Welcome to Part 1 of the very best music created in 2017 - according to me!
Here you get my thoughts on the releases that caught my ear this past 12 months. This time it has again turned into a Top 30 list. Most of the music comes from the heavier end of the progressive spectrum, but with a few moments of progressive calm thrown-in for a bit of variety.
I've found 2017 to have been a strange year for music. There have been lots of good and enjoyable albums, all of which are of a very similar quality. Only one album stands out as really special. There is very little to separate all the other albums in my Top 20. Thus the positions are pretty interchangeable.
Also worth noting is the wide geographical spread of the bands (13 different countries covered here), and also the lack of established "name" bands in my list. Only 11 bands have appeared in this annual list before.
Below you'll find a few words on each album plus a full album stream and YouTube sample for each. There is also a link to the original DPRP review. As ever please support all of the bands you enjoy, by buying their music. Happy reading & listening!
Here you get my thoughts on the releases that caught my ear this past 12 months. This time it has again turned into a Top 30 list. Most of the music comes from the heavier end of the progressive spectrum, but with a few moments of progressive calm thrown-in for a bit of variety.
I've found 2017 to have been a strange year for music. There have been lots of good and enjoyable albums, all of which are of a very similar quality. Only one album stands out as really special. There is very little to separate all the other albums in my Top 20. Thus the positions are pretty interchangeable.
Also worth noting is the wide geographical spread of the bands (13 different countries covered here), and also the lack of established "name" bands in my list. Only 11 bands have appeared in this annual list before.
Below you'll find a few words on each album plus a full album stream and YouTube sample for each. There is also a link to the original DPRP review. As ever please support all of the bands you enjoy, by buying their music. Happy reading & listening!
Andy Read - editor and writer DPRP.net
30. Anthriel - Transcendence
The second album from this Finnish band is recommended to all who would enjoy bombastic, symphonic progressive metal with a great singer.
29. Synaptik - Justify & Reason
This tech-metal fivesome from the east of England have crafted some great riffs, solos and vocals across this heavy, yet varied offering, It manages to be more accessible than your traditional prog-metal album, yet with more depth and less cheese than the common-or-garden power metal beast. For fans of Watchtower and Sanctuary. (On Bandcamp the five new tracks are bundled with a remastered version of their debut).
28. Need - Hegaiamas : A Song for Freedom
Country: Greece
Originally recommended on SFTW edition 127
Damn! If only the second half of this album could sustain the brilliance of the first. Still, two impressive, forward-thinking progressive metal albums from this Greek band is a good start (Read my review of 2014's Orvam: Song For Home). I feel the next one could be a classic. And I will finally catch them live at ProgPower Europe in October.
Damn! If only the second half of this album could sustain the brilliance of the first. Still, two impressive, forward-thinking progressive metal albums from this Greek band is a good start (Read my review of 2014's Orvam: Song For Home). I feel the next one could be a classic. And I will finally catch them live at ProgPower Europe in October.
=27. Amarok - Hunt
Take the dark tones and melancholy that are the staples of Polish prog and mix them with a carefully blended selection of post-progressive rock, ambient, electronica and straight rock. Amarok is essentially a solo project from multi-instrumentalist Michał Wojtas, his fourth under this banner, but the first over 13 years. Michał provides excellent lead vocals, though Mariusz Duda of Riverside and Colin Bass of Camel guest on two tracks. Hunt is a superbly executed slab of music that is a treat for those, like me, who appreciate great songwriting, set within mesmerising moods and grooves. I think you need to hear this album.
One of the best modern heavy prog albums of the year. The Second Hand is Anubis' fourth studio record and easily their best yet. It marks a return to the narrative-driven concept album format, charting the downfall of an ageing media mogul, who, after a severe brain injury is left paralysed and imprisoned in his own body and left to contemplate the futility of his life of corporate excess. A timely, modern day prog parable indeed.
If you wanna have an album to shout about from the rooftops, that very few of your friends will have even heard of, then check out this debut full length from this wonderful, youthful quintet from Spain. In a similar way to Haken (and to a lesser extent the Barock Project) this is a band able to take influences from jazz, metal, djent, prog, electronica and pop and blend it into a coherent sound of their own. It's highly original. The band are clearly exemplary musicians and the singer is from the top drawer. And it's all sung in Spanish, probably the most beautiful language for music. Remember where you read about Noah Histeria first!
