Meet the Team

Here you can read up on our reviewers, what their taste is, what they look like, etc. There’s no way of telling what we smell like though, so we’ll leave that up to your imagination.

Self-proclaimed prog metal boomer and hater of all things djent and (metal)core. My main occupation in life is studying math (doing a master-level stochastics track currently). Besides music listening, my hobbies are animanga (favorites are One Piece, Kingdom, and Jujutsu Kaisen), singing, Buddhism, and outdoor activities like cycling or hiking (or well, just walks since there are no mountains in The Netherlands :(((( ).

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Christopher is the second Chris to join the Subway so is cursed to use his full name. He is not bitter about it, honest. If you’re on reddit, he was the perpetrator of those “underrated prog artists” posts on r/progmetal during Covid. He enjoys music, literature and film, loves dogs, is mildly allergic to cats, doesn’t know much about eels, and when he grows up he’d like to be a dinosaur. Despite being from England, he doesn’t drink tea and is therefore a disgrace to his nation—he’s not particularly bothered about it.

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Ask any of Andy’s peers irl or on the Subway [editor’s note: he has an awful personality]… he consumes music at a frightening, unsustainable pace–yet he sustains. He always has his headphones on. Beyond listening to music in his limited free time outside of school, you can find Andy making/consuming coffee, writing poetry, running, playing ultimate frisbee, disc golfing, reading fantasy books, collecting CDs (somebody tell him it isn’t the 1990s), taking care of his aquariums and gecko, bullying discussing music with his friend Zach, playing Zelda, fishing, and (obviously) organizing his music spreadsheets and notes like a nerd.

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A lover of all things weird, dark, and theatrical, Zach found his love for prog at a young age by being the son of a Dream Theater fan. In middle school, he heard Opeth’s “Ghost Reveries” and BTBAM’s “The Great Misdirect”, which would set the template for what he’d be listening to for years to come. When he’s not reviewing or at work, he spreads his time between reading and writing SF/fantasy (Joe Abercrombie, Pierce Brown, and Tamsyn Muir are his favorites), trying to find an anime that scratches the Mecha itch he always has, and trying his hardest to be good at guitar.

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Doug awakened his love of prog metal in a fever dream while listening to Images & Words as a teenager. Although his tastes have expanded since the early days of Dream Theater-seeded Pandora stations, that traditional prog sound still forms the core of his listening preferences. When not sifting through new album releases or working as a web developer, he spends too much time playing video games and not enough time outdoors hiking and cross-country skiing.

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Since before he can remember, Cooper has been obsessed with all things music, and ever since he heard bands like Tool, Dream Theater, and Mastodon, he’s been obsessed with all things progressive metal. When he’s not spending his time studying, Cooper can be found reading fantasy novels, playing video games, and writing music of his own.

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Sabrina (formerly Sebastian) loved progressive metal before she knew it existed as a genre label of its own. Gateway bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, and some of Avenged Sevenfold’s artsy, more involved songs had sparked a passion that drew her to more progressive bands. As the dominos of causation fell, she dug deeper into the obscure regions of the genre – to the point where Sabrina developed a lifelong love and dedication to the genre. Outside of the music world, she is currently a philosophy graduate student at the University of Arizona and is a ranked SSBM player. Sabrina has been co-organizing the blog with Sam since 2021.

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Francesco is a Toronto music photographer who originally hails from Palermo, Italy. He can often be found silently judging opening acts at local shows and complaining about the venue’s stage lighting and beer selection. As a fan of classical literature, medieval history, and baroque music, power metal was his first beloved metal style. Francesco also has an interest in linguistics and speaks six Romance languages fluently. He is one half of a thrash metal project titled VIAM MORTIS, and an inconsistent synthwave artist.

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Chris’s descent into the prog-sphere happened around the age of 11 when he sneakily bought a copy of Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness at FYE without his parents knowing. He plays a lot of stuff in a lot of bands. He does studio drumming on the side for bands local to his area, in the region, and abroad. He has one dog with a very large head.

When not listening to music or playing music, he enjoys video games, film, manga, and works a lot with area animal shelters training dogs for jobs or for going to good homes.

From his humble beginnings as a weird nerdy kid discovering Rush and Dream Theater through Guitar Hero and library CD rentals, to his current status as a weird nerdy adult with a massive Spotify library and a modicum of skill with actual real-life instruments, Ian has always been passionate about music. Though he focuses on the more progressive side of his music taste for his Subway gig, he’s a devoted genre omnivore and a big believer in there being no such things as guilty pleasures, only bangers. In addition to writing (occasional) reviews, he enjoys D&D and all other forms of tabletop games, hiking in the lovely mountains of his current town, and trying way too hard to impress people at karaoke bars.

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Dave has always been a fan of music, finally branching out into prog with his discovery and subsequent obsession with Rush in high school. Over the years, Dave developed a taste for odd and syncopated rhythms and likes to learn about all kinds of music. When Dave isn’t listening to music, he is learning to un-tame himself, engaging in hobbies like primitive camping, forestry, and gardening. When he’s not outside, Dave enjoys statistical programming, linguistics, and annoying his husband.

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Akhila

Want to become part of the Subway team?

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