Album Review: Steven Wilson – The Harmony Codex

Artist: Steven Wilson | Album: The Harmony Codex | Genre: Art pop, Progressive electronic | Year: 2023

From: Hertfordshire, UK | Label: Virgin (UK), Spinefarm (US)

For fans of: Radiohead, Pink Floyd

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It’s been a decade since Steven Wilson’s last good solo album. (I almost said just “album,” but Closure/Continuation was good. Not great, but good.) Especially considering the trajectory of his last two solo releases, I did not have high hopes for The Harmony Codex. He’s been teasing this album for a while as a return to form, and he had repeatedly said it’s less pop-oriented than The Future Bites. Then again, I’m sure that Roger Waters also thinks his dogshit re-recording of The Dark Side of the Moon is good. Needless to say, I took Steven’s word with a (large) grain of salt.

And I am pleased to say my skepticism was mostly misplaced. The Harmony Codex is notably stronger than The Future Bites and To the Bone. Its album art is even an improvement over both those works! In addition to being his most interesting album in a while, it’s also his most electronic since his (quite crappy) 2004 collection of electronic music. Latter-era Porcupine Tree often dabbled with electronic elements, and Wilson is part of the electronic duo Bass Communion, so this pattern isn’t unprecedented.

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Album Review: The Chronicles of Father Robin – The Songs & Tales of Airoea – Book 1

Band: The Chronicles of Father Robin | Album: The Songs & Tales of Airoea – Book 1 | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Karisma Records

For fans of: Änglagård, Camel, Yes

Bandcamp

The Chronicles of Father Robin are a band that dates back to the inception of Scandinavia’s modern prog scene. (The Nordic countries also put out some good material in the 1970s, but bands like Kaipa, Friendship Time, and Haikara don’t have much of a direct connection to the modern scene.) Originally formed in 1993, they made plans for a sprawling triple album built around one unifying story thread. Nothing came of it at the time, and the band members went on to be in major acts, like Wobbler, Tusmørke, and Jordsjø, among others. Now, nearly 30 years later, the band has reunited.

The Songs & Chronicles of Airoea – Book 1 is the first part of this planned three-part album arc. Multi-album story arcs are nothing new to me, not that I ever give much mind to lyrics. I am curious to hear just how musically cohesive this project winds up being across subsequent releases. I’m hoping it’ll be something a bit more interesting than just the same album three times over, but only time will tell.

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Album Review: The Anchoret – It All Began With Loneliness

Band: The Anchoret | Album: It All Began with Loneliness | Genre: Progressive rock, Progressive metal | Year: 2023

From: Canada | Label: Willowtip Record

For fans of: Dream Theater, latter-era Porcupine Tree, Devin Townsend

Bandcamp

I really couldn’t find too much about The Anchoret. “Canada” is the extent of what I could find about their origin, and their record label doesn’t have much more information on them. This is a five-piece band that plays a melodic variety of progressive metal, with a number of notable jazz inclusions. With such a scarcity of information, let’s jump right into their debut record, It All Began with Loneliness.

Despite the title, it actually begins with “An Office For…” This features some jazzy–if somewhat overwrought–guitar soloing before launching into a slow-moving, languid verse. The saxophone which shows up is also a bit on the corny end of things. But don’t worry, things improve after this somewhat weak opening!

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Album Review: M-Opus – At the Mercy of Manannán

Band: M-Opus | Album: At the Mercy of Manannán | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Dublin, Ireland | Label: Rude Chord Records

For fans of: Yes, Genesis

Bandcamp

M-Opus tackles the concept of “retro-prog” in a rather unique way. Each of their previous two albums have been “set” in a year in progressive rock’s history, to pretty decent results. Their new album, At the Mercy of Manannán, is setting itself up to fill some big shoes, as this one is using the year 1972 as its framing device. The span of 1971-1973 was (to me, at least) the absolute apex of the genre. Big names like Yes, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, and Jethro Tull were all putting out their best work. (King Crimson peaked a bit later, in the mid ‘70s.) 1972 alone saw the release of all-time classics such as Thick as a Brick, Close to the Edge, Pawn Hearts, and Per un amico. (And the debut of seminal Irish prog(-ish)-rockers Horslips, if we want to narrow the lens to M-Opus’s homeland.)

Manannán is an Irish sea deity, and the ruler and guardian of the Otherwold, the Celtic conception of where their gods lived. I’m not particularly well-versed in Celtic mythology, but that alone sounds like it should be able to at least match the lofty concepts of many classic prog albums.

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Album Review: Tusmørke – Hestehoven

Band: Tusmørke | Album: Hestehoven | Genre: Progressive rock, Nordic folk rock | Year: 2023

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Karisma Records

For fans of: Jordsjø, Jethro Tull

Bandcamp

For as long as I’ve been running this site, I have repeatedly praised Scandinavia’s thriving progressive rock scene. In particular, I enjoy when acts put a uniquely Nordic spin on prog, rather than just doing some (admittedly quite good) Anglo-prog. Hailing from Oslo, Tusmørke is a band I was surprised to find I had not yet covered. They’re prolific, with Hestehoven (The Horse’s Hoof) being the band’s twelfth full-length release in eleven years.

