Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography

ARCHIVIARUM

The Samurai Of Prog

Crossover Prog


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

The Samurai Of Prog Archiviarum album cover
3.91 | 145 ratings | 3 reviews | 26% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

Write a review

Buy THE SAMURAI OF PROG Music
from Progarchives.com partners
Studio Album, released in 2018

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Keep the Ball Rolling (6:07)
2. Ahead of Fortune (5:16)
3. La Oscuridad (9:50)
4. Cristalli (5:24)
5. Elitropia (4:56)
6. The Sleeping Lover (8:32)
7. From This Window (10:37)
8. Ice (9:41)
9. Predawn (4:06)
10. Heroes (5:36)

Total Time 70:05

Line-up / Musicians

- Steve Unruh / vocals (2,3,6), violin, flute, electric guitar (4), mandolin (8)
- Marco Bernard / Rickenbacker & Dingwall basses
- Kimmo Pörsti / drums & percussion, mixing

With:
- Michelle Young / vocals (3)
- Stefano Galifi / vocals (4)
- Mark Trueack / lead & backing vocals (10)
- Brett Kull / electric guitar (1)
- Rubén Álvarez / acoustic (4) & electric (2,4) guitars
- Carlos Lucena / electric guitar (3,6)
- Srđan Branković / electric guitar (7)
- Kerry Shacklett / electric guitar & keyboards (7)
- Fran Turner / electric guitar (8)
- Danny Lopresto / electric guitar (10)
- Octavio Stampalía / keyboards (1)
- Eduardo García Salueña / keyboards (2)
- Lalo Huber / keyboards (3,6)
- Michele Mutti / keyboards (4)
- Oliviero Lacagnina / keyboards (5)
- Stefano Vicarelli / keyboards (8)
- David Myers / grand piano (9)
- Marek Arnold / saxophone (8,10), keyboards (10)

Releases information

4 tracks are new, some are previously unreleased, a few appeared in other projects, 2 are covers

Artwork: Ed Unitsky

CD Seacrest Oy ‎- SCR-1018 (2018, Finland)

Thanks to SamuraiProg for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy THE SAMURAI OF PROG Archiviarum Music



THE SAMURAI OF PROG Archiviarum ratings distribution


3.91
(145 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(26%)
26%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(45%)
45%
Good, but non-essential (18%)
18%
Collectors/fans only (9%)
9%
Poor. Only for completionists (1%)
1%

THE SAMURAI OF PROG Archiviarum reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Matti
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars If I remember right, someone wrote Marco Bernard to be the hardest-working musician that the writer knew. Probably it was on the liner notes of The Samurai Of Prog debut album in 2011. It can't be very far from truth, considering Bernard's key role on the massive, international multi-disc Colossus projects, and the breath-taking pace of TSOP releasing new albums full of high quality prog. Wasn't the fifth album On We Sail (2017) released just a short while ago?

But then again, TSOP isn't a regular band; first off, the core trio of bassist Marco Bernard, drummer Kimmo Pörsti and vocalist- violinist-flautist Steve Unruh don't need to compose the music themselves. The first two TSOP albums contained covers of mostly well-known prog classics, and the next two, Imperial Hotel and Lost and Found, were based on (in many cases, 70's dating and previously unreleased) compositions of the featured prog musicians across Europe and America. Archivarium is actually a collection of recordings made throughout the years, none of the tracks having been on a TSOP album before. It contains compositions of the musicians that they have worked with, and (more or less re-worked) tracks that originally have been released under other artists' names on the mentioned Colossus projects (the Decameron trilogy, to be more precise). Making them now TSOP tracks is explained by the fact that the original recordings featured TSOP members.

'Keep the Ball Rolling' by Octavio Stampalia (of Jinetes Negros) is a fine prog instrumental with some ELP/Kansas/Genesis/Camel flavour. 'Ahead of Fortune' is an edited and remixed version of Eduardo García Salueña's [S.A.L.U.E.N.A.] track from Decameron III. 'La Oscuridad', in which Unruh duets with Michelle Young in Spanish, originates from the OCEANIC LEGION project that the TSOP guys had with Lalo Huber and Carlos Lucena (of Nexus, Argentina). This song is previously unreleased, whereas the other Oceanic Legion piece 'The sleeping Lover' (both are composed by Huber) appeared on Decameron II.

'Cristalli' (composed by and featuring keyboardist Michele Mutti of La Torre dell'Alchimista) is sung by Stefano "Lupo" Galifi from Museo Rosenbach. It's an enjoyable, at times fusionesque prog piece. Instrumental 'Elitropia' is a new mix of the Decameron III track of LATTE E MIELE, featuring keyboardist/composer Oliviero Lacagnina plus the TSOP trio. 'From This Window' was originally a demo from Kerry Shacklett; another one ended up as the On We Sail opener. - I sincerely like all these tracks. In fact, I'm pretty close to rate this with five stars (like I have done with two TSOP albums).

The 8th track is a CAMEL cover: the majestic instrumental 'Ice' is among my Camel favourites. This recording was planned to feature Camel keyboardist Guy Leblanc (who appeared on the first two TSOP albums) but sadly he passed away. Luckily this cover sounds suitably different from the perfect and unbeatable original, due to sax and violin. Oh God, I just love 'Ice', and eventually I'll love this version as well. 'Predawn' is a beautiful piano solo by David Myers, continuing the tradition heard on each TSOP album.

As a "bonus track" comes 'Heroes' (DAVID BOWIE), sung by Mark Trueack. This song was chosen by Kimmo Pörsti from the two suggestions of Marco Bernard's brother who turned 60. Well... this is clearly my least fave on this release. The problem is that it follows the excellent main album and its serene ending without a pause and thus brings a sudden anticlimax. This, and the fact that I already had some tracks on the Decameron sets, makes me give only four stars. Nevertheless, Archivarium boldly continues the excellence of The Samurai Of Prog releases, and especially if you missed the Decamerons, you'll have over an hour's worth of wonderfully performed 70's style symphonic prog. Recommended? Sure!!

Latest members reviews

5 stars Our beloved multinational supergroup THE SAMURAI OF PROG is back in 2018 with another exceptional release called ARCHIVIARUM!This is a 70 minutes amazing new masterpiece which consist of rarities and special recordings,as the album is presented by SEACREST OY,the band's record label!Of course, ... (read more)

Report this review (#1905585) | Posted by Ovidiu | Sunday, March 18, 2018 | Review Permanlink

4 stars The Samurai Of Prog is a very famous, actually very good cross-country forward rock band, despite the style of the cross before shaking, but I think it should be more symphonic shake. They basically each year a college, each more than an hour, there are some twenty or thirty minutes of epic. They re ... (read more)

Report this review (#1890544) | Posted by mitarai_panda | Saturday, March 3, 2018 | Review Permanlink

Post a review of THE SAMURAI OF PROG "Archiviarum"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.