Last Wednesday: Motorhead - Ace of Spades

     There's some more sad if not exactly shocking news making its way around the music world today, so even though I'm going to be guilty of doing a bit of time traveling by doing so I'm going with a Motorhead song in honour of legendary late frontman Lemmy.

     Yes, as you've likely heard by now, Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister was finally killed by death (that's a Motorhead song, for the uninitiated, not just me being flippant) at the age of 70. Lemmy rocked and lived notoriously hard, and unfortunately was one of those guys (*cough* Keith Richards *cough*) that honestly makes you wonder how they make it as long as they do. But rather than simply marvel at their resilience, let's remember to thank the gods that we get as much time with these characters as we do.

     Since I have somehow made it this far into Loud Noises without featuring a Motorhead song (hopefully my guitar teacher growing up isn't reading this!) your much belated Wednesday song, and Lemmy tribute, is Motorhead classic "Ace of Spades", the driving title track from the band's 1980 album. Raise a pint to this one, if your current situation permits. The metal world has lost a great one.

Last Tuesday: Between the Buried and Me - Melting City

     Whenever I'm looking for something technically proficient for a Tuesday post, I've got a couple of go-to sources that never let me down. One such well I visit frequently is the catalogue of Virginia's Arsis, but this time around I'm going south a state for a cut from North Carolina's Between the Buried and Me.

     Dazzling technicality is all over Between the Buried and Me's catalogue, but for last Tuesday I'm going with the epic "Melting City" from 2012's The Parallax II: Future Sequence. This one starts off with proggy fury, and even though things mellow out and get a little jazzier for a couple of stretches over the course of the ten-minute running time of "Melting City", there's never a lull in the top-notch musicianship. It's a bit of a time investment, but get to the end and I think you'll find it was all worth it. Go on. Click the link and find out if I'm right. I'll wait.

Monday: BEAR - The Falling Line

     Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays everyone! It's been a slow week or so blog-wise over here at Loud Noises HQ, what with the friends and the family and all the whatnot happening because of the time of year. But as always, we're going to get you caught up just as soon as possible, starting with a post for last Monday.

     I don't know if I can somehow get away with an alliterative angle for your super belated Monday song, so I'll just call it a djenty mathcorey kind of Monday courtesy of Belgian band BEAR. If your Christmas has left you in need of some pummeling heaviness, "The Falling Line" should do the trick nicely. And even better, the band released a drum playthrough for this one back in November, so you get something to watch to go along with those meaty, off-kilter grooves. Hit the volume, hit the link, and then settle in for the ride.

Sunday: Sylosis - Servitude

     I'm going to let alliteration be my guide as I try and dig out from the figurative snow that's built up here at Loud Noises as the holidays have sidelined me over the last couple of days -- figurative because much of eastern Canada is in for a very green (or greenish-brown), very mild Christmas. First up is a Sunday post from an old favourite's newest record, and conveniently it's doubly alliterative.

     "Servitude" is a spooky, doomy, mostly down-tempo number from this year's Dormant Heart by British band Sylosis that shifts gears in the middle for a thrashy solo section. Regular readers should by now be well aware of both my love for Sylosis and the justifiability of that love in the face of Sylosis' general awesomeness, but any of you who might be new to the Loud Noises party need to get on board, especially if you're not familiar with Sylosis yet. And hey, a Sylosis record would make a sure-fire last-minute Christmas gift for the metalhead on your list.

Saturday: Pomegranate Tiger - Stomp the Haunted Crown

     Are you a musician? Want to feel jealous? Pomegranate Tiger's latest album Boundless can help.

     This time around, multi-instrumentalist Martin Andres decided to keep Pomegranate Tiger a solo project -- literally. There's some guest bass work, and a string quartet, but everything else is Marting: drums, guitars, piano, the works. It's enough to make any metal-minded musician wish they could switch between instruments so easily. (Like our friend AJ from back in The Day could. We all hated that about AJ. It did make him a great jam partner though.)

     Anyways, Boundless is a solid slice of groovy progressive instrumental metal any way you look at it, but throw in the solo nature of the project and it becomes downright impressive. Have a listen to "Stomp the Haunted Crown" and be impressed.

Friday: Protest the Hero - Cold Water

     I hate to feature something as a Song of the Day that you can't necessarily go out a listen to readily without paying something out of pocket, but the guys in Protest the Hero have recently released the latest installment in the Pacific Myth song-a-month EP and I can't help myself. Sorry.

     Despite being brand-spanking new, "Cold Water" has a lot of classic Protest stuff going on -- high energy, shreddy riffing,  acrobatic vocals -- but it's also very much reflective of the focus on songwriting instead of riff-grafting that's characterized the band's last couple of albums. And just in case anybody still had any doubts about new-ish bassist Cameron McLellan, there's a mid-song section with a little tasty slappity slap slap going on, and there's some solid bass work throughout (and it's sitting in a pretty good spot in the mix, too).

     As I said above, this one's part of the Pacific Myth subscription service, so you'll have to shell out a bit of change if you want access to it as well as the preceding two tracks, but this Protest the Hero fan would like you to know that Pacific Myth has been worth the price of admission so far. Get in here and see what you're missing, OK?

Rage Against the Machine - Year of Tha Boomerang

     Sure, it might be the season for sharing, camaraderie, and joy, but that doesn't mean things will go peachy keen for you all the time. If any aspect of your life is grinding your gears on this Throwback Thursday, might I suggest a healthy, victimless target for your ire in the form of The Machine?

     Yes, that Machine, the one we all used to rage against in our misspent youths. We're all a little older now, and maybe our anger has burned low over the years, but if ever there was a time when the world needed a band to speak out against the status quo, the tail end of 2015 is it. So as another year winds down, and you settle into your holiday routine of merry-making, put on "Year of Tha Boomerang" from 1996's classic Evil Empire, raise your fist once more, and remember that rage can be productive if it's pointed in the right direction. Use that fuel and make 2016 your best goddamn year ever. Class dismissed.

Wednesday: Opeth - Hessian Peel

     Speaking as I was a day or two ago about bands I haven't featured here in a while, let's talk about everybody's favourite Swedish death-cum-folk prog act, Opeth. Last year's 70's-syle opus Pale Communion was pretty solid, but I'm still of the opinion that Mikael and the gang will be hard pressed to ever top the fusion of melody and metal that is 2008's Watershed.

     Like I've said before, I think Watershed represents the perfect proportional mix of Opeth's older death metal influences and its more recent forays into folk, prog, and 70's rock. Watershed is definitely a "start to finish" kind of album for me, meaning if I have my druthers I'd prefer to listen to the whole thing in one go, rather than cherry picking just a few songs from it.

     If, however, I'm forced to pick just one track from Watershed, which in a sense I am, this time around I'm going with epic late-album number "Hessian Peel". This eleven-and-a-half minute monster is a microcosm of what makes Watershed great: moody and mellow acousticness gives way to crushing heavy about six minutes in. If you want the best of both Opeth worlds, "Hessian Peel" should be one of your first stops.

Tuesday: Arsis - Martyred or Mourning

     It's been a while since I've gone back to make favourite Tech Tuesday well, so let's all pull up a bucket and quench our thirst for technical death metal with a cut from one of the genre's current greats. New album in 2016 maybe? Fingers crossed!

     I've been an Arsis fan since 2008's We Are the Nightmare shredded its way into my heart and showed me that fast and ferocious death metal could still be super heavy on melody and *gasp* hooks. It may sound like an oxymoron, but if ever there was a "radio friendly" tech-death band, it's Arsis.

     I don't know if I'd put today's song "Martyred or Mourning", from 2013's Unwelcome, on the radio playlist; I'll leave that up to you to decide. I will, however, say that this one's a great example of how tight and precise Arsis' riffing can be -- rhythm or lead, doesn't matter, James and the guys are always on point. I have no insider information regarding a new Arsis record (do I ever have insider information?) but with a 2-3 year cycle for the last couple of albums, even I can do the math and figure out it's been long enough since Unwelcome. Like I said, fingers crossed.

Monday: Watercolor Ghosts - Despondent

     Longtime readers will likely by now have picked up on the fact that I'm Canadian, and if I haven't here before I will now go on the record as saying I'm both very proud and very lucky to live in this wonderful country of ours. But based on my musical tastes over the last couple of years, perhaps I should have been born an Aussie instead?

