Album Review: Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja

Band: Oranssi Pazuzu | Album: Muuntautuja | Genre: Psychedelic black metal | Year: 2024

From: Tampere, Finland | Label: Nuclear Blast

For fans of: Hail Spirit Noir, Krallice, Sigh

Black metal is one of relatively few styles of metal that seems to mesh well with psychedelia. (Or maybe only black metal acts are disproportionately willing to dabble in it.) It makes sense how one can make that leap, since classic psych often was categorized as such primarily on its instrumental tones, and black metal often focuses on having an atmosphere that ebbs and flows fluidly with searing tremolo picking and expansive walls of guitar. Just take a look at Sigh, Hail Spirit Noir, or these guys, Finnish five-piece Oranssi Pazuzu.

Their last release, 2020’s Mestarin kynsi, was a really solid release that I enjoyed a lot. Its hazy, swirling atmosphere made it a prime candidate for repeated listens, as something new always emerges from the sonic slurry. Muuntautuja sees Oranssi Pazuzu push some new boundaries, incorporating synthesizers and electronic elements to a significant degree.

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Odds & Ends: September 2, 2024

Band: Burnt Log | Album: Time Is a Heron Waiting for Prey | Genre: Progressive rock, Dream pop | Bandcamp

Burnt Log is a one-man project based out of Scotland. The songs skillfully combine intelligent, progressive song structures with floating, dreamy atmospheres. Melodies are smart but accessible, and there’s a vague sense of nostalgia to much of the music here. Touches of post-punk, new wave, and even post-rock crop up here and there. Some passages are perhaps a bit too dream-poppy for my taste, but this is still an overall solid and interesting release.

Score: 72/100

Band: FILESHAREMAIDEN | Album: Veuve | Genre: Progressive metal, Technical death metal | Bandcamp

The first full-length release from Quebecois death metallers File Share Maiden is a swirling, tangled thicket of finger-twisting riffs, guttural vocals, and even moments of surprising lightness. There are many exciting, fun passages that demonstrate both technical skills and songwriting smarts. However, this band also falls victim to the common excesses of other tech-death acts. Many songs are longer than they need to be, and a number of cuts border on purposelessness. That said, there’s still plenty of great material here.

Score: 70/100

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Album Review: Ætheria Conscientia – The Blossoming

Band: Ætheria Conscientia | Album: The Blossoming | Genre: Progressive metal, Atmospheric black metal | Year: 2024

From: Nantes, France | Label: Frozen Records

For fans of: ‘70s King Crimson, Krallice, Mare Cognitum

Bandcamp

I always like it when bands work in non-conventional rock instruments to their music. Even if it’s just a one-off solo in one song, that sort of timbral variation can go a long way in making a band’s music that much more enjoyable. What I like even more is when a band can fully integrate a non-typical rock instrument into their music in a key way, like Kansas’s violin, or Titus Groan’s many wind and reed instruments.

Ætheria Conscientia is a band that does an excellent job of integrating saxophone into their music. Their 2021 release, Corrupted Pillars of Vanity, saw them weaving saxes into every nook and cranny of their compositions. That warm, reedy buzziness complemented the chug and crunch of their guitars, while also underscoring their jazz influences. Saxophone remains prominent on The Blossoming, their new release; it is an integral part of their overall sound.

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Album Review: Hail Spirit Noir – Fossil Gardens

Band: Hail Spirit Noir | Album: Fossil Gardens | Genre: Psychedelic black metal | Year: 2024

From: Thessaloniki, Greece | Label: Agonia Records

For fans of: Sigh, Riverside, Thy Catafalque

Bandcamp

Hail Spirit Noir is a Greek experimental metal act hailing from the Macedonian city of Thessaloniki. I have briefly touched on Greece’s relative influence within the metal scene before, and I have covered Hail Spirit Noir once before, as well. HSN is one of my favorite contemporary metal bands, and they are responsible for two of my favorite albums of the 2010s: their 2012 debut, Pneuma, and their 2016 third album, Mayhem in Blue. 2020’s Eden in Reverse was a solid release, too, though their last album–2021’s Mannequins–was a weird, one-off synthwave project. And I’m really not a fan of synthwave.

Fossil Gardens, the band’s sixth full-length release, sees HSN get back to their core sound. I once saw someone describe their music as “blackened psychedelic folk,” and while I don’t necessarily agree with that description, they were admittedly onto something. This band’s sound is undoubtedly and undeniably metallic, but influences from psychedelic rock pervade their music more than any metal band this side of Sigh.

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Check out my friends’ music: Savsatt

Band: Savsatt | Album: Savsatt | Genre: Black metal | Year: 2024

From: Seattle, USA | Label: Independent

Bandcamp

As a rule, I don’t review friends’ music, but I’m not above promoting it! I’ve got a couple buddies in Savsatt, and they put out their debut album a few weeks ago. If you’re into atmospheric(-ish) instrumental black metal, check ’em out and maybe buy their record.

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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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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Best of 2023: Cool Songs

Welcome to the fifth annual installment of The Elite Extremophile’s Top Prog Releases. 2023 was an exceptional year for prog and prog-adjacent genres, and I was left with a glut of good music that wasn’t going to make my year-end lists. Even in less-stellar years, there are often records that I’m overall unimpressed with, which just so happen to have a great song or two on them. Thus, from a desire to not give such releases the short shrift, I’ve decided to highlight ten Cool Songs from this year.

This segment is meant to show off great tracks that otherwise do not appear on my 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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Album Review: Bekor Qilish – The Flesh of a New God

Band: Bekor Qilish | Album: The Flesh of a New God | Genre: Black metal, Progressive metal | Year: 2023

From: Milan, Italy | Label: I, Voidhanger Records

For fans of: Cynic, Enslaved, Spectral Lore, Mare Cognitum

Bandcamp

I do my best to avoid falling into ruts on this site. I’m purposely vague about what constitutes “progressive rock,” “progressive metal,” or any other “weird and/or experimental” music I cover on this site. This approach also extends to my attempts to highlight a lot of different record labels. At times, I feel like this site can border on being a showcase for Spinda, Karisma, or InsideOut. One of those labels I frequently feature–and possibly my favorite metal-focused label at the moment–is I, Voidhanger. This Italy-based label focuses on experimental and extreme metal, and their page always makes up a significant portion of my Bandcamp wishlist. I’ve covered multiple acts of theirs in the past, including Creature, Neptunian Maximalism, and Fleshvessel.

Bekor Qilish is another of I, Voidhanger’s acts that I’ve covered before. Their release from last year, Throes of Death from the Dreamed Nihilism, was one of my favorite short releases of 2022. The Flesh of a New God continues in a similar sonic vein, featuring scourging black metal and rich keyboard tones.

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