Style: Progressive Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Borknagar, In Mourning, old Leprous
Country: Finland
Release date: 13 June, 2025

A recurring conceptual puzzle that lingers in progressive music communities is whether artists can be considered “progressive” while treading over waters previously covered by other sonic adventurers. For example, a band can be technical in their utilization of progressive songwriting techniques, showcasing fairly unconventional compositions in the grand scheme of music creation. However, many critics will still complain that these bands are not “progressive” because their contributions have largely been done before. This stubborn desire that prog fans have for innovation creates tension with their love for music that replicates sounds established by influential artists in the scene.

It’s well within reason for these kinds of thoughts to creep in and out of one’s mind while listening to an album like Vitruvian Rays, the debut LP by Sargassus. It displays an interesting execution of many techniques spanning progressive death metal, melodic death metal, black metal, and jazz fusion. Additionally, Sargassus show an admirable ability to deconstruct the tropes of these genres and rearrange them in ways that we don’t often expect, but little provided here is particularly new or original – few times does it even offer material worth taking the time to come back to.

On a positive note, Sargassus display a talented understanding of harsh and soft dynamics in metal instrumentation. The drummer, Matias Rokio, often contrasts intense snare drums, double-bass kicks, and blast beats in moments of high impact with softer, jazzy, prog-induced fills in transitional interludes or moments of respite. The guitarist, Teemu Leskinen, begins nearly every track with a moody melodeath riff, and as the song progresses, mix and match levels of gain and distortion on that riff, and then alters that riff again tremolo-style during climaxes. Leskinen and Rokio mix and match these techniques with each other to obtain new combinations in moments, as though they are collecting them like trading cards. Vocalist, Matias Stenman, mostly sticks with deep, textured growls and gurgles, both of which sound notably experienced. On a few occasions, he will also present rather ominous, ritualistic chants that do wonders for the eerie vibe of the album. Bassist, Mertta Halonen, seems to be rather static, providing compositional continuity by keeping the other band members anchored in subtle grooves. The synthesis of these instrumental components creates a sound most similar to a band like In Vain, Opeth, or Dawn of Ouroboros. 

Sargassus often take riffs that sound derivative at first but develop them into something of their own. For example, the main riff from “The Lone Idunn Grows in Shade” sounds eerily reminiscent of “Dual Existence” by Enshine—a fellow progressive melodeath band—to the point where it almost sounds ripped off. Sargassus presents it acoustically, then they distort it, add growls, and slowly increase the intensity of the rhythm section. The riff is reverted back to acoustic, but now it’s backed with impressive-as-hell jazz-infused drum fills; then it’s distorted again and delivered through blackened tremolos accompanied by evil shrieks. As a cool down, the riff is presented undistorted acoustic again, this time, alongside some nasty growls which create a gestalt creepiness similar to the way Borknagar used to do aggressive growls on top of soft instrumentals. The execution is thoroughly fleshed out in an interesting way, even though I’m a stickler for riffs that sound like they’ve been done before.

The writing of “Pahat Veräjät” and “Carving the Veins of God” seem to have similar songwriting elements in mind; the former features sinister vocals and particularly progressive drumming, the latter having an ultra killer tremolo riff. These two tracks also showcase excellent band chemistry, each member contributing to a sum greater than its parts. Another outstanding track is “On the Shoulders of Atlas,” which subversively closes with an extended melody that lounges around with these layered guitar chords and ominous vocals. I love when tracks have unexpected song structures and/or close tracks unconventionally. However, the band totally missed out on developing this nice riff into an epic climax by building it up with a harsher intensity through their aforementioned black metal and death metal techniques. This extended closer could have been turned into a sublime climax and could have been the best track on the album, but instead ….

The rest of the tracks have less success. “Judgment of the Four” meanders around for a while and peaks with this super lukewarm guitar solo that doesn’t know if it’s supposed to be this glistening, melodic respite amongst the brutality or a showcase of technicality. The solo sort of rides a wave in the middle of the two, leaving it to sound rather unimpressive. The band seemed to go for a sound similar to An Abstract Illusion here (can you blame them?) but failed in execution. The other tracks that bookend the album are just boring. They don’t have catchy melodies, nor do they experiment much with the song dynamics like you would expect from a band inspired by Opeth or In Vain.

While the band showcases a thorough understanding of the contents of the scene they’re grounding themselves in, even pushing the bar in a few moments on the album, their success is too scattered and not compelling enough to make up for their flaws. I’d go further to argue that a lot of this debut is, in theory, doomed from the start since Sargassus takes too much from bands that came before them. Many of these influential bands had much greater creativity and presented more compelling melodies over a decade before Vitruvian Rays. If bands like Borknagar, Leprous, and Opeth can growl over melancholic riffs, jazzy drums, and the like—but do so with stronger hooks and more powerful emotion—new bands are going to need to think more outside the box to overcome the standard set by their predecessors.

Recommended tracks: Carving the Veins of God, Pahat Veräjät, On The Shoulders of Atlas
You may also like: In Vain, Dawn of Ouroboros, Stone Healer, Schammasch, Enshine, IER, Aenaon, Eternal Storm, She Said Destroy
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Independent

Sargassus is:
– Matias Stenman (vocals)
– Teemu Leskinen (guitar)
– Matias Roko (drums)
– Mertta Halonen (bass)

The post Review: Sargassus – Vitruvian Rays appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive death metal, melodic death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Alkaloid, Opeth, Blood Incantation, Persefone
Country: Michigan, United States
Release date: 13 June 2025

You see the over-saturated artwork and read the utterly inane band name. You think to yourself, “Here we go with another over-ambitious sci-fi themed zany djent solo-project.” Oh how wrong you are. The Biscuit Merchant isn’t a djent band but rather a one-man prog death project from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Tempora marks his tenth full-length release since debuting in 2017. From the name to the spacefaring artwork, there’s an air of tongue-in-cheek ambition, but beneath the surface is a sincere and sprawling attempt at progressive death metal.

