Reports from the Underground: March 2020 prog reviewed (part 1)

Hi. Welcome to the first Prog Subway edition of the month of March 2020. We’ll be here for a while. At a certain point I had more than 60(!!) albums bookmarked for this month (for reference, we usually cover 30 at most). Since there was no way we could cover all that, I asked Jonah if he could take a look at the list again and cut off some filler. He then made a playlist with one track of every album and off we (read: Jonah and Dylan) went with the fat-cutting. And even after that, we still had close to 50 albums on the list. How did we manage that you’re asking? Well, we didn’t. If we really wanted to cover everything we’d have to do five editions this month, but because we didn’t want to be bogged down too much on one single month we went for four editions instead. And even then, there’s 13 albums we didn’t cover. It’s insane.

So here we are for the first edition. In terms of ratings, it’s actually quite a good edition. We have Psalmtanic who we interviewed some time ago, Wardaemonic who made a very daemonic release and more. As always, I hope you’ll find something to enjoy in here. And otherwise you can always check out older editions if you like what we do here. Here’s a link to the Spotify playlist with all recommended tracks from the albums featured on this edition.

New here? Check our About page and take a look at our social media accounts (links in the sidebar). In short what we do is that we search for promising underground prog metal (and related) bands through Metal-Archives advanced search, Bandcamp and other sources, group them together by the month they were released in, and then write a review on them. Do you want your band reviewed? Send us an email at theprogressivesubway@gmail.com. Just make sure it’s from a month we haven’t covered yet.

The Winter Effect – Elementation (Australia) [EP]
Style: Djent (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
Review by: Stephen

The longer I review albums for this site, the more difficult it is to review albums like Elementation. I have said the same thing before with other reviews, there are a lot of other bands doing this very same sound. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT. Is Elementation bad? Definitely not, but I would have seen The Winter Effect break the mold a bit more. 

Now that I got the intro out of the way, I’ll get to the stuff I did like on the album. First off, the production, instrumentation, and vocals are all quality good, especially the production. Check “Chronical” out to get a taste of how massive some of the sounds are on this album. You can tell that a lot of time and effort went into this 22 minute EP. Secondly, there are a lot of electronic elements sprinkled in the EP that breaks the mold a little bit. For instance, the bridge to the outro of “Our Era” features a lot of glitchy electronic work, and there are more moments like this sprinkled in the rest of the EP. The last thing I did enjoy a bit on the album was the bass work. There were some really enjoyable bass grooves on the album, and the bass guitar got a healthy portion of the mix. 

The biggest issue I have with this EP is that if I was in the mood for some djent, I’d give Tesseract, Time, The Valuator, The Contortionist, or another djenty band that has their own unique take on the ambient djent genre. I’d love to hear more from The Winter Effect in the future if they tried to break the mold a bit more. With the volume of albums that we receive, this has to be the most saturated subgenre in the progressive metal umbrella. However, this is one of the better albums or EPs I have heard in this sea of bands that suffer from the oversaturation of the subgenre. 

So, all in all, if you can’t get enough djent definitely check Elementation out. And even if you are a little fatigued with the oversaturation of the subgenre, check out “Chronical” if nothing else. It is the standout track on the EP, in my opinion. 

Recommended tracks: Chronical
Recommended for fans of: Tesseract; Time, The Valuator
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Aronious – Perspicacity (US-WI)
Style: Prog/Tech Death (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Chris

‘Perspicacity’ is a word I don’t think I’ve seen since I was studying for the SATs so I’ve included a definition and sentence example below:

Perspicacity [pur-spi-kas-i-tee] – the quality of having a ready insight into things; shrewdness.
“Aronious have really shown their perspicacity of the tech death genre on their debut LP, though there is room to improve.”

I may have taken that a bit far, but I think it is fair to say Perspicacity is an album which makes it pretty clear Aronious has listened to almost every tech death adjacent band there is and have tried to incorporate pieces from all of them into this record. Perspicacity is a 58 minute long tech-death effort which has so many riffs in it most of which are pretty sick. This album is dense, layered, and all encompassing of a large range of sounds. This is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the sheer technical skill in doing so is admirable. I’d especially highlight the drumming which felt especially creative for the genre. The guitar work is also great and diverse. I’d knock some on the vocals not for tonality or delivery but because the rhythmic approach to them in relation to the riffs they go over tends to get a bit formulaic over the length of the album.

I’d say Aronious doesn’t completely pass the test I tend to give most tech-death albums I’ve reviewed here which is the 30 minute check in: am I lost? Am I fatigued? Am I bored? For Perspicacity I would have to say I fell into the first category. The album goes so many places that it really just lost me at some point, and I would find myself only checking back in for the times where the riff was especially sick. Going more into the music, Ulcerate are loved for their dissonance and atmosphere, and bands like Beyond Creation are loved for the proggier melodic side of things. Aronious tried to bring both together, but in doing so they lost the cohesiveness and charm the aforementioned bands have. I will give one more set of props for how well the album flows as if it is one complete song, though it made it a bit hard to remember which tracks were coolest later.

