No cover artist credited

Style: progressive rock, indie rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Coheed and Cambria, Closure in Moscow, The Reign of Kindo, Bear Ghost
Country: Washington, USA
Release date: 6 June 2025

There are few bands out there doing it quite like The Dear Hunter. Ever since that fateful day in the mid-2000s when Casey Crescenzo left his post-hardcore band behind in order to tell the tragic tale of a young man who journeyed too far from the riverside, they’ve been quite possibly the gold standard in crafting intricate, multi-album conceptual prog sagas¹. And yet, for all their sprawling, ambitious tales of pimps-turned-priests and dystopian ringed cities, TDH have also had plenty of opportunities to demonstrate their song-crafting fundamentals outside the confines of conceptuality, from the more straightforward indie rock of Migrant to the partially fan-sourced experimentations of All Is as All Shall Be. While the band’s latest EP continues in this vein, both it and its companion documentary offer a glimpse into another, heretofore underappreciated facet of the band: namely, that these guys are a very silly bunch of dorks.

For those unfamiliar, the “documentary” of the band’s 2023 North American tour only pretends to be a documentary for roughly its first fifteen minutes. From there, it morphs into a bizarre, surrealist horror-comedy about the band hiring an eccentric writer named Gleeb (basically Borat if he were a bearded homeless guy that yelled at seagulls) to chronicle the tour, and all of the strange goings-on that follow. In short, it absolutely does not take itself seriously, and looking at the titles of the five new tunes spawned forth from its soundtrack, including “Shlammin’ Salmon” and “Burritokyo”, one would logically consider that the North American EP would be a similarly absurd bit of goofing off, an inessential throwaway recorded on a whim to tide fans over while waiting for their next proper opus, Sunya. And while that’s not entirely false, such blithe dismissal forgets that The Dear Hunter are still just a damn talented rock band at their core, and they make better music goofing off than most bands do when they’re trying their hardest.

In terms of genre, the North American EP is fairly consistent with the band’s recent projects, mixing the spacey “future funk” synths and snappy rhythms of Antimai with the looser, more psychedelic rock vibes of Casey’s solo work as Honorary Astronaut. It’s still a decidedly singular sound, but nothing too strange given the sizable spectrum of style that TDH have covered over the course of their career. The arrangements are as lush and gorgeously maximalist as ever, with Rob Parr and Max Tousseau joining Casey in adding in layer after layer of guitars, keyboards, and backing vocals that show the continued influence of Queen and Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys². This fullness of sound elevates the otherwise straightforward (albeit kickass) rock and roll of “Four Amigos” with walls of organ and tight vocal harmonies and enables floaty, spacey closer “Burritokyo” to fully envelop the listener like a warm tortilla. A cosmic tortilla, made of, uh… stardust. And dreams.

Beneath all of that signature flash, of course, the fundamentals of the band’s songcraft are as strong as ever, delivering eminently memorable melodic moments one after the other while the rhythm section of the two Nicks (Sollecito and Crescenzo on bass and drums, respectively) pulls the music inexorably forward with a technical tightness that never slips into self-indulgence³. This especially shows on the more ambitious, Antimai-esque tracks, namely “Classic Wrock” and album highlight “Shlammin’ Salmon”. The former dances through intricate rhythms and switchups, including an excellent prechorus that recalls “Ring 6- LoTown” from the last album, on its way to a powerhouse conclusion that shows Casey’s signature tenor rasp in fine form. The latter, meanwhile, is an absolute masterclass in developing melodic and dynamic peaks and valleys over a single, rock-solid groove – that is, until said groove drops out from under the listener in its final minute, shifting into an absolute banger half-time finale laden with massive big-band horns, killer guitar work, and enough raw swagger to make me want to dance around my room despite still not being quite sure what its time signature is in spots.

So far as flaws go, there really isn’t much here I can point to as actively disappointing. I suppose “Magic Beans” gets the EP off to a somewhat shaky start with its weird vocoder-and-synth intro, and though the song proper is a solidly psychedelic tune with great guitar work and some shockingly beefy low notes from Casey, it’s probably the least strong of the five. I’d also say that, while the lyrics (particularly “Four Amigos”) are as lexically dense and packed with alliteration and consonance as ever, I find myself missing that certain clarity of conceptual concreteness that comes from Casey creating something that’s, well, conceptual. Without a storyline or setting, a lot of the words on here come off as fuzzy gestures toward vague vibe and metaphor – not surprising given that most of these songs were designed to also feature as instrumental soundtrack pieces, but it does mean that nothing here hits with the emotional force of, say, “Black Sandy Beaches” or “Light” off the Acts. 

