Best of 2025: Cool Songs

Welcome to the first installment of The Elite Extremophile’s Best of 2025! Today, I’m starting off with Cool Songs. Tomorrow will feature the Top EPs, and the Top Albums will follow 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.) I’m sure there was plenty of great music I just simply missed. I’ve also got my own personal biases against certain styles and trends.

As a reminder, this list covers what I call the “music year” 2025, which covers December 2024 through November 2025.

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.

Without further ado, let’s get to it!

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Odds & Ends: December 2, 2024

Band: Anciients | Album: Beyond the Reach of the Sun | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

“Anciients” is one of my least-favorite band names. Certain dumb misspellings can be fun (see: Kömmand, Toxik, Vektor), but just slapping another “i” in there seems stupid. That being said, the focus of this site isn’t on bands’ names, but rather on the music they put out. And if I weren’t able to look past names I dislike, I’d never be able to enjoy acts like Between the Buried and Me or And So I Watch You from Afar.

Anciients is one of those bands that is adored by the likes of r/progmetal, and which I enjoy but do not view quite so worshipfully. Think Caligula’s Horse, Devin Townsend, or recent Haken. Beyond the Reach of the Sun, though, resonates with me more than this band’s prior work. Melodic, Dream Theater-influenced prog metal coexists with heavier sludge-influenced passages, and it results in some exciting compositions. Some slower cuts can take a little long to get going (I’m especially looking at you, “Is It Your God”), but the payoff is usually worth it.

Score: 78/100

Band: delving | Album: All Paths Diverge | Genre: Post-rock, Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Elder frontman Nicholas DiSalvo is back with his second album under the delving name. It continues in a vein similar to the first delving record, but I like this one more. Hirschbrunnen, released in 2021, is a passable but forgettable post-rock album. All Paths Diverge has more complex and purposeful compositions. I really like how thoroughly keyboards have been integrated, and the guitar tones are lovely. This very much feels like a non-metallic, dreamier version of Elder, and that twist on Elder’s sound works really well. Like any hour-long instrumental post-rock record, there’s some bloat, but this is a release where the vibes and atmospheres are more important than any specific riff.

Score: 79/100

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Album Review: Perilymph – Progressions Imaginaires

Band: Perilymph | Album: Progressions Imaginaires | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2024

From: Berlin, Germany | Label: Six Tonnes de Chair

For fans of: Patrick Moraz, Phideaux, early Pink Floyd

Bandcamp

Arriving three years after their last effort, Perilymph’s fourth album, Progressions Imaginaires, is this group’s newest output. I’ve covered this band a couple times in the past, and I’ve always enjoyed their work. They have always done a great job at contrasting spare, acoustic passages with big, warm retro synth tones.

Perilymph’s past work has often straddled the always-fuzzy line between psych and prog. That has a lot to do with the way that they evoke the instrumental tones of the late 1960s, when psych and prog were both in their infancies and it was all a big mushy blob of forward-thinking rock music. This album, though, sees the band pushing in a more clearly progressive direction. The tones and textures are as lush and psychedelic as ever, but the songwriting is more dynamic, mature, and inventive.

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Odds & Ends: December 14, 2022

Band: Ahleuchatistas | Album: Expansion | Genre: Math rock, RIO | Bandcamp

Ahleuchatistas are something of an outlier when it comes to bands I like. I’m often not a fan of improv-heavy acts that sound like they’re constantly on the verge of falling apart, but this trio always manages to thread the needle of tight, complex riffs and wonky, off-kilter meters with loose improv. Expansion feels a bit more composed than some of their past work, and that pays dividends here. The riffs are weird and wild and wiry, and the songs have an odd, shambolic energy to them. This is a bizarre and rewarding album.

Score: 81/100

Band: Fren | Album: All the Pretty Days | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Had I known Wiosna was a single off an upcoming album and not an EP, I wouldn’t have reviewed it. But alas! All the Pretty Days is Fren’s second full-length album. Much like their debut, it’s melodic and dramatic instrumental prog. The songs are engaging and attention grabbing, and despite their length, there is very little bloat here. This reminds me of Änglagård’s best work while also being distinct. Hints of jazz pop in from certain piano lines, giving flashes of Magma’s lighter moments.

Score: 78/100

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Album Review: Perilymph – Tout en Haut

Band: Perilymph | Album:Tout en Haut | Genre: Space rock, Progressive rock, Psychedelic rock | Year: 2021

From: Berlin, Germany | Label: Six Tonnes de Chair

For fans of: early Pink Floyd, Patrick Moraz, Phideaux

Bandcamp

While I purposely use pretty broad, amorphous genre definitions on this site, I generally aim to highlight acts who are musically adventurous or inventive. A common way artists spice up their music is through various forms of contrast. This is especially common in metal and various subgenres which start with “post,” where it’s often a harsh-clean contrast. Another dichotomy occasionally used is an electronic-acoustic one.

