Reports from the Underground: 2022 Albums of the Year

Doug’s Picks

10. iNFiNiEN – Beyond the Veil (US-PA)
Style: Progressive Rock, Jazz Fusion (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Reign of Kindo, Ok Goodnight, Thank You Scientist

Constructing their sound around the most chaotic elements of progressive music’s jazz influence, iNFiNiEN return to show audiences once again how seamlessly jazz and prog can integrate. With its frantic and polyrhythmic changes between every complex time signature you can conceive of, Beyond The Veil steadfastly resists setting any lasting expectations; expect instead to be surprised and enthralled at each turn as iNFiNiEN dance lightly ahead past whatever they were playing in the prior moment. The band’s creativity shines bright, providing an enjoyable experience rife with surprises and free-flowing composition taking full advantage of jazz’s often unspoken contribution to progressive music.

Recommended tracks: Beyond The Veil, Mannequin Parade, Gratitude
You may also like: St. Barbe, Exploring Birdsong, Yaatri, Coevality

9. Regressor – Crescent Spoon (UK)
Style: Progressive Rock, Jazz Fusion, Djent (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: StarSystems, Plini, Owane, Arch Echo

Regressor comes to us from the mind of Joseph Stevenson, guitarist and producer responsible for the excellent jazz-djent output of StarSystems. Joined by several guests including fellow jazz-fusion enthusiast Owane, this first outing under the new moniker shows off the musical talent and smooth production quality Stevenson has developed in his prior work, while also pivoting to a lighter sound and a heavier focus on the jazz aesthetic. Crescent Spoon’s characteristic new style is a careful balance of calm, straightforward melodies interspersed with more energetic solo sections by either Stevenson or the appropriate guest musician. The guest solos in particular help to add distinctiveness to each track – each one complements Stevenson’s guitar well and lends the album a feeling of classic jazz that contrasts the more modern and guitar-oriented fusion that otherwise dominates.

Recommended tracks: Fruit Crush, Moonlight Chef, Crescent Spoon
You may also like: Sam Birchall, Sean Ashe, Fifth Quadrant

8. Empress – Fateweaver (US-PA)
Style: Progressive Metal, Power Metal, Symphonic Metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Kamelot, Epica, Dragonland

2022 was a good year for symphonic prog-power! Headlined by impressive operatic vocals and energetic power metal guitar, Empress impress with their debut album featuring high fantasy and fantastic production. Building to a triumphant finale with “Eventide,” Fateweaver demonstrates strong songwriting and a talent for evoking emotion – a must for any band stepping into this genre. Although the album’s expression may not be truly novel, the band members’ display of collective and individual talents make for a solidly enjoyable experience that’s worth exploring.

Recommended tracks: Legion, Eventide
You may also like: Atomic Symphony, Divine Ascension, Black Fate

7. Phantom Spell – Immortal’s Requiem (UK)
Style: Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal, Hard Rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Hällas, Witchcraft

Unsurprisingly, this album masterminded by a guitarist features some excellent guitar playing. Phantom Spell is a new solo project of singer and guitarist Kyle McNeill, branching out from his main project Seven Sisters to include elements of progressive and prog-adjacent groups such as Iron Maiden, Rainbow, or Blue Öyster Cult. The product has a clean, traditional heavy metal sound with a few dashes of progressive spice throughout and a driving energy you can’t ignore. Immortal’s Requiem drips with all the metal nostalgia implied by the monochrome and cross-hatched cover artwork. The music itself is a well-crafted love letter to heavy metal of old and a worthy exploration by McNeill into the wider depths of progressive music. Although the intoxicating energy of the lead guitar can’t be maintained all throughout, the softer moments add contrast to even better highlight the breakout highs, and together the contrasting moments weave a musical spell that I’m content to let entrap me.

Recommended tracks: Dawn of Mind, Blood Becomes Sand
You may also like: Seven Sisters, Divine Intervention, Lightning Born

6. Mental Fracture – Disaccord (Israel)
Style: Progressive Metal, Heavy Progressive Rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, Haken

Mental Fracture straddle the already-blurred line between heavy-prog acts descended from Porcupine Tree and the modern-traditional prog sound of Haken et al. They lure the unsuspecting listener with light guitar distortion and prominent keyboards of both the piano and synth variety, but Disaccord shows ample metal chops as well. Combining soft and emotional vocal delivery with suitably heavy rhythm work, catchy melodies with deep progressive songwriting, Mental Fracture follow their debut EP with a worthy album that is complex and meaningful without being pretentious.

Recommended tracks: Inception of Fear, Hearts of Stone
You may also like: Altesia, Echoes and Signals, Feather Mountain

5. All Things Fallen – Shadow Way (Sweden)
Style: Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Seventh Wonder, Anubis Gate

Shadow Way is the sophomore album from this particular configuration of musicians, all veterans of metal with ties to other artists like Pain of Salvation, Darkwater, and numerous smaller groups. In addition to frontman and omni-instrumentalist Markus Sigfridsson’s direct association with the band, All Things Fallen’s own singer Erik Tordsson sounds a dead ringer for Henrik Båth of Darkwater. Now, I’ll never complain about there being another virtual Darkwater album in the world, so for me this is no downside, but the similarities are really quite astonishing. Much like their döppel-band, All Things Fallen employ subtle keyboard tones for their symphonic flourishes, which largely serve as background and provide depth for the more traditional sounding guitar lead. Overall, Shadow Way paints a pretty picture in dark tones, its careful but unassuming composition laying out a supporting canvas for this familiar but enjoyable album.

