Style: Groove metal, progressive metal, deathcore (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gojira, Fit For An Autopsy, Shokran, Lamb of God
Country: Greece
Release date: 25 April 2025

Humans have had a long-standing fascination with technology, dreaming of grand cybernetic implants¹ and attempting to bring a primal touch to its steel and silicon creations. This fixation has even bled into music: the crux of pop act Magdalena Bay’s 2022 Mercurial World tour was imparting humanity into a robot named Chaeri by ‘feeding’ her secrets sent in by listeners to a voice mailbox, then having her come out onstage and dance. Oria sits in a similar state, trying to find their humanity after years of calcification into machine. Does their latest release, This Future Wants Us Dead, transcend its metallic form or are we left with a heart of steel by its end?

Oria’s schematics can be traced back to two sources: Gojira and Fit For an Autopsy. Swirling around chunky grooves, crushing the listener under crunchy breakdowns, and exuding a biting humanist lyrical bent, This Future Wants Us Dead explores myriad compositional ideas while sticking steadfast to its rigid sonic framework. A bevy of vocal styles are used across the record, including mechanical cleans (“Tantalia”), half-shouted spits (“Pirates, Parrots, and Parasites”), and full-bodied deathcore harshes (“Guided by the Hand of G.O.D.S.”); Oria even throw in some throat singing for good measure (“Clouds of Anatta”). Structurally, This Future Wants Us Dead loosens and becomes more organic across its runtime, beginning fairly regimented in its compositions and allowing them to flow and breathe a bit more near its end.

So how does Oria handle its transition from machine to man? Well, when getting settled into any new body (an experience I’m sure we’re all familiar with), growing pains are inevitable. Opening track “Metamorphocene: The New from the Shell of the Old” in particular feels the most like a machine trying to recalibrate to its limbs, as its straightforward grooves are serviceable but missing a bit of punch to make them stand out. Additionally, the vocal performance is the record’s weakest, the harsh vocals lacking bite and the clean vocals coming across as stilted and robotic, and not in a way that is likely intended. Nevertheless, vocalist Leonidas Plataniotis seems to become more comfortable in his performance over the course of This Future Wants Us Dead. He fully comes into his own on “Guided by the Hand of G.O.D.S.” as he harshly bellows ‘Taste the agony of freewill’ before the listener is absolutely cudgeled by a breakdown. On the climax of “From Wastelands to Vile Hands”, he charismatically proclaims ‘We—will—rise—on top of the bile!’ and “Clouds of Anatta” sees a clever call-and-response of half-harsh rasps and throat singing. The lyricism matches this evolution in confidence, showing a steadfast conviction to individualism and self-agency. 

The instrumental work betrays a much more subtle growth, beginning with a set of groove-heavy tracks that eventually become more generous with their breakdowns. The verses of “Pirates, Parrots, and Parasites”, for example, contain a bouncy core, guitar grooves rebounding off of punctuated snare hits and holding back from crushing heaviness. Later tracks like “Chthonic Uprising” and “Guided by the Hand of G.O.D.S.” are centralized by their breakdowns, using weighty chugs and group shouts to build into steamrolling climaxes. Moreover, it’s quite remarkable how easily Oria explore ideas within the relatively narrow framework of grooves and breakdowns, changing their formula up enough on a track-by-track basis to instill a strong identity and avoiding the trap of samey-ness commonly present in more groovy approaches to metal.

However, within these standout moments emerges a subtle flaw: song flow. In any given moment, a track has something engaging and fun going on, but when trying to piece together the progression of a piece, it’s difficult to make out its intention or trajectory. What’s missing is some kind of central idea to hold compositions together—yes, many tracks happily sit in a verse-chorus structure, but repetition of ideas is not quite enough to coalesce a piece into something cohesive. “Terragenics”, for example, sits in a similar groove across its runtime, establishing a Meshuggah-with-extra-squeals riff in its opening moments. The track ends with a surprising and engaging black metal-ish section, but the two parts don’t feel particularly related. The establishing staccato off-grooves are all but abandoned, and so I end up confused about how we got here. Each piece without a doubt has interesting moments and compelling vocal melodies, and I wish that tracks were more faithful to their best ideas instead of stringing together passages that happen to occasionally land on genius.

The closing moments of This Future Wants Us Dead tap into the missing nuance and elegance in its compositions, transforming from a ponderous fledgling into something wholly organic and finessed. The last two tracks in particular showcase songwriting mastery from two separate angles. “Tantalia” is sharply focused and tight, stubbornly ruminating on a tumbling groove led along by clean vocals. Occasionally, the rollicking trems get knocked into heavy breakdowns, but never without purpose or clever transitions, deftly pummeling the listener into the ground across its runtime. Conversely, “Slow Down, Take a Breath and Bury the World that Was” is a slow-burner, beginning with sparse percussion, subdued vocals, and quiet guitar picking. More layers and more intensity are added as the track progresses, taking a detour with an Inmazes-style (VOLA) solo on its way to a triumphant climax. As Plataniotis proclaims ‘We embrace our power within’, the track opens up, the agency demanded from the lyrics expressing a cathartic release as an ascendant djent groove triumphantly soars in newfound freedom.

Despite its cold and robotic exterior, This Future Wants Us Dead is remarkably human in both its desire for independence and its imperfections. Regimented and stilted in its introductory moments, Oria wield their appendages with style and focus by the record’s end. There are certainly still kinks to work out in the machine, though: a stronger focus on tight songwriting around their best ideas and a more persistent confidence in the vocal delivery will help to augment their output considerably. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to recharge my cybernetic arm-gun.

