CAROL OF HARVEST

You may have stumbled upon this album if you search prog or 70's rock oriented blogs. Carol of Harvest were a german band with a female singer, often categorized as krautrock (another missleading misconception that probabbly kept people off this gem). The truth is they played progressive folk rock, and they created magic with their music. As a band they only released a same titled album in 1978, in 2003 there was another release under this name, but there was only one original member involved and stylistically it had nothing to do with the original form of the band. The lp goes for crazy amounts of money (even 1.000$) but there's also a cd reissue you could somehow grab at a reasonable price. Honestly, I avoid listening to this album too many times, so that I preserve the magic for very special moments.

PALLAS

Pallas stand out as one of the most honest bands in the field of neo-prog. They never enjoyed any significant success but they kept on for ages just to keep putting out their music. This year they released ''XXV'' a thematical successor to their probably best known album ''The sentinel'' (1984), from which you can check out the song Eastwest above. Give them a shot and you won't regret it.

http://www.pallasxxv.com/

PAIN OF SALVATION- Road salt II (2011)

Seriously I'm no fan of POS's discography. Some tracks showed great potential, but all in all I was tired of their chaotic approach to songwriting. In 2010 there was great buzz around the band's new direction towards the fields of prog/retro rock. I was hesitant to pay any serious attention but finally I did check the album and fell in love with it since. Seriously, it's like Gildenlow and his partners were destined to play this kind of music, full of soul/psych/prog rock influences and heavily based on a genuine late 60's sound that I can imagine would be a painful shock for the prog metal fans that make up the core of POS's fanbase. ''Road salt I'' was one of the best albums of 2010 and also one of the best in the whole 60's-70's revival thing that's groing stronger day by day. Part II doesn't stray much from this sound. It's without doubt a very interesting album, with some very strong moments and great sound. Not as good as part I but still you need to give it a chance. Below is the best in my oppinion song from part II and another one from part I.