Is the North American EP a must-listen entry into The Dear Hunter‘s discography capable of standing alongside the masterpieces of their existing catalog? Of course not, and it’s not trying to be. What it’s trying to be is a fun little collection of five enjoyable songs for fans of the band to rock out to, and in that regard, it succeeds admirably. I wouldn’t recommend it as anyone’s jumping-in point to start with the band’s music in earnest, but being inessential is a far cry from being low in quality. Casey has called this EP “a group of songs that exist in a pretty narrow context that we decided to share”, a straightforward snapshot of where the band was at rather than any statement about where they’re headed, and based on that I eagerly anticipate Sunya absolutely blindsiding us all. Let’s just hope they don’t give ten euro to any more suspicious-looking bearded fellows in the meantime.

Recommended tracks: Shlammin’ Salmon, Burritokyo
You may also like: Meer, Dim Gray, The Circle of Wonders, Good NightOwl
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Cave and Canary Goods – Bandcamp | Official Website

The Dear Hunter is:
– Casey Crescenzo (lead vocals, guitars, keyboards)
– Rob Parr (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals)
– Max Tousseau (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals)
– Nick Sollecito (bass)
– Nick Crescenzo (drums, percussion)

1. One could argue that Ayreon and eventual tour partners Coheed and Cambria did the multi-album opus thing beforehand, but neither has come close to the density of leitmotif nor the narrative clarity that The Acts display. Nobody’s ever needed to wait for a graphic novel to release in order to make heads or tails of a TDH album’s plot, just saying. ︎
2. RIP Brian Wilson ︎
3. Big Nick does not get a drum solo on this EP. Tragic, I know. ︎

The post Review: The Dear Hunter – North American EP appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Art Rock, Indie Rock, Avant-Garde (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Dear Hunter, The Mars Volta, Thank You Scientist, Radiohead, Joanna Newsom
Country: Massachusetts, USA
Release date: 11 November 2014

Berklee College of Music; Boston, Massachusetts; 2009. Singer and pianist Courtney Swain meets guitarist Ben Levin and the two decide to collaborate, mashing their names together—Ben-tney—to form Bent Knee. Quickly swelling to a sextet, this coterie of music nerds, quietly collaborating on their idiosyncratic compositions amid the jazz prodigies and virtuoso players surely couldn’t have anticipated how strangely large their impact would one day be on the progressive music scene. 

Describing Bent Knee is a challenge; they’re not a prog band per se, though they’ve been welcomed with open arms by the prog community, touring with Leprous, Haken, Thank You Scientist, and even The Dillinger Escape Plan. Vocalist and keyboardist Courtney Swain’s unique timbre has shades of Joanna Newsom but with about a million kilojoules more force, and one can’t help but link the strange time signatures, pianocentric compositions, replete with strings and ambience, to In Rainbows-era Radiohead, too. And yet Bent Knee send the heaviness and strangeness off the charts, touching upon a sound akin to artists such as King Crimson, Björk, and Queens of the Stone Age, yet stemming from a melange of influences from pop, avant-garde, classical, improv, musical theatre, prog, and much more.

After their DIY debut self-titled work three years earlier, Shiny Eyed Babies was a defiant announcement of Bent Knee’s arrival. After the deceptively whimsical piano ditty that comprises the introductory title track comes the ominous stomp of ecologically-minded excoriation “Way Too Long”, apocalyptically climaxing with nightmarish organ, Courtney becoming a sonic maelstrom, Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth absolutely mullering the drumkit while Ben and Jess Kion’s angular riffs cut beneath. I don’t know that Bent Knee have ever written anything as heavy since (“Lovemenot” from You Know What They Mean comes closest). 

