Style: Progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Blood Incantation, Death, Morbid Angel
Country: Florida, United States
Release date: 25 July 2025

Between the summers of 2017 and 2018, I had the misfortune of living in the oppressively muggy hellscape that is Jacksonville, Florida. I was in my mid-twenties, fresh out of law school, and ready to complete a year-long gig that happened to be based there. Surely the coastal city—geographically one of the largest in the United States—has some nice areas and redeeming qualities, but those aren’t what I remember. No, the Dirty J was home to a dilapidated downtown area, characterless suburban sprawl, a rash of severe storms, and incessant swampy heat. I really can’t think of a better setting to inspire some winding, gritty, feverish death metal. And that’s exactly what we get from Jacksonville’s own Haxprocess.

The band’s sophomore album, Beyond What Eyes Can See, offers forty-five minutes of progressive death metal packed into four meaty tracks. Drawing clear inspiration from Blood Incantation, these Floridians place psychedelic twists among wandering riffs, all given life by a warm, old-school-tinged production. Haxprocess’s sound is heavy, but at the same time open and expansive—much like their overstretched hometown. In case you couldn’t tell, I wasn’t a fan of my year in Jacksonville. Will Beyond What Eyes Can See bring something good out of that godforsaken city?

Haxprocess’s style of death metal can be distilled down to two words: riff salad. Countless riffs comprise the band’s long, freeform compositions, frequently taking a core idea and permuting it several times over—rhythmically, in phrasing, and in texture. A captivating dual-guitar attack characterizes Beyond What Eyes Can See, as one guitar often strays from the other, comes back with harmonization, or unites fully for emphasis. The album holds plenty of strong leads and solos as well. Although the drums are consistently shifting and grooving, and the bass occasionally pokes out with some runs of its own, the guitars are clearly the central focus, and the album’s better for it. 

Once in a while, Haxprocess cease the heavy, greasy riffing and stray into psychedelic territory. The final few minutes of “The Confines of the Flesh” feature a few dreamier passages amidst the fray, and “Thy Inner Demon Seed” comes to a halt about halfway through and switches over to an infectiously trippy section built atop lighter, swirling guitars. Album closer “Sepulchral Void” pulls a similar trick around its midpoint as well, offering a compelling bridge of clean guitars and emphatic volume swells. Although the airy passages are a welcome break from the serpentine death metal, they could be incorporated a little more smoothly. These shifts to lighter atmospheres aren’t the only sticky compositional points on the album, either—across all tracks but with notable frequency in the closer, the band come to a hard stop simply to switch from one heavy texture to another. Despite being four long tracks, Beyond What Eyes Can See can feel like an album of bits and pieces. 

In a similar vein, the tracks’ lengths aren’t always fully justified. Opener “Where Even Stars Die” does a good job of stringing together strong parts cohesively and varying textures logically, but the other tracks aren’t quite as successful. “The Confines of the Flesh,” particularly, tests just how many similar pinch-harmonic-centered riffs a listener can endure as it wanders from part to part. And throughout the album, many riffs begin to sound the same—a shocking amount end with only slightly varying, choppy triplet phrases. On the whole, the songs tend to be a little bloated. That said, the Haxprocess do strike gold now and again: the harmonized, drawling riff that closes “Thy Inner Demon Seed,” as well as the track’s psychedelic middle bridge, are prime examples. It’s passages like these that pull the listener back in and keep the album engaging.

Ultimately, Beyond What Eyes Can See is a solid take on riff-centered, sprawling, and sometimes spacey death metal with old-school flair. Compositionally, the album leaves a bit to be desired, and the tracks’ component pieces aren’t always of even quality. Still, there’s plenty of guitar work to enjoy, and the highest points are full of creativity and intrigue. Haxprocess might not have done the unthinkable and redeemed Jacksonville in my mind, but Beyond What Eyes Can See is more enjoyable than anything else I remember of that wretched city.

Recommended tracks: Where Even Stars Die, Thy Inner Demon Seed
You may also like: Ancient Death, Horrendous, Bedsore, Felgrave, Tomb Mold
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Haxprocess is:
– Lothar Mallea (guitars and vocals)
– Shane Williamson (guitars)
– Davis Leader (bass)
– Adam Robinson (drums)

The post Review: Haxprocess – Beyond What Eyes Can See  appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive metal, progressive thrash metal, progressive death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Death, Horrendous, Coroner, badly acted spoken word
Country: Florida, United States
Release date: 12 January, 2024

There will never be another band like Nevermore. Little shredder Zach wanted to be just like Jeff Loomis when he grew up, and seven years later, I’m still nowhere close. But it wasn’t just Loomis’s killer left hand that made the band so special, it was also the melodrama of the late, great Warrel Dane. Nevermore brought the theatrical drama of power metal and thrashy instrumentation together in a megaton explosion that propelled my brain in the direction of “more drama, better album.”

