Neo-progressive rock! Progressive blackened death metal! Indie rock by a group of progressives! The Flower Kings! Hath! Superchunk! The Super Kings! Flowerchunk! Superhath! The Chunk Kings! This is dumb. I hate intros.

The Flower Kings – By Royal Decree
(March 4, 2022)

Neo-progressive rock sure has its devotees, and god bless ’em. Scour the Prog Archives user-submitted reviews for any album within the last 50 years and you’ll find endless 3- to 5-star ratings. Even the most mediocre trash gets high praise from boomers who can barely string seven words together. Nobody ever has anything more substantial to say other than “this is so complex, it’s very good, I love how complex this good album is. A point off for this part here that’s not as complex as the other parts.”

And Roine Stolt, the visionary behind the Flower Kings project, is a master at catering to the average, seasoned neo-prog fan. I’ve spoken before on Stolt’s inability to edit his work. As predictable as the goddamned sunrise, here’s another 90-minute double-CD slab of Peter Gabriel worship. It’s the 15th album by the Flower Kings; it’s just like the one that came before it, and is, assuredly, just like the one that will come after it. If you’re into that, you’ll love this album. It’s overlong and whimsical and corny as shit, rife with sappy lyrics and musically saccharine yacht rock sensibilities.

That in of itself isn’t even the problem. I don’t mind that crap in small doses; some of this album is fantastic indeed. But you could literally trim fifty fucking minutes off this thing. The problem is that I can’t shake the image in my head of Roine Stolt driving to the prog rock landfill and scooping up piles of prog rock compost into the back of a pickup truck. He’s in and out in less than a day, hauling off whatever he can carry, and using it all fast enough to drive out there again to resupply. How can the music possibly not feel tepid and disposable?

And look at that cover art. Disgusting.

Early Verdict:

Hath – All That Was Promised
(March 4, 2022)

Hath, huh? I Hath not heard of this band before! Progressive blackened death metal with Dante’s Inferno-style Slayer cover art? OK, I’m game. Take some cover art notes, Flower Kings.

When I think of progressive blackened death metal I think of Slugdge, who was in turn inspired by Akercocke, and both of these bands are fucking fantastic. It’s a high bar to compete against. The slippery slope with adding progressive elements to an extreme metal genre is undercutting the heaviness with cheesiness. Whether intentional or not, it’s not a good look, but a lot of these pitfalls are avoided on All That Was Promised. The soaring clean guitar solo of “Kenosis”, for example, doesn’t dilute the ferociousness.

Also, notably, Hath incorporates all the twists and turns of progressive metal song structure without any of the jarring about-faces you’d get from bands who aim to constantly show off their technical prowess. “Iosis” is the standout in this respect, making the most of six minutes with lots of seamless dynamic shifts, tempo changes, clean tremolo riffs, and quiet-to-loud tension-busting transitions. On top of everything else, I really like these vocals. Kind of this hollow, airy, hoarse growl. Not chunky, not screamy, it works well.

This is definitely one to continue absorbing, but I can see this one only getting better over time.

Early Verdict:

Superchunk – Wild Loneliness
(February 25, 2022)

Oh man, you guys, another Superchunk album! One of the most consistent and lasting indie bands in existence shows no signs of stopping with their twelfth studio effort!

♪ What ♫♬ a time ♬♪ to be ♩♪♩♫ alive…

As it turns out, though, Wild Loneliness is a little bit different than the usual Superchunk fare. Raucous liveliness is replaced with thoughtful introspective reflection and even-tempered middle-agedness. The melodies are rich with lush arrangements, incorporating some rather pleasant wind solos in a few cases, such as the lounge jazz trumpet in “Highly Suspect”, or the smooth experimental (oxymoron?) jazz sax solo in the title track. It’s all still upbeat, but in a very restrained way. Like the band is vacationing in the Sunset Strip. The guitar isn’t as forward this time around; it hangs in back and lets Mac McCaughan’s vocals carry much of the heavy lifting.

It’s all fine and respectable, but I’m lukewarm overall about this. These tempos and lyrics make it sound like McCaughan’s whining, and his voice is already kind of childishly whiny. “I’m not ready for an endless summer, no/I’m not ready for an endless summer“. “Hey, I’m clumsy and I’m sad/Can’t even find the grip I used to have“. I don’t know, it doesn’t land for me without the usual vitriol.

Maybe I, too, need to go through my own phase of thoughtful introspective reflection and even-tempered middle-agedness! Until then, I’ve still got enough fuel in me to burn my flame of sarcasm and contempt for years to come.

Early Verdict: