Unsigned and Unholy: Point Below Zero, The Rose Phantom, Colossus
Australian outfit Point Below Zero occupy a healthy middle ground between Obscurian tech-death and Facelessesque proggy death metal. It’s not especially original nor does it ever lean heavily in either direction, but it works well enough to make for an enjoyable listen.
The Rose Phantom caught my ear because they’re barely metal at all. Like ’80s synth pop with some metal influences, let’s call it Cure-metal. In any case I liked Abandon so much that I listened to it on Bandcamp all the way through when it first hit my inbox, and now I’m doing so again. Stream:
Colossus first appeared in this space in April 2011, and they’re back with a new album so it’s high time we post about them again. These guys take an off-kilter approach to prog that reminds me a bit of their fellow Swedes in Burst. Here’s a song from their new album Wake called “Pillars of Perennity” which happens to feature Lars G. Petrov of Entombed:
