Album Review: Syrinx – Time Out of Place

Band: Syrinx | Album: Time Out of Place | Genre: Progressive rock, Heavy metal | Bandcamp

From: Vancouver, Canada | Label: Ocula Records

For fans of: Rush, Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden

After six years, Vancouver’s Syrinx is back with their sophomore album. Their 2019 debut, Embrace the Dark – Seek the Light blended classic heavy metal with progressive rock to make one of my favorite releases of that year. In particular, “Time out of Place” with its Geddy Lee-inspired synth line and the sprawling suite “ZXY” stood out.

Time Out of Place sees the band even more fully embracing progressive rock than on their debut. They’ve hardly eschewed their heavy metal roots, but they have deemphasized that element of their music a bit. The band also boasts about how this was all recorded on analog, which doesn’t really have any effect on me. I don’t care if this was recorded with tapes or computers; what I care about is the strength of the writing and playing.

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Album Review: Between the Buried and Me – The Blue Nowhere

Band: Between the Buried and Me | Album: The Blue Nowhere | Genre: Progressive metal | Year: 2025

From: Raleigh, USA | Label: InsideOut Music

Bandcamp

Four years after Colors II, Between the Buried and Me has returned with their twelfth studio album, The Blue Nowhere. The band’s Bandcamp claims that this is the band’s “most […] eclectic record yet”. Now, BTBAM has a very distinct sound they normally hew pretty close to. Every album also has its own distinct foibles.

I like to go into BTBAM records blind, but after listening to this album a few times now, I can say they definitely oversold the eclecticism. This might even be their most eclectic record, if you were to crunch the numbers and see how many minutes were death metal and how many minutes were any number of other things, but this is still a BTBAM record. If you know the band, you know the sound you’re getting.

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Odds & Ends: October 6, 2025

Band: Cheer-Accident | Album: Admission | Genre: Avant-prog, Progressive pop | Bandcamp

Super-prolific Chicagoans Cheer-Accident are back with their 26th full-length release. This album has a more electronic feel than most of their releases. It’s still rooted in oddball, angular progressive rock, but the synths help smooth out some edges. Coupled with some smart and infectious melodies, I would rank this as among the band’s best. (At least of the half-dozen or so of their albums I’ve heard.)

Score: 81/100

Band: Eden Lantsêm | Album: My Guts Rest upon Your Lips Like the Breath of Forgotten Lovers | Genre: Zeuhl, Progressive metal | Bandcamp

The latest solo project from Swiss multi-instrumentalist Tim Nyss sees him exploring the world of zeuhl with an especially heavy twist. The four long instrumental cuts on this release lurch and thunder with the power of sludge metal, but it’s all in service of Magmatic oddness. Rhythms vary between martial and irregular-but-urgent, and avant-garde chords slash and slam across this record. This is a harsh, heavy release and is one of the few successful meldings of zeuhl with metal that I’ve run across.

Score: 79/100

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Album Review: Cardiacs – LSD

Band: Cardiacs | Album: LSD | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2025

From: Salisbury, UK | Label: Alphabet Business Concern

Bandcamp

Cardiacs is a band I’ve mentioned a number of times on this site. For anyone unfamiliar with them, they are one of the most singular and unique progressive rock bands ever. Their early material blended the energy of punk rock with proggy ambition, which occasionally earned them the genre tag “pronk.” And as their career progressed, bandleader Tim Smith’s musical ambitions grew, culminating in 1996’s masterpiece, Sing to God.

LSD is an album I never expected to hear. Their last album was 1999’s Guns, and the first single for this album, “Ditzy Scene” came out all the way back in 2007. But a slow work schedule wasn’t why I doubted this would ever be released.

In 2008, Tim Smith, the primary driving force behind the band, suffered a heart attack which ultimately led to him experiencing some brain damage. Work was immediately put on pause, and numerous fundraisers were held on Smith’s behalf. By 2016, though, the other members of Cardiacs confirmed that LSD was still in the works.

Smith continued working with Cardiacs throughout the late 2010s, but he ultimately succumbed to his health issues in 2020. The band continued to put the final touches on LSD, however, and now it has arrived. And Jim Smith, the band’s bassist and Tim’s brother, has said Cardiacs has “at least” two more albums planned.

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Album Review: Phantom Spell – Heather & Hearth

Band: Phantom Spell | Album: Heather & Hearth | Genre: Progressive rock, Hard rock, Heavy metal | Year: 2025

From: Murcia, Spain | Label: Wizard Tower

For fans of: Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep, Queensryche

Bandcamp

Phantom Spell is the solo project of Kyle McNeill, a guitarist for the power metal band Seven Sisters. There are certainly throughlines between these two acts, but Phantom Spell takes a decidedly 1970s-influenced path in their music. Things are highly melodic, with solos aplenty and dramatic vocals throughout.

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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.

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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

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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

Bandcamp

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.

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Album Review: Fer de Lance – Fires on the Mountainside

Band: Fer de Lance | Album: Fires on the Mountainside | Genre: Progressive metal, Power metal | Year: 2025

From: Chicago, USA | Label: Cruz del Sur Music

For fans of: Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Wytch Hazel, Rainbow

Bandcamp

Power metal and classic heavy metal are styles of music that show up on my site every now and then, but never with a ton of frequency. Fer de Lance is a Chicagoan quartet that uses those genres as the basis for some very big, very epic-sounding metal. They pull in influences from farther afield, too, including various veins of folk music and black metal.

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Odds & Ends: August 4, 2025

Band: Alburnus | Album: Alburnus III | Genre: Progressive rock, Psychedelic rock | Bandcamp

This Finnish band’s latest album is a groovy, retro-influenced slab of prog and psych. The instrumental passages are peppy, surprisingly catchy, and thoroughly enjoyable. The band shows a knack for melody and hooks, and their playing is flashy without being excessively technical. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s fun.

Score: 72/100

Band: Echolyn | Album: TimeSilentRadio II | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Echolyn put out two albums this March, and this is the stronger of the two. Consisting of just two massive tracks, TSRII sees the band utilize their usual sound in an effective manner. ‘90s prog is not my favorite flavor of the genre, but Echolyn pulls it off pretty well. It’s often sunny and relatively accessible, but the underlying songwriting is complex and intelligent. Some parts can be a bit on the cheesy side for me, but overall, their blend of classic prog, pop-rock, and jazzy flourishes works very well. The 29-minute “Water in Our Hands” is especially memorable.

Score: 80/100

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