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

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Album Review: Hologram Earth – City of Gold

Band: Hologram Earth | Album: City of Gold | Genre: Progressive metal, Post-metal | Year: 2025

From: Amsterdam, Netherlands | Label: Independent

For fans of: The Ocean, Leprous, Meshuggah

Bandcamp

Hologram Earth is a Dutch band that plays an intriguing variety of metal. Much of their music is full of aggressive, technical basslines; but the guitars are often more abstract and impressionistic. The band also utilizes trumpet, trombone, and flugelhorn as effective atmospheric elements. I really liked their 2017 debut album, Black Cell Program, but they hadn’t released anything since a single in 2018. As such, I thought this band had just kinda petered out. Lo and behold, though, they’ve been working on something!

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Odds & Ends: February 3, 2025

Band: Actionfredag | Album: Lys fremtid i mørke | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

I liked Actionfredag’s debut, Turist i eget liv, a lot, so I went into this new release with somewhat high hopes. The opening track, “Angst oppå bordet” is a tense and exciting instrumental, but much of the rest of the album fails to land for me. They’ve incorporated a lot more jazz and Canterbury elements on this record, but it often comes off as a bit weak and mushy. Many songs meander without saying or doing much, and even some of the more enjoyable cuts here are still somewhat forgettable. There’s a certain sonic slipperiness which makes them difficult to hold onto. If you like warm, mellow jazz more than I do, perhaps you’ll get more out of this.

Score: 62/100

Band: Blackwood Station | Album: In the Gamma Garden | Genre: Psychedelic folk, Americana | Bandcamp

On their latest album, Blackwood Station takes a laid-back, psychedelic approach that heavily evokes the late 1960s. Textures are lush, and the atmosphere is dreamy. Bandleader Ian Blackwood shows a natural knack for catchy melodies. Some songs are a bit longer than they need to be, but it’s an overall fun listen.

Score: 78/100

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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!

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Odds & Ends: December 23, 2024

Band: Aeon Nexus | Album: Positive Disintegration | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

Aeon Nexus’s debut EP is a fun, to-the-point bit of progressive death(-ish) metal. Their vocalist displays impressive range, belting out powerful clean vocals and coarse gutturals. This reminds me of certain early prog-death bands, like Atheist, Cynic, or Death, as well as a more recent crop of artists who strive to evoke this sound. Piano adds a lot of textural depth and richness, which really helps this band stand out from their peers.

Score: 80/100

Band: Ærkenbrand | Album: Hedenfarne æventyr | Genre: Avant-prog, Noise rock | Bandcamp

The newest release from this Danish act is a warbling, wobbling melange of influences drawn from across the spectrum of forward-thinking rock music. Squealing saxophones and mad, buzzing guitars cultivate uneasy moods that can shift on a dime. One moment, there’s a maelstrom of reeds and clattering drums, and the next, things have moved in a more spaced-out and contemplative direction. The closing “Alting Sammen” features some nice electronic touches, too.

Score: 82/100

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Odds & Ends: December 2, 2024

Band: Anciients | Album: Beyond the Reach of the Sun | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

“Anciients” is one of my least-favorite band names. Certain dumb misspellings can be fun (see: Kömmand, Toxik, Vektor), but just slapping another “i” in there seems stupid. That being said, the focus of this site isn’t on bands’ names, but rather on the music they put out. And if I weren’t able to look past names I dislike, I’d never be able to enjoy acts like Between the Buried and Me or And So I Watch You from Afar.

Anciients is one of those bands that is adored by the likes of r/progmetal, and which I enjoy but do not view quite so worshipfully. Think Caligula’s Horse, Devin Townsend, or recent Haken. Beyond the Reach of the Sun, though, resonates with me more than this band’s prior work. Melodic, Dream Theater-influenced prog metal coexists with heavier sludge-influenced passages, and it results in some exciting compositions. Some slower cuts can take a little long to get going (I’m especially looking at you, “Is It Your God”), but the payoff is usually worth it.

Score: 78/100

Band: delving | Album: All Paths Diverge | Genre: Post-rock, Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Elder frontman Nicholas DiSalvo is back with his second album under the delving name. It continues in a vein similar to the first delving record, but I like this one more. Hirschbrunnen, released in 2021, is a passable but forgettable post-rock album. All Paths Diverge has more complex and purposeful compositions. I really like how thoroughly keyboards have been integrated, and the guitar tones are lovely. This very much feels like a non-metallic, dreamier version of Elder, and that twist on Elder’s sound works really well. Like any hour-long instrumental post-rock record, there’s some bloat, but this is a release where the vibes and atmospheres are more important than any specific riff.

