I once received an email asking me if I had best-of lists for previous years before I started this site. I do, but I didn’t have easy access to them. Posting rundowns of new music I listened to in a given year was something I did on my personal Facebook page via the site’s now-defunct Notes feature 2011-2018.
Recently, I decided to see if I could access them, and it turns out I can! It’s just a hassle. I figured it may be good to copy them over here to hopefully give them greater longevity. I don’t trust Zuck to not just entirely nuke the Notes archive at any given moment.
Before I get into this, a few disclaimers and clarifications:
My first best-of list was actually in 2010, but I do not have that. At the time, I had a show on the University of Washington’s radio station, and the station asked everyone for a top 10 list for that year. I submitted my list, along with a one-sentence description of each record. Everyone’s lists were published in the campus paper. I tried searching The Daily’s archives, but I couldn’t find it.
For the first few years I did this, it wasn’t a ranking. It was everything listed alphabetically with a score out of ten. (It should also be noted that my scores out of 10 are scaled differently than my scores out of 100, which are in turn different from my RYM 5-point scale and ProgArchives’ 5-point scale.) I eventually eschewed the scores in favor of a ranked-list.
These are also not curated best-of lists. These cover all records released in a given year I listened to, so there’s usually some real crap mixed in there.
While I would say my taste has mostly remained consistent, my opinions on a number of records have shifted over the years, sometimes significantly. I will be posting the lists in the order in which I originally posted them with my original commentary, typos and all. However, if my views have shifted significantly, I will add a note explaining so.
I’m not planning to add images to this. That’s just going to take too long. From 2015 onward, I included Bandcamp links. For earlier ones, I would often include a YouTube link; I will add Bandcamp links where I can.
Alright, let’s get to it!
2011
Battles – Gloss Drop
Battles’ latest release is much less experimental and math rock-y than their debut, Mirrored. On this album they have a slightly more mainstream, poppish sound, but it’s still math rock. Overall it’s an enjoyable album, and I really liked Gary Numan’s guest appearance, but Mirrored is the better of the two Battles albums. 7.5/10
Beardfish – Mammoth
Beardfish are one of those bands that tend to get a lot of flack (from certain critics, but fuck those guys) because they play a very “traditional” style of progressive rock. Mammoth is a return to form after the relatively weak Destined Solitaire, featuring, overall, heavier music than they usually do. There isn’t a weak song on the album, but especially strong tracks include “The Platform” and “Tightrope”, which even channels some ’60s psychedelia. The composition is top-notch, and, as always, vocalist Rikard Sjoblom’s vocals are some of the highlights. 9/10
Modern Edit: I’d knock that rating down a bit now
Between the Buried and Me – The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues EP
This is a pretty standard-sounding BTBAM release. It’s a lot of excellent aggressive metal with a number of interesting little melodic moments. There really isn’t too much more to say, particularly if you’ve heard other stuff my them. Pretty solid overall. 8/10
Cynic – Carbon-Based Anatomy EP
On this EP, Cynic abandoned much of their death metal heritage, instead opting for a more Indian-influenced sort-of metal release. There are some strong moments on here, but it doesn’t really pack the same wallop that either of their full-lengths do. I was also a bit disappointed at the lack of the vocal synthesizer that has made their work so unique in the past. 6.5/10
Devin Townsend Project – Deconstruction
The third album in Devin Townsend’s Devin Townsend Project tetralogy, this is the album where he went balls-to-the wall in walls of crushing, heavy sounds. Everything about the album sounds huge, dramatic, and epic; it features a large number of guest appearances. However, that constant heaviness is also my biggest gripe with this album. There is very little breathing room, as it’s a pretty constant onslaught. 7.5/10
Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn of Events
I love Dream Theater’s earlier work; I really do. But this album is nothing but the same old regurgitated dreck they’ve been coasting on for nearly a decade. The music is unimaginative, and it gets boring pretty quickly. The songs, individually, are usually at least all right, but as a whole album, this is just way too long and repetitive. I would call this album a huge disappointment, but I can’t say I expected much to start with. 4/10
Giraffes? Giraffes! – Pink Magick
This is the latest album from an instrumental math rock duo that I love. Though not quite as proggy as their previous release, this is still a damn fine album. It’s a series of high-energy instrumentals that pairs complex riffs with a nice feeling of melody. 8/10
Haken – Visions
This band debuted last year to much (and in my opinion, unwarranted) acclaim, having put out an album of unimaginative cliches. Their new album isn’t a hell of a lot more original, but rather than just regurgitating cliches, they do their best to synthesize them into something their own. This album is pretty solidly (good) Dream Theater-worship, so if you’re not a fan of that kind of prog-metal, avoid this album. 8/10
Introitus – Elements
This is a Swedish, female-fronted neo-prog band I only found recently. This album is something of a mixed bag. There’s some great material on here, but a lot of it is balanced out by rather sappy, ballad-type stuff. The stuff that rocks is great, but this album is too long and feels like it has a lot of filler. This band has some potential. 6.5/10
Jakszyk, Fripp & Collins – A Scarcity of Miracles
This is a King Crimson side project. There are certainly some Crimsonish moments on here, but overall the album is kind of dull. A lot of the songs are overlong and lack tension, but there are still some moments that shine through. If you’re a fan of their classic 70s stuff, you’ll probably be disappointed. This is closer to their 80s and 90s output, but it’s still alright. 6.5/10
Leprous – Bilateral
This is the third entry from a Scandinavian band, and there are still five more to come (Scandinavia did right this year). This prog-metal album sees a really interesting blend of progressive metal with some more experimental and even funky influences, providing a very interesting listen. 7.5/10
Modern Edit: I’d bump this score higher.
Magic Pie – The Suffering Joy
This is another cliche-core entry, but it’s a good one. This is a vast improvement over their previous albums, which just sounded kinda hackneyed. This album actually sounds like the musicians had fun playing the music instead of just playing paint-by-numbers. Certain elements (like the occasional narration) cross the line into ridiculous-cliches-that-should-have-stayed-in-the-70s territory. 7/10
Mastodon – The Hunter
The first time I heard Mastodon’s new album I liked it a lot. (Maybe not as much as Crack the Skye, but I wasn’t expecting them to top that.) However, on subsequent listens, the album didn’t quite seem to hold up as well. This is their least proggy album, and though there were a good number of strong songs, this album doesn’t strike me as standing out too much. 6/10
Moonsorrow – Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa
This band is really only marginally proggy, in that they’re kind-of-experimental-ish black/folk metal. This album is a very strong piece and features four typically-epic compositions. This isn’t a groundbreaking album, but it’s very strong folk metal with lots of lush keyboards and big walls of guitar. 8.5/10
Myrath – Tales of the Sand
Myrath is a Tunisian power metal band that frequently incorporates Middle Eastern influences into their music. Those influences are much more overt on this album, and that’s also my biggest complaint. On past albums, the influences felt much more organically integrated, whereas on this album they feel somewhat awkwardly slapped on. Still pretty decent, though, thanks to some good songwriting. 7/10
Opeth – Heritage
This is right up there for possibly the biggest disappointment of the year. When I heard Opeth were releasing a less-metal album called Heritage, I got pretty excited. But instead of turning out solid, heavy progressive rock, we got a lot of rather uninspired prog that often seems to drag on. There are decent songs on here, but it’s an inconsistent album. 5.5/10
Phideaux – Snowtorch
This is my album of the year. Phideaux has a history of putting out strong albums with extremely well-constructed songs. This album is heavy on the piano and organ, and the music has a sense of urgency throughout. The two-part 36-minute title track is the obvious highlight, but the other two songs on the album are both very solid as well. 10/10
Sólstafir – Svartir Sandar
This is an album from and Icelandic heavy psychedelic/metal group. The album features a lot of heavy, fuzzy, high-energy, borderline stoner-ish music, with some great heavy bass parts. Jazz elements pop up occasionally, which integrate really well. Also, when there are vocals, it really lets you hear how weird of a language Icelandic is. 7/10
Steven Wilson – Grace for Drowning
Simply put, this is Porcupine Tree plays King Crimson. It is a long, dark album full of lots of piano and choir. It tends to alternate between heavy, oppressive pieces with lots of dark synthesizers, and lighter pieces that are more focused around acoustic guitar and piano giving this album a nice balance. Plus, the 23-minute “Raider II” is pretty incredible. 9/10
Van der Graaf Generator – A Grounding in Numbers
This is their second post-reunion album without their longtime sax/flute player. However, unlike their previous album which featured a lot of Peter Hammill’s (not very good) guitar work, this album is more keyboard-based. It a somewhat odd album with a lot of surprisingly energetic, short pieces. It’s not typical VdGG, but there’s still some good stuff. 6.5/10
Wobbler – Rites at Dawn
Simply put, this is an album Yes could have recorded in 1972. Wobbler sound just like that classic Yes period on this album. There’s no shortage of Yes clones in the world of progressive rock, but Wobbler managed to pull it off much better than most. (And I’ll definitely take this over Yes’ latest release.) 8/10
Yes – Fly from Here
This is Yes sans-Jon Anderson and sans-Rick Wakeman (and then subsequently sans-Oliver Wakeman). The Drama line-up of Yes returned (sort of; Trever Horn was the producer, and Benoit David sounded a lot like him). On this album, everyone just sounds kinda bored, and Trevor Horn played way too big of a role. I’m normally not one to complain about something being “over-produced,” but this is. Biggest disappointment of the year. 5/10
Zechs Marquise – Getting Paid
This band is pretty interesting. Mostly instrumental, this album sees the band create an interesting blend of funk, Latin, and progressive rock. The rhythm section is super tight and does an amazing job of laying down a solid foundation for the guitars and keyboards to solo over. 8.5/10
2012
Acyl – Algebra (Folk metal)
The debut album from this French folk metal band points toward a lot of promise for the future. This band heavily incorporates North African/Middle Eastern musical themes flawlessly into sort-of progressive-ish death metal. Unlike many folk metal acts, the incorporation of the folk music does not sound forced at all and flows organically. There are no weak tracks on the album, and it all sounds very well-assembled.
Rating: 8/10
Agalloch – Faustian Echoes (EP) (Black/folk metal)
Agalloch’s release this year consists of a sole, 21-minute epic done in usual Agallochian style. Their doomy-progressive-blackened-folk metal suits long pieces well, and this is no exception. I can’t say I’m a very big fan of the audio samples of renditions of Faust scattered throughout, but Agalloch are a pretentious band for pretentious people, so I guess it’s to be expected.
Rating: 8/10
Ian Anderson – Thick as a Brick 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? (Progressive rock)
I was certainly surprised to find out that Ian Anderson was doing a sequel to Thick as a Brick. It’s certainly not as bad as it could have been, but it’s really not great either. Anderson’s voice really hasn’t aged well, and he’s quite too fond of his own voice, if you ask me, judging from all the narrated bits. The music is competently written and performed, if perhaps a bit paint-by-numbers-sounding. It sounds a lot as if Anderson wanted to try to recapture the Thick as a Brick-era sound, but in the process it got a bit homogenized and lost anything that sounds like passion. It’s not bad or anything, but this is hardly anything essential.
Rating: 7/10
Änglagård – Viljans Öga (Progressive rock)
This is another album I was very excited about when it was first announced. Änglagård’s last album was released back in the early 90s, and both of those albums are considered to be modern classics (especially Hybris). The music here does not disappoint. It’s solid symphonic progressive rock with generous amounts of Mellotron and flute throughout, and the fours instrumental songs that make up the album add up to nearly an hour. However, that duration is also this album’s weakest point. Many progressive rock bands, I feel, fall into the trap of thinking that songs need to be long, so they needlessly stretch them out.
Rating: 7.5/10
Astra – The Black Chord (Progressive rock)
I really enjoyed Astra’s debut album, so this was among my most anticipated releases of the year, and Astra sure didn’t disappoint. There’s still nothing Earth-shatteringly original here, and while it may be blatant worship of ‘70s Mellotron-based prog, they manage to breathe vitality and freshness into it to keep the music interesting. This album is considerably more concise than their debut, and it benefits from much improved production and mastering. Synths, Mellotrons, and fuzzy guitars dominate over a generally space atmosphere, and while they don’t skimp on the flashy instrumental bits, they managed excise much of the unnecessary excesses of their debut.
Rating: 8.5/10
Baroness – Yellow & Green (Sludge metal/Hard rock)
The first two songs off this scared me a little. I wasn’t wild about either, and I was dreading some sort of bland, unimaginative dreck-fest that spans the length of a double. However, after downloading it and giving it a listen, I found it enjoyable. No, it’s no Red Album, and if you go in expecting The Red Album, you’re going to be disappointed. As long as you approach this as what it is—an album of hard rock/borderline-metal that’s meant to have broad appeal—it’s a pretty good effort. Few tracks really stand out as particularly strong to me, but the album as a whole is pretty decent.
Rating: 7/10
Beardfish – The Void (Progressive metal/rock)
The stylistic change on this album kinda struck me as out of left field. Beardfish have pretty much always been solidly in vein of many 70s prog acts, but this album saw them take a decided turn toward the heavy. About half the album is comprised of metal (or stuff pretty close to it), including vocalist Rikard Sjöblom doing death growls. In essence, they pulled a reverse-Opeth. But unlike Opeth, they managed to make their stylistic shift work. The other half of the album is closer to Beardfish’s usual sound, but it’s a bit more stripped-down sounding, focusing primarily on guitars and electric piano.
Rating: 8/10
Between the Buried and Me – The Parallax II: Future Sequence (Progressive metal)
This is a pretty typical BTBAM release. That isn’t to say it’s bad or derivative—quite the opposite in fact—but if you’ve heard the band before, you have a fairly good idea of what you’re in store for here. Between their usual blast beats-out-the-ass, there are a number of mellow little interludes, and the band seem to incorporate a lot more space rock-y elements. Synthesizers are very prominent here, and the band change things up pretty frequently. However, like every other BTBAM album I’ve heard, my one complaint here is just how much music there is. I’m not saying it’s bad or anything, but I when you put out 75-minute album after 75-minute album, that can get a bit tiring. I like listening to full labums when I can, but such a marathon is not always the most appealing of ideas.
Rating: 8.5/10
Modern edit: I’d bump this up to a 10 now
Crippled Black Phoenix – (Mankind) The Crafty Ape (Space rock)
This is the first Crippled Black Phoenix album I’ve heard. I’d heard good things about this group, which includes former members of Electric Wizard and Mogwai. The band play a brand of dark, slow, heavy spacey psychedelic rock, and I can see how it would have as large an appeal as it does to people who aren’t normally fans of this stuff. I have to imagine fans of doom metal in particular would like this album. Despite its length (nearly an hour and a half), the music is solid throughout with no real weak points.
Rating: 7/10
Daal – Dodecahedron (Progressive rock)
If you want an album that covers a lot of musical ground, this is certainly the one for you. This Italian duo (technically; they use an awful lot of studio musicians) put out this 70-minute, 12-track instrumental album brimming with brilliant progressive rock. This album touches on dark, Mellotron-fueled pieces, bluesy, spacey, Pink Floyd-inspired pieces, melancholic folky pieces, and even a bit of electronic stuff. Despite such sprawl, I feel it all fits together excellently and does not disappoint on any tracks whatsoever. This is absolutely in my top two albums of the year.
Rating: 9.5/10
Modern edit: I’d bump this down a bit
Disconnect – Enough Blame to Go Around (Progressive rock)
Some of the more blatant Porcupine Tree worship you’ll find out there, but it’s pretty solid nonetheless. Generally dark, relatively heavy, and having only five songs that total 66 minutes, this album isn’t really out to forge any new musical paradigms. The music here is pretty solid with some surprisingly catchy hooks during choruses. But seriously, if you like Porcupine Tree, you’ll love this.
Rating: 8/10
Earth – Angels of Darkness Demons of Light II (Post-rock)
I mostly picked this up because I found it in a record store for about $7. I enjoy Earth, but I am by no means their biggest fan or anything. That being said, this is an enjoyable album and pretty good music for being mellow and relaxing. However, it didn’t strike me as anything particularly special. The music keeps with Earth’s usual melancholy tone with some mild Southwestern flavors thrown in here and there. It’s good background music, though I wouldn’t call it anything to write home about.
Rating: 6.5/10
Enslaved – RIITIIR (Progressive black metal)
On this album, progressive black metal band Enslaved seem to have taken a turn toward music with more death metal influence, and the non-metal interludes are also more prominent here than in the past. Clean vocals are more in focus here, and I feel that overall the music is pretty solid. I don’t think I’ve had enough time to fully digest this album, but overall I really like it.
Rating: 7.5/10
Hail Spirit Noir – Pneuma (Psychedelic black metal)
The debut from this Greek psychedelic black metal band is one of two major contenders for my album of the year. Much of the album is marginally metal, even with a generous definition, with significant elements of psychedelic rock, progressive rock, and folk showing up. The songs are high-energy and dynamic (well, except for those four minutes of ambient bullshit at the end of one song, but even then, that’s after nine minutes of awesome music). Though not a long album, Pneuma packs in tons of excellent music into one of the best albums of the year.
Rating: 9.5/10
Ihsahn – Eremita (Progressive black metal)
On his latest album, it sounds as if Ihsahn has toned down the saxophones, at least compared to his previous effort. This is great progressive black metal. I’m a big fan of Ihsahn’s voice, and the music is all up to his usual standards of excellence. The saxes are still here, but they don’t smack you in the face quite as hard as they did on After. However, perhaps because of this, this album has more generic-sounding moments than his previous album, and it feels to drag on a bit at a few points here and there. Overall, it’s solid musically with some catchy moments tossed in here and there.
Rating: 7/10
Magma – Félicité Thösz (Zeuhl)
Post-reunion Magma confuses me. Not their music, per se, but rather the fact that they seem to have gotten better since reuniting. I can’t think of another band that’s managed to do that. This album consists of some solid music, though, honestly, beyond the Kobaïan lyrics, it doesn’t sound very Magma-ish (Magmish? Magman?). The music, as always, is fairly dark and mid-tempo with significant jazz influence. However, throughout the whole album, piano is unquestionably the primary instrument. It’s a gapless album that flows well, and also unlike Magma’s newer releases, it’s a rather short album. I would say that as long as you don’t go in expecting the strangeness of Köhntarkösz or Ëmëhntëtt-Ré, you’ll like it (provided you like Magma).
Rating: 7/10
The Mars Volta – Noctourniquet (Psychedelic rock)
I wrote a much more substantial review of this album shortly after it came out, and I can’t say my opinion has changed much. There are a handful of decent songs, and the first half is noticeably stronger than the second, but overall it’s a dull as hell album, and the actual tones of the instruments themselves are generally unpleasant. Cedric’s voice has gone to shit, and his singing just detracts from the already-tepid performance of the band. If you The Mars Volta up till now, I’d skip this. But if you like The Dear Hunter or any of those dull indie-prog bands, you might like this.
Rating: 5/10
Niding – Plågor (Black/doom metal)
More pretentious music for pretentious people. I grabbed this on a blog because the guy posting it was so enthusiastic. Honestly, it’s alright. It’s fairly lo-fi, black/doom metal with odd-sounding Swedish vocals over it. I guess if you’re into super-kvlt experimental black metal, you may like this. The production initially put me off, but I got past it, and it’s an alright release. Thankfully it’s short (~25 minutes).
Rating: 6/10
of Montreal – Paralytic Stalks (Progressive rock/pop)
Now I know what you’re thinking. “of Montreal? But I thought you didn’t like that indie stuff.” I don’t, really, and I really only downloaded this album after someone made a comment along the lines of “Kevin Barnes cannot into prog rock,” so I decided to see if he could for myself. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe Kevin Barnes can’t do Yes-style prog or anything, but he can certainly carve out his own little niche. The album heavily incorporates psychedelic music, neo-prog, and even dance music to make a pretty interesting blend of styles. The vocals are great and very emotive, and with the break-neck speed of style changes, at the very least it isn’t boring. That being said, some parts are perhaps not the best and can just sound a bit underdeveloped or weird-for-the-sake-of-weird. Overall, though, if you want to hear what proggy dance music sounds like this, I’d recommend it.
Rating: 7.5/10
Panopticon – Kentucky (Black metal/bluegrass)
I guess this is America’s take on folk metal. Panopticon blend bluegrass and black metal to make a pretty enjoyable album. They don’t really incorporate the two so much as alternate between them, which is something that I’m not the biggest fan of. The music itself is pretty good, though I’m not super wild about the vocals here. They also frequently intercut audio clips from interviews with coal miners, and to call the political message of this album ham-fisted would be too generous. (Not that I disagree or anything, but good lord, try some subtlety.)
Rating: 7/10
Rush – Clockwork Angels (Hard rock/progressive rock)
Rush are a progressive rock band. That being said, progressive rock hasn’t progressed much since before Rush debuted. So, needless to say, I wasn’t expecting anything particularly new-sounding from Rush. (That certainly doesn’t mean that I wasn’t eagerly waiting for this album.) Rush certainly didn’t disappoint. The album is solid and a return to a proggier sound than they’d been utilizing for the last couple decades, though it’s hardly a second Hemispheres, or anything. It’s also noticeably heavier than a lot of their more recent work. Geddy’s voice has aged well, they’re all still excellent instrumentalists, and Neil managed to not crap out anything as cringeworthy as “The Trees”. My only real complaint about that this album is that I feel it ends a bit weakly.
