Progressive Metal

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Nami – Fragile Alignments (2011)

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    Hailing from Andorra of all places, today we have a very interesting release with Nami’s “Fragile Alignments” album. Mixing everything from Cynic, Opeth to Meshuggah, this band delivers a lot of band for your buck. For almost 60 minutes the band delivers waves of powerful riffs perfectly arranged in a manner that only big name bands have been able to deliver after years of trying.

    Opening with the progressive instrumental “Awakening from Lethargy”, the band nicely generates some momentum before leveling your ears with the complex “The Inner Man: Materia”. In this track, the Meshuggah worship is evident, and Nami does a great job in graciously pulling off complicated segments. The guitar riffing is outstanding and the drumming is very precise, letting the vocals vent off with some heavy growls while the music is pummeling through.

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    Goldenseed - The War Is in My Mind (2012)

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    Featuring the talented multi-instrumentalist Gabriele Pala, today we have Goldenseed’s third full-length release “The War is in my Mind”. In this one-man solo-project, Gabriele delivers 11 songs clocking around 52 minutes of very interesting Progressive/Shred Metal that greatly highlight his musical skills. Each of the songs feature excellent guitar work and very solid composition skills, something that many multi-instrumentalists seem to lack and favor showing off their skills instead.

    With a very space-oriented nature, “The War Is in My Mind” kicks off with “The R38 Class”. This song features very lush keyboards and a very typical Progressive Metal. While sounding very similar to bands like Ayreon and such, Goldenseed chooses not to ruin things and does not use vocals in this release (except in the last song). Pala’s guitar skills are nicely introduced little by little and never go full on over the top, but instead they complement the music nicely.

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    Earth Burnt Black – Harrowing Catharsis (2011)

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    With a very interesting and rich sound, today we have Earth Burnt Black’s debut full-length “Harrowing Catharsis”. The band pretty much throws everything in the frying pan and delivers a very well tasty dish of well crafted and different sounding music with a nice and clear production on top of it. These types of albums are the ones we wait for at Infernal Masquerade since the combine so many different things and still manage to sound very well and powerful.

    The “Intro” track immediately gives you the feeling that this will be a Doom Metal release, but this quickly changes in the next song. “The March” features hard rocking guitars and clean vocals to start, clearly breaking away from what is expected from the intro. However, not long enough the Doom and Grooviness come back and the band delivers interesting brutal sections with both growls and screams mixed in between some more clean vocals. While this might sound completely chaotic, it actually works very well with the melodic aspect of the song.

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    Evergrey – A Decade and a Half (2011)

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    Ever since the release of their debut album “The Dark Discovery” back in 1998, Evergrey has been one of the best bands in their genre and with their newest incursion “Glorious Collision” they have widen the gap between them and any other band. With “A Decade and a Half”, the band presents a double-CD release filled with most of their greatest songs and a few live versions that keep things interesting.

    As one of our friends pointed out, if you really wanted a ‘greatest hits’ release of the band, it should have been 8 CD’s long and feature every single album they have released in their years of existence. However, we can’t really have that, but this double-CD has enough to please most of the fans of the band. Kicking off with “The Masterplan”, the band delivers their characteristic guitar work and excellent vocals of Tom Englund. As the future has shown (in “Glorious Collision”) the band’s sound centers around Englund’s efforts and everybody else can be easily replaced.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Transatlantic – More Never Is Enough: Live In Manchester & Tilburg 2010 (2011)

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    If Neal Morse’s Testimony 2 – Live in Los Angeles DVD’s where not enough for a dosage of excellent prog, the same promo package we got included Transatlantic’s “More Never Is Enough: Live In Manchester & Tilburg 2010” DVD portion of the release, for another 3+ hours of orgasm-inducing musical experience.

    The live DVD portion of this release features the complete Tilburg concert in all its glory and with seven professional cameras rolling. It also showcases the full band with the extra addition of Daniel Gildenlöw from Pain of Salvation. If you are a big fan of the band’s music and their latest release “The Whirlwind”, the first DVD shows the band playing this release in its entirety.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Neal Morse – Testimony 2 – Live in Los Angeles (2011)

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    After being lost in the post-office oblivion for a few months, today we received a promo package containing the DVD portion of this 3CD/2DVD package that has been highly coveted by prog fans since it came out in November. Featuring around 3 hours of live material, Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Brenton, Rick Altizer, Mark Leniger, Nathan Girard and Nathan Brenton play some very intricate and exciting progressive music that has a very natural and free-flowing nature that only the best in the scene can achieve.

