SUBSCRIBE – Stuck Progress To Moon

Hungarian Label Hammer records has a very wide range of styles in their program. But even for Hammer’s variety this album from Subscribe is unusual, as their Progressive Alternative style is probably suited only for the intellectual minority of the Metal community. Not that the six Hungarian musicians did not deserve more attention. The technical abilities are astonishing, which is a necessity to be able to perform compositions like the ones on Stuck Progress To Moon, whatever that phrase means. The songs can see eye to eye with the big names of this sub genre, but here is the problem: the big names of this particular style are everything but big.

If one wants to compare Subscribe to existing bands and projects, mainly The Fall Of Troy comes to mind. Not only musically, also the artwork has a similar loony touch. Other bands that could be mentioned are Freak Kitchen, Cave In, Hammers Of Misfortune, The Mars Volta, and those are the big names! Now add a good dose of Watchtower-extravaganza, Extol-vocal-diversity, Biomechanical-weirdness, Cynic-shred-harmonies. Well, can you think of a style that could be described like that? Maybe it is Progressive Experimental Alternative Metal Core – or they just put the “mental” in “experi-mental”. The band combines all kinds of influences from Metal through Hardcore, a bit of Jazz and Funk, a dose of Crossover and Rap Metal of the Rage Against The Machine type into a blend of styles which makes up the piece of art called Stuck Progress To Moon. The compositional equivalent to New York’s Met, with a wing for the classics, and one for abstract, and one for three dimensional pieces, and all kinds of experiments and studies in between, and the listener is pulled along with the band as they run through the sections back and forth and only pause to catch their breath in the hall of catchy choruses every track sports.

The most striking fact is that the band has not only two guitarists, but also two full time singers, Csongor Balint and Tilk Mate. While it would be typical that one would do the clean singing and the other would be responsible for all kinds of grunt, shouts, growls and other sounds, Subscribe are different. Both singers can equally turn out their aggressive side, and on the other hand both are able to sustain a melodic part as a counterpoint to the general craziness. Just like the aforementioned The Fall Of Troy, Subscribe manage to cage in their creativity enough to make the songs work, albeit not strictly in the way an AC/DC tune works. It is merely that they do not cross the line where one cannot follow their train of thought anymore, after a few listens most ideas are comprehensible, and chaos turns into structure. At least mostly.

Of course, Stuck Progress To Moon is everything but easy listening. It is hard work to understand the album, it takes an effort to kick open the door to their musical universe, but once one does, a majestic musical uniqueness unfolds. It makes no sense at all to pick a track from the album and try to describe it, as each song is different, yet somehow similar in Subscribe’s artistic approach to weird music while retaining a heavy foundation so that the album can be wholeheartedly recommended for Metal fans. Especially when one watches the DVD side of the album, which contains a thirteen song live performance as a bonus and which is definitely Heavy Metal, one may love it or hate it, but the band will not be met with indifference.

For this genre, Stuck Progress To Moon is equally powerful and ingenious as Doppelgänger and Manipulator. Therefore this album cannot get a different verdict than being a mandatory purchase for the open minded Metalfan who can relate to any of the bands above.