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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Album of the Week 43-2019: Ningen Isu – Ogon No Yoake
‘Ogon No Yoake’ is the album on which Ningen Isu matured. That may be a dirty word for some rock bands, but Ningen Isu finally realizes its full potential here. Their debut EP and first two albums contained plenty of excellent songs, but also showed that the band wasn’t quite…
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Album of the Week 35-2019: Them – Manor Of The Se7en Gables
On the surface, Them seems like another one of those King Diamond and Mercyful Fate-inspired bands that seemed to pop up everywhere especially around Northern Europe about a decade ago. They even have the aesthetic down better than, say, Attic and Portrait. In fact, Them began existence as a King…
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Album of the Week 24-2019: Fates Warning – Inside Out
‘Inside Out’ always gets lost in the shuffle between the hyper-accessible ‘Parallels’ and the ultra-proggy monolith that is ‘A Pleasant Shade Of Gray’. Personally, I consider it superior to either of those. Sure, the flat production and the dull cover art really don’t do the songs any justice, but the…
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Album of the Week 21-2019: Arch/Matheos – Winter Ethereal
With Arch/Matheos being active, there are essentially two Fates Warnings, the one actually called Fates Warning being fronted by Ray Alder. Neither are very prolific; they have a combined grand total of four albums this decade. However, all four are excellent, so that should not be a reason to complain.…
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Album of the Week 20-2019: Amorphis – Elegy
Perfection is hard to come by in music. More often than not, I refer to a certain aspect of an album being as close to perfection as it gets. In case of Amorphis’ third album ‘Elegy’, its atmosphere is just about as perfect as it gets. ‘Elegy’ was the second…
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Album of the Week 15-2019: Catharsis – Imago
Although seen as a genre predominantly from northwestern Europe, some of this century’s most interesting power metal releases are actually from elsewhere and don’t always make it over to the west. Some bands try to make the transition by translating their songs to English, but ‘Imago’, the third full-length of…
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Album of the Week 50-2018: Control Denied – The Fragile Art Of Existence
Last week marked the seventeenth anniversary of Chuck Schuldiner’s passing. Metal fans everwhere celebrated his genius by playing old Death records, but personally, I think the sole Control Denied album may have been his crowning achievement. ‘The Fragile Art Of Existence’ used to be my all time favorite album for…
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Album of the Week 46-2018: Aria – Proklyatiye Morey
Aria was Russia’s first big heavy metal band and still the country’s best. In fact, the band has been experiencing a second youth in recent years, despite a majority of its members being around sixty years old. Bassist Vitaly Dubinin and founding guitarist Vladimir Holstinin have never stopped writing excellent…
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Album of the Week 45-2018: Sigh – Heir To Despair
While Sigh started out as one of Japan’s first extreme metal bands, they have become one of the country’s most unpredictable bands. Though black metal is never completely gone, their highly experimental albums can contain anything from jazzy breaks to film noir soundtrack interludes and electronic beats. In a way,…
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