Style: progressive metal, power metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Kamelot, Symphony X, Circus Maximus
Country: Sweden
Release date: 3 December 2010

Back in my day, all prog metal was either power metal or thrash metal rabble rabble. Prog-tinged USPM (Queensrÿche, Savatage, early Dream Theater) or techy thrash (Toxik, Mekong Delta, Watchtower) were prog metal before all this djent and “dissonant death metal” nonsense. At the blog, Sam and I often lament about the dearth of power/prog releases in the 20s, and even scouring the depths of the underground often nets us nothing. Heck, modern cult classics from Tanagra, Dimhav, Eternity’s End, and Michael Romeo are nearing (or have eclipsed) half a decade ago now. It’s rough to be a fan of traditional prog metal and its power-tinged sibling in 2025 and has been for ages, but 2010 was a different story. Seventh Wonder’s fourth album, The Great Escape, is a (semi-) modern masterpiece of power/prog, arguably the genre’s pinnacle of the last fifteen years straight. 

A power metal band is no stronger than their vocalist, and Tommy Karevik is a cult favorite pick as among the best in all of prog, combining a rich timbre and vocal agility with a musical theater sensibility. The closest touchstone for style and timbre I have is combining Roy Khan (ex-Kamelot) and Brendan Urie (Panic! at the Disco), but Karevik is easily equal to those legends himself. He injects endless energy into The Great Escape’s already energetic instrumentals, his flair for drama always over-the-top yet satisfying. For instance, in iconic opener “Wizeman,” after a slick guitar solo near the end, the track isolates Karevik and a lovely melody before the bass drags the duet back to metal; then, after a grand pause, Karevik belts “FLY A————WAAAAAY” into a reprisal of the main theme. There isn’t a single other vocalist on Earth who could have me not rolling my eyes from cringe on the group’s most popular song “Alley Cat,” but when Karevik sings “Oh baby let me stay your alley cat” I totally would let him. The best vocal performance, however, is on “King of Whitewater,” his agility and belting showed off more than any other song because of the sense of urgency in the chorus.

The Great Escape is breathless. Of course, Karevik hits impressive notes endlessly, but instrumentally Seventh Wonder almost always reach the same kind of balls-to-the-wall intensity except for brief, well-timed pauses. “Wizeman” starts the album without any frou-frou entrance, diving straight into a shreddy synth and guitar riff. Moreover, The Great Escape has so many hooks it’s comically unfair to other music; this also contributes to the breathless quality. By that I mean that once you’ve absorbed a hyper power/prog section and have it stuck in your mind, all of a sudden a new chorus or killer solo or resplendent melody comes along before your brain has time to take in what’s happening. So even seven years after I first heard The Great Escape, new earworms routinely crawl their way into my brain and latch on. While writing this Lost in Time piece, the duet with Karevik’s wife on “Long Way Home” stood out to me like it had never before because the track is a sweet moment—the bass on the track is killer, too. 

Although Karevik is the highlight and the zenith of prog singing in general on The Great Escape, the instrumentalists also attain a level of awesomeness that few prog bands before or since have on an album. Holding the whole thing together is bassist Andreas Blomqvist, his phat tone often mimicking the active guitar parts perfectly or else soloing on his own like on “Move on Through.” Seventh Wonder pays the bass its due. The two melodic players, Johan Liefvendahl on guitars and Andreas Söderin on keys, alternate between complex, Dream Theater-inspired solo sections and smart little keyboard-orchestrated bits and stellar riffs like at 2:30 into “Alley Cat.” For a genre which thrives on technical ability and the individual, these guys work perfectly on their own and as a unit.