This is definitely a cool album with great riffs and great performances. In certain doses it’s amazing, but as a whole it really can be hard to follow and get through. That said, it’s definitely worth a listen through for fans of the genre or anyone that loves technical displays.

Recommended tracks: An Assembled Reality, Delusions of Superiority, A Grim Fate
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Beyond Creation, Obscura
Final verdict: 7/10

Forever’s Edge – HereAfter (US-NY)
Style: Power (clean vocals, occasional harsh)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

For twenty minutes or so, I thought my luck was turning around… Last month’s albums were all fairly boring, and reviewing that stuff really wears you down. Well, Forever’s Edge is anything but boring, with tons of energy and an awesomely huge mix, but something feels off nonetheless. It just takes awhile to sink in…

Stylistically, HereAfter is a bit like modern Symphony X: power-prog that’s really tough and not nerdy, we promise. The singer even sounds a bit like Russell Allen of late, though he chews so much scenery I need to buy a new desk. Dude sounds like he’s going to start crying after every line. He is quite good though. The guitarist is nuts – the solo on “Ascension” raises an eyebrow or three – and the rhythm section gets time to shine as well. They even go the extra mile with harsh and female vocals that stick around longer than one verse, and the “look we just bought Action Strikes” orchestral intro is a full-length composition rather than the afterthought they usually are. Sounds like a winning formula, and the first impression was strong… So what’s my issue here? I’ll try to put it in words:

There’s two sides to making albums: inspiration and competence. The quality of the raw ideas, and your ability to realize them without losing anything in transition. These guys are great players, everything’s arranged well, and the sound of the album is superb, but it’s kind of like taking a Jack’s pizza and seasoning it with the finest spices imported from Italy. The furious playing and glossy production are just barely able to distract you from the question: “Are these notes good?” Really, the riffs are mostly forgettable filler chugs besides the harmonic scrape in “Eve of the Son”, and the vocal melodies are only serviceable, no matter how dramatically he sells them. It’s more style than substance, yet they do everything so epically that it sort of holds your attention through brute force. I don’t know… I’m sure that it’ll get good reviews, because it’s professional and heavy, but it felt hollow to me. Compare this to Noveria (link to thing), who I reviewed recently – broadly similar, but those songs felt much more like they were going somewhere. Still, on account of the craftsmanship, I have to rate this one a little better than average.

Recommended tracks: Point Break, Eve of the Son
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X (new)
Final verdict: 6/10

Auerkallio – Absinthine II (Finland)
Style: Symphonic Death (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

I suspect many of you won’t know this, but this band was actually featured on the very first edition of this blog (January 2018) with their self-titled album. Back then I really liked the strong choruses and catchy songwriting. The production was very much bedroom quality, but as it’s only one dude doing literally everything by himself with (presumably) little budget, I didn’t mind it that much. And even then the instruments were all clearly audible, so there wasn’t much to complain about. The songwriting was good, which is all that really matters in the end. Then when I saw the dude had put another one out, I got excited to review his work again, so here we are.

To be frank, I did not enjoy this album as much as I did the self-titled. Absinthine II is mostly about the death metal aspects of the band’s sound, which aren’t bad perse, but compared to his melodic hooks they’re far inferior. It’s also a more experimental record than its predecessor, bringing in symphonic elements and wacky breaks. After the pretty piano interlude of “A Moment of Clarity”, we get a guest saxophone solo and a wonky jazz funk section in the otherwise death metal “Like Burning Knives”. These experiments pay off decently well, but they’re not strong enough to masquerade that the fundamentals are poor. The riffs are serviceable, but they simply aren’t strong enough to be the main focus. I’m also missing the strong vocal hooks like “Walk Away” or “Only One of My Kind” from the previous album, which had catchiness rivaling early 90s Fates Warning (which is something only few prog bands achieve). The absence of these elements makes the bedroom production all the more noticeable, which doesn’t work in the band’s favour of course.

I’m sad this review turned out to be as negative as it did. Matti’s talents as a multi-instrumentalist and composer are still solid enough to make this album a serviceable listen, but I’m just sad it’s not much more than that. Now if only he could put all his material on Spotify so we can put it in the playlist that’d be great.

