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 Gal Ben Haim’s phenomenal guitarwork is also no more; he has been replaced by Yaron Gilad (ex-Tillian) and Danny Aram.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: 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: Post-rock, post-metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Pelican, Tool, Vulkan, Oceansize
Country: Belgium
Release date: 23 April 2025

Growing up with autism, my relationship with the concepts of solitude and authenticity was perhaps unusual. Over the years, many people have commented positively on my authenticity in spite of the social pressure for conformity. Little did they know, however, that a large amount of that perceived authenticity stemmed from sheer social ineptitude—after all, one can’t conform to rules they are unaware of or neurologically incapable of adhering to in the first place. Similarly, the frequent periods of prolonged social isolation I have gone through have seldom been voluntary. Belgian post-metal band Capitan’s second album, Facing Currents, explores the emotional struggle of discovering one’s true identity through prolonged solitude and trying not to lose that identity when reconnecting with others. My autism has forced me to undergo this process many times, maybe even to the point of trauma¹, so while I do not relate to the voluntary aspect, I did find myself moved by the concept. 

Post-metal can be a fairly homogenous genre with many bands playing some shade of Neurosis and/or Cult of Luna worship: long build ups with increasingly sludgy riffs building in complexity with tribal drumming building to an eventual cacophonous crescendo—that’s the name of the game. Capitan are primarily rooted in melodic post-rock, but regularly get heavy and incorporate tribal percussion in line with the post-metal tradition. They also integrate psychedelic elements and some proggy transitions redolent of Tool. This leads to a familiar, yet fresh overall sound in a similar ballpark to the seldom-replicated Oceansize². Further brought to life by a vivid, crystal-clear production, Facing Currents is a very immediate album. Björn Nauwelaerts has an uncharacteristically powerful voice for post-rock, and his bright tone and melancholic melodies give the songs on Facing Currents a lot of memorable moments en route to the big finish. He can also belt with the best of the best of them, giving a lot of meat to the heavier moments; most post-metal bands would place harsh vocals there but with Nauwelaerts’ performance I didn’t even miss them!

Capitan’s lyrics are poetic not in structure but certainly in how they evoke mood and emotion, immersing you in the emotional state of the protagonist as they go through the process of self-rediscovery. Water, breath, and light are used as recurring symbols to express emotional overwhelm, suffocation, loss of identity, and healing. The story of Facing Currents is not so much about the events as they are about the emotions corresponding to them: from drowning in the feelings of isolation (“Immerse”), to feeling suffocated by daily life (“Choke”) and unfulfilling relationships (“Apnea”), to the confusion and fear of an identity crisis (“Facing Currents”), to eventual healing (“A Pale Blue Light”) and refinding one’s footing in the world (“The Ascent”). The lyrics are raw and expressive, capturing the protagonist’s emotional journey with striking vulnerability. Facing Currents doesn’t even necessarily read like finding new facets of your personality; its real beauty lies in accepting and finding solace in what is already there.

Clocking in at thirty-eight minutes spread across six tracks (plus the intro), Facing Currents is refreshingly concise for a sprawling genre like post-metal. The first half is paced effectively, with each track having its own unique identity and momentum: “Immerse, Pt. I & II” are built on hypnotic tribal grooves and psychedelia-tinged guitarwork, leaning heavily on the Neurosis and Tool influences, whereas “Apnea” is a more conventional post-rock/metal hybrid track, starting with a spoken word piece and somber vocals before gradually lifting up our emotions with ethereal strumming to prepare you for the thundering, heavy grooves of the song’s second half. “Choke” keeps up the momentum as the most immediately aggressive track on the album, recalling Cult of Luna in its double crescendo structure. The second half of Facing Currents, however, starts to show Capitan’s limitations. Every remaining song starts with a long, ethereal post-rock section that becomes increasingly indistinct as the album goes on. “Facing Currents” and “A Pale Blue Light” erupt into distortion at nearly identical points in the song, and “The Ascent” only differentiates itself by keeping the floatiness for a guitar solo crescendo instead of yet another heavy climax.

This strict adherence to traditional post- song structures ends up making Capitan sound surprisingly conventional despite their distinctive palette, causing the songs to become increasingly predictable as the album goes on—a slow, clean buildup into a heavier, emotionally charged climax works only so many times before it gets stale. That is not to say the second half of Facing Currents is without stand-out moments, though. The repeating vocal motif in the title track is deeply moving, and the crushing doom riffs of “A Pale Blue Light” are a welcome change in intensity. Björn Nauwelaerts also consistently stands out for his expressive delivery, even if his melodies become a bit predictable near the end. Another point of critique is that the crescendos on Facing Currents often end up being underwhelming. Take “Apnea”, for instance, whose guitar solo and eventual doomy outro do the minimum of what is required to make them work but nothing more; or “Choke”, whose second crescendo merely repeats the pounding rhythm of the first one with no variation or development. Similarly, the guitar solo in “The Ascent” has a beautiful narrative structure but is barebones in execution and finishes the album with a disappointing fadeout. I usually found myself more compelled by the journey along the way, thanks to Capitan’s unique mix of styles, rather than the big finish.

On Facing Currents, Capitan have made a refreshing niche for themselves. They blend genres in a natural way with sophistication to evoke an ethereal yet earthy sound with powerful, melancholic melodies and rich atmospheres. But for all its sonic variety, the album often plays things structurally safe, leaning too heavily on predictable builds and familiar post-metal formulas. Still, the foundation is strong—Capitan are never anything less than competent, and they deliver some magic on a few occasions. If they can find a way to support their unique voice with more daring songwriting, they might well become one of the most exciting groups in the genre. But such is the road to self-actualization: there is always room to grow.