Recommended tracks: Slow Down, Take a Breath and Bury the World that Was; Tantalia; Pirates, Parrots, and Parasites
You may also like: Nostoc, Ahasver, Interloper, Hippotraktor
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: Theogonia Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Oria is:
– Leonidas Plataniotis – Vocals, Guitars
– Thanasis Kostopoulos – Guitars
– Stefanos Papadopoulos – Bass
– Jordan Tsantsanoglou – Drums

1. I’m still waiting on my Mega Man-style lemon shooter. ︎

The post Review: Oria – This Future Wants Us Dead appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

No artist credited

Style: Metalcore, Groove Metal, Progressive Metal (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gojira, Fit for an Autopsy, Machine Head
Country: France
Release date: 7 March 2025

“Bro, what if we like, wrote a progressive metal album about like, space and science and shit? And like, what if we called it like, Andromeda?” 

“Broooooo…”

Conversations like this one are how I like to imagine the conceit behind Andromeda was brought forth unto this meager plane of existence. A group of friends smoking pot in some nondescript basement, listening to the classics and daydreaming of adding to the legacy of the music they are so enamored with. Enter French progressive metallers March of Scylla, who play a moderately paced form of quasi-progressive metalcore with plenty of groove metal thrown in. I say quasi-progressive because while there are certainly hints and shades of stylistic choices that are reminiscent of progressive metal, I would be hard pressed to claim this record for the genre proper. Most of the music on Andromeda consists of chugs, gallops, and other metalcore platitudes accompanied by a somewhat pitchy mixed vocal performance, but there is a spark of potential to be read in between the lines.

Album opener “Ulysses’ Lies” starts with a relatively engaging chug riff that reminds me of something Fit for an Autopsy would do, but the track quickly devolves into a verse full of questionable harmonies that culminates in a merely passable chorus. The intro riff repeats again and again now acting as a bridge, and the songwriting just goes in circles for five minutes until the song is over. The experience is very formulaic, and the end result is that Andromeda’s first impression is that of a neutered version of various influences attempting to be more than the sum of their parts. For the forty five-plus minutes that follow, this same feeling of middling half-effort persists to mind-numbing effect. From the Fit for an Autopsy-esque riffs mentioned earlier to chorus melodies that sound like demo versions of No Consequence songs; the dreary post metal atmosphere reminiscent of Hypno5e; and even a healthy dose of groove metal influence taken from Gojira. All of these influences sound good together on paper, but leave something to be desired when put into practice on Andromeda.

Not helping the feeling of tediousness is the production job. A disproportionate amount of attention is given to making the rhythm guitars “heavy” or “beefy” that just ends up drowning out other intricacies of the instrumentation. Similarly, the drums are VERY LOUD and the cymbals in particular are distractingly quantized at points (“Death Experience”). Entire orchestral scores that could have added depth and texture to the soundscape go by completely unnoticed unless you strain your ear to hear them. The only attempt at dynamics is on “To Cassiopeia”: an interlude track that could have been left out altogether without affecting the pacing of the album at all.

Hope is not completely lost for March of Scylla, however; interesting songwriting moments do pop their head up here and there, but I’ve noticed that they are mostly during the interstitial parts of songs. Smart use of leading tones and engaging harmonics during transitions make my ears perk up; but that the main grooves and choruses often don’t often live up to the hype is a shame. The choruses are the lesser offender, though, I enjoy the vocalist’s timbre and—while the pitch can be shaky—his performance is a generally positive aspect of the experience for me. The second half of Andromeda picks up the pace a bit as well with marginally faster song tempos and even some sporadic blast beats thrown in for good measure. Despite all of these silver linings, Andromeda still overstays its welcome with a bloated run time of over fifty minutes.

Regardless of all of the criticisms I have levied here, some underlying potential still lurks underneath the surface of Andromeda. The songwriting is gestural and over-reliant on hackneyed “progressive” metalcore tropes, but a prospective throughline that could be teased out and forged into a unique sound is there. A substantial amount of work would be required, but March of Scylla do have a chance to transcend their influences and justify the over-explored sounds of Andromeda on future releases. Just stay away from Nibiru please.

Recommended tracks: Ulysses’ Lies, Storm Dancer, Achilles’ Choice
You may also like: No Consequence, Hypno5e, Grorr
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Klonosphere Records – Facebook | Official Website

March of Scylla is:
– Christofer Fraisier (guitars)
– Gilles Masson (drums)
– Robert Desbiendras (bass)
– Florian Vasseur (vocals)

The post Review: March of Scylla – Andromeda appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive metal, technical death metal, groove metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gojira, Car Bomb, Slugdge, Anciients
Country: Costa Rica
Release date: 7 January 2025

Progressive metal just had a monster of a year, and Gojira reigned king. Very few acts in our genre have claimed a Grammy Award, and exactly one has played at the Olympics. If you were transfixed by “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)” and now find yourself among the newest legion of prog fans: welcome! Next, consider checking out Nostoc’s latest release, Rites of Passage. While their name might not loom quite so large as history’s most notable kaiju (in fact, nostoc is a type of single-celled algae), this Central American act’s house style of groovy death metal invokes the same infectious riffage and relentless energy that drew me to Gojira in the first place.

