I’ve always had very mixed feelings about Symphony X in general. I was really into V: The New Mythology and The Odyssey, but some of their other albums didn’t sit so well with me, so I was definitely interested in seeing what direction the band would go with Underworld.
The first thing I’ve gotta say is that these guys know how to start an album. If you, for whatever reason, weren’t in the mood for some progressive metal before listening to “Overture”, you sure as hell will be afterwards. With a tasteful blend of a mixed choir, a string ensemble, a fair amount of brass, as well as their own additions to the orchestra, Symphony X effectively sets the tone for this roller coaster of an album.
Something that I really appreciate about this album, is that even when the song is already super heavy, they can still find a way to hit a climax so hard that even if you aren’t paying attention you’ll stop whatever you’re doing and just kind of nod in agreement. These guys have their pacing game down, and that’s such a vital element for a style that asks for such a large amount of energy. The thing is though, they pace themselves well within the songs, but the album itself seems to be a constant flow of heaviness with the two stray speed bumps in “Without You” and “Swan Song”. This isn’t really a huge problem, except that it takes a bit of a blow to the diversity of the album. Though I suppose having a change of pace two times through the album helps it along pretty well.
I also just want to take a moment to talk about Russell Allen’s insane range and control. This is a man who carries some serious weight in this band. Throughout this album you can hear him regularly jumping full octaves and then some to find pitches that still aren’t in his head voice. Or roaring on top of the intense riff-work being done by Romeo and LePond. I’ve constantly been impressed by Allen’s voice in all of his projects, and he hasn’t done us wrong this time either.
This is most certainly a Symphony X album. If you liked them before, I feel confident that you’ll like them again. Underworld is hitting stores on July 24th, so give it a shot. You won’t be disappointed.
Tracklist:
01. Overture
02. Nevermore
03. Underworld
04. Without You
05. Kiss Of Fire
06. Charon
07. To Hell And Back
08. In My Darkest Hour
09. Run With The Devil
10. Swan Song
11. Legend
Playing time: 01:03:58
Release Date: 24th of July, 2015
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Website: www.symphonyx.com
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In 2002, North Carolina based progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me released their first self-titled album. Now here we are thirteen years later looking at their seventh studio release Coma Ecliptic, and I am pretty damn excited about this one. We’ve got a lot to talk about, so let’s just get right to it.
This album is dense, guys. Weighing in at an hour and eight minutes, the guys in BTBAM gave us a ton of music to listen to. Throughout the album, we’re given a taste of every dynamic high and low point you can ask for from this band. The album quickly goes from wildly intense to calm and morose in an instant, dancing from section to section as a good prog metal group should. You’ll hear soft, dreamlike Moog arpeggios topped with tame, soothing vocals that fervently rise and fall in “Node”, only to be broken with quirky piano lines that quickly becomes real heavy in “The Coma Machine”. Jazz sections coming straight out of an intense guitar/synthesizer interplay to an operatic vocal highlight in “Famine Wolf”. This is the kind of stuff I had hoped to hear upon pressing the play button, and this is exactly what I got.
There’s a good balance between the moments where the band gets heavy and stays true to the elements that make them a metal band and the moments where they focus on crafting strong, soaring melody lines. One of the coolest parts of this balance is when they just take the two and stack them right on top of each other. This isn’t something you hear in abundance, but these guys make a style out of it throughout this album, and it’s a really cool effect.
The interaction between the instruments is pretty damn fantastic. The guitars dance around each other with an intense gracefulness that you can only really get in a progressive setting. With tasteful work on the synthesizer, the ridiculously versatile vocals of Tommy Rogers, the ever independent, yet appropriate use of the bass, and the insane drum work, I find myself completely enamored by their instrumentation.
I don’t know what else to say, I’m kind of in love with this album. There’s such a large amount of diversity in their tasty riffs, harmonious guitar play, and overall tasteful pacing. Go out and listen to it, it’s coming out July 10th.
Tracklist:
01. Node
02. The Coma Machne
03. Dim Ignition
04. Famine Wolf
05. King Redeem – Queen Serene
06. Turn on the Darkness
07. The Ectopic Stroll
08. Rapid Calm
09. Memory Palace
10. Option Oblivion
11. Life in Velvet
Playing time: 01:08:32
Release Date: 10th of July, 2015
Label: Metal Blade Records
Website: www.betweentheburiedandme.com
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Glowsun is an instrumental psychedelic band from Lille, France. They’re set to release their album “Beyond the Wall of Time” on the 26th of June.
Something that caught my attention is that they really, really like using the wah pedal. I’m totally okay with this, since this is a big thing in the genre. And as long as they use it creatively, and don’t use it as a crutch to sound like a psychedelic band, then they’re fine. And they are fine. They can be heard using it percussively, or as a sort of hissing sound to contrast the usual mellow, fuzzy tone of the guitar. Even outside of using wah, Glowsun creates a very interesting relationship between instruments and effects that allow them to feel very dense in their instrumentation while they’re really just a three piece band.
