Style: Progressive metal, post-metal, alternative metal (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Tool, Pelican, Russian Circles
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 14 March 2015
It’s instrumental, but it sure ain’t late-night jazz—Obelisks is a three-track EP by UK-based progressive metal band Midnight Jazz Club. Whatever the time of day, this release comes punctually: the early months of 2025 have filled my ears disproportionately with releases leaning into the more extreme ends of progressive music, and a melodic instrumental album is quite welcome. Whether Obelisks satisfies that craving, however, is another matter.
Midnight Jazz Club play a brand of instrumental prog with a style straddling the line between post- and alternative metal. The sonic landscapes they create are airy and broad, but there’s also an ever-present, energetic drive and groove—it’s all quite accessible and well-produced, reminiscent of a floatier Tool. Indeed, each of Obelisks’ three tracks reminds me of something gleaned right from Lateralus’s legendary title track. But even if the music sounds slightly derivative, it’s done well enough, and the band has a knack for writing tuneful riffs and melodies. The hook in “Refraction,” for example, sets an infectious, soaring guitar melody on top of a groovy underlying riff with an all-too-catchy chord progression. The band pulls the same trick out of the bag in “The Obelisk,” etching another enjoyable—though quite similar—hook. The verse riffs and bridges, too, have an entrancing pulse to them.
But the issue for me is that Obelisks sits in the odd spot of not having the technical wizardry that makes instrumental prog the spectacle that it can be, while also not having large dynamic sweeps or sufficiently detailed soundscapes to fill the space in the way an effective post-metal album might. Rather, the tracks are each a collection of progressive metal-by-numbers riffs and Tool-inspired bridges. There are no solos to be found, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but also no deep explorations in sound or composition. The songs all have the same feel and even the same set of limited dynamics.
To be sure, the components in each track evolve slightly as they’re repeated, offering rhythmic shifts and marginally differing arrangements. And the instruments are played well, with an active bass carrying along in a big Lateralus-like tone and a powerhouse drum performance—the last couple of minutes in “Crystalline” are particularly thunderous. The guitars, meanwhile, are tight and layered well. Yet the band never leaves the comfortable territory of “conventional riff here, pulsing bridge there.” The album proceeds along a relatively straight line, not taking the compelling detours one might hope for in a progressive instrumental work.
And therein lies a problem: listening to Obelisks reminds less of the works by today’s renowned instrumental prog artists (take your pick) and more of a generic progressive metal album’s vocal-free reissue. The tracks’ sound and structures are stylized in such a way that would seem to accommodate a vocalist, and the instruments and compositions aren’t doing enough to add intrigue to that open musical space. Something needs to lead Obelisks. Vocals often fill such a role, but more instrumental detail and varied songwriting would do perfectly fine as well.
The upshot here is that Midnight Jazz Club deliver music that glides into the brain and stays there with zero friction. This makes for a pleasant albeit unnoticeable listen, ultimately at odds with the “progressive” label that the band identifies with. As Obelisks’ tracks carry along, I’m left waiting for a meaningful shift in feel, intensity, or compositional structure that never comes. Fortunately, the band is relatively new—Obelisks being their second proper release, both EPs—and I would bet they’re capable of pushing their style into more interesting and ambitious dimensions without sacrificing much of the catchiness that makes it accessible. Until then, my search for a satisfying melodic counterweight to this year’s extreme string of releases continues.
Recommended track: The Obelisk
You may also like: A Burial At Sea; Shy, Low
Final verdict: 4.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Independent
Midnight Jazz Club is:
– Chris Bowe (guitars)
– Chris Southern (guitars)
– Craig Rootham (bass)
– Tom Unwin (drums)
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