Rites of Passage follows Nostoc‘s 2017 effort, Ævum, which featured such titles as “The Anamnesic Voyage” and (Lord have mercy) “Saturnian Mindscope Introspection.” The band’s latest release dials back the song titling—at times to a Seinfeldian extent—but continues to embrace an atmosphere of esoteric horror fantasy. Gustavo Quirós’s exquisite album art features a brain creature surrounded by mysterious emblems. My wordless understanding of Rites of Passage is that each of the creature’s eight pictographs represents one of the eight “rites.” For example, the feather might refer to the ave de luz y oscuridad (or, “bird of light and darkness”) referenced in the Spanish-language passage of “Opus.” Drawing these connections was an engaging exercise that helped me dig into the album’s narrative. 

Rites of Passage is about a primordial force of nature reclaiming an Earth that humanity has stolen from it, identifying this creature through track titles (“War Mother,” “Legion,” “Healer”) or explaining its motives (“The Whole,” “The Cleanse”). There are multiple valid interpretations of the “Healer”—a forest spirit, a biomechanical hivemind, a visitor from beyond—but one truth is undeniable: it’s pretty pissed off. The messaging is aggressively environmentalist without taking the listener out of the album’s world

The metal itself is equally aggressive. Speaking of a force of nature: drummer Emanuel Calderon is the unsung hero of this record. The drumbeats are full and thunderous throughout, but also erratic, rarely settling into one pattern, a bold choice that pays off handsomely on repeated listens. The vocals largely employ a crispy snarl which is positively demonic without sounding tortured. Nostoc‘s “Opus” (not to be confused with Nospūn‘s Opus) features the most vocal styles, mixing guttural death growls with more blackened banshee-yelling, clean vocals layered atop them, a downright melodic Spanish-language section, and some bizarre cackling thrown in for good measure. The band’s willingness to be theatrical on this front elevates just about every song on the tracklist to being “at least interesting” if not outright “good.” 

Rites of Passage is varied and eccentric enough to be undeniable prog, but never strays so far from its headbanging roots to alienate the baseline metalhead. This is a veritable niche, but I would have liked to see some more work like “The Path.” This song is a full-on detour into reverberated, flowery instrumental, à la the interstitial tracks on earlier Baroness albums. The tranquil strumming of “The Path” offers a reprieve from the music’s violence and serves as an atmospheric trailhead into “The Cleanse.” This is because Nostoc, unlike their namesake cyanobacteria, barely stop to breathe at all throughout Rites of Passage‘s 47-minute runtime. 

The music oscillates wall-to-wall between ferocious and menacing. Some listeners will appreciate this—and it undeniably serves the album’s story and aesthetic—but the lack of audible “footholds” becomes noticeable in the back half of Rites of Passage, when the songs really start to run together. “Moons of Daath” is the worst offender here: an eight-minute wall of sound broken up by the occasional groovy riff or unusual scream. Even the excellent “Opus” feels a little too long to bear the weight of Nostoc‘s sound, an issue that emerges more broadly across Rites of Passage’s runtime. If you listen through Rites of Passage and follow only the drums, it is a loud, eclectic, and ultimately great listen; if you do the same with the strings, or the vocals, it is similarly pleasant; but in unison, the band does not amount to more than the sum of its parts. If “the strings” and “the drums” are dance partners, they are perfectly in step, but one never twirls the other. Additionally, the vocalists, though talented, never come soaring in on the wings of a tasty riff: sometimes they seem content to simply tell a tale on top of the instruments, all the while screaming because, “Hey, we’re playing death metal!”

Groove metal at the level of technicality that Nostoc demonstrate is a fascinating genre experiment. Creating music that is both virtuosic and melodic is a tall order for any musician. If you are an appreciator of, for example, Gorguts-flavored death metal, you might even find these two endeavours to be at odds with each other. Technical metal demands attention; catchy metal necessitates a pit. The task of the progressive musician is to carefully string these disparate elements together into a satisfying composition. It is an unenviable task. I don’t think that Nostoc have entirely stuck the landing here: they have undoubtedly, however, created something both interesting and enjoyable to listen to, and that is an achievement in itself. Sonically, Rites of Passage is a whale of an album. That whale just hasn’t found its wings quite yet. 

Recommended tracks: Legion, The Path, Opus
You may also like: Ahasver, The Gorge, Pull Down the Sun, Sanzu, Liverum
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Independent

Nostoc is:
– David Miranda (guitars)
– Emanuel Calderon (drums)
– Seth Gonzalez (bass)
– Alberto Hernandez (guitars, new)
– Adriana Muñoz (vocals, new)
– Freddy Lopez (guitars/vocals, former)

The post Review: Nostoc – Rites of Passage appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: groove metal, metalcore, djent (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Avenged Sevenfold, Spiritbox, Gojira, Lamb of God, Meshuggah
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 7 February 2025

Is groove metal a real genre? Some people make the claim, but I’m not so sure. Google may say it’s a genre defined by chugging, palm muted guitarwork with extensive use of double bass pedals and downtuned guitars, but does that not describe the entirety of modern metal? And if something isn’t groove metal does it mean it can’t be groovy? For something seemingly so ubiquitous, there really is no clear or satisfying definition, and it’s almost certainly easier to just identify groove metal releases as they come up. Thankfully, Jinjer makes it easy for us on their latest release Duél.

For any groove-based genre, a strong rhythm section is paramount. Thankfully, after honing their sound on 2019’s Macro and 2021’s Wallflowers, bassist Eugene Abdukhanov and drummer “Vladi” Ulasevich have delivered what is undoubtedly the best performances of their career on Duél, leaving no doubt that Jinjer has their rhythm section covered. Adventurous slaps and pops that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Job for a Cowboy track accentuate the decidedly tight drumwork in the album’s heavier moments while tasteful bass breaks and intelligent cymbal use highlight the lighter sections on tracks like “Tumbleweed.” The guitarwork courtesy of Roman Ibramkhalilov nestles neatly into the remaining sonic space, rarely adventuring out into the open but leaving its mark when it does during moments like the brief solo of “Green Serpent.”

