Matt: Hey, how’s it going?

Oliver: Good, how are you?

M: Good… I sort of came out of retirement for this, actually. I haven’t reviewed anything for these guys in a year or two, but I’ve been listening to Everon for 20 years or something.

O: Really?

M: Yeah, so I said, “somebody here has to cover this.”

O: But you look relatively young, from what I can see on this tiny screen. You were an early bird, for progressive rock.

M: Well, this was around when Flesh came out, maybe. We actually talked a bit on the old band forum, I was just some annoying teenager… I was asking you about songwriting at the time, and you said, “just do it in your brain, write it in 20 minutes…”

O: That’s true, it’s still what I do actually.

M: I don’t think that’s a normal ability.

O: Oh, ask Devin Townsend about it, he can do that every day and make five albums a year. Frankly, I believe that is the normal thing to do. I just think it is a mindset, and by the time you discover how it works, I actually think this is the natural way of composing. I don’t think that any of the Beethovens of the world, or whatever… They didn’t read any of the books that people wrote about them, right? Where it explains all their composition techniques, and all this stuff. Because frankly, I don’t think they had one.

M: That’s a good position to be in. For me, I’m happy with the results, but it’s still a grueling, months-long process.

O: Maybe you don’t trust yourself. I think that’s often where it goes wrong. I’ve been there myself, it’s not like it always works that way. But I learned that the less I put my brain into it, the better it seems to work. I believe that for the creative part – not the arranging and production, that takes tons of time – but for the actual song ideas, I think you have to let it happen and trust it, because sometimes you may not understand what it is. Don’t second guess yourself, just run with it, and at some point it will fall into place. The thoughts that are good to get out of your head are the expectations of what it is supposed to sound like, or what audience it’s supposed to appeal to. All these things just put you on the wrong track. Just see what comes out naturally, because that is your own voice. Nobody else is entitled to an opinion about it. Of course they all have opinions, but you shouldn’t bother. In the process, I believe you should let nothing between your inspiration and what you’re doing. Not even bandmates or anything. They’re not in your head. Afterwards, you can debate over everything, but I personally prefer not to show or present any idea before I’ve finished it the way I think it should be. Maybe it doesn’t work that way for everybody, but for me that’s how it goes.

Also, with this album, I wrote all the music in less than three months. I had nothing, no music collected. I had no intention to make an Everon album, so before signing a deal for it, I didn’t even think about it. And by the time I set my mind on it, it came like a charm, actually. I cannot explain how it goes, but it happens. And I think my part in this is to let it happen… To not get in the way and ruin it.

M: So with this album, you didn’t have any goals or preconceptions of what it should sound like compared to the old ones…

O: I haven’t heard any of the old ones, I have no idea. Before I agreed we should make an album, I had been thinking a bit… I wasn’t sure if I would be able to come up with anything that would sound like Everon. In all these years, I’ve made tons of songs, but nothing that was in this genre of music. So I didn’t know if what would come up would fit an Everon album. But I just jumped in at the deep end, let’s say, and it kind of worked. I don’t even know… does it sound similar to Everon albums before now? I have no opinion there.

M: It’s always going to sound somewhat like you, right? Whether you like it or not.

O: I guess so, in one way or another, but I had no intention that it should sound like a continuation of anything. 

M: It definitely has a bigger mix, at least. More modern. I like it. I would definitely place this in the top two or three Everon albums, I think, based on the listens I’ve had.

O: What would be your number one?

M: Probably either Fantasma or Flesh.

O: Okay.

M: But there’s so many faces to it, right… Even within the same album, there’s three or four different kinds of song. So with all this diversity in the tracks… Who is the most likely Everon fan?

O: Maybe that’s why we don’t have so many, because it’s confusing people! I never had any intention of fitting a musical genre or anything. Honestly, I’m not making this up, before we signed a deal with a progressive rock label back then, I didn’t even know the term. It’s all just music, one song is as good as the other. There can be heavy things, small weird things, it can be a ten-minute piece, it doesn’t matter. I learned to embrace progressive rock as a term, in the sense that it apparently allows me to do whatever comes up, and nobody complains because “it’s progressive, you can do that.” Also, if I think about music that I like, it’s things from all different genres.

M: It sounds likely that you had at least heard Duke, or you know, 80s Genesis albums at that point, right?

O: I had, when I was a kid… I don’t even know which Genesis albums, but I had a five year older brother. I remember that at some point, I also had a bunch of cassette tapes that I found interesting. I was maybe ten, eleven or something, and I played many of them not even knowing what I was listening to. I don’t know if I’d be able to remember a song off that album, but I’m sure there’s songs on there that I’ve heard.

M: What’s your relationship to metal music, in particular? It sounds like you must listen to some, but it’s rare that a song is heavy the entire way through for you.

O: I’ve been producing a lot of heavy music. As a producer, most of the bands I work with are metal bands, a lot of symphonic metal, and I like doing that very much. I also had, I think when I was fourteen or fifteen – you know at that age, things change quickly – I had a time where I listened to stuff like Genesis and Saga, and then it was a year or two with just metal, and then it was fusion jazz… Could be whatever comes in. So I had a short metal period, but I have no particular relation to the metal genre. I do like heavy guitars. This is the element that I really like from it. I’m not a big fan of fast double bass drums or funny metal screams, though as a singer I’ve been guilty of trying some, which I’m terribly embarrassed with…! But in general, I find much of the singing in metal kind of over-acted. I prefer singing that is more raw or touching, although there are exceptions. But the element I like most is heavy guitars. And not even for fast riffing or anything, but I just like the epicness they bring. It’s a very powerful tool in an arrangement when you can throw in the super low-tuned heavy, fat guitars, I love that.

