Christmas is coming and, well, the geese are starting to feel quite uneasy about the whole thing. Quell their festive fears by playing them these six tracks at a reasonable volume and gently petting their crown and nape. These are actual goose terms. We looked them up.
COHEED AND CAMBRIA – Colors
Taken from The Color Before The Sun – the band’s eighth album and first to veer away from their ongoing Amory Wars narrative concept – this is actually a very mellow tune by Coheed’s standards. Even though they’ve scaled down their prog riffs here, Colors is still shot through with their unmistakable sound.
DEEP PURPLE – Time For Bedlam
The first single from Deep Purple’s forthcoming album InFinite starts off with the weird robotic chant that’s half-medieval, half-futuristic, before bounding off on its own semi-metal, semi-proggy adventure. An epic taster.
JETHRO TULL – Pass The Bottle (A Christmas Song)
There are some – especially those over in the Prog office – who would argue that Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without some Jethro Tull. For those such souls, the Tull have recorded a number of their best known tunes with a string quartet. It’ll be their first album since 2003’s Christmas record, and includes this festive ditty from that release.
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AFI – White Offerings
This new AFI track – taken from the California band’s forthcoming self-titled 10th album, also known as The Blood Album – sees the quartet immerse themselves in both the aggro-punk of their youth and the more anthemic rock of their latter days. What’s more, it works. Which is good.
CREEPER – Hiding With Boys
Creeper have had an incredible 2016, and with the release of debut album Eternity, In Your Arms coming in March, it looks like 2017 will be even bigger and better. This track is definitely indebted to Alkaline Trio and My Chemical Romance, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
ROAM – Leaving Notice
It’s been almost a year since Eastbourne’s ROAM released their debut album Backbone. Full of hooks and a hell of a catchy chorus, this song is a brilliant reminder of just how potent the band’s brand of earnest pop-punk can be.
