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THE ENIGMA DIVISION

Prog

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Issue 140

Former Xerath members reach for the Sky(net) with sci-fi-inspired project.

THE ENIGMA DIVISION

IRELAND-BASED PROGRESSIVE metallers The Enigma Division formed in 2019 but their story begins much further back in time: 1977 to be precise. That was when Star Wars was firing the world’s imagination and NASA launched the Voyager Program to observe the outer limits of the solar system.

Guitarist Conor McGouran explains: “People began to take an interest in space again and science fiction became embedded in pop culture like it never had before. I was always fascinated with Carl Sagan and the Voyager missions, from watching [Sagan’s 1980 TV series] Cosmos as a kid to my uncle showing me the first photos of Neptune in 1989.”

McGouran and bassist Ronan Burns began playing music together at the age of 11. They shared a passion for metal, prog, fusion, pop and classical but their trajectories diverged over time.

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BIG BIG TRAIN

British prog classicists honour absent friends, look to the past and forge a new future with their very first narrative concept album.

time to read

3 mins

Issue 166

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Prog

Steeleye Span

Fifty-six years on and still going strong; Steeleye Span released their first album this decade in 2025. Conflict was a record of our times and contained a mix of original material and reworked traditional songs. Longtime vocalist Maddy Prior explains the story behind it and how she came to unleash her inner Tom Waits.

time to read

7 mins

Issue 166

Prog

Prog

BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD

Black Country, New Road have always been full of surprises. When frontman Isaac Wood bowed out days before the release of their second album, Ants From Up There, most groups would’ve found a new singer or simply folded.

time to read

2 mins

Issue 166

Prog

Prog

Solent Area Prog

Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2026, the live music promotions company led by Geoff Tucker has helped put Southampton on the prog map, and bring an even more eclectic mix of music to its largest independent grassroots music venue, The 1865. We caught up with the accidental promoter to discover why the British port city is rocking the prog boat.

time to read

4 mins

Issue 166

Prog

Prog

Steve Rothery

Marillion guitarist Steve Rothery embraced his more electronic side this year with Bioscope, his soundscape project with Tangerine Dream's Thorsten Quaeschning. But he's not ditching the day job: work is well underway on Marillion's next studio album, and there's his long-awaited collaboration with a certain Mr Hackett still to come.

time to read

7 mins

Issue 166

Prog

JORDAN RUDESS (DREAM THEATER)

The great and good of progressive music give us a glimpse into their prog worlds.

time to read

3 mins

Issue 166

Prog

Prog

BE PROG! MY FRIEND ANNOUNCES LINE-UP

Soen and The Ocean will headline the 2026 edition of the Barcelona-based festival.

time to read

1 mins

Issue 166

Prog

Rush

“Geddy said from the stage [in 2015], how they’d see us down the road some day. And now, before we even know it, that day will be here again.”

time to read

5 mins

Issue 166

Prog

Prog

MARTIN BARRE

Every month we get inside the mind of one of the biggest names in music. This issue it's Martin Barre. From the shy kid who learned music to avoid having to ask girls to dance, he conquered the world with Jethro Tull, a band that sold out the Los Angeles Forum five nights in a row in 1975, shifting some 100,000 tickets in the process. The guitarist reflects on not letting fame go to his head, his guilt at staying with Ian Anderson in Tull at the start of the 1980s, and his enduring hunger for new music with the Martin Barre Band.

time to read

12 mins

Issue 166

Prog

Prog

MOON SAFARI

It was only two weeks ago that the promoters had to shift a prog gig by Germans RPWL upstairs at this venue, such was the demand for tickets, and tonight, Swedes Moon Safari are probably knocking on the door of something similar. It's busy here; not uncomfortably packed, but it's getting there. And while tales of gigs being cancelled due to poor ticket sales are rife these days, both these London Prog Gigs shows provide a crumb of comfort.

time to read

3 mins

Issue 166

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