http://www.ozprog.com Progressive rock and metal. Made in Australia. Copyright 2007 Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:49:54 -0700 brad@ozprog.com brad@ozprog.com http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/393 Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:06:25 -0700 News OzProg's co-founders Andrew Saltmarsh and Bradley Dixon have issued a statement announcing that the main OzProg.com website will be closed indefinitely while the oganisation is re-structured.

The OzProg forum will continue unchanged, but the content and news areas of the site will close down in the next few days.

Read the statement in full on the OzProg forum here.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/392 Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:17:01 -0700 News The Incident. The record is set to be released as a double album via Roadrunner Records in Australia on September 18th and elsewhere on September 21st.

The centre-piece is the title track, which takes up the whole of the first disc. The 55-minute work is described as "a slightly surreal song cycle about beginnings and endings and the sense that 'after this, things will never be the same again'."

The self-produced album's second disc contains four standalone compositions that developed out of band writing sessions last December - "Flicker", "Bonnie The Cat", "Black Dahlia" and "Remember Me Lover".

Check out a behind the scenes video of the band in the studio working on The Incident. Audio previews will be available soon.

The band will tour extensively to promote the album from mid-September onwards.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/391 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:03:30 -0700 News Cog cancelled the first of their two Hi-Fi Bar shows at the last minute due to vocal troubles suffered by singer Flynn Gower. Punters were confused as main support Oceansize finished their set only to return minutes later to play an impromptu 20-minute encore in Cog's absence.

The Hi-Fi Bar will issue refunds to any unhappy attendees, but those who wish to hold onto their tickets can gain entry to the replacement show, to take place on Wednesday, July 1st at the same venue.

Support bands will be announced closer to the show date.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/390 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:56:34 -0700 News We're merely two and a bit weeks away from the long-awaited release of Dream Theater's tenth studio album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings. In the lead-up to the album's launch, the band are releasing a cover song each week which will be collected onto a CD and included with the special edition of the album.

The fourth of these covers – Zebra's "Take Your Fingers From My Hair" – is available right now on iTunes.

Roadrunner Records's website features an interview with Mike Portnoy on the selection of this Zebra song as the fourth in their series of covers.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/389 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:45:40 -0700 News On Saturday the 13th of June, the Grand Ballroom of the immaculately restored and refurbished Thornbury Theatre will play host to the inaugural Symphony of Light, a music/multimedia art showcase featuring progressive musical performance, experimental cinematics, atmospheric lighting installations, collaborative audio/visual works and short films.

Playing live will be Mountains In The Sky, The Spheres, The Red Tree, Seth Rees, Earthmanstar and Primitive Calculators, who recently played at the inaugural Australian All Tomorrows Parties festival.

Tickets for the event are $25 on the door or online at www.thethornburytheatre.com. Doors will be opening at 6:30 pm.

More information can be found at www.myspace.com/cinematicaccompaniment.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/388 Sun, 7 Jun 2009 05:38:58 -0700 News Following the massive success of Prog Fest 2009 in Sydney and Canberra over three huge nights in May, OzProg has made available the Prog Fest compilation CD at the OzProg Store.

For $10 and with free shipping Australia-wide, listeners can treat themselves to 22 tracks from some of Australia's best and brightest progressive and experimental rock and metal bands.

The tracklist for the 2-disc set is as follows:

Disc 1:

1. Nucleus – "Orion"
2. Mirrorsessions – "Drive Carefully"
3. sleepmakeswaves – "I Will Write Peace On Your Wings And You Will Fly Over The World"
4. Superb Lyrebird "Still"
5. Eleventh He Reaches London – "Hollow Be My Name"
6. Rook – "Animals & Chemicals"
7. Rincon – "Justify"
8. Ten Thousand Free Men And Their Families – "Bitch Whipped"
9. May – "A River Runs Through It"
10. Aeon Of Horus – "3C321"
11. Ne Obliviscaris – "Forget Not"

Disc 2:

1. Toy Death – "Heart Song"
2. Slimey Things – "Space Toast"
3. Captain Kickarse And The Awesomes – "The Lost Doctrine Of Dr. Phyviater Ravingsley"
4. Space Project – "Horizon"
5. super FLORENCE jam – "MOGAR"
6. i like cats – "George Clooney"
7. Mish – "Telepathetic"
8. Pirate – "Profanity Of The Jungle"
9. Mushroom Giant – "Graven Image"
10. Meladora – "Moyette"
11. H E I R S – "Mockery"

Get the Prog Fest 2009 compilation CD from the OzProg Store now!

