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Heretoir are a German atmospheric black metal band that have been around for a surprisingly long time. I had never heard of them prior to being introduced to them late in 2025 and their new record, Solastalgia. And the only reason I gave it my attention at this point in the year is because I was told it was right up my alley in the style of black metal that I typically enjoy. Well, that friend was right because Solastalgia is like a modern day love letter to Agalloch's Ashes Against the Grain.

Now I do need to choose my words very carefully from here on out, because Ashes Against the Grain might be one of my favourite albums of all time. And Solastalgia does more than enough to separate itself from Agalloch. In fact, the main reason why I enjoy Solastalgia so much is because of how much it shares in common with a band like Svalbard. This is huge sounding atmospheric black metal, but with a hip, metalcore front. The promotional single "You Are the Night" and "Burial" are far less in common with Agalloch, but no doubt matching in instrumental beauty. The acoustic passages on "Seasons of Grief", the piano bridge on "Inertia" and the earthly tonal center of "The Heart of December" are undoubtedly Agalloch in presentation.

Perhaps it is ironic then that Heretoir named their album Solastalgia. A word whose etymology is a portmanteau of the words "solace" and "nostalgia". Nostalgia is a word typically associated with positive thoughts and emotions, whereas Solastalgia is the antithesis; where the places and people that you once knew and grew up with have all changed and have become affected by the passage of time. As such, it is less surprising that Heretoir are developing the sound of Agalloch to places that band could have never gone. And with this bands roots in depressive suicidal black metal, the grief and distress felt within the music and lyrics hits with its meta commentary that I never expecting out of a black metal album! Although, if I'm being nitpicky, a few of the lyrical choices to feel quite cliche and could have been written by nearly anyone.

Despite all my praise for the instrumentals so far, I do have to mention the obtuseness in the percussion. I think that it sounds fine and it's performed with an extreme level of precision, I just feel like the drums are mixed way too close to the front. At the beginning of "Dreamgatherer" it begins with a pleasant clean guitar with reverb and before you know it, the percussion is playing on top of you and the guitar melody has nowhere to go. It also becomes rather intrusive during blast beats like the bridge of "Solastalgia" among others.

All told though, I really enjoyed Solastalgia. The band really captured the essence of the word here; an album that has aspirations of Agalloch, brought into the modern age with metalcore and blackgaze textures. It will be a struggle for those who just want to enjoy Agalloch, but if you're willing to come to terms with Agalloch not coming back (and Ashes Against the Grain being nearly two decades old), then I can assure you that this album is a clinic in modern day post-black metal.

Best Songs: The Ashen Falls, You Are the Night, Dreamgatherer, Solastalgia, Inertia

I can't say I'm really a fan of Atheist. Piece of Time was a kind of a let down to me: I can see them being ahead of their time in complexity and technicality, but the band just sounds so convoluted and seems to trample over itself to the point that I don't really enjoy the album very much. This release on the other hand, is a whole other beast! The band sounds somewhat lighter, with a clearer production and better execution, particularly on the vocals, which sound way more on point. Composition wise, they really went through the roof, leaning very heavily on their jazz influences to make what sounds pretty much 50-50 death thrash and jazz fusion. This was very much the correct decision, as this is where the band's insane musicianship and chaotic nature really gets to shine it's brightest, the result being some of the most interesting metal releases I've ever heard, perfectly balancing awesome complexity, sheer heaviness and plain fun. Honestly, not a single bad minute on this, absolutely incredible record.

One can't deny that there's a punk factor in thrash, as much as some purist metalheads might want to.  Voivod, however, celebrated that fact by pumping it up.  In some ways this is practically a crossover thrash album, and a major step forward for metal inventiveness.  Maybe this is largely neglected because the album is so complex?  Either way, this is the personality the band has chosen, and it actually helps a lot.  Now their technical abilities are quite impressive, but it's the inclusion of the punk factor that keeps the album from degenerating into guitar wankery.  While a little samey, the crossover aspects allow the band to display an incredibly unique personality for the time, and just allows the band to have a lot of fun.  Hell, the singer Denis Belanger knows it, and boasts his hardcore punk style vocals proudly and loudly.  And that's not all: they found a way to include the sci-fi experience here, the whole mechanical, cyberpunk, anti-dystopia vibes both lyrically and musically.  As well, the punk factor gives it quite a bit of replay value as well.  Now personally, I'd say the sameyness keeps this from a total five stars.  But if you said this was your favorite thrash album, I most certainly would never, ever, blame you.

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Earlier this year, I listened to the debut record from the Cleveland gothic doomgaze band 1692 and I found it a mostly enjoyable, if a little same-y listen. I had very little experience with this sound prior to hearing Frayle earlier this year, so my expectations as to what this style of music could sound like were very slim. It still has the strong foundational presence of a traditional doom metal album, but one listen to those monotone, and heavily modified vocals of Gwyn Strang and you can tell this is not standard procedure.

In relation to this album, I can tell that Frayle have putting in some modest work to improve this sound. Shoegaze is a genre not typically known for its sweeping development and growth so good on the band for taking that style to new heights. While the record is still doom metal, you will notice a few more contrapuntal melodies in the guitars that compliment the vocals very well. The percussion on Heretics & Lullabies also makes big strides forward with the subtle arrangements between the individual tracks; the record does have many similar tempos, but not all the songs feel like they are in the same style thanks to the percussion. And the vocals have some really cool touches; whether it be the Glados filter on "Demons" or the sparse, but effective harsh vocals on "Boo" and especially "Heretic" as a vocal layer instead of being its own segment.

The downside is that the record doesn't really maintain its momentum all the way through. Like with 1692, about half way through, Heretics & Lullabies gets caught in musical purgatory; where none of the songs provide enough distinction to make them stand out among the rest. I enjoyed "Glass Blown Heart", but then "Hymn For The Living" and "Run" sound remarkably dull by comparison. "Heretics" tries to get back on track, only for the final track "Only Just Once" to continue in the same vein as the last song! As for the first half, it's very interesting, but it can also be incredibly cheesy at times, most notably on "Boo". But hey, at least it got me to like a Lana Del Rey song...so that's a big win I guess!

Overall, the record Heretics & Lullabies is a solid improvement from the debut, but leaves me wanting more. Maybe that's asking for too much out of this style of doom metal, but the pacing is mediocre at best and many deep cuts lose their focus. The production is the highlight and keeps the record sounding solid from start to finish. It's an album that would fit right into my sleeping playlist with how peaceful it sounds...and maybe that was the point.

Best Songs: Walking Wounded, Demons, Glass Blown Heart, Souvenirs Of Your Betrayal

For an album that is forty-minutes long, Mass V sub-consciously plays as an EP in my head as the run time appears to go much quicker than that over the four songs on the album. I am not entirely sure if this is because I lose presence with it on too frequent a basis, but even under a few critical listens the effect is the same. My overarching impression from my first few listens has been that the balance of styles is well executed. Amenra drop pure doom riffs seemingly from out of nowhere, whilst constructing with studious detail post-metal passages that ease between more sludge-driven moments, still retaining the overall sense of unease in the process of the ebb and flow.

Tracks such ‘Dearborn and Buried’ are real tense experiences, the atmospherics doing little to ease the sensory overload that comes from the consistent sense of threat in the sound. With desperation a key impression that comes out of the listening experience, especially in the vocal department, I feel that I get to this understanding by way of the sense of conflict between the instrumentation and the vocals. If I use a Stoic philosophical comparison to demonstrate. If we consider life as a crashing and bashing tide that batters against the rock (us) and that we must try to remain steadfast in the face of such hardship, then it is easy to bill the deranged nature of the vocals as being the tide on the instrumentation. Given the obvious talent on show in Amenra though, they cleverly switch this to have the vocals remaining strong against the assault of the instruments.

Yet at the same time, if you take the ending of ‘Boden’ as an example, then it is also clear that both elements can be wielded with great effect, creating the tumult of the storm onto the listener who is now being used as the rock in our example. This “good cop/bad cop” routine works well because it avoids being a disruptive force in the musc. With the epic length of ‘A Mon Áme’ deploying an agonising build-up of over ten minutes, I do sense a weakness in the Amenra line. Whilst it is exhilarating when the riffs and percussion do finally ignite, the length of time to get there feels unnecessary in the end given you can easily predict it is coming.

Thankfully, the balance is restored on final track, ‘Nowena | 9.10’ with what is the most Neurosis-influenced track on the record. Clear in its emotional depth, the riff and percussion structures are quite simple in comparison, and this juxta positioning works well. For me, this is the standout track on the album and is a perfect closer to proceedings. So, having come into Mass V in a dismissive mindset following my experience of the two Eps that the band released this year, this record has restored my interest in them. The album possesses an unusual level of accessibility given its chaotic approach at times. The succinct track listing helps this accessibility as well as belying the level of intelligent songwriting that is on display.

Throughout the years, I can honestly say that I've never had an issue with In Mourning. They have made some pretty solid progressive death metal throughout the 2010s, but every time I visit their music, it either comes at a time when I'm not really interested in that style of music, or another, more potent progressive death metal album has just released which keeps my attention longer. The Immortal is likely the first time I've been able to fully enjoy an In Mourning album and coming to realize just how good they are. The album might have progressive as a primary genre tag, but if you're expecting the kind of wonky, abstract prog metal of Dream Theater or Between the Buried and Me, you'll likely be let down. The songwriting is very solid with some very good melodic themes and dynamics. The growth of some of the themes might be a little lacking, but tracks like "Song of the Cranes" and the closer "The Hounding" show that fully developed motif. The album as a whole is a brisk listen with the expertly placed "Moonless Sky" interlude. My one complaint, which isn't so much of a complaint more than it is an observation, is Tobias Netzell's harsh vocals. For a death metal album, they do feel a little bit on the weaker side; they almost remind me of Matt Heafy of Trivium, which likely means the use of the fry vocal technique. It isn't a determent to the album; in fact, it probably gives the heavier sections a little bit more character than other similar death metal albums, it's just something I noticed that caught me off guard.

This record won't win any "heaviest albums of 2025" awards, but for a few moments, The Immortal was a captivating listen. The fullness of the instrumentation, combined with some very subtle progressive song structures make it stand out. Like In Vain last year, it's surprising that this album made it here as late into the year as it did, but better late than never I suppose!

Best Songs: Song of the Cranes, The Sojourner, North Star, The Hounding

P.S. I thought for sure that I had reviewed this album before once I saw the album cover. It bears a striking resemblance to ...And Oceans The Regeneration Itinerary. Just a friendly warning for those wanting to check this out.

Veilburner seem to occupy the same rarified atmosphere within which I would normally encounter Blut Aus Nord, Dødheimsgard, Deathspell Omega or even Oranssi Pazuzu. They are distantly rooted in black metal yet at the same time are multiple football fields away from the genre. On the death metal side of things there are comparisons I could draw with Akercocke and Portal, which are fine benchmarks to be scored against. With this being my first ever listen to the band, my early impression was that this was not a duo that was with or indeed without their own sound or style. The mish mash of influences that had leapt out at me from what at the time of typing this had been just four tracks was intriguing to say the least. Yet, whereas on other, more avant garde releases I would have either hit the skip button multiple times or simply switched off altogether, there was something that kept me in the room with Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy.

Now, it could have been that after consecutive days of listening to conventional black metal, I was just more open to something different. Those dissonant tremolos certainly made short work of the seconds as they danced chillingly along my nerve-endings, whilst those squally riffs seemed to rapidly grow a horrifying backdrop of noise for the more extrovert elements to sit atop of. Yet for all the individual elements that are in play at any given time, I have found it very easy to plot my way through the tracks as they pounce on me. There is also enough memorability to them to permit me to understand them as isolated pieces as opposed to the album becoming just one chaotic glut of noise. A more critical listen leads to me to think the reason for this is that the tracks themselves have very clear points of progression. This is perhaps too hard for me to explain in words for some readers, but riffs have a clear start and end to them. Sounds odd I know, yet this element of closure gives me traceability across what could otherwise soon become a disorientating affair.

This succinctness that sits behind the dissonant and transcendental apparitions that are conjured by the rest of the music acts as an anchor almost. I feel that because of it, I can truly pay attention to all the album much better. As a fan of BAN, Deathspell Omega and Oranssi Pazuzu already, there are elements here, such as the vocals, that are not offering anything new most certainly. The admiration comes for the crafting involved in putting all eight of these tracks together. Thematically exploring trauma, death, infinite reincarnation and the desperate futility of lives that make the same mistakes and meet the same end, this is not the most cheerful of subject matters to be committing to tape. Such ideas remind me very much of Akhlys, who are one of my favourite artists over several releases now.

Yet, the more I listen to the album the more I find it veering away from pretty much all the territory I have called it out for inhabiting already. The rich lead work of ‘Ouroboreal Whorl’ and ‘Matter o’ the Most Awful of Martyrs’ have an almost post-metal level of clarity to them, for example. There is a seemingly purpose-built level of tameness to the record that only reaches the surface with repeated listens, and I find that remarkable for such a challenging piece of music, yet I have already called out the concise nature of part of the album already. Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy is the perfect album title for the work on display here. The record is a triumph yet achieves this with no loss of that sense of stinking human tragedy.

It's safe for me to say that An Abstract Illusion may just be my new all-time favorite band. Each and every one of its 4 releases is a 5-star monumental masterpiece. And it shows that my love for extreme progressive metal won't die soon. The perfect streak continues yet again in their new album The Sleeping City!

The 3rd album from this Swedish blackened progressive melodeath band is another flawless journey. The synths and atmosphere wouldn't be too far off in a soundtrack for sci-fi film franchises like Star Wars and Blade Runner. The heaviness is also fitting for the psychology of humanity. You know the cities that never sleep, like New York and Vegas. Whichever city is referred to in the story is the opposite that, and one to explore if you dare...

