In "Look Out" the songs follow the tradition of the progressive of the early 80s, mixed with pasychedelic rock, hard rock, folk, ambient rock.
Four players from different parts of the world get together to create music that is metal based, but spreads out into other genres of music like latin, latin jazz, jazz, ambience and a few more. The lyrics go from deep philosophical into the sicknesses of the mind and questions of life. Some of influences are Between the buried and me, Paco de Lucia, Squarepusher, Vinnie Colaiuta and many more...Media/Samples
Although Skyliner describe themselves as heavy/power metal (with a progressive mind's eye at the centre) the music on Outsiders has much more to do with power metal than it does heavy metal, although those elements are certainly still semi-prominent, and I feel that their branding downplays just how progressive their music actually is. ... Outsiders is a lot more complex than a typical power metal release. I'd go as far to call at least parts of the album technical power metal. That's not a term you hear put about very often, if at all, the way technical death or technical thrash are, but Skyliner certainly have their moments where such a term pops into my head.Read the full review at metaltube.freeforums.org
These songs were recorded in1977/1978, mixed and refurbished in 2014, reaching so a obvious better sound quality.
Elegy is an album full of contrasts, a work that tightly represents the immense strength of a kind of post-rock that is not tied down to a narrative or to the mechanics of loud and quiet. As its title indicates, it flows like verse, drawing the listener into the moment, creating emotionally charged set-pieces that do not last too long for fear of losing focus. As if it was a minimalist or ambient album, every distortion counts, every little shift in volume drives the music wildly into different states of dramatic sentiment. This is a lament born from a passion for life, a dirge woven from sunlight, a torrential meditation in which the limits of living are played out as uplifting melodies brimming with delay, an echo that appears to remain forever at the same time it appears to dissipate ephemerally.
Read the full review by David Murrieta at acloserlisten.com
There seems to be a lot of "this band is boring" from the progressive fans, as well as a lot of "this band tries too hard to be complex/progressive/deep" from the prog-hesistant music listeners. The Kindred (formerly Today I Caught the Plague) seem to have found themselves politely hovering right in what can be thought of as "no man's land" in World War I trench warfare, relatively seamless and original style of progressive music that is as accessible as it is complex and abstract. The Kindred are a group who have undergone a drastic stylistic change along with the change of their name, dropping nearly all metalcore influence for a more progressive metal/rock vibe, and have used this new style to create a very complex and perplexedly deep album and has more than enough accessibility and catch to latch on to.
Read the full review at sputnikmusic.com
The sound the band has created is hard to pigeonhole. It's certainly metallic and definitely progressive. Yet it doesn't sound like your average ProgMetal band... The 'Prog' categorisation is delivered through an ever-changing palette of time signatures, dynamics and pace. Despite their (relative) brevity, almost ever song has a mix of light and shade. Mother of Millions has an innate ability to write songs that shift in an instant, from almost extreme metal to whimsical folk. Some excellent use is made of ProgRock motifs, acoustic passages as well as traditional Mediterranean folk styles. A much more aggressive version of early Pain of Salvation could be one comparison. Sophisticated is the word.Read the full review by Andy Read at dprp.net
Spoke of Shadows was born when Mark was finishing the mixes of the latest Herd of Instinct release “Conjure”. After completing two Herd of Instinct's CDs in two years he wanted to focus on writing music that was moodier and had more dynamics than what Herd of Instinct usually create. He began recording pieces by layering Warr guitars, an 8 string fretless bass, drums, guitars, and keyboards. After 6 tracks were written the project took another turn when a friend introduced Mark to Bill Bachman. Mark stripped away his percussion parts and gave the tracks to Bill with only one direction “play what you normally would not be allowed to play in other bands”. The goal was to create a hybrid progressive music that covers a wide range of moods and styles. No rules! After finishing the majority of the writing they began looking for collaborators to help add some sonic variation to the music. The approach was to find players from diverse backgrounds to help create a unique vocabulary that takes the listener on a sonic journey. All of the guests magically fell into place on the recording and added immense depth to the tracks.Media/Samples
Simply amazing sophomore album by Deva, a very classical music influenced melodic band fronted by the beautiful voice of classically trained soprano, Beatrice Palumbo.( progmetalzone.com )
Dark, powerful metal guitars meet vibrant percussion from the Middle East. Oriental Metal both inspiring and uplifting through its intricate melodies and brooding tone.Media/Samples
OSV is back with album 7 of their unique blend of Progressive Rock, Fusion and Melodic Metal that should really appeal to fans of Dream Theater, Steve Via, Steve Morse and Joe Satriani.
