Style: Progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Fates Warning, Symphony X, Opeth
Country: Israel
Release date: 25 July 2025

One of my favorite obscure albums to recommend to people is Orpheus Blade’s debut Wolf’s Cry. Its cinematic songwriting, dark atmosphere, grandiose production values, excellent guitarwork, and a charismatic female/male vocal duet from Adi Bitran and guest singer Henning Basse (Metalium, Legions of the Night) made for a uniquely compelling experience. Ever since I discovered the album, I’ve been eagerly waiting for a follow-up and have regularly harassed a friend of mine who knows the band personally about album no. 2’s status. For years, all he relayed to me was that “IT’S COMING, I SWEAR!”¹ despite absolute radio silence from their social media accounts. This continued until one day Christopher thoughtlessly said on my lunch break “oh btw Sam there’s a new Orpheus Blade out—you should probably review that.” DAMMIT SHACHAR WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY ANYTHING?! THEY ANNOUNCED THIS WEEKS AGO!

Orpheus Blade has undergone quite a transformation since Wolf’s Cry. The only original remaining member is Adi Bitran, who took up about half the vocal duties before. It’s especially a shame to have lost Henning Basse as the dude/dudette vocal duet was one of Wolf’s Cry’s main selling points—I didn’t even realize he was only a guest singer until researching for Obsessed in Red. Gal Ben Haim’s phenomenal guitarwork is also no more; he has been replaced by Yaron Gilad (ex-Tillian) and Danny Aram. Safe to say, the new cast has some very big shoes to fill. 

…they do not. As much as I hate to say it, Obsessed in Red is a step down in nearly every single facet from Wolf’s Cry. Let’s start with the production. Simply put, Obsessed in Red sounds like a demo: weak guitar tones, muffled drums, vocals being unnaturally forward, poor mastering, and just a general lack of any modern polish or sheen make the record sound unpleasantly amateurish and a slog to listen to before any thought is given to the music itself. If you told me that Obsessed in Red came out in 2010, I would have believed you, and even then I still would have called the production mediocre at best. Jacob Hansen, who mixed and mastered Wolf’s Cry, is nowhere to be seen, but it’s clear that he wasn’t adequately replaced and the result is unacceptable for this day and age. 

Still, as a reviewer I cannot let myself be shackled to a bad first impression based on production difficulties. Unfortunately, the songwriting doesn’t rescue Obsessed in Red. The dark cinematic style that made Wolf’s Cry so compelling has been replaced by a much more standard prog/power-ish metal base with some death metal and gothic elements sprinkled on top for garnish. What spark the record has generally comes from these darker components—gnarly tremolo picked riffs (“Unattained”), polyrhythmic double kick drum beats (“Anywhere But Here”, “Unattained”), melancholic guitar leads (“Those Who Cannot Speak”), and impressively monstrous harsh vocals throughout—but they are consistently undermined by the atrocious production and otherwise middling songwriting. The big issue is that the band’s foundational prog/power sound barely inspires. Whether it’s the bland heavy metal main riff from “Of Tales and Terrors”, the middling harmonies in “Anywhere but Here”, or the well-performed but structurally entirely predictable shredding of “My Red Obsessions”, when central components fail, the entire structure crumbles. 

Another central songwriting component that’s lacking is Bitran’s clean vocals, which seem to have deteriorated from Wolf’s Cry. Part of this might be due to the mix, which often makes her sound thin, but on a deeper level her delivery is just a bit meek. The vocal lines themselves are mostly fine and she hits every note cleanly, but she struggles to project her voice with the force and add the necessary grit for a metal band, leading to some particularly bad moments like the chorus of opener “My Arms for Those Wings” (speaking of bad first impressions), or the verses in “Of Tales and Terror”; Henning Basse’s contribution is sorely missed here. She’s much better when she’s not required to project as much, allowing her to showcase a breathy crooning style which works especially well in the softer sections (e.g. the opening of “Nicanor”). Still, her crooning over the band’s relatively straightforward style is a Wolf’s far cry from the debut, where the dark cinematic atmosphere gave her an ideal backdrop to shine. The one unambiguously positive development for the vocals, however, is with the harshes, which have improved in both presence and ferocity. Overall, it makes for a performance that’s competent but rarely commanding—serviceable in the softer or harsher extremes, but disappointingly middling everywhere in between.

If anything, Obsessed in Red feels phoned in, like the band had enough of sitting on this material for so long and said “fuck it, let’s just release the thing.” The uninspired way the album closes out feels emblematic of that—after “Nicanor” culminates in an underwhelming finale, “At Her Feet” concludes the record with nothing but Bitran crooning over a synth backdrop that receives little to no development. The production is equally careless, and technical skill and a few moments of inspiration cannot save the largely lifeless songwriting. It pains me to say, but next to nothing of the vigor and creativity that made Wolf’s Cry so compelling has survived this past decade. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

Recommended tracks: Unattained, Those Who Cannot Speak
You may also like: The Anchoret, Hunted, Terra Odium, Novembre
Final verdict: 4/10

1. Our WhatsApp communication is in all caps—don’t ask me why. ︎

Related links: Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Independent

Orpheus Blade is:
– Adi Bitran (vocals)
– Yaron Gilad (guitars)
– Danny Aram (guitars)
– Ido Gal (bass)
– Stivie Salman (bass)
– Nitzan Ravhon (drums)
With guests:
– Davidavi Dolev (backig vocals)

The post Review: Orpheus Blade – Obsessed in Red appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: avant-garde metal, progressive metal, chamber music, progressive rock, Romanticism (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Rush, Mertz, Liturgy
Country: California, United States
Release date: 1 August 2025

What makes metal metal? Indubitably, it’s some blend of attitude, riffs, lyrical themes, instrumentation, and “heaviness” (that last one is to say, you know it when you hear it). Until 2020, I would have thrown in distortion to the list of essential characteristics, but Kaatayra’s Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à sua Direita Sabe, currently still my album of the decade, changed that as a fully acoustic yet recognizably black metal album. New avant-garde metal band Rintrah push my conceptions of metal even further, abandoning even the harsh vocals of Só Quem. That’s right, The Torrid Clime is classical acoustic guitar, drumming, and reedy, belted clean vocals. So what makes Rintrah metal? 

Their unabashed veneration for the Romantics. I mean, ask anybody; Romantic poetry is hella metal. But seriously, since metal’s earliest days, its practitioners have been neoromantics, intentionally or not. The genre’s acolytes are obsessed with individuality and freedom of expression, an idealization of the past and the exotic (through incorporations of folk music, for example¹), and, above all, a singular desire to attain the sublime. Metal mainstays—crushing heaviness, screamed and growled vocals, blast beats, crazy displays of guitar wizardry, singing of gore and nihilism—all act to make you, the listener, feel small compared to the display of sonic power. As eminent Romantic philosopher Edmund Burke said: “Whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”² Like Romanticism, metal is, at its heart, a rebellion: against the shackles of a boring life, from the very start in the industrial hellscape of Manchester. It’s designed to make you feel something profound, with heaviness as its modus operandi.

Simply put, metal is obviously Romantic, and Rintrah fully embodies the philosophy more explicitly than any other band I’ve ever heard, so those dulcet acoustic guitars and blast beats are more than enough to be metal to the philosophical core. Rintrah’s Romantic aesthetic is, in a word, audacious. Adorning the album cover of The Torrid Clime’s is the 1818 painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich, a work which is literally first on Wikipedia if you search “Romantic art.” The lyrics across Rintrah’s debut record are pulled from various Romantic poets—William Blake, Percy Shelley, Emily Dickinson, Lord Byron, Charles Baudelaire, and Charlotte Smith.³ There is even a Mertz piece, “Nocturne, Op. 4, No. 2,” on the record fitted in as a mid-album interlude. 

So yeah, The Torrid Clime is pretty damn metal, although musically it’s a far cry from what I’d expect. There are no grandiose orchestrations here à la Mahler, Mendelssohn, or Dvorak. Classical guitarist Justin Collins manages to make his instrument sound like a harp, while Arsenio Santos on bass (Howling Sycamore) gives The Torrid Clime a Rush-like rhythmic edge. The vocals provided by Otrebor (Botanist) and William DuPlain (ex-Botanist) are also Rush-y, powerful, nasal-y tenors; like Geddy Lee, I could see Otrebor and DuPlain’s vocals being a sticking point for listeners. Yet their delivery of the various poems is admirable, with drama, bombast, and spot-on cadence. It’s quite the bardic performance, in fact, and one could easily imagine one of the vocalists with the charmingly strummed guitar lines traveling city to city performing their poetry.⁴ The guitar tones are succulent with plenty of technical embellishment, keeping the music quite harmonically complex. During the faster moments, like those in “Ozymandias” and “On the Giddy Brink,” I even hear strong hints of Kaatayra with the rhythmic intricacy of the guitar parts—not to mention the wonky rhythms of tracks like “The Chariot.” The compositions are also full of masterful transitions which perfectly underscore thematic shifts in the text, such as the transition between the main riff and the softer, richer one in “Fearful Symmetry.” 

