Year: 2022

Album Review: An Isolated Mind – A Place We Cannot Go

Band: An Isolated Mind | Album:A Place We Cannot Go | Genre: Post-rock, Drone, Avant-garde metal | Year: 2022

From: San Francisco, USA | Label: Independent

For fans of: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Boris’s droney stuff

Bandcamp

An Isolated Mind is a one-man project based out of San Francisco. This act plays a chilling, lonely-sounding variety of experimental rock and metal. At one moment, the music may be a screaming wall of Arctic-cold guitars; and the next, it may be a gentle acoustic passage with alluringly warm keys and woodwinds. 

I covered their debut album, I’m Losing Myself, in 2019, and I quite liked it. I was not the biggest fan of the pair of long drone experiments at the end of that record, but the preceding music was strong enough that I still put it on my year-end best-of list. A Place We Cannot Go is in the same musical vein, but there are obvious distinctions. This new release is less metallic, more contemplative, and better-focused.

Continue reading “Album Review: An Isolated Mind – A Place We Cannot Go” →

Album Review: Retreat from Moscow – Life as We Knew It

Band: Retreat from Moscow | Album:Life as We Knew It | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2022

From: Cardiff, UK | Label: Independent

For fans of: Rush, Genesis, Marillion, The Flower Kings

Bandcamp

This Welsh quartet has a unique history. Originally formed in the late 1970s, they played live shows for several years but never released anything. After disbanding in 1981, Retreat from Moscow entered a (nearly) 40-year period of hibernation. In 2019, the band’s core reformed and started to record both old and new material. The result of those sessions is Life as We Knew It.

This band’s debut, four decades in the making, is a fun, punchy bunch of prog rock cuts. Many of the compositions certainly feel rooted in late-70s prog, with no shortage of flashy instrumental passages and arena-rock grandiosity; but the production is quite modern-sounding, and certain riffs border on metallic.

Continue reading “Album Review: Retreat from Moscow – Life as We Knew It” →

Album Review: Krallice – Crystalline Exhaustion

Band: Krallice |Album:Crystalline Exhaustion | Genre: Progressive metal, Black metal | Year: 2022

From: Queens, USA | Label: Independent

For fans of: Kayo Dot, Kekal, Mgła

Bandcamp

Krallice, a New York-based quartet, are stalwarts of the experimental/progressive black metal scene. From their self-titled debut in 2008 to now, they have consistently put out high-quality music, and each album has had its own distinctive hallmarks.

Crystalline Exhaustion is the band’s eleventh full-length release. I haven’t listened to their previous album (2021’s Demonic Wealth), but I did enjoy their 2020 release, Mass Cathexis. Crystalline Exhaustion continues in their general vein of spaced-out, proggy black metal. 

Continue reading “Album Review: Krallice – Crystalline Exhaustion” →

Odds & Ends: February 7, 2022

Bands: Elder & Kadavar | Album:Eldovar: A Story of Darkness & Light | Genre: Progressive rock, Heavy psych | Bandcamp

Even though I wasn’t wild about Omens, I would consider myself an Elder fan, so I was intrigued when I saw the announcement for their new project. Kadavar, though, was a complete unknown to me. Had I not been told that this was a collaboration record, I likely wouldn’t have guessed it was anyone other than Elder, aside from the vocals on certain tracks. Eldovar has lots of spaced-out prog and psychedelic melodies, and it’s mostly pretty strong. There is almost no metal on this record, with the overall sound being rooted more firmly in classic prog.

Score: 79/100

Band: Giant Hedgehog | Album: Im Siel | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

This instrumental album tactfully blends progressive rock with folk and jazz flavors for an enjoyable experience. The 24-minute title track is especially strong, featuring jagged guitars and buttery-smooth saxophone in wonderful complement to one another. I would recommend this album to fans of Agusa or Änglagård.

Score: 78/100

Continue reading “Odds & Ends: February 7, 2022” →

Album Review: Jethro Tull – The Zealot Gene

Band: Jethro Tull | Album:The Zealot Gene | Genre: Hard rock, Progressive rock (I guess) | Year: 2022

From: Blackpool, UK | Label: Inside Out Music

Bandcamp

After the better part of two months of writing nothing, I’m back! The first half of January was all my best-of-2021 stuff, after which things got really busy at work, and then Pokémon Legends: Arceus came out (that took up and continues to take up a lot of my free time). But anyway, you don’t come here for my personal goings-on; you come here for reviews of albums that came out several months ago in an unpopular music genre!

For the record, I was actually pretty quick with covering this one. Jethro Tull has put out their first album since 2003! (Though their Bandcamp seems to ignore their 2003 release, The Jethro Tull Christmas Album, as it states this is their first album in “over two decades,” which signals that Ian Anderson considers 1999’s Dot Com to be the last proper Tull album.) 

Continue reading “Album Review: Jethro Tull – The Zealot Gene” →

Top 50 Prog Albums of 2021, Part 1: 50-26

Welcome to the first installment of The Elite Extremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2021. This article will cover places 50-26 on my list, with the top half set to follow on Thursday.

As I always say, I’m sure there are some excellent albums not included in my list. This site is a one-man operation (in relation to reviewing, that is; my editors, Kelci and Dan, have been tremendously helpful), and I simply cannot listen to everything that gets released. I also have my personal biases against some rather popular trends in prog, which affected the composition of this list. But if you’ve got recommendations, do not hesitate to shoot them my way.

As I referenced in my Scheduling Note back in November, this list only addresses albums put out between January 2021 and November 2021. Next year’s list will cover December 2021 through November 2022.

Though it felt as if it started off fairly slow, 2021 wound up being a very strong year for progressive rock and metal. Finalizing this list took longer than usual, especially nailing down the specific order.

Continue reading “Top 50 Prog Albums of 2021, Part 1: 50-26” →

Top Prog EPs of 2021

Welcome to the third installment of The Elite Extremophile’s Top Prog Releases of 2021. We’re starting off with the Top 5 Prog EPs of 2021. The Two-part Top 50 Albums list will be posted next week.

I listened to more EPs than usual this year, but it was still a relatively small crop, so I decided to keep this list limited to five entries.

As I have stated in the past, I’m sure that I’ve missed some excellent releases. This site is my personal pet project, and I simply cannot listen to everything that gets released. I also have my personal biases against some rather popular trends in prog, which affected the composition of this list. But if you’ve got recommendations, do not hesitate to shoot them my way, either through this site, email, or my Facebook page.

As I referenced in my Scheduling Note back in November, this list only addresses EPs put out between January 2021 and November 2021. Next year’s list will cover December 2021 through November 2022.

Continue reading “Top Prog EPs of 2021” →