Rating: 7.5/10
Storm Corrosion – Storm Corrosion (Folk)
Possibly my most anticipated album of 2012, this is definitely up there with Noctourniquet as the biggest disappointment of the year. I know Wilson and Åkerfeldt said it wasn’t going to be a progressive metal album or anything, but this collection of lethargic folk pieces has little to offer unless you want some music to fall asleep to. There are some interesting moments, and a number of songs build tension fairly well, but that tension is never resolved in a satisfying way.
Rating: 4/10
Sylvan – Sceneries (Progressive rock)
When I first heard this album, I liked it, but this is an album that does not suffer repeated listening particularly well. The biggest problem here is just how overlong this thing is. At 90 minutes, this probably could have been pared down to roughly half that, and nothing of value would have been lost. Musically, this is yet another unimpressive, bland rock band that decided to make 20-minute songs and call themselves a progressive rock act. There are some enjoyable moments here, but I ‘d recommend skipping this album as a whole.
Rating: 4.5/10
T.R.A.M. – Lingua Franca (EP) (Jazz-fusion)
This collaboration between Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders and The Mars Volta’s former wind/reed player had some interesting potential. However, quite predictably, this release goes pretty heavy on the wankery. Djenty riffs abound here under jazzy sax noodling. This is sort of what I’d expect an instrumental collaboration of Animals as Leaders and Bedlam in Goliath-era Mars Volta to sound like. There are some interesting ideas played with here, but in the end this EP contains too much wank to be anything all that special.
Rating: 5.5/10
Teramaze – Anhedonia (Progressive metal)
My views on this album are quite similar to my views on Dream Theater’s last album. There’s nothing offensively bad about it, but goddamn is it dull, generic “progressive” metal. The songs start sounding samey rather quickly, and there’s nothing interesting or unique going on. Taken on their own, the songs are alright for the most part, but all together, this album is quite a snoozefest.
Rating: 3.5/10
Ticktockman – Ticktockman (Progressive/Blues rock)
I’m very glad I had this album recommended to me. This is a band I’d never heard of and likely would not have found on my own. The best way I can describe this album is if The Mars Volta (prior to their latest album, at least) tried to play blues rock. Lots of fuzzed out and wahed guitars, high-energy Latin-influenced percussion, and a vocal style reminiscent of Cedric Bixler-Zavala all support that bluesy Mars Volta description. This is pretty much what I would consider Southwestern progressive rock to sound like. While strong, this album isn’t flawless. Especially toward the middle of the album, some of the songs feel like they drag a bit, but it’s nothing too damaging.
Rating: 8/10
Vespero – Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier (Space rock)
This album was…alright. I had it recommended to me, based on the fact that I like Ozric Tentacles, and I can definitely see the similarities. However, given a choice between this Russian group and OT, I’ll take OT every time. Vespero play competent enough space rock with some electronic-sounding loops filling in space here and there to add to the atmosphere. However, most of the songs feel like they lack any real direction. They just seem to sort of meander for 8-12 minutes each in a sea of synth loops and guitar solos. This would make good background/relaxation music, but on its own, it really isn’t anything too interesting.
Rating: 6/10
Jack White – Blunderbuss (Blues rock)
I’m a big fan of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, so it stands to reason I’d like a Jack White solo album. When he put out the single “Sixteen Saltines,” I was a bit unimpressed. However, the rest of the album more than makes up for that obvious throwback to his White Stripes days. Electric piano plays a prominent role on this album, and country influences are also much more noticeable here. That isn’t to say he doesn’t have a few White Stripes-y moments on here, most notably on that aforementioned lead single. An extremely enjoyable country-ish/blues-ish rock album.
Rating: 7.5/10
Yargos – Magical Karma (Power metal)
This album of pseudo-proggy power metal is so cheesy I developed lactose intolerance. Seriously, skip it.
Rating: 2/10
2013
TL;DR Top-10
- Rudra– Rta
- Fuzz– Fuzz
- Birds & Buildings – Multipurpose Trap
- Steven Wilson – The Raven that Refused to Sing
- Haken– The Mountain
- The Physics House Band – Horizons/Rapture
- Ingranaggi Della Valle – In Hoc Signo
- Clutch– Earth Rocker
- Blood Ceremony – The Eldritch Dark
- And So I Watch You From Afar – All Hail Bright Futures
And So I Watch You From Afar – All Hail Bright Futures –Math Rock
I avoided this band for longer than I should have, based solely off its name; and I still think it’s a really stupid band name. But dumb names aside, this is a spectacular math rock album. Full of punchy,high-energy riffage and frequently-inventive arrangements, this album manages to be consistently entertaining throughout. Like most math rock out there, it’s largely instrumental and fairly up-beat and uses generous amounts of synthesizers.
Rating: 7.5/10
Birds and Buildings –Multipurpose Trap – Progressive Rock/Zeuhl
Birds and Buildings’ sophomore album has been a long time coming. They debuted in 2008 and have been teasing at this album since 2010, but it finally arrived this year, and it was well worth the wait. This album is, much like their debut, mostly instrumental, though I don’t believe there are any instrumentals on the album. They’ve added a violinist to their lineup, and the jazz influences are laid on much heavier on this outing. Synthesizers loom large here as well, and many moments where electric piano takes the lead could just as easily been played by Weidorje or Attahk-era Magma.
Rating: 9.5/10
Blood Ceremony – The Eldritch Dark – Psychedelic/Hard Rock
This band is more-or-less what a female-fronted merger of Black Sabbath would sound like, I’d imagine. Groovy, bluesy, doomy guitars and flutes frequently battle it out, and there is no shortage of folky interludes mixed in throughout. The band deftly switch from driving, crunchy rock to mellow folk to slow, heavy almost-but-not-quite-doom metal. If you’ve heard their previous two albums,you know what to expect. They’ve carved themselves a niche, and they’re doing a fine job sticking with it.
Rating: 8/10
Bosnian Rainbows – Bosnian Rainbows – Alternative Rock
I’ve had somewhat mixed feelings about this band from theget-go. On one hand, it’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s new band, and being the fan of The Mars Volta and his solo work that I am, I was interested to hear this. (On the other hand, to call Noctourniquet underwhelming is to be generous.) The singles released ahead of the album were at the very least decent, with “Torn Maps” reminding me of early-80s Rush, if they had played pop music. Musically, the album is mostly mid-tempo with lots of over-reverbed guitar, though (somewhat mercifully) mostly-free of ORL’s notorious guitar wankery. Few songs standout, the aforementioned “Torn Maps” being one of them; at the same time,there’s nothing bad on here either. It’s nothing special but pretty inoffensive.
Rating: 5.5/10
Clutch – Earth Rocker – Stoner Rock/Hard Rock
I am quite open in my stance of “I hate fun.” That being said, this is a fun album, and I quite like it. This album manages to avoid all the pitfalls of many other stoner rock bands. They’re bluesy, but not to the point of being more blues than rock; they don’t drown in their own fuzz; and they’re able to consistently write good, catchy riffs and hooks. The sound throughout is consistent, but it never drags, and each song sounds fresh. If you’re looking for some good, high-energy,fun hard rock, check this out.
Rating: 8/10
The Cult of Dom Keller – The Cult of Dom Keller –Psychedelic Rock
It’s like they heard an album by The Black Angles and thought, “Hey, let’s play this a bit slower and with even more fuzz.” For the most part this album suffers from being too long, too repetitious, and too fuzzy. There are flashes of brilliance under the walls of distorted guitar, but it’s not enough to make this a worthwhile listen.
Rating: 3.5/10
Dream Theater – Dream Theater – Progressive Metal
Fuck, why do I even both with this band anymore? It’s like some record company is contractually obligated to let John Petrucci masturbate with his guitar every other year for 65-75 minutes. It’s the same old rehashed bullshit and is quite similar to their previous album. However, unlike their previous album, which I dinged for just being 75 minutes of the same two songs with nothing particularly bad, this album does have at least one or two okayish songs. But the bad stuff is really fucking bad. Seriously, guys. Just disband already. You haven’t put out a decent album since Octavarium, and that’s pushing 10 years at this point.
Rating: 3/10
Earthless – From the Ages – Psychedelic Rock
When noting down initial ratings for albums on the first listen through, I rated this “background music/10”, and I still feel it’s an apt description. The music is by no means bad, but it’s far from engaging. Endless bluesy, psychedelic jamming is pretty fun to play, it can be fun in a live setting, and it’s great in the background, but listening intently is something of a draining, dull experience. The four songs here total over an hour, including one topping 30minutes. Looking for some space-filler for background noise? This is a good album for that. But it fails to do much anything of interest, and man does it drag.
Rating: 4.5/10
Exxasens – Satellites – Space Rock/Post-Rock
Exxasens are a band that have a sound, and they certainly stick to it. However, that’s something of a detriment here. Their delay-heavy,reverb-heavy, slightly distorted riffs, while nice atmosphere, get repetitious pretty quickly. Combine similar riffs with instrumentality, and you get an album that starts dragging pretty soon. These guys are an excellent example of crescendo-core post-rock. While there’s a niche for that, they really oughtta work on diversifying their sound a tiny bit.
Rating: 5.5/10
The Flaming Lips – The Terror – Psychedelic Rock
I am, admittedly, not too familiar with The Flaming Lips beyond Yoshimi, but I saw this at my local library and decided to give it a go. Like many other things on this list, it’s alright, but it fails to wow. (That was a real pattern for this year.) The whole album just sounds muddy and fuzzy. I’m sure they went for such a sound intentionally, but a whole album full of slow, synth-heavy songs with ethereal vocals and more reverb and fuzz than any reasonable person knows what to do with is a bit much. The album has a few notes of interest, but overall it really sounds quite same-y.
Rating: 5.5/10
Foxygen – We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic – Psychedelic/Indie Rock
These guys obviously like late-60s psychedelic pop, but if you ask me, they have a hard time making the transition between “making music that sounds like band X” and “making original music that is influenced by band X.” Most songs on here have one or twoobvious stylistic origins, with The Rolling Stones and The 13th Floor Elevators being some of the more obvious ones. Issues of originality aside, these guys managed to put out some pretty enjoyable music. It’s mostly pretty mellow, with a few higher-energy moments sprinkled throughout. I also like that this is a fairly short album (about 36 minutes). Many modern acts tend to drag albums out for much longer than they should, just because they can. (I’m looking at you, Dream Theater.)
Rating: 7/10
Modern Edit: This record still has some decent music, but I’m not as nuts about it.
John Frusciante – Outsides EP – Electronic
The stuff I like here, I like a lot. And the stuff I’m less wild about is pretty shitty. I heard the 10-minute opener,“Same”, described as guitar wankery over electronic bloops and drum machines. That’s a pretty accurate description, but this is John Frusciante, so it’s really good and very enjoyable wankery. This track also reminds me of his album The Empyrean a lot. Of the other three tracks, two sound largely like someone dicking around on a keyboard for the hell of it,while one managed to be an interesting little frenetic electronic piece. This is interesting stuff, but it isn’t without its weaknesses.
Rating: 6/10
Fuzz – Fuzz – Stoner Metal/Psychedelic Rock
For me, in many cases, a little bit of stoner metal goes quite a long way. I quite like this band though, and I’ve been listening to their debut an awful lot. It cuts out many of the problems I have with stoner metal bands (bluesiness, endless jamming) and couples the extreme fuzziness with well-constructed songs and strong hooks and riffs. Much of the riffage reminds me of late-60sgarage rock acts with the distortion cranked all the way up. The 36 minutes of this album flies by and leaves you hungry for more. This is in contention for my number two album of the year, along with Birds and Buildings’ release.
Rating: 9.5/10
Guapo – History of the Visitation – Zeuhl
I most often see Guapo listed as either zuehl or some sort of avant-prog. I wouldn’t necessarily call them either, but overall I’d say they’re closer to zeuhl. The studio half of this album is dominated by two songs. One of them is a sprawling,dark piece full of jazzy influences and chaotic guitars and electric piano. The other almost sounds fun, which is damn near unheard-of in this genre, with the first half or so of the song being based off an energetic keyboard line. The live half is full of improvisation and has more than its fair shareof chaos and noisiness. However, this is a loooong album, and no matter how good an album is, 100 minutes is a lot.
Rating: 7/10
Haken – The Mountain – Progressive Rock/Metal
Haken are not band I consider to be particularly original,with their first two albums being some of the most shameless Dream Theater-worship I’ve ever heard. (Though2011’s Visions was better than most of Dream Theater’s catalog.) This album,though, saw them incorporating quite a few other influences in their music. Piano was much more prominent,and the more metal aspects of their music have been noticeably toned down. There’s also a greater emphasis on more complex vocal arrangements, including some Gentle Giant-esque counterpoint singing on “Cockroach King” and lush harmonies on “Because It’s There”. Haken still aren’t busting down any doors of originality, but they’re exploring some new-ish territory.
Rating: 8/10
Ingranaggi Della Valle – In Hoc Signo – Italian Progressive Rock
Most things being labeled as “Italian Progressive Rock” now bear little resemblance to the first wave that came out of Italy in the early1970s. Most of it now is just very Anglo-sounding prog with Italian vocals. IDV, thankfully, are not a part of that trend. This album has all the classic flavors of the early IPR scene, but it sounds neither dated nor derivative. This album is jazzy even by Italian standards, full of odd chords and aggressive, creative bass playing. Folk influences abound as well, with violin making frequent appearances. One of the best albums to come out of Italy in decades.
Rating: 9/10
Kekal – Unsung Division EP – Experimental Metal/Electronic
The opener is pretty solid and sounds like classic Kekal: wonky synths and aggressive guitars over driving, electronic-sounding percussion. The other four tracks, though, sound like someone’s first experiments on a synthesizer.
Rating: 2.5/10
Leprous – Coal – Progressive Metal
This album is overall pretty enjoyable, but there’s nothing too memorable about it. It often reminds me of its (much stronger, in my opinion) predecessor, Bilateral, but nothing here really stands out to me. Synths loom large on a few tracks for atmosphere, and it is heavier than Bilateral,but heaviness is far from the be-all, end-all of music. The writing isn’t bad,and everything is well-played, but there’s just some intangible that I’m not too wowed by.
Rating: 6/10
MGMT- MGMT – Neo-Psychedelia/Indie Rock
I liked both Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations,so I saw no reason why I may not like this album. But then again, I never thought MGMT would decide to release a confused, plodding, dreary mess of an album. The whole album wallows in a morass of whispery vocals and monotonous synths over slow, plodding percussion. The opener is alright, but aside from that,this album was a massive disappointment.
Rating: 4/10
Orphaned Land – All Is One – Folk Metal
Orphaned Land stay close to their usual sound throughout:kinda proggy death-ish metal with a healthy dose of Middle Eastern folk music. Overall, though, I was not wowed. This album feels a little paint-by-numbers and generally uninspired. They heavily lean on the standard prog-metal tropes (epics excluded) and then put on a veneer of folk influences to make it seem unique. I’m leveling the same criticism against Orphaned Land that I did against Myrath two years ago. The Middle Eastern influences don’t really integrate with the music very organically, and it comes off sounding gimmicky. There’s nothing offensively bad here, but I was unimpressed.
Rating: 5/10
Persefone – Spiritual Migration – “Progressive”Metal
This band only gets any notice because they’re from Andorra. Just skip this album. I couldn’t finish it.
Rating: Could not finish/10
Modern Edit: Gave this another spin. Still not nuts about it, but I’d bump it up to like a 4/10. (Keep in mind my 10-point scale is curved differently than my 100-point scale.)
The Physics House Band – Horizons/Rapture – Math Rock
This is an interesting debut EP from this British math rock band. It’s only six songs and 24 minutes long, but it covers a fair amount of ground. There’s a nice balance between slower, more atmospheric pieces and the more frenetic stuff you expect from a math rock outfit. At a few points, electric piano takes the lead, lending a jazzy feel to stretches of this release. Dissonant riffs abound, including quite a few that give me mild Mars Volta vibes.
Rating: 8.5/10
Progenie Terrestre Pura – U.M.A. – Atmospheric BlackMetal
This album is something of a mixed bag. The overall atmosphere is nice, and I really like the guitar tones. I’m less wild about the vocals, I feel the songs are too long, and that one electronic track was just a terrible idea. Those two sentences sum up my general feelings about atmospheric black metal in general (minus the electronic thing, in most cases), and they certainly sum up my feelings for this album. If you like this genre,you’ll probably like this album, but for me, it fails to impress. It does hold potential in many places, but it just fails to capitalize on it. There seems to be an awful lot of build-up to something, but no real climax.
Rating: 5/10
Riverside – Shrine of the New Generation Slaves –Progressive Rock
Most of this album sees Riverside taking a firm step away from metal, opting for a much rockier sound in general, with quite a few mellow moments. Honestly, it’s like Riverside wanted to make a Porcupine Tree album, but instead of churning out a Lightbulb Sun, they wound up making a Fear of a Blank Planet (and album with a number of strong moments, but it hit-and-miss overall). The hooks here are actually quite strong, and this album could have fielded a few solid singles. However, I’m not wild about the guitar tones,and there’s a rather obvious pattern within songs of quiet-loud-quiet-loud. It’s a solid pattern, and there’s a reason it’s so popular. It just seems inelegantly executed on this release.
Rating: 6.5/10
Rudra – Rta – Death Metal
After 2011’s slightly-disappointing Brahmavidya: Immortal I, Rta sees both a return to Rudra’s old sound and a vast departure from business-as-usual. After the sonic punch-in-the-face that was the high-octane Brahmavidya trilogy, Rta is much more mid-tempo,like their first two albums. The Indian elements are integrated seamlessly (except for one tabla solo that could have been trimmed a bit), and it all adds up to a very distinct sound. At the same time, it’s quite a new venture for the band, as no song is less than nine minutes, with the longest pushing 13. Rudra have never been shy about concept albums, but they decided to go full-bore here, putting out a six-song,hour-long retelling of the Ramayana. The only weak point on the album is that, as is to be expected with songs of this length, there are a few brief lapses of focus, where guitar and tabla noodling go on a bit long. Aside from that, though, this is an absolutely spectacular release and my album of the year.
Rating: 9.5/10
Scale the Summit – The Migration – Progressive Metal
Scale the Summit are pretty cool live. In the studio, though, they fall victim to the same pitfall as every other instrumental metal act I’ve ever listened to. Instrumental metal albums always feel a bit short on ideas, with pointless soloing and similar-sounding riffs. I view this like a more-interesting version of the Earthless album I reviewed earlier; it’s enjoyable enough to listen to as you do something else, but listening intently is something of a chore.
Rating: 5.5/10
Subrosa – More Constant Than The Gods – Doom Metal
In general, albums that don’t wow me on the first time around can fall into two categories: something that seems like it may be interesting if I give it another listen or two, and something that I know I’m never going to like much. Thankfully, this album was the former. Upon my first listen, I was unimpressed. I felt that the album dragged an awful lot and covered less musical ground than their previous effort. While I still feel that the album is overlong and not quite as varied as No Help for the Mighty Ones, I’ve come around to like this album. There’s a lot of great atmosphere here, and the violins match the mournful feel of this album excellently.
Rating: 7/10
Thyrfing – De Ödeslösa – Folk Metal
I like this album a lot. Thyrfing remind me of Moonsorrow. They’re blackish folk metal with lots of grand synth string lines running throughout their music. Arguably a positive that they have over Moonsorrow is their relative brevity. No song here tops seven minutes, and sometimes one isn’t in the mood for a half-hour epic. That’s not to say there are no flaws here. At a few points, the music begins to all sound the same, but those moments are infrequent. The vocals aren’t the best either, but they work well for the most part.
Rating: 7/10
Týr – Valkyrja – Metal
This album was just embarrassing. It’s like they were gunning to cram every awful cliché imaginable into one album, including a truly intolerable duet. Skip it.
Rating: 3/10
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II – Rock
This album has a lot of nice ideas. Plenty of good riffs and hooks, and the overall psychedelic, slightly fuzzy feel is great. However, a lot of the riffs tend to get stagnant, playing over and over with little variation. This is a nice, enjoyable, poppy rock album,and if they continue to hone their songwriting skills, they should put out some great music in the future.
Rating: 6.5/10
Voivod – Target Earth – Thrash Metal
Voivod released an album this year? Really? And I listened to it? Well, that cover art certainly looks familiar. I’m pretty sure I liked it. The fact that I can recall just about nothing about this album other than the vagueness of likely liking it ought to tell you something. Give it a go, I guess.
Rating: 6-ish/10, probably
Steven Wilson – The Raven that Refused to Sing (and other stories) – Progressive Rock
This album leaked pretty early in 2013, so I’ve had it in my library for a while, and it’s held up extremely well to repeated listens. The overall sound of this album is quite similar to 2011’s massive Grace for Drowning, but it’s considerably more concise. The six songs each have a distinct feel tothem, and they cover a pretty fair amount of musical territory: from gentleacoustic moments, to pounding, high-tempo riffs; and from wonky, KingCrimson-esque sax solos, to soft, gloomy piano-led moments. This is definitely on the same level as hislast release and one of this year’s highlights for me.
Rating: 9/10
2014
Here’s a TL;DR top 10 for the lazy:
- That 1 Guy – Poseidon’s Deep Water Adventure Friends
- Mare Cognitum – Phobos Monolith
- Kayo Dot – Coffins on Io
- Panopticon – Roads to the North
- Seven Impale – City of the Sun
- Neil Cicierega – Mouth Sounds
- Plank – Hivemind
- Syndone – Odysséas
- Schizoid Lloyd – The Last Note of God’s Magnum Opus
- Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden
Agalloch – The Serpent & The Sphere – Black Metal – 8
Agalloch seem to have dialed back some of their proggier and more experimental tendencies they’d shown on their last few releases. Only one song on Marrow of the Spirit came in at under 9 minutes, and Faustian Echoes consisted of just one 21-minute song. I’m not complaining, though; The Serpent & The Sphere is a solid album. A number of moments find the band leaning in a more atmospheric direction, and, as to be expected with Agalloch, folky passages crop up throughout as well. If you’re fan of atmospheric black metal, I’d definitely recommend it.