Despite being most easily categorized as progressive (and melodic) death metal, the fusion of genres that The Biscuit Merchant utilizes on Tempora feels a lot more like a tour of the metal scene at large. For every head-bang inducing chugger of a riff (“Victorious” and “Tempora”) there’s a galloping, power-metal tinged melody (“Kill Time” and “Amidakuji”) or a wah-laden, classic rock infused solo (“Uncommon Enemies” and “Judgement Day”). The eclectic fusion of genres ends up sounding something like Alkaloid meets Xoth meets Opeth, but the gravitational force holding Tempora’s disparate influences together is its vocal performance. Both clean and harsh, the vocals give each track a catchy edge that goes great lengths in making the album feel cohesive, despite never employing any overtly technical or flashy techniques. Unfortunately, for as much effort as the vocals put towards making the album’s vast scope cohesive, the song structures do the opposite.

The eight tracks that make up Tempora fall into two categories: those that roughly follow a traditional song structure and those that don’t. My issue lies with the latter. Tracks like “Kill Time” and “Celestial Awakening” each make use of a through-composed structure that falls apart in the songs’ back halves. Riffs are thrown at the listener, and not one seems to follow logically from what came before or flow smoothly into what comes after. This style can be done well—look no farther than BTBAM or last year’s critical darling Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere—but its execution here is too haphazard. The structures of the album’s two longest tracks, “Judgement Day” and “Tempora,” are equally hairy, with the title track finale featuring an entirely unprecedented three-minute surf rock segment that almost made me quit the album entirely. Ideally, a through-composed track has some sort of arc that allows the listener to form expectations about what will come next, and the best bands know when to conform to and when to subvert those expectations. The Biscuit Merchant leans far too heavily on subversion.

Thankfully, when The Biscuit Merchant employs a traditional song structure like on “Victorious” (a shameless rip-off of Opeth’s “Master’s Apprentices”) and “Uncommon Enemies,” The Merchant delivers solid and easily enjoyed bits of progressive death metal. While the instrumental “Amidakuji” goes a bit up its own ass with the number of solos and the intro track “Temporal Delusion” is just an intro track, they too are solid cuts that don’t crumble under unwieldy song structures. Noticeably, these are the four shortest tracks on the album, leaving the vast majority of the record to suffer The Biscuit Merchant’s songwriting woes.

Tempora is certainly an ambitious record, and adventurous metalheads may find individual moments worth dissecting. But for all its energy and genre splicing, Tempora lacks the compositional maturity to tie its parts into a compelling whole. Hopefully, The Biscuit Merchant lets his goods spend a few extra minutes in the oven from here on out.

Recommended tracks: Victorious, Amidakuji, Uncommon Enemies
You may also like: Resuscitate, Xoth, Witch Ripper
Final verdict: 5/10

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

Label: independent

The Biscuit Merchant is:
– Justin Lawnchair (everything)

The post Review: The Biscuit Merchant – Tempora appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by: Vojtěch Doubek / Moonroot Art

Style: Progressive Sludge Metal, Melodic Death Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, Gojira, Tool, Baroness
Country: Sweden
Release date: 16 May 2025

Some words just hit different. We hear them and our minds are transported immediately to the far fields of imagination. “Gigafauna” is one such word for me. Whether I speak it, hear it, read it, or even think it, my mind’s eye alights upon creatures of infinite scale; sometimes describable (Godzilla), other times possessed of such nightmarish configurations as to defy all manner of human logic and reason (think Lovecraft’s non-euclidean treasure trove of horrors). Shearing through the gravity of worlds with lumbering tread, stars falling cold under their shadows. Immeasurable in might, unknowable of purpose, their very designs eschatonic in nature. To conjure even the idea of such a lifeform cements a sort of existential calamity for Humanity; in the wake of such an unfathomably colossal entity we would be but ants—smaller, even. Our great achievements, all the collective strength and technological power would do little but delay the inevitable snuffing of our flame. Faced with the incomprehensible, we would be forced to turn inward, a final reckoning with our very selves. The only victory left within our grasp.

Likewise, Swedish outfit Gigafauna lumbered into my awareness with the suitably eye-catching (and eldritch) album art for their sophomore LP, Eye to Windward. Proper to their namesake, the band proclaim to be treading through some hefty subject matter, including “environmental decay, existential dread, and the search for meaning beyond the confines of time and space.” And what better way to do so than via the conduits of sludge and melodic death metal, two genres capable of tectonic heft and grand, driving compositions alike. Having no prior encounters with this particular lifeform, I was excited to trawl in the wake of Gigafauna’s passage. Let’s see what we’ll uncover on this tenebrous safari.

Gigafauna delight in a forward-moving blend of sludge and melodeath; thick yet nimble riffs spiral around dexterous kitwork and a grumbling low-end, often signaling their approach well before vocalist Matt Greig’s arsenal of resonant cleans and surprisingly hefty growls hits the eardrums. The band crash through the metal undergrowth at a persistent clip, keen to reach their destination yet hardly afraid to make time for some detours along the way. Listen to “Drowning Light,” where stampeding Mastodon energy falls away to the kind of abrasively inquisitive guitar and bouncy tribal drumming that would feel at home in a 10,000 Days-era Tool track. Or the Gojira-esque grind-and-squeal guitar which dominates the main riff in “Pyres,” even as the track expands to include discordant soloing a’la Meshuggah before morphing again into an almost early aughts metalcore passage as Greig screams “God chose me!” The band whip together Amon Amarth melodeath with Avenged Sevenfold-flavored guitar lines on cuts like “Plagued” to create a slab of burly grandiosity that ends on an almost Primordial note.

Like a musical Man o’ War jellyfish—a creature composed of multitudes of separate organisms operating as a singular whole—Gigafauna pull these disparate sonic qualities into a symbiotic relationship, resulting in a majestic entity possessed of a maximal grace despite their gargantuan stature. Transitions between elements are seamless, yet never lose sight of nor erode a track’s original destination. Unlike the Man o’ War, carried across the sea on the whims of the wind, Gigafauna are unbowed by external forces. Eye to Windward represents a band in full control of their journey. Songs move with purpose, driven by the Almighty Riff, refusing to collapse into overwrought diatribes in favor of tight, consistent songwriting, and propelled by a punchy mix that adds considerable reach to every slick tendril of Gigafauna’s cosmic form.

