Style: traditional progressive metal, symphonic metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ayreon, Epica, Dream Theater
Review by: Sam
Country: The Netherlands
Release date: 26 November 2021

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the Missed Albums 2021 issue of The Progressive Subway.]

Once upon a time, we covered a Dutch symphonic prog metal band on this blog called Dreamwalkers Inc. They caught my attention for the fact that they had five fucking vocalists listed as full-time band members (and I guess also the music was pretty good). It was only later that I learned that the project was actually the brainchild of just one fellow Dutchman by the name of Tom de Wit, and that the record in question – First Re-Draft – was not just the first, but the second reimagining of his debut solo album First Draft (should have called it Second Re-Draft SMH my head). By the time I learned of the existence of his solo project TDW, it was already too late to cover his latest outing The Day the Clock Stopped (research is not my strong suit, as you can tell). But luckily for me, there was an upcoming album I could cover in Fountains. I asked the man for a promo, and two months later… here we are. Yeah. I should apologize for how late this review came out. I got a major writing burn-out, and this was an unfortunate casualty of that.

On the bright side though, the lateness of this review gave me the time to listen to his entire discography before I heard this. It was a fun, albeit inconsistent experience. He has a very peculiar style of symphonic arrangements, that for unknown reasons, feel very Dutch to me (maybe it’s the cheese?). I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about the details, but they were always vibrant and had plenty of variety. The songwriting fluctuated pretty heavily between mind-blowing brilliance and clunky filler parts. And for the life of him, the man could not trim his albums, which were often a solid twenty minutes longer than they needed to be, if not more (looking at you, Scrapbook). The early albums also suffered heavily from basement production and a god-awful drum machine. Overall though, his sense of melody and composition made it mostly a pleasure to sit through. And lucky for me, Fountains has a very manageable length of 56 minutes, so it looks like we have another win on our hands!

For a large part, I indeed see Fountains as a win. There are a couple of excellent cuts on the disc. The first two songs in particular are great, rather straightforward tracks that show you what the record is all about. Nifty synth lines, large symphonic backing, hard riffs, lots of tempo changes, and a full fucking choir backing Tom’s largely soaring vocals. There’s even a couple of harsh vocal parts. It has a general chaotic element that is just strong enough to keep you on your toes, but weak enough not to make it feel like he’s throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Another strong cut in this regard is the hilariously whacky upbeat rocker “Graveyard Boogey” in the back half of the album, which shifts between over the top dramatism and circus sounds over a hyperactive drumbeat at the drop of hat. On the more introverted side, there’s mostly laid back passages here and there, but “Anthracite” stands out as a very moving power ballad. It slowly climbs out of ominous electronics with whispered call and response vocals into blast beats and growls to an eventual full choir reprise of the main melody, giving a satisfying payoff to all the build-up. “Hope Song I” is also a great, moving breather track, albeit it functions more like an interlude. Its sequel is the epic closing of the album. It’s easily the most symphonic song on the record and gives it a good finale. I also definitely recommend listening to both “Hope Songs” in a row as a bonus because it’s a treat.

There’s a couple of aspects about Fountains that I found hard to connect to – things which also appeared in Tom’s previous work. Maybe it’s solely my cringing at a fellow native’s accent, but in a lot of the aggressive, powerful moments Tom’s delivery sounds rather stiff (or “wooden” as we Dutchies like to say), and I find myself more appreciating the emotion he’s trying to convey rather than his singing actually makes me feel said emotion. In short, the cheese is too strong. His softer parts were very moving, but it seemed like the more power he put in, the less I connected to it. I was also iffy on some of the slower riffs, which sounded clunky, and some of the lyrics were blunt to a fault and took me out of it (“If I shout louder than you, does that make me right?”). (Damn I really am just roasting my own country here aren’t I? FFS)

On the whole, I liked Fountains. There are certain aspects I didn’t like as much, and some songs were stronger than others, but the overall experience was thoroughly enjoyable. If anything, TDW has an unmistakable character in terms of writing and production, and that’s worth a lot. If you enjoy what you hear in this album, definitely explore the rest of his discography (and Dreamwalkers Inc!) as well. It’s a lot of fun.

Recommended tracks: Inner Energy, Anthracite, Graveyard Boogey
You may also like: Course of Fate, Beyond the Bridge
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Layered Reality Productions – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

TDW is:
– Tom de Wit (vocals, keyboards, guitars, percussion, drum programming)
– Rich Gray (bass)
– Fabio Alessandrini (drums)

The post Review: TDW – Fountains appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Post-Metal, Djent (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Uneven Structure, The Ocean, Dvne
Review by: Sabrina
Release date: 15 October, 2021

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway]

I was not expecting an album like Meridian to come out last year. This is a pleasant surprise to me as I am a big fan of the modern Belgium post-metal scene, especially for bands labeled under Pelagic Records. To back this sentiment, I would go as far as to say Phanerozoic II was my 2020 album of the year along with Novena, it is a damn near flawless album. Antithetical to usual post/sludge metal, the general sound that comes out of the Pelagic Records material is usually quite polished, well-mastered progressive post-metal. They focus on accessibility, hence allowing for new fans to get into the genre, which is something I can appreciate. This leads us to Hippotraktor, a band that put two heavy things together in their name to show that they mean business.