The first of the 7 songs here, "Blackmurmur" already cuts to the chase. No 3-minute intro, just a swift entry into one of 3 epics that each last 11 minutes long. Those keys appearing in front lead into melodic riffing for a grand start. The momentum is kept in shape by the heaviness and melody battling each other in the atmospheric wasteland. Truly a vision emphasized by the guitars and keyboards! "No Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons" starts off clean in the guitars briefly, then comes the heavier storm. The guitars and drums strike as the harsh vocals slash, with some light from the cleans. Each side of the coin outshines the other while maintaining the balance. Simple yet complex! "Like a Geyser Ever Erupting" is the song that, after a few years of me stumbling across scattered tracks, has given me a "LISTEN NOW!!!" kind of demand. The fantastic prog-death erupts like a volcano throughout the first two minutes before clean sections starting popping up. By the end, the storm of aggression would indeed tear down the holy mountain mentioned in the previous album.

"Frost Flower" is a smooth track with dreamy melody coming from the synths and clean vocal harmonies. It's not always warm when the cold wrath returns for some time. Still a pleasant break from the storm. "Emmett" is the second 11-minute epic, and when the storm comes back, it's absolute complex rage! The guitars, leads, and keys are all embraced by the chaos that only become somber by the end. Incredible!

"Silverfields" is a short under 4-minute keyboard interlude with some metal at the last minute. The 10-minute title finale starts off heavy in the rhythms. Keys and cleans are still around for the last bit of sanity before all is consumed by a deathly black hole. And then it all ends with piano melody floating in the empty void.

The Sleeping City is filled with the fury, melody, and complexity all expected in blackened progressive melodeath. It's the kind of offering that would make an instant classic and please many more listeners than before. There's enough melody for the softer listener, enough brutality for the heavier listener, and enough intricacy for the more progressive listener. Basically a hidden artifact of progressive melodeath. This will make my top metal albums of this year list for sure!

Favorites: "Blackmurmur", "Like a Geyser Ever Erupting", "Emmett", "The Sleeping City"

An Abstract Illusion is an underground metal band from Sweden, but it is with this album Woe that the band's popularity started to grow above ground to some extent. They've already made progressive death metal history with Atonement is Nigh and Illuminate the Path, and their next album continues that perfect streak. Of those 3 albums though, Woe gets the golden medal!

While the sound here is generally atmospheric progressive tech-/melodeath, other different genres are incorporated. Sometimes it leans into blackened deathcore in the tremolos and breakdowns. Don't get it twisted, this ain't Lorna Shore! The brutality is balanced out with melody from the guitar harmonies and clean singing.

Beginning the album is the intro "The Behemoth That Lies Asleep". Just like the previous album's intro, it's 3 minutes long and starts slow before cranking up the metal. "Slaves" also follows that similar pattern as the heaviest and most deathly song here. "Tear Down This Holy Mountain" is the first of two 10+ minute epics. After a haunting rising intro with clarinet and spoken narration, the heaviness comes back on, with lots of experimentation.

"Prosperity" segues from the previous track, sounding more catchy especially in the breakdown. "Blomsterkrans" is quite long for an interlude at nearly 6 minutes, but it's nice and peaceful with background cello, violin, and a Swedish voice sample.

Heading into the final leg of the album, "In The Heavens Above, You Will Become a Monster" is a 14 and a half minute epic with some of the best progressive death metal I've heard in my life. It doesn't feel too long, and there's nothing repetitive. All just solid variety to let the time fly by! The finale "This Torment Has No End, Only New Beginnings" can be embedded to the previous track to make a 24-minute epic. That song title is relatable for me planning to start a new chapter of my life, except for the "Torment" part.

All you can find in progressive melodeath is right here in this hour-long trek of Woe. I can't find anything I would consider filler here. All this work must've been really worth it, considering the 6-year gap since their debut. It might just be a new beginning for progressive metal in the new decade!

Favorites: "Slaves", "Tear Down This Holy Mountain", "In The Heavens Above, You Will Become a Monster", "This Torment Has No End, Only New Beginnings"

I've only just started listening to An Abstract Illusion full-time after a few small glimpses of them over the years via some songs in the Infinite playlists. Nearly a decade after forming, and two years after their EP, they've released their full-length debut Illuminate the Path. Perhaps the best album of 2016!

As I've mentioned earlier, the band's style is basically progressive melodeath with elements of atmospheric black metal. I guess a more accurate description would be more complex. Speaking of complex, that's how I would describe the Opeth-esque progressive structures, standing side-by-side with the extreme drums of Fleshgod Apocalypse and the epic atmosphere of Wintersun. Not as many symphonics as those latter two bands though, but everything else comes together in a beautiful offering.

The 3-minute intro "Breathe. Create. Beauty." picks up where the EP has left off, with the same melody as the end of the EP's final track. Then everything rises with the atmosphere of both Hopesfall and October Tide (two different bands from each other). Then we blast off into "Abode of a God". The deathliness of melodeath bands like Dethklok, Ex Deo, Kalmah, and Omnium Gatherum and mixed together in a progressive cauldron that you would really want a taste of. The best vocals in this album come together in the highlight "Drop This Planet of Dust". I love the clean vocals when they blend well with the progressive melodic black/death elements, especially that dimensional section from the 4 and a half minute mark onwards. There are fantastic progressive influences from Omnium Gatherum and Persefone, as well as those other aforementioned bands. Delightful melodeath-inspired progressive metal!

The title track is the first of 3 lengthy 10+ minute epics, and it's more progressive, around the same level as Textures. There's one song with lyrics written in Swedish instead of English, that being their next epic "Vakuum". Apparently it was written quite early on in their career, and it's probably the best one of the entire album, possibly by the band. The intro is so beautiful, as is the rest of the song.

"Talvatis" is another short interlude with doomy atmosphere coming from Black Sun Aeon. "Skeletons of Light" is the epic of the epics, at 16 and a half minutes, with one of the best ending sections. I still prefer that previous epic though. Their bonus cover of Windir's "Svartesmeden och Lundamyrstrollet" shows them doing justice to the original.

Now before I conclude, I just wanna say impressive the band members are, 3 musicians with two different roles; guitarist/bassist Karl Westerlund, keyboardist/clean vocalist Robert Stenvall, and drummer/harsh vocalist Christian Berglonn. They've all done a spectacular job with their top-notch skills. Of course, Bergloon would pass drumming duties to Isak Nilsson for live shows. This underrated band made another grand masterpiece that is Illuminate the Path. Let the complexity and emotion light the way!

Favorites: "Abode of a God", "Drop This Planet of Dust", "Vakuum", "Skeletons of Light"

Music can be seen as something different from a different perspective. From mine, music is quite underappreciated. It's often heard and listened to, but not fully embraced. There are many unique artists that people seem to overlook because those people are just blindly following what's popular. An Abstract Illusion is a band that really should've been big, like universal big! This Swedish metal band is barely known outside the metal underground, and they seemed to have struggled before they were even known at all, having taken 7 years since their formation to release an EP. The EP, Atonement is Nigh marks the beginning of their impressive complex journey. The songs are filled with pure emotion. It can take you a different otherworldly realm like isekai, and it's the closest to doing so that isn't drugs.

How awesome is this EP?!? It's essentially a half-hour of genuine talent! It has everything majestic from the guitars, keyboards, and drums. I would consider this progressive melodeath with elements of atmospheric black metal. It has a similar epic melodeath vibe to Wintersun, and I enjoy An Abstract Illusion as I had enjoyed Wintersun 10 years before this review. Generally it's all about atmosphere and not "Which breakdown is more brutal than the first?" With every cold blizzard of blackened drums, tremolos, and harsh vocals, there's a warm breeze of piano and clean singing, all for a haunting combo. And they're not called "abstract" for nothing, as you'll soon hear in these 3 tracks...

The band's first ever song is their longest one, the 16 and a half minute "The Sun Will Bleach All Bones". Everything's awesome in the different moods within the vocals and instrumentation. It's quite a storm through the emotions coming from both vocal styles. Smooth piano often occurs, and it's played so beautifully. The growling is also strong and brave, especially midway through with an unleashed scream that isn't as long as a few of the ones by Mikael Akerfeldt but can almost put it all to shame. And of course, the chorus is a melodic blessing, shining the most at the end to conclude the first part of this adventure that has just begun. Next track "Rain" might just be one of the best 7-minute instrumentals I've heard. Not once was I ever bored, with the blend of atmosphere and guitar melody keeps me awake. As of writing this, it's already early December, so it's the perfect time to listen to this piece on a cold Autumn/Winter night. And that's all for me to say about this song, really.

The 3rd and last track of the EP, "Chameleon of the Clouds" has faster deathly dynamics. Well it starts slow at first, but then it evolves into powerful riffing and growls. The atmosphere is quite haunting, all the way up to the piano outro. Oh and it should be noted that the exact same piano melody in that outro would be used in the intro track for their debut full-length album Illuminate the Path. Kind of a similar connection to Born of Osiris' The New Reign and A Higher Place. Anyway, such a beautiful ending track!

Beyond the minds of a few people is a beautiful creation that doesn't get the amount of admiration they really need. The music is the perfect soundtrack to braving a stormy winter night, whether letting it embrace you or just viewing it at home. This band is like a whole new universe they've created, and it shall be one to be with!

Favorites: All of them, especially "The Sun Will Bleach All Bones"

The loosely described “experimental black metal” of Arrows offers a different side to the Jünger Tumilon music collective that explores a much darker aesthetic. Retaining those death doom elements also, Yearning Arrows; Cloven Suns still packs a hefty punch and infuses this brevity of riffs with a level of horror atmospherics to really mix things up. It is hard not to be terrified at various points of ‘At War with Peace’, blending tribal elements with more progressive elements and a driving rhythm too boot, this is a massive track on what is only a(nother) four track release. The clean vocals that are used here fit perfectly into the menacing fade of the track, suggesting this battle is still ongoing long after the record is finished.

Arrows have synths and they are not afraid to use them. Stabbing atmospherics into songs like devilishly sharp blades into flesh, they accompany the guitars perfectly whilst building tension well at the same time. The main point of interest in the sound of Arrows though is the bellicose vocal style that gets used intermittently throughout the record. Clean vocals can be made to sound threatening and this approach is a perfect example of this being done to good effect. I did find this element to be leaning on the too quirky side of things at first. However, I soon found them to be more of a unique identifier in the sound of the album. Darvish and Menetekel share vocal duties, cleverly giving this variety into proceedings without making it sound forced as I suspect it would if one vocalist tried to flex their style.

It is clear to hear Arkhaaik in Arrows, given that all three band members on Yearning Arrows; Cloven Suns are the exact same trio who put together Uihtis this year. What a wonderfully busy and experimental 2025 these three are having. Of the two records, this one shades the other (albeit marginally) as it presents much more directly. Whereas Uihtis relies a lot more on build up, this Arrows release manages to retain that same element of mystery whilst being able to express more of a bloodlust in how it is presented. The experimental tag does not mean a multitude of instruments either, similarly I can also allay any fears of sprawling structures of endless spoken word inserts (thankfully). Despite its clear progressive tendencies, this record retains an earthiness to it still and comes out very near the top of the pile of releases this year. It is The Fallen clan that this one should definitely reside in still, its monolithic pace is still the core of the sound after all.

Zaraza is a Canadian band that combines the industrial metal of Godflesh with death-doom. In theory, that would've been acceptable for my taste. Unfortunately, many parts drone on for so long, there's too much f***ing fuzz, and the overuse of samples are too much sh*t to handle. The two tracks I like and don't find disturbing are "Every Day is a Funeral" and "Necessary", the latter having great potential for doom fans. Everything else is just unnecessary sh*t, and that's enough deathly industrial metal for me today....

Favorites (only two tracks I like): "Every Day is a Funeral", "Necessary"

My favorite Fates Warning album in the John Arch era is The Spectre Within, but my favorite one in the Ray Alder era is the one that fully departed from their earlier heavy metal roots for strictly melodic prog-metal, Perfect Symmetry! While their progressive evolution would be shown further in their next 3 albums, it is this essential masterpiece that would make the band part of the early melodic prog-metal trio alongside Dream Theater and Queensryche. The melody has aged well, probably more than Haken would. The delivery flows greatly to allow the album to stand out well.

Alder's vocal range is in perfect balance, not sounding as screechy as in No Exit and not as tame as their later albums either. His high vocals have an easy tone that would help guide you through these abstract lyrics. The guitar duo Jim Matheos and Frank Aresti can pull off riffing that can range from heavy to ethereal. Kevin Moore, who was Dream Theater's keyboardist at the time, gives some songs his magic touch.

"Part of the Machine" is a towering opener, from the rattling intro onwards. "Through Different Eyes" is one of my favorite tracks here. There's so much melodic beauty here, especially when the chorus soars, adding greatness to a structure too simple by prog-metal's standards. The frantic "Static Acts" has Alder's vocals reaching greater heights.

Then we have the average "A World Apart", but even that song has great power. Alder's vocals continue to make the album the sparkling gem it is. "At Fate's Hands" is quite magnificent with soft beauty riffing while making room for some of the thunderous heaviness and progressiveness. My ears are quite pleased. And of course, there's that magic touch from Kevin Moore. I think the closest the band has gotten to their earlier heavy metal roots is "The Arena". It's short, more classic-sounding, and Alder's vocals sound closer to Arch. Nice though a little unhinged.

"Chasing Time" is another short track, coming out as an elegant ballad. It also has some vibes similar to pre-metal prog. "Nothing Left To Say" is a true ending epic to exemplify early melodic progressive metal. Alder sings his vocals with great passion, covering somber lyrics that often fit the dark mood. I wish I could describe this beautiful epic more, but I have nothing left to say.