Recommended tracks: Reclamation, A Moment of Clarity, Like Burning Knives
Recommended for fans of: Septicflesh, Eternal Tears of Sorrow
Final verdict: 6/10

If Anything Happens to the Cat – Kingdom of Roots (Belgium)
Style: Post Rock/Metal (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Jonah

Sometimes you see the name of a band and get immediately interested in their music, without much of any other information. That’s exactly what happened to me with this album. I mean, what happens If Anything Happens to the Cat? I have to know!

This album is a particularly pretty type of post-rock full of lovely vocals, both male and female, and some absolutely stunning guitar work. Every song is a soundscape of beautiful singing and instrumentation and it just draws you in and leaves you with a smile. Each track uses the classic Post tendencies towards build and crescendo but never relies on it to the point of monotony like other bands in the genre. The production is also fantastic, incredibly clean and clear, allowing the listener to really experience the full beauty of each individual track.

That being said, the biggest point at which this album falters is that by the end of it the songs all start sounding the same. Each is beautiful and entrancing, but if listened to all the way through it does start blending together.

Don’t let that dissuade you from listening however. This is a beautiful piece of music and well worth your time. If you’re looking for more relaxing music than the usual fare we review this is absolutely it.

Recommended tracks: Intrinsic Gravity, A Mass of Disconnected Facts, Snowglobe Citizen
Recommended for fans of: David Bowie, Anathema, MONO
Final verdict: 7/10

Tar Pond – Protocol of Constant Sadness (Switzerland)
Style: Doom (clean vocals)
Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Tyler

I love when a band gives me some conflicting emotions, it makes my job harder. And sometimes an easy job just isn’t worth doing. Tar Pond’s debut has a lot of great things going for it, it really does. And everytime one of these things comes up, another pops up that makes me question what I think about it. 

First of all, sonically, this album is bulletproof. The mood that is set from the first moments of the opener “Damn”. I knew what kind of ride I was in for. This cut is thick, brooding, a really great first impression of the band’s sound. The lonely acoustic guitars and vocals, with some help from a deep synth underneath to help emphasize just how heavy this really is, was a fantastic choice through and through. That feeling builds and builds throughout until the rest of the band kicks in with a classic, semi-cliche sounding stoner-doom riff that marks its territory as the motif for the rest of the runtime of the song. This whole show set up the rest of the album as well. Showing the synths first established that we weren’t just getting another run of the mill doom album. There is going to be some wonk thrown in the mix. The glitchy solos in “Damn” and at the end of “Worm” were quite welcome changes of pace.

The rest of the tracks keep the pace fairly consistent for the rest of the album. Some odd melodic embellishments in when things are quiet (see the warbled guitar in “Please”), followed by a big chorus where the more stoney elements play out. This formula isn’t bad by any means, everything makes sense where it is, but I found myself being able to predict what sound the band was going to go for next mid song. And since there are only four tracks on here, I couldn’t help but wonder if the band had anything else in them aside from the aforementioned solos.

I will say the most polarizing aspect of the album for me was the vocal performance. The instruments were often so cohesive and mixed as a unit, somehow the vocals always sat on top of everything. They were so crisp and clear at times, it was almost distracting, similar to how I feel when listening to a Songs: Ohia album. This also didn’t help in the lyrics department either. Since the vocals were so clear, you could hear how not great some of the lyrics are throughout. There were points where I could feel my eyes just slightly roll when on my first listen. The music is so thick and unionized, that when mixed with the lyrics, it sounded like I was listening to two songs at once.

This one will likely be a grower for most folks, it definitely was for me. There isn’t anything world shattering here, and I would hardly call it progressive. But it is a thoughtful brand of doom that’s seldom easy to come by these days, so it’s worth a bit of your attention. Don’t look at the album cover though, it’s heeby-jeeb material.

Recommended tracks: Damn, The Spirit
Recommended for fans of: Earth, Songs: Ohia
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Wardaemonic – Acts of Repentance (Australia)
Style: Tech Death/Black (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

So as you may have already read from the introduction, this is the issue where we have the biggest number of albums yet for one single month. As a matter of fact, the list was even BIGGER a couple weeks back, so Jonah made a playlist with a track from every album bookmarked in order to kill off a few. And as I hit play on Wardaemonic‘s song…. I go holy moly. These guys are really something else.

This Australian band is, simply put, bananas. This album is INSANE. It’s techy, super complex black metal with a big death presence coated on top of it. It’s like Atheist, Archspire and Emperor had the best three-way of all time and this was their love child. 

When something is as over the top as this, it’s hard to put into words what exactly it is that you’re listening to. So to save you a headache, I’ll just tell you something simple: it’s breathtaking. The fact that something can have this amount of notes per second yet still have a “tight” feeling to it with plenty of melodic presence is just ridiculous. Drums doing 300bpm double bass, constant barrage of speedy, chaotic riffs, an amazing and chunky (and present in the mix) bass, correctly paced tracks, “breathing points” that are just long enough before you jump back in, it’s just amazing.

