Hey there boys and girls! Didn't get your melancholic heavy prog-rock rock fix this year? Did Riverside's Shrine Of New Generation Slaves feel a bit too safe to your ears? Do you love Poland? And finally, would you be happy if there was another band out there who could out-prog Riverside at their own game?

If my inquisition begets even a single yes, then guess what? You need to dive into Votum and their 3rd LP Harvest Moon IMMEDIATELY! Because it is a MONSTER.

I had my fair share of pickings this year as far as heavier, alt-rock tinged prog goes this year, but none of them are quite as muscular, and dare I say it - haunting - as this release is. The first half of the album in particular, which runs from 'Vicious Circle' through 'Numb', is all killer and no filler. Every element at fore, whether it's Maciej Kosinski and his rich, strangely pure vocal delivery or the insidious bass of Bartek Turkowski, is mixed and mastered to such a sharp degree of clarity that these already excellent songs take on unnatural lives of their own. And if that isn't the mark of a truly special album in this day and age...I don't know what is.

And speaking of the songs, we're taken to a number of dark places lyrically, with death being quite a prevalent destination in many of 'em. Take 'Cobwebs' for instance - "A kiss, the last she'd ever give / Ain't it just as if we said goodbye? / The smile on her lips / As she melted into darkness...

Still, when every song is an earworm and the record in question has such excellent pacing that its over before you know it, perhaps we can afford to let some shadow in.