Perfect Symmetry is a flawless classic for melodic progressive metal. It's quite deep with nothing too technical, and despite the tracks being shorter than in other albums, nothing's rushed. All is in genuine balance with no missteps. Between the underground No Exit and the commercial Parallels lies this gem. Indeed perfect and symmetrical!

Favorites: "Through Different Eyes", "Static Acts", "At Fate's Hands", "Nothing Left To Say"

When I was revisiting the music of Fates Warning, I've realized that I enjoy the earlier heavy/progressive metal era of their first 3 albums more than their subsequent melodic progressive metal era. John Arch is one of the best vocalists of the genre. He may sound annoying at first but then you realize how amazing he is with his unique voice. The vocals aren't the only great thing about this album though.

The Spectre Within is a true progressive/US power metal gem! It even has a slight edge over their next album Awaken the Guardian that other fans prefer. Their second album with they really start to add progressiveness to their US power metal sound. My first full experience with this band's material was 5 years ago. I was more focused on heavier modern metal than the more melodic old-school metal of yore. I enjoyed the music a lot but eventually got tired of it, especially the vocals. Some things need some time away from me to restore the glory, and when I came back just a few days before this review, I can hear it again as the masterpiece I first thought it was. So worth the wait!

The progressive changes begin to shine in the 7-minute opening track "Traveler in Time", one of the best tracks here and the perfect way to start. Then we have the more mid-paced while still sometimes upbeat track, "Orphan Gypsy". One track that has really gotten me excited is "Without a Trace". It sounds like a song Iron Maiden could've written, only made better and more progressive.

"Pirates of the Underground" is another long track, and it levels up the progressiveness with the structure not having a set chorus. "The Apparition" still remains as my favorite track of the album on the US power metal side, with the best vocals from Arch.

There's more of that heavy speed in "Kyrie Eleison" while having some doomy sections. The perfect grand finale is the 12-minute epic "Epitaph". It's Fates Warning's first ever 10+ minute epic that would hint at the ones they would make in later albums. It starts off all atmospheric and doomy, almost like what Katatonia would make a decade later. Then it impresses me with everything from the guitars, bass, drums, and of course, the vocals, all heard loud and clear. Absolutely memorable!

This has to be said: The Spectre Within may just be the true start to the progressive metal genre. Every metalhead should get that offering and listen to this incredible talent, especially from the vocals. It's honestly quite underrated compared to the popular Dream Theater. All praise Fates Warning!

Favorites: "Traveler in Time", "Without a Trace", "The Apparition", "Epitaph"

In 2010, Amorphis decided that they were ready for a live DVD, and there was no better time than on their 20th anniversary. It's a monstrous packed release that should appeal to many fans of the band. Originally a two-disc DVD, it was re-released with an additional two-CD version not released separately until 2017. The DVD is a f***ing impressive journey through a lot of the music the band had made so far. I don't even have to be picky about what I like, I love pretty much all of it in this form!

The main course of this entire meal is a one-and-a-half-long concert at Oulu, Finland in November 2009. While it's good to appreciate the visuals, the meat is in the music. And after the intro, it is time to start the show...

The beautiful blazing "Silver Bride" begins the set, although it is actually the second track of the band's latest album at the time, Skyforger. The album's actual opening track, "Sampo" comes next, filled with enchanting melody. Then "Towards and Against" has nice keyboard atmosphere without any of that Children of Bodom-esque soloing. "The Castaway" is a more unique earlier song with an Egyptian folk vibe.

I think the best tracks here are the medleys, the first of which being "Smithereens / The Smoke". They only play the outro of "Smithereens", but then it leads straight into "The Smoke" which truly represents the Tomi Joutsen era. Both of his cleans and growls really shine alongside the guitar melodies. He really alternates between both styles in the chorus, coming out so wonderful. I love the solo that then leads to a soft break before the climax. That climax being a final passionate chorus that would make you up to giving that anthem another spin. "Majestic Beast" is heavier and throws back to their earlier deathly roots despite being from their at the time new album. The more melancholic "Alone" is pretty much the only song from Am Universum they perform live these days, which is a shame because there are a few other solid songs from that album. Then we have a serene progressive highlight in "Silent Waters".

"Divinity" is the one track from Tuonela that marks a live staple, and the addictive chorus makes it the right choice. Then comes the second medley, the "Elegy Medley". It's perhaps the centerpiece of the entire show and DVD, throwing back to an amazing album with all its diversity, as proven in the "Against Widows" part. It transitions to the second part based on "Cares" which includes some synth experimentation that may seem odd out of context, but when heard with the rest of the medley, it's yet another beautiful thing. The 3rd part, "On Rich and Poor", has cool melodies and occasional key changes, before ending the medley with an epic reprise of the first part. "From the Heaven of my Heart" has nice clean emotion. "Sky is Mine" is another serene track, in which the music and lyrics greatly resonate.

And here's one more medley, "Magic and Mayhem / Black Winter Day". It starts with the enchanting keys and heavy riffing of "Magic and Mayhem" that are then displayed the best in "Black Winter Day", as the heaviness lightens up a bit. "Sign from the North Side" is more mid-paced and the riffing doesn't hook you enough, but it still has a great sense of deathly action. "House of Sleep" has more of a classic heavy metal direction in the rhythm and keys. They really took some old-school metal aspects and blended them with the metal we know today. Then it all ends with the grand finale "My Kantele". The sorrowful lyrics really detail the emotional magic from the Finnish instrument in question ("Its strings gathered from torments, and its pegs from other ills. Truly they lie, they talk utter nonsense... So it will not play, will not rejoice at all. Music will not play to please.") The vocals work well with the guitars and keyboards. The track is basically extended into an epic as the heavy version is combined with the acoustic reprise for a memorable climax of harmonic leads. Beautiful!

Now the second DVD consists of a different shorter show also from 2009, as well as all the band's music videos so far, a couple more separate live tracks, an interview, and a documentary. All I'm going to cover here are the two tracks that weren't in the first disc. The second show, at Summer Breeze Open Air, starts with "Leaves Scar". I just can't put to words how melodic and beautiful it is. Tomi's growls were pack a punch, while the clean chorus is sung with the might of a warrior. Both vocal styles work so greatly together. "Evil Inside" is a highlight from Far From the Sun. I just wish they would've performed that song in one of those shows instead of just adding in its music video.

So yeah, Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes is the ultimate live album for 90s/2000s Amorphis fans. The songs' live forms may just be the best yet. Even though it is a live DVD, it's a fantastic start for any new Amorphis fans, a best representation of their first 9 albums. It is also perfect for longtime fans for the band's most glorious journey of songs. Let's hope for another milestone-celebrating live DVD in 2030, 5 years after the review. In the meantime, let this one bless the heaven of your heart!

Favorites (one track per album, plus the two highlights in disc 2): "Sampo", "Smithereens / The Smoke", "Alone", "Silent Waters", "Divinity", "Elegy Medley", "Magic and Mayhem / Black Winter Day", "Sign from the North Side", "Leaves Scar", "Evil Inside"

You know what, I don't think we have to wait until 2030 for another perfect live album to follow up from Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes. We already have it in 2017's An Evening with Friends at Huvila! It's a shorter live show while still including some of their greatest tracks throughout the two decades prior. If we put all the live tracks from this live album and the other one together, the only album at the time without a song performed live is The Beginning of Times. I should review that album again sometime.

The show took place in the Helsinki Summer Festival the previous year. Guests include jouhikko player Pekko Käppi, flute/saxophone player Sakari Kukko, and a special vocal appearance by Anneke van Giersbergen (ex-The Gathering). The band really let those non-metal instruments shine in the songs, making them calmer while more diverse.

We already hear these more acoustic tendencies in "Enigma", replacing a lot of the heaviness while still sounding beautiful. "Far from the Sun" is an epic yet relazing highlight with a poetic chorus, "I walk away now from you, and your sun, it goes down from you, as I walk, away now from you, far, from your sun." Then we have another serene progressive highlight in "Silent Waters".

Up next is the grand "My Kantele". The sorrowful lyrics really detail the emotional magic from the Finnish instrument in question ("Its strings gathered from torments, and its pegs from other ills. Truly they lie, they talk utter nonsense... So it will not play, will not rejoice at all. Music will not play to please.") The vocals work well with the guitars and keyboards. The beautiful blazing "Silver Bride" begins the heavier part of set, although it is actually the second track of Skyforger. That album's actual opening track, "Sampo" comes next, filled with enchanting melody.

The more melancholic "Alone" is pretty much the only song from Am Universum they perform live these days, which is a shame because there are a few other solid songs from that album. There's more accessible speed in "The Wanderer", which is one of the best singles from their new era. "Her Alone" ends the set as the most progressive standout here, with the gorgeous singing of the aforementioned Anneke van Giersbergen.

You can either get this glorious live CD on its own or as part of the tour edition of Under the Red Cloud. Apparently, there was an entire performance of that album later that night that didn't make it in. Still this solidifies Amorphis as one of the best live bands. Acoustic folk never sounded this majestic when added to melodic progressive metal!

Favorites (one track per album): "Far From the Sun", "My Kantele", "Sampo", "Alone", "The Wanderer", "Her Alone"

After that massive live DVD and that re-recording album comes their 10th offering, The Beginning of Times, continuing the Tomi Joutsen era. Ever since he joined the band for their 2006 album Eclipse, the lineup has stayed steady with one lineup change later on. While The Beginning of Times isn't as much of a classic as their first 4 albums, they just go with their stylistic evolution, all for some authentic diversity...

The album is longer than their other albums, having 12 tracks instead of the usual 10. It might take some time to digest, but in the end, it will really grow on you. I think now that I've just given the album more actual time to grow, I can really get most of the complexity I've once experienced.

Starting this album is the f***ing kick-A "Battle for Light", one of my favorites from the Tomi Joutsen era. It's the best track to introduce to Amorphis newcomers. A peaceful piano intro paves the way for the rest of the instruments to shine. What makes the song a standout is Joutsen's vocals ranging from cleans to growls, best heard is the mighty chorus. It throws back to Elegy in both the music and the lyrics continuing the Kalevala theme, "The sun no longer shines on us, no silver moon reflects." I honestly think "Mermaid" should've been a single because it's so beauiful with the right amount of catchy accessible melody. One song that continues the melody they've had since Eclipse while having growled verses is "My Enemy". After that is "You I Need", which has a great chorus but everything else is just OK.

Revisiting Elegy's sound further is "Song of the Sage". Even a ballad-ish track like "Three Words" can have heavy variation including more of those harsh vocals. Some choral vocals appear in the background of "Reformation". Then "Soothsayer" has some of my favorite lyrics based on Finnish mythology.

"On a Stranded Shore" tells the story of a man and his wife who's a mermaid, "My maiden's hair, grass on the waters’ edge, now willows on the shore." Throwing back to some of the riffing from Eclipse is "Escape". Then "Crack in a Stone" is more dominant in the growls. The grand title epic has some of the best lyrical imagery. You should definitely get the version of the album with the bonus track, "Heart's Song", which sounds like a Tuonela B-side. It's so memorable in the riffing, soloing, chorus, and lyrics.

So yeah, Amorphis can still go strong at the time of their career when they were 20 years in. And they would continue to sound fresh in more of the releases that would follow. The Beginning of Times is an underrated album for both new and longtime Amorphis fans, and nothing shall disappoint....

Favorites: "Battle for Light", "Mermaid", "Three Words", "Soothsayer", "Crack in a Stone", "Beginning of Time", "Heart's Song"

I never want to hear another complaint about my harsh criticism of modern Dream Theater ever again!

BTBAM (Between the Buried and Me) showed us three years ago that they may have been running out of collective ideas with Colors II. I can thank the first Colors record for being one of the key contributors for allowing me to enjoy new extreme metal genres like death metal and metalcore. Colors II felt like a return to that style following a couple of releases where the band decided to take a more accessible route on The Great Misdirect. Colors II while a good album as well as a hybrid of styles, it just did not resonate with me that much. So much of my discourse surrounding The Blue Nowhere came from figuring out how the formula would adapt.

The Blue Nowhere is not your typical BTBAM record. This album is much more avant-garde and less metalcore than ever before. I was taken aback by how much intentional dissonance was given to the record, but the record flew by despite its over seventy-minute runtime. The bands ability to write theses long, complex song structures, while still making them feel connected is just as good as it was during the late 2000s. "Absent Thereafter" and "Slow Paranoia" immediately stand out among the rest. The first promotional single and leadoff track, "Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark" has a remarkable sense of pacing as to not overwhelm the listener with too much of the avant-garde obtuseness right out of the gate. Then "God Terror" hits you like a ton of bricks and reminds you that BTBAM used to play a rare progressive metalcore. The pacing of The Blue Nowhere with interludes like "Pause" and "Mirador Uncoil" serve their purpose so well, and the final run of four tracks is incredible. Two eleven minutes epics with "Psychomanteum" and "Slow Paranoia", which are both heavy, avant-garde and surprisingly concise, before dropping everything down for "The Blue Nowhere" and "Beautifully Human" to a cool, calm and reflective pace as the album circles back on itself. BTBAM sense of pacing is as good, if not better, than it has been since The Great Misdirect.

This is what progressive music should be; these acts should not be sitting idly by and rereleasing the same album ad nauseum for a quarter of a century because "that's what got us popular in the first place". Meanwhile, bands like Sleep Token, who are not progressive, are spinning circles around the so called "giants" of the genre. BTBAM are not going to settle making cookie cutter progressive metal and The Blue Nowhere proves that. This is BTBAM for a new era. Even if this turns out to be a one off project and they return to sounds closer to The Great Misdirect after this, at least they will have this one late era gem.

