Reports from the (progressive metal) underground: December 2019

’twas a summer breeze that murdered the Argentinians during these fine winter weeks. Over on the other side on the equator, one of our writers Dylan has been dying from the heat, reporting to us average temperatures of 38°C (or 100°F for you Americans…), sometimes even going up to 43°C (!!). And to think I was already melting with 35°C during the heat wave here in The Netherlands last summer. Can’t even imagine what 43°C would be like… That’s karma for your shit Dronte review get rekt Dylan.

Anyway, there’s a lot to discuss. First of all SharkTRS is now using his first name Josh to review with. And secondly we have a new reviewer in Chris Deese. He’s a drummer in The Organ Machines, does vocals in Effuse and more. Originally we just asked him for a guest review, but circumstances let us to (yet again) recruit another reviewer. We’re multiplying at staggering speed, I know. It won’t be long now before a new Subway reviewer comes creeping out beneath your bed. OK maybe not that fast, but you know what I mean.

Speaking of circumstances and multiplying, I should explain. Recently, we added another person to our team, but not for reviewing. Say hello to Anthony! You might also know him from the r/progmetal discord server as moderator @Quintessence. Those who frequent the server will be familiar with his superb shilling ability and other marketing talents. And that’s precisely why we brought him on board. The blog has been becoming increasingly professional of late, and that’s why we wanted someone around who could give us advice on how we can upgrade the site’s presentation. For example he’s the reason behind the increased social media presence of the blog of late, and the upgraded website presentation is his work as well. We’re also gonna attempt to increase the amount of content on the blog. Most of that is gonna be made up of interviews, but we have some other content planned as well. It’s hectic, yet very exciting times in our little Discord server. You can expect some big growth from this blog over the coming months. Hence we needed some more personnel.

But enough about that. Let’s talk about December. This month was… surprisingly good! One album you might expect to see in here is Altesia‘s debut, which brewed up quite a storm in the prog community, but that’s not all! There are some really really good albums here and we even have another 10/10 one this time. You’d think December is by far the stalest month of the year, but not in the underground! If anything, based super reliable sample size of the two times we’ve gone over each month thus far with this blog (2018 and 2019), I’d say February is the most quiet month of the year. January still has some major kickass releases, but in February it seems like the hangover from the previous year kicks in. And speaking of February, I wanted to do a quick shout-out to Psychotic Waltz for their new album The God-Shaped Void that was released this Friday. It’s their first one in 24 (!!) years and boy is it a good one. Maybe it’s to do with me being a prog metal boomer taste-wise, but I massively enjoyed the album. We won’t be covering it since Psychotic Waltz is waaay out of our pay grade, but I wanted to mention it nonetheless. Check it out.

Lastly I wanted to say something about my promise from the previous edition. I originally wanted to talk some more about what directions I think prog metal would go in the 2020s, but I’ll leave that for another time. I think I’ll just make a post to r/progmetal sometimes. Or maybe we’ll do an article on it once here idk. It’s a very big topic that can be approached with lots of angles. I figured that’d be too much for a simple introduction like this. It’d be a lot better as the main focus of a discussion instead of having a huge-ass list of album attached to it.

Well, that’s enough of my blabbing. Let’s get into that huge-ass list of albums:


Practical information: As always we have a Spotify playlist with all the recommended tracks, and if you don’t want to read the entire post or just want a quick overview we’ve made a spreadsheet with all relevant information on the albums we reviewed. And now for the final-final part of this introduction, *BREATHES IN*:

What is this place? We use Metal-Archives’ advanced search engine to find all progressive/post/avantgarde metal (and some weird stoner as well if there’s any) releases in a month, then we select the best/most grabbing ones and write a (small) review on them. We go chronological through the months. We take releases from outside of metal-archives too, but that is generally limited to requests and recommendations from other prog fans as the other sites’ search engines aren’t as precise nor is their database as thorough as Metal-Archives. You can read more about us on our About page, which also includes some history. Do you want your band reviewed? Or do you want to send us a recommendation? Send an email to theprogressivesubway@gmail.com, send a PM to me (/u/genderlessperson) on Reddit or hit me up on Discord (sam1oq/genderlessperson). Just make sure it’s from this year for a month we haven’t covered yet. You can find us on social media at the following accounts: on Facebook we go by @theprogressivesubway, on Instagram we’re called @progsubway and on Twitter you can follow us at @progsubway. We also have a YouTube channel in which we upload our favorite songs from albums we reviewed (provided the artist gave us permission to).

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Chronologist – Equinox I & II, Solstice I & II (US-TX)
Style: Instrudjental
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Tyler

Put on a pot of coffee folks, you’re gonna be here a while. Chronologist did us the pleasure of putting out four separate releases as part of the same project this year! Spoiler alert, they are all stellar so listen to them. You might be asking “Hey why didn’t you just review them as they came out? This seems like a lot of writing.” Such a cool, appropriate question, reader. Our fearless leader, Sam, had this to say as his response:

“Whoops.”

So there you go. If this sounds like complaining, it’s not. These are all great, so I had a blast. All of the EP’s sound pretty different. It’d be unfair to write one review that tries to encompass everything, so this is going to be four smaller reviews wrapped into one. See you on the other side, boys…

Equinox I
The first thing I noticed about the project as a whole is that the production is sublime. These cats know what they are doing. From the first note I was swept away. Everything sounds incredibly well done, everything having plenty of space to breathe. I have very specific tastes when it comes to instrumental metal like this. It’s so easy for things like this to become a guitar solo wet dream, which I always feel is over indulgent. The song writing has to be on point; without a good foundation, I’m out. Every song on here is on point. There are leads sure, but nothing seems like it’s trying to be the main character here. Every aspect is thought out so well. One of my favorite moments on the whole EP is in the first track, at about 1:40, there are these tiny little bells that help highlight the melody.

Once I got to the the second track, the theme of the project became more clear (the name should have given it away but I am SLOW). They all deal with the seasons, and seem to be trying to hit themes that those seasons deal with. This EP is spring, and I felt like I could hear a lot of themes of discovery and growth. Everything comes out sounding very natural and fluid. There are cheerful and hopeful moments all over this one, but I really liked that the band wasn’t afraid to get darker and heavier like on the track Vernal. That track is probably the most percussive on the EP and heavier ideas and melodies lend themselves really well to that sound. Speaking of, this is definitely the most djentish of the EP’s. Each one has their moments, but Equinox I is the most prevalent in the chug. This actually my least favorite of the bunch, which is a pretty good sign seeing as I’ve been praising it pretty heavily.

Solstice I
On first listen, stylistically, this one sounds pretty similar to Equinox I. Same beautiful leads, some heaviness. But once the second track came in, it was sort of clear how different they seemed to be. I am a big vocals guy. I’d prefer my music with it than without it. All of these are great as instrumentals, but this one was the only one where I could see vocals adding to the experience. There seems to be a bit of a more straight progressive metal sound than djenty like the last one (I’d equate it the last one to Periphery, this one is more of The Safety Fire. Similar, but still fairly different). There is a greater focus on melody and tone rather than rhythm here. Everything is a little bit lighter in feel, an example being the last song, “Guarantee Denied”, which features the fastest and most in your face double kick passages, but still seems light and airy.