Antemasque – Antemasque – Rock – 7.5
This release from ex-The Mars Volta members is pretty decided un-Mars Volta-y. Omar Rodriquez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala draw heavily from their post-hardcore roots to pump out a high energy release that sticks to straightforward song structures centered around big riffs and catchy choruses. Omar’s guitar playing is notably less frenetic, and Cedric’s voice is rougher and throatier; even Cedric’s lyrics are noticeably less obscure. That said, as the album progresses, it can feel a touch stale, uninspired, or repetitious at times. Brevity works in their favor, though, as only one song tops four minutes, and the album as a whole clocks in at under 35 minutes, so the weaker points move by quickly. Overall, it’s an enjoyable album of high-energy, to-the-point rock.
Botanist – VI: Flora – Atmospheric Black Metal – 6
This band is an interesting concept. It’s a black metal group that uses heavily distorted hammered dulcimer instead of guitar, so it gives the music is distinct timbre that makes it stand out. However, it tends to get repetitious pretty quickly. There are some interesting riffs throughout the album, but nothing really stands out, and it all runs together as one big, fuzzy wall after a while. If you’re into this genre more than I am, you may like this, though.
Neil Cicierega – Mouth Silence – Mashup/Electronic – 3
This is the followup to (the far superior) Mouth Sounds. It’s the same basic concept, but it’s less impressively done and seems more focused on humor aspects. It feels muddled and unfocused at times, and I think I’ll just stick to its predecessor.
Modern Edit: My feelings toward this have improved dramatically. It’s a great record, and I guess I just wanted Mouth Sounds Pt 2 when I heard this for the first time.
Neil Cicierega – Mouth Sounds – Mashup/Electronic – 8.5
When I was initially shown this album, I was skeptical. I’ve never been too big on remixes/mashups. However, Neil Cicierega has managed to edit together some pretty massively different songs into enjoyable abominations that uses Smashmouth’s “All Star” as something of a motif, popping up at least partially in 8 of the album’s 17 tracks. The songs he makes are oddly creative, mostly catchy, and pretty fun. Despite being kitschy and gimmicky as all hell, I find it a genuinely fun, enjoyable record and probably my biggest surprise of the year.
Cynic – Kindly Bent to Free Us – Progressive Rock – 7.5
Don’t kid yourself; Cynic isn’t a metal band any more. They’ve got some antimony-like moments (Get it? Get it? Antimony is a metalloid, being somewhere between a metal and a nonmetal.), but the rooting is firmly in progressive rock. The band has continued on its increasingly-spacey trajectory, with plenty of airy interludes and mellow verses. There are still lots of big riffs, though; particularly in “The Lion’s Roar” (possibly the band’s most straightforward song ever) and “Infinite Shapes”. The vocals are processed in some manner, but I miss the old vocoder.
Dirigible Squared – 2014 Sampler – Progressive Rock – 7
This is this band’s first release as a quartet. They had previously released an album as a duo under the name Flight before changing it. I found them out in Kansas, and they are, in fact, based out of Baldwin City, KS, and they often play Lawrence. I prefer their full album; it’s one of the best prog albums to come out in recent years, but I’m not reviewing that today. This sampler contains two songs that show the two sides of this band. “Slow Sinking Ship” is probably their heaviest song overall, with the main riff being an odd, aggressive, unsteady one that gives a great chaotic feeling. However, this song has no need to be nearly seven minutes long. It could’ve been trimmed down a bit. The second song, “Geist” is on the gentler end of things. It’s a bit slow to get going, but the middle instrumental section is nice, and it ends strongly. Overall, this band shows a lot of promise, and I’m excited for future releases.
Dream the Electric Sleep – Heretics – Progressive Rock – 6.5
This band really tried to make this album sound epic, and they did a good job of it. However, when you’ve got a 73-minute album that sounds like it’s trying to be in near-perpetual-crescendo, it can get exhausting. I enjoy the album a lot overall, but the combined length of the album, as well as its attempted grandiosity make it a draining listen. The sound here tends to alternate between those huge-sound peaks replete with heavy guitars and layers of vocals and rather minimal troughs often consisting of little more than guitar and vocals. Aside from its tendency to tread dangerously close to crescendocore progressive rock, the album consists of some good music. It’s hardly vital, though.
Father Figure – Heavy Meddlers – Progressive Rock/Jazz Fusion – 8
I don’t have an awful lot to say about this album beyond the fact that it’s a solid, enjoyable piece of prog rock with significant jazz influence. All the songs are led by a crunchy lead guitar, and most maintain something of a frenetic pace.
Giant Squid – Minoans – Post Metal – 7
Giant Squid continue along in their little niche that they’ve carved out for themselves in the world of post metal/atmospheric doom. It’s an overall solid album, if a bit mellower than their last release: the spectacular Centoes EP. My biggest complaint on this album is that there isn’t all that much variance in the tempo. In the past they’ve always had a few energetic moments sprinkled into their releases, but this album sees them sticking to a pretty steady, slow pace throughout most of it. It obviously doesn’t detract from it too much, as it’s still a pretty solid overall album.
Hail Spirit Noir – Oi Magoi – Psychedelic Black Metal – 6
This is one of two bands that tied for my favorite release of 2012, so when I heard about their followup, I was understandably excited, especially once it started getting a ton of good press. However, they stripped out a lot of the elements I really loved about their debut. They toned down the chaos and how to-the-point all the music was, opting for spacier, more extended pieces with more obvious doom influences, while also minimizing many of their folk influences. This music isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s lacking a certain urgency or intensity. If you’re looking for some spacy, trippy stuff, I guess this wasn’t bad, but perhaps my expectations were merely misaligned.
Haken – Restoration (EP) – Progressive Metal – 6.5
This EP is the definition of a mixed bag. I was not a fan of the first two tracks. Both reminded me an awful lot of contemporary Dream Theater. Haken is normally good at dancing along the sounds-like-Dream-Theater-but-not-nearly-as-lackluster-as-they-are-currently line, but these two songs just sound like 14 minutes of uninspired cliches. The closing 19-minute suite really saves everything, though. It continued their trend from The Mountain of incorporating other elements into their music. This track sounds lively, with a section in the middle exhibiting some very blatant medieval-ish Gentle Giant influence, especially in the vocals.
Hoth – Oathbreaker – Death Metal – 7.5
This is another album I don’t have an awful lot to say about, though I certainly did enjoy it. It’s a consistently high-energy sampling of death metal with some blatant proggy touches throughout, though I wouldn’t necessarily classify the music itself as prog. My biggest complaint on the album comes early on, as two consecutive songs have extended acoustic sections, which just feels repetitious. (That, and the band’s bandcamp page treats the lyrics like some super secret story you need to read for yourself, while also somehow writing an entire massive goddamn paragraph about it.)
Introitus – Anima – Neo-Prog – 2.5
When I reviewed their last album, I noted they had a lot of music I liked, but they drifted off into poppy/ballady things more often than I liked. They then decided to take “normal” progressive rock song lengths (8+ minutes) and turn it into bullshit. This album is mostly bullshit with a few okay moments.
IQ – The Road of Bones – Neo-Prog – 6
IQ put out some very good stuff in the 80s, and their more recent stuff had gotten good reviews, but I hadn’t heard it. This album was getting near-universal praise all around, so I gave it a go. There is a lot of good music, but nothing spectacular by any means. I’ve got a whole litany of complaints. Among them: there is no reason for this album to be over 100 minutes long; the songs take an awfully long time to get going; a lot of this album sounds very sterile; a lot of the soloing comes off as exceedingly generic; and they took no sonic risks. Now, nestled within this 102-minute monster is some pretty good stuff, but there is a ton of unnecessary excess.
Kayo Dot – Coffins on Io – Progressive/Experimental Rock – 8.5
The best way I can describe this album is that it’s what I imagine it would sound like if Gary Numan released a prog album. Kayo Dot mostly avoid their avant-garde metal roots here, opting for dark, synth-heavy rock with obvious Gothic influences. The album has a persistent forward momentum, constantly moving forward, through both energetic, almost electronic-sounding riffs, and slower, heavier lurching.
The Last Glacier – Demo – Space Rock – 7.5/10
This is a 3-song demo from a Kansas City-based space rock band. The band employ a combination of heavy, crunchy riffs and strong melodic instincts. Two of the songs are studio tracks that represent their sound well, with the third being a live acoustic rendition of another song that shows the band has an impressive versatility.
Mare Cognitum – Phobos Monolith – Progressive/Atmospheric Black Metal – 9
This album is pretty much a non-stop sonic assault for the better part of 50 minutes, spanning four massive songs. The band does a great job of making the music here sound grand and epic but never stale or trite, as happens with so many bands on the more atmospheric end of things. The music is dense, but hardly inaccessible, and unlike so many other atmospheric black metal acts out there, he keeps things varied, shifting and interesting, avoiding stagnation and repetition very effectively.
Opeth – Pale Communion – Progressive Rock – 7.5
Much like I said with Cynic above, Opeth are no longer a metal band; Heritage was not simply an exception.
Unlike Heritage, which was an uneven, inconsistent album that often seemed to meander and lose focus, this release feels much more focused overall and does a much better job at keeping the listener’s attention.It’s a solid prog album that is overall heavier thanHeritage, though far from metal. The keyboards are used to make the music sound much bigger and more grandiose, and Åkerfeldt’s vocals are often layered to great effect. Jazz and Italian prog influences crop up here and there, as well as some more folk-inspired passages. There are a few mellow moments on this album, and those tend to be this album’s weakest spots.
Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden – Doom Metal – 8
Doom is a genre that I can enjoy, but it’s rare for me to enjoy a whole album of it. I find it often tends to get old pretty quickly. Pallbearer appear to be an exception to this generality. They manage to craft songs of surprising complexity that show more went into the writing than marijuana and blues riffs. Spacey, almost-psychedelic elements appear throughout the album, and vocal harmonies are utilized excellently to create a creepy (perhaps even doomy, appropriately) atmosphere. As with any doom act, the songs can feel long at times, but it’s an overall very enjoyable album.
Panopticon – Roads to the North – Black Metal – 9
Blending folk music and (black) metal is nothing new. However, the bands best-known for this tend to be non-American, often from somewhere in Europe. Panopticon is a Kentucky-based band and uses that region’s folk music–bluegrass–to create a fascinating, engrossing album. Bluegrass instruments, such as banjos, fiddles, and tinwhistles frequently pop up, and the 6-minute first part of a 23-minute, 3-part piece is only bluegrass. The metal here is often chaotic and frenetic, as if trying to sonically assault the listener. However, despite the swirling overall chaos, there is always a sense of melody throughout the music, often inspired by those folk roots.
Pink Floyd – The Endless River – Space Rock – 6
When I heard Pink Floyd were releasing an album of ambient-ish Division Bell outtakes, I viewed it like the third Hobbit movie (which, as of writing, I haven’t seen): it’ll probably suck, but I’ve invested this much time in it; may as well give it a go. My first thought upon hearing the album, though, was, “This is surprisingly not-shitty.” That’s not to say it’s great, but it’s hardly the trainwreck I expected, with a fair amount of actually-enjoyable music. (Boy, the praise train doesn’t stop on this one, huh?) The band appeared to be trying to get back to their spacier roots of things like “Echoes”, “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”, and even “A Saucerful of Secrets”. I wouldn’t say they succeeded necessarily, but they put out some alright music. Unfortunately, though, there is a somewhat generous helping of Gilmour-era cheesiness in some of the soloing.
Modern Edit: As I covered in my Pink Floyd Deep Dive, my mood has soured on this quite a bit.
Plank – Hivemind – Space Rock/Math Rock – 8.5
This insect-themed instrumental album is a pretty interesting listen. It combines spacey guitar lines alternated with big, crunchy riffs, and synthesizers that cut to the lead to create an enjoyable, dynamic piece. The band obviously draws a lot of inspiration from early-to-mid 70s Pink Floyd, particularly on tracks like “Swarm Behaviour”.
Purson – In The Meantime (EP) – Psychedelic Rock – 9
This band makes no efforts to hide their influences. The cover of this EP finds them in late-60s-looking Sgt Pepper-type getups. While perhaps not quite so poppy as Sgt Pepper, this band very obviously draws its influences from late-60s psychedelia. They remind me a lot of Blood Ceremony, as they are also a heavy psychedelic band fronted by a female vocalist that also incorporates folk motifs into their music. However, where Blood Ceremony draws a lot of inspiration from traditional doom bands like Black Sabbath or Pentagram, Purson seem to have more Uriah Heep and Iron Butterfly influences.
Saor – Aura – Black/Folk Metal – 8
If I sound unenthusiastic or like I’m repeating myself a bit in this review, remember how far down the alphabet I am. I am writing these reviews in alphabetical order, after all. This is another black metal album composed of mostly-10+ minute-long songs, with an atmosphere of grandiosity. Read my Mare Cognitum review and mention something about folk somewhere in there, and you’ll get a good impression of my opinions on this album.
Schizoid Lloyd – The Last Note In God’s Magnum Opus – Progressive/Avant-Garde Metal – 8.5
These guys obviously like the band Queen and Between the Buried and Me a lot. I’d say a mashup of those two bands is a good way to describe this band. It’s a fast-paced album that’s all over the place, but in the best way possible. It combines epic, multi-layered vocals with complex metal played at breakneck speeds. Other influences frequently crop up, ranging from jazz to classical to pop. This is one of this year’s most unique records, and this band certainly lives up to its name.
Ty Segall – Manipulator – Psychedelic Rock – 5
After last year’s spectacular debut from his band Fuzz, it’s sad to see Mr Segall put out something so middling and unimpressive. There’s not much original material on this album, and most of it simply suffers from weak songwriting. A few strong tracks on this album make it listenable, but taken as a whole it’s overlong and derivative. If he’d pared it down to a 20-30 minute EP/short album, this would’ve been much more enjoyable.
Seven Impale – City of the Sun – Progressive Rock – 9
Here’s another I-don’t-have-much-to-say-but-go-listen-to-it review. This band draws a lot of inspiration from Van der Graaf Generator, which I’m quite happy about. Jazziness mixes with heaviness and saxophone to create what is, in my book at least, the best traditional progressive rock album of the year.
Sólstafir – Ótta – Post Rock/Post Metal – 7.5
Sólstafir really toned it down a lot from their previous album, Svartir Sandar. There’s a lot more mellower, atmospheric stuff on here that would seem more at home on an album from fellow Icelanders Sigur Rós. Overall it’s a solid album that does a great job of blending spacey post rock with heavier bits, though stuff I’d consider metal is pretty sparse here. My only complaint is that some of those spacier passages have a bit of a tendency to meander.
Spectral Lore – III – Black Metal – 7
Man, I listened to more black metal than I thought I did this year. This Greek band released some excellent music on this album. But you know what? There’s absolutely no goddamn reason for it to go on for 87 minutes. The fact I’m rating it as high as 7 ought to tell you how strong the music is, as there are few things I hate more in music than long albums that feel unnecessarily long. Cut this down to 50 minutes, and it’d probably be at least an 8.5.
Syndone – Odysséas – Italian Progressive Rock/Jazz – 8
Italian prog has had a nice little revival over the last few years. The classic stuff from the 70s is some of my favorite music, so it’s nice hear stuff in this vein again. Italian prog bands were never shy about including jazz influences in their music, and this band’s jazziness is really front-and-center on this album, with the vibraphone taking a very prominent role. Many hallmarks of the classic Italian prog sound are present, including he aforementioned heavy jazz influence, as well as a plethora of keyboard instruments and dramatic vocals. The band also deftly avoids sounding like a derivative cliche, like so many other modern prog acts.
That 1 Guy – Poseidon’s Deep Water Adventure Friends – Experimental Rock – 10
I mentioned the lead single off this album in last year’s blurb-fest, and I will say this album does not disappoint in the least. It’s his most musically mature effort yet, as well as his least-blatantly-silly lyrical one. There’s an underwater theme (who would’ve guessed with that title and artwork and song titles?), and the music reflects this excellently. The songs have a heavy, submarine atmosphere full of synth pads and the many tones of his Magic Pipe. His bow gets used a lot on this album, creating some great, dramatic tones. Folk and electronic influences creep in throughout, and there’s a nice balance of slow, mellow pieces, and more energetic ones.
Modern Edit: I still like this record a lot, but I don’t think I’d rate quite this high anymore.
Devin Townsend – Z² (Disc One) – Metal – 3
I don’t even know why this was included as part of Z². Z² was supposed to be a sequel to the fantastic Ziltoid the Omniscient, but all we get here is pop done with distorted guitars. Devin’s proven he can do heavy pop well, but this is not one of those times.
Devin Townsend – Z² (Disc Two) – Metal – 7
Certainly better than disc one, and solid overall. but it doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor. It tells the story of Ziltoid in a much more blatantly obvious manner, employing a narrator (not that the story on the original was hard to follow or anything). The story is a bit more blatantly goofy in its subject matter, and the music doesn’t feel to quite be up to the same caliber. Don’t get me wrong, though, it’s a good album overall. Just don’t go in expecting a second Ziltoid the Omniscient.
VAK – Aedividea – Zeuhl – 7
VAK adhere to all the zeuhl mainstays, minus the constructed language. It’s spacey, dark, filled with electric piano. All that good stuff. Yet, perhaps because of that, the album begins wearing thin by the end. Zeuhl is an oddball genre with strange parameters, and these guys just stick to the most basic tenets. The music is good overall, but they don’t do much to distinguish themselves.
Jack White – Lazaretto – Garage Rock – 6
This another album that I felt fell a bit flat too often. I actually like the first half pretty well. There are some nice little bluesy numbers in here. The second half, though, is much more country-ish, and the songwriting sounds a bit more flat.
Yes – Heaven & Earth – Vaguely Proggy Bullshit – 1
Move over, Open Your Eyes, there’s a new worst Yes album in town! I was surprised at how okay their last album, 2011’s Fly From Here, was, so perhaps I was expecting more than I should have. Fly From Here was centered around a suite written by ex-Yes and Buggles members Trevor Horne and Geoff Downes, so that was probably a factor in it being good. I’d heard in interviews that Benoît David (the vocalist on their last album) didn’t really contribute to the songwriting, but their new vocalist was more active. And considering he came from Glass Hammer, maybe that should’ve been a red flag. Glass Hammer are one of the most shamelessly unoriginal bands out there, and that shines through on this album. This album is beyond bland. It makes milk seem spicy. This is beyond paint-by-numbers. This has less soul than a ginger. I cannot shit on this album hard enough.
Modern Edit: This record sucks, but Open Your Eyes is still worse.
2015
TL;DR Top-10
- The Grand Astoria – The Mighty Few – Progressive Rock/Metal
- Elder – Lore – Progressive Metal
- Lord Montague – The Cave – Progressive Rock
- Arenna – Given to Emptiness – Psychedelic Metal
- Wand – Golem – Noise Rock/Psychedelic Rock
- Serious Beak – Ankaa – Progressive Metal
- Equations – Hightower – Space Rock
- Pinkish Black – Bottom of the Morning – Doomy Something-or-Other
- Misþyrming – Söngvar elds og óreiðu – Black Metal
- Outre – Ghost Chants – Black Metal
Abominor – Opus: Decay – Black Metal: 6.5/10
This two-song EP out of Iceland brings some pretty typical atmospheric black metal. I enjoy it, but don’t come in expecting an awful lot of originality. If this is your sort of thing, enjoy!
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: 474)
Admiral of Narrow Seas – Paleness of Colour – Sludge Metal: 7/10
First things first: why is a band from Pittsburgh using the British spelling of “color”? Now, onto the review. These guys obviously love Mastodon’s pre-Hunter output. The songs are all groovy, proggy, sludgy pieces that lurch forward constantly. It’s a promising debut, as I especially hear hints of Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye’s shorter pieces. My biggest complaint (aside from the oddly-spelled title), is the fact that the first track ends with 20 seconds of silence.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Modern Pandemic)
Al-Namrood – Ana Al Tughian – Black Metal: 6.5/10
Al-Namrood are a black metal band from Saudi Arabia, and the fact that they’re from Saudi Arabia is really the only reason I ran across them. They, like other Middle Eastern metal acts in my library (Egypt’s Odious, Tunisia’s Myrath, Algeria’s Acyl, Iran’s Farzad Golpayegani, Israel’s Orphaned Land), are not shy about throwing in local folk flavors. It’s the sort of music that, in small doses, is an enjoyable novelty, but unless expertly done, can become stale across a whole album. That’s why I like this two-track, 11-minute EP. It’s a nice little taste of some pretty good black metal with some strong melodicism.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Zamjara Alat)
Anekdoten – Until All the Ghosts Are Gone – Progressive Rock: 7.5/10
This album’s not as heavy as some of their previous work that I’m familiar with, but this is a very strong release. One of the many things this was tagged as on Bandcamp was “mellotron”. And if any band nowadays can be described as “mellotron”, it’s these guys. Mellotron strings, brass and flute loom large over big riffs. Jazzy influences crop up frequently, and the vocals are quite nice. Their sound may not be the most innovative (as is common in most genres, but prog’s been especially stuck in a rut since about 1974), but it’s done in such a way that it doesn’t feel instantly stale. (I’m looking at you, Beardfish.)
