Style: Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Black Metal (Mixed vocals) Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Insomnium, In Mourning, Disillusion, Countless Skies Country: Norway Release date: 12 April 2024 My knowledge of progressive melodeath bands is by no means comprehensive, but I thought I knew all the best ones until my colleague Zach screamed at me in his typically hyperenthusiastic way, “DUDE, YOU HAVEN’T HEARD ÆNIGMA?!”. So, I went and sought out this mysterious In Vain he spoke of and found them to be the sort of band who are very impressive, but hadn’t quite made their masterpiece yet ..read more

Style: Progressive Metal (Mixed vocals) Recommended for fans of: Strapping Young Lad, Soilwork, Dark Tranquility Country: Ukraine Release date: 19 April 2024 Some artists are insanely prolific. About once a week on average, Andy will announce to all of us that a new Kosm album has just dropped—for some reason he endures every release from a man who puts out something like fifty albums per year. Deha is another insanely prolific artist, and both make King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard look like Tool. Fortunately, I don’t know any bands like that, and I can’t imagine wanting any artist to put ..read more

Style: obnoxious British post-punk, prog rock (mostly clean vocals) Recommended for fans of: Black Country, New Road; Black Midi; HMLTD; The Mars Volta; The Dear Hunter; Thank You Scientist Country: Australia Release date: 5 April 2024 I’ve never used a meme as an intro before, but this is perfect: if you recognize more than two of these album covers, you’re too far gone. Taking the internet and your local third stream coffee shop by storm, the post-punk/prog rock/art pop hybrid scene that has blossomed in the 2020s is currently the most progressive form of rock but also, frankly, rather obn ..read more

Style: Progressive death/black metal (harsh vocals) Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ne Obliviscaris, Enslaved Country: Switzerland Release date: 1 March 2024 Year: 10,191 AA (After Andy) I, the Emperor of All Known Prog-Death, Zacharius IV, sit bored atop the Åkerthrone. Each time one of my humble servants brings me a concept album, I promptly have them executed for it pertaining to fantasy, as I have listened to far too many tales of ancient heroes and mystical swords, and what I truly crave is a space opera concept. One that thrives on the tales of intergalactic war, planetary empires and m ..read more

Style: traditional progressive metal, symphonic metal (clean vocals) Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Circus Maximus, Pagan’s Mind, Vande- wait WHAT Country: Germany Release date: 19 April, 2024 So Vanden Plas is probably the band I’ve listened to the most in my life, and it’s still somewhat surreal to me that I’m now reviewing an advance promo of their upcoming album. What’s even more surreal is that last year I somehow completely missed that their keyboard player Günter Werno actually left the band before releasing his solo album (which was my album of the year). Judging from the ban ..read more

Hello everyone and welcome to the March 2024 Album of the Month post! In the UK, we describe the weather of early spring with the pithy maxim “March winds, April showers”. Similarly, March was a bit of a wind up and we hope that April will shower us with musical riches (see what I did there!). Nevertheless, in a dry months we found some good picks and today we present you with the crème de la crème. Here goes! Hannah Frances – Keeper of the Shepherd Recommended for fans of: Devin Townsend & Ché Aimee Dorval’s Casualties of Cool, Iamthemorning, Joanna Newsom Picked by: Christopher What ..read more

Style: Technical/dissonant death metal, avant-garde metal (harsh vocals) Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Imperial Triumphant Country: New Jersey, United States Release date: 12 April 2024 Over the past few years, the Subway’s research and expansion division has observed a phenomenon only known as The Cave. See, we’re trying to move from the abandoned Cleveland, Ohio office building that we call our headquarters, and quite frankly the only place with lower rent is the giant hole smack dab in the middle of [LOCATION REDACTED]. But we aren’t stupid, we had to do our research regarding The Cave ..read more

Style: post-rock, art pop, shoegaze, indie folk, noise, post-metal, indie rock (clean vocals) Recommended for fans of: Parannoul, Turquoisedeath, Toninho Horta, Mount Eerie, Godspeed! You Black Emperor Country: Brazil Release date: 8 March 2024 The internet is a magical place where everybody has a voice; the sacristy of anonymity, a platform for self-promotion. Unfortunately, as with most good things, the hipsters have taken it over, and the inability to dox them for their stupid-ass opinions is a shame. The music world has always had a propensity for pretension (myself included), but Rateyou ..read more

Style: progressive metal, power metal, symphonic metal (clean vocals) Recommended for fans of: Blind Guardian, Evergrey, Crimson Glory Country: Belgium Release date: 15 February 2024 Bar progressive metal, power metal is my favorite genre. But you see, I’m not like the other girls. While I love the typical high-octane, anthemic quality of songs like “Holy Thunderforce” or “Hunting High and Love,” they do not resonate with me on a deeper level. Instead, my favorite power metal groups are those who also have a darker, subdued melodic quality and operate in a relatively mid-tempo fashion: think ..read more

A ..read more