Score: 79/100

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Album Review: Beak> – >>>>

Band: Beak> | Album: >>>> | Genre: Post-rock, Krautrock | Year: 2024

From: Bristol, UK | Label: Invada Records

For fans of: late ‘60s Pink Floyd, Neu!, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Bandcamp

I’m pretty sure this is the first record I’ve reviewed with a completely unpronounceable title. Thankfully, this is a text-based site, so I don’t need to say “greater-than sign, greater-than sign, greater-than sign, greater-than sign.” Such odd, ASCII-inspired titles are not entirely uncommon in certain styles of music. Math rock and many types of electronica dabble in it, and Beak> are math-rock adjacent. Most of this record is more in the vein of hazy, psychedelic, kraut-y post-rock, but post-rock and math rock do share quite a bit of DNA.

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Odds & Ends: August 5, 2024

Band: Ceiling Spirits | Album: The Bloodwren | Genre: Post-rock | Bandcamp

Hailing from Milwaukee, this classical-influenced ensemble plays a spacey, morose variety of post-rock. Violin and piano weave evocative textures, and the individual passages range from fluid and mournful to jittery and technical. Guitar is minimized overall on this release, but when it shows up, either as a lead instrument or as support, the tones utilized are always a perfect complement to the atmosphere. I often find post-rock to be aimless, but this album does a great job at maintaining focus. The rich orchestration does an amazing job of adding emotional weight to everything as well. The closing drone track isn’t even that bad, though it definitely didn’t need to be 8 minutes long.

Score: 77/100

Band: Gender Studies | Album: Далекий Лиман | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Gender Studies is a Ukrainian band that plays a garage-y, jazz-inflected variety of progressive rock. The six songs on this LP demonstrate intelligent and creative writing, catchy melodies, and diverse influences. Slavic folk crops up here and there amid Return to Forever-style jazz-rock and harder-rocking passages.

Score: 81/100

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Odds & Ends: July 1, 2024

Band: April 1830 | Album: The Adventures of Space Pig | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

This Philadelphian band claims to write songs about “pig failure,” and that alone grabbed my attention enough to give this record a spin. (For what it’s worth, the vocals are relatively low in the mix and somewhat willowy, so actual themes of pig failure can be hard to discern.) The music is energetic, often drawing from pop and punk. Certain passages remind me of Cardiacs, if Cardiacs were a very synth-forward, female-fronted band. It’s fun and inventive, and I had a good time listening to this.

Score: 78/100

Band: Custard Flux | Album: Einsteinium Delirium | Genre: Psychedelic rock | Bandcamp

Custard Flux’s fifth full length album is their first fully-electric endeavor. They’ve ditched their (mostly) acoustic schtick, and it has resulted in a pretty good release. The band tightened up their songwriting after 2022’s bloated-as-hell Phosphorus, and that renewed focus is appreciated. The music here is catchy and punchy, and the swirling, psychedelic textures are enjoyable. Hints of alternative rock crop up on occasion, too.

Score: 76/100

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Odds & Ends: March 4, 2024

Band: Caligula’s Horse | Album: Charcoal Grace | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

My view of what is actually popular and successful is probably skewed by where I spend my time online. A lot of that time is on Reddit, and a not-insignificant portion of that time in turn is spent perusing r/progmetal. One of the most beloved bands on that subreddit is Caligula’s Horse, and if you’ve paid attention to my comments on other darlings of that subreddit (Nospūn, recent Leprous, and recent Haken) or compared my year-end list to theirs, it should come as little surprise that this is a band that’s never really clicked with me.

Their brand of prog metal is melodic and in the same general vein as Dream Theater. The vocals are clean, and there’s a strong emphasis on majestic climaxes. Everything is well-played, and the songs are smartly-structured, so I’m struggling to articulate why this record isn’t resonating with me. It’s not particularly derivative of any one act, but I suppose there’s not much that really stands out about it either. The production is a bit soupy, as the guitars bleed together into an indistinct distorted mush, and the vocals get swallowed up by the backing. That lack of definition can make it tough for individual elements to stand out.

Score: 66/100

Band: Ellesmere | Album: Stranger Skies | Genre: Neo-prog | Bandcamp

Ellesmere is an Italian band whose music draws heavily from neo-prog and ‘80s arena rock. It’s big, loud, complex, and showy, and if you like acts like Marillion, IQ, or Asia, you’re probably going to like Ellesmere. The production isn’t great, and the vocals are fairly rough, but nevertheless it’s clear the music has some strong bones. The 12-minute title track is especially good, featuring smart structuring choices and dynamic musicianship.

Score: 71/100

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