Still, Jinjer remains a decidedly vocal-centric band, and Tatiana Shmayluk remains one of the most dynamic vocalists in the modern metal scene. Spewing catty witticisms left and right, Tatiana’s vocals run the gamut from gentle croons to harsh bellowing lows and searing highs. Romps like “Rogue” and “Fast Draw” get down and dirty with their straight ahead heaviness, while tracks like “Kafka” and “Someone’s Daughter” do well to show off Tatiana’s vocal range with their proggy yet lean song structures. Unfortunately, Duél remains plagued by what is perhaps my biggest pet peeve in regards to Jinjer, and that is the lyrical emphasis. To put it simply, it often sounds like one too many syllables are squeezed into a phrase making the whole thing feel off kilter, especially during the clean vocal sections. Perhaps it’s a symptom of a band writing in their second language, but I can’t always fully jive with the seeming lack of flow in the clean vocal patterns.

Unfortunately, that lack of flow also seeps into the track listing. At an already lean forty-three minutes and with no track exceeding five minutes, Duél is a brisk listen, but I am not so sure that each track earns its fair keep. For every “Green Serpent” or “Fast Draw” on the track list that engages the listener with its dynamic snowballing riffage or vibrant raw intensity, there’s a “Rogue” or “Dark Bile” that gets bogged down in its verse-chorus-verse song structure and overall sameness. In individual chunks, Duél is peachy keen, but the totality is a disjointed album experience full of ups and downs that leaves me satisfied in parts but ultimately miffed by the time the album’s closer rolls around, especially with its goofy false ending.

Jinjer seems to have honed in on their sound on their past few releases, and Duél sets the band’s proggy blend of groove metal and metalcore in stone. Featuring what is undoubtedly the best production treatment that the band has had yet, the album is the product of four amazingly talented musicians operating at the top of their respective craft yet getting lost in the finer details of the album as a whole. I know that Jinjer has a genuine magnum opus somewhere in their future, but it seems as though Duél is just another stepping stone along that path.

Recommended tracks: Green Serpent, Kafka, Someone’s Daughter
You may also like: Dawn of Ouroboros, Vintersea, Rannoch
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Napalm Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Jinjer is:
– Tatiana Shmayluk (vocals)
– Roman Ibramkhalilov (guitars)
– “Vladi” Ulasevich (drums)
– Eugene Abdukhanov (bass)

The post Review: Jinjer – Duél appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive metal, post metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cult of Luna, Gojira, The Ocean, Textures
Country: Iceland
Release date: 22 November 2024

Is there a more prog metal coded country than Iceland? An icy volcanic rock where the earth literally boils with sulphuric pools and the sky regularly puts on ionic light shows. Where the heat and electricity is supplied by the awesome power of plate tectonics, where in the summer the sun doesn’t set, and in the winter it doesn’t even rise. A place of hostility and beauty in equal measure is, surely, the progressive metal promise. Iceland’s tiny population, which falls a little short of 400,000, have made a disproportionate impact on music—Sigur Rós, Sólstafir, Agent Fresco, etc.—and now it’s M​ú​r’s turn to represent the land of fire and ice.

Doomy opener “Eldhaf” channels the languorous beauty of Devin Townsend’s iconic “Deadhead” with Haraldsson’s plaintive cleans gliding atop gazy riffs. However gorgeous it may be, it’s a somewhat unrepresentative opener as the band begin to demonstrate on the title track (“M​ú​r” by M​ú​r from the album M​ú​r—“M​ú​r” M​ú​r M​ú​r¹); M​ú​r’s sound is usually far heavier, with an enormous wall of sound, mountainous growls, Gojira-esque grooves, and buzzing, ominous synth work all battering the listener. Shorter tracks like “Messa” and “Frelsari” showcase the band at their most brutal and energetic, while the more expansive works layer on atmosphere and build to typically epic post-metal crescendos in the vein of Cult of Luna.

M​ú​r’s greatest asset is frontman Kári Haraldsson whose vocals are absolutely monstrous. His pitched screams sit somewhere between Joe Duplantier (Gojira) and Devin Townsend, and his growls are as guttural as Randy Blythe’s (Lamb of God). His cleans, too, have a strident sense of force, with lyrics all in Icelandic. Haraldsson also handles synths and keytar which provide an unexpected but distinctive texture, like the ionospheric glamour of the aurora over the volcanic Icelandic landscape. The synth swells on “Heimsslit” drone ominously like harbingers of apocalypse, while the atmospheric break later in the song feels almost like someone put on Tangerine Dream, and the alarm call of the synth on “Messa” is ripped straight out of a rave where The Prodigy are headlining. “Vitrun” is underpinned by a constant synth pulse, providing a powerful sense of dread which ultimately explodes into a keytar solo that would sit comfortably in the discography of Frost*. 

If Haraldsson is M​ú​r’s USP, everyone else is working away more subtly to elevate the tracks. Drummer Árni Jökull Guðbjartsson shines brightest on the punchier tracks where he can work the kit harder (“Messa” features some ridiculous fills), and the guitar and bass work of Árnason, Ragnarsson and Klausen thrives on djenty grooves and crushing riffs with unusual chord choices to keep the listener on their toes, while tracks like “Frelsari” and “Eldhaf” feature some fantastic tapping-oriented guitar solos ala Gojira. The showstopping moments tend to be in the vocals and synth, but the interplay of the rest of the band is incredibly tight—on their debut, M​ú​r possess the synchronicity and confidence of a band who are a solid four albums into their career; it’s no wonder that Century Media Records signed them straight away. 

