Art by Chase Stone

Style: Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Dear Hunter, Closure in Moscow
Country: United States – New York
Release date: 14 March 2025

If you can indulge in a bit of a trip in a time machine, imagine me in 2005, all of eleven years old, having a few months prior been given a copy of an album from a year previous called “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3” by a friend. I’ve heard there’s going to be a new album by this band Coheed and Cambria I’ve only just got into, and I want it desperately. Unfortunately, it has that pesky RIAA Parental sticker on it, and at the time, the local FYE wouldn’t sell it to me. Luckily, an older boy I knew was perfectly willing to buy it for me for an extra $5, so I caved and had them do it. Almost twenty years later Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV: Volume I: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness is still my favorite album, and Coheed and Cambria has been my favorite band nearly as long. So for me, nothing is ever as anticipated as a new Coheed release.

Across Coheed’s long career, this focus of the sound is vocalist Claudio Sanchez, who delivers high-voiced earworm melodies over their post-hardcore/emo rock origins. Earlier albums in their career took these ideas and stretched them into progressive behemoths, but in the modern era, Coheed has tended to put more emphasis on streamlined song structure and further focus on chorus hooks. Many people also know that Coheed’s records are backed by a concept, and The Father of Make Believe is the third installment of their current pentology story arc, preceded by Vaxis I and Vaxis II (actual titles truncated for brevity). For the sake of this review, I’m not going to dive much into anything overly concept related (although I could talk forever about it) albeit to say concept fans are going to have lots to love in certain head nods and callbacks to certain past albums. Musically Father immediately improves on its Vaxis predecessors: where Vaxis I suffered a bit from an over reliance on “chorus once more” (or twice more) causing bloat and over repetition, Father remembers to streamline its songs when necessary. Where Vaxis II perhaps fell back too much on the radio-rock and pop feel, causing some sameness, Father is able to tread much different ground throughout its runtime (more on this later), while still succeeding in having that pop-esque quality that has always sat inside Coheed. Where both albums leaned heavily into more synth layers and synth leading, Father is much more guitar driven both in structure and in melodies.

With a now years-long discussion on what genre or type of band Coheed is at this point, Father comes at an interesting time. Since Vaxis I there’s been commentary that some miss the “progressive” elements of Coheed, seemingly stripped away in favor of going for a more pop-oriented sound or delivery. This tends to be vocalised through fixation on song structure, riffs, time signatures, or song length as a measurement for the progressive element of this or any band. No, The Father of Make Believe doesn’t have multiple seven minute songs (it has none!); no, it doesn’t have complete side track sections in songs like “21:13” or the “Willing Wells” do. What it does have is that Coheed DNA that has been there since the inception, which is the ability to dabble in virtually any sound and feel cohesive, to create hooks and melodies at any point in a song, and to create the urge to sing whatever words come out of Claudio’s mouth. The progressive aspect for Coheed tends to be, and really is on Father, that aforementioned ability to go anywhere song to song and not lose the plot.

From “Goodbye, Sunshine” and “Searching for Tomorrow” feeling like Good Apollo Volume I songs with more modern ‘heed production, to “Blind Eye Sonny”’s almost harsh vocal delivery on top of a 2 minute blazing punk pace shoving you into “Play the Poet” — a song which sounds like a Year of the Black Rainbow cousin with its slight industrial feel — and ultimately with “The Continuum IV”’s almost Electric Light Orchestra or Beatles feel, Father treads very disparate ground in its songs but again, feels like it all belongs together. This is a trend seen in Coheed’s discography as a whole: The sounds of Second Stage are different from the sounds on IKSoSE:3, Good Apollo Volume I is different yet again; the trend continues in perpetuity throughout the band’s life. But in the end, Coheed have always benefited most from Claudio’s sense of melody and hook writing. I’ve always personally held a belief that Good Apollo IV Volume I is really a pop-esque album hidden behind a guitar-driven metal or prog rock adjacent delivery (like really, for all the “song structure” people, go look at GAIV song structures outside of the “Willing Wells”, it’s pop), and to me The Father of Make Believe at many times is a modern presentation of the same.

Do I still have some reservations? Sure, I think I still haven’t quite got on to the Cervini production style train; I still feel the drums are a bit squashed and neutered in post for my taste (though the performance, as always is chef’s kiss). It does have a bit of a weak point around “Meri of Mercy” where it briefly falls a little into the more recent Coheed ballad tropes. I do wonder if it gets a bit over arranged at times; and yeah, I wouldn’t mind even more riffs. But I do know this is the most obsessed I’ve personally been with a Coheed record on release since The Afterman series dropped, and I don’t see me dropping it any time soon. One last layer to all this: The Father of Make Believe does seem at times to lyrically hint to the idea of a post Coheed, or at least post-Amory Wars Coheed time. As time has gone on, the veil separating Claudio’s personal life from the story has thinned and grown more transparent, and now Claudio seems to examine in the lyrics the ideas of being seen as the creator of some large universe of story when you are really trying to let yourself be seen, while also hinting at something’s ultimate end. And while that does make me sad, it does remind me that as you age, some things you have to really start to appreciate, like your favorite band releasing an album you immediately grab onto and can’t get enough of, because those things are not guaranteed forever.

