EPK – Entropist – The Vision (2026)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
“This album is the culmination of over a decade of work, and we’re excited to finally be able to share it with the world! It contains a personal story that I think many can relate to, while also containing a crazy esoteric concept, for those who are into that sort of thing. The album as a whole covers a huge breadth of metal sound. You can hear all kinds of different influences throughout, but it all comes together as what I consider its own thing, very much. Many of the songs are relatively long, with a good bit of complexity, but I think we’ve done a good job of making everything flow in such a way that it really just brings the listener on a journey. It gets really heavy, but has so many unexpected and even victorious moments that I think truly set it apart. I’m really proud of what we’ve created here, and look forward to sharing what else we’ve got in store! Solomon Smith – Guitar/Vocals – Entropist
For fans of Between the Buried and Me, The Contortionist, Meshuggah, Karnivool, Opeth
Entropistband.com | Facebook.com/EntropistBand | Instagram.com/entropistband
Entropistcolorado.bandcamp.com | Spotify
“Although this was a lengthy album, it was also one where you could feed off the energy of each song. Their musicianship, is second to none, and each song was carefully crafted to lead you through the journey and come out at the end alive, but definitely bruised and battered. 8/10” – Metal Temple
“Across eight acts, vocalist Parker Kitching, guitarist-vocalist Solomon Smith, guitarist Will Vinson, drummer Matt Gleason and bassist Jeremy Smith take listeners to some unlikely sonic places – “The Ritual” and “Revelation” — through off-kilter post-metal and djent.” – The best new music releases from Colorado artists in June – Westword – Denver – Justin Criado
“With their debut album, Entropist doesn’t just explore extreme progressive metal—“The Vision” redefines its boundaries.” – Music Waves
“What an amazing Prog Death debut this is, if you’re into bands like Rivers of Nihil, BTBAM and some of Obscura, then absolutely add this one to your lists! Rating: 9.2/10″ – Drako’s Metal Reviews
“Denver five-piece Entropist share their love of progressive metal across their debut, The Vision, released after a decade of writing and recording. Both old and new prog fans alike will recognize the BTBAM and Meshuggah-like harshness in The Vision’s maximalist aesthetic, but Entropist’s technical creativity and lively sound keep their vision from becoming derivative. Speedy, technical riffs serrate and chug throughout the album, playing around rhythmically complex drums and dynamic basslines that ring with gorgeous productive clarity (Thanks, Jamie King!). Of course, this heaviness needs to be balanced. Bright melodies take form in acoustic duets and high-energy compositions, showing love to prog’s gentler side. The vocals in The Vision both tear and soar, alternating between deathcore screams and complex vocal choirs; regardless of the style, the vocals serve to elevate the band’s sound and fit seamlessly with the rest of the ensemble. A melting pot of progressive metal elements shine within the album, and Entropist show off their ability to write technically advanced, yet straight-up fun music in The Vision.” – The Progressive Subway
“Progressive Newcomers Entropist seek The Vision through Creation” – The ProgSpace
“The Vision is clearly a very ambitious work… an extensive album that’s colorful, repeatedly arresting, and an effective representation of the fantastical narrative that unfolds through the lyricism… As a piece of music, it’s as eye‑opening as the cover art, initially mesmerizing and then exhilarating… These first two songs prove what a good idea it was to bring in Jamie King. The production displays an evenness of mix and a clarity that befits the talents of all the performers… So many things happen in each track, and each one differs in important ways from the others… Both songs are well worth all the minutes they ask of you. (on “Creation” and “Revelation”)” – No Clean Singing
“The debut album from this Denver band has created an engaging and thought-provoking display of Progressive Death Metal. Feeling like a mix of Between The Buried and Me, The Contortionist, Opeth, and Haken, the band explores so much of what can be done in the genre, while adding some really cool elements of Deathcore, Post Hardcore, and other genre-bending moments to make the band stand out among the rest of the 2020s Progressive Death Metal scene. The production feels flawless, and the songwriting takes so many twists and turns that it makes you excited about what the band has in store in the future. At 8 songs and almost 61 minutes long, this is a brilliant debut album that takes you from the heaviest of heavy moments to some of the most melodic moments you’ve heard in this style in a long time. If you think Progressive Death Metal needs a shot in the arm, Entropist is here to deliver the goods.” – Heavy Debriefings