Despite using a band photo in which they look like baby-faced Metallica² as their album cover, M​ú​r have crafted an astonishingly mature and assured debut, evocative of the Icelandic landscape—volatile yet stoic, desolate yet beautiful—and apocalyptic in grandeur; a testament to the powers of this fledgling group. With grandiose metal grooves, electrifying synth, and a vocal performance that ranks among the best of the year, M​ú​r have come out of the gate running with a sound wholly their own—a late gamechanger in the 2024 release slate—and a record that sorely deserves your attention before the year is out.

Recommended tracks: Vitrun, Frelsari, Eldhaf, Heimsslit
You may also like: Seyr, Sikasa, Hippotraktor
Final verdict: 8/10

1. As Andrea True once sang. ︎
2. From left to right: Jason Newsted, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, white Rob Trujillo, Kirk Hammett. Sorry guys. 
   ︎

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

Label: Century Media Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

M​ú​r is:
– Kári Haraldsson (vocals, keytar, synthesisers)
– Árni Jökull Guðbjartsson (drums)
– Hilmir Árnason (guitars)
– Ívar Klausen (bass)
– Jón Ísak Ragnarsson (guitars)

The post Review: M​ú​r – M​ú​r appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Metalcore, Technical Groove Metal (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Meshuggah, Textures, Gojira, Car Bomb
Review by: Christopher
Country: Missouri, USA
Release date: 28 July, 2023

So there’s this band in the metal scene, they’re called Meshuggah—you might’ve heard of them. I cannot stand them. Don’t get me wrong, Meshuggah are incredibly technically impressive; Swiss watch levels of intricacy, a level of ability and meticulousness that borders on awe-inspiring. But nothing bores me more than the monotonous polyrhythmic thunder of a Meshuggah album, the relentless assault of riffs in 69/420 continuing unabated for around sixty whole minutes. I am immovable in the face of Immutable. I feel nothing for Nothing. Koloss? More like colossal piece of [Editor’s note: this bit went on for two more paragraphs so we just cut it out].

Anyway, having already alienated half of our readers, I’m going to take on another technically-minded, Meshuggah influenced band. The fourth album from The Gorge sees the Missourian quartet refreshed after a seven year break, taking their complex brand of progressive metalcore to new extremes. Balancing the instrumental intricacy of Meshuggah with the catchier metalcore of bands like Textures, lead singer and guitarist Phil Ring—who’s based as hell on the grounds that he’s wearing a Steely Dan t-shirt in their Bandcamp photo—lends a hardcore sensibility with his punishing growls, and there’s a soupçon of jazz influence in the mix, too. At a well-paced forty-five minutes, Mechanical Fiction does everything you want from this sort of complexity focused record without overstaying its welcome.

An overfocus on polyrhythms and time signatures can push a band’s sound into the realms of solipsism. Fortunately, The Gorge always centre songwriting, finessing the compositions with some mind-bending rhythms throughout. Some of these are simpler in nature, as on “Beneath the Crust” where an abrupt bar of 3/4 wrongfoots the punky 4/4 riff, others more overtly mathematical, as on “Remnants of Grief” which cycles through a bunch of uncountable (for me) riffs, eventually hitting upon some more melodic veins. Naturally, the MVP on this album is Jerry Mazzuca, whose kit mastery is vital to the intricacy of all these changes in metre and feel, and his contribution has a real sense of personality meaning that Mechanical Fiction has plenty to satisfy both the clockwork brained tech heads and the cavemen who just wanna headbang to phat grooves. 

Like their aforementioned forebears, The Gorge will occasionally overwork a great riff, and the reliance on the low-end does mean that some of the tremolo riffs (“Presence”, “Beneath the Crust”) feel a little too similar to one another, but I’m the heathen that thinks Meshuggah are a soup of sameyness so this is clearly pretty varied for this stripe of prog. Similarly, Ring’s growls, though powerful, are a little monotonous—standard for the genre, but sometimes I want a little injection of variety, of melody. Moments like the chant and lead guitar that close “Beneath the Crust” offer some euphonic relief amid the more oppressive heaviness. 

None of that is to suggest that The Gorge punish the listener with colourless riffage; in fact, they know when to let the compositions breathe. “Earthly Decay” plays with a set of calmer chords, throwing in psychedelic lead lines, and ramping up the intensity to a powerful crescendo to create a compelling experiment in varying an ostensibly simple four-chord phrase; the finale “Wraith” conducts similarly post-metal influenced climactic inquiries. Meanwhile, the sojourning 7/4 tapping rhythm that orients “A Decision Was Made” and the short instrumental title track, which sees the band get their Tosin on with an Animals as Leaders style groove, both have a pleasing sense of melody underlying their complexity. 

I made my biases clear early on and while The Gorge are a little out of my usual reviewing scope, they’ve produced something so interestingly composed and genuinely fresh that I knew I had to help shine a light on it. If I, a simple Devin Townsend-loving melody-seeker, can find a lot to love here, then this should blow the fans of this sound out of the water. Meshuggah fans, I’m sorry for the things I said, but we have more in common than that which divides us, and so I present to you Mechanical Fiction as a peace offering; we can all agree it’s cool as hell.

