Welcome back to TheEliteExtremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2019. If you missed Part 1, covering entries 50-26, you can read it here. Continue reading “Top 50 Prog Albums of 2019, Part 2: 25-1”
Top 50 Prog Albums of 2019, Part 2: 25-1
Tag: doom metal
Top 50 Prog Albums of 2019, Part 1: 50-26
Though this blog is only about a year old, I’ve been publishing music-oriented year-end lists on my personal Facebook since 2010. Those lists have usually covered all releases—albums and EPs—as well as music from genres outside the progosphere. Since starting this blog, I listened to more new music in 2019 than I had in any previous year, and it was even more skewed toward prog and prog-related output than in years past.
To save myself from having to write (and you from having to read) a 100-plus-entry list full of mediocre releases, I’ve instead opted to publish TheEliteExtremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2019. This post will cover entries 50-26. Part 2, covering the top 25, will be published on Monday.
I’m not publishing album scores here, and past album scores should not be read into too much. Reviews generally reflect something of a first impression, and after months of listening, albums’ standings rise and fall. This list also features some very good albums which I just never reviewed in full.
As a disclaimer, I’m sure there are some excellent albums not included. This 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, which affected the composition of this list. But if you’ve got recommendations, do not hesitate to shoot them my way, either through this site, via email, or through my Facebook page. Continue reading “Top 50 Prog Albums of 2019, Part 1: 50-26”
Album Review: Arctic Sleep – Kindred Spirits
Band: Arctic Sleep | Album: Kindred Spirits | Genre: Doom metal, Progressive metal, Post metal | Year: 2019
From: Milwaukee, USA | Label: Independent
For fans of: Agalloch, Fates Warning, Subrosa, Yob
Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon | Apple Music
The story of this album began late last year, when I received an email announcing a Kickstarter campaign to fund a physical release of Kindred Spirits. I’m often hesitant about pre-ordering much of anything, but I liked 2014’s Passage of Gaia enough that I decided to go for it. I received the LP a few days before the album’s official release, and I was pleased to find I liked this album even better than the last.
Arctic Sleep, hailing from Wisconsin, is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Keith D, who handles every instrument except for drums. Kindred Spirits is the seventh release from the band. It’s not a radical departure from Arctic Sleep’s usual sound, but it’s an evolutionary step that sees continued refinement and development of a unique niche. Continue reading “Album Review: Arctic Sleep – Kindred Spirits”
Album Review: Dreadnought – Emergence
Band: Dreadnought | Album: Emergence | Genre: Progressive metal, Doom metal | Year: 2019
From: Denver, USA | Label: Profound Lore Records
For fans of: Tool, Cormorant, Panopticon
Buy: Bandcamp| Amazon | Apple Music
Like any metal subgenre, doom metal has an abundance of sub-subgenres, including stoner-doom, death-doom, and funeral doom. Prog-doom, to my disappointment, is one of the less-proliferated of these, even when put in the context of progressive metal. Other prog varietals—like black, sludge, and death—far outstrip progressive doom in both volume and prominence. Of the rather small cohort of bands who do fuse the murky, morose field of doom with the artistry and ambition of prog, Dreadnought are at the forefront.
Emergence is the fourth full-length release from this Colorado quartet, and it’s a logical progression from their last release, 2017’s A Wake in Sacred Waves. AWISW was among my favorite albums from that year, so this was a highly, highly anticipated release for me. I’m pleased to say it lived up to my hopes and exceeded my expectations. The sound on this album is massive—far more imposing than would be expected of four musicians. The guitar attacks in thick walls of guttural distortion, while the piano thunders and adds a certain weightiness rarely heard in metal. Continue reading “Album Review: Dreadnought – Emergence”
