Band: Anciients | Album: Beyond the Reach of the Sun | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp
“Anciients” is one of my least-favorite band names. Certain dumb misspellings can be fun (see: Kömmand, Toxik, Vektor), but just slapping another “i” in there seems stupid. That being said, the focus of this site isn’t on bands’ names, but rather on the music they put out. And if I weren’t able to look past names I dislike, I’d never be able to enjoy acts like Between the Buried and Me or And So I Watch You from Afar.
Anciients is one of those bands that is adored by the likes of r/progmetal, and which I enjoy but do not view quite so worshipfully. Think Caligula’s Horse, Devin Townsend, or recent Haken. Beyond the Reach of the Sun, though, resonates with me more than this band’s prior work. Melodic, Dream Theater-influenced prog metal coexists with heavier sludge-influenced passages, and it results in some exciting compositions. Some slower cuts can take a little long to get going (I’m especially looking at you, “Is It Your God”), but the payoff is usually worth it.
Score: 78/100
Band: delving | Album: All Paths Diverge | Genre: Post-rock, Progressive rock | Bandcamp
Elder frontman Nicholas DiSalvo is back with his second album under the delving name. It continues in a vein similar to the first delving record, but I like this one more. Hirschbrunnen, released in 2021, is a passable but forgettable post-rock album. All Paths Diverge has more complex and purposeful compositions. I really like how thoroughly keyboards have been integrated, and the guitar tones are lovely. This very much feels like a non-metallic, dreamier version of Elder, and that twist on Elder’s sound works really well. Like any hour-long instrumental post-rock record, there’s some bloat, but this is a release where the vibes and atmospheres are more important than any specific riff.
Score: 79/100
Band: End of Age | Album: Narcoleptic Hallucinations | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
End of Age plays a noisy, high-energy, punk-tinged variety of progressive rock, and the three songs on this EP are a wonderful encapsulation of their sound. The first two tracks are hard-charging, melodic compositions that demonstrate intelligent and exciting compositional skills. The nine-minute title track is the clear highlight, though. Starting off slowly, it builds in weight and intensity across its runtime. By the song’s climax, the guitars are buzzing, the drums are plodding, and the vocals are hoarsely shouted with emotion. Mellotron is deployed wonderfully to flesh the sound out.
Score: 90/100
Band: Lowen | Album: Do Not Go To War With The Demons of Mazandaran | Genre: Doom metal, Progressive metal | Bandcamp
Lowen, in addition to always having some of the best album art, play a unique and striking variety of progressive doom metal (which is itself something of an uncommon sub-sub-genre). The band integrates sounds from the Middle East into their music; imagine Pallbearer with Middle Eastern melodies. Vocalist Nina Saeidi’s singing is powerful, with layers upon layers of her voice easily delivering power to match the band’s pummeling guitars. Otherworldly atmospheres and surprisingly natural evolutions keep this record ever-shifting and always exciting. The music is heavy as hell, but it’s shockingly melodic.
Score: 80/100
Band: Ufoufoufo | Album: Ufoufo2: Hominid Catharsis | Genre: Progressive metal, Mathcore | Bandcamp
This is the sort of record that confounds my usual rating system. The music is exciting, technical, jumpy prog metal that draws from black metal, death metal, hardcore, and post-hardcore. The riffs are tight, tangled, and unpredictable, and there’s a lot of ambition on display. However, I absolutely hate the vocals here. I do not like hardcore vocals, and that can make big chunks of this record tough to stomach, even more so than bands like Somalgia, whose cringe-inducing lyrics make it tough to revisit their work. If you can stomach the vocals, I’d really recommend this release.
Score: Let’s split the difference and call this a 75/100
Band: Yünklaz II | Album: El Amanecer de Todo | Genre: Krautrock, Space rock | Bandcamp
This album is inspired by the book The Dawn of Everything, by anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow. If you’re into anthropology/archaeology, I highly recommend it! With that in mind, the music here does make some passing musical references to the various geographic locales the Davids discuss in their book. Synthesizers and guitars cultivate an often-hazy atmosphere, and there are some very inventive passages. Other parts can grow a little repetitious or feel a bit too weird-for-the-sake-of-weird for my taste, but it’s an interesting listen, overall.
Score: 72/100
The Elite Extremophile 