A band with the name Announce the Apocalypse is the last band I’d expect to add some dramatic flair into their work, but here we are. Experience Machine is a concept album of the verbose kind, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination with ‘After the Plague’ talking about mass inoculation and the banning of AR-15s (that’s a gun for all you non-freedom havers). With that over and done with, we’re treated to the core sound of AtA. A thrashy blend equal parts Horrendous and Coroner, with Dominic Ryan Gabriel’s razor-sharp vocals very reminiscent of Damien Herring’s lower register.

‘State of Nihilism’ did nothing to wow me, but it did nothing to insult me either, at least initially. There are nice riffs that overstay their welcome a little, and the song feels much longer than its five minute runtime, but the cheesy spoken word at the end is where this album devolves into true nonsense. AtA decided, for some godforsaken reason, to put on an amateur high school production within their metal album. With our protagonist proclaiming “Fuck you! Fuck you too!” to his audience, I could only roll my eyes as ‘In the Wake’ started off with more cheesy acted sections.

Frankly, these only last a few seconds, and if it was just once, I’d shrug and move on. But every song begins with one of these. It completely kills any momentum this album has, and makes for some especially cringeworthy moments in the next song. In ‘Dying Words’, our protagonist’s lover shoots herself for some reason, complete with stock gunsound3.wav to ensure the point’s been driven through. Not only is this moment unintentionally hilarious, but I had to ask myself why this was the only time this album evoked an emotion that wasn’t complete boredom.

We’re treated to Horrendous does Type O Negative on the aforementioned song, and to the band’s credit, it’s a nice change of pace. Without the silly intro and the god-awful lyricism (which I can easily ignore), I could see myself semi-enjoying this. It goes on for too long, and repeats too many sections, but at this point in the album I’m used to all this.

Interlude ‘At the Burial’ proves to me that this band is competent enough in their instruments, as the song is pretty enough on its own. But as is a running trend with mediocre prog bands, they can’t seem to structure a song to save their life. Don’t worry though, they stack another interlude on after that, complete with a whole song of terribly acted dialogue!

The album’s title track is where my attention started waning, and the song wouldn’t be complete without mechanicalnoise6.mp3 playing and ruining a good section they had going. The point I’m trying to make here is that everything about this album is silly. This album’s concept is just The Matrix if it were dreamed up by an especially angry high schooler, and that’s the best pitch I can give Experience Machine.

Experience Machine, as a whole, isn’t a bad album. It’s a lukewarm one. So many of these songs need tightening up, and the acted sections just need to go. There are moments that made me raise my brow in a bit of excitement, like the fretless bass on ‘Return to a Broken Reality’, but they go absolutely nowhere with it. With a nudge in the right direction, these guys could be doing great things in a few years. For now, they’re losing a whole point for the melodrama. Leave it to Nevermore, guys.

Recommended tracks: Return to a Broken Reality
You may also like: Quasarborn
Final verdict: 4/10

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

Label: Independent

Announce the Apocalypse is:
– Dominic Ryan Gabriel (vocals)
– Shawn Loureiro (bass)
– Adrian Baptist (drums)

– Kelly Barnes (guitars)

The post Review: Announce the Apocalypse – Experience Machine appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: speed/power metal, symphonic black metal, some prog (mixed, female vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Emperor, 90s Hellenic black metal, early German power/speed metal, faster USPM acts like Riot, Agent Steele, etc.
Review by: Sam
Country: Florida, United States
Release date: 13 October, 2023

Out of all the metal subgenre combinations, black metal and power metal historically have had surprisingly little overlap. I’ve always found this strange as the genres share plenty of similarities to make the mashup work: fast tempos, a melodic inclination, and a shared fascination with fantasy works and epic scenery. Really all you’ve gotta do is pull out the tremolo every once in a while as you abuse the double kick, turn your YEEAAAHHHs into shrieks and you’re already halfway there. I’ve only ever encountered a handful of groups who’ve attempted this, and none of them feel like they managed to push the boundaries on what’s possible. Is Faethom up to the challenge?

Well, one thing’s for sure, and that’s that the guitarwork is absolutely killer. Nearly every song has multiple memorable riffs, ranging from nasty speed metal neck breakers, to groovy, heavy/power metal style power chord bashing, to spidery prog riffs, to thrashy tremolo, and more, and when it comes to solos there’s plenty of ripping bursts of shred. Our 80s metal inclined readers will find plenty to love in Chaosmorphogoria (say that three times fast I dare you). For nearly every misstep there is on this record, there is another amazing riff waiting around the corner to make up for it. The only track that didn’t land for me at all in this regard was “Goregantuan” with its plodding main riff and mediocre symphonic black metal strumming. For basically any other track though it’s riffs galore.

The core sound of this group sits somewhere in between 90s symphonic black metal, early German power/speed metal, and prog. What’s interesting is the use of 80s horror/sci-fi sounding synths which give the music a dorky charm. They work nicely in tandem with the riffs, trading the spotlight with the guitar using campy synth lines and filling out the atmosphere with spooky and/or epic horror patches otherwise. “Blackfire Star” and “Feral” are great examples of Mariela Muerte’s versatility on keys, showing both her talent for lead melodies and creating atmosphere. The real winner is the instrumental “Final Cosmic Warcry” which is a fantastic flurry of gripping horror synths and speedy guitarwork. And on a minor note, the interludes are tastefully done as well. The intro and outro are pure dungeon synth, and “Untraversable Force” is a lovely acoustic instrumental with medieval atmosphere akin to what you’d hear from Manilla Road.

