March 2024 "The Infinite" Playlist - Metal Academy Radio

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Wtb5QsNObO9w62f7ThQNF?si=66ecdedc63ba4612

1. Job for a Cowboy – Beyond the Chemical Doorway (2024)

2. The Ocean – Permian: The Great Dying (2018)

3. Ibaraki – Kagutsuchi (2022)

4. Last Chance to Reason – Archons & Acolytes (2024)

5. Artificial Language – Skinwalker (2024)

6. Intronaut – Prehistoricisms (2008)

7. Igorr – Parpaing (2020)

8. Teramaze – Perfect World (2024)

9. Periphery – Zagreus (2023)

10. Eidola – No Weapon Formed Shall Prosper (2024)

11. Hippotraktor – Silver Tongue (2024)

12. Stortgern – Xeno Chaos (2023)

13. Charlie Griffiths – Arctic Cemetery (2022)

14. The Human Abstract – Complex Terms (2011)

15. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name (2018)

16. Syncatto – Now Sink (2024)

17. Alcest – L’Envol (2024)

18. Leprous – Contaminate Me (2013) 

Here are my thoughts on some tracks:

Job for a Cowboy – Beyond the Chemical Doorway (2024)

5/5. Starting this playlist is a band that I never had the leeway to listen to in the year 2014 when I was in my power metal-loving teens, due to their death metal (deathcore in their 2006 EP) sound. But now that I'm in my 20s and can handle that kind of sound, especially in their more progressive material like their new album Moon Healer, I'm up for more! It's just way too good to lose, and the bass sounds audible and groovy.

 The Ocean – Permian: The Great Dying (2018)

4.5/5. My interest in this band seemed to have died out lately, but songs like this one still have their underrated greatness.

Ibaraki – Kagutsuchi (2022)

4.5/5. Violent yet melodic blackened prog-metal. How did I not hear this until now???

Intronaut – Prehistoricisms (2008)

5/5. And how perfect can this progressive post-sludge sound get?!

Periphery – Zagreus (2023)

5/5. This glorious highlight kicks the heaviness back to bloodthirsty brutality. This almost has a blackened vibe with the riffing and demonic growling. I haven't heard Sotelo sound so savage since when he guest appeared in Sikth's "Cracks of Light". Then the track closes with a cinematic orchestral ending.

Stortgern – Xeno Chaos (2023)

4.5/5. Standing out well is this track that bursts out more than a human-killing Xenomorph (unrelated). It truly is special as the progressive tech-death rises up in melody.

Charlie Griffiths – Arctic Cemetery (2022)

4.5/5. I hadn't listened to much Haken and Between the Buried and Me in the past couple years, but hearing the former band's guitarist Charlie Griffiths and the latter band's vocalist Tommy Rogers together is quite a treat where you get to hear a bit of BTBAM's signature deathly progressive metal sound.

The Human Abstract – Complex Terms (2011)

5/5. I just wish this band was still around. Their complex djent-ish neoclassical prog-metal sound rules, especially close to the one-minute mark then two minutes after.

Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name (2018)

4.5/5. This one is a bleak yet amazing song from another band that I should've listened to more of. The lyrics are some of the best here, and what makes it beautiful yet slightly laughable is the jazzy saxophone solos, one of them as early as the two-minute mark. Quite a groovy headbanger this track is! It will make you float out or orbit into the astral plane. I think I can hear where some of the more technical aspects of Lorna Shore came from!

Leprous – Contaminate Me (2013)

4/5. Horns up for one of the heaviest Leprous songs, featuring Emperor's Ihsahn!