Reports from the (progressive metal) underground: November 2019

Hi. The fact that you’re reading this, proves that you are reading this and not something else. Because if you were reading something else while reading this then that would raise some serious questions. Reading two things at once does not seem like a good idea to me. I mean, you can try (if you’re not doing so already), but as far as I can tell the human eye and brain is not made for that. And neither is this introduction made for random bullshit (…ok maybe it is). I just didn’t want to start this post for the dozenth time with “Hello reader!”, so I wanted to do something else to grab your attention. This mess is the result. WTF Sam.

But anyway, there has been something on my mind since about yesterday, as earlier I was devoid of inspiration for this introduction. But before that I wanted to mention that BaylorYou has changed his reviewer name to his first name being Stephen and Poler10 has changed his reviewer name to his first name Andrew. Since the blog is becoming increasingly serious and professional, they wanted to use their real names instead. Now that we’re entering the 2020s, it’s a good time to reflect on the previous decade. So what we’ll be looking at is the question of how prog metal has evolved in the 2010s from the 00s. Despite this being an underground blog, I’ll focus on the surface bands.

In my eyes these are the most important trends:

1: Prog power dying out. The 00s were full of prog power bands releasing great material: Symphony X, Pagan’s Mind, Circus Maximus, Anubis Gate, Angra, Manticora, etc. But in the 10s most of these bands have been releasing average material, if they were even releasing material to begin with (looking at, Pagan’s Mind). There was still a bit in the early 10s, but after that the genre quickly died out.
2: Older bands falling off. either sucking, moving away from prog metal, or barely releasing stuff to begin with. I already mentioned the prog power bands, but here I also mean acts like Dream Theater, Opeth, Tool, Fates Warning, Porcupine Tree, Pain of Salvation, etc.
3: The djent movement in the early 10s. This is mostly pioneered by Periphery and TesseracT, but instrudjental has also seen a strong continuation with artists like Animals as Leaders, Plini, Sithu Aye, Scale the Summit, Arch Echo, etc. It kinda died off in the second half of the decade, but there’s still good material being released from time to time.
4: Genre bending. Especially Native Construct’s album Quiet World has made massive waves in the scene. Combined with their main inspiration Between the Buried and Me going as strong as they’ve ever been, and Haken also popularizing a very quirky take on the traditional prog metal genre (especially with their seminal album The Mountain), the genre bending has taken the prog metal world by storm. Also Ne Obliviscaris showed how fantastic a violin can be as a main instrument for a metal band.
5: Pop and/or alt rock influences in the vocals. See: TesseracT, Haken, Caligula’s Horse, Rishloo, Periphery in the clean vocals, Leprous, etc.
6: The prog death movement in the late 10s. Slugdge, Rivers of Nihil, Hath, Warforged, Horrendous and Blood Incantation have all gotten serious notoriety, and Vektor’s Terminal Redux also made huge waves in a similar vein (though technically it’s prog thrash, it has a similar intensity to prog death).

Since I’m out of time now, I’ll finish my thought stream here, so I’m just gonna throw the ball to the reader: What trends did you see for prog metal in the 2010s? And how do you think it will evolve for the 2020s? What trends do you see arising? Which bands do you see rising to prominence? Will we have a resurgence from older bands? Etc.

Now some thoughts on November: hot DAMN this is a good month. We’ve got many many high scores, including another 10/10 album (praise Dimhav) and many bands with great potential. I can confidently say that this is one of the best editions of the year.


…so now here we go for the usual yada yada: Practical information:

As always we have a Spotify playlist with all the recommended tracks, and if you don’t want to read the entire post or just want a quick overview we’ve made a spreadsheet with all relevant information on the albums we reviewed. And now for the final-final part of this introduction, *BREATHES IN*:

What is this place? We use Metal-Archives’ advanced search engine to find all progressive/post/avantgarde metal (and some weird stoner as well if there’s any) releases in a month, then we select the best/most grabbing ones and write a (small) review on them. We go chronological through the months. We take releases from outside of metal-archives too, but that is generally limited to requests and recommendations from other prog fans as the other sites’ search engines aren’t as precise nor is their database as thorough as Metal-Archives. You can read more about us on our About page, which also includes some history. Do you want your band reviewed? Or do you want to send us a recommendation? Send an email to theprogressivesubway@gmail.com, send a PM to me (/u/genderlessperson) on Reddit or hit me up on Discord (sam1oq/genderlessperson). Just make sure it’s from this year for a month we haven’t covered yet. You can find us on social media at the following accounts: on Facebook we go by @theprogressivesubway and on Instagram we’re called @progsubway. We also have a YouTube channel in which we upload our favorite songs from albums we reviewed (provided the artist gave us permission to).

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American Draft – The Rescue (US-IL)
Style: Heavy Prog (instrumental)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Tyler

Do you ever wonder what some bands would sound like if you take away the vocals? For example, I like Mastodon a lot, but let’s be real with ourselves, the fellas don’t sing that well. I’ve always wanted to see what they could do if they all just shut up for a second. I feel like I don’t really need to wonder anymore with this American Draft album. While still flawed, it brings a lot of familiar and new ideas together in a landscape of psychedelic, progressive, and at some times a little sludgey tones. 

I have to admit, on my first listen of this one, it was in one ear, out the other. I don’t know what it was, but nothing stuck. I had to force myself to listen to it a few more times in order to really get things to sink in, and after that happened, my experience was much better. I will say, however, the first track Running Scared has a riff that really overstays its welcome. It hits you over the head again and again, for seemingly no reason. It could have trimmed two minutes of fat and had been a great song. Which is a pretty big upset, since there are a lot of really great examples of great songwriting and musicianship in essentially every other song on here, and The Riff^TM just attacks as soon as the record starts, it’s a big hurdle to get over.

Solace of Light was the first tune that really grabbed my attention. There is a relaxation about it that I really fell in love with. It’s free, flowing, there is a great transition from the big guitar solo to an acoustic outro that transitions into the interlude song Blades, which features great soundscapes and synths that made me feel like I was in space and didn’t want to leave (even if there is one note that sort of grates on after a while). But let’s talk about the magnum opus closer, The Rescue. It seems like this is really where the bulk of American Draft’s focus went on the album. It starts with a mix between 80’s synthwave and Tool, and I was about it. There is an underlying feeling of urgency and paranoia that the synths and cymbal screeches add to. And from there we run the gamut of sounds reminiscent of Mastodon and King Crimson that sort of slide in and out of each other. It’s also the only song that features any sort of vocal performance with repeating one lyric a few time, stamping this song as a unique experience and one to pay attention to.

