It’s been five years since Pelagial, the last album from German harsh progressives The Ocean. The quartet, again referring to themselves as The Ocean Collective and now with Mattias Hagerstrand on bass duties, is renowned for its prolific output as well as incendiary live shows, so the anticipation for eighth studio album Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic (Metal Blade Records) is huge.Continue reading
Instrumental and/or Progressive Metal are incredibly tricky beasts to pull off well. Aside from the obvious chops required to make music without vocals that retain attention and engages in its own right, but to pull it off with showing heart and emotion too is an entirely different matter. Formed in 2015 by three prominent UK-based, virtuoso musicians, Toska turned heads with their debut EP Ode To The Author, and based on the technical prowess on this new full-length Fire By The Silos (both self-released), and it is easy to see why.Continue reading
The self-titled album is an interesting concept. Where the eponymous opus is not a debut, it is usually installed into a band’s canon as a way of stating that a specific album is either a summation of everything that represents a band – their pinnacle and natural conclusion of a journey of sound – or a launch of a bold new chapter, a “look at me now” redesign and rebranding. Fourth album in, and Australian Alternative Rock act Dead Letter Circus have opted to go down that route as a way of combining both those factors – a presentation of all that they have been, and a refocusing and refining of direction.Continue reading
German metal is going through something of a renaissance in recent times, with an inventive and all-embracing attitude exuding all manner of influences. Step forward the enigmatically named Time, The Valuator, adding a post-hardcore feel to the powerful prog metal of the likes of Karnivool and Periphery with debut album How Fleeting, How Fragile (Longbranch).Continue reading
It’s been a long wait for those of us whose curiosity was piqued by the dark, emotional splendour of Irish quartet Raum Kingdom’s 2014 self-titled EP. Finally, an album, Everything & Nothing (both self-released) is here, and almost from the outset, it oozes the hostile, plaintive post-Metal beauty for which one would hope.Continue reading
To say that Brighton’s King Goat set themselves a high bar with début album Conduit (self-released) is like saying that Donald Trump is a wee bit controversial. To merely label them a Doom band is, similarly, doing the quintet a severe disservice: that début was laced with emotional vocals, choirs overlaying evocative bridges, and light, textured instrumentalism. It was a tour de force precious few expected.Continue reading
There are few things in life as warming and mood-enhancing as a pleasant musical surprise. Be that an unexpected push on in terms of quality of a band, or a change of direction that suits in a way you hadn’t imagined, or a diversification of sound that leads to the producing of an album with a myriad of qualities and highlights that resolutely refuses to be “one defined thing”. Arcane Roots’ sophomore release Melancholia Hymns (Easy Life) is, I’m pleased to report, one of those warming and mood-enhancing pleasures.Continue reading
Brighton-based quintet King Goat has been gathering plaudits for a couple of years now. While their brace of EPs has been highly regarded, however, debut album Conduit (Self-Release) rips up that benchmark and propels the band’s reputation skywards.
It’s the Progressive, Eastern influence within their Low-end metal that has held listeners in thrall, and right from album opener ‘Flight of the Deviants’ that blends with a quirky, Karnivool-esque base and some Gary Moore-flavoured leadplay. The whole is given vivid colour by the alarmingly powerful voice of Anthony ‘Trim’ Trimming, Averill-like in its tone and versatility and just occasionally touching on Ozzy Osbourne’s high notes.
Each track here is a story in its own right, ‘…Deviants’ switching pace in segments, the spoken elements rivalling the scene-setting qualities of this year’s debut from The King Is Blind. The instruments swirl and swell around the vicious rasp of the three-quarter section before dropping into a Trad Metal-tinged coda, the leads howling their agonies after being a hidden star throughout.
‘Trim’ reaches new heights on the ensuing ‘Feral King’ yet, while his staggering power and range is undoubtedly the lead factor here, the contorting body of the track shows all five protagonists to be stars of this pulsating show. Its winding, crushing centrepiece still retains delicacy in the incredible harmonising of harsh vocals, whilst the ominous drama of the close is a joy to witness.
The title track, a paradox of complexity and simplicity, sees the seamless blend of hulking melody and crushing brutality reach its apex, whilst rarely breaking a slowly skipping tempo. The heartfelt melancholy mixes sublimely with those soaring eastern patterns, its choir-assisted third quarter a soaring triumph leading to emotional euphoria and a roaring coda. That barrelling force segues into ‘Revenants’, the guitars dancing tremolo patterns through steady yet intricate rhythmic pummel; yet the gradual drop to the gentle, sinister interlude is a thing of moving beauty.