But Gigafauna don’t quite have that mystic X-factor that takes good music to great and beyond. Perhaps it’s a matter of the sonic whole failing to rise above my storied connection to its many constituent parts. The aforementioned Tool-inspired bridge of “Drowning Light,” or the Gojira-isms lurking in “Pyres” and the closing moments of “Vessel,” for example; each stands strong as a solid element, yet fails to manifest the same kind of hypnotic pull as an actual Tool or Gojira. Perhaps that’s partially due to my long-standing history with those acts, whereas Gigafauna is new (though I’ve certainly been accused of recency bias, too). Regardless, I think that these “nameable” slices of Gigafauna’s aural makeup presenting as the most memorable, while the whole which they comprise cannot fully strike up a permanent residence in my brain, says enough as to why Eye to Windward falls just shy of ascending to greater form.

But that’s the thing about a journey: it needn’t always be new to feel exciting or satisfying. As I conclude my safari alongside this Gigafauna, stepping out from under its titanic shadow to rejoin the rest of the world in the sun, I must confess to this feeling of satisfaction. Though we may see in the celestial Gigafauna measures of terrestrial familiarity, that does not make them any less worthy of our attention. And should the earth tremble and the heavens quake beneath their returning tread, rest assured I’ll be there to walk bestride them once more, eager to hear what new stories they bring us from beyond the stars.

Recommended tracks: Plagued, Beneath Sun and Sky, Pyres, Drowning Light
You may also like: Dimhall, Void King, Blood Vulture
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Independent

Gigafauna is:
– Jens Ljungberg (bass)
– Rickard Engstrom (drums)
– Arved Nyden (guitars)
– Matt Greig (guitars, vocals)

The post Review: Gigafauna – Eye to Windward appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by: Rachel Demetz

Style: Alternative Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Metal (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Arch Enemy, Jinjer, The Agonist, Ad Infinitum
Country: Spain
Release date: 25 April 2025

Anlage. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the foundation of a subsequent development.” It is a beginning, a description upheld and embodied by Spain’s femme-fatale metallic quartet, Indar, who more poetically outline it as an “essence, the first sprout that emerges from a sown seed.” Formed in 2020 in Barcelona, Indar have been nurturing this particular seed for five years; their first single, “Rotten Roots,” emerged in October 2023, with the fifth (and final), “Oxyde” arriving November 2024. Five months on and debut album Anlage has burst from the soil, in search of the nourishing light above.

Speaking of plants, I’m reminded of the 1989 Toho feature, Godzilla vs Biollante. In it, Godzilla’s cells are used to create a hybrid of plant and human when a scientist attempts to immortalize his dead daughter’s soul. After its initial “birth” where it attacks a team of saboteurs, Biollante flees into Lake Ashi and transforms into a mammoth rose-like entity. Later, it evolves again, its form taking on some of the dinosaur-like aspects of Godzilla—mirroring yet expanding upon its genetic inspiration, one could say.

Likewise, Indar’s breed of alternative metal finds their roots grasping at several possible influences: from vocalist Sara Parra’s venomous rasps bearing marks of Angela Gossow (ex-Arch Enemy), Defacing God-esque blackened melodeath rumblings (“Swallow,” “Oxyde,” “Udol,” “Nostalgia”), the echoes of gothic doom à la a rocked-out Red Moon Architect (“Rotten Roots”), to the Stolen Babies vibes lurking within “Prey” and “Goodbye Ground.” Parra’s cleans often hit with a clarity and power not unlike Nina Saeidi (Lowen), and the progressive-doom sprinkled throughout had me drawing frequent comparisons to her band.

Though their core sound never strays far from familiar, Indar are hardly imitation. Guitarist Karmen Muerza, for example, prefers rock-flavored riffing and black metal tremolos as opposed to, say, Michael Ammott’s (Arch Enemy) neoclassical pyrotechnics and anthemic death-dealing. She tends to fold her guitar into the general flow of songs, reinforcing as opposed to informing the direction of the music. Occasionally, she breaks out to impart some goth-doom flourish that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Draconian record (“Oxyde,” “Udol,” “Nostalgia”). The rest of the band follows similarly, with drummer Nana Nakanishi and bassist Marta Coscujuela providing a solid foundation for their compatriots to maneuver alongside. The result feels like a real team effort, every element cooperating to deliver on Indar’s moody, doomy, death-orbiting prog’n’roll—which, like the aforementioned Biollante, could hardly be mistaken for any of their perceived inspirations.

Where Indar struggle is with the very concept of anlage itself. Starting with the eponymous track (and opener), we are treated to the ever-popular dramatic synth instrumental. Expecting a segue into “Swallow” to really kick things off, I was surprised when all that drama simply… fizzled out into silence, leaving “Swallow” to start over and rendering “Anlage” meaningless. Worse, the two subsequent tracks (“Rotten Roots” and “Prey”) adhere to the same playbook, each building up before unfurling into the song-proper. This leaves Anlage’s front half kinetically inert. And while the individual tracks are entertaining in isolation, this interchangeability left me with a disappointing sense of arrested development. It’s not until “Goodbye Ground” that we get some momentum within the tracklisting, and by then Anlage has hit its midpoint. I’m not saying every track needs to jump headfirst into the waters, but in this case I think a little variety in the format would go a long way towards cultivating a more engaging album journey.

Fortunately, Anlage’s second act leads us to some of the group’s strongest offerings. “Oxyde” is an ear-perker, with Parra’s razored screams and breathy cleans cutting deliciously against the song’s gothic vibes. Follow-up “Udol” conjures occult bonfires blazing against the velvet skein of deep night with its ethereal vocal lines and at turns hammering-and-haunting melodeath—to say nothing of the earworm chorus and ascendant ritualism of “Nostalgia.” But closer “Thalassophobia” is where the band fully blooms into what feels like their final form, bursting from the sod with palpable energy and a lust for long-form life as they wend through nearly nine minutes of vivid melodeath, smoky doom passages, a hefty breakdown, and ethereal prog-death bass runs that wouldn’t feel out of place on Absolute Elsewhere-era Blood Incantation. Parra pulls from her entire repertoire, delivering vicious snarls and gorgeously resonant harmonies before the song hits a final trench run of kicked-up sonics and aggression.

