Album Review: Jethro Tull – RökFlöte

Band: Jethro Tull | Album: RökFlöte | Genre: Progressive rock, Hard rock | Year: 2023

From: Luton, UK | Label: InsideOut Music

A little over a year after their unimpressive return on The Zealot Gene, Jethro Tull is back with another record, RökFlöte. For this record, Ian Anderson stated he drew inspiration from Norse mythology, and the word “Ragnarök” is where he got the idea for this album’s title. Each of the twelve songs on this album is based off a character or concept from Norse mythology.

Going into this, I did my best to keep an open mind. Yes, I’d found The Zealot Gene unnecessary, disappointing, and soulless; but Tull has bounced back from bad records before! Minstrel in the Gallery followed the unfocused hodgepodge of WarChild, and Roots to Branches came after the tepid blues rock of Catfish Rising (and their middling ‘80s hard rock). Martin Barre continues to be absent from the band, so I tried to calibrate my expectations for the guitarwork accordingly.

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Album Review: Caratucay – Nocturnes of the Incarcerated

Band: Caratucay | Album: Nocturnes of the Incarcerated | Genre: Death metal, Progressive metal | Year: 2023

From: Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany | Label: Independent

For fans of: Between the Buried and Me, Opeth

Bandcamp

Caratucay is a German prog-death metal quintet, and Nocturnes of the Incarcerated is their second full-length album. I will admit that I was entirely unfamiliar with this band before running across Nocturnes while perusing Bandcamp, but this album made enough of an impression on me, I felt it’d make a solid spotlight for this site.

After the brief subdued intro “Captivi te Salutant”, the album starts in earnest with “Paralysis”. It’s an immediate punch in the face, full of pummeling yet melodic riffs. The vocals have more in common with black metal than death metal for the most part, but that’s something I like. In general, I prefer black metal shrieking over death metal Cookie Monster vocals. Those low guttural vocals feature prominently, too, but they strike a nice balance. “Paralysis” is a tight, anxious song, where the riffs bounce all over the place. Despite the many shifts, the song holds together well.

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Album Review: PeroPero – Massive Tales of Doom

Band: PeroPero | Album: Massive Tales of Doom | Genre: Progressive metal | Year: 2023

From: Berlin, Germany | Label: Panta R&E

For fans of: Dream Theater, Haken, Devin Townsend

Bandcamp

PeroPero is a Berlin-based progressive metal duo of Austrian origin. It’s been six years since their last release, 2017’s Lizards. Massive Tales of Doom hews rather close to PeroPero’s typical sound. The vocals are idiosyncratic and dramatic, and the songs are full of wild and twisting riffs.

Massive Tales of Doom opens on the pummeling, slightly-askew guitar lines of “Vermin”. The drumming is exciting and energetic without being overbearing. The vocals are dramatic and are perhaps the most distinctive part of the band, overall. It’s unorthodox but it works excellently. The song alternates between expansive, doom-influenced walls of guitar and twisting, irregular scalar runs. Growling stabs of synthesized bass add an effective counterbalance during the song’s more ascendent moments.

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Album Review: GEZAN with Million Wish Collective – 「あのち」

Band: GEZAN with Million Wish Collective | Album: 「あのち」| Genre: Art punk, Experimental Rock | Year: 2023

From: Tokyo, Japan | Label: 13th Records

For fans of: Squid, Frank Zappa, black midi

Bandcamp

Japan often gets stereotyped as having a lot of bizarre media. We’ve all seen those clips of insane Japanese game shows. I’ve never been to Japan, so I can’t personally vouch for the country, but I’ve got a feeling that’s an unfair, unrepresentative slice of their media landscape. I’ve heard enough dull Japanese jazz-rock to be confident they’ve got their own anodyne TV shows. However, sometimes that reputation for weirdness is warranted. Those insane game shows do exist, after all. And musically, it was Japan that revitalized zeuhl in the 1990s. The latest release from GEZAN falls firmly into that tradition of strangeness.

「あのち」(“Anochi”) is a striking record. It’s distinctive in its sound, and I somewhat struggled when thinking up artists for the “For fans of” section of the header. This album contains a dizzying blend of punk, prog, jazz, art rock and more. It touches on an impressive number of genres while also maintaining a sense of purpose about itself.

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Album Review: Witch Ripper – The Flight After The Fall

Band: Witch Ripper | Album: The Flight after the Fall | Genre: Sludge metal, Progressive metal | Year: 2023

From: Seattle, USA | Label: Magnetic Eye Records

For fans of: Mastodon, Baroness, Gojira, Inter Arma

Bandcamp

Witch Ripper is one of my favorite local acts from the Seattle scene. They play a heavy, sludgy variety of metal, but it’s shot through with complex melodies and artful subtleties. I’ve seen them live a few times, and they always put on a fantastic show. So if you’re in the Pacific Northwest and you get a chance to see them, I’d strongly recommend the experience.

Despite being around since 2012, the band didn’t put out its first full-length release until 2018. Homestead is a solid album with some great moments. It’s more sludge-with-prog-elements than vice-versa, but it still holds its own. Their new album, The Flight after the Fall, has more explicitly progressive leanings.

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Album Review: Plank – Future of the Sea

Band: Plank | Album: Future of the Sea | Genre: Progressive rock, Math rock | Year: 2023

From: Todmorden, UK | Label: Golden Lion Sounds

For fans of: The Physics House Band, Kylver

Bandcamp

After nearly a decade of silence, British math/progressive rock band Plank (alternately stylized as Plank! on Spotify) returns with a new record. Their last release was 2014’s Hivemind, an insect-themed album with some absolutely killer tracks on it. “Grasshoppers from Mars” demonstrated the band’s ability to be flashy yet catchy and melodic, and “Khepri” was a beautiful example of how to execute a build-up.

