4 highlights: modern, atmospheric and alternative prog metal & avant-garde black metal!

After two EPs and two albums, French musician Dorian Pied aka The Last Dodo is back with a new album: “If We Sink, Leave Us Here”. Anyone who is familiar with some of his previous work will immediately notice two significant shifts in the sound: firstly, on the album you will find by far the heaviest The Last Dodo stuff ever. Secondly: there’s vocals! Sometimes clean, sometimes screamed, sometimes both at the same time, The Last Dodo pulls it all off with ease it seems, fitting the modern prog metal sound like a glove. So if you’re up for a (sometimes crazy) emotional ride in that vein, you’re in for a treat with “If We Sink, Leave Us Here”. Very curious what kind of waters The Last Dodo will be trying in the future. Hopefully he won’t be sunken, because you left them there… Dario

From France to Finland, from a one-man project to a band, from the emphasis on modern prog metal to an emphasis on atmospheric prog metal: Finnish quintet Alase present their sophomore record, “A Matter of Time”. The vocals (credits are a bit unclear as there’s only instrumental credits and one for the lyrics) are once again a mix of clean and growls, and once again it’s a great mix, and well implemented into the instrumental part of the music. Sound wise, Katatonia could be a vague reference point, visually I do recommend checking out their cinematic high quality music videos as well. Dario

From Finland to Norway, the home-country of black metal bands turned – something else. Dødheimsgard have also heeded the call of the avant-garde, with a vast array of influences from folk to gothic to electronics to psychedelic and proggy bits spicing up their newest, sixth full length album “Black Medium Current” as well. It is a wild, demanding ride, I am sure it will require lots more spins fo fully sink, to fully grasp the entire scope of it, but be it the Floydy grooves of ‘It Does Not Follow’ or the vast synth galaxies ‘Abyss Perihelion Transit’ opens up: there’s something for everyone in there, but best consumed as a whole of course. Fans of all Ulver periods, Romania’s The Thirteenth Sun, Hail Spirit Noir or Arcturus should definitely check out this massive album. Dario

The final highlight for this release week comes from England in the form of “Tempus Veritas”, the fourth album by Black Orchid Empire. Heavily grooving alternative rock meets TesseracT-ish angular riffs, that’s an explosive mix guaranteed to make any heavy music club explode! Having some of the catchiest vocal lines and choruses of the year so far up their sleeves surely will help grow their fanbase exponentially. But we’ll see what Voyager will have to say about that assessment once their album finally drops (some time after they’ve won Eurovision, of course). Definitely an album that contains a lot of energetic fun material, but still prog enough for the music nerds among you. Just don’t expect any noodly guitar or keyboard solos after every break. Compact, catchy songwriting with class is key here. I’ve got only one problem with it: should I file it under rock or metal? Still haven’t answered that question for a similar band like Jolly either… Dario