Reading more into the band’s members I found out that three of them are also members of the acclaimed underground progressive post-metal band: Psychonaut. To be honest, having this constantly in mind might have inflated my expectations of this album to unrealistic proportions as I am quite often comparing the two. However, Hippotraktor does indeed separate itself from its sister band by honing their songwriting down to many short songs rather than the variety we get on Unfold the God Man. This would ideally make the listener more conscious of the riffs and melodies that the album presents. 

Oh, did I forget to mention that this band is djent? Yeah, they combine elements of their post-metal roots with very modern-sounding, groovy, down-tuned, high gain riffs. This makes for something that has been done before but is a lot rarer than plain progressive post-metal. We get the djenty palm-muted riffs from the rhythm guitar, over the blaring reverb from their sludge influences, this is along with the lead guitar often playing mathy, staccato chords. This makes for a sound that sounds dark, clean, and industrial; kind of like an urban construction site.

The album art does well to drill this point in, that this is an album about complex, intelligent design, and the modern human world. The theme of this is somewhat new for the band as their two other projects Pothamus and Psychonaut were ones that focused a lot more on Zen Buddhism rather than western theism, and on ancient civilizations rather than modern city-scapes. In my opinion, they can do both pretty well and I appreciate the philosophical implications to their work; it might be a bit nicer if some of the hard-hitting lyrics of this were less screamy and more discernable.

The drum performance on this album is really good and the mix does it a lot of justice. There are plenty of moments where all of the instruments synergize together in a vibey groove and the drums wind up being the most standout instrument. That is not to say that the bass and guitars do not do their job, slowly crushing you like a rolling pin on dough. When the heavy djent parts hit, they hit hard. But I will say, the overall riffs on this album are not as interesting as on Unfold the God Man which was maybe something I was looking forward to seeing from the members of Psychonaut. Additionally, I will say that this album is a lot more straightforward than Unfold the God Man as there are not as many really stand-out experimental sections; with the exception of the mathy, staccato breakdown in the middle of “God is in Slumber” which is my favorite part of the album.

Other than being just a bit disappointing to me, this is a very good progressive post album. I would say this is a good primer for a new fan to get into the other Pelagic Records albums. Or for fans of djent that want to get into more sludge and post metal; I think the modern cleanliness and dynamics of this album would appeal a lot to fans of Periphery, even though this is something entirely different. This is really a sound that one doesn’t come across all too often and I would still recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the bands stated above.

Recommended tracks: God is in the Slumber, Mover of Skies
You may also like: Psychonaut, Pull Down the Sun, LLNN, Yakuza
Final Verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Pelagic Records – Bandcamp | YouTube | Facebook

Hippotraktor is:
– Stefan De Graef (vocals, percussion)
– Sander Rom (vocals, guitar)
– Chiaran Verheyden (guitar)
– Jakob Fiszer (bass)
– Lander De Nyn (drums)

The post Review: Hippotraktor – Meridian appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Metalcore (mixed vocals)
Pick by: Dylan
Country: UK (Isle of Man)
Release date: 10 September, 2021

NOTE: The album was originally included in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway

Aeons is a returning band for us here, as their debut album A Tragic End was reviewed back in 2020 by me. While I remember having very few negatives to say about it, it sadly became part of a large list of albums I reviewed that while good… never really became a part of my rotation after I finished writing about said release. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that it was overrated by my standards, it does say something about how I had seemingly no interest to revisit thanks to its lack of freshness. 

Their follow-up is hardly the Consequences of my review, as it seems that they’ve gone and put out an album that is quite similar to their debut, only with a downgrade in its virtues and a pronunciation in its defects. What once was an original blend of prog death/metalcore with some genre tropes done competently has become a shallow blend of prog death/metalcore with genre tropes well implemented.

Allow me to explain; this release can be separated into 3 types of songs. The straight core-prog song with verse/chorus/verse that comes with a harsh/clean/harsh structure to complement it, the Opeth-core fusion songs that offer a bit more depth in their songwriting with longer clean sections, and yet another Opeth influenced style that’s pretty much just ripping them off. The straight core-prog songs are serviceable mostly carried out by their catchy choruses to keep you distracted from somewhat generic verses. As far as the Opeth side of things goes, the rip-off is surprisingly the best song on the album. While I wouldn’t quite call it a 1 to 1 bastardization of them, it’s undeniable that “Blight” shares many aspects of “Death Whispered a Lullaby” from Damnation, yet it seems to build upon the fantastic song that it is, instead of half-assing a copy. I actually ended up liking the rip off more than the original, thanks to the better execution in its chorus.

Unfortunately, most of the album doesn’t rely on Damnation worship but rather traditional Opeth worship with a slice of metalcore. This recipe unfortunately falls in the serviceable but underwhelming category, with nothing to point as a significant flaw yet on the other hand very little to discuss positively. The instrumentation awkwardly tries to come up with a lot of riffs that aren’t too impressive (also present in the shorter tracks but at least avoidable in the choruses), the vocals are impressive but not enough to carry out the lengthy songs, the drumming is serviceable but will never blow your mind… It’s amazingly middle of the road. Unfortunately, thanks to the nature of their structure, these songs are also what carry out a large portion of the album, effectively pronouncing their flaws to the point of degrading the good/great stuff that comes in between them.

