Progressive Metal

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    Enslaved – RIITIIR (2012)

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    After blowing us all away with the excellent “Axioma Ethica Odini”, Enslaved returns with another excellent release that builds up on their previous albums and further refines their sound. With their very Progressive sound, the band has managed to expand the reach of the Black Metal genre into new and uncharted territories, and “RIITIIR” is the perfect vessel to explore these waters.

    Continuin the “Axioma…” vibe, “Thoughts Like Hammers” features intricate guitar work perfectly adorned by several singing styles. The chorus section of this track is magical, both musically and vocally. With such a very well-directed aggressive sound, the band perfectly fuses in their Progressive elements with the harsh vocals and pounding drums unlike any other band we’ve heard. Moving into funkier and more melodic territory, “Death in the Eyes of Dawn” nicely keeps the album flowing with excellent guitar work, a wide variety of vocals, and a very mellow tempo.

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    Wind Rose – Shadows Over Lothadruin (2012)

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    If you first read that this was produced by Cristiano Bertocchi (Labyrinth) and mastered by Goran Finnberg (Opeth) this Italian band, Wind Rose, will immediately have your attention and your criticism level would go up a few degrees. Luckily for everybody, the band delivers very well crafted melodies that dance around the area of bands like Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, etc, and their mixtures of fantasy/medieval elements with Power/Progressive Metal. With fifteen songs in “Shadows Over Lothadruin” this new band showcases their musical abilities with a very nicely flowing and epic feeling release.

    First thing that annoyed us a bit is that all SEVEN of the instrumental tracks are standalone songs rather than being incorporated into the previous or following track, we don’t really need a count of 15 songs when you really have eight. Peskiness aside, this does not really affect the release in any sense but it is a picky thing from our side (and some of our readers we have heard). “The Endless Prophecy” marks the album’s first real track and has a very playful feeling to it, while keeping all the requirements of an excellent Progressive/Power Metal song: killer vocal arrangements, solid drumming and crazy guitar work. “Siderion” follows in the same vibe, but the song does have a familiar ‘medieval’ feeling to it that feels like it was taken from somewhere else.

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    Vision Divine – Destination Set To Nowhere (2012)

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    Today we have Fabio Leone’s ‘side-band’ called Vision Divine and their killer seventh full-length released titled “Destination Set To Nowhere”. Already having released one of the most impressive albums with Rhapsody of Fire, Fabio delivers another excellent vocal performance in a thrilling Power/Progressive Metal release that is both extremely catchy and technically proficient. If you are a fan of Power/Progressive Metal, you don’t want to miss this majestic release.

    Opening with the ethereal mood setter “S'io Fosse Foco” the band leave a certain feeling lingering in the air that what’s next to come will be: EPIC. The real opener “Dream Maker” kicks things off with excellent vocal sections and equally exciting melodic parts. The keyboards nicely set the atmosphere and the perfectly crafted piano/solo sections are pure magic, but the true winner here is the mega-catchy chorus section.

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    Cloudscape – New Era (2012)

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    Returning with a revamped line-up today we have Sweden’s Cloudscape and their fourth full-length release “New Era”. Filled with excellent guitar work and very catchy songs, this release delivers 60+ minutes of solid Progressive Power Metal that not go unnoticed by fans of the genre. The new line-up with Håkan Nyander, Fredrik Joakimsson, and Stefan Rosqvist breathes new life to band allowing core members Patrik Svärd and Michael Andersson to create a very refreshing and exciting release.

    The powerful riffing on “Silver Ending” makes this track the perfect opener for a release that combines solid riffing with traditional Progressive keyboards in a very melodic fashion. Andersson’s vocals are as powerful as ever and sound a bit like Christian Älvestam, from Scar Symmetry fame. Constantly recurring to majestic solos laid on top fine-ass drumming, “Share Your Energy”, “Pull The Brake”, and “Kingdom of Sand” make for excellent momentum building tracks that flow perfectly in the overall direction of the album.

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    District 97 – Trouble With Machines (2012)

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    Making Progressive Rock/Metal look easy, today we have the highly skilled District 97 and their latest release titled “Trouble With Machines”. Featuring Leslie Hunt (American Idol Top 10 Finalist), this band is far from your usual Idol produced musical AIDS. With some killer musicians behind her, District 97 delivers seven mesmerizing tracks that showcase the band’s skills in a very playful and direct manner.

    “Back and Forth” opens the release with a playful intro section that is followed by a weird-at-first Progressive vibe with female vocals. While the band is not the first one to attempt this, they are the first ones to really make it work and sound fresh in the process. In tracks like “Open Your Eyes” the band does not stray away much from regular Alternative Rock until the brilliant progressive details come into play. These details allow the songs to be a lot less linear and quite engaging since they seem oddly placed, excellently executed, and for some reason we can’t get enough of them.

