Progressive RockMetal
Writer:
David Sàez
We want to share with you, with no pretension beyond sharing good music, 10 tracks we really enjoyed in 2024. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did when we discovered them and they blew us away. And if you already know them, it’s always a good time to enjoy them again.
Thank you to everyone who supports this project, and especially to those who are able to get more actively involved. Best wishes for 2025.
The balance between powerful guitars and delicate vocal passages defines this song. Beneath a deceptively simple surface lies a precise, polished performance that will delight fans of sophistication and fans of powerful music alike.
This track is full of dynamism, with various tempo changes and shifting intentions. Combined with that dynamism and a curious blend of influences — American progressive metal, British prog and German rock — these Hungarians have absolutely nailed it.
A gorgeous, tremendously melodic song, composed with great taste and delicacy, full of subtlety, and a textbook example of how to do crossover prog. It’s the opener of one of 2024’s best records, and it does justice to a band that’s been moving us for a decade now.
Powerful and rocking, dominated by dense riffs, but with plenty of dynamism and shifting atmospheres, proving you can put together a solid debut in the world of prog. It’s a brief glimpse of a band with a more than promising future ahead of them.
“Goddes in the Machine” Haishen
Right from the start, we get a fairly extensive composition following the principles you’d expect from heavy progressive rock, with tones evoking Rush filtered through more aggressive sludge-rock sieves, without losing lovely melodies and harmonious backing vocals cleverly mixed with raspy lead vocals. Add in an ambient instrumental interlude that flows into acoustic textures, setting up a great electrifying finale.
“Homo Ludens” Tatu & Tutkimusmatkailijat
A very clean instrumental track, in the style of Alan Parsons Project, or perhaps a kind of sped-up Pink Floyd, rhythmic and melodic. Either way, it’s by far the standout track on this year’s album.
“Life in the Wires, Pt 1” Frost*
Pulled from possibly the best production of the year, this single evokes bygone eras while sounding thoroughly current. Vibrant and energetic, with a thrilling pace, yet also capable of offering calmer passages, creating a phenomenal contrast that is its greatest virtue.
“Shine One” Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks
Okay, maybe subjectivity gets the better of us here, or maybe it’s just that hearing Jon Anderson’s voice on such a nineties-Yes-flavoured composition makes those of us who lived through that era go weak at the knees with nostalgia. And if you weren’t around back then, you’ll still have to admit, on listening to it, that it’s magical all the same. Honestly, the fact that this man, at eighty years old, still sounds fresh and revitalised by his new travelling companions deserves a genuinely heartfelt ovation.
“The Hanged Man” Circe Link & Christian Nesmith
What would have happened if, back in 1975, Genesis had decided they needed a female voice to replace Peter Gabriel? Well, you’d have gotten exactly this result, no more, no less. Honestly, we think that’s praise enough, and reason enough to give it a listen.
And drawing on the best of the genre’s most important influences, we get this marvel, halfway between Yes, Genesis and Renaissance. Honestly, you couldn’t ask for better reference points to introduce this complex track, crafted with elegance and great taste. And one you’ll thoroughly enjoy.