So essentially, the traditional Opeth worship became worse, the trope-y songs got slightly better, and we got a pretty great Damnation-esque song. I can’t in good faith recommend Consequences as a complete piece, but can’t also write it off in its entirety thanks to some pretty enjoyable tracks that unfortunately made up the minority of the album. Take my recommended songs and go!

Recommended tracks: Blight, Rubicon
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Periphery, Born of Osiris, BEAR
You May Also Like: Arjuna’s Eye
Final Verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Independent

Aeons is:
– Skippy Hilton (vocals)
– Joe Holland (bass)
– Justin Wallace (drums)
– Scott Sayer (guitar)
– Si Harvey (guitar, vocals)

The post Review: Aeons – Consequences appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Rototypical – Volume I: The Tactician
Style: Whack Prog Metal (mixed vocals) 
Review by: Zach 
Recommended for fans of: Between the Buried and Me, Native Construct, Protest the Hero, Haken riffs
Country: California, United States
Release date: 30 July, 2021

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway.]

Every now and then, there comes a debut album that just completely shakes up the balance of the prog community. And the biggest one to recent memory is the late, great Native Construct’s opus Quiet World. You just know an album is downright outstanding when it launches a thousand new bands all trying to capture that same sound. And boy, did that impact last. So many bands trying to balance the theatricality, storytelling, and BTBAM-worship, and so many of them fail to capture what made Quiet World so special. Only The World is Quiet Here seemed to make their style stick, but they’re one in a thousand at this point.

[Editor’s note: their bass player Tyler used to write for this blog. If you’re reading this Tyler, I still expect corny spoken word on album 2 :P]

Enter Rototypical. A young band releasing their ambitious debut just shy of 70 minutes. When you release an album that long, you’re either really sure of the music you created, or you just don’t know how to cut songs down. But, I’ve listened to (and liked) albums that are considered “overlong”, so this wasn’t anything new to me. Plus, the album art is pretty. What do I have to lose here? 

‘Flint and Tinder’ sets the stage in rain, a soft humming gives way to an arpeggiated guitar riff. Immediately apparent is the theatrical opening accompanied by Pat Savage’s clean vocals. And then we’re treated to a quick legato freakout reminiscent of Protest the Hero. The riffs here are clearly BTBAM influenced, but somehow…catchier? Even between all the shreddy-ness, I could clearly define melodies and recurring passages through the first song. A lot more than I can say for most of these bands. 

And unlike so many of these copycats, they give the listener time to breathe instead of having an endless onslaught of riff salad thrown the listener’s way. Instead of feeling like 12 riffs jammed together with a bass solo in the middle, there’s clear song structure here. Each song on this massive album flows into the other, with the obligatory short interlude before those monstrous two ending tracks. Speaking of monstrous, the “Honir” suite, nearly an EP in of itself, takes up a majority of this album. And “Honir” is where I realized something about this album that makes it truly special in my mind. The riffs are insanely technical, but Rototypical aren’t going crazy with switching it up every five seconds. They let their riffs develop a little bit, only changing them or going for a transitional passage just before they become tired. 

“Girl of Gold” is this album’s breather track, precisely placed right after “Honir” to let the listener regulate their heartbeats. But “breather” is subjective because this track launches you straight into the 12 minute ‘Lunacy’ in spectacular fashion. And my god, this track has it all. Syncopation, jazzy melodies, dissonant chords, and a chuggy riff reminiscent of that one from Periphery’s ‘Reptile’. On its own, this track is an excellent showcase of how Rototypical build upon riffs and progressions. 

And just when I was ready to say this album didn’t need another track to end it off, “Relic Glow” starts with a reprise of the main melody of “Perfecsion”, bringing the album full circle. Yes, sure, this is nearly 70 minutes long. But without this closer, the album would be incomplete. Could these two closers be trimmed just a tad? Sure. But as it stands right now, are they amazing songs to close out the album with? Hell yes. 

If I have one thing to say to Rototypical for Volume II, it’s to let themselves experiment a bit more with their own style. They wear their influences on their sleeve, which is far from a bad thing. But I would love to hear something that sounds like them, rather than a combination of my favorites (and clearly their favorites). Either way, this record is truly fantastic, and I’d say Rototypical stuck the landing on this ambitious debut. 

Recommended tracks: Cyclic: Bereft to Sodden, the entire Honir suite, Lunacy 
You may also like: A Novelist, Cryptodira, Cyborg Octopus, Replacire, Chronicles
Final Verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Instagram

Label: Independent

Rototypical is:
– Pat Savage (all instruments)

The post Review: Rototypical – Volume I: The Tactician appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Others By No One – Book II: Where Stories Come From (US-OH)
Style: Prog Metal, Rock Opera, Avant-Garde Metal (mixed vocals)
Pick by: Sabrina

NOTE: This album was originally included in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway

It seems that every couple of years we get a completely bat-shit insane album out of prog or avant garde metal that teeters on the brink of musical brilliance and over-the-top, incomprehensible chaos. People will usually either hate or love these albums. Even though progressive and avant garde metal have an implicit purpose to subvert the listener’s expectations, there is a thin line between how much a piece of music can subvert expectations without spilling over the edge into musical clutter. This is the kind of stuff that becomes more and more difficult to resonate with unless one puts effort into repeated listens and/or research into the lyrical content. This might be why this album was picked up and dropped weeks later by two of the members from TheProgressiveSubway; this album is marvelous and perplexing, it hits high peaks but is overall somewhat head-scratching. And to this day, I still do not have a firm, stalwart opinion of this album but here are some of my thoughts on Book II: Where Stories Come From.

