Reports from the Underground: August 2020 albums of the month

Good day reader! I’m sure you haven’t seen one of these intros in some time. And for good reason. After our July edition, we finally made the switch to individual reviews. Search engines did not like our batch posts much. And damn, that transition did not go smoothly. Part of the reason was that multiple reviewers were moving places at the same time and general life congestion so they had no time for reviewing, but also because things in practice worked out in a very different manner than what we expected and planned for. Perhaps in hindsight it would have been better to do August also in batch posts so we’d be more caught up when making the switch, but even then we likely still wouldn’t have had a good idea of how to organize individual reviewing and it’d become a mess anyway. Only difference is that we’d be a slightly-more-caught-up mess.

So now you’re probably thinking, why do this batch post when you’ve already written the reviews individually? Well we decided to rebrand our “Reports from the Underground” series to a glorified “albums of the month” post. These RftU posts were the very fabric that started this blog, so we wanted to continue them in some shape or form. An album of the month post was the obvious solution to that problem. Only difference with the usual format of the post is that we do not have a designated album of the month. We have so many different writers with such different tastes that reaching a compromise is simply not doable. Besides, we sometimes barely have time to even listen to each other’s albums so it’s not like we can compare in the first place LOL. Hence what you see here is simply a collection of what we thought were standout records from the month. So still a batch post, just a bit more filtered out than usual ;).

There is more to be said about recent blog developments, but I’ll save that for next time. I’ll just drop the Spotify playlist with all the recommended tracks here and then I’ll be off! That’s another tradition we’re not abandoning. Happy reading!

Sergeant Thunderhoof / Howling Giant – Turned to Stone, Chapter 2: Masamune & Muramasa (US-TN/UK)
Style: Stoner Doom (clean vocals)
Pick by: Jonah

An absolutely mesmerizing combination of riffs, soaring yet gruff vocals, driving bass and enrapturing drumming, this is an album not to be missed. Even if it’s just two songs, each by a different band, both performances are spot-on and some of the absolute best doom I’ve heard this year, stoner or otherwise. Even those who aren’t fans of the genre should get a healthy amount of enjoyment out of this one, as both tracks also have a hefty amount of progressive influence, especially “Masamune”.

You can read the original review here.

Recommended tracks: Masamune, Muramasa
Recommended for fans of: Khemmis, Mastodon, Sleep

Humavoid – Lidless (Finland)
Style: Symphonic Djent (mixed vocals)
Pick by: Josh

Most amps go up to ten. A rare few go up to eleven. We haven’t observed any that go higher than that yet, but here we might’ve just gotten our first sighting, as an amp that goes to twelve is the only possible explanation for Humavoid’s sound. Lidless is extremely pummelling without getting grating, technical without getting wanky, and innovative without getting bizarre. Anyone who likes djent is doing themselves a disservice by skipping over these guys, as no one is doing what they’re doing right now. Hit play and let this record crush you.

You can read the original review here.

Recommended tracks: Fortune for Demise, Lidless, Aluminium Rain, The Breathing Method
Recommended for fans of: Meshuggah, Between the Buried and Me, Jinjer

Luna’s Call – VOID (UK)
Style: Extreme/Death (mixed vocals)
Pick by: Dylan

So… This is certainly on a very high tier of complexity. A quick listen of VOID while paying half of your attention to it will leave you wondering what the hell did you just go through. It really just goes to town with the ”prog” in ”prog-death” and delivers an album that took me a fair amount of listens before I could even write a sentence about it. I plowed through it, hoping that I would eventually be writing how this album is a grower, a sophisticated piece of art, something that’s really worth sinking your teeth into…

You can read the original review here.

Recommended tracks: Solar Immolation, Locus
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Rivers of Nihil, Native Construct

Mattias Ohlsson Project – Illumination (Sweden)
Style: Traditional/Core/Djent (Mixed vocals)
Pick by: Dylan

A one-man band that has successfully mixed up what modern prog is all about. Extremely ambitious while surprisingly tight, Illumination has something for everyone, whether you like traditional prog, -core, and even djent. One listen does not make this album justice, as the more times you sit through it the more you appreciate it. Simply put, sensational.

You can read the original review here.

Recommended tracks: Inferno Within, Unforgiven, Illumination
Recommended for fans of: Haken, Between the Buried and Me, Tesseract

Exist – Egoiista (US-MD)
Style: Death/Jazz (mixed vocals)
Pick by: Chris

This is the closest thing I’ve personally had to scratching the Cynic itch while still having its own voice. Possibly divisive for the vocal and writing styles but it’s impossible to ignore how well performed and made this album is. Great vocal arrangements, jazzy death metal vibes, and great use of leit motif in the instruments in several songs to tie the album together as a piece. A rare case where a progressive death metal band has hooks that get stuck in your head.

You can read the original review here.

Recommended tracks: The Lottery, Egocosm, Spotlight’s Glow
Recommended for fans of: Cynic, 90s Death, Atheist

Pyramid Theorem – Beyond the Exosphere (United Kingdom)
Style: Traditional (clean vocals)
Pick by: Sam

This band blew me the hell away. A thrilling prog metal album with extremely good soloing and extremely good songwriting. Taking the best elements of giants like Rush and Dream Theater, Pyramid Theorem has made a stunning magnum opus. It’s highly technical, dynamic and catchy (yet surprisingly unpredictable) all at the same time. Pyramid Theorem‘s level of technicality and soloing is in the upper echelons of the genre, yet their songwriting is very tight and full of hooks. Classic prog metal doesn’t get much better than this. Highly, highly recommended.

You can read the original review here.

Recommended tracks: Beyond the Exosphere, Freedom
Recommended for fans of: Rush, Dream Theater