Best Songs: Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark, Absent Thereafter, Slow Paranoia, Beautifully Human, Door #3

The one thing that will always be Green Carnation's calling card is their songwriting. The Nordic giants of Gothic Progressive Metal blew me away with Light of Day, Day of Darkness over twenty years ago and I was pleasantly surprised when they returned in 2020 with Leaves of Yesteryear. Progressive songwriting has always struggled when it came to towing the line of being overtly technical for its own sake, and writing tighter, more concise tunes to be more easily digestible. Green Carnation are the band that prove to me that you don't have to pick one or the other.

When I saw that The Shore of Melancholia was a multi-part release from the band, I became very excited. I was even more excited when I saw the track listing to part 1 or A Dark Poem and saw shorter runtimes. And that excitement came to a climax when the final notes of "Too Close to the Flame" reverberated out as that final reminder that my expectations had been met and then some! I love how this album starts with "As Silence Took You" and "In Your Paradise"; clearly harkening back to a gothic doom style of My Dying Bride, with the vocals from Kjetil Nordhus feeling like an absolute gut punch. I really enjoyed the pacing for the first half of the record, feeling progressive at times, but not overwhelming to the listener with endless solo breaks and uncommon time signature technicality.

"The Slave That You Are" will take some getting used to. Starting off with blast beat percussion, open guitar chords and Enslaved's Grutle Kjellso providing guest vocals, the stylistic flip is jarring to put it lightly. However, the first three tracks on the record are not just status quo gothic doom metal; there is something brewing underneath the surface and when it explodes on "The Slave That You Are" it feels so good! The title track, "The Shores of Melancholia" comes up next and even though the intensity has been pulled back, it still does not sound like the first handful of songs. The final track, "Too Close to the Flame" is the closest thing to a modern progressive power metal song. The instrumental sounds phenomenal even if the mixing does feel a little too overwhelming in the final minutes. Even then, the buildup to that finale is sweet and leaves the record feeling like a near perfect story with a buildup, climax and resolution. 

The way in which Green Carnation continues to impress this many years after their magnum opus is remarkable and the way they continue to develop their sound throughout the years remains one of progressive music's most surprising mysteries, in a genre where the main faces would rather repeat the same mistakes of their contemporaries.

Best Songs: As Silence Took You, Me, My Enemy, The Slave That You Are, The Shore of Melancholia

It seems like bands who have reformed end up taking another long-but-not-as-long gap before their next album since their comeback. We should be grateful though, they're already starting a new album trilogy with A Dark Poem, Pt. I: The Shores Of Melancholia. 42 more minutes of gothic progressive metal greatness!

The band continues to put their influences together, adding new aspects while never letting go of what they usually have. The instruments shine in the rifftastic guitars, audible bass, and expansive keys. As for the vocals, I'm still enjoying the baritone singing that should be easy for me to cover sometime, fitting well for both the softer sections and the heavier parts. More often than not, catchiness is in great balance with drama.

"As Silence Took You" already shows that the band is in fact returning to their doomy gothic side prominent in their debut, particularly in the riffing. "In Your Paradise" continues that direction in a more upbeat fashion.

"Me, My Enemy" is a more ballad-ish track that's still OK. "The Slave That You Are" is probably the heaviest track Green Carnation has ever made by far. It brings things closer to the progressive black metal of In the Woods and Enslaved, with the latter band's vocalist Grutle Kjellson guest appearing in the verses that contrast with the clean chorus.

The title track follows as their doomiest track since their debut. It's as doomy as Swallow the Sun while having some uplifting moments. It's not the best track of the album though, but I still like it. Finally, we have the upbeat closing track, "Too Close to the Flame". I think we can easily consider it progressive gothic metal, a bridge between The Infinite and The Fallen. Not quite doomy, yet really having that gothic vibe.

All in all, Green Carnation have made a promising start of a new saga. It's great hearing the motivation they have for ambition despite already reaching their peak in the early 2000s. The music and lyrics are all in excellent shape. A potentially strong era of gothic progressive metal power and grace is up ahead!

Favorites: "As Silence Took You", "The Slave That You Are", "Too Close to the Flame"

Poets and Madmen is Savatage’s swansong and in my opinion, their most underrated work. Jon Oliva returns for sole vocal duties on this album, and I personally am thrilled. As great as Zak is, Jon is simply my preference due to his much rawer, aggressive yet passionate delivery. The album is still a concept album in line with their recent works, but a bit looser and less… pompous, let’s say. It sounds like a good old fashioned Heavy Metal record.

The compositions here are undoubtedly among the best of the band’s career. There are riffs for days – both on guitar and keys, and no shortage of memorable vocal lines either. The songs are quite progressive in nature, shifting tempos often and packing each track with a great selection of riffs and rhythms.

More striking than that though is the emotion. There’s anger, pain, melancholia, and a bit less hope than most Savatage records. This one stays pretty strictly in pessimistic, almost apocalyptic territory, lamenting the state of the world both globally and personally. It culminates in closing track Back to a Reason, which is in my opinion the finest song the band ever wrote, evoking intense emotional passion and desperation across 6 minutes of melodramatic progressive epic.

It’s not as flashy as the Zach era and it’s much more somber than their earlier works, but it’s a magnificently written album that closes out their discography perfectly. Also, classic Heavy Metal this good in the year 2001 was extremely hard to come by; Savatage sticking to their roots and dropping this was a great move and gave future bands a worthy template for the new millennium of Heavy Metal.

It must be clarified outright that I’m typically not a fan of Avant-Garde Metal or Experimental music in general. Avant-Garde Metal usually falls into one of two horrible tropes: the first being that Avant-Garde Metal musicians seem to think that Avant-Garde means it’s not allowed to sound auditorily pleasant, as in the music must be dissonant, chaotic, or abrasive in order to qualify as Avant-Garde. The second is Circus Metal.

Leaving Your Body Map is an offender of the first trope. And to a degree, it is both forgivable and understandable; the album is a very dark and surreal experience. It prominently features Doom influence in the sound, and while lyrically very cryptic, there are hints of themes that range from ethereal and innocent to depressing and traumatic. To that extent, dissonance and chaos are not only appropriate but welcome, and help to evoke certain aesthetics and themes that the lyrics prefer to keep concealed behind a layer of mystery and allegory.

The issue is that there’s just not that much to hold on to, or even enjoy at times. Sure, lumbering, dissonant guitar chords with some off-tempo jazz and a flute thrown in for god knows what reason can appropriately convey a certain sense of anxiety or breakdown, and it can even be interesting, novel, and atmospheric, but is it enjoyable? Well, for me, the answer is not always, not if there’s too much of it. I need melody, harmony, and order to balance the dissonance and chaos in order for it to work successfully.

Maudlin of the well, to their credit, do include a fair amount of more melodic material (mostly prevalent in their acoustic interludes), and a great variety of eclecticism in general. The issue there is that, well, the melodies just aren’t that strong. Everything from the vocal lines to the instrument leads fail to carry memorable melodies.

Let’s talk about a positive though, an area in which this album absolutely excels: evoking the dreamlike aesthetic of the surreal. It’s not just the weird cryptic lyricism, sound effects and liminal album art that convey this. Everything about the song structures, from the production and density to the composition style. Often, songs will throw in instrumental pieces or vocal lines that are not clearly audible, being kind of muffled behind the primary wall of sound, that evoke how difficult it can be to properly “perceive” things in the haze of a dream. Another aspect is how the songs will simply do things that don’t make sense; not just the dissonance, but the way individual instruments will play their own piece seemingly ignorant of the others, out of key, out of time, yet bound together just enough to remain musically cohesive. Much as our brain struggles to make sense of the nonsensical nature of dreams, yet tolerating it for our own sanity.

It should also be noted that every range of dream is covered here: the ethereal, the calm, the nonsensical, the nightmares, the longing, the traumatic. The range from full-on pummeling Death Doom to peaceful Chamber Folk is quite a feat.

I really appreciate this album, and am incredibly fascinated by it. I think it’s a bit of a marvel of musical composition and ideas. But, it’s not always pleasant to listen to. And not in the good way, like a really depressing Doom album that I only want to hear to achieve such a melancholic mood. I mean it just straight up doesn’t sound good at times. There is such a thing as too weird, and too many Avant-Garde artists are guilty of catering to that need to be weird over the need to write a good song. Maudlin of the well are nowhere near as guilty as most Avant-Garde artists in that respect, but still enough so that the listening experience of their music is damaged when some slightly more conventional directions could have resulted in a masterpiece.

A Sun That Never Sets is a relatively subdued album by Neurosis standards. Not only is it quite slow and doomy, but it also has many sections of very restrained instrumentation where the guitars become quiet. Post-Rock and Neofolk are woven between the grander Atmosludge sections, fostering a more minimal sound. Of course the miserable industrial atmosphere remains, but it is one of the “calmer” Neurosis albums, if you can say that.

Most Neurosis albums have a bit of a theme running through them, and this one has constant ties to nature and the sun (this being the second Neurosis album named after center of the solar system). Although they are rather cryptic, there’s a constant feeling of epic grandeur set to the beautiful planet burning to the ground. Mythological apocalypse style.

On this album yet again, Neurosis fall into the same problem I’ve had with all their albums (Except Souls at Zero which was a masterpiece). They craft some really incredible moments, such as the bagpipe-backed crescendos in “From The Hill,” but the issue is they take forever getting there. The band will mull around with some boring, lethargic riff that doesn’t do anything for minutes before they get to anything good. And some of the songs don’t even have a nice payoff. The album ends up feeling very bloated.

At this point in their career, the band are pros at layering dense atmosphere of industrial sludgy madness, and in that area they never fail. The song are rich and mixed well, with many atmospheric effects only revealing themselves after many listens. This adds a great relisten-ability factor, and helps detract from the, at times, boring simplicity of the main instrumentation.

Still though, most of these songs could have been cut in half, or simply need way better riffs or melodies to succeed. A solid release, but its own meandering holds it back.

Paradise Lost is known as an epic poem written by 17 century poet John Milton, centered around the fall of man and the fallen angel Lucifer. The dark romanticism of that tale would lyrically influence several metal bands. The British gothic metal band Paradise Lost was named after that epic, and then we have an entire concept album based on the story, Symphony X's epic masterpiece Paradise Lost!

This was another very important album for me over a decade before this review. It was at this point when the band distanced from most of their neoclassical power metal roots and became progressive. The increase in odd time signatures and heavy riffing gives it away while still keeping you hooked with melodic choruses.

The bombastic orchestral overture "Oculus Ex Inferni" starts the album, painting the skies with the flames of a beginning war. Then the first actual song "Set the World on Fire" gets the action rolling in this battle of angels and demons. Attacking hard is "Domination" with top-notch vocals by vocalist Russell Allen, sounding vicious while staying clean. "Serpent's Kiss" has some killer groove, though it's a little more an average song, while not deducting the album's perfect 5-star rating.

The title track is a beautiful ballad. A little subdued, but still great. There's more the catchy fury in "Eve of Seduction". I can practically memorize those lyrics and maybe try to sing them, despite them having some cheesy romance. That's brushed aside by the blend of the album's progressive metal with their earlier speedy power metal. It's also a solid break from their groove-ish tone in the songs before the title track. "The Walls of Babylon" takes their roots even further as some parts into the neoclassical and choral dynamics from The Divine Wings of Tragedy that were last greatly utilized in The Odyssey.

"Seven" is aptly titled in so many ways. It's the 7-minute 7th full song of the band's 7th album with the occasional 7/4 time signature. How symbolic can you get?! Another kick-A track! "The Sacrifice" is another ballad. It's not bad, just a little tame. But that's just the speedy side of me talking. The memorable 9-minute epic "Revelation (Divus Pennae Ex Tragoedia)" has so many cohesive ideas. If you can get hooked by the neoclassical leads and melodic chorus, you'll definitely wanna stick around for the rest.

For those new to the band's material, Paradise Lost is the best place to start, with its blend of complexity and accessibility. Longtime fans can also get a glimpse of many of their past works. 10 years before this review, this would've been my personal best album of 2007. The heavier albums are still fighting for the throne!

Favorites: "Set the World on Fire", "Domination", "Eve of Seduction", "Seven", "Revelation (Divus Pennae Ex Tragoedia)"

In all honesty, I'm glad we have star ratings in this site instead of percentage ratings. I wouldn't have to decide whether a 5-star album deserves a perfect 100% or not. The two other Symphony X albums I've given 5-star ratings to have one slight problem that would knock each one down to say 97% or 98%. But this album, The Odyssey is absolutely perfect, 100%! And although it's not a concept album like their 5th album V was, it captures different themes in each song to get you hooked.

Symphony X is known as a progressive metal band, though not in the same way as a band like Dream Theater. There's more technicality and orchestra, and the band can sound extreme while staying melodic. All this makes a perfect mix that I regret taking a long-a** break from.

We already get a full-on standout in "Inferno (Unleash the Fire)". Both the music and vocals sound so aggressive, heavier than their previous albums and hinting at their later ones. The riffing in the intro and verses really attack and mark the start of a more kick-A path for the band. "Wicked" loses some aggression but it's still quite wicked, with great soloing from both the guitar and keys. "Incantations of the Apprentice" is more eerie, containing some Lovecraft-infused lyrics. The vocals by Russell Allen can remind some of 70s Rainbow, particularly in the verses. Michael Romeo's guitarwork continues to shine, but Michael Pinnella's keys, not so much. But that's OK, because the guitars really help give the track some meat to beat.