M: Do you have any favorite musicians right now, in any genre of music?

O: There’s so many, you find awesome musicians in all sorts of music… You’d really have to go by instrument or by genre or something, it wouldn’t be fair to just mention a few. I can think of musicians that have been super influential in my formative years… For guitar playing, I would have to think of somebody like Steve Lukather or Gary Moore. Those were kind of my role models for guitar tone. What appealed to me the most was not the fast stuff, but getting this beautiful tone. With drummers, it would be guys like Neil Peart or Manu Katché… Totally different style, but awesome musician. When you think of keyboards, mainly piano players, you cannot get past Billy Joel, or even Elton John, or later Tori Amos, the people that really defined how to play a piano in rock or pop music. Also, I’ve had the occasion to work with a lot of wonderful musicians myself over the years. You know, I do a lot myself, I play a lot of instruments, but for everything I’m doing, I’ve met others who are doing at least one of these things much better than I do. You learn a bit from everybody. Much of what I do, I really learned in the years after starting to be a producer, just working with a lot of other musicians. Most bands, you will have one guy or so who has something really “wow,” and then by working together… I hope they learn something from me, but it also goes the other direction. That just makes your toolkit bigger, and I appreciate that.

M: So your production career… I’ll hear an album sometimes and think “you know, that kinda sounds like Everon,” and then I’ll find out you did string arrangements on it or something. You’ve been doing consistent, full-time music work for the last however many years, right?

O: Yes, I have. I have never had a proper job in my entire life. So for some people, this has been presented as a comeback thing, but it doesn’t feel like that for me at all. Just, instead of working on somebody else’s album or writing film music or whatever, I’ve been working on an Everon album. But in a way, it’s my regular line of work, with the difference that here I’m of course doing entire compositions… The biggest difference is actually that I have to sing. That is the thing I normally avoid.

M: Is it working well for you though, compared to an office job?

O: Yeah, I’m not complaining. Of course, speaking financially or security-wise, I can guarantee you there’s more reasonable careers to put on than this one, but of course it also comes with privileges. So far, I’ve managed to make a living out of something I really love doing, so it doesn’t really feel like work. Of course, in production work there’s also things that are not fun. If you sit there for five days editing drums or vocals or whatever, that is just stuff that has to be done that comes with it. But for the most part it’s something I really enjoy doing. I also enjoy that it gave me the opportunity to explore a lot of different genres. It’s very inspiring to work with other artists that can bring their vision of things. They invite me to collaborate, and I love doing that.

M: Not a lot of people can claim to have succeeded at that.

O: Ehhh, succeeded, haha. Some say so. Something I’m terribly bad at is all the networking and things like that.

M: You’re a social media skeptic, right?

O: Ah, skeptic is the least you could say. Now I have to kind of do it, because Mascot Records convinced me it has to be done, but we have somebody at the record company helping with that. So I try my best to interact with people there, but I would never do that on my own initiative. For me this is really strange things in a strange land.

M: They tell you you have to put out five memes per day or something like that…

O: Sometimes I work with much younger artists, like recently two different ones from Berlin. Kind of an urban music scene, totally different stuff… One of them was using the same mix engineer that we used for the album, and this is how the connection came. They wanted some acoustic versions of songs, and asked Tom if he knew somebody who could do piano and strings, whatever. These young kids, they don’t even do music videos anymore. Music videos are out, and now you just do 30-second Tiktoks. Ok? I don’t know what will be ten years from now…

M: Maybe ten-second Tiktoks.

O: But yeah, if you think commercially, you have to kind of count that in. You have to make your point in 30 seconds, and the rest is just like, keep it rolling a bit, which is not exactly my approach to music. 

M: Being asked to make a Tiktok, my soul would crumble…

O: No, I refuse that. I told the label right away, ok, we can do Facebook, and they convinced me to do Instagram, but I told them Tiktok is the limit. And they were fine with that.

M: So you’ve been working this whole time, it’s not that much of a change for you… What was the motivation, in this case, to make an album again? Is it a compulsion of sorts? Was it just convenient?

O: It came out of coincidence. I was in touch with the owner of Mascot Records after many years, about something totally else, and I really just made the joke that we still had an option in our record contract from 10-15 years ago. I didn’t mean it seriously, but I said “if you’re silly enough to take the option, maybe I’m silly enough to think of a record,” and he jumped on it right away. I thought he was just joking too, but he said “why don’t you think about it, I think that could be really interesting.” My thought was always that it would be interesting to absolutely nobody. So it’s not that I thought much about making an album or not with Everon… I was just convinced that nobody would care. It’s not like we were Iron Maiden or something.

M: When you posted that first single, a lot of people were very touched by it.

O: But nobody was more surprised than I was! I was happy with how the songwriting had gone, and how the album turned out, so I was feeling a sense of accomplishment that I didn’t make an idiot of myself here. But I was genuinely afraid that Mascot was sinking its money, investing in this production. Most of all, on their behalf, I was hoping that it would generate at least some decent kind of interest, but I didn’t expect much. So anything above complete indifference is already a positive surprise, and I was kind of shocked how many people reacted, and it sounded like it would really mean something to them. I wasn’t aware there were people missing us, actually.

M: This was the strangest album announcement… The last thing I ever expected to hear. But suddenly, wow, it’s like it’s the 2000s again.