Anyways, I’m off to scour through the hidden vinyl track for any clues about the story, until I have my novella from the box set.

Recommended tracks: The Father of Make Believe, Play the Poet, The Continuum II: The Flood, Goodbye, Sunshine
You may also like: Mandroid Echostar, 3
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Virgin Music Group (distributor) – Official Website

Coheed and Cambria is:
– Claudio Sanchez (vocals, guitars, synths)
– Travis Stever (guitars)
– Zach Cooper (bass)
– Josh Eppard (drums)

The post Review: Coheed and Cambria – The Father of Make Believe appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Album Art by Mikko Parkkonen / Aarni Visuals

Style: Djent, Alternative Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Spiritbox (earlier), VOLA, Voyager
Country: Finland
Release date: 14 February 2025

Probably one of the most frustrating things in general for musical critique is when there is overt obsession with comparing bands singularly to whatever band does their genre best or is the current flavor of the day/week/year. While helpful for establishing a baseline, it often can be a bit reductive in totality, as a summation of a separate piece of work to be “of another” in some aspect. With this in mind, most of us here try to do exactly that: establish baselines of what something will initially feel like without leaning too much on comparisons to known quantities to give a judgment on a body of work. So with that all out of the way, let’s get this out of the way: Rioghan is a female-led djenty alternative metal project, and as such the Spiritbox comparisons are immediate from the outset (It was even on our internal submission spreadsheet. It is inescapable!). 

On latest album Kept, the Finnish outfit compose their sound much in the way many of these newer wave of melody-oriented low tuned alt metal bands do: baseline riffs or djent motifs that pop their head in and out of a song to establish a groove, lush wall-of-sound choruses to evoke a pop or mainstream rock feel (while keeping the low tuned aspect), and intermittent diversions from these in different ways to remind you “yes, we are dynamic and nuanced”. It’s a formula because it does work at a baseline; if you are good enough composers and riff writers, with a sufficiently good vocalist, you are guaranteed to make something catchy and agreeable. So then the question becomes: is this an album to be Kept around for future listens?

“Dreams” opens Kept in a form exactly as mentioned before: orchestration sets the mood before everything drops in on a djent groove riff to get the head nodding. This drops off to a lower dynamic tom-groove verse, introducing vocalist Rioghan Darcy in a slightly breathy intimate tone, before moving to a more fully arranged vocal stack sound in the chorus. “Dreams” continues in a modern verse/chorus/verse song structure before ending with Kept’s first taste of harsh vocals over top of the original groove riff. “Hands” focuses a bit more on this harsh vocal sound, though it does make room, as most of these songs do, for at least a couple lush choruses. From here, the songs continue these patterns, with small diversions into more synth sound focus, particularly on “Edge” and “Distance”, and various degrees of clean/harsh vocal balance. 

“Hopes” becomes the first true side street taken on Kept, highlighting its alternative instrumentation with verses led along by drifting accordion and acoustic guitar strumming, before giving way to a violin solo. This song still contains the alternative/pop-esque chorus visits, but the focus on layering orchestration as opposed to a synth+low guitar wall of sound gives a pleasant contrast to the album, and honestly may be its highest point.  “Red” is a final taste of the band experimenting with alterations to their formula: earlier releases and bios allude to the fact they act one time collaborated with Leprous vocalist Einar Solberg, and “Red” feels like a potential remnant of that time, its rhythmic guitar motif being reminiscent of tacks from Pitfalls or Aphelion (the best Leprous albums, fight me nerds), with the drumming and bass stabs over this motif teasing that feel as well. Darcy floats over these parts gracefully, and the final payoff from the motif building constantly is satisfying. 

The instrumental sounds are all solid and well done, perhaps a bit in the way of being a bit too on-the-nose for the sound and genre to really pique interest—these are all the expected tones and feelings of these instruments for this current subset of alternative metal, so it’s a bit hard to grab at one and say anything about it necessarily except “yes, this sounds good”. The drums pound through the mix in that large boxy way, the guitars are sufficiently huge in the ears and menacing in that clean-cut pop-djent way, and the bass holds down what it needs to, ever so often popping in to say “I’m here too, I promise”. The vocals when clean are well performed, produced, and layered. The harsh vocals leave a bit to be desired, as Darcy’s harsh tone tends to come in a bit thin, high, and pushed, and succeed most when pushed a bit back or layered with singing, or built on themselves with much more scream layers. 

Overall, Kept is a decent showing for this well-trodden sound, though it doesn’t do much to separate itself from its peers. This album succeeds most with its choruses, which are genuinely well arranged, catchy, and get stuck in your head immediately. Everything around that serves mostly as connective tissue to those choruses, outside of the diversions mentioned on “Hopes” and “Red”, likely Kept’s most successful moments. If you like the current vibe of alternative low-tuned metal with a leaning for melody and big sound, this will definitely hit your ears well, though it may not change your world.

