Style: free jazz, avant-garde drone, Hindustani classical music, ritual ambient (mostly instrumental, clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Sunn O))), Sun Ra, Ravi Shankar
Country: Belgium
Release date: 11 April 2025

Art is subjecti… shut the fuck up. My viewpoint is certainly colored by being a reviewer, but while the enjoyment of art is subjective, I certainly believe that there are objective qualities to the form. The Belgian collective Neptunian Maximalism (NNMM) released one of the best and most important experimental albums of the 20s thus far, Éons. While I do find it a pleasure to listen to on occasion, at three disks long and about two hours of free jazz/drone metal/ritual ambient, simply considering another listen sometimes feels nauseating. But removed from the plane of subjectivities like taste (preferring to listen to a shorter album, for instance), Éons is genre redefining, taking drone metal to the zenith of its creativity and then some. With several engaging and trippy live releases since then, the collective have released their newest live-ish work, La Sacre du Soleil Invaincu (LSDSI). Listening to LSDSI is practically a spiritual experience. NNMM lived in St John’s on Bethnal Green church in London for four days to integrate themselves within the space, to meld with its architecture and energy. Over the course of that stay, LSDSI was born. While it’s guaranteed to be a difficult listen, does LSDSI reach the objectively amazing heights NNMM attained in 2020?

Like Éons, LSDSI is an intimidating triple album comprised of three classical Hindustani ragas¹: Marwa, Todi, and Bairagi, interpreted by NNMM as “Dusk,” “Arcana,” and “Dawn,” respectively. Its music is ecstatic, thrumming with an indescribable energy; that NNMM were divinely inspired by their sanctuarial sojourn is clear, yet unlike Éons, LSDSI doesn’t wield a chaotic, primordial energy with brusque free jazz and tribal ambient. In place of the power of nature—Éons details an apocalyptic event—is the power of a deity (or deities). The Church-setting of the recording is translated by the Hindustani overtones—music for the soul. Meditative classical passages such as at the first movement of “Arcana” are not merely imitations of traditional Indian music; project supervisor Sundip Balraj Singh Aujla as well as the instrumental masterminds behind NNMM all have experience with the medium—I’d recommend Czlt, Hindustani drone metal project of NNMM’s guitarist, vocalist, trumpeter, and zurna and surbahar player, Guillaume Cazalet. He is a true student of the tradition.

Along with the Hindustani classical music sections, heavy guitar drones reverberating through the Church form the base of NNMM’s sound, upon which the collective painstakingly layer a variety of other instruments to perfect their sonic tapestry, including a diverse collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian instruments: electric saz, daf, zurna, and surbahar. LSDSI is improvisational, too, letting whatever divine muse resides in St John’s on Bethnal Green use them as a mouthpiece, yet NNMM always remain grounded in the ragas. 

Starting with “At Dusk : Raag Marwa,” the plot of all three tracks is unveiled—slowly. While the larger-than-life, rapturous crescendos, such as the vocals seven minutes into “Vilambit Laya Alaap” or the faster-paced metal in the second movement “Drut Laya, Chaotic Polyphonic Taan Combinations” in “Arcana” are divine, so many of the album’s hundred minutes are vacuous buildups serving only as a way to set the stage. It’s difficult to call them pointless; they have meditative power and are clearly integral to NNMM’s experience of the Church and the live performance. However, the length of time between noteworthy sections grows tedious almost immediately. The guitar tones are your average drone, and drone they do, typically without accompaniment from enough of the ensemble to maintain my attention more than a Sunn O))) album would. Even when the rest of the collective joins the fray, the result can still be incredibly arduous to get through, the longform compositions a bit too challenging. The second and third movements of “At Dawn” are incredibly satisfying when they hit, the grumbling electric bass and stoner-y guitar parts giving way to rapturous vocal parts; but I can’t help but compare these moments to Wyatt E.’s stellar tribal drone release from January which accomplished as much spiritually captivating drone… in a third of the time commitment of LSDSI. The highs on LSDSI match any drone release ever—listen to the buildup of “At Dawn” culminating in “Sthayi & Antara Composition”—but with so much empty space as a fan not present in the Church during the recording, the album seems impossible to approach. 

