Instrumental Metal Of Late

So I randomly started listening to Kurogane Lab's Lightning Mirage album a couple of days ago, and it slammed me flat. Since then, I've been listening to a number of great instrumental metal albums that I've acquired over the past few months, but never actually got around to listening to. There's an awful lot of shred metal floating around, but what about some of the less well-known stuff? Here's a little of what I've been spinning. It should be noted that these are all recent releases:

Kurogane Lab

Lightning Mirage

I'm no expert, but this seems to be very video game-inspired. It's fast-paced, extremely energetic and catchy, and straddles the line between shred and Japanese-styled power metal. Don't let the silly anime cover fool you. Like most stuff that Japan churns out, this album is serious business.

 Keith Merrow

Awaken the Stone King

I'm not at all familiar with Keith Merrow, but this is a terrific album full of big riffs, excellent soft interludes, and a great knack for songwriting. I'd describe this mostly as somewhat groovy technical progressive metal, and I see that Jeff Loomis has a guest appearance. In some ways, I'd say this is comparable to Loomis's solo album as well.

Paul Wardingham

Assimilate Regenerate



This album is just awesome. Paul Wardingham is an Australian session guitarist, instructor,  and producer that has seen fit to grace the metal world with an instrumental monster. Stylistically, this is fairly progressive, futuristic, and there are definite influences of melodic death metal at times as well. Quite heavy and intensely satisfying to listen to.

Scarlet Citadel

The Scarlet Citadel

I can find nothing about this album online other than it's available to download for a donation of your choice over at bandcamp. For what it's worth, I recommend it. This is mildly symphonic progressive metal that has some neo-classical, prog rock, and even power metal influences. A quality album, and I wish there was more info available about this.

If anyone else has any recommendations on quality instrumental recordings, recent or not, I'd love to hear about them. These are all quality albums that are at least somewhat obscure, and I want more of it!