Solstice I, relating back to the theme of the whole project feels a lot more carefree and playful, much like summer itself. A lot reverby, ethereal sounds that are in the song “Flores” (as well as a rad bass lick that brings in a great breakdown). There is also a bit more experimentation with some programmed sounds that help give its own identity, as well as some more focus on dual guitar leads. I feel like on this one, the band is more in tune with itself and just finding every way to play to each other as a unit, as opposed to being more lead heavy like with Equinox I. And through all of it, still focusing on making a great song, rather than having one cool part after another.

Equinox II
This is it fellas. If there was a bright and shining pupil in a group of straight A students, Equinox II is it. Sound wise, the most out there on the whole group, focusing on acoustic instruments rather than boring electric ones. The first song ‘Golden Harvest’ gives us a big dick swinging acoustic chord telling us that this is going to be totally different. I can’t recall a time where I’ve heard this style of instrumental metal played primarily on acoustic instruments. And the best part is it doesn’t sound like a gimmick. This could have easily sounded incredibly forced and stale. But on the whole, the acoustic instruments sound right at home. Chronologist even branches out and includes some more acoustic driven genres in these songs, “Lone Star” and “Cedar” featuring some latin inspired flare.

The risk of this drastic shift is not without some drawbacks though. There are a few spots that actually do sound a little awkward played on acoustic guitars. The main riff on the aforementioned “Lone Star” probably should be played on electric instruments, it sounds a little bit like they wrote it for electric guitar, and then just tracked on acoustics. Another spot is the very beginning of “Cedar” with these huge drums that cast a shadow over everything else because everything else is so quiet in comparison. Everywhere else on the album, however, everything flows and works together very well. Definitely a unique take on an incredibly over saturated genre that pays off greatly.

Solstice II
Solstice II probably suffers the most from identity crisis out of any of the EPs. Overall, the tone is much darker than the previous releases. The first song is way more laid back than some of the others, focusing a lot of it’s attention on some electronic music elements and styles, giving some massive vibes of some of the bands contemporaries like Plini or David Maxim Micic. The second song, “Transit” is one of the heavier tracks on the whole project. Having a really heavy, downer mood throughout, really laying into the djent vibes a lot, while maintaining some more of the electronic music styles from the previous track. 

The tone switches again to a super playful, airy feel that we heard on the first Solstice with “Hebra” (cool Zelda reference guys). There are no super chuggy or heavy aspects much at all, it really gives off a ‘school’s canceled, let’s play in the snow’ vibe that is actually pretty welcome after the heavy mood we got from the first two tracks. That is of course to lull you into a false sense of security because the closer “Mountain Don’t” is heavy as all get out. It explodes with some fast, super technical thrash/djent guitars and drums that really don’t give you a chance to breathe until it’s all over and you’re left wanting to listen to the entire collection again. Other than the stylistic jumping around, there isn’t too much to say on Solstice II that hasn’t been touched on earlier. Production is great. Performances are all exemplary. 

On the whole, I was (and still am) in love with this project, way more than I thought I’d be. I’m not too big on instrumental music, but this really did win me over. Check them all out, they don’t take much of your time at all. Good work fellas.

Recommended tracks: Nieve, T as in Tsunami, Stay Gold, Mountain Don’t
Recommended for fans of: Plini, David Maxim Micic, Chon, Intervals
Final verdict: 9.5/10

Nihilaeth – Nescience (France)
Style: Instrudjental/Synthwave
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook
Review by: Dylan

This has got to be one of the most unpleasant listens I’ve had in a long-ass time. Once again the French have gone for something insane, and it is with a lot of sadness that I inform you that they failed miserably at it this time.

Nescience is a mess. The concept of djent and synthwave is not something that sounds awful. Recognizing the best things about each genre and mixing them together could actually make a damn interesting album, but for now, all we have is this one which just has no idea what to do.

This is a rare case in the underground scheme of things where the album itself feels like the artist doesn’t even know how to compose a song. Or at the very least, has commitment issues on how to handle songwriting. Sometimes it’s all synths, sometimes it’s all djent. Sometimes there’s no drums for no reason, sometimes there is. It all just sounds so random and not properly thought out that it just made it so incoherent and impossible to understand to me, that I cannot with a sane mind recommend this piece of ‘’art’’.

Good idea, god-awful execution. 

Recommended tracks: Nah dog
Recommended for fans of: Just stop
Final verdict: 2/10

Rhodium – Sea of the Dead (Greece)
Style: Power (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Andrew

Sea of the Dead is the sophomore effort by Athens-based progressive power metal band Rhodium. The first sign of a good power metal album is when the vocals don’t instantly turn me off – which singer Mike Livas achieves swimmingly. His voice is powerful and emotional while not being overly nasally or whiney, two common traits among subpar power metal singers. Livas is able to switch between a lower, gravelly sound to a higher-pitched, more traditionally power metal sound effortlessly, helping to detract from the curse of monotony faced by many power metal bands. 

While Sea of the Dead is not a concept album, each track tells a separate story that is linked by a common theme – the struggle of humankind for survival against an adversary. The lyrics are well-written and the vocal melodies are very nice, following the instrumentation well. 

Speaking of instrumentation, it is easy to see why Rhodium is progressive power metal rather than just another power metal band – drummer Stelios Pavlou avoids the pitfall that too many drummers fall into where they just repeat The Gallop™, instead playing more interesting drum patterns allowing stronger interplay with the guitar and bass. Title track Sea of the Dead features violin and viola, and Emperor features a blazing keyboard solo. The guitar parts, while sometimes dragging, do a good job of feeling fresh. On bass, Dionisis Christodoulatos typically plays in unison with the guitars but occasionally shakes things up with a separate bassline. 

Overall, Sea of the Dead is a very solid prog power release and while not perfect by any means, has all the right pieces but isn’t quite there. Rhodium manages to craft a sound unique enough to stand out from any number of other generic power metal bands, but unfortunately still falls into a few common tropes. 

Recommended tracks: Man of Honor, Sea of the Dead, Tapestry of Time
Recommended for fans of: Nevermore, Eternity’s End, Crimson Glory, early Savatage
Final verdict: 7/10

Archaeologist – Winter’s Wake (US-CA) [EP]
Style: Djent (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Josh

Djent is a genre plagued with unoriginality. In unprecedented numbers it inspires listeners to pick up an 8-string and spam that lowest string over a syncopated drum beat in the exact same way that everyone else has been doing since Periphery debuted in 2010. Djent consistently produces some of the best stuff in modern prog (fight me (ง’̀-‘́)ง), but there’s a huuuuuuge amount of schlock to sort through to find those gems. As such, my hopes are never the highest going into a djent album.