“I have seen a vision of Colorado’s newest prog death institution—a supermassive black hole at the center of the Entropist galaxy, from which no genre can escape. In album opener “Intense Warmth,” elements of Hath‘s dense and dour modern death weave together with the bombastic, playful nature of The Odious, spaghettifying into a single entity sure to spark the synapses. From deathcore’s dissonant palm-mutes to “sunshine doom” in the vein of Lantlôs (particularly Melting Sun), The Vision‘s preview tracks flow through disparate styles with the songwriting prowess of scene veterans. While it’s impossible to please every demographic (see: DSBM fans), Entropist’s debut LP will likely appeal to listeners across the spectrum of extremity; in any event horizon, I look forward to exploring this expansive record when it releases on Friday. -Roldy” – Toilet ov Hell
“A Debut Worth Betting On Most weeks the top of this list goes to a name you already know. Not this one. The record I’ve had on repeat is a debut from a Denver band most of you have never heard of, and it’s outranking a Napalm release and a death metal institution to get there. Good problem to have. Entropist – The Vision album cover #1 — Entropist — The Vision (Independent) | Progressive / Technical Death Metal Denver’s Entropist drop their debut full-length, and it’s the most exciting thing on this list by a wide margin. Jamie King (Between the Buried and Me, The Contortionist) produced it, and you can hear that lineage in how the record moves: cinematic sweep and technical detail that never tips into showing off. Metal needs more bands working the progressive and technical space who actually have something interesting to say, and these guys do. The album cover is sick too. Start to finish, this is the one to beat.” – Weapon K Media
“Here we’ve got a fresh extreme-leaning prog metal band out of Colorado, trying to carve out their niche in a landscape stuffed with mesmerizing technicality and endlessly complex songwriting. It feels like they’re pulling a little bit from everything, with percussive riffs out of metalcore and groove metal, heaviness, sharpness and melodic traits out of modern melodeath, then adding sprinkles of avant-garde atmosphere, dissonance and Meshuggah-style rhythms.” – The Metal Dispatch
“Progressive metal, djent, deathcore and progressive death metal merge »The Vision« to a concept album lasting over an hour, self-released by the band. The Colorado natives are behind the debut Entropist, whose shared history began back in Greeley in 2013. After years of making music together, a temporary separation and later reunion, the quintet developed an album whose eight compositions function like chapters of a continuous narrative. Demons, celestial beings and an all-consuming emptiness form the fantastic level, while psychological stress, isolation, nihilism and the search for meaning provide the human antithesis. Producer Jamie King Brings this musically and content-ambitious construction into a powerful form without exposing the numerous details between the massive guitars.” – MetalUnderground.at
Band: Entropist
Album Title: The Vision
Release Date: June 26, 2026
Label: Self-Release
Genre: Progressive Metal
Location of Band: Denver, CO
Track Listing:
1. Intense Warmth (4:00)
2. Devour Us (6:34)
3. I Hunger (5:34)
4. The Ritual (8:36)
5. Desert of Limbo (6:04)
6. The Wandering (6:47)
7. Creation (8:49)
8. Revelation (14:12)
Album Length: 1:00:40
Album Recording Credits:
• All songs performed by: Entropist
• All songs written by: Entropist
• Produced by: Jamie King
• Mixed by: Jamie King
• Mastered by: Jamie King
• Album Artwork by: Shannon Bortfeldt
Album Band Line Up:
Solomon Smith – Guitar
Will Vinson – Guitar
Jeremy Smith – Bass
Matt Gleason – Drums
Parker Kitching – Vocals
Cecily Meade – Violin
Live Band Line Up:
Solomon Smith – Guitar
Will Vinson – Guitar
Jeremy Smith – Bass
Matt Gleason – Drums
Parker Kitching – Vocals
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About The Album Artwork:
The artwork was painted on canvas by my amazingly talented wife, Shannon Bortfeldt. It’s an impressionist depiction of the defining moments that open up the album’s story, as well as a powerful compliment to darker themes of dread and disillusionment that pervade its first arcs. I believe the artwork speaks better than I can to the intense emotional concepts here, and in the interest of leaving the concept a bit up to interpretation, I’ll simply say that the first few songs are told from the perspective of the entities seen there. Solomon Smith – Vocalist
About the album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
A powerful and visionary progressive metal odyssey. Largely through-composed, the album explores a vast array of soundscapes and flavors of metal to tell its intertwined stories. Solomon Smith – guitar/vocals
Track by Track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
1. Intense Warmth – This song is one of my favorites because it just keeps building up throughout the majority of the song. It begins in a relatively traditional manner with a clean guitar intro, but I think the moment the listener hears the walls of vocals come in, it’s clear they’re listening to something different. It’s got some big chords that come with a melodic bass solo before some fast double bass kicks us into the main riff of the song. The driving riff suddenly transitions into this huge breakdown before the song gradually cools off. The song is largely written from the perspective of one of the characters from the album’s concept becoming disillusioned with his world, and dreaming about the possibilities of changing it.
