Vederkast is an unsigned band out of Tromso, Norway, and like many young bands around, they are clearly influenced by a wide range of progressive rock, while largely based on heavy/stoner rock. All that means that “Northern Gothic” is heavy on guitar tone with soaring vocals and epic songwriting. It’s the type of music that typically either works or doesn’t with little room for error.

Interestingly, Vederkast finds itself in neither camp. “Northern Gothic” is a perfect album, but it also offers up a template for future success. Album opener “Skirmish” is one of the heavier tracks on the album, with a great on-top-of-lungs chorus. “My Burden” is a slow burner that feels too slow burning but reveals itself through an underlying melody. “Leave Them Behind” and “Forget Me Not” are solid doses of stoner rock energy.

Overall, Vederkast feels like they developed their identity fully. There are shades of many different styles traced in their music, and that makes “Northern Gothic” a very pleasant surprise. As it is, the group is still in the growing phase, but “Northern Gothic” is a sign that the band is one to watch.

“Northern Gothic” is available from Bandcamp. Vederkast is on Facebook.

Formed by multi-instrumentalist and composer Jeff Carter in 2012, Darkening’s goal was to deliver an atmospheric death metal package with elements borrowed from black, death and progressive metal. Fast-forward to 2015, and Carter delivers that package through the debut album called “Augür.”

This debut release is a strong statement of intent for what is hopefully going to be the first of many releases over the coming years. Opener “Departure” is a powerful and dark track, laden with a thick and palpable atmosphere throughout. It has a very clean, modern atmospheric doom sound to it.

“Stare at the Faceless Sun” begins with a short ambient intro, but it doesn’t take so long until the cannonade of riffs accompanied with a melodic outburst of vocals and acoustic guitars kicks in. Imagine early Opeth with a much more polished production, and you’ll have a rough idea of how the heavier portions of this track sound. “Whispers in the Trees” is built upon a cold, eerie sounding riff that wouldn’t sound out of place in many Black Metal anthems. The rest of a track moves forward rapidly, which really helps bring these riffs and the drums to life in many regards. Although I wish that drums would be more creative. This is quite easily the second best track on here, and could very well stand as the cornerstone of their repertoire in years to come. The best track is the “Etched Within”; this is the point where this album reaches its true climax, with confident, well played guitar parts, primal drumming and a real showcase of Carter’s vocal talents, not to mention the technical prowess on both guitars and bass. Once we reach the song which ends this release, “Imminence”, your appetite for great tunes has already been satisfied. And this song definitely is another one that is positively brimming with great music and talent, and is a great way to wind down “Augür.”

If you heard this album without any knowledge of the man that wrote and performed it, you’d be forgiven for believing that this is a band that has been going for a while. The musical image of this band is already fully formed. As far as debut releases go, this is a great one. Hopefully the ones that follow it will surpass the lofty standards that this album has set.

Get “Augür” from Bandcamp.

Like stylistic siblings The Mercury Tree and the Kayo Dot, Portland-based power trio Bangbakc assault listeners’ ears with highly energetic and sporadic bursts of brilliant dynamics. Colorful, complex, and superbly catchy, the band’s debut album, 2014’s “echocomplexities,” was an exceptional collection of hyperactive post-rock and noisy flights of fancy, with momentous musicianship infectious hooks scattered throughout. Arriving a year later, the group’s sophomore effort, “Lot Lizards,” offers a substantially different approach. Although it’s not as hypnotically accessible as “echocomplexities,” this new album is far more adventurous, imaginative, and surprising. In fact, it’s the most fearless and unique album I’ve heard this year.

The eleven minute “The Theme to Lot Lizards” kickstarts “Lot Lizards” like an auditory coma. Though I cannot tell with assurance who sings where on the album as all of the members are listed as vocalists, vocalist on the album opener roars with a sharp attitude whilst interjecting soulful harmonies. Meanwhile, the music jolts with a start/stop frenzy that’s too tremendous to ignore. The singer (no. 1) provides an impassioned melody for each wildly creative rhythmic shift, which vary between hectic, tranquil, and atmospheric. Best of all, this song proves to be one of the most inventive and unforeseen tracks I’ve heard all year.

