Unsigned and Unholy: In the Presence of Wolves, Two Tales of Woe, Oxx

Fans of Thank You Scientist, Between the Buried and Me, Intervals, etc. are gonna love In the Presence of Wolves, who will release Of Two Minds, Stages 1-2: The Ape and The Cage on June 30th. There’s plenty of technical wizardry here, but all without losing sight of coherent songwriting, that ever-elusive prog metal Bigfoot. Check out “The One Who Fell to Earth” below.

MS reader Jamie H. wrote in to tell us that Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein recently referred to Two Tales of Woe as one of “the best support bands I’ve had in years.” High praise, but it’s not difficult to see why: on record, “Burning Lands” is fierce, tight and sludgy, and we can only imagine how powerful these guys are live.

Oxx, a mathy sludge trio from Denmark, have a most untraditional configuration: guitars/vocals, drums and synth/saxophone/vocals. That said, their music isn’t THAT left-of-center: it definitely leans quite proggy compared to most sludge, but the synth/sax stuff isn’t over the top, more like a nice complement to the whole. In short: they’re great.