I’m Matt. I live in Seattle and do computer stuff for a day job.
This is a site to highlight music I like, primarily consisting of genres like progressive rock, progressive metal, psychedelic rock, and related genres. Reviews are posted (almost) every Monday. And because I mostly listen to music I like, I expect most reviews posted here to be positive.
For those of you who may not know, the name of this site is derived from a Between the Buried and Me song, “Extremophile Elite”.
In addition to album reviews, I do monthly collections of short reviews for EPs and other records I couldn’t dedicate a full review to. Occasionally, I highlight relatively unknown prog gems from the past, and about once a year I’ll post lengthy rundowns of the careers of the giants of progressive rock.
I rate releases on a scale of 100, and I rate them in a way a teacher would grade a paper. An album I consider to be a solid B will get a score in the upper 70s-to-mid 80s, an acceptable but flawed album will get something in the 60s, and anything in the 50s or lower is a question of how hard that record failed.
Many thanks to my editors/proofreaders. My good friend Dan proofreads most of what I write (schedule permitting), and my wife Kelci helps with making sure my longer pieces retain readability.
Email: TheEliteExtremophile@gmail.com
I do also have the Twitter handle (@TEExtremophile) and an Instagram account (@TheEliteExtremophile), but I don’t use either. I have tweeted a couple times, and I’m just not the type to post photos. I mostly wanted to claim those URLs. I’ve also claimed the Bluesky handle @TEExtremophile, and I’ve set up this site to automatically cross-post to there. I don’t really plan on using it, though.
The Elite Extremophile 