Norwegian progressive rock band ProgAtom have been building their sound since 2012, with two full-length albums – “Sagittarius A” (2015) and “Spiral” (2018) – and a handful of singles that have steadily expanded their sonic palette. “In Every Heartbeat”, written by keyboardist Arild Sveum and released in May, is the latest in a run of 2026 singles ahead of their forthcoming album “Iconic Pictures”. The previous single, “I Can Smell the Hay” featured guest vocals from Ukrainian musician Roy Crank from Kharkiv, which gives you some sense of the band’s reach and ambition. “In Every Heartbeat” is more inward-facing – a love song that tracks the emotional arc of the feeling itself, from quiet tenderness to full dramatic weight.
Musically, the band showcases their prowess and decade of experience through immaculate pacing, taking all the time they need to introduce the story’s elements, which manifest in various sonic layers – the intimate piano sound that accompanies the vocals, and the thunderous drums that usher in the song’s full emotional weight. The descending lead guitar lines and the approach to melody here are reminiscent of Anathema and similar progressive rock bands with a flair for the dramatic, though ProgAtom is infinitely less depressing than the former.
The structure of the track mirrors its subject matter deliberately – it begins as a piano ballad and unfolds outward into symphonic rock, which is exactly how love tends to work if you’re paying attention. It starts small, and then suddenly you’re in the middle of something enormous, and you’re not entirely sure when that happened. As a piece of musical storytelling, the architecture is doing real work here, not just providing a backdrop. With “Iconic Pictures” on the horizon, “In Every Heartbeat” is a strong indicator of where ProgAtom are headed.