Bringing back the keys right away after that previous track is "Accolade II", a soft while still heavy sequel to a track from The Divine Wings of Tragedy. Lots of piano beauty and audible bass in this one! My favorite part is a brief piano section with Allen's singing midway through the song, before the bridge. A couple minutes later, there's excellent soloing by Romeo. Absolutely breathtaking! Up next, "King of Terrors" flips the stylistic palate as the heaviest song by the band at that time. The riffing is simple yet heavier than most of the more melodic metal bands. While the vocals including the verses stay heavy, the piano lets out a slight calm moment then levels up the bass, drums, and vocals in the chorus. The song is based on Edgar Allan Poe's works, and it includes a spoken section from one of his poems. Add some keyboard/guitar complexity and you have what's basically early Queensryche gone Nightwish! "The Turning" is a short fast heavy track, and the riffs and leads throw back to their earlier neoclassical style.

"Awakenings" stands out with its synths and piano that sounds practically like a video game OST, plus beautiful singing by Allen. There's still some speed that DragonForce would later have. It's both the second-longest track of the album and my second favorite here. And only one track would surpass that one on both accounts... The title epic is the longest track the band has ever done, at over 24 minutes. You know how much I love long epics, especially when there's lots of fresh variation. I love those kinds of tracks as much as the less progressive listeners love tracks that are up to 6 minutes long. A true epic should never be so draggy throughout its length (looking at you, funeral doom "epics"!). In these 7 parts of this epic, things can switch from orchestral to acoustic to metal, often going from slow to fast back and forth. And the lyrics do the journey of Odysseus justice! All I have more to say is, it's one of the greatest epics in the metal part of my existence! The limited edition has two bonus tracks, starting with a 1998 re-recording of "Masquerade" from their 1998 debut. As great as the original! The other bonus track "Frontiers" is a standout with intricate soloing from the guitars and bass.

OK, let's look back at my earlier situation. I've considered The Odyssey one of the best albums both now and over a decade ago. If I focused on only this band and album and others in power/progressive metal, I probably would never have switched to modern heavy genres like metalcore/industrial metal. But if I stayed in those latter two genres today without looking back, I would've completely forgotten about masterpieces like this. With that said, I'm grateful for how everything turned out, and I'm grateful to still remember the perfection of this offering. Fans of metal and all music should give it a go. It's an odyssey that shall be remembered for eternity!

Favorites: "Inferno (Unleash the Fire)", "Accolade II", "Awakenings", "The Odyssey", "Frontiers" (bonus track)

The 5th Symphony X album and the second part of their quintessential quadrology isn't as perfect the other 3 albums, but it certainly marks a well-done entryway into their later progressive metal. The neoclassical madness last used prominently in Twilight in Olympus is fading out a bit, while the progressiveness starts to really build up, finalized in The Odyssey. V: The New Mythology Suite stands greatly on that fine line!

V is a concept album that covers different mystical locations such as Atlantis, Egypt, and space. The music and lyrics are quite beautiful, making this solid album almost as much of a masterpiece as the two albums surrounding it for the most part.

The "Prelude" gets you hooked for what this album has to offer. Then it segues to the first full song and highlight "Evolution (The Grand Design)". There's some more beauty within the melodies in "Fallen", fresh from the Egyptian side of the story. That song loses some energy towards the end, but at least we have a moment to relax in the next interlude... "Transcendence" is the second interlude that's strictly just orchestral keys, similar to the interludes in Dark Moor's The Gates of Oblivion.

Seguing from there is the amazing 8-minute "Communion and the Oracle". Then we have the short yet strong "The Bird-Serpent War/Cataclysm" that can be considered the "In the Dragon's Den" of this album. Unfortunately, in the interlude "On the Breath of Poseidon", their attempt at alternating between metal and orchestra just falls apart. While it's the worst part of the album, I wouldn't consider it a stinker and the 4.5-star album rating isn't affected. Similarly with "Egypt", I feel like it could've been better if some parts didn't sound so familar. Still great though. "The Death of Balance/Lacrymosa" is a strange yet awesome insturmental, enough to make a highlight.

"Absence of Light" has some slight weakness while still bearable not making the album rating any lower. "A Fool's Paradise" brings back the awesomeness of the album's first half. The "Rediscovery" segue is a nice build-up to the grand epic... "Rediscovery (Part II) - The New Mythology" is an awesome 12-minute grand finale. It's epics like this that put them in the progressive metal club of Opeth and Dream Theater, and it reminds me that the glory is left unbroken.

I think this album would've been 1000% perfect if they've improved a few songs and segues, and indexed both "Rediscovery" parts as one track. Nonetheless, V: The New Mythology Suite is another excellent album that is practically a long progressive symphony!

Favorites: "Evolution (The Grand Design)", "Communion and the Oracle", "The Bird-Serpent War/Cataclysm", "The Death of Balance/Lacrymosa", "A Fool's Paradise", "Rediscovery (Part II) - The New Mythology"

My grand experience with Symphony X's 7th album Paradise Lost has made me up to revisiting more to this band's albums. One incredible place to start is Twilight in Olympus, which is yet another classic that I've listened to since over a decade ago and still remember its glory. And considering how much I was into the modern classical works of Two Steps From Hell before switching to metal, no wonder I loved bands and albums like this masterpiece back then!

This can be considered the "Thomas" album since it's the last one with former bassist Thomas Miller, and drummer Jason Rullo was temporarily replaced by Thomas Walling (RIP). I say this is the transition album between the neoclassical era of their first 3 albums and the power-ish progressive era of the 3 albums after this one.

Some of the best progressive metal to surpass Dream Theater occurs in the opener "Smoke and Mirrors", one of my favorite tracks by this band. All we have in the structure is the mundane verse-chorus that ends up getting a grand enhancement, displaying the band's skills without having to make a half-hour epic. The neoclassical madness of this band Symphony X may be hard for simple guitar listeners to understand. But there are great guitar solos to learn such as the one around the 4-minute mark, performed by the impressive Michael Romeo. He often duets with keyboardist Michael Pinella, creating a sea of melodies. The riffing is not what you often hear in melodic progressive metal. Also I love the melodic singing by Russell Allen. He never goes as ridiculously high as other power metal vocalists, and sometimes he sounds nicely rough for the thrashy sections. And oh yeah, the awesome bass by Thomas Miller is audible. I'm not sure why "Church of the Machine" started with an industrial noise-ridden intro, but that doesn't matter. The heavy verses are in perfect balance with the chorus that almost turns the song into the band's own "Bohemian Rhapsody". The ending is quite abrupt, but again it doesn't matter. It just leads straight to "Sonata", a short instrumental take on Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8.

"In the Dragon’s Den" shows that the band can kick a** with the progressive neoclassical metal sound. Sometimes, melody doesn't have to be as deathly as Dark Tranquillity and In Flames. You can get it from bands that are meant to sound like Symphony X, Stratovarius, and Nightwish. Short songs balance out against longer epics like this next track... "Through the Looking Glass" is a long melodic track, following the band's trend of having at least one long epic since their debut and carrying on to subsequent albums. It lasts for 13 minutes and follows the "FantasMic" idea of 3 parts with the last being the heaviest. It ends up getting a bit repetitive towards the end, but still great.

Next up is another short fast track "The Relic", complete with a perfect chorus. The riffing aggression carries on into "Orion - The Hunter" alongside amazing vocals in the verses. I'm not too fond of the soloing, but once again, the 5-star album rating stays intact. Similarly to the previous album, this one ends with a haunting ballad, "Lady of the Snow". Nice singing by Russell Allen and guitarwork by Michael Romeo. That's how metal ballads should be. Melancholic, not happy-sappy.

Twilight in Olympus has been quite a progressive journey through fantasy and mythology ala power metal lyrics, all poetic with only a small tasy dash of cheese. Romeo and Miller are two main songwriters in this album, but with Miller gone, Allen would take his place in the songwriting department. That early era ends as a new one begins!

Favorites: "Smoke and Mirrors", "Church of the Machine", "In the Dragon’s Den", "The Relic"

Deathrow made some major improvements to their general sound between the thrashy but fuzzy debut, Riders of Doom and their more epic and glossy Raging Steel, but they still had some improvements to make. This is where they decided, "Let's go crazy, let's get nuts," and turned into a freakin' prog band. And boy did they rock prog in ways most thrash bands couldn't at the time. I mean, some of these ideas sound like they were basically being Chuck Schuldiner before Chuck Schuldiner turned his band Death into a tech band. And sometimes they just get thrown in your face. That randomized piano playing at the beginning of Triocton kinda smacked my brown around like "What the hell just happened?" And they prove again that they're quite good at layering guitar riffs together. Of course, this also means there's a little less of the Teutonic side of things, being a bit more melodic and wild much like And Justice for All or Rust in Peace. Hell, you know they nailed it when a nine-minute song like Narcotic manages to flood you with a barrage of consistent riffs and progression that never gets too wild for its own good or overstays its welcome, AND THEN FOLLOW IT WITH A SEVEN-MINUTE EPIC. This was a major winner for the band, yet another improvement and a damn good reason to check out thrash.  This is the kind of album where the band proves they know how to both have fun with their chosen artform and treat it as an artform to grow and learn from.

92

I just can't stop thinking about the epic excellence of Hope for the Dying. I've mentioned that their album Legacy is their own Becoming the Archetype Terminate Damnation. This album, Aletheia, the one before that one, is actually what I would consider the symphonic missing link between that BTA album and the one from their early incarnation, The Remnant, even hinting at that band's early 2010s deathly era. Hope for the Dying can break the norms to make something wonderful. Similarly to Mechina's Siege, half the amount of songs each go over 8 minutes, and the last track is a 12-minute epic. And just because that's unusual doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. Now let's pick up where Dissimulation left off and where Legacy would unfold...

With this album, Hope for the Dying has added more orchestral grandeur, enough for me to question why this isn't in The Guardians like Dissimulation. The lengthiness in many tracks comes from the different sections being quite long. It allows the instrumentation to really shine and help the band stand out in the metal and hardcore realms. Their move from the Strike First to Facedown was the right one, not just because it caused a boost in popularity but also Strike First's shutdown a year after this album's release. This diverse cauldron of influences has come from sounds heard in America and Europe, all in different eras. The epic orchestra might be a little too pompous in a few moments, but when they get it right, they get it WAY right! Also the stylistic associations with Becoming the Archetype are so clear that I'm surprised both of those bands have never shared members with each other. Although the name of this album is similar to former BTA guitarist Alex Kenis' main band Aletheian.

The opening track is the epic "Acceptance". You think starting an album with a nearly 10-minute epic is a rarity? Imagine also closing the album with two longer epics! But we'll get to those later on. Adding to this rarity is the high amount of instrumentation compared to the vocals, and this often-unsuccessful move actually ends up paying off, keeping me hooked through and through. A fantastic start to this journey! "Reformation" starts off heavy with the usual growls and screams letting out lyrics about uniting for war, "marching as one, the reformation has begun". The track overall sounds like War of Ages gone orchestral, especially when it's short and straight. "Iniquitous" kicks off with some European neoclassical shredding. Then the lyrics battle against false beliefs, "you almost believe the lies yourself". Lots of epic power despite being a short song!

"In Isolation" begins with what sounds like an Irish Jig, then the rest is their usual metal. The song was released as a single and has its own lyric video. Those lyrics and the music continue the spirit of Becoming the Archetype, leading up to a powerful climax towards the end, "I no longer wish to walk alone". Seriously, you should check that song out! Another example of depth comes in "Through a Nightmare Darkly", the title playing on the idea of seeing the face of God, yet twisting the image into a world of darkness and pain. Quite a poetic message to convey for a 5-minute instrumental track! It fits well conceptually when seguing to the next track "The Lost". The lyrics that maintain the message of the instrumental give passion and motivation to a lost generation, "this is a chance to rise". The great vocals of Josh Ditto ranging from screams to cleans gives him the vibe of Becoming the Archetype's two vocalists, Jason Wisdom and Seth Hecox.

We're heading to the final leg as we check out those longer epics, starting with "Visions". There's nothing new about this track, but it stays strong in the instrumentation and vocals that keep up the European-infused darkness. The cleans also sound similar to European metal vocalists to add diversity to the vocals covering American metalcore screams. A wonderful track for the patient and experienced! It segues to "Serenity", a serene interlude with lovely acoustic guitar. And finally, "Open Up the Sky", the closing epic that is the band's longest song at 12 and a half minutes. It's truly one of the most epic and innovative metal tracks I've heard in my life. Everything's so progressive with occasional hardcore bursts. You have to be really experienced musically and lyrics to understand it all. Then everything ends with distant piano. So legendary!

All in all, Aletheia is only for listeners who can handle metal, hardcore, epicness, and progressiveness all at once. And I am one of those listeners! If the orchestration wasn't too pompous though, I would've added that extra half-star needed for this album to be as perfect Dissimulation and Legacy. Still it is the kind of album you wouldn't typically expect in the modern era. If you can sit through an hour-long album with a few 10+ minute tracks with lots of heaviness and diversity, from beginning to end, you would certainly be one with the symphonic progressive metalcore world. And specifically, the world of Aletheia!

Favorites: "Acceptance", "Iniquitous", "In Isolation", "Visions", "Open Up the Sky"

It's quite a mystery how so many bands can pull off a genre well despite it losing the spark of interest it once had. Vildhjarta is one of the few ongoing bands that can still be considered a true pioneer of a genre nowadays. They started out in the djent scene of the early 2010s alongside Tesseract and Periphery, but stand out amongst them with their own djent subgenre thall. Their perfect legacy has spanned between their first two albums, staying loyal to their fans. And just under 4 years after their second album, their 3rd one Dar Skogen Sjunger Under Evighetens Granar (Swedish for "Where the Forest Sings Under the Eternal Spruce Trees") continues the gigantic brutal drama!