I don’t think that LSDSI is an objective masterpiece like Éons, and it’s certainly also a difficult album to turn on unless you like meditating to distortion—in which case, LSDSI is right for you. However, LSDSI is still worth listening to, capturing the energy and power of a spiritual place and only further cementing the group at the top of my bucket-list of bands to see live. NNMM are clearly one of the most forward-thinking groups in metal, and I look forward to what they offer us next, even if it’ll certainly be a hefty time commitment of ambitious and challenging music.

Recommended tracks: Arcana, At Dawn
You may also like: Wyatt E., Zaaar, Czlt, Sol
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: I, Voidhanger Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Neptunian Maximalism is:
Stephane Fedele : Drums, Gong
Didié Nietzsch : Synthetiser, iPads
Romain Martini : Rythm Electric Guitar
Reshma Goolamy : Electric Bass Guitar, Vocals
Joaquin Bermudez : Electric Saz, Ebowed Electric Guitar, Daf
Guillaume Cazalet : Lead Electric Guitar, Vocals, Trumpet, Zurna, Surbahar

1. A raga is the underlying structure of Hindustani classical music, each one containing specific motifs allowing the musician to improvise on a provided melodic framework. The theory behind Indian classical music is vastly different from Western classical but extremely interesting. Please feel free to read up on it here! ︎

The post Review: Neptunian Maximalism – Le Sacre du Soleil Invaincu (LSDSI) appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Doom metal, psychedelic rock, tribal ambient (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Om, Lowen, Earth
Country: Belgium
Release date: 10 January 2025

It’s the day after the 31st Akitu festival under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II. The image of the full harvest moon is hardly a blur in your mind as you reel from a sikaru-induced hangover, hazily etching a formal complaint about a shiesty copper deal into your stone tablet underneath a date palm. Your friend stumbles over his words to yet again tell you about the funniest joke he heard the other day from a guy in Eshnunna about a dog walking into a tavern. You look up briefly from your tablet to locate the sound of muffled yelling, catching a glimpse of a figure slipping into a narrow alleyway out of the corner of your eye. A guard approaches you, asking if you’ve seen anyone run this way, to which you respond, ‘𒋫 𒀠 𒇷 𒅅 𒈠 𒋫 𒀝 𒁉 𒀀 𒄠’. Perturbed, the guard moves on in his pursuit and you continue etching out your tirade. Welcome to Babylon, crown jewel of Sumer and the setting of Belgian psych rock outfit Wyatt E.’s latest release, Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu, Part 1 (Roughly, Songs From the Temple Tower in Akkadian). Wyatt E.’s compositions explore Babylon’s seedy underbelly, chronicling the struggles of its captured peoples. Does Zamāru successfully conjure melodies from Marduk’s¹ towers on high, or am I gonna have to write another stone-tablet tirade to the gods?

With a droning psychedelic rock base, Wyatt E. incorporate heavy doom metal and a hefty chunk of modern Near East tonality into Zamāru’s soundscapes.² Evoking a dire atmosphere is the name of the game: compositions rarely focus on riffs, instead meditating on ominous ideas that build into unfathomably heavy climaxes, evoking the feeling of hostile forces lurking around every corner. Even in its quieter moments, like “The Diviner’s Prayer to the Gods of the Night”, hushed and tense instrumentation pair with the prayer’s urgent prose to prevent the listener from fully basking under the otherwise languid starlight. Second track “About the Culture of Death” is particularly cinematic in its approach, using strings and booming drumwork to lead into tumbling rhythms, evoking wide-pan shots of a bellicose ancient city.

Zamāru is bookended by two mammoth atmospheric tracks, “Qaqqari lā Târi, Part 1”³ and “Ahanu Ersetum” (roughly, “To Another Place on Earth”), with smaller tracks interspersed between. Both pieces start small with amorphous soundscaping and well up into gigantic rock passages, exploding with buzzing guitar drones that overwhelm the listener by sheer force. On Zamāru, however, it’s the small things that count: more concise tracks “Im Lelya” and “The Diviner’s Prayer to the Gods of Night” commit wholly to atmospherics while relying on engaging percussion and melodics to evoke foreboding ancient imagery. Additionally, these tracks feature guest vocalists which help to centralize and focus Wyatt E.’s ideas magnificently. “Im Lelya”⁴ features an ethereal performance by Tomer Damsky over gentle and hypnotic percussion before the track quickly escalates into fuzzy doom riffage, and “The Diviner’s Prayer to the Gods of the Night” gives Lowen’s Nina Saeidi creative room to channel an ancient Babylonian prayer through a modern Iranian lens.⁵ The end result in both cases is stunning, evocative, and appropriately grim.

