Arcade Messiah is a one-man progressive metal project from Ireland. This is his third album.
Although there are some vocals on this release, it’s mainly instrumental, with the man behind the band making sure that the music has the starring role.
The songs are the kind of modern, progressive Continue reading “Arcade Messiah – III (Review)”
Teksti-TV 666 are an alternative rock band from Finland. This is a compilation album of sorts, consisting of three EPs that the band have previously released.
This is an interesting and irregular release. It’s kind of a mix of bubblegum-pop with Continue reading “Teksti-TV 666 – 1, 2, 3 (Review)”
This is the third album from this Greek black/heavy metal band.
Now this is an interesting release. 14 years after their second album, Agatus return with even more of a progressive/heavy metal approach to their music.
70s progressive rock and NWOBHM influences collide head-on with the black metal background of the group, making for an album that sounds little like any of their contemporaries.
The closest I can come to compare with other bands would be a crazy fusion of Rotting Christ, Vintersorg and Countess, all given a workover by NWOBHM and 70s progressive rock. or something. All I know is it’s infectious, addictive, individual and bloody good.
The black metal aspects Continue reading “Agatus – The Eternalist (Review)”
This is the début album from Messa, a doom/drone metal band from Italy.
Messa provide the listener with almost an hour of occult retro doom and dark ambience.
This is akin to a strange-yet-effective mix of Sunn O))) and Pentagram, with deliciously seductive female vocals included. Some tracks are dark ambient/drone, full of mysterious atmospheres and distorted malice, while others take Continue reading “Messa – Belfry (Review)”
Goddess are a Norwegian progressive Doom rock band, and this is their début EP.
Originally appearing in 2014, this is a re-released, remixed, remastered and expanded version. As this is my first exposure to Goddess, I can only assume these changes have improved The Withering, as it is quite an impressive release.
This is one song Continue reading “Goddess – The Withering (Review)”
This is the fourth album from UK Doom Metal band Camel of Doom.
This unusually named band play experimental Doom Metal that contains elements of Progressive Rock, psychedelia and a bit of Sludge Metal alongside the usual genre trappings. Continue reading “Camel of Doom – Terrestrial (Review)”
This is the début album from Finnish Progressive Metal band Perihelion Ship.
I like a good bit of Progressive Metal and was intrigued by this release in particular due to the striking cover art.
Featuring Hammond organ and mellotron, Perihelion Ship have captured the essence of 70s Progressive Rock and combined it with a more modern Metal influence à la Opeth and the like to produce a very enjoyable album that mixes both eras well.
The vocals alternate between cleans, screams and growls, depending on the needs of the song. As mentioned previously, Opeth are a clear influence here, but this is only a starting point for Perihelion Ship and they have enough of their own personality and style to make A Rare Thunderstorm in Spring their own. It’s also quite interesting that as the album progresses the band seem to almost come into their own more and more, with the Opeth influence receding further and further into the background. Intentional? Who knows.
The tracks are atmosphere-heavy and full of light and shade, with the music reflecting the different vocal styles in many ways. There’s good depth here and it’s easy to return to this release for further listenings.
The album is crowned by the final song, the title track, which is a 21 minute epic that rounds the album off in impressive fashion.
A recommended listen.
The Great Curve are from the US and this is their second release. They play experimental/Progressive Rock.
The Great Curve play an interesting and richly-coloured form of Rock that involves a complex blend of technicality and emotion.
The music has a certain cinematic quality to it and could easily be viewed as a soundtrack of sorts. The tracks are synth, keyboard, strings and piano-heavy, featuring layers upon layers of instrumentation and vocalisations. This is Progressive Rock in the truest sense, sharing common ground with 70s sci-fi-influenced greats, albeit updated for the current era.
The singing on these tracks is used purely as another form of instrument that blends in with the overall musical framework. There are no “lead vocals” as you would expect from most bands, (well there are, they just blend in with the music so well). This leaves the band in the curious position of kind of being an instrumental band, but with vocals, (as odd as that sounds).
This is just one of many contradictions and juxtapositions that the band heartily embrace in order to get the sound that they have. Another example of this is that The Great Curve sound, in some ways, like a Djent band only without any of the Djent guitars. Yes, I know that also sounds odd, but it’s a strong impression; the band have the technical drumming, electronic enhancements and experimental mindset that good Djent can have, but without any of the Djent guitar riffs that mark the style so well as to make it an easily-stale sub-genre.
So, if you take a Djent band, (minus guitars), add a Devin Townsend influence, add a science-fiction-esque influence, add a touch of the instrumental, (maybe Russian Circles or Cloudkicker), wrap it up in Progressive music and frame it as a soundtrack…it’s a good start to understanding The Great Curve.
Or you can just give them a listen, which I heartily recommend.
There’s a lot to enjoy here, so much so that you’ll need a few spins to properly appreciate just how good this is. For all its initial impact, it’s definitely a grower too, like all of the best music really. Something Grand Is Dying worms its way into your head and stays there, subtly working away at its own agenda. Before you know it you’re returning to it again to revel in its sense of grandeur.
Hopefully, this grandeur isn’t dying; hopefully it’s just getting started. Hopefully, there’ll be more where this came from in the future.
This is the début album from Maïeutiste, who are a French Black Metal band.
This is a long one – 76 minutes of Black Metal that’s grim, mysterious and not afraid to experiment and stretch the tenets of the genre.
Maïeutiste is infused with a playful experimentalism involving elements of Doom, Jazz and Progressive Rock. Traditional Black Metal is the core of their sound though, so don’t mistake this for a free-form, substance-free exploration of whatever the band feel like; instead we simply get Black Metal that adds to, and spreads out from, the core of the style, like a grand contagion.
The music sweeps like a cloak of darkness and the performance is varied and interesting. One moment you could be listening to misery-drenched Depressive Black Metal, and the next you could be listening to a stirring, epic refrain akin to the best that Viking metal has to offer. This is one example of many and demonstrates the talent and ability of Maïeutiste.
It still sounds coherent though, which is an important factor when considering a band like this. It doesn’t sound all-over-the-place and it’s not too varied as to make you wonder how it all fits together; under the darkened funeral moon of Black Metal, that’s how, as this makes up the bulk of the material here.
It’s a long and involving album, but ultimately a rewarding one. Check out Maïeutiste and see if it hits that spot for you.
He Whose Ox Is Gored are a Progressive Doom band from the US. This is their début album.
The band have in interesting and individual take on music, fusing elements of Doom, Progressive Rock, Shoegaze and Psychedelia, into a tight ball of Progressive Atmospheric Doom, (for lack of a better term).
This is music that uses Doom as a base and adds Progressive Rock and Shoegaze elements to it to create something a bit different and a lot special.
The music has multiple vocal styles, delivered by both male and female singers. These are diverse in delivery and used sparingly as necessary to complement the needs of the songs. Frequently understated, but always relevant, the vocals act as additional instruments used to enrich the music further.
Synths are employed to enhance the already well-textured songs and allow the eclectic music to have a firm, emotive foundation on which to build their diverse music.
This is highly textured music that plays with mood and emotions freely and easily. There’s a resplendent Post-Metal quality to the music that rubs shoulders with the grittier nature of the Doom influences and harsh male screaming, as well as the in-the-background-but-essential-anyway nature of the synths.
The Camel, the Lion, the Child is an exemplar of individualistic music done right and a shining example of a band ploughing their own path through the overburdened musical scenery. If you like music with a lot of character that isn’t afraid to be itself then I heartily recommend this album.
Wonderbox Metal 