavier side in a very melodic way. I recommend to listen to ‘Valojuovat’ with your eyes closed.”
Panu Perkiömäki adds: “This song has strong dystopic vibes”, the vocalist opines. “The key idea of the song is inspired by the writing of Albert Camus. It’s a song about wars and other manmade disasters. It is also a song about solving problems by changing the channel, if the news get too stressful. ‘Valojuovat’ does even contain some doubts about religions and their infallibility.”
UK Progressive Rock group Frost* is pleased to share a new stand-alone single titled ‘Western Atmosphere.’ This song was originally featured as a Japanese-only bonus track on the album ‘Life in the Wires,’ and sees band leader Jem Godfrey joined by Randy McStine (Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree – live guitarist), Mike Keneally (Devin Townsend) & Nick D’Virgilio (Big Big Train).
Godfrey says this about the track: “I sometimes wonder what would have happened had I stayed in bed 10 minutes longer than I did on Monday 11th of January 2010. Perhaps my life would have gone in a completely different direction and Frost* would have ended up with the lineup of myself on keys, vocals and bass, Mike Keneally on guitar, Nick D’Virgilio on drums and Randy McStine on guitar and vocals. We’ll never know, I guess.”
The collective of renowned musicians from Norway’s west coast known as WHISPERING VOID is releasing the single ‘Vinden vier’ (‘The Wind Sanctifies’) that features ABBATH guitarist Ole André Farstad. The track is taken from their forthcoming debut album At the Sound of the Heart, which has been chalked up for release on October 18, 2024.
Hear ‘Vinden Vier’ here:
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WHISPERING VOID comment: “This song began to form when I repeated the words ‘Vinden vier’, which is kind of a play on words”, vocalist Kristian Espedal explains. “This can mean ‘The Wind Sanctifies’ but it can also be read as: ‘The Wind Unites’. As the lyrical loop goes on, it also becomes ‘Vi er vinden’, which means ‘We Are the Wind’. Then Lindy added her wonderful vocals in a 70s or even 60s style. At first, she just sang the ghost vocals, but once we had set the lyrics for the song, she also gave her voice to them. We all felt that this song also needed more of an Eastern energy, which is the very reason as to why we invited Ole André Farstad to play guzheng and Indian slide-guitar. This has added even more of that late 60s vibe to the song and I really like the result.”
Scottish alt/post/progressive-rock outfit Midas Fall will release their fifth studio album, Cold Waves Divide Us on March 8th, 2024 worldwide on Monotreme Records.
Michael Hamilton joins founding members Elizabeth Heaton and Rowan Burn for the follow-up to their 2018 Prog Magazine Awards ‘Limelight Award’ winning album, Evaporate.
Cold Waves Divide Us sees Midas Fall at their most confidently visceral, each song moving beautifully between quiet and loud, gentle and crushing. “This album is a heavier and bigger experience than the last album”, says Heaton. “We kept the atmospheric strings and 80s synths of Evaporate but wanted to add heavier layered elements, to represent more what we sound like live.”
Today they also share the eponymous single from the album, with a dark sci-fi video from Sharon Ritossa and Gabriele Ottino of Riot Studio. The music builds slowly as Elizabeth Heaton’s voice floats gracefully above the growing force beneath it, against a racing visual landscape of "nature, but not-quite-as-we-know-it”.
According to Ottino, “We aimed to imbue this music video with the ambiance of a dystopian jungle. Nature is genetically altered by the virus of a hypercapitalist and hyperproductive civilization, where technology begins to gain consciousness. Instead of annihilating humans and plants, it opts to adapt and modify itself to exist within the bodies and limbs of those who have survived Earth’s catastrophes. No one perishes, no one lives as they did before; everything undergoes transformation.
The technique used is a mixed technique, combining footage, 3D, pure generative, and they were edited to create a narrative foundation. The next step involved passing various sections of the video through the AI Stable Diffusion tool to create surreal and unique environments, suggestions, forms, and textures.”
Norwegian progressive rock group AVKRVST will release their debut album The Approbation on 16th June, 2023. The Approbation is a concept album about a bleak soul who is left solely with his thoughts, isolated on a cabin deep into the dark forests, far away from civilization. The 49 minutes long concept album contains 7 songs, which take the listener though the thoughts of a man struggling towards the acceptance of death, being hauled into the abyss.
Previously released as a single on streaming services, the haunting new video for the album’s second single ‘Arcane Clouds’ is out now and can be seen here:
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At the young age of 7 years old, Martin Utby and Simon Bergseth made a pact that they would form a band when they got older. Now, 22 years later they’ve created an album inspired by everything they grew up listening to from Mew, Anekdoten and Porcupine Tree to Opeth, Neal Morse and King Crimson, yet unique in its own right.
The Approbation was written and recorded at a cabin in Alvdal (Norway) during a rainy, cold fall and winter. Simon (composer, guitars, bass and vocals) and Martin (composer, drummer and synths) were later joined by Øystein Aadland on bass/keys, Edvard Seim on guitars and Auver Gaaren on keys.
Sonically, The Approbation is a massive sounding piece of music. It’s everything from lush, melancholy moods to heavy, more aggressive atmospheres capturing the feeling of a cold, gloomy fall – a dark sky, filled with gazing stars above the mist.
Progressive rockers Haken recently announced their seventh studio album Fauna, the group’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date, will be released on the 3rd March 2023.
Today, the band are pleased to release ‘Taurus’ the 3rd single from the album.
You can watch the video, produced by Crystal Spotlight, here:
Fauna sees the band exploring new ideas conceptually as Ross continues. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it. They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.”
“It reminds me of The Mountain,” adds guitarist and fellow founder Richard Henshall. “There, we had the idea of not really a narrative-based album, but more the concept of climbing a mountain and overcoming the obstacles along the way. Then we took that and thought about how it could relate to our everyday lives. All of Fauna’s animals relate to us, personally.”
Fauna also marks the return of keyboard player Peter Jones, whose sounds can be heard permeating the entire album. “What Pete’s brought sonically to the band has played a massive role in why we do have a lot of new sounds on this record,” says Ross. “It’s always a new dynamic when there’s a change in personnel, and this is a fresh and reviving one. It’s certainly helped proximity-wise, with Pete being in the country: Pete and Ray [Hearne, Haken’s drummer] would be at Rich’s place and they’d just start jamming. That’s really key to how the songs start.”
Poland’s pioneering and leading progressive rock band Riverside finally return with a new studio album entitled ID.Entity, to be released via longtime international partners InsideOutMusic on January 20th, 2023.
The band have also revealed first single ‘I’m Done With You’ which you can check out here:
Aural Aggravation 