Recommended tracks: Dreams, Hopes, Red
You may also like: Glass Ocean, Maraton, Valis Ablaze, External
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Inverse Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Rioghan is:
– Rioghan Darcy (vocals)
– Teemu Liekkala (guitar & keys)
– Tero Luukkonen (guitar)
– Antti Varjanne (bass)
– Valtteri Revonkorpi (drums)

The post Review: Rioghan – Kept appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Art by Mark Richards of Heavy Hand Illustrations

Style: Progressive Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, Deathcore (mixed vocals, but mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Alluvial, Slugdge, Job for a Cowboy
Country: United States – Massachusetts
Release date: 07 February 2025

As with many of my compatriots here at The Progressive Subway, before I ever wrote reviews or managed aspects of the blog, I was a reader and digester of the original monthly “Reports from the Underground.” One of my favorite finds from that time was Pathogenic’s 2019 eponymous LP. A force of prog death at its best, Pathogenic was verifiably insane, with wall to wall riffs and every manner of harsh vocals you could imagine juxtaposed with sections of soaring leads and melodic composition. After a hiatus, Pathogenic have returned with a slightly tweaked lineup (everyone has returned except the drummer) with Crowned in Corpses. Does this new era compare with what was before, or have Pathogenic been discrowned?

From the opening moment of Crowned, a definite shift in sound can already be felt. Pathogenic’s guitars always had somewhat of a snarl in their tone, even more than is the usual for most low string bands, but Crowned turns that up several notches while simultaneously tightening the sound in a tech-y manner. “Mass Grave Memory” establishes its rhythmic conceit in the very beginning, returning to it multiple times throughout with varying drum flavors and treatments behind it. A minute into its runtime comes the first real hit of Pathogenic’s melodic side, albeit buried behind the harsh vocals and churning guitars so as to be something of a seasoning than anything else. “The New Rot” proceeds similarly, continuing the tech inspired sound but giving the first real taste of their lead lines, layered and large.

The changes in sound from Pathogenic became more apparent as Crowned progressed. Some of the compositional swagger and crazy branches I had liked in Pathogenic are gone, replaced with the tech death tightness and repeating themes mentioned earlier. This isn’t to say the new focus isn’t enjoyable, but it just feels like ground often tread in the genre, losing the sense of uniqueness it had before. Some glimpses of the past have remained, though: the end of “The New Rot” seems to begin a swing towards this sound, with the acoustic section building into another large lead section. Sure enough, when “Dead but Not at Rest” comes in, I feel like I’ve really been dropped into more like what I would have expected as the successor to Pathogenic, with a more prog death esque riff structure and the return of some of Jake Burns’ more eccentric harsh vocal choices.

“Exiled from the Abyss” continues the descent into the -core and prog death aspect of their sound, building from juxtaposed chugs and high note hits into full deathcore territory filth at the end. “Fragments” is by far the closest song to the Pathogenic of old, focusing more on atmospheric builds and the return of the clean vocals, even featuring an extended electronic and synth focused outro. However, “Crowned in Corpses” slams back in right after to return us to the tech, monotone type feel. It’s a bit of whiplash in the album’s pacing, to be given a flavor of a “new” sound, divert our attention into a sampling of a natural progression from before, and then drop again into a streamlined tech oriented sound without warning. Don’t misunderstand me, there’s no change in tonalities or presentation per se, it’s just that the compositional nature of the album seems to take a tangent to different areas and back without much warning. The final bit of whiplash comes from the last song, “Silicone Regime”, which features an actual slight guitar tone change and makes you feel almost as if you’ve been dropped into a Wes Hauch production, or something that would slot neatly into one of his albums with Alluvial.

With all honesty, I found myself most enjoying those moments and songs that felt more like a progression from 2019-era Pathogenic than the songs that felt like a neutering of what made them so interesting in the first place. This album does rip, there’s no question about it: Crowned in Corpses is full of great riffs and all the technical talent you’d expect from any band bearing a banner of “technical” that isn’t completely delusional. This album is punishing and crushing with heaviness and grit from end to end. The disappointment for me came from the change in composition, the loss of the tone shift sucker punches, the loss of the Between the Buried and Me quality of ‘anything goes’, the stripping away of the melodic clean sections, and the streamlining of the sound to something that undoubtedly works, but has also undoubtedly been tread before. If you’d like a crushing prog-death album with technical prowess, no doubt this is it. But if I’m looking for the energy and excitement of Pathogenic, I’ll still be listening to the 2019 version.

Recommended tracks: Exiled from the Abyss, Fragments, Crowned in Corpses
You may also like: Replacire
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Skepsis Recordings – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

band in question is:
– Jake Burns (vocals)
– Chris Gardino (guitars)
– Justin Licht (guitars)
– Dan Leahy (bass)
– Tyler Montaquila (drums)

The post Review: Pathogenic – Crowned in Corpses appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artist name not shared publicly.