Technical. Djent. Arabic. Epic. Heavy.
The album would be of interest to fans of prog rock, Belbury Poly/Ghostbox records, Moon Wiring Club, vintage soundtracks, Krautrock and psychedelia.
... it's safe to say that it might possibly be the best death metal record to come out of Sweden since Entombed got tired of playing death metal. The aptly titled Sweven is nothing short of a total success on all fronts. The entire history of death metal, all the way back to before rock even existed, is a part of Sweven in some strange way. It's almost impossible to find any semblance of the band we knew as Morbus Chron unless you take into account the basic elements that have defined their sound until this point. Those nasty, shrieking vox that were at the forefront of A Saunter Through the Shroud are here in perfect form, the undertones of the swampy sewer metal courtesy of Autopsy are still vaguely present, and most of all the charming adversarial attitude showcased since the band’s inception in 2007 is still alive and well. The only thing that's different this time around is that Sweven sounds like nothing the metal world has really ever heard before.Read the full review at sputnikmusic.com
About Tess is an instrumental band consisted of two drummers, two bassists and two guitarists. Their music involves interminably repeated riff and rhythms overlapping each other, and they place uncalculated components in apposition with constructed parts. You will feel, rather than watch or listen to, their lives that present fast and furious transit from silence to rumble.
"Enduring Days You Will Overcome" is the fruit of a difficult and stagnant era. However, confirming every word of its title, it’s proof that the conscious perseverance of creation is the solution to overcome the problems and move forward. The album rises from the ashes of a lo-fi world, maintaining the lyricism and the characteristic "haunting" atmosphere of Electric Litany. Drawing inspiration from Beat poetry, new wave, Byzantine music and solid guitars that form a feeling of dark romanticism. Melancholic odes to the perseverance of the human spirit in face of tragedy.
While some people nowadays will be automatically (and dare I say shallowly) turned off at the prospect of anything even slightly Meshuggah-influenced, A Sense of Gravity are up there with Textures or early Hacride in achieving success with polyrhythmic-driven prog metal. The progressive groove metal elements combined with the more fusion-oriented and new-age schools of melodic death metal, in tandem with the straight prog metal incorporations, make Travail one of the best newcomer records of the year so far, if not one of the best 2014 has yet produced, period.
Read the full review at nocleansinging.com
The Experiment No.Q is a music project written and directed by Paolo Vallerga (No.Q).
An Experiment with different professional musicians from all parts of the world, with different styles, different music background and personality. The Experiment No.Q is a complicate attempt to mix different creative worlds; an alchemical experiment with musicians who have never played together, having just one point in common: No.Q. All the songs and lyrics were written by Paolo Vallerga (with the help in some parts of Roberto Grassi, Emanuel Victor and Stefano Arecco)
Since 2010, The Cosmic Dead have been exploring the outer reaches of Krautrock, doom and psychedelia, tasting the extremes of sound and fusing them into a single, all-enveloping web of stratospheric riffing, otherworldly ambience and kosmische textures that has spread itself across countless shows throughout all Europe
“For anyone who hasn’t yet stood before the Dead and their live homage to the cosmos, expect religious devotion to synthesised dreamworlds, subsonic grooves, guitaristic splendour and the vast, hypnotic sounds of Hawkwind and Popol Vuh eternally jamming in the Möbius strip of time and space”
Remember that satanic drug thing you didn't understand? Forget about it! Here comes the new breed and it's a fierce and fiery force! A creeping barrage of sound that embodies the spirit of heavy psychedelic freak-outs from the Godz and Hawkind to early Monster Magnet („25... Tab“-era) and Acid Mother's Temple to set you afire.