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Shooting Star)
Arenna – Given to Emptiness – Psychedelic Metal: 9/10
This is an album of fuzzy, heavy psychedelia. The heavy psych field seems to be pretty overrun these days, but this Basque band have managed to put out something that I feel stands out. Unlike many similar acts, they don’t wallow in bluesiness, and while the reverb is omnipresent, it doesn’t feel overdone. A review I read of this album described the riffs as “impressionistic”, and that’s a stellar description of the sound. The riffs feel like they have forward momentum, and they’re usually resolved in strong choruses and climaxes. The band take their time without making things feel dragged out. The album sounds huge at times, but it’s balanced out by quieter moments, so as to avoid a tiring onslaught.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Butes)
Baroness – Purple – Progressive Metal – 8.5/10
Baroness have wholeheartedly embraced their more metallic roots on this album, after its relatively mellow predecessor, Yellow & Green. The overall sound hearkens back to Red Album and Blue Record: sludgy with some proggy leanings. This album is heavy and to-the-point while also bringing enough accessibility to the table t be immediately enjoyable but not needlessly poppy. However, because this was released so recently, I’m not including it in my TL;DR Top 10, in case it doesn’t hold up (like Steven Wilson’s release this year). All signs point to it being able to, though.
Bâton Rouge – totem – Garage Rock: 7/10
I’ve been told this is emo-y, but seeing as I don’t even know what that genre sounds like, I’m sticking with my classification of the broad umbrella of garage rock. The music here fuzzy with a nice little edge to it. The vocals are subdued but not underwhelming. And the songs are punchy with some good catchiness to them.
Bandcamp (Suggest Track: Le Fixeur)
Beardfish – +4626-COMFORTZONE – Progressive Rock: 5.5/10 (Disc 1); 7/10 (Disc 2)
Well, Beardfish win the title for Most Cumbersome Album Name of 2015. After 2013’s The Void, I was hoping Beardfish would continue in the direction of prog metal, as they proved themselves to be pretty damn good at it. But, alas, this album is more akin to Destined Solitaire or the weaker moments on Mammoth. Disc 1 is a lot of “safe” progressive rock that doesn’t innovate in any real way. There are a number of good moments, strong crescendos, and all that, but nothing really stands out. (Well, aside from the hilariously out-of-place-sounding use of the word “butthole” as an insult in one song.) Disc 2 is more interesting, consisting of outtakes recorded over the previous decade, ranging from other “safe” prog pieces, to ELP-ish instrumentals, to a fucking off-the-rails eleven-and-a-half-minute Christmas song.
Suck it, Weird Al. You no longer have the most insane Christmas song.
Between the Buried and Me – Coma Ecliptic – Progressive Metal: 7.5/10
BTBAM seem to be moving in a sort of Opethish career trajectory on this release. It’s still undoubtedly a metal album, but they’re really amping up their overt progginess. There are a few forays into more traditional prog-rock areas, and they’re not some of the band’s best moments. These are mercifully short, and the album continues BTBAM on a not-too-surprising trajectory. This album was a grower for me. I was a little slow to embrace it, but it’s a very enjoyable album on the whole
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Turn on the Darkness)
Blastar – Blastar – Progressive Rock: 8/10
This band’s debut album gave a lot of great, sorta Gong-y vibes. There’s a spacey feel to the album (three of the four tracks mention something sci-fi-ish in the title), with bluesy psychedelic jams, and a generous smattering of synthesizers. These guys aren’t blazing any new paths, but they have a fairly refreshing sound that’s quite enjoyable.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Terran Worm)
The Boy, The Bird, & The Beast – The Boy, The Bird, & The Beast – Progressive Rock – 7.5/10
This may very well be the most mixed bag of the year, and I have very conflicted feelings over it. On the one hand, five of the seven songs are awesome, with two the songs (tracks 3 and 4) being two of the best songs released all year. However, the other two songs really, really suck. This is an album about the Apocalypse that seems to be from a pretty pro-Jesus standpoint. Two of the tracks have that awful, generic, praise-y Christian rock sound, which Hank Hill described as not improving Christianity, but only making rock worse. I guess you’ve gotta take the bad with the good, but the good here is really good.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: I, the Lonely Island (Year 4))
Cave of Swimmers – Reflection – Progressive Metal: 7/10
Cave of Swimmers are a duo out of Florida producing progressive metal with some pretty interesting sound combinations. The riffs often feel strange and off-kilter, the playing is top-notch, and the songs are, to be expected, pretty long. Latin influences often crop up, with bongo-backed solos and use of jazzier-sounding scales. They also seem to like a lot of classic ‘80s heavy metal. The vocals are dramatic, bordering on operatic, and the occasional major-key synthesizer swell under a guitar solo is reminiscent of quite a few prototypically-80s acts. This is an interesting album, if a touch unfocused at points. Definitely a good listen overall.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: The Prince of the Power of the Air)
Deep Space Destructors – Spring Break from Space EP – Space Rock: 7/10
This EP is a pair of songs which treads pretty typical ground for space rock. The opener is a high-energy piece with swirling guitars and some very nice textures. I get some quite Hawkwindish vibes from this. The second is a bit more plodding, maintaining a constant pulse that focuses on atmosphere and drawing on krautrock influences. Overall, this is a nice 20-minute collection of space rock. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking, though.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Journey to the Space Mountain)
Dreadnaught – Gettin’ Tight with Dreadnaught – Progressive Rock/Americana: 8/10
I wasn’t aware Dreadnaught were still making music. This EP perfectly encapsulates everything I love about this band. The riffs are complex and fast, with an odd sort of grooviness to them, and hints of country/Americana crop up throughout; hints of jazz sneak in, among surprisingly catchy vocal melodies. Overall a strong outing and a good potential introduction to someone unfamiliar with this band.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Barefoot Kicker)
Elder – Lore – Progressive/Stoner Metal: 9.5/10
Elder have managed the extremely rare feat of pumping out a pretty long album that doesn’t feel overlong to me. (Griping about things being overlong is a pretty common sounding point for me.) The music is complex, heavy, and engaging. If you like Baroness’s more progressive stuff, this album should be right up your alley. Elder blend stoner metal and hard rock with mildly proggy and psych-ish influences masterfully.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Lore)
Enslaved – In Times – Progressive Metal: 5/10
Admittedly, their last album, 2012’s RIITIIR, took a few listens for me to get into. So when my first two listens of this left me somewhat underwhelmed, I shrugged it off. But no matter how many times I listen to In Times, it just falls flat. It’s like Enslaved took everything that makes Enslaved Enslaved, boiled it down to an 8-minute formula, and then flatly regurgitated it six times. It feels overall uninspired to me, and it could just never fully grab my interest.
Suggested Track: One Thousand Years of Rain
Equations – Hightower – Space Rock – 8.5/10
This is an album I loved from the get-go. It’s beautifully spacey and proggy. Synthesizers provide a lush backdrop to some Sigur Ros-inspired vocals, with echoey guitars frequently cutting through. The album continually lurches forward, with one song running into the next. This band reminds me a lot of Ozric Tentacles (though with vocals).
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: SSSUUUNNN)
Esvedra – El Circo de los Fenómenos – Blues Rock: 6/10
I really don’t feel there’s much to say about this album. It’s blues-rock, and I can think of no other way to describe it. Nothing in particular grabbed me about this piece, but if you like the blues you may enjoy this.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: El Circo de los Fenómenos (I-X))
Föllakzoid – III – Krautrock: 5.5/10
Despite being labeled as krautrock, these guys are from Chile. If they were Argentine, I’d make a Nazi-on-the-run joke, but alas. These guys are in the vein of Tangerine Dream. The pieces are long and very electronic, consisting of pulsing synths on repetitive loops while maintaining an experimental edge. Music like this has its place in my library, but this simply isn’t the sort of thing I would necessarily listen to a lot. If you like this sort of spacey chill-out music though, check it out.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Feuerzeug)
Fuzz – II – Hard Rock: 8/10
Fuzz’s self-titled debut from two years ago was one of my favorite releases from that year. This doesn’t quite measure up to that lofty accomplishment, but it’s still a solid release. The band draw in a wider array of influences. The sound is more psychedelic, more experimental, more ambitious, and less bluesy. Still a very heavy dose of Black Sabbath/Blue Cheer-worship.
The Grand Astoria – Kobaia Express – Progressive Rock: 8/10
This is one song off a split release. The band describes this as their sort-of tribute to Magma in kind-of Kobaïan. It’s strong, heavy, high-energy progressive rock in nonsense-talk, but it certainly isn’t zeuhl. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, as zeuhl is tough to do. It’s an engaging 11-minute piece that manages to make the kind-of Kobaïan work well in context.
The Grand Astoria – The Mighty Few – Progressive Rock/Metal: 10/10
This album really sees the band cover every base they possibly can. The 28-minute opener sees them go from doom metal to progressive rock to jazz-fusion to some a cappella wordless vocals, with a few stops back at doom metal while they’re at it. And it’s doom metal with pretty operatic vocals, which was a bit jarring when I first heard it. A similarly dizzying array of genres are touched on in the other song on this album (itself clocking in at over 21 minutes). This band loves to throw the kitchen sink into their music, and for the most part, they pull it off exceedingly well.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Curse of the Ninth)
Modern Edit: I might bump this down a little. “Curse of the Ninth” is still amazing, but “The Siege” hasn’t quite held up for me.
The Jagged Frequency – The Jagged Frequency EP – Garage Rock: 8/10
What an Obama-tastic dodo. Do you like The White Stripes? Then this EP is for you! A strong collection of punchy, memorable garage rock pieces with strong hooks. Bluesy stoner influences crop up here and there, but it’s all in moderation, and they’re nicely contrasted by mellower psychedelic moments.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Like a Witch)
Kekal – Multilateral – Progressive Metal/Electronic: 5.5/10
This album is something of a mess. The metal bits are pretty good, with electronic bloops adding interesting texture. However, Kekal prove once again that they suck at making listenable electronica. The instrumental pieces are confused, dissonant monstrosities, and the pieces with vocals are too gentle for my taste. Kekal should really just stick to metal.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Dividend in Division)
The Last Glacier – Monolith – Progressive Rock/Metal: 7/10
The Last Glacier are a band from Kansas City who play spacey, vaguely-metallic prog rock. I liked their demo a lot, and this EP is their first proper release. This release has a more overtly metal feel to it on two of the three proper songs. (Three of the six total songs are stupid little ambient filler tracks. I hate that on releases.) The music is solid, and if you like Porcupine Tree or Tool, you’d probably be pretty happy with this release.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Codename: Starchild)
Lord Montague – The Cave – Progressive Rock: 9/10
From the first time I listened to this album, it was a contender for my personal album of the year. The music is heavy and bluesy, with frequent progressive flourishes. This album, musically, reminds me a lot of Rush’s Caress of Steel. The guitar comes across huge, with the bass constantly aggressive. This is an ambitious album, with one of the four songs reaching 18 minutes, and another reaching 24. The album is mostly instrumental, though when there are vocals, they add excellently to the drama of the music. Their lyrics are pretty far from subtle, though, I will say. And audio clips from news and presidential speeches are used to implicitly support 9/11 truther-ism. However, conspiracy theories aside, this is an excellent album.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: The Cave Part One)
LordFish – LordFish – Progressive Rock: 7/10
I’ve got surprisingly little music out of Central America and the Caribbean, so it was interesting to find a band from Costa Rica. These guys have a flair for the dramatic, and they flaunt it immediately in the creepy spoken-word opener, which segues perfectly into a very spacey, Pink Floydian instrumental which gradually builds in intensity. The rest of the album feels less straightforward than this instrumental. I caught a lot of Mr. Bungle-ish moments throughout. The vocals are often dramatic and backed up with weird organ tones and heavy guitars. Overall, a very interesting, engaging album, though it’s not without its flaws.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Requiem)
Lumberjack – Land of Decay – Stoner Metal: 6/10
I mostly got this because I liked the first two songs I heard, and it was name your own price on Bandcamp, so I tossed them a couple bucks. Overall, pretty typical, pretty bluesy hard/stoner rock. Really nothing stands out too strongly, but if you like this style, give it a go.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Golden Moose)
Mage Hand – Blow Up the Moon – Math Rock: 8.5/10
I’m not sure I’ve encountered a keyboard-bass-drums math rock band before, but these guys kill it. This EP clocks in at under 20 minutes, but they pack a ton of stuff in. The keyboards are distorted and fill the role normally occupied by guitars flawlessly. Flashes of ELP and Gentle Giant crop up on occasion, and the whole work is very engaging.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: So How Did YOU Break A Rib?)
Magma – Slag Tanz – Zeuhl: 8/10
Full disclosure, I’m not 100% on how this album title should be written. I’ve seen it like I have here, as well as Šlag Tanz, Šlaǧ Tanz, and Šlaǧ Tanƶ. I think the bigger deal is that this is a Magma release with no umlauts in the title. Weird. As distinct as Magma are, they have a definite “sound”, and they don’t stray far from that here. This EP still manages to be distinct. This is dark, even for a Magma release, and the music is aggressive and militaristic.
Modern Edit: Bandcamp
Makeunder – Great Headless Blank – Experimental R&B: 7/10
Easily the most unique release on this reviewapalooza. This album blends soul, R&B, orchestral music, electronica, and some other stuff for a very distinct product. Lots of great vocal arrangements can be found throughout this album, and the music is always inventive. Most songs have strong forward momentum, punctuated by mellower moments.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: What A Lovely Bandsaw!)
Misþyrming – Söngvar elds og óreiðu – Black Metal: 8/10
I tend to be pretty picky about my (non-progressive) black metal, and this stuff is spectacular. It’s heavy, driving music with some strong bass work. Misþyrming mix in atmospheric influences as well on a couple of songs, without it coming off as heavy-handed. Highly recommended.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Er haustið ber að garði)
Mondo Drag – Mondo Drag – Psychedelic Rock: 6.5/10
This review will be mostly kvetching, but I enjoy this album overall, so bear that in mind. This is a band that obviously really wishes it were 1974. The music combines psychedelic rock, hard rock, space rock, and even some mildly krautrockish elements here and there. But it does it in an unashamedly retro-sounding way. If this were an album from the mid-1970s, I’d have no real complaints. But this band seems stylistically stuck there. And it’s hard to pull that off without some mild griping from me. I’m also not a big fan of the production on this album, as it’s muddy, though that may have been what they were going for, for all I know.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Snakeskin)
Morti Viventear – Trip de boucles piquées – Instrumental Hip-Hop: 7/10
This album, according to the artist’s Bandcamp page, is made up of primarily obscure ‘70s prog samples. And kudos on the obscurity. I don’t outright recognize any samples, though a few riffs sound vaguely familiar. This is some solid, mellow music with a bit of a minor key edge to it. At many points it reminds of DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing, if not quite so ambitious. It’s an interesting piece of work with some solid music.
Mount Stealth – EP2 – Post Rock: 7/10
This is an interesting blend of post-rock and electronic influences out of Luxembourg. It reminds me a lot of a less frantic Battles, and if you’re into the mildly-mathy post-rock sorta stuff, you’ll probably like this.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Tropicalia)
The Nerve Institute – Fictions – Experimental Rock: 8/10
This album is a perfect mixture of progressive rock, jazzy influences, dashes of folk, and some general strangeness. It’s an immediately-engaging piece with a lot of great moments and strong atmosphere. A number of militaristic marching themes crop up throughout, for an interesting product.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: City of Narrows)
Octopie – The Adventure of Harry and Walrus Kane – Progressive Rock: 7/10
This is a really solid release. The band is a pretty traditional prog outfit, but they manage to do it without seeming derivative. The music is energetic and original and constantly changing. The musicianship is excellent, and it’s an overall fun, enjoyable album.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: I Am the Walrus)
Outre – Ghost Chants – Black Metal – 8/10
Some spectacular black metal out of Poland. The music is driving, heavy, and dark, with some spectacular vocals which mix it up between clean an unclean. It’s not atmospheric black metal, but it draws influence from that, much as it has progressive leanings, but I wouldn’t call this prog-black. Overall, a strong, inventive album.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Chant 4 – Lament)
Öxxö Xööx – Nämïdäë – Progressive/Avant-Garde Metal: 7.5/10
This is a French experimental music act, and every vowel in all the song titles has an umlaut over it. At least one weird French band is doing it right, Magma. This album is an interesting blend of post-metal, doom metal, Gothic metal, and black metal. They lay down the synths heavily and have a pretty liberal dose of harpsichord. It’s a long album, with only one song coming in under 7 minutes. It can be something of a challenging listen, but if you’re a fan of things like Arcturus, you’d probably like this.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Därkäë)
Paladin – Solar Nexus – Space Rock: 9.5/10
This is an awesome little EP. It’s one 16-minute song based around a throbbing, swirling electronic base. The song is effectively one massive synth solo, but it does not drag at any point. The song continually builds momentum and tension before paying off with one hell of an ending.
Panopticon – Autumn Eternal – Black Metal: 6/10
I’m probably not going to win any friends by saying I was unimpressed with this album, but (relatively speaking) I was. This album felt like Panopticon went for a “safer” sound, as opposed to the experimental nature of his previous release. The songs are much closer together in their sound. The reduction of the folk/bluegrass influences were something of disappointment as well. Some flashes of the proggy, experimental brilliance I loved on his last album crop up here and there, but only for short bursts. Perhaps I went in with miscalibrated expectations, but this release did not impress me.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Pale Ghosts)
Path of Might – Path of Might – Stoner Metal: 7.5/10
This album oozes energy and aggression. It’s an angry, messy-sounding wall of fuzz which may be comparable to driving a bulldozer through your speakers. The band also mixes in complex structure, proggy riffs and chord progressions, and spacey atmosphere. These guys are like a rougher-around-the-edges Leviathan-era Mastodon.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Into the Fold)
Pinkish Black – Bottom of the Morning – Doomy Something-or-other: 8.5/10
I’m not entirely sure how to classify this band. They’re heavy, doomy, and quite fuzzy, but I think it may all be done through keyboards. Synthesizers loom large, lending an often-eerie edge. It ranges from mellow, spacey moments that wouldn’t have felt out of place on an Eloy album, to material which is slow and heavy enough to almost be Earth with synthesizer. A strong Mike Patton vibe runs through all this too.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Brown Rainbow)
Quiet Child – If Only You Had Seen Me – Progressive Rock: 7/10
Do you like Porcupine Tree? Then congrats, you’ll like this. This Australian band frequently alternates between gentle, ethereal parts and some rather heavy metal. It’s perhaps not the most original release of the year, and it can be a bit overwrought at moments, but it’s a strong collection of progressive rock.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Und Gott Lachte)
Raāg – RGAMRSP01 – Psychedelic Rock: 7/10
Sorry, Beardfish, your title of most-cumbersome album title has been usurped. This three-track EP from psychedelic/zeuhl/new age/world/folk outfit Raāg is a nice little collection. The tracks contain obvious 60s psych-pop influences, and both English and the band’s constructed language are used. (What’s a zeuhl band without its own tongue?)
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: KLP (Kiss, Love, Peace))
Riverside – Love, Fear and the Time Machine – Progressive Rock: 3/10
Firstly, fuck you, Riverside. I like the Oxford comma, and your stupid album title made me have to not-use it. Secondly, fuck you, Riverside, for putting out such a boring, bullshit album. While not quite as bad as Yes’s last album, this release is largely boring and soulless tripe. A couple songs are listenable, but when that’s the highest praise I can offer, that’s not a good thing.
Modern Edit: Bandcamp
Serious Beak – Ankaa – Progressive/Technical Death Metal: 9/10
This is an Australian instrumental band whose debut interested me. I could tell they had potential, but it needed polishing. And polished, they have. This is a brief album (four songs, approximately 32 minutes) that somehow adds a psychedelic touch to prog/tech death. Djenty influences are pervasive without being overpowering.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track : Proto (Menura novaehollandiae))
Sospetto – Quattro Specchi Opachi – Progressive Rock: 8/10
The band released this as four separate but related EPs, but there’s enough of a thematic thread that I feel comfortable lumping them all into one big album. Each EP is meant to be the soundtrack for a (non-existent) film, each from a different country. The music in each EP gives a great sense of reflecting the intended country of cinematic origin. The German EP is atmospheric krautrock that draws from bands like Popul Vuh and (early) Tangerine Dream. The French EP feels gentle and romantic (though it is the weakest point on the album). The Italian EP could have been drawn from Goblin’s classic soundtracks. The American EP doesn’t have such a distinct character, though that may be the effect of Anglo-prog being progressive rock’s “default”.