Style: Mathcore, Djent (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Meshuggah, Car Bomb, Dillinger Escape Plan
Country: France
Release date: 17 January 2025

As I’ve gotten a bit older and wisened, I’ve thought more and more about the “album experience”, if you will. Often in this world of prog and prog-adjacent music, the album experience and package is held tantamount, and the expectation of delivering such a product is a rite of passage. Even in today’s algorithmic driven music industry (curse you!), the ultimate product for basically every act in the scene is a real album. But therein lies the rub: what dictates a full album experience, and at what point is there more material for the sake of runtime? This is something I think bands find themselves bumping up against more often in the current world, where attention is harder to wrest away than ever.

So why do I say all this at the top of a review of a mathcore album of all things? Honestly, it’s because my very first thought after finishing The Purest Light was: “Man this would be great if it was thirty-eight minutes instead of fifty.”

Vertex are a French Car Bomb and Meshuggah hybrid, with all the chugging riffs and angular rhythms pounding the eardrums from start to finish that you’d expect from that comparison. The first song “All My Hatred” immediately gives you exactly this combination, with its whammy-esque lead hook hitting immediately, juxtaposed with low chug diversions in between, which serve as some sort of verse—if such a thing really exists in this type of music. Not long after, you’ll hear riffs utilizing the high-fretboard, low-string sound that songs like “Demiurge” made famous. Most of the album is giving you some version of these two modes—either a descent into the more alien noises a guitar could make, or a dissertation on the ways to grid a rhythm on the bar line.

The most intrigue is created when there is deviation from this formula, when the riffs Vertex veer off to have an extra melodic quality, and create that magical sense of a riff you want to sing as it worms its way into your brain. The back quarter of the title track is the first real taste of this, with a chug+lead pairing that delves more into Animals as Leaders territory than the first bits of the album. Immediately after “The Purest Light”, you are dropped into “Leviathan”, which opens with the exact kind of singable riff I crave. This is where I wish Vertex spent the bulk of their time: in a melodic zone which gives the angular intrigue of mathcore while still providing an earworm hook.

The drums on The Purest Light stand out more than any other instrument, with Pierre Rettien of Hypno5e holding down that front. The performance is a highlight reel of linear fills, sporadic blasts, and impeccable footwork across barely readable rhythms. The vocals are the standard fare one would expect, being almost exclusively mid tone, either punctuating riffs and rhythms or moving parallel to them—existing alongside but never touching. The production and presentation is a highlight of the album, with absolute clarity in every instrument without sacrificing too much bite or losing heaviness.

But in the end, the successes of The Purest Light, while many, suffer from a lack of memorability and simply dragging on too long. When Knocked Loose put out their last album, it was unflinching and heavy without compromise—but it clocked at twenty-seven minutes. It had “hooks”. Vertex, I think, would have succeeded more with The Purest Light by taking a similar approach: streamlining the album’s material and reducing the amount of parts that, in the end, meld together into the nebulous thought of “yeah it had some chugs and some dadada dada dada dadadas”. In the moment, many passages feel great and give you a bit of the stink face, but I don’t find myself waiting for those on re-listens or even really remembering them. Instead I’m anticipating and skipping to the moments of melody and the earworms hidden in some of the best songs—anything that actually felt like it was meant to hook me—and grabbing onto those pieces for as long as I can.

Recommended tracks: The Purest Light, Leviathan, Following Arrows
You may also like: Fronterier, Freighter
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Le Cri Du Charbon – Official Website

Vertex is:
– Pierre Rettien (drums)
– Michael Alberto Merone (bass)
– Maxence Griffond (guitars)
– Kik Mastan (vocals)

The post Review: Vertex – The Purest Light appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Genres: post-metal, progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Contortionist, Wolves in the Throne Room, the ambient parts of Cult of Luna
Country: Wisconsin, United States
Release date: 3 January 2024

Well well, long time no see. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a review, though I’ve still been around—albeit in a behind the scenes fashion. But like some sort of weird and less cool species of phoenix, I have emerged from the ashes from what was the charred remains of my drive to write reviews constantly, and all it took to shake me out of it was for a former The Contortionist member to release new music again. What can I say, I like things I like a lot, and I’m intrigued when they get mentioned.

Enter Notochord, which is born from the midwest as a new project with the original bassist (Chris Tilley) and singer (Jonathan Carpenter) of The Contortionist, as well as drummer James Knoerl and guitarist Chaboy Anthony. Notochord bill themselves as post-metal, an accurate enough description with the sensibilities shown in the guitar tones, vocal deliveries (mostly…more on that later), and the ambience used throughout (also more on that later). There are some elements of progressive metal in there, which are not so numerous as to merit more mention than that the riffs in a few songs definitely have a progressive vein to them a bit more than some other companions they have in the post-metal scene.