Prog Fest makes its way to Brisbane on August 14th with Alchemist, Toehider, Dead Letter Opener, 'neath, Arcane, The Surrogate, Order Of Lost Souls, Conversations With The Sun, After Earth and many more to be announced descending on Rosies' two levels for a night of proggy goodness. Stay tuned for a full announcement soon.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/387 Sat, 6 Jun 2009 18:52:34 -0700 News Mushroom Giant will headline another fantastic Welkin Entertainment line-up at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne on June 19th, joined by OzProg favourites A State Of Flux, The Night Terrors, Teramaze and The Moroccan Kings. Entertaining the crowd between bands will be performance art from Afterwhite (a.k.a. Sydonia's Sam Haycroft and artist Julian Medor), who combine music and painting in experimental ways.

Mushroom Giant will be backed by their increasingly popular video projections, ensuring a night exploring the fusion of music and performance art.

Tickets are $12 from the Corner Hotel box office and at the door.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/386 Sat, 6 Jun 2009 15:10:08 -0700 News Cog kicked off the first show of their Between Oceans tour in Hobart last week, they had just received the news that their latest record Sharing Space had reached gold sales in Australia.

Sharing Space was the band's most stressful recording experience to date, and in a statement the band thanked their fans for making it all worthwhile:

"To all who went out and bought Sharing Space thank you for your support the album has now gone GOLD! From all in the Cog camp see ya on the Between Oceans Tour. [It's] time for a little celebration!"

Cog will be on tour nationally until the beginning of July 2009, including seven shows with English progressive metal band Oceansize.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/385 Sat, 6 Jun 2009 15:05:28 -0700 News The third of Dream Theater's cover songs is available now: this time, the Dixie Dregs get the DT treatment with a cover of "Odyssey".

The song is available right now on iTunes and will be available on the special edition of Dream Theater's upcoming album Black Clouds & Silver Linings when it is released later this month.

Over the next three weeks until the album's release on June 23rd, three more songs will be announced and made available on the iTunes Store.

Roadrunner Records's website features an interview with Mike Portnoy on the selection of this Dixie Dregs classic as the third in their series of covers.]]> http://www.ozprog.com/news/view/384 Thu, 4 Jun 2009 16:53:02 -0700 News Queensrÿche return to our shores in August 2009. It's only the second time in their 28 year career that they will visit Australia, as part of a world tour promoting new album American Soldier. The tour, named Extended Suites: Rage For Order/American Soldier/Empire, promises exactly that: shows featuring a broad selection of tracks from these classic, and current, Queensrÿche albums.

Formed in Washington in 1982, Queensrÿche began their ascendancy towards critical and chart success a few years later with 1986's Rage for Order. They went on to sell over 20 million albums worldwide, spurred on by 1988's ambitious project, Operation Mindcrime and 1990's two-million seller, The Empire (featuring hit single "Silent Lucidity"). In 2004, the band released Operation: Mindcrime II, the long-awaited sequel to their 1988 conceptual smash.

American Soldier has been labeled a concept album, the result of vocalist Geoff Tate's two year, one-on-one interviews with various military veterans. The stories that surfaced from these conversations formed the basis of this war-themed 'project'. American Soldier was produced by Jason Slater (Operation: Mindcrime II) and was released in March 2009.

Still performing with its original line-up – guitarist Michael Wilton, vocalist Geoff Tate, bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield (with the exception of guitarist Chris DeGarmo who left the band in 1998) – Queensrÿche's years of solid touring has made them a force on the live scene. And judging by the thousands of fans who witnessed their sell-out east coast shows here in 2006, one can only expect demand of a similar magnitude this time around for this musically accomplished act.

Support includes Sydney metallers Darker Half Australia-wide, hair enthusiasts Eyefear in Melbourne and Sydney and OzProg favourites Arcane as local support in Brisbane.

Dates are as follows:

August 27th — Capitol, Perth
August 29th — Hi-Fi Bar, Brisbane
August 30th — Billboard the Venue, Melbourne
August 31th — Metro Theatre, Sydney

Tickets for all shows are available from www.justsayrock.com.au.]]>