Album Review: Sonora Sunrise – The Route through the Canyon

Band: Sonora Sunrise | Album: The Route through the Canyon | Genre: Psychedelic rock, Krautrock | Year: 2019

From: Barnaul, Russia | Label: Trail Records

For fans of: Hawkwind, Can, Ozric Tentacles

Buy: Bandcamp

After running across this band, I’m starting to doubt if the American Southwest puts out any desert rock. I’ve previously discussed acts from Venice, Sydney, and The Netherlands that draw inspiration from the arid lands of California and Arizona, and now I’ve found this band from Siberia. Perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised; the band name would be a bit too on-the-nose for a group actually from the region. It’s not as if the Altai region is entirely dissimilar to the Southwest. It’s mountainous and semi-arid in places, albeit much, much colder.

Despite the desert imagery in the band’s name, and despite the fact that the music itself on this album evokes desert imagery, Sonora Sunrise don’t rely much on the blues. Instead, they opt for a more expansive, meditative sound full of lush synth pads and cosmic guitar arpeggios. The individual songs are unhurried yet mostly feel to be appropriate lengths. There’s also an impressive amount of sonic diversity. Krautrock, space rock, stoner rock/metal, and ambient music all get their own turn to be in the foreground. Continue reading “Album Review: Sonora Sunrise – The Route through the Canyon” →

Album Review: Kayo Dot – Blasphemy

Band: Kayo Dot | Album: Blasphemy | Genre: Experimental rock, Gothic rock | Year: 2019

From: Brooklyn, USA | Label: Prophecy Productions

For fans of: maudlin of the Well, Leprous, Type O Negative

Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon | Apple Music

Kayo Dot have long been one of the more amorphous acts in the progressive rock and metal scene. There’s often a great deal of variation between their individual albums, with their last couple releases being relatively soft and synth-heavy. Compare that to their vaunted debut, Choirs of the Eye, where the band started off as an avant-garde metal act. Of late, though, they’ve been incorporating more and more influences from the 1980s, particularly post-punk and gothic rock.

This fusion continues on Blasphemy, the band’s ninth studio album. This release also sees Kayo Dot reviving a bit of their metal roots. I would not call this a metal album, but it’s their most aggressive record in a while. Those heavier tones complement the coldness of the goth influences, and bandleader Toby Driver has managed to write another distinct album. Continue reading “Album Review: Kayo Dot – Blasphemy” →

Album Review: Diagonal – Arc

Band: Diagonal | Album: Arc | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2019

From: Brighton, UK | Label: Cobblers Records

For fans of: Gong, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant, The Soft Machine

Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon

Diagonal’s 2008 self-titled debut is one of the strongest progressive rock records of the ‘00s. And the ‘00s were the best decade for progressive rock since the ‘70s, so that’s saying something. It was an enthralling blend of folk, prog, jazz, and Canterbury sounds presented with a fresh and modern energy. Their 2012 follow-up saw the band going almost fully instrumental after a personnel shake-up, much to their detriment. Alex Crispin’s vocals were one of my favorite elements of their debut, being far more soulful than most other vocalists in the genre.

I wasn’t even aware Diagonal were still together—it had been seven years since their last album. So, it was a pleasant surprise when I learned about their forthcoming third album, Arc. I was even happier when I listened to the first pre-release song and found they’d decided to reintroduce vocals to their music. The jazz influences on Arc loom large, in both the rhythms and the textures. The drumming is deft and often light, while organ and electric piano tend to be the lead instruments. Continue reading “Album Review: Diagonal – Arc” →

Odds & Ends – September 23, 2019

Band: Chaos Over Cosmos | Album: The Unknown Voyage | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

Chaos Over Cosmos’s debut album draws heavily from acts like Fates Warning and Symphony X. The music is fleshed out with lush synths. There’s no shortage of power metal cheese, both vocally and instrumentally. The songs themselves tend to be pretty long, but they do a good job of keeping the momentum up and not overstaying their welcome.

