Top disks of '98

This is my personal choice. There have been a lot of disappointing releases this year and very few disks have grabbed me by the short and curlies!


 
1. Joes website

Joe Satriani - 'Crystal Planet' Will this be bettered? Just Brilliant!

 2. The Magna Carta Website

Explorer's Club - 'Age of Impact' A surprise, but a totally welcome one. I must check out Magellan now.
3. Olivier Metayer's great French Rhapsody website

Rhapsody - 'Symphony of Enchanted Lands'Utterly brilliant, over the top, magnificent music.

 4. Coldfire's homage site to Shadow Gallery

Shadow Gallery - 'Tyranny'Excellent follow-up to 'Carved in Stone'.
5. A Symphony X website

Symphony X - 'Twilight in Olympus' Great sympho prog metal!

 6. The Within Temptation official site

Within Temptation - 'The Dance' EP An excellent re-working of some of the best tracks from the debut album 'Enter'.
7. My own Angra site

Angra - 'Fireworks' A Classy follow-up to 'Holy Land'.

 8. The Official Marillion site

Marillion - 'These Chains' Single Great tune and the additional tracks are special too.
9. The Official Marillion site

Marillion - 'Radiat10n' Different, low-key but a real grower.

    

Other purchases:

Those not released in '98


Thoughts - the official Spocks Beard Mailing list site

Spock's Beard - 'Beware of Darkness', the finest new US-based Prog band. Contains their best stuff in my opinion.

 A Stratovarius website

Stratovarius - 'Visions', Killer! the best of Finish Prog/Metal. Most people seem to rate 'Episode' as their killer disk, but this did it for me, made me totally revise my assessment of these guys and go totally GAGA!!!! Roll on 'Le Zenith' in January '99!
No Viper site avilable

Viper - 'Theatre of Fate' - Andre Matos' band before Angra.  Coupled with the band's first album 'Soldiers of Sunrise', this is a short, if very promising disk.
 


Bootlegs

The Open All Night Records Site Sampler - 'Into the Great Unknown' 

A very good sampler with excellent stuff from Dream Theater, Vanden Plas etc.
The Open All Night Records Site Dream Theater - 'Static Progress'

A very clear recording of the gig Dream Theater performed at the Palais D'auron, Bourges, on April 17th and the first recording I've bought where I can truly say - 'I was there'!
The Open All Night Records Site Vanden Plas - 'A Fiction of Sadness'

A great selection of VP material, live in various locations, include the 'Cafe de la Danse' gig with Carolina IV. And I was there (for parts of it).
cover of holy land in the east Angra - 'Holy Land in the East'

A decent bootleg from the japanese leg of the 'Holy Land'tour.
Angra - 'Baptism of Fire'

Excellent 3-CD set of the 'carolina IV and Bourges shows from April 1998. I was there - I had to have it.


Those released in '98 but which aren't that good

Despite the hype or their earlier excellent albums, the following left me unimpressed and wishing I'd invested my money elsewhere - Ah well, there's always a few duff releases each year.
 

Thoughts - the official Spocks Beard Mailing list site

Spock's Beard - 'Kindness of Strangers' Has good moments, but difficult to get into.

 A Therion Website

Therion - 'Voivin' A sort of Choral Black Metal. Dodgy lyrics
Anathema Official site

Anathema - 'Alternative 4' Doomy, but lacks the spark that was there with Eternity.

 The Racket Records Website

Marillion - 'Best of Both Worlds' Another Marillion compilation. Nothing really new, but nicely packaged.
MoF cover

Elegy - 'Manifestation of Fear' - Blame this one on Mr Auzilleau!

 The Mr So & So website

Mr So & So - 'The Overlap' - Strongly recommended by the folks at the Classic Rock Society, but didn't impress me - sorry!

ww.mrsoandso.co.uk/">Mr So & So - 'The Overlap' - Strongly recommended by the folks at the Classic Rock Society, but didn't impress me - sorry!