On top of that rapid release schedule, they’re distinctive. Other bands might incorporate Scandinavian folk into their music, but it can sometimes be superficial or somewhat sparingly utilized. Tusmørke’s songs sound like they begin life as folk songs before being given a rock rhythm and an abundance of keyboard effects. The band’s music also steers clear of the self-serious dourness that can easily befall this subgenre. Songs are frequently peppy, bouncy, and light-hearted. (I do not speak Norwegian, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the band dabbled in some darker lyrical themes for contrast.) One of their releases from 2017–Bydyra–was even explicitly tagged as children’s music.

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Album Review: Fleshvessel – Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed

Band: Fleshvessel | Album: Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed | Genre: Avant-garde metal | Year: 2023

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

For fans of: Oranssi Pazuzu, Panopticon, Panegyrist

Bandcamp

Sometimes I run across albums with artwork that does not seem to fit the music. Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed, the first full-length album from Chicago-based Fleshvessel, doesn’t quite gobsmack me, but it’s not really what I was anticipating. Twisting trees made of arms and chasms lined by teeth led me to expect a gruesome onslaught of relentless death or black metal. But instead, this band has put out an impressively diverse, cohesive, and thoughtful record. Yes, there’s no shortage of harsh metal here, but there’s so much more.

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Album Review: Rhùn – Tozïh

Band: Rhùn | Album: Tozïh | Genre: Zeuhl | Year: 2023

From: Ernée, France | Label: Baboon Fish

For fans of: Magma, Guapo, Mahavishnu Orchestra

Bandcamp

Magma casts a very long shadow over the zeuhl scene, especially for bands hailing from their native France. And it’d be weird if they didn’t; they invented the damn micro-genre, after all. But that means a lot of bands seem to be almost pigeonholed into being Magma clones (or near-clones, at least). It can be a difficult balancing act to prominently display the influence of such a singular, idiosyncratic band as Magma without just sounding like you’re recording Attahk, Pt. 2.

Rhùn manages to thread that needle pretty well. Their 2013 debut, Fanfare du chaos, is a decent zeuhl record. It is very Magmatic, sometimes too much so. The band shows a lot of creativity on it, even if they do occasionally wander into some overly-well-trod zeuhl tropes. Tozïh, their ten-years-in-the-making sophomore release, shows some clear improvement over its predecessor. The astral, jazzy weirdness of Magma is still front-and-center, but they’ve managed to make this record sound more their own.

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Album Review: Actionfredag – Turist i eget liv

Band: Actionfredag | Album: Turist i eget liv | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Hærverk Industrier

For fans of: Beardfish, Shaman Elephant, Jordsjø

Bandcamp

I’ve talked at length about Scandinavia’s 21st Century ascent to being one of modern prog’s hotspots. Even within that small ecosystem, Norway’s scene is especially vibrant, with plenty of creative cross-pollination between acts. Actionfredag (Norwegian for “Action Friday”) is a collaboration between members of several bands, including Tusmørke and Jordsjø, with guest contributions from members of a number of other Norwegian prog acts.

Turist i eget liv (Tourist in My Own Life) is the first album from this band, and it’s a strong outing. But considering the members’ pedigrees, that should hardly come as a surprise.

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Album Review: Dominic Sanderson – Impermanence

Artist: Dominic Sanderson | Album: Impermanence | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Wakefield, UK | Label: Independent

For fans of: Porcupine Tree, Van der Graaf Generator, King Crimson

Bandcamp

For the last three years, my album of the year has been a debut record (Moura’s self-titled in 2020, Papangu’s Holoceno in 2021, and The Mighty Orchid King’s Mycelium Music Vol. 1 in 2022). It’s a bit of a strange coincidence. So far this year, I’ve found some good debut records, but none are quite in that top echelon to vie for the top spot on my year-end list.

Dominic Sanderson’s new album, Impermanence, isn’t technically a debut, but it is his first full-length release. (Prior to this, he released an EP in 2020.) This record is an impressive collection of some of the darker sounds of classic prog, synthesized into something modern and exciting.

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Album Review: Lars Fredrik Frøislie – Fire Fortellinger

Artist: Lars Fredrik Frøislie | Album: Fire Fortellinger | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Karisma Records

For fans of: Yes, Wobbler

Bandcamp

Lars Fredrik Frøislie is the keyboardist and a backing vocalist of Wobbler, and Fire Fortellinger (Four Stories) is his first solo album. I had a few people reach out, independent of one another, to tell me about this album, and they all had a line to the effect of, “I know you’re not really a fan of Wobbler, but…” I would like to clarify something: I don’t dislike Wobbler. I think they’re over-praised in modern progressive rock discourse, but I don’t think they’re bad. Dwellers of the Deep was a mixed bag of a record, yes; but From Silence to Somewhere, Rites at Dawn, and Hinterland are all pretty solid. They’re not doing anything groundbreakingly original, but they’re putting out good, classic-style, Mellotron-and-organ-powered prog.

So, I went into Fire Fortellinger less skeptical than many people probably expected me to be. This guy’s the keyboard player for a very keyboard-forward band, so I knew about what to expect. And sure enough, this album is pretty decent, classic-style prog.

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