You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

That moment when tech metal challenges the definition of music and starts becoming noise is flirted with quite heavily on Disclosure. But the same could be said for Meshuggah, and look at them now.

Jam-packed with stylistic interchanges, vocal shifts and a multitude of instruments (including the santoor and erhu… tissue anyone?) easy listening this is not. The Haarp Machine, intent on boggling the mind with a complex assortment of rich musical textures from djent-style rhythms to Eastern melodies and soaring, spine-tingling vocals, have pulled together an album that is only really done justice when listened to on a pair of decent headphones.

For all its technical proficiency and inventiveness it will still take a lot for these UK extreme proggers to stand out against the likes of The Safety Fire and Uneven Structure. Still, the hypnotic vocal lifts, tight drumbeats and lush Eastern promise on Pleiadian Keys and the electrifying brooding menace of The Escapist Notion is like the sticker on their debut that says “Buy me, I’m ace!” A band worth haarping on about.

With over 10 years’ experience writing for Metal Hammer and Prog, Holly has reviewed and interviewed a wealth of progressively-inclined noise mongers from around the world. A fearless voyager to the far sides of metal Holly loves nothing more than to check out London’s gig scene, from power to folk and a lot in between. When she’s not rocking out Holly enjoys being a mum to her daughter Violet and working as a high-flying marketer in the Big Smoke.