“The Mute Gods is the freshly minted project featuring a strong line-up of seasoned musicians from within the progressive music scene.” Spawned from Steve Wilson’s band, The Mute Gods deliver more proggy art rock for your elitist pleasure.
Progressive Rock
Steven Wilson – 4½ Review
“Steven Wilson is one of music’s best producers and, as I ranted and raved last year, quickly becoming one of progressive music’s best songwriters, as well. Hand. Cannot. Erase. was, as I’ve just recently written again, a triumph. However, like all triumphs—yes, all of them—part of honing in on the “triumphant” is knowing when to edit. That doesn’t always mean that what was cut was bad, of course, and 4½ is Steven Wilson and his trusty (and ridiculously talented) backing band knocking out 37 minutes of excellent leftovers.” Yeah, I guess you should probably just expect a lovefest.
![The Grand Astoria – The Mighty Few [Things You Might Have Missed 2015]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/The-Grand-Astoria_The-Mighty-Few-768x768.jpg)
The Grand Astoria – The Mighty Few [Things You Might Have Missed 2015]
“Imagine, if you will indulge me, Hail Spirit Noir. Subtract the black metal, all songs but two, then add stoner rock and multiply the length of the remaining songs by four. This is as close an approximation as can be construed for a review catering to metalheads as to the sound of The Mighty Few by The Grand Astoria.” Math is hard.
Nad Sylvan – Courting the Widow Review
“First things first: it’s no coincidence that the eponymous frontman of Nad Sylvan sounds remarkably similar to Peter Gabriel. Fresh from performing on Genesis Revisited II and subsequently touring with Genesis as principle vocalist, Nad Sylvan now exercises his musical talents on his own album. Some (read: me) have described him as the Ripper Owens of prog rock, but fortunately for Sylvan, he isn’t saddled with the subtitle “rank amateur.”” Some names don’t translate well to other countries. Nad Sylvan is such a name, but this doesn’t mean the music is lost in translation.
Pseudo/Sentai – Bansheeface Review
“I’m a bit wary of reviewing prog records because I don’t want to end up sitting through eighty minutes of decadent aural onanism from tedious Dream Theatre wannabes (I would rather listen to eighty minutes of “Wannabe”). But done well prog provides musical nourishment rarely offered by other genres, and having spent a large portion of the year listening to grindcore, I was ready to take a risk with Pseudo/Sentai.” Jean-Luc is a risk taker and that can be risky.
Riverside – Love, Fear and the Time Machine Review
Poland’s Riverside should be no stranger to the dedicated reader of these Angry pages. After discovering the band’s Anno Domini High Definition in 2009, Riverside has sneakily become one of the staples of my playlist. I wasn’t completely enamored with Shrine of New Generation Slaves; but its chill, more reflective moments are the ones that I keep coming back to: “The Depth of Self Delusion,” yes, but especially, “We Got Used to Us,” which has a slow groove and a transcendent chorus. Still, SoNGS lacked the punch and progressive drive that ADHD—and the band’s earlier material—had, and landed far more in the territory of post-Marillion prog, without the brooding darkness into which late Gazpacho has wandered recently. SoNGS was, arguably, nothing more or less than a road sign, though, pointing towards 2015’s latest record: Love, Fear and the Time Machine.
Black Space Riders – Refugeeum Review
“Psychedelic rock with lashings of proggy jam, a smooth layer of spacey ambiance, and a heavy crust to ensure conformity to a metal-lover’s palate. This is what I was promised by Germany’s Black Space Riders on their fourth full-length, Refugeeum. As it goes, this is more of a confused hybrid of baked goods in concept, and a bland homemade cake in execution, rather than a luxurious Victoria sponge, with some serious identity problems.” The cake was a lie…again.
Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase. Review
“Unlike many of my friends and colleagues, I’ve rarely been moved by Steven Wilson’s music. With notable exceptions, Porcupine Tree’s studio work put me to sleep. Nor, I must admit, was I a fan of Insurgentes or Grace for Drowning at release. Despite having long been harangued for being an Opeth fanboy, I could not get into Storm Corrosion. In fact, if you’d asked me 5 years ago, I would have said that Steven Wilson’s genius is the ways in which he makes other bands sound incredible. That changed for me, however, with The Raven Who Refused to Sing from 2012. So when I heard that Wilson had a new record coming, I was intrigued: would it keep up the momentum and style of The Raven?” Well, can it?
![The Gentle Storm – The Diary [Vinyl Review]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Gentle-Storm-The-Diary.jpg)
The Gentle Storm – The Diary [Vinyl Review]
“It’s not news that I’m a big fan of Arjen Lucassen’s output from the last 5 or 6 years. Starting with 2009’s unparalleled Guilt Machine, Arjen has released a string of records that I love. In full defiance of Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings™, the “poofy-haired Dutchman” has seemingly upped his game on every release: a great solo release, a seriously enjoyable Star One disc, and a stellar Ayreon album which landed #2 on my Top 10(ish) of 2013. So it was with unabashed enthusiasm that I began my countdown when I heard he was working with Anneke van Giersbergen, formerly of The Gathering, on a project entitled The Gentle Storm.” And it’s not like anticipation has ever led to disappointment or anything…
Callisto – Secret Youth Review
“Post-metal had something of a heyday in the last decade, with seemingly everyone on the Internet gushing over Isis’ Panopticon, Neurosis’ Given to the Rising, and whatever Cult of Luna and Pelican were up to. While there’s still quality post-metal coming out today (The Ocean’s Pelagial in 2013, Beak’s debut last year), I think it’s safe to say the genre is no longer as in vogue as it once was.” And if you don’t have vogue, what do you have?