Aegis opens perhaps a bit hard for the balance of the EP overall with a somewhat nasty stab rhythm chord part laid over several layers of vocal and key ambience before working itself into where most of the EP lives with a dark ambient section that lasts for the remainder of the song. This is probably where my first detraction on the EP lies: the sheer amount of completely ambient sections on this (short) EP. I get this is post-metal and those posties love their soundscapes, but there is a line between ambiance used in a thought out compositional sense (Hi Language) and aimless ambience which overstays its welcome. Aegis has several moments of the latter, with two of the tracks being entirely soundscaping/instrumental post parts, and two of the remaining songs ending with back halves that are entirely meandering ambience. Ambience can definitely be cool and they meet that bar sometimes, it just feels a bit lost in its own sauce at times.

Notochord definitely shows somewhat of a range inside the genre space they are trying to occupy with the guitars. The drums have all the usual hallmarks of the modern post-metal outfit, with their laidback tom grooves interlaced some with effect cymbal accents and stop-and-start moments within the ambient sections. Over the riffier sections, they tend to have a bit more activity, a bit a la a Nero Di Marte performance of sorts, while also diving a few times into more tech-ish territory with blasts and slightly more involved fills than the typical post-metal delivery. Similarly, the guitars give you the tour of apartment post-metal lives in, though at times it does lean into some more almost Cryptodira type territory with its higher chord rhythmic parts, which to me are the moments I find myself wanting to repeat the most.

Vocally, we’ve got what Jonathan Carpenter has always brought to the table. The planetary destruction, cosmic concept type lyrics have followed him once again to this new band (read: this is not a dig at it, I’ll eat this stuff up) and are delivered with his usual see-saw from layered meditative ambient cleans to his deathcore growls. This deathcore style delivery is a bit at odds with the post-metal sound the composition lives in, though, but it does kinda work for the most part. In clean territories, his deliveries are an obvious harkening back to the way he used his cleans on “Intrinsic” more than “Exoplanet” in his The Contortionist days. Lots of layering and odd harmonies abound whenever Carpenter is living in this space. At times it seems like Carpenter has almost copied a bit from his successor in The Contortionist Michael Lessard, with the odd harmonies and even inflection in the voice warping a bit to feel much more like Lessard delivery than old-school Carpenter, not necessarily a knock at Carpenter, just something interesting to note.

Overall, Aegis is solid enough for a first effort in the post-metal space, though I feel like it is still trying to find where it lives. There are absolute moments it feels like this EP finds what it really wants to be, such as in the final track “Cognition Fields,” which exits from the preceding ambience into something that resembles an Exoplanet-esque breakdown albeit in a more post-metal tone and delivery. This is the song in which the harshes feel the most congruent with what they are on top of, and the later layering on top of the slightly altered version of this breakdown serves as a great closing to the EP. Were this EP more often in that space I’d probably like it even more, but unfortunately the way it is delivered now feels a bit too much like moments of great delivery and heaviness separated by often too-long ambient sections that self relegate themselves to background noise most of the time. Aegis for me succeeds most when it lives on the metal side of post-metal than when it camps out in the post. For those really into the ambient parts of post-metal but also wanna hear a bit of a slammy interruption to that now and then, this would be for you. For those of you that saw the names tied to this and expected Exoplanet or something similar, you’re actually looking for Prismatic.

Recommended tracks: Indelible, Abyssal Ontogeny, Cognition Fields
You may also like: Kayo Dot, Artificial Brain
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

Label: Independent

Notochord is:
– Jonathan Carpenter (vocals, keys)
– Chaboy Anthony (guitars)
– James Knoerl (drums)
– Chris Tilley (bass, keys)

The post Review: Notochord – Aegis appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Technical Death Metal / Progressive Death(Mixed vocals)
Review by: Chris
Country: US (MO)
Release date: 23 July, 2021

At risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s so very rare these days that something in the technical death vein really surprises me. The last thing I reviewed which did so was probably Sutrah‘s latest EP, but other than that everything is typically varying degrees of competent within the same spectrum. One thing I always wanted was someone to bring a brand of technical death mixed with prog which has melodic sensibilities and arrangements. Boy oh boy has Prognostication provided that on Collapse, a debut album clocking in 51 minutes in length that has grabbed me like few things have lately this year.

Collapse opens on “Collapse” in a fashion true to the root genre and veiling its later nature; a light synth piece plinks into existence before a chugging techy riff joins another guitar tapping out the same line as the synth. The growls are immediate and dark before giving way to the first hint of clean vocals peek out right after. Soon afterwards the song thrusts itself into true tech territory where angular riffs and constantly moving drums are king. It is true chaotic techy mess for a long stretch, with small hints at later melody and harmony to come. A mashed breakdown of synth melodies and death breakdowns comes before the song really gives way to what makes this album different.

The next ensuing clean tapping section coupled with clean vocals doing multiple part harmonies is where my attention was grabbed. The next two minutes is a slightly jazzy affair that would fit right at home on Native Construct‘s Quiet World. This complete departure from the recent norm of darker and heavier tech is incredibly relieving and really lets the track breathe. Throughout the album this continued usage of actual thought out and expanded upon clean sections (rather than maybe the post-metal or ambient-esque breaks many bands employ) really provide the space needed to let the riff sections never feel overpowering or draining for the listener.

