Cthulhu Rise

Leprous, “Nighttime Disguise”

Ah Leprous, the perfect band for when you think “dang, I really want to hear a lot of time signatures.”

Cthulhu Rise, “Opus 23”

Cthulhu Rise are an instrumental prog metal/jazz fusion thing. I mean, I suppose you can hear that, huh? This whole album is like this - always moving around, always experimenting, always trying to surprise you, but you know, it also all starts to blend together a fair bit. Not bad as something to pop up randomly like this, though. A track at a time? Sure, that’s fun.

Danny Weinkauf, “Champion of the Spelling Bee”

After the success of the They Might Be Giants kids albums, which included a few songs written by bassist Danny Weinkauf, he set out on his own and recorded a couple records in a similar vein. They’re pleasant enough, but by the time they were out, I didn’t really play them for the kids and so they’re just kind of in my collection.

Mastodon, “Black Tongue”

With Crack The Skye, Mastodon had kind of reached the end of an exploration, into very prog-y songwriting. In a lot of ways, it mirrored where Metallica had reached with …And Justice For All, and with both bands, the next album represented a real break in style. In Metallica’s case, it was driven by tragedy, with Cliff Burton’s tragic death. In Mastodon’s case, it seemed to be driven by just a desire to move in a new direction. The Hunter, the album in question, is not their best work. It’s still very good, but I personally find the epic stuff from their previous albums more engaging. It’s not until Emperor of Sand that I’m not back fully on board.