Doing Song Algebra with Prog Metal
Also featuring Spanish black metal, Korean indie rock, and a short essay about not being the worst kind of critic.
So I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news. The bad news is that this was another pretty light week from the metal side of things, though there was, of course, still some stuff worth a listen. The good news is that there was plenty of great non-metal music, one album that will almost certainly be making my top 15 or so by years’ end. Also I finally managed to find an essay topic worth talking about, so y’all get to be subjected to my rambling for another week!
As always, if you have a friend who could use some music recommendations, or just know someone who would like to keep up with music without having to actually keep up with music, share this newsletter using the button below.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Tenue - Territorios
Spain really managed to hit it out of the park with this one. I’m not sure if this band is just incredible or if black metal just sounds amazing in Spanish, but the good news is that it’s probably both. This one track album emulates the best things about Kaatayra and cranks it to eleven. There are few, if any, points in this track where it’s not operating at peak force, but despite the relatively high intensity, the track never dips into being dull or one-note. Instead it roars like a lion and pumps your blood full of adrenaline at each turn. It’s an absolutely essential listen in 2021.
Great Metal from this Week
Not too much that really caught my eye, but these two records were both pretty fascinating. Coven sees doomy outfit Rorcal join with noise group Earthflesh to create bowel shaking doom metal. Wode brings their blackened death to new heights with Burn in Many Mirrors and prove that you don’t have to rely solely on atmosphere to make great black metal in the 21st century.
You can find most of these tracks on our Spotify playlist, Fresh Kills. Click the button below and follow the playlist to stay up to date on the best that metal has to offer. The playlist is updated regularly throughout the week.
Subgenre Guide - Progressive Metal (aka Prog Metal)
Oh prog metal, the most snobby of metal genres. Beloved by music geeks and math nerds the world over, prog metal takes the aggression of heavy metal, the narrative focus of power metal, and the adds in a sprinkling of your pre-algebra textbook. But for as much shade as the genre has (rightfully) garnered over the years, prog metal remains a major pillar of the metal community and is often a gateway drug into the broader metal fandom.
As one might expect, there are many styles of prog metal. But regardless of the band or style in question, prog metal always exhibits a few traits that help to make this genre significantly more identifiable than other metal genres. These features include a focus on technicality over all else, the songs tend to be longer on the whole, which allows the band members to move through difficult rhythms, syncopation, and constant meter changes. Prog metal bands tend to lower the amount of distortion on the guitars and bass in order to draw more attention to the instrumental prowess of the band members. Prog metal vocalists often sing clean, which helps to keep the attention on the instruments. There are some prog metal bands that primarily employ harsh vocals, but most tend to use harsh vocals in a similar fashion to hard rock bands, as an accent piece to enhance the emotional thrust of certain song passages. The tendency to stick with clean vocals imbues the lyrics with additional importance when compared to something like death or thrash, as a result, the lyrics in prog metal are often narrative in nature. While the lyrics are more important in prog metal than most metal subgenres, there’s an equally high chance that a prog band has no vocalist at all, and is wholly instrumental.
The genre is widely considered to have begun in the late 1980s in the United States, springing out of US heavy metal and power metal. While this is true, the roots of prog metal date much farther back. Prog rock (along with hard rock) began in the 60s with groups like King Crimson and Yes. Even hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin played a role in influencing groups that would become cornerstones of prog metal. The most important of these bands would end up being Rush, who bewildered audiences with a renewed focus on heaviness and musicality. This was most prominent on their albums 2112and Hemispheres, which saw them reach new heights of complexity within their music. While Rush has become inactive since their final tour and the recent death of their legendary drummer Neil Peart, one could argue that their most recent record, Clockwork Angels is closer to prog metal than it is to prog rock.
Some of the first bands to play what we would now call prog metal include Queensrÿche and Fates Warning. The former took their already impressive heavy metal style and amped it up with blisteringly complex riffs, harmonies and rhythms. The latter group added in atypical riffs and sonic experimentation to unleash a style of metal that few would dare to attempt. Shortly after the rise of these bands, prog metal remained exceedingly niche. Despite its low commercial appeal, the style continued to evolve and influence younger musicians, which would result in the formation of bands like King’s X and Voivod.
When discussing most genres of metal, there’s a moment where they reach their popularity peak. Usually this is a period of time where the greatest amount of innovation is happening and audiences are larger than ever. But few subgenres have peaks quite as pronounced as prog metal did in the ‘90s. In the early ‘90s prog metal produced iconic groups such as Symphony X, Liquid Tension Experiment, Dream Theater, and Tool. Regardless of your perception of these bands, each was instrumental in dragging more people into the metal movement, and many of those converts went on to form their own bands that took the style and evolved it into something completely different.
