RotW Week 46/2023: 66 Releases. 11 Highlights. No slowing down.

At the beginning of last month, when Norwegian Pop Prog sensation Maraton hit the stage at ProgPower Europe in Baarlo, I fell in love with Goldthroat Fredrik Bergersen Klemp’s heavenly voice all over again. And now, I can even enjoy and rediscover it in a distinctly heavier metal context on Temic’s debut album “Terror Management Theory”, out now via Season of Mist. Also, Fredrik is not the only familiar name in this new band. Mexican Keyboard shredster Diego Tejeida (Devin Townsend Live/The Shattered Fortress/ex-Haken), Neal Morse Band/The Shattered Fortress multitalent Eric Gillette on guitars, and rising Norwegian drum talent Simen Sandnes (Arkentype, Shining NOR) complete the impressive band line-up, with bass duties handled expertly by guest Jacob Umansky (Intervals) on this album, Temic is without a doubt an international Prog supergroup, combining their already impressive talents to a greater whole. Or as our very own Bob Smith concluded in his in depth review: “My appetite is well and truly whetted, and I am now hungry for more, so I hope that won’t be too long coming.” Bring it on! Dario

Easily and by far the most cinematic act to emerge in recent years is Earthside from the US. Their 2015 debut featured larger than life compositions, real orchestras, numerous jaw-dropping guest vocal appearances and established them practically out of nowhere as one of the most exciting new bands Prog scene. Now, eight years later, the quartet is finally back with their sophomore effort, “Let The Truth Speak”, and if you’ve been paying any attention to your social media prog bubble, you should already know that they’ve done it again, that they went above and beyond again to deliver us an absolutely unforgettable experience. They dug up new and unknown vocal talents, recorded with orchestras, organs, brass sections, percussionists, refined their sound in some places, expanded it and explored new territories in others. Or as our very own Alex Kabargin wrote in his in depth review: “ “Let the Truth Speak” is truly a cinematic experience, in which all band members and guest musicians had their say, bringing a piece of their own unique individuality to the mix. The lyrics are touching mostly the topics of human struggles, and they feel very personal and relatable. This approach to songwriting resulted in an album which feels grand but personal, epic but intimate…” And damn right he is. Now if they continue like that, maybe in another 8 years, with their third masterpiece in a row, they’ll be able to get some of the featured vocalists to tour with them… Dario

The Wisdom Tree is an instrumental Progmetal trio from South Carolina, formed by Universal Mind Project guitarist Michael Alexander, keyboard player Roberto Macri (MaYan), as well as drummer Michele Sanna (Sunstorm), who just released their debut album “A day without a yesterday”. Opening with some whirling guitar runs that soon get company by powerful drumming, beautiful orchestral arrangements, and some sax in between, they quickly caught my attention, and latest when the keyboards join the wild ‘Spirals’ dance, I’m already sold. Yet there are still six amazing songs to come, that all tell stories in their own, lyricless way. The band knows how to convince with their mix of virtuosic playfulness, emotion and lightness in their performance, as well as their diverse, fluent compositions, offering some great variations within the guitar – keyboard dialogue. While there’s plenty of instrumental wizardry, they also skilfully weave in some chilled interludes. Only the guitar and keyboard tone is a bit squeaky on the highest notes sometimes, but considering the otherwise well-balanced production, this is complaining on a high level. All-together, “A Day Without a Yesterday” easily lines up into the already impressive number of amazing debuts this year, and I’m happy to have stumbled across this trio by chance. So if you’re into instrumental prog with some jazzy and classical influences, give them a spin 🙂 Katha

Ok now this is a real surprise here: Berklee founded, Denver based Squeaky Feet seem to have tons of live releases up on Spotify and even more on Bandcamp already, but “Cause for Alarm” seems to be their debut studio album indeed. And I would call it a cause for alarm among Prog lovers of all kinds as well, be it the classic Prog Rock sounds of the 70s, Psychedelic tangents, Fusion, Funk or Metal side-quests: Squeaky Feet have it all! Eclectic and entertaining at the same time, Squeaky Feet’s sound is a tad raw and unpolished (for the best), and the compositions and performances are just top notch exhilarating, jubilant Prog greatness. As if RPWL and Fatal Fusion decided to go crazy on all of their hallucinatory psychedelic, jazz and metal daydreams. More please! Dario

Support acts can always turn out to become the most wonderful discoveries. And sometimes, you don’t even have to attend the concert (but it would be much more fun of course). Just like I discovered Middle Eastern Sci-Fi Fusion trio Consider the Source when they were announced as opening act for Panzerballet’s first US tour quite some years back, when Lupe were announced to support the wonderful Greek Prog Rock band Verbal Delirium in Athens, I just had to check them out. Their newest album “Seeker of Sound” absolutely nails a sultry, dark rock sound with lots of strings, the occasional trumpet or flugelhorn and flute, but most importantly a flamboyant, dramatic performance by founder and frontman Michalis Latousakis, whose vocals constantly oscillate between a quite operatic falsetto and a gothic “Mick Moss with an Eric Clayton vibrato Baritone/Bass” timbre, without interrupting the flow of the songs at all. Gothic art rock at its finest. Or: a glimpse into an alternative reality where Daniel Gildenlöw fell into a Greek gothic well before he went on his “Road Salt” trip. Dario

