Metal
Willowtip Records · 9 September 2026
SUBMASQ — the Israeli collective known until recently as Subterranean Masquerade — release «Spirit Animal» on 9 September via American label Willowtip Records: their seventh full-length and the first under the new name. Nine songs, around forty-two minutes, and a name change the band present as the closing of a cycle.
Shai Yallin brings handpan and electronics alongside the keyboards, and the record shares space with guests who give it a colour progressive metal doesn’t usually have: Idan Amsalem plays oud and bouzouki, Matan Shmueli adds percussion, and guitarist Ron «Bumblefoot» Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses) contributes a solo. The result aims to marry melodic hooks with the complex structure of what the band themselves call «ethno-prog metal».
With so many elements on the table (tabla percussion, symphonic orchestration, three credited guitarists, four guests), the production eats into some of that space: on a record that deals with trauma, addiction and bipolar disorder in the first person, there are stretches where Davidavi «Vidi» Dolev’s voice sits further back than the subject matter would ask for.
Rating: 7.6/10