The psyched-out guitar work is seductive, and the instrumentation on “Lot Lizards” veers more towards psychedelic swing than anything progressive. It bleeds into the equally exciting “Season 1: Things Feel Good Yeah” and its follow-up “Season 2: Scenes From My Tea Shop,” making for completely unexpected stylistic shifts. The latter in particular is like an outtake from a King Crimson record.

Further on, “Commercial Break: Smokin’ Joe’s Crab Attack” lives up to the zany awesomeness of its title. It’s luscious, multifarious, and wholly confident—especially considering it features the accordion, performed by Dave Willey.

The binary titled “010100010” is perhaps the most experimental piece on the album, and definitely one of the biggest highlights of “Lot Lizards.” “Echocomplexities Part II” features The Mercury Tree’s Ben Spees on keyboards and synths, and is a mathematically elegant piece with soaring vocals and tasteful melody.

“Lot Lizards” is so inimitable. Rarely have I been so impressed with the sheer nonconformity of an album. The again, it’s equally rare to find a modern band who strives so hard to set itself apart from the pack. Without a doubt, this one is special.

“Lot Lizards” is available from Bandcamp. You can follow Bangbakc on Facebook here.

Lanes Laire has been active as a solo artists for years, and as his short biography on the Facebook suggests, he has been involved with various bands around USA. “Resurrection of Black” is surprisingly Lanes’ debut release, and it’s placed deep into the amotspheric, melodic side of progressive rock with influences from the ‘70s, the ‘80s and some contemporary ones. He adds plethora experimental, pop-rock, and ambient elements to his music. He will surely bring some of the big progressive rock bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s on your mind that is not a bad thing at all.

One can feel that Lanes Laire plays it safe, and that in the end his music is not “forward thinking” or “progressive.” But that’s because Laire is an apt craftsman, and he knows how well to make a song sounds catchy, but still complex enough. There are tons of great moments on the album that contribute to the final outcome, which brings nostalgia and innovation together. This prog rock music is easy to digest, but hard to predict.

The musicianship is very strong and the production is warm. “Resurrection of Black” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it is more than a decent album. There is a lot to explore here, and it’s waiting for you.

Sound Struggle are a wondrously talented band. Their 2014 self-titled album was one of the gems of the year. The pressure to create something equally incredible, or to even come close, would hurt many bands but much like their music, Sound Struggle are calm, collected, precise yet a titanic force to be reckoned with.

“Rise” follows a similar vein to its predecessor and whilst it can appear to be a smooth and methodical affair, it is not without its barbaric complexities and penchant for brutality.

‘Strongth’ followed by ‘The Disease’ show this songwriting proficiency; the former is a  precise rhythmical piece, before the latter demonstrates the subtleties of the album momentarily until it opens wide into the surging, manic and violent rhythmic adventures and soaring majestic vocals.

“Rise” is as good as its predecessor, and it certainly possesses the quality to overtake the debut. “Sound Struggle” was on another plane that any follow-up by any band would struggle (pun intended). “Rise” is definitely one of the best things you’ll listen to this year. They reach a perfect middle ground with this release that fans of djent, metal, progressive rock and fans of music in general can appreciate.

Sound Struggle can create marvellous melodies, and soundscapes that can be listened to is one continuous passage of play. Time will tell where this album will land, but it is still far more exceptional than what many musicians can muster.

Get “Rise” from Bandcamp.

“Fields of God” by ZAYN is huge, superbly brilliant, and an absolute joy to listen to, though it may sound as a very dark release. Combining post-metal with a progressive rock vibe, psychedelia and tons of other elements, Zayn’s new album is a masterclass in the creation of music and throughout its playtime, it will encapsulate the listener and give them an extraordinary piece of music, even though this is an instrumental album.

“14,1” is the album opener, and it starts the chain which never really ceases. Clever ambient patterns trace the way for the rest of the material presented on “Fields of God,” which is accompanied with plethora of heavy riffs in a doom metal way, and shrieking guitar solos that are right between psychedelic and space rock, on steroids. Take “Ungodless” for example.

