Album Review: M-Opus – At the Mercy of Manannán

Band: M-Opus | Album: At the Mercy of Manannán | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Dublin, Ireland | Label: Rude Chord Records

For fans of: Yes, Genesis

M-Opus tackles the concept of “retro-prog” in a rather unique way. Each of their previous two albums have been “set” in a year in progressive rock’s history, to pretty decent results. Their new album, At the Mercy of Manannán, is setting itself up to fill some big shoes, as this one is using the year 1972 as its framing device. The span of 1971-1973 was (to me, at least) the absolute apex of the genre. Big names like Yes, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, and Jethro Tull were all putting out their best work. (King Crimson peaked a bit later, in the mid ‘70s.) 1972 alone saw the release of all-time classics such as Thick as a Brick, Close to the Edge, Pawn Hearts, and Per un amico. (And the debut of seminal Irish prog(-ish)-rockers Horslips, if we want to narrow the lens to M-Opus’s homeland.)

Manannán is an Irish sea deity, and the ruler and guardian of the Otherwold, the Celtic conception of where their gods lived. I’m not particularly well-versed in Celtic mythology, but that alone sounds like it should be able to at least match the lofty concepts of many classic prog albums.

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Odds & Ends: September 4, 2023

Band: Grant the Sun | Album: Voyage | Genre: Post-metal | Bandcamp

I liked this band’s 2019 EP, Sylvain, so when I saw they were putting out a full-length release, I made sure to put it on my docket. The music here is heavy and moody, occasionally with vocals. Guitar lines are both gritty and expansive, and there are a lot of wonderful textural contrasts. I’m not sure there are enough ideas here to warrant a full album, but this would have made a pretty decent long EP if they trimmed off a couple songs. The playing is great, and I’m especially fond of the guitar tones they chose. But post-metal is simply a genre where songs can quite easily start sounding too similar to one another for me.

Score: 73/100

Artist: Bobby Lee | Album: Endless Skyways | Genre: Krautrock, Americana | Bandcamp

This record is full of dreamy, floating guitar lines and airy, otherworldly atmospheres. The influences of acts like Neu! and Hawkwind are evident, but the occasional twang of slide guitar or folky acoustic strum helps keep this album in fairly unique territory. The blend of country, psychedelia, and krautrock is pulled off very well here.

Score: 77/100

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Album Review: Tusmørke – Hestehoven

Band: Tusmørke | Album: Hestehoven | Genre: Progressive rock, Nordic folk rock | Year: 2023

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Karisma Records

For fans of: Jordsjø, Jethro Tull

Bandcamp

For as long as I’ve been running this site, I have repeatedly praised Scandinavia’s thriving progressive rock scene. In particular, I enjoy when acts put a uniquely Nordic spin on prog, rather than just doing some (admittedly quite good) Anglo-prog. Hailing from Oslo, Tusmørke is a band I was surprised to find I had not yet covered. They’re prolific, with Hestehoven (The Horse’s Hoof) being the band’s twelfth full-length release in eleven years.

On top of that rapid release schedule, they’re distinctive. Other bands might incorporate Scandinavian folk into their music, but it can sometimes be superficial or somewhat sparingly utilized. Tusmørke’s songs sound like they begin life as folk songs before being given a rock rhythm and an abundance of keyboard effects. The band’s music also steers clear of the self-serious dourness that can easily befall this subgenre. Songs are frequently peppy, bouncy, and light-hearted. (I do not speak Norwegian, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the band dabbled in some darker lyrical themes for contrast.) One of their releases from 2017–Bydyra–was even explicitly tagged as children’s music.

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Album Review: Fleshvessel – Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed

Band: Fleshvessel | Album: Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed | Genre: Avant-garde metal | Year: 2023

From: Chicago, USA | Label: I, Voidhanger Records

For fans of: Oranssi Pazuzu, Panopticon, Panegyrist

Bandcamp

Sometimes I run across albums with artwork that does not seem to fit the music. Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed, the first full-length album from Chicago-based Fleshvessel, doesn’t quite gobsmack me, but it’s not really what I was anticipating. Twisting trees made of arms and chasms lined by teeth led me to expect a gruesome onslaught of relentless death or black metal. But instead, this band has put out an impressively diverse, cohesive, and thoughtful record. Yes, there’s no shortage of harsh metal here, but there’s so much more.