- Intrappolati nel harem di Satana (Suggested Track: Condanna a morte)
- L’exposition de Geneviève (Suggested Track: Essoufflement)
- Schwartzes Licht (Suggested Track: Schwarzes Licht Teil 4)
- Devil’s Cops in Angel County (Suggested Track: Sabba)
Stonebringer – Those Winds – Post Metal: 5/10
Another album about which there’s not much to say. It’s pretty generic-sounding, and all the songs, with maybe one or two exceptions, feel two minutes too long. It’s not horrible or grating; it’s largely inoffensive. I’d give this album an emphatic “meh”.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Vrahnas)
Stoned Jesus – The Harvest – Stoner Metal: 8/10
The riffs on this album are tight, energetic, and fun. They’re catchy without being poppy and heavy without being in impenetrable wall of fuzz. They manage to strike a happy medium while also eschewing much outright-bluesiness (which is a plus in my book). The last track also features some strange experimentalism involving tape effects and distorted, processed percussion.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Wound)
Until Sunrise – Frozen Stars – Post-Rock: 4/10
Meh.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Driving Down the Golden Highway)
Ur Draugr – With Hunger Undying – Black Metal: 8.5/10
This was Ur Draugr’s second release of the year, and it far surpasses their (strong) first (reviewed next). This sees the band develop ideas from their EP into a very strong album. Fans of Panopticon and Agalloch should love this aggressive, ambitious, proggy black metal outfit with folky touches.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Fertile Crescent)
Ur Draugr – The Wretched Ascetic – Black Metal: 6/10
Ur Draugr open this EP with a calm but creepy little acoustic line which gradually transitions into some loud, abrasive black metal surprisingly smoothly. The two main songs on this release use the occasional acoustic interlude for sharp contrasts. This is nothing new in black metal, but these guys make it feel organic and not at all forced.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Unseen Golgotha)
Viet Cong – Viet Cong – Post-Punk: 7.5/10
This album evokes the bleakness of late 70s/early 80s post-punk that I love so much. Dissonance and atonality can work with that feeling quite well. This album isn’t without its flaws, but it’s a strong debut. The songs are overall quite well-structured, with some great moments. This band has a lot of promise.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Death)
Modern Edit: I’d rate this higher now.
Wand – Golem – Noise Rock: 9/10
From the very first time I heard this album, I loved it. It’s a brilliant mixture of doomy fuzz and heaviness, psychedelic chaos, and punky aggression. The whole album is held together with a tight, almost groovy rhythm section. High, ethereal vocals complement the heaviness of the music, and the songs all maintain a tight focus.
Modern Edit: Bandcamp
Wildlights – Wildlights – Hard Rock: 7/10
Wildlights sounds like a poppier lovechild of early The Sword and Baroness. Despite being something that I’d call a poppified form of sludge metal, there are no riffs that really stand out; the strength of this album is on its vocal hooks. It’s an enjoyable album with a lot of strong melodies, and everything is delivered in easily-digestable pieces. I like it, and there’s a lot to like; just don’t expect anything too groundbreaking.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Hellfire Forever)
Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase. – Progressive Rock: 6.5/10
For a man who damn near goes into apoplexy every time his music is called progressive rock (“the p-word,” as I’ve heard him call it in interviews), Steven Wilson certainly enjoys reveling in the clichés of the genre. His two previous albums featured typically-proggy grandiosity, replete with 10+-minute epics, extended solos, and jazz influences. On those albums, though, he managed to forge his own sound. Here, we see Mr. Wilson shamelessly dipping into the reservoir of prog greats of the past. In the first proper track alone (disregarding that two-minute intro track), we hear the most Steve Howe-ish riff since Yes’s 1977 album Going for the One and an organ solo that would have been right at home on Thick as a Brick or A Passion Play. This also happens to be the best song on the album, for my money. The album is often uninspired-sounding, particularly in regard to the vocals (admittedly rarely his strong point), and the guitar solos. The 13-minute “Ancestral” is the only point on the album where Steven Wilson sounds like Steven Wilson, as opposed to his attempt to sound like someone else. This album also contains three of the biggest pieces of crap he’s ever recorded. Despite all this parade-raining, I’d say this album is alright overall. I just got tired of it quickly, and you shouldn’t expect much originality. (But then again, what’s new in a lot of “mainstream” progressive rock?)
2016
TL;DR Top 10
- Vektor – Terminal Redux – Progressive Thrash Metal
- Hail Spirit Noir – Mayhem in Blue – Psychedelic Black Metal
- David Bowie – ★ – Experimental Rock
- Zeal and Ardor – Devil is Fine – Black Metal/Soul/Electronic
- Deadverse – Musth – Punk
- Aqueous – Best in Show – Progressive Rock
- uKanDanz – Awo – Jazz-Fusion
- Rudra – Enemy of Duality – Death Metal
- Perihelion Ship – A Rare Thunderstorm in Spring – Progressive Metal
- Vespero – Lique Mekwas – Space Rock/Progressive Rock
Amanar – Tumastin – Tishoumaren – 6.5
This is some Tuareg music out of Mali. As you would expect, Sahara-dwelling nomadic people make pretty desert-y music. The guitar work is reminiscent of the blues without being the blues. It’s light, relaxing music with some great vocal harmonies.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Dounia Tade)
Aqueous – Best in Show – Funky Progressive Rock – 9
I normally try to cut down on the number words in genre descriptions, but I’d be remiss to not mention the funkiness of this release. They’ve got spacey, jam band-y vibes underpinning more overtly spacey, proggy structures. They show a strong knack for melody and catchy hooks. Fans of RX Bandits would probably like these guys a lot. It’s high-energy, fun, engaging stuff.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Don’t Do It)
Bear Hands – You’ll Pay for This -Pop – 6.5
The music here is light and poppy, with generally-mellow vibes throughout. There are frequent interpolations with more upbeat, high-energy songs. This album is far from free of flaws, with certain melodies sounding somewhat forced and uncomfortable. Much of the album also does not have much repeat listen value; about half the album does not hold up too well over repeat listenings. But that which does is pretty good pop music.
David Bowie – ★ – Experimental Rock – 9.5
What can I say about Bowie’s swan song which hasn’t already been said? It’s a spectacular piece of music—his best album in decades by my measure. It’s Bowie being as weird as ever, incorporating mild electronic influences throughout and sprinkling in touches of jazz and other experimental what-have-yous. He couldn’t have ended on a better piece of music, and I must recommend it to everyone.
Boyfrndz – Impulse – Heavy Psych/Progressive Rock – 8
This album sounds like is The Mars Volta just generally toned everything down and then tried to play heavy psych. It’s a great album with layered music that is also accessible pretty quickly. Walls of guitars and keyboards mixed with falsetto vocals give this album a striking atmosphere.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Ghosted)
Brain Tentacles – Brain Tentacles – Jazz-Fusion – 8.5
These guys do jazz fusion with a black metal attitude. It’s a harsh, heavy, and aggressive sax-bass-drums trio. It draws heavily both from metal of various sorts and experimental jazz fusion in the vein of Frank Zappa. If you like Hot Rats but always wish it had a more kvlt edge, check these guys out.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Cosmic Warrior’s Girth Curse)
Bubu – Resplandor (EP) – Jazz-Fusion – 8.5
For one reason or another, Bubu have reformed 38 years after their sole previous release: the seminal Anabelas. They seem to be picking up in a similar place where they left off. It’s rich, relatively heavy jazz-fusion with Latin influences and generous amounts of flute, sax, and violin. It’s a short EP, but if you liked Anabelas, give this a go.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: (Se Ponga el) Cielo Negro)
Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial – Indie Rock – 7.5
I normally don’t pay much attention to indie rock releases, as the genre rarely does much for me. But I heard “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales” on the radio and was interested. This album is full of noisy, driving songs with an often-anthemic feel, though brevity is not this guy’s strength. Not everything on this album is a winner, and conciseness is not their strong suit, but the vast bulk of it is pretty good.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Vincent)
CB Murdoc – Here Be Dragons – Death Metal – 8
These guys are super, super technical without being djent, or event tech-death really. The songs are well structured and display an impressive level of songwriting and musicianship, with sudden time and tempo changes abounding. These sudden shifts lend an off-kilter feel to many songs, which works excellently.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Everything is Going to Be OK)
CHROMB! – 1000 – Progressive Rock – 8.5
This is an interesting French quartet consisting of keys, bass, sax, and drums. They draw extensively from the more avant-garde and experimental side of progressive rock (think Frank Zappa or Magma), with songs that tend to have long, slow builds and non-conventional song structures.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Le tombeau est vide)
Corima – Amaterasu – Zeuhl – 8
Corima really cooled their jets here after the frenetic attack of their previous album, Quetzalcoatl. Amaterasu consists of two suites: the 19-minute “Tsukuyomi” (misspelled on their Bandcamp as “Tsukutomi” and the 29-minute eponymous suite. The pieces on this album are mellower and more brooding. Dense keyboard arrangements dominate, and they draw equally in influence from the French and Japanese zeuhl scenes.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Amaterasu III)
Modern Edit: I’d rank this a bit higher, at least in relation to how other things are scored here.
Dead Vibrations – Reflections – Post-Punk/Shoegaze – 7.5
This is good. And if this had been released in the early ‘80s, I’d probably be raving about it. However, Dead Vibrations are not exactly blazing any new trails on this four-track EP. The songs are hazy and high-tempo with a sense of coldness and bleakness. Which is all good for this music. Just don’t expect anything too particularly original.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Closer Closer)
Deadverse – Musth – Punk – 9
It’s rare for me to find punk that I like, but I like this a lot. No song on this album tops 2:30 in length, so the music is all immediate. It’s highly melodic and catchy with lots of strong forward momentum. This album also has excellent repeated listening durability.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Recoil)
Bob Drake – Arx Pilosa – Avant-Garde/Progressive Rock – 8
This is a weird, but very interesting album. Bob Drake is Jon Anderson’s vocal doppelgänger with an impressive pedigree in avant-garde/experimental progressive rock. This album clocks in at 37 minutes across the span of 20 tracks with a dizzying array of influences: Frank Zappa, multiple eras of The Beatles, zeuhl, folk, hard rock, and other stuff I can’t even label well. With all the multitudinous influences present here, there are coherence issues. A long stretch of the middle of the album, while good, feels more like a pastiche of unrelated vignettes than a unified, coherent work.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Seven Fabulous Jackals)
Drakkar Nowhere – Drakkar Nowhere – Space Rock – 8
I get a lot of Steely Dan and Alan Parsons Project vibes from this band. They’re funky, jazzy, and spacy, with some songs having a certain sexiness to them. The music moves at a comfortable pace, making this a pretty mellow album filled with rich keyboard tones.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: How Could That Be Why?)
Dream Theater – The Astonishing – Terrible music masquerading as progressive metal – Numbers cannot properly express my distaste for this album
My past Dream Theater reviews have been pretty rough, but this is special. My review of Yes’s last album was pretty brutal, but this album is somehow worse, so buckle in:
I won’t mince words. This album is total shit. Even within the context of DT’s recent releases, this is shit. This is like the result of Jay’s threats from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back of making studio execs eat their shit, shit out that shit, and eat that shit again. Now, if DT shat out that shit and repeated the cycle a few times, that’s how you get this album.
The music varies between saccharine strings with over-dramatic piano in pitiful attempts at gentle, pretty ballads and weak-kneed attempts at chugging heavy metal, occasionally interrupted by John Petrucci’s and Jordan Rudess’s never-ending musical masturbation. James Labrie’s vocals are atrocious, and the music is uninspiring, to put it kindly. The piano ballads make up a massive portion of this album.
This is all without touching on the story. Holy fuck, the story! John Petrucci said this ponderous, poorly-plotted rock opera was inspired by Game of Thrones. I suppose I could see that, if you don’t understand how in the fuck feudal/monarchial politics work. Or if you don’t know how to write characters with more than one dimension. Or if you don’t put any thought into the background of the story. Or if you just suck, in general.
This story is similar to the story in 2112, insofar as it’s about a society where there is no music. But 2112 had an explanation: there was a big war, and the new rulers suppressed anything creative. No background is given on The Astonishing. People just don’t do music anymore. No real reason. The main character’s name is Gabriel (as in the angel), the villainous villain bad guy king-or-whatever-I’m-John-Petrucci-and-I-can’t-be-bothered-to-understand-politics-so-fuck-you is Lord Nefaryus, and the villainous villain’s daughter/main character’s love interest is called Faythe (retch). And at some point, the power of music is used to bring someone back from the dead.
DT fanboys who can admit no wrongdoing on the part of this sad shadow of a once-great band have really pulled some mental gymnastics to justify this 130-minute trainwreck. “Dream Theater aren’t just doing an album any more. You have to think of this as a soundtrack,” many say online. Well, I fucking hate musicals, and this isn’t even a well-written one. It is schlocky, uninteresting, and complete, unmitigated garbage.
I normally keep my reviews to a few sentences, but this was so amazingly terrible, I had to go on.
I cannot recommend anything from this in good conscience. Instead, enjoy some good Dream Theater.
Druid – Odysseus – Stoner Metal – 5
The title track on this is great. Psychedelic, proggy at moments, drifting from flanged arpeggios to distorted-as-hell heaviness all spread out over 19 minutes. One of the best individual songs I’ve heard all year. The rest, though? Generic stoner metal. Pretty “meh” in my book.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Odysseus)
Elektro Hafiz – Elektro Hafiz – Psychedelic Rock – 7.5
Elektro Hafiz follows in the footsteps of such Anatolian psych masters as Erkin Koray, 3 Hür-El, and Barış Manço in expertly blending Western psychedelia with traditional Turkish folk flavors. This album factors in the decades of evolution in the realm of psychedelia, with numerous electronic-ish leanings and touches throughout. This is a mellow, relaxing album of interesting melodies and textures.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Belki Son Kez)
Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum – Prajecyrujučy Sinhuliarnaje Wypramieńwańnie Daktryny Absaliutnaha J Usiopahłynaĺnaha Zła Skroź Šaścihrannuju Pryzmu Sîn-Ahhī-Erība Na Hipierpawierchniu Zadyjakaĺnaha Kaŭčęha Zasnawaĺnikaŭ Kosmatęchničnaha Ordęna Palieakantakta, Najstaražytnyja Ipastasi Dawosiewych Cywilizacyj Prywodziać U Ruch Ręzanansny Transfarmatar Časowapadobnaj Biaskoncaści Budučyni U Ćwiardyniach Absierwatoryi Nwn-Hu-Kek-Amon, Uwasabliajučy Ŭ Ęfirnuju Matęryju Prach Ałulima Na Zachad Ad Ękzapłaniety PSRB 1620-26b – Technical Death Metal – 7
I’m normally not super-big on tech death, but when I saw the silliness of this Belarusian band’s name, I had to give them a go. It’s actually pretty enjoyable, considering the genre. The music is well-played and about as straightforward as a genre with the word “technical” in its name can be. The solos are surprisingly melodic, and they actually close with a pretty atmospheric piece.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Somnambuličnyja Tulliańni Karawanaŭ Ziłlijonnamiesiacowych Rozumazrokaŭ Žracoŭ Ïrminizmu, Jakija Pakidajuć Pojas Kojpiera, Skroź Hnozis Ękzistęncyjanaĺnaha Immažynaryuma Katakombaŭ Ra-Hoor-Khuit CVII Wymiaręńnia Uročyšča Skarpijonaŭ, Wykarmlienych Pracham Mierćwiakoŭ Cykličnych Turbuliencyj Chrama Sûtekh, Da Wytokaŭ Antropamahičnaj Dęmanałohii Zwierchkancęntracyi Ciemry Ŭ Pošukach Zichatliwaha Trapiecyjaędra)
Farmhouse Odyssey – Rise of the Waterfowl – Progressive Rock – 6.5
This is good, if relatively light and sunny, music, but for some reason I cannot remember anything distinct about it. I enjoy it and have listened to it a lot, but no individual songs stand out. The whole thing just sorta bleeds together for me. Give it a go, though. Maybe you’ll remember something more.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Shipwreck)
Gloria – Gloria In Excelsis Stereo – Garage Rock – 8
This album is an unabashed throwback to late-60s garage rock and girl groups, and I just fucking love it. It’s poppy and immediately accessible, but it’s got a lot of repeat-listen value. A lot of the album is very psychedelic. If you like Jefferson Airplane of The 13th Floor Elevators, you’ll absolutely love this.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Shelter)
Gorguts – Pleiades’ Dust – Progressive Metal – 7.5
Gorguts’ latest outing is one massive 33-minute song. It showcases the band’s signature aggressive dissonance and progressive song structures. A lot of the stuff here is somewhat mid-tempo, and a few spots could almost be called mellow. There is an extended period in the second half of the song of ambient walls of noise which doesn’t hold up all that well, but on the whole, this is a great release.
Gyps Fulvus – The Lich: Book 1 – Progressive/Gothic Rock/Metal – 8
This is one massive, album-long track which does some impressive genre-hopping: progressive rock and metal, gothic metal, black metal, power metal, and more. And if you disregard the cheesy-as-shit narration at the opening, it’s really pretty good. The guy knows how to do a fucking great guitar solo. (Seriously, listen to the last 4 minutes or so.)
Hail Spirit Noir – Mayhem in Blue – Psychedelic/Progressive Black Metal – 9.5
Hail Spirit Noir have successfully recaptured the chaotic, storming atmosphere of their debut, Pneuma, which I absolutely loved. They don’t spare the psych influences, with Mellotron and organ playing prominent roles and many vocal melodies having a haunting catchiness. But as opposed to the relatively mellow Oi Magoi, Mayhem in Blue is an aggressive monster full of charging riffs and drums that sound like they’re falling down the stairs. This album exemplifies a lot of the creative potential of black metal.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Mayhem in Blue)
Haken – Affinity – Progressive Metal – 5.5
This was typical Haken with an unnecessary dose of 1980s sterility and sappy balladry. They went for a retro-futuristic image/style which drew heavily from 1980s technology in their artwork and marketing. It’s decent, enjoyable prog-metal of the (classic) Dream Theater variety with some strong moments. But it failed to impress me overall, and there were numerous weak points. Haken fell into a similarly Dream Theater-ish pit of including an awful lot of ballads. I don’t like ballads to start with, but they get especially intolerable when they’re 8-9 minutes long. That being said, “The Architect” is one of the best songs Haken’s ever recorded.
Insects vs. Robots – Stupid Dreams (EP) – Folk Rock – 6
Stupid Dreams is an enjoyable little EP that sees Insects vs. Robots explore a poppier, more folk-influenced side of things, as opposed to their usual more jam band-y output. Two of the songs are straightforward, fun pieces I liked a lot. There’s a little jazzy instrumental interlude, and the final track on the EP shows their jammier tendencies.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Stupid Dream)
Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows – Progressive Metal – 8.5
When I saw these guys live, before the show, during the soundcheck, the vocalist for the opener joked, “Inter Arma? More like Outer Leg-a, am I right?” I felt I had to share that. This is a spectacular album full of cosmic, blackened sludge metal. The compositions are complex and varied, with sounds ranging from borderline-drone influence to sounds which would not be terribly out of place on a Pink Floyd album.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: The Paradise Gallows)
줄리아드림 – 불안의 세계 (Julia Dream – Anxiety World) – Space Rock – 7
This is a band that, if you get the chance, I recommend seeing live. This album isn’t quite as strong as their debut EP, but there’s still a lot of good music. And for a band which takes its name from a Pink Floyd deep cut, you’ll get the expected heavy-handed Floydiness. It’s a long listen, and like a few other album on this list, this album could’ve stood being 15 minutes shorter. It’s still pretty strong, especially if you like jammy space/psychedelic rock with heavy-handed Pink Floyd influence.
Khun Narin – II – Psychedelic Rock/Folk – 6
This is an interesting psychedelic band out of Thailand that play with an electrified version of a local instrument filling the role of guitar. It’s an instrumental offering that alternates between slow, nearly ballad-like pieces and higher-energy songs, all while maintaining its distinct Thai flavor. At times, I feel as if the music can drag or become slightly stagnant, but it’s an overall enjoyable piece of music.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Long Wat)
Kylver – The Island – Progressive Metal/Rock – 7.5
Kylver successfully manage to avoid a lot of my gripes about instrumental prog metal. The music never comes off as tedious, and it’s overall very dynamic. The songs move organically forward and paint distinct feelings, if not the awfully-specific story detailed on this album’s Bandcamp page. There’s nothing too groundbreaking here, but if you’re a fan of Haken or Scale the Summit, you’ll probably like this.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: The Great Storm of 1703)
Modern Edit: This album has grown on me significantly since.
Mare Cognitum – Luminiferous Aether – Black Metal – 8
More cosmic and spacier than his last album, Luminiferous Aether does not lack for intensity either. People familiar with Mare Cognitum’s overall sound will likely like this. It continues the project’s atmospheric, proggy sounds while continuing to refine it all.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Occultated Temporal Dimensions)
Moonsorrow – Jumalten Aika – Black/Folk Metal – 7
Pretty typical later-period Moonsorrow: epic black metal with some folkish overtones and big string/choir keys. Honestly, nothing really stood out to me on this release. It certainly isn’t bad, but it’s nothing which really grabs. Refer to my review of Farmhouse Odyssey above.
N.y.X – The News – Progressive Rock – 7.5
This is an interesting album. It reminds me a lot of late King Crimson, especially The Power to Believe. The percussion and bass both have somewhat electronic hints to them, and they’re topped with swirling, often-jazzy guitars and keys. If you like 1980s and onward King Crimson, definitely give this a listen.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Groundhog Day (Wakening, Dressing, Starting Up…))
Opeth – Sorceress – Progressive Rock – 6.5
This wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating. (Though after disappointments from Dream Theater and Haken, I was prepared for an unmitigated disaster.) The three singles put out ahead of the album are probably my three least favorite on the album. As usual, Opeth are not blazing any new ground in the progressive rock scene; they’re playing it pretty safe, often rehashing stuff that was done (better) 40 years ago. The best songs on this album are all on the heavier side of things. I respect Mikael Åkerfeldt for trying to mix it up, but mellow (and especially mellow and experimental) is not his wheelhouse.