Like many psychedelic bands, they do a lot of their work vamping out on one idea for a while, and sort of stack different sub-ideas on top of it until they’ve morphed it enough to become a completely new idea. This has been something I’ve always enjoyed about this genre in general, as listening to one thing slowly become something that hardly resembles what it was before in such a short amount of time is a fascinating musical device. The band itself is pretty heavy for a psychedelic band, often using sudden bursts of dissonant pitches to keep you interested, or dropping out completely, creating a jarring silence that allows them to reiterate a theme they had been vamping on. It’s all pretty cool stuff.
There isn’t much that sets them apart from a lot of other bands in their genre, though. Which I suppose can be difficult to avoid considering the whole vamping aspect is so central to the genre. That being said, while all of the songs start differently, they tend to end up sounding very much the same. I’m usually very against this, but in the case of psychedelic rock, it’s just a very difficult thing to avoid. With the way the music is constantly changing and molding new sounds from itself, the songs adapt a sort of amorphous form and kind of melt together if you’re not completely attentive to the music. However, this is a big factor in my rating for this album: Glowsun could have used a different vamp rhythm every now and again. If you listen, pretty much every song features an eerily similar vamp section. While I understand that vamping in this genre is important, they could’ve been a little more inventive with it.
Having said all that, these guys do know what they’re doing. There’s no doubt that they completely understand the identity behind this genre. They’re a fine psychedelic rock band and if this is a genre you’re interested in, then I think you’ll find them to be perfectly enjoyable.
Tracklist:
01. Arrow of Time
02. Last Watchmaker’s Grave
03. Behind the Moon
04. Flower of Mist
05. Shadow of Dreams
06. Against the Clock
07. Endless Caravan
Playing time: 46:45
Release date: 26th of June, 2015
Label: Napalm Records
Website: www.glowsun.fr
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Atavismo is a space rock band from Algeciras, Spain. Their album “Desintegración” was released on the 16th of June, and I’m pretty into it.
Like many bands of this kind of genre, Atavismo’s thing is creating a soundscape. The issue that arises with this goal is that the idea of music sort of gets forgotten about, and you’re just left with cool sounds. Atavismo effectively avoids this, creating a really nice atmospheric experience that’s also very enticing and tuneful on a musical level, so you won’t find yourself thinking “Is this still the same song?”.
The album itself is quite short, coming in at only 37 minutes with four tracks to boot. I always like more content, but the album, despite its length, is still quite satisfying. The album paces itself pretty well, peaking in the third track “Oceanica” and closing out appropriately in the final track “Meeh”.
These guys would have definitely fit in nicely in the 1970s, as their sound reminds me a lot of Pink Floyd around the time they released “Meddle” and “The Dark Side of the Moon”. Atavismo made use of these kinds of sounds while still retaining a very unique sense of identity that’s important for a band to retain.
Overall, I really enjoyed this album. I would definitely recommend giving this a listen if you’re into bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson, etc. Atavismo isn’t quite the same as these guys, but they’ve got a similar flavor, and if you’re a fan of that style, you’ll probably have an enjoyable listen.
Tracklist:
01. Blazava
02. Kraken
03. Oceanica
04. Meeh
Playing time: 36:54
Release date: 16th of June, 2015
Label: Temple of Torturous
Website: atavismo.bandcamp.com
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Orpheus Blade is a progressive metal band originating in Israel. On May 11th they released their new album “Wolf’s Cry.” The album tells a story of a werewolf and the struggle between embracing this curse, and grasping onto humanity, among other various other angles. The album is as enticing lyrically as it is musically. I’m a big fan of theatrical concept albums that take on multiple characters and employ a relationship between them, and they pull this off quite well.
A big theme in this album is the idea of opposition. Not so much two forces contesting each other, but two beings straying off into different directions. Early in the album you hear the two vocalists singing kind of in unison, or complimenting each other at the very least. As the album progresses though, as the two characters begin to become these opposites, you can hear the texture of the vocal lines becoming a disjointed polyphony – it’s just really cool! Small nuances like that in this album are fantastic to hear.
These guys constructed a work with many dynamic high and low points, and are able to create a quiet intensity with the ever changing timbre of the voices. Both vocalists, Adi Bitran (who wrote all the lyrics and music) and Henning Basse, are able to drastically change the quality of their voices from soft and calm to strong and chaotic to bring these very dynamic characters to life.
“Wolf’s Cry” is a pretty damn enjoyable album. If you’re looking for a rock opera about werewolves and the inner turmoil between man and beast, then you’ve come to the right place.
Tracklist:
01. Shadows Still
02. The Finest Art of Feeding
03. The Becoming
04. Under Dying Stars
05. In Sickness and in Hell
06. The Death of All Morrows
07. Dismissal
08. In Terms of Twilight
09. Because He’s Made of Flesh
10. For Each Man Kills
11. Chronicles
12. The Man Who Cried Wolf
13. Shapeshifter
Playing time: 1:02:08
Release date: 11 May, 2015
Label: Pitchblack Records
Website: www.facebook.com/orpheusblade
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