“Way Too Long” certainly sets the tone. Shiny Eyed Babies is boldly off-kilter, and even the more straightforward tracks swerve into moments of metallic heaviness and experimental weirdness. “Dry” resolves itself into a noisy crescendo of grating piano, sax and synthetic distortions (as does “Skin”), Courtney literally screaming the chorus over the top. Chris Baum teases with his slowly intensifying, folk-tinged violin work on “Sunshine” which ultimately explodes into a screeching refrain of the old-time folk standard “You Are My Sunshine”, ending mid-refrain to physically wrench the light away from the listener. “Being Human” plays with consonance and dissonance, almost tearing beyond breaking point as Courtney repeatedly intones “I imagine your dead body” with increasing fanaticism before the song manages to get over its dissociative episode. The genius of Bent Knee is that they’re well-versed in the minutiae of songwriting to chip away at those familiar conventions in real time. Just as the original run of Twin Peaks was almost a soap opera except for the frequent moments of hysterical cosmic horror inflected weirdness, so Bent Knee are almost an accessible rock band except everything they do pushes at boundaries—the tinkering of Berklee alums at their most mischievous. 

That’s not to say there isn’t lightness to be found here, as in the more orchestral atmospheres of “I’m Still Here” accented by Jessica’s mellifluous backing vocals, the picaresque, electronica-tinged verses of “Dead Horse” (contrasted, of course, by deeply emotive lyrics) or the bouncier tone of “Skin” (which resolves into an ominous horn groove). Bent Knee are dynamics royalty—”Sunshine” alone is proof positive of that, the gradual increase in intensity and volume contributing to the emotional force of the climax—and they sojourn from moments of sublimity and vulnerability (such as the “Center of attention…” refrain on “In God We Trust”) to outrageous raucousness ala “Way Too Long”. Vince Welch, who handles production and mixing, as well as synthesisers, is a large part of that, mixing the many elements of the band in a way that lovingly cares for every texture—god knows I’ve listened to many an album where bass or violin were pushed back so far in the mix as to be irrelevant, but here they’re indelible components within a capacious musical tapestry. 

Shiny Eyed Babies celebrates its tenth anniversary a little later this year, and Bent Knee have come a long way since. Courtney has remained a relentlessly prolific artist, juggling collaborations (notably with Car Bomb and Haken) and a solo career, and—somewhat improbably—rearranged a Philip Glass piece for the TV show Bob’s Burgers. Gavin works on many of the other members’ side projects as well as teaching drums and guitar on the side, while Vince similarly teaches mixing and production whilst undertaking such duties for his bandmates and others solo projects. Ben is a workhorse, too, with a dizzying amount of solo work to his name, and contributing to a number of other projects including Einar Solberg’s and Richard Henshall’s solo albums (the latter of which Jess and Chris also appeared on). Jess dabbles in the visual arts alongside her solo music project Justice Cow, and Chris has contributed strings and orchestration to a number of excellent albums, including Leprous’ latest efforts and the new Ihsahn album. Bent Knee’s trojan influence is insidiously brilliant, their zany academic brilliance making itself known in the most unexpected of places. They aren’t and never have been a capital-P prog band, but this well-synchronised agglomeration of trained musicians have struck upon gold again and again, and that speaks to a progressive sensibility that catches the ear of listeners and fellow musicians alike who can feel the intuition and expertise in every note. 

I discovered Bent Knee when 2017’s Land Animal dropped and that remained my favourite of their works for some time, but Shiny Eyed Babies snuck up on me, its rawness, sincerity, and uncompromising eccentricity always pulling me back in. But Bent Knee have dared to evolve with every release, exploring a more noise rock style on You Know What They Mean, dabbling in hyperpop on Frosting, and going indie on Say So. Not every evolution will satisfy every fan, but their consistent experimentation shows that their talent is matched only by their ambition. That’s the key to their success, an inimitable voice in the progressive field, and though Jess and Ben have since left, I have total faith that Courtney, Chris, Gavin and Vince will have much more to show us later this year when their seventh album, Twenty Pills Without Water, releases. You can’t keep ‘em down.

Recommended tracks: Way Too Long, Sunshine, Battle Creek, Skin, Being Human
You may also like: Meer, Ophelia Sullivan, i Häxa, Marjana Semkina

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

Label: Shiny Eyed Babies was independently released.

Bent Knee is:
– Courtney Swain (vocals, keyboards)
– Ben Levin (guitars)
– Jessica Kion (bass, vocals)
– Chris Baum (violin)
– Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth (drums)
– Vince Welch (production, sound design)

The post Lost in Time: Bent Knee – Shiny Eyed Babies appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: post-rock, art pop, shoegaze, indie folk, noise, post-metal, indie rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Parannoul, Turquoisedeath, Toninho Horta, Mount Eerie, Godspeed! You Black Emperor
Country: Brazil
Release date: 8 March 2024

The internet is a magical place where everybody has a voice; the sacristy of anonymity, a platform for self-promotion. Unfortunately, as with most good things, the hipsters have taken it over, and the inability to dox them for their stupid-ass opinions is a shame. The music world has always had a propensity for pretension (myself included), but Rateyourmusic is a true cesspool for it—though I admit it is an excellent tool for finding music if you can ignore its users’ frequent foolishness. In these weird internet echo-chambers, unexpected styles surf the zeitgeist—the chart for this year currently ranges the gamut from neotraditional country to wildly vitriolic dissonant black metal to sick industrial hip-hop from Brazil—far afield from what you’d naturally find unless you’re another one of those terminally online freaks. While some of the most popular music of all time nary makes an appearance on the RYM charts, a strange conglomerate of hipster-y mixes of indie folk, post-rock, and shoegaze consistently seem to soar high: acts like Parannoul, Turquoisedeath, Boris, and Mount Eerie don’t maintain much mass appeal, but if you only trawled the music interwebs, you’d probably think they’re bigger than Queen and Aerosmith combined (they’re not).

Samlrc is born of this movement, and I’d have never found her music had the weird nerds not pushed her to number one on their chart of the best albums of the year for a week. At just nineteen years old, Sam shows artistic maturity, ability, and vision across A Lonely Sinner, and for once I’m thankful for the RYM people being able to vote for their hipster nonsense! Besides cues from all sorts of RYM-core music—from Björk to Merzbow to the Silent Hill 2 OST to being a furry—how did Samlrc climb to the top of the chart?

A Lonely Sinner tugs at the heartstrings with simple lyrics about the nature of love, swirling synths, dreamy guitars, and post-rock crescendos galore. Sam’s sincerity in the performance comes through, and the production is extremely intimate. Tracks like “Philautia”—which progresses from minimalist folk to cheeky electronica to an indie folk strumming section that’s supremely pleasant all the way up to a massive buildup—and “Storge”—working with breakbeat drums, metal heft, and spoken word—are explorative yet unified, raw yet beautiful. With the exception of “Sheep Theme” which leans into a bland indie rock pattern for far too long, the songwriting throughout A Lonely Sinner consistently impresses, constantly evolving trying to wring all the emotion out of you it can. Sam’s lilting voice and the gentle acoustic sections can be rather gorgeous, and the sections with fuller percussion and grand movements toward powerful crescendos are sublime. The absolute highlight of the album, though, has to be the final climax of “For M.” with a heart-wrenching violin solo—utterly stunning writing and performance redolent of Bruit ≤. Finally, despite not being a furry, the story is cutesy and easy to follow for those of you into such things, and the music matches the relative lyrical intensity well, matching the peaks and valleys of the story. 

Although I praised Sam’s singing, it is the weakest chain in the album, taking a similarly depressed indie folk tone as Phil Elverum, and although it fits the style to a tee, it’s not my preferred mode and feels unrefined (noticeably so when compared to her songwriting and instrumental ability). Occasionally, the instrumental tones also sound meek, particularly in slower indie folk sections and the aforementioned indie rock track. These things can be forgiven given the bedroom recording, but they do detract from A Lonely Sinner overall. Finally, the metal section of “Storge” sounds like if somebody who didn’t know metal except via RYM’s weirdly blind-spotted taste in the genre tried to write metal, and it’s not very convincing to somebody more in tune with the genre’s pulse. I appreciate the attempt at a heavier section as a contrast to the lighter folk and shoegaze, but while the obvious passion and knowledge Sam has for the other genres comes through in the songwriting—she’s clearly a passionate student and lover of music—I think a bit more polish on the heavier aspects of A Lonely Sinner would go a long way as the riffs and tones are bland. 

I’m glad a young artist like this has exploded in popularity even if it’s in a niche community because Sam is incredibly skilled, passionate, and has a bright future composing. With a bit more refinement, the formula of A Lonely Sinner could produce a stunning indie folk album for the ages. Regardless, I’m very impressed by Samlrc and am glad I still check RYM religiously despite my reservations about the internet. Maybe I am a hipster after all… (just kidding, this was never in doubt).

