This double strike from Russia will save your weekend!

Still mesmerized by the absolute magical spell that Keor’s previous album “Petrichor” had put on me in December 2018, I was naturally a bit afraid how the follow up will sound. Now that “Tearoom” is here I can assure you: it sounds totally different. Yet inherently Keor. Where “Petrichor” spiced up some Steven Wilson atmosphere circa “Grace for Drowning” era, “Tearoom” picks up the most esoteric elements of Devin Townsend’s “Empath” and takes them… …somewhere else entirely! The result is far from any ‘mainstream’ prog, with lots of ambient parts and spoken word bits. It is utterly intriguing and engrossing, at times a bit disturbing but at the end of the day completely fascinating. Dario

Up for some instrumental, fusion tinged symphonic prog metal with massive chops? Pleximents’ debut album fires off on all cylinders with the opening triple already (with a splendid bass performance by renowned session bassist Anton Davidyants laying down the icing on the cake of the first single ‘Mental Prisoner’). Led by guitarist, composer and main man Evgen Tsibulin, this project that is based in the remote regions of Siberia, delivers quality from the get go of the debut offering “The Maze Within”. The epic 4-part centerpiece ‘Inside the Maze’ surprises with decent guest vocals by Sergey Efremov and some growls done by Evgen himself, but it is in the plenty instrumental passages that his virtuosity and skill on electric and acoustic guitars as well as a composer really shine. High octane prog metal that finally puts Siberia on the map of heavy music? Hell yeah, count me in! Dario

Australia has been a hotbed for modern prog metal for some years now and Brisbane’s The Stranger are no exception. Their sophomore album “Kaleidoscope” further cements their claim for a spot beside their Gold Coast brothers of Caligula’s Horse in the Queensland prog metal olymp. Following up on the promise they laid out with their self-titled debut from 2017, the five aussies manage to forge their own sound more and more and are starting to swim free from their most obvious influences. While there are still some parts that bear a striking similarity to the sound of some other more established and well known bands (the ‘Hallelujah’ in the first single and opener ‘Eleventh Hour’ is definitely a certified CHorse moment™ for example), the overall quality is undeniable and the lack of originality in a few moments of the entertaining 50 minutes is not diminishing my enjoyment at all. Quite the catchy affair overall, “Kaleidoscope” is poised to appeal to any fans of modern prog metal and establish the name of The Stranger far over their country borders. Dario

There are few albums I’ve been looking forward to as much as “Ice Fleet”. The last two releases from this Russian band, 2015’s “Sorni Nai” and 2017’s “Kaiho” have been as close to flawless as atmospheric and progressive doom can be. The band is fronted by songwriter, vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Anton Belov, and mixes post-rock and ambient sounds with their foundation of heavy, slow doom-metal. I’ve only had the chance to listen to the two singles released from the album so far. ‘Raivo’ is an epic, monumental track reminding me of the best parts of “Sorni Nai”, while ‘Maanpako’ starts out as an emotional and beautiful piece, with its sombre piano, before the full band comes in, creating energy, and lifting the track to the sky! The fact that we are again talking about a concept album, this time about the discovery of a flotilla stuck in the ice, and that the album is accompanied by a tabletop RPG adventure makes it even more enticing. As you probably can understand I’m expecting a lot from “Ice Fleet”. Rune

One of the bands that has never really received the acclaim they deserve, and that I still view as criminally underrated is Dutch Phlebotomized. I’d go so far as to name them as one of the originators of progressive and avant-garde death metal, back in the early ’90s. They experimented, and added instruments like violins and synthesizers to their sound, way before the prog-death sound became synonym with Opeth. The band disappeared after their 1997 album “Skycontact”, but resurfaced in 2013, and released the amazing full-length “Deformation of Humanity” in 2018. Now they are back with a new EP called “Pain, Resistance, Suffering” which follows the same path. Heavy, complex, yet melodic death metal with a lot of diverse progressive elements and at times almost symphonic details. I love how you can also hear fragments of their origin as a grindcore band in some of the vocals. The EP is quite short, but there is not one boring second here. A rhythmic powerhouse of a track like “No Surrender” and the brooding, heavy “Beheaded Identity” is a textbook example of how you can still experiment with the genre, and create progressive death metal that neither needs to be tech-death nor sound like a clone of certain stalwarts of the genre. So very refreshing! My verdict? This is just impressively good music, and anyone with an interest in progressive metal needs to check this out. Rune