Odds & Ends: March 4, 2024

Band: Caligula’s Horse | Album: Charcoal Grace | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

My view of what is actually popular and successful is probably skewed by where I spend my time online. A lot of that time is on Reddit, and a not-insignificant portion of that time in turn is spent perusing r/progmetal. One of the most beloved bands on that subreddit is Caligula’s Horse, and if you’ve paid attention to my comments on other darlings of that subreddit (Nospūn, recent Leprous, and recent Haken) or compared my year-end list to theirs, it should come as little surprise that this is a band that’s never really clicked with me.

Their brand of prog metal is melodic and in the same general vein as Dream Theater. The vocals are clean, and there’s a strong emphasis on majestic climaxes. Everything is well-played, and the songs are smartly-structured, so I’m struggling to articulate why this record isn’t resonating with me. It’s not particularly derivative of any one act, but I suppose there’s not much that really stands out about it either. The production is a bit soupy, as the guitars bleed together into an indistinct distorted mush, and the vocals get swallowed up by the backing. That lack of definition can make it tough for individual elements to stand out.

Score: 66/100

Band: Ellesmere | Album: Stranger Skies | Genre: Neo-prog | Bandcamp

Ellesmere is an Italian band whose music draws heavily from neo-prog and ‘80s arena rock. It’s big, loud, complex, and showy, and if you like acts like Marillion, IQ, or Asia, you’re probably going to like Ellesmere. The production isn’t great, and the vocals are fairly rough, but nevertheless it’s clear the music has some strong bones. The 12-minute title track is especially good, featuring smart structuring choices and dynamic musicianship.

Score: 71/100

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Album Review: The Chronicles of Father Robin – The Songs & Tales of Airoea – Book III (+Airoea overview)

Band: The Chronicles of Father Robin | Album: The Songs & Tales of Airoea – Book III | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 204

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Karisma Records

For fans of: Yes, Wobbler

Bandcamp

The Chronicles of Father Robin return with the conclusion of their Airoea trilogy. Book I covered the land of Airoea, and Book II its waterways. You can read about my thoughts on those, as well as some notes on this band’s background, in my original reviews. Book III, now, is exploring the skies of Airoea.

With the Airoea trilogy now concluded, I’ve included my thoughts on the project as a whole at the end of this review.

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Album Review: Sgàile – Traverse the Bealach

Band: Sgàile | Album: Traverse the Bealach | Genre: Progressive metal, Post-metal | Year: 2024

From: Glasgow, UK | Label: Independent

For fans of: Devin Townsend, Avandra, Elder

Bandcamp

I pride myself on generally being pretty good at pronouncing non-English words reasonably closely to how they would be by a native speaker. (I make no claims about my ability to string together a coherent sentence, mind you.) However, the spelling systems of Irish and Scottish Gaelic truly baffle me. I’ve been told that they actually make a lot of sense and are fairly consistent, if you sit down and learn the conventions. I haven’t done that, though, so this band’s name, Sgàile, made me raise an eyebrow. It turns out it’s pronounced roughly “sky-lee,” (which is not too far off what I would have guessed), and it means “shade” in Scottish Gaelic.

Sgàile is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Tony Dunn, and Traverse the Bealach is their second full-length release. (“Bealach” means something like “way” or “road,” according to Google Translate.) There is an unmistakable Scottishness to this music, and there are some passing similarities to Saor, another notably Caledonian metal act. But where Saor tends to be more atmospheric and impressionistic, Sgàile’s riffs have a bit more punch and definition behind them.

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Album Review: Slift – Ilion

Band: Slift | Album: Ilion | Genre: Heavy psych, Space rock | Year: 2024

From: Toulouse, France | Label: Sub Pop

For fans of: Elder, Hawkwind, Ash Ra Tempel

Bandcamp

Slift is back after a four-year gap with their new album, Ilion. The band has stated that Ilion can be thought of as a direct sequel to Ummon, their 2020 release. There is a lot of sonic continuity between the two records. Both prominently feature bludgeoning doom metal riffs, crossed with krautrock-like repetition, and interstellar aesthetics. Much like Ummon, Ilion is a challenging listen. It’s a nearly-unrelenting onslaught of heavy riffs that cascade effortlessly from your speakers. I saw Slift when they came to Seattle last year, and if they come again, I’m going to go once more. They put on a great show, and I’m sure these cuts will be great additions to their live set.

In many ways, Ilion takes what Ummon did and cranks it up even further. Ummon saw Slift shift from spacey garage rock to a more metallic sound, and that progression has continued here. Not only are doom metal influences present, but post-metal, too. Ummon runs 72 minutes across 11 songs, but Ilion pumps that to 79 minutes across only eight songs (only two of which are under nine minutes, and none of which are below five).

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Odds & Ends: February 4, 2024

Band: Everything Oscillating | Album: The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Everything Oscillating is an instrumental act that focuses on flashy, technical shredding. Two of the three members are the guitarist and bassist for the Seattle-based band Moon Letters, whom I’ve covered a couple times. EO does a great job threading the needle of balancing flashy instrumental antics and engaging songwriting. The best moments here call to mind classic bombastic ‘90s and early ‘00s prog bands like Liquid Tension Experiment and Transatlantic, with a bit more of a classic heavy metal influence. Jazz and Latin flavors are included naturally, and the (abbreviated) instrumental cover of “Achilles’ Last Stand” is done well, too. (I feel like I could write a short essay on my love for the original version of that song, and EO absolutely does it justice here. It’s right up there with “Carouselambra”, “In the Light”, and “The Rain Song” among my favorite Led Zeppelin cuts. (I know, shocker, my favorite Zeppelin songs are all among the band’s longest.))

