NoSpun - Opus

[EmptyThoughts]

I can't believe this album hasn't been mentioned here. IMO, the best and most unexpected album I've heard this year. This is Haken, Devin Townsend & Dream Theater all in one. Amazing album... I'll let you all decide for yourselves.

https://nospun.bandcamp.com

[Hearing Aid Man]

WOW! This sounds right up my alley.

[RickyRock]

Quickly picked this one up on iTunes. This is a real ass kicker. Heavy, powerful, tight as a gnats butt and just Outstanding. Thank you for the heads up on this one.

[Mardoch]

Visiting Todd and he threw this in for me and I bought it inside of 10 minutes. Shades of Dream Theater, Kansas, Universe Effects, Haken. I'm shocked this hasn't had more enthusiasm!

[introclaus]

I was actually recommended this over the weekend from a friend back in Denmark who asked for my opinion on these guys since they are from my home state of North Carolina.

It’s a good album just way too long (71 minutes) and very little originality (not necessarily a bad thing)…

I hear Dream Theater, Circus Maximus, Haken (in the guitars), a bit of Andromeda or even A.C.T in its more playful moments, and that’s about it. Don’t really hear any Devin (thankfully) but to each their own.

Grumpy ol’ Larry should like this

[LarryD]

I was actually recommended this over the weekend from a friend back in Denmark who asked for my opinion on these guys since they are from my home state of North Carolina.

It’s a good album just way too long (71 minutes) and very little originality (not necessarily a bad thing)…

I hear Dream Theater, Circus Maximus, Haken (in the guitars), a bit of Andromeda or even A.C.T in its more playful moments, and that’s about it. Don’t really hear any Devin (thankfully) but to each their own.

Grumpy ol’ Larry should like this

****Yep .... getting this and the new Voyager.

[Mardoch]

Now slated to open Day 2 of PPUSA next year. That should be good.

[outprogged42]

I greatly enjoyed this record. I agree on the slight lack of originality, but the influences being drawn upon are a little different than the modern prog school is using all the time. Haken, BTBAM, and Queen pop to mind, and I do also hear the Devin Townsend in both clean and gruffer vocals, with a little bit of the zaniness of Native Construct, but a lot of reviewers have also mentioned an Avenged Sevenfold influence from their more recent, prog-influenced works. The production is absolutely spotless, the fluidity of the songwriting is a major standout, and the concept is a little obscure but allows for plenty of fourth-wall moments (it's about an obsessed virtuoso composer who lets his music get away from him - perfect for a Prog band!)

[introclaus]

I just listened to it again and it gets boring and bland way too quickly for such a long album. Perhaps this style of prog just doesn’t do it for me anymore … who knows …

[Mardoch]

I just listened to it again and it gets boring and bland way too quickly for such a long album. Perhaps this style of prog just doesn’t do it for me anymore … who knows …

I gotta say I'm having the total opposite reaction. I find it really hard to latch onto most things that have that classic progpower feel nowadays, but this still feels fresh and invigorating after a bunch of spins. The vocal performance in particular is really excellent for me.

[introclaus]

I just listened to it again and it gets boring and bland way too quickly for such a long album. Perhaps this style of prog just doesn’t do it for me anymore … who knows …

I gotta say I'm having the total opposite reaction. I find it really hard to latch onto most things that have that classic progpower feel nowadays, but this still feels fresh and invigorating after a bunch of spins. The vocal performance in particular is really excellent for me.

lol - my ex wife was texting me earlier about loving this album as well. Like I told her, y’all are wrong

Okay, not horrible and I’m having it on my year end list, but it has a tendency to get boring. Album is way too long. Vocalist is okay (not as bad as the Haken singer) but he is the weak link in my opinion.

[Mardoch]

...it has a tendency to get boring. Album is way too long. Vocalist is okay (not as bad as the Haken singer) but he is the weak link in my opinion.

Given how often as our preferences coincide I find every one of these dramatic differences very funny.

[introclaus]

...it has a tendency to get boring. Album is way too long. Vocalist is okay (not as bad as the Haken singer) but he is the weak link in my opinion.

Given how often as our preferences coincide I find every one of these dramatic differences very funny.

lol- I mean, he isn’t bad, just the weakest link here. The other musicians are pretty darn top tier.

