Reports from the Underground: May 2020 prog reviewed (part 2)

Greetings once again from our humble Subway. Sam is taking a quick vacation this weekend so this is Chris being volun-told to do the intro and post 😀

Usually Sam puts something long-winded and meaningless here, I assume to fulfill some sort of inherent desire for attention, or perhaps some sort of Pavlovian response to feel good whenever he types dumb things. In either case I honestly have neither of those issues. We do have a guest review this edition from our friend Mars from the prog discord (you will see their name marked with an asterisk for that reason), and we are very thankful. We are continuing to speed up this train in order to get back to the future which is actually the present, but will be the past when we get there. I noticed the handbrake seems to have fallen off in my hand when I pulled it in a panic, so at this point we are pretty much locked in. In all seriousness, here is the Spotify playlist for these albums. In closing I will only take this opportunity to pitch my idea for the new post name going forward:

Underground Progressive Bands and Musicians: What Are They Making? Are They Making Cool Albums?? Let’s Find Out!

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 and that the release is over 20 minutes long.

Empire Bathtub – Looney Moons (US-TX)
Style: Comedy Rock (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Josh

[DISCLAIMER: This is an album made by two members of The Progressive Subway. I may very well be biased on this review, so take that into consideration as you read.]

This is an album about a robot who tricks his ship’s captain into landing on a dangerous planet in search of a Tool album. The villain is called the Fuh King, pronounced exactly as one might expect. One of the featured lyrics is “Double sixty nine, TARS smacks that ass.” Looney Moons is fucking stupid…

… in the absolute best possible way. It’s got that same style of zany humor that fans of Devin Townsend dig, and it’s serious enough to still tell a coherent native, despite how wacky it gets at times. The jokes all land, and the characters are surprisingly dynamic for how little dialog they get. In a sea of overly serious prog concept albums, this is a breath of fresh air.

Of course, lyrics are only half the battle (or none of it, depending on who you are). Thankfully, the instrumentation comes through in all the right ways, with a surprising amount of dynamicism for something this concept-heavy. Sometimes the concept is carried almost exclusively through the instrumentation, exemplified by the track “Trippin’ Balls”, an atmospheric, spacey tune (a space jam, if you will) featuring prominent sax and the lyrics “trippin’ balls” on loop. Somehow it all works. It gives the same feeling you get when you’ve stayed up far too long and everything’s funny, even when it really shouldn’t be. The more intense moments are fantastic as well, namely “Run? Run! Runs?!” The track opens up with a massive, Tool-esque prog riff, then gradually builds on it until the finale, where synths, distorted guitars, slap bass, and a voice singing about fighting aliens with kung-fu all culminate into one grand climax that wouldn’t feel out of place on The Parallax II. During my first listen, I actually had to pause the album and relisten to that track out of surprise at how good it was. Empire Bathtub are no slouches in the instrumental department, that’s for sure.

Overall, this is a phenomenal listen for anyone who’s into the style of humor on Devin Townsend’s Ziltoid albums, and even excepting that it’s still a fun one. If you’re looking for something new, don’t pass over Empire Bathtub.

Recommended tracks: Tension Builds, Switch Pills, Trippin’ Balls, Run? Run! Runs?!
Recommended for fans of: Devin Townsend, Tool, Primus
Final verdict: 8/10

Biesy – Transsatanizm (Poland)
Style: Black/Death Metal / Industrial (Harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Chris

This is a strange one, but in a good way. My understanding of Biesy is that it is a band that started as Blackened Death and has now turned into what I want to describe as a black metal album that ditched the absoluteness the genre has sometimes with instrumentation to add some vivid synthwork and electro beats to give some danceable moments inside the darkness. 

THis album definitely has its extremely dark moments, such as in “W krainie grzybów” which includes the most blistering blasts of the album coupled with extremely fast tremolo guitars, but even in that song the menace eventually gives way to the extreme electro parts, still backed by the same harsh vocal lines the rest of the album has. It also has moments that are barely anything from the original blackened source, such as “Nowa Transylwania” which is pretty much entirely electronic instruments. I feel this album is best described as a list of its parts, with the intro track “IHS” providing a very Industrial styled beat, “La Dolce Instant” taking a kind of New Wave detour halfway through the blackened beginnings, and “Uwaga: świat” turning almost into a Darkwave song near the end. As mentioned “W krainie grzybów” brings the brutality and speed one expects from blackened anything. 

The consistency comes mainly from the constant anguish and strained vocals throughout which pretty much never stray from that path, which does provide some grounding for the album as a whole. The production is great, especially on the electronic elements. All the performances are great and the synth choices throughout are great. I would say a lot of this album make me feel the same way I do listening to Thy Catafalque, especially on “Karolina23” which probably could sit right at home on a couple of his albums. 

To be honest, I’m not quite sure I fully have an opinion on this album yet,  except that every time I listen to it I like it more.

Recommended tracks: La Dolce Instant, Karolina23, W krainie grzybów
Recommended for fans of: Oranssii Pazuzu, Schammasch, Thy Catafalque
Final verdict: 7/10