There’s been a few releases that I haven’t reviewed but do deserve to be brought to your attention. The first is the second album by Our Oceans, “While Time Disappears.” The band were known as Exivous, an all instrumental prog metal outfit. They remade themselves into a melodic vocal driven modern prog band. Their self titled album was a favorite of mine. I mentioned at the time that it would be interesting if they were to merge the styles.
Mainman Tymon Kruidenier replied to me with a grin. It turns out Our Oceans were about to evolve, and “While Time Disappears” takes the melody of the bands first album with the tension and metallic sheen of Exivous. While the album is different, it does still sound like the same band if not just a wee bit more aggressive. Yes the Cynic connection still comes thru in the music and if you liked either of the band’s previous work, this might be the best of both worlds.
Remember Navigator? They were a duo from North Carolina that I pushed a lot when they released their amazing EP “Ghostwood.” Yes I thought they were done but it turns out they are also reborn. Navigator is now called Hyco. Why? Try Googling the name “Navigator.” So yes Hyco is more unique. With that the band have a new EP called “Leylines.”
It’s fair to say if, like me, you loved “Ghostwood” you will love this EP. Frontman Nick Marcone can still SING and the band write catchy songs with thick riffs. But it’s not just the TesseracT meets Porcupine Tree vibe that they were (and still are) known for. The closing track “Long Goodbye to Heaven” shows a folky side to them! Who knew? And it proves that Hyco can do many things. If they wanted to take over the world, they could!
Finally on a completely unrelated note, Soilwork have released an EP that culls their recent trilogy of singles under the “Feverish” concept and adds two new songs. The EP is called “A Whisp Of The Atlantic” which is also one of the new songs. And WHAT A SONG! Soilwork have created a 16 and 1/2 minute prog metal epic to prove they could. And wow, what took them so long?
Part of this has to be the proggyness of their side project The Night Flight Orchestra. Not to say that “A Whisp Of The Atlantic” sounds like that but it does make use of melody and just going way over the top. The previous singles are all top notch but the title track is makes this EP worth it by itself. It does make me wonder what Soilwork will do next.
