Trounce - 2023 - The Seven Crowns [mini-review]

(101:00; Humus Records)

Swiss band Trounce are out with the album "The Seven Crowns", and progressive metal is the style explored on this production. This is a case of a contemporary band that draw in a liberal amount of impulses from the extreme metal tradition, and due to that we get a high amount of passages throughout that are high in pace as well as intensity. The progressive aspect comes into play with the band's tendency to explore intricate landscapes that probably are as challenging to perform as they sound, plenty of quirky and off kilter features, as well as many songs being dynamic in nature and alternating between those more challenging escapades and more straight forward blasting sections, and occasionally with dips into more atmospheric laden territories and even some tranquil interludes coming into play. The use of distorted instrument sounds and noise effects is a part of that picture and the expressive use of the vocals is another element that adds a bit of an emphasis to the progressive nature of this album. A part of this production is the inclusion of a live set performed at the Roadburn festival, and this is a high quality live production captured in all its glory showcasing the band in fine form, and executing their material in perhaps a bit more of a dynamic manner than the material we get on the studio album part of the production too. An excellent expansion of this new studio album, and both discs comes across as good reasons to seek out this production. An album to take note of for fans of contemporary style and expressive progressive metal that makes use of extreme metal as the core foundation for the landscapes explored.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, October 2023

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/TROUNCEnoise
https://humus-records.com/