Thieves’ Kitchen – Clockwork Universe

Prog rockers Thieves’ Kitchen hail from the UK and Sweden. Their sixth full-length album,  The Clockwork Universe, charts a course through spacetime to a destination somewhere in 1970s Canterbury, UK. The jazz and folk infused style of progressive rock particular to this spacetime neighborhood, rather than being an obsolete relic of the past, still boasts untapped veins of creative gold. Along the journey, we’re treated to a sprawling 20 minute prog epic, as well as a couple instrumental and percussion-less tracks that sound more like contemporary classical chamber music than any kind of … Read more

OSR: 31st October 2015

One-Sentence Review time!

Canada’s Nok Novum are a progressive djent band with promising sounds; even though I think their debut self-titled album is not worth it, their two newest singles show they found their path. Dalla Nebbia‘s album Felix Culpa is a good example of well-made atmospheric black metal, I enjoy it!
Wrvth, formerly Wrath of Vesuvius, released an eponymous album, and it’s really great, versatile progressive death metal. Watercolour Ghosts is a progressive metal band in the style of Caligula’s Horse, and we can’t be unhappy about new CH-like music, can we?… Read more

Frontierer – Orange Mathematics

a2835857791_16I remember when Sectioned was the shit, and all their noise and heavy riffs were amazing. Then, the band’s guitarist suggested we also listen to his other band, Frontierer, which was a perhaps more “hardcore” take on the sound. Here comes their debut album, and second release, Orange Mathematics.

It’s a 15-song album, 14 of which are new compositions, and one comes from “The Collapse”, their previous EP. The sound here is improving on the qualities that were already there. The fast-paced, staccato riffs are loaded with guitar manipulations (in the style of Car Bomb) and djenty subdivisions, … Read more

Antlion – The Prescient

Antlion is a progressive death metal quartet from Canada’s capital, Ottawa. Their debut album, The Prescient, came out on October 23rd.

First of all, they don’t do anything spectacularly out of the norm, but they do it well enough to keep it an interesting, and at times engaging, listen. There’s plenty of time signature changes and modulations throughout the album, the riffs are complex and driving, and the overall sound is tight. It just makes you try and fail to headbang to it. The album’s length is decent, giving you just enough juice to enjoy before getting overwhelmed, and … Read more

OSR: 28th October 2015

On today’s One-Sentence Reviews, we’re talking about Odetosun, Esmerine, Tod Huetel Uebel, Alberto Menezes, and Charts and Maps!

Odetosun‘s Dark Dunes of Titan is an experience of patience, where riffs are brought up but don’t seem to grow, they just stagnate. Esmerine‘s Lost Voices is a great chamber music album with prog and post rock vibes to it, a must listen! Tod Huetel Uebel‘s new album Malícia is good, throwing some elements of doom into a more traditional black metal formula. Alberto Menezes‘ crazy guitar slapping and other techniques are exploited on his Constant Shift EP,… Read more