THE PROGERIANS - The Fabulous Progerians
Some music just needs to be listened to at full volume! The Progerians are a power trio from Brussels in Belgium and play a heavy mix of stoner and sludge rock, all of this with a punk attitude that allows for occasional grunge and hardcore moments, the latter especially when it comes to the vocals. Founded in 2011, the band has released already a couple of split records and an EP. The Fabulous Progerians is the guys’ first longplayer, and even though at first it took me some time to really get into the music, repeated listening sessions finally made me appreciate the music’s rough charm.
The opener Vidar starts quite ponderously, the way you would expect from a sludge band, but soon the band find its admittedly quite crawling rhythm. What I like about power trios is that in a successful event, every musician gets equal room, and that’s just what makes The Progerians’ overall sound so winning. Especially the rumbling bass guitar makes for a threatening atmosphere. Vocal duties are shared by the three gentlemen, making for a varied performance, ranging from garagy noise screams to brutal hardcore shouts. The following Black Storm makes it to six and a half minutes, allowing the Belgians to reveal all of their talents, ranging from crawling sludge grooves to hard rocking riffs, ending the song in an ever accelerating crescendo… nice! Other highlights include the fierce God Speed that could have been an undiscovered song from Soundgarden before they were famous. Stellar comes with archaic synth sounds that give the song a very psychedelic feeling. My personal highlight is 10,000 which shows the trio from its most psychotic side. The complex guitar riffing comes very unexpectedly and shows that these guys can also play more demanding structures. Towards the end, we even get two songs, Collapse and The Earth Is Flat, with trumpet parts that once again show that The Progerians really seem to have no limitations when it comes to adding strange elements into their music.
I must admit that my first encounter with The Progerians’ music left me in a sceptical mood, but quite soon I was won over by their wholehearted performance. The Fabulous Progerians is an excellent debut longplayer that should appeal to stoner and sludge fans alike, provided they don’t mind occasional foreign influences. Especially the second half of the album sees the band adding some coals to the fire, and it’s on these more experimental parts that they really manage to set themselves apart from your typical rock band. It’s always a pleasure to be in the company of a band who sounds better every time you listen to their music.