Their new release, Future of the Sea follows in a similar sonic palette. This instrumental record is built around weird, complicated riffs, where both crunchy guitar and glimmering synths get their chance to shine.

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Album Review: PoiL Ueda – Poil Ueda

Band: PoiL Ueda | Album: PoiL Ueda | Genre: Progressive rock, RIO, Japanese folk | Year: 2023

From: Lyon, France & Tokyo, Japan | Label: Dur et Doux

For fans of: Osamu Kitajima, Magma, Frank Zappa, Ni

Bandcamp

After four years, PoiL returns with another daring, angular, madcap album. 2019’s Sus was a fantastic release, and it saw the band both focus its songwriting after the sprawling Brossaklitt and stretch out with a pair of 20-minute suites. On this release, the band has teamed up with biwa player and singer Junko Ueda.

I’m hardly an expert in traditional Japanese music. I knew what a biwa was before writing this review, so I’m probably ahead of most Americans, but not by much. According to Ueda’s website, she specializes in “biwa storytelling” and shomyo, a type of Buddhist chant. My primary source of knowledge of Japanese folk music prior to this was Osamu Kitajima’s seminal Benzaiten, a sublime synthesis of progressive rock and an array of Japonic styles.

Much like Sus, PoiL Ueda is made up of a pair of large suites, each of which typifies one of Ueda’s professed specialities.

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Album Review: Zopp – Dominion

Band: Zopp | Album: Dominion | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Nottingham, UK | Label: Flat Circle Records

For fans of: Soft Machine, Diagonal, Caravan

Bandcamp

I’ve discussed the Canterbury sound on this site a number of times. Its heyday–like much of progressive rock–was back in the early 1970s, but even then it was somewhat niche. Despite that, there are a few acts still keeping this sound alive, and Zopp is one of the best ones.

Zopp’s 2020 self-titled debut wound up being one of my top albums for the year, though I never reviewed it before my year-end best-of list. It wasn’t some late-in-the-year surprise for me; I just never got around to covering it. But I don’t want to have that be the case again. The two pre-release singles for Dominion had both been great, so I went into this record with pretty high hopes. On their Bandcamp, the band describes this album as being closer to Yes or Marillion than any Canterbury act, but I have to disagree. If I’m looking for good comparisons, I’m still going to cite Soft Machine, Gong, and (especially) Caravan.

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Album Review: Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here.

Artist: Lil Yachty | Album: Let’s Start Here. | Genre: Psychedelic rock, Neo-psychedelia | Year: 2023

From: Mableton, (GA,) USA | Label: Concrete, Quality Control, Motown

For fans of: Tame Impala, Pink Floyd, Kids See Ghosts

Buy

Lil Yachty is now the most-unexpected artist I’ve ever covered. I could have feasibly seen myself covering other hip-hop artists at some point. Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition is a masterpiece that extensively samples progressive, psychedelic, and krautrock; and his experimental spirit made him someone I thought could have shown up on this site eventually. Lil Yachty’s usual trap stylings made this album a complete left-field surprise, though. (I can’t say I’m exceedingly familiar with his previous work, nor do I know much about hip-hop, more broadly speaking. But I’d heard a few of his songs, and in general I don’t like trap. So please excuse my illiteracy of his other work.)

Let’s Start Here. is fairly comparable to the Kanye West-Kid Cudi collaboration, Kids See Ghosts. But where that duo was still firmly rooted in hip-hop, Yachty’s new release is primarily rock-focused. There are also ample soul and Motown flavors, and hip-hop crops up on occasion. The whole record is dense and lush, and it’s got an engrossing, enveloping quality to it. Autotune is used as an instrument unto itself here. The robotic tones are slathered in reverb, and it complements the dreamy, Afrofuturist tone of this record perfectly.

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Album Review: Riverside – ID.Entity

Band: Riverside | Album: ID.Entity | Genre: Progressive rock, Progressive metal | Year: 2023

From: Warsaw, Poland | Label: InsideOut

For fans of: Porcupine Tree

Bandcamp

Riverside is one of the bigger names in the progressive music world. They’re a progressive metal act based out of Poland that came to prominence in the early 2000s. Their first decade or so of existence was great, with 2009’s Anno Domini High Definition being one of the best records of that decade. Moving into the 2010s, though, the band faltered a bit. Shrine of New Generation Slaves didn’t quite land, in my opinion, and I disliked Love, Fear and the Time Machine so much, I didn’t even give their 2018 album, Wasteland, a listen. So, when I saw they had a new record coming out (their first since I started this site), I was viewing it comparably to how I view Dream Theater: something I’m pretty much obligated to cover; something I’m not that jazzed about; but something I’m willing to be surprised by.

When I first heard “Friend or Foe?”, the album’s opening track and leadoff single, I had a rather negative reaction to it. Those blooping faux-80s synth lines usually summon a visceral revulsion from me. I don’t like synthwave or most of the other ‘80s pastiches that have been in vogue for what feels like at least a decade at this point. It can be fun as an interlude to switch things up, admittedly, like BTBAM did on Colors II. “Friend or Foe?” isn’t even a bad song; I’ve warmed up quite a bit to it. But there’s a difference between tossing in some contrast two-thirds of the way through an album versus leading an album off with such a decision. I was worried this would wind up being something of a mission statement for the record, but thankfully it isn’t.

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