Score: 79/100

Artist: Peter Gabriel | Album: i/o | Genre: Art pop | Bandcamp

Peter Gabriel’s first new album in 20 years is enjoyable. It’s decent, fairly arty pop with some good melodies and interesting ideas. His vocal performance is strong, and the production is clean, crisp, and professional. Compositionally, though, it doesn’t stand out. Post-rock flavors weave themselves into Gabriel’s usual somewhat-spacey writing style. It’s competent but not particularly memorable. i/o comes in two different mixes: the so-called “bright-side” and “dark-side” mixes. These two mixes are not meaningfully different. Yes, if you listen to each song’s bright and dark version, you can tell them apart, but the differences between the two are insubstantial, surface-level, and borderline-gimmicky. Publications (especially prog-focused ones) that included this on their best-of 2023 lists make me question if they just reflexively put every release from major ‘70s players on their year-end lists, regardless of quality. (In fact, I know several included Yes’s abysmal The Quest on their 2021 lists, so I suppose they do.) If you want some keyboard-forward art-pop to put on in the background, i/o will work, but this album doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

Score: 63/100

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Album Review: Anarchÿ – Eyeclöser

Band: Anarchÿ | Album: Eyeclöser | Genre: Progressive thrash metal | Year: 2023

From: St. Louis, USA | Label: Independent

For fans of: Vektor, Coroner, Voivod

Bandcamp

When I covered Anarchÿ’s debut album a couple years ago, I noted that thrash (and especially prog-thrash) is not the most widespread or vibrant metal subgenre at the moment, but the few bands in the current vanguard are pretty solid. Vektor is not known for a rigorous release schedule, and Droid–a Canadian prog-thrash act I like a lot–put out one album seven years ago, and it’s been radio silence since. With Anarchÿ, it’s nice to have a semi-regular flow of new music.

Or, well, mostly new music. Eyeclöser, the band’s second full-length record is three-quarters new material, but it does feature a handful of rerecorded songs originally from their 2021 EP Breathing Necropolis. As a proportion of this album’s total runtime, rerecordings have a combined length less than this album’s centerpiece suite. This is a long record, so get comfortable before settling in for it.

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Album Review: Ὁπλίτης – Παραμαινομένη (Hoplites – Paramainomeni)

Band: Ὁπλίτης | Album: Παραμαινομένη | Genre: Black metal, Progressive metal | Year: 2024

From: Ningbo, China | Label: Independent

For fans of: Spectral Lore, Krallice

Bandcamp

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about the contemporary Chinese musical scene. Within the Sinosphere, the only acts I’ve got any familiarity with are Zhaoze–a post-rock act I’ve covered which is based out of Guangzhou–and Taiwan’s Chthonic, a relatively well-known metal band. I did recently run across WV Sorcerer Productions on Bandcamp, a French label which specializes in underground Chinese psychedelia, but I haven’t dug too deeply into that yet. The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t know what current trends or strains are running through Chinese music.

Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites) is a Ningbo-based band I’ve been aware of for about a year. I ran across their debut album Ψευδομένη (Psevdomeni, Eng. Counterfeit) early last year. It’s a striking, smothering technical black metal record that utilizes dissonance in an interesting way. The fact that all the song titles and everything else are in Greek also made it pop out to me on Bandcamp when scrolling through the “progressive metal” tag. They put out two more albums over the span of 2023, but none of them really felt like a proper fit for this site. Παραμαινομένη (Paramainomeni, Eng. Perpetuated), though, is their most overtly proggy release yet.

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

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

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Karisma Records

For fans of: Yes, Wobbler, Änglagård

Bandcamp

I went over the three-decade background of this band in my review of Book 1, and I mentioned that I hoped the three planned installments would have distinct characters. Where Book 1 covered the lands of Airoea–hills, valleys, forests, and so on–Book 2 focuses on the waterways of this realm. There is a noticeable tonal and timbral difference between these two records, and I appreciate that effort. The songs here have a distinctly aquatic vibe.

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Best of 2023: Top 50 Prog Albums Part 2: 25-1

Welcome to part two of The Elite Extremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2023. Part one can be found here. Now, let’s get back to it!

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Best of 2023: Top 50 Prog Albums Part 1: 50-26

Welcome to the first half of The Elite Extremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2023. This article covers spots 50-26, and the top 25 will follow soon!

As a reminder: the label of “2023” is not entirely accurate. The music featured here covers December 2022 through November 2023. Trying to find new music in the month of December is a fool’s errand, as much of my time during that month is occupied with writing and editing this list.

As I always say, I’m sure there are some excellent albums not included on my list. This site is a one-man operation (in relation to reviewing, that is; my editors, Kelci and Dan, have been tremendously helpful), and I simply cannot listen to everything that gets released. I also have my personal biases against some rather popular trends in prog. (*cough* djent *cough*)

2023 wound up being an excellent year for the type of music I enjoy. While it wasn’t necessarily difficult to whittle the list down to fifty entries, some of the albums that failed to make the cut for this year’s list probably could place as high as the low thirties in weaker years. (Such acts include Loma Baja, The Ocean, Legendry, and Lil Yachty.) I contemplated expanding the list, but this already takes up a ton of my time as it is. So, let’s get to it!

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