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Our Top 10 Progressive-Metal Discoveries On Bandcamp
This year, our blog is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Ever since our very first edition, the idea has been a simple one: to introduce you to new albums by some of the best up-and-coming progressive artists from around the world.
So far we have brought you over 260 editions. We have featured more than 1600 great albums. And we have reached almost one million readers.
To mark this milestone we have created three special editions. Each will be looking back on some of our favourite discoveries from the past ten years.
This second edition covers ten albums that can be loosely categorised under the 'progressive metal' banner. You can read the first edition, covering progressive-rock, here. The final edition will cover 'Heavy-Prog & Psyche'.
Every album is available on Bandcamp. So it's nice and easy for you to listen and buy direct from the artists. Happy listening.
UMPFEL - As the Waters Cover the Sea
This is a truly-captivating mammoth of a progressive album from beginning to end. Classical, metallic, jazz, pop, funk, soul, prog, experimental, mathcore, harsh and clean vocals; all combined into a unique and absorbing listen.
My DPRP colleague Raimond highlighted their debut album, Cactus, way back in SFTW edition 46. In the same way as Leprous did with Bilateral, with their second album, Umpfel established theselves as a band to watch.
JUDICATOR - Let There Be Nothing
Formed back in 2012, the fifth album from this US Prog-Power-Metal combo is a seamless welding of Iron Maiden’s more progressive twin-guitar song-writing and the prog-power melodies of Battalions-era Blind Guardian. The layered vocals add a sense of Iced Earth. This addictive concept disc became one of my top 3 albums of 2020.
PREINCARNATION - Incarnation
This German outfit is one of those bands that seem able to go in all sorts of different directions; and sound perfectly at home in each.The singer is one of the best I have heard for a while and shows amazing versatility, being equally at home with the hard rock, metal, blues or modern prog styles utilised across this album. Some tracks are pretty straight blues-rock or melodic hard rock, whilst others showcase the band's more progressive inspirations. An excellent debut album to be devoured by those who enjoy a varied mix of melodic rock styles.
13 CIRCLES - Embryonic
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Sometimes a band's promise never gets the chance to blossom into a proper career. Such was the case with this hyper talented band out of Perth, Australia.On the strength of my colleague, Guille Palladino's recommendation way back in Edition 91, I went straight onto their Bandcamp page and nabbed myself a copy of their debut EP.It is a compelling mix between progressive and alternative rock, that brings to mind fellow countrymen Karnivool and Cog plus international names like Muse.Sadly the band split-up a year after this came out. However the EP is still available on their Bandcamp page, giving the world the chance to see what tallent was sadly wasted.
BEING - Anthropocene
This was one of my first prog-metal recommendations way back in edition 11.For a long time this album sat in the top rankings under "progressive" music on Bandcamp. Anthropocene mixes djenty riffs with a fluid mixture of more traditional Prog-Metal stylings, poppy vocals and lush swathes of electronic atmospheres. Think Periphery and Tesseract heading for a spacey Fair to Midland. Despite a few growls, it's an engagingly modern twist of up-tempo, heavy stuff and slower melodic parts.Hints of a follow-up album have long been hinted at, but so far this is Being's only offering. If you need any further recommendation, it made my list of the Top 100 albums of the last decade.
SHUMAUN - Shumaun
It's now been 21 years since I first began writing for DPRP. One of the advantages of this lengthy sojourn is that I've been able to follow certain bands from their very beginnings, covering all of their releases. One such band is this American prog-metal combo.This was my first encounter, and this self-titled debut was highlighted as one of my fave albums from 2015. I have just reviewed their excelent fourth album for DPRP. You can read about it here.
ALL THEM WITCHES - Sleeping Through The War
This American band was described by my colleague Roger Trenwith back in edition 131 as playing "psychedelic stoner skiffle".
He added: "Imagine The Damned jamming with Can, kicking up dust in a fake desert scene, set up on a vacant lot in Nashville, of all places. Marvellously tight-but-loose, this is the sort of thing that has me a-skippin' through the house, limbs flailing frantically, knocking picture frames askew as I go, not a care in the wide world."
ALTESIA - Paragon Circus
Hailing from Bordeaux, this quintet delivered a very confident debut that combines some clear Opeth and Haken influences with eclectic instrumentation (sax, organ, violin and limited growls), metallic riffing and some straight-out retro/psychaedelic jazz-prog-rock jams.
They have a distinctly unique and accesssibly complex sound that is a clever blend of prog rock and prog metal, where the guitars and keyboards both feature prominently. Great singer too.The band has continued to build its reputation with a second album, Embryo, coming out in 2021 and a series of live dates across Europe.
MARATON - Meta
This band from Oslo had been building a lot of interest through the steady release of singles. Then in Edition 198 we highlighted this impressive debut album.Simple, catchy hooks and a high vocal built upon flowing synths and buzzing guitar, give a sense of Muse. I'm also often reminded of the much-missed Fair To Midland, and the jolting riffage and vocals of Leprous. The songs are busy, but accessible. The energy is infectious!A second album, Unseen Colour, came out two years ago along with a great set at the Progpower Europe Festival.
KING BATHMAT - Gravity Field
To finish, we are going way way back to week 14 when this album was a recommendation by my colleague André de Boer. KingBathmat are a powerful psych-prog-alt-rock band, hailing from Hastings in England, led by singer/songwriter John Bassett.
This was the fifth of eight albums they released up to 2017. Shifting between a gamut of genres, Gravity Field was once described as "Black Sabbath cuddled by extravagant ELO harmonies". Sounds about right to me.
