WIZRD is a quartet featuring four veterans of Norway’s jazz scene. The band was formed while the members were at the Jazz Conservatory in Trondheim, and their origins as jazz musicians are evident in their playing. The music on Elements is energetic and fluid, and it’s clear the musicians are skilled at playing off one another. I really liked their 2022 debut, Seasons, and Elements is another strong addition to their discography.
Welcome back to The Elite Extremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2024. Today covers the top 25, and you can read about the first half in Part 1.
As a reminder, the music on this list covers December 2023 to November 2024. I spend much of December compiling and editing this list, so I push releases from that month into the following year’s list.
This is also a one-man operation, in regard to reviewing. (Many thanks to my proofreaders/editors, Kelci and Dan.) I’m sure there’s plenty of great music out there I simply didn’t get to. I’ve also got my own biases against certain styles and trends.
It’s time for The Elite Extremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2024! This is the first half of the list, and you can find the second half here.
As a reminder, the music on this list covers December 2023 to November 2024. I spend much of December compiling and editing this list, so I push releases from that month into the following year’s list.
This is also a one-man operation, in regard to reviewing. (Many thanks to my proofreaders/editors, Kelci and Dan.) I’m sure there’s plenty of great music out there I simply didn’t get to. I’ve also got my own biases against certain styles and trends.
2024 wound up being an alright year for the sort of stuff I cover here. It felt like it started off somewhat slow, but in the end, it wasn’t too challenging for me to find 50 records worthy of being highlighted.
Welcome back to The Elite Extremophile’s Best of 2024 week. Today, I’ll be presenting my Top EPs of 2024. The criteria for this list is always kind of squishy. The number of entries varies year-to-year, and I take an “I’ll know it when I see it” attitude when it comes to differentiating EPs and LPs. This year, I’ve got six strong short releases to highlight. (And as a reminder, these year-end lists cover music released between December 2023 and November 2024.)
Welcome to the first installment of The Elite Extremophile’s Best of 2024. Today we’re starting off with Cool Songs, to be followed by the Top EPs tomorrow and the Top Albums on Wednesday and Thursday.
Before we get to it, let me give my usual Best-Of disclaimers. This is a one-man operation, in regard to writing the reviews. My proofreaders Kelci and Dan are very helpful, but I’m sure there was plenty of great music I just simply couldn’t get around to. I’ve also got my own personal biases against certain styles and trends.
And as a reminder, these year-end lists cover music released between December 2023 and November 2024. I spend much of December compiling and editing these lists, so I don’t bother searching for new music released in December until the new year.
This segment is meant to show off great tracks that do not appear on my other year-end lists. If a release makes my best EPs or best albums list, it is disqualified from appearing in this particular segment.
Band: Anarchÿ | Album:Xenötech and the Cosmic Anarchÿ | Genre: Progressive thrash metal | Bandcamp
Anarchÿ’s third full-length release sees this St. Louis-based thrash duo both stay in their usual niche and also push some sonic boundaries. Verbose sci-fi storytelling, blazing guitar lines, and more umlauts than any reasonable person would ever use all abound here. Synth pads do a great job at adding richness and lushness to the music, and the occasional acoustic interlude helps to keep this record varied and interesting. There is even a splash of sitar for some truly unexpected sonic variance.
Score: 83/100
Band: Avneya | Album:Road to I | Genre: Progressive death metal | Bandcamp
Avneya’s debut record is a great example of progressive death metal. There’s a strong focus on contrasts between delicate, melodic passages and moments of crushing heaviness. Dashes of strings here and there add some nice contrast, and folk motifs from the band’s native Israel also add to this record’s distinctiveness.
Aeon Nexus’s debut EP is a fun, to-the-point bit of progressive death(-ish) metal. Their vocalist displays impressive range, belting out powerful clean vocals and coarse gutturals. This reminds me of certain early prog-death bands, like Atheist, Cynic, or Death, as well as a more recent crop of artists who strive to evoke this sound. Piano adds a lot of textural depth and richness, which really helps this band stand out from their peers.
