Coheed and Cambria - Vaxis Act III: The Father of Make Believe (2025)

Coheed and Cambria's music is hard to define. Prog rock, pop sensibilities, post hardcore, emo leanings... it depends on the song, it depends on the album. But one thing is for sure, they know how to be brave and create music that is layered, complex, and emotive. 

The Father of Make Believe is the third act in the Vaxis arc and what a great album this is. It sounds fresh, re-energised and a perfect blend of old and new Coheed and Cambria. Undoubtedly, one of their best.

The Gentle Storm - The Diary (2015)

 

Arjen Lucassen has done it again. This is a very complex and utterly beautiful album. The album offers the same set of songs in ‘gentle’ form (acoustic) and ‘storm’ (rock/metal). Anneke’s lyrics are highly emotive and her voice shines through every song fully using her range and textures here and once again demonstrating she’s one incredible vocalist.

The Diary is a complex album that requires a few listens to fully appreciate but what a great achievement this album is. Outstanding!

Nocturna - Lucidity (2015)

 

Nocturna have finally released Lucidity, their debut EP. Listen to it and buy it through their BandCamp page. Excellent power/prog metal with some symphonic elements. A perfect blend of European and American influences.

An outstanding release that I hope brings them success. They surely deserve it. 

See the video below for a taste of it or visit their BandCamp page here

Triosphere - The Heart of the Matter (2014)

 

What an excellent album this is! It absolutely rocks all the way through. A perfect blend of power with some prog elements and attitude with an incredibly versatile female vocalist. In fact she’s blown my mind. She can sing aggressive with a true heavy metal sound, but she can also croon and sound delicate and feminine when the song requires it.

A truly amazing album!

Angra - Secret Garden (2014)

 

The last few months of last year were ridiculously busy and I’m starting to catch up with some releases that I didn’t have time for back then. Secret Garden by Angra has been a very welcome surprise.

This is a great album, possibly Angra at their best (though I have a very soft spot for Holy Land). A very solid album. The band sounds tight. The prog and tribal elements add a lot to their power metal style.

It’s also worth mentioning that Fabio Lione is here at his best and Simone’s (Epica) song is also excellent. But, the duet between Doro and guitarist Bittencourt is the highlight. 

Pythia - Shadows of a Broken Past (2014)

 

Excellent release by Pythia. Symphonic metal, with some faster power metal and progressive metal elements here and there.

Soen - Tellurian (2014)

Tellurian by Soen is an excellent prog-metal album. Comparisons to Tool will be inevitable, but Soen carve out their own style and the album is filled with powerful songs.

Rating: Heavy Rotation

While Heaven Wept - Suspended at Aphelion ( 2014)

Suspended at Aphelion is an outstanding epic album that takes you on a big journey. The songs follow each other smoothly and the album is best enjoyed as a whole. 

While Heaven Wept has managed to create an album with layers upon layers of greatness. An album that is subtle, complex and bold.

Rating: Heavy Rotation 

The Pineapple Thief - Magnolia (2014)

Magnolia is The Pineapple Thief's tenth album and the first one in a long career to move to a more concise straight rock (though still containing progressive elements).

The album presents a good mix of moody alternative rock with an occasional metal edge and gentle, soothing melodies that evoke great emotion and beauty. Nevertheless, the album is at its best in the more rock oriented tracks.

Overall, this is a bold step away from their more expansive progressive sound and into more straight rock territory. Magnolia is a great rock album with beautiful melodies.

Highlights: Simple as That, Alone at Sea, Coming Home, The One You Left to Die, Sense of Fear.

Rating: Good Vibrations

Opeth - Pale Communion (2014)

Opeth's Pale Communion is an outstanding album. This is progressive rock of the highest order with a perfect mix of progressive rock, 70s style and a little dose of folk. 

The album follows the style of Heritage and Damnation. It's clear right from the start that Mikael Akerfleldt has placed emphasis on melody and the album is filled with beautiful, poignant and memorable moments. 

Highlights: the last two songs of the album, Voice of Treason and Faith in Others.

Rating: Heavy Rotation

Vanishing Point - Distant is the Sun (2014)

Originating from Melbourne, Australia, Vanishing Point are now a veteran band with this their fifth release and, after a long hiatus, they're back with Distant is the Sun, an excellent album that builds on their past sound and expands it to fuller, more epic music. Vanishing Point have always stood out to me as a band that right from the start sounded unique, like no other. They've evolved across albums, expanded their sound while staying true to themselves and Distant is the Sun is the next assured step in their discography.