Oranssi Pazuzu – Värähtelijä – Experimental Metal – 6
This album has some points which feel like a bit of a slog. Oranssi Pazuzu include a lot of interesting syntheses of psychedelic music with black metal, and this album sees them trying for something I can only imagine they were hoping would come off as menacing and atmospheric. In many places, though, it comes off as repetitious and grating. The album isn’t without its enjoyable parts, but I can’t exactly recommend it as a whole.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Havulu)
Perihelion Ship – A Rare Thunderstorm in Spring – Progressive Metal – 8.5
This the Opeth album everyone really wanted this year. It’s well-structured, well-balanced progressive death(ish) metal with heavy doses of Hammond organ and Mellotron. Seriously, this sounds like a classic Opeth album. And despite the overwhelming stylistic similarity to classic Opeth, the sheer complexity of their compositions means that this still manages to be a pretty creative album.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: A Rare Thunderstorm in Spring)
Promenade – Noi al dir di Noi – Italian Progressive Rock – 7.5
Jazzy, symphonic, and extremely Italian: This band recalls the gentler moments of Premiata Forneria Marconi, or Quella Vecchia Locanda’s second album. A lot of this album is pretty gentle and, for lack of a better term “fluffy”, though not in a derogatory sense. However, I do need to mention how awesome the opening track is. It’s a charging 10-minute instrumental that is everything good about Italian prog which closes with one of the best guitar solos I’ve heard in a long time.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Athletics)
Modern Edit: Aside from “Athletics”, this record has not held my interest long-term.
Pyraweed – Vol 3 – Stoner Metal – 5.5
Stoner metal from the land of the city of Ganja (in Azerbaijani, Gəncə; and this band is from Baku, anyway), this is overall pretty enjoyable. Slow, heavy, and lurching, and every track starts with fade-in feedback. Admittedly, it doesn’t do anything to differentiate itself from the massive, massive field of similar stoner metal bands, but it’s enjoyable.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Intro (Vert))
Jason Rubenstein – Four Named Narratives – Progressive Rock – 7.5
This is all keyboards, bass, and drums, with guitar only appearing on one bonus track. It’s instrumental and heavy, often powered by driving, bassy piano. If you like Tarkus-era ELP, this oughtta be right up your alley. It even includes a cover of ELP’s rendition of “The Barbarian”.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Three Ounces into a Two Ounce Whiskey)
Rudra – Enemy of Duality – Blackened Death Metal – 9
After Ṛta saw Rudra return to their mid-tempo, very Carnatic roots, Enemy of Duality sees the Singaporean stalwarts shifting back to the more aggressive, blackened style of the Brahmavidya trilogy. The classical Indian influences are still there, but they’re more muted. It’s more present in the scales and melodies than actual chanting or sitar breaks. The main exception to this is the album’s closer, the nearly-10-minute “Ancient Fourth” which ends with an extended instrumental period including flute and digeridoo. It gets cosmic, fast.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Ancient Fourth)
Sapientia – Circulata Mercurius – Death Metal – 8
Sapientia are a death metal band out of Sweden who display a lot of black metal influence and progressive tendencies in their song structures. The riffs are interesting and often-dissonant, and the solos are all very well-played. The 23-minute epic “Thesaurus Lucis” shows off all this band’s best qualities, and despite its length it never drags.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Thesaurus Lucis)
Modern Edit: I’d definitely knock this rating down a bit.
Spiral – Centaurus A – Ambient/Progressive Metal -5.5
No matter how good it may be, a monolithic, hour-long song is going to be an exhausting listen. This album is full of a lot of good ideas and has an excellent overall sound, but the ideas are dragged out for too long. Spacey synth lines play nicely with heavier guitar lines woven throughout, but the extended ambient section in the middle of the track is a bit exhausting.
Subrosa – For This We Fought the Battle of Ages – Experimental/Doom Metal – 8.5
Subrosa have really upped their experimental tendencies on this record. Their last album felt a bit transitional and inconsistent, but FTWFTBOA is much more consistent and focused. The sound alternates between crushing doom heaviness and more ambient/atmospheric passages. The band’s violins accentuate both atmospheres perfectly.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Despair Is a Siren)
Syndone – Eros & Thanatos – Italian Progressive Rock – 6
This band hearkens back to Italy’s 1970s golden age of jazzy progressive rock. They don’t have a full-time guitarist, so big organs and synths dominate the songs, in addition to the requisite dramatic vocals. There are a lot of good individual songs on this album, but it never really felt like it gelled as a cohesive album. It’s a good collection of songs though.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Terra che Brucia)
uKanDanz – Awo – Jazz-Fusion – 9
uKanDanz are an interesting Franco-Ethiopian jazz-fusion band. It’s heavy, with very prominent sax. The vocals are very distinctly east African. Musically this band reminds me a lot of a modern-day Mahavishnu Orchestra: complex, off-kilter riffs with heavy guitar and no need to shy away from their jazzy roots.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Ambassel to Brussel)
Ur Draugr – “The Vista Profunda” – Progressive Black Metal – 10
Ur Draugr, on this 19-minute track, continue to establish themselves as one of the best progressive black metal acts out there. It’s dense, dynamic, and ever-shifting. The composition is complex, and despite this track’s length, at no point does it drag on. I really cannot recommend this band enough.
Vaults of Zin – Kadath – Progressive Metal/Zeuhl – 6.5
This is a mostly-instrumental release, and it’s an interesting exploration of the heavier side of zeuhl. For as dark and menacing as the genre can get, it’s rare for it to actually get heavy. There are mixed results. VoZ belabor some musical points beyond the limit of interest, and some ideas just feel underdeveloped. This is a peculiar mix of heavy music with the bass-driven general weird jazziness of zeuhl. Check it out if you’re into this sort of thing.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Mons Atanua)
Vektor – Terminal Redux – Progressive Thrash Metal – 9.5
This is an absolutely incredible album. It’s dense, complex, and long. But even at 73 minutes, it never drags. Vektor fit a million ideas into this album, ranging from the gentle introduction on “Collapse” to more immediate moments like “Ultimate Artificer” to having a cosmic—dare I say, zeuhl (in the Kobaïan sense of the word, meaning “celestial music”)—choir in the opening and closing tracks. This album features a stunning mix of aggression and ambition, flawlessly blending thrash, prog, and black metal influences.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Charging the Void)
Modern Edit: I’d absolutely bump this up to a 10.
Vespero – Lique Mekwas – Space Rock/Progressive Rock – 8.5
The last Vespero album I reviewed back in 2012 left me unimpressed, but I absolutely love this release. It’s slightly krautrockish in its vaguely proto-electronic hypnotic nature. I often gripe about albums being over-long, but despite this being a 75-minute release, I love it. It avoids a frequent krautrock pitfall by sounding alive and ditching that common air of sterility. The musicianship is top-notch, incorporating unusual scales and jazzy influences.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: The Course of Abagaz)
Were-Jaguars – Were-Jaguars III – Doom Metal – 6.5
There’s a really good 40-50 minute album buried in this 77-minute one. It’s slow, plodding doom metal with some of the more progressive chord progressions you’ll hear in the genre, with chanting, ethereal vocals. But it’s just too long and too bogged down by underdeveloped or unspectacular material to be a great album.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Thoth and the Language of Light)
Steven Wilson – 4½ – Progressive Rock – 4.5
(I couldn’t pass up this score; and it’s not a joke, either.) What a disappointing album. This is a stopgap release between proper albums filled with a handful of outtakes and extras. Four of the six songs are outtakes from the Hand. Cannot. Erase. sessions, and three of them are limp, lifeless pieces that should have remained in the vaults. One is quite nice and reminds me of the lighter moments on Deadwing. Of the two remaining songs, one is a slowed-down, live, and wholly unnecessary rerecording of “Don’t Hate Me”, and the other is a pretty good instrumental which would have fit in well on In Absentia. Overall, I’d say skip it.
Woman is the Earth – Torch of Our Final Night – Black Metal – 7.5
Woman is the Earth is a South Dakotan band playing a very lush style of black metal. The influences of blackgaze and atmospheric black metal are plainly evident, but they avoid wallowing in the tropes of those styles which tend to bore me. The music is dynamic and creative with strong melodic sensibilities among the harshness.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Torch of Our Final Night)
Zeal & Ardor – Devil Is Fine – Black Metal/Soul/Electronic – 9
This is, hands-down, one of the most original, unique albums I’ve heard in a long time. It’s a seamless blend of spirituals, soul, and black metal, synthesized into some truly American folk metal. The usual religious nature of spirituals are inverted here, with the call-and-response vocals Satanic. There are three instrumental electronic interludes as well. A bit jarring at first, they actually fit in quite well.
Modern Edit: I absolutely over-rated this. I still like it, but it’s patchy.
2017
#56 – Intervals – The Way Forward – Progressive Metal
It’s like Liquid Tension Experiment, if Liquid Tension Experiment were painfully boring.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Touch and Go)
#55 – The Dear Hunter – All Is As All Should Be – Indie
This is a band I really don’t get the appeal of and never have, despite having had them recommended to me a million fucking times. “Oh you like progressive rock? You’ll love these guys!” Much like The Children of Nova (a different pseudo-prog band that had a lot of hype circa 2009 before petering out), I really do not get the appeal. It’s always sounded like overblown indie, maybe with flashes of enjoyability here and there. On this EP, though, they dropped the overblown-ness and turned into just another uninteresting indie act.
Bandcamp (Recommended track: Blame Paradise)
#54 – Roger Waters – Is This the Life We Really Want? – Rock
I’ve long maintained that there’s a good 10-13 song album in the 26 songs of The Wall. This album is what the other songs on The Wall sound like. Mid-tempo, mostly-acoustic dirges with Roger Waters’s hoarse shouting of horrifically unsubtle lyrics. There are also some flashes of the weaker sections of Animals tossed in for good measure. There are lots of Pink Floyd comparisons to draw on this album, but none of them are all that good.
Bandcamp (Suggested Track: Picture That)
#53 – Steven Wilson – To the Bone – Art Pop
Mr. Wilson said he was inspired by prog-pop acts such as Kate Bush for this album. After he put out four weak singles, my expectations were pretty low. And that’s taking into account that normally he releases weak singles. However, this wasn’t quite the flaming trainwreck I expected. There are three or four pretty good songs here. However, there’s also a lot Steven Wilson weakly trying his hand at prog-pop or other generally sappy bullshit.
Suggested track: Permanating
#52 – Toehider – “GOOD” – Rock
Toehider’s a band that’s put out a handful of EPs that I like, but their full-lengths always seem to disappoint. There’s a lot of heavy moments, with some poppy hooks and dramatic vocals, but the mixture of complex music with poppy hooks gets tiresome after about 15 minutes. I can absolutely see this having appeal, but it’s not for me.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: How Do Ghosts Work?)
#51 – Mastodon – Emperor of Sand – Progressive/Sludge Metal
Reading through various publications’ and individuals’ year-end lists, it seems like I’m the only person who dislikes this album. It’s like Mastodon couldn’t decide if they wanted to stick to their ever-popifying guns or record something proggier to please fans of their older stuff. So they punted and recorded a limp, soulless attempt at Blood Mountain Vol. 2 with a few super-poppy pieces for radio play. The good songs sound like rehashes of stuff Mastodon recorded better in 2005-2009, and the bad songs are just bad.
Suggested track: Sultan’s Curse
#50 – Woman Is the Earth – Thaw – Black Metal
This three-song EP is pretty enjoyable, but all the songs feel a touch overlong. It’s nice, harsh black metal with some excellent synth fills, but they could have trimmed a few minutes off this 19-minute collection to make it more concise.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Golden Fog)
#49 – King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Murder of the Universe – Garage Rock
This was KG&TLW’s second of four releases this year, and I can sum it up in three words: Too much narration. With three more words (or four, depending on how you count hyphenization): Otherwise-enjoyable garage rock.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The Lord of Lightning)
#48 – Amadou Binta Konté & Tidiane Thiam – Waande Kadde – West African Folk
This is some nice, mellow, relaxing music. Consisting of nothing but an acoustic guitar and a West African lute, this is some pleasant music to unwind to. It’s not particularly versatile music for me, but it serves its purpose and has some enjoyable moments.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Kayraba)
#47 – Chelsea Wolfe – Hiss Spun – Doom Metal/Gothic Rock
Chelsea Wolfe took her most metallic approach yet on this album, and those experiments paid off for her. However, too much of this album is filled with dull, midtempo gothic rock to really hold my attention. Yeah, there’s some creepy atmosphere and all, but it’s just pretty “meh” to my ears. A mixed bag overall.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: 16 Psyche)
#46 – Hulk Smash – Three Songs and Some Noise – Punk/Noise
This is a really odd collection of music, with a very literal link to the album name. The first three songs are catchy, poppy, punkish pieces with heavily-vocodered vocals. There then follows a 25-minute instrumental titled “Some Noise”. I’m not the biggest fan of it, but I appreciate the stupidity of that joke.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: SIN/COS)
#45 – Robby Grant & Jonathan Kirkcsey – Duets for Mellotron – Ambient
This album is exactly what is advertised: duets for Mellotron. These two men demonstrate the full versatility of an instrument normally associated with the comical pomposity of the likes of Rick Wakeman and synthesize it into a soothing collection of musical experiments. Flutes, strings, and choir are all on display, but so are acoustic guitar and the built-in percussion. The longer pieces can drag a bit at times, but beyond that this is rather interesting.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Enemies until Death)
#44 – Sólstafir – Berdreyminn – Post-Rock
Sólstafir have really slowed their music down a lot and embraced the post-rock of their fellow, more famous Icelanders, Sigur Ros. There are vestiges of their black metal/post-metal past, but it’s really just the occasional window-dressing riff. That’s not to say this bad—it isn’t—but this album doesn’t necessarily play to the band’s strengths. Some of the slower and keyboard-heavy bits are pretty forgettable, but most of the album is decent, rather heavy post-rock. And much like almost every post rock album I’ve ever heard, this album feels too damn long.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Silfur-Refur)
#43 – Mastodon – Cold Dark Place – Progressive Metal
This is Mastodon’s second mixed bag of 2017, though it’s a better mixed bag than Emperor of Sand. The sound once again resembles a throwback to Blood Mountain/Crack the Skye, but not as good. There are some interesting riffs and chord progressions here, and the songs are structured pretty well, but this all sounds like stuff I’ve heard before.
Suggested track: Toe to Toes
#42 – The Grand Astoria – The Fuzz of Destiny – Stoner Metal
The Grand Astoria wholeheartedly embrace their stoner origins on this EP, consisting of eight songs, each of which is intended as a demonstration and exaltation of a different fuzz pedal. (I honestly can’t tell much difference from one to the other, but I’m hardly a fuzz connoisseur.) The songs range from pleasant pieces with a light melody; to aggressive, punky attacks; to slow, heavy riffs. This EP is a bit of a mixed bag, but there’s a lot of good to be found here.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Pocket Guru)
#41 – Violet Cold – Anomie – Atmospheric Black Metal/ Blackgaze
This is the lord-only-knows-th release from the terrifying-prolific Violet Cold, a one-man act based out of Baku. This is fairly typical pseudo-proggy shoegaze-influenced black metal. There are some very pretty moments and some nice bits of Azerbaijani folk influence, but I am simply not blackgaze’s target audience. As far as blackgaze goes, though, it’s not bad.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Anomie)
#40 – Once and Future Band – Once & Future Band – Progressive Rock/Pop
The inconsistency between the “and” and the ampersand is enough to make me reflexively want to hate this. But it’s good, enjoyable progressive pop in the vein of ELO or the Alan Parsons Project, with rich keyboard tones and catchy melodies. However, just about every song on this album feels too long. Every 6-minute song would have been just fine being four-and-a-half.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Standing in the Wake of Violence)
#39 – Branch of Yore – A Strange Album Name without Connections with the Songs – Avant-Garde Rock
Well…what was advertised in the album title was delivered. It’s strange, generally-keyboard-driven music using odd keys and chord progressions. A lot of this lilts lazily along, but despite being only 21 minutes, this EP feels a bit long at moments.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: I Am)
#38 – Rank/Xerox – M.Y.T.H. – Post-Punk
This is a nice little collection of post-punk. The music keeps with the genre’s general aesthetic of being cold and sterile, with a lot of repetitious rhythms and eerie synths. Underpinning this is a strong sense of melody and pop sensibilities which makes this all very accessible. The only real complaint I’ve got is that the last track drags on for a bit too long.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: M.Y.T.H.)
Modern Edit: I’d bump this up pretty significantly.
#37 – The Orvalians – The Great Filter – Zeuhl
Zeuhl’s a weird genre. It’s remarkably distinct, but bands that play it often risk falling into the trap of being a Magma clone; the sound is so distinct, it’s confining. There are exceptions to this: Corima, Guapo, Koenjihyakkei, and Bondage Fruit, to name a few. But it’s hard to escape the jazzy, groovy, bass-heavy pull of Magma, and The Orvalians don’t quite do it. It’s good music, but it all feels a lot like MDK or Wurdah Ïtah worship, with its aggressive bass, hypnotic melodies, and general oddness.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: If)
#36 – Odd Logic – Effigy – Progressive Rock/Metal
This group out of Tacoma suffer the plight of many modern progressive rock/metal acts: their albums are too damn long. Their songs are longwinded enough that they could have easily chopped a good 20-30 minutes out of this bloated thing and made a much stronger album. When the music’s good, it’s really good, but there’s too damn much of it, and too much of it wallows in the uncreative tropes I’ve slammed Steven Wilson (and others) for living in.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Effigy)
#35 – Pallbearer – Heartless – Doom Metal
This received a lot of fanfare when it was released, but it never really clicked for me. There’s a lot of enjoyable music here that blends doom metal with a smattering of interesting influences, but the songwriting often seems to just not quite come together into anything too enthralling. Yes, it’s big and grandiose, but grandiosity alone does not a good album make. That said, this is about the part of the list where I’d unhesitatingly start calling the albums “good” overall. This just offers a lot for me to critique.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Dancing in Madness)
#34 – Algiers – The Underside of Power – Post-Punk/Soul
This is an unusual genre combination which works, for the most part. Algiers is more a post-punk band with soul influences than vice-versa, and many songs here are just straight-up post-punk. The specific style of post-punk played here is rather synthy and gothy, and it doesn’t always mesh well with their soul leanings.
Suggested track: The Underside of Power
#33 – Adam Abou-Gad – Roots of Perdition, Volume 2: Cessation – Progressive Death Metal
This is the second of two releases this year by Mr. Abou-Gad, a Qatari multi-instrumentalist. This follows in the steps of part one (which will be reviewed later in this list), but it is massive and sprawling. Clocking in at 73 minutes, it can be an exhausting listen, full of extremely heavy riffs interspersed with gentler moments for breathing room. This album just isn’t as enthralling as its predecessor. All five songs here could have benefited from some shortening and improved focus.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Maelstrom)
#32 – Maalem Mahmoud Gania – Colours of the Night – Gnawa Music
This album was my first real introduction to Gnawa music, a genre indigenous to Morocco. It’s based on a repeating rhythm and extended instrumental passages. The music here has a trance-like, almost drone-y quality. This makes it great background music that allows one to zone out, but at the same time, it makes it difficult for anything to stand out too much.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Sidi Sma Ya Boulandi)
#31 – Magenta – We Are Legend – Neo-Prog
It’s 2017 and people are still making neo-prog? I thought it died in the early ‘90s, but I guess not. On the surface, this seems like an album I’d savage: overwrought and cliché-heavy, with no song under 10 minutes. However, there’s a certain humanity to it that I like. Far from the best prog album of the year, but an overall decent showing, despite having its fair share of shortfalls.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Trojan)
#30 – SEIMS – 3 – Math Rock
SEIMS embrace the weirder elements of math rock, utilizing wonky, jazzy chords and off-kilter riffs from the album’s opening seconds. Elements of avant-garde music are incorporated, and in a move uncommon in math rock, synths play a rather large role here.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Cyan)
#29 – Bargou 08 – Targ – Tunisian Folk Music
This is one of the truly more inventive albums I’ve heard all year. Hailing from the obscure Bargou valley in north-central Tunisia, this group mixes regional folk melodies and instrumentation with modern pop and even-mildly-electronic backbones. The result is catchy and original, with lute and flute mixing with a modern drumkit and Moog bass.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Mamchout)
#28 – Hologram Earth – Black Cell Program – Experimental Metal
Short (inadequate) description: This is Meshuggah with a trumpet player. To get into a bit more detail, this Dutch outfit is more melodic than Meshuggah, but the chugging, techy death metal core of it all is there. The music is often alternatingly spacey and aggressive. The trumpet never takes the lead, instead acting almost more as a keyboard player would, to add texture and atmosphere.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Outnumbered)
#27 – Arduini/Balich – Dawn of Ages – Progressive Metal
2017 saw a surprising number of prog-doom releases, a genre which is normally only slightly less sparse than progressive folk metal (a genre consisting pretty much of just Moonsorrow…some of the time). One of the two band members here is a former Fates Warning guitarist, and that band’s fingerprints can be found all over this album. It’s big. It’s melodic. It’s epic. It’s dramatic. It’s a really fun listen overall.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Into Exile)
#26 – Makaya McCraven – Highly Rare – Jazz
This is a neat, lo-fi collection of experimental, psychedelic jazz that incorporates some interesting beats. Saxophone dominates the overall sound, with pieces ranging from chill to charging, occasionally bordering on instrumental hip-hop. My biggest complaint here is honestly the sound quality, as it was recorded live, ostensibly with a low-tech setup. I don’t want to fault them too much for it, but it can be distracting at times. Had the sound quality been better, and some of the songs a touch more focused, this could have cracked by top 10.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Left Fields)
#25 – Enslaved – E – Progressive Metal
Enslaved have solidified a definite sound at this point in their career, but said sound can vary a lot in quality. This is, thankfully, a return to form after the rather disappointing In Times. It’s black(ish) metal mixed with heavy doses of 1970s-inspired progressive rock. The songs can feel a bit overlong at points, but it’s generally pretty engaging with some very pretty passages and interesting riffs.