The one thing overall I wish would have been better about the album would be the actual mix. I didn’t get a big sense of space, and when things got busy (especially at the end of the The Rescue) it was really hard to focus on almost anything that was happening. That’s the most obvious one, but it was prevalent throughout the album. In the end, I’m glad I gave this one a second chance. The Riff^TM was enough to make me want to beat my head in with a hammer, but once I made it through, I was really surprised at how much I dug it. I wonder what these guys would sound like if they added a vocalist…

Recommended tracks: The Rescue, Solace of Light
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, King Crimson, Zappa
Final verdict: 7/10

Articulus – I (Norway)
Style: Symphonic/Power (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

The first thing that struck me about Articulus was the drumming – “Like Dirk Verbeuren playing for Kamelot“, I said to myself, a little amused. Lo and behold, that’s exactly who it is. This band is a bit clean-cut for his usual style, but he’s becoming one out of a handful of instantly recognizable metal drummers. He joins relative newcomers Chris Williumsen and Erling Malm to deliver an extremely polished symphonic metal album with some surprising dips into heaviness.

I don’t know what it is with these massively ambitious debut albums lately, but Articulus sound like a veteran band on Nuclear Blast or something. They remind me of the symphonic metal explosion of the 2000s, but thankfully with a lot more substance to the guitars than something like Within Temptation. The closest comparison is the aforementioned Kamelot, and specifically the newer era with its goth-movie-score pomp. The vocals here bear a strong resemblance to Tommy Karevik, mixed with Sondre Skollevoll from Moron Police. They’re smooth and dramatic, but run into the traditional problem with occasional heaviness mismatches.

Oh yes, Articulus like to get heavy from time to time, but the vocals and production won’t quite let them do it convincingly. Still, the riffwork is quality, and I appreciate that we’ve evolved beyond using orchestra as a crutch. The composition overall is pretty impeccable, if sometimes predictable, but nails the sweeping adventurous sound demanded by its romanticized historical lyrics. Dirk Verbeuren’s drumming adds a lot of intensity as well – listen to how he takes Beneath the Veneer, an otherwise normal mid tempo stomper, and finds snare rolls and ride cymbal diddlies in places that mortals never would dream of. This helps break up what otherwise could be pretty standard symphonic pop metal passages. The album never falls into that trap, and benefits greatly from it.

There’s not much else to say, I suppose. I is a well-composed and played symphonic metal album, nothing more or less. You can either add a gimmick or just attempt to do an established style really well, and the latter is what this is. If you own something made of leather from the renaissance fair, you should own this album.

Recommended tracks: Beneath the Veneer, Absinthe, Mutiny
Recommended for fans of: Kamelot, Serenity, Epica
Final verdict: 8/10

Shaped in Dreams – Echoes of Eldren Deeds (Germany)
Style: Death/Folk/Piano (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

Here’s a strange one… This album is about 1/3 sorta-generic folk metal, 1/3 RPG music, and 1/3 wacky prog noodling, and it borrows members from well-known death metal bands Obscura and Black Crown Initiate. Guitarist and composer Martin Matiasovic is the latest example of a new trend I’m seeing, in which a talented, but unknown musician suddenly appears with a bunch of big names in tow for their debut album. How this came to be, I don’t know, but I guess if your material’s good, you might as well ask.

Describing Echoes of Eldren Deeds is hard, because it’s several different things that don’t exactly cohere or interact with each other. Four tracks out of nine are metal, and they themselves are pretty different, with the most noticeable common thread being the great fretless bass by Linus Klausenitzer. Mere Illusion is about ten times shreddier than the others, and is closer to the prog death you’d expect from the performers. Martin can definitely play his ass off, even if he seems to prefer quirky french horn and violin parts. Thrilled for the Brawl starts with the funniest riff I’ve heard since Appalling Spawn‘s Celestian, and develops into a BTBAM-esque prog freakout complete with jazz breakdown. There’s growls over all of this, but honestly, they feel kind of monotonous and not vital to the music.

The other tracks are all either acoustic or piano pieces, with no participation from the rest of the band. They make the album’s pacing about as uneven as possible – piano intro, first proper song, five more minutes of piano. Why not? The last three tracks in a row are all of this sort, also. They’re equally legitimate parts of the album, but it doesn’t really feel like they should be on the same disc at this point. I actually mostly prefer these to the metal tracks – At the Cavern of Sleep is a nice acoustic jam, like an upbeat take on Planet Caravan. Time Turned into Memory is a solo piano piece with some tasty and increasingly strange jazz chords, reminiscent of classic Squaresoft. The only thing on the album I outright dislike is the folky ballad As Life Awakens, on account of an amateur-sounding guest vocal. It would be hard for anyone to sell those parts as written, which ramble without any breaks and are conspicuously punched in on every line.

There’s good stuff to be found here, but I think Echoes of Eldren Deeds is just too random to take seriously… Not in an intentional Mr. Bungle way, but in that it feels kind of like a demo or a compilation album. Even if you like every style on it, do you really want to listen to them in the same sitting, in this order? I don’t know about that. As a proof-of-concept for Martin Matiasovic’s skills, though, it’s pretty successful, and I expect we’ll see his name pop up elsewhere before long.

Recommended tracks: Mere Illusion, Time Turned into Memory, …And Warmth Remained
Recommended for fans of: Obscura, Between the Buried and Me, Final Fantasy X
Final verdict: 5/10

Perihellium – Prototype (Poland)
Style: Alternative (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Stephen

Here we are again, in this same place I find myself with a lot of albums I find digging in the underground prog metal/rock scene. Perihellium by Prototype is another album that will never be “bad”, but won’t be better than “good”. If I was more clever I would come up with a metaphor or comparison for albums like these, but instead I’ll shut up and get into the review.

Perihellium is an album that feels like a band following the typical progressive metal formula: intro, verse, chorus, heavy progressive noodling, verse (optional), chorus, outro (optional). Prototype just has a sound that is best described as the “familiar face” of progressive (alternative) metal. Meaning, when I listened to it I instantly had that annoying feeling of “Okay it’s another one of those bands.” 

Now that I have laid into this album, I can honestly say there isn’t a whole lot that is wrong with it. The vocals are good, the production is good, and the musicianship is… there. But it just feels so uninspired and safe. They sound a bit like a proggier Trapt.An album like this is more frustrating than nearly anything else out there, because you can tell the band is talented, and could make something really cool, but instead they make something that sounds like a million other bands you’ve heard before. However, to end my review on a (semi-)positive note, I can say that Perihellium wins my award for “Okayest Album of 2019”.

Recommended tracks: Rain and Enemy: Unknown
Recommended for fans of: Trapt, Chevelle, that type of stuff
Final verdict: 5.9/10

ROSK – Remnants (Poland)
Style: Folk/Post Rock (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

My journey into post-metal and post-rock has been a relatively recent one. Before 2018 I didn’t know what either was, nor did I understand the appeal. Then, out of nowhere, I found Cult ofLuna and everything just sort of clicked. Now I absolutely adore the style when it is done correctly, although I still abhor it when it consists of droning fifteen minute builds that lead to a 30 second climax, song after song. I was unsure what brand of this style would await me in ROSK, an atmoblack gone post-folk band from Poland.