Recommended tracks: Immerse Pt. II, A Pale Blue Light
You may also like: Riviẽre, Múr, Mother of Millions, Sgàile
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Capitan is:
– Björn Nauwelaerts (vocals, keyboards)
– Kevin Brondel (lead guitar)
– Rafaël Clavie (rhythm guitar)
– Jonathan Lievrouw (bass)
– Nick Boonen (drums)

1.  The Thought Spot made a great video linking autism to repeated ego death. ︎
2.  Seriously, where are the Oceansize imitators at? I need mooooooore. ︎

The post Review: Capitan – Facing Currents appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

No artist credited

Style¹: Avant-prog, art pop, neo-psychedelia (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cardiacs, Gentle Giant, Mr. Bungle, Frank Zappa
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: April Fools, 2025

Excuse my language, but what the fuck is this? Prog rock might have gotten stale with all the competent yet unimaginative 70s worship groups out there², but some bands take the concept of innovation to levels where you start wondering whether they even set out to create an enjoyable experience in the first place. In such a tradition do we find vaguely Cardiacs-adjacent³ British avant-prog ensemble Lost Crowns. Ensemble groups in prog aren’t exactly new—Meer has seen great underground success as of late—but Lost Crowns are a wholly different breed, and their latest offering The Heart Is in the Body is—ironically—possibly one of the purest intellectual constructs in music I’ve heard to date. Let’s dissect this bad boy, shall we?

How many different things can you play at once while keeping a coherent arrangement? If Lost Crowns are to be believed, the answer to that question is yes. Vocal harmonies, ever-shifting polyrhythmic drumming, percussive and melodic guitar lines, keyboards in sync with only the kick drum on the lower end while in counterpoint with the rhythm guitar on the higher end, wind instruments playing atonal melodies, often all at the same time define much of The Heart Is in the Body. If you get dizzy reading that, deciphering all the madness while listening is bound to make your brain explode. Lost Crowns bring nearly every Western European instrument under the sun into this album as well: saxophone, clarinet, bassoon, harmonium, flute, violin, bagpipe, dulcimer, and a whole lot more you can read in the credits below. These instruments are brought together in a crystal clear, cosy mix with just enough reverb to evoke a chamber feeling, meaning not a single note is Lost in Crown’s quest to overstimulate the listener.

“Try not to think, you need to feel the music!” my mom would often say while I was growing up, but jeez, Lost Crowns do not go for any easily recognizable feeling either. With how choppy and angular not just the rhythm section but also the vocal melodies and lead instruments are, listening to The Heart Is in the Body becomes rather akin to a solfège exercise than an emotional journey of any kind. “The Same Without”, for example, starts with a melancholic, serene atmosphere consisting of nothing but vocals, harmonium, and some strings. Chaos erupts when guitars, drums, and keyboard come in, and so little of the opening mood remains that we might as well have been in a different song. After that, only the chorus (?) provides some sense of recognizable catharsis; everything else is an overly well-designed labyrinth. Even though Lost Crowns usually maintain a sense of narrative in their songs, they also pull out the rug from under you at any given time with rhythmic switch-ups and unpleasant atonal melodies. It’s hard to care about where a song will go next if it switches things up fifteen times in the time it takes to form that thought. All the variety in instrumentation and layering cannot save The Heart Is in the Body from the monotony of its chaos. 

The two major exceptions to the maximalist style on The Heart Is in the Body are “O Alexander” and closing epic “A Sailor and His True Love”, which are overwhelmingly atmospheric tracks. The former is a disorienting psychedelic piece while the latter ventures into folk territory, somewhat bringing Comus to mind in its estranging yet somehow cosy mix of genres. Both tracks lose themselves to off-kilter indulgence at points, but on the whole stand out for their relatively simple arrangements. Merely allowing some breathing room for the instruments instead of cramming in a dozen at once does wonders for the emotional connection that was lacking otherwise. These songs still aren’t easy to follow by any means, but considering how hard the rest of the album is to listen to, they are a blessing. 

Safe to say, The Heart Is in the Body is an utterly bewildering album. At its best, you’ll find some of the most interesting, challenging music you’ll hear all year; at its worst, you’ll also find some of the most interesting, challenging music you’ll hear all year, but this time in a bewildering manner with a level of chaos that makes Between the Buried and Me seem tame in comparison. For the majority of the album’s duration, I fell in the latter camp; however, I do expect that our analytically inclined readers will have a field day with this album’s intense attention to detail and frighteningly complex narrative structure. Do proceed with caution, however, because The Heart Is in the Body is not for the faint of heart, nor the faint of body.

Recommended tracks: She Didn’t Want Me, A Sailor and His True Love
You may also like: Good NightOwl, Comus, Stars in Battledress, Eunuchs, Cime
Final verdict: 4/10

1. Alternatively, according to my colleague Tim: Canterbury prog on crack. ︎
2.  We’re actually severely lacking in classic prog rock specialists on our staff so if you’re into that and like to write about music, please consider applying! ︎
3.  Main man Richard Larcombe and his brother James were in Stars and Battledress who have played shows with Cardiacs. James also mixed The Garage Concerts. ︎

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Rate Your Music

Label: Independent

Lost Crowns is:
– Nicola Baigent (clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, recorder, flute)
– Charlie Cawood (bass guitar, double bass, handbells, sitar)
– Sharron Fortnam (vocals)
– Keepsie (drums, handbells)
– Richard Larcombe (lead vocal, guitar, harmonium, harp, tin whistle, violin, cello, concertina, English border bagpipe, dulcimer)
– Rhodri Marsden (piano, keyboards, bassoon, saw, recorder, tremelo guitar, percussion, theremin, vocals)
– Josh Perl (keyboards, vocals)

With guests:
– Mark Cawthra (vocals on 2, 5 and 6)
– Susannah Henry (vocals on 3)
– James Larcombe (hurdy gurdy on 8)
– Sarah Nash (vocals on 3 and 7)

The post Review: Lost Crowns – The Heart Is in the Body appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by: Dr. Winter

Style: Dissonant death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Artificial Brain, Gorguts
Country: Austria
Release date: 28 March 2025

“Oh, how I crave a sweet, aching melody. Pinch up the atmosphere with a tinge of sadness and let that melancholy wash over me. Give me an emotive, borderline melodramatic singer who croons and trauma dumps all over me because only that pain, that longing, exhibits the emotions that matter. Give me warmth in the darkness to escape the cold of my mental state and bring forth catharsis to my sorrows.”