Recommended tracks: Remnants of Grief, Beneath the Crust, Earthly Decay
You may also like: Hippotraktor, Ahasver, Hypnagone, Polars Collide
Final verdict: 7.5/10

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

Label: Pelagic Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

The Gorge is:
– Phil Ring (guitars, vocals)
– Joe Bowers (guitars)
– Chris Turnbaugh (bass)
– Jerry Mazzuca (drums)

The post Missed Album: The Gorge – Mechanical Fiction appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Groove Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Strapping Young Lad, Gojira, early Devin Townsend
Review by: Christopher
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 30 November, 2023

Without wanting to get too cynically McLuhanesque, in the age of social media a war is only as important as its entertainment value. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which began in February 2022, brought an onslaught of militarised horror to global media, and outpourings of support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people. And then, after a while, we forgot. We have a new war to go insane about now until that, too, bores us, and some new geopolitical drama comes to occupy our collective attention. But for those living amid the fray, these wars and their degradation remain an ever present reality: loved ones killed, neighbourhoods destroyed, and the constant threat of death and destruction looming overhead. 

No wonder Dimi Rich sounds so pissed off. Diminium is his brainchild where he composes and performs all instruments, and was conceived as an outlet for his anger and disgust regarding the war in his native Ukraine, as Russian shells were fired into his homeland and blackouts sunk him into darkness. Clearly influenced by such groovy, heavy luminaries as Strapping Young Lad and Gojira, that same sense of distilled aggression dominates on debut album Dissonant; rageful vocal performances, intense riffs, and frenetic soloing all adding up to a record best summed up as “heavy fucking metal”. 

Strapping Young Lad is the primary influence here, and a plethora of the riffs sound like they could be ripped straight from a lost SYL record, “Alert!” and “Survive” being prime examples. While Rich often lurks in the realms of homage, his own compositional acumen keeps Dissonant from ever feeling merely derivative. There are flourishes of real creativity, exemplified by “The Great Escape” which feels like Rich’s most original track, from its softer sections, the guest vocals of Exaltation, and some deeply satisfying shredding. “Розділені Кордонами”, meanwhile, is sung all in Ukrainian and opts for a more lamentory and sincere tone, though its invective and heaviness remain untrammelled. 

Part of the key to this compositional prowess is in Rich’s vocal performances: his harsh vocals recall both Joe Duplantier of Gojira, and a young Devin Townsend (particularly in his SYL days), while his cleans run solid ground too, the big vocal harmonies on “Havoc” recalling Stefan de Graef of Psychonaut and Hippotraktor. Additionally, he often swerves into a more theatrical delivery, more akin to Rob Halford or even Geoff Tate, as on “Light Up the Sky”, “Empowered” and “The Great Escape”. Rich’s sheer versatility allows Dissonant to temper its core sound with a lot of different musical flavours, the journey through angry metal stomp, chaotic thrashiness, and epic melodies of “Endless River” being a case in point.  

The core Strapping Young Lad inspired sound is punchy and enjoyable—such as the Devy-esque sweep solo on “Avoid A Void”, and “Alert!” which sounds like an SYL medley (I definitely hear shades of “Force Fed” and “Wrong Side”)—but Dissonant is at its best when setting itself apart, which, fortunately, is most of the time. Usually artists find themselves unable to step outside the shadow of their influences on their debut, but Rich does much to define his own sound here. Not every experiment works—the sudden funk groove with horns closing “Avoid A Void” is somewhat superfluous, and I’m not wholly convinced by “Empowered” despite its intriguing use of sax (contributed by guest saxophonist, Sam… just Sam)—but Rich dares to take risks and, most of the time, they pay off. 

DIminium’s influences are undeniably easy to tease out, but the genuine passion, rage, and compositional talent suffusing Dissonant, fuelled by a palpable sense of ire and grief, make it a surprisingly compelling listen. Certainly, if you miss the balls-to-the-wall, no-fucks-given headbang-inducing madness of Strapping Young Lad, you’ll find plenty to enjoy here, and there’s more beneath the surface that testifies to Rich’s future potential. 

Recommended tracks: Havoc, Розділені Кордонами, The Great Escape
You may also like: Ramage Inc., Monolith Zero, Hippotraktor
Final verdict: 7.5/10

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

Label: Independent

Diminium is:
– Dimi Rich (vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keyboards)

The post Review: Diminium – Dissonant appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metalcore, Groove Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Trivium, Intronaut, Periphery, TOOL
Review by: Cooper
Country: Germany
Release date: 27 October, 2023

Of the various paths that lead to the land of progressive metal, the one through metalcore is one of the most often traveled. Weatherworn signposts of pilgrims long since past mark the long and familiar way, beginning with bands like Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Valentine, designated halfway by bands like Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold, and ending squarely in the realm of Between the Buried and Me and ERRA. And while for some these “gateway” bands are merely reminders of their teenage years (I say at the lofty age of nineteen), there is something to be said for the power of nostalgia. So when I heard of the promises made by Nascent Echoes’s newest release Zeitgeist to deliver progressive metal substance in the tradition of 2000’s era metalcore, I was excited. Unfortunately, though, instead of combining these elements to great effect, Zeitgeist squanders its potential with choppy song structures and an air of shoddiness that reminds not of why I previously loved the genre but of why I ended up moving away from it.

