Album: Redtail by Azure
I glide down from my mountain, bringing with me all my pain
This post is a recommendation to listen to a 20-minute fantasy-themed progressive metal song about a several hundred year old boy-goat-snake-bird that lives in a cave on a mountain. He silently protects a town at the foot of the mountain, but some of the townsfolk are frightened by his existence. They put a bounty on his head (rather, his tail) and set his home on fire while he's out, presumably doing boy-goat-snake-bird things. He flies down to torch the town and murder all its residents. Does a bounty exist if there's no one left to know about it?
He, the song, and the eponymous single-track EP, are all called Redtail by Azure:
I found out about this U.K.-based band watching the The Progspace Online Festival and they pretty much blew my mind from the moment the keyboard-laden intro started and the Majesty/early 90s-era Dream Theater vibe kicked in.
I immediately watched the performance again, and my mind was doubly blown when I realized the 8-string guitarist was also the singer and keyboardist. Good job, man, really makes me want to permanently abstain from trying to work on my own playing.
I can probably write pages about how much I love the sound these guys are putting out there, and they hit all the prog rock/metal tropes with a cool new spin on everything (at 12:30, that riff Galen plays, holy hell that's good). They go from ethereal vocals, to sporadic guitar-keyboard synchronicity, to some of the best most creative guitar solos I've heard all year (Christopher's solo at 17:20, 'nuff said).
The best part about these guys is just how much fun they have with the material. Christopher Sampson and Galen Stapley are phenomenal musicians bringing something super creative to the prog space, in my opinion.
Pull up the lyrics and check them out. These guys are working hard, they don't take themselves seriously, and the bottom line is they just sound and look like they're having so much fun, you can't help but love them. I can't wait for their next release.
Alienmold