Reports from the (progressive metal) underground: September 2018

wowowowow what we actually have a website now? What is this magic? And what is a progressive subway supposed to be? This place is still heavily under construction, so please excuse the still shitty website design. To celebrate our new website this is edition is packed to them brim as its our largest one yet.

I have to say in advance though that some of the releases on this one aren’t as underground as usual, so apologies for that. Opposed to the stuff we usually highlight from below the tectonic plates, some of these are rather the 10-20 upvotes song post on r/progmetal with an “Omg these guys are so underrated! Have an updoot!”-comment levels of below the surface. We usually refrain from those bands, but some of these were just too good to ignore.

As always, here’s a link to the Spotify playlist with all recommended tracks in advance, and the links to all previous editions:
– January
– February
– March
– April
– May
– June
– July
– August

What is this place? We have an about page now! So take a look at it if you’re unfamiliar. Now let’s get to it!

Devcord – Dysthymia (Austria)
Style: Extreme (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

I have a serious problem with this album, and I can’t quite pin down what it is, besides the fact that there’s a song on this otherwise Opeth-worship album that sounds like Pantera wrote it, and that really bothers me. Besides that though, what I keep finding is that every time I listen to Dysthymia I like it less and less, and I find myself getting more and more bored. There is absolutely nothing here I haven’t heard before, but done much better elsewhere. The guitars sound like Opeth but flatter, the drumming sounds like Opeth but flatter, and the vocals sound like Mikael Akerfeldt but much, much less pleasant. The harshes lack body and the cleans lack any kind of pleasant tonality. And they absolutely don’t have the same soothing quality of Mikael’s baritone warble. The random “prog” moments of piano just make the songs sound confused instead of well composed. There’s not a whole lot to love here, honestly. But, if you’re incredibly desperate for some Opeth-esque music, you might as well give this a listen, unless you haven’t heard Barren Earth’s most recent albums, in which case you should absolutely go listen to those instead of this, because they’re much better.

Recommended tracks: N/A
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Barren Earth
Final verdict: 4/10

Omega Point – Isolation (Germany)
Style: Blackened Melodeath (harsh/mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

For the first time in my review history, I’ve got an album I can clearly compare to some more well known/established acts. Omega Point play a style of music very similar to Insomnium and Skeletonwitch. Epic, somber and melodic melodeath, with hints of black thrown here and there. This is a style that, when done right, I’m a huge fan of.

And I’m very happy to say it’s very well done here. The production is good, the riffage is on point, and even the vocals are worth a praise. Much like Insomnium there is a mix of spoken vocals, clean vocals, and dominant harsh vocals. These are used very well to fit any specific mood the album is going for, and allows for good changes of pace.

Overall a very short album, that was enjoyable from start to finish… Sadly, they didn’t wow me to any degree for me to be amazed by what I was hearing, but I was not bored for even one second. If you just want good melodeath of an established sound, done by a lesser known act, this release is just for you.

Recommended tracks: Path to eternity (however, I do recommend the entire album to be experienced as a whole instead of individual tracks)
Recommended for fans of: Skeletonwitch, Insomnium
Final verdict: 8/10

Crypt of Insomnia – Quadrilogy. Part 1: Principle of Cosmic Censorship (US-WA)
Style: Instrumental
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

An 83 instrumental underground prog metal album. Does that sound scary? Believe me, it is. I don’t consider myself the most patient person, however, I never turn away from a long album just because of its length. Because who knows what I might be missing? After all, my favorite album of all time is 77 minutes long. So, what did I get from Crypt of Insomnia for investing 83 minutes of my time into their music?

A brain boil, that’s what I got. Holy fuck, this thing broke me. If you start playing this album when I’m distracted I may get Vietnam flashbacks, it’s that bad.

It works out like this; all tracks have at least 2 minutes of potential (this is what’s holding the album from having no points given at all). There’s hints of good riffing, and somewhat tight songwriting. The problem is, all tracks last at least 8 minutes, and some 10, and one 20… and they all have the same amount of good music. The rest of it is either boring, uninspired, or goes absolutely nowhere. Ambient sections that don’t go anywhere or add anything to the music, mindless, automatic chug riffing, god it SUCKS.