Formed in late 2021 as a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Robert Graefe and lyricist Jepotastic, Nascent Echoes deals in a style of metalcore undoubtedly familiar to anyone with an iota of genre savviness. There are classic “Unholy Confessions” style single string skipping riffs galore accompanied by the occasional mid-tempo blast beat and contrapuntal guitar duet; all fairly standard stuff, but Nascent Echoes adds to this familiar recipe elements of groove and progressive metal which under normal circumstances would elevate this genre but, for reasons we shall discuss leave the final mixture feeling like a watered down version of everything it was trying to be, as though Graefe wanted to simply make a metalcore record but felt obligated to supplement it with “progressive” elements.

The most heinous example of this is undoubtedly the album’s use of spoken word, supplied by Jepotastic, which in the first song, while seemingly arbitrary, wasn’t offensive enough to warrant any major criticism. After all, many a band have put some questionable spoken word elements into their album’s first song in the pursuit of “setting the scene,” but the later uses of it during midway point “The Vortex” and closer “The Simulacrum” are more than worthy of criticism. The substance of the spoken word, while not exactly ground-breaking, is not the issue here. It is the manner in which it is applied to which I take offense. In fact, if I wanted to create a parody of progressive metal, taking every cliche and tired trope of the genre and condensing it into one musical moment, I wouldn’t be able to create something as simultaneously pedantic yet blind to its own lackluster as the middle third of “The Vortex.” And then to prove that spoken word can in fact be applied even more poorly, “The Simulacrum” sees the entire album’s emotional climax drowned out by even more blown-out, melodramatic croning. It’s as though the moments of spoken word were chosen specifically to cover up the most musically interesting things you’ve heard the past several songs. Perhaps I am not the target audience for these moments; after all, only a third of the track list contains any spoken word elements, meaning there is much more for me to potentially enjoy, but much will need to be done to make up for these egregious moments.

That, however, does not happen; the six remaining songs range from simply good to downright laborious, and the majority tip the scale well towards the latter. Never before has the term “riff salad” been more applicable; tempo changes occur seemingly at random, breakneck transitions rending any momentum the songs had going for them to pulp. The worst part is that when a riff locks in that may actually be worth a damn, it’s usually the shortest lasting, blown apart in the wake of some incomprehensible tempo change masked by post-production studio magic. I could nitpick every element of this album till the cows came home, but my point already stands. Very little of this album seems to have been made with enough care to weed out the bad ideas from the good, and in the end it’s the bad ideas that hold more sway. Which is truly a shame because there are actually a few solid ideas interspersed throughout this thing. “Parasomnia” delivers the melodic guitar goodness that I was hoping for from music labelled as progressive metalcore, and “Pitch Black” had a strong sense of attitude that was sorely lacking from other tracks like “Fragments Of,” perhaps the worst track on this thing despite featuring zero spoken word; it simply does nothing for about six minutes, and when it finally musters up the courage to climax, it ends before it even can (there’s a euphemism in there somewhere).

If after all that you still want to check out Zeitgeist, begin with “Parasomnia.” It’s undoubtedly the best song with its melodic guitar duets, but be warned beyond that and perhaps the groovy “Pitch Black,” this album is uncharted territory, maybe for those wanting to cringe at their middle school metalcore era.

Recommended tracks: Parasomnia, Pitch Black
You may also like: Neck of the Woods, Chaosbay, Below A Silent Sky,
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Bandcamp

Label: Independent

Nascent Echoes is:
– Robert Graefe (all instruments, vocals)
– Jepotastic (spoken word, lyrics)

The post Review: Nascent Echoes – Zeitgeist appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Groove Metal, Death Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gojira, Alluvial, Meshuggah, Gorod
Review by: Sabrina
Country: Maine, United States
Release date: 21 July, 2023

On the surface, this was the perfect album to introduce me back into the metal review scene as I am a longtime fan of progressive groove metal: for example, I’ve done previous reviews of the latest albums by Scarred, Hammerhedd and Polars Collide (a band which I am probably the number one fan of at this point). Unfortunately for fans in the USA, it will likely be a long time until we’ll be able to see them live since they are an underground, small-budget band all the way in Sweden, but don’t fret, we have Polars Collide at home!

Of course, the Polars Collide we have at home is Destination: Void (DV); the band in question for this review. The two bands fill exactly the same role in the metal ecosystem. They essentially use the instrumental elements that we associate with Djent, but instead of the 2010’s wave of metalcore djent, they utilize the older style brought to us by Meshuggah – one that sounds a lot more like high-gain, progressive groove metal and death metal. This style is most immediately obvious when listening to both bands’ riffs, chugging interludes, mechanical solos, and barking vocals.

Within the first seven minutes of DV’s twenty-two-minute, one-song EP, you are hit with a polyrhythmic, palm-muted djent breakdown, followed by a robotic guitar solo easily identified as an imitation of Thordendal’s signature style, and uncanny pick scrapes leftover from the past five Gojira albums. I have made some recent effort not to focus on bands being copy-cats but it’s difficult when DV’s Spotify bio claims “Their sound is purely their own” – I mean, they are simply asking for it. Let’s just say, this band’s sound is built out of a combination of other bands.

Nonetheless, the band leaves much room for praise. This track represents something akin to an auditory portfolio of skills that the band is capable of producing. They packed this thing with many good riffs: Some are obviously chunky, utilizing techniques that date back to influences of Pantera and early Meshuggah, others have a stronger modern djent-flavor reminiscent of WAIT or Cloudkicker, some are a tremolo and nearly blackened, but most of them is just straight-up prog metal riffs. DV present a variety of vocal styles that could land all over the local genre spectrum from alt-rock to death metal. These elements, along with the well-placed climactic sax section and ominous closing strings, it is hard not to appreciate what the band is doing here.

