What’s up, fam?

Valerinne is a post-metal band from Romania, and Monumenta is their third full-length. It’s a pretty good, instrumental take on the genre, with typically lengthy songs in which minor-sounding riffs are developed. A standard post-metal release, but enjoyable nonetheless.

The stream is from their last album, An Ocean Held Me, but I’ll talk about Hope for a Mourning, which’ll come out on April 15th.
New Zealand’s prog rock/indie band Mice on Stilts‘s sophomore album is, basically, more of the good stuff that’s on “An Ocean Held Me”. It sounds a bit neo-prog, like Sanguine Hum, because it’s much less aggressive than the usual prog rock band, but the vocal melodies and soundscapes created therein are really great!

Up next, microtonal drum n bass artist Sevish just released a three-song EP named MK-Superduper. As with the rest of his works, it takes advantage of the endless possibilities of microtonal or xenharmonic music to create new original sounds, intervals and chords. Here, the songs use the scales 313-EDO Madagascar [9], 22-EDO, and Wendy Carlos’ Alpha Tuning respectively. It’s a very interesting and musically challenging yet very approachable EP that might introduce you to the obscure world of microtonality.

Then, a little bit of prog rock goodness from Greece with Ciccada‘s The Finest of Miracles. Released in early 2015, it’s a fantastic album blending seamlessly many sub-genres of progressive rock, such as Canterbury, folk, avant-prog, and symphonic prog. Thanks to its exhaustive list of musicians, it really sounds like a breathing, living world. I really recommend it for anyone inclined towards prog!

Struggle with God is a blackened hardcore band from Poland, and Letarg is a very fast, heavy, violent and relentless album. There are also good doses of doom metal and black metal to add a bit of diversity. It’s pretty good albeit being somewhat lo-fi in production.

See through 5 is the latest form of the See Through project, with their album Utilities. Labeled as chamber prog, the band heavily relies on jazz and chamber music with lots of improvisation but on a somewhat rigid song structure. The use of a synthesizer here sets them apart from many other jazz and chamber bands, and listening to the first song, I really wasn’t expecting it to change from what seemed to be electronic music to jazz prog. I think it’s a very nice find.

Le dernier crépuscule is Chthe’ilist‘s debut full-length, featuring the drummer of Beyond Creation. It’s a very dark and heavy technical doom metal, with influences ranging from early death metal to grindcore. The album is pretty good and oppressive, and displays great riffs and drums beats that are fun to listen to on repeated listens. The vocals are very low and guttural, too, which is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a band like this. A very good and raw one.

And finally, ハイスイノナサ (Haisuinonasa)’s new EP, 変身 (Transformation). Released last year, it sounds like a middle ground between post-rock and math rock but with many external influences such as latin jazz, especially on drums, and electronic music. It’s a very good and surprising sound, and I’ll be sure to watch the band closer from now on!