Indar are clearly competent songwriters, and when they decide to cut loose it can lead to a lot of fun. However, the indecisive start-stop-start of Anlage’s opening act feels like a band uncertain of their own development. The comfort here is that Anlage itself is only a beginning: with their roots established, it will be interesting to see how Indar mature from here.

Recommended tracks: Oxyde, Udol, Nostalgia, Thalassophobia
You may also like: Eccentric Pendulum, Crystal Coffin, Guhts
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: LaRubiaProducciones – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Indar is:
– Sara Parra (vocals)
– Karmen Muerza (guitars)
– Marta Coscujuela (bass)
– Nana Nakanishi (drums)

The post Review: Indar – Anlage appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Melodic death metal, metalcore, progressive metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dark Tranquillity, Orbit Culture, In Flames, Arch Enemy, Lamb of God
Country: Finland
Release date: 25 April 2025

One of the biggest draws to metal as a genre is the fact that, at this point, it’s hardly a genre in any meaningful sense. If you choose carefully, you can pick about a hundred different bands from different corners of the metal universe, and not a single one will sound anything like another—their only commonality being the overarching genre tag they hold haphazardly. No matter your taste or mood, there’s something for you within metal’s vast expanse: fast and riffy, dissonant and crushing, introspective and atmospheric, technical, accessible, melancholic, heady, visceral, you get the point. The more my taste matures, the wilder it gets, and the more time I spend wandering the genre’s outer reaches. But sometimes the monkey part of my brain pulls me back toward the center. Give me some groovy riffs and shiny melodic leads, and I’ll forget all about that eighteen-minute, dissonant, avant-black track in the queue.

Enter Echoes of the Extinct with their debut LP Era of Darkness. I don’t mean to paint the album as overly simple—it has some progressive leanings and blistering chops—but primarily, these Finns center their sound on big, chugging guitars augmented by melodic death metal flairs. Clocking in at an even thirty minutes, Era of Darkness promises a quick, satisfying fix of head-bashing music; something to knock those primal cravings into submission so I can get back to whatever pretentious subgenre of a subgenre I was exploring. So, how does this jaunt toward the center of the metal universe fare? 

Drawing inspiration from their Nordic neighbors, Echoes of the Extinct’s guitars fill Era of Darkness with Gothenburg-style riffing and leads, and the vocal delivery often resembles the likes of Dark Tranquillity and In Flames. The straightforward melodeath influence shines brightest during choruses, those in “Empathy” and “Virus” sounding like they were plucked right from the late ‘90s Gothenburg scene: riffy, melodic, catchy, and energized without being overly technical. Although generic, the band does the style justice. But these melodeath features lie atop and decorate a metalcore-tinged foundation of heavy, rolling chugs reminiscent of Orbit Culture. In theory, these styles should coalesce in an extremely digestible mix of groovin’ low-string riffs balanced by faster melodic ones, shimmering leads, and big hooks—something to get the blood pumping and the head bobbing. In practice, though, that’s not how Era of Darkness plays out. 

For an album reliant on groove, Era of Darkness never lets you settle into a rhythm for long. Right when a nod-inducing pattern begins to take hold, Echoes of the Extinct take you somewhere else—they either speed you up and abruptly send you back to Gothenburg, or move you over to a different set of chugs that don’t quite complement the ones before. The experience is one of whiplash, stylistically and physically. “Last Page,” for example, is composed almost entirely on top of chugs, yet locking onto the underlying rhythm is like playing a game of whack-a-mole. The middle of “Virus” similarly bounces the listener around aimlessly, which is unfortunate because the track is bookended by some of the album’s catchiest melodeath material. The guitar and drum parts in “Virus” were evidently written independently and then put together, and it shows—in fact, the drum-guitar connection feels out of sync throughout the entire album. Still, it’s the penultimate track “Conflict” that’s the hardest to follow, as an all too fraught combination of styles, passages, and rhythms is packed almost randomly into less than a four-minute runtime. The band manufactures complexity when flow is what’s sorely needed.

To be sure, Echoes of the Extinct display potential. Although far from innovative, the interplay between the guitars is mature beyond what you’d expect from a debut, and the most enjoyable aspect of Era of Darkness is how well the lead melodies play off the foundational riffs. The vocalist also turns in a solid performance, with his strong choruses and sense of timing bringing some focus to an uncentered album. Perhaps a forgivable sign of youthful exuberance, Echoes of the Extinct simply stuff too much into a thirty-minute release. As a result, no one part stands out. Providing the numerous ideas room to breathe, and giving deeper thought to how and why one passage leads to the next, would have helped untangle the album into a more coherent experience for the listener. Opening tracks “Remedy” and “Empathy” are the most comprehensible and come closest to that impactful, squarely “metal” sound the album was poised to deliver, but on the whole, Era of Darkness misses the mark.

Alas, my trip back toward the center of the metal universe was an unsuccessful one. The should-be-satisfying groove and Gothenburg elements of Era of Darkness are marred by disjointed songwriting, and without flowing more naturally, the tracks’ component pieces aren’t compelling enough to stand on their own. But, while I’m here near the center, I may as well indulge—Dark Tranquillity’s Character should do. Then it’s back to those outer reaches, to answer important questions like whether an experimental drone and doom metal track justifies its thirty-five-minute runtime.

Recommended tracks: Remedy, Empathy
You may also like: Aversed, Allegaeon, Burial in the Sky
Final verdict: 4.5/10

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

Label: Inverse Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Echoes of the Extinct is:
– Kalle Hautalampi (bass)
– Jarmo Jääskeläinen (drums)
– Juuso Lehtonen (guitars)
– Tero Ollilainen (vocals)

The post Review: Echoes of the Extinct – Era of Darkness appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Melodic death metal, progressive death metal (mixed vocals, mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Allegaeon, Entheos, At the Gates, In Flames
Country: Massachusetts, United States
Release date: 21 March 2025

Standing out in the crowded sea of melodic death metal bands isn’t easy. Now and then, a relative newcomer emerges with something fresh, whether it’s Eternal Storm with their epic A Giant Bound to Fall or Countless Skies’ engaging Glow—but making waves is the exception, not the rule. The genre has become especially saturated in the United States, full of new releases of passable quality and with precious few gems.