I think Others By No One can be associated with the lineage of zany prog artists that came out after Between the Buried and Me’s The Parallax II: Future Sequence; these would be Native Construct, The World is Quiet Here, Edge of Reality,and now Others By No One (we might also be able to fit Rototypical into this bunch). I list these artists out not only because all of them are decently influenced by The Parallax II, but because they follow its footsteps in the spirit of making extremely progressive, wacky, and campy concept albums taking “prog” to the next level. Essentially, they take everything that Anthony Fantano hated about The Parallax II and dialed them up. This makes for a product that any reasonable person cannot expect one to fully appreciate on the first few listens. It essentially combines influences from artists across the board, from Pink Floyd to Sikth and everywhere in between. 

Book II: Where Stories Come From is essentially a rock opera with scattered avant garde/progressive metal interludes. It follows a concept album about an author of fictional stories getting overly involved with the characters in his written creation and falling in love with one of the written beings. Because this is a match of unlikely individuals, a small misadventure ensues with the characters in the story. I’m not entirely sure but this might be meant to be a kind of theological allegory. Furthermore, there are more than plenty of effective existential lyrics in this album that remind me of something that Devin Townsend might write.

Speaking of Devin Townsend, he is one of this album’s major influences not just in the lyrical writing but in the vocal songwriting. In general, the vocals in this album usually sound very practiced, polished, and Devin Townsend inspired. They are performed mainly by Max Mobarry who has mad musical talent, along with a gang of 14 other vocalists that help do the main choruses and the various characters in the plot. This album in general is very vocal-centric and would suffer greatly without them. They propel the album’s climactic peaks which are usually in the form of triumphant choruses, for example, in the middle of “A Reverie to Quell the Giants” or the end of “The Plight of Proxy”.

Vocals aside, this album has a stacked lineup of instruments featured; we’ve got a flute, cello, violin, mandolin, 6 and 12 stringed guitars, upright bass, and I kid you not, a kazoo performance. Hearing a kazoo solo in a metal album is definitely a first for me. This album additionally has a broad range of musical styles which span from stuff that sounds like indie-folk, jazz-fusion, progressive rock, SikTh-esque djenty breakdowns, and death metal vocals. This album excels in delivering a variety of sounds that make it almost comparable to that of Empath.

However, I do want to touch on a couple of contentions that I have with Others By No One. One is that the songwriters can get a little bit too involved in the lyrics and concept of the album that it can weaken the quality of the melodies and musical effectiveness. For instance, when I compare this to something like Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory (MP2), I see that Dream Theater gets just about as into the concept of their album with all of their sex scene, car radio, and murder interludes, however in MP2, Dream Theater made sure to write award-winning melodies and intense musical moments in basically every song, scattered indiscriminately throughout the album to keep hold of the listener’s attention span. In comparison, Book II starts out incredibly strong with the first 4 songs then it starts to meander around a little bit afterward in the middle; I doubt there will be many people who say “Foxjune”, “Tomes” or “Tombs” are their favorite tracks. The album picks up again around the last few songs but it is incredibly difficult for a new listener to stay focused and get through this whole 74-minute whale in one sitting. 

And this is less of a criticism as it is a personal preference but when I hear this band advertised as “FFO: BTBAM”, I expect this to be more metal. I’m definitely fine with this album being categorized as a big fusion of genres but I would not consider this a metal album at its core. I hate to become something like the very elitists that block my reviews from Metal-Archives but I want more metal riffs out of this band. The style of Book II is more akin to The Dear Hunter or Pink Floyd than a metal album. Additionally, when the metal moments are present, they do not have much build-up, they often just pop out of nowhere then leave, like the album has AHDH. This contributes to a common criticism this album receives, that it severely lacks cohesion and overall unity.

Because this is a lot more of a preference, my score is not negatively affected by the fact that I wish it were more metal. I know how hard it is for an artist to please everyone and I don’t want to be a thorn in their back for producing a, for the most part, stellar album. I know there are a ton of people out there that would absolutely love Others By No One if they knew the band existed. So, for all of you out there that like progressive, wacky, bouncing-off-the-wall, rock opera, concept albums with a smattering of extreme metal interludes this is something that is right up your alley.

Recommended tracks: A Reverie to Quell the Giants, Right Side of the Brain
Recommended for fans of: Devin Townsend, Native Construct, Pink Floyd, SikTh, Between the Buried and Me
You may also like: Edge of Reality, Artificial Silence, The World is Quiet Here
Final Verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Label: Independent

Others by No One is:
– Maxwell Mobarry (vocals, guitar)
– Mike Gregg (guitar, vocals)
– Quique Bucio (bass, vocals)
– Sam Ruff (drums)

The post Review: Others by No One – Book II: Where Stories Come From appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Prog Rock, Jazz Fusion, Math Rock (Instrumental)
Review by: Sabrina
Country: US-CA
Release date: 9 April, 2021

NOTE: This album was originally included in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway

I found this little gem on rateyourmusic by filtering the 2021 prog albums by “Esoteric” and saw that this was pretty highly rated. My intrigue picked up when I read that it featured fretless bass and fretless guitars, and after I read that this was for fans of Cynic I had to listen to it. Since then Multiple Personalities has been in my library and been getting slowly digested throughout 2021. To be honest, I would have reviewed it originally if I hadn’t missed the release date by over a month but it is good enough for me to be diligent on speaking my mind before all of the prog metal “album of the year” content gets released. 