It also makes me kinda sad, cause it’s got good moments, even if it’s just a very minor portion of the album. If the band had a producer that got their shit together, they may have written a tighter, average instrumental album. Instead, they wrote an 83 minute one that will do absolutely nothing to you that will make your time worth it.

Avoid at all costs.

Recommended tracks: Did you read the review?
Recommended for fans of: No seriously, did you? Why are you looking for stuff here?!
Final verdict: 2.5/10

Dragonauta – Entropicornio (Argentina)
Style: Stoner/Black (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

After the experience with whatever that Crypt of Insomnia album was, I was frightened to have to review another 80 minute album. Luckily, Dragonauta surprised me, in the best way possible.

What am I looking for when investing 80 minutes of my time into an album? Proper sense of direction, good pacing and tight songwriting. If any of those 3 elements are missing on a lengthy album, it will become unbearable. There’s a reason for Crypt of Insomnia to get a 2.5/10, there’s a reason for Archspire’s albums to not exceed the hour mark, and a reason for late era Dream Theater to get bashed for being too wanky and lacking some good hooks. Thank God that Dragonauta accomplish all 3 of these tasks.

The sound of the album is stoner metal with an injection of black metal. This mix of genres sounds like it couldn’t work at all, like if they were water and oil. But they complement each other surprisingly well.

For starters, the production value is fantastic. The guitars are thick and punchy, the bass has got good room to breathe (especially when a the rhythm guitar isn’t replicating the bass), and the drums sound tight and thick. The riffs are catchy as hell, the drumming is sublime, and the vocals adapt perfectly for whatever mood each song is going for. It really has a bit of something for everyone.

As stated before, the pacing here is pretty much perfect. With a good balance of slower grooves, faster ones, chill sections, and extremely brutal ones, you’re never bound to get fatigued by this lengthy release. The last two tracks do have a noisy breakdown where you’re left wondering where the hell the songs are going, but even those end up having purpose to the track they are in.

Quite possibly one of my favorite releases from the underground prog metal side so far. Check it out.

Recommended tracks: Voivods of War, Orbital Coffins
Recommended for fans of: Enslaved, Elder, Hands of Despair
Final verdict: 9/10

Infera Bruo – Cerement (US-MA)
Style: Black (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

Jesus Christ when did my reviews get so long? Back when I started this series my longest review was two paragraphs: short and to the point. Now I’m suddenly acting like a full-fledged reviewer with how long they’ve gotten. So opposed to my other four, I’m gonna try to make this brief again. So, what do Infera Bruo offer us?

Well, Cerement is good! It’s a very riffy black metal album. They like to ride out a groove and build their song around it. Their guitar tone is similar to Mgla and they love tremolo picking. There are some very catchy riffs in here that’ll definitely get you grooving. The riffs are definitely the best part of the album. They also include a couple of cool Enslaved-esque clean vocal parts in the climaxes of The Lunar Pass and Draped in Sky, reminiscent of the Norwegian’s riff juggernaut Mardraum: Beyond the Within.

It’s not without flaws though. There are three interludes which don’t really add anything, so 20% of this album already is wasted space. The other 80% is very good, but the song structures are a bit too linear and it tends to get repetitive over time. Also I found their climaxes a bit lacking. This album is good, but beware that except for a couple of moments this plays more like a black metal album than anything progressive.

Recommended tracks: Shroud Enigma, Endnotes, The Lunar Pass
Recommended for fans of: Mgla, Immortal, Enslaved’s harsher moments
Final verdict: 6.66/10

Kingcrow – The Persistence (Italy)
Style: Heavy Prog/Electronic/Djent(??) (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

This doesn’t belong here, straight up. This band has gotten way too much acclaim by this point to be featured here. However I felt obliged to review this album since I’ve been following this band closely ever since their 2015 album Eidos. By the time they released The Persistence I had been refreshing their Facebook page for nearly two years. Their blend of Fates Warning and Queensryche riffage, Porcupine Tree-style atmosphere and Dream Theater-esque proggy theatrics just made me instantly fell in love with them. So the question is: how does their latest offering compare?

