Style: Progressive Metal, Power Metal (Clean vocals) Recommended for fans of: Myrath, Symphony X, Angra Review by: Dave Country: Germany Release date: 29 March 2024 A sense of place is crucial when evoking prosody in music. Symphony of Enchanted Lands would have been much more bland had it not evoked the feeling of riding a dragon over lush green hills, and Darkspace’s moniker would be virtually meaningless if they didn’t embody overwhelming dread in an incomprehensibly vast and empty space. So what happens when power/prog veterans Ivory Tower completely forgo their experience in spacey setti ..read more

Style: Progressive metal (mixed vocals) Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Nevermore, Soilwork, Iced Earth Country: Sweden Release date: April 19, 2024 When I was a kid going to fast food places, I used to go up to soda machines and put a little bit of everything into the same cup. People called this a “suicide” because it was apparently unpleasant, but my sugar-loving taste buds thought it was awesome. The thicker, darker flavors of Coke and Dr. Pepper balanced out the lightweight citrus notes of Sprite and lemonade to create a drink that was the median of all sodas: every drink yet none o ..read more

Style: prog black metal, symphonic black metal, opera (mixed vocals) Recommended for fans of: Imperial Triumphant, Fleshgod Apocalypse, 1914, Myrkur, Diablo Swing Orchestra Country: New York, United States Release date: 19 April 2024 Lots of music seeks to elicit pleasure and so do Folterkammer (“torture chamber” in German). Naturally, metal seeks to beat you down sonically, but Folterkammer are your mistress who employs a whip for this purpose (“Das Peitschengedicht”) while you forcefully lick her (…ass, as I believe “Leck Mich!” is a direct reference to the Mozart piece) and kiss her feet ..read more

Style: post-rock, post-metal (instrumental) Recommended for fans of: If These Trees Could Talk, We Lost the Sea, Cult of Luna, Lost in Kiev Country: Spain Release date: 13 March, 2024 The EP always feels like an inherently limiting format for post-metal simply due to the available runtime. Does twenty-eight minutes really leave enough space for each song to develop its signature build and release, or for the album as a whole to enthrall the audience with its slow, gentle soundscapes? Sure, the absolute top-tier artists can pull it off once in a while (Outrun the Sunlight’s Red Bird comes to m ..read more

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