Artwork by Hugh Syme

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Label: InsideOut Music – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

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

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

Style: Traditional prog metal (clean vocals, mixed on track 5&6)
Recommended for fans of: Pain of Salvation, Seventh Wonder, Dream Theater, Haken
Country: Sweden
Release date: 9 August 2024

I have a special fondness (let’s call it nostalgia) for bands I reviewed in the year I started this blog, and especially so for those I covered when I still posted everything on Reddit. In the last Reddit edition, August 2018, I wrote about this band called The Aphelion who impressed me by the sheer amount of ingredients they threw in their salad bowl of songwriting: from Pain of Salvation worship, to Dream Theater-esque instrumental wizardry, to even Enslaved-esque black metal parts. Obviously, they weren’t as good at doing their influences as the bands they took from, yet, nonetheless, I was very excited to see if they could find their own sound on their sophomore album because the technical ability was clearly there.

Safe to say, The Aphelion no longer sound like an amalgamation of worship; instead, Nascence proved to be frustrating for a different reason: an inability to always match their admirable ambition with their execution and composition. The Aphelion annoy me with how much potential they squander, and these frustrations are perhaps best embodied by singer Evan Haydon-Selkirk: technically accomplished, displaying an impressive range and a piercing belting ability while also evoking a young Daniel Gildenlow in his overt emotionality, yet he knows little restraint as he frequently over-sings by either abusing the vibrato or attempting too many things in one line. As a result, I find myself struggling to connect to his melodies and, on occasion, lose sight of the emotional core he is going for.

When it comes to the overall songwriting, similar issues arise. The Aphelion try to avoid your typical verse-chorus structures by only having two repetitions or none at all, but frankly, they don’t quite succeed at it, often leaving me confused instead of elated by their playing abilities. The title track is a good example of this, starting melodic with piano and vibrant strings in a 7/8 rhythm, tacks on some soothing (albeit slightly overdramatic) verses until it makes a u-turn in the second half with dark, almost death metal toned chugging to dramatically raise the tension before exploding into prog instrumental extravaganza. They then close out the song by repeating the first verse…just more dramatically (so I guess it was a chorus after all?). The result is something that sits in between an epic and a power ballad but succeeds at neither despite each individual section being well done on its own. For some reason, “The Seed of Doubt” and “Fragility” following the title track adhere to almost the exact same structure, starting with gentle piano/string parts for a few minutes before building up the tension. The former song at least commits to its chorus but loses sight of itself with an aimless atmospheric section in the bridge, while the latter I can’t make heads nor tails of compositionally even if—again—each individual part is good.

Because these dudes can play. James Cabral does a magnificent job on keyboard with vibrant (albeit slightly cheap sounding) string arrangements, melodic piano playing, and tasteful choice of synth patches. He’s pretty much all over the album, but in particular I love the Hammond solo in “The Seed of Doubt” and the dark, spacy synths that underpin the death metal-infused climax of “The Interloper”, which might very well be the best moment on Nascence. Death metal influences also arise in the climax of “The Heavy Mint” and throughout “Flight” in the form of double pedal drumming, muddier guitar riffs, and even harsh vocals. I must really commend The Aphelion for how smoothly they integrated that. 

Nascence is in many ways a step forward, but in their enthusiasm and ambition, The Aphelion’s feet leave the ground at times as they struggle to maintain a logical progression in their compositions. I love the melodic prog metal sound they’re going for, and I’ll be following their career from the sidelines to see how they develop. They’re one of the few groups for which I can say that I’ve been covering them since the beginning, and they’ll always have a special place in my heart because of that.

Recommended tracks: The Heavy Mint, The Interloper, Deserter
You may also like: Nospun, The Pulse Theory, The Anchoret, Subterranean Masquerade (for the vocals)
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: Independent

The Aphelion is:
– Evan Haydon-Selkirk (vocals, guitars, bass)
– Tyler Davis (guitars, backing vocals)
– James Cabral (keyboards, backing vocals)
– Nate Livingstone (drums, percussion)

The post Review: The Aphelion – Nascence appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Queensrÿche
Country: United States-NY
Release date: 19 July 2024

Thirty-one years ago, a forgotten progressive metal band Inner Strength released their debut, a classic 90s prog metal album sounding something like a heavier Enchant. Despite high-quality wailing cleans, technical, almost thrash-y riffing, and catchy vocal melodies, it’s hardly a surprise the New Yorkers never broke through given they sat on their hands for three decades (they did return in 2021 under the name Sunrise Dreamer, named after a song from the debut, but their muscles atrophied a bit). But now Scott Oliva—the only remaining founding member even at the time of 1993’s Shallow Reflections—decided to resurrect Inner Strength to perform “the album we might have made in 1991 if we had the skills and experience we have today.” Does over a quarter century to hone skills and let ideas marinate come through on Daydreaming in Moonlight?

