EXPERIMENTAL/POST METAL

Among the nine tracks on the album there are some exceptional and exciting moments as well as a few more forgettable ones - the opening track 'The Third Arm', for example, impresses with its fiery grief, gloomy atmosphere and almost post-rock aesthetic, making it one of the more accessible songs on the album, while a track like 'Sanctification' can get lost amongst the layers of moody ambience, meaning that some of the songs on the album lack the memorable, addictive hook. 'Wish I Was Here' has heavy atmospheric undertones and a feel of existential desperation in the lyrics that suits the music quite well. 'This Is Not Utopia' and 'Partners in Crime' are dark, perverse, and utilizing a lot of electronica, definitely two of the more compelling song off the album. The oblique heaviness and the cathartic build-ups are very finely done, and 'Existential' is another good example, also introducing a touch of world music to the mix. 'Liquid Light' closes off the album in an effective way, especially because of the glorious vocal performance of Moss. The entirety of 'Black Market Enlightenment' follows a similar mood as well as similar rhythmic patterns, which takes away someof the variety of the music - however, the album does have several really interesting moments that are worth listening to. The instrumental build-ups and the vocal work are the main strengths of this particular record.

5. The Dress for the cyclothymic explosion from the start, a stoner, latent, ambient sound that lodges between the ears; there's something animal, something compulsive; a Floydian air, a Salvatiere air on this hidden crescendo. Halfway through, there's a break with the crashing bass, its reverberating sound, and then, and then, this trumpet that takes us with the guitar on a jazzy-western slope, a thriller film with the appropriate raincoat; the end with the return of contained violence, but the progressive atmosphere is definitely there. 6. Reveal continues to walk on the lands of Louisiana with these archaic cowboy notes; the guitar searches for its range and it's off for a musical wave full of devastating fury; a frantic blast beat, the sulfate bass, and Sara tames it all with her bewitching voice; a short break that searches for itself and the thunderous solo, in the style of incendiary BLACK SABBATH; the contained frenzy and Sara's screaming assassin vocal that lets loose, slaps. 7. Thicker Blood with the return of dark synth à la LACRIMOSA and a hint of SISTERS OF MERCY; crystalline guitar arpeggio and fragmented Sara, bleeding her words; the explosion allows to move on to a more constructive monolithic mode looking at the origin of black quite simply; the rise can be guessed, Sara imitating Amy overwhelming before her death in complete darkness; doom progressing with again, but what a pleasure, again a gripping, breathtaking guitar solo; a mantra appears, the voice confronts the heavy rhythm, again this invasive sound of ROGUE MALE, what a good memory; illuminating heaviness, musical climate also reminiscent of SAXON, a crescendic title which swells, and what I feared/hoped for finally arrives, a howled deluge of vocal hordes having the cathartic effect of freezing our ears. The silence is there again in the album, staggering.

Stylistically the material on "Cognitive" is in a melodic, melancholic, and rhythmically heavy and syncopated progressive rock/metal style. Tool/A Perfect Circle are the most obvious influences and sometimes also a bit too obvious. Soen are a less experimental act though and most tracks are vers/chorus structured and relatively easy to follow. The big soaring choruses are one of the greatest assets of "Cognitive" along with the emotional singing and strong voice of Ekelöf. With the instrumentalists involved it´s no surprise that the instrumental part of the music is well performed too. It takes a few listen to remember the tracks and not all of them stick, but I have to mention closing track "Savia" because of the absolutely stunning melody lines. They are incredibly well constructed and performed.

"Cognitive" features a professional, detailed, and well sounding production job and upon conclusion it´s a promising first release by Soen. I think they wear their influences a bit too much on their sleeves on this album, and it does slightly drag my rating down, but in all other departments "Cognitive" is a high quality release and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Messa, an Italian art metal band, have been quite active studio and live since 2014. They are one of the coolest and most diverse metal acts I've heard of late. They defy easy classifications. There are metal elements, but there are also crossover/heavy, pop, and some goth tendencies making the whole affair quite eclectic. The band thinks of their sound as "scarlet doom," so we'll go with that. Powerful and female-fronted vocally, they will leave an impression on you. And I'll start with that. Sara Bianchin is one of those vocalists who, from the first line of the song, will snap you to attention. She has the power and command of Floor Jansen but with the caramelly allure of Karin Bergquist. Similarly, the guitars, bass, and drums are all inventive and full of kickass.