For much of The Torrid Clime, the frantic blast beats are in wonderful juxtaposition with the calmer classical guitar and breathily belted vocals, but at times Otrebor’s drumming becomes completely detached from the plot as Collin’s guitar and Santos’ bass fall out of rhythmic contact with him—the vocalists are off doing their own thing in the stratosphere most of the time, regardless. Rintrah’s unique combination of sounds works in its favor until their delicate synergy becomes unraveled. Thankfully, for most of the tracks on The Torrid Clime, Rintrah stay in their lane, letting those euphonious guitar lines, thumping bass, unique vocals, and blast beats all interact with surprising cohesion. The tracks that change up Rintrah’s characteristic sound are also strong points on the record: instrumental “Nocturne, Op. 4, No. 2,” blast-less slow track “Mutability,” and a cappella finale “Into an Echo.” Even within the band’s focused sound, one can never know what to expect. 

The Torrid Clime is a unique album driven by guitars that sound like harps and charismatic vocalists who could travel town to town in some idyllic reimagining of the past. Fraught with gentle tension and unruly percussion, The Torrid Clime doesn’t induce the sublime as obviously as in lots of metal but rather in a wholly unexpected way; as I kept returning to the album, it revealed itself to me in the dramatic performance of the lyrics, in the percussive transitions between riffs, and in the complex, expansive chords. Rintrah is an intriguing project, undoubtedly not for every metalhead, but for those with an open mind and an appreciation for the philosophical, the sublime awaits.

Recommended tracks: Fearful Symmetry, On the Giddy Brink, In Tempests, Into an Echo
You may also like: Botanist, Forêt Endormie, Howling Sycamore, Kaatayra
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp

Label: Fiadh Productions – Bandcamp | Facebook

Rintrah is:
– Justin Collins – guitar
– Otrebor – drums, backing and lead vocals
– William Duplain – lead and backing vocals
– Arsenio Santos – bass

1. The Romantics’ glorification of the past, promotion of shared heritage, and emphasis on extreme emotion all contributed greatly to the rise of nationalism. This is also how I believe NSBM became such a problem in the black metal world. Metal’s full embrace of the Romantics’ philosophy comes with its negatives, too. ︎
2.  From A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. ︎
3. Rintrah don’t even quote some of my favorite basic-bitch Romantic poets like Colerdige, Wordsworth, and Keats. Definitely look into all of these Romantic poets, though! ︎
4. The bard is a common Romantic motif in their exaltation of the past. ︎

The post Review: Rintrah – The Torrid Clime appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Q: Your records are incredibly cohesive throughout, with plenty of motifs and well-thought-out track flow. How do you balance “writing for the song” versus “writing for the album”?

Duran: The composition of the album always starts with a couple of riffs. Once we have a first song structure, we try to clarify the vision we have for the album as a whole. Will it be a single block? Will all the tracks flow into one another? Will it be a “Side A / Side B” format? Will it be a collection of singles? We always aim to explore something we haven’t done yet. Then, we look at the songs themselves. Each track has to stand on its own. We don’t want to have fillers on the album. Once we have the songs, we have to choose an order that works as well. We want to provide contrast and keep the listening experience interesting enough. Sometimes this contrast comes in the tonality of the songs, sometimes in the varying intensities, time signatures, and different layers.
Johan: The most interesting and crucial part for me is turning a collection of riffs into a fully formed song. Writing variations, progressions, and transitions, shaping the structure and musical narrative of each track, it can be pure chaos. It can drive you insane! It often feels like I’m searching for a missing piece of a giant puzzle, and the process can take months. It’s as much intellectual work as it is heartfelt expression. And personally, I love that! Also figuring out the connections between songs, whether it’s a rhythmic or melodic motif, a tempo, etc, it’s very fun. You realise that everything is linked somehow.

Q: For nearly a decade, Stortregn were a melodic black metal band heavily inspired by Dissection! What happened to spur the transition into the melodic blackened proggy tech death band you are now? Was it a natural evolution? Do you see the band drastically evolving again, or do you plan on tinkering with the current style for longer?

Johan: Dissection was one of the first extreme metal bands I listened to when I was younger. I was deeply moved and impressed by the emotional power of their first two albums. That impact led me to co-found the band, in an attempt to reach that same emotional intensity. In hindsight, that era felt like a great learning experience for me. Anyway, we quickly wanted to move away from being seen as a “tribute” band because we felt we had so much more to offer, and we were tired of being boxed into that label. The arrival of Duran, and later Manu, also significantly broadened our musical horizons, since they come from different backgrounds and have diverse musical aspirations. Nowadays, we’re pushing our own limits, and we don’t know where that might take us!
Duran: Believe it or not, I had never listened to Dissection before I joined the band! I can’t claim to have been influenced by them. But we continue to evolve as musicians and have different musical backgrounds, so I think it is safe to say that our style is not set in stone. You might hear bluegrass influences in the future. Who knows?

Q: Franck, you’re a new face in the band, welcome! What has touring with the band been like? In person, you mentioned that Stortregn’s extensive use of high screams was a new hurdle in your vocal career. Were there any adjustments you made to your technique?

Franck: Thanks for the welcome! Lots of things to say. Actually I never toured before and I thought touring would remain a boy’s dream. But it finally happened. So touring as the vocalist of Stortregn, a band I’ve been a fan of for years, opening for Virvum, whose album I’ve listened to so many times, was a unique experience in my life as you can imagine. I was really nervous about being up to the task, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to meet Stortregn’s live performances level. But I felt very well with the two bands, I could express how I felt anytime and they all helped me to relax and have a lot of fun. And I was surprised that my voice held on for the 12 shows!
As for the technique, in my previous and other bands I am more used to use the low voice as the main vocals. So for Stortregn, I had to switch in my head to make the high screams as the main vocals, and to use them as high as I could. It was a challenge because the high screams of the previous singer had this strength that, for me, was so characteristic of Stortregn’s sound. It sounds more black metal than what I have done with my other bands. So I had to train myself a lot to reach a balance between keeping the sound of the band and bringing something new with my voice. The composition and recording of the One Eternal EP really helped me in that way, and the advice and feedback of the members of the band were precious.

Q: Samuel, I know you have a background in jazz drumming, and that’s clear in your playing which is some of the most creative and original I’ve ever heard in metal. Who are some of your major influences, metal or otherwise? 

Samuel: Thanks for this question and the kind words. I definitely love some bands from both music styles metal and jazz, bands like Gorod, Leprous, Opeth, The Bad Plus, and also Jazz pianists like Hiromi, Brad Mehldau, or Tigran Hamasyan. If we talk about drummers, guys like Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Bill Stewart, Nate Smith, Stéphane Galland, and in metal music Sebastian Lanser, Baard Kolstad and Kai Hahto. I took some drum lessons with them and they’re part of my musical journey.

Q: Johan and Duran, you three have such complex, interweaving guitar/bass lines and dueling solos that it begs the question: how do you decide who plays which part? Also, do you two have any classical training? Your sound demonstrates a seeming mastery of counterpoint.

Johan: Thanks for the compliment! I’m a professional classical guitarist–I did all my studies in Switzerland and won several competitions back in the day. I’m very active in the classical world, performing recitals internationally and playing as a soloist with orchestras. My classical studies drastically changed the way I approach writing for the band, especially from Emptiness Fills the Void onwards, and that influence continues to shape our sound today.
Duran: I think there are so many possibilities with our formation and we don’t want to limit ourselves to pigeonhole our roles. We have Johan’s classical background which brings the sharpness and the strong compositional cohesion and music theory. Then, Manu and I could switch from guitar to bass / bass to guitar at any time. So sometimes Manu plays the bass like a guitarist and I will play guitar like a bassist, if that makes any sense. We want to take on more than just the traditional double lead-rhythm-bass combo. I think this contributes to and expands our sound. It’s all in the optic of getting the right sound for the right part. Then for the decision of who plays what line, it will depend on the vision of the main composer of the song.

Q: Of course, you are a band from Francophone Switzerland, yet you write lyrics in English except for a few on Impermanence and Finitude. Have you considered writing more songs in French?

Duran: “Nénie” was the first song that we recorded in French, although there might be some obscure early demos somewhere with French lyrics, but I can’t confirm that. Then, in Finitude, we have the title track and “De Inferno Solis” which are  in French as well. Once again, it depends on the vibe of the writer. Romain had very interesting lyrics in French and he delivered them brutally and it worked seamlessly on the track. Why should we limit ourselves to English if we can push an idea in a more personal manner? Then again, it has to sound good with the track. I’m hoping one day to get a track out in Finnish, but it has to be justified with the theme of the song or the story. We’ll see how that will turn out.
Johan: French language and pronunciation adds a lot to the music! It’s so much more brutal and crisp. English, on the other hand, tends to sound more polished and ’round’. It’s cool to be able to use them both to serve your musical purpose.

Q: Do you typically do songwriting sessions in person together? Few bands seem to have as much synergy as you in the studio—and live as I was lucky enough to see. Every piece clicks into place.

Duran: Thanks for the compliment. We just started trying to schedule songwriting sessions, but with each of our timetables it’s almost impossible to find a time and place that works for everyone. Otherwise until now, it was very much Guitar Pro based, tabbing out our ideas, uploading them on a shared cloud drive, modifying others’ ideas, hating other people’s edits and trying to find a compromise somewhere. We’ve had a couple of heated discussions. You can sometimes hear the tension in the compositions but the end result has always justified them. 
Johan: In my experience, in-person writing sessions have never really worked for us. Personally, I need to sit down alone, like a craftsman in his workshop who carefully refines and polishes the material.

Q: With the sad news of Ozzy’s death, Stortregn’s new cover of “Mr. Crowley” hits all the harder. What made you pick that song to cover from his discography? Have you considered covering other artists/songs? It always seems like a great way to give tribute to your influence, and it sounds like you guys had a blast performing the Ozzy cover.

Duran: On a personal level, I am extremely sad that Ozzy has passed on. I mean it was bound to happen, but nobody expected it to happen so suddenly. His music has been so influential and has had such an impact on so many different artists and I am no exception. May his music live on forever and may he rest in peace.
On the subject of our cover, we have been discussing a potential cover of “Mr. Crowley” for years. It fits everything: it’s a dark song, a classic, it has epic riffs and solos, an amazing story behind the whole original album, and it has enough space for us to interpret it in our way. We are very happy with the result and can only hope that Ozzy had the chance to give it a listen and approve it!
There might have been other covers in discussion. Nothing recorded, though….yet!

Q: Do any of you have any personal favorite Stortregn songs/albums?

Duran: The next album is my favorite! I can’t wait to finish the writing process to get it recorded and release it! 
Franck : My personal favorite song to play live is “Through the Dark Gates,” especially at the end of the set–it’s just insane. Now, among songs we didn’t play during the last tour, I always tell the guys I really love “Cold Void” from Finitude. I also love “Timeless Splendor,” “Children of the Obsidian Light,” or “Inner Black Flame.” But still, the next album will obviously be the best.
Johan : The next one, indeed!

Q: If you could tour with any band, who would it be?

Johan : Bands that are on the same wavelength as us, but also know how to party!
Duran: It’s a tough question. We just completed our Canada Takeover tour with Virvum which was an absolute blast. I would tour with them again any day!

Q: What bands were most influential in getting you all into music—and as listeners, how has your taste progressed over the years? 

Duran: The scene has never been as big and varied as it is today. So I can always find something new that scratches an itch I never knew I had! My biggest influences would be Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath (Ozzy / Dio / Tony Martin), B.B. King, Pantera, Dream Theater, Slayer, early-In Flames, and so on.
Johan : I’m still returning to my old classics sometimes, but the latest Dordeduh and Sühnopfer were amazing. 

Q: Any favorite albums of 2025 so far, or any local or underground bands you want to shout out?

Duran: I have a huge backlog of albums I have to listen to. I think I still have to finish 2019. But shout out to our good friends: Virvum, Burn Down Eden, Conjonctive, Calcined, The Scalar Process, and Skaphos!

Thank you again to Stortregn for the interview and make sure to check out their new EP One Eternal on Bandcamp and wherever else good music is streamable!

Links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives Page

The post Interview: Stortregn appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by: Jess Allanic

Style: Metalcore, Alternative Metal, Progressive Metal (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Poppy, Rolo Tomassi, Lake Malice, Wargasm, Holy Wars, As Everything Unfolds
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 11 July 2025

Back in 2012, the Marvel Cinematic Universe changed the game and shook the industry with the release of The Avengers, a years-in-the-making blockbuster that brought all their disparate heroes together on the silver screen in a historic first. An approximate $1.5 billion later, and suddenly everyone else wanted a money-making universe of their own. DC Studios fast-tracked an Extended Universe; Fox brought back Bryan Singer for 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, which saw OG trilogy stars reprise their roles alongside the new blood. Universal, the original maestros of the crossover universe, jumped back into the game with the Dark Universe, an especially ill-fated attempt that perfectly illustrated the folly of such heedless trend chasing. Hell, even Daniel Craig’s Bond tried with a series of interconnected films. Nowadays, the very mention of a connected universe is enough to elicit a solid groan from people who enjoy actual films over slop. This shit is exhausting. I have a job; I shouldn’t have to do more work to watch a movie. So, when I read the words “Welcome to the Calva Louise Universe” on UK metallers Calva Louise’s Bandcamp, you best believe my groan was mighty.

A three-piece with their own Avengers-esque story—that of unlikely compatriots drawn from disparate corners of the world for an ultimate purpose—Calva Louise is the collaborative brainchild of Venezuelan Jessica Allanic (vocals, guitars), Frenchman Alizo Taho (bass), and New Zealander Ben Parker (drums). Their albums tell a sci-fi story conceived by Allanic when she was younger, following a woman named Louise who discovers a mirror world beyond our own, populated by “Doubles.” Edge of the Abyss is their fourth LP, and my first experience with the band. With a sonic cuisine bringing together razor-edged metalcore, sci-fi electronica, art rock, and a charismatic frontwoman in Allanic, Calva Louise has the sort of core ingredients known to hook my tastes. But, can a first-timer like me survive such a plunge into the cinematic abyss, sans homework? Or do I need to spool up a subscription to Calva Louise+ for further education?

Put down the credit card and unroll those eyes: Edge of the Abyss is not only a stand-alone experience, but an exceptional one at that. While I’m certain there’s connective threads to prior albums linking all of this grand dimension-traversing narrative together, one may safely leave that at the feet of the Calva Louise lorekeepers. Packaged here are eleven tracks and forty minutes of absolutely gonzo, balls-to-the-wall progressive metalcore shot through a multiversal portal of Latin American rhythms, dance-hall-club thumpers, and an uncorked vocal performance to rival Poppy’s most schismatic aural shenanigans. Allanic goes full Bruce Banner / Hulk, delivering saccharine-inflected, almost playfully psychotic cleans reminiscent of bubblegoth-era Kerli before jumping into the purple pants to unleash an arsenal of razored screeches and some surprisingly thunderous lows. Like Poppy, Allanic changes styles at the drop of a dime, made all the more impressive when she switches fluidly from English to Spanish across the majority of Edge of the Abyss. There’s some real psycho-mania energy on display, as if Allanic’s performance comes from a mind ruptured by secrets not meant for mortals. Whether swaying into a sing-along verse (“Barely a Response”) or spitting out vocals like broken teeth (“WTF”), Allanic lands every stroke of her deranged performance with serious aplomb. Her guitar work impressively matches the lunacy via a skronky mathcore-esque freneticism.

If Allanic is the Tony Stark of this outfit, Parker and Taho are Captain America and Thor. Parker provides an especially fluid performance on drums, conducting the album’s rhythmic aims like a meth-addicted octopus as he rolls, blasts, and rides across the kit. He’s thick and punchy in the mix, standing toe-to-toe with Allanic’s churning guitar, knowing when to let a simple beat ride and when to start rolling bones under his double-bass. Taho’s bass playing gets lost in the shuffle on the album’s louder moments (one of the only metal sins Edge of the Abyss commits), but his tones are warm and resonant when audible, thrumming like a steady current to power the madness. Meanwhile, guest contributor Mazare steps in with Hawkeye-level assists, backboning and accenting the record with a slew of dancey beats and skittering keys that add to Edge of the Abyss’s eclectic—and unfettered—fun. The Latin American flavors are integrated well into this glitchy, chaotic stew, feeling authentic and purposeful rather than tacked on for “prog points.”

