Tag: estonia

Album Review: Deathspiral of Inherited Suffering / Elysian Blaze / Panegyrist / Maerund – Sunthema

Bands: Deathspiral of Inherited Suffering, Elysian Blaze, Panegyrist, Maerund | Album: Sunthema | Genre: Black metal, Progressive metal, Post-metal | Year: 2026

From: Memphis, USA; Adelaide, Australia; Chicago, USA; Tallinn, Estonia | Label: Rubeus Obex (USA); I, Voidhanger (Europe)

For fans of: Cormorant, Enslaved, Batushka

Bandcamp

I first found out about this record through Rate Your Music’s handy “Upcoming Releases” feature. It was there that I saw Panegyrist had their first new music since 2018 coming out! Their lone LP, Hierurgy, is a stunning, unique release. It blends avant-garde black metal with liturgical music and lyrics so dense and obscure that I feel like I need a theology degree to understand them.

Sunthema, the four-way split LP with Panegyrist and three other acts, continues on that trend. (Side note: Personally, I would have transliterated the Greek “συνθεμα” as “synthema,” but to each their own. The word is more often found in its plural form, synthemata, and it refers to any signs, symbols, or material tokens, especially those associated with certain rituals. Esoteric terms and ideas are prominent on this record.) All four acts here weave their brands of forward-thinking metal with Christian mysticism to make something powerful and enthralling. 

Continue reading “Album Review: Deathspiral of Inherited Suffering / Elysian Blaze / Panegyrist / Maerund – Sunthema” →

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” →