PROGRESSIVE METAL

The dark first part tackles heavy digestion tracks: the intense "The Glass Prison", referring to the first three of the twelve steps of the program in the fight against alcohol abuse and sustained by an excellent introduction with John Petrucci's huge guitar riffs and Mike Portnoy's hyperactive percussion, the disenchantment for religious dogmas in "Blind Faith" marked by John Myung's deep bass and the exchange of protagonism between Petrucci's guitars and Jordan Rudess' synthesizers, the dreary and insipid "Misunderstood", the controversy over stem cells in the powerful "The Great Debate" with riffs and chords very much indebted to Tool and Rush to mention a couple of influences, and the deep grief at irreparable loss in the mid-tempo, melancholic and heartbreaking "Disappear".

The second half, one of the New Yorkers' most committed creations, bravely exposes six different disorders and upheavals that afflict the complicated human mind. After the instrumental orchestral arrangement "Overture", which includes some metal touches, the suite flows without pause through Petrucci's thick guitar riffs in the traumatised "War Inside My Head", through Portnoy's percussive display and his haunting second voice supporting James LaBrie in the schizophrenic and very thrash metal "The Test That Stumped Them All", also through the pause proposed by Rudess's keyboards in the heartbroken and maternal "Goodnight Kiss", by the unplugged harmonic luminosity of the autistic "Solitary Shell", by the intricate intensity of the bipolar "About to Crash (reprise)", and finally by the epic and dissociative "Losing Time" that prologues the reflective call for understanding and acceptance of those afflicted by these disorders in the conclusive "Grand Finale", and its prolonged and disturbing final point.

"Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence", the band's sixth album, was one of the best releases of the genre in the 2000s, and ratified Dream Theater's position as one of the must-have references in Progressive Metal.

4/4.5 stars

"The Perils of Amnesia" marks the imprint of a melodic prog metal with oriental Persian scents, all concocted with a vocal flirting with that of VANDEN PLAS; the drums set the mood. "Balance" bass forward amplifying the heaviness with a keyboard solo flirting with that of the MARILLION, the guitar solo flows like a torrent; voice growl for a micro second and the progressive space which smells like DREAM THEATER, energetic. "Opposing Mirrors" in radio edit, concise, compact, rhythmic, fits in; Thomas on sticks sets the rhythm. "Anxiety and Daydreams" for the instrumental prog metal ballad; superposition of melodic layers, nervous sounds, post rock atmosphere; a touch of sadness to leave by closing your eyes and accepting to be invaded by the guitar notes; predictable and well done all the same.

"That Which Turns" returns to a heavy composition and its small progressive space during an enjoyable solo break with acoustics; the hard riff and the same vocals, average. "Beyond Reflection" offers a slow marshmallow ballad on a text concerning the death of his father; dark in fact, sad but that's Life; the voices are indeed his father asking to come home; the solo gives a little color to this moment and can serve as a passage between our two worlds, the drums held by Leo. "Some Memories" relaunches the prog metal of DREAM THEATER, a riot of diverse sounds; an aggressive riff washes away our cues, making the air clean; it's Marco who hits, the bass on MAIDEN; the variation launches a more energetic guitar solo you can't; it's modern, the voice can slow down a bit, the very catchy melody which rounds out the violence. "Porcelain Trees" as an epic piece, a velvety keyboard at the start brings the most musically; high-pitched, growl voice intensifying his lyrics about injustices; a stage with the jerky rhythm that gets carried away and the drums that channel; calm and energetic, meandering on melodic metal that lacks the nerve of prog blood. Origin on ProfilProg. (3.5)

Stylistically Veni Domine still sounds like a combination of the melodic and epic doom metal of Candlemass and the melodic and semi-progressive heavy/power metal of Queensrÿche. It´s impossible not to think of Geoff Tate when you hear Fredrik Ohlsson sing. His voice and delivery are very similar to Tate´s work with Queensrÿche, but Veni Domine are generally a much more heavy and doomy band, so they are by no means a Queensrÿche clone. Heavy power chord riffs and equally heavy drums, complimented by atmospheric keyboards, and the occasional lead guitar line or solo. You´ll notice right away how well playing Veni Domine are. These are high level musicians and Ohlsson is a worldclass singer.

