Style: Atmospheric sludge metal, avant-garde metal, poetry (Spoken word, harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Isis, Neurosis, Chat Pile, Thou, Mizmor
Country: Canada / Maryland, United States
Release date: 25 April 2025

‘We didn’t demand more from a democracy of monsters.’

The grimy post-apocalyptic imagery conjured by post-rock and avant-garde artists like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Ashenspire are sharp critiques of the hostile world crafted by modern society. Canadian sludge metallers Sumac explored similar themes and soundscapes on their 2024 opus, The Healer, but with a balmy twist: Aaron Turner and co. find beauty and catharsis among the aftermath, exploring healing as a non-linear process in a series of cacophonous, improvised sludge metal pieces. On their latest release, The Film, Sumac join forces with industrial hip-hop artist Moor Mother, crunching the scope of The Healer’s pieces down to relatively bite-sized movements and giving them structure through spoken word. How does The Film play out?

The atonal warbling of Sumac’s guitars adorn the crooked canvas of “Scene 1”. Seas of crumbling gray buildings stretch beyond the horizon, and the mind desperately claws for tonality and rhythm among the scraping dissonance of Aaron Turner’s guitarwork. Figures and forms almost coalesce in the coarse and mangled chords; by design, they’re just a bit too out of reach to fully form into a cogent shape. The listener is left to sit in anxious ambiguity as a consequence. Then, a voice materializes from the rubble, a rudder to a vessel with no form. First distorted, then yanked into clarity, it calls out:

‘I want my breath back.’

Throughout “Scene 1”, Moor Mother sneers in the face of an invasive hegemony through spoken word poetry, unearthing a siren call against the Colonialist tendrils that push into the scree’s every crevice. We’re told over and over that the kudzu has died, but she insists that anyone with a keen eye can see how its roots continue to spread and how its vines choke out the grove’s most vulnerable.

‘That’s why we don’t believe. We don’t believe. We don’t believe. We. Don’t. Believe. WE—DON’T—BELIEVE.’

Among the swirling cataclysm laid down by Sumac, Moor Mother exudes both a razor-sharp focus in spoken-word verses and an assertive bluntness in her punctuated litany. By way of hypnagogic paranoia in “Scene 2: The Run”, war-torn landscapes in “Scene 5: Breathing Fire”, and frustrated inner conflict in “Camera”, Moor Mother anchors The Film, cleverly intertwining her poetry with amorphous and wailing instrumentation. Calls of ‘So long they’ve been hating, waiting, debating how to keep you enslaved / Better lose your mind, lose your mind, lose your mind, lose your mind / Run away, better lose your mind / Hurt off, dust off, hate off, change off, devil off / Better run and lose your mind’ on “Scene 4” exemplify The Film’s percussive lambasts, branding themselves onto the surface of your mind with each repetition and leaving behind no ambiguity in her snarling conviction.

Though some moments come across a bit referential for my tastes (e.g., a reference to the Whip and Nae Nae on “Scene 3”, and a callout to Blue’s Clues on “Scene 5: Breathing Fire”), Moor Mother’s approach is overwhelmingly effective as a whole. The sentiments on “Camera”, for example, are masterfully executed, cleaved in two as tension is forged between opposing forces. On one hand, her lyricism portrays a strong desire to be cognizant of injustices and engage in activism against them; on the other, a pang to ‘stick one’s head in the sand’ emerges, as the deluge of nightmares constantly surfaced is simply too much for a single person to bear. The effect is heightened when Moor Mother’s voice takes on an unearthly form, malleated into a down-pitched, ominous panopticon:

‘Let the camera do the talking. Don’t look away. Don’t look away. Don’t. Look. Away. Let the camera do the talking. Get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, get away.’

