Progressive Metal Reviews
Although I have a somewhat conflicted relationship with the progressive metal genre, the bands that tackle the style well tend to do so exceptionally well. If you like your time signatures odd and often changing, your song structures unpredictable, your chords and harmonies sophisticated, and your songs long, make sure to check up on Kevy Metal’s progressive metal reviews from time to time. You can find all my progressive metal Album of the Week reviews right here.
However, I did not start properly tagging my reviews until a couple of years in. If you are looking for something that doesn’t show up, it might still be there. I recommend using the search bar at the bottom of the page if you are looking for something specific.
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Check Out Joad Manuel Jiménez’ ‘Retrospective’
One of the best things to come out of Venezuelan Metal Season for me was befriending Joad Manuel Jiménez. For those of you who don’t know: Joad was the singer of Venezuelan heavy metal pioneers Arkangel from 1994 to 2002, and then again from 2015 to 2016. After leaving Arkangel…
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Album of the Week 18-2026: Sins of Shadows – The Last Frontier
Although their band name brings one of my favorite Symphony X songs to mind, Sins of Shadows isn’t as proggy as that connection may suggest. There is some pre-Dream Theater prog on ‘The Last Frontier’, but it is clear that strong melodic themes, well-crafted songs and an overall narrative quality…
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Album of the Week 15-2026: Dir en Grey – Mortal Downer
With Dir en Grey being ever the idiosyncratic band, and without the help of a new single to represent the album, it was unclear what to expect from ‘Mortal Downer’. Until recently, I would have said that was part of the band’s appeal, but the piece of steaming hot garbage…
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Album of the Week 10-2026: Assignment – With the End Comes Silence
Metal is at its best when it doesn’t quite neatly fit a certain subgenre. It makes it more difficult to market, sure, but it also accounts for the most satisfying listening experiences, because bands that don’t care about genre limitations tend to make more interesting songwriting choices. This is certainly…
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Best of 2025: The Albums
We interrupt your regularly scheduled Venezuelan Metal Season for what I think are the twenty best new studio albums of 2025. Like last year, it was quite difficult to limit the list to only twenty titles. Great albums were relesased consistently throughout the year. While I briefly considered expanding the…
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Album of the Week 50-2025: Sexto Sonar – Enfrentando la Realidad
Progressive metal bands often contradict themselves by playing something that closely resembles their influences. Maybe it’s because Sexto Sonar is not from Europe or North America, but even though hints of their influences occasionally pop up, their sole full-length album ‘Enfrentando la Realidad’ has a fairly original sound that largely…
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Album of the Week 43-2025: Aephanemer – Utopie
Aephanemer has always been a promising melodic and especially symphonic death metal band, but nothing prepared me for how much ‘Utopie’ was going to overwhelm me. The French trio went through an evolution that goes beyond the growth bands usually show between two albums, to the point where the whole…
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Album of the Week 41-2025: Coroner – Dissonance Theory
Easily one of my most anticipated releases this year, Coroner’s first original studio album in thirty-two years doesn’t disappoint. It takes everything good about the Swiss trio and translates it to the current day. That should not be too surprising, as Coroner was always ahead of its time both in…
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Album of the Week 38-2025: Amorphis – Borderland
The line between having a clearly defined style and going through the motions is a very fine one. While Amorphis has sporadically found itself on the wrong side of that line – 2011’s ‘The Beginning of Times’ comes to mind – it is genuinely amazing how they have a sound…
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