The songwriting is so tight that they even pulled off a 10+min epic with this style of music. “Act III” has easily 2 minutes of buildup, with what sounds like a satanic ritual being formed, only to then explode with this perfectly created soundscape of despair and chaos. In between is an interlude that just gets better and better and leaves you on the edge of your seat just as they deliver the final blow. 

Acts of Repentance is an amazing album. Can it be a bit overwhelming at times? Sure. Are the drums overplayed? Absolutely. Do I care? No. Listen to this.

Recommended tracks: Act I, Act III
Recommended for fans of: Archspire, Atheist, Emperor
Final verdict: 9.5/10

Dawn of Ouroboros – The Art of Morphology (US-CA)
Style: Melodic Blackened Death with just a bit of Post (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

I can’t believe how lucky I got in this issue. Both albums I had the pleasure to review have been amazing. We’ve talked about Wardaemonic, but what does Dawn of Ouroboros have to offer?

At first sampling it seems like it’s another (great) blackened, kind of epic death metal (think Insomnium or most Dan Swano projects), that in of its own would have been great, but they take it a step forward. It’s at track 2, titled ‘’Pinnacle Induced Vertigo’’, where it gets very unique. They start playing with some Post-rock/Shoegaze tropes to add beautiful, atmospheric sections with clean female vocals, to go along the heavy, brutal, and headbangable sections of the album. This creates an unexpected sense of balance within the album. The way we transition back and forth these elements during the song make perfect sense songwriting wise, and in case it wasn’t obvious, so it’s something that’s very easy to embrace and enjoy. 

In case it wasn’t obvious, this album is played beautifully. The harsh sections offer plenty of melody alongside the chaotic blast beats and low, gritty growls, in order to always have some kind of melodic thread going even on the album’s heaviest moments. Thanks to this, the few songs that don’t have clean sections (‘’Revivified Spirits’’ for example) also hold up very well. And the clean sections vary all the time, sometimes they just make a clean chorus with the same distorted guitars present before it, sometimes they cut out any heaviness completely to hit us with a wall of prettiness, and sometimes there’s even a bit of narration (which I usually don’t like in my music, but fits this perfectly!)

The Art of Morphology is yet another excellent album I strongly believe you should absolutely take the time to listen to. Even if you’re not a fan of harsher genres, the balance of clean/heavy present here may just click with you and open the doors for a whole world of music for you to discover. 

Recommended tracks: Pinnacle Induced Vertigo, Gateway to Tenebrosity, Lunar Cathexis
Recommended for fans of: Insomnium, Deafheaven, Dan Swano
Final verdict: 9/10

Psalmtanic – Psalmtanic Verses (Norway)
Style: Black (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Josh

Black metal has undergone a renaissance of sorts over the past decade. It has expanded into territory far beyond its insular origins, following the footsteps of Alcest into somewhere new entirely. Psalmtanic have joined the expedition, but in the process have not abandoned the past.

I’ll begin with some context: this album is not wholly original material. Each song is a black metal reworking of a psalm, three Norwegian and one English. The band does not stick purely to the song structures of the originals, instead making them their own, expanding and reworking them until only the lyrics and a few melodies remain, and they completely and utterly nail it. The emotional intensity of the originals is ramped up to 11, with the ominous, expressive black metal instrumentals acting as surprisingly great vessels. Sometimes the tone of the original completely changes; one listen through the aggressive, irreverent “Stille, Stille! Jesus Lider” is enough to see that. However, on other tracks, the band actively preserves the mood of the originals, elevating them to new heights via new melodies and recontextualization. Their beautiful rendition of “In the Bleak Midwinter” is so relentlessly positive that I wouldn’t blame you if you mistook it for a Deafheaven track. 

No matter how they spin the psalm, though, they’re able to enhance it. Be it the opening drum solo to “Jeg Gar I Fare Hvor Jeg Gar” or the post-rock riffs on In the “Bleak Midwinter”, every enhancement is a delight to the ears. All this is aided by the band’s willingness to experiment. They never stick to any particular sound for long, and this pays off. They even dabble in hard rock at one point on the third song. They’re also just generally capable at music. The programmed drums are some of the cleanest I’ve ever heard, and whoever’s behind the guitars has an excellent understanding how to write interlocking guitar parts. Overall, it’s an incredibly tight sound where nothing feels accidental.

If you enjoy black metal, no matter what kind of black metal it is, check this out. There’s something for everyone here.

Editor’s note: Also check out our recent interview with the band here.

Recommended tracks: In the Bleak Midwinter, but all 4 tracks are great
Recommended for fans of: Ihsahn, Enslaved, Rolo Tomassi
Final verdict: 8/10