A week that stretched across continents and centuries. From the improvised cosmic architecture of a Scottish quartet to the buried Symphonic Prog of 1980s Mexico City, from an Austrian Heavy Psych debut that doesn’t sound like one to the ghost of a 1972 UK band finally getting its proper hearing — and a Doom metal trilogy closure arriving from Barcelona via Season Of Mist. Here’s everything you shouldn’t have missed.
— REVIEWS —
Peninsula — Revelation Space: Mallaig quartet Peninsula have built their practice around long-form improvisation, and “Revelation Space” (April 17, 2026) is their most focused and cohesive statement to date — forty-eight minutes across three extended compositions, born from two December 2024 sessions at Karma Studios, Stoke Newington, produced and mixed by Tom Blackford and mastered by James Plotkin. Timestamped with the precision of field recording logs, the three “Phases” unfold without hurry and without concession: sustained synthesizer fields, guitars used as texture and architecture in equal measure, George Robertson‘s drumming closer to Jazz in its responsiveness than to rock timekeeping. The Kosmische tradition of the 1970s is a reference point, but Peninsula don’t imitate — they share a commitment to the hypnotic properties of sustained motion. “Phase 3: Exploration,” at nineteen minutes, is the definitive statement: nearly twenty minutes that pass without the listener ever becoming aware of their passage. A record for patient ears. Essential. [Read the Review]
The Birch — Vicious Mind: Thirty minutes, seven tracks, zero retro affectations. The Heavy Psych-Blues trio from Quedlinburg, Germany — Lucas Habenreich (guitar, vocals), Santiago Garcia Echeverri (bass) and Volker Blath (drums) — recorded their debut full-length in Miami Beach, and the displacement shows: there’s a heat and looseness to the record that doesn’t quite feel European. Rooted in the Psychedelic Blues tradition, with Pablo Manresa‘s Hammond and piano elevating the material well above the standard power-trio template. Peaks — “Trinity,” “Downpour,” the title-track — that hold up against anything in the current Heavy Psych landscape. A confident debut from a band worth watching closely. [Read the Review]
— INTERVIEWS —
Coma — “Financial Tycoon” and the Art of Disappearing: Born in the early 1970s in Frederikshavn — far northern Denmark, far from any cultural centre — Coma operated on collective improvisation, Dadaistic humor, and a deliberate refusal to be legible. Their debut “Financial Tycoon” (1977) is one of the most singular records in the European Progressive underground, and nearly fifty years later PQR-Disques plusqueréel is bringing it to vinyl for the first time: remastered by the band, pressed in four limited color variants, expanded with over five hours of live material. We sat down with the members to retrace the whole story — from those first wild rehearsal sessions at Frederikshavn Gymnasium to Roskilde Festival, and what it meant to return to these tapes after half a century. A document that deserved its rescue. [Read the Interview]
Lunear — There Is Always Next Time: Five albums in, the French trio deliver their most intimate record yet — eight songs on community, memory, and impermanence, anchored by the 14-minute “Christmas Flowers,” a quietly devastating portrait of a dying village built from three real places. Written entirely in the room, in real time, for the first time. In our exclusive Q&A: the Conway Sequence inside “Pool Balls,” the accidental magic of closing track “Next Time,” and an album dedicated to a friend who didn’t get to hear it finished. [Read the Interview]
— NEWS —
Diabolus — Night Clouded Moon | Bright Carvings Reissue, July 5, 2026: The story behind this one is worth the read on its own. UK band Diabolus recorded their original sessions in July 1971, bankrolled by producer Shel Talmy — who promptly rejected them, sent them back, rejected them again, then sold the second sessions to Bellaphon in Germany to recover costs. That Bellaphon LP is the one collectors know. This Bright Carvings reissue surfaces the original July sessions for the first time — only one track overlaps with the known release, and it’s a completely different version. Beautifully played and recorded Progressive Rock with an early King Crimson feel and, paradoxically, a strong Krautrock vibe. Pre-order open now. [Read the News]
TodoMal — Graveyards Of Joy | Season Of Mist, July 3, 2026: Barcelona-based Anglo-Spanish duo Christopher B. Wildman and Javier Fernández Milla — joined live by Javier Félez, Javier “Bud” Martínez, and Cecilia Tallo — announce the closing chapter of their trilogy via Season Of Mist. “Graveyards Of Joy” follows “Ultracrepidarian” (2021) and “A Greater Good” (2023): nine tracks of slow-burning, widescreen Doom written in solitude following personal tragedy, with vast Hammond passages, Morricone-like strings, desolate Folk sections, and Heavy anchoring riffs. The lead single “Point Of Coalescence” arrives with an official music video — dense, dark, and uncompromising. Pre-order live now. [Read the News]
— HIDDEN RARITIES —
Hidden Rarities #59 — Nobilis Factum: The Mutant Symphonism and the Ghost of Paradise in 1980s Mexico: Entry #59 travels to Mexico City in 1980 — a moment of paradox in which, while European Prog was yielding to New Wave, Mexico was experiencing its own artistic climax. Nobilis Factum were a composition workshop before they were a band, performing at universities and casas de cultura with a lineup where all four members played synthesizers — a configuration unlike anything else in the Latin American scene of the period. Their sole album, “Mutante” (1982, Pentagrama), channels the magniloquence of Emerson, Lake & Palmer through a genuinely Mexican emotional temperament: from the Neruda-set acoustic intimacy of “Me gusta cuando callas” to the keyboard-dense title-track, to the Jazz-tinged “Armónicos en crisol,” which earned recognition at a UAM competition. One CD reissue in 1997, never reissued since. Not a curiosity — evidence. [Read Hidden Rarities]
— SPOTIFY PLAYLIST —
PRJ Spotify Playlist — Progressive Rock and Metal — April 2026
The April edition of the PRJ Prog Rock / Metal playlist is live — from Bruce Soord‘s solo intimacy and Brass Camel‘s completed trilogy to Evergrey‘s Cinematic weight and Parallel Minds‘ samurai-themed Power-Prog Metal. A full map of the genre’s current pulse, underground and overground. [Read the Article]
Stream on Spotify:
— PRJ COMPILATION — Vol. XVII: Weight of the Ancient Stones —
The seventeenth PRJ Compilation is the heaviest one to date — not in decibels, but in intent. Six bands from Belarus, France, Australia, Virginia, Missouri, and Italy: Yearwalker, Oda, Lunar Ruins, Black Wind, Arcana Arcanorum, and Sorrowtale. Doom, Heavy Psych, Occult Progressive Rock, Stoner — placed in sequence, forming an arc that moves from ritual invocation to final dissolution. You do not shuffle this. [Read the Article]
Stream on YouTube:
— PRJ YOUTUBE CHANNEL —
Malam — Malam [Full Demo, 1993] — archival upload, raw and essential.
Stream the full demo on YouTube:
Emissary — The Calling [1992, Full Demo] — another piece of the underground preserved.
Stream the full demo on YouTube: