Reports from the Underground: Albums We Missed in 2020

Arise in Stability – Dose Again (Japan)
Style: Progressive Metalcore (mixed, Japanese vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

I absolutely hate metalcore. Outside of some Bullet for My Valentine nostalgia, it is absolutely the genre I dislike the most. The “tuff guy” attitude, the whiny clean vocals, the focus on chugging breakdowns (and general percussive nature of the genre), and the thoroughly unpleasant harsh vocal style all make for a style I just for the life of me cannot get behind. And progressive metalcore is frequently even worse with its chaotic sounding transitions (looking at you, BTBAM), annoying weedly weedly leads (cough Protest the Hero cough), and often djent-“enhanced” breakdowns, making the music not just annoying, but also sound lifeless (Periphery is the bane of my existence).

So, if this is a genre I Loathe so much (pun intended), why am I the one reviewing this? Well to be honest, I don’t really know either. Curiosity is a strange beast sometimes. It once caused me to listen to Eyehategod’s entire discography despite hating almost every second of it (someone should tell them that good songwriting is a virtue, not a curse). One other time it made me listen to Helstar’s magnum-opus Nosferatu 10 times in two weeks to see if it would affect my enjoyment of the record (it still sucks). And I guess now it made me listen to some progressive metalcore from Japan. Well, here goes nothing.

And weirdly enough, I do not hate this on the whole. Now don’t get me wrong. There are still plenty of parts that make me want to puke, but I found most of this record to not just be listenable, but it was actually amazing at times. I expected Between the Buried and Me-style chaos, but most sections are pretty straightforward. There are still chaotic parts, and the songs are very dynamic; but they generally stick to one feel at the time making it relatively easy to follow what’s happening. They also include frequent melodic sections, giving me enough rest to prevent ear fatigue of all the extremity. Because make no mistake, this band can get crazy. There are parts with any number of fast and heavy riffs, intense shouting vocals, crazy drumming, nuts transitions, and soaring guitar leads. It’s totally bonkers, and I imagine someone who doesn’t have an almost primal dislike of this genre to enjoy this a lot more than I do.

If it wasn’t clear already, this record is extremely dynamic. They can switch between the aforementioned extremity and gentle acoustic clean vocal parts at the drop of a hat, and not once do the transitions feel jarring. This band just knows how to construct songs. Sometimes it feels extreme, sometimes it feels ethereal, and other times it almost sounds like DragonForce, which I guess was also a major factor in drawing me to this album. I adore power metal, and Arise in Stability can come really close to sounding as such at times. I wouldn’t say it’s super eclectic in terms of left-field influences (though I suppose one could cite the rap part in “Magnetclock”), but this band has that general intangible metalcore/melodeath/power metal sound which is so unique to Japanese metal. And there are shades of heavy metal and thrash metal too at times (and they’re pulled off well!). It’s never monotonous or boring with this band. How they can be so bombastic and crazy, yet always stay grounded in their songwriting is absolutely beyond me.

At this point I’m not sure what else to say. It never even once crossed my mind that this record is 61 minutes, because it’s over in the blink of an eye. It’s excellently produced too. Modern, but not overtly compressed, and each instrument is audible at all times. And it should go without saying at this point that the instrumental performances on this are mind-blowing. This album is amazing, and it completely shattered my expectations for what metalcore can be (or as the fourth track on this album says: “Madness Gives Rise to Enlightenment”). I don’t think I’m going on a metalcore craze anytime soon, but it certainly opened up the possibility. For now though, I will just stick to jamming this album, because it’s absolutely incredible. What a review to end the year on, damn.

Recommended tracks: Noise Heard in the Moon, Madness Gives Rise to Enlightenment, Atyanta
Recommended for fans of: Between the Buried and Me, Bullet for My Valentine (?), Imperial Circus Dead Decadence (??), DragonForce (???)
Final verdict: 9/10

Carnatia – Aeipathy (Turkey) [EP]
Style: Prog Metal/Symphonic/Classical (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sebastian

I’m not sure how I ended up stumbling upon this 37 minute EP, as it currently remains very underground. It only took one listen for me to know that this album is something special. It’s the kind of album that is perfect for a certain kind of mood. The kind of mood that craves a certain melancholy and atmospheric aesthetic that is able to establish a deeper emotional connection. This is what is provided in the lost 2020 gem Aeipathy, and it’s something I’ve been more or less looking for for a while now.