Suggested track: Axis of the Worlds
#24 – Kairon; IRSE! – Ruination – Progressive Rock
Kairon; IRSE! have drifted from their post-rock roots into more “traditional” progressive rock territory, with the results being pretty good overall. Some pieces feel a bit overlong or overwrought, but that’s generally balanced out by excellent instrumental playing and multi-part songs that can shift theme suddenly.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Sinister Waters II)
Modern Edit: Bump this up about 10 spots.
#23 – Squalus – The Great Fish… – Experimental Metal
Do you want an experimental metal retelling of the film Jaws? Yes you do! Squalus are a four-piece band consisting of drums, keys, and two basses. The music is often crushing in its heaviness, with emotive keys and inventive riffs. Lines of the movie are narrated throughout, but it’s never overbearing.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The USS Indianapolis)
#22 – Key – A Lingering Vision – New Wave/Thrash Metal
This is like Rush circa Grace under Pressure decided to play thrash metal. That is to say, it’s awesome! Fronted by a tenor Geddy Lee, this Floridian trio pumps out an enthralling mix of neo-new wave (new-new wave?) with some rather thrashy overtones on about half the tracks. It’s a bit corny, but it oddly doesn’t feel stale, and this somehow circumvents my general hatred for kitsch.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Mirage (A Palace))
#21 – Raāg – Visions from Past Lives – Progressive Rock
It’s a good album overall, and it covers a lot of territory. The direct “Rock on, John!” and Sioux-influenced mantra of “Vision Quest” (where the band finally earns their self-described zeuhl label) are fantastic. However, many of the songs run long or could have benefited from some polishing. If they trimmed this almost-90-minute monster down to about an hour, or even less, it’d be even better.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Vision Quest)
Modern Edit: Bump this down about 10-15 spots.
#20 – Mouth – Vortex – Progressive Rock/Krautrock
This is one of those albums where the art really captures the feel of the music well. It’s relatively slow, with very heavy use of organ. The band often locks in on a few musical motifs. They’ve got a strong ear for catchy melodies, even in the denser, longer-winded passages.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Parade)
#19 – Botanist – Collective: The Shape of He to Come – Black Metal
I’d always written off Botanist as something of a gimmick band: “Look at us! We use a distorted hammered dulcimer instead of a guitar!” On this release, though, the usual leader of the band encouraged a greater degree of collaboration from his bandmates, and they put out what is by far their best release to date. The songs are more coherent with more varied feels, and there are some genuinely beautiful musical passages.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Upon Veltheim’s Throne Shall I Wait)
#18 – Fen – Winter – Black Metal
There were a lot of good, long albums this year. I often rip albums for being overly long (including several times in this year’s blurb-fest), but this is one of those 75-minute albums that is (mostly) an appropriate length. There’s a touch of bloat they could have cut out, but Fen are, at the heart of it, an atmospheric black metal band. And on this album, they took a much more overtly proggy direction, so that is two genres with a notorious penchant for long songs. The music builds in intensity throughout the songs, resulting in satisfying musical resolutions.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: I (Pathway))
#17 – Sutrah – Dunes – Death Metal
Oh, I like this a lot. This hits that sweet spot of being very techy without being unbearable wankery, while at the same time blending in some eclectic influences. There are a lot of proggy passages, and a lot of comparisons could be drawn to fellow Quebeckers Gorguts.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The Plunge)
#16 – The Physics House Band – Mercury Fountain – Math Rock
This is a quick 29 minutes, with the whole album zipping by in one continuous flow of music. It ranges from math rock’s usual insane tempos and bizarre time signatures, to mellower moments filled with smooth bass and lush synths, to loud, heavy riffs which sound like a slightly contorted doom riff shifted up an octave.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Obidant)
#15 – Glass Skeleton Death March – The Reckoning – Progressive/Traditional Metal
This is one 13-part, 24-minute epic about the ten plagues which befell Egypt in the Book of Exodus, done in a proggy interpretation of traditional of traditional heavy metal acts, like Iron Maiden. It’s complex, heavy, and super accessible. The riffs are complex and the melodies memorable; this is immediately engaging.
#14 – Droid – Terrestrial Mutations – Progressive/Thrash Metal
This is a callback to late ‘80s/early ‘90s progressive thrash while adding their own fresh twist to it. They channel bands like Coroner and Voivod in their complex, fast-paced riffs and sci-fi lyrical themes. The overall extraterrestrial theme fits perfectly with the music, from the strange, off-kilter riffs to the heavy effects on the guitars to the intermittent jazz-fusion influences. If you like the strange, wonky world of ‘80s/’90s prog-thrash, this is for you.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Mission Drift)
#13 – Flesh of the Stars – Anhilla – Doom Metal
From the opening synth drone and odd, arrhythmic bongos, Flesh of the Stars establish they’re trying to be a bit different. The music is slow and mournful to start off; not especially heavy, but brooding and certainly metal in attitude. But then the synth arpeggios kick in for “III”, which ranks among the best individual songs of the year. The rest of the album returns to the slow gloominess, accented with occasional keyboards, making for a very rewarding listen.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: III)
#12 – Tchornobog – Tchornobog – Black/Death Metal
Four songs, clocking in at over an hour; this is a challenging listen. This is dense, abrasive music which assaults the ears with harsh waves of guitar, wailing sax, and mournful piano. The atmosphere is weird and muddy and fuzzy around the edges, but it suits the semi-mystical aesthetic of it all. This music is dirty, filthy, and evil, yet somehow beautiful.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: I: The Vomiting Tchornobog (Slithering Gods of Cognitive Dissonance))
#11 – Perihelion Ship – To Paint a Bird of Fire – Progressive Metal
Finland’s Perihelion Ship had some high expectations from me following their spectacular debut last year, A Rare Thunderstorm in Spring. I’d say that they mostly lived up to the challenge. While nothing on this album is quite as ear-catching as the high points on their debut, the low points are also better, leading to an overall more consistent work. The musicianship is top-notch, with the bass especially shining through throughout. They balance the heaviness of Opeth-style death metal with gentler, Mellotron-heavy passages expertly in a way which avoids schlockiness.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: New Sun?)
#10 – Wobbler – From Silence to Somewhere – Progressive Rock
This is Wobbler’s most compositionally mature and complex album, with the suites having a feeling of being one long piece, as opposed to just a handful of short songs slammed together into a 20-minute piece. As is expected, they dwell heavily on the sounds of many prog giants, like Yes, Gentle Giant, and Caravan. The riffs are complex but pleasing to the ear with guitars and organ intertwining, and the songs show a great dynamic range, from frantic scalar runs to gentle, somber moments.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Fermented Hours)
#9 – The Thirteenth Sun – Stardust – Progressive Metal
This album was definitely a grower. When I first listened, I heard there was something there, but it didn’t quite immediately click. But then I finally got it; this is the logical evolution of “traditional” prog metal like Fates Warning or Queensrÿche. Black metal influences are frequent, but they’re more often supplanted by heavy-handed influences from the likes of Hawkwind and Khan. Mellotrons and other keyboards lend this album a lush texture, all while keeping song structures shifting and the playing dynamic.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Planes of Creation)
#8 – King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Polygondwanaland – Progressive Rock
I’ll just start off by saying that I love this album title. This is King Gizzard at the calmest I’ve ever heard them, but rest assured there’s still plenty of frenetic playing. They toned down their usual fuzzy frenzy and lowered the overall tempo. They introduced a lot of jazz-fusion and progressive rock influences, with keyboards and flutes playing more prominent roles than usual. The songs run together into one massive 44-minute piece, with the opener and closer being the obvious highlights.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Crumbling Castle)
#7 – Dreadnought – A Wake in Sacred Waves – Progressive Metal
This is another fantastic prog-doom release, consisting of four epic tracks, occupying over 50 minutes. The songs are complexly structured, alternating between gentle builds/lulls and more aggressive passages. Keyboards loom large here, most often in the form of ear-catching synth leads and powerful piano, which helps lend even more weight to the music.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Vacant Sea)
#6 – Adam Abou-Gad – Roots of Perdition, Volume 1: Declension – Progressive Death Metal
This is the first and unquestionably better half of Mr. Abou-Gad’s two-album project he released this year. This is crushing, aggressive death metal. It is heavy, with churning, syncopated riffs. The songs are complexly structured, with interesting synthesizer embellishments. Hints of Middle Eastern folk music sneak in at a few points in the scales he uses.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Refuge)
#5 – Neil Cicierega – Mouth Moods – Mash-Up
This is probably Mr. Cicierega’s strongest overall album (though Mouth Sounds, his first in this series, will always hold a special place in my heart), and it’s held up spectacularly to multiple listens. He runs the gamut from single-song remixes (“Bustin” – The Ghostbusters theme remixed to be both insanely catchy and about sex), to absurd, unthinkable mash-ups (the INXS/Survivor mash-up “Tiger”; The Doobie Brothers/Linkin Park monstrosity (in a good way) “The End”), to unholy amalgamations of a half-dozen or more songs (the opening “The Starting Line”; the Larry King-heavy “Annoyed Grunt”). Neil Cicierega’s skill and creativity with mash-ups is unmatched, and the sheer level of fun had here is hard to match.
Here’s the whole thing (Suggested track: Smooth)
#4 – Elder – Reflections of a Floating World – Progressive Metal
The way I’ve described this album is as an extremely heavy Pink Floyd album, and I haven’t encountered much argument on that front. Elder display their usual vaguely-stonery knack for melody and riffs while mixing in their most blatantly proggy, ambitious, and experimental moments yet. The band have incorporated more keyboards than ever – organ, electric piano, and Mellotron all feature prominently. Elder were so bold in their experimentation, they even tried their hand at krautrock, with some motorik-heavy Neu! worship.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Blind)
#3 – Naeramarth – The Innumerable Stars – Progressive Metal
The music here is fantastic, but it’s made even more impressive by the fact that this is a one-man project, with the only guests being for unclean vocals and saxophone. The music is epic and massive without feeling trite, and the layers of synthesizer and soaring guitar leads give a genuine feeling of grandiosity, as opposed to mere cheesiness. The riffs are complex, but the melodies remain pleasing to the ear, and there is an overall balance between abrasion and quietness. The closing epic is also one of the major highlights of the year.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Through the Cosmos II: The Arrival)
#2 – Motorpsycho – The Tower – Psychedelic/Progressive Rock
This is a huge, sprawling album that covers a lot of ground. The basic sound is rooted in stoner rock, but it’s heavily drenched in psychedelic sounds and permeated with progressive rock influences. The songs are dynamic, with strong melody and creative riffs. The long pieces never drag, and several short pieces act as nice little acoustic breathers between the longer, more intense tracks.
Suggested track: Ship of Fools
#1 – Cormorant – Diaspora – Progressive Metal
It’s rare to find an album composed of only long songs where every track feels shorter than it is. This album is 62 minutes long, but the shortest track is just under 8, and the longest tops 26. It all goes by in a blur, especially that monumental album-closing epic, “Migration”. The album is heavy as hell through most of its run time, and what parts aren’t crushing are downright beautiful, with winding, impactful soloing. This was an album of the year contender from my first listen.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Migration)
2018
#62: Greta Van Fleet – Anthem of the Peaceful Army – Hard Rock
When I heard this band’s lead single, “When the Curtain Falls”, I honestly thought is was some recently-released Led Zeppelin track from the vaults. It’s a good song. But this band, as a whole, goes so shamelessly beyond homage to Led Zeppelin, to the point of comical facsimile, that it’s sad. This band seems to be the end result of a label engineering a band to be what they think the rock genre needs. Rock is at a nadir in its public influence; that is undeniable. But this album is what results when backwards-looking individuals romanticize the past and refuse to adapt to a new musical landscape. The music here ranges from actually pretty good (the aforementioned “When the Curtain Falls”) to borderline-unlistenable (most of the rest of the album). Whereas Led Zeppelin were genuinely creative and passionate (about ripping off small-name blues acts, amirite?), this band sounds paint-by-numbers and disgustingly calculated to be the last, dying gasp of Baby Boomer-style bluesy hard rock.
I hate this album. This is one of those albums where I feel compelled to write more than one paragraph, but it’s not the flaming dumpster abortion that is Dream Theater’s The Astonishing; nor is it the disgustingly hackneyed Heaven and Earth from Yes. But it’s soulless and cynical, and that’s worse in some ways. Sure, John Petrucci can’t write a story worth shit, but you can tell he believes in his crappy rock opera, damnit. This isn’t necessarily the last, dying gasps of Boomer rock fetishism, but it sure as hell sounds like it, and I sorta hope it is. The band sounds as if they’ve spent years honing their chops with the ultimate goal of sound exactly like someone else. If I want to listen to Led Zeppelin, I will. This album deserves to be relegated to the trashpile of history, and its members sound genuinely bereft of any truly creative instinct.
Suggested track: When the Curtain Falls
#61: Legend of the Seagullmen – Legend of the Seagullmen – Hard Rock
This was billed as a supergroup consisting of members of Mastodon and Tool. It wound up sounding like even-more-watered-down Mastodon. It’s flaccid pseudo-psychy hard rock. There’s nothing worth seeing here.
Bandcamp (I’d rather not suggest anything off this. It’s all just so dull.)
#60: Panopticon – The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness (I & II) – Black Metal/Folk
I was left underwhelmed by the last Panopticon album, and this does nothing to restore my love to the levels of Roads to the North. This album is less a folk metal album than a black metal album and a folk album. The black metal is murky and unremarkable. The trademark folk flourishes of this project are absent, and the folk half of this album meanders in unimpressive torpor for far too long. The most egregious thing about this album is just how aggressively dull it all is.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The Devil Walked the Woods)
#59: uKanDanz – Yeketelale – Ethio-Jazz Fusion/Pop
This was a huge sonic shift for uKanDanz. Their last album, Awo, was a crunchy, charging piece of music. This is very heavy with synthesizers and synth drum tones, giving this whole album a very 80s feel, and not exactly in a good way, either. A lot of this borders on cheesy Ethio-pop, like I might expect to hear playing in the background at an Ethiopian restaurant. Overall this album drags and feels very repetitious. Thankfully, there are a few moments where the band’s better side shine through, so I’m not totally hopeless for their future.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Gesse)
#58: Galahad – Seas of Change – Progressive Rock
This just felt tedious. This is just one massive 40+ minute song, but they’re talking about how much they hate Brexit in very unsubtle terms. The music is unoriginal and uninspiring, and while he anti-Brexit message is fine, that doesn’t mean their music is good. Blatantly political music is almost always bad, in my experience. They wallow in many of progressive rock’s worst cliches while also shoehorning in irritating dance music-like synths. The album isn’t wholly without merit, but the good moments are overshadowed in a pretty huge way by the blah-to-bad moments.
#57: Frog – Emergeth – Stoner Metal
I’m mostly including this because I like the album art. It’s alright stoner metal. Enjoyable, if mostly run-of-the-mill.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Land)
#56: Neckbeard Deathcamp – White Nationalism Is for Basement Dwelling Losers – Black Metal
I really enjoy the idea of this album, and all the song titles are absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately, it’s just not great music. Everything is a muddy sonic mess, and there’s nothing to make the songs stand out as distinct. On the plus side, it’s pretty short and knows not to overstay its welcome. Then again, I’ve just never been a fan of this super rough, raw sound.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The Left Are the Real Fascists)
#55: Lack the Low – One Eye Closed – Avant-Pop
This is a piano-based one-woman project that features a lot of ethereal textures, buildups, and heavy use of electronics. There are some weird, interesting moments in this album, but overall, it feels like it’s lacking something to really make it stand out. I also found that it didn’t hold up particularly well over repeated listens.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Dream Every Night of Running)
#54: Mouth – Floating – Progressive Rock
Well, this was disappointing. It’s not bad, but it’s disappointing, which is almost worse. I loved their debut album, Vortex, and they’d mentioned that this album was going to be taking a less-long-winded approach, but there’s just nothing much here to grab my attention. Most of the songs are alright. They’re a bit simpler and more predictable than I like, and the one extended track on the album (the Neu! worship of “Homagotago”) is just tedious. I could see this appealing to a broader swathe of people than their debut, but if you prefer that slower, organ-driven, krautrock-influenced sound, this likely will leave you wanting.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Sunset)
#53: Daal – Decalogue of Darkness – Progressive Rock
This is yet another entry in the illustrious list of pretty-decent-overall-but-could-have-benefitted-from-being-a-bit-shorter albums I’ve reviewed. The music is enjoyable throughout, but there’s just a lot of it. I don’t know if it’s a patience issue, but this is nearly 71 minutes of instrumental, keyboard-driven progressive rock. Daal don’t do anything particularly new or interesting here, and it just gets exhausting after a while. This is The Simpsons, season 10: enjoyable overall, but overlong and in need of some originality and improvement.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Chapter VIII)
#52: Adam Abou-Gad – Via Dolorosa – Death Metal
This is far less proggy than Mr. Abou-Gad’s two releases last year (excepting the final track) and is an overall weaker album. It’s enjoyable death metal, and it definitely grew on me. But there are also large stretches which are not memorable at all, and the production is very dry and buzzy. There’s almost no bass to be found here. It’s rare for an album’s production to be a big factor in my judgement, but this is on par with the dryness of …And Justice for All but without the spectacular songs to make up for it.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Via Dolorosa)
#51: Stoned Jesus – Pilgrims – Stoner Metal/Space Rock
This is something of a mixed bag, and my feelings toward this album, much like its overall baggishness, are mixed. Stoned Jesus expanded on some of the more overtly proggy and experimental elements of their previous album (the excellent The Harvest) while at the same time bogging the music down with monotonous midtempo meditations muffled by…multitudinous…m…flange. It’s enjoyable, but the longer songs on this album really suffer from a bad case of being needlessly long. Every 9-minute song could have easily been 6 minutes. This feels like something of a transitional album, so I’m eager to see where they go moving forward.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Distant Light)
#50: Huata – Lux Initiatrix Terrae – Psychedelic Doom Metal
Between the Latin album title, the ritualistic feel of this music, and the man in robes on the album cover, this feels like it could be some sort bizarre, psychedelic hymnal. The music is slow and solemn, but it doesn’t feel tiresome or plodding. Organ looms every bit as big as guitar on this release, and most vocals are either part of a chorus or soaked in so much reverb, they may as well be a chorus.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The Mystical Beast of Revelations)
#49: All Traps on Earth – A Drop of Light – Progressive Rock
This band is formed out of the rhythm section of Änglagård, one of the most-vaunted modern progressive rock bands out there. I like Änglagård – especially their debut album, Hybris, but much of the gushing over their last release, 2012’s Viljans Ӧga, seemed excessive. This album sounds very much like something I’d expect from Änglagård as a whole. That is to say, it’s Mellotron-laden, mostly-instrumental, retro-style progressive rock. There’re plenty of jazz and folk influences; there are some moments which provide a great, creepy vibe; and I was pleasantly surprised by a fair amount of Zappa influence. But this band falls into several of my least-favorite traps of progressive rock. More is not always more (disregarding one brief interlude, average song length is north of 15 minutes), and a lot of these songs tend to meander, lacking much forward moment or logical progression. It’s also mostly-instrumental, and it may just be an unfair bias I have, but instrumental music needs to work harder to hold my attention, especially when the instrumental pieces are big, sprawling suites. I do like this album overall, but I love to gripe, and this is only the latest in a long line of worshipfully-reviewed albums which, to me, do nothing to distinguish themselves. (I’m looking at you, Glass Hammer.)
Bandcamp (Suggested track: All Traps on Earth)
#48: Kolm – Umbra – Progressive Rock/Metal
Holy shit, this band really wants to be Tool, circa Lateralus. For some reason the aping of this sound doesn’t piss me off as bad as my previous review for Greta Van Fleet, but it’s pretty shameless. I enjoy it, but you’d be better off just listening to Lateralus. If you’re looking for Tool worship, look no further.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Ripple)
#47: Beorn’s Hall – Estuary – Folk Metal
This will probably be a familiar refrain in this blurb-fest, but this album, while not groundbreaking or trailblazing by any stretch of the imagination, is quite enjoyable. This is a predictable but enjoyable mix of black metal and folk metal, complete with huge melodic hooks and space-filling synth pads. I’d recommend this for fans of Moonsorrow, insofar as this is more black metal with heavy folk overtones than outright Ensiferum- or Finntroll-style folk metal cheese.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Dark Wood-Black Marsh)
#46: Bubu – El eco del sol – Jazz Fusion
This album’s alright. It’s no Anabelas, but it’d be foolish to expect Bubu to reach those heights again. This features all three songs off their 2016 EP Resplandor (plus the unfortunate addition of a choir on that EP’s title track), as well as five new compositions. The new songs are mostly in line with what I’d expect out of Bubu: mostly high-energy, well-structured, and quite dynamic. But the songwriting is a bit spotty at times, and the album’s weaker moments really seem to disproportionately affect it.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Penas)
#45: Witch Ripper – Homestead – Sludge Metal
This Seattle-based band borrow heavily from Mastodon’s sound, circa Leviathan and Blood Mountain without sounding like direct knock-offs. It’s heavy, dirty, driving music, but it’s got a vaguely proggy leaning with some surprisingly catchy moments sprinkled throughout. Though it should be noted that that catchiness doesn’t always work and sometimes feels a touch out-of-place.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: S.L.U. (The Hive))
#44: Jack White – Boarding House Reach – Experimental Rock
I’ll certainly give Jack White points for originality on this album. It’s a staggering blend of his usual blues rock and garage rock with a plethora of other genres: electronic, funk, and jazz, to name a few. I have a lot of respect for the breadth of the risks he took here, but it doesn’t always work as intended. Some songs come off as muddled, unclear messes full of whatever Jack could toss in. The album as a whole is enjoyable, and I respect the adventurousness of this as a mainstream rock release in 2018, but novel ideas don’t always equal great execution.