The answer is kind of both. This album does a marvelous job of drifting between necessarily abrupt passages and droning, atmospheric ones. It should be made clear very early that this isn’t a metal album. It’s barely even a rock album. This is a folk album that happens to follow the general structures and ideas of post-rock. The vocals are mournful, emotive, and absolutely entrancing. The guitars are acoustic and absolutely entrancing, and the drums are tremendously minimal. The star, however, loathe as I am to admit that it isn’t the vocals, is the violin. The strings on this album steal every single moment that they are present. They perfectly capture the mournful atmosphere, the intense emotion, and every single second is just perfection.

I did find the occasional moment where the music was almost too calm, too relaxing, and I was on the edge of losing focus, but it would always bring me back with a tremendous vocal or violin passage. I’ll be honest and say that I may not be the most qualified reviewer to cover this album, as the style is one I’m not tremendously familiar with, but god damn did I enjoy this one. It’s some beautiful music full of emotional and clear songwriting chops, and I heartily recommend for any fans of post or folk. For those of you looking for varied and erratic songwriting, the BTBAM crowd if you will, this won’t be for you (unless you’re like me and Desert of Song is your favorite BTBAM track), but for anyone who likes the softer, more meandering side of music this should be right up your alley.

Recommended tracks: The Alley of Burdens, Rosary, Ceased in Me
Recommended for fans of: Solstafir, Suldusk, Obscure Sphinx
Final verdict: 8/10

Blame Zeus – Seethe (Portugal)
Style: Alternative (clean, female vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Dylan

Do you ever feel like a band is playing it safe? You’re listening to their album, you enjoy what you’re listening to overall, you can appreciate how… “competent” it all is, but you can’t help but feel like they could’ve gone a step or two further? Well, that’s exactly how I feel about this band.

Blame Zeus have good songwriting skills. They can write a riff, a good chorus, a decent solo, and know how to make it all cohesive within 4 to 6 minutes. The production is also pretty good, with chunky headbang inducing guitars, punchy drums, and well mixed vocals. 

Problem is, that’s just about it. It’s competent, solid alt metal, with not much more to offer. What’s presented here shows potential and competence, but nothing sticks out as genuinely great or amazing. If you’re looking for some mindless fun, a couple headbangable riffs, and good low register female vocals, this could be something to get a kick out of. Anyone who gives this album a shot expecting anything else is bound to be disappointed.

Recommended tracks: Déjà Vu, Bloodstained Hands
Recommended for fans of: Tarja Tunmen
Final verdict: 7/10

Dimhav – The Boreal Flame (Sweden)
Style: Power (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

Here it is: the review I’ve been mentally writing since November. In a rare case of musical with-it-ness, I listened to this on day one, and am still regularly listening to it today. It’s an album that reminds me power-prog can still surprise, and that I’m not just overly jaded when I repeat my reviewer mantra of “Ehhhhh” at yet another decent band. I mean… damn. This is so far beyond 99% of metal in ambition, sophistication, production value, and sheer heroic grandeur. Damn.

Arriving at my lofty opinion wasn’t instant; there were many twists and turns along the way. Let me present to you the Four Stages of Dimhav^TM:

1: “Why isn’t he singing more!?”
2: “Nevermind, these bridges are awesome.”
3: “Songs are awfully bloated though…”
4: “Nevermind, I was an idiot. Praise Dimhav.”

So, to get the giant white elephant out of the way, The Boreal Flame is blessed and cursed with the presence of Daniel Heiman. You may know him as the singer from Lost Horizon who never records, or the guy from the “WHOOOOOAAAA” video. Power metal fans will generally agree that he’s the best there’s ever been. His work here is awe-inspiring, and he’s right at home with this epic, fantasy-tinged music. The downside is, anything he appears on becomes about him to an unhealthy degree – many fans aren’t looking for a new band so much as a Daniel Heiman Delivery System^TM. His history warps your first impression of the album, which stubbornly refuses to ever go the obvious route. The first track is a ten minute instrumental, and I think it’s about thirteen before we get our first facemelter. However, these are not periods of downtime – in a career first, the instruments actually attempt to wrest the spotlight away, and surprisingly, they kind of succeed.

This is challenging music for both player and listener, with orchestra, synth leads, blast beats, HEAVY seven-string riffs and acoustics coexisting in lengthy songs. The opener is so furious it’s practically tech death, but the followup reveals an incredible mastery of dynamics. They build up to a John Williams-like orchestral fury from one humble tom part, and ease back into it with perfect smoothness for a haunting last verse. Also note how the chorus has a different chord progression the second time – it’s details like these that make these songs so fascinating. None of them are remotely simple, but through craftsmanship and/or force of will, the band managed to make it all work, and repeat listens reveal that every part is interesting or useful in some way. It helps that the core elements they’re coming back to are top-notch anthems worthy of the Lost Horizon legacy – check out The Flame Transcendent or From Southern Shores for some more traditional blazing power metal choruses. Aside from all the technical food for thought, this is one of the best albums at capturing the triumphant, mystical power metal sound in a way that you can take seriously. When Heiman vows to learn his human name, it feels like there’s a few hundred pages of fantasy novel behind it; these songs earn their grandiose lyrics.

This is going to be my first 10/10 for the blog. Is The Boreal Flame perfect? Well, I guess the insanely dense intro track starts to test the boundaries of good taste until the viking choir saves the day. Even so, this is an incredible feat of composition, and easily the best album of 2019. Every song has ideas exploding from every seam, yet there’s an uncommon maturity to their construction that other bands could learn from. The return of the world’s greatest metal vocalist is a nice bonus, and probably how most will stumble upon this band, but The Boreal Flame would be something special, even if Vince Neil sang on it. My congratulations to the Lindroth brothers, who composed and played all the instruments – this has got to be about as good a power-prog album as it’s possible to write.

[Editor’s note: Matt is right this album is amazing aaaaaaaa. If you have any love for prog power then LISTEN TO THIS NOW!!!!!!]

Recommended tracks: The Flame Transcendent, Star and Crescent, Realms of a Vagrant King
Recommended for fans of: Lost Horizon, Wintersun, Anubis Gate
Final verdict: 10/10

Gothic Stone – Haereticus Empyreum (Italy)
Style: Epic Doom (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

“Y’all motherfuckers ever heard of Candlemass?”

That’s what Italian band Gothic Stone is asking you the very second the first song on this album starts playing. If the answer to that query is yes, and you find yourself a fan of those masters of epic doom, then I might suggest perhaps you throw on Nightfall instead. If the answer to the question is no, do yourself a favor and throw on Nightfall instead.