Moments of clarity and conventional song structure occasionally bubble to The Film’s surface. “The Truth is Out There” utilizes consonance and pleasant textures, acting as a small palate cleanser before The Film’s mammoth closer. Even in its more melodic passages, though, Sumac opt to use oblique, eccentric chord choices to keep the listener from getting too comfortable in their sense of levity. “Scene 3” features a relatively standard post-metal song structure, slowly building into a massive apex and crushing the listener under pounding drumwork and frantic reiteration of ‘In the way of our dreams…’ by its end.

“Scene 2: The Run”, in contrast, teeters between the more constructed and the more nebulous: the thrumming, pulsating bass across its runtime acts as an oscillating searchlight, keeping its sparse soundscape grounded. Led by Moor Mother’s poetry, one has a brief window to dive between concrete crags and reach shelter between the rumbling flashes. Intensity ebbs and flows, exploring dissonant tremolos and weighty dirges but each time returning to the searchlight’s bassy thrum. The track’s closing moments unveil a climax of explosive drum grooves, hypnotic, swirling guitar chords, and ghoulish howls. The crumbled remains coalesce into a tumbling, horrific golem, shattering off pieces of itself as it thrashes about.

‘Memories. Looping. Dead. Sky is. Falling. Falling. Blood. Red. Blood. Blood. Red. Blood.’

“Scene 5: Breathing Fire” is a consummation of The Film’s elements, a Chekhov’s Arsenal of ideas and techniques introduced earlier in its runtime. Anchored by Moor Mother’s poetry, the track melts and morphs between stillness and intensity, smoothness and texture, consonance and dissonance; its introductory moments beget premonition of something more chaotic, more violent, and more powerful than anything encountered up to this point.

‘War breath always breathes—fire. Time’s in neglect, and I’ll see you on the other side. I’ll see you on the other side.’

The instrumentals bear a laserlike focus: whereas before the rhythms lumbered in dissonant chaos, they now punch the back of your head with militaristic precision.

‘I need a moment. I need a moment. Sorting through snakes and serpents. I need an omen.’

The patterns aren’t quite discernible at first glance, using basic rhythmic building blocks in spectacularly odd meter. Tension builds around drums that congeal through kinetic cymbal splashes.

‘We’re in the boxing rings and fighting for our lives. Fighting for our lives. FIGHTING. FOR. OUR. LIVES.’

An instrumental bomb drops. Sumac settle in to a bulldozing groove while Moor Mother summons an apocalyptic fury, snarling overtop magnitude ten forces.

‘I PRAY THE TIDES GO. I PRAY THE TIDES GO. I PRAY THE TIDES GO THE WAY OF THE WOLVES. THE WAY OF THE WOLVES. AND OUT COME THE WOLVES. AND OUT COME THE WOLVES. TAKE WARNING. TAKE WARNING. TAKE CAUTION, TAKE. OFF. RUNNING. TAKE OFF RUNNING. TAKE OFF RUNNING. TAKE—OFF—’

The gravity of the instrumentals outmatches their stability, and “Scene 5” begins to deconstruct. A familiar chaos creeps back in as guitars melt into buzzing warbles and the frantic jingling of chimes fill every inch of negative space. A wailing, trembling guitar solo attempts to push back against the bubbling waves of bass, but the exertion of the two is too much, and the entire piece collapses. Little is left other than guitar scrapes, squeaks, and cresting cymbal washes.

‘Basic instructions before leaving Earth. Basic instructions before leaving Earth…’

For the first time during The Film, an unabashedly tranquil space is broached. Guitars amble around plaintive chords, and drums gently lilt along. The final stretch of “Scene 5” exudes catharsis, releasing a tension that’s been building since the record’s first moments and giving the listener space to rest and reflect.

‘I. Want. My. Change. But what do we return to? But what do we return to? What do we return to?’

In The Film’s calm aftermath, only pebbles and ash remain; in this dust is the space for something new to grow. The Film is at the same time heartbreakingly concrete and nightmarishly surrealist, juxtaposing dissonant sludgy improvisation against a spellbinding voice that confidently leads the traveler through a forsaken barrens. Despite a spate of horrific injustices and efforts from every corner to oppress, intimidate, and silence marginalized groups, we must continue to strike away at what makes us human, and at the same time fight to make the world something more than a place not designed for us.