With their sophomore LP Erasure of Color, Boston-based Aversed look to buck this trend, offering up a wicked slab of melodeath after several years of songwriting and a change in vocalist. Fronted by the versatile Sarah Hartman, and backed by serious instrumental talent, the band unleash a work that, while not a concept album, is connected by a gloomy soundscape and lyrical themes of heartbreak—whether platonic, romantic, or more existential. In short, Aversed put a lot of ambition behind Erasure of Color, and it’s apparent from the first few minutes. But does this album provide something that separates it from the endless tide of middling melodeath releases?

Erasure of Color is Gothenburg-tinged melodeath at its core, but it borrows elements from plenty of other death metal styles. Opener “To Cover Up The Sky” comes in with techy riffing and frenetic drumming, reminiscent of Obscura, and “Lucid Decapitation” sprinkles in dissonance throughout, sounding not unlike Ulcerate-lite at times. Both tracks stand out precisely because of these infusions—the stylistic inspirations are woven into Aversed’s brand of heavy, groove-laden melodic death metal without sounding contrived. “Solitary,” perhaps Erasure’s most ambitious track, displays the band’s progressive tendencies, fitting a big, winding composition into a mere five and a half minutes. And, though not always fluidly, the title track hits you with dissonance, an orchestral bridge, blackened riffing, and a gothic atmosphere, particularly in its chorus. It seems Aversed want to make sure you’re anything but bored, dynamically shifting which style lies atop the underlying melodic death metal. 

To varying degrees of success, Erasure of Color also offers tracks more typical of its genre. The appropriately titled “Burn” is, indeed, a fiery one, bringing plenty of energy along with immense bass grooves and an infectious chorus. “Cross to Bear,” on the other hand, sounds quite generic and places a big emphasis on its chorus at the expense of its other parts—the transition to the blast beats backing the chorus could be smoother, and the rest more memorable. And unfortunately, the album’s closer “Departures” wades into formulaic metalcore territory and spends too long across that border. Erasure of Color is mostly a success, but it suffers from imbalances in quality across its tracks, and the numerous ideas within each track aren’t always arranged cohesively.

Whatever the track, though, Hartman’s vocals fill it charismatically. She has three main deliveries in her quiver: low growls, higher-pitched screams, and lovely cleans. Although the growls and screams aren’t especially noteworthy, Hartman’s full performance is greater than the sum of its parts—the way she cycles between deliveries and uses them to paint the music with different shades is central to the album’s sonic identity. The chorus of “Solitary,” in addition to having some of the slickest guitar work on the album, best exemplifies this, as she fits in each of the three deliveries with impeccable timing and full emotional force. But Aversed aren’t just a platform for Hartman: sitting on the techier side of melodeath, the rest of the band turns in a tight performance, full of dexterous chops and plenty of instrumental flair. 

Erasure of Color is an undeniably impressive listen despite some compositional shortcomings. Although Aversed have room to develop and tighten up their songwriting, they’ve avoided music’s biggest sin, and one that’s all too common in their genre—being boring. The band might not reinvent the wheel, yet they don’t sound derivative, and Erasure of Color maintains a dynamic energy while providing enough style and complexity to reward repeated listens. Time will tell whether the album makes more than ephemeral ripples in the genre’s vast sea, but Aversed certainly have the creativity and talent to go on to make waves.

Recommended tracks: To Cover Up The Sky, Lucid Decapitation, Solitary, Burn
You may also like: Vintersea, Dawn of Ouroboros, Eternal Storm, Greylotus
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: M-Theory Audio – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Aversed is:
– Martin Epstein (bass)
– Sungwoo Jeong (guitars, vocals)
– Alden Marchand (guitars)
– Jeff Saltzman (drums)
– Sarah Hartman (vocals)

The post Review: Aversed – Erasure of Color appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive death metal, melodic death metal, technical death metal (mixed vocals, mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Arsis, Revocation, Obscura, Inferi, Shadow of Intent
Country: Colorado, United States
Release date: 04 April 2025

Sometimes, the best ability is dependability. A counterintuitive introduction for a band as technically able as Allegaeon, but it fits my experience. I discovered the band with their third album, Elements of the Infinite, and it clicked immediately. I quickly familiarized myself with their first two efforts—both solid—and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all three releases since. That totals six albums and a decade of fandom without disappointment. None of Allegaeon’s works have topped a year-end list of mine, but they often lurk around the top ten and garner more relistens than I care to admit—in a word, dependable.

Allegaeon mix progressive, melodic, and technical death metal in an accessible formula that’s as catchy as it is impressive. The band doesn’t shy away from hooks or streamlined song structures, but they also showcase blistering instrumental passages and have plenty of progressive epics strewn across their discography. Their latest effort, The Ossuary Lens, comes out of an unusual release cycle: following their 2022 LP, Allegaeon released a single in 2023 and announced the return of the band’s original vocalist, Ezra Haynes, who had left after Elements of the Infinite; they released a second single in 2024; then, at the start of 2025, The Ossuary Lens was announced and contained neither of the two singles. After this bit of release whiplash and a return to a familiar voice, would Allegaeon remain as dependable as always?

Through The Ossuary Lens’s incisive forty-five minutes, Allegaeon offer ten tracks that are very much, well, Allegaeon. “Imperial” nearly captures the band’s entire essence in four action-packed minutes—classical guitar gives way to heavy riffs and fiery leads; a choppy verse carries into a singable (screamable) chorus; and a bridge bounces between frenzied riffing, a chunky breakdown, and virtuosic soloing before returning to the chorus. Lead single “Driftwood” packs an accessible dose of technicality and melody while featuring predominantly clean vocals in its harmonious chorus, not previously an arrow in Haynes’ vocal quiver but a staple of the previous album. Meanwhile, “Dark Matter Dynamics,” successor to the flamenco-heavy 2016 track “Gray Matter Mechanics,” sees the return of flamenco guitar. Whereas flamenco previously felt a tad gimmicky, given its own standalone passages, this time it’s woven more naturally into a mid-paced ripper of a song. 