Starting the album with the topical lyrics “Where we left off…” is pretty badass after so long, and it sets the stage for what’s to come. Daydreaming in Moonlight sounds like a time capsule, capturing the 90s prog metal effectively; importantly, this sounds like an Inner Strength album despite the generational hiatus. The chunky, bass-forward riffs are heavy and rocking like recent Fates Warning or Queensrÿche although the production is sleek with a modern hard rock edge. Guitarist Joe Marselle is the strongest performer and also the most retro with his keen ear for satisfying 90s melodies—particularly in his solos like at 3:30 in the title track—that just aren’t as common in progressive metal anymore, styling like a laid-back version of Petrucci. Justin Hosman’s bass also lays down a solid groove throughout the fifty-minute runtime, with his highlight in the almost Tool-like “Compelled,” his bass a presence like Justin Chancellor. The performers are all clearly skilled, but they don’t necessarily flaunt it like they used to.

On the whole, Daydreaming in Moonlight is a heck of a lot less energetic and technical than Shallow Reflections, Inner Strength relying more on atmosphere and simpler riffs to craft songs. The style doesn’t work quite as well, however, the frequent lack of progressive instrumentation making certain songs feel tepid (“Dearly Departed,” “Truth and Lies”). Stuttery progressive rhythms help the more mid-paced songs on occasion like “Face Another Hero,” but overall the album is more stereotypical than it should be of both prog metal and hard rock. Of course, to sound like you’re from the 90s you need some cliches like the saccharine guitar parts at the start of “Dearly Departed,” but Oliva’s vocals are the main hitch. His voice hasn’t aged super well, and he’s a bit rough around the edges now: a strained performance in the higher belting notes while also trying to sound gruff without success. He still writes solid vocal melodies (“Daydreaming in Moonlight,” “The Strength Within, Pt. 2”), but his range unsurprisingly isn’t what it was thirty years ago, and he writes lines as if he can still sing like that. When he leans into his falsetto or his melodic singing, he is far more successful than the tough-guy act. 

For shaking off the rust, Daydreaming in Moonlight is a serviceable platter of prog metal, but I certainly hoped Inner Strength would have a bit more energy for their rebirth with thirty years to practice and compose. A standalone highlight would have done wonders, too, as the ten minute closer “The Strength Within, Pt. 2” just isn’t epic enough to be memorable. In an industry dominated by quick turnarounds, I don’t know that Inner Strength have what it takes to remain relevant even now that they’re returned from the dead. It’s possible, but this is underwhelming even for their retro-prog metal audience (myself included). They desperately need to find some of their youthful exuberance again.

Recommended tracks: Daydreaming in Moonlight, Compelled
You may also like: Enchant, Shadow Gallery, Thought Chamber, Sieges Even, Psychotic Waltz, Sunrise Dreamer, Dali’s Dilemma, Inner Vitriol
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Divebomb Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Inner Strength is:
– Scott Oliva (vocals)
– Justin Hosman (bass)
– Joe Kirsch (drums)
– Joe Marselle (guitars)

The post Review: Inner Strength – Daydreaming in Moonlight appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cynic, (early) Fates Warning, Dream Theater
Country: Norway
Release date: 18 January 2000

Harsh vocal-tolerant people get all the fun. If you love technical music (with vocals), you’d best be prepared to tolerate screams, growls, and gurgles if you want irreverent shredding through time signatures and solos. We all know Dream Theater can blaze through scales and like to have a good old fashioned wank during their extended solo sections, but there’s something about technical death metal that emphasizes the outright skill of a musician even more than Dream Theater who still try and write songs. But as for clean vocal albums that capture the same unbelievably and unabashedly technical performances of the heavier styles, there are few options. Some of the old school tech thrash might scratch the itch; we have Eternity’s End who are power metal but also literally half of Obscura; and we have some of the OGs, Spiral Architect, taking the excessive tendencies of early Psychotic Waltz, turning up the bass, and playing it all faster.

Obviously, the instrumentals here are in a league of their own. Steiner Gundersen’s guitar parts dance around the twelve notes like Ron Jarzombek in impossibly twisted fashion. Underneath him, the rhythm attack of Asgeir Mickelson on drums and Lars Norberg on bass are the clear stars of A Sceptic’s Universe. Mickelson leads the group through rapidly fluctuating time signatures with apparent ease—his mind is clearly part metronome, and the autonomy of his limbs is stunning. Of course, most people who know Spiral Architect fell in love with the band because of Norberg’s bass, playing blazing hot bass licks with a jazz fusion tone and endless plucking precision. He stuffs more notes into every phrase than the average tech death bassist does in a solo; it’s truly among the most impressive bass performances in the history of prog, and he’s unrelenting in his bass speed and intensity for the entire forty-four minutes. Thankfully, such a performance is pushed extremely far forward in the mix, allowing Norberg to be the main instrumentalist throughout. His ethereal jazz tone transcends prog like in the second half of  “Excessit” or the crazy rhythms he swings through at 1:15 in “Insect.”

The final performer, Øyvind Hægeland on vocals, is an excellent fit in the band—although his voice is certainly an acquired taste—making Spiral Architect so unique among contemporaries and scene progeny alike. Wailing and a bit unwieldy, Hægeland’s clean singing is charming, occasionally showing off extreme skill, as well (3:23 in “Insect”). Nostalgia-inducing, the clean vocal style here makes it clear this album is from a bygone era of progressive metal, the golden age of the 90s (despite A Sceptic’s Universe releasing in January of 2000). They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. 

