#heavy prog

[undergroundrockpress]

Atomic Rooster / Death Walks Behind You - 1970. Photo by Richard Lyon.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

""SABOTAGE" IS NOT ONLY BLACK SABBATH's BEST RECORD SINCE "PARANOID," IT MIGHT BE THEIR BEST EVER."

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on front & back cover art to an original pressing of the "Sabotage" LP, the sixth full-length album by English hard rock/heavy metal band BLACK SABBATH, from the private collection of "jaydex" (via Flickr), uploaded on March 9, 2009.

MINI-OVERVIEW: ""Sabotage" is not only BLACK SABBATH's best record since "Paranoid," it might be their best ever. Even with the usual themes of death, destruction and mental illness running throughout this album, the unleashed frenzy and raw energy they’ve returned to here comes like a breath of fresh air. “Symptom of the Universe” rambles on, an atonal riff-based crusher, then shifts for a coda of lightly paced acoustic jamming.

“Megalomania” is an inversion of that, erupting into a hard rocker with a hummable chorus before it’s slammed home in a quake of phasing and feedback. For diversion, there’s “Supertzar,” which features the English Chamber Choir chanting off an off-time splurge of guitar phrases. BLACK SABBATH loyalists will no doubt love this record and those who’ve never bothered may even want to indulge."

-- ROLLING STONES, review by Billy Altman, published on September 25, 1975

Source: www.flickr.com/photos/34150198@N03/3340541060 (Flickr 2x).

[pagingdrmusic]

Another prog obscurity in the form of Aardvark's sole 1970 album!

[progtopiapartii]

The Human Beast - Volume One

An underrated Heavy Prog album from 1970. Great songs, great sense of humour and a great cover of an Incredible String Band track.

[blackbeardsrock]

Gentleoctopus: Lokomotive Kreuzberg / Fette Jahre (1975)

[csarracenian]

Eldar Howling Banshee but Heavy Metal (like, actually)

[metalcultbrigade]

Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister

(24 December 1945 – 28 December 2015)

[camgonzalezart]

So @wereville gifted us the cutest DTIYS on IG and I had to draw them both! They're listening to Tool btw 🎶

Shared song: "Lateralus" by Tool Viktor's song: "Hand Me My Shovel I'm Going In" by Will Wood and the Tapeworms Jayce's song: "Biaxident" by Liquid Tension Experiment

-

⭐️camgonzalezart.carrd.co⭐️

[moonchild-in-blue]

I come crawling on my knees bc who better to ask this than the number 1 Espera fan. 🥺 I've just been thinking about Sleep Token (what a surprise lol), and I'm curious if there's any info on how Ves and the Espera ladies met? Everyone in this band seems so close, so I've been questioning how they all became colleagues and friends. 🥺❤️

AAAAAAAA Crow!!! Thank you sooo so much for this question!!! This is something I've been wondering myself for a long time now, but somehow never really delved into it - this gave me the perfect excuse to do so! 💙

I'm gonna preface this by saying we do not actually have much info about that. This is simply me connecting dots with what little information we have publicly available.

So! We can't really talk about Espera, without talking about Exploring Birdsong. As we all know, they were the opening band for Sleep Token on their first headliner ritual, the infamous St. Pancras Old Church ritual, back in 2018.

This is the first time Exploring Birdsong comes in contact with Sleep Token, and they would be their staple opening band up until January 2020. From there on forward, only their lead singer Lyns and the backing vocalists Paige and Mattie (later known as the collective group Espera) would continue to be performing with the band as live backing vocals (as of 2023 they seem to be permanent live members, as before they didn't tour with them every time).

Now, how did they meet? That's the big question here.

Exploring Birdsong were founded when Lyns, Matt and Jonny were studying music in Liverpool (in LIPA to be precise), back in 2015/16 if memory serves me right. Starting in 2017, they released a couple of singles and started to perform live (with the other 2 Espera girls, before they were a thing). Most (if not all) of their shows at the time were set in Liverpool, Manchester, or around that area.

Sleep Token at the time was playing shows mostly in London and around the south, opening for other bands and such. Quite the geographical difference, so it seems unlikely they would've met then. Even in terms of music, Sleep Token was more involved in the UK metal sphere at the time, while EB were very much in the prog-rock side of alt. music.

In fact, there's this one 2020 interview of EB, right after they finished touring with ST for the last time, that mentions that difference in public between EB fans and ST fans. Here's that excerpt:

To further emphasise that EXPLORING BIRDSONG are making waves they were hand picked to support the enigmatic SLEEP TOKEN on a handful of UK dates which gave them the ideal chance to test the waters and see how their offering would fare in a more metal focused environment.

“The reception was very warm!” Lynsey exclaims. “The crowd were really receptive to our songs. We’re not in a totally different vein to SLEEP TOKEN but I was intrigued to see how we would get on with a more metal oriented crowd. There are definitely elements of our songs which are similar but I was apprehensive how they would react but people came up to us afterwards telling us how much they enjoyed it so I’m really glad.”

