In April 2020, Brazilian/American prog metal band Lufeh – named after their drummer Lufeh Batera – released their debut album ‘Luggage Falling Down’. Claiming to be for fans of Haken and Rush, the album displayed a strong balance between power, indulgence and melody.
Tag Archives: prog metal
REAL GONE EXCLUSIVE: The Bloody Mallard unveil new video for ‘Ceremonious Synapses (ii)’
In January, London based art rockers The Bloody Mallard kicked off the new year by sharing the heavy and complex ‘Subject To Entropy’. A month on, the band have returned with another taster for their upcoming album ‘Realm’.
In the band’s own words, the new single ‘Ceremonious Synapses (ii)’ “signals the most climatic point of the album”. From a listening perspective, it shows the band in a more melodic light than before, but without losing any of their riff-based strengths.
GODSTICKS – Inescapable
The sound of the third Godsticks album came as a bit of a surprise. At some point between the release of their second album ‘The Envisage Conundrum’ and the writing of 2015’s ‘Emergence’, things took a heavier turn. It wasn’t necessarily for the better. What had once been a fairly inventive prog band with a few harder moments was now a full on prog metal band. The lion’s share of ‘Emergence’ was rather…dull. Still, some fans seemed to take to the more aggressive sound and it undoubtedly attracted a few new ears. For better or worse, at least this was a prog band actually progressing.
Grab a new label sampler from Bad Elephant Music!
One of the UK’s most adventurous independent labels, Bad Elephant Music, have a Christmas gift for you.
They’ve just issued a new downloadable sampler for 2019, bringing together tracks from many of their best bands.
ASTROSAUR – Obscuroscope
With a name like Astrosaur, you’d half expect this Norwegian trio to be a full on doom metal band. Appearances can deceive, of course, and their 2019 release ‘Obscuroscope’ is nothing of the sort. Its six pieces of music are lengthy and complex; there are elements of trippy space rock and a few stoner-ish tropes, but in the main, the release delves deep into a world of complex post rock and post/progressive metal sounds that should appeal to prog fans who like things at the heavier end of the scale.
“The public perceives metal and academia as rivals” reads the Astrosaur website, somewhat pompously. Whether that’s true of not, at least half of their second album would’ve benefit from far less musical academia and far more actual tunes. With Astrosaur’s brand of prog, it really is all about the flashy self-indulgence…and for anyone whom isn’t actually a musician, this works hugely towards the album’s detriment.