Spring is in full swing and summer is approaching (or autumn into winter for our antipodal chums), and 2026 is fully in bloom. If you missed it, check out our first ever discography ranking on Haken (a ranking that definitely wasn’t controversial…), and keep your eyes peeled in the next month or so for our favourite albums of the years so far post to mark the halfway point in the year! An appropriately colourful album of the month post accompanies the changing seasons today with a surfeit of great proggy releases from across the musical spectrum. We’ve got a full-blown prog metal symphony, a goliath stoner metal release, some oddly uplifting djent, a slab of avant-garde folkish black metal strangeness, rock of the Zeppelin comma Led variety, neo-prog that manages to shirk the genre’s general dullness, naturalistic black metal of expansive scope, and a powerprog perfect ten from our grumpiest reviewer. Get these sick tunes off the page and into your ears asap!

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Dimhav – Ondine
Recommended for fans of: Lost Horizon, Symphony X, Angra
Picked by: Andy

In four years of writing for The Publication, Ondine is the first 10/10 I’ve given (and fun fact: it makes Dimhav the first band in blog history to score two 10/10s). Ondine is simply perfect power/prog: a swashbuckling, glorious adventure where the high seas are a metaphor for the human psyche, matching Symphony X‘s The Odyssey for sheer epicness while broadening the emotional scope. Daniel Heiman gives perhaps his greatest performance ever, a remarkable feat considering he’s been a part of bands like Lost Horizon, and he routinely hits notes that seem impossible or belts out memorable choruses that ground the dense compositions. And the Lindroth brothers’ compositional and musical skills show their love of the prog tradition. In a genre I’ve loved since I first got into metal, Ondine has quickly ascended to an all-time favorite status, and it undoubtedly will for any fan of the genre who lets the brilliant, layered compositions soak in.

Recommended tracks: Tides Immemorial, Windward Bound, Pilgrimage, The Sunken Star
Related links: Bandcamp | original review

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Elder – Through Zero
Recommended for fans of: Baroness, Weedpecker, Khan
Picked by: Cory

Elder own a particular niche of heavy, progressive, psychedelic music. For well over a decade, they’ve been the stick against which all stylistic peers are measured, and their latest record only reinforces their standing. Through Zero draws from the different qualities fostered throughout the band’s career—the heavy, desert-tinged grit in Dead Roots Stirring, the ethereal atmospherics in Reflections of a Floating World, and the vintage, jammy feel in The Gold & Silver Sessions, to name a few—and masterfully wraps the best of each into a single work. Across the album’s six tracks, Elder cover a vast amount of sonic space with striking coherence. Captivating soundscapes, strings of memorable melodies, and consistently killer riffs underpin the group’s unmatched sense of compositional ambition and adventurousness. All the while, an impeccable rhythm section holds everything together with plenty of its own swagger. Through Zero is about as good as stoner metal gets, and is yet another gem in a discography full of them. 

Recommended tracks: Capture/Release, Strata
Related links: Bandcamp | original review

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Devin Townsend – The Moth
Recommended for fans of: Danny Elfman, Ihsahn, Hans Zimmer, Ayreon, Einar Solberg
Picked by: Christopher

The long-awaited symphonic experience from prog metal’s mad scientist arrived and, provided you like the musical-influenced, melodic, cinematic side of Devin, it lives up to the hype. A sprawling seventy-minute work accompanied by a full orchestra and with contributions from Lynn Wu (OU) and longtime collaborator Anneke van Gisersbergen, The Moth is a mammoth work in the vein of records like Empath, Transcendence, and Epicloud but with touches of Hans Zimmer and Joseph’s Technicolour Dreamcoat for good measure. Motifs ebb and flow, Townsend reels between vulnerable operatics and beseeching screams, brass quakes and strings pulsate. It’s an ambitious feat, one that’s pulled off with aplomb. While the vocals are a little pushed back and some interstitial sections become a bit lost within themselves, this is nevertheless top-tier Devy and well worth sitting with long enough to unpack its intricacies. 