While the material is well composed, the slow pace still means that the album sometimes feels at little long as it features eleven tracks and a total playing time of 56:38 minutes. More varied tempos and moods (this is epic and melancholic all the way through) could maybe have provided the album with the needed diversity. Every song on the album is a high quality composition, so there´s nothing wrong with the individual tracks. It´s the overall package of the album, which ends up a bit one-dimensional. "IIII - The Album of Labour" features a detailed, professional, and well sounding production job, so other than the feeling that most tracks use just about the same elements and therefore become a little formulaic, this is a good quality doom metal release from Veni Domine. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

The intense "In the Presence of Enemies - Pt. 1" and its overflowing instrumental intro and John Petrucci's shuddering guitar riff in the last section, borrows from the comic book "Priest" (by South Korean author Hyung Min- woo) the fantastic struggles, betrayals and revenge between gods, demons and humans, to start "Systematic Chaos". An album that combines pieces with a very own style, like the energetic and vampiric "Forsaken" with a stupendous and emotional chorus, or the anti-war "Prophets of War" supported by the inflamed chorus of sixty fans selected from a group of four hundred volunteers, with trashy Metallica-influenced tracks on both the shifting "Constant Motion" and the disturbing and convoluted "The Dark Eternal Night" with James LaBrie's distorted vocals and Jordan Rudess' twisted synth solo, and the vaporised Floydian effluvia of the calm and unnecessarily lengthy "Repentance" (the description of the viii. and ix. steps of the twelve in the battle against alcoholism, openly shared by Mike Portnoy).

And the best of "Systematic Chaos" is reserved for its final thirty-plus minutes, with two huge tracks of super progressive tessitura: the tragic "The Ministry of Lost Souls" with a masterful Petrucci both in the melancholic opening section and in the instrumental unleashing of the middle section, and the intriguing "In the Presence of Enemies - Pt. 2', which with its four oscillating sections dominated by the constant virtuosic defiance of the Petrucci/Rudess duo and the wall of sound built by John Myung's ever-diligent bass and Portnoy's superb percussion picks up the story of the introductory "Pt. 1", and gives the album a circular opening and closing character.

Without quite reaching the brilliance of previous works, "Systematic Chaos" is indeed a very good album and certainly adds positively to the band's discography.

3.5/4 stars

I was surprised though when I saw they were listed under Prog Metal here as this comes across more as a Heavy Prog record. After seeing that though I spun it a couple of more times, and sure the vocals bring Metal to mind and sometimes the music, but this feels more rooted in the 70's. "New Ship" the opener is getting close to Proto Prog territory with that organ driven sound and this is fast paced. Not typical of the rest of the album, and really this is not a good start to this recording. There's a nice heavy sound to that title track and they contrast the mellow with that very well. Some uplifting moments here too.

"Shadowlands" is a favourite for the tone of the guitar. "On The Seventh Day" is another highlight, and it has it all really. Love the bass and that guitar solo, and it's uplifting here as well. "Hi There" is the most metal sounding track in my opinion. "The Critic" might be my favourite for the heaviness and again it clicks with me emotionally and is quite uplifting. More of that great sounding bass as well. The album ends with "Thanks" just over 3 minutes worth then silence before a 9 minute hidden track shows up. The hidden song is pleasant along with "Thanks" being very laid back with flute.

The vocals do bring this down some but that's more to do with that opening track. Still, I have to go 4 stars for this emotionally charged album. Released in 1997 which was a tough year for our music. 1997 was a surprisingly strong year for the Norwegians. I mean they run the show these days but here's four really good records back when times were tough for Norway, including "The Humble Poet" along with IN THE WOODS... "Omnio", TANGLE EDGE's "Tarka" and THE SMELL OF INCENSE's "Through The Gates Of Deeper Slumber". Add the three amazing albums from Sweden and these two nations dominate my 1997 list.

