Tuesday, September 9, 2014

A Few Of The Best Scandinavian Prog Rock Groups

By Kerri Stout


Progressive rock is still a very popular form of music despite the fast it has been around for around 40 years. It began in the late 60s with the Beatle's Sargeant Pepper and the early psychedelic rock of Pink Floyd. These days, fans of the genre should check out Scandinavian prog rock. There are many excellent bands from the continent, especially in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Sweden have produce many excellent progressive rock bands, one of the most successful is Beardfish. Beardfish create music that is along the lines of Genesis and Yes, but with a modern take. They formed in 2001 and the band's first album, Fran En Plats Du Ej Kan Se was released in 2003 and achieved much success.

Another great Swedish progressive rock band are The Flower Kings. The band formed in August 1994 by veteran guitarist Roine Stolt. The band have produced 11 acclaimed albums in their lifetime. The band is influenced by jazz and blues music and are characterized by their use of sharp dynamic changes, polyrhythms, heavy bass, vocal harmonies, abstract lyrics, and extended songs.

Norway's Magic Pie blend a 70s sound with contemporary music. The band creates strong melodies, interesting lyrics, powerful vocal arrangements, sparkling guitar riffs, 70s organ hooks, and a solid rhythm section. There music can be soft and gentle or blistering heavy metal. Magic Pie formed in 2005 and have released three albums, with another due in 2014.

An usual but highly exciting band are Finland's Apocalyptica. Instead of bass, drums, guitars and keyboards, there are three cello players and a drummer to create a unique kind of progressive heavy metal. They began their career as a Metallica covers band on cellos, but soon began creating their own exciting music. All of the band's cellists are classical trained.

Hidria Spacefolk are another awesome band from Finland. They balance folk music with psychedelia perfectly. Not only do they use the standard keyboards, guitar, bass and drums, they also use didgeridoo, flute, violin, mandolin, marimba, vibraphone and sitar to create their spacey rock music.

Kingston wall are another successful band from Finland. There music can be compared to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. Eastern themes are combined with spacey psychedelic rock and they remain a cult favorite with fans of the genre. They have released three albums, a number of remix albums and a live DVD.

The Swedish group, Moon Safari create a neo-classic instrumental sound blended with complex vocal harmonies, which is a vital aspect of their music. Although most of the band's music uses guitars, bass and drums, some of their most memorable tunes are performed acapella. The band experiments with strange time signatures and many of their tunes are longer than 10 minutes. Moon Safari won the ninth annual Independent Music Awards with the Vox Pop vote for the "In the Countryside" album. The band is one to definitely take a listen to.




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