Recommended tracks: Scene 5: Breathing Fire, Camera, Scene 2: The Run
You may also like: BÅKÜ, Ashenspire, Five the Hierophant, Lathe
Final verdict: 9/10

Related links (Sumac): Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives
Related links (Moor Mother): Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label – Thrill Jockey Records: Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Sumac is:
– Aaron Turner (guitars, vocals)
– Nick Yacyshyn (drums, percussion, synths)
– Brian Cook (bass)
Moor Mother is:
– Camae Ayewa (vocals, synths)
With guests:
– Candice Hoyes (vocals, track 3)
– Kyle Kidd (vocals, track 4)
– Sovei (vocals, track 5)

The post Review: Sumac, Moor Mother – The Film appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Djent, Death Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cynic, Meshuggah, Rivers of Nihil, Chaos Divine
Country: Maryland, United States
Release date: 12 April 2024

I must confess, I am actively invested in prog rock bands becoming more metal and in metal bands becoming more progressive. It was my longtime devotion to progressive metal that led me to become a fan of Exist back in 2018 – not long after their sophomore album So True, So Bound was released. Like a thoughtful present gifted by Santa Clause to a good child on Christmas morning, Exist’s follow-up album Egoiista was everything I could have reasonably asked for. The near-perfect fusion of philosophical themes with progressive, distorted, and dreamy sonic elements made it a regular play when I was in the mood to indulge. Its compositions thoughtfully build to impactful and awe-inciting vocal melodies, cosmic guitar-driven chord progressions, and tempo-twisting, rhythmic chugs.

While the band’s previous effort represents them at their most grand and progressive, Hijacking the Zeitgeist takes on a more parsimonious approach to songwriting. Coming in at a compact thirty-six minutes with seven tracks, this is certainly intended to foil their past few records. Lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter, Max Phelps adds in a Metal Injection interview that this is akin to the band’s Moving Pictures (an album historic for moving Rush to a more pop-oriented sound). As much as my disposition favors the musical style of Egoiista to Hijacking the Zeitgeist, I do believe that each has contextual value – a warranted time and place. As long as it’s done well, an album exemplifying tight-knit compositions, strong melodies, and candid, modern social commentary (Fear of a Blank Planet haters be damned) will always have a place in my heart.

As one might infer from the zany, yet melodramatic cover art, Hijacking the Zeitgeist is a concept album about the pitfalls and ailments that the internet has in our mental lives; taking on problems like hostile scaffolding, addiction, dehumanization, brain-washing, and the effects of unjust algorithms. A lot of the lyrical writing in the metal world isn’t particularly great, especially in the underground scene, but Exist do a fine job of balancing metaphor with vivid illustration, doing so in a way where their lyrics actively enhance the compositional experience of the music itself. Some of my favorite lyrical moments are on the album’s catchier tracks: for instance on “Thief of Joy”, a song revolving around seeing others’ misleadingly amazing lives online, Phelps sings, “To see the devil’s bliss in… suffocating you in your mind.” Another is on the title track regarding those who build careers on controversy, being offensively provocative for money and fame: Phelps growls in his Shuldiner-laden cadence: “He who makes the noise…” Loud tremolo guitar bridge “Takes and wears the crown!” I promise, that bridge goes quite hard.

When it comes to the band’s compositional elements, we still have a satisfying contrast of acoustic and distorted guitars, as well as a contrast between melodic croons and textured gutturals (the true Opethian yin and yang). Additionally, the jazzy, techy rhythm section that has made up the crux of the band’s core sound is still tactfully present. Though all members of the band have a core technical death metal background, their prior focus on melodic hooks and catchy leads has been amplified here, replete with well-placed melodic reprisals and reconfigurations – like the soft vocal melody on “Funeral Toll.” 