After hitting play on this one, I was pleasantly surprised. I’d listened to Archaeologist’s previous release before this one, which was already above average for djent, but this takes it a step further. The previous EP, the Odysseys EP, consisted of instrudjental music, but with this release the mastermind of the project, Kyle Schaefer, has taken up vocal duties again in addition to his guitar leads. I honestly cannot fathom why he dropped the vocals last release, as the dude’s really quite a good singer. His vocals are very metalcore-y, which may turn some off, but personally I’m into it.

Instrumentally, this album is quite well-composed. The thirteen minutes go by without ever feeling repetitive or overlong, leaving hardly a boring moment. I attribute this to the band’s incorporation of other styles, something that’s surprisingly lacking in modern djent. The whole release has a theatrical feel that reminds me of old-school prog rock operas, while also giving me vibes of BTBAM. In addition, some of the quieter sections have quite the indie rock feel. On top of that, the instrumentals are consistently excellent. The verses never get boring and both of the guest guitarists contribute great performances. I don’t know who the hell Scott Carstairs is or why anyone would have that last name, but the dude can play a mean solo.

I’m extremely excited to see what Archaeologist do next. They’ve still got room to grow, yet despite that the stuff they’re putting out now is among the upper crust of current prog.

Recommended tracks: bro it’s one song, just listen to it
Recommended for fans of: Plini, Sithu Aye, BTBAM
Final verdict: 7.5/10

At Night I Fly – Mirror Maze (Hungary)
Style: Traditional (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

Another month, another solid prog metal album that bounced off of me. In trying to narrow down why, I settled on dynamics as the main culprit – fast is cool, slow is cool, but I don’t think any metal fan wants a whole album of mid-tempo soup. It’s like no matter what you fill the measures with, they resist excitement. Mirror Maze has good players, mature compositions, and a pretty decent midrange singer, but I can’t quite get into the samey feel of each song. Nearly the whole album is 80-100 BPM, and yeah, I measured it for some reason. It’s not a problem at first, but they get diminishing returns as it goes on. There’s not much variation in atmosphere, either, just “nice” melodies that don’t get overly epic, and chugging guitars that imply heaviness but have no real bite to them. Think “Caught in a Web” with less energy.

There are things here that I like… I just have to dig a bit to remember where they all happened. “Afterlife” at least provides some more animated drumming for the verses, and the bridge in “Uriel” summons some fire. “Towards the Black Light” is definitely my favorite track, with more active keyboard work and some well-placed chromatic riffs breaking up the chorus melody… Speaking of which, all the choruses on here are faultless. They can definitely write those, it’s just that the “tension” part of “tension and release” is somewhat missing without more contrast.

I often second-guess my impressions due to listening with “review brain,” but I’m pretty confident in saying this album is just… kind of boring. Yet, at the same time, it’s still clearly good by most conventional metrics. I wouldn’t write this band off, but it definitely needs something.

Recommended tracks: Towards the Black Light
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater
Final verdict: 6/10

Carcariass – Planet Chaos (France)
Style: Death/Thrash (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

I have absolutely no idea why I volunteered to review this album. I’m not fond of thrash metal as a whole, and death I only enjoy about half of the time. Plus, it’s sixty-eight minutes long. Sixty-eight fucking minutes of death/thrash. I’m a masochist. Anyway, here’s what I think of the 4th album by French band Carcariass:

It’s fine. It’s got the thrashy chugs and drumming, it’s got the death snarls and growls and thrash shouts, it mixes between thrashy and deathy leads, and there’s the occasional solo that feels almost neoclassical. But man is there 0 soul in between all of that. This record feels incredibly clinical in how it is written and played. There’s nothing that screams fun, screams emotion, or really anything beyond a level of general musical competence. These musicians can 100% play their respective instruments, and all of them do it very well, but not a single moment on this album made me stop and think to myself “Yeah I’d listen to this again”. After 10 listens I feel exactly the same way I did the first time. It’s completely fine, and it’s way the hell too long. I think if the band had cut around 30 minutes of bloat this would’ve been a much, much better album.

If you like these genres more than I do maybe you’ll think differently, of course. I tried my best to be impartial here, but boy howdy was I underwhelmed. I can’t fault the performances here one bit, they’re all pretty excellent, but I can’t bring myself to listen to it any more after I finish this review. I’m just bored, man.

Recommended tracks: Solar Invasion, Star Implosion, Letter From the Trenches
Recommended for fans of: Vektor, Vader, Legion of the Damned
Final verdict: 5/10

Farseer – Farseer (US-IL)
Style: Post/Sludge (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

As I delve further and further into music I am slowly developing an appreciation for instrumental metal and rock. Not a large appreciation, mind you, as I’m still tremendously partial to vocal-driven music, but I can listen to instrumental music without falling asleep now, so that’s definitely a marked improvement. So when I saw that the debut album by Farseer was tagged as instrumental on their Bandcamp I resigned myself to what I expected to still be a slog, but one that perhaps I might enjoy a bit. As you can imagine, I was mighty surprised to hit track 3 and suddenly be bombarded by sludgy shrieks out of nowhere. The band had tricked me! This album had vocals after all! And then the next few tracks came and it…didn’t. And thus rinse and repeat, as this album is about 60% instrumental and worse for it, in my opinion.

There’s quite a bit to like here, let’s get that out of the way right off the bat. There’s a decent amount of interesting riff and lead work on the guitars, the drumming is punchy and rhythmic and really sets a solid base for the rest of the music, and the bass adds a nice level of fuzz. The vocals, when present, shift between decent enough cleans and some really nasty shrieks that I would absolutely love to hear more of. The mix is a bit rough, but it’s serviceable enough for the music. Where my issues with this album lie are with the composition. Many of these songs have passages that drone on for just a tad too long, one measure or so longer than needed, and I kept finding myself losing interest mid-song, especially on the instrumental tracks. Now, perhaps for those of you who enjoy instrumental music this wouldn’t be the case, but I felt that the vocals really roped me back into the music after these repetitive periods.

This album has some issues that really keep me from enjoying it more, but please don’t let that stop you from listening. There are some absolutely tremendous moments here, especially with the guitar, and I think this band has the potential to evolve into something really great given time. I just hope that it’ll involve more vocals than it does right now.

Recommended tracks: The Great Flight, Sleep in the Sound, Mouse Utopia
Recommended for fans of: Russian Circles, Mastodon, Mogwai
Final verdict: 6/10

Perihelion – Agg (Hungary)
Style: Post (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Tyler

Post metal is always hit or miss with me. In my experience, the majority I’ve heard are Neurosis, and bands who are trying to sound like Neurosis. For a band to really get it right and be memorable, they have to do something extra that shows everyone what they are about. We know you’re upset post metal bands, we all are! But why should we listen to your woes when I have a million other bands’ woes to worry about? This is where Perihelion comes in, shows up, and does something about it.

