Tag: progressive metal

  • Karnivool – Sound Awake

    The problem with Sound Awake is that it’s just too clean, too polished and too pretty because, in addition to the statesmen of goth, Karnivool also mixes in a significant amount of pop sensibility which hinders the whole procession.

  • Orphaned Land – The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR

    It has been a long six years since the release of Orphaned Land’s landmark album, Mabool, an album that continues to amaze me with its beautiful combination of Middle Eastern instrumentation combined with the familiarity of metal. Ever since word of their follow up album was out, I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of…

  • Bringing New Energy Back to the Barren Lands: An Interview With Ihsahn

    “I like the situation I’m in now with the solo thing. With this last album in the trilogy, it’s kind of a natural development from angL and The Adversary. I think they all kind of tie in together, but After is not the most logical step from the two other albums. It’s so different that…

  • Mob Rules: Radical Peace

    Now on album number seven, this is their heaviest release to date by far. They still retain a bit of a prog vibe but the way the riffs are written they just reek of full on power metal.

  • Ihsahn: After

    From the bleak opening riffs to the lingering saxophone notes that close it, After is a fascinating listen that gets better every time it’s played.

  • Southern Cross: Down Below

    They might be called Southern Cross, but don’t let the name fool you. This ain’t no southern rock band.

  • Gnostic: Engineering the Rule

    Gnostic is a great, enjoyable ride of a listen, and dare I say it, an effort for the Atheist members to get a bit more edgier without losing their signature sound.

  • Dark Tranquillity: Where Death is Most Alive

    Packed to the gills with live performances, archival clips and documentary footage, Where Death Is Most Alive is an immensely gratifying look back at one of the most consistent bands in all of metal.

  • Between The Buried And Me: The Great Misdirect

    Like some terrifying amoeba, Between The Buried And Me has absorbed and incorporated a wild variety of sounds into themselves and spat back something that exhibits them all, but only uses them as ingredients to work toward their own ends.

  • Barren Earth: Our Twilight

    Whenever a veteran metal band undergoes radical changes, like in Amorphis’s case, a new lead singer and a more streamlined sound, even if that shift in direction is successful artistically commercially and artistically, there will always be the stubborn folks in the background bitching and moaning about how their favourite band just isn’t the same…