Concept prog, atmospheric stoner doom & brutal death metal!

Prog is predestined to transfer conceptual ideas – the list of great examples is long…- and Australian four-piece Hemina not only play this game through one song or record, but span a story-line throughout their entire back catalogue. What started with the characters developed during their previous albums, “Synthetic”, “Nebulae”, and “Venus”, and continued with their child’s adolescence story on “Night Echoes” now leads to an epic conclusion on their fifth album, “Romancing the Ether”. It consists of only one 35-minutes track (and a single version of ‘Revelation’) divided into 6 movements, each exploring the depths of the human psyche with the innermost motivations of family, meaning, and belonging in an amazing way. The musical expression is diverse and dynamic, coming along with marvelous, often polyphonic vocal performances, mesmerizing instrumental parts, and some surprising interludes, tipping their toes into different styles. While it took me several spins to get into this opus, it grew over the time (like a good prog album should do ;-)) with the well-balanced production revealing more and more beautiful details on this colorful journey. Welcome aboard, hope you’ll enjoy the ride as well 🙂 Katha

Just about five months after the release of their massive fourth album “Solace”, Chicago stoner/doom quartet Rezn returns with “Silent Future”, a collaboration with Vinnum Sabbathi from Mexico. Just like “Solace”, “Silent Future” combines the feeling of floating weightless in space with crushing heavy doom riffs. An irresistible combination if you ask me. Music to meditate, daydream and bang your head to in equal measures. Take us away into the “Silent Future”! Dario

One of the most refreshingly unique brutal death metal bands are at it again with their third full-length effort, “Blackened Cerebral Rifts”. Now signed to Transcending Obscurity Records, American death metal group Dead and Dripping bring their riffs to new audiences, and let me tell ya; you guys will not be disappointed. Not many brutal death bands take the prog route, but these guys do it well, blending with the usual techy drums, snarly vocals, and grimy yet clear production. They also maintain their approach in writing lengthier songs, so each track has enough time to be appreciated before the next one rips your face off… not literally, just speaking in metalhead language. If you’re familiar with bands like Cryptopsy, Defeated Sanity, Demilich, and Serocs, or if you’re new to the genre and want to dig in with prog in mind, this album is definitely one I can recommend! Colin