O: Yeah, but also, you know the band never retired officially. We never talked about retiring… We just didn’t make an album. I didn’t think there was much point to it, and I kind of enjoyed all these other things I was doing… There was no space in my head for it. I got a bit of the taste back for doing albums of my own in 2015. I had a project then named Phantasma, with Georg Neuhauser (the singer of Serenity) and Charlotte Wessels from Delain. We wrote the music together, and I kind of liked that. I thought maybe it would be nice to make an album again, with just my own music… But I really thought I had no platform, because I didn’t think there would be any interest. If I would have asked Mascot Records in 2015, maybe they would have been even happier, only making an album seven years later instead of 17 years. They never asked either, in my defense…

M: The rerecording of Flesh on this album is interesting… That’s probably one of the band’s most noteworthy songs, just about as close to a perfect song as you could ask for. What made you want to rerecord it?

O: Ugh, I was so unhappy with it! But I understand it was one of your favorites. That was entirely my initiative. It was explicitly meant to be a bonus track, so I didn’t suggest it until I had all the new songs written. This one never sat right with me. What you cannot know, is how often we tried to mix it. I think we mixed that song 20 or 30 times, and it never fell into place. And the reason for that is that I fucked it up in the arrangement. It was my first real shot at orchestra together with the sound of a metal or rock band. 

M: You mean the notes, or the editing of the instruments?

O: The notes. Of course, in the years after, one of the things I did most was orchestra for metal bands, so then I really learned that craft, and everything I had done wrong. The way I had arranged it, there was no way the guitars and the orchestra would ever separate. So the keys on their own sounded marvelous. Understand, back then, we didn’t have these orchestra libraries, so that was all made with hardware samplers. Not all of it aged super well, but back then it was state-of-the-art, so that wasn’t the concern. It sounded great on its own. Then, I did all the guitars, and it also sounded great on its own. Then, put it all together, and you hear nothing! You could always hear the guitars and the orchestra fighting with each other everywhere. You can try to find some remedy with funny EQ settings or levels to get things to the front where you want them, but this is all like damage reduction. It just wasn’t a good arrangement. And becoming known for doing that kind of work, it bugged me to have a song out there that I stand responsible for, that falls short. So, if there was one thing that was a compulsion, it was that. For the rest, I am totally at peace with whatever we’ve done in the past. I’m sure there are things I would do differently now, or that were terrible, but it was all the best I could do at the time. I let go, and it’s finished. But that one bugged me, because I have a certain reputation for doing orchestra, and I didn’t like that there was something out there so terribly made. But I’m happy to hear that you liked it!

M: Terrible, you say… I understand, though, you don’t have any control over how you feel about the stuff you’ve done.

O: Of course not. Speaking as a professional, I know the mistakes I’ve made. I can hear where it goes wrong, I know exactly what I need to change. 

M: It doesn’t help when people say “it’s good, it’s good,” either.

O: No, not at all. Also not when they say “it’s bad.” This is what I meant earlier. Whatever it is, once you release something, you have to live with peoples’ opinions. And they will always be controversial. You have guys that love what you do, you have guys that think it’s horrible, you have guys that think they know better… And you shouldn’t listen to any of that. It doesn’t help. You can only really follow your own vision and hope that it resonates with somebody, but don’t expect that it resonates with everybody. It makes you insecure, it makes you second guess yourself, and you’re trying to kind of please other people… It makes no sense. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take advice. That’s something different. When I’m not certain or something goes wrong, I have people who I know and trust, and whose opinion I value, because they understand what I’m looking for. But you cannot throw something out in public and then try to filter all the opinions coming in, because it just will not help.

M: How much control do you really have over your musical output anyway? You can steer the ship a little bit, but it’s hard to force any particular thing to happen.

O: You can… I’m not saying you should. I’ve been also doing quite a lot of what you call “production music,” that is, music for film or TV or commercials. And there, you have to cater to a particular expectation. This is a totally different mindset. You can always do that, this is craftsmanship. I’ve done that a lot, and it can actually be fun. But when it is about, like you say, really writing your own original stuff which is supposed to as honestly as possible represent who you are at that point in your life, then I think you have to be true to yourself and nobody else. Also, live with whatever comes out. Sometimes, something may come out which makes it feel weird. Like often with lyrics, most of that comes very intuitively… I put some time into getting the language good, kind of like a poem, whatever… But for the actual content, it happens more often than not that I have no idea what I’m writing about when I start. There’s single lines that come already while working on the music, and then later it’s connecting the dots until it forms a picture… And sometimes it forms a picture that is not a picture you like. But it is apparently something that relates to me at that point in my life, and I roll with it.

M: They sound like they’re about real things more often than not.

O: Many of them are. There are many where I could exactly tell you – which I of course wouldn’t – what it is about… But still, it sometimes expresses the way I feel about things clearer than I would verbalize it when talking about it. In a way, there are less limitations. There are normally things you would hold back, or thoughts you don’t even want to have. You kind of just let it come out, like therapy sessions or something, and then you look it and say “that’s not nice.” But this comes from your head, and you have to accept that.

M: So, going forward with the band – and you don’t have to answer if you don’t know or want to – but with the passing of Moschus [Everon’s drummer since 1989], that’s a pretty big part of the band’s identity, right? Do you still have plans for the future of Everon?