This album is something real, delicate, and beautiful. The way the compositions are pieced together is somewhat minimal, but there was a lot of thought and emotion that went into the crafting of this piece. In essence, this is a piano and cello heavy album with three instrumental songs. Each song delivers an amazing atmosphere with a deep audio mix and great instrumental clarity. If you are willing to isolate a time away from all the bustling noise of everyday life and devote a clear time and space for this album, the payoff delivers on a very satisfying and alleviating experience that leaves you wondering what is coming from Carnatia next.

Carnatia is a very fresh and new band, both in terms of the year they started making music, as well as the modern soundscape that they bring to the table. An interesting thing is that they are from Turkey. The country has had some influential metal bands in the past, however, for the past fifteen years or so, from what I can tell from RateYourMusic, their progressive metal scene seems kind of dead. The successful traditional prog metal band Comma has not released an album since 2001, and the progressive thrash metal band Pentagram had taken up a hiatus after their 2002 album Bir. Essentially, Carnatia seems to be a forming oasis in a metaphorical desert of metal by taking up the mantle to pull the Turkish prog metal scene into this new era of music.

In contrast, Aeipathy has a sound that has a ton of classical roots in its musical composition, but it is created and synthesized with metal in a way that I have not really come across before. Additionally, this is an album that especially needs to have a clean and crisp quality in production, or else the bulk of their world-building, if compressed flat, will certainly not deliver an intimate experience with the listener; the band members must have kept this in mind when mixing the album because all the instruments sound excellent. The way the album sounds is something that I can only really compare to cold morning air, the smell of dew, and a vast open landscape where the sound is able to echo around the open space.

There are two songs on this album that are written as traditional progressive metal pieces, where there are well-written verses and choruses that are reminiscent of something off of a Riverside album. The vocal style often has the emotional hints of Einar Solberg from Leprous which is something that goes well with this style of music. What the other instrumental tracks offer is what I find makes this album most unique, is that they are composed equally as traditional classical songs as they are as metal songs. What I mean by this is that they incorporate instruments like cello, and piano to create their longer introspective moments that build-up to their more intense metal counterparts. And they do this in a way that feels incredibly organic, like metal and classical compositions were always meant to go together.

An example of this is the longest song on the album “The Blue Will Never Be Born Tonight” where they spend the first 5 minutes delivering on a beautiful instrumental duet between its piano and cello, and build up to a transition where they give the torch to a dark and incredibly textured guitar tone, which builds up a riff combined with dissonant synths and crisp rhythmic drums. The song then builds up to an emotional guitar solo followed by a gritter version of the previous guitar riff delivered along with intense blast beats and a subtle but effective symphony. It is hard to emphasize enough how effective this crescendo is pulled off, as it uses the tension that had been building up during the rest of the song to release its energy on a very impactful climax.

The album is not super technical all around like what you’d expect from something like Dream Theater, but the progressive tag comes from how they write and structure these unconventional songs, along with the way they combine musical elements of classical music and jazz to create a higher dimension of musical sound. Their instrumental deliveries are very thoughtful and executed effectively; the drumming, the riffs, and the guitar solos are all excellent. And the classical instruments do well to establish emotion that resonates with the listener. Overall, this is a little gem of an EP that I would check out if you are a fan of bands I previously mentioned, if you like albums that mixes metal and classical music, or are into the tempo and atmosphere of post-rock. If any of these apply to you, don’t miss out on this album.

Recommended tracks: Mourner, The Blue Will Never Be Born Tonight
Recommended for fans of: Leprous, Riverside, Anathema
Final verdict: 8/10

Vulkan – Technatura (Sweden)
Style: Alternative Prog Metal/Rock (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Stephen

To start this review, I feel the need to address the elephant in the room. We had a miscommunication, and dropped the ball on reviewing this album in our May 2020 edition. Considering the fact that we interviewed Vulkan prior to the release of Technatura, combined with the fact that most of us love this album, we couldn’t believe that it somehow didn’t get reviewed in the May edition. Anyways, with that out of the way, let’s dive into this fantastic band and fantastic album. 

Vulkan has had a special place in my heart for a while now, ever since discovering their debut album Mask of Air. So when I heard Technatura was in the works way back in 2019, the seed of excitement was planted. I imagine that many of our readers are already aware of Vulkan, but for those of you who have not heard Technatura yet, you’re in for a treat. These are the types of albums that you search the underground progressive metal landscape for. 