“Vicarivs Filii Dei (Animal Rituals)” and the title song are among the gems of this album, perfectly crafted in every sense with fan(t)astic swirling patterns and spiralling drumwork. These tunes invoke more than just appreciation for music, and talent, but unearth attitudes that few songs can manifest.

“Fields of God” is incredible, it’s only detraction is that it isn’t longer. But, considering that the band is already working on a new material, this is great while in transit.

Purchase “Fields of God” here, stay tuned for more ZAYN news on Facebook and via their official website.

Orion Tango is the pet of guitarist Tim Motzer, bassist Barry Meehan and drummer Jeremy Carlstedt: “a team of premier musicians who’ve played together in various settings in the past, but never in this trio configuration before.” The trio has just put out a self-titled debut album via Philadelphia-based Motzer-owned label 1k Recordings.

I guess Orion Tango started as a kind of improvised jazz trio but with enough rock elements and energy to give them entry to that camp too. The other labels like avant rock, krautrock, psychedelic and prog rock old and new have been added. It’s closer to the truth that the group has defined a genre on their own through the music. Anyhow, “Orion Tango” is still instrumental improvised music. Sometimes so brutal that the headaches threaten, dominated by impressive energetic drums and bass, glowing guitar parts and electronics. But the trio also knows when to calm down, relax and create beautiful lyrical soundscapes. As far as I can hear, this cannot be all improvisation; at least there has to be some planning in advance when to calm down or heat up things. Most of time the band is somewhere in between; seldom really melodic and never pure noise. The album comes as a limited edition CD of 100, and is also available as digital download, bringing five tracks—two of them around the 9 minutes mark, one around 17 minutes, and two more around 5 and 8 minutes.

I am particularly fascinated by the tracks where the calmer parts and Motzer’s guitar dominate more than usual. The opening track “Find Your Happy Place” starts alarmingly melodic with rhythm section passage to Motzer’s layered guitarwork with hints towards King Crimson. “SuperGun” brings heavy hitting by Carlstedt accompanied by underlying bass and ambient guitar that add up to the overall fuzziness. There are so many other moods and sounds involved here. For instance, the 17-odd minutes “Gravity Knife” is a match to a symphony that constantly changes pace and moods. The Meehan-Carlstedt interplay sets the foundation for everything else that’s going on, and that is Motzer’s continuous exploring of vast and unknown of sound. He is indeed on a look for the right tones, and without doubt he succeeds in reaching and putting them right where they belong.

“Orion Tango” is an album that sneaks from behind; it’s melodic and noisy, but most importantly it’s an album where the band doesn’t loose any of its edge. A very fascinating record that asks for time, and time is something we definitely don’t lack of.

“Orion Tango” is available now from the 1k Recordings’ Bandcamp store. Follow the band on Facebook here.

Guillaume Cazenave is a musician from Bordeaux in France, and he recently put out his debut album titled “AM.” In an interview for Progarchy, Guillaume speaks about the album’s creative process, his view on the modern prog scene, and more.

Hey Guillaume. How are you doing?

Good, thank you. A bit tired tonight. The news in France have been quite terrible lately and it’s hard to stay focus on a daily routine, it’s a bit stressful. But I feel good enough to answer to your questions.

You released “AM” recently. How do you feel about the release?

I feel relieved and anxious. It’s a very peculiar feeling to share a project that took so long to create, and for which I have been the only “architect” most of the time. Relieved because it’s time to move on, but anxious because now I start telling myself that maybe I could have done better… But luckily, I am very satisfied by the way “AM” has been received so far. Most of the reviews notice its originality and it motivates me to produce as soon as possible “NZ”, the second half of the project. Moreover, having reviews enables me to cut the cord with this first part which was, as I said earlier, long and intense. But the relief is bigger than the anxiety. ☺

How much of a challenge was it to work on the album?