All of the songs exemplify the technical, yet accessible virtues that Exist is becoming increasingly known for, and they did not significantly skimp out on progressive songwriting as many moments in this album are sincerely expectation subverting – like how the drums backing the main chord progression on “Path to Nowhere” become more bleak and intense as the song goes on, peaking with a flurry of blast beats. That being said, “One Degree Removed From Human” is easily the weakest track on the album as what it presents has been done better by other songs: it has weaker melodies, its solos are not as interesting, and it does drag on a bit too long considering what the album is aiming for.

The most noticeable change Exist incorporates here, aside from their compact songwriting approach, is the album’s mix and production. It seems that as the Exist albums go on, each one is successively louder and more expensive-sounding; each sounding more heavily produced than the last. While I would not say that Hijacking the Zeitgeist is overproduced, it is certainly the most artificial-sounding record, and I think it aesthetically goes along perfectly with the album’s theme.

Overall, this is a solid release from a talented band. It is not quite what I had in mind when excitedly pulling this album up on my computer, and it is not my favorite album of theirs, but I accept it for what it intends to be rather than what I want it to be. And if this sort of paradigm shift is what the band needs to obtain the Limelight (pun intended) they have been desiring, then all the power to them.

Recommended tracks: Thief of Joy, Blue Light Infinite, Hijacking the Zeitgeist, Window to the All
You may also like: WAIT, Fractal Universe, The Gorge, Obsidious, Lunar Chamber
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Prosthetic Records – Bandcamp | Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Metal-Archives page

Exist is:
– Max Phelps (guitar, vocals)
– Alex Weber (bass, vocals)
– Matt Rossa (guitar)
– Brody Taylor Smith (drums)

The post Review: Exist – Hijacking the Zeitgeist appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Technical Death Metal, Slam (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devourment, Gorguts
Review by: Zach
Country: Maryland, United States
Release date: September 22nd, 2023

In every man, there is an innate urge to return to monke. You want to swing from tree to tree, eat banana, not have a care in the world. It’s the simple life. But did you know there is actually a way to return to monke on command? It’s called slamming death metal. Just a mere second of toilet bowl vocals and disgustingly heavy guitar riffs turns on this part of your brain called the Caveman Cortex. In a study done by Subway’s Division of Psychological Warfare, led by yours truly, we’ve discovered that enough exposure to slam can physically devolve you. Trust me, we’ve tried every band. Devourment, Analepsy, Disentomb, you name it.

But this album gave our completely willing participants an odd response. Instead of screeching at the top of their lungs and throwing fecal matter, they collectively worked together to convert our study room into a carpeted den, complete with a fireplace. They were all gathered ‘round the fire, wearing velvet robes they sewed themselves, and they kept talking about how “exquisite” the riffage was, all while patiently picking from an elegantly made charcuterie board.

My conclusion? This is the album for the caveman that discovered fire. Wormhole have always been near the top of my slam favorites, especially as they’ve been slowly making their way into more proggy territory with each album. Almost Human shifts directions slightly from the tech-slam union that was The Weakest Among Us, adding clear influences from Ulcerate and Artificial Brain. The result is slam for the thinking man, an album to start a pit to, and then sip wine to. 

Sanjay and Sanil Kumar have always been masters of the axe, but they take it to a whole new level with this. ‘System Erase’ begins with a sound that all my dissodeath lovers know well—  a riff straight out of Infrared Horizon accompanied by the most disgusting toilet bowl vocals I’ve ever heard. Slam is primarily a guitar and vocal driven genre, but the whole band brings their A-game here. This is not the usual techy approach of 300 BPM for the whole song. Wormhole know when they need to start shredding, and when they need to slow things down for a mosh-worthy breakdown.

The sheer talent among the Kumar brothers is nothing to be understated. From spidery arpeggios to some disgusting, disturbed melodies, they cover so many grounds on this album. The overall brisk runtime adds so much replay factor to this record. There’s something innately fun about this record, despite it being dissonant and brutal. It helps that Wormhole do not take themselves seriously in the slightest, going along with their tradition of adding Spongebob samples into their songs, and having Siri say “Tech slam” on the title track.

