Changelings journeys through a veritable rainbow of progressive thrash metal lexicon that establishes Species as a modern great capable of genre worship and maintaining their own identity.
Release date: September 19, 2025 | 20 Buck Spin | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
I won’t lie, y’all, I’ve been hurting for good progressive thrash lately. It’s the genre with the biggest love-to-releases gap that I know, and ever since I dropped Vektor like a motherfucking bad habit, it’s been tough times. So when the first single for Species‘ new album came through courtesy of the unparalleled 20 Buck Spin, I was elated. Progressive tendencies without losing the speed, extremity, and bounciness of thrash; a sci-fi aesthetic, and they’re from Poland?! In the veins, now please.
My hype was tempered, but frothing, and I’m happy to say that Changelings was well worth getting excited for and diving into. This is fun prog thrash that turns the stomach from the G-force, where the band have an almost arcane connection to their own music to know exactly when to pull back and when to lean in. Even if you don’t like progressive metal or thrash, just one or the other or something, I’d venture a guess in saying this’ll still whet the appetite in either direction.
The power trio exude style, ripping fiercely into Changelings‘ beginning with “Inspirit Creation” and the single “The Essence”, two songs that form a riff soup with stomping drums and little time signature and pacing changes that I’m not technical enough to explain, but impressed enough to mention. Species are locked in when performing, weaving chaos with their instruments and pulling the threads altogether to form the songs without a single straggler or error. I feel at home listening to this stuff. I must say I love the bass solo in “Inspirit Creation” and how effortlessly the band shift from section to section in the most entertaining ways, whether it’s with a calmer instrumental break or a more traditional transition like in “The Essence” (there’s a reason it’s one of the singles).
“Waves of Time” is where shit starts getting real… real progressive anyway. Species get much deserved time to breathe, but the song is no slouch – they simply turn that time into a more opened-up soundscape for the music to linger and simmer with cleanly-sung passages nestled between thrashed-up flurries. All in service to a track about the planet-busting capabilities of unchecked violence and genocide against its inhabitants. The sense of progression that the trio channel lends a neat maturity to the music, something you can hear fortified in the instrumentation track “Voyager” and the more offbeat mad science approach of “Born of Stitch and Flesh”. I didn’t go through my 20s mainlining Cynic to not enjoy stuff like this, so enjoy it I shall.
After the cinematic “Terror Unknown” tells a tale of impending invasion, domination, and subjugation, we get slapped in the mouth by “Biological Masterpiece”, a name that’s a little too dead on given the quality of music at play. From an unconventional yet arresting intro to its many, many movements throughout the ten-minute runtime, this is Changelings’ crowning jewel. There’s tension built up which is then released by floaty and fun melodic segments, and stapled back on by riffs and punky drums as Species transfer all power to their engines. The band enter another flow state with this track truly saving the best for last and providing a dense recap of all their skills maxed out on imagination and dark whimsy. Just as humanity plays God in the lyrics of this song, so too do Species over their sweeping musical domain.
Suffice it all to say that Changelings is impressive. It’s the kind of album you can put on and trip out to (literally or figuratively), the galaxies in your own eyes mingling with the perplexing technicality and shredded shrapnel metal flair of the music in the air. Species have provided something incredibly tactile that’s best experienced yourself, not so much read about, but I promise if it hits you like it did me, its euphoric and blistering intensity is something you won’t forget any time soon. This is another massive hit for 20 Buck Spin and proof of the mettle these particular Polish pals carry deep into frontiers unknown to us.
