Warthur Guapo's Black Oni is much in the same vein as the preceding Five Suns - an intoxicating blend of mid-1970s King Crimson, early Univers Zero, classic-era Magma and a whole bunch more besides. Once again, the band take a Magma-inspired approach to compositional structure, producing an album-length suite which is full of twists and turns and remains vivid and entertaining right to the end, and on the whole I think there's a bit more of a Univers Zero vibe about this one than the previous one, but really they're much of a muchness - if you like one, you'll like the other, if you don't like one you'll most likely like neither.

Bmiler The most extreme end of prog, with enough heavy guitars and heavy enough where more adventurous metalheads would certainly find much to enjoy, just as much as the more extreme progheads would. The average Bon Jovi or Marillion fan need not apply, that's for sure! What you get is music that brings to mind King Crimson at its more heavy, with influences from the likes of Magma, Univers Zero, and the likes. Lots of heavily fuzzed bass and guitar work from Matt Thompson (whose brother is Andy Thompson, who runs the Planet Mellotron website, and in fact his tron is used on this album), electric piano and even Mellotron from Daniel O'Sullivan and some intense drumming from Dave Smith. At times, his electric piano is in the Canterbury style, and even when he plays like that, you're still faced with this wall of relentless noise. 2005's Black Oni is the followup to Five Suns, and is the second in a trilogy (which ends with 2008's Elixirs). If you love Five Suns, you need this, as it's much the same (in fact the only two Guapo albums that feature the same lineup). This is a full frontal assault that even many thrash metal bands only dream of! It's a great discovery for me, and if you like the more extreme end of prog, or just something heavy and doomy sounding, you can't go wrong here!