maudlin of the Well

Avant-garde progressive metal group maudlin of the Well made extraordinary music, but don't expect to be able to find any of their best material legally; anyone who finds a physical copy of their masterpiece Bath for a reasonable price deserves a million high-fives. The band also went on hiatus in 2003 for mastermind Toby Driver to found a new project, Kayo Dot. For this reason, the surprise release of the band's fan-funded album Part the Second for free over the internet last year seemed like a minor miracle.

Part the Second isn't a mere rehashing of old maudlin of the Well: Driver adds tons of strings, saxophones, and diverse percussion instruments to the group. In addition, he drops the harsh passages and screams that peppered previous releases, resulting in a sound that is more aligned with post-rock and modern classical music than metal. The many highlights include the evolution of "Rose Quartz Turning to Glass" from beautiful piano and violin duet to uneasy atonal moans to Pink Floyd climax, as well as the expansive prog-rock noodling in "Laboratories of the Invisible World (Rollerskating the Cosmic Palmistric Postborder)." "Excerpt from 6,000,000,000,000 Miles Before the First, or, the Revisitation of the Blue Ghost" is definitely the album's standout track, starting as a starry-eyed meditation on the creation of the universe before building up to Driver's soaring electric guitar leads.

maudlin of the Well - "Excerpt from 6,000,000,000,000 Miles Before the First, or, the Revisitation of the Blue Ghost"

You can still download Part the Second for free in a variety of formats here.