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Welcome to Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week! This week we've got six more new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
The return of math rockers a-tota-so and their new single Death Rattle Soaper, ran out triumphant last week, well done guys! A very respectable second place to Brighton prog metal trio Redshift, with Haken coming in third.
The premise is simple - we've collated a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you - makes it so much easier than having to dip in and out of various individual posts, doesn't it?
The idea is to watch the videos (or listen if it's a stream), enjoy (or not) and also to vote for your favourite in the voting form at the bottom of this post. Couldn't be easier, could it? We'll be bringing you Tracks Of The Week, as the title implies, each week. Next week we'll update you with this week's winner and present a host of new prog music for you to enjoy.
If you're a band and you want to be featured in Prog's Tracks Of The Week, send your video (as a YouTube link) or track embed, band photo and biog to us here.
NORTH SEA ECHOES - ENJOY THE VIEW
North Sea Echoes is the Fates Warning offshoot featuring guitarist Jim Matheos and vocalist Ray Alder. Musically, the band's 2024 debut, Really Good Terrible Things, steered a different course from Fates, dipping into more atmospheric post-rock. Second album, How To Cast A Shadow, which is out through Metal Blade on September 24, bridges the gap between the two.
"This record is a bit heavier, with several more songs featuring real drums, played by Dennis Leeflang," explains Matheos. "It wasn‘t necessarily intentional or planned, just the way things shaped up and how they emerged this time.”
"[A track like] I‘ll Leave A Light On is much heavier than anything on Really Good Terrible Things," adds Alder. "It has a darker, melancholic feel that fits well on this album. I loosely based the lyrics on a character from my favourite sci-fi series. I won't say which, but they do use the quote ’out there in the black.‘”
ARTHUR BROWN - NATURE
Even at 83-years old, there's a sprightly feel to Arthur Brown's new single, Nature. You can almost hear the twinkle in the God Of Hellfire's eye, even. Nature is also the title track of Brown's upcoming album, which is released through Prophecy Productions on August 4.
"This is a time of confusion and choice", muses Brown. "Deep inside us is a consciousness, which is the basis of everything. Can we find a way to know ourselves as being it? At the moment all our social structures, our laws, education system, everything in our culture are no longer using the parts of our brain that can care for the world in its totality. From this comes our discomfort in our living. All our problems arise from this dualistic world image. We need to find a way to stand before this 'consciousness' and drop all our current 'answers'."
![Arthur Brown with Dan Smith - Nature [Official Music Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/732CYG7JsBU/maxresdefault.jpg)
CINDER WELL - BEYOND THE PALE
Fans of Mackenzie Crook's recent and quite excellent TV series Small Prophets will recognise the name Cinder Well, as she provided the theme tune, in keeping with the acid folk musical vibe that Crook is clearly a fan of and features in much of his work. LA-based songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Amelia Baker is the face behind Cinder Well, and she releases her new album, A Blooming Body, through Hen House Studios on July 17, from which comes Beyond The Pale.
"A hangover, a break-up, a migraine, a confessional, this song features the legendary Greg Cohen (Tom Waits, John Zorn) on bass, alongside my dear friend Phillip Rogers (Hayley Hendrickx) on drums," says Baker. "The music video concept came to me in a dream, and as I relayed it aloud in the morning, I figured it was weird enough to actually try. Thanks to Cheech for making the video come to life, and for running around Los Angeles carrying a box full of water with me."
OUTRUN THE SUNLIGHT - PROTECTOR
US prog metal quintet Outrun The Sunlight return with a brand new single, Protector, which the band are calling "the beginning of a new era" for the band. It certainly packs in a lot into its seven minutes and twenty-one seconds, covering quite a few musical bases, from atmospheric prog rock to no-nonsense metalcore assault, touching on most bases in between. Some of the more aggressive vocals might be a bit much for those with more sensitive ears, but we're digging the sound.
"The song explores themes of resilience, responsibility, and becoming a source of strength for others during difficult times," the band say. "Musically, it draws from progressive metal, post-rock, and modern metalcore, resulting in what we believe is our most focused and emotionally direct material to date."
ALEX HENRY FOSTER - SPRINGTIME
Canadian musician Alex Henry Foster has shared a video for their brand-new single, Springtime. It's the first taster for the band's upcoming album, The Fragile Beauty (Of New Morning Hopes), which will be released through Hopeful Tragedy Records on October 23. Foster and his band will be touring Europe, but sadly not the UK, in November and December, before which he headlines Festival Taragalte, a nomadic music and culture festival held annually in the sand dunes of M'Hamihd El Ghizlane in Morocco.
“The song echoes the late Palestinian poet and writer Mahmoud Darwish’s references about the metaphoric nature of spring as the juxtaposing struggle between our personal faith in the profound longing for intangible evolution and the collective desire to experience a palpable long-awaited rebirth,” explains Foster.
UNTOLD STORIES - PALE HORIZONS
Untold Stories are a Bulgarian progressive and art rock band formed in late 2022. The band released their debut album, Wind And Memories, in early 2025, and Pale Horizons is a brand-new single that begins the cycle for the band's second album, which they hope to release in Spring 2027. Like the debut, it will form part of a bigger conceptual piece. Watch this space..
“Pale Horizons is an atmospheric, introspective progressive/art-rock piece built on cold textures, evolving motifs and cinematic minimalism," the band say. "The track explores themes of distance, memory and inner landscapes — those moments when the world feels stretched, distant and almost suspended in time."