A few pre-release singles came out in the couple years before the album's release, and they continue to show their progressive stamina. Despite the remaining original member guitarist Daniel Bergstrom having left the band between songrwriting and recording, nothing has changed. In fact, this album has some of their heaviest work to date. Serene ambience gets crushed by a hailstorm of devastation.

"Byta Ut Alla Stjarnor Pa Himlen Mot Plustecken" (Replace All the Stars in the Sky with Plus Signs) plays around with some riffing in the intro, as the sun is darkened by an eclipse of downtuned guitar and bass, with the smog of brutality completely blocking out all light, similar to the Minecraft Betweenlands mod. The riffs and rhythms are both atmospheric and punishing. Melody only comes from the ambience. Everything else is an avalanche of heavy technical riffing. And there's more of that in "Tva Vackra Svanar" (Two Beautiful Swans), along with a brief moment of soft beauty in the middle. The end result is an experimental sludgy track like a more downtuned Will Haven. Then we get to a couple singles, starting with "Sargasso". The other single "Ylva" (Eleven) has some melodic ambience while focusing mainly on relentless guitars and drums.

"Dar Mossan Moter Havet" (Where the Moss Meets the Sea) has some progressiveness from Mechina and Protest the Hero without ever going as melodic as those bands. "Roda Lappar, Sota Applen" (Red Lips, Sweet Apples) barely has any sweetness, preferring to go all-out brutal similar to some of the more sludgy tracks by Every Time I Die and The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza. "Kristallfagel" (Crystalbird) masters the brilliant dreamy djent, while Vilhelm Bladin's vocals stay intense. "? Regnet, the ?" (The Rain, the) has some of the metalcore from God Forbid and Knocked Loose made even heavier and more sludgy.

"Hosten Som Togs Ifran Mig" (The Autumn That Was Taken From Me) has some slight vibes from Bleed from Within. "Viktlos & Evig" (Weightless & Eternal) builds up the mathy thall further, swinging through progressive intricacy and occasional cleans. "Stjarnblodning" (Starbleeding) has some Varials vibes bleeding out. The final track "Den Spanska Kanslan" (The Spanish Feeling) has unforgiving riffing throughout this glorious 7-minute epic before letting light shine again, albeit not as bright as it once was.

This skull-crushing offering Dar Skogen Sjunger Under Evighetens Granar is another irresistible album to look out for. It probably would've been perfect if the song titles weren't all in Swedish and having plus signs surrounding each one. Still this is true thall hellfire!

Favorites: "Tva Vackra Svanar", "Ylva", "Dar Mossan Moter Havet", "Kristallfagel", "Viktlos & Evig", "Den Spanska Kanslan"

A decade had passed since the djenty debut album by Vildhjarta, Masstaden, the album that pushed the boundaries of djent just like when Meshuggah invented it in the mid-90s. The long wait for their second album is partially because of Calle Thomer (guitar) and Buster Odeholm (drums) being focused on fellow thall developer Humanity's Last Breath. They still have their perfect groove-ish progressive djent in this next album, the massive 80-minute Masstaden Under Vatten (Seagull Town Underwater)!

While thall can mean anything, I would say it's as evil and strong as Thrall, the World of Warcraft character that inspired the genre's name. This is exemplified by the complexity, atmosphere, and downtuned heaviness that make the subgenre.

"Lavender Haze" makes its immediate entrance with staccato riffing. Enough to make up for Ion Dissonance disappearing after their 2016 album! Starting off a 3-part epic is "Nar De Du Alskar Kommer Tillbaka Fran De Doda" (When Those You Love Come Back From the Dead), sounding progressive and heavy as always. "Kaos2" attacks with its hammering riffing and monstrous vocals. "Toxin" continues on and once again follows the band's unconventional ways including no set structure, destructive riffing, and clean melody only used for haunting atmosphere, thereby maintaining the band's aggressive evolution. "Brannmarkt" (Branded) sounds dark and heavy while twisted through deathly heaviness. The single "Den Helige Anden" (The Holy Spirit) was released two years before the rest of the album, and blends melancholy with polyrhythms.

Taking things to another level is "Passage Noir" with catchiness to go with the atmospheric savagery. Then the 5 and a half minute instrumental "Masstadens Nationalsang (Under Vatten)" (Seagull Town's National Anthem (Underwater)) follows, a highly extended re-recording of a song from the previous album. The riffing can repeat without sounding repetitive, allowing you to let it flow. "Heartsmear" is more dynamic, as the riffing can go from slow and crushing to fast and blasting. The long 7-minute "Vagabond" sets the apocalyptic mood in downtuned chaos. "Mitt Trotta Hjarta" (My Tired Heart) reminds you not to give up on this 80-minute journey, not matter how tiring it is to some.

"Detta Drommars Skote en Sloja Till Ormars Naste" (This Womb of Dreams is a Veil to the Nest of Snakes) is another impressive deep thall labyrinth. "Phantom Assassin" is another short track yet so detailed. I consider the two "Sunset Sunrise" tracks as one. Those two tracks once again break down the walls of conventionality with the talent of each member. The vocals of Vilhelm Bladin, the drums of Buster Odeholm, the guitars of Calle Thomer and Daniel Bergstrom, and the bass of Johan Nyberg, all drifting through these dark djenty waters. The tempo is cranked up in "Penny Royal Poison", sounding so clean and filthy at the same time. The closing epic "Paaradiso" is the band's longest single track at 10 minutes, and there's nothing exhausting about at it all. Dexterous harmonies with hints of post-jazz make another sonic behemoth. And after a brief fade into the background, it all ends with a final atmospheric brutal touchdown, like a world-ending apocalypse.

Masstaden Under Vadden continues Vildhjarta's brutal glory after that decade-long gap between albums. It's like after djent faded from popularity, it was jolted back into memory by the fresh sound of thall. It has opened up dimensions of darkness and brutality that barely any other band could. This is true kaos!

Favorites: "Nar De Du Alskar Kommer Tillbaka Fran De Doda", "Toxin", "Den Helige Anden", "Passage Noir", "Vagabond", "Detta Drommars Skote en Sloja Till Ormars Naste", "Sunset Sunrise", "Sunset Sunrise Sunset Sunrise", "Paaradiso"

Djent has been known as the genre pioneered by Meshuggah, cutting through with its heavy downtuned guitars. It's so heavy and metallic that why Metal Archives doesn't accept that genre is beyond me. The late 2000s and early 2010s was when djent was really taking off beyond Meshuggah with bands like Animals as Leaders and Tesseract. Then in 2011, Vildhjarta (Swedish for "Wildheart") took a more brutal step further with their debut album Masstaden (Swedish for "The Seagull Town", and NO it's not a parody of Mastodon). Those other two djent bands are soft and light compared to this one. Barely any clean singing or riff melody, and no verse-chorus structures... Everything's more atonal, technical, and even sludgy. It's like Meshuggah but even heavier. And thus Vildhjarta have created... THALL!

Masstaden is a concept album that's part of a story that would continue in their second album 10 years later. The heavy intricate music would guide you through the story in all its deep detail. You might be able to get a better understanding if you're patient enough to stay the whole way through. And when everything's fully grasped, you'll be able to find all the beauty and brutality. Heavy rhythms from the guitars and growls often alternate with the soft ambience. There are many songs that stand out in a masterpiece album like this, and when you listen to it all at one go, you won't miss out on the glory it has to offer.

The moment I put the first track "Shadow" on play, I knew I was ready for this massive experience. The next track "Dagger" has a unique unbreakable flow. "Eternal Golden Monk" wastes no time with its seething grooves that prove the band as the f***ing masters of thall. "Benblast" (Bone Blown) is another example of this unique brutality. It really is a h*ll of a blast of thall!

"Ostpeppar" (East Pepper) is the first of a few interludes, this one being so pretty yet pretty eerie. "Traces" pleasantly surprises me with its intricate complexity and djenty variation. Not a single moment can be considered a waste of time. The atmospheric "Phobon Nika" (Fear Conquers) has strong guitar for a short interlude. I like the anticipation of waiting for which riff sounds clean and which sounds brutal as f***. "Masstadens Nationalsang" (Seagull Town National Anthem) is the shortest track, absolutely crushing with the djenty guitar leads. The world really needs more national anthems like that.

"When No One Walks With You" starts off a 3-part epic, going all-out brutal in the grooves. Then "All These Feelings" continues the awesome atonement all the way up to a sweet yet searing outro. "Nojja" is another interlude with epic thall riff-wrath. "Deceit" has more straight groove. "The Lone Deranger" is an incredible closing epic, with some swift tempo changes before the band make their exit.

Masstaden is far beyond what can be considered normal metal. This is thick brutal heaviness that requires full concentration. And in the end, you'll be rewarded with the excellence experienced through the journey. One of the most moving offerings I've encountered, for the patient and experienced!

Favorites: "Dagger", "Eternal Golden Monk", "Benblast", "Traces", "When No One Walks With You", "All These Feelings", "The Lone Deranger"

As I believe I've explained before, symphonic blackened deathcore began in the late 2000s with early Abigail Williams and Winds of Plague and would eventually reach its height of popularity with bands like Lorna Shore and Worm Shepherd. Now can we replace the symphonics with Meshuggah-ish djent and elements of atmospheric doom? Humanity’s Last Breath has answered that question with a big fat YES. The band has continued their exploration into deeper darker caverns that has started with their debut!

The 3rd album Valde (Swedish for "Empire") is another towering part of the band's discography. It's as towering as the spirit-filled tower in the cover artwork and as bleak yet stunning as the artwork itself, as are many other works by that cover artist, the late Mariusz Lewandowski. RIP...

"Dodsdans" (Dance of Death) is the intro that hints at different D-words this album can be described as; dark, deathly, depressive, dissonant, downtuned, dynamic... Then it's the atmospheric yet punishing "Glutton". That song and "Earthless" shall make the most emotionless listener become emotional from this brutality. Next track "Descent" is more percussive alongside technical shredding. The occasional orchestra and choir makes things even more apocalyptic, especially in the black-doom-esque sections.

At the end of "Spectre" is a bit of melody that makes it sound like a Gojira track. Adding to that melody is the sparsely used clean singing, balancing that part with the rest of the song's intensity. Still firing away hard is "Dehumanize". Then "Hadean" continues the band's top-notch talent. The monstrous vocals by Filip Danielsson are incredible as always, flowing with the rhythm. At the same time, riffs are fired through by the guitar duo Buster Odeholm and Calle Thomer. From djenty deathcore breakdowns to drummer Klas Blomgren's blast beats, the violent quest for heaviness rolls on! "Tide" continues the riff-wrath while having the band's own epic post-sludge moment at the end.

The instrumental title track, actually spelled "Valdet" with a T at the end, expands on the atmosphere that then rises to another doom march. Bring things up on front, "Sirens" has more of that heavy stank with uncommon melody here and there. The guitar duo can nicely surprise us with their variety. "Futility" has more of the band's blackened djenty deathcore sound. "Vittring" (Weathering) is an absolutely heavy ending track. You just gotta praise those hammering drums, dissonant guitars, and furious vocals.

Valde proves that Humanity's Last Breath can put all their crushing talents into one plate. Massive brutality all around with some touches of melody. This isn't just thall, this is atmospheric black-doom-infused djenty deathcore thall. Not even the most metal of metalheads would know what the heaviest of all is until they try this one for size!

Favorites: "Earthless", "Spectre", "Hadean", "Tide", "Sirens", "Vittring"

In extreme metal's ongoing reign, many fans are at war for the throne. Their goal is to make the heaviest music known to man, tearing down the walls of conventionality for their original attempts at giving heaviness a new meaning. Humanity's Last Breath might the closest band to the finish line, stunning fans with some of the heaviest and most pulverizing breakdowns and riffs possible. Having already released 3 EPs and one album before this one, the talent and fury the band has is impenetrable and would have all those other extreme metal bands bowing down before them. That's how abyssal this album Abyssal is!

The band's ultra-heavy thall (more brutalized djent/deathcore) sound is so unique. It also leans into downtempo deathcore, the subgenre that might as well be considered death-doomcore and was developed by The Last Ten Seconds of Life and Black Tongue. Whichever genre Humanity's Last Breath are referred to, they increase the limits and impress even the most serious metalheads with their chaotic attack.

"Bursting Bowel of Tellus" literally bursts in with the opening riff, showing that the brutality hasn't withered away since their 2013 debut. There's no doubt those blasts and riff technicality will leave you stunned all the way up to the end. Next track "Bone Dust" has more of the intense violence from vocalist Filip Danielsson's whispers and growls. Everything's so strong and ominous at the same time! "Fragda" slices through neck-twisting riffs and drums. "Abyssal Mouth" is another track released as a single but since revamped. The heaviness really bursts out alongside those haunting vocals by Filip. And we have more of those machine-gun blast beats.

Exploding into your ears like a xenomorph exploding from a person's chest is "Pulsating Black", heavy right from the opening bass pulse. "For Sorg" is an instrumental for who wanting a break from the vocals while staying heavy. "Like Flies" is filled with fast riff darkness and some more sinister vocals by Filip. "Sterile" is good but nothing special.

Another interlude "Being" is interesting, starting off with a demonically distorted audio sample from Jordan Peterson. The expansive "Vanda" displays more of the band's quest for the ultimate heaviness. Each moment is more brutal than the last, with some fast energy added in. The chains of heaviness tighten again in "Rampant" with more technicality in the riffing. The closing outro "Dodgud" wraps it up in total extremeness after a soft ambient start.

The Swedish brutal descendant of djent, thall is held in place by Vildhjarta and Humanity's Last Breath. The latter band's second album Abyssal has given them the right to own the throne of heaviness. They've earned it!

