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: poland
Odds & Ends: December 11, 2025
Band: Ábrete Gandul | Album: Suciedad Contemporánea | Genre: Progressive rock | Listen
This instrumental release heavily incorporates jazz and classical elements into its compositions. Reed and wind instruments can be found among the many slinking themes present here. Things swell and retreat fluidly, and there are a lot of great tonal and textural choices. While I enjoy it overall, this isn’t the most distinctive record. It’s solid, jazzy instrumental prog, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Score: 74/100
Band: An Abstract Illusion | Album: The Sleeping City | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp
An Abstract Illusion’s latest record is a noticeable step down from their last release, 2022’s excellent Woe. The Sleeping City isn’t a bad record, by any means, but it’s unimpressive. The biggest problem for me on this record is the production. Everything is very clean and clear in a way that robs the band’s death metal of its impact. The clean parts of this record also come off as overly glossy and sterile, with many of the synth tones sounding out of place. There are still good ideas in the compositions, but the sound of the album itself is lacking.
Score: 68/100
Continue reading “Odds & Ends: December 11, 2025”Odds & Ends: June 2, 2025
Band: Ancient Death | Album: Ego Dissolution | Genre: Progressive metal, Death metal | Bandcamp
Ego Dissolution is an exciting record that deftly weaves progressive and cosmic elements into a solid death metal base. This album is somewhat comparable to Blood Incantation’s recent work, minus the overt Floydianisms. There are pummeling, stormy riffs and gut-rattling bass and drums, but the occasional pared-back moment (like on “Breathe”) really helps this album shine.
Score: 83/100
Band: Cosmic Cathedral | Album: Deep Water | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
The latest Neal Morse project certainly sounds like a Neal Morse project. And as usual, where Neal is the creative lead on a project, he has one question for you: “Do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior: Jesus Christ?”
The music is fine. Do you like early Spock’s Beard? Do you like Transatlantic? Do you have enough lactase in your system to handle the staggering amount of cheese here? Then you’re probably going to enjoy this, especially if you like (or at least don’t mind) the overt religiosity. There are some genuinely fun passages, and for all my quibbles, Morse is a very talented arranger. He’s got his signature sound, and he’s good at varying it enough between releases to (mostly) stay interesting on a musical level.
That said, this does suffer from some ills endemic to his other works. First and foremost is the album’s length. Deep Water is 71 minutes long, and it is absolutely not deserving of that length. The most obvious culprits here are the 13-minute opener and the 9-part, 38-minute title track. There’s simply an immense amount of bloat and music that doesn’t really lead to or add anything.
Secondly, it’s Jesus. Like, I get it, Neal. You found God. Now find something else to write about. Or at least be less obvious about it. If I, an avowed lyric-zone-outer, am noticing how thoroughly you’re beating a dead horse, try shifting topics. Or at least pick some obscure Bible stories. There’s a lot of material there.
Score: 70/100
Continue reading “Odds & Ends: June 2, 2025”Album Review: Uulliata Digir – Uulliata Digir
Band: Uulliata Digir | Album: Uulliata Digir | Genre: Avant-garde metal | Year: 2025
From: Poznań, Poland | Label: Independent
For fans of: Neurosis, Ashenspire, Kayo Dot
My usual means of looking for music does have its blind spots. I typically search by tags on Bandcamp, but if a band doesn’t use a certain tag, I’m not going to run across their material. I try to account for these blind spots by occasionally perusing the charts on Rate Your Music and Prog Archives, but Uulliata Digir is a band I found via the comment section of a Simpsons meme on Facebook.
Uulliata Digir is a Polish sextet based out of Poznań, and their self-titled debut is a strange and striking record. It has a swirling, lurching rhythm, and the atmosphere is often hazy and ritualistic. Upon my first listen, it reminded me a lot of Solar Drone Ceremony. This is far from drone, but that occultic ritualism is a common bond between the two albums. Consisting of two epics, two interludes, and one song of a-bit-more-than-average length, Uulliata Digir brings the listener on an otherworldly journey.