The production of this album has been a serial of challenges: the preparation, the writing, the recording, the mixing, the artwork…. It has been quite difficult to deal with all of that, because of a constraining concept. I’ve been quite ambitious when I started it, and it has been some hard work to follow through, especially because “NZ”, the second part of the project is going to be crazier than AM. At the end, I think the bigger challenge was to keep on going with the idea to write the lyrics of the song with the concept I chose. It took me 4 years and I have to confess I doubted many times. But now AM is finished, I can’t question it anymore. So the challenge with NZ will be to offer new things with the same concept.

How is the progressive rock/metal scene in Bordeaux these days?

I don’t think that Bordeaux is particularly a progressive rock city. I said “I think” because I don’t really know about the musical scene in Bordeaux, so I could be wrong. I went a few times to the festival “Crescendo” which has been taking place next to Bordeaux for quite some time, and which has welcomed some high profile bands. There is as well some good associations including one called Eclipse that makes a lot for the prog rock around here. Otherwise I discovered the band Seven Eyed Crow lately and I found them quite impressive. I haven’t listened to their album yet but I will because what I heard from them was very good.

What is your opinion about the new wave of progressive bands?

I have mixed feelings about it. Some bands are really interesting, but it seems to me that the big majority of bands nowadays try to sound like some other big bands we know.

The technical level is impressive, the production is usually very good, but I don’t know, I feel like not a lot of them take risks. Some of them do it though, like Leprous, which albums are exemplary. I remember liking two albums by Indukti but I don’t know what they’re doing at the moment. I’m interested by Shaolin Death Squad music, even if they stay close to their obvious influences, which put them at the edge of the so called progressive music.

I love Twelve Foot Ninja and Jolly. Both Audio guides to happiness are amazing. I thought that the album of Circle of Illusions was really well done. Haken is quite remarkable too. In France, the band 6:33 is terrific. I find the Djent movement quite boring even if the intentions seem good. Moreover the actual representatives of the strictly prog rock or progressive metal movements tend to get a bit tired. Steven Wilson keeps on doing Steven Wilson (his album hand.cannot.erase seems to have been made in autopilot), Riverside is getting more and more conventional (although Duda is doing some amazing music with Lunatic Soul), Dream Theater sounds used to the bone, Flowers Kings keep on looking backwards, Anathema seem like they found a good balance but give the impression that they’re satisfied about it, etc.… I think that some more interesting bands are not well mediatised. I’m more interested in bands like Screaming Headless Torsos. It is more related to fusion music but they take more risks.

Can you tell me something about your influences?

They are numerous and varied. But the main ones are Devin Townsend, Mike Patton, and Pink Floyd. I’ll add King Crimson and Magma as well. A journalist, (Luca Biela from Clair&Obscur) evoked Frank Zappa when he reviewed AM. I never thought of Zappa as one of my main influences but I actually think it’s quite accurate. Especially because I listened to Joe’s Garage again and again through the years. However I think I’m more influenced by the artistic approach they have to composing music than by their actual music.

What are you listening these days?

I listen to my Shazam playlist on Spotify, with some weird things and some pop songs. I’m thinking in particular of the song “unstoppable” by Dianne LaHavas. So beautiful. My son listens to Cars soundtrack, so I do too! ☺

Your five favourite records of all time?

I can give you 3 without hesitating: Devin Townsend’s Infinity, Pink Floyd’s Dark side of the moon, and Mr Bungle by Mr Bungle. I think those albums gather innovation, emotion, technique, and are perfectly constructed. After that, well, I would probably say a Robert Wyatt’s, Rock Bottom maybe, and a King Crimson’s (Discipline or Red?!) I consider that Sunsets on Empire by Fish is close to be a masterpiece, if it wasn’t for the song “Change of heart”, which is a bit under the rest of the album I think.

Can you tell me a little bit more about the gear you used to record “AM”?

I recorded most of the album on Cubase. I’ve been using this software for the past 20 years… and all the different versions were very effective. I used the Korg Triton for the main keyboards, and I linked it with some plugins from Native Instruments, Komplete more specifically. I used my good old Gibson Les Paul and an Ibanez Sabre S2020X with Piezzo Microphones for the guitars. I played a Takamine for the acoustic parts. Then, for the guitars effects, I mixed hardware and software. Lexicon’s Mpxg2, or Guitar Rig and amplitube. But I’ll try to renew all that for “NZ”.