“Sir, this is a Dissodeath’s.”

“…right. I was well aware of that, thank you. Would you perhaps happen to have anything with strong melodies, and an atmosphere I can get lost in?”

“Err… we have dissonance, sir.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Well…”
Glances at the menu.
“I would like one large serving of Pillars of Cacophony, please. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Right away, sir.”

Chuckles, faintly. “I’m in danger, aren’t I?”

Such a conversation may or may not reflect the process of me blindly claiming Paralipomena barely two minutes into the album. See, I am a melody guy. I want emotion, atmosphere, and vulnerability in my music. In a way, Pillars of Cacophony convey all of these things, but let’s just say that they do so in a more…visceral manner than what I tend to go for. From the get-go, Paralipomena melts your face off with stanky tech riffs, deep guttural vocals, and proggy drumming, all while sections of dissonance and strangely melodic harmonies permeate the songwriting. The record is versatile, too, showing elements of angular tech thrash, thick, slowed down riffs redolent of 90s death doom, and hypnotizing tremolos with a black metal tinge interspersed for atmosphere on top of the usual dissonance. Make no mistake though: pummeling your senses into mush is by far Pillars of Cacophony’s highest priority, and my weaksauce melody-seeking ass was not made for this level of spanking.

Writing about a genre you are unfamiliar with can be a difficult task, but certain things like production quality and structural cohesion are more universal. Paralipomena is fairly old school in sound with a dirty, slightly muffled lower end, fuzzy atmosphere, and organic guitar and drum tones, but it also maintains the clarity and polish of a modern production, which is especially poignant when the dissonant and/or black metal aspects come to the forefront. Some of the heavier, chugging parts also have a tasteful mechanical aspect, making them as heavy as possible without compromising on the cavernous old school vibe—I even noticed some pick scrapes! All things considered, the resulting soundscape is surprisingly light on the ears for how chaotic and vile the music can be.

But production is not the only component which makes Paralipomena so digestible: its pacing is also done quite well. Pillars of Cacophony will regularly drop the intensity completely for quiet, minimalist sections which relish in dissonance and, occasionally, melody. Sadly, these sections rarely provide sufficient musical nourishment—see, for example, the disappointingly underdeveloped Pink Floyd homage in “Mitosis” with a minimalist guitar solo that goes nowhere. But on the bright side, the mental and emotional cool down they provide from the onslaught is extremely welcome. This is much in contrast to a band like First Fragment, whose technical and emotional maximalism extends down to the melodic breaks, making even a masterfully performed album like Gloire Éternelle an exhausting listen. 

Cliff jumps in intensity aside, however, Paralipomena also shines in its frequent tempo shifts, keeping the listener engaged with cool transitions between different modes of neck breaking, thus allowing the band to smoothly incorporate all the different death metal flavors into their writing. In particular, Pillars of Cacophony do exceedingly well in releasing tension through slowing down the tempo for either massive, doomy riffs (“4 Degree Celsius”, “Retina”) or very deliberate, technical arrangements (“Cachexia”, “Landscapes of Permanence”), but are also capable of sharp intensity spikes or maintaining high momentum despite slowing down a tad. The pummeling did tire me out near the end, but for a good 80% of the album I was having a being blasted.  

Having just finished my Paralipomena meal, I sit at my table in silence, hazily processing all the madness my taste buds were exposed to these past forty-odd minutes. As I try to figure out how on earth I do not feel the need to puke, but instead experience an estranging form of contentment, that same waiter who took my order approaches me.

“So, how was your meal, sir?”

“It was…I survived—err, satisfactory in ways I had not anticipated.”

“Glad to hear that, sir. Would you like to order anything else?”

Chuckles, somewhat painfully.
“No, thank you—perhaps another time. I would like the check, please.”

With slightly contorted insides, I pay my bill and do my best not to stumble as I exit the restaurant. In the warm embrace of the afternoon sun, I make my way over to the local park and crash on the nearest bench. I open my phone and take a look at our spreadsheet to see what’s available for my next review, but quickly realize that I first really, really need to listen to some Adele to cool myself off again. What a day.

Recommended tracks: Of Plagues and Fibrils, Cachexia, The Discord
You may also like: Convulsing, Baring Teeth, Heaving Earth, Replicant, Anachronism
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Independent

Pillars of Cacophony is:
– Dominik (vocals, all instruments)

The post Review: Pillars of Cacophony – Paralipomena appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by: Costin Chioreanu

Style: Progressive metal, avant-garde metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Oranssi Pazuzu, Ved Buens Ende, Enslaved (Monumension in particular), Arcturus
Country: The Netherlands
Release date: 13 March 2025

While in my daily life I tend to be a pretty goofy individual who tends to joke around in situations where one really shouldn’t (I once drew an apple and a pear on my real analysis in higher dimensions exam, said “pronounce: apple, pear respectively,” and proclaimed that they were manifolds—yes, I got full points), when it comes to music I am largely serious: I eyeroll over most of Haken’s and Between the Buried and Me’s whimsical breaks (the one in “Crystallized” might be the single most offensive section of music ever), and even in a genre like power metal which I adore, I tend towards bands who take themselves seriously like Virgin Steele or Angra over gimmick bands like Manowar or Sabaton. I do enjoy the goof sometimes, but it needs to be timed tastefully and the band has to deliver enough musical substance to back it up (Ethmebb my beloved). So, you tell me Cthuluminati, will this Tentacula entangle me in its wonders or will these silly tentacles touch me in places where they really shouldn’t?