     A week doesn't seem to go by anymore where I'm not hearing about some great band from down under, or passing that information along to you. Today is no different, so why don't you go ahead and meet Watercolor Ghosts, a five-piece from Perth that's a little more proggy and post-rocky/metaly than what might usually appear here for a Metal Monday. Don't get too down, though: tracks like "Despondent" from Watercolor Ghosts' recently released self-titled LP have a decent amount of heavy to go around. It doesn't hurt that vocalist Drew James Griffiths gives me some major Tool/Maynard James Keenan vibes (coincidental same middle name? maybe not...) and even better, he doesn't just sound like he's doing an MJK impression (believe me, I've heard/seen enough local bands with MJK-wannabe singers...) Check out Watercolor Ghosts and see what you think.

Sunday: A Swarm of the Sun - Deliver Us From Our Dreams

     Your Sunday post for this week is for those fans of post-metal's big buildups who don't always have time for a massive slice of epic slow-burn. Post-metal fans can still have shit to do, right?

     Sweden's A Swarm of the Sun feel your time-crunched pain, or at least they do with their latest single. Previously unreleased B-side "Deliver Us From Our Dreams" packs a whole heap of post-metal buildup into a mere three and a half minutes. If the Soundcloud for this one is to be believed, and this song did in fact begin life as a ten-minute instrumental number, that would answer the question of how A Swarm of the Sun managed to make "Deliver Us From Our Dreams" sound so damn big while at the same time raising the question of how they managed to condense ten minutes of bigness into the succinct three-and-a-half that we're left with. That's some fucking magic, right there. Have a listen or two and try to figure out how the guys did it.

Mandroid Echostar - Iron Hands

     A little over a month ago, we got our first taste of the forthcoming debut LP from Mandroid Echostar. Now we've got another track to mull over, as well as some preorder packages for Mandroid's Coral Throne and a release date that feels like it's practically on top of us already.

     The actual date in question is January 15th, so it's really more than a month away, but the impending holidays and end of the calendar year here in the western world makes it feel like mid-January is right around the corner. New Mandroid song "Iron Hands" should help get you through the last couple of long weeks that in reality remain between now and the release date for Coral Throne. "Iron Hands" is essentially more of what Mandroid Echostar is good at: slick-sounding pop-metal with just the right amount of technicality. Between this one and the previously released "Paladin", it seems like Mandroid Echostar might just be set to open 2016 with a contender for one of the year's best.

Friday: Killswitch Engage - Strength of the Mind

     Your Friday song this week is one of those songs that just kind of fell into our laps. We all knew it was about time for these guys to be working on some new material, and we may even have heard that some writing was going on, but I for one was taken pretty much by surprise when I heard about the new Killswitch Engage single on Thursday.

    Spoiler alert: "Strength of the Mind" does nothing to reinvent Killswitch's sound. If you were hoping that the guys would go all proggy on your next time out or something, I'm afraid you'll be pretty disappointed. If, however, you're looking for some classic Killswitch, look no further: "Strength of the Mind" combines some familiar-sounding-if-still-badass meaty metalcore riffing with the kind of positive message that Jesse (and Howard, really) has always espoused. A big chunk of Killswitch's catalogue could be classified as "self-help metal" without any sarcasm or derision. This one is for anyone who needs a little self-actualizing boost this morning. Crank it.

Thursday: Funeral for a Friend - Juneau

     I've been talking about "core" type stuff for the last couple of posts, including a mention or two of things sounding like stuff I used to listen to lo those many years ago. So I thought why not just feature something along those lines with an actual selection from my own screamo days gone by? Happy Throwback Thursday!

     I've talked about Welsh band Funeral for a Friend before, so all I'll really say about them this time out is that if you're at all a fan of this kind of stuff, these guys are a band you really should know about. This particular album, 2003's Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation, is one that received a lot of play with us when it came out, and your song today will still come out every once in a while when any of us are sitting around with guitars. "Juneau" first appeared on one of Funeral's early EPs, but the full-on, reworked version you're getting today was one of the singles from Casually Dressed. Put this one on and feel young again.

Wednesday: Piano - Expire

     It looks like Tesseract are back in the UK after their North American tour, so what better time to shift gears to another of Dan Tompkins' musical endeavours, international slice of awesome Piano. Last year's Salvage Architecture was another great record under the post-something umbrella, and silly me, I haven't featured a song from it since it came out. Oversight: corrected.

     "Expire" is a high-energy slice of melodic post-hardcore that's imbued with buckets of heart by Dan's vocals and the harmonies and back-ups of his Piano bandmates. There's even hints and flashes of technicality to the frenetic riffing-and-chording that really reminds me of the great screamo-type stuff I listened to in years gone by. I swear, I WILL convince each and every one of you that all those blank-core labels don't have to be dirty words.

(Bonus, Jonas: the link above includes intro-type prelude "Inspire" too -- if you just want "Expire", head to about 2:30 or so and enjoy!)

Tuesday: Hail the Sun - Mourning Sickness

     The entity that is Facebook (precursor to Skynet, of course) tells me that Hail the Sun are in the process of writing and demoing new material, which hopefully means that a new record is in the cards for 2016. In the meantime, remember how much I liked their 2014 LP Wake?

     Hint: it was one of my ten favourite albums of the year (go on, have a look if you don't believe me, I'll wait). So I'm pleased to hear that the latest demo sounds pretty tasty indeed. Rather than picking the new stuff apart too much before it's fully cooked, however, why don't we revisit Wake for one more look at why you should care about these guys in the first place.

     "Mourning Sickness" is textbook Hail the Sun, so to speak: high-energy, high-melody post-hardcore with a vocalist that sounds very reminiscent of Circa Survive (which isn't a bad thing!). The guys have apparently recently made the switch from Blue Swan Records to Equal Vision, so let's all hope they're in a hurry to get a new record out on their new label, OK?

Monday: Dave Brubeck - Blue Rondo a la Turk

     The more jazzy-minded among you (ie: anyone who looks at the title for this post and goes "yeah, I know who that is") will likely already have heard of the passing of legendary pianist Dave Brubeck last week, just a day shy of his 92nd birthday. The jazz virgins need know only that the world has lost a musical great.

     I've previously featured my own favourite Dave Brubeck song here at Loud Noises before, the iconic "Take Five". But even if you're not a jazz aficionado, there's a whole bunch of standards penned by Brubeck with which you might be familiar, even if you don't know it's one of his. "Blue Rondo a la Turk", originally recorded for 1959's Time Out, is one such classic, an experiment in varied time signatures that's instantly recognizable once you know it. Have a listen and get a taste of Brubeck's 'mainstream' jazz appeal.

Sunday: Baroness - Morningstar

     We're only a couple of weeks away now from the release date for the latest colour-coded album Purple from Baroness (what, you thought I was going to talk about something else that comes out in just a couple of weeks?) and the guys aren't letting up in terms of marketing and hype generation. "Shock Me" started streaming less than a month ago, and now we're getting what will presumably be one last appetizer before the main course drops on the 18th.

     As much as I really dug "Shock Me", especially after a few listens, the new track "Morningstar" is probably going to strike Baroness fans as the closest thing to older Baroness that we've yet heard from Purple. Meaty riffs and driving drums are the order of day here, with a buttery, effects-drenched solo that would sound right at home just about anywhere in the Baroness catalogue. An album full of songs like this one and "Shock Me" will be a tasty early Christmas present indeed.

Periphery - Pyschosphere

     It's been quite a while since I featured a Periphery song here at Loud Noises, so it's a good thing Misha and the guys have done me the favour of putting out a new music video for a track from their Juggernaut double album... right?

     The latest track to get a visual treatment is Alpha closer "Psychosphere". One the one hand, it is just another "live" playthough video, which means it's basically just Periphery playing the song in a room somewhere for six minutes or so. On the other hand, it's one continuous shot that's super-duper HD quality. Of course, Matt Halpern's over-the-top facial expressions are also pretty much worth the price of admission all on their own. I could watch Matt and his V-Neck play the drums all day -- the guy's a beast. Don't believe me? Check out "Pyschosphere", and then just Youtube some videos of Matt jamming and messing around. There's some good stuff out there.

