Isildurs Bane

This is simply one of my top favorite prog bands in all times. Their music is the perfect paradigm of symphonic progressive rock to me, with brilliant utilization of symphonic typical instrumentation blended with awesome rock elements reminiscent of bands such as King Crimson, Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd. At their website, the band describes their own sound in these words: "Over the years we've gathered a lot of impressions from all around, though mainly from fusion, jazz, classical and theater music. Our musical development has also to do with new members coming from different backgrounds, such as pure rock, funk, classical and jazz."

From their prolific discography my top 3 favorites are these:

- Mind Vol. 1

- Mind Vol. 2

- The Voyage: A Trip to Elsewhere

The audio quality of their recordings (later stuff especially) is usually top notch too. Mind Vol. 1 & 2, for example, are two of the best-sounding prog recordings I have ever heard.

Who else into this great Swedish band?

Demetrio.

Does anybody here like Cheval... ? I think iy really is the band´s masterpiece, even better, IMHO, than all the MIND seires.  Yes. MIND series are really technical, original and very brilliant, but there are some ups and downs in those records. But Cheval... provides not only great virtuosistic playing, but also a real sense of "album". I don´t mean with this that I dislike the most experimental side  of the band (MIND 3 is quite an interesting project),  but I consider that Cheval has a different feeling (more than Voyage...)