Autumn encroaches but September provided plenty of gems to get us through those darkening evenings and stormy days. While you’re putting up Halloween decorations, buying up fireworks for Bonfire Night, or just sitting on the deck watching the leaves turn and the nights draw in, you could do worse than stick on our Album of the Month playlist and peruse our favourite picks. Herein you’ll find some of the gnarliest dissodeath, some headbanging progressive alt rock, a unique blend of Brazilian jazz with both classic prog rock and aggressive prog metal, some emotional art rock, intense prog death, and intricate instrumental jazz metal. Plus check our “non-Subway picks” for the stuff we’re enjoying outside the scope of the blog, from pretty folk rock to spiritual jazz.
Pyrrhon – Exhaust
For fans of: Imperial Triumphant, Gorguts, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Chat Pile, Car Bomb, Frontierer
Picked by: Andy
After taking some shrooms to the woods, Pyrrhon are back as acerbic and even more focused than ever for their fifth LP. It is violent, socially critical, unsubtle, and sick as hell. From Moore’s sewer-y gutturals and caustic screams to one of the tightest rhythm sections in tech death to the Scarcity-influenced guitar parts, Pyrrhon fire on every cylinder. Don’t miss this.
You might also like: Scarcity, Aseitas, Ad Nauseam, Weeping Sores
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Papangu – Lampião Rei
Recommended for fans of: Magma, Sun-Ra’s Arkestra, Mastodon, Gentle Giant
Picked by: Zach
Do you like weird shit? Of course you do, you’re reading a prog blog. Papangu are back for their second offering, and continue to rocket themselves into becoming one of the many blog darlings. This time, they’re helped by a full, six-piece lineup of musicians that cover at least seventeen different genres. There’s plenty of jazzy freakouts to be found, but what propels Lampião Rei forward is the strong use of dynamics and expertly done songwriting. You aren’t gonna want to miss out on this one, because it’s gonna end up on many an end of year list.
You might also like: Subterranean Masquerade, Seven Impale
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Ubiquity – The Ascendant Travels Among the Stars
For fans of: old Opeth, In Mourning
Picked by: Chris
Anthony Deneyer of Omnerod takes the lead on this progressive death metal project, this time in the more Opethian vein, bringing along two of his bandmates to help put together a dense and intense concept album about Jack the Ripper. Maintaining that oppressive Omnerod atmosphere but taking it down a more traditional progressive death metal route, Ubiquity have crafted an impressive record that manages to capture and contain a sense of pervasive evil, while consistently wowing on a technical level, suffusing everything with a powerful sense of dread. Certainly, Ubiquity will tide you over until the new Opeth drops in November, and it may just stay with you thereafter.
You might also like: Omnerod, Wills Dissolve, Piah Mater
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Toby Driver – Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything
For fans of: Soen, David Gilmour / Quieter Pink Floyd, Ulver
Picked by: Dave
Toby Driver’s Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything is a peaceful and contemplative mood piece, indulging in tranquil and shimmering instrumentation that gently underlies Driver’s soul-bearing vocal performance. Tracks like “Someday There’ll Be An Avalanche” push themselves along with lightly coaxing drumwork and a flute solo while “Antinous in the Nile” is slower, mournful, and heavily atmospheric. Title track “Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything” offers a satisfying climax as Driver delivers Raven’s most full-throated vocal performance. It’s the beginning of Fall in the northern hemisphere, and Raven couldn’t have come at a better time: it’s the perfect soundtrack to watching the bees gather the last of the goldenrod pollen, particularly when paired with the natural lyrical imagery of opener “Ticking Timebomb.”
You might also like: Fjieri, Kayo Dot, Good NightOwl, i Häxa
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Consider the Source – The Stare
For fans of: The Aristocrats, Snarky Puppy, Thank You Scientist, Mahavishnu Orchestra
Picked by: Ian
After this gig exposed me to so many incredible underground artists I never would have checked out otherwise, it seems almost like cheating to cover a band I actually know and enjoy from beforehand, but The Stare is a strong enough album to stand on its own. It’s a brilliantly unique melding of jazz fusion, progressive metal, Balkan folk, and spacey psychedelia that somehow manages to be both virtuosically self-indulgent and tightly focused. The performances are top-notch throughout, and each track offers a new, mind-bending set of twists and turns for the trio to gleefully romp through. Its turn toward heavier sounds may not be quite as bold as I would like, but this is still a phenomenally executed iteration of the band’s sound. Also, I highly recommend checking these guys out live if you can– they shred unbelievably hard.
You might also like: Matt Darriau, Elephant9, Marbin
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Fen – Dear Mouse
For fans of: Pearl Jam, 311, Foo Fighters, Fair to Midland
Picked by: Dave
Fen’s Dear Mouse is a grab-bag of well-executed alt rock, taking only the best from popular 90s styles and fully exploring ideas across a range of diverse tracks. More importantly, though, these tracks are just fun: opener “Ritual Lite” carries a bouncy-yet-chunky guitar riff throughout its runtime while Doug Harrison fires off lyrics at 100 miles an hour; “The Password is I Believe” is carefree pop-punk to blast while riding around windows down with your friends; and “The Seam of the Heart” powerfully mixes a touching vocal performance with some Dear Mouse’s more chaotic and progressive instrumentation. I was a little disappointed to hear that Fen are likely done for a while, but I am so grateful that we got this anthology of tracks from the last decade or so.
You might also like: Mile Marker Zero, Orion, Advent Horizon
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Non-Subway Picks
Sometimes when sniffing around in the progressive underground, we come across a manhole cover and escape into the harsh light of the surface world blinking myopically at what they’re listening to outside the scope of our blog and sometimes it’s pretty good stuff.
Kalandra – A Frame of Mind [alternative folk rock] The Nordic group’s sophomore delivers another collection of effortlessly pretty compositions, evocative of Scandinavian forests and existential melancholy but with a greater sense of bite than on their debut, pushing into heavier territory and some enormous crescendos. [pick by: Chris]
Nubya Garcia – Odyssey [spiritual jazz] I love Kamasi Washington’s style, but his albums are too damn long. Nubya Garcia fixes that, crafting an easily listenable but gigantically lush and vibrant spiritual jazz album for the ages. [pick by: Andy]
Lady Blackbird – Slang Spirituals [soul] With an extraordinary voice and bluesy grooves, Lady Blackbird’s sophomore Slang Spirituals is a modern love letter to seventies black music, refracted through soul’s prism and flirting with folk, psychedelic, and even progressive flavours. [pick by: Chris, Sam]
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