Reports from the (progressive metal) underground: July 2019

So… Another one! I hereby present you the July 2019 edition of this blog. Unlike last time, I do actually have some things to talk about. There’s been quite some changes since last edition. First of all, let me introduce you to our new reviewer BaylorYou. You might recognize him from r/progmetal or their Discord as the person who discovered the amazing band Artificial Silence (and many others). We weren’t really looking for new reviewers, but I recruited him on a whim. He’s got great talent for finding underground stuff. We were all happy to welcome him. He only got on here last week though, so there’s only one album review from him.

Secondly, I have to mention that our resident beans lover and sludge fanatic Nostrebor68 is using his real first name Jonah from now on as his reviewer name because he wanted to put this blog on his resume. Also Dylan is not reviewing this time due to being busy IRL, so I reviewed a couple of albums to compensate. It’s an exception though, not the norm. Three reviews was definitely too much for me. He’ll be returning next edition.

Lastly what I wanted to mention about the changes is that I have updated the About page. It now includes a spreadsheet with info on all of our reviewers, and the other sections have been revised as well.

Now let’s talk about July. This month is pretty damn great! We have seven releases we felt justified to give at least a score of 8/10 to, and our second 10/10 album of the year following Embrace of Disharmony last edition. There’s also some bland stuff (and everything in between), but most of it is good this time. And here’s the Spotify playlist with all the recommended songs. Also I have to notify that next edition we’ll do the albums we missed from the first two quarters of the year instead of August albums.

So now time for all the practical information:

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.

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Gandalf’s Fist – The Clockwork Prologue (United Kingdom)
Style: Rock/Folk (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: Matt

When I saw the name “Gandalf’s Fist“, I said verbatim: “This will have a fiddle in it.” And I wasn’t wrong! However, I certainly didn’t expect everything else that I got, being uninitiated in the ways of the Fist. How stupid of me. This is a hugely ambitious album, the prequel to an even bigger one from 2016, and more devoted to its concept than probably any prog album I’ve ever heard.

Musically, The Clockwork Prelude is like Ayreon if it was mostly the folky bits, AKA Jethro Tull. The songs are lush with overdriven guitars, acoustics, retro synths, violins, and all manner of other things. There’s not much showy playing, and even the writing isn’t that complex when you strip the extra stuff away, but it’s fantastically realized and a joy to listen to. We’re in the deep end of self-indulgent prog here, but the band does it sort of ironically, and the songs are nicely accessible.

Between the songs, you have basically a full-on radio play being conducted by actors – good ones, even – and this isn’t like most cases where the interludes are useless fillers you skip. These are central to the album, and as skeptical as I am of non-musical elements in music, they do actually succeed in making this a different kind of experience. I didn’t catch the whole story beyond the broad strokes, but I have an impression of a huge setting like you would get from fantasy books. It’s impressive that they can convey such a well-realized world with likeable characters in this format and timespan. The voice acting is great, suitably hammy and often hilarious, with extremely British dialogue reminiscent of Douglas Adams. I laughed out loud several times, and especially liked the evil headhunter and the Primarch’s sycophantic herald.

While not as flashy or serious as I usually go for, I thoroughly enjoyed The Clockwork Prelude, and would recommend it to any fan of prog rock. For all of its ridiculous excesses, it’s actually a relaxing and fun listen. It’s probably even better if you know the companion album, which I suppose I will in short order.

Recommended tracks: Wardens, The Clokkemaker, The Lamplighter
Recommended for fans of: Ayreon, Jethro Tull, less technical 70s prog
Final verdict: 9/10

Atumatu – God Himself (Canada)
Style: Art Rock (instrumental)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: SharkTRS

Due to the lack of vocals, instrumental bands sometimes struggle to keep listeners engaged. Atumatu, an (almost) fully instrumental band would’ve been at risk of this if not for their ingenious use of samples throughout the album. They remind me somewhat of how Godspeed You! Black Emperor utilizes them, though with shorter sample length and much higher frequency, appearing in almost every song, generally multiple times. They’re not just present, too. Drummer and bandleader Quinn Downton excels in incorporating them into the music, exemplified by the first sample on the ninth track Catabasis. When I first heard it, I thought they’d brought in a rapper to feature on the album, but then I realized it was a sample that fit the song so perfectly that the drumming made it seem like a rap. It’s like something straight out of a David Dockery video.

