Progressive RockMetal
Writers:
Josep Maria Llovera
Gabriel Martín
David Sàez
This is the most intimate, relaxed and sophisticated project Barcelona’s Eric Baule has going. A gorgeous album where he brings together gentle compositions that recall the work of Camel or Mike Oldfield, but full of acoustic sonorities set against ambient keyboards and some percussion that give it a chill vibe. In short, a record you enjoy start to finish without a pause.
To celebrate 40 years of this benchmark Swedish doom-metal band, they’ve released a four-track EP, with two unreleased songs that carry the band’s essence, a cover of Pentagram’s “Forever My Queen” and one of Black Sabbath’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, paying tribute to two of their biggest influences.
David Rhodes, Giovanni Amighetti, E-Wired Empathy “The Fermi Paradox”
This collaboration between all these artists was built by making music fairly spontaneously in a studio. We’re not talking about standard jam sessions here, but the creation of music as an organic, experimental process grounded in each performer’s expressiveness and sensitivity. That means the listener has to approach it with an open mind and let themselves be carried along by the experience, and as with anything carrying the “experience” label, some will find it wonderful and meaningful, while others will find it dull. So give it a listen and judge for yourselves, because it’s genuinely interesting to grasp the creative process behind this record.
On the other side of the Atlantic, New York band Edensong combine folk-rock (very bucolic) with harder progressive facets, alternating folkier tracks with more intense ones.
A fresh, melodic offering that recalls early Jethro Tull a little (and not just because of the flute) on a day when they’d gone for drinks with Tool and Dream Theater. Standout pieces include the title track and closer “Our Road to Dust”, “Book of Complains” and “The Illusion of Permanence”. For those looking for a different combination who like folk tones.
Armed with promotional copy calling them a band of “ethereal progressive hard rock” (!?), we get a handful of pretty-rock songs, romantic, melodic and a touch syrupy, that do carry some subtle prog elements. A decent EP wrapped in a lot of cellophane.
Ghost Bath “Rose Thorn Necklace”
Don’t let the opening track — basically a piano intro — or the delicate guitar introduction on the title track fool you. Afterwards things turn wild, aggressive and dark. But don’t let the brutality scare you off either. Ghost Bath are capable of finding beauty amid the carnage of noise. If you pay close attention you’ll see lovely sprouts of light blooming within the darkness.
Although they remind us a lot of Dream Theater, we can’t help noticing, in the concept and production of the tracks, that this band is Swedish, since there’s a raw, distinctly black-metal edge to their compositions that gives them a certain interest and personality, making the listen interesting and recommendable.
On 9 May, the band presented their new record live in Barcelona, and it didn’t leave the audience indifferent. An album that opens with calm folk airs and gradually offers more variety, bringing in rock elements, eventually creating a blend that works, without setting aside the ornate elements that add strength to a production that works best in its acoustic moments.
Great Wide Nothing “A Shout Into the Void”
Don’t let the cover art of Great Wide Nothing’s latest record put you off. What you’ll find here is brilliant neo-prog with heavy emphasis on keyboards and synthesizers, since the only strings you’ll find are the bass. It recalls seventies art-rock, or Neal Morse’s sugary melodies, but with rhythms sped up by drums running at 75 rpm. All very pop and easy to listen to, ideal for kicking off a workday fully charged.
Kadavar “I Just Want To Be A Sound”
A change of direction from these Berliners. They move away from the band that used to emulate dark, heavy rock in the style of Black Sabbath, where riffs were the compositional cornerstone. We’re looking at a Copernican shift toward sounds closer to Britpop, Muse, or even Imagine Dragons, adding a sort of background wall of sound with fairly dirty guitars, but shaped for mass appeal. Now’s the time to say the band showed courage, nonconformity, and long live risk-taking… the experiment didn’t pay off.
Labyrinthus Stellarum “Rift in Reality”
Ukrainian project Labyrinthus Stellarum is built around brothers Andronati, Alex and Misha, and presents us with a new evolution of space-rock filtered through black metal in the form of cosmic metal. They’ve made a youthful language their own, with metalcore touches here, dark atmospheres recalling Katatonia or Swallow the Sun there, passages that sound like Kitarō locked up in the catacombs, and above all, a strong electronic presence throughout. What might seem hard to digest has a hypnotic quality that calls for repeat listens. The story feels like a variation on the Ender saga, and the use of electronics fits it perfectly, though the overproduction is sometimes a double-edged sword, and we often find ourselves missing a more organic drum sound.