2. Devour Us – This song gives the listener a moment to breathe by starting with an acoustic guitar intro with a beautiful violin solo played by a friend of ours before jumping right back into some technical metal riffing. I think this is one of the more unique main riffs, with guitars jumping between unison and harmony parts with the bass while the drums hold everything together. The song then slows down for a bridge with odd time signatures and droning guitars, while Parker and I trade off call-and-response vocals before kicking into a faster, thrashy part. Everything stops for a moment as the vocals summon the void itself before Will rips this nasty but tasteful solo for the outro. Devour Us is where the album’s concept and connection to the real world start to blur a bit, relating to themes of struggling with seclusion, mundanity, and futility
3. I Hunger – A real crusher, this one. Meant to represent the voice of the all-consuming void, this song is arguably the heaviest on the album: a slow, sinister, and powerful wall of sound. It features heavily downtuned guitars and is largely driven by the drums and vocals. We actually wrote the lyrics for this one before everything else, writing the rest around, making it all sound as colossal as possible.
4. The Ritual – This song comes in with an eerie vibe, with the chords and melodies all creating a slightly unsettled atmosphere, accompanied by the sounds of strange creatures calling in the dark. We then dive into a fast, techy passage with brutal screams, blast beats, the like that culminates into a heavily syncopated breakdown where Parker and I trade off vocal parts. The bridge gives the listener a chance to breathe, with the bass holding down a pensive chord progression under lush vocal harmonies featuring everyone in the band. The drums kick us into a fun little part that brings us right back into the heaviness for the outro. The lyrics are largely correlated to the concept, but explore the unease and potentially devastating consequences of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
5. Desert of Limbo – This song is where the album really begins to diverge from more traditional metal sounds. The structure comes in waves, starting with an evocative clean passage in a deceptively pleasant odd time signature. We decided to get pretty experimental with the vocal melodies and harmonies here, and I think it came together well with the unique rhythms and chord changes the bass holds down. The song quickly gains energy and explodes into a breakdown with fierce vocals on top before flipping into this techy part with a tapping solo over a complex chugging from the rhythm section. We bring it down a bit for a tasty drum and bass part with some really echoey screams before transitioning into some duelling guitar solos. We hand it back to the bass and drums for a fun instrumental part that leads into a heavy, slow breakdown before the song climaxes with big chords and vocal harmonies. This song is really about both losing yourself in the trials and complexities of life, but also finding yourself through the paths you take.
6. The Wandering – The instrumental track! This one explores some of the craziest parts and time signatures and gives the rhythm section a chance to show off a bit, though we aimed to keep it as tasteful as we could throughout. It’s got tasty bass licks, fun guitar harmonies, tricky rhythms, unique chord changes and, of course, some sick solos. We love playing this one live, and it gives us an opportunity to mix things up with some improv.
7. Creation – The beginning of the final arc of the album. Sonically and lyrically, there’s a clear contrast here, the themes related to making something new and bringing about the world you want to see. This one starts with some big and bright-sounding chords where the drums give the whole thing momentum that drives us into some proggy intro riffage. This ultimately settles into a Parker delivering a meditative verse part where Will plays this tasty guitar lick over some percussive bass and drums. We quickly build it up into this powerful driving part with a combination of chords and djenty rhythms before taking it into the second verse. The second verse leads into a huge chorus part with soaring vocals and huge chords that climax into one of the heaviest breakdowns on the album. We bring it back to the chorus chord change for this gorgeous and victorious solo from Will before closing out with some heavy rhythms and huge crowd vocals.
8. Revelation – This song represents both the beginning and end of an era for me, to say the least. It’s about the elation of self-actualization, the feeling of having not only overcome one’s challenges and personal failings, but bringing forward positive movement in the world. It encapsulates and concludes both the album’s concept and the story of its own realization. It’s easily our most ambitious song, with all kinds of thematic and lyrical callbacks to the other songs on the album, the wildest riffs and rhythms, and just over a 14-minute runtime. The composition ranges from triumphant guitar lead harmonies to complex chugging rhythms, to spicy drum & bass parts, to soaring choruses. The whole thing ends in an epic and emotional passage that I think ties a perfect bow on the album.