Stone Temple Pilots - Down

     By this point in your Friday afternoon, most of you have likely heard the bad news that's going around the interwebz, but on the off chance that I am somehow your primary outlet for music news, here it is again: Scott Weiland, singer for seminal 90's band Stone Temple Pilots (and some other acts that, while enjoyable, weren't Stone Temple Pilots), has died at the age of 48.

     For anyone familiar with Weiland's history of substance abuse and his struggles to get clean, this news can hardly be shocking, but that doesn't make it any less sad that we've lost a talented musician and an important part of all of our collective musical histories. Listening to a variety of Stone Temple Pilots stuff today has reminded me of just how central STP was to my own musical experience growing up. I've since delved into some pretty wild and woolly areas of the world of heavy music, but even I can't deny that Stone Temple Pilots have an impressive body of work. I could probably name a dozen songs right now, from throughout the band's career, that I still dig just as much as when I first heard them.

     So let's pick just one of those songs to say goodbye to Scott. It's a tough call, I know, to pick just one, but I think I've settled on "Down", the opening track from 1999's No. 4. It's got a good heavy riff, a great guitar solo, a brooding atmosphere, and of course, plenty of Scott Weiland goodness. I feel like No. 4 doesn't necessarily always get the same love as the first couple of Stone Temple Pilots records, but the combination of the record's overall sound and the timing of its release (I was in high school at the time) has solidified No. 4's spot in the hole in my paper heart. You will be missed, Scott.

Thrice - Anthology

     Your Throwback Thursday song this week is, in a sense, more about throwing back (and a little forward...all will be clear in a second) to a band rather than to a song. You see, while the album Major/Minor from which your song today hails is only about four years old now, the band that wrote the song and album has doesn't much since, besides a few festivals and other isolated shows.

     But with the recent news that Thrice will indeed be releasing new material sometime next year, there's no better time than now to throw it back the measly couple of years to 2011's Major/Minor for the rocking late-album track "Anthology". This particular cut definitely does sound more at home among Thrice's more recent stuff than its older stuff (like classic The Artist in the Ambulance, for example) but if you're a Thrice fan, you've been following the band's evolution all along and are probably already on board with this one. I for one can't wait to hear what they put together next.
(Bonus, Jonas: the video linked above is a swell live performance from a Red Bull Studio Session the guys did back in 2011 -- enjoy!)

At The Drive-In - Enfilade

     It's been a long decade and a half since since post-hardcore legends At The Drive-In called it quits. It's also been about three years since the band last played live, in 2012. But it seems the guys will be getting back together for at least one more live outing, next May's Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio.

     Now, there is of course no current indication that this is anything other than a one-shot kind of thing, getting the band back together for a big festival. There isn't really even any reason to dream wild dreams of reunion and new material, especially since Omar had always been more or less of the opinion that At The Drive-In had run its natural course, creatively speaking, by the time of the 2001 dissolution.

     We can, however, still hope against hope, right? I feel like this might be one of those situations where fans' expectations are so high that anything would be a disappointment, but that's not going to stop this writer's wishful thinking. While I await the corresponding first flight of pigs to pass by overhead, have a listen to "Enfilade" from the absolutely classic Relationship of Command, if for no other reason than Iggy Pop's menacing ransom call at the start.

Scale the Summit - Oort Cloud

     Most of the time, the "tech" in my "Tech Tuesday" posts is shorthand for "technical metal", usually of the "technical death metal" variety. But we all know that technical proficiency doesn't have to be all 200bpm blast beats and sweeps, right? Sometimes, just sometimes, stuff other than straight-up metal can have chops for days.

     OK, so maybe when you're the guys in Scale the Summit "sometimes" is more like "all the time" but I think you get where I'm going with this. Scale the Summit isn't always "heavy" in a traditional metal sense, but they do always bring their instrumental A-game, and when you're looking for something a little less crushing that'll still impress, they should be near the top of your list.

     Even better, Chris and the guys seem to be cranking it out like clockwork the last couple of years, with a pretty stable two-year release schedule going all the way back to their self-released 2007 debut record Monument. The band's latest and fifth album V presents yet another collection of soaring and proggy adventure metal, but for your Tech Tuesday song this week I'm going with intricate affair "Oort Cloud" -- that little bass solo starting about three minutes in should be enough to get you through even the longest journey through space all by itself.

Monday: The Gabriel Construct - Ranting Prophet

     My usual Monday alliteration doesn't really work this week, as your song today isn't exactly metal per se. So, how does Monday Madness grab you? Because that's what you're getting in today's track by The Gabriel Construct.

     Sure, there's some moments of profound heavyness to be found on debut Gabriel Construct LP Interior City, but the truly epic, multi-instrument arrangements crafted by TGC's driving force Gabriel Lucas Riccio would probably be better described as experimental prog. There's a whole shitload of things going on here, with layers and layers of lush, dense, musical weirdness that runs a gamut of styles and moods. I don't know if this one's for everybody, but keep an open mind and you might just wrap your head around it. To help you along, here's one of the more straight-forward (not to mention shorter!) tracks, "Ranting Prophet". Headphones are recommended.

Soilwork - Death in General

     How do you feel about melodic death metal from the land of Ikea, blondes, and unintelligible culinary experts? What if said Swedish melo-death comes courtesy of one of the genre's most respected veteran acts? OK, I'll just come out and say it: Soilwork has a new video making the rounds.

     Reactions? "Death in General" is the latest song from Soilwork's 2015 record The Ride Majestic to receive the moving pictures treatment, and while the production values are on point, the idea of mixing band performance footage with narrative bits (especially those involving some metal chicks) isn't exactly earth-shattering. But the song is a different kettle of fish.

      Things start off with an energetic into riff before heading into a verse that initially sounds a little too 'rock radio'. But mix that in with the unsurprisingly big melo-death chorus and just enough flashes here and there of full-on death (my, those blast beats are worked in nicely, aren't they?) and you get something with some genre-straddling potential. If you're anything like me, you'll hit repeat a couple of times before you're done.

Saturday: Coheed and Cambria - Atlas

     That didn't take long, did it? Less than two weeks of on-time posts, and then I go and sleep away most of yesterday, putting me behind where I want to be on a number of projects both personal and professional. Fiddlesticks. Oh well. Back to it? Back to it. So: how're you liking Coheed and Cambria's new record?

     The Colour Before the Sun is a bit of a mixed bag for this longtime Coheed fan. For one thing, it's the first and only Coheed LP that doesn't take place in Claudio's Amory Wars universe, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except that I happen to like big, epic space operas. For another thing, the admittedly well-crafted selection of songs has a tendency to eschew Coheed's traditional, more adventurous brand of space prog in favour of earnest, more straight-forward pop-rock.

     Does that mean I don't like The Colour Before the Sun? (Great album title, by the way guys) No, it doesn't mean that, I like it alright, but it does mean that I'm going to try and pick what I think is a more Coheedy-sounding track for your belated Saturday song. To that end, have a listen to (the album version of) "Atlas" (not the acoustic one from a while back) to kick off your Sunday afternoon.

Native Construct - Mute

     I've written about Boston progressive metal band Native Construct before, back in the spring before their latest LP Quiet World came out. But now Quiet World is out there in our world, and the band has released a video for new single "Mute".

     It's basically a band-playing-the-song-in-a-studio-style video, but that's not going to matter to you one bit when you hear the song itself. "Mute" is six minutes of techincally proficient prog of the epic variety -- all the symph(onic)/synth touches make me think Dream Theater meets Between the Buried and Me at times. But there's more fusion going on here than that, and more laid-back electro-prog-pop grooves (how's that for an adjective?)

     Personally I'd say the strings are a little dominant in the mix at times, but that all gets washed away in the tasty jams of the last minute or so. In fact, "Mute" might just have the slickest little ten or fifteen seconds of outro I've heard in a while. Check it out for yourself, but don't just skip ahead!

Darkest Hour - Into the Grey

     We're just going back a few years for today's Throwback Thursday, but that doesn't make the song in question any less badass. While we're at it, let's call this a request for new material as well as a throwback, because Darkest Hour is just that cool.