Their sound is difficult for me to describe, but it is a tactile blend of metals with more intent and structure than the kind of aimless drift that accompanies some post-bands. The mood can sometimes be quite dark, but unlike other bands where the music wallows with downbeat lyrical content, these guys will often go for some catchy accessibility, so there's this great contrast. I was reminded a few times of System of a Down but without that hyper-manic thing that SOAD does; I mean the comparison insomuch as the way that SOAD can take the heaviest crushing stuff and turn it on a dime into something catchy with a memorable melody. Messa has that ability as well, and they also offer the occasional change-up to softer, more beautiful passages. This is an interesting and impressive album and one of the coolest I've heard from 2025.

There is thus a special attention from the band to expand their sonic universe and add some nuances with the more prominent percussive contribution of Aaron Harris and the incorporation of clean vocals in the generally guttural ranges of Aaron Turner accompanying the over-saturated guitar riffs of Mike Gallagher, as in the opening and soaring "Wrists Of Kings", also with Jeff Caxide's most notorious bass lines in the choking and ferocious "Not In Rivers, But In Drops" and in the anguished melancholy of "Dulcinea", whose stormy final stretch with the full band is surely one of the album's best.

True to their bleak experimental streak, the Bostonians also generate toxic and thick specters of sound to envelop Gallagher's distorted guitars on the extended intro of "Over Root And Thorn" and the hypnotic, watery "1000 Shards", and then digress, from Bryant Cliff Meyer's electronic contributions, into the ethereal cosmic atmospheres of the instrumentals "All Out Of Time, All Into Space" and "Firdous E Bareen", sheltering in between the intriguing and disturbing "Holy Tears".

And finally the anxious "Garden of Light", an intricate construction in which again Harris' hyperactive percussion guides with great fluidity all the melody, and Gallagher's guitar riffs and Turner's raspy voice tension the development to the maximum leading it to an overflowing instrumental climax and its progressive dilution in an atmosphere of deep affliction until its conclusion.

"In the Absence of Truth" is a very good album, which on its release was critically acclaimed and commercially lived up to the achievements of Isis' previous works.

3.5/4 estrellas

The Bostonians, guided by the guttural and dosed voice of their leader Aaron Turner, privilege in "Oceanic" the construction of dilated and depressive landscapes that are broken by the gradual irruption of distorted and dark guitar riffs by Turner himself and Mike Gallagher, very present in the opening "The Beginning and the End", in the thick half-time of the intriguing "The Other", in the metal power of "False Light" and in the mysterious and disturbing "Carry".

On the other hand, the ambient experimentation reaches an enigmatic, tense momentum with the watery, brief "-" and "Maritime", and the industrial, lingering "Weight", a trio of instrumental tracks (Maria Christopher's subtle, whispery vocals add an interesting tinge of sensitivity to "Weight") linked by Bryant Clifford Meyer's electronic bridges and Aaron Harris's raw, boxy percussion.

And combining a dense atmospheric melancholy with stormy developments marked by oversaturated guitars and Turner's harsh and anguished vocal discharges, "From Sinking" and "Hym", possibly the best track on the album, reaffirm the parsimoniously demolishing character of "Oceanic", one of Isis' best works and a Post Metal reference.

4 stars

I must admit I never expected a reformation to happen, but the original quartet are now back with their third album, only ten years on from the last one. I often used to see Brendan playing when he was also a member of Mice on Stilts playing keyboards, but when SoC played live he was on guitar and the band were a much heavier entity altogether and that is very much the case again here. They have again brought in David Rhodes to produce the album, and he is very much in his element with the manic drumming being captured to perfection and clear delineation between the instruments. Although they are a powering metallic entity they are much more than that with Felix using his electric violin to drive melody in a frenetic fashion, a bass which may be tied in with the guitars or moving elsewhere, straight 4/4 or weird time signatures while there are also Middle Eastern influences.

One never knows where the music is going to take us and while it is always incredibly metallic, the prog stylings are there for all to see, and it is difficult in some ways for me to think that the last time I saw Brendan he was in Red Room Studios adding delicate piano to singer/songwriter Lee Martin's latest album. One can only hope that SoC can be get the recognition they s richly deserve outside New Zealand as we are a tiny country at the end of the world and there is no doubt that music as exciting, enthralling and all-encompassing as this needs to be heard very widely indeed.