While stupidly techy, Spiral Architect’s A Sceptic’s Universe is still overtly melodic at all times, the riffs catchy. So many of the sections on this album are simply iconic: the main riff of “Spinning” with its harmonizing, the start of “Excessit” with the first face-melting bass attack, the flamenco-y bits of “Insect,” and, most legendary of all, the start of “Cloud Constructor” whose riff is the first which comes to mind for many Spiral Architect fans (I polled the ones I know). Far too technical to be grasped immediately, the riffs sink in within a couple listens nonetheless as some of the most memorable I’ve ever heard compared to those with an equal lack of instrumental restraint. 

Lost in time they may be, but Spiral Architect were the solution for tech death-sans-growling as far as I’m concerned, and they’re absolutely essential for any fan of earlier progressive metal; you can’t have a good 90s/00s collection without Spiral Architect. Most of the members of the band went off to partake in Norway’s various black metal bands, but they created a timeless masterpiece of prog on Spiral Architect’s one and only studio album… but not all is lost! In 2021, the gang got back together under the Terra Odium moniker and wrote an album in the same style, so perhaps there is a bright future where the new generation of prog metal fans knows the majesty of Spiral Architect (and/or Terra Odium) and their tech prog once again!

Recommended tracks: Spinning, Excessit, Insect, Cloud Constructor
You may also like: Terra Odium, Psychotic Waltz (first two), Watchtower, Twisted into Form, Control Denied, Spastic Ink, Blotted Science, Exivious, Sieges Even, Zero Hour, Eternity’s End, Aghora

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

Label: Sensory Records

Spiral Architect was:
– Lars Norberg (bass)
– Asgeir Mickelson (drums)
– Steiner Gundersen (guitars)
– Øyvind Hægeland (vocals)

The post Lost in Time: Spiral Architect – A Sceptic’s Universe appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: traditional progressive metal, symphonic metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Circus Maximus, Pagan’s Mind, Vande- wait WHAT
Country: Germany
Release date: 19 April, 2024

So Vanden Plas is probably the band I’ve listened to the most in my life, and it’s still somewhat surreal to me that I’m now reviewing an advance promo of their upcoming album. What’s even more surreal is that last year I somehow completely missed that their keyboard player Günter Werno actually left the band before releasing his solo album (which was my album of the year). Judging from the band’s Facebook post, they were just as shocked as I was as Günter left no statement about it whatsoever, and it’s their first and only lineup change since 1990. Replacing the man we now have Alessandro Del Vecchio on keys. He’s got big shoes to fill, so let’s see if his foot enlargement surgery was successful. 

Vanden Plas open by giving full spotlight to Alessandro’s keyboard work, working his way up from solemn piano playing to a dreamy synth texture which the rest of the band comes in on. His style is similar to Günter’s but he uses more retro sounding synth patches and his orchestration is a bit more ethereal in nature. From there on the riffs come in and we’re back in familiar Vanden Plas territory, made complete by Stephan Lill unleashing his familiar melodic shred. The title track functions as a prolonged overture, setting the stage with as much dramatic heft as the band can muster, unleashing a plethora of piercing, emotional solos and imposing symphonic metal sections. Andy Kuntz comes in belting halfway through for about a minute, making the song the closest thing to an instrumental the band has written since “Fire Blossom” on The God Thing. Vanden Plas may not experiment much compared to other bands in the genre, but it’s still nice to see them trying new things late in their career. 

In that regard, The Empyrean Equation feels fresh because it balances concision and ambition in a way they attempted but did not succeed in before. At only fifty-six minutes and six tracks, the album flies by; yet at the same time, they pull off an epic conceptual work and have penned their longest song to date. And of course, there are moments of songwriting magic aplenty, whether it be the majestic chorus of “Sanctimonarium” (that SANCTIMONARIUUUUMM refuses to SANCTIMONA- leave my brain a-SANCTIMO-lone), the gorgeous acoustic passage leading into the bridge of “The Sacrilegious Mind Machine,” or any of the many evocative, melodic solos that Stephan Lill pulls off effortlessly throughout, fellow melodic metal fans will have an absolute field day with this one. The newfound addition of Alessandro on backing vocal duties is also an incredible asset, as seen on the climaxes of “The Sacrilegious Mind Machine” and “March of the Saints.”

But you’re prog fans, so you want to know about the long song. “March of the Saints” develops from a normal chorus-driven song into increasingly symphonic and progressive territories. At ten minutes it seems to conclude with an epic finale, but instead it reprises the middle of the overture, pulling on your heartstrings one last time before bringing the album full circle Octavarium style with the same piano notes that opened it. I didn’t even notice the promo streaming had the auto replay option on by default on multiple occasions. The other two long songs SANCTIMONARIUUUUM and “The Sacrilegious Mind Machine” are similarly epic and journey-like in structure, both reaching career-defining highs in their best moments.