Recommended tracks: The Sentinel, Path of Dismay, Kiss of Death
You may also like: Darkwater, Ostura, Psycrence

4. Ode and Elegy – Ode and Elegy (US-NY)
Style: Progressive Metal, Post-Metal, Doom Metal, Post-Hardcore, Neoclassical Chamber Music, Folk (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Alcest, Aesthesys, A Winged Victory For The Sullen

This triple-self-titled and ambitious genre-fusion novelty combines progressive post-doom metal and neoclassical chamber-folk music into an impressive mouthful of diverse styles and sounds. Masterminded by Kent Fairman Wilson and featuring multiple of his former bandmates from The Pax Cecilia, Ode and Elegy showcases an impressive array of musical talents throughout its fifty-five-minute single-track runtime, divided loosely into seven movements. From the mournful chamber orchestra that opens the piece to the string-infused post-hardcore shouts that kick in for movement II, the heavy and distorted doom guitars of the middle sections to the ominous choir features in movements VI and VII, the album emulates the symphonic compositional approach of its classical ensemble roots, each section building on the previous despite the widely differing genres involved. Although its length and subtle composition pose a challenge to the casual listener, Ode and Elegy handsomely rewards those who like to invest in their listening with a thrilling mix of soft and loud, sometimes matching the crushing existentialism of the lyrics with heavy and intense metal vocals and guitar, but just as often settling into the solemn, despairing quietness of post-metal and/or chamber strings.

Recommended tracks: Ode and Elegy, obviously
You may also like: The Pax Cecilia, BRUIT ≤, Latitudes, DVNE

3. Atomic Symphony – HYBRIS (Switzerland)
Style: Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Epica, Unleash the Archers

The first half of a promised two-part concept album, HYBRIS showcases excellent musical work from a relatively inexperienced band. Although I hold some reservations about the album’s structure (perhaps as a consequence of its split-album nature), the Atomic Symphony produce a wonderfully deep, heavy sound, complementing singer Jasmin Baggenstos’s voice and her solemn exploitation of the lower vocal registers. Even from the first listen, the dark tone drew me immediately into the melancholy atmosphere of the music and the story being told, culminating in the emotional finale of “Chimera.” Atomic Symphony show tremendous promise and I eagerly await the continuation hopefully to come in 2023.

Recommended tracks: Nightfall, Oath Taker, Chimera
You may also like: Ostura, Darkwater, Divine Ascension, All Things Fallen

2. earth7 – Shine (US-PA)
Style: Progressive Metal, Djent, Jazz Fusion (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Plini, Intervals, The Helix Nebula, StarSystems

Compared to their early beginnings, earth7’s musical output has shown remarkable improvement, now culminating in an impressive EP featuring both Richard Henshall (Haken) and Stephen Taranto (The Helix Nebula) as guest performers. Shine is composed extremely well; each track feels unique and is a pleasure to listen to. Being deprived of the infinitely flexible instrument that is the human voice adds an extra challenge to producing melodies that are engaging and satisfying enough to carry a whole song, much less an album, but earth7 have shown themselves equal to that challenge. Although not leading the cutting edge of the genre, earth7 have pretty much everything I want out of an “instrudjental” group and they execute very well. They have built impressively well upon their prior work, showing more consistency in their writing and performance, more individuality in their sound, and even more ability to create exciting instrumental music that I’ll listen to again and again.

Recommended tracks: Paper Tiger, Glass Cannon, Colors
You may also like: Asymmetric Universe, Deeply Woven, No Ostriches

1. Cydemind – The Descent (Canada)
Style: Progressive Metal, Neoclassical Metal, Jazz Fusion (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Haken, Artificial Language, Syncatto

While some instrumental bands sound more like they simply cut the vocals out of a regular voiced track, Cydemind’s feature of a dedicated violin soloist allows them to maintain a stronger primary melody more akin to a vocalist’s traditional role. Alongside a healthy classical foundation, The Descent owes a lot of its influence to Dream Theater and their numerous copycats. You’ll hear it most in the guitar and keyboard parts: Cydemind write excellent, complex music where the “background” parts have nearly as much depth as the main melody and both guitar and keyboard are liable to break out into impressive solos at any moment. Most of all, though, The Descent shows impressive neoclassical sensibilities by including a central musical theme, which each track quotes and develops as a variation. This is what, in my mind, establishes Cydemind as more than just the Yellowcard of prog metal: their songwriting employs that good old slow-burn flourish that, even within the insular and highly talented prog metal community, elevates bands like Dream Theater – and now Cydemind – that are uniquely worth your investment of time and attention.

Recommended tracks: Breach, Call of the Void, Hemlock, really just the whole album
You may also like: Ztla, Etrange, Feather Mountain

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