The samples also contribute excellently to the overall atmosphere of the record, coming in at just the right moments to make this already expansive album feel even larger. This isn’t to downplay the incredible amount of thought put into refining the sound of God Himself. The album features a large cast of collaborators, all of whom add something unique. From the sax lead on Soundtrack to the melancholy banjo on the title track, Atumatu seem to be able to make anything work well on this album.

However, this album definitely isn’t perfect. Tracks 7 and 8 feel pointless. Both are short, somewhat positive-sounding ambient interludes, but they go on for far too long and the track that they build up to, Catabasis, feels entirely out of place on the album and fails to capitalize on the buildup of the previous two tracks. This isn’t to disparage Catabasis, though. It may very well be the best song on God Himself, but it doesn’t feel like it should be on it.

God Himself is absolutely worth your time, though, and multiple listens are quite rewarding as the album opens itself up more and more. Check it out.

Editor’s note: This album was made almost purely by r/progmetal Discord users.

Recommended tracks: Woodland Man, Castilleja, Catabasis
Recommended for fans of: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sleep Token
Final verdict: 7/10

Pattern Seeking Animals – Pattern Seeking Animals (Canada)
Style: Hard Rock (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: BaylorYOU

When I saw that Pattern-Seeking Animals was a side project from current and former members of Spock’s Beard, I both hoped and expected this to be one of the better releases of 2019. Before giving it a listen, I wanted to get an idea what to expect and saw a quote from John saying that the band members wanted to experiment with different ideas and sounds that were different from their past projects. The album starts out strong with the track No Burden Left to Carry. This track very cool and goes some interesting places, highlighted by the ambient pitch shifted vocal interlude followed by a tasty guitar solo. Sadly, the album slowly goes downhill as the album progresses. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some cool moments on the album (like the 4:15-6:00 mark of Orphans of the Universe), but the album is a lot of mildly-interesting/boring music with a few very cool moments sprinkled in between. Most of the album has a down-tempo-ballad type of feel to it…but one that lacks on impact.

Maybe I’m alone on this, but the album felt like a project where a group of super talented musicians got together to put out an album because they felt like they needed to, not because were inspired and/or excited with an idea. The album has a relatively standard run-time (at around 58 minutes), but it feels long… and not in the good way because many of the tracks feel like they never reach a satisfying payoff or release. A few of the tracks do, for example No Burden Left to Carry, Orphans of the Universe, and Fall Away… but it feels like they switch back to bland when they finally do reach something interesting, with the low points of the album being These Are My Things and We Write the Ghost Stories.

But with all of that said, the album is not terrible. It does have some really cool/interesting moments. The biggest gripe is that it just feels boring and safe, especially the second half of the album.

Recommended tracks: No Burden Left to Carry, Orphans of the Universe, Fall Away
Recommended for fans of: Spock’s Beard, Kansas, Genesis
Final verdict: 5.5/10

Arctic Sleep – Kindred Spirits (US-WI)
Style: Doom/Shoegaze  (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Official Website | RYM page
Review by: Jonah

I’m not enormously familiar with the -gaze group of subgenres. I’ve heard a bit of Alcest, a bit of Deafheaven, and I absolutely loved the Holy Fawn album from last year. Other than that though, I’m relatively unversed in the style. However, I saw an album marked as doomgaze, something I’d literally never encountered before, and just felt compelled to give it a whirl. So here we have the seventh release from a (mostly) solo project. Is this particular mix-up of genres effective? Let’s see.

The first thing I noticed was that I’m not a huge fan of the production. I’m not sure if it was the quality due to me streaming through bandcamp, or something else, but I noticed some clipped and the sound as a whole just felt kind of restricted. If there was a little more breathing room in the mix it probably would’ve done wonders for the album. That being said, there’s a lot to like here. The melodic writing for the lead guitar and the vocals is absolutely top notch. The traditional use of guitar effects and pretty, droning guitar leads that seems to be common in -gaze genres is used incredible well here. The bass is a bit low in the mix, but it’s used to good effect, really highlight the riffs throughout the album. The drumming is subtle, but consistently effective. There’s also a cello. And let me tell you, after spinning this album a few times, I’m about 70% just here for the damn cello at this point. Every time it pops in it’s just great. The vocals are another highlight, as there’s a large emotive range displayed throughout the album that just causes the sound as a whole to really pop. I also found the combination of doom with a much more optimistic and pretty musical style to be honestly quite refreshing. While definitely not the traditional level of depressive gloom one expects from doom metal, I think it works incredibly well for this album.