That's not to say there is nothing original about this album, either. It was supposedly pretty groundbreaking for its time, with it being somewhere in between the developing melodic metalcore and traditional metallic hardcore scenes, along with a few other Orange County, CA bands, but this is getting into punk territory and doesn't belong on the progarchives discussions.

I recommend this if you're seeking a metalcore album!

Dvne is a newer progressive metal group hailing from the UK, operating under more sludgy and post metal territories as well, much like groups of The Ocean, Intronaut, Baroness, and of course, Mastodon. While they may not be as popular as other bands in this newer wave of progressive metal, they have at least caught the prog community's eye, which I think is something quite special. The more prog the merrier. And this new release from them certainly did catch a few more eyes in other communities as well, such as RYM which has it at #55 in their current 2024 chart. While it may not be on the front of said charts, Dvne's Voidkind being in the top 100 is nothing to scoff at.

However, I have my own personal ideals with this album that is away from any charts or other ratings.

I do quite like this record in a couple of ways. For one, I kinda love how the songs sort of progress into each other, almost as if the entire album is some big suite. I have said time and time again that I love albums that just feel like one massive song, so Voidkind definitely scratched an itch in that regard.

Not only that but this is probably one of the cleanest sounding records they have had yet. The quality of the production, in my opinion, is honestly superb. Sure, clean production is sort of the norm in 2024, but there is definitely a jump in quality from Etemen Ænka to this. Metal Blade definitely has some good producers under their belt, that is for sure.

Lastly, most tracks (aside from Path of Ether) are consistently great. I don't think the band has had this strong of a tracklisting since their debut record, so having this amount of greatness is quite surprising honestly. They do reach a peak though with the one two punch of Plērōma and Cobalt Sun Necropolis. We'll talk about them later.

However! The consistency of these good tracks honestly sort of backfires in a way. You see, while listening to this record throughout the week something about it felt off. I knew I liked it, in fact my initial reaction was that I loved it a lot, even considering putting it as a 4.5/5, or even in a masterpiece status, but the more I got into it I felt a strange sense that something was missing from the record. So, I decided to relisten to their previous album, Etemen Ænka, to see if something was wrong, and that was when I found what was missing. The tracks felt like they were quite stagnant from each other. With Asheran and Etemen Ænka there was a sense of forwardness from one song to the next, oftentimes in subtle but ultimately unique ways. Here though, most songs feel as though they are merely repeats of the last, just with different times and titles.

In fact, I think most of the highs this album has are double edged swords. While the production IS better, their previous records more dirty, and actually more sludgy sounds gave them a lot more charm in my opinion, and made the songs have more weight to them. The only song I can pin as being much more in-line with dirty production stylings is Cobalt Sun Necropolis, which I really enjoy. It is nearly ten minutes of a pure frenzy, rising and rising through a series of climaxes that I highly enjoy, capping off with an almost abrupt end as the sound quality slowly loses itself in the wake of its own intensity, soon just devolving into nothing but noise, until finally it cuts out and into a long, uncomfortable silence. It is almost as if the record itself was put down like a dog, clinging on its last leg of life before the void takes away. It's cathartic, crazed, and absolutely amazing. Really the only problem with it is that it is at the tail end of the record, and I do really wish its production and mixing styles were used on basically every track here.

Though, on the reverse, the track that I think benefits from the lack of rawness in the sound quality is Plērōma. It is a bit shorter, and certainly more anthemic than Cobalt Sun, but I think it works really well. It has this almost 'live in the studio' charm, where the song builds up into the first verses and riffs, almost as if the band themselves were building up hype for their listeners. This is really where they shine in terms of instrumentation too, as they really do go fully into a more stylistic light. Also, I really enjoy the focus on the more clean vocals. Clean vocals in metal are always a treat in my eyes, and these aren't nothing to scoff at. I say it's quite the impressive feature here.