After many thorough listens, Coevality continued to exceed my expectations with their lush mix, progressive songwriting, and instrumental creativity. It is even more interesting to note that there really isn’t very much out there like this album. Find me a progressive rock/metal instrumental album with a center-stage, Cynic-esque, fretless bass performance that also has math-rock and jazz fusion influences. This is close to what it would sound like if The Omnific did an album cover of Gordian Knot. It is very hard to pinpoint how much the band weighs into each genre because even though it is primarily prog rock and jazz fusion, it does have noticeable Chon-esque math-rock influences in the melodies and it has an occasional prog metal flair with the guitar solos and the eclectic bass performance. 

The whole album is written as one long stream of consciousness and intended to be listened to from one end to the other. Usually, when I hear this, I get a sigh of skepticism because I feel as though a band ideally should make songs that are both digestible in pieces and as a whole. Especially for progressive music, I have seen instances where a band or their fans will make the “stream of consciousness” statement more so as an excuse for a band’s lack of melody. However, I am pleased to say that this is not the case with Coevality. This is akin to how I feel about TV shows; I do not think it is a good sign when someone says “You just have to keep watching, it starts getting good around the third season”. Excuse me? I’m not sitting through a show that long to be impressed. It is up to the show both to impress the audience off the bat to keep them entertained, also to make sure it provides some deeper, thematic, and slow-cooked payoffs later to cement its status as an acclaimed show. This is how I often think of albums, and Multiple Personalities exemplifies this well. 

This is because all of the songs have their own flavor of the band’s style but also come together as a cohesive picture. “Light Bikes” and “Oceana” are great starting points to see what the average sound is like. They have intricate melodies, memorable riffs, excellent bass/guitar synergy, and drums that shift from energetic to smooth-jazz. “Coin Incidents” and “Cryptic Creek” offer more of the sweet and melodic side of the band with the inclusion of funk interlude and glistening and atmospheric synths. The album’s climax kind of peaks in the middle; either during “Carnival Minivan” with its zealous trumpets and technical guitar wankery, or “MDP” with its 2-minute bass solo. 

I will also say that the album has a kind of duality to it because it has mutual value both as conscious, complicated music and as passive background music. When doing focused analytical listening, there is a lot of complexity in the layers of guitar riffs, bass soloing, and smooth jazzy percussion to appreciate. But on the flipside, this is a great album to put on in the background and help the brain flow to get you focused on another task at hand; this is in part due to how well this is mastered and mixed. Whoever did the technical aspect of this album’s sound really played into its strengths by enhancing the bass in the mix to be in the forefront but also softening it up so that it’s sweet, not overbearing. The guitar and drums are also vibrant and clearly audible as well. 

Overall, I think this is a great example of what progressive jazz fusion rock can bring us without relying on a saxophone or other jazzy woodwind instruments. Oftentimes bands in the genre use it to sound more “jazzy” but Coevality does an excellent job with the three instruments they use. If you like progressive instrumental stuff, you should check this one out, pronto.

Recommended tracks: Light Bikes, Oceana, MPD, Coin Incidents
Recommended for fans of: Cynic, The Omnific, Chon
You may also like: Gordian Knot, Thrailkill, Nova Collective
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Coevality is:
– Jon Reicher (guitars, trumpet)
– Derrick Elliott (basses, cello, chimes)
– Andy Prado (drums)

The post Review: Coevality – Multiple Personalities appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Jazz Fusion, Djent, Progressive Metalcore (mixed vocals)
Review by: Mathis
Country: New York, United States
Release date: 19 November, 2021

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway.]

Is your prog too boring? Are you sick of all of the new albums that are “For Fans Of” Periphery, Haken, Dream Theater, Tool, Caligula’s Horse, etc.?  What you need is something fresh and fun; something that will whiten your teeth, improve your posture, make you successful, burn that pesky fat in six months or less, and replace the need to ever wring your mop out ever again! Sound Struggle may have the perfect album for you! The Bridge can’t do any of that fancy stuff I just listed, but it sure is fresh, and it sure is fun!

Sound Struggle is the brainchild of Cameron Rasmussen, but the project is way more than just him. He is sort of like the ringleader. I counted around fifteen other musicians that played a part in making this album, and I am confident that there were plenty of other folks that aided in the production of The Bridge as well. The Bridge is a concept album about a young man that journeys to find his mother who left him as a child. He eventually finds her and learns that she is part of a religious organization, naturally he, joins her, only to find out later that he has joined a corrupt group of cultists. It is a pretty cool story, but honestly, you don’t need to follow it at all to enjoy the album. This album is just a bundle of fun, but be warned it is hecking long. I guess Cameron had been writing since the last Sound Struggle album which came out six years ago, so he had an insane amount of content ready for release, and to add on top of that Cameron has announced that Sound Struggle has been officially disbanded. The album is long because he wanted to release everything he had written and end it with a bang, he isn’t doing it for the precious prog points.

