The Polyphia Be Not Afraid album announcement is the headline moment in this week’s Prog Tracks Of The Week, a round-up of seven new releases spanning art rock, Nordic folk-prog, post-rock and beyond. Congratulations first to last week’s winner, Spain-based guitarist Rodrigo Pagavino, whose high-octane instrumental Velomorph ran away with the vote, with Lonely Robot in second and IT in third.
Polyphia Be Not Afraid Album: Dark Rabbit Holes and a Formidable Cast
Polyphia have announced their fifth studio album, Be Not Afraid, through Rise Records, due out October 23, and the accompanying single Power In The Blood puts the Texan quartet’s six-string work front and centre. Guitarist Tim Henson approached composition differently this time around, singing lines aloud before translating them to guitar, a process that pushed the whole band to build on each other’s ideas in real time.
‘During the making of this record, we went down some pretty dark rabbit holes,’ Henson explains. ‘We kept coming across things that were so depraved they sounded insane when you said them out loud. Then some of the very things we had been talking about started appearing in documents released to the public. You can read that stuff and feel disgusted, demoralised, and completely powerless. Be Not Afraid is our response to that. Rather than allowing the ugliness of the world to paralyse us, we put everything we had into making something beautiful.’
According to Premier Guitar, the Polyphia Be Not Afraid album was recorded throughout 2024 and 2025 across sessions in Miami, Los Angeles and Dallas, with co-producer RJ Pasin and guitarist Spiro Dussias alongside the band. Producer and keyboardist Eric Caudieux helped keep the process honest, while the rhythm section credits read like a who’s who of session royalty: drummers Gregg Bissonette, Jeremy Colson, Kenny Aronoff, Matt Chamberlain and Mike Mangini all contribute, with bass duties shared between Billy Sheehan, Bryan Beller, Philip Bynoe and Matt Bissonette. For a band built on guitar precision, that is quite the supporting cast.
ChimpanA, Kalandra, Dikajee and More Round Out the Week
UK art rockers ChimpanA have teamed up with rock legend Andy Fairweather Low for their new single Eye For An Eye, a track that did not feature on their recently acclaimed album Music Is Art – Vol. 1 but instead leads a brand new EP, on sale now. The pair describe Fairweather Low as ‘a Welsh hero’ and ‘the voice of reason’, and the accompanying video leans into VR headset imagery to conjure what they call a ‘Matrix-like world’ of geopolitical unease. Kirstie Roberts provides the powerhouse backing vocals.
Norwegian folk-prog act Kalandra have announced their third album, The Other Side, through By Norse on November 13. New single Let Me Be Open draws on a notebook of vivid dreams kept by singer Katrine and bandmate Jogeir Daae Mæland, with the album exploring the subconscious terrain of memories, fears and imagination. ‘Let Me Be Open grew out of that feeling, the longing to loosen your grip, let go of some of the fear, and rediscover the sense of wonder you had as a child,’ Katrine says.
Nottingham-based post-rockers Eyre Llew, making their second appearance in Tracks Of The Week, will release their second studio album Bloom on September 18 through Penance Music Group. New single Everywhere showcases chiming guitars and what the band describe as a late-in-life love story, with a hometown launch show in Nottingham the night before release on September 17.
Multi-instrumentalist Dikajee has shared a video for Home Of The Wind, taken from her upcoming album The Frame, due November 6. The single features Within Temptation keyboardist Vikram Shankar, and the full album features a cast including Jonathan Noyce, Varijashree Venugopal, German Vergara, Guillaume Bernard and Christian Ayala. The track draws on her experience of relocating to the UK during wartime and losing her father: ‘I still want to follow my dreams and make art, and I want to follow my music, not fear and depression.’
French instrumental quartet Could Seed contribute a live version of Druids, recorded at Studio de la Fuie, lifted from their forthcoming second album Terminal, due October 23 via Klonosphere Records. Guitarists Jordan Jupin and Elie Chéron also play with HamaSaari, who recently played UK shows in July. And French quartet Hypno5e will release Trame Noire through Pelagic Records on November 6, the same day as a 13-album box set celebrating their 20-year career, which includes their 2007 debut Des Deux L’une Est L’autre on vinyl for the very first time. New single Molecular Angel is described by the band as ‘the turning point in Trame Noire’s trajectory’. Vote for your favourite at the bottom of the Prog Tracks Of The Week post, and the winner will be announced alongside a fresh batch of tracks next week.