There are a lot of post metal tropes in this package such as washy reverb guitars and a generally dour mood. But while most post metal acts take things slow and brood over their ideas, often borrowing from the sludge and doom genres, Perihelion does a few things that push the envelope a bit. There are a lot of tempo changes that happen mid song. A singer that we will touch on later who mostly sings pretty cleanly. Passages that really start to groove and have uptempo rhythms. There is still an overall sense of desperation and dread, and definitely  some slower and chunkier parts. But the shimmery guitar leads that you find in the first track especially and all over the album help take some of the tension away and give the album a more ethereal feel. There are a lot of strange noises that often sound like synthesizers being used, but reading a description of the album, the only things used are guitars, basses, drums, microphones, stompboxes, and mindblows. I don’t know what a mindblow is exactly but I don’t think Moog makes them.

Speaking of the performances and production, for the most part, everything worked rather well. I’d say on the whole, the album sounds pretty fuzzy. Meaning that there is not a lot of crisp articulation at any point, and a lot of the guitars and bass really homogenize which makes them sound like one big instrument as opposed to three separate parts. Even the snare drum seemed like it was missing some edge on it. All of that equates to the album actually sounding a bit lopsided when it came to volume and consistency. The performances themselves were pretty great. I said before how much I enjoyed the sounds that they were able to get out of the guitars, trying to get them to sound like as many different things as they could. The drums were very pronounced, driving the songs on their own, since the guitars were busy in the lab and the bass was constantly getting washed away in the guitar noise. The biggest stand out are the vocals by a mile. There is a great sense of passion and bravado all over the album. Whether it was simple cleans to the climax of any song (see the ending of “Erdo” or the middle of “Parazs”) where rasp started sneaking it’s way in, the singer Gyula Vasvári was certainly feeling something during these performances.

Overall, it was super refreshing to see a post rock/metal band experiment with new things in the genre. There is a lot of great melody on the album, driving and upbeat tempos, and some really great clean singing that I feel doesn’t reach the limelight too much. Had the production been cleaner, I would have been in love, but I’d rather take it slow and see where things go. I don’t even know what they’re singing about yet, we’ve only just met.

Recommended tracks: Agg, Erdo
Recommended for fans of: Neurosis, Alcest, Russian Circles
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Seaspan – Seaspan (US-NY)
Style: Extreme (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

As one gets more and more into music, production tends to become more of a focal point, and more of a determiner of enjoyment. When I was first listening to music in my younger years I really couldn’t tell if something was mixed or mastered well, but recently I’ve become more and more conscious of it. That being said, I tend to give it less focus in these reviews than I might in my casual listening because I recognize that a lot of the bands we cover can’t really afford to get a professional production job on their album.

That being said, I don’t like how Seaspan’s debut album sounds at all. Sometimes it sounds like the band is playing in another room and I’m hearing the music through a wall. The instruments are all muted and fuzzy, the drums sound like plastic buckets, and the vocal layering just doesn’t sound right at all to me. It’s a shame, because there’s some decent enough performances in a few moments on this album, but they’re really overshadowed by how it all sounds. Vocally this album is an odd mix of what really feels like power metal singing and death metal growls. The lead guitars and synths feel like power metal, the riffing feels like death metal, and the drumming doesn’t know which one it is. I know this sounds like I’m just describing melodeath, but it doesn’t feel quite like that. The power and death elements are too poorly integrated to really feel like a cohesive subgenre. Instead this is just sometimes a death metal album and sometimes a power metal album, and it doesn’t really shine as either.

I had a tough time with this one. For some brieftestone moments it felt as though there was potential, but I just couldn’t catch myself really enjoying anything I was listening to. Maybe this weird power/death fusion will work with some more elbow grease put into it, but right now it’s like oil and water.

Recommended tracks: Moments of Levity Pt. 1 & 2
Recommended for fans of: Paladin, Persefone, Helloween
Final verdict: 3/10

Timesphere – Escape (Germany)
Style: Nu Metal / “Prog Rock” (clean vocals)
Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

“Timesphere” might sound like a generic science-y prog name, but most people don’t know is that it’s a real thing. Cast aside in the late 90s after unsuccessful government time travel experiments, it was recovered from a local dump and restored to functionality by five unknown German musicians. They planned on using it to acquire fame and fortune, but as an early prototype, it came with a hidden flaw: All it could do was go forward in increments of 20 years. Stuck in 2019, their grand scheme foiled, the band shrugged and released the world’s first nu metal album anyway.

In their own timeline, this band played an AOR-ish type of progressive metal that was corny, but not altogether bad. Their only release before the time jump was 1998’s Tranquility to Tempest, which doesn’t sound remotely like this. What we get is basically a Disturbed album with some tiny hints that they know more about music than they’re letting on; I don’t know if that makes it better or worse. The riffs are lame percussive drop-D grooves, and the vocals are predictably tough-but-emo, but occasionally a weird chord from left field will remind me of Devin Townsend‘s poppier work. That doesn’t change things much, as 99% of “Escape” is still generic as can be. There’s no song structure mix-ups, very little lead playing, and the hooks are ok but not stellar. In the end it all blurs together into commercial mush, with a couple exceptions – “Sunday Afternoon” has a nice 70s chorus amid the overly melodramatic verses, and “Scars” is a really awkward clean ballad with a budget Satriani jam stapled to the end. Otherwise, it’s all interchangeable, competent awfulness.

Basically, this album is baffling, and I’m not sure how it came to be. Was it abandoned and eventually salvaged? Is it a nostalgic tribute to a scene the musicians weren’t even part of? Is it not meant to be a period piece at all? All I know is nu metal sucked 20 years ago, and being old doesn’t make it credible now. But if it appeals to you, and you’d like to hear it done with +10% skill, who am I to judge? Who knows, maybe I’d like it if I didn’t hate it.

Recommended tracks: Sunday Afternoon, Scars
Recommended for fans of: Wallet chains
Final verdict: 3/10

Timeworn – Leave the Soul for Now (Poland)
Style: Post/Sludge (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Stephen

I think the best place to start with this review is that, pretty early into Leave the Soul for Now I could tell that this was the wrong band for me. The style and genre isn’t really my cup of tea. That said I think that some of our readers would appreciate this album.

Leave the Soul for Now has heavy fuzzy guitars, mixed vocals, and some straight forward melodies. My biggest complaint about this album, aside from it not really being a style I’d choose to listen to, is that so many of the songs sounded so similar to one another, particularly the vocal melodies and guitar riffs. “Hellwater” broke this mold and because of that was my favorite track by far off the album. “Hellwater” had an acoustic intro and led to a great release, and it reminded me a bit of Alice in Chains. I really felt like that song took you on a journey, and thankfully it was also one of the longest tracks on the album. My next favorite track off the album was “Vargrant Heart.” Like “Hellwater,” that track felt like a journey as well, although it did dip back into that sameness that I felt with a lot of the album. 

With the way I started this review, it might sound like I hated this album, I really didn’t. The production is good and the musicianship is there, it just wasn’t really for me. Also, the vocalist did impress me quite a bit, his cleans reminded me a bit of Layne Staley and his harshes reminded me a bit of Jens Kidman. The guitarist also had some impressive guitar solos, especially on “Hellwater.” 