To be sure, The Ossuary Lens exhibits some stylistic extensions: Gothenburg characteristics are more evident than ever in “Carried by Delusion” and “Wake Circling Above,” deathcore influences are turned up a notch, and the one-two punch of “Dies Irae” and “The Swarm” might be the band’s most aggressive work to date. Conversely, other features are missing, notably the overt moodiness of the preceding release Damnum and the sprawling, progressive compositions that frequently served as album closers. The latter is particularly disappointing, as Allegaeon’s epic closing tracks are some of the best in the business. But by and large, the album isn’t much more than a stone’s throw away from those that came before. The band continues to pack immense talent across all instruments into catchy yet hard-hitting tracks. 

For me at least, the Allegaeon-ness of The Ossuary Lens isn’t unwelcome—I enjoy the familiarity, and just enough new elements keep it from feeling stale. If you’re new to the band, this album is a good starting point, displaying much of what the discography offers within a relatively short runtime. However, if you were hoping for a bigger evolution—whether in composition, atmosphere, or simply a shift away from the reliably brick-walled production—this one probably won’t do it for you. Allegaeon established a distinct sound in their 2010 debut and have spent the last fifteen years modulating and honing it, but never moving beyond it. 

The last 600 or so words can be reduced back to one: dependable. Though slightly on the weaker side of Allegaeon releases, The Ossuary Lens is a rock-solid album that’ll spend plenty of time in my ears. This now seven-album run further solidifies Allegaeon as one of my go-to bands, and more broadly should place them as one of metal’s most consistent acts. At this point, I feel like I have a pretty good sense of what album number eight might sound like, and I’m not upset about it.

Recommended tracks: Driftwood, Dark Matter Dynamics, Wake Circling Above
You may also like: Aversed, Subterranean Lava Dragon, Last Breath, Impureza, Ouroboros
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Metal Blade Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Allegaeon is:
– Greg Burgess (guitars)
– Ezra Haynes (vocals)
– Michael Stancel (guitars, vocals)
– Brandon “Booboo” Michael (bass, vocals)
– Jeff Saltzman (drums)

The post Review: Allegaeon – The Ossuary Lens appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Technical death metal, melodic death metal (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Necrophagist, Beyond Creation, Cryptopsy, Decapitated
Country: Germany
Release date: 7 February 2025

The Ship of Theseus, while an endlessly fascinating and thought-provoking thought experiment, is done to death in the context of personnel changes in long-standing bands: is DGM really DGM without the titular Diego, Gianfranco, and Maurizio? And don’t even get started on Yes, who has a completely new lineup from the original and even has members that are younger than the band itself. Fear not, though, for tech death hall-of-famers Obscura are here to put a fresh (and much easier to answer) spin on this philosophical quandary with their latest release, A Sonication: what if the ship was unceremoniously replaced in one fell swoop by a captain who stole building materials after firing the shipwrights mid-project? Does the ship even sail? Would anyone even be interested in its goods? Let’s take a brief tour of this accursed vessel.

For those enmeshed in the world of technical death metal, Obscura need little introduction: they have been at the forefront of furious Necrophagist-style riffage since their 2006 debut, Retribution. Obscura‘s sound is centered around aggressive guitarwork punctuated by melodic stabs, high-range raspy harsh vocals, and a generous heaping of fretless bass, coalescing in a larger-than-life cosmic aura that simultaneously exudes unease and intrigue. A Sonication utilizes many of these same principles, single “Evenfall” beginning with an ethereal fretless bass solo leading into cinematic guitarwork. Their previous release, A Valediction, marked a strong shift in focus to melodic death metal, and A Sonication continues to wholeheartedly embrace this direction on tracks like “Beyond the Seventh Sun” and “The Sun Eater”.

However, much of that is of little interest in the case of A Sonication. Hopelessly mired in drama, the album stencils an outline of a band entrenched in rash lineup overhauls and accusations of plagiarism¹ directed at vocalist Steffen Kummerer. Internal band struggles can be inconsequential to the material produced (see: the entirety of Fleetwood Mac’s discography), but in this case, its effect is unignorable and makes the entire experience feel dirty. Most immediately, the mastering sounds muddy and shot to hell, despite having the exact same producer as A Valediction: passages from “Silver Linings” and the title track in particular are wont to fall into a buzzy, messy haze without reason or warning. To add insult to injury, the songwriting quality is the most inconsistent of Obscura’s career, any given track going from killer tech death to absolute nothing-burger riffage faster than you can say ‘Cosmogenesis’.²

Nowhere are A Sonication’s issues more apparent than on instrumental “Beyond the Seventh Sun”: its picked acoustic guitar and brooding fretless bass intro establishes a pensive atmosphere before launching headfirst into an unabashedly boilerplate arpeggiated melodeath riff, the recently-prominent bass carelessly relegated to the bottom of the mix. Radical jumps in quality continue as a gorgeous inverted-stress drum section creates interesting rhythmic contrast underneath a tasteful guitar solo, only to squander its momentum by insisting upon riffage that gracefully floats away from your consciousness like stellar dust as it’s heard. And this is how the entirety of “Beyond the Seventh Sun” plays out: introduce an excellent idea only to have it crash full-speed into aggressively unremarkable melodeath, then rinse and repeat.

Other tracks make it out even worse than “Beyond the Seventh Sun”, such as “The Prolonging”, which is graced with maybe two good ideas, both of them the same fretless bass line; the rest of the track is anonymous tech death guaranteed to bounce off your forehead like a series of lone photons from the nearest star. “The Sun Eater” suffers the most of all, rooted in groovy tech death sensibilities that should work in principle, but ultimately, the track features a single ear-catching groove lost in a cosmic sea of the most bland Decapitated worship you’ve ever heard. The closing title track is likely the most consistent in quality, faithfully adhering to classic Obscura tropes through energetic guitar pyrotechnics and impressive drumwork, a serviceable enough conclusion that manages listenability without too much fuss.