O: First of all, this is of course a big bummer for potential live activity. We were never the most busy live band, but we were thinking about it. Doing that without Moschus… Of course nothing is impossible, but it’s difficult to imagine. Besides being the drummer, he was also the technical genius, kind of the MacGyver of the band, so there’s more to replace than just a drummer. There’s also much more there to replace as a friend than a band member, which is something nobody can replace. I’m not saying we’re not going to make an album. With the way we work, I could probably find another drummer, like we did with Jason [Gianni, drummer on three songs on Shells]. I honestly don’t know. In a way, we just finished this album because of him, because he would have come haunting us from the grave if we didn’t. He had recorded most of his parts already, and he was probably the most enthusiastic guy about all of it. To him, it meant a lot. Throwing all that away and not releasing it was not an option. Let me put it this way… I have no intention that we should end it here. If there is interest in the album when it comes out, and if there are people that want more, I will definitely consider the option of doing another one. But first, let this one come out and see what happens.

M: Thanks for doing the interview.

O: It was my pleasure. Take care.

Thank you to Oliver for giving us some of his time.

Shells releases on 28 February 2025.

Links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

The post Interview: Everon appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Prog Rock/Metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Rush, Kamelot, Genesis, Avantasia, 90s Savatage
Review by: Matt
Country: Germany
Release date: 28 February 2025

“Strike while the iron is hot,” they say. It’s with that phrase in mind that we approach Shells, the surprising successor to 2008’s North. These late comebacks tend to be letdowns, with an ineffable sense of inspiration lost along the way. Luckily, Everon have always existed in their own little pocket of time, so even though we were still using flip phones the last time we heard from them, Shells has lost none of the band’s old lustre.

It’s probably safe to assume that most of our readers are unfamiliar with Everon, so to summarize the band: they are the brainchild of Oliver Philipps (vocals, guitar, keyboard,) whose work you may have heard without even knowing it. He has produced a number of European symphonic bands such as Delain and Serenity, and is known in the industry as someone you turn to when you need orchestral parts done. It is no surprise, then, that Shells leans symphonic, with top-notch bombastic arrangements and prominent piano equal to the guitars. Everon have always been difficult to categorize; they’re heavier than prog rock, yet lacking the ego of metal; they’re not technical, but one suspects they could be if they felt like it; and their lyrics are unusually straightforward and disarming. One of their albums will usually contain several different kinds of songs, from metal or metal-adjacent tracks to ballads ranging from the sappy to the sublime. Like late Savatage or X Japan, listeners must accept that they have no particular interest in Rockin’, but whatever they attempt is usually of impeccable quality. Everon is a band devoid of image or artifice; the project is nothing more or less than whatever Philipps felt like writing, and the only common thread is that he knows damn well how to write a song.

That being said, Shells is overall the heaviest Everon album, with a slight tendency towards their gothic side. There are songs that sound like Rush, late Kamelot, Devin Townsend‘s pop era, and even one of their Billy Joel-esque songs that were always my least favorite (sorry.) Listeners will be dazzled by a smorgasbord of sounds, like the odd-meter chugging of “Guilty as Charged,” the poppy-yet-refined “Travels,” or the Celtic folk stylings of “Pinocchio’s Nose.” There is a depressing/joyous dichotomy at play throughout the album, though even the major-key stuff is wistful. Each song packs an emotional punch, from the heroic first notes of “No Embrace” to the unexpectedly upbeat “Until We Meet Again,” which is a tribute to drummer Christian Moos who died suddenly before Shells could be completed. The album may have been already musically written, but this was such a surprising and touching way to do a tribute song. I got choked up multiple times during the album, honestly. I’m sure nostalgia plays a role, but also the presence of greatness. Philipps has a way of making things real, while other bands are putting on an act.

Of special note is the remix/semi-rerecording of “Flesh,” the longest and most epic song in Everon‘s history. This is the closest they ever came to being an outright Symphony X or Dream Theater-style prog metal band, with long instrumental excursions and multiple movements that pay off in a glorious grand finale. Rarely did the band ever go this big or dramatic, but it’s one of their finest moments. I would place “Flesh” right alongside those other bands’ best works, and I was worried about how a remake would turn out, but this version does have its advantages. The VST orchestra is modernized; the mix is of course much more robust; and the lead guitars have been replaced entirely with better performances. The original song has certain details I’ve become attached to that didn’t make it into the new one, but I think listeners will be fine with either version as their first. As an experiment, listen to the 2002 song after this one, and let us know what you think.

While Shells is in some ways a time capsule, it doesn’t sound old-fashioned or dated. The mix is a big improvement, and they did hilariously take the seven-string pill in a couple of spots, claiming the hotly contested trophy for “least likely seven-string band.” Notably, though, none of it comes off as trying to sound different from before, nor trying to recapture the past… Someone simply turned the machine back on after a generation, and this is what came out. You can like the result or not, but what you’re hearing is the real deal. An honest, fantastic album.

Recommended tracks: No Embrace, Travels, Pinocchio’s Nose, Guilty as Charged
You may also like: Anubis Gate, Southern Empire, Acolyte, Hemina, Teramaze, Ostura
Final verdict: 9/10

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

Label: Mascot Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Everon is:
– Oliver Philipps – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard
– Ulli Hoever – Guitar
– Schymy – Bass
– Christian “Moschus” Moos – Drums
– Jason Gianni – Drums (tracks 8, 10, 11)

The post Review: Everon – Shells appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Power/Prog (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Vanden Plas, Pagan’s Mind, Leprous
Review by: Matt
Country: Denmark
Release date: 02 June, 2023

Time has certainly flown since we last heard from Anubis Gate, right at the start of the pandemic. However, the passage of eons is of little concern to the gods, and Anubis Gate have kept on doing their thing as always. Hearing new Anubis Gate is a little like going back in time to the mid 2000s, when analog and digital production lived in harmony and a Mattias Norén artwork meant you were getting a great album. Most prog bands of the era either lost their edge or migrated to the lands of chug, but Anubis Gate stubbornly remain themselves, uncaring or oblivious to the world of mortals.

