Welcome to Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week, Six brand new and diverse slices of progressive music for you to enjoy.
Congratulations to UK melodic prog trio Exploring Birdsong, whose wonderful new single The Collapse toped last week's vote, with Big Big Train's Love Is The Light a credible secind and Dave McLean's cover of Kaliedoscope's Faintly Blowing a solod third.
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 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.
EINAR SOLBERG - RED
Leprous singer Einar Solberg, recently voted Best Vocalist in the Prog 2023 Readers' Poll, has just released a reworking of the band's 2015 album The Congregation, for just voice and piano, as The Congregation Acoustic through InsideOut Music, from which comes this emotive reading of Red. The new album was recorded at a special live streamed performance as he reinterpreted the album with just just piano and voice.
"I'm both super excited but also kind of terrified for me to release this live version of The Congregation," says Solberg. "It's raw and unedited and exactly how I did it on my livestream. Usually all musicians these days (myself included) are used to fixIng stuff in post-production, but on this one we've done nothing! I think it's cool sometimes to dare to show a more fragile and less "perfect" side of yourself. "The Congregation" is probably the least suitable album we've ever done to make an acoustic version of, but I think it turned out surprisingly OK!"
RELIQA - TERMINAL
Young Australian prog metallers Reliqa have just announced that they've signed with the Nuclear Blast label, home to Threshold, Enslaved, Green Lung and more, for all territories outside of Australia, where the band have signed to Greyscale Records. And the Sydney quartet have celebrated with the release of a brand new single, Terminal, a vibrantly catchy slice of modern prog rock with elements of djent and metalcore as well.
"Terminal feels like the perfect re-introduction of Reliqa to the world," explains vocalist Monique Pym. "It's vibrant, high-shine and optimistic, yet with a moody, introspective cloud hanging over it that foreshadows all that's still to come. We're beyond thrilled to be back, especially now with the support of our new families at Nuclear Blast and Greyscale."
VOIVOD - REBEL ROBOT
Canadian prog metal legends Voivod have shared an energetic live video of their track Rebel Robot which was filmed at last year's Wacken Festival in Germany. The track was originally featured on the band's self-titled 2003 album, which also featured former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. Neswted again hooked up with the band to record a new version of the song,, which Voivod featured on last years Morgöth Tales album which celebrated the band's 40th anniversary.
"Here’s another amazing souvenir from Wacken 2023," enthuses drummer Michel 'Away' Langevin. "Rebel Robot from the Jason Newsted years. It was great to have Jasonic on bass for the Morgöth Tales LP version. We also had the pleasure of having him jumping on stage with us in Florida last year."
NORTH SEA ECHOES - EMPTY
Fates Warning duo Jim Matheos and Ray Alder have taken a very different path to that band with their new project North Sea Echoes. Their new album Really Good Terrible Things is released today through the Metal Blade and offers a mellower and cerebral yet no less progressive sound. Empty, the third and final simgle from the album, is probably the heaviest track on offer from the pair.
“I think this one is pretty dark," says Alder of Empty.
"We both still love making music and we really enjoy working together," adds Matheos. "There’s a good amount of chemistry there, I think. We both know what to expect from each other."
BARRUS - GHOST
Barrus is the alias of Polish guitarist and music producer, Rafał Lipka., previously co-founder of the thrash metal band Eyewash. There's nothing thrash about his sound as Barrus however, which is writ all over his debut album DPDR, featuring six instrumental tracks, including Ghost, which span the genres of art, atmospheric and progressive rock.
"This is a song about passing, more precisely, about the passing of our loved ones," Lipka explains. "It narrates the moment of irrational denial of the fact that this person will never return. The lyrics for this piece were written a few days after the death of someone very close to me. When I recorded the initial draft of the song, I began searching through my notes for a fitting lyrics and came across Wilk (The Wolf). The lyrics ultimately harmonized with the instrumental, capturing the atmosphere of fear in the face of freshly experienced grief."
VICINITY - DISTANCE
Norwegian prog rockers Vicinity will release their latest album, VIII, through Uprising Records on March 8. Distance is the secnd single toi be shared from the upcomingn album. VIII is the first Vicinity album from the band to feature new vocalist Erling Malm (Articulus, Endolith), who replaced previous singer Alexander K. Lykke back in 2022.
"A direct, riff-based track, with a verse almost leaning into synthwave," the band explain of Distance. "The lyrical theme dwells on some of the darker tendencies of the human psyche. The song leans both into traditional prog metal bands like Threshold, as well as newer acts like Haken."
