Album Rating: 4.0

Also, pretty sure the record could have ended right after "Milk Of My Dreams" and nothing important would have been lost. That last track is unnecessary.

Album Rating: 4.0

man listening to holocene after this it’s crazy how much more personality loic had in his vocals

Album Rating: 3.5

Thanks for the feedback & your participation, guys.



@MTObsidian



Thank you. I'm still not 100% settled on this one myself. The album is an absolute banger, and the more I spin it, the more I like it. As I'm writing this, I've already listened to it more than eight times.



That said, my two main issues with it haven't really changed. It tends to meander in places, and the female vocals occasionally don't add as much as I feel they could...





"light pollution slays"



Absolutely, it's a fantastic song, and that's why I included it on my "Recommended" list.





"This is superb. I'm not understanding half the criticism"



The criticism is actually pretty simple, and plenty of people here have already explained it in much more detail: the songs are just unnecessarily long. The album is asking you to sit down and give it well over an hour of your time, and honestly, that's a lot to ask of me in 2026. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not in my early 20s anymore. Spending that much time on a single album just isn't one of my everyday priorities, even when my schedule happens to clear up a little. Now, granted, whenever I do sit down and listen to this, I usually don't realize how quickly the time passes. But there have also been plenty of moments where I've looked at the clock and thought, "When are these mfs going to wrap this thing up?" Had they trimmed the whole thing down to maybe 50 or 60 minutes, I could easily see myself giving it a 4 or even a 4.5.



My other issue is the female vocals. They can feel a little all over the place, and there are moments where they don't really add anything beyond pushing my "annoyance" meter a little higher. At other times, though, I genuinely think they bring something worthwhile to the album. So I'm still somewhat torn on that front. Also, keep in mind that with my current status I can only rate albums in 0.5 increments. If I were a staff reviewer and had more freedom with the rating, this would comfortably sit somewhere around a 3.6–3.8, if that's any consolation.

Album Rating: 3.5

@Gfunk839



My feelings exacltly.





@Retter42



If you're not familiar with their discography, their most acclaimed work, generally speaking, is Precambrian. Personally, my favorites are the duo Phanerozoic records.





"The closing track is total filler"



I'm not so sure about that. It definitely feels like filler, but at the same time, I think it brings the whole album full circle quite nicely. And if we're going to make that criticism, then we'd probably have to consider the opening track filler as well (which it totally isn't).





"I like this album but after more listens im a little unsure my overall feelings, its kind of a similar feeling i have with Cult of Lunas long road north, where im a little unsure on how i actually feel about it."



I can definitely see that criticism. This is an album that needs a lot of spins before it fully reveals itself, and honestly, asking for repeated listens when you're already running at 70 minutes isn't exactly a selling point for me in 2026.



"Im wondering if this is just growing pains from the line up change"



I had the same questions at first. But if you look at the band's trajectory, some of their best work tends to come once a new lineup has had enough time to really settle in and find its chemistry. That's why I have a feeling the next album could be a real highlight for this particular lineup.



At the same time, I still have my reservations and I'm trying to keep my enthusiasm in check. For some of these guys, it'll be their 13th album, and you can only keep churning out quality records for so long without finding ways to refresh your sound and shake up the formula.



The real question is whether everyone will be on board with whatever this new sound turns out to be. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Album Rating: 3.5

"I struggled a lot to even get through this album. It’s like they tried to smooth every edge off their sound and the flat production just emphasises that even more. There’s absolutely primordial or heavy about this, it is more reminiscent of easy listening modern ‘progressive’ metal (which isn’t actually progressive at all). Some of the vocal passages are genuinely awful, too, and that’s not even touching the lyrics..."



I can understand the argument about its length, but not so much the rating. There are some genuinely awesome moments on this album, but hey, to each their own.



As for what constitutes progressive metal -and, more importantly, modern progressive metal- that's an endless discussion I've had countless times with friends and in older conversations on this site. Everyone seems to draw the line somewhere different. It's one of those never-ending debates, and honestly, I'm not quite ready to open that can of worms again.





"After three full spins over the last couple days, I'm pretty confident to put a nice 4 on this one. It's very good and its merits outshine the shortfalls. Might bump it up further with more listens, we'll see".



Might as well follow your lead on this one. I'm really liking it so far, but I definitely need more time with it. I ended up ordering a copy from their official website too, since I can't seem to find it anywhere else...

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

This ones a grower for me. I liked it at first but a few spins in and everything clicks together quite well. I really enjoy the last 4 tracks.

Album Rating: 4.0

Is Solaris their best? No, at least for me, phanerozoic, precambrian and pelagal (my king) are better in almost every way. However, this shatters my expectations. I half expected this album to be a disjointed mess of unfinished ideas, written by a band trying to find their footing again, but it's surprisingly "whole".



Female vocals are weird as fuck and sometimes remind me of Julie Christmas which is like the highest praise a female vocalist could receive in my book.



Also i agree 100% with the criticism directed at the last two tracks. Kinda feels like they were trying to pull off another Origin of species –> Origin of god, but back then it felt like an epic prolonged closer that slotted amazingly in an overall weaker album, and here it just kinda sours the experience by doing the exact opposite.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Ive had permian stuck in my head for days