The production is a big downside here for me, but the music itself is just absolutely stunning. That being said, this album isn’t on Spotify, so it’s immediately terrible. Zero out of Ten. Put your damn music on Spotify, Mr. Arctic Sleep, otherwise I’ll keep forgetting to listen to it.

Recommended tracks: Meadows, Cloud Map, Eternal Sunbeam
Recommended for fans of: Holy Fawn, Lantlos, Have a Nice Life
Final verdict: 8/10

Gates to the Morning – Return to Earth (US-NJ)
Style: Post-something (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

I always bookmark the albums I review. My bookmarking system is pretty rigid. Every albums follows the same format: xx-yy Band – Album (style of prog, country), where xx-yy is month-day. And this album confuses me, genre-wise. It’s definitely prog, and it’s definitely post, also definitely has some black metal elements, and there are also some folk-y touches. Other reviews told me this is like prog/blackgaze, but since I have no idea what blackgaze sounds like it leaves me in the dark too. In any case, it’s a nice musical package. So how do I bookmark this? And let alone, how do I explain this to the reader? I have no idea, but I’ll try.

It starts with an atmospheric opener with an acoustic guitar, dreamy synths and some other cool effects. It sets the mood well, and immediately establishes the band’s talent for atmosphere. The second song is more representative for the heavier side of this band. It comes in with straightforward prog metal riffs, and after a minute or so descends in a spacy black metal attack. After that though the problems start to arise. It descends into an odd-timed chugging riff which doesn’t really go anywhere and the song fades out. It then flawlessly slips into the next one (which again has great atmosphere) and you’re kind of left wondering what just happened? Sure the vocals were great and the instrumentation is solid, but it just… ended?

This brings me to the main theme for how I perceive the album. They have album flow and atmosphere nailed down pretty damn well, but the individual songs are lacking. Sometimes there are standout ideas, and then it just plods along until the next attention-grabbing moment comes, usually a couple songs later. This is the type of album you listen to while studying or something else that requires a lot of attention, but is still nice to have some music in the background to keep you focused. Sometimes you’ll go “ooh” and “ah!” because of the occasional great moments, but for the rest it leaves you alone to focus on what you were doing. If this site were Angry Metal Guy, I’d probably give this a 5/10, but alas, it is not. This band definitely has elements that stand out from the pack, but they just need to shore up their act. Return to Earth is a promising debut, but they need to shore up their act if they want to achieve true greatness.

Recommended tracks: Crossing the Abyss, Rekindled
Recommended for fans of: Agalloch and other atmospheric and post-type things you know and I don’t
Final verdict: 6/10

Hyvmine – Retaliation (US-CA)
Style: Alternative/Djent (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: SharkTRS

On paper, Hyvmine is terrible. Their sound is best described as a mix of post-grunge and djent, with occasional Dream Theater-esque solo section. Going in, my expectations were low, dropping even further after spotting the genre tag “active rock” on it, looking at Retaliation’s atrociously cheesy single art, and reading the guitarist bill himself as genre-defining.

I was then completely blown away.

This album is a more modern, incredibly well-executed take on early 2000s Alt Metal that adds in more heaviness through integration of djent elements and experiences none of the pitfalls of the genre. The riffs hit hard, the vocalist is perfect for this band, and the mood is great for the kind of album that Retaliation is. Retaliation showcases these aspects the best out of all the songs on this record.. It’s a four-minute blast from the past that keeps you hooked through its entire runtime. The badass main riff had me hooked from the start, and when I heard the bellowed “YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” leading into the first verse, I knew I was in for something good. The lyrics aren’t anything special, but the singer’s delivery makes them work. I wasn’t on board at the start, but by the third chorus, I was silently singing along to the final “So shut your mouth, you best be still, because I’m built to kill!” It’s cheesy, yes, but it’s my kind of cheese.