Most times when A Sonication ends, my music player naturally continues with a track from A Valediction; the leap in production and musical quality is shocking every time. A Sonication makes many bold statements about songwriting and band decorum, and very few of them are flattering. Through wildly inconsistent tech-death and a rushed sound, A Sonication is a lose-lose situation for everybody: Obscura‘s reputation as a tech-death mainstay is tarnished, the new band members are inexorably enmeshed in drama surrounding their frontman, and the listeners are condescended by the expectation of happily consuming a clearly incomplete product, but I guess this is what to expect from a band who fumbled Christian Münzner twice. Melodeath influences abound on A Sonication, but this is not how I expected to see Obscura’s ship go up In Flames.

Recommended tracks: Just listen to Alkaloid or Exist instead
You may also like: Stortregn, Hannes Grossmann, Exuvial, Rannoch, Omnivide
Final verdict: 4/10

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

Label: Nuclear Blast – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Obscura is:
– Steffen Kummerer (vocals, guitars)
– Robin Zielhorst (bass)
– James Stewart (drums)
– Kevin Olasz (guitars)

1. Former Obscura members Christian Münzner (Eternity’s End, ex-Alkaloid) and Alex Weber (Exist) have both come forth asserting one-to-one ripoffs of riffs, passages, and even song structures on A Sonication. While it’s not unheard of for bands to ape or homage ideas long after their creation (note the similarities in the first two lyrical lines and rhythms from Pagan’s Mind’s “The Prophecy of Pleiades” and Dream Theater’s “Learning to Live”), the evidence from Weber is particularly striking, outlining unreleased bass work that lines up identically to single “Evenfall”. ︎
2. I want to emphasize that none of this is the fault of the new band members, all of whom are highly respected and tenured instrumentalists. I frankly feel bad that they are caught up in this mess. ︎

The post Review: Obscura – A Sonication appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Album art by: Aria Fawn

Style: Progressive metal, melodic death/black metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dark Tranquillity, Borknagar, Ihsahn (self titled), late 00s melodeath
Country: Minnesota, United States
Release date: 30 August 2024

Categorizing music beyond the basic descriptions is often frowned upon within the prog metal community: categorization creates expectation, which can lead one astray when encountering a band who tries to break the mold. I am someone who loves to categorize¹, though, for it gives me a language to discuss and absorb new music with. Sometimes however, it does indeed lead me astray, and today’s subject of review is one such case. Amiensus is back with the second installment of their double album Reclamation. My colleague Zach reviewed the first part, but somehow part two got lost in the reviewing queue and we’re only getting to it now, me being the one to dissect it. And good God, it took me a while to figure out what was going on.

Amiensus was advertised to me as progressive black metal, a genre which I typically associate with bands who prioritize emotion and/or atmosphere (think of Enslaved, Xanthochroid, Dordeduh, etc). After a while though, it dawned on me that though Reclamation Pt. II is definitely blackened, its guitarwork focused way more on inducing neck cramps than on evoking gothic castles in a snowstorm, leading me to think of the record as prog death primarily, and—given that Amiensus is generally melodic and uses a mixed vocals approach—my mind immediately went to bands like Ne Obliviscaris, Opeth, and Enslaved (given the black metal elements) for comparison rather than, say, tech death flirting bands like Death, Obscura, or Gorguts. Turns out though, Amiensus doesn’t quite fit with any of those bands either. Let me explain.

Whereas contemporary progressive (melodic) death metal acts like An Abstract Illusion, Ne Obliviscaris, or Disillusion tend to go for extensive, indulgent compositions focusing on grand, sweeping emotions to provide for adults what “my girlfriend left me and no one can understand my REAL and DEEP pain” type emo/metalcore bands provide for teenagers², Amiensus keeps their compositions tight and the music relatively upbeat, focusing primarily on head-bangable riffs and sounding badass. While their music is undoubtedly serious and cinematic, the emotions aren’t nearly as heavy as their contemporaries’. Amiensus is a metal band first and foremost, and their progressive aspects are used in service of that, coming in the form of crazy transitions, off-kilter rhythms, tempo changes, and extra dynamic, densely packed songwriting. In that regard, In Vain is probably the closest comparison: both bands take regular melodeath as a basis and amp up the complexity and technicality to become prog, and given that Amiensus also adds in black metal and Viking metal elements, which—in tandem with the cinematic aspect—bring about Borknagar comparisons as well.

As a metal band, Amiensus absolutely rules, showing an incredible acumen for riffage. Whether it’s the hard rocking main riff of opener “Sólfarið”, the machine gun fire assault of “Leprosarium”, the epic meloblack tremolo picking of “The Distance”, or any of the Gothenburg-style lead harmonies that permeate basically every song, Reclamation Pt. II barrages you with one quality riff after another. And that’s not all: Chris Piette’s ferocious work behind the kit elevates the guitarwork to even greater heights. His every hit is in sync with the complex guitar patterns, giving extra punch to the lower end, and his many mini fills provide micro transitions which adds to the dynamic feel of the music. The entire album is a walking highlight reel for the man, but “Leprosarium” in particular is a great sample track for his talents. On vocals, James Benson’s forceful harshes tear through the space with charisma, evoking a prime Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity) in his delivery, and Alec Rozsa does a monstrous deeper, guttural growl. Benson also does the occasional clean vocals and has a lovely, mystic timbre similar to Lars Nedland (Borknagar). 

Speaking of Nedland, the man actually features as a guest singer on “The Distance”, a song which takes a step back from the record’s usual violent approach by slowing down the tempo and focusing on atmosphere. Programmed strings and hypnotic guitar chords act as the aural equivalent of a cosy blanket, resulting in plenty of room for Nedland to take center stage and work his magic. On one hand, the track is a bit too reliant on the guest singer for my liking, and I would have liked to hear Benson’s cleans duet with Nedland’s, but it’s hard to complain when the result is as magical as this.

