The Infinite Release of the Year Contenders thread

Hi everyone.

With only one month to go until we announce our release of 2021 for each clan (which will once again be based on our site ratings), Ben & I thought it'd be worth highlighting five key releases contending for each title in order to give everyone the chance to investigate some (or all) of them this month if you wish to. These were some of the more highly regarded releases in the progressive, avant-garde & post metal space last year:

Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" {Italian avant-garde tech death}

Papangu - "Holoceno"  {Brazilian avant-garde metal}

Between The Buried & Me - "Colors II" {US progressive metalcore}

Atvm - "Famine, Putrid & Fucking Endless" {English progressive tech death}

Thy Catafalque - "Vadak"  {Hungarian avant-garde progressive metal)

Some extra ones that I'll champion here: 

Kaatayra - Inpariquipê (Brazilian Folk/Avant-Garde Metal) 

Epiphanic Truth - Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species (UK Progressive Death Metal)

Altesia - Embryo (French Progressive Metal)

Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa - Corrupted Pillars of Vanity (French Progressive/Black Metal)

Turbulence - Frontal (Lebanese Progressive Metal)

This year was a pretty big one for Infinite Releases, turns out.

Thy Catafalque exemplify what it means to be progressive in 2021 and the easy winners in this category for me. Papangu was pretty solid as well for much of the same reasons. I had the same problem with Ad Nauseam that Xephyr did. Meanwhile, BTBAM was more of a nostalgia trip to the glory days rather than a transcendent experience; still a good album, but far from their best. 

Papangu - "Holoceno" (2021)

I checked out the Papangu album over the weekend & really enjoyed it. It's got a lovely late 60's/early 70's vibe about it & gets progressively better & better as you move through the tracklisting with the tracks get longer & more expansive. In fact I'd suggest that, despite the first four of the seven tracks being reasonably enjoyable, the record doesn't actually start reaching its full potential until the last three songs, particularly the epic ten-minute title track that closes out the album. I have to say that I'm baffled by the genre tags that seem to be associated with "Holoceno" though. Avant-garde metal? Not a chance. Nothing here sounds particularly avant-garde. Zeuhl? Not really, no. Sludge metal? There's absolutely no sludge here whatsoever. In fact I'd actually suggest that even calling this a metal record is a stretch because the metal component is really only visible for a small portion of the album. Progressive rock is comfortably the main focus here with heavy psych also playing a major role in the back end & I'm much more likely to reference Yes or Flower Travellin' Band than I am Mastodon or Melvins. The tone & aesthetic is kinda similar to stoner rock at times which is kinda cool (see opening track "Ave-Bala" for example). I think I can just manage to convince myself to accept a progressive metal primary as when Papangu do get their metal on they certainly make it count (as witnessed in the four minutes of pure black metal in "Terra Arrasada"). Anyway.. it's a really interesting listen & a quality release that fans of The Infinite should really investigate.

4/5

P.S. How the fuck did Torstein Lofthus (i.e. the former drummer from Norwegian avant-garde progressive metal outfit Shining) become involved with this bunch of Brazilians??

Papangu - "Holoceno" (2021)

I'm not sure that I'm completely convinced by this one. The individual tracks are all fine in their own right, but it just doesn't seem to hold together coherently and the myriad differing styles on offer sometimes make it feel like a label sampler of different artists. We have sixties / seventies style psychedelic rock, stoner rock, progressive metal and even attempts at sludge and black metal and while I can imagine any number of listeners getting off on this variety - and indeed no end of people on RYM seem to have wet their pants over it - I don't feel it is completely successful. One thing I really did enjoy that WAS consistent throughout was the percussion, which was fantastic with plenty of interesting drum patterns going on. An ecological message is always laudable (although admittedly lost on me  as I have zero grasp of Portuguese) yet I can't shake the feeling that this is aimed at a very specific audience. It seems like a worm on the hook for the well-meaning, liberal intelligentsia and aimed more at fans of Radiohead than Darkthrone, Judas Priest or Incantation. Maybe I'm not in the right place at the moment for this one and may return to it at some point when I feel more inclined to it's eclecticism, but for now I feel it is heavily flawed, although extremely competently produced.

3/5

What are your thoughts on the correct genre-tagging for "Holoceno" Sonny? It's currently tagged as Avant-Garde Metal.

I think for the purposes of the site it must be tagged as progressive metal. True, there are singular forays into more extreme genres, but not sufficient of any single one to merit a genre tag. Zeuhl is a genre I have never really understood the meaning of as I am not well-versed enough in it to comment. Possible additional, non-MA, tags are heavy psych or just psychedelic rock. Especially early on, the vibe is very late 60's psych. To be sure it is an eclectic release and is not easily pigeon-holed, but I definitely don't hear anything even remotely avant-garde - it can't be, it didn't give me a headache! But seriously, none of the tracks listened to in isolation are especially challenging and are of fairly typically structure, so I don't see where avant-garde comes into it at all. It seems that some people think if you put a saxophone onto a matal record then it instantly becomes avant-garde. So, for me it is a Progressive Metal album for the purposes of MA.