PROG-TASTIC MORNING: NEW ANIMALS AS LEADERS AND HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE TRACKS

Do prog metal bands have a propensity for Noun Preposition Noun band names the way scene bands do for Verb the Noun band names? Someone should really look into that. Are “as” and “of” even prepositions, or are they conjunctions? With a certain big player out of the way (no spoiler!), what will the next season of Breaking Bad be about? Big questions.

Any way you slice it, today is a good day for prog metal fans. Because those of you reading this for Animals as Leaders will click through the jump with your pants already down before even hearing their new track, let’s cover Hammers of Misfortune first in the hopes of gaining them a few new fans; the Bay Area-based prog metal greats have a new track called “The Day the City Died” over at Noisecreep. My personal favorite track from their new album 17th Street is “The Grain,” which you can stream here. “The Grain” is an absolutely captivating song, and truth be told I was a little disappointed upon listening to the full album that the rest of the tracks weren’t as good… but it’s still a really solid listen and “The Day the City Died” is the second best the album has to offer.

Now, new Animals as Leaders:

We begged Prosthetic for the privilege of debuting a track from Weightless, AAL’s forthcoming album, all the way back in March WAY before any new music was likely even recorded. Apparently they saw more value in giving it to Alternative Press since they know that all ya’ll are already hip to AAL whereas AP’s fanbase maybe not so much. Truth be told, they’re completely, 100% right! And here we are posting about the track anyway.

The new AAL track is called “Odessa” and you can stream it here. This is where we’d normally make some sweeping statement about how the band’s sound has changed from one album to the next, but I’m not prepared to make such a statement yet about a band that’s so dynamic; if anything, this track seems like it might be a touch less djent-y than the stuff on their debut album, which is a good career move IMO. As for the song itself, it’s great; what else would you expect? Stream another new track called “Isolated Incidents” here. Weightless comes out on November 8th.

-VN