PolSky‘s Domesticating Foxes has a restless alternative pop character, balancing chiming guitars, a steady rhythmic drive and a slightly melancholic atmosphere. The song carries a distinctly British feel, but rather than leaning too heavily into nostalgia, it uses that familiar sound to create something sharper and more reflective. There is a tension between the melodic surface and the subject matter, with the music sounding bright enough to pull things forward while the lyrics look at a changing social landscape and the disappearance of something once promised as cultural progress. The arrangement keeps a good sense of movement, letting the guitars and vocal melody work together without becoming overly dramatic. It is catchy, but there is enough bite underneath to make the song linger beyond its immediate hooks. Domesticating Foxes turns social unease into an accessible, guitar driven listen.
We’re back with a brand new Tracks Of The Week! This week we’ve got another seven new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
Hearty congratulations to French duo Ølyp, whose Molden won last week’s Tracks Of The Week! Considering their debut album I(m)MORTAL isn’t even out until November 2, that’s pretty good going! They beat Lonely Robot into second place, and US prog rockers Quivira were third.
The premise is simple – we’ve listened to a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you – it 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 (please, don’t forget the photo!) and biog with quotes to us here.
STEVEN WILSON – REQUIEM FOR A VILLAGE
Steven Wilson surprised everyone last week when he announced a swift follow-up to last year’s The Overview album. With that album, he gazed out into the vastness of space. With Requiem For A Village, he turns that on its head, centring on insular village life, with lashings of mystery, sinister vibes and eerie folk horror inspiration, and with narration by David Tennant. It’s out on November 6.
“I wanted to get back to a kind of music where you can hear the metaphorical thumbprints,” Wilson explains. “Doubling down on the human gestures and flaws in the music, stuff that can’t be created using software. For example, using only analogue synths with all their unpredictability, or not having instruments perfectly in tune. But it also led to me picking up the violin, the oboe, or trying my hand on the drums – playing things I don’t really know how to play but getting something out of them that inspired me in ways I didn’t expect. Approaching the music with a sense of innocence and seeing where it took me. And where it took me was to the village.”
THE PINEAPPLE THIEF – GOD KNOWS
Yeovil’s The Pineapple Thief continue their campaign building up to the release of their next album, Far And Wide, with the dynamic new single, God Knows. The band recently announced a UK and European headline tour for 2027.
“The reckoning. Lying there, with my infinite stare. Through the shadows. I guess it’s autobiographical. We all have regrets. I certainly do. I’ve made mistakes, did people wrong. The (metaphorical) god knows. And those ghosts are coming out…” Bruce Soord comments.
KALANDRA – LOST IN THE DARK
Moody Norwegian proggers Kalandra continue to make the most beautifully beguiling of music. The vibrant Lost In The Dark is the second single to be taken from upcoming album The Other Side, released through By Norse on November 13. There’s a seductive melody on offer here, but always aligned with the hint of something a little bit deeper and mysterious, as befits an album inspired by vivid and recurring dreams.
“Timelines change, and life inevitably takes us down different paths, but the friendship—and the deep love for music that reaches the soul—has always remained,” the band say. “We are therefore incredibly honoured to bring Lost In The Dark back to the surface and give this song a new life. The song is about self-discovery, and the sometimes relentless search for who we are and where we belong. Yet the journey can be paradoxical: in searching so deeply for ourselves, we can sometimes end up feeling more lost than found.”
SOMETIME IN FEBRUARY – NIGHTFLIGHT
US instrumental prog metal trio Sometime In February have shared a video for a brand new single, Nightlight. The band have been on the road in the US recently and are now looking towards working on the follow-up to last year’s Where Mountains Hide album.
“Nightlight was written in a headspace similar to our 2024 single Hiding Place,”says guitarist Tristan Auman. “While in the trenches of writing our next record, we wanted to stretch our legs and write something free from the bounds of a bigger picture, and lean into styles that we may only dip our toes into. For this single, it was early-2010s era progressive metal/djent, something we appreciate but usually avoid when writing. In true SIF fashion, it also includes fun and upbeat highs, melodramatic lows, and singable hooks that might make you forget we’re an instrumental band.”
THE OCEAN – MILK OF MY DREAMS
German collective The Ocean’s new-look line-up continues to make music that is increasingly prog-friendly, and for the pulsating electronic prog of Milk Of My Dreams they’ve enlisted none other than Tangerine Dream’s current main man Thorsten Quaeschning, whithe band first metwhile tracking drums at Berlin’s legendary Hansa Studios, where David Bowie recorded “Heroes.” and later spent a week at Quaeschning’s studio in Berlin-Rudow, working not only on Milk of My Dreams but on the electronic dimension of the album as a whole.
“Working with Thorsten has been an incredibly inspiring experience, and with all of us being huge Tangerine Dream fans, a great honour of course,” the band say. “His knowledge of electronic music, synthesisers and sound design is extraordinary, and at the same time he’s an immensely talented and curious musician. His studio feels like a synthesiser museum – everything is connected, switched on and ready to play. What’s particularly remarkable is his ability to take a sound you can only describe in words and translate it almost instantly into something you can actually hear.”