Recommended tracks: It’s one long symphony so you should listen to the whole thing, but just listen to the first twenty minutes if you want a way in.
Related links: Bandcamp | original review

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Karmanjakah – Diamond Morning
Recommended for fans of: Vildhjarta, Tesseract, Periphery
Picked by: Noor

Three years after the release of the magnificent Ancient Skills EP, Karmanjakah return with a bright and confident musicality in Diamond Morning. Combining the visceral jaggedness of thall with dreamy, tranquil ambience is no easy task, yet Karmanjakah breathe life into this atmospheric combination with ease. Blast beating, galloping thall rhythms, and massive breakdowns litter the album with the genre’s heavy catharsis. However, Diamond Morning wouldn’t be complete without the equally important sparkling ambience, soaring vocals, and soft-spoken melodies that make the record an inviting, palatable listen. Some of the most complex writing of Karmanjakah’s discography is presented and elevated through the album’s crystal clear production, and there is no shortage of trills, bends, tremolos, and even some Middle Eastern musical influences. Diamond Morning presents a unique spin on an already extreme genre that is sure to bathe the listener in a bright warmth that feels like sunshine itself. 

Recommended tracks: Dove, Sun Astray, Thousand Horns, Diamond Morning
Related links: Bandcamp | original review

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Crown Lands – Apocalypse
Recommended for fans of: Rush, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd
Picked by: Daniel

Crown Lands have always worn their classic rock influences proudly, but Apocalypse is something more ambitious: a full-blown prog rock opera, complete with dying planets, dragon riders, and a rise-and-fall political narrative spanning the stars. The Canadian duo—Cody Bowles on vocals and drums, Kevin Comeau on guitars, bass, and keys—build a cohesive world here that Fearless only gestured toward, with every track serving a greater narrative whole. Bowles’ vocal performance is the centerpiece, a gravity-defying instrument that can shriek into the stratosphere like on “Blackstar”, or pull back into something fragile and lovely as on “The Revenants”. Comeau matches them at every turn with riffs that make your head move before your brain catches up. The nineteen-minute title track shows its seams in places, but the ambition never rings hollow. Apocalypse is the kind of record that makes you want a pulpy tie-in novel with a cartoony cover, and I’m fully bought in to the hype.

Recommended tracks: “The Fall”, “Through the Looking Glass”, “The Revenants”, “Apocalypse”
Related links: Bandcamp | original review

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Panopticon – Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet
Recommended for fans of: Wolves in the Throne Room, Agalloch, Saor 
Picked by: Claire

Rich in contrast, Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet melds throaty screams, back-breaking blast beats, and frosted riffs with tender, pastoral string arrangements and ecstatic, sweeping major-key motifs. Rather than existing in juxtaposition, these all exist as essential, formative parts of Panopticon’s whole. As a newcomer to the band, I needed to go no further than the jaw-dropping modulation six minutes into “The Great Silence, Extinct” to know I’d discovered a new favourite. But Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet has plenty more treasures in store for me: enthrallingly crescendoing climaxes, as in “The White Cedars”, the arresting tenderness of the clean vocals, sparingly employed, or the loon calls on closing track “Ghost Eyes in the Fire Light”, which evoke the wild expanse of nature that inspires Panopticon’s work. Like the landscapes it draws from, Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet is vast, untamed, and overwhelming, and I know I’ll continue to wander its reaches for a long time to come.

Recommended tracks: The Great Silence, Extinct, Woodland Caribou, Ghost Eyes in the Fire Light
Related links: Bandcamp | original review

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Advent Horizon – Falling Together
Recommended for fans of: Neal Morse, Transatlantic, Big Big Train, Rush, Steven Wilson
Picked by: Christopher

Proggier, heavier, and with a clear sense of vision, Advent Horizon’s return unexpectedly blew me away. Falling Together combines vocal duets, sprawling compositions, and moments of metal intensity to form a compelling reexamination of faith. Opening with a nineteen-minute overture, the group deliver an array of motifs upon which the album hinges. But what really counts is how damn catchy this album is, providing earworm hooks and thoughtful lyricism in a bed of groovy riffs, and impressive soloing. At the same time, the intricacy with which Advent Horizon craft their compositions is genuinely impressive given their effortless catchiness; Falling Together just keeps growing on me. As prog rock releases go, this one will take some beating in 2026. 