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STORY ANGLES / FUN FACTS ABOUT THE BAND
1. We met back in 2013 while going to college in Greeley, CO. Solomon, Jeremy, and Parker were all roommates at the time, and our drummer, Matt, was our back door neighbor. We all bonded quickly over our love for prog metal and djent. We would carpool down to Denver for shows all the time and would always get together to jam new albums together when they came out. This eventually turned into us jamming together. Solomon had written a few songs at the time (some of which are on this album), and we ended up setting up Matt’s drum set in our living room so we could learn them together. We later all moved away from Greeley, and the music quickly came to a halt. Years later, when COVID hit, Solomon ended up rekindling the music. He hit everyone up, and we started getting back in touch with each other. Lots of long nights chatting in Discord, lots of sharing of guitar pro files, bouncing ideas back and forth. This was the start of Entropist. We ended up meeting Will through a mutual friend, which took Entropist to a new level with his guitar style and creativity. We had a handful of songs written, we now had a full band of devoted guys, and we knew that this had potential. Parker – Vocals
2. We ended up choosing Jamie King to mix/master this album because we are big fans of Between the Buried and Me and The Contortionist, and both of those bands have worked with him. Some of our favorite albums of all time were mixed by Jamie King, and it was a big goal of ours to make sure he got his hands on this album. Needless to say, the final product far exceeded our expectations. Parker – Vocals
3. We did not originally intend to have group vocals with all 5 of us members on the album, but during the recording process, we all decided on the spot that we should give it a try. The group yelling/chanting at the end of “Creation” was added on the spot, as well as the layered vocal harmonies during the bridge on “The Ritual”. Parker – Vocals
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Clockwise from Top Right: Solomon Smith – Guitars/Backup Vocals, Will Vinson – Guitars, Parker Kitching – Lead Vocals, Jeremy Smith – Bass, Matt Gleason – Drums
Photo Credit – Entropist
Entropist is emerging as one of progressive metal’s most compelling new voices, delivering a sound that vocalist Parker Kitching describes as “a love letter to metal.” Blending the ambition of prog with the weight of deathcore, the precision of djent, and the emotion of post‑hardcore, the band crafts a sweeping, cinematic style rooted in both technical mastery and raw storytelling.
Formed from a decade‑long bond between Solomon Smith (guitar/vocals), Parker Kitching (vocals), Jeremy Smith (bass), and Matt Gleason (drums), the band’s origins trace back to 2013 in Greeley, Colorado, where the members first connected as college roommates and neighbors. After years of jamming, drifting apart, and reconnecting during the COVID era, Entropist solidified its lineup with the addition of guitarist Will Vinson, whose creativity pushed the project into its fully realized form.
Their debut album “The Vision” marks a bold entrance, a dual‑layered concept record that intertwines a fantastical narrative of demons, celestial beings, and the void with a grounded exploration of mental struggle, nihilism, and the search for meaning. Written largely from the perspectives of characters within the story, the album is designed as a front‑to‑back experience, filled with recurring motifs, callbacks, and evolving themes.
The band’s sonic identity is shaped heavily by influences like Between the Buried and Me, Meshuggah, Opeth, and The Contortionist, yet their approach remains distinctly their own. Solomon’s intricate compositions form the backbone of the record, while the rest of the band shaped the material through relentless collaboration, late‑night Discord sessions, shared files, and constant experimentation.
To bring the album’s massive sound to life, Entropist enlisted renowned producer Jamie King, whose work with BTBAM and The Contortionist helped define modern progressive metal. His mixing and mastering elevated the band’s wide‑ranging ideas into a cohesive, powerful whole. The album’s visual identity comes from a hand‑painted canvas by Solomon’s wife, Shannon Bortfeldt, whose impressionist artwork captures the emotional and narrative weight of the story’s opening moments.
Entropist has already shared the stage with Nightwraith, So This Is Suffering, Eternal Bloom, The Dawn Chose Orion, WOR, and Fused by Defiance, bringing their intense, immersive sound to audiences ready for something both heavy and deeply atmospheric.
With a debut that spans genres, tells a sweeping story, and showcases the band’s technical and emotional range, Entropist is poised to make a significant impact on the modern metal landscape. Their music is ambitious, meticulously crafted, and driven by a genuine passion for the genre, and this is only the beginning.
Album Band Line Up:
Solomon Smith – Guitar
Will Vinson – Guitar
Jeremy Smith – Bass
Matt Gleason – Drums
Parker Kitching – Vocals
Cecily Meade – Violin
Live Band Line Up:
Solomon Smith – Guitar
Will Vinson – Guitar
Jeremy Smith – Bass
Matt Gleason – Drums
Parker Kitching – Vocals
Shared Stage with:
Nightwraith
So this is Suffering
Eternal Bloom
The Dawn Chose Orion
WOR
Fused by Defiance
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