The rest of the album is more like that. They don’t really vary the tone of each song by much, so go in expecting groovy, aggressive alt metal, because that’s what you’re getting, and if that’s what you like, then you’ll love this hopefully as much as I do. The only issue with this is that this album gets kind of samey after a while. Each track does have something that makes it stand out, but all of them have similar song structures, so they all blend together a bit.

I’m eagerly anticipating what these guys will do next, and I plan to get to their older stuff as soon as I can. Especially among prog fans, I’m not sure how much appeal this album has, but if it sounds good from what I’ve said, absolutely go for it. It’s badass.

Recommended tracks: Assassins, Retaliation, Demoness
Recommended for fans of: Alice in Chains, Three Days Grace, Nickelback (no, really)
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Dream Tröll – Second to None (United Kingdom)
Style: Power (clean vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

Hailing from the aptly named city of Leeds, Dream Tröll are a bit of an enigma. This is some of the most commercial-sounding metal I’ve heard, with vocal parts and riffs so bouncy and carefully honed for catchiness, it’s almost got a pop-punk vibe (see first song, first verse.) On the other hand, they’re all wearing battle vests and the band is called fucking Dream Tröll, so you can hardly doubt their metal credibility. This duality was on my mind throughout the album. It works… but it’s strange.

Image aside, the most important thing is whether the writing is up to par. I’ve already mentioned that they can write earworms for days, but luckily, they don’t leave it at that. The riffs are straight-ahead traditional metal, but sometimes pretty intricate and heavy, and the songs have more depth than it initially seems. A couple of tracks go more epic-format and hint at an experimental, atmospheric side. There’s just about the right amount of stuff going on here – nothing too unusual, but you get the sense that the musicians really know what they’re doing via various background leads, unusual staggers, etc. It’s clear that everything is being meticulously done by professionals, but most of all, it sounds like they’re having fun.

The vocals are as smooth as a Pop idol, reminding me tonally of Scar Symmetry‘s newer clean singer. In that band, they’re a deliberate contrast to the growls, but here it’s that style all the time, which is maybe a little much for a raucous heavy metal album. Still, the singer is good. The poppy vocals are offset by lyrics that would make Hammerfall blush, with hamfisted tales of battle, revenge, and multiple offenses of fire/desire. They’re basically awful, but in a comfortable, familiar way.

This album is pretty much trying to drag 80s metal kicking and screaming into the modern mainstream, while defiantly keeping the most ridiculous parts of it front and center. It’s sort of admirable, but some purists will be put off by how clean-cut it is, and I don’t imagine normal people accepting the cheese. (“What are you listening to?” “Dream Tröll… ladies.”) However, if you’re a metal fan who likes that side of things, this is a solid piece of work with its heart in the right place. I have to admit, it’s nice reviewing something where most of it clicks on the first listen.

Recommended tracks: Steel Winged Warrior, I Will Not Die Today, Legion
Recommended for fans of: W.A.S.P., Dream Evil, Sega Genesis title screens
Final verdict: 7/10

Maelstrom Vale – Silhouettes (Canada)
Style: Death (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Tyler

I felt like I listened to two separate albums at once when I was listening to Silhouettes, and not in a good way. This is the flip floppiest record I’ve heard all year. I can sort of see what the band was going for when they were putting it together, but the execution was missed by a pretty wide margin. There is an ambitious attempt to be this heavy metal plus a 70’s progressive rock band and it’s weird and makes me uncomfortable.

Starting with the heavy metal parts: not so good, guys. The guitar riffs are unimaginative, as are almost all of the elements. Nothing is surprising and no risks are taken with this aspect of the album, right down to the production. Everything sounded really claustrophobic, there wasn’t anything in terms of space or dimension. A little bit of reverb can go a LONG way in terms of thickening up the sound. Without it, you get heavy metal that sounds like cardboard, which is mostly what I heard. The most distracting part of the record was the vocals. They sound like that kind of yelling you do when you don’t want to wake up your parents, but also caught in the throat of the vocalist, so it comes off as this performance that never sounds like it was never given it’s all in the first place. Every song has all of these problems, and they don’t get better.

