It’s that time of year again! …And it seems to come around faster every year.
Tag Archives: prog
FRAGMENT SOUL – Galois Paradox
Although billed as a prog metal band, Greece’s Fragment Soul are a world away from the genre’s typical Dream Theater and Threshold wannabes. On their 2024 EP ‘Galois Paradox’ they share a metal based sound that’s atmospheric and gloomy; a sound that shares parallels with a few of prog metal’s moodier traits, but at the same time, dares to be quite different. Although the release is short at just twenty seven minutes, the material still finds time to focus on various themes that link the tracks together as a whole: hope, love, loss, and “the chaos of thought” – although in this case, the shared concepts do not necessarily make this an obvious “concept” piece with a narrative flow. The songs can be enjoyed individually, and in some ways, are actually better when approached in such a way.
AVNEYA – Road To I
As guitarist and vocalist with progressive metal band Obsidian Tide, Oz Avneya is no stranger to crushing riffs and complex time signatures, but on his solo debut ‘Road To I’, the Israeli musician stretches his musical boundaries just a little further. The occasional nods to melodic death metal within his band’s work sometimes take a bigger role here, but to balance out any pure aggression, this album also explores a couple of far more interesting musical avenues. When not cranking the riffs, Avneya can be found teasing the listener with elements of world music, and there’s also a much bigger concession to melodic prog.
MAMMOTH VOLUME – Raised Up By Witches
Swedish stoner rock band Mammoth Volume are an interesting prospect. Their work isn’t shy in sharing the kind of 70s guitar tones you’ll find on early Queens of The Stone Age recordings, or exploring the corners of retro sounds beloved by latter day Opeth, but there’s always more to their albums than fuzzy heaviness and Hammond drenched grooves. ‘Raised Up By Witches’, their fifth release, in many ways, finds their mix of blues, fuzzy stoner metal and jazz coming of age.
Listen: Mammoth Volume share new single ‘Lisa’
In tandem with the release of their new album ‘Raised Up By Witches’, Swedish stoner prog band Mammoth Volume have also shared a new digital single ‘Lisa’, which explores an even more interesting aspect of their varied sound.