From the moment “This Visual Hex” kicks the album off, you’re taken to a soundscape that is a combination of an ancient primal world and a futuristic dystopian world. There are so many highlights on this album, it’s difficult to highlight them all in a concise review. That said, I’d be remiss to point out some of my favorite moments. The first I’ll highlight is in the midway point of the fourth track on the album, “Bewildering Concept of Truth.” There is an interlude where the song slows down, and includes an absolutely beautiful string arrangement. The violin, which leads the string section, has some tasty delay on it that gives it a very unique listening experience on top of the beauty. Then if that wasn’t awesome enough, the track slowly builds back into a heavy release of tension that concludes the song perfectly. 

The second moment I need to highlight is the middle section of the tenth track on the album, “Blinding Ornaments,” where singer, Jimmy Lindblad, delivers one of my favorite vocal performances on a Vulkan track since “Moon Over Paris.” The vocal segment is followed up by another beautiful string segment that transitions to the next track perfectly. Which also happens to be the prog-metal epic of the album. 

Speaking of vocal work and prog-metal epics, the third moment on the album I feel like I have to highlight is on the eleventh track, “The Royal Fallacy.” This song has it all, heavy riffing, incredible vocal work, awesome polyrhythms, grooving bass, huge drums, hypnotizing synths, and more. It’s difficult to pick out one moment on this track, but one moment worth mentioning is that this song features some harsh vocals, which is a first from Vulkan if I’m not mistaken. Seriously, if you only check out one track from this album, check out this one. It’ll convince you to check out the whole album, I can almost guarantee that. 

In summary, there are too many high points on this album to cover everything. I’ve yet to mention the horns sections, the triple bass tracking, the steel banjo, swedish songs, and much more. The core instrumental band members on guitar, bass, and drums do a fantastic job throughout the album as well. I chose to mention the moments I did because moments like those are the ones that elevate Technatura to a status few albums we review reach. If you are a fan of Karnivool, The Mars Volta, and/or Tool you can’t miss this album. It’s just too damn good. Spoiler alert, you’ll be hearing about this album from us again in our year end AOTY write up.

Recommended tracks: Bewildering Concept Of Truth, Blinding Ornaments, The Royal Fallacy, The Madness Sees No End, just… all of the album.
Recommended for fans of: Karnivool, The Mars Volta, Tool
Final verdict: 10/10

Kyros – Celexa Dreams (United Kingdom)
Style: Prog Rock/Synth-Pop (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: Evan

I picked this album up fairly last minute, so this will serve as more a first-impressions than a proper review. It is also worth noting that while I do listen to a fairly good deal of ‘70s prog rock, my synth-pop/wave experience is close to zero. I am not telling you to take everything I say with a grain of salt; obviously, because I am me, you should trust what I say. It is, however, good to get some disclaimers out of the way.  

The first thing worth mentioning is that this album is very fun, and resultantly rather cheesy, but in a good way. Similarly, Celexa Dreams is just bursting with energy, making it an engaging listen throughout. 

Our site has a habit of reviewing random synth stuff whose relation to prog is debatable, but this album is surely progressive. There are a few fairly lengthy tracks, such as “In Vatanblack,” that very much undergo sonic shifts, interesting rhythmic changes, etc. and they are juxtaposed against poppier shorter tracks like “Rumour,” which by the way, completely slaps. I had actually shortly finished a Gorguts discography run before listening to this album, and this track was just the contrast I needed to the far too depressing nonsense I typically listen to. (I managed to mention Gorguts in a synth review, I will call it a win). 

Now to talk about the performances: the vocals and drums are probably the standouts. The drum lines were engaging and varied throughout the album, while the vocals were somehow extremely cheesy and emotive without being grating or otherwise unpleasant. They actually remind me of David Hasselhoff in that “True Survivor” ‘80s synth nostalgic track. 

Now I will say the chessy synths do start to wear me down as I get to the end of the album. They’re a bit much perhaps, at least for my tastes. The album as a whole does seem to drag near the end. The variety in general is lacking: I was able to predict essentially what I was going to get based on each song length. There is an incredibly high chance I am overrating the similarity of the tracks due to my lack of familiarity with the sound. You can tell I’m a synth poser when the only track I could name was “True Survivor.”

The album’s best quality was making me nostalgic for something I never experienced to begin with. Check it out, maybe it will work its magic on you too. I will certainly be giving it another few spins.   

Recommended tracks: Rumour, In Vatanblack, Technology Killed the Kids
Recommended for fans of: Yes, Genesis, ‘80s synth-pop  
Final verdict: 7.5/10