Metalcore has a tendency to get staid and repetitive, following a very tight structure emphasizing (if not entirely built around) breakdowns and uplifting, cleanly-delivered choruses. A good time, but whole albums can be hard sells for those not entirely beholden to the genre’s whims. On the opposite side, bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan or the aforementioned Poppy can be difficult commitments for me due to the mania that drives their sounds. I can get down with unhinged vocals and whiplash time signatures, but an entire album’s worth runs the risk of grating on my nerves. There’s a novelty factor at play, too, the threat of a “gimmick” overriding the listening experience. A band has to have something more guiding them; strong songwriting, variety, solid pacing… any and all of these go miles towards taking the parlor trick of “we can play 350 bpm” and transmogrifying it into an album you actually want to sit with.

Calva Louise might have easily fallen into this pit of wacky novelty, and I fully expected them to, on first listen. Yet they defied my odds with Edge of the Abyss. Every song has a life all its own, refusing to repeat ideas or fall into genre tropes (no wasteful intro tracks here!). Perhaps this sounds silly, but there’s a scrappiness that translates through the music, a DIY ethos which, despite the modern production, empowers the band’s efforts. Calva Louise sound hungry on Edge of the Abyss, like a tenacious creature throwing everything it has at survival. I’m reminded of early efforts by acts like Slipknot and Mudvayne—not sonically, but spiritually. A vitriolic commitment to artistic vision, in defiance of outcome, is something I’ve long admired. That Calva Louise is four albums deep and able to conjure this kind of energy is delightful.

Like when I sat down recently to watch Marvel’s Thunderbolts*,¹ I stepped into Edge of the Abyss stuck somewhere between frayed hope and pre-loaded disappointment. So far, 2025 hasn’t been the best year for new metal releases; barring a handful of standouts, most of what I’ve heard has sat well within the “okay” to “decent” territory—and much like Marvel’s output of the last decade, I was starting to get a little numb to it all. Luckily for me, hope won the day on both accounts.² Calva Louise was far more than I expected, an energetic, multicultural detonation of influences with an origin story befitting a Stan Lee “Excelsior!” Full of twisting genre shifts, infectious melodies, and one of my favorite vocal performances of the year, Edge of the Abyss is a precipice I wholly recommend pitching oneself into.

Recommended tracks: Tunnel Vision, WTF, Aimless, Lo Que Vale, El Umbral, Hate In Me
You may also like: Knife Bride, The Defect, Reliqa, Bex
Final verdict: 9/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | RateYourMusic

Label: Mascot Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Calva Louise is:
– Jess Allanic (guitars, vocals)
– Ben Parker (drums)
– Alizon Taho (bass)
With guests:
– Mazare (electronics)

1. Yes, the asterisk is part of the title. If you know, you know. ︎
2.  Thunderbolts* was refreshingly good. ︎

The post Review: Calva Louise – Edge of the Abyss appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive metal, alternative metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Tool, Karnivool, Soen (pre-Lotus), Leprous
Country: France
Release date: 21 June 2025

I first discovered Mantra by way of a review on this very blog covering Medium, their 2019 EP conceived around a gimmick of releasing two separate tracks which could be overlaid on top of each other to create the “true” full song. It should be no surprise that Mantra might return to a highly conceptual approach for their latest album Celestial. One “season” of this album has been released on each equinox or solstice starting last fall, and now that we’ve passed the summer solstice to complete the cycle, the four parts can finally be brought together for the full experience. I initially intended to review Celestial last fall after the project was announced and the first EP released, but it quickly became clear that trying to develop an analysis based on what was essentially an introduction would be a flawed approach. With the benefit of greater context, the opening tracks from Fall still feel like mostly setup, but now provide a proper introduction to a broader work instead of a ramp leading directly over the edge of a sheer cliff.

As a first impression of Mantra, Medium has always left me feeling a bit, well, medium—not due to any great flaws in the music itself, but because of how little its structural gimmick enhances the listening experience. Each track individually, as well as the final combination, just sounds like a normal (and generally pretty good) song; it doesn’t feel like either of the component parts are missing anything critical, but by the same token, putting them back together doesn’t offer any great sense of completion. With that in mind, Celestial faces a similar test: was it worth the song and dance around its staggered release, and do the chopped-up pieces join together in a way that feels more meaningful than just producing any old album themed around the four seasons? Or will the disjointed scheduling lead to an equally disjointed listening experience when all is told?

Mantra’s musical aesthetic as a whole is not the most original, nor generally the most flashy or virtuosically impressive. Their success depends heavily on maintaining a rich mix of alternative elements, with hefty bass, dark-roasted malt guitars, and edgy half-growled vocals that only rarely break completely into harsh tones. Medium’s greatest shortcoming was undercutting that core richness by dividing one strong track into two weaker ones. Although Celestial’s limitations are less inherent to its release structure, it seems its development may have focused more on each section’s role within the turn of the seasons rather than polishing each track to be the best it could be. Whatever the story of Celestial’s conception, though, the result is far from a failure. The opening Fall sands down some of the metal edges in favor of a heavy progressive rock hybrid that could be compared to Leprous’s most recent works or this year’s outing from Derev, but the second quarter Winter unfolds an icy shroud, hearkening back to Mantra’s more familiar styles with omnipresent bass and choppy, deliberately off-balance rhythms embedded in heady time signatures.

Mantra apply their penchant for grandeur towards building cathedral-worthy scenes filled with epic choral guest vocals from Juliette and Matthis Lemonnier, like the section just past the midpoint of Winter’s second track “Vessel” or the climactic final moments of the monolithic Spring. Celestial’s lyrics hint at grand extraterrestrial topics of apocalypses and dying suns, cosmic purpose granted to a chosen savior, and the folly and failure of one imagining a divine destiny that was never there. Despite the effort put into the seasonal release cadence, the four seasons don’t feature heavily as lyrical or stylistic themes, aside from the general connection between seasons and the sun; the focus lands instead on the deific glory of stars and the spiritual feelings they inspire. Widespread piano presence and the usage of particularly chime-like effects from both guitar and keyboard echo earthly religious musical traditions as well as evoke a more natural “music of the spheres” that might lend itself to pagan worship.

The biggest thing missing from Celestial is a sort of “wow” moment, a grand climax to make the listener sit up in awe. Their past works have accomplished this with satisfying, drawn-out development, which piles up more and more elements until the music is full to bursting. Celestial’s triumphant moments during the Winter and Spring seasons arrive too early in the tracklist and don’t quite reach the required heights, but Mantra’s overall compositions are strong nonetheless, providing an abundance of smaller peaks throughout to help keep the energy high.

Mantra remain single-minded in their goal to push the boundaries of musical composition through experiments in unconventional release formats. It’s unfortunate that these efforts don’t add a ton to the music itself; the base talent and quality of their compositions provide a strong starting point, but their final productions struggle to rise above that level and achieve true excellence. Mantra continue to deliver moody, untamed rhythms with a dark, satisfyingly crunchy toasted edge. With strong production and clever ideas behind the music, there’s plenty to recommend Celestial, even if the band’s full machinations haven’t quite come to fruition. I just wouldn’t advise waiting nine months to collect all the pieces.

Recommended tracks: Winter I – Isolation, Winter II – Vessel, Spring – Home, Summer I – Transcendence
You may also like: Mother of Millions, Diagonal Path, Riviẽre, In the Silence, Traverser
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Vlad Productions – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Mantra is:
– Gabriel Junod (percussion)
– Pierre Junod (vocals)
– Arthur Lauth (bass, piano)
– Simon Saint-Georges (guitars, electric oud)
With guests:
– Juliette Lemonnier (additional vocals)
– Matthis Lemonnier (additional vocals)
– Niqolah Seeva (oud)

The post Review: Mantra – Celestial appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Festival co-promoter Milton Mendonça, who’s currently in charge of Day 2 at the festival, sat down with Claire to chat about ProgPower USA, its legacy, and the challenges of bringing international bands to the United States in 2025.

Hi Milton, thanks for joining us in the underground tunnels of the Progressive Subway for this interview. To start off, in your own words, what is ProgPower USA?

ProgPower USA is a metal festival that takes place once a year in Atlanta here in the USA. It’s something that’s been near and dear to me since 2002. I started attending as a fan back then, and it is probably single-handedly the one event that has kickstarted those two particular genres of music, progressive and power metal, to become more popular and more accessible here in the States. It’s given some artists the first chance to come and play in the States, and now some of these artists come back and tour year after year. It’s a pretty special event.

You mentioned that you started attending the festival as a fan. How did you get involved in your current capacity as a co-promoter?