In comparison to the fabulously composed shorter tracks, the more extended pieces are serviceable but ultimately not mind-blowing—their atmospherics are without a doubt enjoyable; the buildups are logical; and they sit nicely within the album’s setting; but ultimately, they meander for a bit too long and lose focus before reaching their ends. Although both “Qaqqari lā Târi” and “Ahanu Ersetum” have excellent climaxes, in this atmospheric / post-metal style of songwriting, the climax partially depends on a good buildup, and when we’ve arrived at the heights of these tracks, I can’t remember for the life of me how we even got there. I would love to see a more pronounced direction on the more atmospheric tracks in Wyatt E.’s future works, similar to Zamāru’s shorter pieces.

With stunning highs and still good but comparatively middling lows, Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu, Part 1 is an effortlessly unique take on droning doom metal and psychedelic rock, infusing a tasty Near East vibe into its hostile soundscapes. Aided by talented guest vocalists, Wyatt E. conjure imagery of an idyllic ancient city with a seedy underbelly. Despite occasional flubs in the execution of longer tracks, Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu, Part 1 will without a doubt have you saying ‘𒀸 𒁍 𒊏 𒄠 𒈠’ by its end.

Recommended tracks: The Diviner’s Prayer to the Gods of the Night, Im Lelya, Ahanu Ersetum
You may also like: Sunnata, Zaum, Neptunian Maximalism, Uulliata Digir, The Ruins of Beverast
Final verdict: 7.5/10

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

Label: Heavy Psych Sounds – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Wyatt E. is:
– Gil Chevigné (drums, percussion)
– Jonas Sanders (drums, percussion)
– Stéphane Rondia (guitars, synths, vocals)
– Sébastien von Landau (guitars, bass, synth, vocals)
– Amalija Kokeza (viola)
– Tomer Damsky (session vocals)
– Nina Saeidi (session vocals)

1. Marduk here referring to the patron god of Babylon, not the Swedish black metal band. ︎
2. Interestingly enough, the prevailing musicological theory is that the maqam tonal framework associated with modern Near East music did not originate in Mesopotamia, but was likely inspired by Greek experimentation in tonality. Additionally, the ‘classically western’ heptatonic scale is thought to have have been brought to Europe later from Mesopotamia. ︎
3. This roughly translates to “Descent Into the Otherworld”, based on a Mesopotamian story about the goddess Ishtar traveling to the Underworld. ︎
4. A reference to an ancient Hebrew fable describing four beasts which destroy four separate cities, one of which includes Babylon. ︎
5. I did a deep dive on this in my recent Wardruna review regarding modern music that takes inspiration from historical ideas, so check that out for a further elaboration of my thoughts. ︎

The post Review: Wyatt E. – Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu, Part 1 appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: blackgaze, atmospheric black metal, folk black metal, post-metal, new age (mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Alcest, Summoning, Myrkur
Country: Ethiopia
Release date: 5 December 2024

The pseudonym for a shaman whose true name is unpronounceable to humankind, Enat Meret resides in a realm of pure energy where she guides those lost in darkness. Her world pulses with resonant powers, the spiritual and corporeal no longer separated, flowing in streams of liquid light. Here, music is a vitalistic force, as alive as you or I, its energy as awesome as a god’s. She desires to bring her power to Earth so that we once again become one entangled force with our mother planet we have divorced ourselves from before we further effect a cataclysm of Solarian proportion; she is also a vocalist. Cosmic black metal act Nishaiar, dwellers of the Portals of Zenadaz, are her prophet, their music seeking to bridge the two realms. 

