Welcome back to Prog's Christmas Tracks Of The Week.
A slight deviation this week, as Christmas is only a week away, and the world seems to be slowly moving into holiday mode, and, well, basically, no one's really releasing very much at all.
So we've decided to collate all the seasonal prog songs that have come our way this year - the new ones mind, not the evergreen classics like I Believe In Father Christmas or The Jethro Tull Christmas Album - and put them all in the mix for a final Tracks Of The Week for 2025. And you lot can vote for which one was your favourite.
Before that, however, congratulations to Swedish symphonic prog metallers Therion whose live rendition. of their signature tune To Mega Therion, absolutely romped home last week, leaving Swedish prog rockers Soen and flame-haired psych sisters Fire in Her Eyes trailing in second and third place respectively.
We break for Christmas this week and don't return until early January so the site will be slowing down a bit over the festive period. But we'll be back with an all-new Tracks Of The Week in January. For now though, have a great Xmas and get voting...
THE BLACKHEART ORCHESTRA - WINTER MAJESTY
Correct us if we're wrong, but we're pretty certain prog pop duo The Blackheart Orchestra are first out the traps this year with a seasonal offering. And what a little beauty the plaintive Winter Majesty is. The new song features Big Big Train's Claire Lindley on violin and Brian Mullen on cello. It's been a big week for the band, for none other than Mike Batt picked the band's Utopia Hotel album as his favourite modern album on Times Radio's Old & New, and he knows a thing or two about good music. Well deserved.
LESS PENNING & ROBERT REED - I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS
The original was from prog rock royalty, and this new cover of the 1975 No. 2 seasonal single from ELP singer and bassist Greg Lake, features modern day royalty in the form of Welsh prog polymath Robert Reed, Tiger Moth Tales ubiquitous Peter Jones, delivering a solidly faithful vocal turn, and Mike Oldfield's old recorder player Les Penning, with a charmingly sentimental video full of A Christmas Carol imagery thrown in for good measure. Bah humbug if this doesn't raise a nostalgic smile!
ALBERTO BRAVIN - HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Big Big Train frontman Alberto Bravin has shared a video for his new festive single, a cover of the seasonal standard Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Bravin recorded the track at his Green House studio in his home city of Trieste in north eastern Italy during the autumn this year, performing all the instruments himself. The video was filmed by Massimiliano Cernecca at Urban Recording Studios (where Big Big Train recorded their previous studio album The Likes Of Us).
THE SANCTITY OF CROWS - AFTER CHRISTMAS
Not quite sure how festive the sentiment behind this one is, having watched the video, but we'll let you make your own minds up. An Xmas offering of sorts from The Sanctity Of Crows, an award-winning solo indie music project by Scottish musician Ian A Napier, who describes his sound as "mostly instrumental, often cinematic. Distinctive genre-agnostic flights high above the confluence of the two great rivers prog and post-rock."
