Psalm Zero : "Sparta"

The bass player and drummer from Kayo Dot are onboard this time around. In the past this project has reminded me of a poor's man's Katatonia. There is a New York hipster buzz to the band as evident with pairing up with Kayo Dot main main Charlie Lookers travels in those circles, yet it sounds very European, like something that would have come out in the early 2000s. His vocal is more dead pan than Jonas. Huis pitch is not as dead on either , the notes come across as a little flat in places. All of that aside it still makes for interesting listening as they do deviate from the typical gloomy hard rock formula. There ia an angular quality to it and I would say it is more experimental than what I have heard from past releases. There is a weird ambiance to the title track. The oddness is subtle, not something I can readily point a finger at which says something,. The vocals work more for me on this one, though the song it self doesn't wow me as much as the opener.

Keyboards begin to have more of a presence on "the Last Faith"> The song is mainly driven by metal riffs. The lyrics are more interesting on "No Victim" . They sound like a metal version of Devo. When I go into this in more of that mindset, my expectations are more in line with reality. The guitar breaks down into a more muted tension on the verses. It also reminds me a little of Ghost on this one, which is odd because I hate Ghost, but like this song. This is a much more straight forward effort than the first few songs. There is a more minimal arrangement to "Return to Stone" .Kristin Hayter guests on this one and her vocals are more dominate. She does not annoy me like she does on her solo work. "Animal Outside" is another melodic hard rock song

There is an instrumental interlude then the album closes on a darker note with "  a Pill" . It makes me think back to the rest of the album which can be atmospheric in shades of gray, but is not a dark album. The vocals are improved , but can be a sticking point for my overall enjoyment. I will give this album an 8.5, so the songs them self compensate for the vocals, if y ou are a fan of this band then this should not phase you.



This album comes out February 24th .

the Top 10 Progressive Metal Albums of 2019

It's that time of year again, to sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, then use them, to compile the top 10 albums of the year. Later in the month I am making  the top 10 lists for the decade,. Let's make something clear if you clicked on this looking for Dream Theater, then you have the wrong blog,. There are no power ballads here.Progressive mean there has to be progress, change not working off a formula. Not doodling to hold you over til the guitar solo. It was hard enough this year finding ten artists in their respective genres, but I did it.  As in  past years I am  giving a brief explanation as to why these albums stand over their peers in lower positions on the list. The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Sure you can bitch and complain about your favorite band not being on the list. However  I listen to five new albums a day so yes I heard your favorite album and was not impressed. No,  I do not care what you think about it.   I do hope you can find your next favorite on this list  and  have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10  prog metal  albums of 2019 .

10-Meads of Asphodel - " Running Out of Time Doing nothing"

 It opens darker more industrial sound. They are almost like Sigh in the sense each song is dramatically different. There is still a darker mood over this with some more Coil like vocals. Unlike previous releases this is less pounding and the guitars sit kind of weirdly in the mix.

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-meads-of-asphodel-running-out-of.html

9-Pensees Nocturnes- GRAND GUIGNOL ORCHESTRA"


Circus black metal, is bound to sound like Mr. Bungle. They don't prove me wrong in this theory. The French are always doing weird shit like this . They swing back and forth from operatic singing to growls of anguish. Blast beats are thrown in.the concept of what they are doing translates well in the finished product almost more prog weirdness than black metal. They are demented enough to beat out Meads of Asphodel.

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/02/black-metal-history-month-pensees.html

8-OXXO XOOX- "Y" 


 The 3rd album from this Igorr lead project uses electronics that makes dipping into another brand of metal seem as easy as pressing an esc key on a sonic glitch. The fact that doom is the sound the return to despite covering a great deal of ground over the course of the song says a lot to me about what they are going for here. Darker than the first two bands sits them pretty at number 8.


 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/12/oxxo-xoox-y.html

7-Dreadnought- "Emergence"

 The jazz like drumming and the lapses into dissonance provide a suited juxtaposition to the smoothly sung female vocals. Plenty of your standard prog trappings are in place, though with less of the expected guitar solos.

6-White Ward- "Love Exchange Failure

" This album grows on me with each listen. What they have created proves to be a unique experience and finds the band improving their blend of jazz and black metal. Not the first time jazz and metal meet, this time around it does so in a more atmospheric manner that stays true to both genres being melded . This is putting the progress in progressive, more so than the long and winding road Dreadnought takes you down.