Recommended tracks: Philautia, Flowerfields, For M.
You may also like: Bruit ≤, Yo, An Elephant Sitting Still (OST)
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

Label: independent

Samlrc is:
– Sam (everything)

The post Review: Samlrc – A Lonely Sinner appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Genres: Avant-Folk, Progressive Rock, Chamber Jazz (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Joanna Newsom, Devin Townsend & Ché Aimee Dorval’s Casualties of Cool, Iamthemorning
Country: Illinois, USA
Review by: Christopher
Release date: 1 March 2024

I find myself more and more taken with folk, having got into some Joanna Newsom and David Crosby (and his various collaborators) recently, or going back to my ongoing flirtations with the vaguely folkish alterna-rock of City and Colour, as well as the more overtly prog and metal interpretations of the sound: the lilting flavours of blackened Borknagar, the manic fusion of Subterranean Masquerade, and the new age meets prog meets americana of Casualties of Cool. Something about the authentic grit of folk—its communion with the pastoral, its reckoning with the vicissitudes of life—always pulls me back. 

Hailing from Illinois, Hannah Frances is a solo folk artist working with a series of session musicians, and Keeper of the Shepherd, her sophomore album, resides on the folk side, not the prog side of the spectrum—drawing from Newsom and Joni Mitchell rather than from the likes of Orphaned Land. That’s right, I’m once again asking you – Bernie meme style – to step outside your comfort zones. With a rich timbre and precise vibrato, poetic lyrics that eschew stanza structures in favour of emotional streams-of-consciousness, a distinct fingerstyle rooted in the open tunings of folk (for those more unusual harmonic resonances) but embracing polyrhythmic complexities dazzling in their nuance and strangeness, Keeper of the Shepherd may not be your traditional prog rock, but it’s unabashedly progressive in outlook.

“Bronwyn”, for example, features characteristically gorgeous vocals, but underneath the guitar riff is impossibly intricate—I think there’s a lot of 6/4 and 5/4 being moved around in strange ways but trying to work it out gave me a headache; no wonder it took a year for Frances to write it. Distorted guitar moves in around the edges as the song pushes in post-rock fashion to its jangling latter reaches, sounding like the halfway point between Porcupine Tree and Mazzy Star in these moments. The somewhat jaunty mute-heavy rhythm of the title track, meanwhile, belies the fact that Frances is crooning about the death of her father, a grief that suffuses much of the record. Soft pedal steel laments in the background like a mournful train call in the night, and the vocal harmonies hit a layered crescendo, a dozen voices raised in pain, the instruments succumbing to grim resignation as the song doesn’t conclude so much as falls apart. 

At some junctures, Frances seems to tickle around the edges of homage: “Floodplain’s” main guitar motif is redolent of the progression in “Blackbird” by The Beatles, but Frances’ vocal melodies move in counterpoint, diverging and converging with the rhythm as brief battalions of strings attack at the edges before a sustained assault on the song’s mid-section. Meanwhile, the languid chords of “Husk” recall Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédie No.1”, as voice and violin perform to one another, driving to a complex layering of harmonies that build to a choral, funereal climax. 

Woodwinds, provided by Hunter Diamond, play around the margins on many of the tracks, as on “Vacant Intimacies” which crescendos post-rock style while saxophones noodle away above with jazzlike disregard for theoretical concerns, and closer “Haunted Landscape, Echoing Cave” which, after the rhythmically distinct verses and choruses, explodes into a kaleidoscopic chamber jazz instrumental, capping off the album with a sense of fullness, as though the entire record had been leading to this more complete sound. A resolution of sorts, a new start, light at the end of mourning. These two may well be my favourite tracks, the more reserved and stripped back middle third of the album admittedly not really matching my more maximalist prog fancies, but I’d be hard pressed to find any real problems with Keeper of the Shepherd; Frances has her vision under perfect control. 

No, this isn’t your traditional prog rock, but Keeper of the Shepherd absolutely deserves the ear of the more folk-minded fans who lurk around our site. Composed with a perfect balance of complexity and melody, lovingly mixed, and with turbid emotions roiling freely, this is an album whose intricacies and excellent guest musicians are perfectly suited to evoke the record’s central spiritual burdens. As the evenings draw out and hope begins to eke out a place in the cold soil, let Hannah Frances shepherd you into the spring. 