According to my list of favourite albums from 2015, Karma Sown, this band's debut offering, was "one of the best classic-style, melodic prog metal albums you will hear this, or any other year". I am waiting for my copy of this new offering to arrive, but from several listens to their Bandcamp page, it seems that they are now encompassing a wider range of more modern styles, whilst retaining a welcome focus on great melodies and high energy playing.
Every so often an album comes along that catches you unaware. In not being what I expected, it came with no expectations. The second album from this Greek band is simply a great creation of modern progressive music. It will appeal to anyone who likes the idea of electronica, mixed with a post rock soundtrack that takes a refreshing twist on two genres that are in danger of becoming stale. I'm really glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone to discover this album.
=27. Anubis - The Second Hand
Country: Australia
Originally recommended on SFTW edition 141
Originally recommended on SFTW edition 141
One of the best modern heavy prog albums of the year. The Second Hand is Anubis' fourth studio record and easily their best yet. It marks a return to the narrative-driven concept album format, charting the downfall of an ageing media mogul, who, after a severe brain injury is left paralysed and imprisoned in his own body and left to contemplate the futility of his life of corporate excess. A timely, modern day prog parable indeed.
26. Noah Histeria - Hautefaye
If you wanna have an album to shout about from the rooftops, that very few of your friends will have even heard of, then check out this debut full length from this wonderful, youthful quintet from Spain. In a similar way to Haken (and to a lesser extent the Barock Project) this is a band able to take influences from jazz, metal, djent, prog, electronica and pop and blend it into a coherent sound of their own. It's highly original. The band are clearly exemplary musicians and the singer is from the top drawer. And it's all sung in Spanish, probably the most beautiful language for music. Remember where you read about Noah Histeria first!
25. Leprous - Malina
Fact: Bilateral is an all time prog metal classic. Since then, I have enjoyed, rather than loved the output of this Norwegian combo. However one can but admire the way they are blazing the way for modern progressive metal (especially through their amazing live shows). This album again switches cleverly between the intense and the introspective; the major and the minor, with many more hits than misses.24. Iris Divine - The Static & The Noise
According to my list of favourite albums from 2015, Karma Sown, this band's debut offering, was "one of the best classic-style, melodic prog metal albums you will hear this, or any other year". I am waiting for my copy of this new offering to arrive, but from several listens to their Bandcamp page, it seems that they are now encompassing a wider range of more modern styles, whilst retaining a welcome focus on great melodies and high energy playing.
23. Fragile Vastness - Perception
A return of a much missed friend. Formed 17 years ago, after an innocuous debut album (Eclipse) this Greek band created one of my all-time favourite prog-metal albums, the double concept offering A Tribute To Life, back in 2006 (read my gushing review for DPRP here). Then silence. Eleven years later and the male singer and guitarist have left, to be replaced by a female singer and TWO guitarists. It is very different from their last album but for those who enjoy female fronted heavy prog, this is rather good.22. L'Anima - Departures
L'Anima is the brainchild of London-based musician Pedro J. Caparros Lopez, best known for his work with Breed 77, the Gibraltar-based outfit who ply a fusion of alt metal and flamenco. This band started out as a collaboration between Pedro and Andy Mitchell, who is currently lead singer of The Yardbirds. The result is a debut album that spurts between the sounds of heavy prog and melodic progressive metal. Whilst sounding like neither, the style sits somewhere between Haken and Ark, with occasional brushes of both the more accessible, and the more avant garde moments, of Leprous. The first three tracks are pretty perfect slices of adventurous, heavy prog. The rest of the album suffers from too many random departures, but this is a very promising debut.
21. Playgrounded - In Time With Gravity
Every so often an album comes along that catches you unaware. In not being what I expected, it came with no expectations. The second album from this Greek band is simply a great creation of modern progressive music. It will appeal to anyone who likes the idea of electronica, mixed with a post rock soundtrack that takes a refreshing twist on two genres that are in danger of becoming stale. I'm really glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone to discover this album.