Unfortunately there’s more to an album than just great performances - the songwriting has to be there as well, and I think they made a mistake by insisting on a 70+ minute long debut.

[Hearing Aid Man]

Excited to see this available on cd finally. Kinda a bummer to have spent $10 on a download on top of it though. It was so good I couldn't have waited though.

[LarryD]

Excited to see this available on cd finally. Kinda a bummer to have spent $10 on a download on top of it though. It was so good I couldn't have waited though.

***** Me too - where is the CD available ? Bandcamp ?

[Hearing Aid Man]

***** Me too - where is the CD available ?

Ken

[LarryD]

***** Me too - where is the CD available ?

Ken

****Got it - thanks !!!!!

[LarryD]

Ok folks - just got this in compliments of The Lasers Edge ...... and on CD, it takes on a whole new meaning. Absolutely fantastic ........ this did not make it onto my Top 10 list because I did not have the CD, but if I had, this would be on it.

Hearing this on CD - full bore on the main system instead of on a computer with good speakers, or on a USB thumb drive plugged into my bluray player ....... this is a fabulous disc. If you are like me, missing the Haken of old, from the beginning, this is it ...... absolutely first rate, top quality musicianship, and great vocals .... the melodies are there and to die for ...... it is almost like this band listened to all of the Haken discs - and took the best from each of them, and put it down here on CD.

Hearing like this on the main system is almost like hearing this for the first time - hearing things I didn't hear before, and if any of you out there have not heard this, and are looking for that prog metal disc that just comes out of nowhere and blows you away, then this is it ...... don't let it pass.

Without going back and looking through lists - I'd have to vote for this band as Best New Prog Metal Band for 2023 ........

And they are from Charlotte !!!!!!!!! Right up the road from me ................. Class = A+.

Note for Claus - don't look at the length of the disc - get out your good bourbon, and crank this sum bitch .........and come back here with the results. Again.

[introclaus]

Without going back and looking through lists - I'd have to vote for this band as Best New Prog Metal Band for 2023 ........

Note for Claus - don't look at the length of the disc - get out your good bourbon, and crank this sum bitch .........and come back here with the results. Again.

Best new prog metal band 2023: The Anchoret

Even with good bourbon in hand the NoSpun album bores me to sleep, sorry.

[LarryD]

Without going back and looking through lists - I'd have to vote for this band as Best New Prog Metal Band for 2023 ........

Note for Claus - don't look at the length of the disc - get out your good bourbon, and crank this sum bitch .........and come back here with the results. Again.

Best new prog metal band 2023: The Anchoret

Even with good bourbon in hand the NoSpun album bores me to sleep, sorry.

***I'm going to hit up The Anchoret one more time today - but I had already done it when you first posted on them some time ago ...... I thought at the time it was too modern for me, but that was some time ago .....

I can only guess that you are getting away from traditional prog metal - I do notice that the genre has been putting you to sleep lately ...... then again, bands in the Kamelot / Stratovarius style have not sit well with me over the past years, so I do think it is a tolerance of a certain style that we lost as the years go by .....

What I do find interesting is that you like the two Haken discs I don't like .... my favs are the first two, and my guess it that those are the traditional prog ones you don't care for as the ones you like are more modern and suited to your taste better ?

[introclaus]

I can only guess that you are getting away from traditional prog metal - I do notice that the genre has been putting you to sleep lately ...... then again, bands in the Kamelot / Stratovarius style have not sit well with me over the past years, so I do think it is a tolerance of a certain style that we lost as the years go by .....

What I do find interesting is that you like the two Haken discs I don't like .... my favs are the first two, and my guess it that those are the traditional prog ones you don't care for as the ones you like are more modern and suited to your taste better ?

Agree to disagree ...

To me Haken and NoSpun are both examples of "modern prog metal" - it's not like Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Queensryche.

I still like plenty of the traditional prog metal sound; in fact, Ice Age, Eldritch, Oblivion Protocol, Horizon's End and Ricochet made it onto my list of 2023.

I'll give you that I listen to a DIFFERENT kind of modern progressive metal (not "modern prog metal") that you don't care for at all ... stuff that's pulling in a lot of non-traditional influences (often from extreme metal areas). But that, to me at least, doesn't include the Haken, NoSpun, Caligula's Horse, Leprous, Soen, etc. style of "modern prog metal".