The Persistence is a completely different beast. Gone are the upbeat rockers, gone are the salsa breaks and the flashy progressive twists and gone are the guitar solos that (largely) defined their previous three albums. Instead what we have here is a rhythmically driven album defined by bleak emotion and atmosphere, the only remaining aspect of their previous sound. An album like this, where a band sheds almost all key elements of their sound, does not often end well. So how do Kingcrow fare?

In short: it’s great! Despite the stylistic shift, their music is still dramatic as ever and atmosphere has always been one of this band’s strong points. And the shift to rhythm as the driving force works superbly. The drums sound incredibly tight. Cafolla’s pulsing rhythms are executed with such rigid regularity they literally and figuratively become the heartbeat of the music. The riffs also sound deep and bounce of the drums as if Leprous and TesseracT had a baby. And thanks to the electronic production it all sounds extremely tight, to an almost machine-like fashion.
That’s not to say this is 55 minutes of staccato and/or djent grooving though. In fact most of this album is driven by soft atmosphere and Diego Marchesi’s beautifully heartfelt vocals. The aforementioned harder groovy parts are rather used to bring the songs to their climax. Just listen to Closer or Devil’s Got a Picture to see what I mean. And there’s also the amazing duet with Daniel Gildenlow from Pain of Salvation on Night’s Descending.

What most defines this album though is the emotion conveyed. The Persistence sounds bleak and desperate, yet it’s also a message of hope and warmth. The following lyric in Everything Goes is exemplary of that:

Can you hear me?
Can you feel this pain?
If you have a raging fever
You’re about to turn the page

Everything Goes

Due to its introverted nature this is an album that’ll only reveal its beauty as you give it multiple listens. What at first seems like an introverted album, screened off from the outside world, is actually a powerful scream desperate to be heard. Because as you peel off the layers with multiple listens and the emotional depth and intricacy of the songwriting begin to reveal itself, that first soft cry has suddenly become an all-encompassing roar.

The Persistence is a magnificent album. Somehow Kingcrow have managed to improve on their previous album while dropping almost everything that defined their sound, resulting in what is in my opinion their best album yet. Don’t write this off in one listen, as this will grow on you guaranteed.

Recommended tracks: Everything Goes, The Persistence, Devil’s Got a Picture, Night’s Descending
Recommended for fans of: Porcupine Tree, TesseracT, Anathema, Pain of Salvation
Final verdict: 9/10

Pantheist – Seeking Infinity (Belgium)
Style: Funeral Doom (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

I’ve always found reviewing Funeral Doom to be somewhat difficult, because it requires such a serious personal time investment to really dig into. The songs are really damn long, and they take a really damn long time to get to anything engaging. But that’s kind of the point, so I can’t dock an album for a genre convention that I have an actual appreciation for. So instead, I sit here and listen to the song crawl along at 5 BPM (I exaggerate, but damn this is a slow album) and enjoy the enormously heavy riffs and suffocating atmosphere, of which this Pantheist album has in spades.

The vocals are a mixed bag. The harshes are enormous and wonderful, filling the space with a harsh wall of sound that complements the mournful riffage perfectly. The cleans are serviceable, but not nearly as strong, often feeling a little unnecessary beside the marvelous harsh vocals. The guitars are exactly what one might expect from a Funeral Doom band, they’re slow, riffy, chunky, and generally very pleasant. The biggest surprise for me on this album was the drumming, as throughout the album on very brief occasions the drummer shifts from the usual Funeral Doom “drum slow as hell” strategy to throw in little drum fills that always put a smile on my face, as they’re a lot of fun to find scattered throughout the doldrums that make up the rest of the album. Also there’s a lot of organs, and they’re pretty good.

I don’t have a lot to say about this album honestly. But, if you’re a fan of funeral doom, or are looking to test out the genre, I’d suggest you give this one a spin, as it’s pretty enjoyable. I don’t see myself listening to it months from now, but for now I’ve enjoyed the wall of melancholy to be found here.

