Has the best album of 2019 been released right at the beginning of the year? That’s not fair! Everyone else with a 2019 release has their work cut out for them, to stand up against Shuman’s brilliant sophomore effort: “One Day Closer to Yesterday.” This should be the album that makes them a household name - - at least in the homes of Prog Metal fans.

There’s a leitmotif melody that repeats, beginning with the album’s opening piano, that feels as familiar as if you’d been hearing it your entire life. The least interesting track on the entire album is the first full-sized one at track 2: “The Writing’s On the Wall,” which is still a pretty damn good alternate-timing Prog number.
Sometimes Prog Metal forgets to rock, but this album rocks, thinks, struts, feels, expresses, emotes, and provokes. Farhad Hussein and his compatriots can play their instruments with great skill - - but it’s never about that. Their mission seems to be mainly about intelligent and accessible tunes with genuine depth. “One Day Closer to Yesterday” is more of a straightforward Prog Metal piece than their first, which had a bit more diversity of style, but it’s certainly not dry or brittle or colorless stuff. There are still some flourishes of the band’s international roots, heard especially in the title track.
That one closes out the album as a 15-minute epic, their most ambitious song to date. It does feel a bit like it’s artificially lengthened (call your doctor if more than twelve hours), but the tune is still pretty great, and its best parts showcase why everyone needs to be listening to Shumaun.
In summary: you need to be listening to Shumaun. Just two albums into their young careers, they’ve proven to be true rising stars, positioned to shine the Prog Metal light into the future.