    As a first thing to notice is that there is quite a lot of ‘praise and Jesus-stuff’ in this release to the point of being a bit annoying, but the music makes it quite bearable and when not focusing on the lyrics everything played in this release  is excellent. Every since 2002 Neal has focused more on the spiritual side of things and this is very prevalent through the release. Nothing wrong with this and we are not against it, but we don’t really like it rubbed that much on our faces, especially on top of fantastic music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Fallen Divine - The Binding Cycle (2011)

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    As 2011 winds down and big labels are saving their ‘big’ releases of the opening of 2012, it is very nice to hear fantastic self-released albums like Fallen Divine’s “The Binding Cycle”. Hailing from Norway, this band is ready to conquer the Metal world with crazy-fast guitars, demonic vocals, crafty drumming, and very intricate and skillful compositions. We are very surprised this band has not been picked up by any label yet.

    Immediately showing of their skills with “Dissension”, the band quickly delivers waves of powerful riffs, aggressive vocals and a pounding bass guitar line. The drumming keeps all things together in a very tight manner and nicely changes tempos several times during the song. The atmospheric keyboards give this already awesome track a bit more of flair and epicness. The ethereal atmospheric passage is nicely adorned by great guitar work and a pulsating bass guitar section. Pretty much this is the band’s formula for success and they greatly present it in different shapes through this release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Woburn House – Sleep Summer Storm (2011)

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    After getting a quadrillion Sludge releases that all sound the same, it is quite refreshing to listen to Woburn House’s “Sleep Summer Storm”. In their third full-length release, the band delivers eight tracks of very interesting sounding music that mixes Progressive and Atmospheric elements with a hefty Doom-ier Sludge, something that we can’t really say we have heard before.

    Opening with “Willow”, the band delivers heavy riffs and a nice paced tempo that allows the mood of the song (and album) to nicely set it. The drowsy vocals are excellent for this type of music and greatly add to the overall atmosphere of the release. In faster pace and with a more bizarre atmosphere, “Shifter” shows that the band can shake things up a bit and still achieve the same interesting sound. The guitar work is very well crafted and the tempo set by the drumming is just perfect for this kind of music. For more Progressive/Post-Metal-ish guitars, “Rain Keeps Falling Down” has a hefty dose of them.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Cynic – Carbon-Based Anatomy (2011)

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    Cynic, one of Metal’s most acclaimed provides us with a little insight into what to expect in their next full-length release. Constantly changing and incorporating new things into their music, the band has done away with the harsh vocals, they have added more ethnic chants and sounds, and keep experimenting with other genres such as Jazz Fusion and some Shoegaze. All of these ‘different’ elements will keep the forward thinking Metal listeners attention and appeal to some hipster non-metal fans as well.

    Featuring 25 minutes of music divided in six tracks, this EP is very nicely arranged to flow naturally. The opening atmospheric track is pretty interesting leading to “Carbon-Based Anatomy”, a very emotionally charged and trippy track that has Cynic written all over it. The combination of interesting drum patterns with proggy guitars and clean vocals is excellently executed and works wonders. There are indeed some ‘heavy’ sections, but the overall construction of this track is what makes Cynic a truly different and unique band.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Dark Suns – Orange (2011)

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    In this 2011 we have been treated to excellent Progressive album so far: Leprous “Bilateral”, White Willow’s “Terminal Twilight” and Dream Theater’s “A Dramatic Turn of Events”, however Dark Suns latest opus “Orange” comes just in time to find its spot between these gems in our top progressive album’s list of the year. After somewhat consolidating their change to Dark Progressive Metal/Rock in their last release “Grave Human Genuine”, the band comes back with a very cohesive and interesting sounding album with “Orange”.

    Featuring all the elements of Progressive music we all have grown to love but with a dark and sinister twist, “Orange” delivers 10 tracks of excellently composed tracks that will demand your attention since the first minutes of this release. Opening with the very psychedelic “Toy”, the band quickly delivers crazy keyboards and very effective guitar riffs. The overall atmosphere of this song is very retro and magical. The vocals are excellent since they fit the music just perfectly.

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