But yeah, all that aside, this record feels less like sludge metal in all facets, and more like sludge metal in design. There is barely any grim and grit shown upon here, which I think is quite disappointing. It takes two steps forward from its predecessors, but it is five steps back from the starting line. In fact?I might prefer their older records.

There are certainly a lot to like here, and a lot to love too. I don't think this is anywhere below a 4/5 in all honesty, but it certainly is a bit of a lower 4. I think the band should continue with some of the good things found on this record, but I do also want to see more of a core sludge metal sound that worked very well with them in the past.

Best tracks: Plērōma, Cobalt Sun Necropolis

Worst track: Path of Ether

The band consists of three Chinese performers: Lynn Wu (vocals), Zhang Jing (guitar) and Chris Cui (bass) along with the American born Anthony Vanacore (drums) who now resides in the land of great walls and pandas. I had a hard time finding a place to sample the band's debut album that came out in 2022 and sort of forgot about them that is until it was recently announced in 2024 that a sophomore release is due and now that this band has gotten established on a larger world's stage, it seems that it has become a bit easier to keep up with thanks to the band's association with longtime progressive metal extraordinaire Devin Townsend who shares record labels and sits in as the co-producer and mixing man as well as making a cameo on the track" 淨化 Purge."

Asian pop is a strange thing to behold to Western ears. While European and American female singers often come on strong with a masculinized delivery system, J-pop, K-pop and the latest Chinese version offer soft, sensual and even an innocently cuddly tenderness that has all but been lost in Western Culture. Add those twee tendencies to a raging progressive metal djent stomp storm and you have something new to behold! Lyrics in Mandarin Chinese make it even stranger as few of us of non-Chinese descent have even studied much less mastered this polar opposite of a language to anything remotely connected to European linguistics. An endless supply of multi-stroked characters and words differentiated only by tones strikes terror into our hearts knowing if we simply utter a word with the wrong intonation that it can change an innocent phrase like "Have a nice day" to "I want to have sex with your dog."

But then again, China has been mysterious for far too long and it's about time this most populations nation of the entire planet presents to the world at large some of its exports. Forget the avant-garde freakery for the moment and realize this is fairly commercial sounding. It's melodic, it's catchy, it's cute. It's family friendly because even if lead singer Lynn Wu is singing about hacking up a dead carcass you'd never know! 蘇醒 II: Frailty owes a lot to Townsend's presence as he's most famous for his production skills and wall of sound layering effects that have propelled him to the top ranks of the modern world of progressive metal. The album indeed benefits from a sleek sheen of sound that allows OU to weave its weird mix of slinking keyboard runs into the metal aspects that accompany.

While coming off as Chinese pop with a metallic edge, the progressive elements are clear and distinguished often sounding like some of those Japanese math rock girl bands without the jittery caffeinated nervousness. Offering a smoother procession through the album's nine tracks, the knottiness results from the chord sequences, time signature deviations and oft contrapuntal weirdness that results from the vocals, keyboards and guitar parts existing in different planes of existence. Yet somehow it all comes together to craft an elegant if not unorthodox delivery system of strangely seductive progressive pop metal which never ever once finds Wu tempted into breaking into death metal growls! As alluring as an estrogen fueled siren beckoning your devoted affection, Wu casts a spell with her girlish vocal charm.

In the end this is as much a Townsend endeavor as it is one of OU. The production techniques are right out of the dreamy ambient playbook that albums like "Ghost" and "Devlab" delivered in the previous decades however the band is not without its merits. Their progressive power pop melds quite nicely with Townsend's production excesses which gives the entire project a strange air of exoticism which is actually quite rare in the world of music these days given that we've been subjected to almost every culture's traditional sounds in one way or another. In the end this one is accessible enough that the pop hooks are instantly endearing and weird enough that it scratches my itch for something quirky and out of the ordinary. Likewise the tracks all differ from one another significantly to make this album sound endearing to the very end. While the metal elements are not ubiquitous, they provide enough of a backbone to qualify as the predominant, well at least the loudest element on board.