Besides the release of the album, are there any other plans for the future?

Yes. My priority is “NZ” which is the following of “AM”. I will produce as well another album that will be called “One Sweet Hand”, which should be easier and quieter. I would like to compose it with my brother Rémy who is very talented. But I think he’s doing his own projects at the moment so we’ll see. I might try to plan a unique concert that will gather AM and NZ, but only in a year or two, something very festive.

Any words for the potential new fans?

First of all, thank you for reading the whole interview. I am a bit talkative, but I hope you will feel like giving a try and listen to my album “AM”. The album as well is quite talkative, in a good way I hope. ☺

Visit The Odd Gallant’s official website, and buy “AM” from the webstore.

Orymus from Bern in Switzerland released their sophomore studio album in March this year. Bassist Simon Binggeli answered our questions about the band, the new album, and more.

What is the meaning of the band’s name?

The bandname „Orymus“ doesn’t refer to anything. We thought that Orymus sounds quite unique, goes directly in the ears and stays there, just like the sound of the band. 😉 Another benefit is for sure, that the name / the band is easy to find on google and on the internet in general.

How did Orymus take its shape?

Five schoolfriends were jammin‘ out in a muffy basement ten years ago. Sounds like a soap opera, but it’s the true story of the beginning of Orymus. The band lineup actually did not have any change since that day.

How would you describe the sound of your new album “Miracles”?

The album Miracles is like an adventure. It takes you through good old rock music, mixed with progressive, heavy and calm elements. A good adventure contains surprising moments which you won’t believe at first sight. This is what Miracles is all about. We’re playing with contrasts, feelings and transmit many different atmospheres to the listener.

Comparing the two albums you released so far, are there any big changes between the two periods in which these records were created?

To be honest, we didn’t had much time to think about big changes. The first album received very good critics, so all the bandmates immediately pushed on continuing, producing another great album and going back on stage. Worth mentioning definitely is that we changed the studio and the producer for the second album. This time, we worked with the great Yann Rouiller (NAZARETH, CORE 22). This guy was able to put a lot of his personal experience into the record. He did an awesome job!

What are you talking about in your lyrics?

The lyrics often care about possession and loss in life. We try to bring to the listener what he is also affected by. MIRACLES follows a detailed concept and tells stories about the end of the world and it’s new beginnings.

Orymus pays tribute to the ‘70s hard rock rather than being a contemporary rock act. Does it have to do something with your personal tastes?

For sure. Favourite bands of mine such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep also inspired the other ORYMUS members to play the „real, old rock music“. Also our parents influenced us in childhood by listening to old vinyl stuff.

But let us clarify one thing: Not all the modern rock bands are bad.

In your opinion what are the drawbacks and benefits of modern-day technology and Internet when it comes to bands?

Unquestioning, the biggest benefit is that you can reach the whole music world with only one click. No matter where your band is based in, people all around the world can listen to your songs, download or order them on CD/Vinyl. The possibility, how you can advertise new songs and albums on the internet is brilliant.

Unfortunately, a lot of people forget how hard the bands work for these outputs, so they download or stream the songs for free. Among other few reasons, the rock music business is in constant danger.

What is the last concert you attended?

The glamorous hitmachine „the Sweet“!!! Awesome party.

What do you think future holds for Orymus?

World domination! We receive great feedback on our current MIRACLES-tour (through Switzerland) and this stimulates us to soon go back to the band’s room and write up some completely new stuff. I think especially in these times of low-quality music the people are hungry for some fresh sound!

Any words for people who are new to Orymus and your music?

Open up your mind and take the adventure! I don’t want to say that it’s completely new what you will hear – because simply everything has been done already – but it will be refreshing for your ears and give you a good 1h20m of fun (you’ll replay the CD, trust me!).

“Miracles” is available from Bandcamp as a name-your-price download. You can follow the band on Facebook here.