Now that that’s over, what’s going on with the prog parts? They are actually pretty rad for the most part. It’s sort of crazy, almost every problem with the heavy aspects of the record are fixed or at the very least taken into consideration. There are interesting melodies in both guitar and vocals, actual processing on the vocals as well, which helps immensely. The Fear of July has a lot of great moments that involve some pretty entertaining play between the guitar and a flute. These moments are not common, but they showed up enough to keep me interested in the next section coming up.

From what I could find on the band, it looks like the band has broken up since Silhouettes came out, which is never great, the world needs more bands. Maybe they’ll come back with more of the sound that made this album worth listening to.

Recommended tracks: The Fear of July
Recommended for fans of:  The prog parts sort of sounded like Beardfish I guess.
Final verdict: 3.5/10

Bushwhacker – A Fistful of Poison (Canada)
Style: Cowboy Sludge (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Sam

A good friend on Reddit of mine of username /u/Ulti was adamant that I’d listen to this album and review it. I was told that it was one of the best and most original things of the year, so my expectations for this were pretty damn high. Now I’m five listens in and… I still don’t know what to think.

There’s one thing for sure: Ulti was on point about the originality aspect. Struggling to come up with any real comparisons myself, I looked up what other reviewers had to say on this. “Mastodon meets Voivod” seemed to be the consensus, and while I can’t comment on the Voivod comparisons since I haven’t listened to them yet (it’s criminal, I know), I can definitely hear the Mastodon influences. And to be more specific, it’s Blood Mountain era Mastodon I’m talking about, which can especially be heard in the high tempo, fill-happy drumming, and of course in the sludge riffing. This is after all, a (progressive) sludge metal album.

What’s more about Bushwhacker’s sound is that it takes a lot of elements from post, black and death metal. In the upbeat moments they generally have a bit of the aforementioned Mastodonian sludge metal sound, but at the same times the songs are very spaced out and have post metal-like buildups, both of which become abundantly clear in the first two songs. In their more intense moments however the music can reach almost Death Metal levels of aggression (see: Brother in Blood). The black metal elements slip through with some tasteful use of tremolos as both a means to accentuate intensity and to develop the atmosphere. This band really does it all. There’s even some Iron Maiden-esque use of harmonies and phrasing in the guitar melodies and solos. It’s a pretty wild combo of things that really take a couple of listens to sink in. 

Another big component of A Fistful of Poison are the lyrics. I’m usually not one to put much effort into lyrics, but since they are a central part of this band’s identity I had to discuss them. As you may have noticed from the album art, and the fact that I labeled this “Cowboy Sludge”, is that this band has a Western theme, with also some crossover to Egyptian mythology. A Fistful of Poison is a full-blown concept album with spoken word tracks to boot about cowboys who worship the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek through a hallucinogenic plant taken by squeezing it into cuts in your palm (hence the “kissing crocodiles” that comes up frequently). A barkeeper in The Saloon tells them they should ride west to The River Black where there’s an ancient temple with a cult of Sobek worshippers. I won’t go into much detail on the further plot, but the gist of it is that it was basically a sham by the barkeeper as the cowboys eventually die in the cave (which was supposed to be the temple). If you want to read more about the plot, read the review on CanThisEvenBeCalledMusic.com They went into full detail on everything there. And for all it matters, the barkeeper is my MVP of the story.

Now before I conclude this review I have to make some final remarks on the album. Production-wise it is just excellent all around, with a nice thick guitar tone, powerful, weighty drums and great fitting vocals which take exactly as much space as they need to. It’s a very throat-y growl that’s surprisingly articulate and light on the ears for harsh vocals. Honestly I’d say even folks who are usually turned off by harsh vocals wouldn’t mind these. 

This album, however, is not without its flaws. Bushwhacker have this annoying tendency to stay in the same place for too long, making it sound repetitive. The album takes more than 10 minutes until the first real song comes about, as the first two are more (nearly) instrumental overtures and the third is spoken word. Then on Knives and Teeth they repeat the same groove for the entirety of the song, and The River Black also takes two minutes to get going. From there on the filler is largely eliminated, but the slow start really hampers the album’s replay value. They definitely could have cut a couple of minutes there. And what’s more is that their softer sections definitely don’t pack the same punch as their heavier parts, making the record feel even more bloated. Also some of the spoken word parts tend to be a bit corny.