Not everything is the same, of course; We’re not quite back to pre-Detached levels of power metal, but Interference shows more willingness to step on the gas than 2017’s Covered in Black did, which is much appreciated. At the same time, there are more 80s new wave influences and overtly Floydian moments of ambience and bluesy guitar playing than ever before. Last album’s persistent aura of melancholy is still lingering around, but the clouds have parted and allowed some sense of fun to return. The contrast between pummeling riffs and calm sections makes for great drama without coming across as jarring, and if things ever threaten to drag, it is usually resolved by a fantastic chorus just in the nick of time. Musical descriptors are all somewhat irrelevant anyway, as Anubis Gate have a way of giving you the album you need, even if it’s not the album you want. Just know that, although the songs rarely go in the direction you would expect, you are in good hands.

Take one of my favorites, “Ignorance is Bliss”: It’s two minutes before we get a proper verse, and they drop everything multiple times for ambient cooldowns rather than immediately going to the next section, but the more thoughtful pace results in a sort of cinematic tension. There’s a similar push-and-pull on “The Intergalactic Dream of Stardom” between laid-back, swaggering classic rock sections and the ultra-precise cosmic sound we’re more used to from this band. If you really look at it, there’s a lot of what you might call “downtime” on this album, and it’s impressive that you don’t spend it just waiting for the payoff. The songs are structured in quite a mature way, where the meandering is well-disguised and still purposeful. Of course, if you want more immediate single-oriented songs, that base is well-covered with “Emergence” and “The Phoenix” being a couple of the catchiest songs they’ve done.

On the vocal front, Henrik Fevre has nothing left to prove at this point in his tenure, having comfortably made the role his own forever ago. I’d just like to say that I appreciate the more natural production on his voice of late. The “ethereal god from space” sound was part of this band’s appeal in the past, but the heavily edited walls of quad tracking and chorus irked me at times. The vocals are still unmistakably modern and dolled up, but for the first time I really have the sense of a good singer delivering his lines in realtime. Fevre isn’t stylistically flashy, just delivering excellent melodies with great tone, but he has some surprising high notes lurking in the toolbox when you least expect them. I daresay the vocals are the best part of the album, bringing the best set of choruses the band has yet penned.

Suffice to say, Anubis Gate have extended their winning streak yet again. Whether you’re an old fan of Andromeda Unchained or a current diehard follower, Interference is not to be missed. Now excuse me, I’ve got to wipe this bird shit off my copy…

Recommended tracks: Ignorance is Bliss, The Intergalactic Dream of Stardom, Interference
You may also like: Lord of Mushrooms, Darkwater, Tanagra
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook

Label: No Dust Records – Facebook | Official Website

Anubis Gate is:
– Henkrik Fevre (vocals, bass)
– Kim Oleson (guitars)
– Michael Bodin (guitars)
– Morten Gade Sørensen (drums)

The post Review: Anubis Gate – Interference appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Djent (harsh vocals)
Review by: Matt
Country: Poland
Release date: 01 August, 2021

We’re back with the prolific Chaos over Cosmos, whose rapid fire EP release schedule seems to be working out for them. This is a “full length,” but you know… It’s 35 minutes, and 10 of those are a reworking of a previous track. The band continues to exist in a state of flux, changing vocalists, styles, and reshaping past songs. Power metal is entirely out at this point, and chuggy start-stop grooves have assumed control. Most of the album is a vehicle for inhuman Animals as Leaders-style shredding. Note my choice of words.

Look, let’s get down to it: These guitars are fake. I struggled to identify them on the earlier releases, but it’s barely hidden anymore. Anyone with a degree in sweepology could tell you this isn’t how guitar works; even Rings of Saturn or Brain Drill have legato notes, different pick attacks, etc. Maybe it’s recorded at 1/4 speed or something. Whatever method is being employed, something is going on that ain’t rock n’ roll, and I’m kind of blown away that no other metal review sites can apparently tell when a guy is playing a guitar or not.

Anyway, that doesn’t necessarily mean the album sucks – we wouldn’t want to be elitist in prog metal – but the composition has also suffered from this mad lust for notes. Listening to Silver Lining is exactly like when my Necrophagist-loving friend used to send me his Guitar Pros – robotic note spam for minutes on end. Without the marvel of the player’s skill, these endless arpeggioes just become tedious filler. Wait a minute… Is this what normal people hear!?

What this band does excel at, and has been utilizing less and less, is atmosphere. The best parts of the album are easily when the synths come to the forefront, e.g. the end of “The Last Man in Orbit.” This is evident in the last track, The Sins Between the Stars, itself a reworking of The Compass from 2019. Rafal Bowman manages to lay off of the gas for most of this song, opting for a more epic post-rock sound with discernible structure and climaxes. This version is unfortunately marred by Anders Friden-esque whiny vocals, but reminded me of the initial promise CoC displayed a couple of years ago. What was exciting about them was the spacey songwriting and unusual blend of influences, even if it hadn’t all come together yet. Since then, they’ve gradually dropped things that were interesting in exchange for more chugging and sweeping, and it has come to a head on ChuggaSweepathon 2021 here. I’m sure Bowman will find his compositional niche – he knows his theory and puts in a lot of work – but I’m not really on board at this point.

