7 highlights, 80 more releases: that’s the release week around May 10

Apologies to all faithful progressive rock fans who keep coming back to The Progspace in hopes to find something to their liking in our recommendations. Well, I do hope you’ll enjoy the highlights #5 and #6 this week at least, but I’m afraid the first 4 might not really go down so well for those mainly looking for melody and euphony in their music. Opening the proceedings of the release week around May 10, 2024 is “eartHFlesh”, a massive 45 minute onslaught by Italian extreme metal quartet syk. It is their fourth full length album in ten years and features eight twisted, brutal, oppressive tales, indulging in dissonance and pummeling grooves that it’s a real joy. A dark one though. Nevertheless, for me undoubtedly the album of the week. Intense insanity, delivered with the same relentlessness as we’re used to from their countrymates Nero di Marte. Italy seems to be a fertile soil for this kind of dark, brutal, visceral craziness. Bring it on! Dario

On paper, the music stylings Brighton-based four-piece El Moono have subscribed themselves to should be way too ‘alternative’ for my tastes. However, it is so chock full of angular riffs and unexpected twists and turns that I can’t help but readily immerse myself in it and let the atmospheres and emotions wash over me. As someone who never fully dug into late 90s/early 00s Alternative Metal when the scene was in full bloom, I imagine “The Waking Sun” to fall somewhere in between the tradition of bands like Deftones and the more post-hardcore, yet already atmosphere dripping of pre-“Here Comes The Sun” Klone. So if anything of the above speaks to you, a spin or two of “The Waking Sun” is in order. Dario

It seems to me that vocalist Chris Kontoulis likes to fool his audience a bit, since I’m experiencing the very same thing with this brand new “For Those Who Breathe From Darkness” EP that gave me a hard time getting into “Hiraeth” for a second or two, the excellent 2023 album of his other band Mask of Prospero: starting out with some plain metalcore before delivering atmospheric, melodic goodness to the max. I almost got the feeling, that with each song on the EP it gets better and better, climaxing with the excellent closer ‘The Lovers’. Naturally, I’m thoroughly intrigued  now as to where this steep uphill trend might lead them on future endeavors. Oathswan from Athens is definitely a new force to be reckoned with when it comes to progressive metalcore. Dario

With mysterious new finnish metal act AÝAR it’s a bit different. Truth be told, I don’t care for the first two songs that much. Their stomping beat, apparently meant to create a ritualistic feel, quickly becomes a tad too repetitive to my ears and I almost stopped listening there and then. But oh boy am I glad I didn’t. ‘Beneath the Ice’ and ‘The Circle’ suddenly open up vast Lovecraftian dimensions that form in front of my mind’s eye. The excellent cover artwork is an absolutely accurate visual representation of this feeling as well. Now if they continue in this direction, I’ll be all over future releases. The latter half of the “No​á​idi” EP truly whetted my appetite now. Dario

Finally. Something more relaxed and mellow. The Tangent, brainchild of keyboarder and multi-instrumentalist Andy Tillison, have always been on my radar, especially through their connection with Jonas Reingold’s Karmakanic playground (one of my favorites when it comes to this kind of sound), yet never really ‘clicked’ with any of their previous material I checked out. “To Follow Polaris” might finally be able to change that, at least partly. The thirteenth The Tangent studio album sees Andy Tillison handle everything from the composition to all the instruments himself (hence the addition The Tangent for One on the cover artwork), since all his frequent collaborators were busy for most of 2023 with their various other projects. The outcome is an excellent prog rock album, with the 21 minute epic ‘The Anachronism’ standing out as a definitive highlight. Dario

Does it even get any proggier? Maybe add some dinosaurs? Ok, they’re not quite unicorns, but maybe the closest thing to those proggiest creatures of all time. Progosaurus is a new prog/fusion band from Germany and with their self-titled debut album, they released a fun, raw little instrumental exploration that reminds me a tad of a more jazzy, less avantgarde version of French weirdos Zhorhann who surprised me last year with their debut “Ainsi Parlait Hominina”. With pun-based song titles somewhere between Nuclear Power Trio and The Aristocrats, this is another lighthearted island in all this seriousness a lot of prog carries in front of its belly. Dario

Audiotree is releasing little live recordings of interesting bands left and right these days, so after Caligula’s Horse and Code Orange the other weeks we get treated to three cosmic servings from the new Cynic, still spearheaded by mastermind Paul Masvidal, honoring the legacy Sean Reinert and Sean Masvidal left behind. Check out the version on YouTube as well if you can spare a minute to catch the accompanying conversation about creativity with Paul. Dario