After 10 years of going as an attendee, I was invited to join the crew. I started working as a music journalist, from that I went into PR, and then I went into booking and management. Through booking some of the bands at ProgPower, I had already established a good relationship with [festival founder and current lead promoter] Glenn Harveston and he said, “Hey, we’re looking for somebody to do the Wednesday show, if you want to take a stab at it.” And I came on board as the Wednesday night promoter, and things progressed, and now I’m the heir apparent as Glenn gets ready to move into retirement.

Looking at the almost 25-year history of the festival, and its legacy up until this point, could you share some of the bands that hadn’t previously toured in the US, that you’re the most proud of having brought to ProgPower?

I can’t speak for the years that I wasn’t a promoter; that’s Glenn’s credit and he deserves all of it. But there’s definitely been some bands that I didn’t think I would ever be able to get in the States at all. Some bands that I was a fan of and never had a chance to work with up until then. The Blind Guardian special set was a pretty solid one. I was always a big fan of Stream of Passion, and I never thought they would come to the States, and we pulled that off. Galneryus was a big deal, bringing them from Japan. And I got to work as a promoter for one of my favorite bands, Angra.

I came with my little cheat sheet of some of the bands that I know are really beloved at the Progressive Subway, that had US debuts or one-off appearances at the festival. Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Green Carnation, Vanden Plas, Seventh Wonder, Orphaned Land, Angra. A lot of really great bands.

Sabaton is another one, Gamma Ray—their first shows in the States. I was still a booking agent at the time, but I also worked with Glenn to facilitate the Pain of Salvation Remedy Lane set, and the Angra Holy Land set. Those are two that I often pat myself on the back for. It’s such a hard question though, right? Because there’s some politics that play into it. I don’t want to forget anybody. I don’t want to get anybody mad at me.

Talking about the festival lineup for this year, we’ve seen a lot of turnover, a lot of bands getting swapped out due to issues with artist visas caused by the current US administration and their policies. Can you describe what has changed and how it has affected the festival?

Visa issues are not anything new. As far back as 2010, the festival lost a bunch of bands due to visas. This year, there were some changes that affected the time that it takes for a visa to be processed at the [US Customs and Immigration Services] office. Some changes were made that pulled people out of those offices, and it caused those processing times to become longer. Before you could have a visa applied for, processed, and approved within two to four months—sometimes a little more, sometimes as fast as a few weeks. Once that change happened in January, we had already applied for most of our visas [for 2025], and the time frame changed to up to 10 months. The only thing you can do in those cases is to pay an exorbitant extra fee to expedite the process. On top of that, there’s been added scrutiny to the visa applications. I would love to say that it’s not a political thing, but it sort of is, right? No matter how much we try to plan for it: we started all of our visa petitions early this year, played by the rules, and still kind of got screwed in the end. And there were a bunch of bands that were not approved, simply because our government didn’t think that they were relevant enough or worthy enough to get a visa. So, yeah, it’s a mess. I don’t know how else I can put it.

I’m curious, you don’t have to name any names, but have you approached any bands from abroad who aren’t interested in even trying to perform on US soil right now given the current situation?

More than ever, we’ve gotten answers like, “I think we’re going to wait a few years.” This year, we had to expedite every visa petition. And it’s not looking like it’s going to change anytime soon. The government’s website just says what the average estimated time is. That doesn’t really mean anything. It costs about $8,000 to do an expedited visa, just to get them permission to enter the country, let alone all of the other expenses. So, a lot of bands are saying, you know what, it’s just not worth it. And we’re a 1,000 cap festival. We can only afford so much. So, I can understand when bands say, “You know what, unless we get paid double of what you’re offering, we can’t make it happen”. And it’s not because we’re trying to be cheap and lowball the bands; we pay very competitive rates. You know, it’s the biggest market for metal bands in the world, and it’s still one of the hardest for the bands to come and break in.

We’ve seen other festivals and artists, whether it’s because of COVID or different issues, try to defray costs with crowdfunding campaigns. I know ProgPower USA also ran a t-shirt campaign to help with costs when the pandemic resulted in delays and unexpected expenses. What do you think about this kind of approach versus across the board ticket price increases?

COVID really did a number on the industry in general. I think the one good thing that came out of it was people’s creativity in terms of finding ways to earn some money—not even to make money, just to keep things afloat. I think it’s really cool when they’re offering something that’s new and different and unique. I think it can become stale very quickly; it can become, “oh, there is another one doing crowdfunding”. Glenn had to do [a crowdfunding campaign] this year for the visa expedites, because the increase was almost three times as much as we had in the budget. We’re very grateful that we have a core audience that’s willing to jump in and help. I think it says a lot about the festival, and I like to believe that we make up to them in terms of the experience that we offer. You cannot count on ticket sales all the time, unfortunately.

The festival always announces the lineup a year in advance. So, for example, when attending the 2024 festival, fans will see [a video announcing] which bands are coming in 2025. What do you think are the merits or challenges with this approach versus other festivals like 70,000 Tons of Metal, which is notorious for being slow to release its lineup?

The biggest challenge has to do with scheduling. A lot of bands just cannot plan ahead that far in advance. There are bands that we’ve been speaking to to bring to the festival for a decade now, and they can never plan so far in advance. We announce it a year in advance, which means we have to start booking no later than 15 months in advance, which means we start thinking about the lineup longer than a year and a half away. Now we’re coming on to the 2025 edition. So, 2026[‘s lineup] is pretty much done. By the end of this year, I would start thinking about the following one, right? 2027. But you never know what’s going to happen. It’s hard, but I feel like we’ve succeeded enough that we have the recipe. We know what to look for when it comes to building a roster that will be relevant that far in advance. We also have a lot of colleagues and contacts; we’re always talking to bands, managers, agents, labels, so we have a good idea of who’s going to be releasing an album around announcement time and so on. But it’s a bit of a dance for sure. It’s challenging. 

I feel like the [lineup announcement video] is almost as exciting as any other band playing the festival. It has become such an important part of what ProgPower is, that I don’t think I could do it any other way. It’s really cool to see all the speculation that goes on in the months leading up to the festival, and then to watch the fans’ reaction to the videos. I think it’s an added bonus that other festivals have definitely gotten their inspiration from.

I think you can even win little prizes under the table if you guess all the bands correctly. 

Yeah, I’ve heard.

Is the viability of the advanced announcements approach changing due to the current situation? Would you ever consider shifting to later or staggered band announcements?

I think it’s still viable. It’s not an excuse, but 100% of the cancellations were never because we did something wrong as an entity, whether we messed something up or didn’t do a contract well enough. It’s always stuff that’s outside of our control, and I feel like our audience for the most part is very understanding of that. I think it’s the only viable way, to be honest with you, because I also have to compete with festivals all over the world, and now you can fly into Europe for like $300. So I have to get a head start on that. 

At The Progressive Subway, our core focus is on underground bands. And in fact, for the first few years that the publication was around, we only covered bands with less than 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. When you’re looking for younger or less established bands to bring onto the ProgPower USA roster, what makes a band stand out to you?

It really has to wow me. I’ve been coming to ProgPower since ProgPower III. I’ve seen a lot of bands get booked that everybody gets very excited about. And they’re really solid, but they last a few albums and either they move on or they see that it’s not viable, whatever it might be. And every now and then you find that one band that really just smacks you on your face and you’re like, “Holy crap.” Circus Maximus is an example. Seventh Wonder is an example. And more recently, I feel Nospūn is an example of that as well. It’s just a feeling that I get at this point, but it comes from years of watching the scene very closely, and finding little nuances or details that maybe other people are not thinking about. 

I also think a band could really wow you on their album, but if they’re really unestablished, they might not know how to perform live.

There is a very specific example of a band that played ProgPower. Incredible record. One of those records that remind you why you became a fan, and then they came on stage, and it was just a hot mess. And that is a very good example of what you’re saying. You know, they can wow you on record, but then they can’t play live. That was a big let down, I must say.

The original festival promoter, Glenn Harveston, has announced his intention to retire after the 25th festival next year, and you have been announced as his replacement, which I want to congratulate you for first of all. 

Thank you.

Do you have a mission statement for the future of ProgPower USA? Do you intend to change aspects of the festival, whether for the sake of making it your own or by necessity due to changing circumstances, or do you plan to stick to the model of the first 25 years?