Overall, if Post Sludge is a genre that you enjoy, then you might really enjoy this. My main complaint is that there were pockets of this album that sounded samey. Even if you don’t check out the whole album, at least give “Hellwater” a spin. 

Recommended tracks: Hellwater, Vagrant Heart
Recommended for fans of: Alice in Chains
Final verdict: 6/10

Flaming Row – The Pure Shine (Germany)
Style: Traditional/Rock Opera/Folk (clean vocals)
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Review by: Andrew

Oh boy. I’ve kind of been dreading writing this one, just because of my anticipation leading up to this album’s release and my feelings of it after it finally came out. Flaming Row is a progressive rock/metal opera project by German musicians Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella. Like Ayreon, each Flaming Row album is a concept record with a huge assortment of guest musicians and singers playing individual characters in the story. In 2014, Flaming Row put out the album Mirage – A Portrayal of Figures, a 79 minute masterpiece of progressive rock opera goodness. It was my favorite album of 2014 and remains one of my favorite albums ever. Seriously, I cannot get enough of it. 

Naturally, I was beyond excited to hear that Flaming Rowwas back in the studio for a new album five years later. When I learned that the upcoming record was based on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, it inspired me to pick up the series (which is fantastic and definitely worth reading). I wanted to prepare myself for this album in any way possible. In the months leading up to the release of The Pure Shine, the fine folks in the Prog Discord could easily tell that I could not contain my excitement. December 10th finally came around, and I listened to The Pure Shine for the first time. 

In a perfect world, this would be where I start ranting and raving about how amazing this album is and how it exceeded my expectations and was my album of the year for 2019. Sadly, we do not live in a perfect world and this was not the case. Not even close. The Pure Shine opens with A Tower in the Clouds, a bizarre intro that tries to establish the plotline but ends up introducing more confusion. Not to mention the out of place a capella/rounds(?) section at the end that mimics a section from their 2010 debut Elinoire. You can usually get a feel for how an album will be overall from an intro track, and this was absolutely the case here.

The next track is the first of the longform compositions, clocking in at nearly 12 minutes. The Last Living Member is an exercise in how not to do exposition – it is split into three sections, each one completely unrelated to the previous but each one attempting to establish some part of the storyline. The Dark Tower has such an extensive plot structure and backstory that this attempt at summarizing the motivating factor behind the rest of the plot is largely futile. Again, it leaves the listener with more questions than they had at the start. Additionally, it seems that the vocal melodies were written first then the lyrics were written with no regard for the melody. The instrumentation throughout is quite nice, however, but fails to capture my attention to the level that Mirage did.

The next three tracks, while introducing a bit more variety, largely follow the same trend. Longform compositions made up of incohesive sections, middling verses over jarring melodies, and folky instrumentation with the occasional interesting bit. Halfway through The Sorcerer, there is a section comprised of dialogue, but otherwise the majority of verses are exposition and narration. I have not finished reading the book series yet, but it is fairly obvious that the story told in this album is a quite loose interpretation of King’s narrative. If you are going into this album expecting it to line up with the story of The Dark Tower, you will be disappointed. 

The final track, The Gunslinger’s Creed, unfortunately closes out the album with more of the same thing. The bad lyricism comes to a head in one of the opening verses with the lines: 

Jake has a bad feeling
While he’s opening the front door
Lon is lying on the floor
His worst fears come true
His mother is also dead

Again, the instrumentation is fine and sounds good, but its interplay with the vocals leaves me unsatisfied. I wish I could say more about this final track, being the conclusion of the story and all, but there really is no natural climax and it ends just as suddenly as it starts. 

One aspect of The Pure Shine that almost saves it for me is the huge assortment of nontraditional instrumentation. Featuring instruments like cello, violin, mandolin, uilleann pipes(!), and many many more, the instrumentation is interesting enough to keep my attention where the vocal sections do not. Whenever there is no singing, I am intrigued by the interplay between each instrument. Unfortunately, when the vocals kick back in, it ruins any sense of wonder imparted on me by the instrumentation. 

With such a huge array of guest musicians and guest singers, I really hoped The Pure Shine would live up expectations created by the masterpiece that Mirage – A Portrayal of Figures was, but sadly I was let down. I really wanted to like this album. I had been looking forward to it ever since Flaming Row announced they were writing another album. It unfortunately just didn’t deliver. 

All that said, please go listen to their 2014 album Mirage – A Portrayal of Figures – it is everything I wish The Pure Shine was. It is a masterpiece of progressive rock and is criminally underlooked. If you’ve made it this far into the review, congratulations because you get to listen to an amazing album regardless. To Flaming Row – all the pieces are here to make an amazing album that stands the test of time. They just weren’t assembled in the right order.

Recommended tracks: Jake’s Destiny, The Gunslinger’s Creed, every song on their 2014 album go listen to that one please
Recommended for fans of: Ayreon
Final verdict: 5/10

Altesia – Paragon Circus
Style: Haken (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: Andrew

I once thought it impossible for a band to have a sound that is simultaneously incredibly unique and also derivative at the same time. That is, until I heard Paragon Circus by brand new French progressive metal band Altesia. For an album so filled to the brim with prog tropes, every song felt fresh and new. From the 2 minute intro track Pandora to the nearly 18 minute closer Cassandra’s Prophecy, each new track presented a new idea or a new sound that kept me on my toes, anxiously anticipating what Altesia would do next. 

I want to expand on the sheer quantity of tropes packed into Paragon Circus’s 56 minute runtime. Name something you’d expect a prog metal album to have – this album will have it. Sax solo? Check. Violin? Check. Brief harsh vocal section? Check. Odd time signature riffs out the wazoo? Check. It may sound like a lot to take in, and it is, but Altesia makes every single one of the aforementioned sections work fantastically. Nothing ever sounds out of place – for every wacky section, odd riff, and mind-bending solo, there’s an accompanying transition from section to section that makes each song flow nearly perfectly. Honestly, my only complaint here is that there aren’t more sections from nontraditional instruments. Altesia makes them work so well that I was left wanting more. 

Clément Darrieu performs all vocals in Paragon Circus, and he puts on quite a good performance. Almost reminiscent of Ross Jennings of Haken, Darrieu’s cleans are soothing yet not overly sappy or dramatic. Also, Darrieu can belt, as proven in the intro of The Prison Child. He is versatile enough to contribute to the uniqueness of each song, not introducing any sense of homogeneity as the album progresses. 

Altesia have a real winner here with their debut Paragon Circus, and any fan of Haken, Dream Theater, and the like are bound to like at least a couple tracks off this, if not the whole thing. There’s nowhere to go for Altesia but up here and I really look forward to seeing what they do to follow this one up. 