There is one very big elephant in the room however, and that is Mariela Muerte’s clean singing. Her harshes sound great, but dear lord she sounds awful when she sings. Her tone lacks any form of beauty and her melodies are bland at best and utterly lifeless at worst, some of the most blatant offenders being the verses in “Ancient Powers That Be,” the chorus in “Goregantuan” (truly emphasizing the gore part of its title), and whoever thought it’d be a good idea to have her sing a ballad part in “Feral.” Faethom embraces the 80s in more ways than one, which unfortunately includes the trend of awful singing. I was tearing my ears out over the production too at first, but I’ve since warmed up to its deliberate old school style, though I warn you that it won’t be for everyone. Besides the bass, all instruments are clearly audible and have a comfy lo-fi charm. 

To get back to my question in the introduction, I don’t think Faethom quite reach the edges of what I imagine power/black metal could be, but I also don’t think they were aiming for that. Chaosmorphogoria is an album that aims to cram in as many killer riffs and solos as possible, and lighting them up with dorky synths and some prog elements. In that regard, they mostly succeeded, but please for the love of God do not let Mariela sing again I will SCREAM.

Recommended tracks: Blackfire Star, Feral, Final Cosmic Warcry
You may also like: Malokarpatan, Stormlord
Final verdict: 5.5/10

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

Label: Independent

Faethom is:
– Mariela Muerte (vocals, keyboards)
– David Diacrono (guitars)
– Bill Bryant (guitars)
– Evie Austin (bass)
– Brian Wilson (drums)

The post Review: Faethom – Chaosmorphogoria appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: atmospheric/symphonic death/doom, blackened post metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Emperor, Mournful Congregation, Ahab, Tomb Mold
Review by: Andy
Country: international, United States-FL
Release date: 20 October 2023

Splits are perplexing; I understand collaborating with your friends, but stitching together essentially disconnected EPs with them seems a bit like making a child with random body parts you found a là Dr Frankenstein instead of doing it with some good old-fashioned sex. Two bands may seem compatible, but in such close proximity it can have the opposite effect, almost like an organ transplant rejection; stylistic and writing inconsistencies may be amplified. Dream Unending and Worm are both nominally death/doom, but the lofty spiritualism of the former may be at odds with the grimy, Florida-ness of the latter. Can they possibly work in tandem to amplify each other’s immense talent and vision? 

Dream Unending’s contribution to Starpath is two epic, heady tracks replete with transcendent melodies and atmospheric heft. Nary fifteen seconds goes by without some otherworldly chord, Mournful Congregation-like aching guitar lead, or superior bass lines creeping through the speakers. Both tracks move with a cetaceal weight in the tidal doom sections that drown you and in the more post metal parts that sweep you away with their dreamy lilt. Derrick Vela’s (Tomb Mold) guitar is eminently pretty, and the almost new age bass parts, also courtesy of Vela, juxtapose with the more funereal doom sections perfectly. The aching, gloomy melodicism of Dream Unending expertly hits the dreamy psychedelia vibe they seem to aim for in this project, achieving an impeccable vibe similar to Fires in the Distance; listen to 4:30 in “If Not Now When” if you need convincing.

Worm, on the other hand, have upped the energy from their already impressive earlier output. “Ravenblood” begins with a mouth-wateringly tasty Emperor riff fed through a death/doom filter. This black metal influence actually permeates their entire half of the split except when Wroth Senteptrion (a.k.a. Phil Tougas of First Fragment and like a million other bands you should check out asap if you aren’t intimately familiar) decides to let his inner shred-god out—then, Worm, berobed in baroque splendor, are turned into the sickest doom band on the planet. Worm certainly abandoned a bit of their outright death metal heft on Starpath, but the resulting product is a more polished, epic gem more befitting of my prog metal taste than before—how can you not be romantic for First Fragment cum Ahab cum Emperor? Any excuse to hear shred-god Tougas make sweet love to his guitar immediately gives me extreme bias toward a project. Worm’s new direction was foretold a bit by the Bluenothing EP, but I didn’t expect how regally symphonic they’d become, and they’re better off for it. 

Together, though, Dream Unending and Worm aren’t firing on the same wavelength despite the material on Starpath easily comprising the bands’ best material. The contemplative, ethereal movements of the rolling epics of Dream Unending are spiritually different from the bombast of Worm’s side. Worm certainly feels a bit more frivolously flashy on Starpath, not that that’s a bad thing inherently, but the psychedelic buildup Dream Unending had going is instantly stopped in its tracks as soon as “Ravenblood” starts. This fundamental problem with the split as a formal constraint makes both sides feel stronger in isolation than together, and I wonder why not either fully collaborate or just release separately. The philosophy underlying each band’s style is just different.