I want to honour the legacy of what made ProgPower special for 25 years. It’s not just about the bands. It’s never been just about the bands. I remember very specifically the first time I went to ProgPower, just looking around and feeling—this is going to sound so cliche—belonging. Like I’m meant to be there, and I just have to come back. “I don’t care what happens next year. I have to be here”. And that was my mentality over the next 10 or so years. There were years that I was completely broke and friends of mine would be like, “You have to come, we’re paying for it”. Over the years, I heard the same kind of feeling from other people. So I think more important than anything is to maintain what ProgPower has been all about, which is this special event [where] you get to see all of these friends that you only see once a year, that also happens to have some really cool bands playing. And as a promoter, of course, it has to keep making money, too. It has to be commercially viable. The only big change I’m going to make is bringing the festival back to three days instead of four. A lot of people say that it’s more expensive for them to take one extra day off and pay an extra night at a hotel and so on. And also, I’ll be running this on my own. I also plan on offering a three-day pass, which is something that we haven’t been able to do, because we’re multiple promoters and we run the nights separately.

When we were preparing for this interview, you told me you probably wouldn’t be able to share any details about next year’s lineup. Of course, that made me want to ask about it. Knowing the core audience of The Progressive Subway, we love these kinds of underground or underappreciated bands that people maybe don’t get to hear from as often. Can you give a little teaser for us?

Next year is going to be very special because it’s Glenn’s last year. So you can expect a lineup that will blow people’s minds. Glenn is very proud of what he does with the festival, and I don’t think anyone should expect him to go out quietly. I’ll not speak to his days and his bands, but I can speak to Day Two. Out of the six bands on Day Two next year, only one will be a festival return. So five other bands have not been there. There will be a band that people will be saying, “Jesus, finally.” There will definitely be a band that people are going to say, “Who?” And a non-conventional headliner. I think ultimately it exemplifies what ProgPower is all about: There’s the progressive bands, there’s the power bands, there are the bands that people have no idea why they’re there, but somehow they work. I’m pretty happy with it.

Now people can go and start making their whiteboards, trying to figure out everything that you said.

Here’s one out of left field. What artist, band, song, album is living rent free in your head right now?

My favorite current band would be Sleep Token. I’m listening to the new Epica album quite a lot as well, and I just got the new Lorna Shore album as well. That has been my playlist. 

Is there anything else that we haven’t touched on about the festival or your role that you want to let people know about?

There are still tickets available for Days One and Two of the festival this year. And plenty of people reselling [tickets for Days Three and Four]. So, if somebody is on the fence about coming to the festival, there’s still ways to do it. And I know I’m biased, but it’s a special event. It’s been a rough year, but everyone’s still excited to attend. I don’t know if it’s a badge of honour, but [we have] the reputation of being able to replace [bands that drop out] at the same level or higher. You tell me. You keep coming back.

I look forward with a lot of optimism to see where the festival is going beyond its 25th year, which is huge. To last 25 years is really quite a legacy.

Like I said, I just hope to be able to keep it going. You know, Glenn got 25 years out of it. I have 10 now as a co-promoter. If I get another 10 or 15, I’m happy. We’ll see. 

Links: Facebook | Instagram | ProgPower USA Website

The post Interview: Milton Mendonça (ProgPower USA) appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Avant-garde, experimental, progressive metal, world music (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Igorrr, Wardruna, Eolya, Forndom
Country: Iceland
Release date: 14 July 2025

When you’re in the reviewing game long enough, it feels like you’ve seen it all. We’re within days of my third anniversary writing for The Progressive Subway, and 2025 feels like a wasteland. The blog is depressed by the lack of good new releases, the usual summer lull is hitting harder than ever, and I’m sifting through everything that’s available to review without enthusiasm. Insipid trad prog? No thanks. Uninspired prog rock? Not on your life. Middling djent debut? God, please smite me down. Sometimes you just feel that new releases no longer inspire you the way they did when you were a wide-eyed young reviewer with enthusiasm and hopes and dreams. If I employed a compass to point me to the interesting new releases, where would it take me?

Perhaps to Spaniard at large in the land of the ice and snow, Mario Infantes, formerly of baroque metal group Cult of Lilith, who has returned with a second solo effort, Bitácora (from the Spanish for binnacle: the casing for a ship’s compass). Exploring a range of moods and genres, Infantes melds a wealth of folk traditions with metal and symphonic influences, exploiting an ensemble of instruments from various countries in the process. The resulting concoction bears resemblances to his alma mater group, as well as the work of Igorrr, but utilises a rather different sonic palette. Singing in both Spanish and English (and quite possibly in other languages), Infantes leads the project as a multi-voiced, multilingual, multi-instrumentalist. He has a natural, operatic tendency, from Einar Solbergian high falsetto to resounding tenor, utilising Igorrr-esque harshes, layered choral harmonies, throat-singing (or close to it), and some more performative voice acting—moments of laughing, spoken word, even something akin to rap.

The instrumental bed, meanwhile, is a deft blend of metal instrumentation and folk instruments from around the world. Handpan features heavily, forming a raindrop dressing for the contemplation of ballad “Streams” and the Balkan lament “Notre Prison”, while a dissonant chiming gamelan underpins “Xhadhamtje”. At various other junctures, we hear from duduk (an Armenian double-reeded woodwind), bansuri (Indian bamboo flute), oud (Middle Eastern lute), zurna (double-reeded woodwind)¹, and doubtless more that my untrained ear failed to pick out. When the riffs come, they often have a rather loose structure, allowing Infantes to use them as an emphatic texture rather than as a restrictive rhythm that hampers the madness of his sonic science, perhaps best heard on “Cianuro”, where the riffs constantly morph, rarely repeating a measure. The resulting concoction is international yet seamless; while a particular section might sound Indonesian or Spanish or Eastern European, the totality seems borderless, the creation of a citizen of nothing smaller than the world itself. 

“Xhadhamtje” is probably the most avant-garde swing on the album with Infantes’ throaty keening and a palimpsest of sinister whispers and nightmare sounds ala Ecophony Rinne, giving way to an enormous operatic crescendo with help from shrieking guest vocalist, Stirga, and an eruption into metal riffs, all underpinned by a nightmarish windchime motif. “Muharib Alqifaar” opens with zurna, Phrygian wails and mysterious oud picking, before exploding into heavier and heavier riffs, and while the coda of Spanish rap feels tacked on, it’s mostly a very successful journey through Bitácora’s various modes. Closing epic, “Cianuro”, operates similarly: a nine-minute distillation of Infantes’ various idiosyncrasies, from balladic crooning sections to upsurges of manic metal. In these heavier moments, the guitar tone and prominence of the bass in the mix, as well as some of the operatic tendencies and manic harshes, have more than a whiff of Igorrr about them, but Infantes owns his sound for himself.

Indeed, it’s in his restraint that this is most apparent: “Sírenu” largely consists of Infantes and an oud with strings before its orchestral crescendo and a gorgeous guest performance from Sunna Friðjónsdóttir. “Away” relies heavily on handpan, much like “Streams” before it, growing inexorably toward a cathartically rhythmic, ritualistic chant. “Streams” is probably the most accessible track on the album, the swelling strings in its chorus proving genuinely stirring. Infantes excels at giving each track a distinct personality of its own, and intersperses the more experimental and heavy sojourns with calming palate cleansers; the softer moments are, perhaps, the album highlight, their meditativeness and sublimity proving a soothing palliative. 

As Bitácora closes with its conclusive coda of lo-fi flamenco and scatting, it’s hard not to feel like you’ve just returned from some astrally projected existential journey and come to at the corner table of a Spanish bar; after such a unique sonic adventure, it feels necessary to sit contemplatively for a minute or two. Certainly, Infantes is a remarkable musician and composer. And while the avant-garde scene can be demanding, and not every swing here lands, far more hit the mark than in the average work of this genre. Far too often, experimental composers throw everything at the wall to see what sticks, leaving listeners with an all too disjointed affair. But Bitácora manages that rare thing: an evocative, flowing listen with peaks and valleys, genuine emotion, and moments like a sonic punch in the face. A much-needed reminder that there are always innovative artists plugging away at their craft, and it’s nice when the compass leads you straight to them. 