YouTube (Suggested track: Corporation)
#43: JC Satan – Centaur Desire – Garage Rock/Post-Punk
This album has a really interesting production quality; I hesitate to say ‘good’ necessarily. Everything just sounds…fuzzy, I suppose. And by ‘fuzzy’, I mean like the distortion pedal. Everything on this album has been run through a gauntlet of effects, and the songs are generally to-the-point, which is nice. But at the same time, a handful of ideas sound a bit underdeveloped.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: I Won’t Come Back)
Modern edit: This record has grown on me a lot.
#42: Khôrada – Salt – Progressive Metal
This band, composed of former members of Agalloch and Giant Squid, was one of my most-anticipated new acts of 2018. But I’m not quite sure where I stand on this album. It’s much more Giant Squid-y than it is Agalloch-ish, and I’m not sure if that’s necessarily a result of the music itself or just a result of the very distinctive vocals. Some days I love this album; others, it’s a dull mire I struggle to get halfway through. Though if I can get halfway through, this album does end very strong. It’s the first 30 minutes that can be trying. The sludge and doom influences are more dominant than black metal and folk, adding to the sense of this being Giant Squid v2, as opposed to a wholly new group. I’d definitely say it’s worth listening to, but even after a half-dozen or more listens, I’m not sure where I fall on this.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Ossify)
#41: Mount Stealth – EP3 – Post-Rock
This instrumental Luxembourgish group has matured their sound a lot from their last release. Everything is tight and well structured, and the music frequently has an ominous edge to it. Math rock influences are worn on their sleeves, at times reminding me of Battles. While guitars are the main focus here, synthesizers and piano are deployed to great effect, adding a lot of depth and richness.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Durum Quest)
#40: Galasphere 347 – Galasphere 347 – Progressive Rock
This multinational progressive rock quartet has a decidedly backwards-looking sound, but it’s not the horrid, stagnant stuff that proliferates from many of the biggest acts out there. (Looking at you, Glass Hammer.) The music here draws a fair amount of influence both from space rock and the Canterbury scene. Lush synths are backed with jazzy guitar parts and gentle flutes. The music here fairly soft-edged, as rich keyboards and vocal harmonies are the focus, and guitar parts tend to be a bit buried, but it’s not sappy.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The Fallen Angel)
#39: Between the Buried and Me – Automata I – Progressive Metal
This really didn’t need to be split into two albums; it’s only a combined 69 minutes, which is pretty typical for a BTBAM release. That said, the music here is good. They’ve mostly moved away from the more rock-oriented Coma Ecliptic, opting for some pretty heavy stuff overall. There are a few moments which remind me of Haken here, which isn’t necessarily a positive. I’ll listen to Haken for Haken. BTBAM should stick to their own sound.
Suggested track: Blot
#38: Grindfeld – 5 Songs about Nothing – Death Metal
What’s the deal with death metal? The deal with this band, at least, is that they’ve interpreted five episodes of Seinfeld into this quick little EP. The lyrics are hilarious translations into the genre’s gruesome vernacular, mixed with direct quotes from the show. The music here is really great too. It’s super heavy, aggressive, and pleasingly complex and ambitious. The group were smart to keep this to a short release. I could see this getting grating on a longer-form release, but this is a welcome breath of fresh air.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The Limousine)
#37: Piah Mater – The Wandering Daughter – Progressive Metal
I like this album, but I find it a little tough to say all that much about it. This is progressive death metal very much in the vein of Opeth, jazzy asides and all. If you like Opeth’s sound circa Ghost Reveries, you’ll like this in all likelihood.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Solace in Oblivion)
#36: Messa – Feast for Water – Doom Metal
Messa are an Italian act who play a pretty creative version of doom metal. It’s alertnatingly deliberate and driving, topped with reverb-drenched vocals and augmented with Rhodes piano. I get a lot of classic doom vibes here, a la early Black Sabbath and the like, and the jazzy keys add a really refreshing element.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Snakeskin Drape)
#35: Lowen – A Crypt in the Stars – Doom Metal
Three of the five songs here contain the word “ziggurat” in their lyrics, making this easily the zigguratiest album of 2018. This is very spacey doom metal, using broad riffs that serve more as texture than anything else. The vocals are drenched in reverb, giving the music here an eerie quality. The closing track ventures into more daring musical territory than most doom metal, featuring some more complex riffage and jazzy soloing.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: In Perpetual Bloom)
#34: Altın Gün – On – Anatolian Rock
This album is a fantastic throwback to the likes of Erkin Koray, 3 Hür-El, and Barış Manço. It combines airy melodies with a light, playful mood in the context of psychedelic rock. Turkish acts have historically been very good at integrating their own native folk traditions with Western rock sounds, and this group proudly follows in that tradition. However, by the same token, this album isn’t anything too new. I enjoy it a lot, but it’s nothing particularly distinct.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Goca Dunya)
#33: Antisoph – Antisoph – Progressive Metal
This is kinda-proggy black-ish thrash-y metal with only clean vocals. It’s a pretty interesting experience. This band is really good at shifting between all degrees of high-octane riffage while also mixing in lusher moments. They blend the technical, the brutal, and the melodic beautifully. I’d definitely suggest giving this a spin. It’s sadly not quite distinct enough to land higher up this list, but it’s pretty solid overall.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Ghostking)
#32: Eigenlicht – Self-Annihilating Consciousness – Black Metal
This is some good, solid symphonic black metal. The synth strings play a prominent role, and the music is fairly rough-edged. Despite the songs’ lengths, this isn’t a particularly proggy album, though it’s got its experimental moments.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Labrys)
#31: Oh Sees – Smote Reverser – Psychedelic Rock
I’d tried to give Oh Sees (under their panoply of previous names) a try before, but it never quite clicked with me. This album changed that. Mixing garage rock with psychedelia and jazz fusion, this album does a lot to tick many of my boxes. It’s melodic and smoky, feeling equal parts rough garage rock à la The Seeds and psychedelia à la Uriel with the occasional flourish of Return to Forever or even The Alan Parsons Project. Extended guitar freak-outs are the norm here, and at moments it can feel a bit much, like on the 12-minute instrumental “Anthemic Aggressor”. Overall, though, this is a great album.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Moon Bog)
Modern Edit: I’ve grown to love this record. I’d rank this much higher now, probably around #15 or so.
#30: Druid – The Seven Scrolls – Heavy Psych
The last Druid release I reviewed contained one beautiful opus and then several good but unremarkable stoner rock pieces. This album…sorta splits the difference. The mood is very close to that opus throughout. It’s dreamy and spacy, with the phased, chorused guitar arpeggios filling all the empty space, counterbalanced against bluesy, hard-stomping sections. And the last track here has an unexpected fusion of Appalachian folk music which I really enjoy. I wish the band would have explored that more in-depth.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Chapter One)
#29: Astral Blue – Out of the Astral Blue – Progressive/Psychedelic Rock
This is an unashamed throwback to early-70s organ-heavy blues-influenced sorta-prog. Four of the five songs top 7 minutes, and it’s pretty enjoyable overall. It’s hard to pinpoint why some cliche-fests are enjoyable to me while others repel me so, but I think it comes down to just how similar they are to older stuff. This has clear and obvious influences, but it’s not facsimile. Don’t expect any new ground to be broken, but if you enjoy progressive rock tropes, I’d recommend this.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Moon Door)
#28: Water Knives – Content Hidden – Electronic/Krautrock
This act uses a pretty broad swathe of genre labels to describe themselves, and understandably so. If I had to categorize this into a disgustingly broad macrogrouping, I’d say this is an “electronic” album, but there’s so much more here. This duo draws a lot from the realms of rock, jazz, and cinematic music. It’s warm and emotive, with the expected cornucopia of synths blending with bass, guitar, and (non-machine) drums to make something quite inviting. (Plus, it’s only about $1.30 at the current exchange rate.)
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Grinning Intensifies)
#27: PinioL – Bran Coucou – Zeuhl
This band is a fusion of the groups PoiL and Ni, both excellent experimental rock bands. Here, they join forces or a sprawling collaboration full of strange, angular riffs, off-kilter rhythms, and dynamic improvisation. It’s a mostly-instrumental affair, with the few lyrics being delivered in…let’s call it non-conventional styles.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Pilon Bran Coucou)
#26: Garnotte – EP.1 – Progressive Rock
This is the debut effort from this Quebecois band, and it make me optimistic for their future. They draw upon the canon of distinctly-Francophone progressive rocks like Mona Lisa and Vos Voisin to stand out and forge ahead. It’s weird, with an infectious catchy folky-funkiness that draws you in and holds your attention. This is a band I’ll definitely be paying attention to.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Micro-Ondes)
#25: Cheer-Accident – Fades – Experimental Rock
I think I read a review of this album which described it as “kraut-pop”, and that’s a much better descriptor than I could have hoped to come up with. The band is firmly rooted in weird, krautrocky experimentalism. Vocal harmonies and bouncy rhythms blend with off-kilter guitar lines and dark, droning moods to make a unique listening experience. Brass frequently punctuates the music, accenting both the pop and experimental sides at the same time.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Last But Not Lost)
#24: Custard Flux – Helium – Folk Rock
This album is almost entirely acoustic. The only electric instrumentation present here is courtesy of a pair of guitar solos. The music has a lot of psych and prog leanings, but it’s balanced out with a lot of melodicism and poppy sensibilities. My only gripe is that, at 65 minutes, this album is longer than it needs to be.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Out of Phase)
#23: Yob – Our Raw Heart – Doom Metal
This is just a big album. There’s a lot of music, and everything sounds huge. The riffs are crushing and depressive, often bringing a meditative quality in their repetition; and the songs plod along at a pace, that despite being slow, never overstays its welcome. Here, Yob find a beautiful balance between gentler, clean sections and the songs’ generally-heavy backbones.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Original Face)
Modern Edit: I’d probably bump this down quite a bit. It hasn’t really held up for me.
#22: Weedpecker – III – Heavy Psych
This was the first album released in 2018 that I heard. And truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much. Weedpecker’s first two albums were much more bluesy and overtly stonery in their sound, and that bluesy, stonery sound is not my favorite. But this is much better than I hoped for. This reminds me a lot of Elder’s latest album, with proggy structures and spacey sounds. The guitars are laden with walls of effects, and many of the riffs bear subtle, jazzy influences. The songs are long and mellow, allowing the band to take their time in making a musical point.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Molecule)
#21: Haken – Vector – Progressive Metal
This is an improvement over Affinity, but it’s no Visions or The Mountain. They’ve dropped the ‘80s cheese and cut back on the balladry. They’ve moved back to their better-than-Dream-Theater’s-been-in-nearly-two-decades brand of Dream Theater worship, and I’m very happy. It’s epic, melodic, and heavy. Overall, quite enjoyable if you’re a fan of this sort of stuff.
Suggested track: Nil by Mouth
Modern Edit: My view on Haken has soured somewhat. Also, Bandcamp
#20: Tal National – Tantabara – Afro-Rock
This Nigerien outfit bill themselves as a rock band, but they’ve got a very distinctly West African flavor. Anyone familiar with Tuareg music will hear similar influences here, albeit at a more intense pace. Everything here moves a mile a minute, with guitar lines playing out as speedy riffs on scales uncommon in Western music. I could see this appealing to fans of genres as disparate as Afrobeat and math rock.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Tantabara)
#19: Slift – La Planète Inexplorée – Space Rock
This is very fuzzy, high-energy, garage-y space rock out of France. There’s a ragged edge to this music that complements the distorted guitars and reverb-laden vocals. It’s not uncommon for krautrock-influenced motorik beats to underpin instrumental moments. While guitar is unquestionably the dominant instrument here, occasional breaks of organ or flute provide for a varied sound palette.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Heavy Road)
#18: The Dark Third – Even as the Light Grows – Post-Rock
Post-rock (and metal) often isn’t really my thing; the endless crescendi just blur together into one big, indistinct mess. But this New Zealandic quintet actually knows how to build to a climax and how to use mood and tension in an effective manner. Violin plays a prominent role in establishing melody. This is also one of those rare instances where I feel shoegaze influence works in a band’s favor, rather than turning their music into a fuzzy blob.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: These Things Are Not Inherent)
#17: Astrakhan – Without New Growth Process Is Bloodshed – Sludge Metal
Astrakhan are a Canadian sludge metal act very much in the vein of Blood Mountain-era Mastodon, if a bit cleaner and more melodic. This album flies by, despite topping 50 minutes. Gritty, aggressive verses frequently give way to cleaner, melodic moments, almost akin to some of the better post-hardcore I’ve heard.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Heaving Receiver)
#16: Paara – Riitti – Folk Metal
If you like Moonsorrow, listen to this album now. This is huge, heavy black metal out of Finland with no shortage of folk flavors. There are big, melodic choruses you wish you could sing along to, even if you don’t speak Finnish; this is a band I really wish I could see live. Riffs alternately lurch and drive, giving this album huge amounts of impact. The opening track, the 15-minute “Viimeinen virta” encapsulates everything amazing about this genre.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Viimeinen virta)
#15: Panegyrist – Hierurgy – Avant-Garde Metal
This is one of the most genuinely creative metal albums of the year. This group takes the framework of black metal and fuses it with avant-garde tendencies and devotional chants to create an ever-twisting soundscape. I’m tempted to compare this to a more Western (or at least less overtly-Eastern) Batushka in its use of black metal and Christian liturgical chants.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Ophidian Crucifix)
Modern Edit: I’d probably bump this into my top 5 of this year now.
#14: Juzz – Juzz – Jazz Fusion
Juzz is an instrumental septet out of Spain’s Galicia region. Consisting of four lengthy compositions (all songs range 8-10 minutes), this album keeps the music varied and always-evolving. Sax and guitar share the spotlight in roughly equal measures, and the music tends toward darker, heavier sounds overall. I’d recommend this for fans of Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Rathenow Towers)
#13: Zwoyld – Zgond – Progressive Rock/Zeuhl
This mostly-instrumental work from this French group shows an impressive array of influence, complex and engaging composition, and a sense of fun often absent in artier corners of rock music. Folk and jazz influences permeate the music, often lending it a bouncy, jolly quality. But this often shifts to weird, distorted, minor-key moments that might be more at home on a recent Magma album, right before bouncing back. The vocals, though used sparingly, are effective and emotive, imbuing a thorough sense of weirdness.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Zundia)
#12: Between the Buried and Me – Automata II – Progressive Metal
As stated in my blurb on part one, this really didn’t need to be two parts. In fact, this album being two parts hurt it overall. I would’ve much preferred this as one 70-minute piece, as opposed to two 35-minute pieces. It (probably) would’ve cracked my top ten as one album. That said, this is the stronger of the two parts, and it’s pretty typical BTBAM material. I don’t feel the need to extol the wonders of this band; if you like this band or not, you probably know by now. They’ve got a definite sound, and this is them at a high point, however short it may be.
Suggested track: Voice of Trespass
#11: Merlin – The Wizard – Stoner Metal
This is stoner metal with saxophone. I’m often skeptical of the inclusion of reed or wind instruments (except the flute) in metal acts, but this works perfectly. The music is heavily psychedelic with catchy hooks and strong vocal melodies.The sax is never overbearing (as it often can be), always serving to highlight the songs’ strongest moments. The closing “The Wizard Suite” is one of this year’s best individual songs.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: The Wizard Suite)
#10: VAK – Budo – Zeuhl
This is this French zeuhl act’s first proper album, and it’s a whopper. Clocking in at nearly an hour across three songs (and two of those songs accounting for 50 of those minutes), there is a lot here. The style of zeuhl is unmistakably French (as opposed to the Japanese style, which I’ll address in a few blurbs from now). I could compare this band to fellow Frenchmen Eskaton, and there are many similarities between that band’s classic album 4 Visions and this. The music is persistent and energetic, driven by keyboards and chanted female vocals. Between those chants are extended soloing sections, giving guitars, keys, and saxes the spotlight.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Budo)
#9: Zeal & Ardor – Stranger Fruit – Black Metal/Blues/Soul
I unquestionably overrated their last release. I think I was just so taken with its weirdness I didn’t give it a score befitting its mixed-bag nature. This is a much, much better album. The compositions feel more mature, and the spirituals and soul are better integrated into the metal itself, rather than just alternating between the two. The flow of the album feels a little weird at points. The track order could’ve been improved, but that’s a pretty minor quibble.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Ship on Fire)
#8: Koenji Hyakkei – Dhormviskha – Zeuhl
Koenji Hyakkei is always like drinking from a firehose. Between scatty female vocals, spacey synthesizers, honking sax, and breakneck time and tempo changes, there’s almost too much to digest here. A full hour of this is a bit of an assault on one’s sanity. An enjoyable assault, admittedly, but maybe something more than most people would like. That said, I love it all, and this bizarre, frenetic (Japanese) style of zeuhl is something you don’t get to hear too much of.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Phlessttighas)
Modern Edit: I’d probably bump this down a handful of spots.
#7: Howling Sycamore – Howling Sycamore – Progressive Metal
Huh. Two examples of sorta-thrashy black-ish metal with only clean vocals in one year. Didn’t see that coming. Despite being superficially similar to the previously-reviewed Antisoph, this is the stronger album. Not only was the inclusion of saxophone a creative coup, this is a band helmed by veterans of progressive and extreme metal, featuring members of Watchtower and Obscura. This album is quite sonically varied. It features the expected searing riffs topped with soaring vocals as well as more introspective acoustic moments. This album also doesn’t overstay its welcome. Clocking in at under 40 minutes, it makes a bold, impressing statement and leaves the listening wanting more without feeling cheated.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Upended)
#6: Giraffes? Giraffes! – Memory Lame – Math Rock
I gave a reasonably positive review to Giraffes? Giraffes!’s last album, Pink Magick, but I really disliked the dry production, and few songs did much to really stand out. Here, the band moves back to something closer to the sound on their classic More Skin with Milk-Mouth. Consisting primarily of multi-parted suites, the band really stretches their creative wings. They avoid the frequent sterility of math rock here, with every song feeling fun and playful. The music is of course complex, but it’s soulful and engaging.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Knife Eyes ‘04 Jailbreak)
#5: Garcia Peoples – Cosmic Cash – Garage Rock
This album is a fantastic blend of garage rock, folk, and blues. There’s a lot of Grateful Dead inspiration here, but it doesn’t turn into aping, nor do they divert into 30-minute instrumental sidebars. It’s catchy, psychy, somewhat folky garage rock. They have a great ear for melody, and the album flows marvelously. The 13-minute suite is the obvious centerpiece, and it flies by – a balanced piece, equal parts calm and frenetic, with character and soul. (And for my Seattle friends, they’re in town January 11th at The Sunset.)
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Suite)
#4: Phideaux – Infernal – Progressive Rock
Six years after it was promised, seven years after his last album, and eleven years after this album’s thematic predecessor–the legendary Doomsday Afternoon–Phideaux Xavier’s Infernal has finally arrived! This sprawling, hour-and-a-half long, two-disc opus, while not quite on the same level as the near-flawless Doomsday Afternoon and Snowtorch, is one of this year’s best releases and an admirable addition to his catalogue. The familiar female vocals and rich keyboards are there, as is the usual gapless flow from song to song. At no point does this album feel overlong, owing in large part to the widely varied moods here, ranging from sinister to almost poppy. My few complaints about this album have more to do with the production. There’s a definite glossy sheen to everything here, particularly affecting the keyboards, which can at times wear on me.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: From Hydrogen to Love)
Modern Edit: This is now a serious contender for #1.
#3: Emperor Norton – Emperor Norton – Progressive Rock
This is one of the best examples in recent years of a band being heavily influenced by the big, classic prog acts (Gentle Giant, Genesis, Yes, etc.) while at the same time maintaining their own character. This quartet from York doesn’t delve into extended wankfests, nor do they fall into the trap of emotionless complexity in their riffs. Everything here sounds organic, with a very human edge to it, and the music conveys emotion excellently.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Act I: Petrichor)
#2: Kekal – Deeper Underground – Experimental Metal
Considering that Kekal is a band that technically has no members, it’s quite impressive that they’ve just put out the best album in their two-decade career. Kekal have always been rooted in weird, extreme (ish) black metal with overlays of wonky electronics and oddly poppy melodies, with often inconsistent results. Historically, their electronic influences have been overbearing, ruining whatever good metal ideas they may have had with dissonant bloops and ill-thought-out bleeps. But here, they strike a balance of harsh, fast, and heavy metal, balanced with catchy hooks bordering on straight-up pop and ethereal electronic passages which serve to accentuate the metal; not detract.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Root of All Evil)
#1: Regal Worm – Pig Views – Progressive Rock
Regal Worm is a (mostly) one-man act which heavily draws from not just classic prog bands like Genesis or Gentle Giant, but also the giants of the Canterbury scene, like Caravan and Gong. Guitars are minimal here, with keys of various sorts taking center stage amidst layered vocals and ear-catching bass lines. It’s often sinister and always intriguing; often catchy and always engaging. Jazz influences proliferate, and every song feels like it builds toward something.
Bandcamp (Suggested track: Huge Machine, You Are So Heavy)
The Elite Extremophile 
Thank you thank you thank you. Imcredible work!!!
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