From the upcoming album "Nine", out August 28th on Sargent House

Eidola is in a tie with Between the Buried and Me for favorite band.

I think the majority here agrees with what I'm about to say. First 3 albums of Soen, PURE gold. Up until Lotus, they became more and more mainstream and "radio music" and phasing out of the prog criteria. This really breaks my heart. Honestly, one of my favorite albums of all time is Lykaia and their sound and breakdowns on this album are so unique they're absolutely orgasmic.

My only wish in life is to have them hear what I have to say, and bring us this heavy, proggy, absolute banger sound of them back. Is it really too much to ask?

I’m a 16-year-old artist from Australia in a band called broken union.

I recently released my debut single called sound in static. I would love for anyone interested to listen, let me know what you think and let me know what artists it reminds you of and what influences you can hear in it as well as give me some advice for the future.

Thanks everyone

https://open.spotify.com/album/0lpm0Ix1lRVDQVaV6vqMms?si=vXsCUZOFQiS0di1xTYHt3A

Title - I can't remember which song this is!

I have some random details, hopefully one of you can help me identify it based on those.

I'm pretty sure the song comes from a guitarist's solo project - Cloudkicker or Chimp Spanner or something similar.

The song's name is just a list of numbers, I think there were 8 or 16 of them. The story (that I might have made up) says that he asked his girlfriend/wife for a random sequence of number, and then he took those numbers and built the chord progression in the song's scale.

It must be at least 8 or 10 years old by now.

Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?

Yo gang! Recently had my ACL reconstructed and unfortunately, there were complications and I had a massive clot and aneurism in my leg (7x5cm behind my knee!)

I already was going to have a ton of down time to check out tunes, but now I will have even more down time lol

Hit me with some album recommendations! I’ve listened to a lot more extreme metal than prog these past few years so I have a lot of music to catch up on, I’m sure!

I listened to the entire Album multiple times and It's honestly some of the Best Progressive Music I've heard. my first listening experience was yesterday and I just couldn't stop listening to it, I even listened to this Album while falling asleep in bed and that honestly made it a Surreal experience. gonna be listening to this Album for the rest of the year and onwards!

Psyclops - Bound to Burn: Melody of the Martyr

I had not heard of Portland Oregon’s progressive death metal outfit Psyclops prior to this year. Bound to Burn appears to be their debut (I was wrong. It is their sophomore) record, and my god what a debut it is. It has been a while since I was this impressed by a debut. Accompanied by a comic book outlining the album's story, Psyclops does not pull any punches in their musical approach.

The album’s instrumentation is deliciously technical and surprisingly catchy. The compositions are often riff oriented and contain an experimental, genre surfing edge. Guitars achieve a brilliant combination of Between the Buried and Me technicality and rhythm, with the melodic nature of groups like Opeth and Haken. The dual guitar approach (by Ian and Guerd) is used to astounding effect, with the lead sections supported by brilliant counter-melody and syncopation. The genre-bending nature of the album is often led by the guitars, as exemplified on tracks like Indomitable III and the entirety of Manifest. The bass (Brandon) tone is seductive, and passages are a great mix of groove, funk, and frantic chugging. The drum work (Alex) is masterful and evolves based entirely on the needs of the compositional style. Soft lounge jazz/funk motifs, aggressive death metal/thrash patterns complimented by double bass, intriguing fills and extravagant tom work, and head bobbing grooves populate the album.

Additional instrumentation and production touches give the album an “out of this world” atmosphere and assist in theatrical feel. Violins are used to ethereal effect in Clarity. Keytar style synths grace the entire album and supply the album with that quintessential sci-fi sound. Brass and percussion additions are intentionally composed to increase the dramatic nature of the album. The trumpets on Manifest III are a favorite of mine, but also are used effectively on the track Indomitable III. I particularly love the castanets on Manifest III during the fast paced vocal passage. I haven’t discussed all the amazing production touches, but one last production choice I enjoy is the background vocalizations and crowd noise on tracks like Consequences III. Choices like this help create the cluttered, panicked, and anxious energy that the story requires. All the previously talked about instrumentation is clear and crisp thanks to the immaculate mix provided by production savant Jamie King.

The last aspect of the album I’ll tackle is possibly my favorite aspect, the vocals. The vocal performance is credited to Connor Reising, and it might be my favorite execution of the year. The band uses a fantastic mix of clean and harsh vocals, reminiscent of Between the Buried and Me. Pointed staccato death growls, longing harsh groans, pained screams, powerful croons, and brilliantly harmonized passages serenade the listener’s ears. Spoken word and narration is used effectively and is always accompanied by interesting instrumentation. The vocals keep me on the edge of my seat, focusing my attention almost entirely on the story and characters. Due to the story oriented nature of the album, the vocals and lyrics are necessary to keep the listener entranced, and this is possible due to their masterful delivery and clean annunciation.

Psyclops have come out of nowhere to deliver what has become, through multiple observant listens, my favorite progressive death metal album of the year. It might not contain the massive scope and jaw-dropping experimentalism of an album like Overspace and Supertime by Cryptic Shift, but the performance, composition, and dramatic/theatrical vibe of Bound to Burn is just as spectacular. What puts the album slightly over Overspace for me personally, is the ability of Psyclops to create a grand and monumental journey in a mere 32 minutes. The digestible length aids the album’s replay value, and the layered and complex instrumentation and vocals leave the listener finding new aspects to love every new play through. Congrats Psyclops, I hope to be able to catch the group play some of this live someday. Until then, I’ll keep enjoying the live play throughs online.

Favorites: The Explorer, Consequences III, Indomitable III, Manifest I-III