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    Prescient – The Polynomial Framework (2011)

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    With an incredible amount of musical skills, today we have Australia’s Prescient and their debut EP titled “The Polynomial Framework”. Delivering six tracks of brilliant Progressive Metal with excellent technical and groovy aspects, this band crafts excellent music that is both attractive and very technically complex, allowing these two dimensions to seamlessly fuse to perfection.

    Opening with the excellent “Revolutions”, the distorted guitars nicely make their way on top of well-crafted drums. While not as dominating as Meshuggah, Prescient delivers a strong foundation that features Groove-infused sections that nicely shift into more melodic passages. The album’s production allows all instruments to shine, especially the bass guitar in the more ‘mellow’ sections. The guitar wizardry makes its way on “Conductive Cell”, a very moody track that nicely shifts intensities and delivers very well crafted guitar solos and drum patterns.

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    Vintersorg – Orkan (2012)

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    After a four year absence, now we get the second release in the same amount of years from Vintersorg. “Orkan” continues the same predictable and highly typical path that Vintersorg has taken, providing just very few flashes of brilliant, and a whole lot more of the same. If you are a die-hard Vintersorg fan this release will be sweet music to your ears, but if you have been annoyed by the lack of creativity of the last release, then you will surely not like this one either.

    The traditional Vintersorg vocal melodies nicely adorn the opener “Istid”. Here, the combination of growls and clean vocals are very well layered at first, and then used to near perfection as we are all used to, in bands like Borknagar and everything else that Vintersorg has been involved in. The fancy synth work is very typical and the riffing is as powerful as always. The progressive elements in the music make it quite enjoyable to hear, particularly on tracks like “Polarnatten”, “Myren”, and “Orkan”. The playfulness of “Myren” is something that we had missed from the band in the last release. We have to say that this is our favorite song in this release, and the only one we really liked too.

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    The Sea Charmer – Cimmerian Repose (2012)

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    Presenting a very interesting musical approach, The Sea Charmer delivers their two-song ‘demo’ “Cimmerian Repose”. Mixing Progressive elements with some Hardcore and even post-rock/metal hints, these two songs are quite interesting to listen to. Hailing from the Czech Republic, this young band managed to catch our attention immediately with some witty melodic passages inserted into their more ‘modern’ Metalcore antics.

    Opening with “Trigger the Grief”, the track sounds a bit Post-rock/Metal-ish from the get go, but the clear hardcore/metalcore influences quickly sink in. We particularly hate this way of half-assed ‘singing’, but sounds a bit tolerable in this song. The clean –core singing is ok, and considerably better than the ‘harsh’ screams, this also sets the mood a bit different than what one would expect. The music is quite excellent, and even the core-ish guitars seem to work well with the atmosphere. The epic closing made us get all rattled up, too bad it was just to complete this track and it wasn’t taken advantage of (we hope to hear more of this from them in the future).

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    Unwritten Pages – Fringe Kitchen (2012)

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    Arriving from the Netherlands today we have a pretty interesting Progressive Metal/Rock release with Unwritten Pages “Fringe Kitchen”. Featuring over 65 minutes of enchanting melodies, this album is quite a musical experience from start to end. Bordering more in the ‘commercial/Mainstream” side of things, “Fringe Kitchen” delivers nine excellently composed tracks that have something for every fan of the genre.

    Setting a very cinematic tone with “Hejo”, the band quickly begins building a nice atmosphere to things. This bleeds into “Asylum Tragedy”, a mysterious progressive piece with excellent percussions and a nice futuristic vibe. Things get a bit heavier with “Intoxicating Sweets”, with the band building some nice powerful distorted guitars into their weird but intoxicating atmosphere. Having six musicians in the band that handle all kinds of different instruments, keyboards and an array of backing vocals makes Unwritten Pages sound very rich and diverse, with so many layers to pay attention to.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Teramaze – AnhedoniA (2012)

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    Delivering some of the most uninspired music we have heard in quite a while, today we have Australia’s Teramaze and their latest full-length “AnhedoniA”. Mixing Progressive elements with a Modern Metal foundation, this band fails to evoke any emotions or sympathy for this release due to the blandness and repetitive nature of their music.

    With 11 tracks, “AnhedoniA” is one of those releases that no matter how many times you play it, it always blends in the background due to its unexciting nature. The band indeed has musical skills since the guitar work and the drumming are well executed, but the linearity of the music and vocals totally kills this release for us.

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