Tag: progressive

  • Neurosis – The Word as Law (reissue)

    Neurosis – The Word as Law (reissue)

    Man, I’m looking forward to seeing Neurosis again in Toronto next month! Of course, they don’t really have any new material to promote—their last album came out last year—but we do get this reissue of The Word as Law, their second album from back in 1990. At this point, Souls at Zero was still two…

  • Howling Giant – Black Hole Space Wizard Part 2

    Howling Giant – Black Hole Space Wizard Part 2

    I was all over the first installment of this Nashville trio’s EP trilogy last year, so I’ve got no reason not to listen to Part 2. And hey, if you like a little Hawkwind with your Black Pyramid, then you’ve got not reason not to listen, too! This second installment from Howling Giant spans 32…

  • The Ditch and the Delta – Hives in Decline

    The Ditch and the Delta – Hives in Decline

    The good thing about being from a town that’s a bit off the metal radar is that it’s harder to lump you in with a buncha other bands. Even if I’ve never heard a particular group before, I have a general idea what to expect when I see a doom band from Maryland or a…

  • Longhouse – II: Vanishing

    Longhouse – II: Vanishing

    Now, I do try to support Canadian bands that fly the freak flag for stoner/sludge/doom, but Longhouse definitely caught me off guard. I did not expect to find a progressive sludge outfit inspired by the likes of ISIS, Neurosis and Kylesa hailing from Ottawa, of all places! Vanishing is actually the second album from this O-Town…

  • Jupiter Hollow – Odyssey

    Jupiter Hollow – Odyssey

    I am very impressed by this EP on any level. Sounding, to my mind, like a cross between Rush, Zombi, and Mastodon, this is progressive metal as it should be. Grant MacKenzie and Kenny Parry, the two men that make up Jupiter Hollow, can be proud of this EP. It features strong playing, excellent song-writing, and…

  • Arduini/Balich – Dawn of Ages

    Arduini/Balich – Dawn of Ages

    In case you weren’t familiar with the two names on the cover, Victor Arduini played guitar on the first two Fates Warning LPs, while Brian Balich is known to doomsters as the former voice of Penance and current voice of Argus, one of the leading purveyors of power-doom these days. This collaborative effort has been…

  • Watchtower – Concepts Of Math: Book One

    Watchtower – Concepts Of Math: Book One

    Watchtower have a pretty legendary legacy among a niche group of metalheads. To just call their music “thrash metal” and move on is a disservice to both Watchtower and thrash metal. So what do you call it? Progressive thrash? Thrashy progressive metal? Heavy metal was already genre-bending in the ’80s, and that’s part of the…

  • Anciients – Voice of the Void

    Anciients – Voice of the Void

    Album number two from Anciients, Vancouver’s answer to Neurosis, comes roughly three-and-a-half years after their breakout debut, Heart of Oak. So it’s been a little way since we’ve heard from these guys, but it’s safe to say that crafting epic-length tuneage takes a little time. To wit, three of the nine songs of Voice of…

  • Sahg – Memento Mori

    Sahg – Memento Mori

    I first saw this Norwegian outfit open for Celtic Frost and 1349 nearly a decade ago, and I liked ‘em so much, I bought their debut CD. Wasn’t as much of a fan of their sophomore effort, II, which came out in ’08… but I haven’t actually heard from them since. Not that they’ve gone…

  • Howling Giant – Black Hole Space Wizard (Part 1)

    Howling Giant – Black Hole Space Wizard (Part 1)

    This is hardly the kinda stuff you’d expect to hear outta Nashville. While Music Row is all caught up in producing purely putrid pop music and inexplicably marketing it as country, a forward-thinking, heavy-rock trio has emerged from deep beneath the wreckage of country music’s soul. Sonically, Howling Giant seem to be the missing link between…