Recommended tracks: In a Lone and Dreary World, Faith’s Window, Patience
Related links: Bandcamp | original review

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A Forest of Stars – Stack Overflow In Corpse Pile Interface
Recommended for fans of: Arcturus, Ved Buens Ende….., Thy Catafalque, Oranssi Pazuzu
Picked by: Dave

When one submerges themselves in the extremes of metal, a sort of calcified, desensitizing shell materializes—what was once upsetting and aggressive becomes commonplace and soothing. A Forest of Stars’ Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface is the first record in a long time to strike through my carapace and induce genuine fear. The buzzing industrial interlude of “Mechanically Separated Logic” is utterly gut-wrenching, and the shrieking delivery of frontman Curse consistently leaves me on edge. Curse maintains nuance in his manic delivery as all the layers of his humanity are stripped clean in an acid made of pure anguish. In a sort of gruesome paradox, the instrumentation gently floats above scenes of squalor and misery, violins giving a sense of delicate cinema alongside disorienting tremolos in a through-composed songwriting framework. And yet, a bit of cheeky humor peeks through the record’s searing lyricism, adding a touch of levity to the fucked-up clown festival. Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface is the perfect listen when laughing in the face of a world that is trying to destroy us.

Recommended tracks: Roots Circle Usurpers, Ascension of the Clowns, Mechanically Separated Logic, Street Level Vertigo
Related links: Bandcamp | original review

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Non-Subway Picks

Seven Crowns – Haunted Head (alternative rock/hardcore punk)
Anonymous Bathonian underground alt/hardcore veterans Seven Crowns pull out all the stops on Haunted Head, an energetic and uncompromising work of ballsy riffs and arty curveballs with an elevated punk sensibility. Stick the title track on and you’ll soon see why a prog fan was turned, and before you know it you’ll be listening to the slow-motion explosion of the finale. An unexpected gem.
Picked by: Christopher

Lore – Psychotic Trance of the Black Nights (atmospheric black metal)
With only four songs, Psychotic Trance of the Black Nights makes quite the statement. Lore plays a particularly catchy style of atmoblack, one whose atmosphere is primarily achieved through shifting harmonies and melodicism. A particularly strong vocal performance pushes Psychotic Trance of the Black Nights over the edge, cementing it as one of my favorite May releases.
Picked by: Justin

Frozen Soul – No Place Of Warmth (death metal)
They say the third time’s the charm, and for Frozen Soul that turned out true. No Place Of Warmth is less evolution of the Texan outfit’s frostbitten OSDM sound and more a crystallization. The grooves are meatier, the drums hit like a yeti’s fist, and the choruses are catchier than hypothermia. They say perfect days are sunsets and beaches, but sometimes all you really need is blizzard riffs and soundbites of someone being fed into a snowblower.
Picked by: Vince

Hammock – The Second Coming Was A Moonrise (post-rock)
A plainly gorgeous, gazey piece of ambient post-rock. Whether in the background when your focus is elsewhere, or at the center of your attention, The Second Coming Was A Moonrise is as effortlessly enjoyable as it is meticulously composed. 
Picked by: Cory

[Ahmed] أحمد – Play Monk [Covers] (free jazz)
Like John Coltrane refracted My Favorite Things into something more sixty-five years ago, the UK jazz quartet [Ahmed] أحمد now does the same to a collection of Thelonious Monk standards. The new versions of Monk classics are innovative and lively, taking cues from the ecstatic nature of free jazz. Play Monk is lengthy and challenging, but it’s a masterpiece of modern jazz, continuing in the tradition and expanding upon it in a meta way.  
Picked by: Andy

All Them Witches – House of Mirrors (stoner rock)
The boys from Nashville come through with another eclectic work of bluesy bliss. Covering the spectrum from Americana to stoner metal, each track holds a remarkably distinct identity, yet House of Mirrors comes together in a coherent, totally badass whole. If any music we highlight on this blog can be called “cool,” it’s this. 
Picked by: Cory

Boards of Canada – Inferno (IDM, downtempo, hauntology)
With their first album in over a decade, the brotherly electronic institution Boards of Canada take an existential, sinister tour of faith on Inferno. A disconcerting collage of sounds and spoken word samples seem to disintegrate between ideas. The songs are cynical and cover a wide range of ideas over the large track list. “The Word Becomes Flesh” contorts the Gospel of John into descriptive anatomy; “Prophecy at 1420 MHz” is as nihilist as egotistical; and the faint begs of “Please” in the background of the haunting ambient of “Memory Death” seem antagonistic to the helpless listener. As the title suggests, Inferno is a nightmare trip into hell.
Picked by: Andy

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