Congrats on making it through the little history lesson, now it’s time for recess baby! The Bridge is a jazzy, djenty, oddities a plenty album. After the intro track, you are launched into the thick of it with “Foresight”, one of my favorite tracks on the album with a catchy chorus and blaring horns. It djents too, but that falls by the wayside because your brain just loves to focus on that staccato trumpet blast with the crescendo right after, or maybe you get caught up in the noodly lead guitar. There is an immense amount of depth to almost every one of the eighteen songs on this album, so much so that it will take more than just a few listens to fully grasp what is happening at any given point.

If you are a fan of Arch Echo you may have noticed something sounds familiar here, and this is no coincidence! Four of the five members of Arch Echo are ex-Sound Struggle members, but more than that, the reason for the similarities is because all of the bass guitar in The Bridge is performed by Arch Echo’s bassist Joe Calderone. It doesn’t stop there though. Adom Rafowitz and Joey Izzo are both featured multiple times in the album, these two are the masters of melody in Arch Echo. Adam is a genius guitarist, and Joey shreds his keyboard just as masterfully. This whole album is like the buffer, scarier, and darker elder sibling of Arch Echo, and it is amazing. Older bro also happens to have a thing for brass and woodwind instruments, which makes this album so unlike any other boring concept album.

There are way too many songs to cover, but here is a little overview of what you might find scattered throughout The Bridge. Lots and lots of amazing guitar solos, a guitar, and a trumpet taking turns serenading each other (“Decisions”), surprise vocals on what you thought was an instrumental track, a beautiful string quartet intro, rapping, a stanky bass clarinet riff, a sad soft song, a happy soft song, a saxophone solo, and much more!

The Bridge was one of my favorite releases of 2021, but boy howdy is it long. An hour and fifty four minutes to be exact, and it is split into two discs so that may help some listeners but the bottom line is that it is an insane amount of time to listen to such involved music. I only have one other issue and that is that on occasion the clean vocals sound a bit incapable, specifically when trying to reach higher notes. I don’t think the vocalist specializes in this style of music, but he does very well with the few softer songs on the album. Despite these shortcomings, I think the album is nothing short of remarkable, I just wish it could help me burn off some excess fat.

Recommended tracks: Foresight, Decisions, Vogel, Try To Fly
Recommended for fans of: Arch Echo, BTBAM
You may also like: Rototypical, Step In Fluid, Electrocution 250
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Label: Independent

Sound Struggle is:
– Cameron Rasmussen (all lyrics and compositional arrangements, guitars, mandolin, backing vocals, synth programming)
– Micah Pewter (drums)
– Joe Calderone (bass)
– Tre Watson (vocals)
– Chloe Rowlands (trumpet, flugelhorn
– Brian Krock (alto sax)
– Jared Yee (tenor sax)
– Audrey Hayes (violin)
– Adriana Molello (violin)
– Kayla Williams (viola)
– Alon Bisk (cello)
– Adam Rafowitz (guitar solos on tracks: 5, 10, 16)

The post Review: Sound Struggle – The Bridge appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Jazz Fusion, Progressive Metal, Djent (Instrumental)
Review by: Mathis
Country: China
Release date: 19 Novermber, 2021

NOTE: This album was originally included in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway

Although this is my first time covering this genre on the blog, I love me some instrumental jazz fusion. You can listen to it while falling asleep, working out, playing videogames, or just have it play in the background throughout the day. There is an incredible amount of variety in jazz fusion, yet most new acts these days are just Plini worship. However, Von Citizen decided to go for a more refreshing approach with Outlier and cover as many styles as possible in only seven tracks.

Don’t go getting all upset that this release doesn’t have ten to fifteen songs, or twenty minute epics. Outlier is the epitome of quality over quantity, and I am completely unbiased here in saying that I think anyone who enjoys instrumental fusion will find something they like in this album. The composition is great, the musicianship is great, and the production is great.

I am going to cover each song (briefly) in the order they appear on the album, and to kick that off is “Bliss”. What a great choice for the first track of the album, it begins with a slow synthy vaporwave vibe that suddenly fades out after a few seconds. Then the beautiful Arch Echo-esque melody kicks in, bringing my ears to audio ecstasy. It feels so freaking good, I get it, it sounds weird; it is just such a pleasurable bop of a tune. Honestly, at this point, I was happy knowing that Von Citizen were a clone of one of my favorite instrumental bands, but then two minutes in, things got techy. This is it ladies and gentlemen, now “Bliss” has become an Animals As Leaders song, and after about two minutes of djenty tech the song returns to the joyous melody from earlier in the track. I rate this track a 10/10. That’s some epic stuff.

Track two “Petrichor” sounds very Plini-like, but in the best way possible lightweight and gentle, but with the bounciness of something like Sithu Aye’s “Grand Order”. You get those glockenspiel “tings” here and there that both of the aforementioned artists are so fond of. This song has nearly no synth/keys in it which were so prominent in the first song, and around the three minute mark there is an orchestral piece too. We are only two songs into the album and can see a great deal of variety. Another banger in the bag, this song receives a 9/10 from me dawg.