While there weren’t many Progressive Powermetal releases this year so far that really sparked my interest, November 17th comes along with even two strong representatives, funnily enough both from Italy. Let’s take a look at DGM first, who share 10 new songs with us, bound together under the title “Life”, and they manage to bring this (unfortunately often overused) genre tag to the same, offering their most mature release to date. Everything seems to be at the right place now, starting with the amazing background arrangements building a strong basis for the huge melody lines, that really come into the spotlight thanks to Marco Basile’s expressive vocal performance. Furthermore we can enjoy marvelous guitar and keyboard work by Simone Mularoni and  Emanuele Casali offering mighty riffs and harmonic layers as well as mesmerizing solos, all melted together by their diverse, yet floating song-writing and Mularoni’s well-balanced production. My favorites would be the Symphony X inspired ‘To the Core’ and ‘The Calling’ as well as the instrumental ‘Eve’, but in the end “Life” is a wonderful listen in its entirety, and one of this year’s genre highlights for me. Katha

Feeling like a (happy) broken record right now 😉 as here we go with November 17’s second edition of Italian Progressive Powermetal proudly presented by Eldritch, who bring their already 13th album, “Innervoid”, to the table, and again we see Simone Mularoni in the liner notes, being responsible for the mixing / mastering here. The stylistic core elements are the same just like for the earlier mentioned DGM album: We hear powerful vocals and great instrumentation carrying the accessible, huge melodies, yet also plenty of guitar and keyboard virtuosity during the solos. All-together, “Innervoid” leans more towards Power- than Progmetal, and is a bit rougher in sound than “Life”. Normally I wouldn’t have drawn a comparison with DGM, but listening to them back to back made it close at hand. Even though Eldritch can’t set such a high mark as their compatriots with the whole album, there are some real Powermetal bangers on it, like ‘Handful of Sand’, ‘Born on Cold Ash’ or ‘Forgotten Disciple’, and you find me quite impressed at how much they have managed to evolve their sound at this point of their career, making this a worthy RotW highlight as well. Crank it up! Katha

No, this is not a new The Ocean album. “Anthropocene” is the new EP by Denmark’s Odd Palace – and their high energy pop tinged modern metal sound as well as their apocalyptic lyrical themes are both fairly reminiscent to their German counterparts of Chaosbay. Luckily, the quality at hand is definitely at the same level. Just listen to the bouncy riff of the ‘Cyclone’. And its catchy refrain. Exist Immortal fans and Chaosbay maniacs: this is definitely for you! Dario

Now this contrast couldn’t be any bigger: from the pop metal of Odd Palace to the most out there avant-garde tones of New York based Jazz Metal trio Kilter. Their new EP “The Suspended Woman” presents a stripped down trio version of 9 out of 17 songs from their massive avant-garde opera “La Suspendida”. From ambient drone to mathy dissonance and blasts, with the incredible vocal talents of frequent collaborator Andromeda Anarchia (Folterkammer), the trio consisting of bassist Laurent David, bass saxophonist Ed Rosenberg III and Imperial Triumphant drummer Kenny Grohowski is conjuring an eerie scenery and whets the appetite of any daring eclectic listener for the whole thing. Dario

Soaring synth-heavy instrumental Post Rock comes to us this week via Pelagic Records in the form of “Repeater”, the sophomore album by Swedish project Soars. It’s the brainchild of Cult of Luna/pg.lost multi-instrumentalist Kristian Karlsson, and with him he brings Cult of Luna live drummer Christian Augustin to provide some majestic beats. In the promo text, it says something about Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre meet God Is An Astronaut, Caspian and Mogwai. Sounds about right. So if this description sounds like music to your ears, or you’re already lapping up anything Pelagic related anyways, you shouldn’t sleep on this. Dario

Staying in analogue synth land, but stripping off the post rock angle together for this final highlight of the week. Riverside/Lunatic Soul mastermind Mariusz Duda has been experimenting quite a lot with electronic sounds on his recent “Lockdown Trilogy”, and he continues that path now with “AFR AI D”. More reminiscent of Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream and the old heroes of synth exploration than his main band, the occasional guitar flavor from Mateusz Owczarek’s guitar gives the album the needed extra spicing here and there. I’m still not sure though whether I like the cheeky wordplay album titles of his lately or if I find them a bit cringe. Cool album nevertheless. Dario