Recommended tracks: Bronwyn; Vacant Intimacies; Haunted Landscape, Echoing Cave
You may also like: Mingjia, Lack the Low, Courtney Swain, Evan Carson
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Ruination Record Co. – Bandcamp

Hannah Frances is:
– Hannah Frances (music, lyrics, guitar, vocals, production)

The post Review: Hannah Frances – Keeper of the Shepherd appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive grunge / indie (clean vocals)
Review by: Will
Country: Japan
Release date: 11 December 2021

We at the Progressive Subway pride ourselves on finding interesting new bands from the underground prog scene. Demo EP is a, well, Demo from the intriguing Tokyo-based Aztec Brides, a band so far underground, they barely appear on Google searches and barely cast a shadow on social media. In fact, though the band has been together writing music for over a year, they have only been playing gigs for a surprising 2 months.

This demo, clocking in under 25 minutes in length, is a selection of five interesting tracks, each with their own unique identities. Ranging from slumbrous bedroom indie-track “Native” through 50s rock-n-roll inspired house-shaker “Backachin”. The whole EP feels like a refreshing change of pace; it’s rare to hear a home-made demo EP so polished and with such infectious energy. Especially considering the vocals were recorded in a closet lined with mattresses and blankets owing to a personnel change on vocals early(er) in the band’s career.

The band’s interesting and eclectic sound derives from their international nature and differing music tastes: Humberto “Beto” De Armas, a Venuzuelan guitarist / bassist heavily influenced by 60s rock with bands like The Doors; Dean Thompson, an Australian drummer and fan of wu-tang, and neo-soul jazz; and Erina Ito, Japanese hip-hop dancer turned singer. The confluence of differing culture and musical influence contributes to an energetic and entertaining album which, although relying heavily on Beto’s 60’s rock influences, still manages to pull off their sound in a creative way. They manage to tread the tightrope between a nostalgic sound but with a contemporary twist: Beto’s classic-feeling riffs underscored by Thompson’s contemporary jazz style of drumming and overlayed by Ito’s dreamy, keening lyricism.

The live-band-at-a-friend’s-houseparty energy is well preserved in the recording; in fact, it’s pretty darn infectious, especially on their big, loud tracks like “Backachin”. But there’s a lot more than simply good vibes and energy that’s worth listening to on this demo: “Nova” is a daydream of a song with a guitar tone and sound that puts me in mind of Incubus with it’s deliciously thick, warm tone. And “New Delhi” is a particularly interesting and beautifully prog track where Beto adopts a beautiful, mesmerising sitar tone backed by a well-executed Indian inspired drumline overlaid with hypnotic mantra-like vocals. Overall, the tracks seem well chosen to demonstrate a band with versatility both to fill a dancefloor, and create a beautiful, introspective soundscape.

Listening to Aztec Brides has felt like re-reading a favourite book that you haven’t picked up in a long time: Though you remember the story, it’s familiarity is comforting and allows you to relax into a tale well told. Similarly, Aztec Brides’ sound may not be mind-bendingly novel but familiarity after a long hiatus is, in its own way, refreshing and (in uncertain times) somewhat comforting. Though they clearly lean heavily on their influences, there’s something in the particular dynamic of the trio that feels new and exciting. They’re certainly a band that is worth following and keeping an eye on in anticipation of an album.

Recommended tracks: Native, Backachin, New Delhi
Recommended for fans of: The Doors, Hole
You may also like: Goat Girl
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Instagram

Label: Self-Published

Aztec Brides is:
– Humberto “Beto” De Armas (Guitar and Bass)
– Dean Thompson (Drums)
– Erina Ito (Vocals)

The post Review: Aztec Brides – Demo EP appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Experimental indie folk (clean vocals)
Review by: Nick
Country: UK
Release date: 18 June, 2021

Experimental indie folk. I bet that’s a phrase you thought you’d never read on this blog. Honestly it’s not something that I thought I’d ever write on this blog, but here we are.

ME REX is an indie folk group out of the UK who have had a kinda confusing release history so far. From what I gather they’ve had three EPs, an odds and ends compilation, and a compilation of two of their EPs rereleased as one. It’s a pretty non-traditional trajectory for a band to go on over the course of their first couple years, at least compared to what we’re used to on this site.

