The Reticent - Please Progressive Voyages Review PV087
The Reticent - ‘please’ PV087
Charlotte, North Carolina’s ‘The Reticent’ has got to be one of the best of the least known progressive metal bands on the scene today. The band, consisting solely (at least for recording purposes) of multi-instrumentalist Chris Hathcock, excels in crafting an excellent mixture of melodic and harsh prog metal that draws from an impressive variance of influences. Bands like Tool, Opeth and Dream Theater are all recognizable in his work. But Hathcock’s “prog card” credentials stem from his unparalleled use of the concept record as a forum for dark ideas. ‘Reticent’ records are largely conceptual in nature, and deal with one subject throughout; usually broken into stages, with the tracks representing the various offshoots of the main subject matter.
Though Hathcock has released material under the band’s moniker on and off since 2006, his “success” has been more recent as The Reticent garnered a wider audience with the notice of 2020’s ‘The Oubilette’…. a fantastic and emotionally exhausting concept record that deals with a descent into Alzheimer’s disease. Using an hours’ worth of music spanning 7 tracks, (with each track representing one of the 7 stages of the disease) Hathcock takes the listeners on a difficult and heartbreaking, but very important voyage.
And that is the real rub, readers…. The Reticent doesn’t shy away from tough subject matter. Instead, it is faced head on and discussed and presented unapologetically and fiercely in a unique brand of “story-telling prog metal”. It is quite a thing to behold, and is a very rewarding experience for those of us who truly love the conceptual nature of progressive rock.
And so, we arrive at 2025’s ‘please’. This is a twisted, uncomfortable yet sincere journey through depression. It touches on many aspects of this disease; depressive states that lead to suicide; panic attacks; sleep deprivation; hopelessness; and even those who refuse to believe that such a thing as clinical depression exists. It is weighty in the extreme; a heavy burden for a soul to bear; and one would be forgiven for assuming that the journey isn’t a pleasant one.
But oh, how wrong that assumption would be. So….
Join me, won’t you? Let’s discover what’s concealed, ford the Night River, brave the Bed of Wasps, and fight the Riptide as we sail, track by track, through the dark and turbid waters that The Recitent has chosen to navigate.
Intake - we begin with an intro to the first theme presented… that of suicide. It is not a “song proper”, but is nonetheless dark and sad. The listener must heed the message and reflect on the serious nature of the subject matter that the record will be addressing.
Concealment (Those Who Don’t Want to Wake) - we now delve into the first real song…. a beautifully performed mixture of straight heavy and more metal-based progressive rock that touches the extremely difficult scenario of a person considering taking their own life; musically it is very reminiscent of modern-era Dream Theater, but it is not a copy. Melodic vocals soar over heavy riffs and pounding drums as the lyrics tell of the depression that overtakes rationality and sense. A monastic section in the middle screams “we are lonely here!” in an incredibly haunting fashion, before the music builds back to the ponderous, chugging refrain that is the song’s hallmark. We are then carried away in a raucous, storming wave of auditory bombast and the chant of loneliness ever ebbing and flowing. A powerful sonic portrayal of the mind of a person who just wants to give up on life.
The Night River (Those Who Can’t Rest) - this song addresses sleep deprivation. And what a beginning, with a frenetic, hectic guitar line and a strong beat that plays incessantly over great vocals. I get a hint of Tool in this track, and that’s a GREAT thing here…. this is semi-polyrhythmic and fast-paced, much like the mind of a person who is incapable of sleep, no matter how tired they are. Just excellent, this…. you can FEEL the agitation in the person’s head through the music. It is non-stop quickness in its construction and portrays, with great accuracy, the sense of turmoil and mind warp that this sickness deals a person. Fantastic stuff.
Diagnosis 1 - another non-song track that brings another sickness to the fray.… that of panic attacks. Once again, not really a song, but as with track one, you need to listen to understand where the music is taking you. It’s actually quite educational (and a bit creepy.)
