Welcome to Prog's Tracks Of The Week. Six new and diverse slices progressive music for you to enjoy.
The premise for Tracks Of The Week is simple - we've collated a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you - makes it so much easier than having to dip in and out of various individual posts, doesn't it?
The idea is to watch the videos (or listen if it's a stream), enjoy (or not) and also to vote for your favourite in the voting form at the bottom of this post. Couldn't be easier could it?
We'll be bringing you Tracks Of The Week, as the title implies, each week. Next week we'll update you with this week's winner, and present a host of new prog music for you to enjoy.
If you're a band and you want to be featured in Prog's Tracks Of The Week, send your video (as a YouTube link) or track embed, band photo and biog to us here.
So get watching. And get voting at the bottom of the page.
Monastery - Devil's Call
There's an eerie disquiet and underlying menace to Monastery's slow-building Devil's Call - think a mix of a grittier Roaslie Cunningham and Canadian occult proggers Blood Ceremony pehaps. The quartet hail from Coventry and are Liv Gardner on guitar and vocals, Josh Sellis on lead guitar, Kyle Smith on drums, and Lewis Guest on bass.
"Devil’s Call is the beginning of Monastery’s second EP (launch date TBA), which is more conceptual in nature and lyrically explores concepts of death and afterlife, and musically delves even deeper into the art of defying genres," the band reveal.
Black Orchid Empire - Scarlet Haze
Scarlet Haze is the latest single from genre-defying UK trio Black Orchid Empire, who's new album Tempus Veritas, out now via Season of Mist. With its mixture of complex musicianship and huge sing-a-long chorus it's easy to see the band's universal appeal.
"Lyrically this song is written from the point of view of the first human in space - Yuri Gagarin," explains guitarist/vocalist Paul Visser. "In his final moments aboard the test flight on which he would ultimately lose his life, he contemplates the stars above him - realising he will never reach them again."
Teramaze - These Crystal Walls
Prolific Australian prog metallers Teramaze need little introduction to Prog readers. The band's latest single, These Crystal Walls, is taken from their latest album, Dalla Volta which is released through Wells Music on April 27 and will be the band's fifth studio release in a four-year span!
"These Crystal Walls started off as a song idea i had that probably would have been for my old band Meshiaak, but instead i gave the music to Nathan to throw down the first vocal idea he could think of and he came up with a killer chorus and verse idea, so we worked it into what i think is one of the most catchy Teramaze songs to date."
Phaeton - Between Two Worlds
Hailing from Columbia, Canada's Phaeton are an interplanetary instrumental heavy prog metal quartet and as their name suggests, they are fascinated with astronomy, and the idea of life itself, in all its beauty and wonder and majesty, emerging from an instant of catastrophic cosmic violence. The epic Between Two Worlds is the title track of the band's latest album.
"Between Two Worlds was a major step up for us in Phaeton, which is a big thing to say, as we were already extremely proud of what we accomplished on our debut album," the band say. "As a prog-metal band that's strictly instrumental, we need to be sharp and clever to grab people's ears when there's nobody singing, and the melody lines of the twin guitars are what draw the listener's focus and take them on an emotional journey."
Robeone - Hollow
Robeone is know to his parents as Robert Schindler and Hollow is his new (and first) music video, which shows him at work, playing this Keith Emerson-inspired concerto on most of his 15 keyboards! Known as the patron saint of the Bob Moog Foundation, Robeone's new album Dream Suite is available only through the Moog Foundation’s website.
"I thought of film scores, especially Keith Emerson’s work on Nighthawks and his work as well as Hans Zimmer’s in Inferno," he says.
Immaterial Possession - Medieval Jig
There's all manner of quirky and folky goings on in the new video for Athens, Georgia quartet Immaterial Possession aptly titled Medieval Jig, the brand new single from the band's second album Mercy Of The Crane Folk released on May 5 on Fire Records. The band are former artist commune residents Cooper Holmes and Madeline Polites, with drummer John Spiegel and Elephant 6 descendant Kiran Fernandes (keyboards, clarinets, flutes).
"You hear that echoey guitar similar to Ennio Morricone soundtracks, there are words but there are also Yma Sumac-like operatics pricking at your psyche. It’s one of those great happenings that you almost feel like you dreamt; melodies tumble into the undergrowth, that keyboard sound is straight from Richard Wright circa Saucerful Of Secrets, that folky ambience is a glimpse of what you always thought The Incredible String Band could sound like but with a driving, haunting edge," say the band's label.
