Sea of tranquility 1998–2001

Writer and radio host James Bickers founded Sea of tranquility in 1995 as a web magazine covering progressive rock, metal, and their intersections. In 1998 he began publishing it as a black and white zine, before transitioning to a full color magazine in winter 2000. Responding to readers who questioned the publication’s coverage of metal in a progressive rock magazine—and vice versa—Bickers argued in favor of a broad understanding of progressive music, defining it as “any music which takes chances, thinks ahead, ignores limitations, and breaks new ground”. Issues include extensive album reviews, interviews, eclectic “listening room” sections that dive into recommendations from the publication’s slate of writers, and detailed studies of selected albums, for example on Spiral Architect’s A sceptic’s universe and Symphony X’s V. Sea of tranquility ceased print publication in 2001, when it was acquired by Progression (also included in the RAPMM collection), but it maintains a href="https://www.seaoftranquility.org/"an active web presence/a to this day.