Tag Archives: progressive metal

Review: Haishen – Awaken the Endless Deep

by Jeff Nixon

The Music

The Words

Haishen, whose Chinese name (海神) translates to God of the Sea, are an innovative new prog metal band from Rochester, NY. After releasing their self-titled EP, first in 2020, then again in 2021 (remixed/remastered and re-released by their label Needlejuice Records), Haishen are back with their debut full-length, Awaken the Endless Deep, releasing on May 9th, 2024. This is a concept album about Chinese creation mythology, and is full of epic prog rock, melodic death metal, and much more.

The album opens with “Crimson Sun” which after some … Read more

The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Week: Kilter – La suspendida

by Dæv Tremblay


I’ve been a huge fan of the progressive metal band Kilter since their Axiom album back in 2020, and they’ve kept busy with the amazing Sys album and, coming in March, La suspendida. This upcoming album is an experience on a whole other level.

First off, the album is sold as a jazz-metal opera about a woman discovering herself through death, and for this occasion they brought together Folterkammer singer Andromeda Anarchia, the impossibly cool Growlers Choir, and the Seven Suns string quartet, and that’s without mentioning dancers Fanny Coulm and Yutaka Nakata, who are central to the … Read more

The Best Thing I’ve Heard This Week: Vicarious – Esoteria

by Dæv Tremblay



So apparently the thing that makes me pick up my keyboard again is having so much fun listening to an album and seeing that it has literally zero person who bought it on Bandcamp.
Because that’s the injustice that’s happening right now.
Vicarious seems to be the brainchild of bassist-vocalist Brad Williamson (who has an absolutely wild Youtube channel). Those who’ve been reading this blog for a while will know that I crave good bass. Being a bassist myself, this is hardly surprising—everyone’s a little bit chauvinistic, I guess—but let me sell you on Esoteria.
So, first … Read more

Review: Scorched Moon – Obsidia

by Jeff Nixon

The Music

The Words

Scorched Moon is a band featuring my buddy Trapper Lanthier (the band’s lead guitarist and one of the main songwriters), who actually attributes his love of Metal, to me! for introducing him to Blind Guardian through an anime music video I made back in 2003. Trapper has shown me some demos of his music over the past few years, which always impressed me, but this debut album, Obsidia, is on another level!

Obsidia is a sci-fi concept album, something that’s right up my alley. The lyrics and tone fit the concept … Read more

Matt versus Dragoncorpse: The Drakketh Saga Review

by Matt Matheson

From premise to name, Dragoncorpse is not a band that exactly begs to be taken seriously. The elevator pitch of “power deathcore” gives you an honest and clear idea of what to expect: a gimmicky juxtaposition of two genres that are generally gimmicky to begin with. (Leading off the album with a guest appearance by a member of Brojob doesn’t help matters.) They’ve taken the “Dragon-” prefix that is necessarily required to indicate your power metal status. My friends and I half-started a joke band called Dragondragon more than a decade ago mocking this very phenomenon. Toss on “-corpse” to … Read more