Cthuluminati play a strange psychedelic brand of progressive black metal. While this combination of genres is by no means new—groups like Enslaved, Oranssi Pazuzu, and A Forest of Stars are infamous for this—Cthuluminati set out to make their sound as uncomfortable and bewildering as possible, borrowing their aesthetic from horror movie soundtracks while contorting their base prog black sound in a similar way to Ved Buens Ende with odd chord choices and unsettling rhythmic interplay. Their songs whirl and twirl in unexpected directions, relying on rhythmic modulations and ever evolving sound design to put you on the wrong foot. The latter is particularly impressive for how seamlessly black metal, psych rock, stoner, and post-metal guitarwork weave in and out to create a cohesive sound. And to finish things off, the vocal melodies tend not to be melodies as much as they creatively monologue in various shades of distortion, ranging from maybe-musical talking and Tibetan throat singing to raspy warbling and guttural screaming. The resulting sound is one of controlled chaos with dark psychedelia, somewhat as if Enslaved had figured out how to maintain cohesion in their excesses on Monumension. In short, Tentacula is an LSD trip not quite gone wrong but it’s definitely on the edge.

This sense of groundedness plays a large part of what makes Tentacula such a special record. For the most part, Cthuluminati deftly balance normality with their avant-garde tendencies. Opening track “Cthrl” exemplifies this approach, starting with spoken word and spooky synths before erupting in black metal riffage over a driving, almost danceable beat that slowly but surely contorts into disorienting psychedelia until you realize you’ve fully left familiar ground. But as you’re floating on the waves of Cthuluminati’s wicked imagination, they pull you back to the ground with impressive shredding and tom-heavy drumming, only to get weird again near the end with a full on psych rock escapade. “Abysmal Quatrain” similarly balances itself as it gradually builds from the uncanny into an almost normal post-black metal crescendo, and “The Illusion of Control” explores doom metal elements, giving rise to some very heavy, dramatic moments. However, “Squid Pro Quo” (song name of the year btw) does lose its footing at times by meandering for too long in slow, uncomfortable rhythms and creepy synths and vocal work while failing to provide sufficient comfort to the listener to balance it out, thus harming the album’s pacing.

Another way Cthuluminati toe the line between the normal and the avant-garde is in their song structures. The writing feels stream of consciousness at first, but Cthuluminati successfully instill a sense of order in their compositions by borrowing cues from post-metal in how they incorporate tension and release. In that sense, opener “Cthrl” is a bit misleading with how many things it throws at the wall. The following tracks all have a far stronger sense of identity: the slow and unsettling “Squid Pro Quo” borrows from 90s stoner rock redolent of Kyuss, “Abysmal Quatrain” is solidly embedded in post-metal, “The Illusion of Control” leans into cinematic death-doom, and closer “Mantra” is a ritualistic post-metal track recalling The Ocean with bonus throat singing. Not to say any of these tracks are easy—they all still have plenty of rhythmic mind benders and creepy sound design—but at least you know which song you’re listening to. However, like the quirky excesses of “Squid Pro Quo”, Cthuluminati do get lost in the sauce sometimes: the quiet middle section of “Mantra” meanders with too few interesting sonic developments, “The Illusion of Control” overstays its welcome a smidge with an unnecessarily long acoustic outro, and “Squid Pro Quo” isn’t ominous enough to justify its slow tempos. Fortunately, most of these are only minor mishaps in the overall experience.

All things considered, it’s safe to say that Cthuluminati do not rely on any gimmick to distinguish themselves. Tentacula is a bewildering album in all the right ways: clever genre mashups, challenging yet accessible arrangements, creative sound design, and tying it all together with compositions that strike a fantastic balance in being adventurous while remaining more-or-less grounded. Sometimes Cthuluminati do overindulge in their whims, but most of the time they remain on course to throughout whatever nightmare labyrinth they entrap themselves in. Tentacula is another shining example of why progressive black metal is one of the current most exciting genres around, and I recommend fans of curves and angles not native to this plane of existence to pick it up.

Recommended tracks: Cthrl, The Illusion of Control, Mantra
You may also like: Hail Spirit Noir, Schammasch, Murmuüre, A Forest of Stars
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Independent

Cthuluminati is:
– Devi Hisgen (vocals)
– Rami Wohl (guitars)
– Stefan Strausz (bass)
– Seth van de Loo (drums)

The post Review: Cthuluminati – Tentacula appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Math rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock (instrumental, rap on track 7)
Recommended for fans of: Chon, late Elder, Motorpsycho
Country: Canada
Release date: 7 February 2025

One of the coolest things about classic Westerns of old was the quick draw duels. After a heated dispute, Serious Badass no. 1 and Serious Badass no. 2 would stand back to back, and walk ten paces before shooting each other, usually captured with some epic closeup face cams right before they put their manhood into action. A classic element which made these duels so iconic was the small gust of wind that rolled a piece of tumbleweed by, expertly building the tension. Now, Sweden’s climate does not lend itself to this plant, but if you are a Serious Badass in Sweden facing another who insulted your honor, you are in luck because Tumbleweed Dealer are here for all your quickdraw decorum needs.