Recommended tracks: Streams, Sírenu, Cianuro
You may also like: Maud the Moth, Evan Carson, Elend, Ivar Bjørnson & Einar Selvik
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

Label: Lost Future Records – Bandcamp | Official Website

Mario Infantes is:
– Mario Infantes (vocals)

With guests:
– Hrafnkell Örn Guðjónsson (Drums)
– Yara Polana (acoustic guitar)
– Gísli Gunnarsson (additional orchestration)
– Ásgeir Ásgeirsson (Oud)
– Sunna Friðjónsdóttir (additional vocals)
– Živa Ivadóttir (additional vocals)
– Simon Thorolfsson, (guitar on Obsidian I)
– Samúel Örn Böðvarsson (Bass)
– Daniel Þór Hannesson (guitars)
– Sebas Bautista (additional guitars)
– Tayebeh jourbonyan (additional vocals)
– Erik Qvick (additional percussion)

1. Infantes’ Instagram page has lots of great little videos where he demonstrates these instruments and talks a bit about them. ︎

The post Review: Mario Infantes – Bitácora appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Haken, Threshold, Circus Maximus
Country: Germany
Release date: 25 July 2025

Progressive metal is no stranger to classic literature. From Mastodon’s retelling of Moby Dick on Leviathan (one of my all-time favorite albums) to Symphony X’s The Odyssey based on, well, The Odyssey, prog metal fans could probably ace a high school literature class just by referencing their record collections. The two media may as well be siblings—sharing complex and expanding structures, lofty ideas and existential themes, and a tendency to prioritize the journey over any particular moment or destination. Both demand patience while rewarding immersion, and you’re going to need a lot of the former with Tiny Miracles, the second full-length from international prog-metalers Sad Serenity. From well-known works like Thoreau’s Walden to relatively obscure science fiction short stories such as An Empty House with Many Doors by Michael Swanwick, each of the six tracks on Tiny Miracles takes some influence from the literary realm, blending music and narrative in true prog fashion.

Sad Serenity’s 2023 debut, The Grand Enigma, revealed a band that pulls from the traddiest of trad-prog: high vocals hover atop liquid smooth distorted guitars, various and sundry tickled ivories, and some flashy drum-work—all wrapped in a flair for technical proficiency, a taste for intricate songwriting, and an eye toward grand, cinematic ideas both lyrical and musical. Their music prays to Dream Theater while lighting candles at Haken’s altar. Tiny Miracles is no different in this regard. With improved production, refined riffage, and a clear concept, the LP marks an upward trajectory for Sad Serenity.

However, one element of their debut still looms large: excess. Now, I’ll happily listen to a twenty-minute prog epic. I’m an endurance listener, not a sprinter. But long songs still need movement, contrast, and development to earn their keep. Here, little if any tonal variation within or between the songs helps to establish their identities. Rather than unfolding, the songs often feel stretched to their absolute limits. “Tiny” miracles, these are not. “The Elemental Dance,” Tiny Miracles’ lengthiest showcase at nearly twenty-three minutes, illustrates this issue. Opening with a skip hopping guitar riff accompanied by some attention catching synths and keyboards, it journeys through several movements spliced by quasi-interludes that provide only a little dynamic contrast. These movements—mostly made up of identically-toned guitar riffs and impressive, sweepy solos—aren’t distinguishable enough from each other to recall much beyond the intriguing intro.

I’m tempted to say that you could superimpose that problem on Tiny Miracles as a whole, but a few standout songs and ideas prevent me from doing so completely. I particularly enjoy “Alter Ego”—based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The song’s monstrous opening riff, soft and catchy vocals in the verse, and contrasting melodies are appropriately thematic to the classic story that speaks to the light and dark inside of us all. “A Cabin in the Woods,” Sad Serenity’s version of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, is lofty and grandiose, exploring melodies ranging from appropriately woodsy to insane and delirious with cabin fever. The end result is far removed from the simple and meditative ideals of Thoreau’s experiment.

Though several songs are elongated past their own good, I continue to be drawn in by Tiny Miracles’ literary inspiration and lyrics. The aforementioned “Alter Ego” does a fantastic job of setting the stage of its tale: “Fog’s slow creeping / Gas lantern’s glimmering / Town life’s procession still rolling in.” The lyrics also capture the emotional core of Stevenson’s story with lines like: “Caught in between incongruous natures / Paradoxal through and through / Daydreams of their separation / A Man’s not truly one, but two.” The affective pull of the lyrics is made all the more powerful by vocalist George Margaritopoulos’ delivery. Though not presenting a lot of tonal variety, Margaritopoulos shows some impressive upper range (“Torn,” “Tell the Moon”).

The other musical components of Tiny Miracles follow the path laid by the vocals: exceptional musicianship undermined by a lack of variety, which leads to a kind of outstanding sameness that makes the album hard to distinguish from moment to moment. The album has some genuine highlights, but they’re often interwoven into extended stretches that blur together. Like the literature that inspired it, this record demands full engagement from the listener. But unlike those works, it struggles to consistently reward the listener for that attention. Sometimes tangled in its own sprawl, the album will both awe and test your endurance, leaving you equal parts impressed and adrift.

Recommended tracks: Alter Ego, Cabin in the Woods, Tiny Miracles
You may also like: Headspace, Vanden Plas, Virtual Symmetry
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent release

Sad Serenity is:
– Marcell Kaemmerer (guitars, keyboards, bass)
– George Margaritopoulos (vocals)
– Vinny Silva (drums)
With guests:
– Andrew Huskey (vocals)
– Lathika Vithanage (violin)
– Ellen Mross (accordion)
– Aranka Stimec (transverse flute)

1. The promo copy I received had a sticker covering most of the artist’s name, and I’m unable to otherwise determine the artist. ︎

The post Review: Sad Serenity – Tiny Miracles appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive metal, power metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Dream Theater, Seventh Wonder, Angra
Country: United States-New York
Release date: 14 June 2025

Sometimes I lament the fact that I only started The Progressive Subway in 2018. There werevso many interesting underground albums in the years prior, but if not for reviewing, finding a reason to attentively listen to a random good, maybe even great obscure album from, say, 2014 becomes increasingly difficult as the years go by. An underground album needs to be either strikingly unique or exceptionally well written (or both!) to stand the test of time. One such album I wish I had gotten to review is Daydream XI’s 2017 release The Circus of the Tattered and Torn: a brilliant concept album in classic prog metal fashion, blending Symphony X, Dream Theater, and Seventh Wonder in equal parts. Tragically, Daydream XI disbanded as their main songwriter Tiago Masseti moved from Brazil to New York. Now, eight years after Circus, Masseti has blessed us with a solo album to continue his prog-power quest for the stars. Can Odds and Ends live up to the hype?

In many ways, Odds and Ends continues where Circus left off and shows much of what made that album so special: ferocious, heavy-as-balls riffage, superb lead guitar work skillfully balancing melody and shred, charismatic vocals, tight songwriting, and all the odd-time and transition wankery a prog fan could ask for. The overall tone has become darker, however, thanks to brooding synths and slightly more ferocious riffs, and Masseti has also experimented with multi-tracking himself to make a choir, such as on “The Singer in the Arms of Winter” and “Never Be Like You”. Of course, one must not forget to mention the heavy Symphony X influences that seep through nearly every crack of Masseti’s writing, most of which he disguises just well enough to avoid the worship allegations (for when he doesn’t—just listen to the intro of “Heir of the Survivor”), and the clear Dream Theater-isms that pop up in proggier moments (e.g. the unison solo in “Against Our Fire”). Either way, Masseti’s talent for songwriting ensures influences are cute nods instead of belabored crutches, and his instrumental prowess is dazzling as ever.

At a succinct 47 minutes, Odds and Ends is remarkably compact, for the prog-power genre at large but especially so considering both Daydream XI albums spanned over 70 minutes. Much like Circus, the first half of Odds and Ends consists of compact, riff-driven tracks, while the latter half contains epics, slow burners, and ballads. This structuring leads to incredible momentum at first, but rather stilted pacing in the mid-to-late stretch that the album’s closing epic can only partially remedy, as any gathered steam has been irretrievably lost. On Circus, “Forgettable” was the major momentum killer, ironically living up to its name by being the third lengthy slow-starting track in a row when a faster overall tempo was needed (on a sidenote: this is my only real gripe with Circus). On Odds and Ends, most momentum from the first three tracks was already “Gone” thanks to a breather ballad, but it’s the follow-up Dio-homage “The Singer in the Arms of Winter” that truly wreaks the album’s pacing with its dramatic, plodding arrangements and extended ballad-y outro. The track is fine in execution by itself—if a tad long—thanks to Masseti’s excellent vocal prowess, but its awkward placement unnecessarily brings it down. The following “Never Be Like You” tries to patch things up by beginning explosively, but another extended outro—this time in dramatic midtempo—puts a lid on that fire before it could spread. 

