The second week of December still has some great releases in store

Is it Christmas already? Moon Safari’s “Himlabacken Vol. 2” surely feels like a wonderful Christmas present. 10 years after the first volume, the Swedish six-piece is back with an absolutely wonderful bouquet of heartfelt, beautiful songs, single-handedly dropping THE prog rock album of the year with goosebumps inducing vocal harmonies on end that would even make Spock’s Beard in their heyday jealous. “Himlabacken Vol. 2” is a labour of pure love, and it shows throughout every second of the 68 minutes of its runtime, culminating in the 20-minute epic “Teen Angel Meets the Apocalypse”, easily one of the best longtracks of the year. Is it cheesy? Damn well it is, but I’m all here for it! “Ring your bells for better days to come along”, I don’t think I’ll need any other Christmas song this year… Dario

Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist Vittorio Sabelli already joined the ranks of our RotW highlights with his Avangarde Jazzgrind project A.M.E.N. earlier this year, and now offers another fascinating release under the moniker Dawn of A Dark Age, which is stylistically rooted more into Atmospheric Black Metal with strong Folk and Avantgarde influences. “Transumanza” is their third album, and again sees a long list of guest musicians with diverse instruments, as there are euphonium, trombone, bagpipes, and violin among others. The core of his compositions is rather harsh in its sound because of the Black Metal elements, but the classical instrumentation builds a beautiful contrast, so do the female clean vocals to the rough, spoken words. What makes the difference for me is again the maestro’s clarinet that gets me every time, as his tone and playing are just mesmerizing, and shine even brighter because of the rough counterparts. Not always an easy, but an interesting listen, and if you don’t mind to get through some experimental parts, you’ll be rewarded by the beauty in there. Katha

Formidable Israeli extreme metal horde Winterhorde is back after 7 years with their newest opus, once more straddling the delicate balance between Extreme Metal in its Black and Death variety and epic melodies and orchestrations with finesse and confidence. “Neptunian” is their fourth full length album filled to the brim with nine excellent Metal tracks that deliver just the right amount of extremity without losing focus and accessibility. The three cherries on top of this already delicious cake are the two small guest performances by Kobi Farhi (Orphaned Land) and Davidavi Dolev (Subterranean Masquerade/Seventh Station), two of Israel’s most iconic and distinct voices in Metal as well as the glorious trumpet solo towards the end of the opening track ‘Amphibia’. An excellent middleground in between rawness and clarity in the production knows how to keep the Metal spirit (of Freedom) and not succumbing to modern sterility soundwise. Dario

What do four excellent musicians who met while working at one of the world’s biggest instrument and music hardware suppliers do? They’re forming a band of course! Looped Squares is a brand new Instrumental Fusion quartet from the Nuremberg area in Germany and their self-titled debut album should be able to satisfy all Jazz- and Fusionheads in search of some new musical fun. Guitarist Dave Mola and Drummer Frank Tinge have already left their mark and excellent musicianship on other projects like Effloresce, Time Shift Accident and Relocator, with Jan Essenstam on keyboards and Adrian Sardi on (fretless) bass they’ve completed the Looped Squares, riding smoothly onto the scene with style, skills and eight exciting little musical journeys. If anything, I’d wish for some more danger and daring in the future, as they keep it very polished throughout most of the 36 minutes. But in any case I will keep my eye on them. Dario

After having already released two singles since spring this year, UK based quartet Prognosis close the circle and share their three-track EP “Esigen”, on which they explore their relationship with the world and transformations within it, both personal and metaphysical. First up is ‘Phantom Force’, quickly sparking interest with a mighty riff and pushing rhythm patterns, clearly appealing to fans of Modern Progmetal. The vocals are a mix of clean and screamed, adding the right expression to the music. ‘Follow You Down’ first gives me strong Haken vibes in the rhythmic and vocal harmonies, but then develops into an even heavier direction, which sounds great. Last but not least, we get ‘Kissing Vipers’, convincing with groovy bass lines and catchy melodies, closing a way too short but impressive release by a promising, new band. Looking forward to hear what the future holds for them. Katha

EP #2 of the week comes from a brand new player on the board of Progressive Extreme Metal. Hailing from Berlin, the trio Across Oceans just formed at the beginning of the year and now they already have their three track debut offering ready to be consumed. “Atlantica” has all the right ingredients, with beefy, groovy riffs, convincing harsh vocals, towering clean vocal melodies, strong lead guitar moments, wrapped up in three succinct songs. The first half of the third one goes down leaning a bit more towards the melodic side before reverting back to heaviness, so I’m curious as to which direction their sound may develop toward a possible first full length release. Closest comparison I could think of would be Framing Skeletons, which is always good in my book. Dario

After traveling Across Oceans, it might be time to dive underwater with Father Robin. Book 2 of his adventures in the mythical land of Arioea was just released by Karisma Records. Most of it travels through calmer waters musically, but the last two songs do pick up the pace again, no worries about that. But did I just award Moon Safari with the best harmony vocals of the year at the beginning of this week’s highlights? Well, their Norwegian neighbors The Chronicles of Father Robin definitely know how to put together some enchanting harmonization action as well in ‘Over Westwinds’ the serene, sacral opener to Book 2 of their saga “The Songs & Tales of Arioea”. The triple LP boxset with all three books is out already since July (and the limited edition of 500 copies long sold out), and if you ask me, this is exactly the music that works best on vinyl. Still, the digital only crowd will have to wait a little longer to complete the journey with the last part of the trilogy. I’m sure it’s gonna be worth the wait! Dario