Recommended tracks: 1453: An Empire Crumbles, Emergence
Recommended for fans of: Mournful Congregation, Skepticism, Shape of Despair
Final verdict: 7/10

The Creator – Hells (US-CA)
Style: Metalcore (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook
Review by: Jonah

So I need to make a few things clear before I start this one. First of all, I actively enjoy quite a few -core vocalists. Second, while BTBAM isn’t my favorite band in the world I have a lot of respect for their general songwriting. Third, someone in this band asked us to review this album (/u/blacklight58). With all this out of the way, it is with a heavy heart that I say that Hells, by The Creator, is absolutely the worst album I’ve reviewed since starting my assistance to Sam. I say this with a heavy heart because I can really, really see a good band in the bones here. It’s just not this one. Let’s break down why:

What caught my ear immediately upon listening to this album was how much this sounds like Between the Buried and Me. The guitar, the drumming, even the vocals (which we’ll get to in a second), all reminded me of BTBAM’s general sound in their early Alaska days. The difference is that while BTBAM’s sound wasn’t what I would call “polished” in those days, their songwriting chops were strong enough to make up for the ridiculous chaos that their sound entailed. Hells contains all of that chaos without half the songwriting knowledge, and it shows. It feels erratic, and often downright unpleasant to listen to, as the drums pound away behind needlessly noodly guitars and The Vocals.

Another quick detour here. I’m a vocalist. I do both clean and harsh vocals, and I think I’m a solid 6-7/10. I can carry a tune, my tone is clean when needed, and I can get some nasty snarls in. I’ve also been singing for upwards of 8 years and I wasn’t this happy with my voice until about a year ago. Why am I saying all of this? Because The Creator’s vocalist reminds me of myself around 4 years ago. Full of potential and lacking in any and all experience. His harshes have a nice Tech Death snap to them, and I think with a little honing they could be quite nice. My larger qualm is his cleans, as they are atonal and nearly unlistenable for a large portion of this album. There are moments where he carries a decent melody as long as the note he’s singing stays the same, but the second any semblance of vocal variation is needed his voice cracks or shifts completely out of tune. Also every single vocal passage on this album sounds almost directly out of a BTBAM song, which isn’t doing it any favors currently.

The drumming is incredibly technically competent, as are the guitars. Both are ALMOST enjoyable to listen to, but the end product, the entire sound of the band if you will, just feels disjointed and unpleasant most of the time. Also sometimes the guitars start djenting and I need them to stop doing that, it doesn’t belong here at all.

I wish The Creator the absolute best in their future, and I hope they can craft a sound that better suits their various talents (because they absolutely do have some talent, don’t get me wrong), but this album is definitely not that.

Recommended tracks: none
Recommended for fans of: Between the Buried and Me
Final verdict: 3/10

Ghost Ship Octavius – Delirium (US-WA)
Style: Heavy/Power (clean vocals)
Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

Ghost Ship Octavius again (like Kingcrow) is a band that is probably too acclaimed already for this blog. Their previous self-titled debut album got a decent amount of hype for it and this one again has reviewers praising it everywhere. Yet for all the esteem on reviews I barely saw any discussion about them on prog forums. So hence went my justification of featuring them anyway.

Soo, now that is out of the way, what can I say about this band? To be honest, I really have no idea. The songs are average length, relatively straightforward in structure and it doesn’t really feel like this bands reaches any particular new heights. In fact their debut album sounded so unmemorable I had to listen to it again to remember what it sounded like. It’s a bit like recent Symphony X: riffy progressive power metal with a very manly sounding vocalist and a great guitarist. There was nothing particularly wrong with the debut, but somehow it failed completely to make an impact on me.