     Darkest Hour also has a pretty hefty back catalogue, so when exactly are we throwing back to? How about 2009's The Eternal Return? I hope the sound of that floats your boat, because your Throwback Thursday song this evening is Eternal Return closer "Into the Grey", a track that I've always found works really well as a capper to an a record. Darkest Hour are a reasonably prolific band, so although their most recent LP Darkest Hour just came out last year I'm pretty confident we won't have to wait too long for new stuff. In the meantime, crank this one.

Skyharbor - Blind Side

     Key details like release date and title have yet to materialize, but Skyharbor fans have recently gotten another reassurance that work on album number three does indeed continue. And while previous single "Out of Time" was more of a grower for this guy, Skyharbor's latest offering hooks me quicker and deeper.

     "Blind Side" feels like it would be right at home alongside Guiding Lights standouts like "Evolution" -- it's big and melodic, with the right amounts of heavy and groove and emotion. To me, this is Skyharbor firing on pretty much all cylinders, and this is the kind of song they need to populate album three with. If they can do that, my copy of the next Skyharbor album will be getting lots of play.

Obscura - Akroasis

     If stereotypes in movies and on TV are to be believed, Germans can be relied upon to be both angry and humourless as well as masters of precision engineering. I can't really speak to the former, but the latter is on display in the latest single from German tech death masters Obscura.

     The recently-released song and video "Akroasis", taken from the upcoming album of the same name, should satisfy any fan of the genre. There's plenty of breakneck drumming, fleet-fingered sweeping, and truly slick bass work to be had here, and interestingly it all bounces back and forth between full-on metal intensity and something more subdued for the shreddier bits. I hesitate to call this accessible tech death, but I definitely think Obscura's got some cross-genre potential on their hands with Akroasis. Give this one a couple of Tech Tuesday spins.

Bisbaye - Gestalt

     There's all kinds of alliteration going on here today, as I've got a mathy Metal Monday from a Canadian instrumental band out of Montreal. Enough for you? I thought it would be. I am, however, going to apologize right now to today's band Bisbaye for not getting the accents right on their name -- there's a circumflex over the 'a', and an aigu over that 'e', if you're counting.

     Best not to though, because you're going to need to wrap all of your brain power around tracks like "Gestalt", the eight-minute title track from Bisbaye's latest release Gestalt. Both the track and the album display an incredible degree of musical proficiency, as well as well an incredible degree of musical madness. Think a proggy instrumental version of Dillinger Escape Plan and you'll at least have a starting point from which to approach Bisbaye. Start with "Gestalt", and if you dig that one, you'll be right at home for the rest of the record.

Hazards of Swimming Naked - Accept the Mystery

     Want to keep things mellow but would prefer more of a post-rock kind of mellow rather than the fusiony mellow of the last couple of days? Well OK then. Once again, there's a band from Australia for that.

     This time it's Hazards of Swimming Naked, an instrumental five-piece post-rock band that's all about the "slow-burn, big-build" side of post-rock. 'Cinematic' is the term I often see used for this brand of instrumental music journey, and that definitely applies here, especially where the band's latest offering is concerned. "Accept the Mystery", a previously-unreleased song for which the band recently did a live video shoot, takes a few minutes of atmospheric guitar-and-glockenspiel build-up to get going, but I think you'll agree that the trem-picked climax to this one is worth the wait. Check it out.

Our Oceans - Turquoise

     Let's ride the wave of jazzy, proggy goodness from yesterday's post about The Pneumatic Transit clear into the weekend with another post about a band with some mellow going that should still appeal to the discerning metalhead.

     Part of the appeal of Our Oceans might be their proggy pedigree: members include current or former members of big prog names like Cynic, Exivious, and Dodecahedron. But fans coming to Our Oceans looking for the same brand of fusion-infused metal might be a little disappointed by just how laid-back this project can be -- this is definitely a band you could put on for your non-metal friends and get away with it.

     But that doesn't mean there's nothing to love here. The whole of Our Oceans is full of pleasant melodic choices and cool bits of instrumentation (the bass in particular is a highlight at many points), but there are also flashes of brilliance to be found. One such shining moment is "Turquoise", a track that builds from a moody, atmospheric beginning to an emotionally-charged climax complete with thunderous drum solo. Just add headphones and you've got a recipe for some chills and/or goosebumps.

The Pneumatic Transit - Lioness

     I don't know if I'm going to make it a regular feature, but for tonight I'm making the executive decision to have today be a Fusion Friday. Get your jazziest outfit on and then buckle up, because this one's a doozy.

     Regular readers will remember my affection for Exotic Animal Petting Zoo and their unorthodox brand of diversely-influenced post-hardcore. Apparently one of those influences is -- or was -- whacked-out jazz fusion, courtesy of former EAPZ guitarist Jeff Zampillo and his new outfit The Pneumatic Transit. The latest from Pneumatic Transit, Concerto for Double Moon, is a mesmerizing example of modern progressive jazz fusion, with horns and strings and everything in between.

     As is so often the case, I think this is an album best enjoyed all in one go. But if you really want to sample things before you commit, have a listen to "Lioness" for an encapsulation of all that is most delicious about The Pneumatic Transit and Concerto for Double Moon.

Opeth - Beneath the Mire

     Time for a little Throwback Thursday action, and this week we're going back an even decade to one of my favourite Opeth albums for a nice, crunchy slice of metal-fried prog.

     I'm sure Opeth purists are screaming Blackwater Park at their computers already, but for my money Ghost Reveries remains one of the band's best. It came out right in that butter zone between Opeth's metal and prog phases, when they were in the process of going increasingly Rock but still had a firm enough grounding in Metal. Your song today, classic cut "Beneath the Mire", might be a little more on the prog-rockier end of things, and little lighter on the full-on metal than some of the other tracks from Ghost Reveries, but it's got its share of grooves and goodness.

     It'd probably be a pretty good idea to put this whole album on, if you're looking for something to listen to, but at the very least do yourself the favour of jamming "Beneath the Mire". It's eight minutes well spent.

Teramaze - Her Halo

     Fancy something slick and polished, something I'd call radio-friendly, that still has some tasty progginess to it? Once again, you've got Australia to thank for this one. Buy the next Aussie you meet a Foster's for me, OK?

     Australian prog-rock/metal outfit Teramaze have just released their latest album Her Halo, as well as a predominantly performance video for most-recent single and title track "Her Halo". Like I said, this band, and this track, are the kind of thing I'd love to hear more of on 'mainstream' rock radio. The chorus is certainly big enough for it, and the solo here is the shreddiest you'll hear today from a not-necessarily-shreddy-seeming band. It's not the heaviest thing in the world, but it is heavier than lots of stuff currently playing on that hypothetical radio station I was just talking about. Start taking some notes, K-Rock.

Baroness - Shock Me

     Before I get to your Tuesday song, I'd like you to take a look at the header for this post. Notice anything different? Maybe how it doesn't say what day of the week it is? Yes, that's right kids, after months (literally!) of being behind to varying degrees, I'm all caught up on Songs of the Day. Let's see how long I can keep this plate spinning smoothly, shall we?

     So, Tuesday song then. Sadly, it's not tech, but that doesn't mean it's not fun. The new Baroness record Purple comes out in just about a month's time, so it only makes sense that we're getting another taste in the form of new single "Shock Me". And while first single "Chlorine and Wine" didn't sell me 100% on the new album and the new lineup, I'm pretty much all in after hearing single number two. Energy, melody, guitars, drums -- everything's working on this one. If you needed a surprise, do yourself a favour and have a listen to "Shock Me".

Monday: Revocation - Leviathan Awaits

     Everybody and their mother's dog should really know by this point that Revocation kicks some serious ass.I've been in no doubt about this for a couple of albums now. But recently I had the chance to snag a copy of their 2009 sophomore album Existence is Futile (yeah, I'm still a physical media kinda guy, fuck off) and I've been jamming that shit hard for a few days now.

     You know what I've learned? Even in the early stages of their career, Revocation kicked serious ass. They were just as rock-solid back then as they are now. Whatever genre adjective you want to slap on them -- thrashy, deathy, techy, old school, blackened, proggy -- they all stick and Revocation does them all with aplomb. Need proof? Make today another Metal Monday, join me in the land of Existence is Futile, crank "Leviathan Awaits", and then rinse and repeat as necessary.

