Reports from the (progressive metal) underground: February 2018 (revisited)

Good day reader! Today we will be revisiting some early installments of the site. This is old y’all. I’m not sure any of you remember, but this entire thing started as me (Sam) posting notes to r/progmetal on cool underground prog metal albums I found on Metal-Archives. As such, the “reviews” you see here are not so much reviews as that they’re a short collection of initial thoughts on the music. Everything was a lot less professional than it is now, so please excuse me if some of these are a bit amateurish. I’ve largely tried to keep true to their original spirit, but since some of these notes were so amateurish, I felt the need to update them. It’s still largely the same text, but some reviews are altered a bit from the first time to reflect my thoughts on these albums more accurately. I also updated the FFO for each album, added recommended tracks, and updated the score if necessary. All reviews here are by me (Sam).

The original post can be found here.

Good morning/afternoon/evening r/progmetal,

And welcome to my second installment of my underground progressive metal series!

What is this you ask? This is a series in which I highlight underground progressive metal releases. I use metal-archives.com’s advanced search function for progressive metal full lengths released in (this case February) 2018. Then I click on literally all of them and intuitively pick about 10 or so records, which I will write a short review about here. However, this time I expanded my search to rateyourmusic.com and progarchives as well, as metal-archives doesn’t list any heavy prog rock/alternative, metal/math/deathcore or djent. I tried to make my list as varied as possible.

And as always, if there’s a record you came across (in any style of prog) you’d like reviewed by me, feel free to PM me and I’ll include it in the next installment of the according month of release.

So now that all that’s out of the way, let’s get to it!

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Dead on Mars – Arrival (Germany)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Twitter | Metal-Archives page
Style: symphonic death (instrumental)

Cool music I guess? It’s instrumental progressive/symphonic (modern) death metal, and while those are a lot of genres listed, this really doesn’t go beyond what you expect when you hear think of instrumetal (haha get it? OK sorry, I’ll stop). The riffs are… OK. The symphonic elements are… OK. The drumming is… OK. The guitar solos are… non-existent, which is a bummer. It doesn’t detract from the music though. So, overall the record is… OK. That’s a lot of …OK’s, but honestly there’s not much more to write about. I could say that you get the general modern death metal drum machine-like performance with hyper speed double bass and fills and that the symphonic elements have a bit of an epic feel to them, but that’s exactly what you expect them to given the genre. The only thing this is really good for, is background music for gaming. This would work well for a boss-battle or something, I guess.

Recommended tracks: Arrival, Of All the Vanished Worlds, At Race with Death
Recommended for fans of: idk, gaming background music?
Final verdict: …OK??/10

Astrakhan – Without New Growth Process Is Bloodshed (Canada)
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Style: sludge (mixed vocals)

This is easily the best thing to come out this month. Relatively speaking prog sludge isn’t a very common style of prog (there was zero of it in January for example) so I was happy to find a prog sludge album in February. (Prog) sludge/stoner is not a style I listen to often, but usually when I do, I enjoy it a lot. Astrakhan is no exception to this rule. WNGPIB is a very fast, proggy and aggressive album for the genre. The pace is more Blood Mountain than Red Album so to say. Have you ever heard a prog sludge song that starts out with shredding? Well, Dominion is exactly that and it’s really fucking great, just like this entire record actually. The album doesn’t reach The Czar solo-esque heights, but it’s an excellent record all the way through and will definitely keep you captivated. Mastodon fans especially should take a look at this band. It’s sad that they disbanded after this, because the potential is (was) very big.

Recommended tracks: Heaving Receiver, Dominion, Black Tourmaline
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, Baroness, Elder, Dvne
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Weend’ô – Time of Awakening (France)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | RYM page
Style: Heavy Prog (clean vocals)

Very pleasant prog rock with female vocals. It didn’t blow me away by any means, but this is very pleasant music. The rhythm section is tight and gets you grooving plenty and the vocals have pop sensibilities in a good way. I wish they’d crank it up with the prog though. For a prog rock record it’s a bit too straightforward at times imo. I don’t think anyone will dislike this, but this surely won’t make you go “wow” either. Just a good record.

Recommended tracks: first two are nice
Recommended for fans of: Riverside, pop Leprous
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Never We See – Let It Kill You (US-IL)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Style: Thrash/Death (harsh vocals)

To be honest, sometimes I just really don’t know what to write about an album. You know that feeling when the music is good, but you really have no idea why you like it? Well that’s exactly what I have here. Let It Kill You is a crushing prog death record with some thrash metal undertones. There’s not much more I can say about it except for standard crap like: “good riffs”, “cool proggy parts”, “the drumming is excellent”, etc. The only (semi-) original thing I have to say about it is that there are great softer sections. There’s a piano once, and there’s a violin in another song (which unfortunately is not as good as you’d like it to be). Maybe I’m overselling this since I’m very far from an authority when it comes to prog death, but to me, this was just a neat record. So if you like prog death, I’d say check it out.