I would have appreciated a stronger sense of cohesive, meta-album flow without a doubt. From the album cover to the title, I think Dream Unending hit the proper vibe more than Worm even if Worm’s side is probably an even sicker musical manifestation of excellence. Either way, both bands sound phenomenal with vibrant, clear production, and the performances from both groups—especially those guitars—are as talented as any tech death band you’ve ever heard. All told, Starpath is a truly fantastic metal album despite its constraints, especially since I get to harass Chris about doing my Worm.

Recommended tracks: So Many Chances, If Not Now When, Ravenblood, Sea of Sorrow
You may also like: Kayo Dot, Rise to the Sky, Void Ceremony, Cthe’Illist, Lunar Chamber
Final verdict: 8.5/10 (despite both sides being like 9/10)

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

Label: 20 Buck Spin – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Dream Unending/Worm are:
– Phantom Slaughter (vocals, guitars, keyboards (Worm))
– Wroth Septentrion (guitars (Worm))
– Justin DeTore (drums, vocals (Dream Unending))

– Derrick Vela (guitars, bass (Dream Unending))

The post Review: Dream Unending & Worm – Starpath appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Rock, Psychedelic (?), Hyperpop (??), Trance (???) (clean, female vocals)
Recommended for fans of: I don’t fucking know
Review by: Sam
Country: US-FL
Release date: 31 March, 2023

Let me just start this review by stating that I have absolutely no idea what the fuck I’ve been listening to the past week. I was browsing the /r/progmetal subreddit like I often do, and I came across this post talking about this “spacy synthy psychedelic progressive rock” album. The provided sample song sounded interesting enough, and it came out a few days ago, so it seemed like a great album for a review. But this is where the weirdness starts. Apparently, this isn’t psych rock at all? At least, if my friends (who are way more into psych and stoner than I am) are to be believed. But then if not psych rock, what on earth has this Floridan quartet been cooking?

Let’s just start by describing the sound as is. Annoyed as my classification-seeking, genre-accuracy obsessing brain may be, sometimes it’s better to let it go and form judgement without context to latch onto. What immediately jumped out to me were the spacy sounding synths that WIUWIU all over the record, and the slick progressive drumming that drives the tempo and overall song direction. Notable too are singer Katherine Larson’s vocals which are smooth and a little bit sensual. Words that come to mind when attempting to describe this sound are: smooth, spacy, progressive, trance, energetic, slick, and yes, psychedelic too.

Opener “Banana Split” (yeah…) sucks you right in with the aforementioned combination as trancey synths and sensual vocals send you to outer space to the beat of intricate electronic sounding drum patterns. The drumming style was the most recognizable aspect in this for me as it pretty closely resembles the modern prog metal style as popularized by Baard Kolstadt from Leprous, using busy patterns in odd-time (I think 5/8?) that still groove with lots of slick fills. Once it gets to the chorus the song drops off a little bit and goes into trance mode, riding out on a simple 4/4 disco beat while repeating the chorus and ramping up the intensity until the end. So at this point the genres we’ve identified are prog, a little bit of psych, disco, and trance music. Yeah… Just another Sunday with this band.

But that’s not all, because “Cherry Crush” now also throws hyperpop and dnb drumming into the mix. It has a linear structure, but this time opting for a more chill (albeit still energetic) vibe before it explodes at the end. A friend described it as “Madonna on psych dnb” and I can’t argue with that. “Karmakaze Pilot” is a more traditional prog song that throws some solos into the mix and a bunch of different sections, but it’s still very far from standard. The climax of “LA-1000” also comes close to a prog metal type climax stylistically, but hypnotic grooves and synths carry the bulk of the song. I’m not going further in depth on any other of the songs as they vary on the same overall sound, but they’re all well-written and bring something unique to the table. 

I’m not sure what I should think of this band. It’s one of the most unique things I’ve come across in my reviewing career. I can’t say I could really find an outright flaw in this record, but I also don’t think I was part of the intended audience in the first place. Most of these songs I enjoy listening to, and I’d really appreciate the change of pace if they came on shuffle in a playlist, but I’m not sure if I’d revisit the record in its entirety much. If anything, Torture Triangle is a fun, engaging record. I’m pretty sure there is someone who will hear this and think “THIS IS MY HOLE! IT WAS MADE FOR ME!!” Who that someone is, I do not know, but I encourage everyone reading this to find out if they are that someone, because this is certainly worth hearing.

Recommended tracks: Banana Split, Cherry Crush, Cobra Daydream
You may also like: the fuck do I know? More Pleasures? They have three albums.
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | RYM page

Label: Independent

Pleasures is:
– Katherine Larson (vocals, guitar)
– Morgan Soltes (bass, synth)
– Roger Lanfranchi (drums, sampler, keys)
– Riley Morgan (synth, visuals)

The post Review: Pleasures – Torture Triangle appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Symphonic Death Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Psycroptic, Slugdge
Review by: Cooper
Country: Florida, United States
Release date: 4 November, 2022

Featuring mythical artwork, a dizzying space opera concept, and a symphonic infused progressive death metal sound, Earth Base One, the debut release from the Florida-based Tiwanaku, is an album that – at least on paper – I should love. Unfortunately, for every positive that Tiwanaku incorporates into this album, countless negatives slip in as well.

