As an unsigned experimental metal band hailing from Columbus, Ohio, Novallo have recently released their second EP, simply titled Novallo II. At first glance, one will find many staples of the progressive metal scene featured in full, with heavily synchronized instrumentation, start-stop fretwork, and off-kilter groove juxtaposed with sweetly harmonized …
Read More »Year in Prog – 2015
As 2015 wraps up, progheads are certain to be contentedly reflecting upon a bountiful calendar of ripe, riff-tastic releases. Below is an overview of some of the more high-profile and well-received albums released over the last year, complete with convenient links to singles, so newcomers can claim no excuse for …
Read More »Album Review: Solution .45 – Nightmares in the Waking State: Part I
Solution .45 is a Swedish metal supergroup of sorts, mainly known as one of a few of ex-Scar Symmetry vocalist Christian Älvestam’s current projects. With their better-than-expected debut album, For Aeons Past, released over five years ago, fans have eagerly awaited more of the band’s steadfast take on Gothenburg-inspired melodic …
Read More »Album Review – Amberian Dawn: Innuendo
Hailing from Finland, a region at the forefront of symphonic metal, Amberian Dawn follow in the footsteps of genre staples while adding their own charm in their latest studio album Innuendo. Their seventh album as a band, and second original album with vocalist Päivi “Capri” Virkkunen, Innuendo provides listeners with …
Read More »Album Review: New Disorder – Straight to the Pain
New Disorder is an everyman’s hard rock / alternative metal band from Rome, Italy. Their latest album, Straight to the Pain, dropped September 18th in North America and sports a standard length of raw, heartfelt rock which, while unlikely to turn heads at first listen, offers a solid headbanging experience …
Read More »Show Review: Coheed and Cambria at The Pageant in St. Louis, MO 10/14/2015
This fall, to support the release of their eighth album, The Color Before the Sun, progressive rock heroes Coheed and Cambria are touring the United States along with friends and fellow progressive masterminds Thank You Scientist and swapping direct support halfway through the tour between emo experimentalists Cursive and influential …
Read More »Album Review: Children of Bodom – I Worship Chaos
Children of Bodom is one of the prototypical bands of the Finnish extreme metal collective. Formed in 1993, the band has long championed some of the distinct sounds of the region’s more extreme musical side. Despite some moderate shifts in tone over their career, as well as the loss of …
Read More »Album Review: TesseracT – Polaris
A tesseract, in mathematics, is a three-dimensional representation of a four-dimensional object, often used by physicists to illustrate the concept of higher planes of existence than our own. It is fitting, then, that the band Tesseract acts as our aptly-titled progressive metal guide into unknown realms of musical experience. When …
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