So you’d think that with their first studio album and first release in two years, they’d be started on a more traditional path, right? Haha, hell no. Megabear is about as bizarre as you can get for a debut full length. Being comprised of 52 short tracks (each in 4/4, 120bpm, and in the key of Bb), the album was designed in such a way that every song flows into each other no matter the order. The band has specifically noted on their Bandcamp that there are 8.06e+67 possible combinations for the album which is…a lot.

It’s a bold experiment. Not the first of its kind for sure, but the first that I’ve seen to be a non-ambient/noise album. To make an ambient album like this is honestly not that hard, but to write 52 pieces of a coherent genre, most of them with lyrics, and to have them be able to flow together seamlessly is a big undertaking. The question at this point isn’t really if they pull it off because doing it in general is pulling it off in a way. The question is about how well they pull it off. And how well do they pull it off? Eeeeeeh.

Each song has pretty similar instrumentation with the introspective lyrics familiar to the genre. Lots of talk about feelings, vague spirituality, and all that jazz that you’d here on your typical indie folk album. There are lush acoustic layers, some pleasant synth work, pretty piano pieces, and a voice that puts emotion before all else. Vocally this honestly sounds as if Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit went a bit more emo. This makes sense considering the singer’s other band is a poppy emo group.

Honestly, Megabear has all of the hallmarks of a good indie folk record, but being cut up and randomly shuffled leads to it feeling sort of all over the place and at some point feels pretty samey. I decided to go along with their challenge of making my own playlist out of the songs, but it got to a point where it was mainly trying to make the tracks just flow coherently. Don’t get me wrong, I had an absolute blast listening through and rearranging each song to be my own unique concoction, but in the end I’m left with a playlist of songs that all feel like previews of much larger, much more epic tracks. It’s a shame because I’ve honestly come to really enjoy the band’s sound.

While I think this is an absolutely amazing work of art and a very impressive achievement, I can’t quite say that it’s a good album. The tracks being intentionally cut snippets makes it feel completely disjointed and incoherent. There’s some gut-wrenching (in a good way) lyricism and an aesthetic that’s honestly jaw dropping, but without the cohesion that’s brought with actual structure it just kinda falls flat. I’d like to see a full album made of these snippets similarly to their lead single “Galena” (linked above) which combines five of the snippets into one song. It’s a noble attempt, but not one that I can say really works out. For sure give their EPs a listen, but as for this album I can’t quite recommend it beyond a cursory listen to experience the concept.

Recommended tracks: Galena (that or shuffle the album!)
Recommended for fans of: Frightened Rabbit, Manchester Orchestra, The Weakerthans. If you don’t know any of those bands, just give it a shot if the concept sounds appealing. It’s worth at least a listen.
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Metal-Archives page
Label: Big Scary Monsters – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

ME REX is:
– Myles McCabe (vocals, piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar)
– Kathryn Woods (vocals)
– Phoebe Cross (vocals, drums)
– Rich Mandell (vocals, keyboards, bass)

The post Review: ME REX – Megabear appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: math rock (clean vocals)
Review by: Nick
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 7 May, 2021

One of the greatest joys in life, I firmly believe, is math rock. It takes pop punk/emo, indie rock, jazz fusion, and puts it in a massive genre-blender to produce one of the most vibing genres out there today. And it has variety too! Tera Melos leans heavier on the jazz fusion side of things while TTNG leans heavily on indie and American Football famously leans hard into emo. When you take a little bit of each part, however, you may end up with a band like Sketchshow.

The Southampton based five piece released their first full length which is acting as a follow up to their 2018 EP Patchwork. While a math rock album at heart filled with flashy riffs on clean guitars layered over complex drum parts, it’s also comprised bits and pieces from various other genres. Take my favorite track, “Delight” for example. This song starts with a certain kind of funkiness on top of some more reserved, dance-beat style drums. Later in the album you have a song like “Empty Without You” that feels like a kind of pop punk/emo Bent Knee. Then there’s a moment in “Smoke” where they go into a djent-type breakdown for a second while still using clean guitars. It’s this variety that makes this band fit into the literal definition of progressive. They’re taking some pre-established sounds and making something entirely unique.

