PopMatters' Best Progressive Rock / Metal of 2018
If there's one word to define progressive rock and metal this year, it's
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Double the Doom, Twice the Fun US based artist Phideaux Xavier makes his long awaited return from a seven year hiatus with Infernal. The much anticipated release is a double album of fear, terror, and perhaps a ray of hope. Infernal is the final installment of Phideaux’s trilogy of albums that began in 2006 with The Great Leap. The second installment, Doomsday Afternoon, was a bombastic and complex opus, utilizing a 12 piece section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra among a bevy of other musicians, old and new. Released in 2007, Doomsday garnered the attention of the progressive rock communities in the US and Europe. The many accolades and increasing interest led to invitations for Phideaux to play various festivals and inaugurated the Phideaux "band". While Phideaux has released other albums since Doomsday Afternoon (Number Seven, Snowtorch), Infernal returns to the stunning artwork and musical DNA from which the first two albums in the trilogy were created. The singular "eco terror tale" continues with Infernal. Cryptic, melodic, mysterious and frightening, this new release is all one might hope to find within Phideaux’s new double creation. Infernal is "the end we saw begin”. At last.
HORRENDOUS explode out of the underground with their incredible new album 'Idol'. Drawing inspiration from both personal and national crises, 'Idol's' music is a methodical and unapologetic take on dynamic, progressive death metal. The highly anticipated new album sees HORRENDOUS at the highest echelon of their musical creativity to date. Thematically, the ambitious new album is an exploration of defeat, of the gods we build in our minds to escape the responsibility of action and change as we relinquish our agency. The music in 'Idol' mimics this act of deity building, with sprawling compositions that are imposing in scope and mirror the great turmoil of our times. Tracks such as "Soothsayer", "Golgothan Tongues" and the monumental "Obolus" position the band in a league of their own, as one of the death metal's leading new entities.
Riverside’s moody *Wasteland* is rife with violent sounds and moments of vulnerability. On “Acid Rain”, the band pours out heavy riffs; a stirring, poignant quality defines “The Day After”, while a gentle spirit floats through “Guardian Angel”. Having lost guitarist and founder Piotr Grudziński in 2016, the Polish prog leaders let rip with a heavy heart on the evocative “Lament” and instrumental centrepiece “The Struggle for Survival”. This is an album about grief, acceptance and closure.
2018 ALBUM FROM NORWAY'S CREATORS OF DARK AND ELEGANT ART ROCK FEATURING THE SINGLES "SOYUZ ONE", "HYPOMANIA", "EXIT SUITE" & "EMPEROR BESPOKE" "Further evidence as to why Gazpacho are a truly enigmatic and special act" 8.5/10 Ghost Cult Following 2015’s lauded album Molok, which reached 16th in BBC Radio 1's Rock Charts, Gazpacho released Soyuz in 2018, which reached #4 and #17 in the UK's Rock & Metal and Independent Albums charts respectively. It joins a series of concept records that started with the critically acclaimed Night in 2007. A band who are used to seizing headlines with bizarre stories, including The Independent (UK) branding Molok as "An album that could destroy the world", Gazpacho have a holistic approach to the album writing process, imbuing each with a captivating concept. The songs of Soyuz are a series of short interconnected stories of people frozen in time, with the tracks "Soyuz One" and "Soyuz Out" written about the first Russian Space capsule and its doomed captain, Komarov. Known for their distinctive art rock that balances tense and beautiful arrangements, sinister and soulful melodic lines, Gazpacho's Soyuz furthers their experimental output. The album was recorded at Krypton Planet & St. Croix Fredrikstad in Norway, engineered by Thomas Andersen, Kristian Torp and Mikael Kroemer, mixed by John Rausch and mastered by Sonovo Mastering's Thor Legvold. The artwork, designed by painter Antonio Seijas, is inspired by Russian Cold War colours and fonts from the Soyuz One flight era.