The jazzy diversion aside, the rest of “Collapse” (the track) fills its runtime with sections of ever changing technical filth, running guitar lines, and core-esque breakdowns. Later songs evolve on these ideas: “Incinerate” with its very BTBAM-esque lines and devolutions of riff into breakdown, “Voyage” with its almost mathcore style dissonant stabs. “Eclipse” has some wonderful chord based riffs with short 16th note bursts bookended by large chord hits and drawn out arpeggios. I’ll be honest, we could talk about riffs all day for this album (of course there are a lot, this is a technical death album) but it’s not really what brings me back. All technical death albums have riffs, some albums go harder in that department than others. Collapse has great riffing and heavy. sections, but it really isn’t what makes the album shine in my mind.

It’s the melodic choices and stylings which bring me back to this album much more than many things I’ve reviewed here lately. “Collapse”, as mentioned earlier, has the first glimpses of that with its first two clean vocal + guitar diversions. “Eclipse” has glimpses of it at 1:30, being marked by extended harmonized guitar lines. “Contort” stands though as the most distinguished by its evolution and resolution as a song. A long brood on a clean building section with the return of the multi-harmonized vocals before culminating in a large ocean of tremolo, chord stabs, clean vocals, and layered harshes as well. This was the moment that really sold me on this album. Absolute chaos coupled with true sense for clean stylings is something more bands seem to attempt these days, but that few ever achieve in any meaningful or impressive way.

The album is definitely let down a bit with the mix muddiness (especially in some of the harsh vocal sections) but the underlying musicality and performance underneath is of undeniable impeccability. Wonderful guitar writing and vocal sensibilities shine through despite any slight misfirings on the production end. The drums, while a bit mechanical at times in the less than pleasing way, know how to make themselves a vehicle when necessary and when to take over the feeling for short moments. There may be a bit over reliance on the bell-like synth sound, but honestly it works pretty much every time it comes up so I can’t fault it all that much. Otherwise some of the subtle padding here and there help provide a more. soundscape vibe akin to. say. a The Contortionist or similar.

If you are a lover of the strangeness and. anything-goes nature of your BTBAMs and Native Constructs but want to hear it packaged inside a more technical death genre-scape…well it’s like this album was made by you.

Recommended tracks: Contort, Eclipse, Voyage
Recommended for fans of: Native Construct, Obscura, Between the Buried and Me
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Prognostication is:
– Members not disclosed

The post Review: Prognostication – Collapse appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Technical Death Metal/Deathcore (Harsh vocals)
Review by: Chris
Country: US (NJ)
Release date: 16 June, 2021

I’ll be honest, I’ve been extremely busy lately outside of the blog so this is my first review in a good while. As such I’ve decided to stick to my roots on the blog with the latest output from New Jersey all-things-death outfit Cognitive. These guys have been going in some form for over a decade and bring Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction with some new member force (most notably, in my opinion, the addition of drummer AJ Viana of Hath) but a definite air that comes with knowing what you’re doing. Malevolent is a crushing, unrelenting typhoon of death.

“Eniac” opens the album, giving instant nostalgia for any of us unlucky enough to have experienced dial up internet with its dial-up tone immediately loading into the fury that pretty much will never let up from that point on. There is definitely a sense for a need for some underlying groove in these first riffs, but really above all it is destructive in nature. An early break in the pure riff nature of the song into more melodic guitar lines allows a sense of breath before descending more into a core style breakdown section. This gets across the aforementioned “all-things-death” drop for Cognitive – they really will hit all the moments you would expect from any of the death-tinged genres.

In some slight contrast, “The Maw” is probably the most straight up face blasting death song on the album, with little time for detours or tricks along the way. Every riff here is….well, gross. The vocals really begin their own tour of sounds on this song as well, with truly brutal gutturals married with higher shrieks and squeals. The album shines most though in my opinion with tracks like “Feed the Worms”, where the melodic stylings of the guitars are allowed to give some space amongst the chaos. The melodic choices and underlying instrumentation maintain the core ferocious feel but do help with the normal issue for any tech ish album in this style, which is listener fatigue.

My favorite track by far would be “Destitute”, with its subtle clean vocal layering, dark chord based riffs reminiscent of some of my favorite tech albums I’ve reviewed in my time here (I’m a sucker for these techy chord based riffs, I’m so sorry), and culmination in a gloriously melodic lead line. Here is where I hope to see Cognitive spend more time in the future.

Malevolent is definitely not inventing anything new or bringing a fully new voice (as I’ve said many times, that just feels like inevitability in the genre space at the moment) but Cognitive definitely have their craft down. It’s a solidly great album for those extremely into the genre or into death bands of any kind. Looking to get pummeled across the head on your morning train commute? When I have been the last week or so I’ve chosen this.