Recommended tracks: Reminiscence, The Prison Child, Cassandra’s Prophecy
Recommended for fans of: Haken, Haken, Haken (and maybe Haken as well)
Final verdict: 8.8/10

In Human Form – III (US-MA)
Style: Black (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Tyler

I’m always a fan when bands try to do things that break the traditional mold of their genres. The last thing we need is another deathcore band that is only trying to find the next heavy breakdown, or another black metal band that plays big distorted and reverby chords for 40 minutes. The latter of which is what I thought I’d be getting with III, but as things moved forward, I was shockingly surprised at where In Human Form took me.

The album starts like a lot of black metal albums do. Very loud, fast instrumentals with aggressive vocals to show you that they’re not messing around. I felt like I could guess every turn the album was going to take, and then I hit about the minute mark of the first song. Things take a step back, they slow down, and probably best of all, the band starts incorporating some melody. And things only get better from there. They explore this new territory for a decent amount of time too, bringing in some interesting songwriting choices as well. Things don’t pick back up until the four and a half minute mark where, what’s this? An Invader Zim cameo? What luck! Things only get stranger from there. With plenty of tempo changes and styles, guitar solos and lead abound, and a surprise saxophone solo because this is a metal album from 2019. All of these things meld into a package that never left me bored and legitimately excited to see what would happen next. And that’s just the first song.

The second track is far and away the stand out for me. The spoken word passage that gives some context on whatever journey the band is taking us on sets a melancholy stage for the remaining, which is the band essentially jamming for six minutes. Every instrument has their time in the sun (Minus drums. Always the bridesmaid, eh?), trading solos that make so much sense melodically. The whole time the track has been crescendoing and you don’t really notice until you are surrounded by everyone playing their hearts out, climaxing in a pretty haunting finish that I can’t get enough of. It was almost disappointing to go to the last track on this thing because the “Weeping Stones” was so much my speed. That’s not to say that the third song is lacking, but it hits a lot of the same beats that the first one did. It would have been great to hear a more blended sound of the first two tracks on the last one.

That being said, I was really pleased by the III overall. Most of the drawbacks come from the production itself. The guitars could have been beefed up with some layering. There are moments where the two guitars are tremeloing by themselves and there is not much there to hold the root down, so they sound really vulnerable. Aside from that and the other smaller criticisms from earlier, there’s not much bad to say on this one. Just write more songs like “Weeping Stones” please. Thank you, drive safe.

Recommended tracks: Weeping Stones
Recommended for fans of: Rivers of Nihil, Cattle Decapitation, Enslaved (or basically any black metal act ever)
Final verdict: 8/10

Red Scalp – The Great Chase in the Sky (Poland)
Style: Stoner/Psychedelic (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | BigCartel | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Stephen

Well, damn. What a treat this album was. I heard nothing about Red Scalp before listening to The Great Chase in the Sky and within moments of starting the album, I knew it was going to be an album I would be coming back to. What a pleasant surprise this was. 

If I were to sum this album up in one word, it would be GROOVY. The first track off the album is “Mothertime” and when I turned it on the riff, tone, and rhythm had me hooked. Just when I thought the song already peaked, they threw a sexy sax on top of an already stellar groove. Wow, pure bliss! Then, enters “Chase” which starts out with luscious synths and sexy bass guitar, and takes you to bliss once again with perfectly placed riffs. Each song that follows isn’t different. It’s been a little while since I have found an album that maintains peak enjoyment like The Great Chase in the Sky did for me.

One of the most impressive aspects of this album to me is how Red Scalp was able to transition so well between the different tones. On paper stoner, psych, synth, and sax should sound a bit jumbled, but it worked so well. There was also an outlaw/western vibe I got throughout the album, that I enjoyed quite a bit. I will frequent this album and this band going forward. In closing, listen to this album. I don’t care what you like or don’t like. I don’t care what you think about the Stoner/Psych subgenre. Just listen. Ready? Go!

Recommended tracks: All
Recommended for fans of: Sex
Final verdict: 10/10

Solar Sons – Subliminal Criminal (UK)
Style: Heavy/Stoner-ish (clean vocals)
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Review by: Sam

I’m a big fan of 80s heavy metal. 80s. This however, is 70s heavy metal, with some additional stoner rock vibes for good measure. And as tragic as it may be for Solar Sons, 70s heavy metal has never interested me all that much. I dig Paranoid and that’s about it. This album did not do much to change that. 

For starters the mixing is not good. Surely it’s supposed to sound dated, but that doesn’t mean you have to mess with the volume and make the drums sound lifeless. The vocals are also nothing to write home about. Mid-range, kinda stoned, and just pretty forgettable all around. And it’s not like heavy metal has high standards for vocal ability in the first place. Speaking of heavy metal, I don’t know if it’s just me not being invested in 70s heavy metal, but the heavy metal parts of this sounded bog standard to me and devoid of any energy or urgency. I guess that’s the stoner parts of the music coming into play, slowing the music down a bit and having a guitar tone that sounds like you’re high. It’s not bad or anything, it’s just… kinda average? 

So you’re now wondering: what on earth does a 70s heavy metal band do on a prog blog? Honestly at first the answer wasn’t clear to me either, but during the bridges these guys can go on some quite proggy tangents. And honestly, those tangents are BY FAR the best thing on the album. It kinda reminds me of Iron Maiden’s prolonged soloing in their longer songs. The solos on this record are actually really good. The tone is nasty and the solos are just really well composed, giving me actual chills in some parts. Not all bridges are amazing, but it’s enough for me to give this record a pass. If only the heavy metal parts were as interesting… Now it’s just heavy/stoner metal in some parts, and prog in others. Makes the music feel kinda disjointed to me. There’s a good chance you’ll find more in this record than I did if you’re a fan of 70s heavy metal, but for me it didn’t do much.

Recommended tracks: Worlds Unknown, Just a Ride
Recommended for fans of: Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden’s longer songs
Final verdict: 6/10

Zac Leaser – The Arising (US-TE)
Style: Tech Death (mixed vocals)
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Review by: Chris

It’s been a while since I’ve really dove into the tech death world, so when Sam asked me to guest review this album I was glad to have an excuse to deep dive again. I listened to a bunch of albums in the genre sphere this month to re-familiarize myself with the genre so that I could place The Arising. Zac Leaser is a one man melodic tech death solo (bedroom?) artist that seems to have been pretty prolific since 2017, having put out 4 Albums and 3 EPs since then. Now that introductions are out of the way let’s dive into this album.

The very beginning of this album had me decently excited as it opened with a synth build into an ambient guitar build which made me think I was about to get a Fallujah esque soundscape. Once the drums and such dropped in I realized I wasn’t quite going to get that, though I enjoyed the immediate blaze of notes coming at me for the guitar and drums.

This album had its first great moment for me about a minute and a half into the first song with a great legato guitar melody opening up from the riffage. This album has a few insanely great melodic moments throughout; it’s just a bit of a shame there is a good bit of meh filler surrounding them. I must say Zac Leaser does some things extremely well: he has a great sense of melody in his guitar lines, and he definitely is great at creating space for the vocals and melodic guitar lines to breathe while happening together, where you can always take in both of those pieces at any given time. His harsh vocals are excellent and cover a good range, from your normal tech death style growls to your more deathcore esque Gollum snarls and high pitched screeches every once in a while.

