Album Review: Cryptic Shift – Overspace & Supertime

Band: Cryptic Shift | Album: Overspace & Supertime | Genre: Progressive metal, Technical thrash metal | Year: 2026

From: Leeds, UK | Label: Metal Blade

For fans of: Vektor, Voivod, Coroner, Atheist

Bandcamp

I don’t know what keeps drawing progressive and technical thrash metal bands to outer space, but it seems to be working. Vektor, Droid, Voivod, Obliveon, and plenty of others have plumbed the depths of the night sky for inspiration, and Cryptic Shift continues in this proud tradition. Their 2020 debut, Visitations from Enceladus, is a phenomenal work, with the 25-minute “Moonbelt Immolator” being one of the greatest metal epics of this century.

Their newest release, Overspace & Supertime, is a monumental work, clocking in at nearly 80 minutes over just five songs. Their brand of cosmic, death-tinged thrash is a powerful canvas for their sci-fi storytelling.

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Album Review: Fleshvessel – Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded

Band: Fleshvessel | Album: Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded | Genre: Progressive metal | Year: 2025

From: Chicago, USA | Label: I, Voidhanger Records

For fans of: Oranssi Pazuzu, Krallice, Panegyrist

Bandcamp

Fleshvessel’s 2023 debut was an incredible statement in modern progressive metal. This Chicagoan act wove together black metal, jazz, modern classical, and experimental music to create a striking, singular record. This ambition (and tendency toward prolix album titles) continues on their sophomore release, Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded.

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Album Review: Mirkwood Spiders – The Black Mountain Ritual

Band: Mirkwood Spiders | Album: The Black Mountain Ritual | Genre: Heavy psych, Stoner metal, Progressive rock | Year: 2025

From: Chur, Switzerland | Label: Independent

For fans of: King Gizzard, Garcia Peoples, Stoned Jesus, Witch Ripper

Bandcamp

Mirkwood Spiders is a Swiss band that continues in the proud tradition of bands like King Gizzard and (sometimes) Stoned Jesus. Fuzz-drenched, occasionally-bluesy psychedelia swirls and storms as this four-piece weaves their magic.

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Album Review: Yurt – VI – Rippling Mirrors of the Other

Band: Yurt | Album: VI – Rippling Mirrors of the Other | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2025

From: Dublin, Ireland | Label: Independent

For fans of: Cardiacs, 5uu’s, early Devo, Voivod

Bandcamp

Yurt is a band I’ve been following for a while, and I have featured them on this site once before. They’re an experimental rock band based out of Dublin, and they’ve always got something exciting up their sleeves. Their music draws inspiration from various strains of metal, punk, psychedelia, and avant-garde styles of music. My personal favorite of theirs is III – Molluskkepok, but their new record, VI – Rippling Mirrors of the Other, is a solid addition to their discography.

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Album Review: Gros Coeur – Vague Scélérate

Band: Gros Coeur | Album: Vague Scélérate | Genre: Krautrock, Progressive rock | Year: 2025

From: Liege, Belgium | Label: Spinda Records

For fans of: King Gizzard, Wand, Mother’s Cake

Bandcamp

Gros Coeur is a band out of Belgium, and Vague Scélérate (Eng.: Rogue Wave) is their sophomore release. Belgium isn’t exactly some hotbed of prog; to my recollection, Neptunian Maximalism is the only Belgian band I’ve featured on here before. And even the other Belgian bands in my library are kind of…marginal. Nessie, Phylter, and Womega are hardly essential acts; and I just don’t like Univers Zero that much.

Vague Scélérate, however, is a great record. It’s rather diverse with a wonderful, distinctive sound.

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Album Review: Stinkbug – Between Timid and Timbuktu

Band: Stinkbug | Album: Between Timid and Timbuktu | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2025

From: Portland, (OR,) USA | Label: Independent

For fans of: Yes, Yezda Urfa, K’mono

Bandcamp

Stinkbug is a prime example of why I like going to live music. I discovered them about five days ago (at time of writing) when I went to see Dust Mice perform. (Dust Mice is a Seattle-based space rock band very heavily influenced by Hawkwind, and I only discovered them when I went to go see Everything Oscillating play. And I only know about Everything Oscillating because they’re a Moon Letters side project, whom I first discovered opening for Pinkish Black. Support local live music, folks!) Stinkbug was the second band on the bill, and I was absolutely blown away.