The Bed of Wasps (Those Consumed with Panic) - holy moly, do we walk into a literal wasp’s nest here. While the vocals are (at least initially) of the growl variety (and thus not to everyone’s tastes, though I certainly do not mind them)…. I cannot adequately do justice to how well this song conveys the feeling of a wild, out of control hive of wasps intent on stinging you to death. While it is true that actual buzzing and hissing wasp sounds help with this greatly, the guitars and drums are purposefully frantically herk-jerk madness itself, and give a very real sense of the tumultuous panic one might feel in the realization that they have stumbled into a nest of angry wasps. You MUST listen to this to get the full sonic picture of it; trust me when I tell you it’s incredibly, incessantly, uncomfortably marvelous. You can see the wasps… hear them buzzing angrily…. Feel their beating wings…. recoil from their gangly, dangling legs and stinging abdomens. And as for the music that represents the panic attack at the conclusion…. Well, just be ready, that’s all I can tell you. It is a truly prodigious feat to be able to have the listener sense all of this through the music…. and it is deftly accomplished here.
The Scorn (Those Who Don’t Understand) - we now deal with the naysayers…. Those who believe that depression and its many offshoots are not real states of the mind, and look down with scorn upon those who claim these afflictions. Musically one of the more straightforward songs…. with alternating clean and growling vocals. Don’t let the more straight-ahead nature of the music fool you…. this is still a fantastic prog rock song. We then delve into a very cool, tribal-style section in the middle that beaks up the song structure nicely, and this plays with the song’s theme in a tête-á-tête between the music and vocals that carries us through to the song’s conclusion.
Diagnosis 2- another non-song break to give more information on clinical depression. As with the previous two non-song tracks, this fits well with the album’s concept.
The Riptide (Those Without Hope) - the track starts with the sounds of the tide, before noticeable chord dissonance immediately sets the fractured schism of moods for those without hope in the world of depression. We then delve into utter vocal beauty and clean guitars with synths accompanying in the background, saturating the air with a bleak and sad atmosphere. This is the album’s only “ballad-style” track, with no drums played, and it is both a needed and welcome change of pace (musically) and a truly heart-breaking take on a person who simply cannot break free of the clinically depressive state, no matter how hard they try. As with every song on this record, this track does a noteworthy job of weighing on your heart and welling your eyes with tears. So beautiful and real in its message.
The Chance (Those Who Let Go) - the last “song proper” on the record shies away from prog metal and reaches into the world of melodic neo-progressive. It is shockingly beautiful vocally, and masterful the way the vocals play over and through the soft music and repeating clean guitar line. A break in the middle…. with simple acoustic guitar and the sounds of a crackling record, serve as a (very) short reprieve before the music comes back in for one last stanza as the person in the song has made the terrible decision to let go and breathe no more. The music builds to a frenzied crescendo before cutting VERY abruptly (think Dream Theater’s ending of “Pull Me Under”-abrupt) and leaving us in the black void. Devastating and haunting, to say the least.
Discharge - the final track is one last non-song… one in which we hear of the inevitable suicide from the one who chose to let go. We then listen to the babble-speak of various discussions of the diseases before we are given a “this number is disconnected” tone. And the journey ends.
Wow.
Mother of God in heaven, ladies and gents, what an astonishingly phenomenal record this is. ‘please’ is easily one of the best progressive metal albums of 2025. It is poignant. It is of vital importance. It is beautiful and destructive. It is terrible and gorgeous. ‘The Reticent’ have crafted a masterwork that blends some of the most difficult subject matter you can address and does so flawlessly, with astounding music and aptly varied and well-performed vocals to create not just an album, but an auditory experience unlike any other. Hancock has become one of the best in the genre at using a concept album to effectively convey his messages through the music. There simply isn’t a second wasted…. every track matters; every sound has a purpose. The end result is almost conceptual perfection itself.
Further, I truly believe that even though this is technically a prog metal record, there is enough variation in the styles here that this can and will speak to, and be enjoyed by, a wider audience than just prog metal lovers. In that stead, it is not only one of the best releases of the year for metal, but one of the best releases of the prog genre in general. It is a massive leap forward in the maturity and growth of ‘The Recicent’, and it is a “must own” release…. I would classify it as essential to the collection of any serious prog rock physical media collector.
And in the future, when someone is crying out to you for help with their depressive state, make it a point to listen to them and take their plight seriously.
…. please.
For more information, visit ‘The Reticent’ on the web. Their album can be pre-ordered from Generation Prog Records (if they’re currently shipping to your part of the world).
Written by Christopher M. Clark