Epic doom isn’t a genre that lends itself to intense bouts of reinvention. Every once in a while a band comes out of the woodwork and makes it really shine (hello King Goat) but by and large it just feels like slow power metal, without the emotional oomph of proper doom metal. Although I’ll happily admit to being a fan of the masters of this particular doom subgenre, I find that more often than not when I delve into other bands I’m left wanting something more. Thus with trepidation did I take on this review, hoping that perhaps I would find King Goat 2.0

I did not. Gothic Stone sounds so, SO much like Candlemass. The riff structure, the way they use the leads, the vocal style. Everything is so intensely derivative of a sound I’ve heard many, many times before. This is an incredibly competently played album, I won’t make any attempt to say it isn’t. All the writing is good enough, the vocals are technically impressive and in a more exciting band might be great. But as I listen to this album I just can’t seem to hear anything besides a rapid desire to be listening to Candlemass instead.

The one truly unique thing this album has going for it is that there is a track named after British science fiction series Doctor Who. That’s all I’ve got. Otherwise, this was a tremendously fine album. Completely inoffensive but unremarkable.

Recommended tracks: Dies Irae, The Oath of the Gothic Stone, Luciferean Dawn
Recommended for fans of: Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Solstice
Final verdict: 5/10

Lunar – Eidolon (US-CA)
Style: Traditional (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Andrew

A month or two ago, Quintessence from the Prog Discord sent me the link to this album and the message “You might like this btw.” And I’ll be damned if I didn’t really want to like this record. I reaaaally wanted to love it.

The record was Eidolon, the sophomore album fromSacramento, California progressive metal quintet Lunar. Featuring a truly colossal, star-studded guest list, Eidolon is a 7 track concept album about, as far as I can tell, the human life cycle and how it parallels the timeline of the universe. The guest list is far too long to list here, but you can find it in the credits on the bandcamp page. With household prog names like Richard Henshall, Diego Tejeida, and Raphael Weinroth-Browne plus many others, I went into this record with fantastically high hopes. 

Unlike one of my other albums this week, this is undoubtedly a prog metal album. The band lists Haken, Leprous, and Opeth among others as primary influences, and these influences definitely show. Let me start with the positives here – the production (besides clean vocals) is pretty fantastic, with each instrument being allowed to shine independently while still meshing together well. The songwriting is overall quite well done. Each song is cohesive despite the frequent changes of mood, feel, or tempo. Featuring a mix of clean and harsh vocals as well as female guest vocals popping up occasionally, the album stays fresh despite the runtime of over an hour. Also contributing to the fresh sounds, Lunar uses an array of nontraditional instruments including violin, cello, harp, and flute.

Now let me talk about the things that could have been better. Apparently, the lead singer, Chandler Mogel, used to be (or still is?) in a Foreigner tribute band, and unfortunately (or fortunately, I don’t know you), sounds like a singer of a Foreigner tribute band in this album. The clean vocals are definitely the weakest aspect of the sound. Additionally, the clean vocals are mixed weirdly, sounding shallow and completely separate from the rest of the music which makes clean-sung sections sound disjointed and jarring. 

Despite the shortcomings, this is a really solid release and I can absolutely see diehard Haken fans digging the hell out of this. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Eidolon. I wanted to love it but I just couldn’t. 

Recommended tracks: Comfort, Hypnotized, Your Long Awaited Void
Recommended for fans of: Haken, Opeth, Structural Disorder
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Poly-Math – Sensors in Everything (UK)
Style: Mathcore (Instrumental)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Tyler

I didn’t realize that this was a real short EP when I picked it. So uhhhh…this is gonna be a like a speed run review. Ready? Go! I’m overall not a big fan of purely instrumental rock/prog. Vocals really do sell the genre and add a whole new timbre that I feel instrumental music misses out on. It has to be totally exceptional for me to be on board. And while this definitely didn’t reinvent the wheel by any stretch, Sensors in Everything does put up a great fight.

The first connection I made to this was The Reptilian Brain by Intronaut. Not by any sonic similarities, but there are phases that Sensors goes through during its run time like The Reptilian Brain. Each one of them says what they came to say, and then move on, never to be seen again. The track starts with a latin/jazz feel that honestly sounds fantastic. There is a great juxtaposition between the heavy and the quieter walking bass driven sections. After a synth filled interlude, the track switches tones to a more sinister tone with a haunting guitar riff and simple piano melody taking the reins. 

And the song goes on like that, switching themes and motifs every two minutes or so. Each one sounding just like a little Mars Volta song. None of them stay particularly long, which is I think the biggest flaw here. They’re great, they sound good. Everything is well performed really well, imagine what could have been if they expanded on all of these ideas and made a full album of this stuff? It would have been rad to the max. But what I felt what we got was just a sampler of what Poly-Math is capable of, and it left me wanting more.

I could sit here and describe the song to you, but it’s honestly less trouble for you to just listen to this thing. It’s so fast, heck listen to it a few times if you want. I don’t mind. I realize that it’s on me for not checking the run time before committing. Whoopsie. I liked what I heard, I just want the whole meal next time.

Recommended tracks: The only song on this
Recommended for fans of: Intronaut, The Mars Volta
Final verdict: 6/10

Iapetus – The Body Cosmic (US-NY)
Style: Extreme (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

Holy fuck this album is good. There. I said it. Now time to spend 90% of my review why it isn’t. OK maybe not that. But seriously, this album puzzled me. And for a long time I just couldn’t figure out why. On one hand this is super grandiose, amazingly produced music with a level of ambition and skill to match that ambition one does not find often in the underground. On the other hand there was something, something I couldn’t articulate. Something that prevented me from slapping a 9 or a 10 on this outright. I tried reading other reviews for critical viewpoints to help me find what was nagging, but they were all praising this album into the stratosphere, so I was left to myself. But, nearly 10 listens into the album I think I’ve found it.

First though, holy fuck this album is good. Iapetus present an amazing take on extreme progressive metal. They take a mixture of melodic death and melodic black metal, sprinkle some Ne Obliviscaris stylings on top in the dynamics (Dan Presland’s on drums here after all) and add a bunch of own flair. The result is, generally speaking, stunning. The songs shrink and swell in intensity in a very natural way that makes you feel like you’re being taken along the waves of Iapetus’ soundscapes. They generally adopt a wall-of-sound approach in that they throw everything at you at once: blast beats, riffs, growls and melodies. As if they said: “sit down and listen and be amazed.” Not that you can do anything else with how massive everything sounds and how soul-tearing the guitar melodies are. There are also the occasional (clean) female vocals that come along. Their delivery is just superb and fits the music super well (see: For Creatures Such as We). It’s a shame they’re only guest vocals. At times I wish they’d be a permanent feature of the band. Despite being sung, I’d argue they have even greater cathartic power than the (regular) harsh vocals.