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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

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Album Review: Rhùn – Tozïh

Band: Rhùn | Album: Tozïh | Genre: Zeuhl | Year: 2023

From: Ernée, France | Label: Baboon Fish

For fans of: Magma, Guapo, Mahavishnu Orchestra

Bandcamp

Magma casts a very long shadow over the zeuhl scene, especially for bands hailing from their native France. And it’d be weird if they didn’t; they invented the damn micro-genre, after all. But that means a lot of bands seem to be almost pigeonholed into being Magma clones (or near-clones, at least). It can be a difficult balancing act to prominently display the influence of such a singular, idiosyncratic band as Magma without just sounding like you’re recording Attahk, Pt. 2.

Rhùn manages to thread that needle pretty well. Their 2013 debut, Fanfare du chaos, is a decent zeuhl record. It is very Magmatic, sometimes too much so. The band shows a lot of creativity on it, even if they do occasionally wander into some overly-well-trod zeuhl tropes. Tozïh, their ten-years-in-the-making sophomore release, shows some clear improvement over its predecessor. The astral, jazzy weirdness of Magma is still front-and-center, but they’ve managed to make this record sound more their own.

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Album Review: Actionfredag – Turist i eget liv

Band: Actionfredag | Album: Turist i eget liv | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Hærverk Industrier

For fans of: Beardfish, Shaman Elephant, Jordsjø

Bandcamp

I’ve talked at length about Scandinavia’s 21st Century ascent to being one of modern prog’s hotspots. Even within that small ecosystem, Norway’s scene is especially vibrant, with plenty of creative cross-pollination between acts. Actionfredag (Norwegian for “Action Friday”) is a collaboration between members of several bands, including Tusmørke and Jordsjø, with guest contributions from members of a number of other Norwegian prog acts.

Turist i eget liv (Tourist in My Own Life) is the first album from this band, and it’s a strong outing. But considering the members’ pedigrees, that should hardly come as a surprise.

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Album Review: Dominic Sanderson – Impermanence

Artist: Dominic Sanderson | Album: Impermanence | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2023

From: Wakefield, UK | Label: Independent

For fans of: Porcupine Tree, Van der Graaf Generator, King Crimson

Bandcamp

For the last three years, my album of the year has been a debut record (Moura’s self-titled in 2020, Papangu’s Holoceno in 2021, and The Mighty Orchid King’s Mycelium Music Vol. 1 in 2022). It’s a bit of a strange coincidence. So far this year, I’ve found some good debut records, but none are quite in that top echelon to vie for the top spot on my year-end list.

Dominic Sanderson’s new album, Impermanence, isn’t technically a debut, but it is his first full-length release. (Prior to this, he released an EP in 2020.) This record is an impressive collection of some of the darker sounds of classic prog, synthesized into something modern and exciting.

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Deep Dive: Van der Graaf Generator

Welcome back to Deep Dive, where I look at the full studio discographies and histories of some of the major names in progressive rock and progressive metal. It’s here that I highlight output beyond an act’s “classic” releases.

For those who don’t feel like reading this massive entry, I’ve included a TL;DR and ranking of albums at the end. I’m opting to explore albums chronologically, as opposed to a ranked-list format. The context in which albums were made is important, and this is an element often missed in a ranked-list.

Van der Graaf Generator (VdGG) were (and continue to be) a weird, weird band. Their classic lineup lacked guitars of any sort, but they managed to use organ and saxophone as cudgels to lay down nasty, proto-metallic music. Peter Hammill is one of the most distinctive vocalists in all of progressive rock; and paired with such unique instrumentation, VdGG managed to carve out a singular niche.

Hammill is also one of the few lyricists whose words I feel significantly added to his music. I’ve written at length about my general ambivalence to lyrics, but this band’s dark but often relatable imagery feels like an integral element of their identity.

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Odds & Ends: July 3, 2023

Band: Chafouin | Album: Trois, quatre | Genre: Math rock, Progressive rock | Bandcamp

I liked this band’s 2021 album Toufoulcan, so I was excited when I saw they had something new coming out. Where Toufoulcan had a sense of sonic continuity between the tracks, this release feels more like a collection of unrelated (or barely-related) songs. The music itself is good, and none of the songs overstay their welcome. When taken as a whole, though, Trois, quatre feels a bit unfocused.

Score: 74/100

Band: Numidia | Album: South of the Bridge | Genre: Hard rock, Progressive rock | Bandcamp

This album was a huge disappointment. I loved this band’s Middle Eastern-tinged debut record, which expertly blended Near-Eastern flavors with prog and psych in very satisfying ways. Here though, the band has stripped away anything that makes them unique and put out a bland, bluesy hard-ish, vaguely-prog-adjacent record that often reminds me of ‘90s Pink Floyd (and not in a good way). The music isn’t bad, per se, especially if you’re looking for something evocative of certain 1970s blues rock acts, but it’s a major step down from their self-titled, in terms of both creativity and impact.

Score: 52/100

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