Sunday: Mono - Death in Reverse

     Cast your minds back, way back, to yesterday's Saturday post of the latest offering from The Ocean. If you'll recall, I told you that this monster of a track was The Ocean's contribution to a two-track split with Japanese instrumental post-rock band Mono. Since then, it's occurred to me that it might be a fun little experiment to check out Mono's track next.

     And here we are. Not to be outdone by The Ocean, Mono have crafted a similarly epic track, "Death in Reverse". At eleven minutes long, it clocks in just a couple of minutes shy of "The Quiet Observer", and even though it doesn't have any vocals (notice I didn't say that it "lacks" vocals?) it still packs a whole musical journey's worth of feels into its eleven minutes of slow-building burn. Don your headphones and prepare yourself for some chills.

Saturday: The Ocean - The Quiet Observer

     Add another name to the list of bands I wish would come out with a new record already. This time around, it's German music collective The Ocean., whose most recent LP Pelagial I named one of my ten favourite albums of 2013. So, follow-up time guys?

     To be fair to Robin Staps and Company, it's not like The Ocean have been resting on their laurels for the past two years. Touring globally is both time- and energy-consuming, and yet The Ocean still found time to record a split with Japanese band Mono. Sure, the Transcendental EP only contains a single song from each band, making it a far cry from the new Ocean LP I'm jonesing for, but what a doozy of a song!

     "The Quiet Observer" is nearly thirteen minutes of grand post-metal that starts with piano, strings, and subdued drums before gradually building up a head of the kind of heavy, proggy steam fans of The Ocean have come to expect. There are flashes of The Ocean's last couple of albums here, but for a big fan of Pelagial like myself, the running time of "The Quiet Observer" sees a similar musical journey play out; you might not find yourself descending into the depths of the ocean per se, but you will find that you've arrived somewhere very different from where you started. Clear your schedule and have a listen (or two) -- I guarantee you'll be glad you did.

Friday: Eagles of Death Metal - Complexity

     I've never really been a huge Eagles of Death Metal fan. Back in the day, when I first heard about the involvement of queen of the stone age Josh Homme in a band with this name, I was initially excited and then subsequently disappointed to discover that there's no death metal going on here (shocker, right?).

     This morning, however, as both a fan of music of every stripe and as a citizen of the world, I feel like it's the least I can do to feature an Eagles of Death Metal song as my own personal show of 'solidarite'. I'm sure by this point anyone reading this will be aware of the horrific attacks that occurred in Paris last night, the most deadly of which took place at an Eagles of Death metal show. Scattered and incomplete reports seem to indicate that the band made it out OK, but nearly 100 of their fans did not.

     I'll leave discussions of international geopolitics and debates about the validity of Western involvement in places like Syria to the experts, real and otherwise, that will undoubtedly be talking about this for some time to come. I just write a music blog, and some speculative fiction, so I'll limit my comments online to this: it is a tremendously sad thing for me to hear that people anywhere in the world cannot gather together safely and without fear to enjoy music.

     All of that said, your Friday song is "Complexity", the lead single from the latest Eagles of Death Metal album Zipper Down. Solidarite, mes amis.

Thursday: Buckethead - We Are One

     I know, I know, every time I do a Buckethead song for Throwback Thursday, it's always from 2005's collaborative Buckethead & Friends album Enter the Chicken. What gives, I hear you hardcore bucket heads asking? I know the bucketed one has put out an absolute ton of material both before and since Enter the Chicken (much of which I will readily confess to not having heard) but the combination of timing in my life and a great lineup of guest vocalists has cemented this record's spot at the top of my own personal bucket.

     So what song could I possibly have left to do from this one? Why, the functional first song from the record, the badass "We Are One". The combination of energetic, spastic guitar and energetic, spastic Serj Tankian has made this one a winner for me ever since I first heard it. Plus it's got a wacky taxidermy-themed video that's sure to give the faint of heart nightmares about reanimated roadkill. Fun!

Wednesday: Intervals - I'm Awake

     You guys should know by now that I'm always excited when I get to feature new music by a band I dig. The Canadian origin of today's song, fact that it's from an outfit that's just so damn tasty, and the scant couple of weeks I'm going to have to wait to hear the rest of this new album are all just various shapes of icing on this colourful cake. (See what I did there?)

     "I'm Awake" is the first single from the upcoming new Intervals album The Shape of Colour, and it's definitely got enough bouncy instrumental prog energy to wake you up and get you going. Fans of the band will likely know that the lineup has changed significantly since the release of Intervals' debut LP A Voice Within, but you can rest assured right now that primary songwriter Aaron Marshall is still going strong. Some slick and emotive lead work and some really interesting phrasing in the main riffs of "I'm Awake" have already whetted my appetite for the early December release of The Shape of Colour. What about you?

Tuesday: Novelists - Echoes

     It seems like bands with tons of groove and melodic sensibilities for days are a dime a dozen lately. But they don't always also come complete with tasty techy noodling like British band Novelists. You know what that means, don't you? Oh yes, it's Tech Tuesday!

     Novelists aren't a tech death band, or a band that's driven exclusively by instrumental prowess like Scale the Summit or CHON. But their djenty sound certainly has some interesting spice to its riffage -- more like a Monuments or The Safety Fire. All of these comparisons getting to you yet?

     OK then, let's let Novelists speak for themselves. Join me in jamming the band's latest track "Echoes", taken from their debut LP Souvenirs, which conveniently drops this Friday. I know that shreddy solo in the middle is guest work from one Pierre Danel, but damn if it doesn't get "Echoes" the Tech Tuesday nod on principle alone. Check it out kids.

Monday: Contrarian - Need for Apathy

     Often when I tell you that it's Metal Monday time once again, you might have occasion to roll your eyes, look at your watch, and sigh heavily at the monolithic monster of a song I've got for you. I don't have any data on this in front of me, but I'd be willing to say that your average metal song (or the average metal song from the styles that I listen to most, ie: not grind or noise or subgenres like that) is probably longer than your average song from another genre, maybe even considerably long.

     That's why today, dear time-strapped reader, you're in for a treat: I've got something technical and brutal for you that still manages to clock in at an even three minutes. Intrigued? Then give one hundred and eighty seconds of your day to "Need for Apathy", the latest release from progressive death metal band Contrarian's upcoming album Polemic. I'm of the opinion that it crams plenty of fleet-fingered guitar work and machine-tight drumming into about as much time as it takes to heat up a Hot Pocket. What do you think?

Sunday: Cold Night for Alligators - Followers

     The truly international nature of metal is something that always warms the cockles of my wizened old heart. There's good shit cropping up everywhere, and one of my goals here at Loud Noises is to bring some of that good shit from whichever neck of the woods it originates in to whichever corner of the forest you happen to inhabit. I'm just a nice guy like that.

     This is why I'm pleased today to be able to point you in the direction of something from the (somewhat) less traditionally 'metal' European country of Denmark. Cold Night for Alligators (what a name, eh?) might sound a little too generically djenty for you at first blush, but give single "Followers" a chance and it'll throw some big, hooky choruses at you too. And some nice chunky grooves, with some vaguely proggy timings in there. Oh, and a bit of jazzy noodling too, leading up to a big ol' breakdowny outro.

     I'm sure there are some among you (many, perhaps) that are experiencing a bit of "djent fatigue" with me lately. But if it really bugs you, hold your nose, call "Followers" a slice of melodic tech-prog, and then dive right in! Cold Night for Alligators has another single dropping soon, and an album Daydream following behind that, just in case you like what you hear.

Saturday: The Drowned God - Mezzanine

     After "yesterday's" relatively polished and, in a sense, sparse production (don't worry, I'll explain in a second), I hope you're ready for some dense chaos, because that's what you're going to get from your Saturday song by The Drowned God.

     If I were throwing darts at my "metal genre label" dartboard, the ones marked "The Drowned God" would probably land in the "post-metal" segment of the board, or maybe the "post-hardcore" section. But those darts wouldn't be telling you the whole story, because there's a lot happening on The Drowned God's latest EP The Ebony Void. There are blackened and doomy elements, grimy distorted vocals, heady doses of ambiance and atmosphere, and like I said above, a dense and chaotic sonic maelstrom. Interested?

     There are only three beefy tracks on The Ebony Void, so I'm going to pull a me and start you with track one, "Mezzanine". Put some headphones on for this one, please.