On latest album Dark Green, Tumbleweed Dealer’s sound is centered around light math rock riffs and drummer Angelo Fata’s diverse array of grooves, spiced up by interjecting that musical base with post-rock strumming, progressive rhythms, psychedelic sound effects, and a wide variety of keyboard and brass instruments mostly done by guest musicians. These elements are molded into a free-flowing jam band type of sound, and Tumbleweed Dealer compose their songs around a central groove which they use as a baseline to fall back on for their experimental tangents, making them very easy to listen to. Every song will throw in a couple of cute and/or quirky ideas that you can latch onto: Tumbleweed Dealer treat us to mellotron, Hammond organ, church organ, trumpet, flugelhorn, 90s video game synths, and a few more unconventional rock instruments and sounds atop their math rock foundation, yielding an at least outwardly diverse album.

Angelo Fata steals the show with his performance behind the kit on Dark Green, displaying both versatility and depth in his rhythms. He constantly intersperses his grooves with creative accents and small fills without ever detracting from the underlying groove, and he transitions cleverly between rhythms through more extensive fills. Seb Painchaud’s guitar work on the other hand is far less interesting: he spends much of his time in quirky strumming patterns that are fun for a while but lack the edge to carry an entire album. It’s not until “Dragged Across the Wetlands” that we get something of higher intensity from him and it makes a huge difference for the track’s memorability. Similarly, “Ghost Dressed in Weeds” with its energetic surf rock and “Body of the Bog” with its heavy machine gun riff immediately stand out from the pack for the guitar’s extra edge. Finally, Jean-Baptiste Joubaud provides similarly quirky sounds on synths when playing lead, often drawing from 90s video game music, and lays down a cosy, psychedelic atmospheric backdrop for the rest of the album. Nothing too crazy but his playing works well enough and provides some nice color to Tumbleweed Dealer’s overall sound.

The aforementioned jam band sensibility that defines Dark Green plays a large part in what makes Tumbleweed Dealer’s sound so accessible, but it’s also their biggest weakness. Rarely do the songs on Dark Green develop into anything more compelling than the base ideas they started with. More often than not they will introduce a cute motif, maybe even a couple of them, bounce around between a few other quirky passages, return to the main riff and end the song in an anticlimactic way. What makes other jam-esque prog bands like Elder and Motorpsycho so compelling is how they build from a simple motif into these larger than life climaxes; Tumbleweed Dealer’s compositions are just tepid in comparison. When they do build up the tension, they fail to provide proper release, yet simultaneously, the often meek guitar work makes the tracks impotent in terms of hooks, so the overall result is something that sits awkwardly between a straightforward and an epic composing style. In that sense, the large cast of guest musicians tends to feel like window dressing, even if performed well. Remarkably enough, the best guest feature is Ceschi Ramos whose rapping on “Ghost Dressed in Weeds” gives some much-needed edge to the music. The small saxophone solo by Zach Strouse on the title track is also phenomenal, as is the Latin part it transitions into afterwards—but then the song just ends without any sense of ceremony, squandering the greater moments that came before.

If you’re all about chill vibes and want something easy to listen to, Dark Green has plenty to offer with all the different keyboard textures and psychedelic sounds thrown at you atop a comfortable math rock base. Otherwise though, Tumbleweed Dealer are neither incisive enough to make the short compositions catchy nor ambitious enough to develop their songs into epic proportions, leaving an album that is varied on the surface, but meek and homogeneous on the inside. As it stands, Serious Badasses in Sweden would do better to forego the Tumbleweed Dealer and stick with regular Swedish dueling decorum.

Recommended tracks: A Plant That Thinks It’s Human, Dragged Across the Wetlands, Ghost Dressed in Weeds
You may also like: delving, Bend the Future, Ferras Arrabi
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

Label: Independent

Tumbleweed Dealer is:
– Seb Painchaud (bass, guitars)
– Angelo Fata (drums, percussion)
– Jean-Baptiste Joubaud (synths, programming)

The post Review: Tumbleweed Dealer – Dark Green appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by Hugh Syme

Style: Traditional progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Rush, Metallica, Iron Maiden, virtuoso musicianship, uhhh well IT’S DREAM THEATER, WHAT DO YOU NEED FFO FOR?
Country: United States-New York
Release date: 7 February 2025

Dream Theater, huh? Where do I even begin… Should I talk about the kind instructor at a summer camp who introduced me to them, my subsequent obsession with the band, and eventually progressive metal as a whole? Do I go over their recent history and how often their output has been underwhelming in the Mangini era—an era that has now come to a close with the reintroduction of Mike Portnoy? Or do I discuss their enormous impact on progressive metal? I could easily write a ten-paragraph long introduction if I were to cover all this, but we don’t have all day. What’s most remarkable to me about their new album Parasomnia is the fact that I’m reviewing this in the first place. Now, nearly seven years after I founded this blog, we’ve decided to stop solely covering underground prog. I remember thinking in 2022 that raising our Spotify monthly listener cap to 20.000 was a huge deal (it was only 5.000 when we started!), and today we’re covering Dream Theater?! Well, here goes nothing.

Over the past fifteen years, Dream Theater has developed something of a reputation for being stale and predictable. Leaving aside the dumpster fire experiment that was The Astonishing (mostly—there was a great 45 minute album in there, I swear), the band has by and large played a “back to the roots” sort of melodic prog metal. Mike Portnoy fans hoped that his reintroduction would inject a renewed creativity into the band, but Parasomnia is just as safe as (if not more than) A View From the Top of the World was, just a little heavier and darker with slightly different drumming. I would even go so far as to say that Parasomnia contains so many nods to older work that it almost feels like self-plagiarism. You’ve got the Metallica-esque riffs from Systematic Chaos; dark synths redolent of Black Clouds & Silver Linings; and “Dead Asleep”, whose bridge feels like a rehash of “Beyond This Life”. Then there’s “Midnight Messiah”, whose chorus riff is a less interesting reskin of “S2N”; and the abuse of that same “open the song with hard riffs and dynamic proggery and then let Petrucci lead into the meat of the song with a melodic guitar solo” intro they’ve used a million times now on “In the Arms of Morpheus”, “Dead Asleep”, and “The Shadow Man Incident”. Even the more eclectic parts like the swing section in “A Broken Man” have been done before at this point, such as on Distance Over Time’s “Viper King”. Many bands like to go back and reference their older material, but Parasomnia‘s reliance on these references feels less like fun little easter eggs for the fans and more like it’s patching up a lack of inspiration.