It is also worth mentioning that all of the musicians’ performances here are fairly tight, keeping time, and showing a natural synergy with one another. Meanwhile, members of other bands will often get left behind when the band changes tempos in progressive tracks. Additionally, one who appreciates progressive song structures can admire how they packed these parts of the epic song together rather than just presenting an EP with four mid-tier tracks.

In conclusion, DV are good at what they do considering their level of musicianship and their compositional writing – and because of this I must give credit where it is due – but they are not astounding. It feels like they had a task sheet of all of the things that they were supposed to do in a progressive death/groove metal album and they checked all of the boxes skillfully. However, taking this illustration into account, it does feel like the band did certain things just to be meta, and they did so much of what we’re used to hearing that The Bludgeoning Dawn ends up feeling exceptionally cliche. This is one case where thinking outside the box will help tremendously.

Recommended tracks: The Bludgeoning Dawn
You may also like: Polars Collide, Aenaon, The Offering, WAIT
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Destination: Void is:
– Ryan Cummings (guitars, bass, vocals)
– Lucas Damen (vocals)
– Seth Perkins (drums, percussion)

The post Review: Destination: Void – The Bludgeoning Dawn appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Groove Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: early Devin Townsend, Gojira, Strapping Young Lad
Review by: Christopher
Country: UK
Release date: 27 October, 2023

Dark Side of the Moon—often cited as the best album ever made—is just forty-three minutes long. Thriller? Forty-two minutes. Revolver? A mere thirty-five minutes. These shorter runtimes were mostly a byproduct of technological limitations, and nowadays such brevity is unnecessary and, therefore, rarer. But perhaps we’re worse off for that; such constraints on length forced bands to be more discerning about their finished product and save their weaker compositions for the inevitable expanded remaster four decades later. 

Humanity’s Last End is the fourth full-length from Edinburgh-based progressive metal group Ramage Inc., named after founder, vocalist and guitarist Bryan Ramage (the same logic could’ve given us Knopfler & Co., or Harrison, Lennon, McCartney & Starr: Rock Musicians & LSD Enthusiasts Ltd. I’m kind of coming around to this naming convention). Clearly influenced by Devin Townsend, with a strong injection of Gojira, strong vocals, thudding grooves and headbanging riffs are the sound du jour here.

That Townsendian influence is most present in the vocals. When Ramage lets loose with more belting cleans and fry screams, it’s like you’re listening to Terria or Accelerated Evolution for the first time again. At other junctures he goes for a more nu metal delivery, oddly redolent of Korn’s Jonathan Davis, as on “Barriers”—often he manages both at once (see “Barriers” again). Instrumentally, the Devy vibe remains but refracted through a groovier and somewhat deathier lens, a là Gojira and, let’s face it, Strapping Young Lad; the addition of symphonic—mostly brass—accompaniment helps refine those more obvious influences into a well-defined sound.

The Townsendian parallels multiply: guest vocalists Lisa Mari Lathwell and Donna Easton lighten proceedings on a number of tracks, Ramage’s answer to Anneke and Che; “Nothing to Fear” is overtly Strapping Young Lad influenced, “Unbalanced” is a choral Devy vibe filtered through a prog death lens, and “Live Each Day” takes me back to “Canada” from Terria. Ramage Inc. are one of the more interesting Devin-inspired bands out there, and they offer more than mere worship: the frequent use of harmonics and pick scrapes is pure Gojira as is the lyrical focus on ecological issues; a few moments of folky Phrygian scales and world music standards (“Dune Future” and “Time Won’t Heal”) recall the likes of Orphaned Land.

The British film critic Mark Kermode is fond of pointing out that Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterwork 2001: A Space Odyssey takes you from the dawn of mankind to the birth of a new species in one-hundred-and-forty minutes, and so more frivolous films like Sex and the City 2 have no excuse for running equally as long. That’s right, we’re pulling the trigger on the intro theme: Humanity Has Failed is seventy-seven minutes long—that’s longer than Devin Townsend’s magnum opus Deconstruction. Hell, it’s nearly double the length of Dark Side of the Moon. 

Simply put, you have to be making something truly special to justify such a runtime, and I don’t think Ramage Inc. will object to me saying that Humanity Has Failed doesn’t rub shoulders alongside Deconstruction. Realistically, Humanity Has Failed should end with the epic ten minute track “When All The Lights Go Out”, but there are four more songs after this and they feel a touch superfluous. Indeed, there are a number of shorter tracks—”Heat Waves”, “Unbalanced” and “Call of the Wild”—that feel more like interludes than fully realised songs, and it’s here that some of the excess should be excised. 

With strong compositions, a great sense of groove, and truly brilliant vocal performances, there’s a fantastic album buried within Humanity Has Failed but unfortunately it’s diminished by enough bloat to keep Pepto-Bismol producers in business for a month. Ramage Inc.’s sound may not be the most original but they’re better than mere imitators, and the only real fix I can recommend is the confidence to self-edit, and that’s an issue they share with their, and my, favourite musician.

Recommended tracks: Humanity Has Failed, Time Won’t Heal, When All The Lights Go Out
You may also like: Charlie Griffiths, Omnerod, Monolith Zero, The Offering
Final verdict: 7/10

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

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

Ramage Inc. is:
– Bryan Ramage (vocals, guitars)
– Allan Forsyth (guitars)
– Marcin Buczek (bass)
– Paul Hameed (drums)

The post Review: Ramage Inc. – Humanity Has Failed appeared first on The Progressive Subway.