This new offering is a big improvement though. All the problems of the previous albums still apply, but they’re not as prominent anymore. First noticeable improvement are the vocals. They still sound very manly, but Adon Fanion now improved his range and he sounds fuller than before. Still not a versatile vocalist by any means, but he improved his style. It’s a bit like Mark Tremonti‘s growth as a vocalist on his solo project. This record in general is very reminiscent of the aforementioned band. You’ve got the hard riffs, the big melodic choruses and soaring guitar solos that made Tremonti so acclaimed, but then it’s in a prog power format instead of thrash-y hard rock.

And maybe that’s a bit where my problem is with this band. It’s marketed as progressive metal, yet it more plays like a “regular” metal album than anything else. You expect interesting proggy builds and flashy theatrics like time signature wizardry and impossible unison solos, but what you’re given are straightforward chorus-driven songs that only use the progressive aspects to add some sauce to their songs instead of it being the main ingredient of the dish. If you like good riffs and sing along choruses, this band is for you. If you want progressive metal with a capital P, this probably won’t do much.

Recommended tracks: Saturnine, Delirium, Far Below
Recommended for fans of: Nevermore, (modern) Symphony X, Savatage, Tremonti/Alter Bridge
Final verdict: 8/10

Karma Rassa – Vesna… Snova Vesna (Russia)
Style: Atmospheric/Traditional (clean vocals, Russian lyrics)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

Seldom do I get so immediately absorbed in an album. It usually takes me a few minutes to determine an artist’s worth when plowing through metal-archives, but this band hooked me almost from the first note. Not even thirty seconds in and I was already transported to a different dimension with the surreal sound effects and beautiful acoustic guitar playing. Then I was greeted with the pleasant surprise of their lyrics being sung in Russian instead of English, and I was sold completely. Nagual’s singing is absolutely beautiful. It’s almost as if an angel descended on earth to sing you a sweet lullaby to show you a glimpse of what heaven is like. And the fact that I don’t understand Russian at all only added to the mystic, ethereal qualities of it all.

Everything on this record is done for the sake of atmosphere. The synthesizers make you drift off to faraway places, the guitars fill the soundscape with their warm tone and the drums perfectly accentuate everything that is happening. Even when more flashy things happen it’s to build the soundscape. When Naar lets his guitar cry it goes straight for your soul, when he picks up the saxophone you shiver in ecstasy (ok maybe not that much but you get the point) and when Nagual releases his piano your heart warms like you finally reunited with your lover after a long period of separation.

Key to why this works so well is the magnificent production. Every instrument lives and breathes in harmony. It just oozes life. All the parts fit together organically in a way that is extremely rare in modern progressive metal, which is often plagued with overly clean and (in my opinion) sterile production. The guitars are not heavy at all for modern standards, yet its beautiful warm tone carries a certain natural weight that no chugging can accomplish. Albe’s drums also sound lovely. His toms sound deep, his cymbals are beautiful and his snare has one of the most satisfying tones in recent memory. And did I mention the keys yet?

This album is extremely special. I never know what to expect with this series, but I certainly didn’t expect this. It sounds fresh and original. Familiar, yet at the same time you have no idea what’s coming next. There are some bands in the FFO tag, but honestly I suggest any fan of prog with clean vocals to check this out (and that goes for prog rock fans as well!). This band captivated me like few on this series did and I can easily say this is a top 10 release of the year so far. Karma Rassa is a truly refreshing band and a gem of an album. Well done.

Recommended tracks: Vesna, Osen’, Zima
Recommended for fans of: Anathema, Kingcrow, Riverside, Pain of Salvation, atmospheric stuff in general
Final verdict: 9.2/10

Thunderlung – Thunderlung (US-WI)
Style: Post/Sludge (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

I can’t really write something long here. This album is very generic sludge with a couple of proggy and post metal elements. The vocals I didn’t enjoy, some moments are pretty damn cringy, but the riffage stopped me from being completely bored by the release. Not recommended unless you absolutely need more sludge in your life.