Juggernaut is a progressive metal band from Rome featuring Luigi Farina, Andrea Carletti, Roberto Cippitelli, and Matteo D'Amicis. They have been around since 2006, and Neuroteque is their third release. While I have only had a cursory review of their first two albums, it was enough for me to discern that Neuroteque is quite a significant leap forward in their sound. They also made the bold move to drop all vocals this time and go full-on instrumental, a choice that I feel works well for them. Their bio on our site says, "Juggernaut plays a cinematic and melodic post-metal and sometimes experimental brand of progressive rock that emphasizes heavy riffing with hints of dark jazz with compositions based off of building tension, suspense and release." That's a good one-line summation that I'll use as a starting point.

First off, everything about the presentation of this album is cool and considered. Unlike the somewhat haphazard feel of the previous stuff, Neuroteque really pulls their vision together into a focused, futuristic-sounding, "thinking man's" post-metal. All of those small details have been given attention, from the cover art and color palette to the cool one-word song titles. Who cares about that stuff? you might be thinking. When you hear the music, I think you'll agree it adds to the enjoyment. Their sound is truly expertly crafted. On paper, a band trying to meld together metal, progressive, fusion, psych/space, post/math rock (and sitar!) into a full-length instrumental album could easily be a disaster if not done with discipline and vision. I think they nailed it. And it was refreshing to hear metal pulled in a futuristic, sci-fi direction without symphonic bombast, excessive density, or other "extreme" tendencies. It was also refreshing to sense a hopeful vibe at times instead of the too-oft dark and foreboding inherent to many metal bands.

The album flies by like one 42-minute suite with seven unique chapters, an exotic listening experience. Traditional metal here feels a barely recognizable presence, just enough heaviness used as a starting reference. From there I hear bits and pieces of Tool and O.R.k. (sans vocals), Thrak era Crimson, Durutti Column, space rock, post-rock, and math rock. But I hesitate to evoke those other bands because this is completely original. For a "metal" band, there is at times a very light touch to their playing: agile, spacey electronic, acoustic, and dreamy sections are offered. The playing creeps around a bit, down long hallways, spidery, trying to create tension before an injection of power and melody rewards you. Hand and non-electric instruments lie at the edges. All genre tags aside, at the end of the day, this is just really great instrumental rock music.

While jazz-fusion bands do it all the time, it's cool to hear a metal band with enough confidence to drop all vocals. I wish more bands would drop vocals, use wordless vocals, or just employ them more sparingly. This album proves you don't need vocals to be compelling. Last but not least, this album has great production and dynamics, pleasing on the ear. Awesome album.

The music itself is sufficiently experimental and unpredictable, with a lot of acoustic guitars, clean singing, a sturdy and "melodically angry" rhythm section, and a lot of programming, effects and ambient soundscapes, which makes 'Ki' equally impressive, dynamic, and controlled. It seems like this album is driven by the gradual release of power, with most of it written in standard C tuning with the exception of just a couple of songs. This album serves as therapy for its creator, and as much as it feels like healing, vulnerable, and angry, it also exudes a musical sophistication that one could get on a Devin Townsend album. Stylistically, we might be speaking of an experimental rock album with a lot of progressive, jazz, blues and grunge influences, all mixed up rather interestingly to give off a Porcupine Tree-ish feel. With its thirteen tracks, there is a lot to unpack here, but with the subtle intensity of the music, 'Ki' remains one of the most unusual and most rewarding listening experiences of this entire catalogue. Powerhouse entries like 'Disruptr', 'Gato', 'Heaven Send' and 'Trainfire' are counterbalanced by the soothing textures of 'Coast', 'Terminal', 'Winter' and the 7-minute title track, all on an album that is nothing short of excellent and mesmerizing.

I think my only nitpick would be that a lot of the riffs don't really stand out too much, they kind of just add more texture. This isn't to say that the music isn't great, it just isn't incredibly iconic. If you played me some of these riffs and told me Opeth wrote it I would probably believe you. Still, I think this doesn't take away from the overall experience at all. It's a crime how underrated these guys are.

9/10