I’ve previously covered Perilymph, the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Fabien de Menou. The band’s last album, Deux, was a wonderful blend of synth-led space-kraut balanced smartly against pared-back acoustic passages. Tout en Haut (Eng. On Top) follows in a similar sonic and textural path.

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Odds & Ends – July 12, 2021

Band: BaK | Album:Crater | Genre: Progressive rock, Progressive metal | Bandcamp

BaK is a bombastic Australian act which blends the sound of acts like Pain of Salvation and Dream Theater with Middle Eastern instrumentation and rhythms. The closest parallel to BaK is probably the Tunisian power metal act Myrath, though some of the weaker moments on this EP do remind me of Grorr. The integration of those more exotic influences is done better than most acts who attempt similar genre fusions, but it’s still really tough to not come off as corny.

Score: 71/100

Artist: Christian Cosentino | Album: Lawn | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

This proggy atmospheric black metal album makes extensive use of lush, programmed orchestration. Many parts of this record feature piano as a co-lead instrument alongside guitar, and strings are almost always present. Normally I’m not the biggest fan of this type of arrangement, but I credit the success here to the fact that he went in a more atmospheric direction, instead of something more traditionally proggy, technical, and overblown.

Score: 81/100

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Odds & Ends – June 22, 2020

Band: Chief Bromden | Album: Slunovrat | Genre: Post-punk, Progressive rock | Bandcamp

This Czech quintet play a noisy, chaotic blend of post-punk and prog. They make me think of a rawer, noisier Atsuko Chiba, or a more progressive Viet Cong/Preoccupations. Glassy synthesizers shine against jagged guitars, and the compositions twist and surge in exciting ways. Math rock flourishes are common, and squealing guitars contrast against a buzzing background. There are other surprising moments: the keys in the instrumental “Skelněná Krajina” give a feeling not unlike video game music at times, and the sprawling “Ken Kesey” features some electronic inclusions.

Score: 82/100

Artist: Aurora Ferrer | Album: Night Oracles and Falling Stars | Genre: Art rock, Electronic rock | Bandcamp

This album, while not strictly prog, is evocative of many prog and prog-related acts. The pulsing electronics are usually krautrock-y in nature, and the overall atmosphere is akin to acts like Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, and Pure Reason Revolution. The compositions are dense, creative, and driving. Particularly praiseworthy are the varied yet cohesive textures in each composition; the album has a distinct feel to it, but no two songs are quite alike.

Score: 80/100 Continue reading “Odds & Ends – June 22, 2020” →

Album Review: Elder – Omens

Band: Elder | Album: Omens | Genre: Progressive rock, Stoner metal | Year: 2020

From: Boston, USA (Originally); Berlin, Germany (Currently) | Label: Armageddon (US), Stickman (EU)

For fans of: Mastodon, Tool, Pink Floyd

Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon | Apple Music

Over the last few years, Elder have established themselves as one of the most interesting acts in progressive rock. Their albums Lore and Reflections of a Floating World deftly blended prog and psychedelia with a stoner metal backbone, and their 2019 EP The Gold & Silver Sessions saw heavy incorporation of krautrock and jam band influences.

The recording of Omens, Elder’s fifth full-length release, marked several major changes for the band. The most obvious of which was that the band underwent their first-ever lineup change to introduce a new drummer and guitarist/keyboardist. The band also relocated from Boston to Berlin, and the press for this record leading up to its release emphasized this state of change. Sonically, the most obvious change over previous releases is the widespread incorporation of synthesizers. Overall, though, Omens doesn’t stray that far from Elder’s typical sound; all in all, they’ve just added a few baubles. Continue reading “Album Review: Elder – Omens” →

Album Review: Perilymph – Deux

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Band: Perilymph | Album: Deux | Genre: Krautrock, Progressive rock | Year: 2019

From: Berlin, Germany | Label: Six Tonnes de Chair Records

For fans of: Brainticket, Vespero, early Föllakzoid

Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon | Apple Music

Germany has been at the epicenter of cosmic, experimental rock music that incorporates electronic elements since the early 1970s. The genre is called krautrock, after all. (The term was initially—rightly, in my view—rejected by German artists; the English music press invented the term in order to write off the movement.) Perilymph both adheres to and bucks this genre’s Germanness: this act is a one-man project based in Berlin, though the man behind it, Fabien de Menou, is French.

Regardless of whence Perilymph hails, Deux, this act’s second release, is a wonderful blend of psychedelia, progressive rock, and spacey textures. Continue reading “Album Review: Perilymph – Deux” →