JOHN HOLDEN – MOHAWK RIVER
John Holden will release his seventh studio album, Thresholds, on October 2. The brand-new album features guest appearances from Sally Minnear, Peter Jones from Tiger Moth Tales, Sertari from Karnataka and, on the first single, Mohawk River, a stonkingly good showing from our good friend That Joe Payne!
‘It is one of those pieces that arrived almost fully formed,” Holden says of Mohawk River. “It carries a sense of tension existing between two worlds; the pull of someone trying to live in the present but also bound to an unreachable past.”
JONATHAN CROSSLEY, DAVID KOLLAR AND LUKAS LIGETI – THEY ARE COMING
Ambient jazz trio Jonathan Crossley, David Kollar and Lukas Ligeti have just released their latest album, Solace, through former King Crimson Chapman Stick player Trey Gunn’s 7D Media. Solace was recorded in 2024 at the University of Liverpool. Norwegian trumpet legend Arve Henriksen features in the title track, but it’s the knotty rhythms of Ligeti and the digitally enabled guitar practices of Crossley and Kollar on They Are Coming that we hear here.
“It is wholly improvised and instrumental, moving between progressive rock, experimental rock and post-rock, with digitally expanded guitars/electronics and Ligeti’s polymetric drumming at the centre of the performance,” Crossley explains
James Marriott has shared all the info about his upcoming third album, titled ‘Warning Signs’.
The news was announced onstage during last night’s (September 17) sold-out headline show at O2 Academy Brixton, with James revealing that his latest full-length album will arrive on January 15 via AWAL.
Check out footage of that very special moment below.
Serving as the follow-up to 2025’s chart-topping album ‘Don’t Tell The Dog’, it’s set to feature the shimmering grooves of recent single ‘Burn Down The Disco’ alongside ten brand-new tracks.
Here’s what James had to say about waht to expect from ‘Warning Signs’:
“This album, it’s all ‘moment-based’ for me… For a song to latch into my head, there has to be a moment where I think, ‘Oh yeah, this is amazing.’ I can pick out something in every track on the record that gives me that feeling.”
Take a look at the album’s artwork and tracklisting below.
1. Sleepwalker 2. Double Bed 3. Kiss 4. Lovestruck 5. Burn Down The Disco 6. Déjà Vu 7. Madeline 8. Come Back To Me 9. Lights Out 10. Hell 11. Five Year Plan
It’s been more than 40 years since Watchtower really ushered in the age of tech metal with their debut Energetic Disassembly, and in all those years, the techy arms race has impacted nearly every corner of heavy metal. From Dream Theater and Fates Warning to Death, Anata, and Defeated Sanity, the desire to be really great at playing one’s instruments has resulted in some of metal’s most exciting and “hey, check THIS out” moments. There’s even technical doom metal (but sadly no sign of technical sludge…).
Release date: October 2, 2026. Label: 20 Buck Spin.
Dissimulator, along with contemporaries like Miscreance and Cryptic Shift, is here to keep that tradition of tech going strong. What sets this Québécois trio apart from their peers, however, is that their death/thrash material seems built for a live setting. Even more than that, is that sophomore effort Artifice Dissolves seems just as built for pit energy as it is for the pages of Guitar World. It’s necksnapping, whiplashing mosh metal, it just happens to also be played with the clinical precision of an ace surgeon. Imagine Killing Technology and Tortured Existence having a zonked out baby with Human and Perfect Symmetry and well, you might not have a good idea of what Artifice Dissolves sounds like exactly, but you’ll start to arrive in the right mindset, at least.
It should come as no surprise that the three guys in Dissimulator excel at their craft, as they bring quite the pedigree, having also spent time in acts as varying as Atramentus, Chthe’ilist, Exxûl, and many others. Give these guys a genre, and they succeed, it seems, but there’s no sense that they’re touring styles at all. If anything, Dissimulator further proves their instrumental prowess: guitarist/vocalist Claude Leduc sounds like he was born to play exactly these types of snappy, twitchy thrash riffs and rippin’ solos; bassist Antoine Daigneault dances and pwongs all over the place; and drummer Philippe Boucher plays with extreme punch, blasting and hammering away with pure glee without missing a beat during the time-trickier passages. Add in Leduc’s gruff, dry vocal delivery (and occasional robot vocals), and you’ve got the makings of some seriously good techy violent fun.
The vocals aren’t the only thing here with a bit of a dry presentation (in a good way), as the guitars are also produced with a relatively lower gain clarity that greatly benefits the spryness of the riffs. Think of the way Satan’s guitar work comes across that much better because they aren’t overloading things with too much distortion, only for techy death/thrash instead of trad. It’s a zero goop, nowhere-to-hide approach, meaning the band really has to be super precise to succeed.