“Pitchblack” is consistently heavier than the other songs in its entirety. It is quite djenty with electronic influence that sounds like a mix of Chimp Spanner, Lee McKinney, and Bulb. This song is more about the heavy riffage than the jazzy noodling, but there is an awesome clean guitar solo that sounds reminiscent of Lee McKinney or Scale The Summit. I give it an 8/10, a great song just like the first two, and I am going to jump straight into track four because I feel it goes hand in hand with “Pitchblack”. “6PM” serves as the palate cleanser following the last track that was bold and barefaced. It is a soft lo-fi track with some light drum and bass beats, kind of what you may hear at the end of some of Periphery’s older music. I usually don’t care much for interlude’s but “6PM” is certainly deserving of an 8/10.

The fifth track is “Flint” is similar to the first track “Bliss” in that it revolves around a melody more than some of the others. It sounds much less like Arch Echo than the first song, but I would still liken it to them. Not quite as bouncy, and has some chunkier riffs, but it sounds like it could fit in with Arch Echo’s first album. I rate this song as a 9/10, another lovely creation by Von Citizen.

Next up is “Lightstream”, I get big-time Victoria vibes from this song. The riff repetition is a lot like “Kepler”. It isn’t quite heavy but isn’t super feel-good catchy melodic either. It is a little calmer in nature than most of the other tracks with the exception of some heavier riffs that pop up occasionally. This one is an 8/10 for me. If you haven’t caught on yet, I’ll spell it out for you; every song on Outlier is really good!

The final track on Outlier is “Turritopsis” and throughout the song, you can hear influences that were utilized elsewhere in the album, but there is one more heavy hitting style that they picked up for this song exclusively: David Maxim Micic. I have never heard anyone replicate his material before, but Von Citizen was able to do it quite well! It doesn’t span the entire song, but there are some heavy riffs in this song with that goofy Micic flair. The rest of the song is great too, but I find myself replaying that one djenty part over and over! I rate “Turritopsis” a 9/10

Von Citizen really covered all their bases with Outlier, and it was super fun hearing little pieces of other artists’ styles throughout the album. One thing worth noting though is that although it is only parts of songs that pick up all these influences, each song feels complete and thorough. Everything is composed really well and you don’t ever catch anything that sounds out of place or unnecessary. It was unfortunate I wasn’t able to review this album earlier in the year, but this is what our missed albums post is all about!

Recommended tracks: Bliss, Flint, Turritopsis
Recommended for fans of: Arch Echo, Animals As Leaders, Plini, Instrumental Jazz Fusion
You may also like: Step In Fluid, Kinglet, PIXL, Chronologist
Final verdict: 9/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Von Citizen is: Unknown

The post Review: Von Citizen – Outlier appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Melodic Black Metal, Technical Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Pick by: Zach
Country: Switzerland
Release date: 12 March, 2021

NOTE: The album was originally included in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway

Oh, the days when you just start diving right into subgenres. You shop around for a month or so, figure out what you do and don’t like, and discard the rest because your subgenre is superior to everyone else’s. What did I like, you may ask? Well, I like it when the guitar do the weedly weedly and the drum do the RATATATATA and the bass can be heard. But in all seriousness, I love a bit of unconventional instrumentation. If that wasn’t obvious enough from my love of UneXpect, that is. Sure, I love it when it’s a complete gimmick and I know it adds nothing to the song. But when it’s really there to stay on the whole album, adding flavor and character to each song, well, that’s fucking great. 

Sure, I like being dropped headfirst straight into a pummeling riff to start an album off. Who doesn’t? But you know what I love even more? Being eased into an album. A song that builds upon something simple and releases into a fist bumping moment of pure sonic bliss. Unconventional instrumentation in the mix doesn’t hurt either. Yeah, I’m talking about the opener to Stortregn’s Impermanence. 

What an opener! “Ghosts of the Past” kicks this album off in style with an incredible lead motif and enough blast beats to please my ear canals. The way this song seamlessly shifts between sections tells you everything you need to know about Stortregn right off the bat. They mean business, they’re ridiculously talented, and their music will be stuck in your head for weeks. I caught myself whisper-screaming “ASHES TO ASHES, DUST TO DUST” more than I care to admit after a mere two listens. 

Speaking of seamless, the transitions on this album are downright incredible. “Moon, Sun, Stars” starts in a fairly similar fashion to the previous track, but everything sounds…wrong. More sinister. The fingerstyle acoustics are minor-keyed and the leads sound far gloomier this time around. A much faster track with a less epic feeling that gives those longer tracks so much more substance, it does its job astoundingly well. 

Stortregn know how to start a song with momentum and keep it going. Everything on this album is Inferi-speed with plenty of acoustic interludes to shake things up. But what I find so interesting about Impermeance’s acoustic sections versus any other bands is that they’re so well interspersed with the Dissection-tremolo riffs and tech-death chugs that it doesn’t even feel like the song is calming down. It feels like a natural buildup to whatever godly riff comes next. 

“Grand Nexion Abyss” is the standout of this album to me. Combining everything I loved from the first section of the album, it’s the perfect way to drop the listener back in after the instrumental breather track, ‘Impermanence’. Some might say that the structure feels a bit samey by now. Chuggy riff switching into acoustic section into a very long scream over tremolo over blast beats. But god damn if it doesn’t work so well. And Stortregn has enough riffs and tappy goodness that keep everything from sounding the same on each song. 