As a devout superfan of the band, I would love to continue waxing poetically about the album, but I also have a job (hobby) as a critic. The Empyrean Equation succeeds especially in its most vulnerable and melody driven moments, but it tends to falter when it comes to the riffs and the more straightforward prog sections. Not that Vanden Plas was ever a particularly riff driven band, but Stephan could pen some nasty ones when the song demanded it. Most riffs on the album are fine, but I found them lacking the sharp edge of the band’s former work, something which is particularly instantiated on “My Icarian Flight”, its mid-tempo hard rock main riff and plodding verse chugs failing to live up to the riff quality of previous rockers like “Holes in the Sky” or “Cold December Night.”  As for the prog, while executed with virtuosic proficiency, it does feel like Vanden Plas are going through the motions on occasion and those bits don’t always gel tonally with the album’s emotional, melodic side. As great as SANCTIMONARIUUUUUM is, the jam session six minutes in doesn’t quite match the epic, dramatic vibe of the rest of the song, and they repeat this strange jam sesh vibe s five minutes into “The Sacrilegious Mind Machine” before it’s pulled back by a sweet guitar solo. 

If you didn’t love Vanden Plas before then The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things is unlikely to change your mind. While they sometimes fall into autopilot, Vanden Plas also  show an honest desire to stretch their songwriting muscles to their creative limits resulting in far more fresh ideas than stale ones. I like to think of Vanden Plas as the musical equivalent of the ethos of being the best version of yourself rather than that of stepping out of your comfort zone. Is this their best work yet? Probably not, but it’s damn good either way.

Recommended tracks: SANCTIMONARIUUUUM, The Sacrilegious Mind Machine, March of the Saints
You may also like: Günter Werno, MORE VANDEN PLAS (see: The God Thing, Beyond Daylight, Christ 0), Shadow Gallery (Andy | reviewed | all | of | their | albums), Virgin Steele, Koyaanisqatsy (YouTube)
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Frontiers Music – Website | Facebook | YouTube

Vanden Plas is:
– Andy Kuntz (vocals)
– Stephan Lill (guitars)
– Torsten Reichert (bass)
– Andres Lill (drums)
– Alessandro del Vecchio (keyboards)

The post Review: Vanden Plas – The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Genres: Traditional progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Loudly dropping your weights at the gym, leaving your plates on the barbell when you’re done with the bench, Sons of Apollo, shallow philosophical musings
Country: United States
Release date: 15 March 2024

Ostensibly a spiritual successor of the now-defunct supergroup Sons of Apollo, Whom Gods Destroy takes two of the members remaining from the original five-piece, splices in three guest stars, and cobbles together this Frankenstein’s monster of a progressive metal album Insanium. Aptly titled, this directionless oeuvre alludes to greatness in the same way the made-up word “insanium” alludes to the future-tense of the Latin verb INSANIRE, “insaniam” – that is to say, it displays a middle-schooler’s idea of depth. Insanium is a dinner course served on a platter that shines with a mirror polish, the plating immaculate; but the dish lacking in anything nutritive. Not exactly haute-couture for prog metal, WGD seems rather an outlet for Bumblefoot’s, quite frankly, extraterrestrial ability on the doubleneck. 

The guitar playing on this album is mind-bendingly virtuosic, and simultaneously replete with the type of protruding-brow-ridge syncopated riffing that make any first-time gym-goer proudly want to leave his weights where they fall. If the man doesn’t let out that massive talent I suspect he’s sure to have an aneurysm. The lyrics meanwhile touch on war, death, and the human experience, in a way that is trite and devoid of subtlety: “Death we celebrate, as if it was something we were born for” – yawn – but vocalist Dino Jelusick’s stand-out performance can convincingly deliver a pseudo-intellectual dialogue that would give any sophomore philosophy student goosebumps. I first enjoyed Dino’s work with Michael Romeo on his War of the Worlds Pt. 2 release in 2022, so I was pleased to see him making an appearance in this project. On this release, Dino adds a lot of grit to his vocal performance, in contrast to Jeff Scott Soto’s decidedly more polished cleans. 

Sherinian’s keywork is the powerhouse melodic force of this outfit, creating atmospheric tension with his counterpoint lead melodies and ethereal background elements – I highlight the track “Crawl” for his unnerving, discordant harmonic leads that transition later into distinct melodic chord voicings to deliver a very satisfying sense of resolution. His patch choices never come across as artless or haphazard. I find that his tones are especially engaging, specifically the ones he uses to emulate an electric guitar when trading solos with Bumblefoot. The guy’s a master synth programmer; he dials these sounds in with a specific purpose and they nail it – and cut through the mix extremely well.

On the rhythm side you have Bruno Valverde of Angra fame manning the drums, and bass player Yas Nomura from The Resonance Project. Being a longtime fan of Angra I’m intimately familiar with Valverde’s chops and I dare say he’s underutilized on this release. Bruno’s lightning-fast and precise technique was hardly showcased at all on this album, which really didn’t feature a speedy track for him to go off on. Something in the vein of but not completely like Angra’s discography wouldn’t have gone totally amiss – I mean, it’s not like the two Sons of Apollo discs didn’t have their fair share of then-drummer Mike Portnoy’s off-and-on-again band’s influence. But I digress. Bruno does his duty but never gets too creative with it. On the other hand, I have little and less to say of bassist Nomura, whose role is mostly relegated to beefing up the low end and who wasn’t given an opportunity to truly flex his fingers until he was given a quick solo bass run in the latter half of the album on “Hypernova 158”.

