Whereas the title could once be applied to the more tech-happy Atheist or later-era Death, for the better part of this century, the ?progressive death metal? genre tag has been subsumed almost entirely by one band: Opeth. As such, when I say that Gwynbleidd?s epic debut LP, Nostalgia fits well into the prog-death genre, I?m basically saying it sounds like the seminal Swedes. I?m sorry, but it?s unavoidable.

Almost so much so that it?s a distraction in listening. Nostalgia is not my first experience with Gwynbleidd — that would be their self-released 2006 EP, Amaranthine — but the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Poland four-piece have upped their ?Peth levels and it goes beyond mere aesthetic into the very fabric of the music itself. The hauntingly sustained notes, the acoustic/classic guitar interludes, the reverbed deathly growls and the back and forth interplay between heavy and melodic: all elements that should be immediately identifiable to anyone who?s sat with Blackwater Park and/or Deliverance on more than one occasion (note also that Gwynbleidd formed in 2002, between the release of those two records).

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