Their sound is definitely rooted in a lot of classic progressive rock, and all four members have experience in jazz. Accordingly, there is a ton of speedy, technical playing and unconventional songwriting on their debut record, Between Timid and Timbuktu. They also add in heavier music, especially thrash metal and punk, but the sound is overall rather sunny and bright.

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Album Review: Coroner – Dissonance Theory

Band: Coroner | Album: Dissonance Theory | Genre: Progressive thrash metal | Year: 2025

From: Zurich, Switzerland | Label: Century Media

For fans of: Voivod, Dark Angel, Vektor

Bandcamp

As I’ve noted before, progressive thrash is currently one of the less-popular varieties of metal out there. A few bands still carry the torch (like Vektor and Anarchÿ), but black, death, and sludge bands are much more likely to fold progressive elements into their music. For a while in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, prog-thrash was relatively more vibrant. Bands like Dark Angel, Toxik, Voivod, Watchtower, and even Metallica wrote long, multiparted compositions and demonstrated some major artistic ambitions.

One of those classic early prog-thrash bands was the Swiss trio Coroner. Their songs were usually relatively to-the-point, only rarely going over six minutes. But their composition was some of the most varied and intellectual in all of thrash metal. Jazz, classical, and avant-garde elements often found their way into the band’s riffs. The last time Coroner put out an album was their self-titled quasi-compilation album from 1995. They broke up and went on an extended hiatus. I wasn’t even aware they’d reunited!

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Album Review: Lazersleep – Gravity

Band: Lazersleep | Album: Gravity | Genre: Heavy psych, Space rock | Year: 2025

From: Helsinki, Finland | Label: Independent

For fans of: Elder, Pink Floyd

Bandcamp

Lazersleep is a band that wholeheartedly embraces textures and sonic effects as practically instruments unto themselves. They play a variety of psychedelia awash in phasers, flangers, wahs, and more, all in service of building up powerful atmospheres. The band describes their own music as “a psychedelic delay-bath,” and the lush soundscapes on this record even prompted them to tag this record with the confusing-but-fitting term “heavy nap.” Gravity is their debut record, and it is an impressive first statement.

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Album Review: Syrinx – Time Out of Place

Band: Syrinx | Album: Time Out of Place | Genre: Progressive rock, Heavy metal | Bandcamp

From: Vancouver, Canada | Label: Ocula Records

For fans of: Rush, Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden

Bandcamp

After six years, Vancouver’s Syrinx is back with their sophomore album. Their 2019 debut, Embrace the Dark – Seek the Light blended classic heavy metal with progressive rock to make one of my favorite releases of that year. In particular, “Time out of Place” with its Geddy Lee-inspired synth line and the sprawling suite “ZXY” stood out.

Time Out of Place sees the band even more fully embracing progressive rock than on their debut. They’ve hardly eschewed their heavy metal roots, but they have deemphasized that element of their music a bit. The band also boasts about how this was all recorded on analog, which doesn’t really have any effect on me. I don’t care if this was recorded with tapes or computers; what I care about is the strength of the writing and playing.

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Album Review: Between the Buried and Me – The Blue Nowhere

Band: Between the Buried and Me | Album: The Blue Nowhere | Genre: Progressive metal | Year: 2025

From: Raleigh, USA | Label: InsideOut Music

Bandcamp

Four years after Colors II, Between the Buried and Me has returned with their twelfth studio album, The Blue Nowhere. The band’s Bandcamp claims that this is the band’s “most […] eclectic record yet”. Now, BTBAM has a very distinct sound they normally hew pretty close to. Every album also has its own distinct foibles.

I like to go into BTBAM records blind, but after listening to this album a few times now, I can say they definitely oversold the eclecticism. This might even be their most eclectic record, if you were to crunch the numbers and see how many minutes were death metal and how many minutes were any number of other things, but this is still a BTBAM record. If you know the band, you know the sound you’re getting.

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