Recommended tracks: The Maw, Feed the Worms, Destitute
Recommended for fans of: Hath, Lorna Shore, Fit For an Autopsy
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Unique Leader Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Cognitive is:
– Shane Jost (vocals)
– Rob Wharton (guitars)
– Harry Lannon (guitars)
– Tyler Capone-Vitale (bass)
– AJ Viana (drums)

The post Review: Cognitive – Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: avant-garde/post-metal/experimental (mixed vocals, mostly harsh)
Review by: Chris
Country: UK
Release date: May 21, 2021

Strap in for some truly obtuse, dense, and maddeningly dark avant stylings courtesy of the debut album from anonymous outfit Epiphanic Truth. You’ve seen the name in the title, and I’m not going to type all of that again so from now on I’m referring to this release as Dark Triad. The name is apt; Dark Triad is in the bands own admission a musical Triptych (noun: a set of three associated artistic, literary, or musical works intended to be appreciated together.) analyzing in order the dark triad of personality disorders – psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism. Admittedly I started listening to this album only seeing it was 3 tracks but not paying attention to the length. A full work commute on the train later it was still going, but I wasn’t complaining. This is a massive album despite what the track length may indicate to you, and it is definitely tough to digest in one or even a few listens.

Dark Triads opens with a dark ambient swell before laying into the listener with an almost thrashy running riff met with the first hint of vocal stylings to come; seconds later the song descends instead to a blasting frenzy with a more frantic voice styling. Especially in this first song “The Truth of the Beast”, if you did a normal song sampling of this epic you’d be surprised by the multitude of places it seems to go, but in the moment it all makes sense, employing some almost post-metal styles of riff building, mutation, and revisiting. The song ends with a minutes long devolution into an electronic (almost EDM at times) deconstruction of previous moods and motifs.

“An Inescapable Verdict” follows next, probably being the most post-metal repetition relying of the three songs. The main riff at the beginning consistently pokes its head back in. The vocals in the beginning play underneath with an effected devilish voice, the music fades back after into a tense and moody bass lead swirling groove. Eventually the mood breaks back into that first riff, the vocals changing their inflection into a frenzied wail this time. Again the song descends to a moody bass groove, but instead we are treated this time with it longer, jazzier, and more melody focused on the guitars as it is played out. Again the main riff returns, and again the vocals beneath apply a different flair to it. It is apt to find this song described as about narcissism with its incessant love for the main riff, each time indulging itself more in basking in the heaviness.

Describing “Our Vile Roots Flourish Beyond Light” is nigh impossible; it is a 22 minute epic which treads so much sonic ground. This song definitely features the most melodic vocal choices on the record, midway through choosing to sit on a very pretty more layered section that the record has accustomed you to by that point. It’s a perfect relief ground to recover from the previous minutes of dark deluge the listener has gone through, though the record makes sure to end with one last elongated build to the blasting end.

Dark Triads is a fantastically textured and structured album with much to offer. I feel like by the time some months have rolled on that my rating will only rise; as I mentioned this album is tough to digest without a lot of listens. The bottom line is though, if you like the complex and hard to immediately digest style of avant and post styled albums, don’t miss this one; it’s for you.

Recommended tracks: An Inescapable Verdict
Recommended for fans of: Enslaved, Oranssi Pazuzu, maudlin of the Well
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitter | Metal-Archives page
Label: Church Road Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Epiphanic Truth is:
Unknown, Anonymous band

The post Review: Epiphanic Truth – Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms To A Sordid Species appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Deathcore (Harsh vocals)
Review by: Chris
Country: US (MA)
Release date: 25 May, 2021

I feel like I’ve said it a few times when reviewing albums on the deathcore side of things, but while deathcore is having an internal renaissance of sorts, some of the newer acts have not managed to grab me much in the midst of it. I think I typically find most albums from the scene good for background music when working out, working, or something similar, but not many are real attention grabbers lately. I would say Transmigrator, the latest offering from Massachusetts based Graveborn, fits solidly into that general assertion.

Let’s start with what works. First off, Transmigrator is a pretty well conceived and structured album from top to bottom. Meant to be an album about cycles and growth, it consists of main track linked together through small interludes. This is important to note mainly because this is not really a 12-track length album as it seems at first glance since 5 of the tracks serve as the aforementioned transitions rather than songs proper. The album opens with one of these ambient pieces, “Recapitulation”, whose ambient oppressive soundscape is broken by the classic detuned deathcore gallup style breakdown, immediately introducing the low guttural layers that come into play throughout the album. This breakdown ends on a chordal stop before devolving into the opening riff of the first song proper “Moksha”.

From this point, most tracks are fairly standard fare for the genre overall. Different tracks have their standout moments (mainly those in the recommended) but I’m not sure there is much about this specific sound that really jumps out as immediately inspiring compared to their contemporaries. Everything you expect to be solid definitely is. The breakdowns are meaty and gritty, the vocals enjoy a multitude of focus in the mix and great layering, and the drums do a good job of treading a line between manic and solid. I supposed that ability to tread such a line would be one plus compared to other bands doing the same thing, where the drums sometimes really have a hard time not getting in the way. The guitars are as thick and dirty as you would want, while still keeping a clarity on the riffs that speaks to the well recorded nature of the whole album.