Aside from the variety of inspirations, the other biggest thing this album has going for it would be (in my opinion) Satin Bailey‘s vocals. She has some of the most creative vocal melodies I’ve heard in a hot minute which is refreshing for a genre that has always trended towards emo sad boi vocals. Her vocal expressions on top of the constantly moving melodies makes for some really cool moments. My favorite may be towards the end of “Delight” where she sings the chorus in a way that sounds almost like it’s mimicking dance music sampling (which compliments the dancey drums that I mentioned before). It’s this experimenting that keeps her melodies from feeling less like they’re there out of obligation and more like they’re a centerpiece.

The only issue I have with this album is the lack of any real presence from the bass. I’m unsure if it’s because they were seemingly in between bass players for a lot of this album (the guitarists actually play bass for four out of ten tracks), but it seems to be that way because most of the time the bass is either playing root notes or doubling the guitar line which is very different from how it was on their EP. Maybe it’s because I’m a bass player so it sticks out to me more, but the lack of personality in that low end leads to it feeling like there’s a missing piece of the puzzle.

Bass issues aside, this is a really solid first full length. It falls just a bit shy of groundbreaking in my eyes, but this band’s potential is absolutely off the charts. With math rock you have hundreds of bands to get your fill from, but Sketchshow has managed to bring a sound to the table that you can’t really get elsewhere. The closest bands would probably be CHON, Thank You Scientist, or Bent Knee, but even they all lack the specific aspects that make Sketchshow unique. They may not have their sound perfected quite yet, but if this is how they are right now, I can’t wait to hear what they sound like next.

Recommended tracks: Delight, Empty Without You, Good News
Recommended for fans of: Covet, Bent Knee, Thank You Scientist, CHON
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Sketchshow is:
– Satin Bailey (vocals)
– Adam Curran (guitar, backing vocals, bass on track 5)
– Luke Phillips (guitar, backing vocals, keys, bass on tracks 8, 9, & 10)
– Will Sales (bass)
– Scott van der Leeden (drums, percussion, backing vocals)

The post Review: Sketchshow – WAVES appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive/alternative rock (clean vocals)
Review by: Evan
Country: Sweden
Release date: December 11, 2020

Musical minimalism can be both a blessing and a curse: it allows more focus to be placed on each part, which in turn requires each part to carry more weight. Alternative/Indie rock styles often pride themselves on having a minimalist/stripped-down style and A Brighter Decay, ie at Heart’s debut LP, is no exception. Sadly, the album’s components fail to leverage the extra weight they require, and the album, at many points, feels empty.

With the certainly not cliché hook and thesis out of the way, we can move to everyone’s favorite part of the review, the name-dropping (I promise I’ll only do a few). The sound of A Brighter Decay lies somewhere in between Karnivool and Tool with the more “poppy”/melodic approach of the former with a few psychedelic borrowings from the latter (I kept my promise). The music does seem to be very vocal-centric, perhaps more similar, at least in that regard, to standard alternative rock than progressive alternative rock. The vocals supply the melody and are far in front of the mix throughout the album.

It might be for the best that the vocals top the mix, because they are probably the most memorable thing about the album. Actually, they are probably the only memorable thing about the album. They may not be mind-blowing, but they are technically proficient, carry interesting melodies, and evoke a certain feeling of nostalgia. The songwriting is fine, having a chorus-oriented approach but still featuring some interesting shifts in time, builds, etc.

You’ve read this far and I still haven’t supported my thesis? What kind of a reviewer am I anyway? Well, here goes: the instrumental performances in an album like this need far more variety and motion. There are no potent guitar riffs (too much distorted chord playing, too little riffing) and only a few notable solos. The guitar needs to fill way more space in an album with so few parts. The bass parts are not bad, but turned so low they’re often hard to hear. The drumming, on the other hand, suffers like the guitars in the lack of powerful parts; moreover, the drum mix makes the drums sound “muddy.” The instrumental parts also sound rather similar from track to track. 

Ultimately, the space simply isn’t filled, hence the empty feeling the album has. The solid vocal performance makes the album a pleasant listen, but not a memorable one. 

Recommended tracks: Slide, Ordinary War, 19
Recommended for fans of: Karnivool, Tool, Riverside
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook |

Label: Independent

ie at Heart is:
– David Linghammar (vocals/guitars)
– Erik Lingharmmar (drums)
– Victor Liman (bass)

The post Review: ie at Heart – A Brighter Decay appeared first on The Progressive Subway.