The Arising does have its definite weak spots though. The drums are pretty programmed, which for a one man bedroom tech death project isn’t surprising. Tech death probably is the easiest genre to get away with programmed drums in, though in this instance they definitely could have used some humanizing love and maybe a bit of a drummer’s mind in writing them. The same idea goes to the bass, which except for the very last song, is pretty much just a vehicle for the guitars and has no real standout moments. If your draw to Tech Death is Equipoise or Beyond Creation style bass melodies and licks, you won’t find those here friends. If some of the guitar lines weren’t so interesting the lack of mindfulness on the bass and drums would definitely make this a super bland album, which is what happens for the parts of the album that are not as immediately attention grabbing. Additionally, the clean vocals leave something to be desired especially compared to the harshes. They are sometimes great and on point, while about half definitely feel shaky and not fully locked in. I would also say that the track Jaded really just lost my attention, it being an instrumental track that really had nothing to grab my interest.

Overall, I’d say this album is definitely solid but not great. It has some great highs which are what really grab you the first listen, but on subsequent listens I found myself just wanting those sections and kind of feeling meh about everything in between. I think Zac Leaser is extremely talented and has a great sense of melody and would really love to see what would happen if he joined a band. This material definitely would get a great boost from some other creative minds at the table and other instrumentalists to add some other flavors to it. If you want a decent melodic tech death album that will probably scratch the Revocation or Obscura itch, or want something like a more melodic and accessible Rings of Saturn this album is definitely worth a try.

[Editor’s note: this review is exactly 666 words. You can interpret that however you want.]

Recommended tracks: Haze, Morose, Zymotic
Recommended for fans of: Revocation, Rings of Saturn, Obscura, Gorod
Final verdict: 6.66/10

Malediction – Makeshift Altars of the Astral Plane (US-NY)
Style: Black (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

Of the black metal I like, nearly all of it is wacky or avant-garde in some way. Nothing against the purists, but I just prefer abrasiveness to be more of a side element. Malediction is certainly wacky, but not on the level of something like Abigor or Deathspell Omega – no jazz or video game sounds here. Even though there’s no gimmickry or even any clear outside influences on display, Makeshift Altars of the Astral Plane stretches the genre deceptively far using mostly just its base elements.

It’s surprising how much sole member Dalton Hall sets his band apart just by blasting on more exotic scales. The main “motif” of “Wombs of Belief and Confirmation”, if you could call it that, shouldn’t really be anything new – just the tremolos you know and love. But there’s an interesting hint of melody in the movement between chords, and it stands out far more than when bands just move minor thirds around. There are also excursions into things resembling post rock and sludge, though difficult to actually define. The occasional lead playing is especially interesting, as it comes so close to being pretty, but is soaked in grime and nastiness. The bends are just out of tune enough to be awesome, and I think this is wholly intentional. I can’t quite explain it, but you can always tell when someone knows their shit, and that’s the feeling I get here, even if the album doesn’t come out and try to show you how smart it is.

I struggled for a while to come up with something to compare Makeshift Altars to, and nothing presented itself. This is annoying for review writing, but usually a good sign for bands. It’s hard to even articulate why this album works, but for me I think it’s just the exact dissonance-to-melody ratio I want from this sort of thing. Check it out if you don’t mind raw production.

Recommended tracks: Makeshift Altars of the Astral Plane, Pharyngeal Constriction
Recommended for fans of: ???
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Effuse – Contextual Noise (US-GA) [EP]
Style: Metal/Djent (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
Review by: Stephen

The timing of this review is funny. I am reviewing one of our own reviewer’s (Chris) bands the same month he joined. Lucky for me the album is a solid one. Contextual Noise is a shorter EP, but don’t let that fool you, there is some good stuff on here. 

Right away I noticed the production was on point, and being able to go directly to the source I learned that Jamie King mastered the album. The second thing I noticed was there is a bit of a combination of heavy riffing and ambient synths. The album starts off atmospheric and heavy with “Overgrowth”, and reminded me a bit of Voyager. The next track “Kill Castle” was one I was instantly drawn to, but after listening to the album a few times, it really grew on me. The track very much takes you on a journey. There are killer riffs, tasty dissonance, cool callbacks, and catchy melodies. If you only check out one song from this album, make sure it’s this one. The last individual track I’ll highlight is “The Silent Push.” There are some huge riffs on this one as well as some lush synths. Like “Kill Castle” it also takes you on a journey. 

At a high level, there isn’t a weak performance on the album. Drums, vocals, and guitar are all on point. The bass is pushed a little down in the mix for my liking, but hey that’s just a preference thing. The only really negative I can find on the album is there were a few times where the melodies were a bit similar between a couple songs. It wasn’t a big problem in my opinion, but on a shorter EP, it did stick out a bit more. Overall, Contextual Noise was a short but sweet EP. Give this album a spin if you like bands like Voyager, The Contortionist, or VOLA; I don’t see how you wouldn’t enjoy this. 

Recommended tracks: Kill Castle, The Silent Push
Recommended for fans of: (late) Voyager, The Contortionist, VOLA
Final verdict: 8/10

Amonkst the Trees – Amonkst the Trees (US-AR)
Style: Blackened Doom (harsh vocals)
Related links: Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

I love a good melodic doom album. The slower pace of it all accompanied with a nice sense of melody makes for a pretty great combination, combining heaviness and creative songwriting. Amonkst the Trees haven’t really done something cutting edge, but rather stuck to their guns and made a fine album. 

A good set of harsh vocals, some great riffs, pounding drums and a decent production make up for a very enjoyable, repeatable album. At its short length, it welcomes relistens without having to feel tired for doing so. While there may not be a lot of experimentation, for every listen you keep finding new things, quirks that distinguish each track from the other. 

[Editor’s note: whoever thought Amonkst the Trees was a good band name should really question their life choices. I’m OFFENDED!!]

Recommended tracks: Ode to Reflection, Burden of Will
Recommended for fans of: Altars of Grief, Ruins of Beverast, Alcest
Final verdict: 8/10

Carbon Bandit – Carbon Bandit (US-NC)
Style: Metalcore (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
Review by: Jonah

I’ll come into this review with no pretense of being a huge fan of the genres involved. I went through my melodic metalcore phase in the late 2000s and early 2010s like many others, but I’ve since fallen out of the style pretty hard. The evolution of Djent has served to further distance me from the style, as it has often devolved into senseless rhythmic chugging with little to no melodic center. Thus it was with quite a bit of trepidation that I approached the debut album by Carbon Bandit.

