Back catalogue: Progressive Rock

Review: The newly re-mastered release of Pink Floyd's legendary Pompeii performance from 1972 - released as a film initially and recorded without an audience - immerses the listener in the eerie grandeur of the ancient Roman amphitheatre. Steven Wilson, in charge of reworking the audio, breathes fresh life into the familiar, giving tracks like 'Echoes Part 1' and 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' a heightened sense of space and detail. The alternate take of 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' and the unedited 'A Saucerful of Secrets' show the band's ever-evolving approach at this most productive stage in their career. A raw, expansive reflection of Pink Floyd's creative journey as they morphed from psychedelic garage stars to prog rock giants.

Review: More than half a century after its original release, Pink Floyd At Pompeii: MCMLXXII has returned to cinemas. Shot in 1971 at the haunting amphitheatre ruins of Pompeii, the film captured the band in their pre-DSOTM phase, during which time they were moving away from their originally overt psychedelia and space rock ventures and packing their work with a denser thematic and political verve. The DVD edition represents live versions of 'Echoes' and 'A Saucerful of Secrets', among other ashen, ruinous greats, in newly restored clarity - and that's not to mention its accompanying, behind-the-scenes studio footage of an early DSOTM studio session. This is a full 90-minute cut scanned in 4K from rediscovered 35mm negatives, with Steven Wilson providing a lush new audio mix in Dolby Atmos and 5.1.

Region code: 2

Review: Serving as follow up to 2023's acclaimed breakout third full-length Take Me Back To Eden, London's elusive, masked progressive metal mystics Sleep Token return with Even In Arcadia. Renowned for their genre-fluid melding of djent, metalcore, post-rock with further leftfield elements of post-classical, hip-hop, trap and indie-pop, the project led by the enigmatic Vessel has seen a massive expansion in popularity since the release of their last album. Set to headline Download 2025 before embarking on their first US Arena Tour, their newest endeavour promises to maximise all of their sonic abandon and outdo their own blueprint in the process, with lead single 'Emergence' starting life as a piano ballad before morphing into an ambi-trap groove metal anthem until fading with a lush, jazzy saxophone and piano finish. No doubt, this will be one of the highest selling/streaming/controversial/debated/talked about metal-centric titles to be released this year.