Welcome to the top half of The Elite Extremophile’s Top Prog Albums of 2025. Part One can be found here.
Continue reading “Best of 2025: Top 50 Prog Albums Part 2: 25-1”Best of 2025: Top 50 Prog Albums Part 2: 25-1
Tag: krautrock
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!
Continue reading “Best of 2025: Cool Songs”Album Review: Gros Coeur – Vague Scélérate
Band: Gros Coeur | Album: Vague Scélérate | Genre: Krautrock, Progressive rock | Year: 2025
From: Liege, Belgium | Label: Spinda Records
For fans of: King Gizzard, Wand, Mother’s Cake
Gros Coeur is a band out of Belgium, and Vague Scélérate (Eng.: Rogue Wave) is their sophomore release. Belgium isn’t exactly some hotbed of prog; to my recollection, Neptunian Maximalism is the only Belgian band I’ve featured on here before. And even the other Belgian bands in my library are kind of…marginal. Nessie, Phylter, and Womega are hardly essential acts; and I just don’t like Univers Zero that much.
Vague Scélérate, however, is a great record. It’s rather diverse with a wonderful, distinctive sound.
Continue reading “Album Review: Gros Coeur – Vague Scélérate”Odds & Ends: November 3, 2025
Band: El Castillo de Barbazul | Album: Sobre Finales | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
This Mexican instrumental quartet has a rather fun, loose, and noisy air about them. The music is complex and chaotic, and it’s shot through with influences from some of prog’s odder micro-genres, like zeuhl and the Canterbury sound. Some songs on this album are absolutely longer than they need to be, but the band’s unbridled enthusiasm always shines through.
Score: 76/100
Band: Donella Drive | A;bum: AXON | Genre: Progressive metal, Alternative metal | Bandcamp
The latest release from this San Antonio-based duo skillfully blends alternative metal, post-hardcore, and prog into a punchy and memorable record. The band balances harsh, aggressive tones and relatively straightforward melodic passages. In addition to obvious influences like Tool and The Mars Volta, they include some funkier elements that evoke acts like Rage Against the Machine and Primus. Some individual songs can run a little long, but the overall listening experience is a fun one.
Score: 79/100
Continue reading “Odds & Ends: November 3, 2025”Album Review: WEEED’s final three releases
Band: WEEED | Albums: Green Roses Vol. II, Mushroom, WEEED | Genre: Psychedelic rock, Psychedelic folk, Krautrock | Year: 2025
From: Portland, USA | Label: Photon Records
For fans of: King Gizzard, Mondo Drag, Weedpecker
Bandcamp (Green Roses Vol. II) | Bandcamp (Mushroom) | Bandcamp (WEEED)
WEEED, a favorite local band of mine, recently decided to call it quits. I’d featured them on this site at least three times before, with two of those reviews being quite positive. Originally based on Bainbridge Island, I saw them play in and around Seattle a number of times, and they always put on a killer show, blending smart psych rock with improvisational freak-outs. They relocated to Portland a few years ago, and they’d been largely quiet since the pandemic.
In announcing their dissolution, they also announced a farewell show (which I sadly missed, due to a scheduling conflict) and a trio of records they’d been sitting on. I’m going to take this opportunity to cover these three releases as a send-off to this band. This won’t be quite as in-depth as my full-length reviews, but it will cover more than a typical Odds & Ends.
Continue reading “Album Review: WEEED’s final three releases”Odds & Ends: September 1, 2025
Band: Jordsjø & Breidablik | Album: Kontraster | Genre: Progressive rock, Progressive folk, Krautrock | Bandcamp
Norwegian bands Jordsjø and Breidablik team up on this album to each deliver one epic apiece, fittingly titled “Kontraster” (“Contrasts”). Jordsjø’s composition is some of their best music in a long time, featuring a thrilling mix of classic prog that filters the influences of Genesis and King Crimson through their Norse folk-tinged lens. This work is balanced against many pretty acoustic moments that feel like they’re rooted in scenic fjords, but still with a foot in the modern prog-rock movement. Breidablik’s offering is much more electronic. Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, and other early prog-electronic acts are their obvious inspiration. Hints of their homeland still peek through, though. Airy flutes and twinkling guitars shine against the backing of looping synths.