Every publication dating 2020 and back that mentions Exploring Birdsong and Sleep Token together, references the fact that EB were hand-picked by ST to open for them (again, they were the staple opener for Sleep Token during that 2018-20 period, save for a couple of dates where schedules didn't align). Which again, is a bit odd given they were in very different scenes, both geographical and musical. As far as I know, none of them (EB) have any connection to any of the guys' past projects, so that can't be it either.

HOWEVER, back in March 2018, Exploring Birdsong announced they would open for the Welsh prog-rock band Godsticks in May 2018, in the Camden Assembly (London).

As far as I can tell from their FB page, this would be their first time as a band performing in London. As we all know, Sleep Token have performed in Camden in the past (Camden Rocks festival in June 2018 actually!) In fact, Camden is a known spot for alt music and culture, so it would make sense for locals (musicians and fans alike) to frequent these places and get to know bands that way.

Funnily enough, Enter Shikari have performed in the Camden Assembly, one of the first bands signed to Basick Records - Sleep Token's first label.

It is very likely that Sleep Token (and I'm gonna go on a limb and say Vessel himself, given the similarity in music influences he has with EB, as opposed to ii and iii who come from VERY different, much, much heavier musical backgrounds) may have seen their opening set, and got in contact with Exploring Birdsong then. They were only announced as opening acts for the ST Pancras show in September, which gives them plenty of time to get acquainted with each other and have that first ritual together.

Exploring Birdsong were already set to be in London in October to support Godsticks again, so it's possible they took the opportunity and invited them to the inaugural ritual.

Now, what's really funny too, is that even though EB would only release their first EP in 2019, they had quite a few singles/repertoire ready (including a few vocal-only covers on their socials).

The most notable is actually their (Don't Fear) The Reaper cover, which was recorded right after their Camden show, and released later that summer, which was recorded in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral - that's right! They performed in a church months before Sleep Token did 😌

The cover itself is beautiful, the girl's voices are pretty much center stage, and the whole vibe feels both eerie and sacred, not unlike Sleep Token's (especially at the time). I've reccomended it here before, and really can't overstate how beautiful that cover is.

Would that maybe influence ST's decision to have them on board? Maybe 👀 This cover was also featured in Kerrang! Radio (which is a big deal given they don't usually feature covers), so you can say it definitely caused an impact.

This is honestly my best guess as how they came together. I can't find any more links between Sleep Token and Exploring Birdsong aside from this, and given their overlapping schedules prior to this, it seems unlikely they would've come across each other.

I think it's really sweet they heard this random band one day and went - "Yeah. These are the ones, this is it." And to see that friendship continue to exist (the girls now being a seemingly permanent part of their live acts; the guys still supporting each other) is really really cute.

Fun fact, although EB stopped opening for ST in 2020, they were actually all together in 2023, where both Sleep Token and Exploring Birdsong were playing Radar Festival. Given their history, and the fact that the girls were part of both sets, it's likely they were all watching each other and having a good ol' time 🥹💙

If anyone has any more info about how Sleep Token and Exploring Birdsong met, I would really appreciate that!! This is as far as I managed to gather.

I'm also gonna leave a link here to my Exploring Birdsong propaganda post, in case anyone is curious about their music and wants a place to start.

[alexcita]

The issue of being in niche fandoms with not enough girlies in it is the complete lack of fanfic and cute edits. It’s rough out here for Dream Theater, Rush, and Iron Maiden girlies

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THE MANY SHADES OF "SABOTAGE" ON IMPORTED PICTURE DISC -- HEAVY PURPLE PROG.

PIC(S) INFO: Mega spotlight on assorted shades of "Sabotage" on remastered CD, the sixth album by English hard rock/heavy metal band BLACK SABBATH, originally released in 1975. The album was re-released by the UK's Essential! Records in 1996.

LABEL: Essential! Records – ESM CD 306, Essential! Records – GAS 0000306ESM

FORMAT: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered

COUNTRY: UK

RELEASED: 1996

GENRE: Rock

STYLE: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal

Sources: www.discogs.com/release/780441-Black-Sabbath-Sabotage (discogs 3x).

[pagingdrmusic]

Progressive hard rock from Canada!

[s-sputnik-k]

Calling fellow metalheads!

Since so far I've only mentioned it as a sidenote as a part of another post, I figured I'd make a separate one

Are you a metalhead? Do you like clicking boxes and/or talking about metal?

Behold:

It'd help a lot if you could answer this short survey (anonymous, 12 questions, mainly multiple choice) for my college research project

The survey will be open for at most two weeks. My project is due in early May so I need time to be able to actually write up my research.

Since my project is specifically about metal fans, I can't just send it out to my fellow college students and friends like other students have done, which is why I need y'all to help me out if you have a minute or two to spare

Thanks!

[zachmadmans]

When it comes to music, nobody does it better than sleep token. This band has singlehandedly got me through one of the darkest points in my life and I owe everything to their music

[blackbeardsrock]

Gentleoctopus: Tea / Tea (1974)

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Iron Maiden - The Evil That Men Do