Of course, I’ve ignored the pink elephant in the room: “The Great Escape” (song). Much like Symphony X’s genre-perfecting closer “The Odyssey,” “The Great Escape” is modeled off an epic poem, Sweden’s own 50s classic Aniara. Over the course of a bombastic, euphoric thirty minute journey, the band re-weave the story of the spaceship Aniara: the triumphs and tragedies of a ship destined to save humanity from a dying planet. In structure and story similar to Shadow Gallery’s “First Light” but much more metal in execution, the story is touching and by the final acoustic re-hashing of the main theme you’ll have the breath knocked out of you. If anything, the track is so tirelessly climaxing in sweet melodies that it can be a little over-the-top for my brain, but the explosions of brilliant songwriting—the galloping heavy metal riff at 5:00, the backing vocals at 9:00, the bass tapping at 15:35, the synths at 26:20—ensures that each moment is necessary. “The Great Escape” transcends the rest of the stellar album, and the track is in an echelon of epics like “The Odyssey,” “Octavarium,” and “First Light,” downright essential prog metal no matter who you are. 

At sixty-eight minutes long, each half of The Great Escape would make a killer album (or lengthy EP) on their own, and, admittedly, they come across a tad disjoint. But together, the album and epic are power/prog of a magnitude we literally haven’t seen since. With possibly the best vocal performance on a prog metal album ever, classy production, and a ton of replayability from all the catchy riffs and choruses, The Great Escape is indispensable. I long for the glory days of power/prog when bands were unafraid to write album-length epics and the Dream Theater worship bands transcended being mere clones.

Recommended tracks: The Great Escape, Wizeman, Alley Cat, King of Whitewater, by the way did I mention The Great Escape
You may also like: Pagan’s Mind, DGM, Darkwater, Teramaze, Shadow Gallery

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

Label: Frontiers Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Seventh Wonder is:
– Tommy Karevik (vocals)
– Andreas Blomqvist (bass)
– Johan Liefvendahl (guitars)
– Andreas Söderin (keyboards)
– Johnny Sandin (drums)

The post Lost in Time: Seventh Wonder – The Great Escape appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

No artist credited (let us know!)

Style: Power metal, progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Angra, Symphony X, (Luca Turilli/Lione’s) Rhapsody (Of Fire)
Country: Italy
Release date: 24 January 2025

If you happen to be in Tuscany, for all its cultural delights, between the yearly Battle of the Bridge event in Pisa, lampredotto panini by the duomo in Florence, and the bottomless glasses of Brunello and Montepulciano in its many hillside vineyards, I urge you to take a moment and revel in your surroundings. If you listen carefully, there, echoing from the rolling marble hills of the Apuan Alps, you can hear the faint sounds of power metal as Massa’s Labÿrinth gears up to release their 10th album In The Vanishing Echoes of Goodbye. A high-octane output of progressive, melodic power metal, this no-holds-barred release contains all of the hallmarks of what made this band a staple of the Italian metal scene: virtuosic riffing, high-altitude soaring vocal acrobatics, and machine-gun drumming packaged in creative arrangements and intelligent songwriting. 

The album opens on “Welcome Twilight”, which comes to life with a doomy, heavy riff and floor tom groove, modulating into a gallop where a labyrinthine keyboard/guitar arpeggio twists and turns above. Settling into a double-time feel, guitar maestro Olaf Thörsen’s high-speed precision picking then sets the backdrop for Roberto Tiranti’s expressive vocals. The epic chorus kicks in with dramatic Latin chanting and a memorable hook while the rhythm section keeps a breakneck pace. I have to imagine that seeing these guys live with the strobe lights going while drummer Matt Peruzzi employs his rapid-fire kick bursts would send anyone into an epileptic fit. The guy keeps a pace that would make Aquiles Priester (Edu Falaschi) sweat. 

There’s a technicality here typical of the genre, but In the Vanishing Echoes of Goodbye also showcases more of a heavier side of Labÿrinth with “Heading To Nowhere”, a track that features some clear thrash influence and a riff that wouldn’t feel amiss on an Annihilator disc, and “Accept The Changes” which begins with a minor-key lick and a dark, broody symphonic metal element – but also some decidedly 80s AOR sensibilities with “Out Of Place” and “The Right Side Of This World”: anthemic sing-along choruses and Bon Jovi-esque synth stabs aplenty. “The Healing” presents one of the album’s two power ballads, and it’s brilliantly produced, exhibiting emotional acoustic guitar with excellent cymbal work atop, a hard-hitting sorrowful chorus and tasteful fadeout. The second one, “To The Son I Never Had” is an evocative narrative piece of life advice from a man to his ostensibly hypothetical son; it’s well executed and a more mellow, sentimental, zippo-lighters-swaying-in-the-air type of ballad with only a slight deviation into a hard rocking interlude about 2/3rds of the way through for an inspirational guitar solo. 

