Tag: post metal

Album Review: Nord – The Only Way To Reach The Surface

nordBand: Nord | Album: The Only Way To Reach The Surface | Genre: Post-metal, Progressive rock, Post-hardcore | Year: 2020

From: Paris, France | Label: Klonosphere/Season of Mist

For fans of: The Dear Hunter, Sólstafir, Leprous, The Mars Volta, RX Bandits

Bandcamp | Spotify

When I first ran across Parisian quartet Nord’s second full-length album, The Only Way To Reach The Surface, I was initially leery, due to some of the genre tags on Bandcamp. “Djent” is something that always causes me a lot of apprehension, and “post-hardcore” indicates there’s a good chance I’ll hate the vocals. However, the djent influences are minor, and the way the post-hardcore manifests itself is mostly in the instrumental elements, much like The Mars Volta’s early work.

Structurally, this album follows a loose pattern for its first eight songs. Starting with its first track, “I. Love”, the album establishes a dreamy atmosphere. A soft synth pad drones under synthesized vocals, occasionally embellished with clean guitars. The transition to “II. Violent Shapes” is a sharp one, though, as that song explodes with black metal fury out of the gate. Blast beats and evil-sounding shredding smoothly mutate lighter post-punk tones, but the music shifts back and forth between those two poles, with ample math rock fills along the way. Continue reading “Album Review: Nord – The Only Way To Reach The Surface” →

Odds & Ends – April 13, 2020

catapulcoBand: Catapulco | Album: Pulpo | Genre: Progressive rock, Hard rock | Bandcamp

Pulpo, the second album from German band Catapulco, opens with the 17-minute suite “Sina”. On both this song and the rest of the album, Catapulco clearly draw inspiration from early ‘70s hard rock acts, and the vocalist’s delivery has an almost Southern twang to it. Much of Pulpo sounds like Molly Hatchet trying to do prog rock. There are some neat ideas on this record, and overall I enjoyed it, but at points it is derivative enough to be distracting. The lyrics also are distractingly trite, but as these guys are non-native Anglophones, I’m more than happy to cut them some slack.

Score: 69/100

intronautBand: Intronaut | Album: Fluid Existential Inversions | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

I avoided this record for the better part of a month because I confused this band’s name with that of Astronoid, a group I emphatically dislike. Once I realized this mix-up, I gave this a listen, and I was glad I did. The music is pummeling, sludgy, melodic, and exciting. I’m especially impressed with the vocal performance here. My one complaint is that this record feels a tad long. Even if they would have chopped off one song or maybe shaved 30 seconds off every song, I would have enjoyed this release more.

Score: 82/100 Continue reading “Odds & Ends – April 13, 2020” →

Odds & Ends – February 10, 2020

gurBand: Guranfoe | Album: Sum of Erda | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Guranfoe are an instrumental act who draw heavy inspiration from the ‘70s prog giants, most notably Genesis and Camel. They’re good at keeping the momentum up on this album, and the songs are chock-full of neat little flourishes and some great solos. Folk and jazz touches are deployed to great effect. However, as with many instrumental albums I cover, most of these songs feel too long, and some of the extended solos, in particular, leave me looking at my watch. If the band were to tighten up the songs a bit, I think they could put out a really great album.

Score: 72/100

karBand: Karfagen | Album: Birds of Passage | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Antony Kalugin is an incredibly prolific Ukrainian composer and multi-instrumentalist, and Karfagen is one of his myriad projects. Birds of Passage is Karfagen’s 11th album in 14 years, and most of it is focused on the 44-minute title track. It’s mostly bright, sunny prog in the style of acts like Spock’s Beard and Moon Safari. Organ and synthesizer dominate on the first half, while the second half reduces the bombast (initially, at least). It can feel long-winded at times, but the songs have enough distinct movements that that’s only an infrequent issue. If you’re a fan of the 21st Century brand of symphonic prog, definitely check this album out.

Score: 77/100 Continue reading “Odds & Ends – February 10, 2020” →

Top 50 Prog Albums of 2019, Part 1: 50-26

Top 50 2019 Pt 1

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: Híbrido – I

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Band: Híbrido | Album: I | Genre: Progressive rock, Heavy psych | Year: 2019

From: Algeciras, Spain | Label: Spinda Records

For fans of: Mastodon, Antemasque, Yes

Buy: Bandcamp | Apple Music

Spain has thriving progressive/experimental rock and metal scenes, and Spanish bands have been featured on this site multiple times. The Spanish label Spinda Records is a recent discovery of mine, and they’re the sort of label I love. Based just north of the border with Gibraltar, they focus on underground, local acts that play progressive and psychedelic music. This support provides such acts with a valuable link to the outside world.

One act which particularly stood out to me was Híbrido. Híbrido’s music straddles a line between desert rock and more traditional progressive rock, which occasionally veers into the territory of a somewhat light version of post-metal. Continue reading “Album Review: Híbrido – I” →

Odds & Ends – October 21, 2019

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handwrBand: Handwrist | Album: The Golden Swan | Genre: Progressive rock, Zeuhl, Avant-garde rock | Bandcamp

The Golden Swan was originally envisioned by its composer to have a choir sing in Basque and for there to be symphonic orchestration. Due to budgetary and logistical constraints, these ambitions had to be shelved, but the result is a distinct blend of rock, jazz, and classical music, nonetheless. The four movements of this album flow together seamlessly. Elements of the Canterbury sound are evident, and the jazzy atmosphere makes me think this would have been even better had it been recorded as originally intended. Moments on this album do meander, but those shortcomings are well worth it.

Score: 76/100 Continue reading “Odds & Ends – October 21, 2019” →

Odds & Ends – August 26, 2019

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deBand: De Lorians | Album: De Lorians | Genre: Progressive rock, Jazz fusion | Bandcamp

The debut from this Japanese quintet is a brain-melting 32-minute instrumental excursion full of Zappaesque weirdness and flavors of Japanese zeuhl. Saxophones and guitars often trade the lead, twisting out weird solos over a jazzy rhythm section. Hints of the weirder end of the Canterbury sound, a la The Soft Machine, can be heard, particularly in the way the keys are utilized. These eccentricities can, at times, feel scattershot and unfocused, which does detract from the experience.

Score: 76/100 Continue reading “Odds & Ends – August 26, 2019” →

Album Review: Arctic Sleep – Kindred Spirits

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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: Adrift – Pure

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Band: Adrift | Album: Pure | Genre: Post metal, Sludge metal, Progressive metal | Year: 2019

From: Madrid, Spain | Label: Temple of Torturous

For fans of: Isis, Neurosis, early Mastodon

Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon | Apple Music

While not entirely synonymous, “post metal” and “atmospheric doom” are used interchangeably to describe quite a few bands. For some acts, one label is an obviously better fit than the other. For Madrid’s Adrift—with their blend of massive, destructive riffs and spacier, meditative moments—I’d apply both without hesitation.

Pure, this quartet’s fourth full-length album (and their first since 2012), is one of the least overtly “proggy” records I’ve written about so far, but that doesn’t take away from its ambition, experimentation, or adventurous spirit. The album is filled with insistent, tumultuous riffs the charge forward in strange rhythms and engaging structures. Continue reading “Album Review: Adrift – Pure” →