Recommended tracks: The Sins Between the Stars
Recommended for fans of: Animals as Leaders
Final verdict: 3/10

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

Label: Independent

Chaos over Cosmos is:
– Rafał Bowman (guitars, programming)
– KC Lyon (vocals)

The post Review: Chaos over Cosmos – The Silver Lining Between the Stars appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: “Extreme Progressive Metal” (90% clean vocals)
Review by: Matt
Country: Sweden
Release date: 30 July, 2021

Loch Vostok: a name I’ve heard before, yet never investigated until now. It seems I might not have gotten the classic LV experience here, as this is a transitional period for the band. Newcomer Jonas Radehorn has replaced bandleader Teddy Möller on vocals after almost 20 years, and they’re trying for a “new, more direct sound,” in their own words. Well, I don’t know what they were doing before, but… uh… Actually, I kind of still don’t.

When I first go through a review album, I’m always looking for some main feature to hang my hat on – “This is that band with _____.” Maybe they have a lot of keyboards, or they’re imitating another band, or all their songs are about olympic curling. Whatever. In this case, the band’s most noteworthy feature is exactly how un-noteworthy they sound, yet I don’t mean that as an insult. Loch Vostok are actually not boring at all. They do a lot of different things, committing to none of them in particular, but they’re not even weird enough to be “that band that does a lot of things.” I don’t know what they are. Still, quality writing has no genre, and it carries this album that somehow manages to have no identity for 48 minutes and still be good.

I will attempt to describe what is basically the exact midpoint of all metal genres. Opus Ferox is: kind of 80s. Kind of 2000s. Kind of chuggy. Kind of keyboardy. Proggy, but with no long songs. Skillful, but with no shredding. Clean-vocaled, but sometimes growled. Usually midtempo, except when it’s not. Thrashy or deathy at times. Faintly nu-metal at times. Epic but unpretentious. You know… an album.

Despite how hard this amorphous blob of a record is to explain, I can at least say a few things with certainty. Every song here flows nicely and is easily digestible without being too simple. The choruses are consistently excellent, and Jonas Radehorn is probably an upgrade over any singer he replaces. He initially sounds a bit tough-guy, but over the course of the album proves to be an incredibly versatile clean singer with a massive range. “Disillusion” is his crowning achievement here, hitting runs out of nowhere that I never would have thought possible based on his generally low voice. The rest of the band are no slouches either, though they don’t often go out of their way to show off. Lawrence Dinamarca returns from Manticora‘s wonderful 2020 album to deliver a more restrained but still impressive drum performance. In a word, the instrumentation is tasteful.

If I have any complaints, they’re more peripheral things – for instance, “Save You” is an odd choice for a closer with its abrupt, anticlimactic ending. It adds to the impression that this is just a random collection of 3-5 minute songs. Also, I always cringe when metal lyrics try to “run on the issues” like they sometimes do here, with lines like “a shitstain on democracy” or “when the pharmaceutical companies give away the cure for AIDS for free.” There’s things worth saying, but I’ve always thought metal lent itself better to metaphor and vagueries. Perhaps the worst accusation you could make against Opus Ferox is that it doesn’t take any risks with song structure, but I’m neutral on that when a band is this good at churning out choruses.

You know, I thought of something Loch Vostok could do to set themselves apart. As you may have heard, they’re named after an Antarctic lake. Maybe they should just claim to be from Antarctica, so the same fans of “pirate metal” and that goofy Ned Flanders band can think they’re quirky while listening to “Antarctica metal.” It’s a little late, but you know, just keep repeating it until it becomes true. It’ll sell more albums than being “that band that writes good songs,” and they won’t even have to buy costumes – they can just wear their winter coats on stage. Think about it, guys.

Recommended tracks: Disillusion, The Great Escape
Recommended for fans of: Voyager, Mercenary, Nevermore
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: ViciSolum Productions – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Loch Vostok is:
– Jonas Radehorn (vocals)
– Teddy Möller (guitars, harsh vocals)
– Niklas Kupper (guitars)
– Patrik Janson (bass)
– Lawrence Dinamarca (drums)

The post Review: Loch Vostok – Opus Ferox – The Great Escape appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Symphonic Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Matt
Country: Italy
Release date: 16 July, 2021

Has narration ever improved a metal album? I began to ponder this question during Gravestone‘s Ars Arcana. I was able to put a lot of thought into it, because the mind wanders when an album opens with three spoken word intros in a row. I guess I like to laugh at Rhapsody‘s old interludes (this is hell!!!), and Bal-Sagoth owned it, but it was campy narration enhancing campy music with all due respect. Gravestone are dead serious on every track, and the narration is prevalent enough to frustrate me during what is otherwise a good album.

Once this thing gets cooking, it’s a pretty solid melodic/symphonic death offering, though heavier on artificial synth sounds than e.g. Fleshgod Apocalypse. It’s rather eclectic, with furious blasting and slow chugging, sometimes taking a stab at legitimate death metal, sometimes hanging back with a sad minimalist piano part. Often, the heavy parts are accompanied by proggy synth leads more traditionally used by bands like Pagan’s Mind. When the brutal and melodic sides unite, it reminds me of newer Scar Symmetry, or maybe even Kalisia‘s one crazy album. The songs take a lot of strange turns, with chord changes and melodies never quite leading where you expect, but ending up somewhere tasteful nonetheless. The drumming is flashy and excessive in a good way, and the harsh vocalist has a great crunchy tone – see the chorus of “Ignis.” I don’t know where this renewed vigor came from after being dormant for a quarter of a century, but I have no complaints at all with the band’s performance. Writing-wise, the album even holds together decently despite all these long-winded speeches.

