Here's some tips in the heavier end of progmetal and some thrash
Anciients - Beyond the Reach of the Sun
What to long term fans meant a return after an 8 year silence, to me meant a new discovery. This year the list of bands mixing progmetal with extremer sorts of metal resulted already in several beauties (Eternal Storm, Sgaile & The Moor, with Opeth still coming and Blood Incantation somewhere in the mail). Anciients is with Beyond the Reach of the Sun giving me another album that should end really high on my end of year list. This album is a near perfect mix of heavier progmetal, with some grunts to spice matters up. Starting on a high with Forbidden Sanctuary Anciients manage to never drop the level until In the Absence of Wisdom closes the album. Anyone into this kind of progmetal simply should get the album. And Progpower should seriously consider putting them on the line-up of the 25th edition.
Category 7 - Category 7
When this band was announced I was already jumping of joy. John Bush lending his voice to a band with Thrash royalty can only result in something good. The advance clips released only confirmed these hopes. So the only disappointment to me was that the album was not easy to get for me. This is strange as the album is released on Metal Blade. Anyway when I got the album finally I quickly found that this is for anyone with an interest in thrash, but also Heavy Metal fans should love this. I am suspect as John Bush can do no wrong to me when singing. But the songs and the playing of all is of similar high level. So what we basically get is an uptempo Armored Saint. Love this album to bits and read that next year they start touring. Netherlands please when I am around.
Piah Mater - Under the Shadow of a Foreign Sun
Next year I am planning to spend some 4-5 months under the shadow of a foreign sun. In my case a Brazilian sun. Piah Mater are from Brasil and even better Rio de Janeiro. So if they do play live, chances are I am watching with an ice cold chopp in hand. After Maestrick and Papangu recently showed that Brazil has lots on offer in metal, Piah Mater fall in a category not miles away from Anciients. Major difference is that they go wider in blending of styles. So the music goes from ProgDeath to almost MPB in closing track Canicula. Luckily the majority is progdeath and I can always push stop, when not feeling like some MPB. Piah Mater are a duo with hired guns on bass and drums. I do hope they play live too, but their FB page does not even have an events tag. For now the CD does just fine for me.
Solitary - Embrace the Darkness
My friends from Solitary releasing their fifth full lenght with Embrace the Darkness. This album brings us ten songs and lasts just over 33 minutes. Solitary always keeps their albums between the 30-40 minute mark, which is best when the music is this intense. On their previous two albums a longer song (by their standards) would reduce the speed a bit with Anthem of Regret and Hommage to the Broken. Usually I loved these songs more than the band themselves. Maybe I just need more time to catch a breath at my age. So this time there is no space for slow(ish) and heavy. Still the album flies by and several songs should go down fine live in Musicon, where I hope to see them again in 2025. No anthem for me to request this time, but Settle Scores the Old Way should be a bloody party live.
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