Athem - The Extended Mind. 2010 USA

Athem's sole album The Extended Mind is an intriguing prog metal album from southern New Jersey. There's no question of their east coast heritage, and the music fits squarely in the Dream Theater and Symphony X school. The two lengthy tracks 'Enigmatic Reverie' and 'Lifting the Veil' have some pretty incredible segments that are jumpy and exciting. These guys clearly know how to play, and they have an imagination to take the music in radical directions, without resorting to genre hopping or hipster cutups. Some of the other tracks balance commercial styled metal with neo prog. The recording is over an hour long, and most of the tracks are quite lengthy. As such, this is the type of album that requires multiple listens to penetrate. We're still working on it.

CD: 2010 Dust on the Tracks

The CD is housed in a fine digi-pak.