How could a band ever live up to the promise of music with the potential to unite mankind and reacquaint our species with our ravaged planet—that their music is from a universe of pure photonic energy? I’ve known that Nishaiar had the potential for a few years; I adore the Ethiopian band’s “terrestrial year 2021” output, Nahaxar, and I think that album—with its characteristic and unique blend of wall-of-sound post-metal, atmospheric black metal, and tribalistic chants and percussion—could conceivably have emanated from some nacreous Shambhala. Nahaxar was at once apocalyptic with its overwhelming climaxes but in the end always kept a sense of hope for the purpose of humanity through its humanistic folk in the wonderful post-crescendo sections. Although Nahaxar didn’t quite reach the limitlessness that the description of Enat Meret promises, I could easily imagine the band evolving to harness her powers fully. At any moment after turning on Enat Meret the first time, I expected a voltaic shock from the otherworldly black metal as Enat Meret’s voice and prophets transformed me in my blindness into a world of new colors divorced from my fleshly confines: it never came.

At odds with the spiritually and musically intense thematics, the sixth album from the Gondar-based group takes a more relaxed approach than does Nahaxar, operating in a style closer to new age-y post-rock than to black metal for much of its hour-long runtime. Not until the third track “Yemelek” does Enat Meret culminate in anything more than unexcitable post-rock, and the stuttering synths and weak, reverb-y female vocals of Lycus Aeternus, Enat Meret, or Lord of Zenadadz (I do not know which of the three members credited with vocals does what) are redolent of Myrkur’s weakest album, Spine. “Yemelek” with its huge wall of black metal, celestial and angelic chanting, and trumpets, however, is immensely satisfying despite the too-long buildup of the first two songs. The latter half of the track features a deluge of percussion like a meteor shower and even a sax solo, which while a little out of place timbrally, is well-composed in context. A few other tracks reach similar blackened highs—“Enat Midir” and “Heyan” notably—and these tracks stand out amid the stream of folky new age and frail shoegaze-y post-metal similar to Alcest’s Les Chants de l’Aurore.

The lack of metal in the rest of the tracklist significantly takes away from the impact of Enat Meret, noticeably the enervated female vocals which only work in juxtaposition with the mostly absent harsh vocals. I would expect and desire Enat Meret’s realm to positively burst with explosive force like Sunyata or Mare Cognitum when translated to Earthly music by her conduit Nishaiar; the plaintive ambient folk is lovely but slightly boring in its placidity. Within these atmospheric tracks, some styles work better than others: for instance, the hypnotic percussion of “Netsa” plays into the band’s Ethiopian origins without being trope-y, but “Alem” is slow and rather bland post-rock. Moreover, Enat Merat is fairly bloated, and if the album were ten tracks rather than fifteen, cutting out several of the filler tracks between the black metal ones, the buildups before the releases would be less tedious. 

Additionally, on Nahaxar, the flow between metal, post-rock, and folk music worked well thematically. Massive swells of black metal heralded calamity with civilization-destroying force; then in the aftermath, post-rock provided a delicate release of tension, a stillness to peacefully contemplate; the folk segments from the cradle of humanity provided a glimpse into a rebuilding, stripped of distortion and, by extension, technology, returned to Earth as it were; finally, the cycle would repeat. Hubris is the way of mankind. Enat Meret, while largely composed of the same basic timbres and genres, is arranged much more haphazardly. I feel no sense of internal logic governing the occasion of switches between genres—they shift, and that’s that. Compared with the breathtaking narrative flow and ambition Nishaiar has achieved before, Enat Meret comes across as a bit rudderless.   

My soul was ready to be led by Enat Meret’s shamanic wisdom—I’d looked forward to a Nahaxar follow-up for three years now—but I don’t feel significantly changed. Perhaps it’s because I’m already environmentally aware and in touch with Earth, rendering me less changed by the shamanic power than Taylor Swift or Elon Musk would be or perhaps it’s because I’m a bigger fan of cosmic black metal than of new age ambient. I still think Nishaiar is a project worth listening to and among the best metal acts Africa has, but I will undoubtedly be returning to Nahaxar instead of Enat Meret for my fix of otherworldly spiritual energy.

