What have you been listening to this week?

I had a song pop into my head last night, I could remember the riff, melody, some of the lyrics and that the song came out late 00's/early 10's but couldn't for the life of me remember who sung it or what it was called but I knew they were a local band (in Scotland) that had done decently well for themselves in that time period.

I checked Google and YouTube for hours even consulting ChatGPT to try and track down this band whose name I'd completely forgotten.

I eventually gave up and went to bed but I couldn't sleep, this was keeping me up so I messaged a friend from university who might know and sure enough he said he recognised it and came back ten minutes later to let me know it was Jocasta Sleeps - Baggy Needles so I've had it on repeat all day today to soothe my soul from last night.

Aviations new album Luminaria. It's so good! Highly recommend to check it out even if you aren't a fan of prog rock. This band is needing more exposure and I'm happy to help.

Check out their song Coma if you want a good feel of the band's sound. Even if it's only for one minute!

I was doing some music exploration on YouTube last night, when I came across "retrouver l'aube" by Bessau, a French artist. I don't know exactly what genre this is. But the song is cool.

Honestly, the whole channel is pretty neat. All sorts of different music from artists across the world.

I just discovered Peyton Parrish this week and have been listening to his take on viking rock. He's pretty good in my opinion.

Enchant - Time Lost (progressive from the US). Contrary to many of the prog metal bands that came out in the late 90s, Enchant didn't really fit into the Dream Theater mold. There are similarities, sure, but I feel they are closer in sound to Rush, in that they focus on crafting a good sounding song rather than pure technicality. Time Lost is their third album released and contains tracks that didn't make it onto their first two albums, A Blueprint of the World and Wounded. With my preference for their debut album Blueprint, I love the final three songs "Interact", "Standing Ground", and "Mettle Man", and don't understand how those didn't make the cut for the debut. Plus, there's a part near the end of Interact that sounds exactly like the music in the Sun Shrine of Chrono Trigger. But overall if I were to summarize their music with one term, I would use "elegant."
Eneferens - The Bleakness of Our Constant (atmoblack from the US). I feel like that Top Gear meme, where I say their second album In the Hours Beneath is brilliant, but I like this, their third album. A strong theme of melancholy runs through this album in the form of a riff that exists in modified forms through several of the tracks, including a version that I swear is played on a ukelele to open the final song.
Enslaved - E (progressive black from Norway). Another band I learned of from r/metal when their fourteenth album E was released, so that one has a special place in my heart. Storm Son was, for me, the perfect song to use to dive into their discography, with the long build-up from acoustic intro to clean verse and then into the 7/4 heavy distortion riff with harsh vocals to close out the song. But having thirteen other albums to investigate is daunting, so someone suggested I check out Below the Lights as that was considered their inflection point between viking black and progressive black. As I prefer the latter, I also purchased Axioma Ethica Odinii, Riitiir, and In Times. Looks like they've released two new albums since E that I'll need to listen to!

Sum 41's latest single, Landmines

Hard to see the end of my favorite band but I'm excited to hear their last double album