Questionable self-homages aside, Dream Theater doing Dream Theater things as Dream Theater does will always give rise to moments of mind-bending complexity and musicality, and there are plenty to be found on Parasomnia. “Night Terror” is a thoroughly successful track with energetic riffage, interesting verses, and a catchy chorus, as well as an inspired instrumental bridge with an insanely cool solo from Petrucci over a sexy bass-driven groove. Similarly, “A Broken Man” opens with the hardest riff on the album and cleverly recontextualizes its pattern in a number of ways as a guiding thread for the song to build around, while “Dead Asleep” is just a well constructed epic according to the classic Dream Theater formula. On the softer end, “Bend the Clock” is an excellent ballad with an ‘80s feel and a straightforward Gilmourian solo.

If anything, Parasomnia feels like a smoothed out version of their output of the past fifteen years, but molded in a Black Clouds era sound. Vocal clunkers are gone as James LaBrie no longer tries to sing outside his range; Portnoy has ditched the ‘tough guy’ vocals, sticking solely to background harmonies with Petrucci; I spotted no severe cringe in the lyrics; and of course as I mentioned earlier, Dream Theater are still world class instrumentalists. If Parasomnia is your introduction to Dream Theater, I can well imagine the record leaving a big impression on you. For the experienced listener though, Parasomnia lacks both the creativity and the compositional brilliance of Dream Theater’s previous work. All this is to say that nothing offends, but nothing transcends, either: the vocals are fine but mostly unremarkable in lyrics, melody writing, and execution as LaBrie plays it far too safely. Only “Night Terror” has a truly catchy chorus but even that suffers from a monotonous cadence. Compositionally, the band throws way too many ideas at the wall to make much of anything stick, and when ideas do stick, they have to fight an uphill battle to build into anything more than a mere display of virtuosity. “A Broken Man” exemplifies this, squandering an amazingly moody cinematic intro with unremarkable vocal melodies and the most bog standard Dream Theater bridge you can think of whose mood is at best tenuously connected to the rest of the song.

What perhaps annoys me most about Parasomnia, though, is its overall packaging. Prog metal fans rarely give them credit for it, but Dream Theater were quite eclectic for their first twenty years. Whether it was Images and Words with its ‘80s synths and funk influences, Train of Thought’s  balls-to-the-wall approach, or Falling Into Infinity indulging in a ‘90s commercial rock sound, each album had its own distinct identity. Unless you squint your eyes, Parasomnia fails to set itself apart. Clock samples and other nocturnal sounds are interspersed across the record, but they are of such little conceptual value that they add only negligible amounts of personality to Parasomnia. Most of the sampling feels like wasted space used as an uninspired way to give the listener a brief respite from the riff onslaught (“Are We Dreaming?” might be even more pointless than the NOMAC tracks on The Astonishing). Additionally, the pacing on Parasomnia is also off-balance with all the aggressive Metallica-esque riffage and maximalist songwriting of the first five tracks. In terms of pacing, “Midnight Messiah” and “Are We Dreaming?” could have been cut entirely and the record would have been far better for it, as could have the final two minutes of “Dead Asleep” which starts a nonsensical buildup after the song should have ended. Only the penultimate track, “Bend the Clock”, provides meaningful sonic relief, but by this point, it’s far too late.

The astute reader may have noticed that I have yet to cover the closing epic, “The Shadow Man Incident”. This is because the song deserves its own paragraph. “A View From the Top of the World” has yet to grab me, but that aside, this is easily Dream Theater’s least memorable epic. For most of the song, the band is simply going through the motions; again, it’s enjoyable enough purely by virtue of how talented they are, but like the rest of the album, the song has no substantial musical identity to set it apart. Its intro has a somewhat fresh cinematic twist to it, but the “Metropolis Pt. 1” mimicking rapid fire chugs, bog-standard melodic Petrucci solo, and lame “Octavarium” reimagining of the first verses (“I. Someone Like Him”, anyone?) kill any hope of originality. It lacks any memorable vocal lines, too. They’re pleasant and serviceable, but none come close to iconic lines of previous epics like “Seasons change and so can I”, “TRAPPED INSIDE THIS OC-TA-VA-RI-UM”, or (albeit maybe for the wrong reasons) “All the finest wines IMPROVE WITH AGE!!!” The best part is the jazzy piano section starting at 13:06, which might not be the freshest thing they’ve ever done but kicks major ass regardless. Dream Theater in their old age are better at jamming together in solo sections than they are at writing songs.

When the news of Mike Portnoy’s return broke, I, like many, truly hoped that Dream Theater would push themselves further artistically. Instead, we have what feels like the fourth “back to the basics” album in the last fifteen years. Perhaps if it came out after Black Clouds or A Dramatic Turn of Events, Parasomnia would have felt like a solid addition to their legacy, but as it stands, the album rather feels like A View From the Top of the World: Nocturnal Edition But We Got the Old Mike Back So It’s Really Different We Swear. What I really need from Dream Theater next time is the flavorful eclecticism and personality from the old days. This current incarnation of the band is serviceable, but ultimately toothless, so much so that you could be fooled into thinking they wrote this in their sleep.

