Top Picks
Elder – Through Zero (post prog-metal)
Like Eden said in his review:
"Through Zero is the most 'complete' Elder album to date, ... in the sense that it contains tidbits, influences, and sounds from every one of the "modes" that Elder have shown us before.
....
There's something more intimate even in those atmospheric moments, sweeping in a different, smaller sense. It's hard to put your finger on it; it's a balance that Elder have struck well throughout their career but here has been refined even further. ... this feeling that even though you are listening to undeniably grandiose music, there are still beating hearts communicating very real and important feelings to you behind the instruments."
Even as only a fairly casual Elder fan, I could immediately feel that Through Zero was something special, taking the lush prog of Innate Passage (2022) and blends it with a bit of the darker, more direct dalliances of their earlier albums, along with some shamelessly Yes-inspired and most-welcome harmonic melodies. The (over-)length and repetitiveness of the songs may have dulled its impact slightly on subsequent listens, but it's still a mile ahead of anyone else trying their hand at this sound and provides a perfectly pleasant progressive soundscape to loose yourself in over and over again.
The Scalar Process – Agnomysticism (progressive tech-death)
For those who prefer their prog more aggressive but no less expansive, there's the The Scalar Process. The band clearly take primary inspiration form Fallujah, but also a lot more engaging and memorable than I have found the last few Fallujah albums to be. The floatier aspects on their sound perhaps suggest an ever-so-slightly different evolution that band could have taken following Dreamless (2016) and, for my money, do it a lot better than all the other bands that have been chasing their sound since then, its originators included.
Release Roundup
'68 – They Are Survived by '68 (alt/mathish rock)
Abrasive Trees – Light Remaining (post prog)
Acacia Avenue – Chapter V (AOR)
Albion – It Was In The Month Of May (hobbit bullshit)
Ana – Motivated By Death (shitty snake-lady metal)
Ater Era – Sinistria (weird meloblack)
Balmora – These Graven Halls (melodeathcore) Review
BBQxBBQ – One Blood, One Sauce (y tho?)
Belligerence – Liturgies of the Vile Ones (death metal)
Bjørn Riis – Lifandi (instrumental rock)
BlackMarket – Radical Views (nu metal)
Boards of Canada – Inferno (more like boreds of Canada)
Cambrian – Oceans Away (melodeathy prog-metal)
Chronic Hate – Defeating The Oblivion Of Life (death metal)
Consecration – Exanimis (death doom)
Crocell – Swarm Of Insects (deathened black metal)
The Cruel Intentions – All Hail Hypocrisy (pop rock, hair metal?)
Dark Divine – Undead Melody (butt core)
Deafkids – Cicatrizes Do Futuro (weird industrial)
Degenerated – Echoes of Infection (death metal)
Deus Saboath – Distortion Of Lies (black metal)
Devin Townsend – The Moth (operatic prog metal)
Dogstar – All In Now (Keanu-core)
Eaten By Sharks – The Undertow Of Hate (tech-death)
Emerald Rage – The Eyes of the Dragon (power metal)
Erdve – Epigrama (weird/blackened sludge-death)
Eternal Evil – Forever Feared (thrash metal)
Falesya – Catharsis (progressive metalcore)
The Fifth Alliance – Stenahoria (post-doom)
The Freqs – No God On The Gold Coast (rock)
Funebrarum – Beckoning The Void Of Eternal Silence (death doom)
Furnace – Echoes Of A Distant Future (rockin’ melodeath)
Foxblood – Patchwork & Standby (post hardcore, metalcore)
Galvanist – The Silence Between Stars (progressive/postish black metal)
Godthrymm – Projections (deathy doom)
Graveir – The Festering Triad (blackened death metal)
Hanry – What Came From Silence (post, ambient)
Gutrectomy – Slamdown Is Not a Phase, Mom (slamming brutal death/core)
Harboured – We’re Only The Love That We Lead (progressive post-black/metal) Pre-Emptive Review
Hecate Enthroned – The Corpse of A Titan, A Lament Long Buried (symphonic melloblack)
Horizon Of Aeons – Timeless Forms Of Desolation (blackened mellowdoom)
I Will Destroy You – Dead Before Dawn (synthwave)
Ice Chemicals – The Lowest Point (alt/nu metal)
Jayler – Voices Unheard (hardish rock)
Killing Suzy – Stillborn (goth metal)
Leatherwitch – First Spell (heavy metal)
Liva – Ecce Mundus (symphonic/opera metal)
Lowcard De La Morte/Killseduction – Kill De La Morte (hard/grindcore)
Lufeh – Overwhelmed (prog metal)
Maladie – The Dance Of Tragedies (weird metal)
Malebeste – Monestherou (black metal)
Malummeh – Malummeh (doomy/symphonic melodeath)
Mandy Manala – Something Wicked (heavy metal/rock)
Masquerage – Atomic Spies (prog metal)
Meltification – Meltification (grindcore)
Melting – A Pathetic Excuse For A Life (brutal hardcore, metalcore)
Mind Funeral – Garage Daze (heavy metal)
Misanthrope – Embrasement (symphonic power metal)
Monolord – Neverending (stoner sludge)
Mother Bear – Orm 2 (doom)
Mzztr – Pronounced Mis-Ter (weird noise/math rock)
Nirensimt/Scoured – Ceaseless Majesty, Endless Malice (post-/black metal)
Pvrgatorii – Profane Rites for Cursed Times (blackened death metal)
Redshift – Down The Wire (prog metal)
Ringlorn – The Queen of Wildred (heavy metal)
Saint Agnes – Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin (alt metal)
Saiseiga – 黒舞台 (groove melodeath)
Sarcasm – Lifeforce Omnibound (blackish death metal)
Se, Josta Ei Puhuta – Syvyyden Portit On Saatava Auki (blackened melodeath)
Serpent Lord – The Once Forgotten Ways Of Old (black metal)
Serpent – As the City Burns (heavy metal)
Seven Crowns – Haunted Head (alty prog-metal)
Sik Salvation – I.R.E. (death metal)
Smash Hit Combo – Deus Ex (nu metalcore)
Sparta – Cut A Silhouette (The Mars Volta at home)
Static Dress – Injury Episode (alt rock)
Torturebitch – In Mood for Murder (punky death metal)
Treacher – Hibernation Of Death (melodeath)
Trelldom – …by the word… (weird/disso doom)
Trueandtrue – Nosedive (industrial metal)
Turnover – Down on Earth (emo/gaze)
Tyrann – Tyrann Forever (trad rock/metal)
Vault – Hush (death metal)
Vestigial – Shadow Lands (progressive groove-thrash)
Voidmaker – A Cold, Unyielding Universe (progressive black/death metal)
Wolf & Bear – A Hill to Die On (progressive/pop post-hardcore)
Wyrmhaven – Seasons Of Gloom (death metal, melodeath)