Recommended tracks: Yemelek, Mebet Kubet, Netsa, Heyan
You may also like: Eldamar, Violet Cold, Kaatayra, Bríi, Mesarthim, Medenera, Nelecc, Celestial Annihilator
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: independent

Nishaiar is:
– Explorer of the Abyss (bass)
– Arcturian Night (drums)
– Lord of Zenadadz (guitars, vocals)
– Lycus Aeternam (keyboards, vocals)
– Enat Meret (vocals)

The post Review: Nishaiar – Enat Meret appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Neofolk, Tribal Ambient, Neoclassical New Age (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Jeremy Soule, Nature and Organisation, literally any of Toby Driver’s projects
Review by: Dave
Country: Connecticut, United States
Release date: 8 August 2024

What do you get when you take a Toby Driver project, strip away the metallic viscera of Kayo Dot, deconstruct the moody Radiohead-meets-post-hardcore sensibilities of Maudlin of the Well, and forego the horrifying imagery of solo work like In the L…L…Library Loft? The end result is Alora Crucible, a Toby Driver project focused less on outwardly intense expression and dedicated to exploring softer orchestral ideas. Debut Thymiamatascension combined new-age sensibilities with touches of post-rock, coming across as the soundtrack to arcane alchemical experimentation akin to tracks like “The Second Operation (Lunar Water)” from Kayo Dot’s Hubardo. Follow-up release Oak Lace Apparition teases the listener with imagery of oaken specters and album art of a looming spherical creature among a gray forest. Does Alora Crucible’s latest exist in a similarly tranquil space as previous output or has the project adopted Driver’s familiar taste for the uncanny?

Oak Lace Apparition eschews the post-rock elements of Thymiamatascension and focuses instead on textured orchestral new-age soundscapes and hypnotic tribal ambient vignettes, manifesting as raw animist neofolk seeking to explore mystical otherworlds nested in the most secluded corners of the forest, featuring the lush impressionist meandering found in Jeremy Soule-style soundtracks combined with the focus on strings present in Musk Ox’s output. An effervescent natural beauty is present across Oak Lace Apparition, accompanied by hints of dissonance created by exceedingly bright chord choices underlying much of the string orchestration. A veritable spectrum of greens are used to paint forest imagery contrasted by stark shadows on “Amongst Ewdendrift a Corridor,” established with a hypnotic plucked motif that is occasionally accented by sharp string instrumentation that is almost overwhelming in its lusciousness; opener “Through the mist, a peak of icy water; where can I find you, pelagian bird?,” gently rocks back and forth between dynamic extremes as moments of woodland serenity are bookended by moments of trees thrashing in unison as unnaturally powerful gusts push over the forest like fingers brushing over high pile carpet; and “Cenote Vacío” sees the listener hunched over a placid river as sparse instrumentation creates a gentle, pillowy backdrop to spoken word poetry.

At times, the oversaturated imagery can be almost too much to take in. Closer “I Destination” is a sixteen-minute piece carried by the discordant wail of bright violins, ebbing and flowing from foreground to background as other motifs and voices overlap in melodious cacophony for brief moments before being swallowed up by the original violin motif, an experience akin to a warm embrace of light beaming from an impossibly beautiful eldritch god, terrifying in its splendor. The gentle chanting of “I destination…” augments this terror further, signaling to the listener that following this light will lead to the end, but the end of what exactly is hard to say: all that is revealed at the end of this piece is a metallic-yet-organic chirping sound that fizzles out, bringing the experience to a cathartic albeit unsettling close as whatever was beckoning to you has finally met you face-to-face.

Therein lies my biggest hurdle when listening to Oak Lace Apparition, and many other Toby Driver projects: it tends to veer too far into these worldly-yet-otherworldly soundscapes, leaving the listener to meander hopelessly around unsettling instrumentation. A core element that draws me so intensely to  dark/neofolk is its ability to foster a deep connection to the natural world, and when Oak Lace Apparition paints the forest as so beautiful that the beauty turns into hostility, the listen becomes uncomfortable and the connection to nature is ruptured, in the process dragging out these unenjoyable ideas over tracks that are, save for one, eight minutes or longer. This is not to detract from the genuinely serene moments, however, as tracks that feature just a touch of dissonance like “Amongst Ewdendrift a Corridor,” “Spindle’s Whorl,” and “Unseen Ending in the Grass Above” are at their core touching and gorgeous, showing a tasteful balance between that which is grounded in reality and that which is unknowable.

