• Patrick Saad’s Top Release of July 2011

  • World Under Blood – Tactical

Recommended: I Can’t Stand His Name and Dead and Still In Pain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9vdviZAMGI

A strong Nuclear Blast debut by World Under Blood (USA), Tactical showcases Tim Yeung (Vital Remains, Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal) on drums with technical musicianship that rivals the genre’s best bands. There are also a couple of fun covers as well, Megadeth’s ‘Wake Up Dead’ and Malevolent Creation’s ‘Alliance or War’.

For fans of: Melodic Death Metal.

  • Rami Rouhana’s Top Release of July 2011

  • Karmakanic – In A Perfect World

Recommended: Can’t Take It With You and Bite the Grit.

Karmakanic is a progressive Rock / Metal group founded in Malmö, Sweden in 2002 by bassist and keyboardist Jonas Reingold. Their music is marked by sharp dynamic contrasts, sudden full stops, complex timing, abstract lyrics and long periods of instrumentation. Karmakanic are similar sounding and often compared to classical progressive and symphonic rock bands including Yes, Genesis, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but also combine this sound (albeit more gently) with the synthesizers and distortion more common of modern progressive rock and metal bands such as Ayreon, Dream Theater, Symphony X and The Flower Kings. (Wikipedia.org)

Where would Prog Music be without ‘Inside Out Records’?

Don’t be fooled by the poppy intro, the music is complex and will keep surprising you with heavy music parts, with genius bass lines and melodic piano. This album already gathered a large number of great reviews, and is recommended to any prog music fan and any ‘true’ music lover.

For fans of: Neal Morse, Flower Kings and Transatlantic.

  • Kareem Chehayeb’s Top Release of July 2011

  • Chthonic – Takasago Army

Recommended: Takao and Legacy of The Seediq.

This Taiwanese band has been taking the Metal scene by storm, sealing it with a signature on Spinefarm Records. The band refers to their music as a fusion of Symphonic Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal, and some folk. After listening to them though, I’m sure quite a few progressive fans will enjoy them too. Any Metal fan should give this band a chance. The interesting song structures, technicality and creativity show that this band can expand metal’s horizons…with an Erhu!

For fans of: It’s hard to point out bands in specific, but I can imagine any open-minded Metal listener can enjoy this unique extreme Metal act.