Hold up. Cathartic. That’s the word I was looking for. It may sound strange, but at the same time of being done so well I feel like it’s this band’s greatest weakness. It’s because the music keeps on being cathartic almost the entire time. I’m not sure if it’s really fair to criticize the band for this, but at times I wish they just did more. Extreme prog is, when done right, one of the, if not the most emotionally complete genre out there. When I’m listening to Disillusion’s latest album, for example, the music goes through feelings of sorrow, of joy, of yearning, of bliss, of release, of tension, of fear, etc. It has very epic, soaring parts, it has mellow, relaxing parts, and everything that comes in between. With Iapetus however, everything is done with grandeur and splendor and is just (read in Trump’s voice) HUGE. You get one climactic emotion after another and it just keeps peaking throughout. Even in the quieter sections it’s all just so intense. The emotional variety in the record is just not enough to match the ambition. 

This lack of emotional variety traces back to a couple of musical elements. First of all the vocals, both clean and harsh, opt for the same style over the entire record. The harsh vocals are screamed, loud, powerful and have a distinct lack of different timbres and variety in phrasing. Get in a shriek or a guttural sometime, or go for a weirder approach like Vurtox sometimes does for Disillusion. Anything. And for the clean vocals it’s often the same powerful, soaring singing that feels as if you’re having a minute-long orgasm. I’m missing the soft and gentle parts, and the more casual volume. The instrumentals I’ve already spoken about. They run into the same problems as the vocals. I just kinda wish they did more. Or should I say, less, as some more restraint in parts would have done wonders. Explore some more emotions in more intensities than full throttle. 

Again I should say that I’m not sure if what I’m criticizing this record for is fair. The general sound this band has is brilliant, but it’s just that. They have exactly one sound and stick to that for 70 minutes. And that isn’t always a problem, but when that sound is so limited in the intensity and emotions it displays then it most certainly is. Should they fix this problem then I see this band delivering a performance worth mentioning for an album of the decade nomination, but for now they still have some work to do. Don’t let this review keep you from listening to this band though. Their potential knows no bounds.

PS: I found no space for it in the review, but hot damn that cover art is gorgeous. That’s a work of art right there.

Recommended tracks: I Contain Multitudes, For Creatures Such as We
Recommended for fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Opeth, Enslaved, Borknagar, etc. You get the drill.
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Constellatia – The Language of Limbs (South Africa)
Style: Blackgaze (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Andrew

Hailing from Capetown, South Africa, Constellatia is a progressive post-black project by Gideon Lamprecht and Keenan Oakes. The Language of Limbs is their first full-length album. And it’s truly a beautiful piece. 

Coming in at about 37 minutes spread over four songs, The Language of Limbs is not afraid to show you what it’s made of. Right off the bat, you’re pounded by black metal style blast beats and very ethereal harsh vocals. Just when you think the intensity will remain the same, it shifts into a somber, mellow section. These mood shifts are probably my favorite part of the album; they allow the music to transition from feel to feel flawlessly while retaining a strong sense of cohesion. They’ve got a healthy list of influences and each of them show. 

Aside from the harsh vocals, there is a strong female vocalist present throughout the album. She usually appears during the slower sections but on occasion will appear during a high-intensity passage. The tasteful placement of vocals throughout each song contributes to the satisfaction from each one. 

Speaking of vocals, I haven’t had a chance to fully read the lyrics yet but I skimmed through them and they’re very strongly written. You could tell me the lyrics were poetry from a great classic author and I would believe you.

The Language of Limbs is beautiful, lush, satisfying, and complete in a way that makes you feel fantastic upon conclusion of the album. If you distilled pure contentment into 40ish minutes of music, I believe you would get this record. I’ve never been that big into this style of metal but maybe – after listening to this album – I’ll dive headfirst into the genre. 

Recommended tracks: All Nights Belong to You, The Garden
Recommended for fans of: Alcest, White Ward, Deafheaven
Final verdict: 9/10

Deaf Radio – Modern Panic (Greece)
Style: Stoner/Psychedelic (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Jonah

Every once in a while as a reviewer, and a fan of the more underground music scene in general, you get to bump into a band that just absolutely blows your socks off. Something that, whether it be in execution or creativity, just really pops in a way that you didn’t expect at all. If you’re like me and looked at the score before reading this review (if you’re reading it at all), then you already know that Deaf Radio is a case like this. I looked at the genre tags and went “oh boy another stoner/psych band, what an original idea” and then I turned on the album. Let me tell you, I was blown away.

So we’re going to get this out of the way immediately. Deaf Radio sounds like Queens of the Stone Age. A LOT like Queens of the Stone Age. Enough that some might understandable condemn this album as derivative or uninspired, a mere rip-off of one of the most commercially successful bands in the genre. Let me tell you though, QOTSA hasn’t released an album that hooked me this hard since Songs for the Deaf came out. So, given it’s been 18 years since that album dropped, I’ll forgive Deaf Radio if they come off a bit derivative, because god damn are they good at it.

The grooves on this fucking album man. They’re infectious, they latch into your brain and won’t let go. The choruses are huge, the guitars riff for days and the leads are smooth as they come. The bass and drumming are just driving enough to keep you engaged without distracting from the melodic core. This stuff is just top notch, and every performance shines. I really have to make special note of the vocals though. As anyone who has discussed music with me for more than 5 minutes knows, I tend to fixate on vocals very heavily, and man in this case they delivery. The tone, the delivery, everything is just spot on.

The album also does a marvelous job of having variety between the various songs, it’s not just driving rock anthem after driving rock anthem. These admittedly banging tracks are interspersed with some more synth focused psychedelic pieces that work equally well, and bring the whole thing together as a nicely varied but cohesive package.

I have absolutely 0 complaints about this album. I can’t peg it as a masterpiece because of the general lack of true innovation, but these Greeks have latched onto a style that, if not original, they’re really damn good at playing. I hope they keep up like this, and maybe find something to make it even more exciting in the future. For now though, I’m happy to jam this album, which will more than likely find its way onto my AOTY list.

Recommended tracks: Animals, Dance Like a Reptile, Colours (also the rest of them)
Recommended for fans of: Queens of the Stone Age, Stone Temple Pilots, Kyuss
Final verdict: 9/10

Jake Howsam Lowe – Oh Earth (Australia)
Style: Instrudjental
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: SharkTRS

I’m walking through the djent aisle of a store. Alongside me are countless name brands, but I pay no mind to them, since my bank account’s running on empty. Instead, I purchase the store brand. I’ve just bought Oh Earth.

I go home, I hit play, and I get exactly what was advertised, no more, no less. Throughout my first listen of Oh Earth, I awaited something, anything, to differentiate it from the sea of instrudjental releases now in existence. It took until track three for that to come. The entire track is one big bass solo played over a riff and I love it. I’m not musically inclined enough to adequately describe the solo, but if you listen to only one track off of this album, make it Another World. After this track, I was hopeful. Maybe, just maybe this was the start of something great. Sadly, the feature artist who played on track three never appears again, and the album returns to more store brand instrudjental.