Like many Toby Driver projects, I have a complicated relationship with Oak Lace Apparition: I find many moments to be beautiful, too beautiful even, to the point of making my skin crawl. There is a familiar and worldly musical base that is undeniably lush and texturally rich, and at the same time, the entire package is laced in quasi-eldritch dissonance, the end result a hyper-vivid simulacrum of reality that is fundamentally altered from its source material, and that, frankly, freaks me the hell out. If that is an experience that intrigues you, then I urge you to give Oak Lace Apparition a listen, but if you are less comfortable with experiences that feel like your understanding of reality is being pushed, then look to more standard folk output like Ulver‘s Kveldssanger or Musk Ox‘s Woodfall.

Recommended tracks: Amidst Ewdendrift a Corridor, Cenote Vacío, Unseen Ending in the Grass Above, Spindle’s Whorl
You may also like: Geinoh Yamashigurumi, Stephan Micus, Musk Ox
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | RateYourMusic page

Label: House of Mythology – Official Site | Bandcamp | Facebook

Alora Crucible is:
– Toby Driver (vocals, hammered dulcimer)
– Timba Harris (violin)
– Cristina Pérez (piano, synthesizer)

The post Review: Alora Crucible – Oak Lace Apparition appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: avant-garde jazz, drone metal, experimental (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Swans, Sunn O))), Secret Chiefs III, Sun Ra
Review by: Josh
Country: Belgium
Release date: 26 June 2020

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the June 2020 Part 1 issue of The Progressive Subway.]

Neptunian Maximalism truly live up to their name. This is a two-hour-long, three-disc album of pure avant-jazz metal, with all vocals sung in a constructed language, with lyrics about an alternate version of Earth ruled by sentient elephants. I’ll be damned if that isn’t the most prog thing I’ve ever heard.

But what actually is this? Sure, those words mean things, but what the hell do they mean when put together like that? First and foremost, this is a jazz album. Everything else is layered on top of that core sound of sax, bass, and dual drummers, each absolutely massive. The first thing that the listener hears when putting on this album is the obese baritone sax, tone as fat as the one off of Charles Mingus’s rendition of Moanin’, blasting a simple but mesmerizing riff into their ears. From there we’re greeted with an all-out aural assault from the percussionists, hammering off a cacophonous soundscape that serves as the metaphorical army to the saxophone’s sultan. The track lurches back and forth, the sound swelling and swelling until it peaks, the sax letting out soaring, ear-piercing screeching over the Middle Eastern-esque drumming, and then it all stops, flowing into track two, which opens with an incredibly technical riff from the bassist, the perfect intro for the fourth member of the band. That sound alone, progressing onwards, is enough for a whole album by itself, but Neptunian Maximalism aren’t putting out just one album here, no, they’re doing three. As the album goes on, we’re greeted with a myriad of percussion instruments, tribal shouts, blood-curdling growls, synths, and all sorts of ambient noise. Truly, maximalism.

The songs embody that word as well, with most tracks lurching well over the six-minute mark, leaving themselves ample time to evolve and progress, and boy oh boy do Neptunian Maximalism take their time. Their drone influences are on full display here, as riffs and drum patterns repeat on and on, slowly but unsurely changing. Expect frequent, extended solos, often extending far beyond the minute mark. Again, this is a jazz album for the most part, and one going into this expecting headbangable riffs will be disappointed. To enjoy this album, one must take it all in and give it all the time it asks for.

But is there such a thing as overmaximalism? Potentially, yes. If you don’t have the patience to sit down for two entire hours or the patience to listen to extended drone tracks, this album probably isn’t for you. It is most definitely not a daily driver, and one who appreciates it will probably listen to it sparingly. I’ll be honest, it wore me out several times throughout my listening experience. It takes time to get through as well as attention, as putting it on as background music mutes the subtleties and makes it feel too repetitive. If you’re considering listening to Eons, keep this in mind.

I don’t feel comfortable rating this album. There’s just too much going on here for me to reasonably assign a score to it in the time I’ve had to review it.