Thankfully that concern was for the most part unneeded. This is a pretty damn solid piece of relatively proggy metalcore, without a whole lot of djent to mess it up. You’ve got your standard metalcore ingredients here, downtuned guitars, chuggy breakdowns, the most vocal fry harshes you’ve ever heard, and some cleans that are pretty good but not THAT good. However, there are two things that make this album stand out for me and make it something that I’ll likely find myself returning to. First, the production, courtesy of Jamie King, is pretty damn impeccable. Especially for this genre, it’s nice to really be able to pick out everything that is happening. The second thing is the songwriting itself. Even though the individual components don’t strike me as particularly creative or exciting, the way they are pieced together is pretty damn good. Each mid-song tempo change, or stylistic shift hits effectively and really keeps things exciting through the album’s incredibly brief 30 minute run time.

I don’t think Carbon Bandit have sold me on their genre as a whole, or really even come close, but they’ve managed to make a tasty little morsel of metalcore here that I certainly wouldn’t mind returning to every now and again. There’s some damn good stuff in these songs, and any fans of the genre should 100% give it a listen once they get tired of the new Loathe album.

Recommended tracks: Contact with the Comet, The Shadow, Wake Me
Recommended for fans of: The Contortionist, Periphery, Between the Buried and Me
Final verdict: 7/10

Tylor Dory Trio – Unsought Salvation (Canada)
Style: Traditional/Grunge (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Stephen

When I saw this Unsought Salvation listed as progressive grunge on our December review list, I jumped at the opportunity to review this album. I enjoy grunge and prog, so it seemed like it would be up my alley. I’m glad I did there were a few things I really liked about the album, but there were also a few things I didn’t like.

When I started the album, the first thing I noticed was this vocalist is very talented. He can do clean, harsh, falsetto, fry, and raspy-hard-rock vocals all very well. The second thing I noticed was that nothing quite captured me after I had listened to the first half of the album. It wasn’t really anything I could put my finger on either. The vocals, as I stated before were great, the guitar was really solid as well, but I just wasn’t really into the album. However, once “Glass Menagerie” came on my opinion changed. That song is awesome, and it changed my outlook on the rest of the album. I went back and started the album over, and I did enjoy it a bit more, but I do think the second half of the album is stronger than the first half. “Glass Menagerie” and “Into the Maelstrom” are both very, very cool tracks. 

If you have followed my reviews in the past, you know that uniqueness is a very important criteria for me personally, and Tylor Dory Trio definitely passes that test most of the time. There are a few moments where the timbre of the vocals have almost a generic power metal feel to them, but it’s nothing too problematic for me personally. Overall, I think Unsought Salvation has some tracks I am definitely going to return to, but I don’t know if I am going to return to the album as a whole anytime soon. 

Recommended tracks: Glass Menagerie, Into the Maelstrom
Recommended for fans of: ???
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Dante – Go! (Poland)
Style: Hard Rock/Metalcore(?) (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Josh

Many prog bands are Swiss army knives. While they excel at a few things, they are able to take on a variety of styles and pull them all off to a degree. Dante, however, are a meat cleaver. They’re built for exactly one thing, and when they try something different, the results aren’t pretty.

Hitting play on track 1, you get what Dante’s serving. After the intro, they smack you with a gigantic hard rock riff under vocals that sound like Tom Araya after a few too many shots of vodka. This is what Dante is, in a sense, built to do. The next few tracks continue with the same formula of outright aural assaults, and while the material itself is great, the album begins to feel like it’s repeating itself. The songs start to blend together, compounded by lack of the tonal variation from the vocalist. Overall though, still a very solid album.

Later on, Dante end up stepping out of their comfort zone musically. Tracks like “Paranoidosaur” (great song title btw) and “Frustrated” mix in small elements of other genres, and these mostly work to support and extend Dante’s core sound. On the final track, however, the band attempts a slower, more atmospheric track, which ends up coming out as the worst song on the album. I’m not encouraging Dante to cease their experimentation. On the contrary, they should do it more, as their hard rock formula has worked here, but it likely will not hold up over successive albums. 

My recommendation is simple: if you’re here for thick riffs, give this album a spin. If not, don’t.

Recommended tracks: Nobody Will Be Saint, Paranoidosaur, Frustrated
Recommended for fans of: Muse, Tool, Mastodon
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Southern Skies – Remnants of a Repeated Future, Part 1
Style: Power (clean vocals)
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Review by: Dylan

I’ll never not review Argentinian bands. Being part of one myself, I understand how god awfully hard it is to get yourself out there past your city. Thanks to this I’ve reviewed some excellent artists like Dragonauta and Uroboros. However, with Southern Skies, we’re not quite at excellence. 

To start off, this album is VERY run of the mill prog power. There’s the formula, they play along to it, and don’t bother doing much more. Sam, who is way more into prog power than I am, described this band as a poor man’s Angra. And after a quick check I can guarantee you that these guys are REALLY into Angra. 

Okay so it’s pretty generic but how is it quality wise? Well, it ranges from average to good. For starters the production is kinda bad. Nothing I’d consider unlistenable but it is pretty compressed, undynamic, and off-putting, especially the vocals. The drums are shockingly dull; they start off promising enough, until you realize all he can do is flashy double bass patterns. The guitars, vocals, and general songwriting are all somewhat hit or miss. It seems like for each track they learn a bit more on how to not suck. This makes the album an upwards trend with track 1 being the weakest, and the last one being arguably the strongest. While the first half of the album feels rather average, you can sense a bit of growth in the songwriting department for the latter half. 

All of this makes me think that their second album could be really great if they fix some of the glaring issues here. For now, it remains as a normal prog power band with potential, but that just hasn’t got there yet

Recommended tracks: Glimpse of the Sun
Recommended for fans of: Angra
Final verdict: 6/10

Holmgang Ov Gensokyo – Holmgang Ov Gensokyo (International)
Style: Touhou (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: Josh

So what is Touhou, really? For the uninitiated, it’s a series of Japanese indie games (doujin games if you want to be smug) with a highly dedicated fanbase. The games are especially renowned for their soundtracks, to the point where it’s a common practice among fans to compose rearrangements of them. This album is a compilation of various rearrangements into several different prog metal styles. Sometimes it’ll sound like Periphery, and other times it’ll sound like Emperor.

I’ve listened to a good amount of touhou metal in my day, and as such, I’ve noticed a few common threads from most artists doing this. The arrangements tend to be wildly creative, often creating songs that sound almost nothing like the originals while also being instantly recognizable due to the front and center melodies present. However, they tend to be marred by poor mixing and production, especially on tracks with vocals. This album is no exception to either of those.

Here you will find songs made with incredible amounts of creativity and passion. The sound is rough, but the soul is there. You may be turned off by the production at first, but let it grow on you. Listen to the originals, then come back. If you can’t vibe with a track, go back for a round two later. Some tracks did nothing for me, but the soaring highs of others more than make up for them.

And so I say in unison: Touhou. Metal. Forever. Godspeed, you beautiful bastards.

Recommended tracks: Torrent of Power, Possession Flowers in Full Bloom, On the Edge of Paradise, Deceiver
Recommended for fans of: the Touhou game OSTs
Final verdict: 7/10