It’s not bad music by any means. It’s quite solid, actually. I just don’t see much of a reason to listen to it.

Recommended tracks: Another World
Recommended for fans of: Plini, I Built the Sky, Sithu Aye
Final verdict: 5/10

Neverlight – The Quiet Room (US-CO)
Style: Gothic (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: SharkTRS

John Petrucci is driving home one day when suddenly he loses control and crashes into an opera singer’s car. A cop car pulls over, and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers steps out. Noticing the crash and wanting to help, a metalcore band comes by. This is what Neverlight sounds like. 

With all these varying influences, one might expect this album to feel incoherent, but it’s quite the opposite, really. Singer Amanda Farrell’s operatic vocals top off the band’s core sound, consisting of energetic riffs and a tight rhythm section of complex drums and slap bass. In each individual track, the band fills gaps in their sound with influences of other genres, such as djent, folk, and pop punk. Every time, this works excellently, creating tracks fresher than most anything in the current scene. The band does run into some failings when they don’t do this, though, as near the end the album begins to feel samey. This is in part due to the repetitive song structure, but the decline of experimentation does play a big role.

Now, onto the music itself. Everyone in the band plays well here, but there are two clear standouts: the bassist and the drummer. The bassist is the backbone of most songs on this album. They fill out the low-end excellently, often playing technical slap-bass lines the likes of which are rarely seen in metal. The drummer supports the bassist well, often playing complex kick drum patterns in sync with them. They also demonstrate great versatility here, being able to accompany everything from thrash metal to folk as well as apply subtlety to their playing. The discerning listener will pick out loads of quick, technical drum fills throughout the album. They’re always a treat to hear.

I’ve gotta give a few words to the vocalist, too. Often times metal fans throw out the word “operatic” to describe vocal styles like those of Devin Townsend and Dio, but here I use it literally. I’ll be damned if Amanda Farrell isn’t classically trained in the art of opera. Her vocals in conjunction with the music create a mood that’s dramatic while never feeling cheesy. I’d like to hear a bit more versatility from her, though; she sticks to more or less the same style for the whole album.

Ignoring a few tracks, The Quiet Room is an album so good that I can almost forgive it being tagged as “dark metal.” This ain’t one to miss.

Recommended tracks: Unravel, In the Mirror, Carve My Name
Recommended for fans of: Leprous, maybe? This is a hard one
Final verdict: 7.5/10

The Night Watch – An Embarrassment of Riches (Canada)
Style: Heavy Prog/Classical (instrumental)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Sam

This album is a lot of things. The following sentence stolen from their bandcamp page does well in describing it: “An Embarrassment of Riches is a towering and richly detailed journey through external and internal landscapes, where post/progressive/black/doom and folk metal weave their way through a tapestry of post-rock/folk/jazz and classical textures.” And really I couldn’t say it any better myself. The only part they missed was the one-off acapella bit at the end of Dance of the Mountain People, but that’s minor. I was asked to review this, and honestly I’m struggling for words. It’s pretty far outside my wheelhouse. So instead of trying to describe the music in depth (the band already did that themselves adequately), I’ll focus on my enjoyment of it. 

And man, even that is hard. With most metal albums I have a canon of other things to place it in, to compare it to. With this I have no canon at all. In a sense that’s very refreshing. You don’t have to be busy with any preconceived notions about quality, but can just purely focus on your sole impression. And most certainly did I enjoy this. This band has a very wide sonic palette that far outshines your regular guitar wank instrumental band. The leading instrument is the violin, and as far as I can tell the songs are through composed. They’re very well-crafted and take you on a compelling journey. This soundscapes are rich and detailed, and the flow is organic. There are soft, laid back parts, which even become jazzy sometimes (see: Dance of the Mountain People), and more intense metal parts, all done equally well. And that makes this record so impressive. It doesn’t matter what type of music they throw at you, it always sounds natural and would still come across as well done outside of the song’s context. Most often these type of bands either sacrifice for the sake of composition or do one style better than another, but as far as I can tell The Night Watch do all well. This mentality also reflects in the production. Each instrument is audible and has its clear place in the soundscape. Heck, even the occasional xylophone sounds perfectly audible amidst all the other instruments. It’s a spacious mix with rich tones that just makes the record a pleasure to listen to.

I’m not sure how I want to wrap this up, but I just want to say that The Night Watch thoroughly impressed me with this album. Maybe this is just run of the mill in whatever genre this is, but for all I know it’s my favorite record I’ve reviewed so far this year. It’s a shame this isn’t available on CD, because I certainly would have purchased that. Huge recommend.

Recommended tracks: Land Ho!, Dance of the Mountain People, Shamaniac
Recommended for fans of: ??? Just listen to it, it’s fantastic
Final verdict: 9/10

Rescue Arc – Infinite Form (UK)
Style: Electronic/Synthwave (instrumental)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
Review by: Stephen

Infinite Form by Rescue Arc was a cool little change of pace. I haven’t heard a synthwave/electronic album in quite a while. So having said that, I might not have the best authority to review a synthwave album, but here are my thoughts anyways.

Infinite Form is a “looping concept album” that is largely synthwave, with some metal influences. First, I’ll start out with what I liked on the album. Infinite Form is very well produced and really leaves nothing to be desired on the soundscapes delivered on the different tracks. There are some seriously huge tones reached here, and at times reminded me of scores Hans Zimmer wrote. Also, the album can really let you drift into a meditative-like mind set. I found myself a few times getting lost in music. Which can be a huge positive to an album, but at the same time be a bit of a negative. 

My biggest issue with this album is that I really feel like it could have used a little bit more structure or separation of tonality. As I mentioned before, it was easy to get lost in the album, and I found myself having to start the album over a few times to remember what I had heard. I feel like vocals, a vocoder, brass, or something could have been used to define the different moments in the album a bit better. With that said though, it could have been what Rescue Arc was going for. Infinite Form probably IS an album intended to make you feel like you are on this foggy endless journey. It is an “looping concept album” after all. 

My conclusion is that this review was a bit of a puzzle I had to solve for myself. There was writing on the wall that the issues I had with the album were intended. For example the “looping concept album”, the similar names of the tracks on the album, and the consistent tones throughout the album. This album is SUPPOSED to make you feel the way I felt, and once I stopped looking at it as a reviewer (for example, looking for which songs to highlight), I was able to understand the goal of this album. I still don’t know if I’m the right person to review the album, but it gets a pass from me. 

[Editor’s note: if you’re wondering why we featured this album and it’s relevancy to the blog, it’s because it was requested. A synthwave album like this is the exception, not the norm.]

Recommended tracks: All or none
Recommended for fans of: Hans Zimmer
Final verdict: 7/10

Kaleidoreal – Finally See Myself (Sweden)
Style: Heavy Prog (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: Stephen

One of the trends I have noticed since joining the team at The Progressive Subway is that there are a lot of talented bands creating music right now. However, it is much harder to find a band that making music that is unique. Kaleidoreal’s album Finally See Myself is one that shows the talent of the musicians involved, but left a lot to be desired. 

