It’s a good practice to stagger your releases a bit in order to keep your music and name fresh in your audience’s mind. If you release an album every few years, you run the risk of losing the attention of both the media and your listeners, unless you’re a big name that everyone is always thinking about. Thus, releasing singles, music videos, and even EPs can be a good idea, pinging your name and refreshing your public image. Just ask Mycelia; even though their last album, Apex, released in 2018, I received an email about their new single just over a week ago and have been obsessed with their last two releases ever since.
These make a kind of progressive metalcore/djent that will appeal to fans of Within the Ruins, After the Burial, Born of Osiris, and the such. In fact, their 2017 album, Dawn, is actually my favorite, turning up the weirdness and the progressiveness up to eleven with two tracks over ten minutes, plenty of electronic influences, and an overall unique approach to composition. Apex is a good album as well, focusing on the heavier side of things and a more straightforward approach, resulting in powerful riffs, impactful breakdowns and an overall “rougher” feeling than Dawn. Both albums display a unique signature and style though, which is the most important thing when operating in such a saturated sub-genre.
Check out the opening track to Dawn for example, “Call Of The Void”. It features extensive heavy passages mingled with super cool backing synths, both clean and harsh vocals that interact really well with each other, transitions aplenty, and an overall expansive canvas with plenty to sink your teeth into. On the heavier side of things, “Lawnmower Man” on Apex does a good job of showcasing that album’s more aggressive sound and how some of the more interesting progressive elements are still maintained (make sure to check out the next track, “Once Upon a Lie” as well. Long story short, check out Mycelia if you like your progressive music heavy and your heavy music progressive; their sleek edges and variety guarantee something for everyone.