Arduini/Balich – Dawn of Ages
The album delivers torrents of guitars, deluge after deluge of roar and wail, with riffs that are more often engaging and accessible than dizzying and speed-driven.
Behind the Sun – Post Solis
North Carolina’s Behind the Sun deliver a blistering five songs full of the heavy riffs, rhythmic shifts, and choral ensembles of growl not unknown in the prog side of death metal.
Haken – Aquarius and Visions Re-Release
The musicianship is exquisite and the songs feature gorgeous.
Aenaon – Hypnosophy
Hypnosophy brings to mind the gods of old, risen again to walk the earth and to have their final vengeance on usurper man.
Surgeon – Beast of Light
Surgeon is a different animal entirely, a feral hunting creature of controlled savagery.
Virus – Memento Collider
This is no simple strum-along–either take it as a challenge to figure out these knotty chords or surrender completely and let yourself dissolve in a wash of sound you may never be able break down or understand.
The Night Watch – Boundaries
The music is challenging, but the presentation is deliciously unusual, and while one might envision such a piece as a cult classic…
Koneskin – Liberty Place
On Liberty Place, their new EP, the Italian three-piece band Koneskin conjure up a groove, fall into place, and never seem to look back…
Fates Warning – Theories of Flight
Throughout the album’s 52 minutes, the band nicely builds a bridge between their prog-metal roots and more modern sounds, with gorgeous production that presents the songs in full technicolor.