Finally See Myself is a three track release with about a 30 minute run time, and has a Spock’s Beard meets power prog feel to it. Which, might sound more promising than the album is. As I mentioned before, the musicianship is there; the singer is solid, the guitar solos are nice, the production is on point, and everything else sounds good… but there aren’t a whole lot of new ideas brought to the album. It’s a little disappointing because I feel like this is a common problem with a lot of the bands I have personally reviewed; top notch musicians retreading something that has been done a ton before. 

Now, I have laid into the album a bit, but there are some good things to be found on Finally See Myself. The highlight to the album has to be from about the eight minute mark until about the 13 minute mark on Some Take to the Stars. There is this very, very cool instrumental break where a slow build starts on the keys with a string/orchestral sound and leads to a face-melting guitar solo. And I don’t use face-melting lightly. This guitarist can play with the best in the genre right now.

All in all, Kaleidoreal would be a band that would be fun to see live, but I don’t know if I will be coming back to Finally See Myself on my own time. 

Recommended tracks: Some Take to the Stars
Recommended for fans of: Spock’s Beard, Prog-Power
Final verdict: 5.5/10

Via Vengeance – Diestractions from the Truth (US-AZ)
Style: Sludge (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Andrew

Let me preface this by saying that I have never been the biggest fan of sludge metal. There are absolutely sludge metal bands that I enjoy and love, but those are few and far between in my eyes. It is tricky composing something that is crushing and slow while interesting and memorable at the same time. Certain bands, like Inter Arma and Cult of Luna, accomplish this quite well in my opinion. 

At its core, sludge metal is a hybrid genre born of doom metal and hardcore punk. It combines the slow, methodical feel of doom with the abrasive, dissonant energy of hardcore. That being said, this is a blog for progressive bands. Progressive sludge bands take the core sludge sound and change up the song structures, or bring in outside influences, or any other number of things that tend to make the music more interesting or dynamic or unique. However, this is decidedly not the case in many situations. 

With that said, Via Vengeance is a one-man progressive sludge metal project by Arizonan Shane Ocell. Diestractions from the Truth is Ocell’s sophomore full-length release, following up 2016’s Harsh Conditions. 

Listening to Diestrations left me with one question: why does this album have the ‘progressive’ tag on Metal Archives? This is a progressive music blog after all, so what’s this album doing on here? I go into each album with exactly one expectation – for it to be progressive in some way. Diestractions, however, left me longing for something more. It’s sludgy, it’s abrasive, it’s dissonant. It’s definitely a sludge metal album. But that’s all it is. As the album went on, I kept expecting something interesting to happen. For a riff to change up in an interesting way. Maybe a quiet section or clean vocals. A guitar solo. 

These things never happened. Repeated riffs; slow, uninteresting vocal lines; and an unchanging tempo left me wholly unsatisfied when the thing was through. There really isn’t much more to say. Diestractions, 35 minutes of unmemorable riffs, is a decent effort at a sludge album but certainly not progressive by any stretch of the imagination. 

I don’t want to end this review on a negative note, so I will say this: give this album a listen if you’re a fan of sludge metal. There might be something that stands out to you that simply didn’t stand out to me. Unfortunately, it just didn’t do anything for me.

Recommended tracks: Oak II had a pretty neat drum intro I guess?
Recommended for fans of: Early Mastodon(?)
Final verdict: 3/10

妖神楽 – 聞シ召シ給ヘ (Japan)
Style: Brutal Death (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Tyler

I’ve been watching a little too much anime as of late. It’s a new hobby, I have my tastes. I like horror/mystery/supernatural type stuff. So when I saw the album cover for this Ayakasi Kagura album, I was immediately intrigued. I don’t listen to a lot of music from Japan, much less extreme death metal like this, so I was excited to dive in. And it was, well…

First off, I am sort of flying blind with info on this album. Obviously, it’s all in Japanese. I think Ayakasi Kagura is one guy…? That’s what it seems like. If it is, it’s pretty impressive. Putting something this massive together, writing and recording everything on your own is insane. The opening track grabbed me right away. Very simple, somber. Very spooky feeling. The rest of the album is about what you would expect. Very fast drumming, chugging guitars, guttural vocals. You’ve heard it before. I’d say the biggest standout of this one are the vocals themselves. I’m not much a fan of super visceral, can’t tell what’s being said stuff, but here it fits what is happening musically pretty well, and the production on them is far and away better than everything else. 

Speaking of, this album doesn’t sound that great. There are a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to the mix of all of the instruments. The vocals are the focus of the whole album, and like I said before, they sound great. But, other than that, the listening experience is a little rough. For a huge majority of the album, the drums are way louder than the guitar or bass, so what’s left is  just drums and vocals without the melody. There are times when the drums do come down to let the guitars and bass in, the ducking is super noticeable and makes for a weird tilted effect that makes the album feel really inconsistent. On top of that, there’s not a lot in way of effects like reverb that some tracks desperately needed in order to get a more polished and finished image.

In terms of standouts on this album, I loved the beginning track. The spookiness was a perfect mood setter and gave an uneasiness that I liked a lot. The title track Kikoshi Meshi Tamae had a chorus that incorporated clean vocals for the first time on the album which was a welcome change of pace from the rest of the album that sounds very same-y. In fact, every song that featured both heavy and clean vocals stood out more than any of the others. Iki ga Tsuzuku Kagiri comes to mind, the chorus in that song slaps, and there is a cool neoclassical motif that repeats throughout the song (even if it’s very obvious that the bass is all MIDI). And the song immediately after it Haru no Yokan slows things down for the first time and allows for a few minutes to breathe.

I didn’t expect to have so many thoughts on this. I wasn’t a massive fan overall, but being a one man project always gets a nod of respect in my book. If you like the grind vocal style and don’t mind not great production check it out. Also, please go look this band on Facebook. Whoever this guy is, he seems like a total sweety pie and deserves the world.

Recommended tracks: Kikoshi Meshi Tamae, Iki ga Tsuzuku Kagiri
Recommended for fans of: I honestly don’t know. Folks that like brutal death and grindcore I guess?
Final verdict: 4.5/10

Hvøsch – Lovelorn (Russia)
Style: Post Black (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | VKontakte | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Dylan

If there’s one country I’m always looking forward to receive new music from, it’s certainly Russia. They always seem to have a way of presenting an already established sound, yet with a unique flair that distinguishes them from others. Whether it’s the language the lyrics are written in, the atmosphere, or a twist to the formula, there’s always something to look forward to.