Today, prog metal is less popular than it was in the ‘90s but is still a key subgenre in the larger style. Tool recently returned from a 13 year hiatus to release Fear Inoculum in 2019. Prog metal legends Dream Theater also released an album in 2019, showing that there is potential for these iconic bands to maintain output well into their later era. What is most heartening to me is the wealth of prog metal bands that have innovated in the space since the ‘90s. Right now you have groups like Intronaut, Protest the Hero and Grorr who are approaching both style and narrative in fascinating new ways, and the ethos of prog metal has been swallowed up into dozens of different genres. This has ultimately made previously one-note genres like thrash, grind, and even death metal more complex and compelling to listeners across the world.
This week we’ll leave you with one of my favorite modern prog metal songs, “Cubensis” by Intronaut.
Why I Don’t Write About Bad Music
It wasn’t so long ago that I reveled in writing a takedown of an album. There’s something innately satisfying about lording your “taste” over someone else. Something intoxicating about feeling superior to someone else, and it’s even more thrilling to do it to a form of entertainment. When you’re dunking on a film or an album, even a video game, you’re essentially saying that the people who love it don’t even know how to entertain themselves properly, and they need the most condescending explanation possible in order to correct that flaw.
When you’re in the midst of writing a negative review, you don’t feel like you’re doing any of the above. It actually feels like you’re providing a public service by letting people know “hey, this thing is bad.” But really, all you’re doing is being an asshole and pretending that you know more than someone else because you listened to a lot of things.
Now, there is a difference between me putting a negative review in this newsletter versus someone at Pitchfork dunking on a record. The primary being that this isn’t my job. Most of the negative reviews that I’ve written were because I was assigned to write about an album that I didn’t like. While I hardly consider myself qualified to be a critic (though you can see where I’ve tried to be one), I do consider honesty to be deeply important to the profession. If there’s someone out there who trusts my opinion, I’m going to be honest and give them that opinion, and when I need to hit a word count that just gives me more opportunity to be mean.
But I don’t have to do that here. And I don’t think that music publications should have to do that either. All that does is push people away from media criticism and media journalism. It turns us into a menagerie of incendiary takes and one upmanship. So when I made this newsletter I decided I would only focus on the good. Sure some of my snide side comes out during the genre guides, but by and large I want to put albums that I like in your inbox. I want this newsletter to be a bastion of positivity in the world of metal, and I want to show you things that are good, not write about stuff y’all will hate (and that I’ll hate writing about). I want to hear something good, I think you do too.
Non-Metal AOTW
파란노을 (Parannoul) - To See the Next Part of the Dream
Sometimes something just jumps out of the water and blows you away. Parannoul did that this past week with To See the Next Part of the Dream. Written and recorded by a South Korean student, this record captures the same emotional purity that early Microphones grasped so firmly. The lyrics too are incredible, though I do suggest listening to the record in the original Korean for the poetry, you can easily read along on Bandcamp to make sure you’re keeping pace. Honestly, there’s nothing I can say about this album that will serve it better than you just going and giving it a listen. I expect this to be in my top ten for the year, I expect it to be in a lot of other top tens as well. But I will leave you with this, it tackles everything you’ve felt over the last year and more, it’s a masterpiece that deserves all the adoration that can be thrown it’s direction.
Note: This album is currently on Bandcamp as a “Name Your Price” record. After listening, please support the artist directly by purchasing the album for a price that you feel is fair.
Runners-up
It was another great week for non-metal music. Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s latest album is a fantastic tour of the world’s end. I wrote a full review of it for Mxdwn music here. Black Crows Cyborg is maybe the best jumping off point for noise that I’ve heard in years. Dry Cleaning observes the absurdity of the world on New Long Leg. Iglooghost brings his off the wall production style into our ears yet again, but this time adds in some more mellow elements to declare himself as more than a one trick pony. Finally, we have Ryley Walker who makes some extremely competent indie rock that is sure to satisfy anyone who missed the early aughts.
Icebergs on the Horizon
Some exciting stuff on the horizon! Of particular note is the newest record from Kauan, which follows up their incredible 2017 album Kaiho. If you’re a fan of post rock/post metal and other sorts of atmospheric and cinematic genres, then this is a must listen.
Metal Albums
Karkait - Yevul
Goath - III: Shaped By The Unlight
Non-Metal Albums
BROCKHAMPTON - ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE
SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE - ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH
Kauan - Ice Fleet
If there’s any albums you think are worth checking out that I didn’t include, drop them in the comments.
Shrinekeeping
That’s all for this week, apologies again for the slightly late letter. There have been… unexpected moving struggles. But I think we’re about to come out on the other side soon. If you know someone who could use more music recommendations in their life, click the share button and pass this along.
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That’s all for this week, I’ll see you all next Sunday, hopefully with a furnished home!