Tag Archives: prog rock

Friday Morning Metal – Mutoid Man – Call of the Void

Coming straight out of Brooklyn, it’s Mutoid Man with Call of the Void. According to the internet, they’re either stoner metal, sludge metal, or math rock. They seem kind of proggy with their music so maybe there’s that too. Who knew a band that got started in Brooklyn in 2012 would be quasi hipster in their genre stylings! Their themes are humanities, sociopolitical, and personal. Personal what, I don’t know, but Enclyclopaedia Metallum had those in the listing.

The song kicks off with a very dissonant guitar melody. It almost sounds like the guitar is going through too many effects pedals, but once the song gets going, it fits in really well. It kind of reminds me of Muse or similar bands. The drums are pretty frenetic and badass, keeping the song moving at a good clip. The vocals are clean, reminding me of some of the like At the Drive In kind of era bands. At the three minute mark we get a solid solo, which is good. He’s playing on a flying v, I’m pretty sure they take away your flying v if you don’t have at least one solo per song.

The video starts out with a weird presenter at the mutant mission introducing the band. They look like a creepy Charles Entertainment Cheese band. As the song progresses, they get more and more melty, and start to move less like robots. Before long they turn into static and get eaten by what appears to be a giant “We have Ed at home.” It’s a fun premise, also they’re good at being robots. Maybe they went to college for performing arts or were breakdancers in their youth.

Friday Morning Metal – Alter Bridge – What Lies Within

Turns out this band is 3/4 of Creed. I heard a thing where they formed the band they didn’t realize it was going to be god rock and they got disappointed, so I guess this is their attempt to be a solid prog rock/metal act. And they’re pretty solid. Turns out the singer also sings in Slash’s band, he’s got solid pipes.

The song kicks off like an early 2000s borderline nu-metal or I guess 21st century American Metal vibe, kinda industrial but once the song gets going it sounds like pretty by the numbers prog rock. They do sing about their open eyes, but not open arms. The pivot from chuggy but kinda slower verses to a pre-chorus breakdown, to an aggressive chorus is interesting. Not necessarily the thrash and speed metal stuff I normally post, but I do dig it. The vocals at certain points sound like the song could fit into a rock opera well. And then there’s a proper soaring and noodly guitar solo to really lock it in.

The video is a samurai looking person fighting off a zombie horde. Or maybe a viking? Regardless, it does have a Dethklok kind of vibe to all the brutality, and you can’t go wrong with being brütal. I’m not sure if it’s a stylistic choice or it’s AI, but there’s something in the way the animation moves that makes me think it might be AI. I hope it’s not. It’s bad enough they’re making fake bands to stuff into Spøtify, they don’t need to crap everything else up with AI.

Friday Morning Metal – Transit Method – Set Me Free

Austin prog rock! I had not heard of Transit Method before, but Spotify thought I’d dig it, and I do! The song is a cover of a Sweet song which turned 50 this year. You know Sweet, they wrote and recorded Ballroom Blitz so that, years later, Crucial Taunt could cover it and get their big record deal. Also the Beastie Boys could use a line from it in Hey Ladies.

The video is a recording studio shoot, but it’s a pretty cool looking room. They also do some split screen stuff so you can see some dueling squeadlies and meadlies. The guitarist on the Les Paul looks a little nervous at the start but gets into it after the solo which is nice. Also the vocals are nice and crunchy with some great falsetto harmonizing.

It’s rad a 50 year old song can shred this much, you think it’d be like… on a restricted diet and trying to exercise regularly or something.

And for good measure, here’s Sweet’s version!