IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE

ARCTANGENT FESTIVAL

Welcome to the second of our special Review Of The Year joint interviews. Here, indie provocateur BAXTER DURY and Sleaford Mods’ splenetic frontman JASON WILLIAMSON turn their attentions to the landscape, musical or otherwise, of 2025. Stand by for a bleak, brash, honest and often humorous assessment of the year just gone. Their conclusions? “We’re just flogging this dead horse, aren’t we?” they tell Mark Beaumont

Bon Jovi Forever (Legendary Edition) ISLAND Jon Bon ...

It’s the end of the world as we know it, but Arjen Lucassen feels fine. So fine, in fact, that he’s written what’s described as “the soundtrack to humanity’s final days”. Thirteen years after his last proper solo album , the Dutch polymath has gone apocalyptic on Songs No One Will Hear with a little inspiration from some of his favourite sci-fi-themed records. He tells Prog what he’ll be doing when the asteroid hits and his future plans for Ayreon.

After releasing four solo albums under his own name, Riverside frontman Mariusz Duda has turned his attention back to Lunatic Soul . He’s rightly proud of The World Under Unsun , an ambitious new double album that he refers to as his “calling card”, but could it spell the end of this particular outlet? He tells Prog why he’s gone big and bold on his eighth release under the LS banner and reveals his plans for the future.