Recommended tracks: Intentions of Revenge, The Sticks That Built My Funeral Pyre, Riddance
Recommended for fans of: Death, Suffocation
Final verdict: 7/10

Manigance – Machine Nation (France)
Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Style: Power (clean, French vocals)

One of the first thing I always listen to with this series is how the music sounds. Frankly speaking: does the band know what they are doing? A lot of bands I come across to have so-so production and cluttered songwriting. To me, this is the largest difference between good, well known bands and most of which you find in the underground. For example: Dream Theater‘s self titled is poorly mixed and the music isn’t great, but you can clearly hear they know what they’re doing. Their experience as songwriters immediately shows. And while the record you’re listening to is not particularly great, you can hear that they have made better stuff. And so the band peaked your interest.

Now ladies and gentlemen (or those of other sexual affiliations), Machine Nation is exactly that. From the get go you understand that Manigance knows what they are doing. Machine Nation is their sixth album and it shows: the songwriting is tight and the production is excellent. This is firm progressive (EU) power metal. The choruses are reminiscent of mid-period Angra and some of the riffs have a strong Pagan’s Mind vibe to them, but overall Manigance have their own sound. Oh, and the lyrics are in French, which helps with the uniqueness. It’s not a particularly memorable album, but you can hear that this is a band that can do (and has done) better, and that this is an average effort from a great band, rather than a decent effort from an average band. I recommend giving this a listen, and then moving onto their back catalogue. The debut is great.

Recommended tracks: Face Contro Terre, Ennemi, Indifférent
Recommended for fans of: Stratovarius, Angra, Pagan’s Mind, Symphony X
Final verdict: 7/10

Q’uq’umatz – Kukulkan (US-CA)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | RYM page
Style: Avantgarde (instrumental)

Now this really is a shitty excuse for an album. It’s just weird sounds thrown together with barely any idea or semblance behind it. This is a bedroom musician who had too much time on his hands and started fucking around a bit and then thought it was a good idea to make an album out of it. And you know what the worst thing is? This is his sixth (!) album, yes, his sixth. I still wonder how I managed to get through this album, because within 10 minutes you already know what the next 50 are gonna sound like. To me, this was boring as hell and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Recommended tracks: just… don’t bother
Recommended for fans of: idk, weird shit?
Final verdict: 1/10

Xenoblight – Procreation (Denmark)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Style: blackened thrash metal (harsh vocals)

First of all: how the hell did this get tagged as “progressive death/thrash” metal on metal-archives? There is absolutely nothing progressive nor death metal about this. This is pretty much straightforward blackened thrash metal akin to Black Fast (or so I’ve been told). The only thing which could qualify as “progressive” in here is that there’s the occasional tremolo spasms, which, maybe, sort of (not really), give a distant BTBAM vibe. And for the rest I guess that song structures aren’t basic as hell? But even then it’s not like they’re really adventurous. So now that the pretense that this is any way progressive is out of the way, let’s get to the music:

To be frank, Procreation is not very interesting. The riffs are mostly bland and unoriginal and the lead guitar is highly disappointing. There are some good riffs, but they are far in between and the mediocre ones drown them out. It’s mostly standard thrash fare that only stands out.

Recommended tracks: Descension, Shapeshifter, Nocturnal Manifestations
Recommended for fans of: Black Fast
Final verdict: 6/10

Kaisers Bart – Meister5tück (Germany)
Style: Power/Traditional (clean, German vocals)
Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

This review got waaayyy too long for this format, so if you don’t want to read my wall of text, there’s a TLDR at the end.

You know how in almost every prog metal review ever, there’s at least one sentence which goes along the lines of: “Fortunately this band is not another bad Dream Theater clone”, to then proceed to say how said band –unlike Dream Theater– does not wank (= soloing/showing off) endlessly for the sake of it, and that the music is coherent, original and emotional? Well, I’m about to shatter your hopes and dreams and do the contrary, because this is exactly one of those bad Dream Theater clones. That is except for the fact that it sounds more like Pagan’s Mind than DT (but whatever, those bands are similar anyway).

Now I’m sure most of you have already lost interest in Kaisers Bart and have either moved on to the next album review or you’re just reading this out of obligation to read the entire thing. But hold your horses, Kaisers Bart is not as bad as my opening paragraph made it sound. On the contrary actually, Meister5tück is not bad at all and shows a lot of potential for a debut album, albeit its flaws.

What immediately stands out when spinning Meister5tück is the dream-like guitar and synth tones. From this alone it’s already easy to deduce that Pagan’s Mind is one of their favorite bands. And the PM comparisons don’t stop there: the riffs bear a lot of similarities to the prog power giants as well, both in tone and in style. The production is also very much 2000s prog power with very heavy, crunchy guitar riffs. Lastly the vocals are every bit as operatic and bombastic as you expect them to given the genre.

