Style: Avant-garde metal, free jazz, modern classical (Instrumental)
Recommended for fans of:  Imperial Triumphant, John Coltrane (Om, Ascension, Interstellar Space era)
Country: United States
Release date: 10 March 2026

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One of the main things that makes the prog artists we admire so great is the wide range of influences they draw from. But as prog fans, I think it’s safe to say we’ve all got artists we deeply love who occasionally release absolutely baffling—often outright bad—albums separately from their main projects in wildly different styles. Their overwhelming capacity for creativity simply cannot be contained by one moniker, band, or genre. A couple examples include Devin Townsend’s releasing several ok ambient albums and Colin Marston’s (Krallice, Gorguts) putting out an eight-hour long ambient record (Indricothere) and various oddball electronica things (such as Kheth Astron). Steve Blanco is the bassist¹ of Imperial Triumphant, whom I consider to be one of the greatest metal bands ever, and if you thought those avant-black jazz cats were weird and impenetrable, you’re utterly unprepared for Blanco’s new solo album, Shadow Arc Suite. 

The full instrumental range of the manifold mind of Steve Blanco is on display. His piano playing is eclectic on the record: his New York City jazz scene origins come through strongly in the seemingly improvisational nature of much of the Shadow Arc Suite; modernist classical technique and songwriting—perhaps even some serialism—dictate much of the album; and the avant-garde metal compartment of his brain comes through with the intensity to which he bashes the keys at climaxes. I’m not a music theory expert nor a pianist, though, and as much as I’d like to pretend to dissect this album technically, I can’t. His playing is impeccable, and it is only the choice of how to execution his vision I question. Even as somebody whose favorite John Coltrane album is Ascension, Shadow Arc Suite’s playing sounds like chaotic nonsense, a mix of violent note-spamming and more subtle impressionistic forays into texture. There is no traceable sense of melodic progression, and certainly no discernable songwriting movements. He effects some shockingly cool sounds from his ebonies and ivories, though, such as the vertiginous spiraling staircase of notes just past the first minute mark in “Shadow Arc Suite, Pt. 2.”

I would be open to an exploration of purely space and texture guided by Blanco’s virtuosic piano playing, but as it turns out, Shadow Arc Suite is nearly completely dominated by a deluge of programmed(?) blast beats—to some extent, Shadow Arc Suite is quite similar to John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space which is only saxophone and chaotic drumming, but without reaching the same ascendent peaks. The mix of Modernist piano and blast beats is novel enough to be intriguing, but there’s a reason we don’t hear many albums like this; the record gets a bit lost in itself, so absorbed in its strange mixture that it doesn’t even remember to explore the sonic space as fully as I believe Blanco intended for it to. 

The three movements all have the same general sound, but the minute differences are often the highlights. The fourth minute of “Shadow Arc Suite, Pt. 1” strips back the blast beats into a slow, eerie blend of piano, electric bass, and weeping violins. Much stingier with how many notes are played in that section, the composition is performed with much more intentionality. The atonal guitar chords haunting the background in “Pt. 3” create an ominous atmosphere, and is the section most redolent of Imperial Triumphant. I also enjoy the rain and synths that begin “Pt. 2,” as the downpour both recalls the barrage of drumming while providing a juxtaposition between the natural and artificial. 

Shadow Arc Suite is among the most hard-to-write-about albums I’ve covered in my time at The Progressive Subway. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if music theory aficionados are able to extract more enjoyment out of this record that a relative layperson just can’t, but as a theory neophyte, Shadow Arc Suite is impenetrable, try as I might to get into it as a record by such an iconic musician for me. I guess I’ll just be waiting for the next Imperial Triumphant record.

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Recommended tracks: Shadow Arc Suite, Pt. 2
You may also like: Wreche, Bríi
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Steve Blanco is:
– Steve Blanco (everything)

1. Who is primarily a pianist outside of the band. I regrettably missed out on covering his solo piano renditions of Imperial Triumphant tracks last year. ↩︎