Overall, A Fistful of Poison is a very innovative, well-written record. It takes a couple of listens to sink in properly, but on the flipside it’s the type of album the reveals more on each listen. If originality is something high on your list, Bushwhacker is where you should go, andI’m not one one to gamble, but I bet my ass this album is gonna massively please some Mastodon fans as well. Keep away from the crocodiles though. Dem boyz mean trouble.

Recommended tracks: Knives and Teeth, The River Black, Brother in Blood
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, King Gizzard, Russian Circles, Voivod (apparently)
Final verdict: 8/10

Freighter – The Den (US-CA)
Style: Everything (mostly harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Tyler

This album is bonkers. I’d never heard of Freighter before this release, there was no expectation of what I was eventually going to fall face first into. These folks are a Frakensteins monster of basically every hardcore/heavy genre you could think of. That’s a lot of things it could be, and somehow The Den is all of them at once.

The raw energy of mid 2000’s hardcore shines brightly and prominently, while at the same time, incredible riffs of modern rock and metal bands are infused perfectly, and soaring above it all are goof ball-iest, over-the-top lyrics this side of The Manx. And then everyone in the band knows their jazz too. The songwriting and musicianship exhibited here are on another level. Songs like Stick Around And Do It Right Until You Get It Perfect push every creative muscle to the limit, and even then, Freighter seems like they can go another 20 percent further. I could have picked any of the other seven songs, and everything would still have been true.

The CRYSTAL clear production on this offering is sublime, and only adds to the experience. There are a lot of layers and textures that peek out just enough to make you smile when you notice them for the first time (shout out out the pan flute on Presto Change-O). I couldn’t nitpick anything on this one, which upsets me because I love to nitpick. But I loved every choice that was made on the production. Okay, fine. MAYBE the bass is too hot at some spots. Whatever, dude.

This review isn’t long. It doesn’t need to be. The album is a really quick listen, so it seems fitting. Take a few minutes to get your head pushed inside of itself by it. I hope you find something you like in this, because it’s probably there for you. You like punk? It’s in there. You need a death metal break down? Freighter’s gotcha, guy, listen to King Pigeon. What’s that? You only listen to pinball machine sound effects and noises? Easy peasy. The aforementioned Presto Change-O is the song for you. I don’t like to gush often, and I haven’t truly loved an album since 2014. But if the first few dates are any indication, The Den might just be where my heart is.

Recommended tracks: All of them
Recommended for fans of: Converge, Mutoid Man, The Manx
Final verdict: 10/10

Chaos over Cosmos – Chaos over Cosmos (Poland)
Style: Tech/Melodeath (mixed vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Matt

Coming off of a well-received debut album last year, this prog duo has changed singers and appears to be going through a reinvention of sorts. The resulting EP is far different from The Unknown Voyage, but the ethereal ambience and shredding are intact. Rather than “epic power metal plus everything,” it sounds like they’re trying to blend the “mashing 16th notes in Guitar Pro” approach of Animals as Leaders and various tech death bands with the more metalcore-ish aspects of late-2000s Soilwork. This includes the vocals, which have been rebalanced towards harshes. Clean choruses show up of course, though not quite with the same polished sheen as the genre’s frontrunners.

I really should be disappointed with these guys for switching from a genre I like to something trendier, but honestly, I think guitarist Rafal Bowman is much better at writing this stuff. The heavier riffwork is a huge improvement, and the pacing is more even with no forgettable parts or average melodies. The last one was more exciting in what it was trying to be, but this is executed better.

The most instantly-noticeable asset here is the lead playing, which is pretty nuts. This is basically the ultimate form of tapping wankery, with barrages of bizarre arpeggios meticulously composed and played at lightspeed, along with the required couple bars of bending to prove you can still feel things. It honestly sounds pretty sterile and un-guitarlike – not really a negative – but I wonder how many punch-ins per solo there are, because it is so clean it sounds programmed at times.