Recommended tracks: You’re either in it for all two hours or you aren’t in it at all
You may also like: yeah idk about this one
Final verdict: N/A

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | RYM page

Label: I, Voidhanger – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Neptunian Maximalism is:
– Guillaume Cazalet (amplified guitar, vocals)
– Jean Jaques Duerinckx (baryton sax and sopranino)
– Didié Nietzsch (digital soundscape, spectral)
– Reshma Goolamy (amplified bass guitar)
– Joaquin Bermudez (amplified saz)
– Romain Martini (amplified guitar)
– Lucas Bouchenot (percussions)
– Stephane Fedele (drums)
– Alice Thiel (synth)

The post Review: Neptunian Maximalism – Éons appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive rock/metal, alternative, tribal ambient (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: boring Karnivool I guess
Review by: Sam
Country: California, United States
Release date: 30 August, 2019

[Editor’s note: this review was originally published in the August 2019 edition of The Progressive Subway.]

A few months ago I found a song called “Fear Inoculum” by some band named “Tool” buried in r/progmetal/new. It barely had any upvotes (didn’t even surpass my shitty prog metal guide no one liked), but it seemed decent enough to bookmark. I’ve found some real gems in that abyss (Daydream XI for example turned out to be my AotY 2017). It turned out this was a band that has been going on for quite a while (debut was in 1993), and that this was a single of their first new album in 13 years. This made me slightly concerned. A band that has stayed so far underground for so long has probably not made any commercial headway for a reason, right? 

Well, I was right. This record is completely, utterly awful. Like, would you take a look at those song lengths? Yeah sure it screams “prog”, but it also screams of a band that tries really hard to convince the public of how intelligent they are to hide a lack of actually interesting ideas and self-editing. Six songs over 10 minutes just screams pretentiousness. Not every band can be Ne Obliviscaris, and even then Portal of I feels bloated at times. But wait, aren’t there 10 songs? Yeah that’s right 4 of those are interludes. Luckily, Tool at least had some wisdom not to include 3 of them on the actual CD as they were simply too freaking boring. Unfortunately, us Spotify listeners have to sit through the drag. Terrible marketing if you ask me. They’re making it even less likely for someone to buy the CD.

But bloated songwriting wouldn’t even be the biggest crime in the world if they actually had some interesting ideas. Sadly they have none. They try to be atmospheric and “groovy”, but fail miserably at both. Take their guitarist: all he does is weird guitar effects over mindless chugging for 86 minutes. They’re not tasteful, they just come off as a boomer trying to relive the djent movement 10 years after the fact. Everyone has long since moved on from that. Speaking of boomers: that singer, Oh. My. God. Maynard is his name apparently. He sounds like someone made a fusion of Ian Kelly from Karnivool and Serj Tankian from System of a Down, but sacrificed most of their singing abilities for a huge load of angry boomer energy. He’s that grandpa who sends you memes stolen from r/FellowKids in an attempt to be cool, and then gets angry when you tell him how bad his meme game is. And did you look at those lyrics? Putting in some spirituality and psychedelics isn’t gonna make a difference to the music you know. At most you’ll attract some angsty teenagers that are too insecure about their own intellect, so they think citing pseudo-intellectual nonsense will make them look smart.

The only thing slightly redeemable about this record is that their drummer is not a total Tool (pun intended). He sometimes comes up with some semi-interesting fills and grooves. However, if you look closer, you’ll see that behind this veil of fake competence he’s actually just a (relative) Lars Ulrich discount version of Baardt Kolstad (Leprous, Rendezvous Point). Again, just another angry boomer trying to replicate what’s cool and failing miserably. 

So then we reach the conclusion. I think it’s safe to say that Tool has stayed underground for a reason all those years. This album is the epitome of r/FellowKids, except that no one there has heard about them. I don’t recommend this to anyone unless you think that an angry boomer version of Karnivool with extra pseudo-intellectual nonsense is something that’ll make you happy.

Recommended tracks: yeah uhhh nah bruh
You may also hate: Simulacra, Culak
Final verdict: 1/10

(NB: this review was a joke. Tool is the most commercially successful prog metal (related) band ever so I thought including their first album in 13 years on a blog about the most obscure stuff out there was a fun idea. If you wanna read my actual thoughts on the album, read this review on sputnik.)

Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Label: RCA Records – Facebook | Official Website

Tool is:
– Maynard James Keenan (vocals)
– Adam Jones (guitar)
– Justin Chancellor (bass)
– Danny Carey (drums)

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