Also known for his work as Wobbler’s keyboardist, he presents his second solo album, where you can hear the influence of more classic, classicist prog artists, since it channels the essence of Focus, Rick Wakeman or Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Quite elegant and thoroughly retro, which isn’t a bad thing in itself when you deliver a top-notch record like this one.
Their performance at this year’s Minnuendø festival is still fresh, where they presented their brand-new album and proved they’re a band with an excellent live show. Speaking of the record itself, there are no surprises here, since they stay true to their style, with prog close to Spock’s Beard, Neal Morse or The Flower Kings, but with the distinction of not falling into the excessive sweetness their compositions sometimes suffer from, as the genre often does.
This German multi-instrumentalist, known for his work with Stick Men, offers us a rather underworked record, where each track rests on a handful of ideas, leaving their development up to the whims of the musicians’ talent who joined him in the studio. Little effort, with sonorities recalling King Crimson’s ProjeKcts, and not especially original.
An interesting, promising debut from this project out of Bergen. A fairly varied, entertaining record that especially recalls late-nineties Pink Floyd; though the opening track is a bit misleading, since it leans closer to Von Hertzen Brothers or similar. Highly recommended.
After a long break — they hadn’t released anything since their fifth studio album, “V” (2012) — these Swedes have decided to step back into the spotlight, offering what they’ve always done: a blend of genres spanning prog, jazz fusion, hard rock, or trip-hop, with Petronella Nettermalm’s delicate voice making it an easy listen, while the atmospheres built on guitars and keyboards lean toward melancholy. They recall Anathema performing tracks by Anneke van Giersbergen’s The Gathering.
Pentesilea Road “Sonnets From The Drowsiness”
The influence of Dream Theater is obvious in this Italian band (that’s two new releases with that influence already). But being influenced by someone and trying to imitate them doesn’t guarantee you’ll end up being just as much of a reference point yourself. The album is decent, but it’s full of predictable genre clichés and some gratuitous flexing of a certain musical muscle, and ends up not being surprising in the least; and since their compositions don’t stand out either, it scrapes by with a passing grade.
A trip back in time to instrumental smooth jazz of the late eighties, following in the tradition of bands like Shakatak, Fourplay or Mezzoforte. In other words, walking right along the border of elevator music.
This quartet has made an instrumental album that’s very easy to review. Just glance at the song titles and you already know where this is headed. And sure enough, when you listen, you find tributes to Camel and Focus drawing on the loveliest concepts of progressive jazz-rock. Another good record you absolutely have to hear, full of vintage flair with plenty of distinction and elegance.
Here’s an album that will delight guitar lovers, especially on its more metal-leaning side. Great sensitivity from this instrumentalist, who avoids unnecessary displays of polished technique and knows how to put his virtuosity in service of the music, as it should be, though it isn’t always the case. Especially notable are the tracks and passages where he uses acoustic guitar masterfully.
We could say these Swedes don’t have a bad record in them, but this time their trademark of long tracks has worked against them. It starts strong with “We Claim the Moon”, but attention wanes from there, except for a few standout tracks like “Burn Both Bridges”, “Walls of Shame” and the interlude “Kaiser Razor”, where the guitars shine brightest. The record would feel more complete if they’d trimmed its runtime. For fans of symphonic rock with long, relaxing tracks.
Welcome Inside The Brain “Re:Creation”
From Leipzig comes a rather rewarding EP, with fairly consistent songs, heirs to prog classicism. But this isn’t just another band recycling and imitating seventies groups; no. Here we have artists with solid reference points but also their own identity, which, despite their approach, makes their offering something more distinctive. In short, lovely, and suitable for the whole family.
After a twenty-year career, this Örebro band keeps giving us fairly classic, highly interesting dark-rock albums, like the one presented here. Sabbath-style riffs with a fairly retro production, this time deliberately roughed up, but always with an evident elegance that sets them apart from other bands in the genre. It’s true they’ve drifted a bit away from their proggier side, but it remains an honest, captivating work.
Writers: Josep Maria Llovera, Gabriel Martín, David Sàez