Favorites: "Bursting Bowel of Tellus", "Bone Dust", "Abyssal Mouth", "Like Flies", "Vanda", "Rampant"

Thall is one of the most destructive genres in metal and music in general. This djent subgenre with elements of deathcore/metalcore and even smaller fractions of doom, death, and black metal, is a clear definition of modern extreme metal, and the people in Metal Archives who decide which bands to add must've overlooked this subgenre simply because they hate djent. The founding trio of the subgenre includes Vildhjarta, Reflections, and of course, HUMANITY'S LAST BREATH.

Just the name of this band can induce fear of a catastrophic apocalypse tearing the world apart from the inside, and it fits greatly with the material too. Crushing destruction that you can never escape from, just like a black hole. Darkness and fear are common themes for many metal bands past and present, but they're tame compared to what Humanity's Last Breath can do. The darkness is a lot more massive. Supermassive! The powerful devastation is much more than any other band's attempt at that. It will erase you from existence and bring you back, making an unforgettable experience like none other.

The atmospheric darkness first appears in the "Intro", lasting for a minute. You might think it's boring, but it's just the start of the massive sound it would lead to. The two-track suite "Bellua" is better suited as a full 8-minute epic rather than two parts. Altogether they display the heaviness of the album to come. With "Human Swarm", you can't go wrong with brutality in deathcore and djent. They know how to bust sh*t hard. After a spoken line of "We stop the wind from blowing", then comes a f***ing massive breakdown near the 3-minute mark. A nice surprise for the more extreme 'core listeners. Practically heavier than all that's heavy! Quite hard and evil for the moshpit. Then comes the beastly "Animal", another one of the heaviest tracks here. It's a re-recorded version of an earlier single, and the monstrous fury is so unreal.

"Shoals" speeds things up, sounding closer to standard death metal, maybe even melodeath. Nothing but skull-smashing velocity! Then we lose some brutality in the riffing in "Tellus Aflame". It's not really the best track of the album, but it still rules, and the perfect score isn't affected. "Vultus" is another hard-hitting track. The mix of heavy brutality and subtle melody makes it similar to a less symphonic The Breathing Process. Then there's the short atmospheric interlude "Drone". It's almost like a continuation of the intro that then leads to perhaps the most doom-laden part of the album.

The next track "Void" was released as a single for the album, the first single to not be a re-recording. Although it's quite killer and still maintaining the 5-star album rating, it doesn't represent the slamming might the rest of the album has and make me question its usage as a single. The heaviness returns to full gear in "Anti". Then "Make Me Blind" unleashes the brutal fury one last time. The "Outro" ends it all like it's literally the end of the world. By the time the destructive drama fades out, nothing would remain.

Humanity’s Last Breath has followed in the footsteps of Vildhjarta and made things more moshable and destructive. Their debut marks a strong memorable start to their journey of creativity and apocalyptic heaviness. By the power of THALL!

Favorites: "Bellua" (both parts), "Human Swarm", "Shoals", "Vultus", "Anti", "Make Me Blind"

Released in 1995, ‘In Your Multitude’ is the third studio album by Norwegian progressive metal band Conception. It follows on from 1993’s ‘Parallel Minds’ pretty closely, sounding almost identical in writing, sound and production, so much so that in all honesty, it’s often hard to tell the two albums apart. And as a result, despite being on my playlist for over a year, I still don’t really know what to say about it.

‘In Your Multitude’ isn’t a bad album, by any stretch. There’s some solid songwriting and excellent musicianship, in particular, with a strong emphasis on guitar acrobatics. And fans of Roy Khan (who would go on to front power metal legends Kamelot for a number of years) will enjoy hearing him in his earlier days.

The problem though, is that this is overall, a very average release. While there are a number of pretty decent songs, including ‘Under a Mourning Star’, ‘Missionary Man’, ‘Carnal Comprehension’ and ‘A Million Gods’, it just sounds too much like its predecessor, and in all honesty, there’s countless other things I’d rather listen to.

Had it immediately upon release and 36 years later own original promotional and consider it an example of unmatch, mind blowing virtuosity so beyond all other progressive metal before,or after that it stands as the bar set all others are defeated in their endeavoring to match much less even near. All the critiques posted are by resentful envious individuals throwing stones at those prodigies they can never emulate. 

Here it is, the final of the four Pain of Salvation albums for my marathon, and the final album before I complete my Prog Metal Challenge List. To recap, my ratings for the first three albums fluctuated drastically from the general consensus. People say that Entropia was a great metal debut, but to me it was a bit imbalanced and not heavy enough. I almost adored Concrete Lake, and I thought the much-beloved Perfect Element was a good but somewhat overdrawn album with too much fixation on post-metal influence that seemed to take away from the identity of the first two albums. And now, here I am, at the general opus.

While I loved the instrumental direction the short opener took, the next track, ironically named Ending Theme, so was I in for more of the typical prog metal sound that I was so weary of when my marathon began with the debut's first couple tracks? Fandango seemed to answer my question: not entirely. Fandango's general sense of rhythm is totally xylophonic, not built in metal energy while the backing effects and percussion deliver a strong sense of surrealism. This is basically an experimental track, and I mean almost Residents level, even though it clearly uses the same instruments as previous efforts, so that was a damn good sign. But unfortunately, the next two tracks, while great and beautifully melodic, only provide faint ventures from the standard to other areas, so I'm not so sure what'll happen next. The eight minute Trace of Blood has some nice piano melodies scattered around, but remains high-level typical. The next track, This Heart of Mine, seems to have some Gabriel-era Genesis influence in the vibes, but not very strongly. Undertow was kinda lame in comparison. It just repeate the same slow melody over and over again and only differentiated itself by being more quiet.

Things got pretty proggy again on the more active track, Rope Ends, which knows how to put together a decent rhythm while maintaining the very reason I listen to prog in the first place. This one didn't stop being catchy, even when it was going wild. I get a nice follow-up with some Latin folk influence on Chain Sling, which showcases the best of the band's previously established strengths. Easily a winner of a song. Dryad of the woods continues the folk rock focus and is a nice and soft tune on its own, but even slow songs have more pizazz, and while this was nice and emotional, it was also missing that special something. After the title track, which is a largely prog electronic two-minute segue with a tamed but epic approach, the next track is immediately shamed as it falls into only decent melody and standard behavior for the band. Purely palatable, not remarkable. Same with the track after that, but then the ending, Beyond the Pale, gets back on track with a proper ending that takes the overall vibe of the band to a good strength, ending with one of their more emotional and rhythmically healthy takes of the modern prog sound.

Well, I didn't get the magnum opus everyone was bragging about, but it has plenty of strengths among the traditional sound. This was a very enjoyable album overall, but I'd say that instead of it being one of the greatest I've heard, it's more on the level of Dream Theater's underrated debut.

87

After turning this album on, immediately after concluding One Hour by the Concrete Lake, I certainly wasn't expecting the verses to be orchestrated in NU METAL. But that didn't tell me this was gonna end up a nu metal album, just that this album was gonna end up wild and varied just like the previous efforts. Honestly, there's really no way to tell with these guys. But it's pretty obvious from the slow melodic structures and the nu metal influence that they were trying to appeal to the modern alternative crowd without being an alternative band. You can easily tell from the way our singer occasionally shouts in a very similar manner to Wayne Static. Despite this, post-metal also reigns pretty strong in the background, having a larger say than any other kind of influence in the album. This creates a strong sense of ballad-based serenity throughout a good chunk of it. These are good tracks with a strong sense of progession and some fine melodies, but in comparison to the wide range they went with on the debut and managed to balance out beautifully on the second, this seems a bit less inventive. For example, the first half of Her Voices is made up of this until it takes an immediate shift into speedy Arabic influence, as if they suddenly became The Tea Party. But there are songs that are practically entirely made up of the post-metal influence, like the titular closer. And unfortunately, the songs, while quite enjoyable, are a bit too similar too each other in moods, and the melodies are often a bit light. So in short, this was a GOOD album for me, but not brilliant.

82

I don't feel like doing another track-by-track review today, so I'll just cover the most important stuff. Hearing the actual music kickstart with a beautiful piano metal intro already told me there was a Symphony X similarity that might end up going through the whole album. As a huge fan of Symphony X, I adored the neoclassical piano focus. While I can't say this was "groundbreaking," I was certainly impressed with the healthy upgrade in balance between melody and progression, as well as a totally new sound for the band. On top of which, metallic moments seem to be a bit heavier and more layered, which was an issue for the more metal-oriented songs of the debut. The occasional industrial backdrops also help with that, as well as with more robotic guitar tones and riffs. And of course, there's always a little room for a softer and more contemplative song with some violin attached. But these elements don't often overpower the standard dramatic prog metal aspects, but rather add light influences for the most part. In fact, it's enough to make sure most of these songs feel different enough from each other to almost be different subgenres of prog metal. Handful of Nothing, for example, is quite mechanical in its handling of hardcore punk influence, never really steering into "metalcore," though.

I gotta say, though. Only about half the time the melodies manage to really impress me. For example, a wonderful collective of rhythms takes up the bulk of Home, but in comparison, a track like Water feels a bit empty. Thankfully, the former happens a bit more often. A track like Home is followed by an incredibly proggy yet catchy track like Black Hills, making for an excellent pairing. Hell, I'd say Black Hills even astounded me, managing to be better than the already grand Home. On top of all that, the various sounds and feelings connect well with the emotional focus of the theme, centering around the dystopian devastation and pollution of the world due to man's lack of sympathy for the world around them. The theme isn't very story-based, but it does an excellent job sharing the lead character's feelings of despair. Of course, it goes without saying that it takes a while for that hidden track to really pick up, about four out of six minutes. But once it does, it really does, going into some beautiful avant-garde that perfectly covers what the album went through in a very quick time.

Major improvement over the last. This is considered the weakest of the first four Pain of Salvation albums? I might not agree with people's general consensus on the debut, but the improvement here seems like a very good sign for what's coming next.

93

Today is the day I finally finish my second list challenge: the Prog Metal 2nd Decade Challenge, and it'll happen on my Pain of Salvation marathon. I'll be getting through at least the first four PaS albums, potentially ending at the album I need for the final review on this challenge list: Remedy Lane, the fourth album. I never really got interested in Pain of Salvation for some reason, but I'll gladly check them out for the challenge.

Entropia is a concept album about a struggling family in a fictional titular world, and the main characters are basically detailed in a pretty poetic collection of lyrics that are also standardly "prog concept album." I an't say there was anything here that made me feel too heavily. Now I'm not saying that I didn't have any good expectations for Pain of Salvation's debut, but with the genre-tagging on RYM simple saying Prog Metal for primary and Prog Rock for secondary, I had a pretty good idea of what this album would sound like: standard guitar tones for prog metal and catchy mid-level progression that's only proggy enough not to stay off the radio. The opener and the next song (not counting the pretty lame trip hop segue in between) are so standardly 1990's prog metal that it's not even funny. Dream Theater obviously ended up manifesting a lot of emulators, such as Shadow Gallery and Evergrey. Is it catchy? Yeah, but I've totally heard this before. In fact, I need it to be a little proggier. Save the radio prog for Rush, guys.

Now I was pretty thrown off by the funk aspects that kicked off the nine-minute People Passing By. That's considered to be one of their better songs on this album. The song has a tendency to switch between these and blackened riffs in the same percussion tone like they naturally go together. I wouldn't say that, but at least the prog improves here. But it just isn't catchy enough or even heavy enough to really support my prog metal needs until the end when it pretty much just goes back into the standard behavior of the album. After a totally standard ballad, the album takes a much catchier and outlandish turn with Stress, boasting instrumentation that even goes into Cardiacs territory with its hyper-melodic nature. Unfortunately, while the instrumentation's awesome, singer Daniel Gildenlow's melodies are just lame and don't pair well with the song much.

Things get largely standard again on Revival, which tries to capture the same spirit as Stress but only really succeeds in one aspect: matching the singer's melodies to the instrumentation. Now for the most part, To the End is the best the album had to offer. Everything was energetic, in perfect harmony, and catchy while maintaining that intriguing unpredictability of People Passing By, even though its style is standard. Next comes Nightmist, which is much less melodic and more built on maintaining an ever shifting atmosphere between fast and funky, slow and dramitic, and surprisingly hyperactive for a couple seconds, but I don't feel like banging my head to this one, even as the funk returns in small bits. It seems more like a display of how proggy they can be without setting up the experience as a "song." Plains of Dawn feels like it's going for more of a tonal balance as a slightly-symphonic prog rock song, and it kind of works, but also just tells me that they should've done some more about balance and behavior from previous songs on the album. And finally, there's that ending segue (the segues have been largely unremarkable, by the way), Leaving Entropia.

A lot of people were very impressed with this debut, but it seemed generic at times, proggy but imbalanced at times, and showed a lot of compositional strengths that weren't always lived up to.

73

This year’s exploration of new releases has seen me approaching the early signs of burnout as we reach the halfway point of 2025. With some two hundred and fifty albums already listened to, many of which soon got dismissed before ever being considered worthy of a second listen, it was starting to get a little tiresome. I am grateful though of the releases that still transcend this creeping sense of tedium. The ones that manage to still leave more than a mere dent in the plethora of releases in the year so far. These albums and EPs have something about them, an essence of some strength beyond their grim content and corpse-painted faces. Whilst they don’t always have to be soaked in progressive tendencies, albums such as Incendiary Sanctum are what have kept me largely going this year.

These Canadians come from a strong pedigree of black metal bands, with the country already being responsible for giving me Spectral Wound, Nordicwinter and Panzerfaust, to mention but a few. They are different to pretty much most of what I have heard come out of Canada to date though, deploying a strong death metal element as well as having a post-metal vein running through their sound. It is easy to look at an album with track lengths that extend to nearly nineteen minutes and be discouraged. Indeed, I would go as far as to say parts of Incendiary Sanctum look daunting. However, my experience of these lengthy tracks has thankfully not been one of progressive wankery or grandiose showmanship. Even without that imposing nature to performances it is clear beyond any doubt that everything is remarkably well played here. Equally the album is arranged very intelligently, and yet even with this order to proceedings, especially with that post-metal element being so strong, the dynamics of the sound do not suffer. Arguably the most obtuse thing about the band for me is their ridiculous name.  A Flock Named Murder?  Really?