N.Tesla is a Russian Post-Metal band who have just released their stunning debut album – Lux Manifesto, which blends elements of ambient vibes, post-hardcore and crushing sludge metal riffs for one pulsating ride.Read the full review by Steve Howe at thesludgelord.blogspot.com
This is not your most straight-forward Post-Metal album as N.Tesla don't play by the rules. They add a strangely hypnotic feel to their music. It's very different to the likes of Isis, The Ocean and Neurosis and that is a very good thing indeed. As the band develop their own sound over the album's 34 minute running time.
It is a concept album that tells a dark and gothic tale about a geisha: love, loss, lust, betrayal, and revenge are all characters in this story, which converges to a tragic end. The music is a blend of Symphonic Metal, Gothic Metal, Epic Metal and Progressive Rock with elements of traditional pentatonic music, a dramatic score-music feeling, and an original touch of Japanese-influenced music. The instrumental background is the perfect vehicle for Darkyra to showcase the attributes of her unique voice: mesmerizing power, burning passion, and outstanding singing ability; recalling female singers of the magnitude. “Dragon Tears” has eleven tracks. The album is fantastic, and must be listened several times to allow total assimilation of the music that it contains, such is the richness of the arrangements. It opens with “Madoka's Lament” (5:24) – an emotionally strong lullaby that introduces Darkyra’s amazing voice and delicate sounds of Japanese music, assuring that this band has a differential, and dragging the listener into the story. On “Lullaby of Death” (5:08) Darkyra continues to enchant us with a Medea-kind of voice, luring us into the dark lairs of “Eyes Wide Shut” (5:02) – a song that begins creepy with somber pianos, but arises to a bombastic Epic-Metal later, having a great guitar solo. “Japanese Frankenstein” (4:37) sounds like a Japanese Anime soundtrack, descending to the Gothic vaults where hides the dramatic “Slither” (6:40), which has strings and icy pianos, recalling “Sirenia”, “Artrosis”, and “Evanescence”. “Before I Wither” (4:37) is a piano ballad that mixes Japanese music with Romantic references, and has an awesome “Dreams of Sanity” style; while “Cold Cold Stone” (6:33) begins modern, groovy, and techno, but gradually grows to a Symphonic Metal of epic proportions. The last four tracks of the album represent the climax of the story. “Never Know” (8:56) has amazing Symphonic beginning, theatrical vocals, eerie moments reminiscent of “Nox Arcana”, and bombastic orchestrations like “Lacrimosa”; “Tears By Candlelight” (3:35) is a straightforward and swinging Metal song on which Darkyra puts a spell on you with malignant tongue, and later brakes the enchantment with soaring vocals like “Tarja”; and “Kiss of the Dragon” (5:52) & “Dragon Tears” (12:51) are masterpieces in the style of “Dreams of Sanity”, “Nightwish”, “Edenbridge”, and “Syrens Call”. If “Kiss…” is marked by an intro with pianos & violins, the demolition guitar riffs, the martial drumming, and an overall aggressiveness; “Dragon…” is fast-galloping, and after 6 minutes of awesome Epic-Metal, brings a narrative sequence that promises a sequel. (Marcelo Trotta at progressiverockbr.com
A long-existing companionship between two Canadian musicians has led to many works. I am not familiar with this huge back catalogue but did come across this awesome four-song album named. I was sold on the first listen. This is slow-tempo, progressive, ambient metal meant to be listened to during the night hours. So reserve one of this weekend's nights - preferably with your headphones on and without being disturbed and get the full feeling.
(André de Boer at weekendprog.blogspot.fr)
A mix of rock and extended progressive rock arrangements are the basis of the music. The songs encompass dynamic mood shifts while stressing vocal melodies.
