Emerging Progressive Death Metal project SVENGAHLI recently announced the upcoming release of their debut effort, "Nightmares of our own Design." The EP will see release on Friday, March 6th. Born from the mind of EXIST (Prosthetic Records) bassist Alex Weber, the band aims to chart a unique course between all that Progressive Death Metal and Eccentric Progressive Metal has to offer when combined together. The debut EP contains four lengthy tracks.

"Writing on the Wall" opens the EP. It's close to ten minutes in length. You can tell a bassist composed the music right out of the gate, because the music features his bass playing prowess, and the notes are clear. The nature of the music is indeed Progressive, as they flirt with the meter effortlessly. The vocals vary from deep Death Metal to harmonic cleans. The guitar work is complicated, but also easy to assimilate. I get a bit of BEYOND CREATION vibe here, without some of the over-the-top bass work. Man there are a lot of different elements brought to the table here and no stone is left unturned.

"Nightmares of our own Design - Echoes of Prejudice" opens with some light clean guitars and solemn vocals. Gradually, it builds into a main structure with just a bit of melody leaking out from the borders. It begins its decent into madness and by the end of the song, it takes on an entirely different sound. "Nightmare of our own Design - Adrift" is a quick three-minute song. Opening with clean guitars that straddle that line between hope and despair, the mysterious sounds seem to echo inside your head. At one point the tones become positive and bright, but there is a subdued darkness behind them.

It segues into "Nightmares of our own Design - Our Hate Unified," which picks up with a marching rhythm as the guitar work from the previous track fades away. At first, clean vocal harmonies pour out, then comes the Death vocals as the guitars begin to build a different sound. It begins to build with layers, with that fantastic bass work on full display. This is an album carefully crafted and full of surprises. Alex Weber is a special bassist. You can tell he has the chops to really rip, but he keeps himself in check in favor of the songwriting and structure, and in the way he builds crescendos. The Progressive elements come in big as well. I only wish there were more music, but I am sure we are in for a full-length soon.