Emerged – Letting Go of Certainties (2015)

Formed by Tom Palms of Phlebotomized fame, this Dutch outfit delivers a nice five-song EP bridging genres between Progressive Metal, Heavy Metal, Stoner Rock, and some Doom. It is hard to standout these days, but the band’s music makes this quite effortless for Emerged. With a knack for epic melodies and super catchy song structures with a certain 90’s Metal feeling to them, this band is set to take the scene by surprise.

With every song being quite different and a thing to individually explore, the band leads off with the melancholic “Dark Corner of my Mind”. In this track the band delivers a mid-tempo Proggy track with heavy riffs and some quite retro speedups. As we head into “Don’t Speak”, we have a livelier atmosphere with some chugging riffs and a certain old-school Psychedelic/Stoner vibe. Heavy Metal meets Prog Rock is the theme for the super catchy “Get a Life”, a song we can picture having vocals both by Dio and James LaBrie.

Our personal favorite is the intricate “Emerged”, with its winding guitars and very playful style. Closing with “Who Am I to Judge”, the band nicely showcases their quirkier side with interesting tempo changes a very engaging Jazzy bass guitar line. For a 30 minute release, we greatly enjoyed every single note in this release. Any fan of instrumental Metal will surely appreciate “Letting go of Certainties” as they are in for a high-quality retro voyage through time with this one.

Label: Vic Records

Release: April 27th, 2015

Genre: Instrumental Progressive Metal

Country: Netherlands