Earth Base One begins in stride with “Visitor from Titan,” a six minute song that demonstrates everything that Tiwanaku is able to do well. Riffs change up on a dime in a way that at first feels disorienting but becomes satisfying as the song repeats its strophic structure. Synthesized choir and strings provide a strong foundation and bring a sense of melody to the slightly monotonous vocals, and in typical death metal fashion, the drums blast away, never drawing much attention at all, be it good or bad. The standout element of “Visitor from Titan” is undoubtedly the lead guitar work. By shrugging off the trend of perfectly compressed, clipped, and quantized lead work that is all too often employed in the genre, Tiwanaku’s lead guitar provides a real sense of grit that recalls death metal of the nineties more than it does anything released in the past fifteen years.

The second track, “Ghost War,” follows suit, making use of many of the same stylistic choices off “Visitor from Titan.” Here, though, they begin to seem less like intentionally made songwriting choices and more like symptoms of a lack of ideas. For instance, riffs and song segments still transition between another in a disorienting manner, but that disorientation never pays off as it did in the album’s opener. Once again, the lead guitar shredding is fun and engaging, but it is now forced to compete with the other instruments in order to even be heard thanks to muddy production. Despite all its missteps, “Ghost War” still lands as one of the better tracks off of Earth Base One, a dark omen of what’s to come.

“Swarm” is the third track from Earth Base One, but you certainly wouldn’t have known that had you listened to it. In fact, when I first heard “Swarm,” I thought that my music player had somehow begun shuffling and that I was now listening to a completely different band. Nearly every aspect of the song’s sound – production, riffing style, and vocals – is completely different from the previous tracks, and these changes are not for the better. Where “Visitor from Titan” employed a production style that, while certainly not amazing, served the song with its grittiness, “Swarm” sounds like it was taken straight from a demo recording. At one point, I swear I can even hear where an audio file was copied and pasted into the DAW during production. For an album that was already on my bad side, this became a killing blow to my enjoyment, and I became much more nitpicky about the entire album.

For instance, “Nightmare Hell” would have been decent if they had cut down the nearly three minutes of ambience to thirty seconds and if they had recorded to a metronome. “Closed Minds” is probably the best song on the album thanks to its groovy synth use, but it squanders much of my enjoyment thanks to a double tracked solo that ends up just sounding out of tune and an ending that I can only describe as lazy. “Vision Abducted” is also one of the better tracks on this album, but is really just a collection of riffs as opposed to a song. Whenever Earth Base One offers something of promise, it never lasts more than a moment and whatever follows seems even worse by comparison.

The final track, depending on which music service you are listening on, is a piano solo. “Falling Stars” is a genuinely interesting and engaging piece of music, but I can’t help but see it as anything other than perplexing. Why would Tiwanaku choose to include a piano solo with showmanship that overshadows anything that happened on the album previously? Ultimately, it leaves me unsatisfied. Even worse, if you were listening on Bandcamp, there is still one more song, “Interdimensional.” I do not want to spoil the genre change that occurs with this song, so I find myself in a conundrum. I recommend you listen to this album on Bandcamp if only to experience the sheer comedy that is “Interdimensional” after the album that precedes it. Despite the shocking nature of the album’s true closer, I only resent the album more because I now find myself actually recommending this atrocity, even if it is only as comedic relief.

Recommended tracks: Visitor From Titan, Closed Minds
You may also like: Dvota, Deathbringer
Final verdict: 4/10

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

Label: Unorthodox Emanations of Avantgarde Music – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Tiwanaku is:
– Ed Mowery (vocals, guitars)
– Sean Hairy Valentine (lead guitars)
– Ian Spencer (bass)
– Gabriel Lewandowski (drums)
– Ryan ONeill (keyboard)

The post Missed Album Review: Tiwanaku – Earth Base One appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Avant-Garde Metal, Symphonic Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Between the Buried and Me, weird and heavy Devin Townsend/Strapping Young Lad, old Leprous
Review by: Christopher
Country: Florida, United States
Release date: 26 August, 2022

What does it mean for music to be avant-garde or experimental? Not every new project can be completely original; every artist comes with the baggage of influences, if they didn’t then what they produced might not even resemble what we call music. And so, even the avant-garde side of progressive metal comes with its own tropes, its own predictable unpredictabilities. What counts is how that mix of familiarity and oddity is utilised to new ends and brought into an overall satisfying sound. 

