THE ROAD TO PROGSTOCK 2018: Interview with FERNANDO PERDOMO
Fernando Perdomo is best known in progressive rock circles as the right-hand man and guitar gunslinger for Dave Kerzner and his live band, recently rubbing…
Author Austin Kokel
Austin Kokel
Austin Kokel is a lifelong metalhead, but between discs of Pantera and Corrosion of Conformity, he always found time to listen to ELP or Jethro Tull, deciding at age 12 that Led Zeppelin's “Achilles' Last Stand” is his favorite song of all-time. A bass player since 13, he actually started his musical life by learning the cello at age 9. He has played cello in The World's Largest Orchestra (1998) and in competitions in Atlanta, Toronto, New York, Orlando, and Valley Forge, as well as in the pit for West Side Story and well into college. He played bass in local metal and rock bands all through high school and college. A prog fan for nearly 20 years, his passion has gone into overdrive since receiving a turntable from his wife and attending Cruise to the Edge in 2015 and MorseFest in 2016. He is a commercial videographer and producer at a TV station, but ever the music buff, his career began in radio. Originally from New Hampshire and raised in Pennsylvania, he and his wife now reside in South Carolina with their three cats.
NORTHWARD And PAGAN’S MIND’s Guitarist JØRN VIGGO LOFSTAD: “No Matter What the Genre Is, If You Are Able to Write Really Good Music, People Are Listening to It.”
Much-beloved Pagan’s Mind guitarist and songwriter Jørn Viggo Lofstad is on the cusp of releasing the first album of a new (and yet not so…
Alice Cooper – A Paranormal Evening At The Olympia Paris (Album Review)
Alice Cooper is a man of the times. Any time, really. The Grandfather of Shock Rock is known for many things: decades of brilliant dramatic…
Helion Prime – Terror Of The Cybernetic Space Monster (Album Review)
“One small step for man, and a giant leap for mankind.” A culture of undead space-faring conquerors who steal the souls of their enemies. Dinosaurs.…
Lux Terminus – The Courage to Be (Album Review)
If one pays enough attention to social media in the progressive rock world these days, they might see a sort of civil war rumbling beneath…
DESERTED ISLAND PICKS: The 5 SPOCK’S BEARD Albums to Take With You
Nothing goes together quite as well as progressive rock fans and lists, am I right? They’re like oil and water, Democrats and Republicans, eight-string guitars…
Semantic Saturation – Paradigms (Album Review)
Think about how it feels when a musician leaves one of your favorite bands, or even worse, most of the band packs up and quits,…
RanestRane – A Space Odyssey – Part Three: Starchild (Album Review)
Fans of progressive rock music already have it hard enough as it is. The casual music listener already thinks we’re pretty snobby, a little elitist,…
Interview with Chen Balbus (Orphaned Land, The Secret Saints)
Chen Balbus is an Israeli guitarist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer currently playing with Orphaned Land and The Secret Saints. Orphaned Land is widely regarded as…
Arena – Double Vision (Album Review)
Arena’s history can now be pretty easily diced up into three distinct periods, as of 2018. The early days in the mid-’90s, where fans of…