Overall, I think the songwriting on this release can feel a bit uninspiring. The tracks seldom ever really pick up from a slow-to-midtempo pace until the aforementioned “Hypernova 158”, an instrumental piece which sits at about 160bpm (or perhaps 158?). Aside from the typical instrumental mastery we’ve come to expect from the two titans Sherinian and Bumblefoot who were the primary songwriters, there isn’t much that stands out here. There was a certain songwriting ability that I feel Portnoy brought to the previous iteration of this group that is notably lacking. It’s not that the album is bad necessarily, but some of the tracks tend to blend into one another with a similar tonality and structure – intense throughout the start and middle, then with a slow part that comes in about 2/3rds to 3/4s of the way through before picking back up in the final 100yds – and it starts to feel a bit predictable. Not very progressive of ’em to find a convention and stick with it.

Insanium telegraphs “hear how well we can play” and doesn’t back it up with the writing. I hesitate to even want to call this a first offering since it’s hardly different sonically from SOA’s two albums, although tonally darker – and less complex in arrangement and lyrical direction – but nevertheless for a debut from such talented and established musicians it barely manages to leave a lasting impression. It’s heavy for this style of prog, sure, and masterfully played… but ultimately it failed to resonate with me. Honestly not sure if they’ll keep it going after this album, so I shook my Magic 8 Ball: “outlook not so good.” 

Recommended tracks: Crawl, Crucifier, Insanium
You may also like: Stone Leaders, Temic, Nospun
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Official Website

Label: InsideOut Music – Facebook | Official Website

Whom Gods Destroy is:
– Dino Jelusick (vocals)
– Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (guitars)
– Derek Sherinian (keyboards)
– Bruno Valverde (drums)
– Yas Nomura (bass)

The post Review: Whom Gods Destroy – Insanium appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Genres: progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Haken
Country: Lebanon
Release date: 8 March 2024

I recall being vaguely aware of Turbulence’s prior album Frontal at the time it came out, but it didn’t enter regular listening rotation for me until I picked it up essentially as research for this review. After all, where’s the fun if I don’t get to compare old to new? The thing is, Frontal is really good! So as we judge another up-and-coming traditional progressive metal artist to see how they mature over time, all the typical questions rise to the surface: Have they improved? Gotten worse? Totally and inexplicably changed their style? Read on to find out!

Traditional progressive metal bands rarely act shy about being influenced by Dream Theater, but Turbulence seem especially open about it. Binary Dream features three whole instrumental tracks to make sure we all know just how great they are at playing their instruments, and all of those tracks—as well as to a lesser extent the smaller instrumental breaks from the songs featuring vocals—feel like they were written to the template of Dream Theater’s infamous instrumental masterpiece “The Dance of Eternity,” a legacy to which every composer in the scene still aspires. The main instrumental outing “Manifestations” especially calls its illustrious predecessor to mind with constant shifts between different keys, moods, and time signatures. Fortunately, whether or not it quite meets the standards of its ancestors, Binary Dream stands perfectly well on its own merits. It’s dynamic, it’s complex, and most importantly, it doesn’t get mired in chasing those elements solely out of a belief that they should be there. Every moment has a purpose and a place, allowing the peaks of complexity to get in, do their thing, and get out of the way.

Indeed, I would say Turbulence’s greatest strength is songwriting, which feels like a rare strength here in the underground, and as such, it seems more and more like that quality is the number one thing that draws me to some artists over others. Turbulence’s layering of instruments and their juxtaposition of complex rhythms leads to some really exquisite musical moments. Although “Manifestations” and the lengthy title track stand out most as examples of such strenuous structuring, it’s the next song “Hybrid” which really shows how their chops are best applied to a single song. Despite being shorter, “Hybrid” most successfully showcases the band’s capabilities, with nimble transitions and compact sections which make their impact up front without needing to bash the listener over head with mind-bending complexity. It’s also nice to see some overarching compositional consideration throughout Binary Dream, with periodic callbacks to the intro track’s pulsing, sci-fi keyboard opening keeping a thread of cohesion to tie it all together.

The prominence of keyboard from Turbulence reminds me a lot of Ions, with both bands using that extra instrumental layer to stand out a little more from their closest competitors, and as a bridge to allow other musical influences like pop and electronica to work their way into the instrumental foundation without feeling out of place. Although it may begin to feel rote after not just Ions but also TEMIC put out strong albums in a similar style last year, I still find it miles more refreshing than the “pure djent” instrumental albums that drop into the underground space week after week, or even other traditional prog artists, which frequently feel just as uninspired even if slightly less sonically uniform. Between the talents of keyboardist Mood Yassin and guitarist Alain Ibrahim (who also played on Ostura’s opus The Room, which, no, I will never shut up about), it would be hard to find a generic performance within Binary Dream; it’s all uniquely memorable.