Apeiron Bound are as contradictory as their name (‘Apeiron’ means infinite or boundless, so they’re bound for infinity but one could read it as ‘Apeiron, Bound’: that their boundlessness is bound; a contradiction), and their debut Multiplicity is a showcase of their bizarro take on progressive metal. Their closest ancestors are the deeply underrated Palaeopneumatic by Dissona, and Organized Chaos’ debut Inner Conflict, but some more conventional comparisons may be required: the off-kilter theatricality of Coal by Leprous is on display, and the schizoid nature of Devin Townsend’s Deconstruction or BTBAM at their most idiosyncratic can be heard, but there’s something stranger going on here.

Much of the peculiarity of their sound seems to be achieved by playing with octaves, and thick, augmented chords; sounding familiar if it weren’t for that one note throwing everything into dissonant disarray. Strange polyrhythms and contrapuntal melodies both contribute to the sense that the band members are almost playing against one another, and the highly synthetic orchestrations and guest instruments—the sitar effect sounds like it’s straight off a nineties Yamaha keyboard in a middle school classroom—lend to the bizarre hyperreality of Apeiron Bound’s overall vibe. And yet this is quite approachable for avant-garde (or perhaps I’ve just built up an immunity); it’s weird, for sure, challenging, but Multiplicity is by no means inaccessible. 

Apeiron Bound say they’re influenced by extreme metal, prog rock, classical, thrash, groove, fusion, and electronic music; some are more discernible than others—classical, extreme and electronic are the main three. Such a glut of influences could result in a Frankenstein’s monster of stitched together sounds, but Apeiron Bound’s sound is undoubtedly cohesive; if you like one song, you’re likely to enjoy the rest. “My Sweet Stockholm” is an illustrative example. An eerie harp motif swims alongside a chaotic riff and complex drumwork, before harsh vocals brimming with invective let their anger be known. Then come in the somewhat power metal cleans that reach ridiculous highs. Things get a bit BTBAM in the middle as the riffs sprawl endlessly outwards, then we’re treated to a buzzing electronic bassline and off-key piano before a defiantly dissonant guitar solo cuts in. A more gothic style clean section from guest vocalist John T Sterling provides a break before a Devin Townsend style heavy riff with choir enters, taking us to the song’s close. Suffice to say, there’s a lot going on, and that’s the case for every track on Multiplicity, and yet all of those seemingly disparate segments form a surprisingly cohesive whole, flowing and blending impressively. 

One of my bugbears is when bands don’t provide lyrics. Apeiron Bound are one such offender but the vocals are extraordinarily clear, transcribably so. Vocalist Michael Calza appears to have stolen the voices of about five different musicians, with cleans that variously evoke Vladimir Lalic, Michael Mills, even a hint of Bruce Dickinson at times, and harshes that recall both Tommy Giles and Devin Townsend. The lead guitar performance deserves kudos too, sounding like the work of a player who knows guitar theory inside-out and has transcended the need for it. Indeed, every member is giving their all and, compositionally speaking, there’s very little to fault; there’s an experimentally imprecise game of precision at play here.

However, at sixty-five minutes, Multiplicity is undeniably on the long side for a debut, and that’s a gamble. A punchy forty minutes will often serve you better than overstaying your welcome. You’re unlikely to have heard anything quite like Apeiron Bound before and so getting used to their weirdness is half the fun, but Multiplicity would nevertheless probably have benefited from being a little tighter rather than sprawling out like some zany metastasis. This is a challenging listen and I like a lot of what’s going on—I couldn’t pinpoint any specific excesses I would remove— but there aren’t many great peaks here either. I can’t help but feel that a fifteen minute cut from this album would hone its edge. Ironically, Multiplicity’s multiplicity is what holds it back; having found their singularly oddball sound, Apeiron Bound seem a little unsure what to do with it, and so this record becomes a collection of songs that feel somewhat in want of an aim or overarching structure. Lyrically, from what I can discern, it is a thematically coherent work, but in terms of the actual music I don’t feel a sense of overarching structure. 

You won’t hear many debuts with as assuredly unique and complex a sound as Apeiron Bound’s, and this will prove a rewarding work with those willing to put in the time to appreciate its density. However, I find myself drawn to individual songs more than the album as a whole, and Multiplicity feels a little less than the sum of its parts, a bit aimless and over-indulgent in places. A tightening of focus—which in no way is a suggestion that they compromise their charismatic quirkiness—will allow these unique musicians to cultivate their obvious talents. These guys really are bound for Apeiron, they’re just not quite there yet.

Recommended tracks: Eleutheromania, My Sweet Stockholm, Astral Reflection
You may also like: Dissona, Organized Chaos, Rototypical
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: Layered Reality Productions – Website | Facebook

Apeiron Bound is:
– Michael Calza (vocals and lyrics)
– Andrew Stout (guitars and composition)
– Phillip Colacecchi (guitars)
– Kyle Sokol (electric and upright bass)
– Kristopher Huffman (drums)

The post Review: Apeiron Bound – Multiplicity appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Thrash/Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Callum
Country: Sweden/US-FL
Release date: June 24, 2021

I may be showing my age, but previous to this exposure I didn’t know what the hell a Vinesauce was. The younger or otherwise more net-savvy among you may recognise the name Joel Johansson as an associate of the Youtube and Twitch streaming collective I now understand to be Vinesauce. Joel had released a trilogy of Skeleton Metal albums under his online alias, Vargskelethor, between 2014 and 2019. These were primarily composed of short, fairly crude, skeleton-themed metal comedy tracks. The recording and production quality was fairly rough, although Joel’s musical talent improved and his song writing grew noticeably more ambitious by the end of the trilogy. Despite being another death/thrash metal project, Scythelord, made up only of Joel and his US counterpart Frank Hernandez, is an entirely different and much more serious take on the genre. With their sophomore Earth Boiling Dystopia, the duo show an impressive amount of maturity, technicality, and variety through the combination of savage riffs, a stunning vocal performance and fresh song writing.