I would highlight the three recommended tracks as signs of a possibility of more interesting compositions coming from this band. “The Place Where Beasts Eat Hearts” shines about 2 minutes in with a big open melodic style riff coupled with great guitar padding work underneath. The interplay between the vocal and guitar rhythms is also a great use of competing rhythms in composition. “Chronovore” deserves mention for a similar melodic-styled section which eventually devolves itself into a moving breakdown line, where the low chug gallops are interlaced with alternate picking melody climbs that help sell the whole package..

I think unfortunately I still land with this album where I land with a lot of albums like it. Is it good? Sure, it definitely is competent and good. I’m not sure I’m impressed markedly by many aspects of it outside of some shining moments, and that to me designates it to be another background album for doing other tasks instead of a real sit-down-and-enjoy album. But if you need another workout deathcore album or you really love the current deathcore sound with a good ear for interlacing breakdowns with melody, this would be a good pickup.

Recommended tracks: The Place Where Beasts Eat Hearts, Chronovore, Palingenesis
Recommended for fans of: The Black Dahlia Murder, Hive, Thy Art is Murder
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Graveborn is:
– John Leblanc (vocals)
– Jesse Blanchette (guitars, vocals)
– Reggie Lewis (bass)
– James Stoner (drums)
– Chris Ramusiewicz (guitar)

The post Review: Graveborn – Transmigrator appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Heavy/Progressive Rock (Mixed vocals, mostly clean)
Review by: Chris
Country: Canada (Saskatoon)
Release date: 11 May, 2021

A Denisovan, as I definitely knew way before ever picking up this album, is an archaic human species that existed a long time ago. More importantly, it is the name of the debut album by Saskatoon musician Devin Martyniuk under the mantle Before & Apace. From what I gather Martyniuk has been constructing this album in an on and off manner for some 10 odd years or more before finally settling into where it lands now, a collection of 4 songs spanning almost an hour in total. It’s definitely a hefty debut release in terms of length, but I would say it is not the hardest to digest in full despite that.

The Denisovan, as indicated by the creator’s own nod to a Tool influence, is an album very built on repeating riffs and themes in songs, building them as the songs goes with slight alterations and flavors to push the song along and tread new ground. I wouldn’t say it falls into this quite to the point Tool does, but it is very apparent that is a preferred song writing manner of Martyniuk. This album’s writing is approached almost like a symphony with its thematic writing, repetition with slight alteration, and programmatic structuring.

A symptom of this in the more modern world of music is you will know what you are going to get on any of these songs (for the most part) in their first few minutes. The opening track “Zeno”, while really beginning. with some good old ambiance, hits. you with a riff at 1:45 or so that is the main basis for things yet to come. Yes, there is a drop out at the 2 minute mark into a slightly different riff, but it’s of the same family. Similarly, the very beginning of “Limbics” showcases a triplet rhythm riff that will continually show its head throughout the song, either exactly as first presented or slightly altered. Like I said, this is true for all 4 songs so I won’t harp on it any longer.

So where are the standouts? I’d say The Denisovan thrives most in the moments it either furthest deviates. from original themes, or the moments it most sells out to the original established theme. Obviously these are two vastly different sides to like. For example, the peak of “Limbics” is around 5:40, where the main theme has returned, sometimes randomly half timed while the vocals play much more over it with fleeting falsetto lines or brief screaming bouts. The immediate next part of the song, where the theme is dropped to just a long drawn out electric part is similarly also up there in terms of what works on the song. I do get the sense that the fourth song “Simultanagnosia” is meant to serve as a tie-together piece for the other three, which initially don’t have the most in common with each other. “Simultanagnosia” takes bits and pieces from each and redefines them slightly in contet of a new song, which helps tie an otherwise slightly disjointed album together.

I do have to admit I’m not usually much of a fan of the Tool style of writing in general, so this album has some issues landing for me in a lot of places. A lot of themes and opening lines, while cool in themselves, really become a bit dull in the repetitions. “Limbics” plays on the same riff for around half of its 9 minute runtime, which can get a bit taxing. “Zeno” plays on its opening theme for 5 odd minutes before really hitting a groove. I found myself enjoying with a groovy bass driven section. Overall I felt the album, while well grounded in what it wanted to achieve, is one of those things that just won’t fully jive with some people. The performances and sounds are excellent, I think I just found myself a bit dragged by the style of presentation and writing they were supporting.

This album definitely has some great moments, but as one might would expect of a 4 track hour long album, it has some issues of pacing and drawn-out-ness, which take away from the experience. I definitely enjoyed it overall, but I would find it a bit harder to return to over and over or to highlight a specific track with the length in mind. While the last track does tie the whole album together as previously mentioned, that is a long time to wait for a more cohesive feel.

Recommended tracks: Limbics
Recommended for fans of: Karnivool, Tool
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook
Label: Independent

Before & Apace is:
– Devin Martyniuk (guitar/vocals)

Album only performers:
– Bryce Holcomb (vocals/guitar)
– Kaylon Disiewich (bass)
– Arlan Kopp (drums)

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