 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/08/white-ward-love-exchange-failure.html

5-Liturgy-"H.A,Q.Q"

 Hunter is back with something closer to the kind of experimental black metal that you want from this project, even if it comes in practice burst that might owe as much to grind core ... think the Locust here. Greg Fox left some big shoes to fill but Leo Didkovsky who also plasy with Kayo Dot measure's up. More spastic than past releases I admire these guys pushing past conventions. One of the few albums that is as far out in left field as White Ward, these guys just lock into more grooves that punch the point home.


 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/11/liturgy-haqq.html

4- Kayo Dot - "blasphemy"


 Toby Driver is the main creative force behind this project . They are like a more avant garde version of Leprous. This time around we find them after they have obviously smoked a shit ton of weed. this is not the most metallic album of their career. It does have hefty undercurrents of metal. Moodier and with song that coax you in more the abrasive nature of Liturgy. https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/09/kayo-dot-blasphemy.html



/>

3- Opeth - "In Cauda Veneum" 


 One of the best post death metal efforts. It is not fragile prog, but dark and with a biting edge. Mikel's voice sounds better here and this is not the heaviest album on this list, but it does pack considerable punch as needed. The beat out Kayo Dot by virtue of their superior musical skills.


 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/09/opeth-in-cauda-venenum.html

2- Bask- "III"


This North Carolina band merges prog with their brand of stoner rock, with a great deal of moody melody. It's two minutes in before the heavier side starts to show. When they fully commit the results are powerful as the big riffs counter balance the soulful vocal. The coolest thing to me is the underlying current of country / Americana which helps set them apart from the other bands on this list. They wrote catchier songs than Opeth this time around.

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/11/november-doom-bask-iii.html

1- Baroness- "Gold & Grey" 

 The stakes were high as this was the first album after their Grammy nominated "Purple Album" and their first with new lead guitarist Gina Gleason. Their live show sold me on these songs then it grew on me. It was pretty ambitious , but they pulled it off. Very pristine production wise and a glimpse into their more introspective side .The winding sinew of the grooving riffs earned them the number one spot.

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2019/06/baroness-gold-grey.html

Kayo Dot :"Blasphemy"

Here is a band I have paid attention to for some time.Toby Driver is the main creative force behind it. I would say I have a serious appreciation for them. They are like a more avant garde version of Leprous. Their previous album was darker. This time around we find them after they have obviously smoked a shit ton of weed. The opener eventually gets darker and more emotive as it builds, It has more of a shimmer to it.The second song carries more movement with the busier patter of the drums. The vocals are less over wrought and smoother. Not that the delivery on the previous song had anything wrong with them. There are metal elements but I would not say this is a particularly metal album, though it will appeal to metal fans.

There are some really cool guitar tones. The clean ones are crisper and have more depth than when they try to bring the crunch. There are some vocals tones as well as guitar tones that touch up[on the kind of post-punk that is often called goth. "Lost Souls on Lonesome's Way"  is more proggy, yet not as urgently pulling you in as the first few songs. There is a guitar solos that breaks out, but the song as a whole doesn't grip me as urgently. There is a more delicate touch to "Vanishing Act in Blinding Gray".  It does build in a quirky manner that takes the song in a more dissonant progressive direction not unlike Belew era King Crimson. This vibe carries over into the song that follows it as well. I prefer the darker touches to "Midnight Mystic Rise and Fall:". At time the emotive vocal inflections remind me or Robert Smith or Rozz Williams.

"An Eye For a Lie" sounds almost like the new trap music version of Liturgy. The vocals are better though. It is as angular as a Frank Zappa song. The song floats off into a kind of atmosphere that sounds like what the album cover looks like. The title track this album ends with is pretty dramatic , but falls more in line with what your typical progressive rock band might do in 2019, just without the excessive guitar solos. If you like the idea of progressive rock , but do not like guitar solos then that is even more reason to check this album out. I will give this album a 9, it's easy just to leave on and let play.

Vaura : " Sables"

Up to this point I have always like what I have caught from this band. It had a dark density and combined post-punk moods with post-metal sounds . Here they are going in different direction. It is more lo fi. Drum machines taking the place of the bottom end their sound used to have. If you are moving in a more 80s new direction and it's not fully connecting with me their is a problem. The vocals are a little higher to create more of a Depeche Mode like sound. The guitar parts and weird and angular, with re-verb replacing distortion. It's sounds like if Bella Morta or Cruxshadows tried to become a progressive rock band. There are some redeeming aspects of what is happening here, most of those fall on the guitar playing. I think it comes across as not as dark due to the production quality and the shift in guitar tone, which works for what the guitar is doing , but perhaps not where it fall in the bigger picture they are trying to paint here. So the strength and the weakness are different sides of the same coin.