Apparently, Ars Arcana is based on a book, so it makes sense that they would try to convey the story; it’s just that metal concept albums lend themselves more to plot outlines than plots, where your imagination can fill in the gaps. Trying to recount a literal series of events in detail is much harder to do gracefully. If you find yourself stopping for spoken word regularly, maybe this isn’t the appopriate medium for what you’re trying to get across… Nevertheless, it doesn’t outright ruin the album, and these guys definitely have the goods musically. This is a band to watch.

Recommended tracks: Ignis, Aqua
Recommended for fans of: Kalisia, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Scar Symmetry
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Sliptrick Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Gravestone is:
– Simona Guerrini (vocals)
– Marco Borrani (guitars)
– Gabriele Maschietti (guitars)
– Massimiliano Buffolino (keyboards)
– Massimiliano Maax Salvatori (bass)
– David Folchitto (drums)

The post Review: Gravestone – Ars Arcana appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Symphonic/Black/Folk (mixed vocals)
Review by: Matt
Country: Italy
Release date: 8 May, 2021

Metal has given us some wacky cultural teamups. We’ve had samurai from Finland, pharaohs in South Carolina, and now Italian czars. Far be it from me to comment on the authenticity of this tribute to Russian history, but musically, Voland does them proud.

A two-man band from Lombardy, Voland doesn’t sound entirely different from its members’ parent band, Veratrum. Bombastic orchestra and choirs sit on top of blastbeats and militaristic marches, with vocals trading off between a death growl and a deep operatic baritone. While this is ostensibly black metal, like many black metal bands, the outside influences have gradually taken over until their origins are only occasionally recognizable. At this point, it’s like calling Turisas death metal – the guitars aren’t neutered to that degree, but the symphonic aspect is clearly the main draw, and composer Haiwas is up to the task.

I wouldn’t say the orchestral arrangements are very intricate here, but they are big and bold. It was about four minutes into “Casa Ipatiev” where this EP clicked with me, with that glorious organ and string melody. Rarely is there much harmony or counterpoint going on, but the melodies are grandiose and straight to the point, and the orchestra successfully takes what the guitars are already doing and expands them to an epic scale. These four songs sound appropriately regal, and for whatever reason, actually evoke imperial Russia to these foreign ears.

Vocalist Rimmon contributes a great deal to the songs’ believability, not just with a solid growl, but more committed operatic vocals than one normally gets in a symphonic metal band. He’s not Dmitri Hvorostovsky, but he’s certainly not hacking it either… He can legitimately pull this style off, and appears to be bilingual as well. I haven’t been able to find any mention of a guest singer, so unless I’m wrong, hats off to him. Really, both members have done a great job of taking a less-traveled subject in metal and portraying it with every tool at their disposal.

Rounding out Voland III are two “live in studio” performances of older songs from the band. They fit right in with the other tracks, and could have fooled me into thinking it was all one package except that the guitar is now mono. It’s arguably kind of pointless, since there’s no audience and the piped-in orchestra tracks make them very similar to studio recordings, but good to have nonetheless. That still leaves 25 minutes of new material that form a satisfying, self-contained listening experience. If you have any interest in symphonic metal or Russian folk-tinged music, Voland will not disappoint… except for wishing there was a full-length, of course.

Recommended tracks: Terza Roma, Suite Russe
Recommended for fans of: Therion, Turisas, Haggard
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Xenoglossy Productions – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Voland is:
– Haiwas (all instruments)
– Rimmon (vocals)

The post Review: Voland – Voland III: Царепоклонство – Il culto degli Zar appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Doom/Post/Ambient (mixed vocals)
Review by: Matt
Country: United States (California)
Release date: April 18, 2020

There comes a time in every man’s life when he must ask himself: Am I Forlesen, or Againstlesen? Well, if you have any inclination towards doom or post rock, you can most likely count yourself among the former camp. It’s not easy to pin down exactly one genre – unsurprising, considering the band’s Kayo Dot connection – but they combine beat-less drones, haunting female choirs, and doom metal into something both beautiful and a little unsettling.

Maybe it was just a lucky frame of mind I was in, but Hierophant Violent was instantly engaging to me. This is unusual for a two-song drone/doom album, but the atmosphere is so moody and tense you can’t help but pay attention. Forlesen create a masterful cinematic ambience here, spinning gold out of both heaviness and the lack thereof. Low, ominous synths and ghostly female vocals dominate the extended intro, creating an atmosphere like a bleaker “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” It’s over eleven minutes into the first song before any sort of riff or groove appears, yet we’re not waiting for it to happen. There’s no strict delineation between ambience and band, no sudden intrusion of metal like I feared… just one interconnected, supremely dark composition. I don’t know what’s what, structurally, but I do know 18 minutes of awesome sounds when I hear it.

The second song fares a bit worse, I think, but is by no means bad. It’s basically the same exact vibe as the previous track, but more reliant on conventional guitar and drums, becoming vaguely blackened at times. Compared to their synth/sound design work, the band just doesn’t have a lot to say in this venue. If you really look at it, the guitars aren’t interesting on either song – mostly repetitive i-VI dirges, aka “instant dramatic metal progression.” The brilliance is all between the lines, in dynamics and textures. In that regard, “Nightbridge” feels like a slightly lesser retread of what came before… similar chords, similar structure. I’ll still happily listen to it, and for all I know, I could be saying this about “Following Light” if the tracks were switched.

Taken as a whole, Hierophant Violent is a swell piece of work, and I can safely recommend it to fans of all things doomy and posty. It does start to feel like a one trick pony, even across just two songs, but we’ll have to see what the band does for the next one. They’re certainly capable of great things.