This is more than the average slam album. Unlike their contemporaries, Afterbirth, who’ve moved into a more journey-like, prog-adjacent structure of musicality, Wormhole have kept things disgusting in the best way. That’s not to say they haven’t advanced, and this album is a big leap ahead from Weakest. They’ve catapulted themselves into my favorites with this effort, and they seem to be popular with the test subje—er, participants, too.

Recommended tracks: Elysiism, Data Fortress Orbital Stationary, Almost Human
You may also like: Ulcerate, Artificial Brain
Final verdict: 8.5/10

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

Label: Season of Mist – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Wormhole is:
– Sanil Kumar (guitar)
– Sanjay Kumar (guitars)
– Matt Tillett (drums
– Basil Chiasson (bass)

– Julian Kersey (vocals)

The post Review: Wormhole – Almost Human appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Thrash (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, Iron Maiden
Review by: Will
Country: US-MD
Release date: 9 September 2022

Blood Rusted Mother Earth is the first full-length album from Baltimore-based rockers Arsena. In Blood Rusted Mother Earth the band sets about creating a pedal-to-the-metal “genre defying” album with influences as disparate as Mastodon and Havok.

However, despite their genre-defying claims, Blood Rusted Mother Earth sounds predominantly thrash. In fact, there was some question over whether we thought it was “proggy” enough to feature on the site. The closest to progressive rock this feels like is some of Symphony X’s more thrash-infused tracks (and even that comparison feels like a bit of a stretch). Most of the time, this album is much closer aligned to Anthrax with some clear influence from Megadeth in terms of song structure (especially on tracks like ‘Pioneer’, which switches things into a more swing-beat-feel for the coda hook – which doesn’t sound a million miles from that of “Symphony of Destruction”). Arsena, for all their claims of diverse genre influences, seem to rarely leave their thrashy happy place for the duration of the album, which is disappointing and feels like a backwards step, especially given some of their (slightly) more adventurous pieces on previous albums (such as the single “Necrosis” off their previous album Dawn of the Second Sun).

Had the band had listed their main influences as Judas Priest, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Anthrax the listener may have a better idea of what they’re in for: Over the course of this hour long album, Arsena does their damndest to fill it wall to wall with as much 80’s garage thrash energy as possible. Guitar openings make an effort to sound a little like Scott Ian’s strictly downpicked “man-riffs” (especially notable on tracks like ‘Kamikaze Sun God’ where even the vocals are super Anthrax-esque). On other occasions they make a decent attempt at emulating some of the intricate, overcrowded riffs that Dave Mustane is known for. There are some fun guitar solos to be had across the album as well and it does feel like the band is having fun with the music they’re making and producing.

While the band is hopefully having a blast rocking out to their 80s thrash infused sound with the wild energy of a seventeen year old with two cans of special brew, one wonders what is left for the listener. Precious little, sadly; there just doesn’t feel like there’s anything here that’s attention grabbing or fresh enough. As always, the question you find yourself asking is “why am I listening to this when I could just play Spreading the Disease?”

Arsena fly so close to their 80s influences that the opening riff to single track ‘Seeds of the Dead’ is nigh on identical to that of Survivor’s classic ‘Eye of the Tiger’ (moving the second chord up half a step does nothing to disguise it). It’s hard to say if this has been deliberately pilfered and repurposed, or if this is a case of “subconscious plagiarism”; a trap that a multitude of thinkers, writers and musicians have fallen into, not least Byron, Neitzche and George Harrison. [Fun fact: The technical name for this is “cryptomnesia”. A word also renowned for scoring well in Scrabble.]. It’s not the only riff that sounds way too close to other music for comfort by any means, but it is the most obvious. Arsena’s ‘Tyrannicide’ has moments that are eerily close to Iron Maiden’s ‘Losfer Words (Big Orra)’, for example.