For a concept album, I’m not especially impressed with the lyrics. Although it’s fine, even expected, for such an album to not always make literal sense in its expressions, Binary Dream feels particularly caught in the pitfall of collecting quasi-profound lyrics which aspire to some deep meaning, but fail both to evoke any specific emotion from the audience and to tell any clear story that can be followed as a unified narrative. Luckily, the vocal part can still be saved by performance. Omar El Hage’s voice, extremely reminiscent of Fredrik Klemp from Maraton and TEMIC or Christian Ayala from Avandra as it stretches into the upper registers, doesn’t always carry the heftiest substance, but does offer a unique instrumental element to add to the mix. And like those other bands, the careful incorporation of his vocal tone into their palette gives Turbulence’s music a unique character which even better suits their more developed production than it did previously.

Turbulence have matured and improved their presentation and polish considerably since 2021’s Frontal. Where their prior effort at times felt busy and overcrowded with too many minor, inconsequential parts laid on top of one another and distracting from the overall presentation, Binary Dream more often than not finds the perfect middle ground where such layering can create a feeling of depth without becoming muddled or overwhelming. I think what’s missing is just some kind of secret spice, that ineffable element which hooks right into the audience’s emotional responses to elevate a technically excellent recording like this to the level of a uniquely compelling experience or even a masterpiece. At least, even without it, we still get an engaging, high quality album, whose complex instrumental noodlings should soothe anyone else feeling angsty about how long ago Metropolis Pt. 2 came out.

Recommended tracks: Theta, Manifestations, Binary Dream, Hybrid
You may also like: TEMIC, Ions, Avandra, Maraton, Ostura
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Frontiers Music – Website | Facebook | YouTube

Turbulence is:
– Omar El Hage (vocals)
– Alain Ibrahim (guitars)
– Mood Yassin (keyboards)
– Morgan Berthet (drums)
– Anthony Atwe (bass)

The post Review: Turbulence – Binary Dream appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Genres: traditional progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Seventh Wonder, Circus Maximus, Dream Theater, Rush
Country: Norway
Release date: 8 March 2024

When reviewing  bands as underground as we do, it’s always a nice change of pace to review a band who, above all else, are just really good at the whole making music business. No “diamond in the rough” nonsense, just plain old professionally performed and recorded music. In the traditional prog metal landscape a band like this especially gets me going because: one) it’s my favorite style of prog; and two) if you’ve spent any time on Metal-Archives digging for new music like I have, you’ll know that there is a lot of mediocrity out there (as well as my eternal rival, Tom de Wit, but that’s a story for another day). 

Which brings us to Vicinity, a Norwegian band who take forever to release new music, and moreover, defy genre stereotypes by showing an ineptitude at math, given that VIII is only the band’s IIIrd album since their inception in 2006. To offset these cultural offenses, the band compensated by displaying an exquisite sense of prog metal fashion (band photo below), displaying a clean turtleneck and tightly fitting shirts, a sharp facial hair game (would you look at that mustache on the right), and a proper balance between baldness and carefully stylized haircuts. Oh what’s this? They also make music, you say? Yeah, I guess that’s more important, and, luckily, they’re pretty good at it too!

Right out of the gate, Vicinity show you that they mean business. They’ve got a professional mix that brings an older sound into the modern era, tastefully incorporating 80s style synths without the kitsch, and riffs that bring to mind 90s Dream Theater but with a much fuller, weightier tone. The band play their asses off in classic prog metal fashion doing all the intricate tempo and mood shifts we’ve come to know and love, but always keep room for melody, whether that is a lead synth, a guitar solo, or a vocal line, the band constantly keeps you engaged with ear candy. And they manage to do so without the slightest loss of complexity! Take opener “Promised Paradise,” for example. It does have a chorus, but it’s not given the typical weight in the mix, and the song goes through so many diverse moods and instrumental wizardry during its near twelve minute runtime that the song almost feels through-composed instead.

Continuing on, VIII proves to be a dazzling experience. Deliciously melodic lead play fills every pore of this record, and the drummer is no slouch when it comes to showing off either. Vicinity probably once heard Mike Portnoy say “My style is basically ‘more is more’” and then made that their mantra. The tones of their instruments are godly too: the guitars sound pristine, the drums strike a great balance between an earthy and a polished sound, the bass pops and is very forward in the mix, and, lastly, the bright synth tones are arguably what defines this record the most as VIII is truly drenched in both background and lead synths. On one hand, this mixing choice is essential in giving the band their identity in a saturated (sub-)subgenre, but on the other hand, it’s also where the problems begin.

While extremely dynamic on the surface, VIII has a strange homogeneity in its totality. For starters, the constant drenching in synths flatlines a lot of the tonal variety on the album. Take the tapping part halfway through “Confusion Reactor.” The idea is phenomenal, but the guitars are too far behind the synths to make a notable impact on the overall sound design. Sometimes keyboardist Ivar Nyland will pull out a diverse sound palette, such as the spacy synths on “The Singularity” or the piano break on “Distance,” but most of the time his patches are the typical Dream Theater type sounds but without the diversity and creativity that makes Jordan Rudess such a good sound designer. Only the heaviest of riffs are given the space to take over the synths, but given that they’re in a standard style for the genre, they don’t give as much variety to the album as I wish they did despite their quality.