Continue reading “Album Review: Uulliata Digir – Uulliata Digir”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”Odds & Ends: May 6, 2024
Band: Caverns Measureless | Album: Caverns Measureless | Genre: Progressive folk | Bandcamp
Scottish one-man experimental act Caverns Measureless plays a creepy, unsettling, and adventurous variety of folk-rock on their self-titled sophomore album. Acoustic guitar and mandolin plink alongside violin and flutes, while the occasional brash stab of electric guitar sends the atmosphere careening in another direction. The compositions are wiry and fluid, often changing path suddenly. All the songs here are complex, creative, and moody.
Score: 76/100
Band: Hizbut Jámm | Album: Hizbut Jámm | Genre: Psychedelic folk | Bandcamp
Hizbut Jámm is an interesting quartet. It consists of two Poles on guitar and drums, a Senegalese musician on guitar and vocals, and a Burkinabe musician playing the kora–a type of lute from West Africa. The lyrics are sung in Wolof and French, and West African melodies and scales are woven into the music. But this fusion also draws heavily from the tradition of Euro-American psychedelia. Textures are lush and dreamy, and the overall mood is hypnotic. Hizbut Jámm is an entrancing listen, and it’s a rewarding experience both as passive background music and as the subject of more active listening.
Score: 83/100
Continue reading “Odds & Ends: May 6, 2024”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!
Continue reading “Best of 2023: Top 50 Prog Albums Part 2: 25-1”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!
Continue reading “Best of 2023: Top 50 Prog Albums Part 1: 50-26”Odds & Ends: August 7, 2023
Band: Amoeba Split | Album: Quiet Euphoria | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
This instrumental release has a nice diversity of sounds on it, and the prominence given to jazz flavors works in its favor. The saxophone and keyboard parts especially call to mind early jazzy prog acts, like Frank Zappa, Magma, and Soft Machine. At points, they even veer into territory comparable to Return to Forever. The only real weak point here is the sprawling closer, which atmospherically meanders for eleven-plus minutes without saying or doing all that much. That aside, this is a really enjoyable release.
Score: 76/100
Band: Aton Five | Album: Aton Five | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
This instrumental Russian quartet plays a relatively heavy variety of prog that often treads the line between rock and metal. The riffs are flashy, complex, and weird, and the guitar and keyboard tones deployed are all great. Dashes of jazz and classical crop up throughout the record for some pleasant moments of contrast. The speed and complexity of these riffs call to mind bands like Liquid Tension Experiment. The closing 22-minute “Lethe” might be a touch long, but it still has plenty of great ideas in it that channel acts like Pink Floyd and Elder.
Score: 73/100
Continue reading “Odds & Ends: August 7, 2023”Odds & Ends: May 1, 2023
Band: Arkitekture | Album: Rationalis Impetus | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
Arkitekture is a South Korean progressive rock band that plays a lush variety of progressive rock augmented by strings, winds, and reeds. Jazz, classical, and chamber music influences are prominent across this instrumental album. The individual tracks are well-constructed and full of powerful, emotive playing. If you’re looking for something grand and dramatic, this one is for you.
Score: 88/100
Band: Entropia | Album: Total | Genre: Progressive metal, Black metal | Bandcamp
Entropia’s new album is full of icy, biting riffs. The guitar passages are intricately layered and full of irregular rhythms. They’re often repeated in a krautrock-like way as minor changes accumulate. Though they’re hardly the focus, I love the way keyboards are deployed on this album; they add drama and depth whenever they’re included. The 15-minute title track includes some nice flavors of post-metal here and there. This is a really exciting record, and if you’re into acts like Oranssi Pazuzu or Inter Arma, I would especially strongly recommend this release.
Score: 90/100
Continue reading “Odds & Ends: May 1, 2023”
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