Friday: Mandroid Echostar - Paladin

     You might have already had the chance to check out the latest from friends of the blog Mandroid Echostar, since the new single "Paladin" was unleashed upon the world last Friday. But, being a couple of days behind as I always am, I thought the Mandroid jam might make the perfect belated Friday post.

     If you're ahead of me on this one, good for you. But if you're not, here's what you're in store for: "Paladin" sounds a little darker than much of Mandroid's work, but the band's top-notch musicianship and songwriting skills are still very much in evidence, from the pummeling introductory twin-guitar riff to the big, hooky choruses, to that soaring outro that feels like it should just fade into the sunset.

     If "Paladin" is any indication, the upcoming new Mandroid Echostar doesn't seem like it'll be worlds apart from previous Mandroid material -- no unexpected forays into throat singing or Finnish blackened speed folk or whatever. But that's perfectly fine by me, because it does sound like it'll be more of the tasty Mandroid goodness that even two admittedly solid EPs just couldn't deliver enough of. "Paladin" sounds like the guys have taken what they already do, and just decided to do it better, more, and longer. I'm on board for a debut Mandroid LP like that, how about you?

Thursday: Trivium - Kirisute Gomen

     Longtime Trivium fans seem to be somewhat divided on the subject of the band's more recent offerings, and understandably so: their last three albums have, in this writer's humble opinion, been hit or miss, at best. But I think even the most jaded Trivium fan would agree that the band's last great record, and arguably its best, is still 2008's Shogun.

     Personally, I still have a soft spot in my beard for 2005's Ascendancy, both because that was the album that introduced me to Matt Heafy and Company, and because that was back when I was first getting into Metal with a fucking capital M (and yes, I know, purists among you might argue that Trivium is anything but straight-up metal, but whatever). But even I can appreciate the fact that Shogun represents Trivium firing on all cylinders: they took the energy and intensity of Ascendancy and alloyed it with the chops and songwriting skills they honed with 2006's overindulgent The Crusade.

     The result is a collection of tracks that strikes a balance between heavy and melodic, rife with metaphor and symbolism and mythological references, and complete with some tasty riff and leads for the discerning air guitarists out there. Since I like to start at the start, and since its title is a badass phrase from the history of feudal Japan, I'm throwing it back to album-opener "Kirisute Gomen" for your belated Thursday post. Exercise your right to cut and leave and crank this one.

Wednesday: The Dear Hunter - Is There Anybody Here?

     Regular readers will know by now that, although this is ostensibly a blog about heavier music, when I find something that's good, I calls 'em like I sees 'em whether it's metal or not. If your musical taste is, shall we say, more limited, hopefully I've been able to teach you that there's good stuff out there in virtually every genre. If, however, this is a lesson you've yet to absorb, I've got just the band for you.

     The aforementioned regular readers (I know you exist, I just know it!) should at least have heard the name The Dear Hunter before, but for the latecomers: singer-songwriter Casey Crescenzo started genre-spanning prog rock act The Dear Hunter as a side project while he was in post-hardcore outfit The Receiving End of Sirens. Unfortunately, the promising Sirens have since broken up, but the silver lining to that cloud is that The Dear Hunter has become Casey's main project -- and what a project it's been!

     So far, The Dear Hunter's catalogue includes four album-length "acts" of a planned six-act/album arc, the Colour Spectrum album/set of EPs, the 2013 "one-off" album Migrant, a couple of live albums, and a handful of other EPs -- all in the last ten years or so. Busy guy, right? Even better than Casey's prolific productivity is his wide-ranging creativity: it might not be metal, but The Dear Hunter songs always have enough cool bits to keep even metalheads like me interested. Case in point: "Is There Anybody Here?", taken from The Dear Hunter's latest record Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise, a melancholy, dreamy, downtempo kind of number that morphs into a big rocking guitar solo towards the end, reminiscent of classic rock legends like Pink Floyd. Appetite whetted yet? Thought so. Check it out.

Tuesday: Arkaik - Digital Shroud

     It's belated Tech Tuesday time, but don't worry, it's not going to be another Arsis or The Faceless track. No, I've got something new for you today, courtesy of California tech-death act Arkaik and their new record Lucid Dawn.

     Generally speaking, Lucid Dawn is a tech-death fan's dream, with blistering riffing and drumming sitting comfortably along side crusty vocals and just enough proggy tendencies to spice things up nicely. Your Tech Tuesday track "Digital Shroud" is no exception, with furious energy giving way to an avante garde-sounding bass solo that leads back into a relentless finish. Crushing and technical, Arkaik and Lucid Dawn are definitely worth a listen or two for fans of the genre.

Monday: SikTH - Philistine Philosophies

     If you're a fan of anything in the djenty progressive metal subgenre, and you don't know British band Sikth, it's time for a history lesson. This whole sound is most often attributed to the influence of Meshuggah, but if a second band is ever named as being pivotal to this particular scene, there's a pretty good chance that second band is Sikth.

     You can be forgiven a little bit if, like me, you're less familiar with Sikth than you should be; the band has been broken up since 2008 or so. Or had been broken up, I should perhaps say, as Sikth is back together and crowdfunding a new EP Opacities. Old and new fans alike would do well to check out the single from said EP, heavy groover "Philistine Philosophies", which has everything SikTH is great at: chunky, heavy riff and grooves that are techy without being too over the top; tons (tonnes?) of melody; a dual vocalist assault, of which half will definitely remind newcomers of Korn's Jon Davis at times.

     Like I said, not being a longtime fan of SikTH from back in the day myself, I can't say whether or not "Philistine Philosophies" lives up to my long-held expectations. But being a newer fan of the band, I can safely say that this track is rock solid, and that it bodes well for the rest of Opacities. There's no better time than now to get into these guys, so get a move on!

Sunday: Left to the Wolves - Slave: Mother Earth

     If, like me, you grew up listening to any form of blank-core (ie: metalcore, deathcore, emocore, what have you...) there's a decent chance you still like to put some of that kind of thing on from time to time. Maybe you always go back to the same old stuff you love, but maybe, like me, you also enjoy discovering new acts doing some aspect of the genre/subgenre well.

     We've been over this idea before (ie: new takes on old core sounds) but it's a concept I like to revisit anytime I come across something that fits just right, like Kentucky's Left to the Wolves. The latest release from Left to the Wolves, In the Absence of Humanity, combines deathcore riffing and drumming with some melodic groove and some blackened feel and atmosphere -- think Gojira if the fanatical Frenchmen were less into groove and feel and more into crushing core brutality.

     Your Sunday song "Slave: Mother Earth" probably isn't going to blow you away with its extreme technicality or progressiveness, but if you want something with a good amount of meaty heaviness to it, Left to the Wolves might be right up your alley. Check them out.

Saturday: Sound Struggle - Strongth

     Microtheme time, so pile in the car and let's all head to Beantown. Remember how the Cradle of Liberty was also the birthplace of yesterday's "Friday" band, instrumental outfit Chronologist? Well your Saturday song was also born in Boston, so settle in for a sample of the diverse and technically proficient prog of Sound Struggle.

     The guys in Sound Struggle got together at Boston's famed Berklee College of Music, so you know there's some technical ability in the room. But on their latest LP Rise, these six dudes have managed not only to show their chops but also to demonstrate that they can craft a mean mess of proggy jazz fusion -- complete with synths and sax -- that's still capable of being heavy as fuck.

     I really don't know where to start you on this one, so you're going to start at the start. Logical right? That makes your official Saturday song for last week Sound Struggle's "Strongth", but buckle up kids, because this time around the link's for a while album stream. So enjoy "Strongth" and then brace yourself for the rest of the madness and badness that is Rise.

Friday: Chronologist - Bazooka

     Besides Sylosis (look at this segue, would you?) another thing you guys should know I'm into by now is proggy instrumental stuff. I say this now to any budding young musicians out there: if you're in a band that's writing some cool stuff, but you don't have a vocalist, and you're looking for something that fits your sound, consider that maybe your sound might be best without vocals entirely.

     Case in point: Boston's Chronologist manage to craft killer grooves and sprinkle them with such buttery smooth lead work that no words are necessary to draw the listener in. Even the biggest fan of soaring Bruce Dickinson-esque metal vocals or Corpsegrinder-style gutturals should find enough tasty riffage here to make them forgive the lack of vocals.

