Playlist – Prog Music for Summer

The solstice has come and gone and Summer is finally here! This month, three intrepid writers from the Progressive Subway reached for their buckets and spades, slapped on some sunscreen, and made sure to keep well hydrated as they bring you a scorching playlist of the best summer vibes that the world of Progressive music has to offer.

True to our mission, Will, Sebastian, and Mathis have focused mainly on smaller, underground bands, but made sure to include some classic songs from more popular bands as well (after all, what’s summer without some ice-cream to enjoy?).

So whether you’re a sun-worshipper, a beach-partier, or someone who’d rather stick to the shade with a good book, we hope you enjoy the more relaxed vibes from the Progressive Subway Summer Playlist. As always, keep scrolling to read more from our writers who contributed to the playlist, and for related links to featured bands that the Progressive Subway has already reviewed.

Is it a common thing for your music taste to change with the years? Mine does. In the dark days of winter, I gravitate toward heavy, oppressive music; death metal and doom – almost as a reflection of the cold and gloom that’s around me. When it’s summer, I find myself wanting to listen to lighter, more upbeat fare.

I think this is reflected in my picks for this month’s playlist. Camel and Caravan have that beautiful, light, classic British prog feeling. Toundra and David Maxim Micic have a beautiful, calm, contemplative sound that very much gels with the ‘chill summer’ mood that I’m trying to cultivate in this playlist. I also picked some long, ethereal, floating pieces by Chris and Diagonal which are just sublime jams to spin up either on a long drive, or while relaxing under a relentless sun.

As far as more mainstream tracks go, I couldn’t resist picking Mastodon‘s “Megalodon” – if only for that amazing surf-rock lick after the intro!

When we settled on choosing “Upbeat Summer and Aquatic Prog” as our July monthly playlist, I was pretty excited. Not because I’m particularly fond of the hot summer weather, but because there is an abundance of great prog metal jams inspired by summer themes. And unsurprisingly, when we looked through our review catalog to see if there were any summer-related album themes, we were welcomed with buckets full of great underground choices. In this playlist, I wanted to include a few mainstream picks, songs that sound arid and dry, beachy, oceany, and watery songs, as well as songs about our benevolent sun, ruler of the summer realm.

For my mainstream picks, I immediately needed to go with one of the most serene, watery prog songs out there, “Ruby Pool” by VOLA‘s colorful and summer-infused sophomore album. Next, I went with the opening track to Voyager‘s even more vibrant Colours in the Sun from 2019. And how can I skip out on an upbeat aquatic prog playlist without including songs from two epic prog metal classics, Haken‘s “Aquarium” and Wilderun‘s “Storm Along”; both songs are from albums that rank among my top prog metal albums of all time. However, as mainstream as I had thought Wilderun was, I stood in utter shock and confusion to see that their Spotify page had dwindled under 20k monthly listeners. This prompted me to pick Wilderun‘s Epigone as the next album on my reviewing list.

Summer and aquatic-sounding music have a wide variety of musical styles. When it comes to the songs I gathered from the prog metal underground that are louder, energetic, technical, and chorus-driven include Ray Alder‘s “What the Water Wants”, “Volition” by the Pakistani band Takatak, “Full Fathom Five” by the renewed Atlantis Chronicles, and Cave of Swimmer‘s “The Sun 2021”. Speaking of the burning ball of gas making this all possible, I wanted to also include the songs: “Sun Dance” by Novena, sung by the genre legend, Ross Jennings, “Scorched Earth” from this year’s progressive sludge debut band Cobra the Impaler, and Lalu‘s “Paint the Sky”.

I also added an assortment of gems from the instrumental side of aquatic-sounding prog. Personally, I love instrumental music, and I find it an even greater accomplishment for a band to be able to convey the feelings we have, say toward hot summer days, the beach, or the depths of the ocean through the implementation of instruments alone rather than through bluntly telling us with words. This is where I included the serene, and immersively aquatic songs like “Nectar Ocean’s Depths” by Xavier Boscher, “As the Water Covers the Sea” by the acclaimed underground prog band Umpfel, as well as “Ocean Grip” and “Oceania” from the jazz-fusion virtuosos at Syncatto and Coevality. On the opposite side of the instrumental prog scene is the less tranquil, more technical, and manic area where “The Blood, the Sin, and the Djinn” and “Abcreation” live. Both fuse their brands of prog and technical death metal with Arabian music and surf rock. For those interested in crazy technical metal genre fusions, I would check out the rest of Sleep Terror’s work in general, as they have done tech death albums with country-rock, bluegrass, funk, spaghetti western, as well as the aforementioned surf rock.

Summer can hold different significance for different people. In Florida, it’s the time of year where we embrace and enjoy the heat of hell’s most vigorous flames along with a humidity so thick it basically waterboards you. I suppose Florida and other areas with similar climates are the minority, so my summer playlist picks will more closely relate to High School Musical. For all of the older folks, I have added “Hamburger Sandwich”, a djenty take on old-school rap and hiphop. For the younger crowd, we have “Pail”, a djenty take on club music I guess. I don’t know what exactly plays at clubs, but I imagine it is kind of like this. Both of these tracks are from Chorder the djent wizard.

If you are looking for some lighter listening for your sunrise surf sesh try Azure‘s “The Jellyfish” or Owane‘s “The Summer Jam”. Finally, for the party addicts who need the soundtrack to match the YOLO lifestyle there is “Right Now” by Nekrogoblikon.

• Diagonal
• Umpfel
• Novena
• Cave of Swimmers
• Coevality
• Subterranean Masquerade
• Azure
• Syncatto
• Mental Fracture
• Cobra the Impaler
• Sleep Terror
• Atlantis Chronicles