Closer ‘Sanguine Path’ is an Occult-tinged Death-Doom workout somewhat at odds with the rest of the album, yet no less striking and fully conveying the resigned despair. Quite simply this is the kind of accomplished, intuitive greatness most bands hope to reach by the third or fourth album of their careers, yet rarely do. The UK has provided the Metal world with one bona fide classic already this year: here is another piece of staggering magnificence to rival and possibly surpass it.
9.0/10.0
PAUL QUINN
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One is never quite sure what to expect from Italian Doom, oft laden as it is with a Deathly rattle or Psychedelic, Stoner grooves. The initial strains of ‘The Devil’s Conjuration’, the opening track from Void Of Sleep’s second full-length New World Order (Aural Music), show a slightly chaotic, progressive structure: Riccardo ‘Paso’ Pasini’s gloriously clanking bass cushioned by layered keys and occasionally Djent-style rhythms from the drums and squirming riffs.
Doom actually seems to be the understudy here: vigorous, crashing grooves dancing along the paths of ‘…Conjuration’ and the ensuing ‘Hidden Revelations’ with only a fuzzing, deep rhythm guitar pinning down the Low-end influence. The latter shows a real Prog sensibility, from the cosmic slower sections which are graced by Andrea ‘Burdo’ Burdisso’s languid, mellifluous tones, to the angry creativity of the tangential battery and occasional harsh vocal. This invites a range of comparison: the expansion of Coheed and Cambria; the melody and angular rhythms of Karnivool; even the rampant cacophony of Dillinger Escape Plan or Meshuggah. Yet Void of Sleep meld these fractious, dysfunctional cousins into a vital and hugely engaging whole.
The early, mournful guitar and dragging weight of ‘Order Ab Chao’ is the first earnest show of monolithic intent, yet the pace is soon re-energised by another prancing behemoth of a groove, with Andrea ‘Allo’ Allodoli’s syncopated patterns both sinister and enlivening. Alternatively there’s a soft melancholy to the glorious title track, again nodding to Karnivool’s wistful yet powerfully rhythmic moments, which seems more in tune with a sad foreboding than a celebration of a new coming. The album’s fearful tale is constantly magnetic, its diverse wonder not least explored in the slightly overlong, epic closer ‘Ending Theme’: a drifting yet powerful monster, flitting between moments of airy whimsy and slow yet thudding brutality. Groove-ridden passages see time switches and discordant cascades handled in unison and with consummate ease.
Maybe this is the kind of album Opeth should make in order to re-unite its warring fanbase. In the meantime, let’s herald this gloomy yet vibrant coming which is as delightful as it is foxing and involving.
7.5/10
PAUL QUINN
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In recent years Australia has given a burgeoning and genuinely exciting scene of metal, particularly those of a progressive nature. From the likes of Karnivool to recent genre alchemists Ne Obliviscaris, such bands are not only making waves on the wider radar but are doing so with inventive, compelling and brilliant flavor. Similarly Brisbane originated Caligula’s Horse have made a mark, with two well received albums, a characterised brand of emotive progressive metal and the eventual signing to prog label titans InsideOut. Not too shabby really.
Latest album Bloom (InsideOut) begins on almost misleading terms, as the title track begins with a lengthy, acoustic passage accompanied by soft vocals before it gradually increases tempo and dynamic, in part reminiscent of Opeth, as it proves to build up towards the comparatively heavier ‘Marigold’. Throughout the album Caligula’s Horse strike that tricky balance between the heavy and lighter elements with aplomb melding the complexity of tech metal and some near djent-like moments with emotional resonance and accessibility. In fact, much like Agent Fresco, there is a great level of pop sensibilities and a weight of influences and styles, but doing so with a style and feel of their own.
At an approximate duration of 45 minutes, Bloom offers a rich diversity and layering but in a run time more manageable for the more novice listener. Catchy, poppier moments and recognisable influences with further draw people in, whilst rich textures and the fluid blend of complexity and aspects of serenity will keep the trained listener engaged for ages. A stunning effort from a band that are quickly proving to be one of the contemporary prog scene’s most promising torch bearers.
8.0/10
CHRIS TIPPELL
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