Recommended tracks: Night Terror, Dead Asleep, Bend the Clock
You may also like: Need, Aeon Zen, DGM, Sunburst, Anubis Gate, Lalu, Vanden Plas, Ostura, Tyranny of Hours, Venus in Fear, Max Enix, Eumeria, Altesia, Vicinity, Avandra, Turbulence, Dimhav, Kaiser’s Bart, The Pulse Theory, Vanden Plas, Guardsman, Lunar, Hac San, Odd Logic, Axios, Teramaze, Dark Quarterer, Etrange, Nospun, Paralydium, Dreamwalkers Inc, Beyond the Mirror, Novena, Vanden Plas, Acolyte, Azure, Atomic Symphony, Daydream XI, Royal Hunt, Distorted Harmony, Redshift, Scardust, Course of Fate, Flaming Row, Aural Cadence, Pagan’s Mind, Advent Horizon, Beyond the Bridge, Maestrick, Roman Khrustalev, Triton Project, Pyramid Theorem, The Vicious Head Society, Vanden Plas, Alkera, Universe Effects, Soul Enema, Noveria, Lost in Thought, Headspace, Virtual Symmetry, Sentire, Hephystus, Dakesis
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: InsideOut Music – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Dream Theater is:
– James LaBrie (vocals)
– John Petrucci (guitars)
– Jordan Rudess (keyboard)
– John Myung (bass)
– Mike Portnoy (drums)

The post Review: Dream Theater – Parasomnia appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

No artist credited

Style: Progressive metal (95% clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Caligula’s Horse, Threshold, Kamelot, 00s pop punk
Country: Australia
Release date: 17 January 2025

[Editor’s note: since reviewing Teramaze, they released transophobic lyrics on their 2025 album The Harmony Machine, something which we deem unacceptable. We endeavor not to promote bigotry in any way, and we consider it our responsibility to make note of this if these details come to light after reviewing.]

Ever since Sorella Minore came out in 2021, Teramaze have been a favorite of mi—wait a second, I covered these fellas less than a month ago! Now they’re already back with an EP? Not that I’m complaining—Eli: A Wonderful Fall from Grace was my 2024 album of the year and all—but it continues to amaze me how fast they crank out new music. It’s not even the quickest thing they’ve done either; back in 2021, there were only five months in between the two full length releases Sorella Minore and And the Beauty They Perceive. Releasing an EP in eight months is peanuts in comparison. Wait, what’s that you say? They have a double album planned this year—and the first one is coming out soon already? Jeez, let me digest these Desire Colours n Lust first, okay?

For those unfamiliar with the band, Teramaze play a bread and butter brand of progressive metal centered around the expressive vocals of Nathan Peachy and/or Dean Wells, light djenty riffs, cinematic synths, and melodic shred. As its title might already indicate to you, Desire Colours n Lust is a far more straightforward offering than Eli, which was the conceptual finale to the Halo trilogy, having much higher pacing and chorus-driven songwriting. Nathan Peachy has fully taken over on lead vocals, allowing Dean Wells to focus only on the guitars besides a few backing parts here and there. His approach this time is less vulnerable and soul-bearing, instead opting for a smooth, seductive style in the verses, and a soaring, sing-along one in the choruses, all coated in a ‘00s pop punk energy redolent of Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance. More spotlight is also given to groovy, light djenty riffs, which in conjunction with the record’s upbeat nature makes the EP far less heavy emotionally than Eli was. Perhaps expectedly, Desire is all about having a fun time.

The production and performances on Desire are as professional as always. The mix is evenly balanced between all elements while also giving the right amount of weight to individual components when necessary. Nathan Peachy’s ever wonderful vocals sit front and center in the mix but never overwhelm the instruments; and similarly, the guitars sound full and heavy but remain in service of the greater whole, allowing room for orchestration, bass, and other melodic elements. The focus on a riff-centric sound leads to some mixed results: riffs have never been Teramaze’s strongest aspect, and they were at their best when used in service of the arrangements (the title track being a good example of this) instead of being the main driving force. “Sinister” has some excellent groovy djent riffs, but both “Bullet to a Pharaoh” and “Black Sound” recall the most generic instances of the prog power movement when they discovered the Chug continent around 2010. The guitarwork is at its best during the more complex passages and the few small solos peppered throughout the record.

While Desire is largely straightforward and chorus-driven, we do get a few passages where Teramaze attempt some riskier progressive songwriting. Most notable is “Black Sound” which includes some blackgaze-esque tremolo picked parts and introduces some nifty drum n bass percussion effects in its bridge’s atmospheric break. The title track and “Sinister” also do the atmospheric drop-off really well, giving all the space for Peachy’s angelic voice, but not all the album’s experimentation works. The rapid-fire harsh vocals in “Sinister” are too edgy for my liking, and the “Ow!” jumpscare that opens “Perfect World” hurts my ears and soul. By and large though, the songwriting feels undercooked. “Bullet to a Pharaoh” is the main offender with its generic riffs and lazy lyric-writing, going oh-woh-woh-wo-oh instead of penning anything meaningful, and its chorus comes across as a pop punk recontextualization of “The Will of Eli”. Similarly, for all its cool experimentation, generic riffage puts a huge dent in “Black Sound”’s potential.

Sometimes I wish Teramaze would take more time to release new music. Not that they are ever bad on this EP (well, besides the “Ow!”), but I know they are capable of much more than this. Desire Colours n Lust is a decent EP with some fun cuts and a few fresh ideas, yet I find myself wondering what the result would have been if they sat down to fully flesh out all their ideas into something more ambitious. In that sense, I’m a bit concerned about the upcoming double album being even more rushed, but hey, we don’t live in a “Perfect World” now, do we? 