The four tracks that run over the hour and three-minute duration are all delivered with a maturity and a sense of patience being applied to the song development. This is not just four tracks of post-metal that grow into raging black metal crescendos at the halfway point, to be then taken into some death metal section before fading away into more minimalist pastures to end. The structures here are varied and are kept interesting throughout the longer than usual runtimes. Think the clever songwriting of Cult of Luna coupled with the innovation of Enslaved and then throw some Agalloch in there to temper everything and you are absolutely on the right track. I would argue that this is more entertaining than anyone of those bands in isolation (notwithstanding that I am not Agalloch’s biggest fan by any means) and being able to take the better elements from just three such well established artists show a talent in itself of course.

Incendiary Sanctum is one of the better-balanced releases that I have heard in 2025. Where it does lean into prog it does so without managing to lose me. The death metal element is strong throughout and whilst there is little room for black metal, what is here is still of excellent quality. It does start to lose some traction with me if I listen in one sitting and I do find that splitting the album in two does tend to reap the better rewards for me. I cannot think of anything else I have heard this year to compare this with and as such it stands out from the pack well in what has already been a very busy year.

I'm on several metal communities, sometimes more active on others that some, and I never really see anybody talking about Indukti.  I was honestly under the assumption that they were just thrown in the Metal Academy Prog Metal List Challenge to fill up the 25 entries.  I didn't really have the highest hopes getting into this, but I had quite a bit of fun.  The seven minute opener, Freder, has a loosely industrial repetition about that maintains some originality and catchiness with a good, heavy attitude, so it was a good opener.  But then an acoustic ballad takes over on Cold Inside, and it's just gorgeous.  This one progressed perfectly, rivaling some of the folksier or symphonic stuff I heard when I was going through classic prog on Progarchives.  The acoustics transcend into track 3, titled No. 11812, which goes back into the metal weirdness and maintains a keen unpredictability, balancing out acoustic melodies with layers of electric monotony that exude futurism.  Track 4, Shade, begins with a heavily tribal ambiance, emerging into a meaningful combo of violin and heavy metal energy overtime.  Then comes Uluru, which is just freakin' maniacal.  It has everything from violin to Paranoid Android sound effects to robotic growls that sound like burps to a didgeridoo opening and doesn't spare a second without going into mindwarp overload.  Now track 6, titled No. 11811, is where some similar ideas get tossed around, potentially meaning they used up the majority of their ideas and decided to finish up with clever instrumentation to fill up the album.  It's still quite good, but for such a creative album, a little more spark would be appreciated.  The nine minute closer does this as well, but it manages to keep things cool and refreshing.  This album is a lot like a Devin Townsend album, and I really do recommend it.

95

The debut album of Green Carnation, Journey to the End of Night, was a conceptual beauty but a rhythmic near-disaster, recycling simple riffs and surreal concepts between overdrawn epics while maintaining a strong sense of atmosphere and mystique.  So these guys had their work cut out for them on the second album, especially considering that it's entirely composes of a single hour-long song.  This was either going to be a monolith or a botched work.  It ended up being the former.  We finally have that total harmony between the instruments that allows them to flow from one genre to the other seamlessly, matching the intrigue and mystique of the debut with much better production, just as clear as before but balanced in volume and impact between each player.  Its grandiose behavior isn't quite so overtly melodic and epic in the way that a Mozart piece would be.  It's a slow walk in the woods during a blood orange sunset, covering all your emotions on the journey, much like the cover appears as.  Now rhythmically, it's easily an improvement over the first.  Throughout, good rhythms evolve into each other, once again, seamlessly.  However, I would still go as far as the say that melody is the worst aspect about the album, as it rarely ever reaches out to astound.  Otherwise, the album does everything it can to maintain this Autumn evening atmos, even when the technical Pt. II takes over right into a dive of new age vocals, acoustic guitar and smoot sax.  Because you need to know: this isn't a "metal" album... this is an ALBUM.

Green Carnation, a prog band formed by ex-Emperor bassist Tchort, is a band I've put off for a long time so I can focus on other kinds of metal and other genres in general, but I finally have the freedom to check out one of the three bands I need left for one of the Metal Academy prog metal list challenges.  Even though I only need to review one of their albums, I wanted to go back to the beginning, as I believe a real student should expand further than just one album per band as the lists are exclusively formed.

So starting with the debut, I was quickly introduced to a psychedelic atmosphere that I had never heard before.  The thirteen minute opener, In the Realm of the Midnight Sun, was an obvious effort in putting together various styles in a way that fit and could justify the length of 13 minutes.  Now I'd say as far as progressing the various genres in one song goes, there wasn't any problem with that.  But there's something that really needs to be addressed: some of the rhythms outshine other parts of the song by country miles, so the song still feels inconsistent in that way.  I thought to myself, "I supposed that's where the leading criticism comes from?"  I had other epics to check out before I could be certain of that.  Another product of the inconsistency is how some metal moments are much heavier than others.  I suppose the drums were improperly mixed, feeling a little faint for what they were striving to achieve.  But by the third epic, which totals tracks 2-4 into 45 minutes, it kind of becomes a cycle of reused tricks in different epics, creating a sense of overlength.  Even the fact that several shorter songs take up the end doesn't really detract from this.

For a first attempt, there's some good genre balance and ambition here, but the lack of original rhythmic ideas tells me that this was merely the band tackling too much at once and only fairly succeeding more at the intrigue rather than the music.  It's a fine first attempt in that way, but more or less decent in other ways.

I can always get behind the idea of changing your sound a bit.  Fates Warning have slowly done that over the course of several albums, but typically, they will remain a metal band.  It's not so apparent in A Pleasant Shade of Grey, in fact I'd go as far as to say it's not a full-on metal album, but rather rock with a couple metal influences.  And I'm totally cool with that.  I was hoping this album would be one of the absolute berst of its type, but Fates Warning has only impressed me once in that vein out of several albums, so my expectations were closer to the 9/10 vein.

From what I've studied, Fates Warning are basically a top 10 in prog metal as far as popularity and influence goes.  Of course, when you're going to tackle prog, you have to be careful that your technical melodies and the harmony of the instruments don't come off as wonky.  Part II was fairly guilty of that during the verses, so the first two parts didn't really do much for me musically, despite setting a good preconceived standard for the rest of the album.  But it took way too long for me to get to a spot to where I could feel like absorbing an atmosphere, bobbing my head, getting intrigued, etc.  Part 5 had a good level of psychedelic intrigue to it, but it simply wasn't strong enough to stand out amongst the masses of prog rock or metal IMO and it didn't justify the wonkiness in the other parts of the song.  Things started to feel more fleshed out and make more sense in the second half, featuring better examples of prog that took a few key directions that cemented the second half as superior to the first.  But when the band was trying out some metal in the fix, the softer focus of the album got in the way of heaviness, making it feel more like general rock, so while they have every right to make a rockier album, any metal should actually be metal.

it shows this vintage group of prog metal pioneers somehow struggling to maintain proper atmosphere, being more focused on maintaining a softer presence that they only occasionally succeed at.  This is also to say that when it was trying to be metal, it wasn't heavy enough.  They have every right to change their sound, and this was a pretty good attempt with a few good songs, some interesting technical ideas and a little bit of experimentation that never broke the flow.  But sometimes it feels a little empty, and sometimes the rythms are a bit wonky, so the album feels incomplete.

De toorn is a two-track EP running for 25 minutes and is the first of two EPs already released this year by the belgian atmospheric sludge band. Both tracks follow a very similar path, starting off in a very gentle, minimalist manner. The opener "Heden" begins with soft, heartbeat-like drumbeats and a murmuring bassline interjected with gentle guitar strumming and vocalist Colin Van Eeckhout quietly intoning the lyrics with a spoken word delivery. We all know this quiet calm cannot last and that it is just a matter of time until the wave comes crashing in. That it takes until the final quarter of the track for it to happen, just as you start to wonder if this is not the track you thought it was, it almost takes you by surprise. Van Eeckhout goes into full desperate, Burzum-like shrieking mode as the heaving tsunami riff hits and the shuddering climax is brought to fruition. Heden is definitely a case of the payoff being worthy of the build-up and is a decent, if not exactly unpredictable piece of atmo-sludge songwriting.

The problem for me is that they then try to pull off exactly the same trick with the second track, the EPs title track. This time the quiet calm, post-rock led extended intro is provided by a jangling guitar and snare beat with the vocals again pretty much being spoken word. The climax this time around hits at the two-thirds in mark and takes a very similar form to the opener. Whilst the atmospherics on both tracks are exceedingly well delivered and they are obviously very comfortable with both their instruments and songwriting technique, the similarity of the two tracks feels almost a little lazy and too comfortable for a band who have delivered much more variety in the past. Look, these guys are good, and both these tracks are too, but I expected a bit more from such a talented bunch.

HOW?!? How did I not discover this awesome modern metal band earlier?! Remember what I thought of Becoming the Archetype's debut Terminate Damnation? Hope for the Dying's most recent album Legacy basically continues the progressive melodeath/metalcore sound of that album but with more symphonic/neo-classical elements. Many people who enjoy this band have started off with Dissimulation or Aletheia, but my first encounter with Legacy makes me wants to check them out for the first time soon.

While there are some similarities to Terminate Damnation in terms of the sound, flow, and track lengths, there's only one interlude that is the intro. That's OK, because the rest of the album stands out as is. Before we get to that, I'd just like to point out the album cover. It may not be by Dan Seagrave, but it still has that epic Game of Thrones vibe.

So "Aurora" is a nice orchestral intro that lasts for a minute. "Setting Sun" fits greatly with its title, setting the album's tone in stone. The haunting keys shine greatly alongside the heavy guitars. The best place for progressive diversity is "Flame Forged", one of my favorite tracks here. Then we have the relentless "Narcissus" that continues its blend of heaviness and melody from beginning to end.

However, its abrupt transition into "Nemesis" is a bit jarring. My perfect 5-star rating still stands as that next track brushes aside that misstep with heavy dissonance. Lyrics like "I was a slave to my own demons" and deathly growls by Becoming the Archetype frontman Jason Wisdom makes that track another standout. I also love the guest gutarwork by Elisha Mullins (The Burial, Miss May I, War of Ages) including the Van Halen-esque divebomb at the end. "Trenches" is another fantastic dish of heaviness and symphonics that stays speedy until its slower ending section. "Wretched Curse" lets you rest in a slower tempo for the first couple minutes then speeds back up again.

After the previous track's brief soft moment, "Wander No More" has searing guitars to rip you apart. My ultimate favorite track of the album is the 9-minute title epic that really packs some punches. A smooth two-minute bridge comes in midway through before some blazing soloing out of nowhere. Then it ends with soft strings. The last bit of triumph comes in "Adamantine" which is an excellent summary of this glorious literal hour. And finally some soft piano to end it all.

As brilliant as Terminate Damnation is, Legacy is another huge deal of modern epicness. Every layer is absorbed through your ears into the brain, and you'll be able to experience this unique creativity in no time. You can expect headbanging metal sections, soft orchestral bridges, and different time signature changes. Just like Terminate Damnation, this offering is a standout in the Christian metal scene that can please both Christians and non-Christians. If I thought Mechina's Progenitor was the best album of 2016, that award might just be passed over to this album. There's still hope for Hope for the Dying to come back with something fresh to maintain their legacy!

Favorites: "Flame Forged", "Nemesis", "Trenches", "Legacy", "Adamantine"

Katatonia have a special place in my listening habits nowadays.  The album Fall of Hearts has been of recent importance as it guided me through some of the darker times of a relationship breakdown over the past year.  The Dance of December Souls is also one of my favourite records of the sub-genre of the time, and whilst I cannot pretend to be massively in love with everything the band releases, a new release from them will certainly wind up on my rotation list for a period.  With a couple of singles circulated ahead of the main album release, I was already prepared for more of the same from modern day Katatonia.  Progressive elements, fused onto a main hull of alt-metal seem once again to be the order of the day.  Pace and tempos do vary but there is still that lumbering undertone to their sound that scratches some of that Fallen clan itch for me.

My favourite element of the band’s sound, Jonas’ pained vocals, are in fine form here.  Never getting into the pleading territory, nor are they bleating about unfairness or uncertainty, they paint a melancholy picture without grating.  For their largely monotone presentation, this consistency could easily end up grating, yet they compliment the darkness inherent in Katatonia’s sound so perfectly.  The other element that stands out this time are the superb guitar leads that haunt the record at various intervals.  Just as harrowing as the vocals, they are the perfect accompaniment.  Also, there are some quality riffs happening here on Nightmares of the Waking State.  Add in the power of the drums and you soon find yourself in that strange atmosphere of a subdued, yet deep and thoroughly entertaining experience.

The infectious (yet somehow not catchy) chorus line of ‘Temporal’ is a genuine joy that sticks in my head for days afterwards.  ‘Efter Solen’ is a sullen and moody track with a sneaky build that grows subtly in the background of the dreamy vocals and keys, exhibiting a crawling ambience as it goes along. There is a variety to album number fourteen from the Swedes, that we all absolutely expect by now, but it is all so mature sounding, without being boring.  The predominant colour of Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State in my mind after multiple plays is still grey.  That monotone is filled with bursts of white, some of them brighter than others, yet there is no real burst of vibrant yellows, oranges or even reds and that is absolutely fine for me.  Another chord struck with me here.