     To this end (ie: converting more of you to the wordless dark side that is instrumental) I'm suggesting you start with Chronologist's "Bazooka" from their four-track demo/EP from the summer of 2014. Why this particular track? Straight up groove for days, that's why.

Thursday: Sylosis - Turbulence

     If you guys aren't aware by this point that I love British neo-thrash band Sylosis, you haven't been paying attention. Last time I did a Sylosis Throwback Thursday, I was demonstrating that they had some chops as early as their first EP back in 2006. Your belated Throwback from last week could be considered exhibit B in my ongoing "Sylosis is awesome" proof.

     "Turbulence" is taken from the 2008 Sylosis EP The Supreme Oppressor, the band's second EP and its second crack at a vocalist. But even with the lineup instability on the first couple of Sylosis releases, the core badassery is there: tight riffing, a hefty dose of melody, and some nice shreddy leads. Did someone say leads? I defy anyone to keep their horns out of the air when the solo in "Turbulence" kicks up a notch about halfway through. Tasty.

Wednesday: Cloudkicker - Emfargo

     Everyone's favourite American one-man instrumental prog outfit Cloudkicker is back with a new record (I say American so you don't get your hopes up about new Chimp Spanner...). If you know what's good for you, you should check out Woum in its entirety, front to back, at least a couple of times. It's an album that's meant be immersed in -- headphones are a must.

     But just in case you're in a rush, I'll take up the difficult task of directing you towards an interesting individual track for your consideration. And while there's a couple of choices that stuck out to me on my first few listens to Woum, I feel pretty confident in pointing you towards "Emfargo", an intricate little experiment in echoes, loops, and layers. Get caught up in this one.

Tuesday: Enter Shikari - Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour

     I haven't done a Techno Tuesday in a while, so let this much belated post be one of those electronic affairs. And yes, before you electro-junkies jump on me, I'm aware that every time I use this band for this type of post, I'm stretching to use the word Techno, but alliteration, right?

     Regular readers will know that I often go to the Enter Shikari well when I want something sorta heavy with a dash of electronic content, and devoted readers might recall the trivia tidbit that my favourite Shikari record is still 2007's Take to the Skies. That means another cut from Skies for your Techno Tuesday track, and this time out it's "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour". So put this one on and then cross your fingers about that title...

Monday: Twelve Foot Ninja - One Hand Killing

     It's been a while since we've much of anything from djenty Australian groove-prog outfit Twelve Foot Ninja, but that's apparently been because, in addition to doing mucho touring, they've been working on some new material. Joy!

     Much of that new material has yet to be put to tape (er, hard drive?), with Twelve Foot Ninja currently running a crowdfunding campaign to fund recording in the hopes of a 2016 release. But in an effort to drum up some support for said sophomore record and its funding process, the guys have just released weird and wacky single "One Hand Killing" as a taste of the new stuff. To these ears it definitely sounds evolutionary in the best possible ways -- more groovy riffage, more interesting instrumentation (dose keyboards at the end...), more musical variety... just more tasty. This new record could be one next year's best, so have a listen to the future today!

Sunday: A Dark Orbit - Floating Intact

     Most of the time, most of us are probably pretty over the whole "djent" sound/trend/movement/whatever. Sure, some of us have our favourites, but generally speaking many of us are ready to move on now. There are, however, a bunch of bands out there doing the sound well, or doing something just a little different with the sound, and sometimes you're just in the mood for something big and chunky.

     This one's for those big and chunky times. I'm not a big A Dark Orbit fan or anything, but I am a big fan of British label Basick Records, so anytime they're stoked about a band's new release, I take notice and I give that shit some spins. In this case, that shit is A Dark Orbit's latest single "Floating Intact" from their forthcoming record Inverted, and it is both big and chunky. I do have to give it the usual stamp of "nothing mind-blowing or wheel-reinventing here", but if you've got a hankering for some grimy, djenty chunk that'll stomp all over you, it seems A Dark Orbit have got you covered.

Saturday: Slipknot - AOV

     Were you, like me, pleasantly surprised with how good Slipknot's last record was? After the mixed bag that was All Hope is Gone, I didn't know what to expect from .5: The Gray Chapter. I certainly didn't expect the level of kick-ass that I got.

     Slipknot has always been a volatile set of relationships, something that only seems to have gotten more and more true as the years and albums have piled up. With a couple of the original nine now gone, perhaps the most important of which being bassist Paul Gray, it's hard to know how much gas Slipknot have left in their collective tank. Factor in the time Slipknot traditionally takes between albums, and it would seem that their alums may well be numbered.

     So let's celebrate the return to form the band accomplished with .5: The Gray Chapter by jamming heavy rager "AOV" at a decent volume, OK?

Friday: Mammoth - Innate

     Imagine an progressive instrumental band like Scale the Summit, only a three-piece. But now imagine they're a little more... bonkers... than your average Scale the Summit--like. Really all over the map, stylistically, but in the best possible ways. Now go to sleep thinking about that band.

     The wacky dreams you'll have might well include your Friday band Mammoth, which comes to my attention via a Facebook recommendation from Martin of Pomegranate Tiger. Have a listen or two to "Innate" from Mammoth's recent (back in May) EP of the same name (Innate) and I bet you'll be right there with me thanking Martin for sharing his good taste with us. If you're into instrumental stuff, Mammoth has got it all; go find out for yourself.

Thursday: East of the Wall - Scumbrella

     Your belated posted for last Thursday is both throwback and look forward: the song itself is from a three-way split from 2009, but it's also from a band that needs to hurry up and release a new record already. Sure, East of the Wall have done another split EP or two recently, and sure, Facebook tells me that they're tracking demos for their next album. But it still feels like it's been forever since Redaction Artifacts, even if 2013 wasn't so long ago as all that.

     So maybe we'll get some new straight-up East of the Wall in 2016, but for today (or last Thursday) we're going to go back to the aforementioned 2009 three-way split that East of the Wall was on with Year of No Light and Rosetta (solid line-up, right?) for the three-part instrumental minisuite "Scumbrella". It's a funky, weird piece of work with all the angularity and density you'd expect from something East of the Wall.

Wednesday: Protest the Hero - Ragged Tooth

     It hasn't been very long at all since the last time I featured a Protest the Hero song here at Loud Noises, but those of you who follow the band know that they've recently announced a new project that I would be very remiss not to mention. The downside, of course, is that I can't link to this one for you this time.

     The reason for this is the nature of Protest's new endeavour: Pacific Myth is a brand-spanking new subscription service the boys are launching, with the first content being a new song a month for the next sixth months (or at least that's how I understand it). But this is more than just a stretched-out EP with a few crowdfunder-style perks thrown on top -- this seems to be how the guys are going to distribute new material going forward.

     So yet again Protest the Hero is trying something new to removed the middleman from the delivery of their music to their fans. The first new Pacific Myth track, "Ragged Tooth", is available now, but the catch is you've got to subscribe to Pacific Myth on Bancamp. The un-catch is that the price starts at twelve American greenbacks, which is a pretty good deal for some new Protest material if you ask me.

     Oh, and "Ragged Tooth" slays. Almost forgot to mention that....

Tuesday: Pomegranate Tiger - Cyclic

     You know I love it when new music falls into my lap, and I love it even more when that new music comes from a band that I've been looking forward to hearing new material from. But the best case scenario is when new music from a band I dig falls into my lap... and it's badass. Fortune smiles on us today, my friends.

     The name Pomegranate Tiger should already be familiar to you, if not from the proggy and technically proficient brand of instrumental metal to be found on their debut LP Entities then at least for the e-mail Q&A Matt and Martin did for me back in July of 2014 (Thanks again, guys!). It looks like Martin's multitasking as the main musician in the group even more than last time out, but that hasn't slowed him down one bit!

     If you want some proof that killer instrumental prog can be crafted by an individual (and you don't have time to wait for the next Chimp Spanner record... I kid, Paul, I kid!) check out the first single "Cyclic" from Pom Tiger's upcoming sophomore record Boundless -- you'll be back in the Pomegranate Tiger groove and clamouring for Boundless's December 11th release date in no time. Careful that visualization video doesn't melt your brain, though.

