Riverside is back with their first album in nearly five years. After all the change since their last album was released—a pandemic, a new guitar player, political polarization in their homeland—will ID.Entity continue to be aggressively chill or something different?
“These guys create exciting and vital music that cannot be compared to that of Porcupine Tree. There’s a spontaneity here that is rivaled only by Boss Keloid – in fact, that’s a great comparison. O.R.k. may not be as heavy, but the quirkiness and unique delivery is there in spades, and Screamnasium is no exception.” Fewer quills, more thrills.
“2022 seems to be a year for bands I was a fan of in their heyday to reunite. A couple months ago we saw the release of the not-amazing-but-not-embarrassing new album from Porcupine Tree, Closure/Continuation. Back in January Jethro Tull released their first album in 19 years. Now this week we see a new album from the venerable melodic prog rockers King’s X. Three Sides of One is the band’s 13th album, and first since 2008’s XV. The trio have a combined age of 195, which is almost the same as Steel and I. That’s old, but age doesn’t bestow nor hinder success; songwriting does. Can Dug Pinnick, Ty Tabor, and Jerry Gaskill still write some great material?” These three Kings.
“Suffocate for Fuck Sake was one of those bands I’d heard good things about, but never quite got around to listening to properly. They’ve been around in the post-metal scene since 2004, though they never quite made it to “big name” status. They disappeared for nearly a decade, which probably didn’t help, before releasing their third album In My Blood in 2017. Here on the imaginatively titled Fyra (“Four”), they continue a tradition of tackling heavy topics with a theme of addiction.” Die.
“Given that we’re no longer in the 1970s, for better and for worse, Steven Wilson is now the unwilling “King of Prog.” He’s the writer of what some consider modern classics; a remixologist extraordinaire; a sophisticated producer; a musical experimentalist; a successful imitator; and even a pop star. And yet it appears he’s still not the star he wants to be.” Once and future prog star.
Five years have come and gone and the Dutch trio, whose resumés include Cynic and Exivious, have finished their new offering, sporting a notably more drab cover than its predecessor. Is this an ill omen, or is that judging a book by its cover?
Yellow is the new manbun.
Thirteen albums in, I’m still excited about new Opeth records. While I am, indeed, an Angry Metal Guy, I appear to have taken the band’s merger into progressive rock better than other metalheads having loved Pale Communion and enjoyed Sorceress. And being Angry Metal Guy, the responsibility for (and privilege of covering) such a huge event like a new Opeth album falls to me. The problem, of course, with being the guy who has to review the new Opeth record is simple; I am the guy who has to review the new Opeth record. And reviewing In Cauda Venenum is a major endeavor. As the next step in Opeth’s journey, In Cauda Venenum is a fascinating, complicated album. And In Cauda Venenum is not a journey that everyone is going to love taking.” More-peth!
“With some exceptions, in a rule-of-thumb sort of way, the ‘technical’ modifier means ‘this was harder to play’ while ‘progressive’ means ‘this was harder to write.’ As such, experience is highly valued among progressive musicians especially, and progressive supergroups seem more common than other genres. The Mute Gods is another one of those, consisting of Steven Wilson’s bassist Nick Beggs and drummer Marco Minnemann, who also performs guitars here, and keyboard player Roger King who played with Nick and Steve Hackett of Genesis fame.” Great expectations.
“One part pop, one part -core, and one part power metal, Amaranthe could only have come from Sweden: a country and people so obsessively modern and image-conscious that they created the Eurovision industry, the national Twitter account, and the marketing model for trend-driven consumption from furniture to clothing. Even some of the most iconic metal Sweden has produced had remarkably trend-driven second acts. In Flames’ fall from melodeath darlings to nü-metal wannabes was followed by bands adopting the Swedecore sound. What’s the most successful metal band that Sweden has produced since Gothenburg? Well, Ghost. But even for Sweden Amaranthe is another level entirely.” Amaranthe is back for more. How’s that working out for them?