Score: 73/100

Artist: Richard Henshall | Album: The Cocoon | Genre: Progressive metal, Progressive rock | Bandcamp

The latest album from Haken’s guitarist/keyboardist is exactly what you’d expect. There are tons of speedy, intricate riffs, and smart contrasts of metallic heaviness with moments of jazzy and poppy levity. The soloing is restrained, avoiding the common pitfall of virtuosic masturbation that you often find in this corner of prog. My one real complaint here is that Henshal’s vocals are pretty weak. His chops as a guitarist are solid, but his voice is often weak or strained.

Score: 80/100 Continue reading “Odds & Ends – September 23, 2019” →

Album Review: Tool – Fear Inoculum

tool

Band: Tool | Album: Fear Inoculum | Genre: Progressive metal, Alternative metal | Year: 2019

From: Los Angeles, USA | Label: Volcano

For a band with the stature that Tool has, writing my usual two-paragraph intro feels almost superfluous. They’re one of the most popular progressive metal bands of all time; their first four studio albums all went platinum multiple times over and are critically revered. They mixed the darker sound of early ‘90s alt-rock with progressive ambition and mind-bending psychedelia to forge a unique sound that resonated with a huge swathe of the population, myself included.

It shouldn’t be a secret that I love all of Tool’s previous output, with their 2001 album, Lateralus, being among my all-time personal favorites. The long-running delays and recording difficulties since their last release had become a punchline among fans, with Tool’s as-yet-unreleased fifth album being considered as imminent as Half-Life 3 or The Winds of Winter. But Fear Inoculum has finally arrived, 13 years after their previous release, 2006’s 10,000 Days. Most reviews I’ve seen, as well as general online discourse I’ve observed, has tended toward rapturous praise. I’m not among those. Continue reading “Album Review: Tool – Fear Inoculum” →

Album Review: Jens Carelius – Opsi

Artist: Jens Carelius | Album: Opsi | Genre: Progressive rock, Progressive folk | Year: 2019

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Jansen Records

For fans of: Beardfish, The Strawbs, Gryphon, Peter Gabriel

Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon | Apple Music

Entomology isn’t entirely new ground for progressive rock. The 2015 album Hivemind from the band Plank is about bugs. And while perhaps not the exact same branch of science, the band Slugdge have built their whole career around mollusks, including slugs and snails, which are colloquially grouped together with insects. Opsi, however, focuses on a specific entomologist, which is more distinct.

Based on his great-great-grandfather’s diaries from his time studying butterflies in Siberia, folk musician Jens Carelius pairs his unique style of finger-picking and strumming with rich synthesizers to create evocative soundscapes. Opsi is far more daring in its song structures and textures than Carelius’s previous releases. Elements of his smart folk-pop still manage to shine through, making this album both complex and surprisingly accessible. Continue reading “Album Review: Jens Carelius – Opsi” →

Album Review: Louis de Mieulle – Side$how

Artist: Louis de Mieulle | Album: Side$how | Genre: Progressive rock, Jazz fusion | Year: 2019

From: New York, USA | Label: Dalang Records

For fans of: Return to Forever, Magma, Brainticket, Probably a lot of those jazzy instrumental metal acts I don’t like

Buy: Bandcamp | Apple Music

I’ve been pretty open in my general hesitance toward instrumental albums. I’m not the kind of person to pay attention to lyrics, but the human voice adds so much character to music, which can be quite difficult to make up for with just instruments. I don’t believe I’ve discussed it in any great detail on this site—though I’ve made a few comments about it on Reddit—but I am also not a fan of the current zeitgeist of jazzy, instrumental rock and metal epitomized by acts like Intervals, Plini, and Sithu Aye. So much of it just sounds like aimless, speedy noodling. Thank God this album avoids those pitfalls magnificently.

French-born bassist and composer Louis de Mieulle’s newest album, Side$how, is a constantly-engaging blend of ambitious instrumental progressive rock with many trappings of jazz. Touches of electronic genres and krautrock crop up throughout this release’s 41-minute runtime. Consisting of eight songs, titled “Bed of Nails, Part 1-8”, the music was mostly improvised and recorded live by de Mieulle, a pair of keyboardists, and a drummer. Continue reading “Album Review: Louis de Mieulle – Side$how” →