That artificiality permeates the album, from inhumanly tight editing, to programmed drums (extremely well-done though,) to the smoothed-over sort of mix that 80s guys like to bitch about. However, I don’t particularly care about that if the composition is good, which it is. This is one of the better things they’ve made me listen to, I mean, I chose to listen to for the blog, and the next full-length should be especially great if they swing for the fences like on the debut.

Recommended tracks: there are three of them.
Recommended for fans of: ????
Final verdict: 8/10

Psydonia – Psychedelic Darkness (US-LA)
Style: Post Sludge (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

I’m reviewing far too much sludge this week. Don’t get me wrong, I love sludge, it’s enormously heavy, tends to have some seriously massive vocals, and as many people know I’m a sucker for a good riff. The problem is that a lot of sludge ends up sounding super samey after a certain point, and if you listen to, say, 3 or 4 albums in the genre in a row it eventually just all blurs together. So now I find myself reviewing 3 sludge albums in one edition of this site, and I seriously need a break.

All of this being said, this Psydonia album isn’t half bad at all. Is it particularly creative or original? Not really, no. But it does a tried and true style very well. That particular style happens to be the Neurosis-esque atmosludge/post-metal combo that has become all the rage as of late. This album is full of long atmospheric passages that capitalize on some really neat riff-work and seriously massive growls. The bass is thick and well produced as well. The drumming isn’t particularly impressive, but it works well enough.

All of this being said, I have two major issues with this album. One, the songs are generally lacking in the memorable climactic moments that make really good post-metal. Second, the album is only 30 minutes long and it still somehow felt like it was dragging in places. This is largely, I think, due to the lack of dynamic changes throughout the album. The type of music changes, as does the level of heaviness, but the speed is always plodding and slow. Some changes in pace would have done wonders I think.

So, is this album bad? No, definitely not. But I also don’t think I’ll be returning to it.

Recommended tracks: Alfred Packer, The Swarm, Crimson Tusk
Recommended for fans of: Neurosis, Thou, Morne
Final verdict: 6/10

Tanjiir – Purnima (US-IL)
Style: Post Rock (instrumental)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: Sam

This album is made by a friend of mine from the r/progmetal Discord going by the name of @ritzii. He has no idea I’m reviewing this though. I’ll try to be unbiased. What we have here is essentially an instrumental post rock album with some heavier moments. Now I have to say my experience with post-anything is marginal at best, so don’t trust my opinion. The tone of this review will hence be purely subjective as to my enjoyment of this record.

For what it’s worth, I enjoyed listening to this. The man’s clearly got a good sense of composition and melody. It didn’t wow me by any stretch of the imagination, but I did enjoy listening to it. Purnima is a very gentle album. This band makes you drift along their soundscape like you’re on a cloud of cotton candy, while providing enough climactic moments to prevent you from drowsing off. It’s soothing, spacy music that’s just really relaxing to listen to.

I really don’t know what else to say, so I’m gonna conclude this shitty review right here. I enjoyed listening to this, and if instrumental post rock/metal is something you enjoy, I suggest you check it out.

Recommended tracks: Hypergiant, On the Shores of an Endless Ocean
Recommended for fans of: Nautilus and other post rock/metal
Final verdict: 7/10

Botis – Grand Abominations (US-PN)
Style: Black/Thrash (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Tyler

This sure is a black metal album. I wish there was more that I could say about it. The vocals are loud and angry, the drums are blast beat heavy, the guitars are tremoloish and dissonant. If you are expecting much more than a Black/Thrash album, I don’t know if you will find what you are looking for here.

To start off: This is not a bad album. There are plenty of things to appreciate and enjoy here, even as someone who doesn’t live in the black metal scene. The performances are all great. The band does a great job of keeping the energy relentless without things ever sounding like they had lost their way. There are a lot of interesting rhythms that I wasn’t expecting. Specifically in the song Deluge, the hard break that happens during the guitar solo is done really well. I loved that the mood of the song didn’t change even though the intensity was brought down. Similar things happen in Yggdrasil throughout the song, where things slow down and take time to explore new ideas. It is a gorgeous section of an album that more or less homogenizes for most of the run time.