Thankfully, they succeed not only through their obvious technical abilities, but by writing a tractor trailer’s worth of seriously cool shit for the listener to enjoy. They also ensure that just about every tune runs the gamut from blasting fury to proggier diversions or “smartly ignorant” stuff. “Hungry Ghosts” might begin in sassy, groovier terrain, but still finds plenty of time for blasting material and sci-fi vocals; the title track blazes into existence but effortlessly shifts to caveman pit action and knotty prog; and “Neon Metropolis” kicks off with an almost beatdown vibe before it shifts to an FTL Voivod feel–it’s wild. More than anything else, Artifice Dissolves just exudes personality, and that can be heard in every last detail of the record. And there are a lot of details on this record.
The only downside here is that stuff does tend to run together after a while, but at a rather brisk 46 minutes, Artifice Dissolves never outwears its welcome. If anything, the quality of just about every single passage here means you’ll be constantly entertained, even if you don’t always know what song you’re on without checking the tracks.
That minorest of minor quibbles aside, Artifice Dissolves is further proof that the techier corners of metal are alive and well, and that sometimes those corners are fun for reasons that don’t make your fret hand cramp up. Dissimulator writes progressive death/thrash for folks that might not think they like progressive death/thrash, seamlessly blending a moshier mindset with classic tech metal.
Heavy metal titans U.D.O. have just confirmed the release of their new studio album, Voodoo Ranger. It will hit stores on January 8th, 2027 via Reigning Phoenix Music. The first single to be released is called “I’ll Die Trying”. Check out the video for it below. Read more…
Canadian blackened death metal cult Nuclearhammer return with a new EP of spellbinding cruelty. Out via Iron Bonehead Productions on the 25th of September.
A short introduction leads into bursting bestial chaos. The eruption of volatile drumming and maniacal riffs with those animalistic vocals that we know from the bands’ prior works remains the core of this sound. Blending dissonance, hypnotic rhythms and feverish aggression, Nuclearhammer are back with a vengeance. The band have managed to capture this really inhuman, otherworldly and yet tribal sound on this EP that perfectly suits their rampage of chaos and destruction while giving it something truly unique and terrifying that lurks in the atmosphere with ill intent. Of course the percussion is absolutely supreme with the primitive riffing chaos serpentining around the pulverising beats. Everything feels as extreme as ever with plenty of attention to conjuring a sepulchral dread.
Although short, this release flows with a natural order that allows you to fully submerge in the poisonous radiation and intoxicating decay of the record. While utterly frenzied and bewilderingly intense, there is this very human and primordial sense of trance-inducing that is quite unlike most bands of this style. Nuclearhammer are not afraid to push the boundaries of what is one of the most homogenous styles of metal and that’s probably why they have lasted so long. This trilogy of tracks offers maximum discomfort in such a refreshing way. I really like how impenetrable the mix is, you feel totally consumed by the abyssal vortex of the music and yet it forces you to listen carefully.
Nuclearhammer will always deliver something worth hearing and “Xaos 333” is no exception. A malignant and yet enchanting trinity of songs that will hypnotise and defile in equal measure with sadistic magical potency. Expect savagery, lunacy and unfiltered reverberate chaos.
Swedish heavy metal powerhouses Sabaton have revisited their 2025 anthem “Templars”, teaming up with Leigh Kakaty of US rock heavyweights Pop Evil for a brand-new take on the track. The refreshed cut is available across all digital platforms now via Better Noise Music, accompanied by a new music video (see below). The collaboration made its … Continue reading Sabaton recruit Pop Evil frontman Leigh Kakaty for revamped version of “Templars”
Holding Absence are celebrating the release of new album ‘Modern Life Is Lonely’, and its final single has a little bit of everything we love about their band.
Titled ‘Heaven’, it’s another fantastic example of how Holding Absence have grown with their latest era, whilst still retaining all the charm and pure emotion that first made the scene fall in love with them. Complete with another epic chorus that’s bound to feel utterly euphoric when it’s belted out at their live shows, it’s looking like this next chapter could be one of their brightest.
Vocalist Lucas Woodland had this to say about the latest single:
“For our fourth and final single from MLIL, we’re ecstatic to release our song ‘Heaven’! This one feels like a classic HA song, with a heart-wrenching message and an epic chorus, but of course, repackaged into our newer style. The verses lean heavily into dainty electronic styles, before we throw the mid-section back to an OG Holding Absence shoegaze breakdown. The video itself is the final instalment of our Y4 narrative, where we get to see our friend touchdown on earth and experience nature and music for the first time.”
‘Modern Life Is Lonely’ will out now via Sumerian Records.
Holding Absence will be hitting the road as support for Enter Shikari later this year alongside The Callous Daoboys.
Here are all of the dates:
NOVEMBER
03 – HAMBURG Sporthalle 04 – MUNICH Zenith 05 – LEIPZIG Haus Auensee 06 – DUSSELDORF Mitsubishi Electric Hall 07 – BERLIN Columbiahalle 10 – BRUSSELS Forest National 11 – TILBURG 013 13 – NOTTINGHAM Motorpoint Arena 14 – CARDIFF Utilita Arena 15 – HULL Connexin Live 18 – GLASGOW OVO Hydro 19 – MANCHESTER Co-op Live 20 – LONDON Alexandra Palace 21 – LONDON Alexandra Palace
