Camembert – Negative Toe (progressive rock)
France’s Camembert recently released their latest opus, and it’s pretty darn good! Negative Toe is somewhere between the symphonic prog and Canterbury scenes. Thus, you won’t be surprised to learn that the album is about an hour of progressive rock music that is mostly symphonic and that uses quite uncommon song structures and atmospheric qualities. You can get the album via AltrOck Productions!

Process – Process
Someone on bandcamp refered to this band as “Floral with a bass player”, and, well, I can’t say I disagree, but it’s a woefully simplistic way of putting it. Process are what I now try to identify and call “tap rock”, which is the sort of math rock sounds that doesn’t rely mainly on odd-time signatures, thus that doesn’t deserve the prefix “math”. Process would therefore be a pretty sub-standard math rock band, but a decent – and even impressive, at times –, tap rock band.

Karmacipher – 陣獄 (Zhèn yù)
Okay, 陣獄 (Zhèn yù) is an awesome two-track EP from Hong Kong-based Karmacipher. They play a brand of dissonant and atmospheric death metal somewhat akin to Ulcerate and Baring Teeth, but I might say it’s a bit more blackened than these two. It’s a step up, production-wise, from their debut, but it still has some space for improvement, so I’m really excited to see where this little EP will lead us in the future!

Dove Lady – F
I think Dove Lady is a great band, and the simply-titled F EP proves it once again. I’m not sure if I should take this release seriously or not, given its name and potato-quality cover art, but the music on it is honestly as queer as ever! It seems to expand upon their very own experimental, noisy, rocky jazz sound with an undeniable lo-fi texture to it. Is it pop? Is it post-punk? Is it rock? These aren’t for me to answer.

Troldhaugen – Idio+Syncrasies
I remember checking out this album when it came out, back in September, and my shamelessly overlooking it. That was until earlier this week when I saw it mentioned here and there in musical reviews of the year, and I then gave it a second chance… And here we are, with me being mad at myself for overlooking this very cool album! The album is some wacky, jagged progressive rock that sounds almost like toned-down Arsonists Get All the Girls or a more abrasive Frank Zappa or Mr. Bungle. Nevertheless, this shouldn’t have gone under my radar, and so here you go.

Suffering Hour – In Passing Ascension
Suffering Hour‘s is probably one of the best debuts of 2017. That’s another one I missed, but thanks to Sunless’ Mitch, who put it at the top of his year-end’s list, I’ve been able to listen to it not tooo late. Their album is a high-level dissonant death metal release, and it’s pretty atmospheric too. It’s one that certainly is worth you listen to it!

Vessel of Iniquity – Vessel of Iniquity
This is yet another very interesting debut. This time from a British one-man band. Vessel of Iniquity is hard to describe, but experimental or noise black metal probably covers it. The self-titled album is drenched in reverb and distortion, which makes the riffs almost indiscernible in the blurry sea of notes, and still the result is jarring in a good way and quite fascinating. It’s only fifteen minutes long, unfortunately.

Vantana Row – Vagina
I just received this one in my mailbox, and I’m still not quite sure what to make of it, but I like it for sure! The so-called experimental pop duo plays dangerously close to cybergrind and punk music, and that makes a rather hilarious result. It’s hard not to laugh at the sheer disdain the band has for your own comfort; their 30-track full-length Vagina goes in every which way in order to puzzle, bewilder, and confound the listener. And I really like it. Amidst the screamed vocals are some spoken parts, rapped passages, and slowed-down, vaporwave-like moments, too. Truly a fascinating one!

Adhara – Adhara
French band Adhara‘s self-titled debut delivers a promising insight into their own instrumental progressive metal ideas. It’s quite melodic, and relies on a lot of odd-time signatures and hypermeasures, which is always a pleasing sight, although not many go beyond being quarter-odd. As in they might use 7/4 but not so much 7/8. That makes it easy on the listener as they can continue to follow the beat; even though it’s uneven, it’s not broken. Anyways, that’s an interesting little album here!