While i missed the debut i'm quite enthralled with this sophomore album. Honestly i've never been the biggest Townsend fan but OU seems to keep him from overdoing too much of a good thing. The album feels well balanced and stands out like a sore thumb in the world of modern progressive metal which seems to have primarily shifted into the realms of dissonant death metal fusing with modern classical or similar extreme metal hybrids. Another entry on the resume of Heavy Devvy and one that resonates with me much more than much of his own canon where he seems to overindulge by compensating rather ordinary sounding material with overwrought bloated production values. Here we get a real band that seems to be enhanced by Townsend's endeavors rather than being dragged down. Metal purists will hate this as the metal is demoted to an accent piece on some tracks and other like the the closing "念 Recall" feature no metallic traces at all. More enticing than Babymetal as well as more complex. Intricate and interestingly designed. OU is unlike anything i've heard before.

Stylistically Sun Caged continues the "classic" progressive metal style they also played on the two preceding album releases (and in their pre-Sun Caged act Lemur Voice). This is not a band shaking on their hands in terms of songwriting and the direction of their music. While the fast-paced almost death metal like drumming and riffing which occur a couple of times during the opening track "Seamripper & the Blanket Statement", may confuse a few listener´s and have them believe that Sun Caged have turned brutal, nothing could be further from the truth. This is as mentioned still "classic" progressive metal with Dream Theater and Enchant standing out as the greatest influences on Sun Caged music. Sun Caged can be nicely heavy when they set their minds to it, but there are just as many mellow, epic, and melodic sections on the album.

Compared to "Artemisia", it´s great to hear that Sun Caged are back on track with "The Lotus Effect". "Artemisia" was overall not a bad quality recording, but it did feature a sub par production job, which made it a bit hard to listen to. That is fortunately not the case with "The Lotus Effect" which features a massive, heavy, powerful, and detailed sound production, which perfectly suits the material.

The musicianship is on a high level on all posts and Sun Caged are arguably an incredibly well playing act. Lead vocalist Paul Adrian Villarreal has a strong voice and hits the high notes with ease as well as performing more "regular" register vocals with passion and conviction too. The instrumental performances are also strong. Massive and heavy guitar riffs and rhythms, time-signature changes and blistering lead guitar and keyboard runs, are just some of the ingredients of the band´s sound.

"The Lotus Effect" contains seven individual tracks and the longer epic "Ashtamangala the 8 Auspicious Symbols", which is subdivided into seven tracks. At 71:59 it´s a pretty long album, but Sun Caged have managed to write a powerful and engaging release, which means the long playing time is justified. To my ears "The Lotus Effect" is (at least up until then) Sun Caged´s strongest and most varied album, and they deserve some recognition for this release. The thought crossed my mind that the sub par quality of "Artemisia" was a sign that Sun Caged had lowered their ambitions, but thankfully my ponderings and doubts are proven wrong here. "The Lotus Effect" is through and through a high quality progressive metal album and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Stylistically the material on "Mirror of Creation" is classic 90s influenced progressive metal featuring heavy riffs and rhythms, omnipresent keyboards/piano, blistering yet melodic guitar/keyboard runs, and a skilled and well singing lead vocalist in front. I´d place Tomorrow´s Eve in the heavier end of the progressive metal scale, although they deliver both soaring melodic choruses and epic melodic moments, but the basis of the music is relatively dark and heavy. Although neither as heavy nor as unique as Zero Hour, the Americans aren´t the worst reference.

The thirteen tracks, 71:04 minutes long album is well produced, featuring a powerful, heavy, and detailed sound production, which perfectly suits the material. Upon conclusion "Mirror of Creation" is quite the intriging and well composed progressive metal album from Tomorrow´s Eve and it reeks professionalism and high level musicianship. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).