But as amazing as every track on this album is, Impermanence is the greater sum of its parts. Yes, the songs are still amazing on their own, but they flow so immaculately well together and each song has such a strong opener that you are almost forced to listen to it as a whole. Everything building up to the opening scream on “Neine” and the breakneck finish that song has makes it so much sweeter. Of course, what would this album be without ending on a classical guitar interlude? Because we gotta go out with that same unconventional instrumentation that brought us in. 

Recommended tracks: Ghost of the Past, Cosmos Eater, Multilayered Chaos. The entire album flows like one long song, so I’d suggest just listening all the way through. 
Recommended for fans of: Interi, Obscura, Dissection, Mors Principium Est 
You may also like: Singularity, Proliferation
Final Verdict: 8.5/10

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

Label: The Artisan Era – Bandcamp | YouTube | Facebook

Stortregn is:
– Romain (vocals, guitar)
– Johan (guitar)
– Garry (drums)
– Alexandre (bass)

The post Review: Stortregn – Impermanence appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Power Metal, Neoclassical Metal (clean vocals)
Review by: Sabrina
Country: Germany
Release date: 26 November, 2021

NOTE: This album was originally included in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway

Eternity’s End is a band I’ve heard a good bit about before November when they released their 3rd studio album Embers of War, which was around when I started listening to them. As you may know, in this area of prog and neoclassical metal, there are some keywords that get thrown around a lot; “technical”, “blazing”, “hypersonic”, “shred-tastic”, etc. Especially for prog metal reviewers, to be constantly covering bands of impressive technical chops, it is easy to become desensitized and grow a tolerance for musicians’ audible skill in music. This is why it is all the more noteworthy that I was pretty much aghast by the level of technical ability that these guys have. To put it another way, this band has reached a level of mechanical skill that very few musicians will ever reach; I’m talking the top one percent of the top one percent of musicians, essentially the billionaire class of mechanical skill. And it goes without saying that this is the most technical band I’ve reviewed.

Looking more into the relevant details of this band’s history, one will find out that Eternity’s End was founded by three ex-members of Obscura: Hannes Grossman, Christian Münzner, and Linus Klausenitzer. Ahh, hah! The world makes sense now. I have thought on a couple of occasions that this is Obscura-level musicianship, especially in the sweeping guitar solos, occasional grinding bass solos, and even in their compact songwriting style. What pleases me, even more, is that their history shows a brief but impressive discography and a clear accelerating trajectory in the quality of their work, with each album better than the last.

I’m not even sure what the lyrical content of this album is about but I assume it is about fantasy or, in other words, stereotypical power metal stuff. From the gorgeously illustrated album cover, it seems an albino orc is battling a robot Viking-looking fellow in the courtyard of an industrial castle with airships, explosions, and a flame-ridden sky. So yeah, pretty much stereotypical power metal stuff. I like to think all of this going on in the album cover exemplifies the sheer dense action going on in the musical compositions.

What you will get from this is essentially a ton of neoclassical, almost speed-metal, guitar shred after guitar shred. Essentially, every guitar in this is shredding, almost as though every instrument is on its own mission to grind up the listener and destroy everything in its path. I also love the occasional post-Cynic type of bass solo only comparable to what one would hear from Obscura albums. Hannes Grossman is an extremely celebrated metal drummer for a reason, hit fills are relentless and are mixed to have a deep impact on the compositions. The lead vocals are the only thing I was not too fond of at the beginning but they have some time to shine. For example, Iuri Sanson shows off his high range well and brings in a melodic chorus amongst the instrumental onslaught in “Hounds of Tindalos”. However, his voice can sound overly strained and often comes out sounding like he needs to drink some water. The situation of this band really takes me back to the following Dream Theater meme.

What is also cool about this album is that because the musicians have non-power-metal backgrounds, they provide a somewhat aesthetically different album than what it might have sounded like without their history in technical death metal. In Embers of War, one might be able to hear Symphony X, Blind Guardian, Lost Horizon, or Yngwie Malmsteen influences but there is a kind of brutally ruthless undertone to it all. This may, of course, just be my mental projection into the album, retrospectively, knowing they came from tech death. But I genuinely hear this, god damn it! However, I do not hear this so vividly that it makes me believe the band made a groundbreaking innovation to what defines power metal. In other words, I review albums in a way where about one-fifth of the overall score is determined by how much I feel the band made something unique, creative, unconventional, and original; something that cannot be easily traced to its component influences. This album generally has very few flaws but the way they conform to technical power metal tropes is their most vivacious weakness. This is an album that pushes new grounds in terms of mechanical boundaries, rather than in terms of creative boundaries.

Recommended tracks: Arcturus Prime, Embers of War, Call of the Valkyries, Hounds of Tindalos
Recommended for fans of: Christian Muenzer, Lost Horizon, Symphony X, Helloween
You May Also Like: Forever’s Edge, Opus V, Parallel Dimension, Starbynary
Final verdict: 9/10

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

Label: Prosthetic Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook | Instagram

Eternity’s End is:
– Christian Muenzner (guitar)
– Hannes Grossmann (drums)
– Linus Klausenitzer (bass)
– Iuri Sanson (vocals)
– Justin Hombach (guitars)

The post Review: Eternity’s End – Embers of War appeared first on The Progressive Subway.