The production on this album is massive. Each snare hit resonates through your cranial cavity as the kick drums send mighty pressure waves through your chest. The track listing is purposeful and most songs stand out with increasingly catchy refrains and the oft-featured instantly appealing twin-guitar melodies in true Iron Maiden fashion. The lyrical work is often introspective but sometimes turns outwards to society at large; however, the band struggles to find a way to address it in a manner that avoids coming off as trite. Labÿrinth stated that the record was inspired by the worldwide political turmoil brought about in the wake of the recent pandemic. This latter element is addressed haphazardly in the track “Mass Distraction” where a verse about misinformation includes the line “I recognize bullshit from a thousand miles away” – and “Inhuman Race”, where a clumsily-added, newsroom voiceover about an American “specialized combat vehicle” supplied to Ukraine and captured by Russia during the ongoing war, remarks on its potential consequences over tinkly piano and saccharine falsetto vocalization. It was such a jarring inclusion that I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. It doesn’t match the tone of the track, let alone the album. And it’s such a hamfisted way of bringing up geopolitics on an album that has mostly been about individual passion and personal life experience. But I digress.

Labÿrinth are masters of their art, no doubt about that, and the consummate musicianship of every member is on full display. The compositions are fun and varied, and feature lots of different influences from RATT to Queensrÿche and in between. The self-styled pioneers of Italian prog-power have little and less to apologize for on this release. Far be it from me to tell an artist to keep their noses out of geopolitics or epistemology, but I think there are ways to approach these subjects without falling into the classic pitfalls of banal metaphors or smacking the audience on the head with the point you’re trying to make. Then again, media literacy is becoming scarcer by the day. In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye is an unrelenting and uncompromising release jam-packed with anthemic choruses and hair-raising guitar leads, proving once again why Labÿrinth are principal players in Tuscany, and in the Italian metal scene at large.

Recommended tracks: Welcome Twilight, Heading for Nowhere, The Right Side of This World
You may also like: Vision Divine, DGM, Michele Luppi’s Los Angeles
Final verdict: 8.5/10

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

Label: Frontiers Records – | Facebook | Official Website

Labÿrinth is:
– Roberto Tiranti (vocals)
– Olaf Thörsen (guitars)
– Andrea Cantarelli (guitars)
– Nick Mazzucconi (bass)
– Matt Peruzzi (drums)
– Oleg Smirnoff (keyboards)

The post Review: Labÿrinth – In the Vanishing Echoes of Goodbye appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Power Metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Evergrey, Kamelot
Country: Sweden
Release date: 23 August 2024

I was around the online prog metal servers when Paralydium’s debut LP, Worlds Beyond, was released. It was a big deal. The hungry Symphony X fans clambered to each subsequent single, each impacting harder than the last; the complete album, no less, was a huge success. Worlds Beyond structured its composition around candidly written singles which highlighted the band’s uncommon ability to write a large number of quality earworms in a manner that is partial to the technical and aggressive virtues of metal; this made standing behind the album a seamless act for fans of prog and power metal alike. The band truly set a difficult bar to top.

I aim to investigate what made Paralydium’s follow-up album, Universe Calls, a relative disappointment to people who were/are sincere fans of the band. Does this common feeling of disappointment have reasonable merit, or are people letting their unregulated expectations take hold of their enjoyment of an otherwise fine album?

One of the most immediate differences one will notice upon first encountering Universe Calls is that the previous vocalist, Mikael Sehlin, was exchanged with the new Alexander Lycke. One could argue that nothing is inherently wrong with a vocalist change – especially considering some of the greatest prog metal bands were born out of an early vocalist swap. However, a positive impact of a member swap should either imply that the new member harmonizes better with the rest of the members or is significantly more skilled in his own right. Unfortunately, neither is true in this case.