With the prior knowledge that this record was a blend of thrash and death metal, and judging by the futuristic, dystopian edge of the album title and artwork, I was anticipating a Vektor soundalike. There are clearly parallels in the way both groups approach philosophical and astronomical themes, as well as in their blisteringly fast and imaginative thrash riff construction. Scythelord are, however, not quite as fast, nor as surgically precise. This is in great measure due to the heavier emphasis on death metal characteristics like the guitars delving much further into lower registers, growled vocals being much beefier, and dynamic tempos. The guitar solos are also far more melodic and emotive rather than clinical and ‘shreddy’ as found in a lot of traditional thrash.

The album is structured in an interesting way, where the first half is thick with fast, aggressive, and mostly unrelenting tracks like “Wireframe”, where one may be lulled into thinking this may yet be merely modern thrash. The quick, disorientating rests and fancy fills disperse this feeling fairly quickly, however. “Equanimity” is another energetic track that features a well crafted guitar riff that rises and falls in consonance with beautiful, attack-heavy bass tones. The solo in this track also faintly reprises this main riff, which shows a great attention to detail and thoughtful song writing, before leading into an unusually bellowed passage that’s about as close to clean vocals as Joel gets. “Rod of Asclepius”, a 2019 single rightfully either re-recorded or remixed for inclusion in this album, begins to flash some of the more progressive potential of Scythelord. Classic thrash riffs with hints of Vektor are interrupted with a couple of false starts that keep the listener guessing, more varied and dynamic vocal delivery, the remarkable sliding chorus riff, and a mid-section break into a solo that, again, subtly makes reference to riffs earlier in the track. “Comedy in Blood” rounds out the first, more straightforward – for lack of a better term – half of the album; another high tempo, high aggression track with two slight breaks where the vocals delivered over solo bass effectively springboard back into the Havok.

Suddenly, with “Just a Memory”, we get a short, almost hardcore-punk track sung entirely in Joel’s native Swedish. It’s not my favourite style, and does seem at odds with the rest of the record, but it is an indication of how they’re able to change up their sound and still be extremely competent musicians. Switching gears again, “The Other” is then a purely instrumental track that begins in one place and ends somewhere very different but consistently maintains a cosmic, spacey atmosphere helped not in the least by some very Death-like bass work. The descending riff in the latter half is an astonishing payoff after the slow build up to that point, which is also a refreshing couple of minutes to catch your breath before the longest track, “Earth Boiling Dystopia”. The slow death metal introduction that leads into the main marching thrash riff is exemplary of how they deftly tread the line between the two genres. The intensity in the vocals is noticeably increased in this track, especially during the chill-inducing delivery of lines like ‘into the funerary box of humanistic rites’. More unique bellowing that verges on power metal also features prominently. The length of the song allows the riffs to meander a little but they drop seamlessly back into the chorus before the structure becomes incoherent.

The final track features lyrical and musical call-backs to previous tracks, the oddly optimistic outro is even identical to that of the previous song. Small details like this are appreciable highlights of the writing in this record, but they wouldn’t mean much if the music itself wasn’t up to snuff. Thankfully, the meat and potatoes of the record are fantastic. There is both heft and bite to the mix of instrument tones, and the riffs themselves are imaginative, with a satisfying ratio of technical controlled chaos to caveman head bangs. Joel’s impressive vocal performance is also a large part of what elevates this album, as well as the unique structure where tracks stray from the norm as they go on. After cutting his teeth with Vargskelethor, this much more sober, profound and technically impressive endeavour was a an extremely pleasant surprise from Joel and one that deserves recognition.

Recommended tracks: Equanimity, Comedy in Blood, Earth Boiling Dystopia
Recommended for fans of: Vektor, Voivod, Dark Angel
Final verdict: 9/10

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

Label: Independent

Scythelord is:
– Frank Vincent Hernandez (bass, guitar)
– Joel Johansson (guitar, vocals)

The post Review: Scythelord – Earth Boiling Dystopia appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: metalcore (mixed vocals)
Review by: Josh
Country: US-FL
Release date: 18 June, 2021

It’s always nice to check out the first release of a band right as it drops. More often than not, it’s a nice pulse check on the metal scene at the time. What is Quiet like, and what can they tell us?