Score: 91/100
Band: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard | Album: Phantom Island | Genre: Progressive pop | Bandcamp
King Gizzard’s latest album is a bit borderline for this site, but I enjoyed it overall. On this release, the band has incorporated a full orchestra into their music, and it’s a successful experiment. The lush soundscapes complement and elevate the band’s smart, Southern-inflected art rock, and it pushes the album from “fine” to “pretty good.” Their previous record didn’t really resonate with me; this is in a similar vein, but the freshness of all the strings and winds helps the band better realize their ideas.
Score: 78/100
Continue reading “Odds & Ends: September 1, 2025”Album Review: Liquid Pennies – Fore
Band: Liquid Pennies | Album: Fore | Genre: Progressive rock, Psychedelic rock | Year: 2025
From: Saint Petersburg, USA | Label: Threat Collection Records
For fans of: Zechs Marquise, WEEED, Osees
Liquid Pennies is a Floridian psych-rock trio that dabbles in many genres. Their sound incorporates elements of progressive rock, electronica, post-punk, and more. This multifaceted approach lends their records a varied, exciting quality where the listener is never quite certain what’s coming next. Fore, their latest album, sees them expand upon their sound in inventive ways.
Continue reading “Album Review: Liquid Pennies – Fore”Odds & Ends: April 7, 2025
Artist: Lukey Cope | Album: Interpretation | Genre: Progressive rock, Progressive metal | Bandcamp
Lukey Cope’s debut album is an instrumental affair full of fast, flashy guitar licks. Amid all the showing off, he also displays a keen ear for melody and composition. Piano is prominently deployed, and that instrument’s percussive, biting tone pairs well against some of the thicker auditory qualities at play here. Despite being an instrumental record with a semi-atmospheric vibe, the bloat is pretty minimal here.
Score: 79/100
Band: Deddom | Album: When you find out the amount of your pension and start thinking what to do with it | Genre: Avant-garde metal | Bandcamp
This is an absolutely insane release. This 42-minute behemoth covers territory as diverse as black metal, free jazz, ambient, and more. It’s angry, full of harsh sounds and uneasy rhythms. There is a lot of inventive, oddball material here, and I like just how stark many of the contrasts are. That said, it is longer than it needs to be, and if you’re not in the mood for something harsh and challenging, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Score: 73/100
Continue reading “Odds & Ends: April 7, 2025”Best of 2024: Top 50 Prog Albums Part 1: 50-26
It’s time for The Elite Extremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2024! This is the first half of the list, and you can find the second half here.
As a reminder, the music on this list covers December 2023 to November 2024. I spend much of December compiling and editing this list, so I push releases from that month into the following year’s list.
This is also a one-man operation, in regard to reviewing. (Many thanks to my proofreaders/editors, Kelci and Dan.) I’m sure there’s plenty of great music out there I simply didn’t get to. I’ve also got my own biases against certain styles and trends.
2024 wound up being an alright year for the sort of stuff I cover here. It felt like it started off somewhat slow, but in the end, it wasn’t too challenging for me to find 50 records worthy of being highlighted.
Now, onto the list!
Continue reading “Best of 2024: Top 50 Prog Albums Part 1: 50-26”Best of 2024: Top Prog EPs
Welcome back to The Elite Extremophile’s Best of 2024 week. Today, I’ll be presenting my Top EPs of 2024. The criteria for this list is always kind of squishy. The number of entries varies year-to-year, and I take an “I’ll know it when I see it” attitude when it comes to differentiating EPs and LPs. This year, I’ve got six strong short releases to highlight. (And as a reminder, these year-end lists cover music released between December 2023 and November 2024.)
Now, let’s get to it!
Continue reading “Best of 2024: Top Prog EPs”
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