The album opens with an intro that leads into King of Empty Promises, a song that mixes perfectly their classic mixture of melodic metal, with a little dose of power metal and progressive flourishes. It's obvious from the very start that the band has made an effort to incorporate a fuller orchestral sound with great arrangements that add texture to the songs, making this the most epic sounding Vanishing Point album to date.

The guitar work, as it should be expected from VP, is top notch. The guitar solos are perfectly measured and the progressive flourishes always keep the songs interesting. Silvio Massaro's vocals sounds as solid as ever, with a great mix of powerful high vocals, heightened by a good use of harmonies and a good deal of emotion in his voice.

I can't really say which songs stand out as every single one of them speaks to me in different ways, but at the moment, I would highlight the opener King of Empty Promises, the fast and hard hitting Circle of Fire (with guest vocals by Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica), the incredibly infectious When Truth Lies, the more expansive and classic VP sounding Pillars of Sand and the powerful Walls of Silence.

Vanishing Point's greatest achievement, to me, is that the band always sounds fresh, melodic, easy, catchy, but it's at the same time creative, full of twists and unafraid to take risks. Overall, Distant is the Sun is an outstanding album for fans of melodic, progressive and power metal. The songs are fresh and catchy but at the same time display enormous complexity and depth. It's too early to say this will be the metal album of the year for me but (though I would love to be surprised) it will be very hard to top this one.

Rating: Heavy Rotation

Fates Warning - Darkness in a Different Light

Fates Warning is a band that's been around for lots of years. They've released great albums in the past and, thankfully, after a long silence they've released Darkness in a Different Light, demonstrating again that they're an excellent progressive metal.

The best thing in the album is that every song is memorable. The riffs are dark and heavy but perfectly balanced with clean melodic guitar lines. Acoustic guitars are used wisely. Also, Fates Warning manages to create progressive metal that is concise and to the point. Even the fourteen minute closing track feels like it has been well trimmed. 

The album opens with One Thousand Fires, hands down one of the highlights of an incredibly solid album. Other, personal, highlights include Into the Black and the epic Yet It Moves. But every song here is excellent.

I can't say that it's their best album. I don't want to get into that kind of argument but I'll certainly say that this is my favourite Fates Warning album by a mile. An outstanding metal album that I can't get enough of.

Rating: Heavy Rotation

Dream Theater - Dream Theater (2013)

Dream Theater are making a statement with the new album. This is a new beginning. After Mike Portnoy's departure, this is their second album with guitarist John Petrucci as a producer and the band are keen to demonstrate they're moving forward.

Overall the songs are more mid-tempo and melodic. No songs really stand out (though The Enemy Inside - see the video below - has some great riffs), in that sense the album is really cohesive and flows well. I should note the last song in the album though, a twenty minute plus song that is absolutely beautiful and stunning.

The musicianship is top notch as you would expect from the band and it's great to see that new drummer Mangini has really settled well into the band. He sounds great. Petrucci's production is flawless, the sound is clean and it's really well mastered with every instrument clear in the mix.

Overall, this is an incredibly solid album in an already outstanding discography. 

Rating: Heavy Rotation

DGM - Momentum (2013)

What do you do when the original members, from who the name of the band is drawn, leave? The answer is clear, you keep momentum going and deliver a killer album. DGM have done just that.

The album is relentless, effortless and flawless. The songs are complex and demonstrate great musicianship. At the same time, they are concise and straight forward (at least in prog terms). 

An excellent effort by the band that is easily likeable from the very first listen and grows every time you listen to it again. 

Rating: Heavy Rotation

Alpine Fault - Iraena's Ashes (2011)

Originating from New Zealand but now based in Brisbane, Australia, Alpine Fault mixes symphonic metal and progressive metal elements effortlessly to great effect. 

Featuring, a mix of female and male vocals and a violin, Iraena's Ashes is imbued with darkness and melancholy. The songs are complex in structure and follow mostly the prog-metal template, but the addition of the violin (instead of keyboards) gives Alpine Fault a distinctive sound. 

The album is uneven but it contains some excellent songs. My particular favourites are the longest track in the album Above the Storm and the instrumental The Watcher Beneath; as well as the two singles - see the videos below.

Since the release of the album the female vocalist has left the band, so it will be interesting to see what happens with the band as most of the songs in this album use both vocalists. Perhaps, the newly released video for "Mourning Has Broken" gives us a clue?

I look forward to see what their second release brings.

Rating: Good Vibrations

Dante - November Red (2013)

This is the first Dante album I listen to and now I'm forced to find their previous two albums. Originating from Germany, Dante's music is progressive metal, with a heavy foundation and a little tinge of gothic melancholia here and there.

The songs are long and epic and hauntingly beautiful, listen to the album's opening track below to feel the full epic awesomeness of this band.

Rating: Heavy Rotation