Recommended tracks: none
Recommended for fans of: did you read the review?
Final verdict: 5/10

Immortal Guardian – Age of Revolution (US-TE)
Style: Power (clean vocals + occasional growl)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

There are roughly speaking three styles of prog power. The first is what you’d most likely associate when hearing the genre: take standard power metal, but then with some added progressive metal hallmarks like odd-time signatures, crazy transitions and technicality (think Angra or Kamelot). The second style basically takes the Dream Theater template, but uses power metal riffs instead without going for the over-the-top Rhapsody approach (think Pagan’s Mind, Symphony X, Seventh Wonder). Then there’s a third style which is more loosely defined of riff-driven power metal. This is basically all prog heavy/power or thrash/power metal bands. Some well known bands would be Savatage, Nevermore and the earlier mentioned Ghost Ship Octavius. This is obviously of the first style.

Bar the one minute opener, you’re immediately bombarded with high tempo double bass patterns, huge synths, speedy riffs and soaring vocals. “Yes, this is power metal alright” was my reaction upon hearing this. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when the music is executed with such a frightening precision. Both in terms of technical and songwriting ability these guys are extremely tight. The songs are dynamic, varied and packed to the brim.

This album just doesn’t ever become boring. You can jump in at almost any given point and you’ll be swept away by all the madness. At almost every corner there’s a great riffs, insane drumming or charismatic vocals taking you along. And just when you’re tiring out on the constant power metal onslaught, they surprise you with a proggy genre switch-up or suddenly it turns into a ballad. Oh, and did I mention that their guitarist plays guitar and keyboard at the same time?

Finding any fault in this album musically, is hard. It’s all done with such aplomb and grandeur it feels like the only thing you can do is sit down in your chair and marvel at all the splendor they have created. If anything, all this grandeur is also the album’s biggest weakness. It’s only 48 minutes, but after half an hour your ears just beg for some peace and quiet. There’s the song Fall which provides a nice change of pace, but coming in at track 8 it’s too little too late. Another ballad halfway through would have majorly improved the album’s pacing, because for the most part this album has tech death levels of things going on.

What’s also not helping the album is the extremely plastic production. The drums sound programmed and the guitars sound like they were recorded for Avenged Sevenfold. And as good and soaring as the vocals may be, they still get overshadowed in the mix behind all the drum and guitar madness.

So that leads me to the conclusion of this review. Age of Revolution is like buying a sack of candy in Japan. While the candy itself can be great, every piece is stuffed behind three layers of plastic packaging, so you can’t help but feel your morals eating away at you for all the wasted plastic. Purely from a songwriting standpoint this is a fantastic debut, but the plastic production and the poor pacing ultimately prevent it from being a truly great album

Recommended tracks: Zephon, Never to Return, Fall
Recommended for fans of: Rhapsody, Angra, DragonForce
Final verdict: 8/10

Loneshore – From Presence to Silence (Brazil)
Style: Melodeath/Doom (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

Our general process when picking out albums is that we troll around on Metal Archives and listen to anything with the “Progressive” genre tag until we find things that catch the ear enough to warrant a further listen. Sometimes it turns out they’re terrible, sometimes great. That first song, though, the very first time you find them on the Archive is always incredibly exciting, and is honestly my favorite part of this entire process. I mention this, because from the very first moment I heard Loneshore’s music I was incredibly excited. I hopped into our little review Discord server and insisted that I HAD to be the one to review this album. Why? Because it’s damn wonderful.

Loneshore sounds Opeth had a baby with Altars of Grief’s most recent album. It’s a wonderful slice of slightly blackened death/doom that features some of the best vocals I’ve heard from any band I’ve found since I started writing these. The harshes are very Akerfeldt-esque with the tiniest Enslaved flavoring, while the cleans simultaneously remind me of Akerfeldt, Tim from Ne Obliviscaris, and Matthew Heafy of Trivium. This sounds like an odd combination, and it very well might be if they weren’t so damn good.

The guitar work on this album is simply sublime. The leads are emotive, floaty and at times properly atmospheric, reminding me of Alcest just the tiniest bit. The riffs on the other hand are properly beefy, carrying with them that trademark Doom chug that makes the genre feel heavy in a much different way from other extreme metal. The drumming is serviceable at times, and exemplary at others, but never takes away from what is absolutely a vocal and guitar driven show, and that’s just fine with me. Also of note are the occasional bass-driven sections, which feature a properly fat bass tone and carry a wonderful groove, something that is quite pleasant amidst the riffage.

