North Star not to be confused with Northern Star

 

The Philly-based prog band North Star started in 1984 with the cassette only Triskelion (rereleased amazingly 4 years later as LP and CD) then followed up in 1985 with a brilliant opus of Genesis-inspired symphonic prog, i.e., the dreaded 'neo-prog' labeled type of music, called Feel the Cold, e.g. the just gorgeous Genesisian track Tomorrow Never Comes: 

I mean it just hits a home run for me every day, all the way. Almost an insult to call this neoprog which usually implies elaborate and twisted vocal articulations about wizards or goblins on top of simplistic keyboards plus fake strings playing ordinary chords. Instead, this is the real deal, sounding like Genesis had they adhered to the progressive spirit of the early seventies moving on forward a decade, genuinely original.

Years later, perhaps immune to the punishment of being utterly ignored (remember the popular music of the late 80s? prog rock couldn't possibly have been more unfashionable) they produced some more music, starting in 1992 with the Power album, which I found disappointing but others maybe not. Here they really come into that neoprog designation. On that opus though their Meltdown really brings home the dissonance-crammed classic prog rock sound, god bless 'em:

I always found the Michigan-based band called Northern Star easy to confuse though the music is totally different and comes straight up from the 70s, since it combines basic ssw, pop, rock, and occasional lapses into fusion into a really mixed-up whole, kind of like the Sailor LP or so many others of the 'lesser progs' I posted in late 2019 like Chalis, Project Tyme, Grok, Syn Cast the First Stone, etc.  These bands always wanted to have it all I guess, in terms of the best track, it's clearly the Galaxy one, which, truth be told, is one of my favourite tracks from all American prog (along with hundreds of others, as my wife always reminds me):

I love the symphonic quality to the composition here, very dramatic.