Emerging Artist Reviews

Over Time: Progressive Rock Built on Movement, Muscle and Constant Change

by The Metalverse

Updated September 14, 2026

Overtime artist feature | The Metalverse.net

Over Time is an instrumental progressive hard rock trio from Split, Croatia, consisting of Alen Koljanin on guitar and composition, Danijel Stojan on drums, and Luka Brodarić on bass.

The band draws from progressive and classic rock, with Rush standing as an obvious progressive reference alongside the harder-edged influence of Van Halen and Led Zeppelin. But while those names help explain where some of the inspiration comes from, Over Time are at their most interesting when those influences become secondary, and the trio simply sounds like itself.

The project began during the COVID period, when Stojan invited Koljanin to jam in his garage. Koljanin arrived with riffs and compositions built around unusual meters and tempo changes, turning what started as informal sessions into complete instrumental pieces. Brodarić later joined on bass, completing the three-piece lineup.

That trio format is important to the way Over Time works. The music is technically demanding, but it rarely feels as though complexity exists simply to demonstrate technique. Odd meters, abrupt rhythmic turns and tempo changes are woven into songs in a way that often feels more like a change in intensity than an exercise in counting.

When listening to Over Time, their devotion to progressive technicality and classic rock ’n’ roll becomes apparent almost immediately. Rapid guitar trills, eccentric grooves and shifting rhythms sit alongside old-school rock production and a distinctly 1980s-influenced guitar tone.

What impressed me most about the rhythmic changes is that they usually feel natural. You can hear the timing and tempo move if you are paying attention, but those transitions rarely sound forced. Instead, they often create a sudden change in dynamics, pushing the music somewhere new without interrupting its momentum.

That is where the interaction between guitar, bass, and drums becomes particularly important. Music built around constantly shifting meters only works when the whole band moves together, and Over Time’s arrangements depend heavily on that relationship. The guitar may take the most immediately noticeable role, but the rhythmic framework underneath it is what allows the more complicated passages to keep their sense of groove.

Finding Their Own Identity

Among the tracks, “Overtime” is probably the clearest introduction to what Over Time are trying to do on their own terms.

It combines progressive structure with the directness of hard rock — heavy riffs, melodic guitar work, rhythmic movement, and enough changes to keep the track evolving without losing its basic rock character. Rather than sounding like a tribute to a particular era or artist, “Overtime” feels like the best snapshot of Over Time developing their own musical identity.

“Für Eddie” and “L’Zepp” lean more openly toward classic hard rock. Both have a more upbeat, familiar rock feel, while still filtering those influences through the band’s unusual rhythmic approach.

“Ode to Rush,” as its title suggests, moves closer to the progressive side of the band’s influences. It has a more relaxed character while maintaining the structural movement and technical playing found throughout the rest of their music.

Then there is “4 in 1,” perhaps the most overtly progressive concept of the group. The composition moves through four different tempos and also features guest keyboardist Duje Ivić, whose organ playing brings another texture into the band’s sound. The shredding organ sections add a different flavour without sounding disconnected from the guitar-driven material around them.

Across these tracks, Over Time manage to reference older progressive and hard rock without simply reproducing it. There is a recognisable classic-rock character to the production and guitar tone, but the constant rhythmic shifts give the material a more modern and sometimes more extreme edge.

The Challenge of Instrumental Rock

Being completely instrumental also creates one of the band’s biggest challenges.

Instrumental music — particularly songs stretching beyond four minutes — has to work harder to hold the attention of listeners who might normally connect with a song through a vocal melody or chorus.

Bands such as Polyphia and Animals as Leaders have approached that problem by making the guitar itself function almost like a vocalist. Their central melodies can become hooks that remain in your head in much the same way a sung chorus might.

Over Time take a somewhat different approach.

Their strength lies more in movement, musicianship, riffs, solos, and changing dynamics. There are plenty of technically impressive guitar moments, and Koljanin delivers some genuinely epic and shredding lead work, but I don’t always find those melodies as immediately memorable as the hook-focused approach used by bands such as Polyphia.

That is not necessarily a problem with the music — it is more a question of audience.

At the moment, I can imagine Over Time connecting particularly strongly with guitar players, musicians and listeners who enjoy progressive arrangements and technical rock. If the band ever wanted to reach further outside that audience, one possibility would be to experiment more often with recurring guitar melodies that perform the psychological role of a vocal hook.

That does not mean becoming Polyphia or abandoning what makes Over Time distinctive. In fact, their old-school character is part of what makes them interesting. A memorable recurring melodic idea placed inside their existing rhythmic approach could potentially make that sound accessible to an even wider audience.

Old-School Rock, Pushed Further

Ultimately, Over Time sound like musicians who genuinely enjoy what happens when classic hard rock is pushed into less predictable territory.

The influence of Rush, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin can certainly be heard, but Over Time are not simply recreating those bands. Their identity comes from the combination of those older influences with constantly shifting tempos, unusual meters, heavy riffs and the interaction of three musicians working inside arrangements that rarely stay still for long.

The result is music that can sometimes sound as though it belongs to the classic-rock era — only more rhythmically restless, more technically extreme and less interested in following conventional song structures.

For listeners who enjoy real instruments, progressive musicianship and guitar-driven rock that refuses to remain in one place for very long, Over Time are well worth hearing.

The band currently releases its music exclusively through YouTube, where listeners can hear “Overtime,” “Ode to Rush,” “Für Eddie,” “4 in 1,” “L’Zepp” and the rest of the band’s material.

About Over Time

Over Time is an instrumental progressive hard rock trio from Split, Croatia.

Built around guitar-driven compositions, odd time signatures, changing tempos, and the chemistry between guitar, bass, and drums, the band combines progressive structure with the weight and directness of classic hard rock.

Rather than chasing current trends, Over Time focuses on musicianship, real performances, and songs designed to develop and change as they move.

Alen Koljanin — guitar, composer/songwriter
Danijel Stojan — drums
Luka Brodarić — bass