So where are we left with Blood Soaked Mother Earth? Potentially a fun album to listen through if you’re nostalgic for 80s metal but not wanting to listen to any established 80s metal bands for reasons best known to yourself (massive brain aneurysm, perhaps)? Certainly. But sadly, Arsena seem to have not lived up to their own hype with this album. Listing influences like Havok and Mastodon only sets listeners up for disappointment, like arriving at a five-star restaurant, ordering steak and then being presented with spaghetti. You may love spaghetti, but it’s always going to underwhelm if it’s advertised as fillet mignon.

It’s worth saying that this album may not be the reason to abandon hope for Arsena. On previous EPs they’ve shown some ability to innovate and make something halfways original. Here’s hoping that the band goes back to develop that interesting part of their sound for their next album.

Recommended tracks: Seeds of the Dead (if you really want to hear what Survivor would sound like as a thrash band).
You may also like: Nanga Parbat
Final verdict: 4/10

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

Label: Self-Released

Arsena is:

Luke Albert- vocals, guitar
Owen Duff- drums, lyrics, triangle, synth
Robb Hollowell- lead guitar
Josh Deckman- bass, mouth harp

The post Review: Arsena – Blood Rusted Mother Earth appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Prog Metal, Djent, Extreme Metal (mixed vocals)
Review by: Sabrina
Country: US-MD
Release date: 11 February, 2022

Hello reader! Have you ever wished djent was less heavy? Have you ever been annoyed by the high gain, crushing intensity of those blasting percussions, relentless palm-muted riffs, and wish bands like Meshuggah would take it easy for once in their life? Well, I think I’ve got just the album for you! Introducing The End of Noise, the debut by WAIT (Aka: We Are In Transit). This band takes the syncopated, groovy rhythms, and the palm-muted riffs of djent and delivers a final product much more on the subdued, atmospheric, and hypnotic side of the genre; maybe even more so than anything you might have experienced before. Yeah, this album is pretty damn unique but I can’t really say I’m a fan of the new direction they’ve taken.

Allow me to give a little bit more context into the band’s history. I instantly called “dibs” on reviewing this band the moment I heard that familiar vocalist of theirs. Their singer/growler/snarler, Max Phelps, as well as their bassist, Alex Weber, are two members from another underground progressive death band I love named Exist. I would consider myself a fan both of Exist (I cannot recommend their 2020 LP Egoiista enough) as well as the excellent work that Max and Alex have done live with bands like Defeated Sanity, Cynic, and Obscura. However, I will say there is an unequivocal stylistic divergence between Exist and WAIT.

During my attendance at a recent Obscura/Vale of Pnath concert in my area, I stayed behind to talk to Alex Weber while he was packing up his gear. I asked him who were the main songwriters of WAIT and Exist, Alex replied that Exist was much more of Max’s project, while Charlie is the main head behind WAIT. This, combined with the fact that WAIT got their drum performances from Anup Sastry from Intervals, tells me that WAIT is definitely much more on the djent-y side. Furthermore when comparing the song structures of Exist and WAIT back to back it is clear that WAIT does not build up to climaxes and plot twists nearly as well as Exist does, offering no more than a guitar solo here and there, which quickly translates to feelings of monotony in my experience.

And I do not use the word “monotonous” lightly; when they get a riff going, they will chug on, and on, and on. These chugging riffs are often mirrored by the drums and bass which really emphasize the rhythm of the songs. Each song has a couple of these groovy, rhythmic patterns which are topped with Max’s vocal style; a vacillation between eerie yet soothing croons and classic death metal growls. When comparing the overall aesthetics of The End of Noise and Egoiista, this feels less epic in cosmic magnitude and more subtle; kind of like finding dark, forbidden treasures in a spooky cellar.

