I'd never heard of this oddly named band out of Chicago, Illinois, before their second album, A Land Long Gone, showed up in my queue, even though they've been around since 2010. As the album title implies, Professor Emeritus plays epic heavy metal with both traditional and doom elements. It's a style I'm generally fond of, but it has taken a few more spins for A Land Long Gone to sink in. The production is good, allowing the composition to evoke the sense of space and atmosphere the band is shooting for, the guitar sound is thick and chunky, and the vocals are clear and strong with a hint of emotional warble in the highest registers of the singer's range. There is so much to like, but it wasn't really gelling the first few times through, but after that it started to click. "A Corpse's Dream" is a great opener, with a galloping pace and mean riff, cuts like "Kalopsia Caves" and "Pragmatic Occlusion" slow things down and dive into the introspective end of the epic pool, and "Passage" is a track on which the singer really gets to lean into his performance. Influences I hear range from classic Candlemass and Vestal Claret to Crom and Iron Maiden's lengthy epics like "To Tame a Land" or more recent cuts from albums like The Book of Souls. I wasn't sure what to make of this album at first, but it sinks in the more I listen, so I would say if you dig epic heavy/doom metal, check out Professor Emeritus, but be sure to give it enough time to reap the rewards of A Land Long Gone.