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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Album Review: Kuunatic – Wheels of Ömon

Band: Kuunatic | Album: Wheels of Ömon | Genre: Avant-garde psychedelic tribal folk zeuhl? | Year: 2025

From: Tokyo, Japan | Label: Glitterbeat

For fans of: Kikagaku Moyo, Magma, Osamu Kitajima

Bandcamp

Kuunatic’s sound is pretty difficult to describe, and that’s a big part of why I love them. I lumped all those genre descriptors above into a big chimera rather than split them up more granularly for a reason. The elements are noticeable but impossible to truly pick apart or isolate. At its base, this is a drums-bass-keys trio where all three members sing, but they also include a multitude of traditional Japanese folk instruments, including the sho, sasara, and ryuteki.

Much as Magma’s music is largely about and set on Kobaïa, Kuunatic’s is about their own mythic world, Kuurandia. (They go into great detail about the story of both this album and their 2021 debut, Gate of Klüna, in this article, as well as on the Bandcamp page for this release.) The music is fittingly odd, experimental, and ritualistic for such heady concepts.

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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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Odds & Ends: September 2, 2024

Band: Burnt Log | Album: Time Is a Heron Waiting for Prey | Genre: Progressive rock, Dream pop | Bandcamp

Burnt Log is a one-man project based out of Scotland. The songs skillfully combine intelligent, progressive song structures with floating, dreamy atmospheres. Melodies are smart but accessible, and there’s a vague sense of nostalgia to much of the music here. Touches of post-punk, new wave, and even post-rock crop up here and there. Some passages are perhaps a bit too dream-poppy for my taste, but this is still an overall solid and interesting release.

Score: 72/100

Band: FILESHAREMAIDEN | Album: Veuve | Genre: Progressive metal, Technical death metal | Bandcamp

The first full-length release from Quebecois death metallers File Share Maiden is a swirling, tangled thicket of finger-twisting riffs, guttural vocals, and even moments of surprising lightness. There are many exciting, fun passages that demonstrate both technical skills and songwriting smarts. However, this band also falls victim to the common excesses of other tech-death acts. Many songs are longer than they need to be, and a number of cuts border on purposelessness. That said, there’s still plenty of great material here.

Score: 70/100

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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

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Odds & Ends: March 6, 2023

Band: Ak’chamel, The Divinatory Monkey and the Sovereign Plumed Serpent | Album: A Mournful Kingdom of Sand | Genre: Psychedelic rock, Progressive folk | Bandcamp

Ak’chamel is back with a slightly altered name since I last covered this band. The music’s a bit different, too, and I like this album more for it. It’s less murky, and the instruments are more able to shine through. There’s still a hazy, incense-filled atmosphere to this record, but it’s easier to discern individual elements. Wiry guitar lines, hypnotic rhythms, and assorted non-European flavors swirl together. Some songs are relaxing, and others have a mood that portends doom.

Score: 77/100

Band: Atsuko Chiba | Album: Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing | Genre: Post-rock, Post-punk | Bandcamp

The latest release from this Quebecois act is a hazy, somewhat droney excursion. The music is often abstract and shifting, but the compositions are strong enough to give the songs identifiable and enjoyable structures. There are still plenty of driving, energetic riffs, but they’re often coupled with ethereal atmospheres to make for a haunting effect. There’s a sense of menace to a number of these songs, and everything gels into a cohesive whole.

Score: 84/100

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Odds & Ends: July 11, 2022

Band: Artificial Brain | Album:Artificial Brain | Genre: Technical death metal, progressive death metal | Bandcamp

I remember there being a lot of hype around this band’s last album–2017’s Infrared Horizon–but it just never quite clicked with me. Their new self-titled album, though, is great. The riffs are blistering, dizzying, and mind-bendingly dissonant. The songs are well-built and feature some wonderful hairpin turns. Amid the mucky morass of gurgling vocals and growling guitars, lead guitar lines are often surprisingly melodic.

Score: 78/100

Band: Bess of Bedlam | Album: Dance until the Crimes End | Genre: Psychedelic folk, Canterbury sound | Bandcamp

This album varies between idyllic folk with psychedelic tinges and some Canterbury-leaning prog-pop. There’s a lot of good music here, but unfortunately, there’s also a fair amount of unspectacular indie-folk-pop. The weak moments are never bad, per se–just dull. And it’s usually quickly counteracted with a good song. If you’re looking for something arty but light, this isn’t a bad option.

Score: 68/100

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Odds & Ends: May 16, 2022

Band: Cró! | Album:Buah! | Genre: Progressive rock, Psychedelic rock | Bandcamp

On such a short album, this Spanish quartet manages to cover a huge amount of territory. The title track strongly reminds me of classic Italian acts like PFM or BDMS, and “Coia” is slow-moving and creepy. Other songs touch on alt-rock, funk, and jazzy art-rock. It’s a wonderfully diverse release, and all those different styles are played excellently.

Score: 88/100

Band: Envy of None | Album: Envy of None | Genre: Post-rock | Bandcamp

Envy of None is Alex Lifeson’s new band, and it sounds absolutely nothing like Rush. I went in expecting that, based off the lead single. I knew it was going to be a lot spacier, more atmospheric, and mellower. And while there are a few good songs on the album (“Look Inside”, “Spy House”, “Dog’s Life”), most of this album is a bore. It reminds me of trip-hop–a genre I’m really not crazy about–but without much creativity. Most songs are slow and relatively unvaried. This might be good background music, but I was hoping for dynamism.

Score: 52/100

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Top 50 Prog Albums of 2021, Part 2: 25-1

Welcome to Part 2 of The Elite Extremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2021. In case you missed Part 1, it can be found here.

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Top 50 Prog Albums of 2021, Part 1: 50-26

Welcome to the first installment of The Elite Extremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2021. This article will cover places 50-26 on my list, with the top half set to follow on Thursday.

As I always say, I’m sure there are some excellent albums not included in 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, which affected the composition of this list. But if you’ve got recommendations, do not hesitate to shoot them my way.

As I referenced in my Scheduling Note back in November, this list only addresses albums put out between January 2021 and November 2021. Next year’s list will cover December 2021 through November 2022.

Though it felt as if it started off fairly slow, 2021 wound up being a very strong year for progressive rock and metal. Finalizing this list took longer than usual, especially nailing down the specific order.

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