In my opinion, the strongest tracks on this album are the shorter ones because these are more direct and meander less. It is definitely in the longer tracks where the weaker aspects of the album stick out. For instance, in “Lone Presence Supreme”, “Earth’s Last Orbit”, and “A Path to Travel” it feels like there is just as much quality content as in the shorter tracks like “Reverie” or “Half Funeral” but they drag these ideas out too thin. Incidentally, I also feel that these shorter tracks also have better hooks and sharper performances overall.

The End of Noise seems to be one of the more unique and innovative albums to come out during the first couple of months in our prog metal corner of the musical sphere, even if I wish there was a lot more melody in the music make the album stick. As is, most of the album will enter your body, and leave through your other orifices without giving you much nutritional value. Below are some similar bands that I think you will likely appreciate if you dig this kind of stuff. Stay tuned.

Recommended tracks: Reverie, Half Funeral
Recommended for fans of: TesseracT, Cynic
You may also like: Exist, Stömb, Alkaloid
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: The Artisan Era – Bandcamp | Facebook

WAIT is:
– Max Phelps (vocals)
– Charlie Eron (guitars)
– Alex Weber (bass)
– Anup Sastry (drums)

The post Review: WAIT – The End of Noise appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive metal, death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cynic, 90s Death, Atheist
Country: Maryland, United States
Release date: 28 August 2020

I remember earlier last year discovering So True, So Bound by Exist and giving it a listen after having been hounded to multiple times by a lot of friends. I came away from that album truly wondering why it didn’t land for me. On paper it seemed like the exact thing I would fawn over, but the way it was presented just didn’t work for me. When I heard Egoiista was coming out I figured I’d see if they had come around to landing in a way that So True, So Bound had not. So did they?

So True, So Bound to me always had a bit of a feel of wanting to be a Cynic offshoot for real, but didn’t quite hit that mark. Egoiista I think has hit this mark much more, feeling like a Cynic that never lost their death metal roots at many times, while having nods to the Human era Death and contemporaries as well. The bass and drums are very much standout instruments in this album, with the drums providing multiple moments of metric shifts and feel changes which help color the riffs in different ways in their repetitions. As with any good death metal album with some technical leanings, the bass is allowed to have a voice all its own and the times where it really comes forward as a leading voice are well done. The guitars I found most interesting in the cleaner or jazzier influenced parts. I’m normally not a big fan of long winded soloing sections but I found myself enjoying the solos on this album quite a bit, maybe because of the progressions underneath them.

The vocals are definitely going to be the main point of contention or difference of opinions on this album I think. Max Phelps’s harsh tone is definitely similar to Focus era Cynic harshes, though with how forward they become in a more modern mix some people I think will be off-put by it. It grew on me more and more but I still think it’s the weakest aspect of the album musically. Clean vocals-wise the album has great arrangement on all the sections with clean vocals which really bolster their impacts. Are they technically the greatest performance? Perhaps not, but they have a very unique quality to them timbre wise that I very much enjoyed.

Writing wise the main thing that immediately stuck out was the usage of the initial intro theme in the first track “Through Suffering He Paints the Universe” as a leitmotif in later parts of the album, with it returning as a more Deathened (is that a phrase? can I invent it?) version on “Egocosm” and again being turned into an eight and a half minute meditation on the theme in the close “Amongst the Trees”. “The Lottery” and “Spotlight’s Glow” are probably my favorite expositions of what Exist is trying to be as a band, as those most clearly run the gambit of their death metal roots and the unique clean vocal/jazz guitar sensibilities they bring around on their lighter half. This album really is a good half split between twisting rough metal sections and really well thought out lighter arrangements.

So did it really land for me?