And Hvøsch is no exception. Lovelorn is a 27 minute EP that travels between atmo black and post black. Let’s just get this out of the way; this EP is DARK. Grimmy, twisted, and kinda disturbing are adjectives that would describe this record. It manages to mix up the bleakness and darkness of atmo with the dreaminess of post. Let’s just say if this had to be on either the New Bermuda or the Sunbather side of things, it would definitely be placed with New Bermuda.

It’s honestly quite abrasive, but it’s done in a good way. At just under 30 minutes, they all had the right to go nuts without having to compromise with interludes or soft passages to avoid ear fatigue, and they did. Every track one after the other delivers quality and consistency. And that’s honestly one of the best compliments I can give to an album.

Recommended tracks: All really!
Recommended for fans of: New Bermuda era Deafhaven
Final verdict: 8/10

Enigmatic Infinity – The Shadow Out of Time (Hungary)
Style: Traditional/Heavy Prog (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Review by: SharkTRS

Q:  Do you enjoy the music of Dream Theater?

If you answered yes to the previous question, you will enjoy this album. If you answered no, probably not. It’s as simple as that.

Enigmatic Infinity do a damn good impression of the aforementioned band on this album. It’s got everything a fan could want: extreme technicality, an epic, extended solo sections, and a vocalist who’s trying his best but doesn’t really fit all that well. I’ll start at the beginning. Almost every instrument here is played at a near-virtuosic level, yet never feels too much like wankery. (there’s one difference from Dream Theater for ya) Incredible guitar and keyboard lines are to be found on almost every track of the album, but are unfortunately marred by weak songwriting that only improves on the last track. Breaking a track off The Shadow out of Time will reveal beautiful pieces that just don’t slot into each other all that well. Despite this, it works quite coherently as an album, tied together by a coherent story and several reprises. On a song level, though… not the best.

Now, the vocals. It took me until thirty minutes before the writing of this review to figure out just why they bothered me so much. On a technical level, there’s nothing wrong with them. The dude sounds like your average traditional prog singer well enough. The problem lies not there. It’s twofold:

1: The lyrics are awkwardly phrased and too heavy on exposition
2: The cadence the singer delivers them in feels unnatural

I can normally tune these things out, but here, for some reason, they continually take me out of the album while listening to it. The instrumental sections supporting the vocals are actually really nice, but it’s difficult to focus on that while the singer is awkwardly delivering cheesy, poorly-written lyrics over them.

I wanted to like this album a lot more than I did. If Enigmatic Infinity improve their songwriting or make an instrumental album, sign me up. They’ve got the chops to make something truly great. This album, though? It’s not a bad listen, and bigger fans of traditional prog may very well love it, but it shows that Enigmatic Infinity still have a long way to go.

Recommended tracks: The Collapse, The Shadow out of Time
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Yes
Final verdict: 6/10

Bull Elephant – Bull Elephant (UK)
Style: Post Doom/Sludge/Black (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

Let me tell you a story.

So there’s this elephant. Just living life, doing elephant things. You with me so far? So this elephant dies, right? I know you’re sad already but stick with me. So the elephant dies, but then some Nazi necromancers during WW2 decide “hey, what if we bring it back, right? Wouldn’t that be cool?” so they knock back a few more beers and head on over to the elephant resurrection plant. But THEN, a mysterious shaman comes out of nowhere and is all “Hell no you Nazi fucks that elephant is mine” and brings it back to life with weird Cthulhu magic and now the elephant/eldritch beast is rampaging and murdering Nazis. You still with me? Cool, that’s the concept of Bull Elephant’s debut album as best as I understand it.

If the concept seems silly that’s because it absolutely is. Let me tell you though, there’s absolutely nothing silly about the talent on display here. This album flies between doom, death, black, thrash, and prog metal at the drop of a hat and it’s absolutely fantastic at each and every style when the time comes. The guitars are crushing, the bass is thick and lovely, the drumming is incredibly varied and exciting, and the vocals are some of the most wonderfully manic and versatile I’ve heard in quite some time. They sound like Devin Townsend and Mike Scheidt fused into one person and decided to sing about a Nazi murdering pachyderm. It’s a marvelous fusion of sounds and I’m tremendously impressed that this is a debut album.

I’m honestly at a bit of a loss to describe this album in any way that will do the sound justice. Some moments sound like blackened thrash, some are sludge and doom, some are almost post-metal, while others are absolutely prog metal to the core. It’s exciting, as you never know where you’ll be taken next, but be sure that no matter what the sound is at any given moment this band has some fucking chops, and as per their social media another album is already on the way, so I can’t wait to see what comes next from these absolute madmen.

Recommended tracks: Bull Elephant, Corrupted Truth, Dread Reactor
Recommended for fans of: Boss Keloid, Goatwhore, Sunless Dawn
Final verdict: 8/10

Öxxö Xööx – Ÿ (France)
Style: it’s from France aka WTF (…strange vocals)
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Review by: Dylan

“Putain! Un autre album d’avant-garde français?” Where my initial thoughts when this came up in our November list. Anyone who’s been reading my reviews for some time knows I have a love-hate relationship with the French and their avantness. Their insanity has brought some of the greatest music ever made, and some of the worst. A particular album I was very harsh towards from the latter description [Dronte’s latest Ed.] got me into quite a bit of heat, but at the same time, my blunt hate towards them got a lot of people interested and actually got the band more fans than if I had given them a 5 or a 4. So… Yay I guess?

Now this album right here, Ÿ. I wish it was so bad that I could make the obvious joke that the name is Ÿ because “Ÿ would you listen to this”. But, to my disgrace, it’s actually quite good, if hard to listen to, avant garde.

For starters, this project includes a couple avant masterminds, being the personal project an artist called Laurant Lunoir, known for contributing in Igorrr. Igorr’s known for breakcore music with baroque influence, but has also done a fair bit of experimental black metal. Öxxö Xööx goes that extra mile with just a massive salad of black metal, baroque, violins, opera vocals, metallic harshes, black metal shrieks, and harsh spoken words. The instrumentation that accompanies all of this is astonishingly unharmonical, but in a weird, quirky good way. 

Most of the time, it seems like the track is trying to get its shit together, plummeting through all of its dissonance, building itself up and breaking itself down. There’s usually one moment per track, let’s call them climaxes for lack of a better word, where you’re rewarded for having paid attention throughout all of that weirdness, and the payoff is the same as you’ve been listening but in a digestible memorable setting. This makes the album very rewarding if you pay attention and really devote yourself to it. 

Needless to say, I find this album, to all my surprises, to be well done. But I can’t recommend this blindly to everyone. This is a very, VERY weird and tough listen. At it’s 79 MINUTES, this shit is a monster. Even I, who enjoyed it thoroughly, wished that it could’ve been just 19 minutes shorter. But, if you’ve been intrigued by it, by all means go ahead. It’s good… I think!

Recommended tracks: 9c639
Recommended for fans of: Igorrr, REALLY weird shit
Final verdict: 8/10 Baguettes