Numen is the third full-length record from German extreme progressive supergroup Alkaloid, on which they unleash 70 minutes of complex brilliance featuring a whole heap of elements ranging from technical death to jazz. Listeners will be mesmerized by an outstanding array of ultra-cool, jazzy shredding solos, standout groovy bass lines, hooky choruses, complex-yet-stylistic drumming, exciting riffs, and great use of harsh and clean vocals. All of this technical progressive wizardry is set to an epic cosmic sci-fi theme and is as mind-boggling as it is delightful. It's a release that'll definitely leave fans of the extreme end of progressive metal in awe.

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Enslaved needs no introduction. On Heimdal, there's the ever-expanding palette of the progressive and sometimes downright strange, but juxtaposed with a fun-loving, sometimes properly danceable vibe that sets this album apart from the rest of the band's stellar discography. Songs like the impenetrable “Congelia” stand adjacent to the totally accessible “Kingdom”, and there is even some newfound space for atmospherics here and there. You'll find mind-boggling riffs, intense drumming, and harsh screams side by side with serene atmospherics, melodic singing, and acoustic passages. In other words, it's an Enslaved album! There is truly no other band quite like Enslaved, and there's really no Enslaved album like any other, so when it comes to forward-thinking, skillful, and playful extreme metal, these veterans have got you covered.

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Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed is as abstract a mélange of musical elements as the cover art is of limbs and landscapes: it is obsessive and mathematical, languid and jazzy, inhospitable and cacophonous, ebullient and proggy. The multitude of instruments at Fleshvessel's disposal facilitates their magpie-like acquisition of genre after genre: what is in one minute a clanky honky-tonk piano is in the next an effortlessly cool bank of '70s prog synths; a furious death metal onslaught careens into a quiet interlude of noodly fretless bass; an angsty mish-mash of woodwinds, strings, and harsh vocals of all shapes and sizes collide in an unpredictable of weird sounds that approximate the sensation of King Crimson beating you to death with trumpets made out of barbed wire. Fleshvessel already hit this category with their first EP (their very first song, in fact, which took up the entire thing), and everybody knew then that their first full-length album was going to be something special. So it is.

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They do share a name with an Opeth song and they do play progressive death metal, but Haxprocess are not interested in falling drapery or parking in black water. You'll find the caverns of Duat buried deep beneath the sands of ancient Egyptian myth, and within those caverns is where you'll find three dudes who share a love for the weirder excursions of old-school death metal. Death, Nocturnus, Cynic, Morbid Angel, and others find periodic representation here, though not so much as to preclude Haxprocess developing their own sense of mythological death metal. Think Astral Tomb in terms of how they can balance the technical sophistication and primitive, gurgly crunching, but much more in a vein of creeping terror that so many modern death metal bands have forgotten about.

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The fifth full-length album by Horrendous, Ontological Mysterium, is a towering achievement in progressive death metal and a worthy successor to the legacy of bands like Atheist, Cynic, and Death. The album seamlessly blends technical proficiency, melodic depth, and a unique sense of atmosphere, creating a sonic landscape that is both unsettling and strangely alluring. The riffs are razor-sharp, the leads are soaring and lean toward classic heavy metal, and the drumming is thunderous and adventurous. The songwriting approach starts making sense after repeated listens, and it never loses sight of the album's overarching themes of cosmic exploration and existential questioning. Ontological Mysterium is a must-listen for any fan of extreme progressive metal.

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The latest Ne Obliviscaris album, Exul, opens with the drums of Dan Presland, who delivers another phenomenal performance on his final outing with the band. The group’s well-established formula remains intact and results in some of the band’s most exhilarating and emotionally powerful music yet; the band’s sense of melody, suspense, and tension is at its strongest on this new release, as Ne Obliviscaris’s dual-vocal combo, extensive violin presence, and marvellous instrumental technicality combine once more on this stellar outing.

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Across their first two records, Belgian progsters Omnerod exhibited an eclecticism striving to be fully harnessed; on The Amensal Rise, the group have matured their writing and production to match their ambition and produced a colossus of a record. With a theatrical prog style that spans extreme sounds and various forms of dramatic and wacky melody, Omnerod incorporate sounds reminiscent of artists such as Devin Townsend, Between The Buried And Me, The World Is Quiet Here, Native Construct, and more, yet deliver all this rampant creativity in a form that is identifiably and quintessentially their own.

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Only two years after Impermanence, Switzerland's hardworking flagship of technical death/black metal, Stortregn, have released their sixth full-length album, and once again, it has become a frenetic burst of high-energy extreme metal at full throttle. The band exhibits flawless musicianship on Finitude, interweaving intricate melodies and acoustic passages with countless vigorous guitar and bass solos, ripping leads, and blast beats with the precision of a Swiss watch. Stortregn don't hesitate to explore their very own interpretation of progressive music: inspired by the versatility of a Swiss Army knife, they incorporate not only plenty of classical music into their eight blackened symphonies, but also jazzy elements and even a good dose of flamenco. Balancing aggression and technicality with a methodical approach, they create a musical landscape as majestic, imposing, and impactful as the Swiss Alps, and just as Swiss chocolate is renowned for its richness, Stortregn's compositions are intense, layered, and indulgent – crisp, dark chocolate, leaving the listener craving more.

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With such a long break between albums, at least by the standards that Tomb Mold have set for themselves, it really feels like The Enduring Spirit jumping through the progress they would've organically made from their OSDM sound by keeping their usual release schedule and they somehow jumped straight to prog death Tomb Mold, hence why they ended up in this category instead of the death one. There's still a lot keeping them anchored in OSDM, from the gutturals to the doomier undertones, but the leap of faith into a more technical direction makes Tomb Mold land in some cleaner territories, full of tangly riffing, jazzy interludes, and an everchanging assortment of melodic riffs arranged in a way to position The Enduring Spirit as more progressive than merely technical.

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Comparisons to Vektor are inevitable, for they were the ones who really set the stage for our current wave of science fiction-laden thrash metal bands brimming with black metal influence and blistering technicality, but Xoth are really coming from their own galaxy here. The guitar work exudes whiffs of aliencore with how rubbery and sproingy its incessant leads are, always winding up unfamiliar scales in the background and cutting the wrecking-ball brutality with whining, otherworldly melodies. The aggressive precision and complexity of the instrumentation, delivered in rapid-fire fills at every available space, bear the distinct marks of technical death metal's modern schools, and yet the songs stay lean with the pacing, mentality, and almost-tuneful vocals of hyperactive thrash. Wherever Xoth are interested in falling on the extreme metal spectrum at any given time, you can be sure they're ripping through it with equally incredible speed and accuracy and letting the guitarists run absolutely buck-wild in making every line pop with exaggerated melody.

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