The other aspect I really have to discuss are the vocals. Erling Malm has a beautiful voice with a strong crooning quality and pristine timbre very similar to Tommy Karevik (ex–Seventh Wonder (IT’S A TRAGEDY, I KNOW), modern Kamelot). He structures his vocal lines in a similarly difficult way to John Arch (early Fates Warning) in that he can run off with the melody independently while somehow still fitting with the instrumentals, resulting in less overtly catchy melodies than you’d expect for the style. My problem with his voice though is that he’s just rather meek, having the tone and the harmony, but not the grit or the range or the daring vocal runs that make my hairs stand on end. He’s like Ross Jennings (Haken, Novena) in that way (albeit with a better timbre): perfectly competent, but lacking the necessary edge that I want in a singer. Finally, he doesn’t get a whole lot of space in the mix amidst the instruments, homogenizing the album even further. Often I’ll barely even notice a chorus when it appears because of the synth drenching.

When I first started listening to VIII, I thought I had a potential album of the year contender on my hands for the playing and production is of an astounding level. Upon closer scrutiny, however, that turned out not to be the case. I love a lot of what they’re doing, but I need more diversity of sounds and less synth drenching. For those unbothered by my complaints, I can easily see VIII ending up on more than a few end of year lists. For me though, I will look forward to what they’ll come up with for their fourth album in 2030, tentatively titled: IX.

Recommended tracks: Promised Paradise, Confusion Reactor, Shape of Life
You may also like: Triton Project, The Pulse Theory, Pyramid Theorem, Universe Effects, Daydream XI
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Uprising! Records – Facebook | Official Website

Vicinity is:
– Erling Malm (vocals)
– Kim-Marius H. Olsen (guitars)
– Ivar A. Nyland (keyboards)
– Pierre Nicolai Schmidt-Melbye (bass)
– Frode Lillevold (drums)

The post Review: Vicinity – VIII appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: traditional progressive metal, symphonic metal (mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ayreon, Nightwish, Dream Theater, Redemption
Review by: Sam
Country: The Netherlands
Release date: 24 November 2023

I’ve always had a mixed relation to music from my own country. For some reason, nearly every melodic rock/metal group from The Netherlands has a symphonic sound with the same blunt, “wooden” (as we would call it in Dutch) singing style (although that might just be my native accent shame). Tom de Wit historically has been both of these, but he’s always made up for it by sheer creativity. His solo work under the TDW moniker is an inconsistent bag of high highs and low lows, but with Dreamwalkers Inc,he has a full band and has so far provided a more concise experience; I still revisit their debut First Re-Draft at least semi-regularly, so you can imagine my shock to see him back with an album that’s eighty-six minutes long (literally twice the length of First Re-Draft). Did De Wit make it work this time or has he once again eschewed all self-editing?

The first thing that struck me about The First Tragedy of Klahera is that the production has taken a big hit. The individual elements are all there, but they don’t come together in a nice way. The vocals are too far back in the mix besides when they’re singing in choir, the guitars have a thick tone but somehow manage to sound both too loud and too thin; the bass is hard to pick out; and the drums sound canned. Klahera is not unlistenable by any means, but the resulting mix is strangely hollow which doesn’t bode well for an album this long, and uneven mastering doesn’t help things either.

What does help things is the variety of the record. Whereas the debut First Re-Draft stayed clearly within the confines of symphonic prog metal, Klahera shows all the eclecticism De Wit so far has reserved for his solo project. He takes more risks in his compositions, often putting disparate ideas together in the same song: fast thrash riffs, choirs, midtempo melodic hard rock, industrial touches, Floydian atmosphere, and more all permeate his symphonic prog metal based sound in opener “Justice, My Tragedy,” and we see a similar playing with moods in other cuts. Vocally it’s no longer just De Wit and his choir, but now Radina Dimcheva has ascended to lead vocal duties as well. Unfortunately, she suffers the most from poor mixing, being buried so deep in the sound that making out what she’s singing is difficult, which is a shame because she has a wonderfully smooth voice.

Delving further into the vocals… god, the vocals. It’s beating a dead horse at this point, but De Wit is just so out there that I have to talk about it. He’s a technically proficient singer – don’t get me wrong – but his accent is Louis van Gaal levels of thick, and he has this very Dutch way of singing where he over-articulates each and every letter while using a flat tone for nearly every syllable, and it drives me NUTS – for the mathematicians here, his singing is like looking at a histogram instead of the graph of a smooth function – yet at the same time, I find his voice weirdly endearing. He has a real talent for writing memorable vocal melodies and he compensates for his “wooden” delivery with sincerity and passion that somehow comes through regardless. It reminds me of how Fabio Lione managed to sound convincing on early Rhapsody despite his many faults as a singer. Speaking of Rhapsody, Dreamwalkers Inc uses cheesy spoken word sections at the end of each song to transition into the next one, a strategy which is, well… a choice.

The riffing style of this band is very 80s; the type that your Metallica-loving dad would raise the horns to and say “yeah! These are so metal! \m/” but they sound largely outdated in the current prog metal scene, and similar goes to the classic heavy metal harmonies the band employs. The guitarwork is enjoyable, sure, but I have a hard time envisioning any of these riffs or harmonies making the cut on the best works of the bands they were inspired by. 