Remarkably however, I found that switching the track order of “The Singer in the Arms of Winter” and “Never Be Like You” immediately fixes nearly all pacing issues (the remaining issue being that both tracks could have easily been trimmed a minute or two). As it stands, track 4 “Gone” is a welcome heartfelt breather, but the transition into the drama of “The Singer” is clunky both tonally and pacing-wise. By placing “Never Be Like You” at track 5 instead of 6, the album smoothly regains its momentum. The track opens with a very brief hypnotic, slightly haunting modal guitar motif—somewhere between phrygian and atonal—that gives an unsettling, vaguely Middle-Eastern vibe before unleashing a hellfire riff barrage. Coming off the emotionally charged twin-harmony solo that “Gone” ends with, this transition naturally reintroduces tension and intensity into the album’s narrative structure. Meanwhile, the song’s dramatic mid-tempo outro segues seamlessly into the lumbering, brooding heft of “The Singer”, whose ballad-like outro then glides without “Hindrance” into a gorgeous piano ballad.

But pacing issues are not the only complaint I have about Odds and Ends; Masseti’s vocals seem to have deteriorated ever so slightly since his Daydream XI days, too. He’s still got a majestic, versatile voice, but there’s forcefulness in his delivery that he didn’t need before, sounding noticeably more strained. Compare, for instance, his singing in “Trust-Forged Knife” by Daydream XI to virtually any track on Odds and Ends: on the former, he’s silky smooth for the softer lines and effortlessly majestic when he’s belting, while on Odds and Ends he sounds like he’s pushing his voice beyond its capabilities to impress you, coming off unnecessarily edgy. Furthermore, the compression levels on Odds and Ends border on unpleasant, most notably in the drums, making the record louder than it needs to be—again adding to the edgy masculinity feeling. The production is great otherwise, providing ample room for each instrument, and the riffs are positively crushing—I just wish it all came without the ear fatigue.

Critiques aside, Masseti’s exceptional talent for songcraft shines through many a time on Odds and Ends. “The Pool of Liquid Dreams” might be the shortest metal song on the album, but it’s by far the most densely packed one, going from leads that sound like they could have come out of a Slash record, to pop punk, to intense power metal, to absurdly cool odd-time sections and blistering shred, and back. Similarly, “Against Our Fire” is a rapid prog-power track with especially impressive soloing and it successfully experiments with harsh vocals in the chorus. And while I ragged on their track order, Masseti pulls out all the vocal stops for phenomenal results when “The Singer in the Arms of Winter” reaches its climax, and the vocal multi-tracking in “Never Be Like You” is used creatively. Finally, “Serpents and Whores” and “Heir of the Survivor” are fantastic bookend tracks. The former is a heavy, suspenseful chonker of an opener, while the latter blends melodic beauty with dynamic prog metal, taking clear inspiration from neoclassical Symphony X epics like “The Accolade” or “Through the Looking Glass”. That said, one could argue its opening melodies evoke that particular sound a little too well.

While Odds and Ends may not be exceptional like The Circus of the Tattered and Torn, it’s great to have Masseti back on the prog metal stage. He’s an extremely talented songwriter and performer with a lot of charisma. Much like its name indicates, Odds and Ends plays like a collection of ideas that don’t always coalesce well, but when they do, the results are spectacular. I hope he’ll be able to bless us with his songwriting talents more frequently from here on out; after all, it’d be a shame to let the momentum go to waste.

Recommended tracks: Serpents and Whores, The Pool of Liquid Dreams, Heir of the Survivor
You may also like: Daydream XI, Sacred Outcry, Scardust, Manticora, Witherfall
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Independent

Masseti is:
– Thiago Masseti (vocals, guitars, piano, keyboards)
With guests:
– Thiago Caurio (drums on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 8)
– Benhur Lima (bass)
– Bruno Pinheiro Machado (guitar solo on track 2)
– Renato Osório (additional guitars on track 4, 5)
– Marcelo Pereira (guitar solo on track 6)
– Cezar Tortorelli (orchestration on track 2)
– Fábio Caldeira (piano, orchestration on track 7)
– Eduardo Baldo (drums on tracks 2, 5)

The post Review: Masseti – Odds and Ends appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Black Crown Initiate, Opeth
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 4 July 2025

Progressive metal is a genre that thrives off pushing its own boundaries, each band trying to outdo their peers be it through instrumental prowess, philosophical depth, or sheer originality. As such, progressive metal is a genre defined by its high water mark albums: releases where an artist breaks free from the faceless crowd around them and manages to rise head and shoulders above, often inspiring a legion of copycats in their wake. In the wider prog scene, albums like Dream Theater’s Images and Words, Tool’s Ænima, and Meshuggah’s Nothing are such examples, but if one narrows their focus to progressive death metal, two bands come starkly into view: Opeth and Ne Obliviscaris.

While the bands’ respective sounds differ in some fundamental ways, their fusions of the unabashed viscerality of death metal with an insistence that the sub-genre could be something beautiful have made them the forerunners of modern progressive death metal. In the horde of imitators that now ape their every move, it can be hard to find music worth listening to over its muses, but perhaps it’s the struggle that makes it all the more pleasing when you find something worth sharing. Enter Erebor with Infinitus Somnium.

Eschewing the much more technical stylings of Inherent Malevolence, their debut release, Infinitus Somnium, or an infinite dream in Latin, sees Erebor honing their skills in longform composition. Made up of a single three-part track that comprises its entire forty-three minute runtime, this album is an exercise in tension and release. Across it, one is equally likely to hear a reverb-laden clean guitar ringing out in saccharine sadness as they are to hear a blistering solo or torrential blast beat. In fact, the tracks are more akin to post-metal in structure, with their meticulous buildups and decidedly epic climaxes, albeit with a clearly prog death texture. In my first listens, I struggled to work my way through a few of the more intense transitions, but as I became more familiar with the album, they went down easier and I now enjoy basically every moment.

The majority of the enjoyment I gleaned from Infinitus Somnium came from subtle ease and sway of tension between the guitar and drum parts to create spectacle. Take for instance, the rapid fire riffage and ensuing hailstorm of blast beats that begins the first heavy section of “The Endeavor.” The guitars alter their accent patterns to emphasize different parts of the drumbeat as the entire riff evolves into increasingly epic versions of itself, speaking to both the band’s compositional chops and their commitment to grandeur. And it’s that same commitment that makes dozens of moments across the album so engaging. From the actually hilarious drum fill that kicks “The Tower” into gear to the delightfully melodic and tastefully shreddy solos scattered across Infinitus Somnium, there is hardly a time while listening that I’m not smiling in the joy of prog death done well.

With its extended compositions and panoramic soundscapes, Infinitus Somnium demands comparisons to Ne Obliviscaris. The drumming across the album is wrought with the double bass heavy stylings of Dan Presland, and moments like the blooming chords around the middle of “The Endeavor” or the monumental climax of “The Apotheosis” sound as though Erebor’s guitarists may have a tape recorder hidden somewhere in NeO’s practice room. Erebor are clearly big fans of the death metallers from down under, and they wear their influences on their sleeve. 

Still, when you pit yourself up against one of the greats, you aren’t getting out of it scot-free. In a stat by stat comparison to NeO, Erebor holds its own except for in one category: the bass. Don’t get me wrong, Infinitus Somnium has plenty of bass sound—in fact, the mix in general is quite good—but the bass parts are just not that exciting. They weave their way through the drum and guitar parts like a corn snake through a field… and that’s all it does. On an album where every other instrument is free to explore the peaks of its potential, I expected one or two standout bass moments and never found them. Speaking of expectations, another element that Erebor lacks in respect to most other progressive death metal bands of this style is clean vocals, and their absence is noticeable. Many of the extended clean guitar sections throughout the album sound as though they were written around a lead melody, but nothing ever appears. There are a few intimate solos, and violin rears its head for a few seconds in “The Tower,” but the issue remains apparent as chords ring out and the drums chill out for a few seconds to support something that just never happens. Cleans very well may not be in the cards for Erebor, but they need to find something to fill the gaps in the softer moments. Bass perhaps? Thankfully, the harshes are totally serviceable and just varied enough to keep the sections where they are employed engaging.

Coming from a band that just switched from technical to progressive death metal and employing the ever risky album structure of one long song, Infinitus Somnium is an album that surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. While it doesn’t reach the same euphoric highs of the bands it imitates, it gets damn close, and I find myself wanting more in this long-form compositional style from Erebor. Who knows? With Xen out of band, any subsequent Erebor album may be the next best thing in the absence of Ne Obliviscaris.

Recommended tracks: The whole thing. It’s one long song.
You may also like: An Abstract Illusion, Serein, Tomarum, Citadel, Iapetus
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: independent

Erebor is:
– Will Unwin (bass)
– Tom Unwin (drums)
– Mia Bennet (guitars)
– Jordan Giles (guitars, vocals)
– Valentine Rodriguez (vocals)

The post Review: Erebor – Infinitus Somnium appeared first on The Progressive Subway.