Well in many ways yes, but in some ways I think I still struggle a little with this band. Egoiista is definitely a very well played and performed album as one would expect from anything in the genre space. It has so many moments where the grooves or heavy sections really hit or the drums really take over that immediately sold me. Other times, I find myself wishing I didn’t feel like I was grasping for a groove. Egoiista is a very dense, heady album with its detours into jazzy elements and ping-ponging across metric modulations from the instruments. But it has moments where for some reason it just doesn’t seem to fully ground itself. I found a few sections where it seems to lose itself inside it’s own musings and for lack of a better way to describe it, sometimes feels like it wasn’t fully written with a listener in mind. It sometimes falls into the same trap I felt on So True, So Bound where it sometimes falls into a doomy feeling slosh to often and struggles to drag me out of that mindset. But mostly I still found there were a few times that the way the instruments were talking together as a unit didn’t quite mesh to me. However, I know some of these critiques are very personal and feeling based, and as such my Final Verdict still reflects a number I think is fair to this album for how how well made it is.

Honestly, I think this album is one that needs many listens to fully experience and appreciate, and I won’t be surprised if by the end of the year I can’t stop talking about this album. After all, I hated Traced in Air the first time I listened to it, and now I can’t go a week without listening to it.

Recommended tracks: The Lottery, Egocosm, Spotlight’s Glow
You may also like: Sutrah
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Prosthetic Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Exist is:
– Max Phelps (vocals/guitars)
– Alex Weber (bass)
– Matthew Rossa (guitar)
– Brody Smith (Drums)
– Jordan Miller (keyboards)

The post Review: Exist – Egoiista appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: post sludge (mixed vocals)
Review by: Dylan
Country: US-MD
Release date: 12-09-2018

NOTE: This album was originally included in the 2018 missed albums issue of The Progressive Subway

Potmos Hetoimos is a weird example when talking about underground. It seems everyone is at least aware he exists, but out of everyone, 30% have given him a chance. Then you realize ‘’everyone’’ is actually 200 progmetal discord members, so you reduce that percentage to 1%. I myself used to fit on the 70% that was aware of his existence, but never got around to giving him a shot, and oh boy, do I regret it. This may be one of the best experimental albums I’ve ever heard.
Vox Medusae is a concept album about a Man addicted to pornography, with various thoughts on his mind being represented as different voices, one being Medusa, the personification of lustful attraction and obsession, or something like that. Thanks to that, this album can be described as ‘’fucked up Ayreon’’. And the sound fits that description perfectly well.

Upon finishing this album, I knew writing this review was gonna be a challenge, because there is so much going on, that I could barely keep up giving the album 100% of my attention. Potmos Hetoimos is a one man project, which is already impressive on it’s own, but when you take into account that the playing is top notch on every instrument, it becomes astonishing. The sound he sets out to do is very dissonant, yet jazzy and funky. As he himself said it, he described the album as ‘’what if Prince played bass in Kayo Dot?’’, and this is pretty much what happens. The sound is fucked up, gritty and ugly, and then, a piano and bass interlude happens out of nowhere. Even on the uglier parts of the album, a sax can be driving the lead instead of a guitar. Depending on what character the music is representing, the intensity of the instrumentation and his voice varies on an unique scale. These curveballs are present throughout the whole album to make the story we’re listening ever weirder and harder to depict part by part, yet surprisingly it somehow all fits. All this dissonance, grittiness, ugliness, funkyness, jazziness, punkyness, rawness, all of it just works. It’s extremely challenging to sit through, but extremely rewarding when you do.

There’s not more I can tell you about this album, because if I had to go in depth for every track, this review would make the site collapse. Just stop whatever you’re doing and listen to this. It’s a modern masterpiece, that actually takes prog metal to new horizons.

PS: If you’re interested in how the scale works for each character, this piece is a great read: https://canthisevenbecalledmusic.com/not-music-sludge-titan-potmos-hetoimos-premieres-new-song-goes-in-depth-on-songwriting-process/.

Recommended tracks: ALL OF IT
Recommended for fans of: Good music (?????????????????)
Final verdict: 10/10

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

Label: Independent

Potmos Hetoimos is:
– Matt M. (all instruments)

The post Review: Potmos Hetoimos – Vox Medusae appeared first on The Progressive Subway.