The biggest elephant in the room is, of course, the length. Unlike many of my colleagues, I’m not against long albums in principle since a double album is a different artform that is more about the journey than the destination, rather akin to a podcast than to a condensed video essay. With Klahera I was mostly having a good time. I found myself charmed by many of the softer, folkier bits such as the shanty vibe on “Celebrations,” as well as the explosiveness found in many of the guitar solos and in the power metal-inspired tracks like “Despicable” or “Discovery.”  Choral harmonies, which are generally done tastefully, are also a key feature of De Wit’s music. Special mention should go to the epic “Mother Dearest” for its many twists and spectacular build-up to its climax on a waltz rhythm. My only real issue in regards to length is that on the closing epic, “Chain of Consequence,” the story takes over the music, meandering around until it fizzles out on a meek “to be continued” instead of a clear cut ending following a sweeping finale. 

I often cringe at the bluntness of De Wit’s artistry, but his sincerity, melody-writing, and creativity are very charming. The First Tragedy of Klahera is a very ambitious record with many polarizing elements. I have a hard time envisioning it appealing to most younger prog metal fans because of the old school elements and cheese factor, but if you enjoy some cheese and don’t mind long albums, it’s a record worth sinking your teeth into.

Recommended tracks: Broken Puzzle Pieces, Mother Dearest, Discovery
You may also like: TDW, Flaming Row, Beyond the Bridge
Final verdict: 5/10

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

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

Dreamwalkers Inc is:
– Tom de Wit (vocals, keyboards)
– Radina Dimcheva (vocals)
– Lennert Kemper (guitars, vocals)
– Norbert Veenbrink (guitars)
– Björn van der Ploeg (bass)
– Sander van Elferen (drums)

With guests:
– Otto Kokke (saxophone on track 9)

And choir:
– Iris de Boer
– Holly Frances Royle
– Rich Gray
– Rania Bailey
– Richard De Geest
– Jeroen Nels

The post Review: Dreamwalkers Inc – The First Tragedy of Klahera appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive metal, power metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Symphony X, Evergrey
Review by: Sam
Country: Italy
Release date: 17 November, 2023

Ah, DGM, one of the most consistent bands to have come out of the 2000s prog-power scene. Unlike many of their peers, they didn’t spontaneously combust once the 2010s rolled around (looking at you, Pagan’s Mind, Circus Maximus) but kept on releasing high quality music. In fact, due to increased production values and polish of their compositions, I would argue that they became even better. Hence I was quite surprised to see them below our monthly listener cap of 20k on Spotify despite just releasing a new album, Life. Sucks for them, but for me it’s a blessing because I get to review their stuff.

To people already familiar with the band, they probably already know what this is going to sound like. To those who aren’t, let me explain you the DGM formula: open your song with a face melting riff, transition into a groovy rock riff for the verse, up the ante for a huge sing along chorus, repeat this two times, unleash some insane melodic shred in the bridge (and maybe a heartfelt verse or two in between), bring back the chorus and close the song with the intro riff. Repeat this 10 times in slightly different variations and you have yourself a DGM album. Sounds maybe not too exciting, but trust me, they make it work.

So, Life. Of course, it’s more of the same, but unlike on Tragic Separation, they’ve given the formula a new dressing and largely stopped reusing riffs from previous albums. The riffs are chunkier, the bass is more prominent, and a couple of other fresh ideas rear their heads. Take “The Calling” for example. It heavily takes after modern Evergrey with its darker, hefty riffs, lead bass in its smooth, soulful verses, and a solemn piano outro. Naturally, its chorus has the trademark DGM soaring melodies and its bridge has an insane guitar solo, but the novel elements make them stand out more. “Second Chance” further embraces those heavier riffs, even introducing the pick scrape in the bridge. “Eve” also stands out as an instrumental song, which I don’t think they’ve done before. 

But let’s not kid ourselves, it’s still a DGM album at the end of the day, for better or worse. “To the Core” is probably the most DGM song to have ever DGM’d, built on their trademark killer riffing style, commanding vocal presence of Mark Basile, and a proggy bridge in which guitars and keys go on a shred tradeoff amidst odd time wizardry. About half the songs follow the classic formula, and for those that experiment more plenty of familiar elements remain. And that’s the beauty of this band. DGM is just fantastic at their craft, pulling off jaw-dropping musicianship and stuffing multiple memorable hooks in each song. I could highlight almost any riff, solo, or vocal hooks these guys come up with, but some that stood out to me in particular were the extended journey of a guitar solo in “Second Chance,” the crunchy riffage in “Dominate,” the chorus of “Leave All Behind,” or the breathy verses in closer “Neuromancer.” 

I have little else to say at this point. With Life, DGM have delivered another great album that’s a clear step up from Tragic Separation. Now, it probably won’t convince anyone who wasn’t already convinced of their quality, but for the fans of the band the little flourishes on the formula make this a winner. I’ll be keeping this in rotation for quite some time.

Recommended tracks: The Calling, Dominate, Leave All Behind
You may also like: Manticora, Anubis Gate, Noveria
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Frontiers Records – Facebook | Official Website

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

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