Recommended tracks: Following Light
Recommended for fans of: Cult of Luna, Rosetta
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp| Spotify| Facebook

Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Forlesen is:
– Ascalaphus – vocals, guitar, synth, harmonium
– Bezaelith – vocals, guitar, bass, synth
– Maleus – drums

The post Review: Forlesen – Hierophant Violent appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive/Symphonic (clean vocals)
Review by: Matt
Country: Israel
Release date: October 30th, 2020

Who’s got two thumbs and loves Scardust? I lost my thumbs after missing the page view quota, but otherwise… Well, come to think of it, I don’t like the band that much either. Why did I write that?

Scardust has often been described as “Epica plus Dream Theater,” and it really is exactly that, including a double dose of cheese. Here’s a litmus test: If you were able to listen to The Astonishing without a sense of irony, go get this, because you’ll probably love it. Everyone in this band is on top of their game and plays a ton of notes, especially Yanai Avnet, who gets some Hibria-esque bass arpeggios to dazzle the senses. Noa Gruman is a fantastic singer, right up there with Floor Jansen or Brittney Slayes, and maybe beyond. She can do the operatic soprano parts, but I’ve rarely heard someone also display so much power and aggression. This is a band that has thoroughly mastered “Can I,” and, one hopes, will someday whittle it down to “Should I.”

I won’t say the songwriting is clumsy, but it is a lot to swallow. The composition reaches for the stars, alternately taking turns at melodeath, prog rock, jazz, folk, and pop, while covering everything with a big-budget orchestral veneer. The album isn’t bizarre to the degree of, say, Native Construct, but it is possibly trying to be too smart for its own good, with some spastic tonal shifts and a zillion key changes that give songs the feeling of just barely holding together until the chorus. There’s something a little irritating about how earnest Strangers is, not helped by the faux-insightful “people are isolated!” shtick, delivered with all the sincerity of showtunes. Don’t get me wrong, the album is kind of genius, but I’d still be embarrassed to play it in public. The ultimate moment of cringe came during “Gone,” whose verses are simultaneously as sickeningly saccharine as the worst pop song, and as frustratingly disjointed as the most stapled-on prog afterthought. While I listened to far worse things this year, the first minute of “Gone” is my most hated chunk of music for 2020.

Nevertheless, there’s a ton of talent on display here, and Scardust have done a better job than most at the “everything 1000% all the time” approach. If you like your prog with a side of wank, you might as well check them out now, because I imagine they’ll be A Big Deal in the next few years. The signs are all there, including me being lukewarm on them… Strangers we are, indeed.

Recommended tracks: Addicted, Huts
Recommended for fans of: Epica, Dream Theater, Seventh Wonder, Ayreon
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: M-Theory Audio – Bandcamp | Facebook

Scardust is:
– Noa Gruman (vocals)
– Yadin Moyal (guitars)
– Yoav Weinberg (drums)
– Yanai Avnet (bass)
– Itai Portugaly (keyboards)

The post Review: Scardust – Strangers appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive metal, power metal (clean vocals)
Review by: Matt
Country: Italy
Release date: November 13, 2020

Well, you certainly can’t fault Starbynary‘s work ethic – It’s just a year later, and here we are with the next chapter in their Divina Commedia. It was one thing for Black Sabbath to put out forty drug-fueled jams a year, but this is an hour of some dense Symphony X-style nerdery. Unfortunately, a year’s turnaround didn’t leave much room for growth or reflection. I found their last one competent, but can’t remember a thing about it… The same probably goes here.

Upon first glance, the energy level seems higher than before. In fact, “The Moon” starts off very promising: short piano piece, power metal scream, fast double bass. Classic formula. It takes a good two minutes before they decide to get fancy and start screwing it up. By verse 2, I’m wondering when something exciting is going to happen again, and when the disjointed odd-time outro comes along, I’ve pretty much checked out. Despite some moments of promise, most of the album is stuck in the dead zone of “complex but not interesting” prog parts.

Prog wank is my bread and butter, so how come I’m bothered when Starbynary does it? I think the core songwriting isn’t strong enough to support it. When I listen to this album, it feels conspicuously like they didn’t know how to write vocal melodies over the music. I have a special relationship with this problem, so I’m fairly confident in diagnosing it. The vocal lines don’t have any of the symmetry or climaxes of professional bands. They just go, and go, until it’s instrumental time… None of it seems to lead anywhere. It’s not a riffy album either, the only standout guitar parts being the solos. The leads on this are a little eyebrow-raising, but it doesn’t help much. There just isn’t anything solid to cling to. It’s like a cake made of one hundred percent frosting.

I normally don’t advocate this, but my advice to Starbynary would be to dumb it down a little. Examine what made their influences great in the 90s. Awake and Divine Wings have complicated parts, but three times as many solid riffs and melodies. Do you listen to “Caught in a Web” for the bridge? Hell no, it’s the chorus. If Starbynary could focus a little, they’d be a force to be reckoned with. The band is good – the guitarist is really good – but the songs are a whole lot of nothing.

Recommended tracks: The Moon, Saturn
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Dream Theater
Final verdict: 5/10

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

Label: Art Gates Records – Website | Facebook

Starbynary is:
– Joe Caggianelli (vocals)
– Ralph Salati (guitars)
– Alfonso Mocerino (drums)
– Sebastiano Zanotto (bass)
– Luigi Accardo (keyboards)

The post Review: Starbynary – Divina Commedia: Paradiso appeared first on The Progressive Subway.