Elaborating further, it seems like the melodies of the vocal hooks themselves are not fleshed out in the writing and revision process as thoroughly as in their debut album. One egregious example of this is in the awful track, “Forging the Past,” which has this section just after the two-minute mark where Lycke sounds like he’s reading sentences with an annoyingly artificial bounciness to them emphasizing every syllable with no build or flow—of course, because it’s prog, accompanied by syncopated chords from the guitar and rhythm section. There is no melody in this section, and this is what a lot of Universe Calls sounds like. Many reviewers have claimed that Lycke has no passion in his voice, and I feel this accusation is a bit hard on the man; however, he has a slight audible stiffness that most other successful power metal singers/frontmen/dragonslayers/intergalactic wizard police chiefs/body oil industry affiliates don’t have a problem with.

An even more confusing aspect of the follow-up album is the change in riff style. Previously, Paralydium utilized metal riffs (usually influenced by neoclassical and traditional prog metal), front and clear in the mix, that backed the singer’s lyrical delivery. This aligned the band more with what a real Symphony X revival band should sound like rather than a new-school power metal fusion with modern prog metal. In Universe Calls, the lead guitar riffs are mostly buried in the mix and act a lot more as a chuggy instrument to compliment the rhythm section as Lycke sings to us. Loose chords very often fill the backdrop to create an anthemic feel to Lycke’s choruses. It’s possible that Universe Calls actually aims to replicate the more recent Symphony X era which would explain the change in guitar work. For example, the track “Caught in a Dream” most immediately reminds me of the song “Iconoclast” while having parts from the album Underworld. 

I may just be fed up with the vocalist because my favorite parts of the album are where the instrumentalists take the lead. The symphonic elements throughout the album are done quite successfully, and all of the solos on the album show that the instrumentalists have considerable talent. As crazy as it is going to sound, my favorite track on the album is the modestly named “Interlude.” It’s such a simple, cohesive, and beautiful piece that shows me that these are people who really know what they are doing. The way the acoustic riff builds up with soft, caressing keyboards and embellishes with fluttering strings makes me forget my anxieties for a brief moment in time.

Power metal vocalists have the most important part in the band by a long shot, and I do rightfully expect more from the follow-up album of a band that is capable of excellent work. I certainly do not think Alexander Lycke is awful at what he does but there is certainly a lot of room for improvement. That being said, some may not resonate with my criticism here and the band’s changes in approach could be part of what makes this album flawed but unique. However, in my free time, the universe usually calls me to more polished albums. 

Recommended tracks: Interlude, The Arcane Exploration
You may also like: Teramaze, Avandra, Whom Gods Destroy, Darkwater, Lalu
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: Frontiers Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Official Website

Paralydium is:
– Alexander Lycke (vocals)
– John Berg (guitars, keyboards, orchestration)
– Jonathan Olsson (bass)
– Georg Egg (drums)
– Mike Blanc (keyboards)

The post Review: Paralydium – Universe Calls appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Traditional progressive metal, progressive rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Haken, Vision Divine
Country: Italy
Release date: 18 October 2024

It doesn’t seem to have been a quiet year for DGM: the Italian prog metallers are back at it again after eleven short months with their latest release Endless, a bombastic and energetic offering in their unmistakable, inimitable style. The almost hour-long experience draws on influences from progressive rock, jazz fusion, and folk, maintaining a sound that sits well within the progressive metal spectrum overall. With soaring vocals, twisty-turny guitar licks, memorable hooks and emotional instrumental passages, DGM pulls no punches on this performance, delivering what I consider to be one of their best works to date. 