Like I said, this album sounds a lot like other black and thrash projects out there, almost like they are following certain rules and beats that need to be hit. The production is really standard for an offering like this. Pretty grimey, sometimes a little hard to tell figure out what each part is doing. There is a lot of compression, which is to be expected, but it comes as a deficit to the high end. The part of the mix that should stand out and be a little more crisp gets lost and comes off as wooly, which leaves everything sounding a muddy in an unintentional way.

Botis did nothing wrong on this album. Everything from the song writing, structure, and performances was a solid and on par. But there wasn’t a lot past that. Yggdrasil was a brief window into a sound that the band could benefit from expanding on and really give themselves a slice of real estate in the massive Black Metal realm, but aside from that it was just like every Black/Thrash project you’ve ever heard before.

Recommended tracks: Yggdrasil
Recommended for fans of: black metal and black metal accessories
Final verdict: 5/10

Sūrya – Solastalgia (United Kingdom)
Style: Post/Doom (instrumental)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Review by: Jonah

So I didn’t know this album didn’t have vocals when I volunteered to review it. I didn’t do any research into whether it would, or would not, have vocals, because honestly, who the fuck would make instrumental doom metal? Doom has such a reliance on vocals to be a driving melodic force in the music, it just seems entirely bizarre to have a form of the genre without that element. Lo and behold, Sūrya comes out of the woodwork and tries to prove me wrong. The question here is, do they?

No, not really. I can still say, with absolute personal certainty, that I would have enjoyed this album more with vocals, even minimal ones. As it stands, the album contains scattered spoken word samples but is otherwise entirely instrumental. There’s a big focus on slow, drawn out riffing from both the rhythm guitar and bass the really build a structure onto which the lead guitar and the drumming can expand upon. The drumming is exciting and dynamic for the most part, avoiding a lost of the traditional doom pitfalls of boring repetition and minimally creative fills. The lead guitar is melodic and provides a wonderful level of atmosphere to the the various tracks on this album. But man, even with all this, I just wasn’t all that interested in these 30 minutes. It didn’t drag, but I can’t recall much of the music and I just wasn’t particularly enticed.

Perhaps there’s someone else in the world that will enjoy some instrumental sludge/doom more than me, but this definitely isn’t my particular cup of tea. That being said, in no way can I call it bad by any stretch of the imagination. So if instrumental Doom sounds interesting to you, please give it a whirl. Maybe you’ll like it a lot more than I did.

Recommended tracks: Anthropocene, Black Snake Prophecy, Saviours
Recommended for fans of: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Neurosis, Russian Circles
Final verdict: 5/10

Throes – In the Hands of an Angry God (US-ID)
Style: Sludge/Post-Hardcore (harsh vocals)
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | RYM page
Review by: Jonah

Okay so the other two sludge albums I reviewed for this edition were varying degrees of underwhelming or boring. So it was with some trepidation that I approached this album by Throes, as I really, really didn’t want to snooze through some more uninspired atmosludge. Then I turned the album on and was being immediately assaulting by some balls to the wall, heavy as fuck proper sludge and suddenly all was a little more right in the world. This is the particular brand of Sludge that one might find in northern Louisiana, the brand where the Hardcore influences are worn on the sleeve and the guitar distortion and vocals are straight nasty. This album is gloriously heavy and I adored every moment of it. Was my enjoyment influenced by how much noodly, atmospheric junk I had listened to leading up to this? Possibly. But god damn I had fun with this album.

The riffs on this bad boy are just fucking huge. I mean absolutely massive. We’re talking Thanos’ big honking purple chin massive. They smack you in the face when the album starts and they really don’t stop. Add to that some exciting tremolo riffs and a thick layer of bass grooves, some blast beats and almost death metal drum fills, and you’ve got a recipe for some real spicy metal music. Now, even an adequate vocal performance would’ve left you with a really strong sludge album, but Throes instead decided to recruit an actual demon to man the microphone. The roars and growls throughout this album are fucking gigantic, and felt like they were digging into my ears and melting my brain.

This is the good stuff folks, if you’re looking for a massive heavy music fix look no further. Let this album absolutely destroy you a couple times and all your dreams of roars and riffs will come true.

Recommended tracks: They Never Spoke, Derelict, Ruin
Recommended for fans of: Primtive Man, Allfather, Cult Leader
Final verdict: 8/10