The production is very uneven. The guitar and synths tones are incredible, however the drums sound quite muffled and the bass is often confined to the background. The lead guitar sometimes also inexplicably move to the background behind the drums and the rhythm guitar, causing the sonic pallet to sound off. Also while the individual tones are good, it has a tendency to sound like loose compartments put together instead of sounding a whole.

The songwriting here is excellent. For prog power it’s very emotional and heart felt music and Mischa Mang’s vocals are every bit as bombastically emotional as you expect from good prog power vocalists. He’s no Tom Englund (Evergrey singer), but he certainly holds his own compared to other famous singers in the genre. There are kickass riffs, but also softer piano and/or acoustic sections to make the music varied enough to keep you captivated. It can be cheesy at times, but that’s to be expected.

The solos generally have excellent structuring and melodic phrasing. However, I find myself often wanting more from Kaisers Bart than I get. I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but they should shred more. if you’re gonna imitate Dream Theater, you should be able to (warning: NSFW) wank so hard you have hentai levels of ejaculation. I find myself wishing they’d just go a little more over the top with their solos. Show off all your techniques and just how good you can play. Tell those guitar wannabees in their face just how much their skills suck and how much better you are at shredding than they are. If you want to stand out in this particular style of prog, you better show just how much of a guitar god you are. Good isn’t enough. Like Mike Portnoy once said: “My style is basically: ‘more is more'”.

So TLDR: Meister5tück is a very promising debut from the German progressive power metallers. However the production can be quite uneven, and for Pagan’s Mind/Dream Theater worship they should wank more. I’ll definitely be looking out to their sophomore effort.

[Editor’s note: upon revisiting this album a bit, I have to say I undersold it a bit in this review. The soloing is actually very tasteful in my opinion, going more for feeling than showboatery. An excellent melodic prog metal record all around.]

Recommended tracks: Verwirrung, Entstehung, Erlösung
Recommended for fans of: Pagan’s Mind, Dream Theater, Vanden Plas
Final verdict: 7.5/10

NovaReign – Legends (US-CA)
Style: Power/Thrash (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

I did not expect much from this to be honest, but I was wrong. NovaReign play a quite thrash-y variant of prog power. It’s guitar-first and aggressive. The songwriting is very tight for a debut album. Great riffs, incredible guitar solos and a very strong, thrash metal-like rhythm section are what makes this memorable. The lack of originality is a letdown, but don’t let that distract you from the quality of this record. If you just wanna hear some good proggy power metal, this is the place to go.

Recommended tracks: Call on the Storm, Mace of a Fist, Legends (tbh all of them are great)
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Angra, DragonForce
Final verdict: 8/10

Modern Day Babylon – Coma (Czechia)
Style: Instrudjental
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | RYM page

I don’t have much to say about this tbh. It’s a solid instrumental djent album. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t reach many heights either. There are a few guitar solos which elevate it, but other than that not much interesting happens. The riffs are pleasant and the production is nice. I’d say you’re better off listening to more well known instru-djent like Animals as Leaders or Plini, but it’s not a bad idea to check this out if you enjoy that style.

Recommended tracks: Dream Cycles, Timelapse, Waves
Recommended for fans of: Animals as Leaders, Plini, Earthside
Final verdict: 5/10

Maladie – Of Harm and Salvation (Germany)
Style: Avantgarde/Black (mixed, German vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Dear prog snobs, it’s time to fasten your seat belts and heighten your senses, because this is something that’s gonna take you on a ride and will demand all your attention. Maladie is a band that screams pretentiousness like few other prog bands can: insane song lengths, 9 active band members (of which one plays a sax), lyrics in multiple languages and the music is fucking all over the place. Originality is not something I find often in the underground and Maladie does not fall to this trap.

Are you a pretentious prog snob? This is all you have ever dreamed of. While a black metal record at heart, there’s elements of death metal, sax metal (I just invented that term on the spot ok), melodic metal, jazz, thrash metal and many other things to grab your attention. And to hype you even further: at some points this rivals even Ne Obliviscaris in terms of climactic value and the writing style is quite similar at times. It’s not as consistent as NeO (which is also this record’s downfall), but some of the heights reached in this record are absurd.

Are you a metalhead first, prog head second? Stay far away from this. This is a salad bowl of everything you hate about modern prog metal: overblown transitions, songs that are way too long for their own good that go nowhere are what you will find here. I recommend you move on to the next album, because this is not for you. To the prog heads though: absolutely check out Maladie. It requires some patience, but the payoff is highly worth it. I furthermore recommend going through their back catalogue as it’s just as good as what you hear in here. Still in particular is a masterpiece.

[Editor’s note: this is the album I have easily revisited the most out of the bunch, and I didn’t really mention in my review how much of a grower it is. This is one of those albums that takes multiple listens to sink in, so don’t write it off after only one listen.]

Recommended tracks: Depugnare, Profunditas, Renuntiatio
Recommended for fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Sigh, Arcturus, Solefald
Final verdict: 8.5/10