The newest release from this Danish act is a warbling, wobbling melange of influences drawn from across the spectrum of forward-thinking rock music. Squealing saxophones and mad, buzzing guitars cultivate uneasy moods that can shift on a dime. One moment, there’s a maelstrom of reeds and clattering drums, and the next, things have moved in a more spaced-out and contemplative direction. The closing “Alting Sammen” features some nice electronic touches, too.
Band: Å | Album:Åtråvärld | Genre: Progressive rock, Folk rock | Bandcamp
The latest release from this Swedish act sounds almost as if late ‘70s Jethro Tull were from Scandinavia. It’s lightly-crunchy progressive folk rock with a healthy dose of flute. The mood here is a little hazier and more psychedelic than anything Tull ever did. Jazz elements are apparent, too, and this whole record has a wonderfully laid-back feel to it. This is very much music for walking through the woods. But, y’know, proggy.
This lovely little EP does an incredible job blending the smooth sounds of 1980s Japanese jazz with biting, acidic guitar tones and progressive songwriting. The three songs presented here provide a wonderful mix of sounds and moods, and the closing epic “Traveling Sleepers” is especially emotive and powerful.
Band: Celeste | Album:Echi di un Futuro Passato | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
Celeste is an Italian band that put out one album in 1976, disbanded, and then reunited in the late 2010s. Despite hailing from Italy, their style of prog has never felt particularly Italian. The music here (and throughout their discography) is light, breezy, and laid-back. Jazz flourishes are ample, and I really like the keyboard tones. This is a nice, relaxing bit of music to have on in the background, but it doesn’t really have enough to grab onto for active listening.
Score: 64/100
Band: Five the Hierophant | Album:Apeiron | Genre: Post-metal, Progressive metal | Bandcamp
Instrumental post-metal band Five the Hierophant blends biting, buzzy saxophone with sludgy guitars and plodding rhythms. In many ways, this band reminds me of a metallic, instrumental version of Van der Graaf Generator. They draw heavily from dark, jazz-influenced classic prog, like King Crimson and the aforementioned VdGG. Little bits of Middle Eastern music crop up on “Moon Over Ziggurat”, and the two-part “Tower of Silence” features unsettling drone and electronic elements. Though the songs are long, their length feels appropriate. The music is clearly carefully constructed, and no notes are wasted.
This record has been generating a lot of buzz lately, and I think it’s only about 60% related to the semi-erotic furry artwork that graces the album cover. And considering Vylet Pony’s origins, such album art makes sense.
Vylet Pony is a one-woman project based out of Portland. She got her start in music in the early 2010s making My Little Pony-themed electronic music. I’ve never seen My Little Pony. I’m sure it’s a perfectly fine show, but it’s one of those things that had (has? Is brony-dom still going? I don’t wanna research it.) one of the most irritating fanbases I’ve ever encountered. I classify it the same way as things like Steven Universe and Doctor Who: shows I’ve heard generally positive things about but with a fandom so annoying, I’m never going to watch any of it.
However, I strive to be a serious music critic on this site, and acts can evolve well beyond their origins. Hell, if you told me back in college that I’d like a Job for a Cowboy record, I would’ve said you were nuts. If someone got their start in music in a niche I found personally grating, I think I can set that aside if they really have put out a great album.
Now, as regular readers of my site know by now, I’m not a lyrics guy. I like the sound of the human voice, but I usually don’t care about the specific words themselves. There are exceptions, and when there are those exceptions, it’s usually a bad sign for the album in question (*cough*Somalgia*cough*). Monarch of Monsters is based on a novella by the artist. I didn’t read it, and I’m not planning to. I’m writing this during Thanksgiving week, and I don’t really have the time to. (I’m also honestly not much of a fiction reader, either.) I wanted to get that out there for full disclosure.
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