The refrain of  "The Ruins" works pretty wall, but overall the song doesn't measure up fully to what I have heard from these guys before. There is more of a Cure vibe to " No Gaurdians" , which should make this an instant winner in my book, but I feel the vocals are uncomfortable and trying to sing higher than what this guy is best at. So five songs in and I can say I am beginning to feel disappointed. "Eidolon" might be the best song so far. If I went into this not having heard this band before then I think I might be more impressed with it. There is a more Pink Floyd like guitar melody.  The parts of songs like "Basilisk" I am sure sounded great when they were tracking them, but how they all fit together in the mix is the problem. So part of the problem might lay in hos this album was produced.

The title track the album ends with is very sparse and atmospheric . They let to much sit on the shoulders of the vocals, which I am sure sounded just fine in vocal booth, but when left to sit naked atop very minimal backing , not so much. I will give this album a 7, because there are good sounds and ideas abounding. It is more of a progressive rock album than what we have heard from them in the past. So much so this might have been better served being released under the guise of a solo project under another name as the difference is as wide as the difference between the last A Perfect Circle album and "Undertow".

Kayo Dot : "Plastic House On Base of Sky"

You can fool some of the people some of the time. It never fails to surprise how many members of the music press have very limited knowledge of music. When you hear an album that i totally derivative of another band and you not able to put your finger on it when it is glaringly apparent then there is a problem.The culprit here is Metal Sucks. For these guys to not recognize how the new Kayo Dot is pretty much a tribute to early Roxy Music is ridiculous. These purveyors of click bait are more concerned with being trolls and social justice warriors, than to recognize the obvious. Kayo Dot does try to obscure this fact by creating chaotic Brian Eno like waves of synths. But Eno played with Roxy Music so we are in the same ball park, the first song that has an originality to it is "Magnetism". It takes some 80s synth sounds and makes a more aggressive form of kraut rock.

Their singer still tries to imitate Bryan Ferry. The guitar tone on this album isn't bad it just sits a little too far back in the mix. They continue to coast along with disjointed atmosphere keeping these songs from congealing and varied synth pulses just swirling around without making contact. It begins to try to rock a little by the end of the song, but gets bogged down in the synths. The albums goes back to wanting to pay homage to Roxy Music on  "Brittle Urchin", which closes out the album. This band is known for being experimental and has changed with every album. This is a turn for the worse here. The song writing and heaviness are gone. They don't have to have the metal elements to be a good band, there previous album was dark. This is just a scrambled mess that never really goes any where. I'll give it a 5. I like Roxy Music , but I'll just go listen to them when I am in the mood. This was just released on the Flenser.


\

Kayo Dot : "Coffins On IO"

This band's sound has really matured. The opening track reminds me of a cross between Roxy Music and Twin Shadow. The vocals  have come along way in terms of their command of the melodies.The album had been hailed previously by critics as taking the band into a goth direction referencing Sisters of Mercy in several reviews. I'm not sure what album they listened to or if they know any Sisters of Mercy aside from "Vision Thing". It's dark, but in more of a Japan or Roxy Music sense. At the three minute mark there is a really unique vocal melody on "Offramp Cycle, Pattern 22". The song titles are as long as the songs. I would have complained about the fourteen minute opening track if it was so damn good.

The band strays a little from the sound that works best for them on "Long Time Disturbance.." . The vocal has a smoothness to it but all other elements of the so are angular and minimal in a way that they never really full connect. Two minutes so progressive meandering pulls it in like 80s King Crimson. I can hear some Dredg among the Adrian Belew influence. they walk a much different path than what you might commonly think of as progressive rock today. They capitalize more on the feeling and less about the mathematics, though there are Rush moments on "Library Subterranean". The synths create something that drones like mix of Can and Pink Floyd. "The Assassination of Adam" goes into a dark John Zorn styled alley after having a seizure. This is the album's densest song.

The album closes with a floating falsetto vocal that cools down into some David Lynchian Roxified Music. The sax is steamy and the song as a narcotic pulse that lingers. At ten minutes it becomes more of a dark drugged version of lounge jazz. This album tends to wander and "Long Time Disturbance.." runs of the rails an into the formless clouds, but the band has really matured. I'll give it an 8.5 There no goth to be found, but some good drugged out art rock.