My sole complaint about this album is that, much like the Ancestors album I gushed about in our last set of reviews, there’s one small song that just doesn’t need to exist, namely Daylight. It’s a weird little track that I don’t feel adds much of anything to the album. That aside, however, I haven’t stopped spinning this album since I heard it for the first time, and I don’t expect to anytime soon. If you like any of the bands or genres I’ve mentioned thus far, do yourself a favor and listen, because this album is really, really good.

Recommended tracks: The Quiet Visitor, Until the Last of Hopes, From Presence to Silence
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ne Obliviscaris, Altars of Grief, Alcest (a tiny bit)
Final verdict: 9/10

Uroboros – Le Rose est le Nouveau Noir (Argentina)
Style: Extreme (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

Uroboros are a hard band to label. Some songs are groovy, with death growls. Others are beautiful somber ballads. Some songs are filled with sludge riffs, others with shoegaze riffs. Black metal elements are here too, hell, they even pull out a bandoneon once, an Argentinian instrument frequently used in Tango. And this salad works…. Surprisingly well!

They have a very unique sound, the vocals remind me of Pallbearer, but that’s about as much similarities I can find to any other band. This is a 52 minute experience that takes you to so many places that it’s hard for me to describe you what you’re gonna get. However I can tell you that it’s a great type of uniqueness, since the songwriting and pacing is tight and on point, even on the 16 minute closer.

It’s very enjoyable but to me some ideas stick out more than others. I for example would’ve loved more bandoneon, but it’s only present on the ending of one track. I would have loved that the second to last track (a ballad) didn’t exist and in replacement I’d have gotten more like the first two tracks of the record. But will these minor negatives aside, I recommend this to anyone looking for a band that does something different, yet remains tight in their playing and songwriting.

Recommended tracks: Las doce pruebas […], No vivira más que […]
Recommended for fans of: Pallbearer(?), Opeth
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Ramage Inc. – Under the Skin (United Kingdom)
Style: Atmospheric/Groove/Djent (clean vocals)
Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

So this is a hard one. When coming into this genre I was asking myself what the hell Atmospheric Groove metal was. The answer? Apparently Devin Townsend worship with some djent thrown in. Does that sound bad? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. The quality level on this album varies wildly, and I cannot for the life of me decide if I’ve enjoyed listening to it or not. I make no pretense of knowing what the influences the various band members have are, but to my ear at the very least, here is what I noticed:

First of all, the vocalist is doing a Devin Townsend impression. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but the way he structures his vocal melodies, the way his vocals are layered, everything about it reminds me especially of Transcendence and Epicloud’s heavier tracks. The riff structure also has a definite Townsend feel, with a lot of major key riffs and generally upbeat stylings to go along with the chugging (not to mention the random falsetto “aaaaaaa”s that sometimes accompany riffy sections for…some reason). The drumming reminds me more of Devin’s Strapping Young Lad days, but still fits the general “Devin-worship” genre that I’m going to assign this band. There’s even some orchestral synths that once again fill out that general post-Deconstruction Devin Townsend sound.

It should be noted that the vocalist is relatively technically proficient, and has some legitimately good vocal passages throughout the album. However, it feels like he hasn’t quite found his personal vocal style yet, and on a few tracks it shows. The guitars are generally unoriginal, but enjoyable enough. The riffs are all riffs I’ve heard before, but they’re beefy enough and carry the groove. The lead guitar is enjoyable as well, with some neat atmospheric sections that are some of the few moments I’m not thinking about how much I would rather be listening to Devin throughout this album.

Ramage Inc.’s debut album isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a lot of ideas I feel like I’ve heard before. Should you listen? I think so, because there’s a decent amount of good stuff here. Just don’t go in looking for originality.

Recommended tracks: Overload, Rhino, At One With Many Mountains
Recommended for fans of: Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend Project
Final verdict: 6/10