From the start of the first track “Promises”, to the end of the album closer “…Of Endless Echoes,” DGM’s Endless flows almost effortlessly as the songs lead expertly into one another. The pounding aggression of “The Wake” followed with a much needed reprieve in the reverberant acoustic guitar with jazz flute accompaniment that is the intro to “Solitude;” a piece that crescendos into one of the best choruses on the album, and ends with the same moody acoustic, flute, and piano that were featured in the intro – before the energy picks up with the speedy keyboard passage that establishes the pace of “From Ashes.” There’s something about Endless that gives a summery vibe; for me, it’s the way guitarist Simone Mularoni uses bright major chord voicings over vibrant synth patches and melodic, up-tempo violin phrases. It lends an optimistic and hopeful sound to the music that makes it the kind of album I want to blast while driving my convertible to the beach through Italy’s winding mountain roads.

Endless blends progressive metal with some prog rock, jazz fusion, and folk influence with the inclusion of some interspersed flute and violin passages, both played by DGM’s keyboard wizard Emanuele Casali. This folk element is most notable during the break in the middle of the track “Final Call,” where an orientalist musical theme is introduced, while a jazz flute component is evident throughout; the flute often playing staccato notes behind heavy, palm-muted guitar as in  the track “Solitude.” Emanuele also loves to make use of bright piano tones, using them to accentuate more emotive passages like the latter half of “Solitude” and throughout the album’s ballad “Blank Pages.” Prior to release, DGM teased that they would be experimenting with a new sound, and although I’d call it quite a conservative experimentation, I’d say it worked out: the classic DGM sound is solidly established but these instrumental flourishes breathe wonderful new life into it.

The songwriting prowess of guitarist Simone and keyboardist Emanuele, both listed as composers, cannot be understated here. The album’s quality doesn’t waver from start to finish and holds up well on subsequent listens. Even the album’s power ballad “Blank Pages”—and I usually hate ballads (all great metal power ballads have already been written by 80s hair bands)—I could find no fault in, especially when singer Mark Basile delivers each line with exceptional clarity and masterfully makes you feel every emotion and every experience he’s been through. His is a voice so emotive and so capable, and I can think of no better suited vocalist for this band. 

As I listen back, I find myself wishing they’d thrown a couple of songs in Italian into the mix. Italy has such a rich and diverse musical culture and the language has by so many people often been described as being musical, that it’s almost a shame when another Italian group chooses to sing in English. I suppose it’s done for International audiences, but would an established group such as DGM really falter if they took a chance like that? Is it ‘progressive’ to play the safe bet and stick to English? This has long been my gripe with Italian metal bands as a whole. There’s only a handful who will release works in Italian; usually lesser-known outfits whose market is primarily if not wholly located within the boundaries of the peninsula, e.g. Folkstone (folk metal) or Wounded Knee (prog rock/metal). Some better-known international acts like DGM themselves tend to stick to English. What part of Italian culture are you exporting at that point? A strong Italian progressive rock music scene (aptly titled rock progressivo Italiano) has been around since the 70s, and no doubt has influenced countless groups within the current Italian rock and metal scene. I would love for modern progressive bands from Italy to embrace that history rather than the trend of singing in a foreign tongue that practically the whole of Europe (with [mostly] the exception of Spain) does. But I digress.

This is an album worthy of high praise, with DGM doing what they do best at the highest level, and innovating with new and original elements that add shine and polish to an already well-oiled machine. Despite the short wait time, it doesn’t feel like a rushed production. From the two singles “The Great Unknown” and “Final Call”, to the 14-minute album closer “…Of Endless Echoes,” each song brings a unique energy that causes the album to ebb and flow; its peaks and valleys recalling the seven hills of Rome. Endless is one of the best Italian prog metal releases of the last four years.

Recommended tracks: Final Call, The Great Unknown, From Ashes
You may also like: Labyrinth, Inner Vitriol, New Horizons
Final verdict: 9.9/10

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

Label: Frontiers Records – Facebook | Official Website

DGM is:
– Marco Basile (vocals)
– Simone Mularoni (guitars)
– Emanuele Casali (keyboards)
– Andrea Arcangeli – (bass)
– Fabio Constantino (drums)

The post Review: DGM – Endless appeared first on The Progressive Subway.