Unfortunately for Amiensus though, I am Dutch, so complaining is in my nature and will thus find its way through the narrow cracks in Reclamation Pt. II. First off, the mastering is slightly brickwalled. On the bright side, this gives the guitars and drums a lot of oomph, but the loudness of it all does become fatiguing to listen to after a while, especially so when listening to Reclamation Pt. II right after Pt. I. When the band pulls all the stops (which is often), the wall of sound that the guitars and drums produce buries the bass completely, and even the harsh vocals can struggle to find a spot in the mix at times, let alone Benson’s clean vocals. This plays a large part in my second complaint, which is that the songs tend to devolve in nonstop riff assaults and lack clear hooks. If riffs are enough to hook you, you likely won’t have a problem with Reclamation Pt. II, but otherwise, the vocal melodies struggle to remain above the surface. Amiensus also doesn’t repeat sections a whole lot, so it can be hard to find something to latch onto.

I always find it fascinating how expectations can shape how we interact with art. My classification-seeking brain struggled to place Reclamation Pt. II, starting from thinking of the record as prog black, later moving onto prog death, and eventually realizing it was both but not quite in the way I was used to from either style. Though it has some issues with the production being too brickwalled and a relative lack of clear hooks, the level of the performances and near endless supply of amazing riffs makes Reclamation Pt. II a definite winner.

Recommended tracks: Sólfarið, The Distance, Leprosarium
You may also like: In Vain, Hail Spirit Noir, An Abstract Illusion
Final verdict: 7.5/10

1. Also known as being autistic ︎
2. This is not a diss, mind you, I love all of those bands for that exact reason. ︎

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

Label: M-Theory Audio – Facebook | Official Website

Amiensus is:
– James Benson (clean + harsh vocals, guitars, keyboards)
– Alec Rozsa (guitars, harsh vocals, keyboards)
– Aaron McKinney (guitars, vocals)
– Kelsey Roe (guitars, vocals)
– Todd Farnham (bass)
– Chris Piette (drums)

With guest(s):
– Lars Nedland (clean vocals, track 5)

The post Missed Album Review: Amiensus – Reclamation Pt. II appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Melodic death metal, symphonic metal, progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Septicflesh, Orphaned Land, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Haggard
Review by: Francesco
Country: England, UK
Release date: 1 September 2024

Immaterial Eden is the debut release from Melehan, a solo project of UK-native Charles Phillip Withall. An incredibly ambitious first offering, Immaterial Eden blends influences from symphonic metal and melodic death metal with intricate musicianship and engaging compositional structure to create an immense sound. From ecclesiastical choirs and lonesome trombone, to reverberant timpani and haunting, rich piano, this album takes you on a journey through massive soundscapes. Glue it all together with tight riffing and furious drumming, and you have one of the most interesting releases of the year.

Withall’s musicianship can in no way be overstated. He is credited as performing everything on the album, and he competently navigates his way around glockenspiels, synthesizers, strings, horns, drums; you get the idea. The man’s some type of savant—like Rain Man, but for metal songwriting. Immaterial Eden has so many standout moments in its forty-seven minute runtime I can hardly remember them all – but some of my favourites are the trance synth lead in “The Cost of Being Alive” (an element which is sadly never reintroduced), the Italian canto in “The Dark Prince”, and the melancholy solo horn section in “The Giants’ Gaze, Pt. I”. 

The album flows from straight-forward melodic death metal sections, to flamenco-inspired classical guitar passages, to more symphonic metal crescendos and codas without ever breaking a stride – I’m reminded a lot of an Orphaned Land or Septicflesh with more of a western classical sensibility, maybe similar to but not as frenetic as Fleshgod Apocalypse. The compositions are riveting, and the symphony instruments add a layer of complexity and sound amazing – no terrible MIDI patches detected here. And the horns are played so well that one struggles to tell if it’s an expression controller or the real thing. I also commend the lyricism, which for the most part is thought-provoking and esoteric. Thematically very introspective, Immaterial Eden touches on despair and apathy in the human condition with rather cryptic prose, but sometimes delves into the more mythological or even theological, as in the Latin responsory “O vos omnes” quoted in “The Dark Prince”. 

Still, no great album is without fault. One of the qualms I had with Immaterial Eden was with the inclusion of an overabundance of melodrama when sometimes the clean vocals are allowed to take precedence. The clean singing (which reminds me somewhat of Borknagar and ex-Dimmu Borgir vocalist ICS Vortex¹) might be the weakest part of this album as some of the harmonies are pitchy to the point of being wildly discordant², and I wonder if for all his merit Withall wouldn’t benefit from someone else taking over the clean vocal duties. On a similar note, the intro to “The Cathedral in the Sand” breaks the flow of what is overall a very strongly paced album with solo reverberant piano and lamenting vocals singing about haunted cemeteries of the mind and shrivelled leaves… Maybe it’s just me who doesn’t like emotional ballads in his death metal, but I always found myself skipping to the heavy part. And then there’s the inaudible bass playing. Not to say that this is an album where the bass is meant to shine, but it does become kind of a trope at this point. 

In spite of that, Immaterial Eden is a super impressive one-man endeavour, and I think I would struggle to find other solo projects of this caliber. The blending of genres is expertly accomplished in a way that seems almost effortless. I would love to know if our man Withall has a background in music because this is such an impeccably well put-together work that juggles so many moving parts it’s like a circus act. This album runs better than my city’s transit system, voted Best Transit System in North America in 2017³. A worthwhile listen for any lover of progressive metal and melodic death or symphonic metal. 

Recommended tracks: “The Cost of Being Alive”, “The Dark Prince”, “The Giants Gaze, Pt. II”
You may also like: Godiva, Sakis Tollis, Mencea
Final verdict: 9/10

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

Label: Independent / Unsigned

band in question is:
– Charles Phillip Withall (everything)

1. Can’t stand him ︎
2. See the 1:51 mark of “The Product of the Masterflesh” ︎
3. Which was a complete farce but this IS a great album ︎

The post Missed Album Review: Melehan – Immaterial Eden appeared first on The Progressive Subway.