Things are looking pretty good overall, it seems. There’s never a truly unpleasant moment on this album, as every segment of every song is consistently quality, with the worst moments being merely decent. This is due to the great arranging skills of the members of Quiet. They’re not consistently laying down killer riffs, but they always know just what to add to a middling one to boost its quality up a notch. In particular, they are fantastic at layering. Oftentimes they have three or four separate instruments playing the same melody at once, culminating in fantastic tonal blends the likes of which I’ve rarely heard. They don’t just stick with the same few instruments as most bands, either – across this album you’ll hear saxophone, synths, and even bagpipes effortlessly integrated into Quiet‘s metalcore sound. Overall, …and so it was is a diverse and exciting listen.

It is marred from time to time, though, by Quiet‘s compositional restlessness. They try for the Between the Buried and Me approach of rapidly shifting songs made up of many small, diverse yet integrated segments. This generally works out, but it not uncommonly leads to the band playing something excellent, but then moving away from it after only a few bars, leaving the listener unsatisfied and wanting more. The band also seems to not have the slightest idea how to end a song. Almost half of the songs end with hard-cuts to breakdowns, and not particularly good ones either – a good deal of these venture into Aggressively Palm Muting Open Strings territory, with little else present to make the listening experience worthwhile. The band’s generally successful experimentation also goes wrong from time to time, leaving the listener more confused than anything else (seriously, what was with that robot voice segment???).

These would be far less frustrating if the highs of this album weren’t so high. The best parts of this record reach legitimate 10/10 territory. Two of these in particular, the chorus on “Clouded Eyes” and the guitar/sax double solo on “Assimilate”, are among my favorite musical moments of the year. The former justifies clean vocals in metalcore better than any other song I’ve heard in the genre, and the latter is exactly the kind of innovation that the genre needs right now. Even these, however, cannot be enjoyed to their fullest due to Quiet‘s songwriting decisions. The former only comes up twice (in a 7-minute song!) and the latter is a victim of a breakdown hard-cut right as it’s truly peaking. It’s maddening to see a band so skilled not give themselves the chance to properly demonstrate their own abilities. 

Despite its flaws, though, …and so it was is truly a fine album, and I sense great potential in Quiet to take it to the next level some time in the future. They’ve demonstrated a clear ability to create fantastic music, and with a little refinement in the songwriting department I believe they can put out something truly great. 

Recommended tracks: Clouded Eyes, Dark Sky, Assimilate, The Sun Will Not Rise
Recommended for fans of: Periphery, Between the Buried and Me
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

Label: self-released

Quiet is:
– Josh Adams (guitars)
– Matt Tartaglia (guitars)
– Adam Hutton (vocals)

The post Review: Quiet – …and so it was appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: melodeath/doom (harsh vocals)
Review by: Dylan
Country: US-FL
Release date: 06 April, 2021

Lascaille’s Shroud may be a name that rings your bell if you have read our content for a long time. In fact, it is as old as our original 3 man lineup that carried the blog from its august 2018 to early 2019 editions that consisted of Sam, Jonah, and I. At the time we reviewed their one-track album The Tiger’s Daughter and found ourselves with an ambitious project, consisting of merely one guy (guest appearances excluded) who pulled off a pleasant take on the landscape that is Progressive Death Metal, taking what others did best and adding their own bit of flair to it with sci-fi like synths. Now let’s get this straight out of the way, Othercosmic Divinations II is not an actual follow-up to The Tiger’s Daughter but rather an unreleased predecessor which pre-dates the former’s songwriting process. Which leads to a rather odd way to approach this review; since any potential flaws that are present here may have been fixed in the follow up we reviewed… over 2 years ago!

To the reader’s displeasure, my afore-mentioned concern with reviewing an earlier album proves to be right. This is basically what the band would go out to improve on in The Tiger’s Daughter, but slightly worse. Actually, make it quite a bit worse in my opinion, given the fact that some of the flaws of that record exist here and other virtues in it are non-existent here. The drumming remains rather stale, merely following the guitar along its pace, the sci-fi keys feel a whole lot cheesier in the bad way, and the riffs are mostly insipid. The vocals are the one thing that remain consistent given that our frontman/songwriter does know how to pull of a mean growl. However nearly no variety of said growl for 45 minutes proves to be rather unpleasant at times, given the sheer density of the content shown here. An extra style of harsh vocals (ala Imperial Circus Dead Decadence) or a 70/30 balance of harsh/cleans would’ve taken this release a long way. However this isn’t to say like the album is completely unsalvageable, if anything knowing what came musically after this is what made my wording as harsh as it is. The basic Lascaille’s Shroud blueprint is still here and if you REALLY loved their other releases, you’ll probably get a kick out of this.

Ultimately, Othercosmic Divination II‘s biggest issue is the date of release. Had this come before what we know Lascaille’s Shroud is capable of doing, the sentences written on this review would’ve been very different.

Recommended tracks: What of you there is in me, A Cruel & Quiet Sacrifice II
Recommended for fans of: Omnium Gathering, Dark Tranquility, Mesarthim (for the synths)
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Lascaille’s Shroud is:
– Brett Windnagle (All Instruments)

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