Recommended tracks: Sinister, Black Sound
You may also like: Rendezvous Point, The Pulse Theory, Temic
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Wells Music (so basically Independent)

Teramaze is:
– Nathan Peachy (vocals)
– Dean Wells (guitars, backing vocals)
– Chris Zoupa (guitars)
– Andrew Cameron (bass)
– Nick Ross (drums)

The post Review: Teramaze – Desire Colours n Lust appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Album art by Devilnax

Style: Progressive metal, progressive rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Leprous, Porcupine Tree, Fates Warning, Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Agent Fresco
Country: Italy
Release date: 23 August 2024

If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you will have seen the phrases “copium” and “hopium” in all sorts of memes—from denial about their favorite manga character being dead¹ to wish-thinking Time II into existence (thanks Jari, you finally did it) to a hypothetical third party winning the US elections—their usage is rarely anything more than half-serious. When one of my main underground² darlings Kingcrow announced that their new album was titled Hopium—most likely blissfully unaware of internet meme culture—I had to do a double-take to rewire my brain because I knew for certain that these guys were serious about it.

Hopium continues in the rhythmical, electronic direction of The Persistence but is far less bleak in tone and brings back some of the band’s eclecticism of old in the form of zany electronic synths and latin guitar playing. In essence, Hopium is less mood piece and more prog, its experimentation not necessarily for any deep emotional effect as much as Kingcrow were just messing around for the thrill of it. Not that Kingcrow will ever completely ditch their dramatism or heartfelt sadness, but songs like “Parallel Lines” with its zany trance synths and sexy guitar solo or “Night Drive” with its mechanical synths and grinding riff in its final minutes are less moody and are mostly just really damn cool. Above all else, Hopium is a fun, dynamic prog metal album with high technicality, strong vocal melodies, nifty experimentation, interesting twists and turns, and a dark undercurrent of tasteful melodrama tying it all together.

Honestly, there is so much to discuss that I don’t even know where to begin praising the record. Should I talk about “Glitch” and its sing-along chorus that might be chorus of the year for how incredibly hype it is? Or perhaps you want to know about the stunning climaxes of “Parallel Lines” and its cacophony of polyrhythmic mastery and brooding synths, or “Losing Game” that erupts after repeatedly chanting “Now the curtain has fallen” over an increasingly anxious rhythm? Maybe it’s better to first talk about how the band still writes incredible mood pieces when they so desire like “New Moon Harvest”, “Night Drive”, and the title track? And what about the superb individual performances? 

That last part is probably worth expanding upon: Kingcrow is exceedingly rhythmical on Hopium, having drums, bass, guitars, synths, and sometimes even vocals work in tandem to create a tapestry of rhythmic elements that come together in a way that is as groovy as it is melodic and textured. Though I lack the vocabulary to do it justice, Thundra Cafolla lays down a monumental performance on drums. On previous albums he tended to play in a more understated way, often hiding polyrhythms in parts that seemed straightforward, but on tracks like “Parallel Lines” or “Vicious Circle” he really lets loose and the result is phenomenal. On guitars, Diego Cafolla and Ivan Nastisic provide a colorful twin attack, their styles ranging from sexy latin acoustic, to urgent Fear of a Blank Planet-era Porcupine Tree hard rock, to textural fingerpicking, to Leprous-esque staccato riffs, and more. I do still miss the guitar solos that The Persistence largely did away with as those were some of my favorites in the entire genre, but the two that we do get in “Parallel Lines” and in “New Moon Harvest” are incredible. Finally, Diego Marchesi sings his heart out, showing a newfound level of vulnerability in his voice on the softer parts—“New Moon Harvest” and “Come Through” being especially touching—and just being all around excellent otherwise.³

However, I do have some minor criticisms about Hopium. Primarily, the latter half of the album misses some of the urgency and faster pacing of the first half. Four out of five tracks are either slow burners or mood pieces, and though “Vicious Circle” is tighter and more upbeat, its pacing doesn’t come close to the final chorus of “Glitch” or the adrenaline-fueled latin fingerpicking of “Losing Game”. Furthermore, its chorus is the weakest one on the album. These issues compound and make the second half feel a bit slow and bloated even if everything besides the aforementioned chorus is great individually. Otherwise, the opener “Kintsugi” has an incredibly infectious main groove and chorus, but its ABAB structure doesn’t progress much at all and could have benefitted from either an interesting twist or two, or some flashy showmanship. None of these issues break the album or anything, but they do hamper its sky-high potential a bit.

Hopium provides an interesting development of Kingcrow’s sound, taking the electronic approach of The Persistence and marrying it to the eclecticism and extroversion of their earlier work, yielding an experience that is both deeply emotional and intellectually challenging. Though its second half can be a bit slow, the depth and sheer cool-factor of their writing more than makes up for it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to whiff some Hopium that their next album won’t take another six years to release.⁴

Recommended tracks: Glitch, Parallel Lines, Losing Game
You may also like: Ions, Temic, Rendezvous Point
Final verdict: 8/10

1. LOOKING AT YOU, GOJO FANS ︎
2. Well, not anymore. They were well over our monthly listener cap for the majority of the year so we’re only getting to it now. ︎
3.  Sorry Riccardo Nifosi: I have a terrible ear for bass, but I’m sure you did just as well! ︎
4.  Waiter, waiter! Could I order some more guitar solos as well? ︎

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

Label: Season of Mist – Bandcamp | Facebook

Kingcrow is:
– Diego Marchesi (vocals)
– Diego Cafolla (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals)
– Ivan Nastasic (guitars, backing vocals)
– Riccardo Nifosi (bass, backing vocals)
– Thundra Cafolla (drums, percussion)

The post Missed Album Review: Kingcrow – Hopium appeared first on The Progressive Subway.