Monday: Cryptopsy - The Knife, The Head, and What Remains

     Boy, have I got some metal for your only-somewhat-belated Metal Monday, in more ways than one. And for good or ill, all of those ways are Canadian. Joy!

     First, the surface metal: your Metal Monday track is the latest from Monreal's Cyrptopsy, "The Knife, The Head, and What Remains", taken from their nearly-here EP The Book of Suffering - Tome 1. It's a vicious bit of modern death metal that'll start pummeling you from the word 'go' and won't quit for its three-and-a-half minute running time.

     Then there's the underlying metal: the song and its title are referring to the 2008 murder and beheading of a Greyhound bus passenger by one of his fellow passengers as their bus was traveling through rural Manitoba. Certainly a tragic and terrifying incident, but goddamn, talk about your metal subject matter.

Sunday: Novallo - Visually Silent

     I'm pretty late to the party on this one, but since when have I ever let that stop me from spreading the good word? And as a bonus, if you dig this one, there's some new material from these guys all fresh and shiny and waiting for you.

     Your Sunday song tonight, "Visually Silent" from the 2012 debut self-titled EP by Ohio tech-djent five-piece Novallo, is equal parts progressive melodicism, glitchy noodling, and djenty grooving. Monuments and Glass Cloud are coming to mind right now as touchstones, but really, I think you should check Novallo out for yourself. And if, like me, you dig "Visually Silent" and the rest of band's stuff from 2012, you'll be happy to know that, like I said above, Novallo's follow-up EP dropped last month. So get listening already!

Saturday: Faith No More - Sunny Side Up

     Faith No More fans had to wait a long time for this year's Sol Invictus, but most seem to agree that the wait was worth it. In Sol Invictus, Faith No More have delivered another diverse album that, while covering a lot of varied ground, remains undeniably a Faith No More record.

     Case in point is the latest single from Sol Invictus, "Sunny Side Up", a bittersweet-sounding little number that features the legendary Mike Patton shifting through an array of vocal styles, from low and menacing a la Tom Waits to strained and screaming a la... well, a la Mike Patton. It's a fun and unique song, and like the song says, it's such a lovely way to start the day. Give it a spin and find that out for yourself.

Friday: Haunted Shores - Norway Jose

     Despite the fact that he's now got a team of great musicians around him, Periphery still kinda feels like Misha's band at times. So if you've ever doubted guitarist Mark Holcomb's metal bona fides (not that you've ever had any reason to, guy can fucking play, but whatever) then doubt no longer, because Mark's longtime project Haunted Shores is about to unleash what could well be a beast of an EP.

     Viscera is set to come out in early November, but lead single "Norway Jose" can (and should) be jammed right this minute. Misha does show up as Mark's co-conspirator on Viscera, but this definitely isn't Periphery Lite. If you like progressive instrumental stuff with big riffing, "Norway Jose" is speaking your changuage -- I've no idea whether or not the whole EP will be sans vocals (I would assume it will be) but it sure doesn't feel like there's anything missing. What do you think?

Thursday: Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills

     As I've said many times before, sometimes the gods speak to us more loudly than others. This morning, the local rock radio station favoured me with some Iron Maiden, and in that moment I knew that the gods were telling me where (and when!) to go for last week's Throwback Thursday post.

     The Maiden song in question, and your Throwback Thursday song for last week, is the absolutely classic "Run to the Hills" from the 1982 masterpiece The Number of the Beast. From Steve Harris' galloping bass to Bruce Dickinson's as-usual stellar vocal performance, everything on this one is, as I said, classic. If somehow you know someone who doesn't know anything about Iron Maiden, this might just be the track to start them off on.

Wednesday: The Parallel - Pendulum

     Finally, I can leave the shores of exotic locales like Australia and return to Canadian shores to ask the following terribly important question: is post-djent a thing yet? If it is, I would say the Canucks in The Parallel who're providing your Wednesday song might qualify as metalcore-meets-post-djent.

     The vocals, including those provided by Eric Almeida of Auras, have a very core feel to them; the riffing is both big and noodly; and the drums are likewise big and chock full of grooves and ghost notes. Your song for last Wednesday, a track called "Pendulum", isn't exactly going to blow your mind, but it is a great example of groovy, varied metalcore done really well. It even reminds me just a little of other (now-defunct) Canadian outfits like Kingdoms and Straight Reads the Line in its "melodic metalcore meets tech" sensibilities. Check it out.

Tuesday: Blotted Science - EEG Tracings

     Time for another Tech Tuesday post, as well as another "Hurry Up and Record a New Album" post. The relatively lengthy gaps between albums from Blotted Science are of course at least a little bit more excusable than they are for some other bands, given that this a 'supergroup' that draws all of its members from other bands, but I'd still really like to hear some new material already.

     If you're familiar with the technical wizardry that is Blotted Sciences, I'd be willing to bet that you're right there with me. But if you don't know the instrumental madness of Ron Jarzombek and Company, now is as good a time as any to get on board and join the cool kids in counting the days until the next Blotted Science release.

     Your belated Tech Tuesday song, the killer "EEG Tracings", comes from the band's 2007 album The Machinations of Dementia, which has only been followed up by one other record, 2011's The Animation of Entomology. Now, I'm no mathemagician, but if Blotted Science keep to the rough four-year album cycle they've been on for the last couple of records, that makes 2015/2016 just about time for new stuff, n'est pas?

Monday: The Black Dahlia Murder - Asylum

     Metal fucking Monday time again, and this time around I ask: have you been jamming the new Black Dahlia Murder album Abysmal?

     Because you really should be; to use what I'm sure has by now become a cliched pun, Abysmal is anything but abysmal. Sure, the guys have once again failed to reinvent their wheel and transition into a shoegaze polka outfit or anything, but on the other hand, the guys have once again delivered a solid sample of what it is they do best. From front to back, Abysmal brings fistfuls of the riffs, blast beats, and shriek-to-growl vocals we all know and love.

     My current favourite track? Besides the badass "Vlad, Son of the Dragon", it has to be "Asylum", motherfuckers. Turn this one up as loud as you can, and if your neighbours don't like it, fuck 'em. The zombies are going to eat them first anyways.

Sunday: Lindemann - Fish On

     After my last Sunday post of Monster Magnet talking about what I think is butt stuff, I'm almost obliged to one-up myself, right? Right.

     I'm glad you agree with me, because I've got the latest video from the eponymous side project of Rammstein's Til Lindemann for you, and it's just perfect for the Lord's day of rest. "Fish On", taken from the first LP Skills in Pills, is about wooing the ladies, and it has a suitably "fetching" video to go along with it (see what I did there? Not my best work, that's what...) that is, quite frankly, absolutely mental. Musically, things sound pretty similar to Rammstein with some more keyboardyness thrown in, but if you're a Til Lindemann fan, you're probably cool with that, right?

Saturday: Caligula's Horse - Marigold

     Let's head back Down Under to get proggy and groovy for this belated Saturday post. And since that kind of an opening could actually be read as referring to several Australian bands, allow me to clear things up by saying that we'll be slipping into the saddle of Caligula's horse for this one.

     For a couple of album's now, Caligula's Horse have been building a pretty solid catalogue of intelligent progressive music that straddles a number of genres, and they seem set to continue this trend with their upcoming third LP Bloom, due out next week. If you need proof, look no further than the album's second track "Marigold", a seven-minute slice of vaguely Tool-y modern prog propelled by vocalist Jim Grey's powerful delivery. When -- not if -- these guys get huge, you can say you were in on the ground, er, third floor.

Friday: Children of Nova -

     Your Friday post from last week comes from one of those bands that I've unfortunately discovered only after they've called it quits or, as in this case, gone on indefinite hiatus. With your help, maybe we can turn that situation around.

     OK, so my small readership probably has no ability to resurrect San Diego's Children of Nova, but let's pretend for a moment that we could get them to record a follow-up to their 2012 record Impossible Landscape. In such a hypothetical wonderland, we might end up with another high-energy slice of post-hardcore/post-rock reminiscent of Eidola or Circa Survive.

     In order to show you what we're all no longer getting any more of, I implore you to check out Impossible Landscape, starting with album-opener "Erratic". If, after jamming some Children of Nova, any of you decide to petition the band to get back together, let me know. I'll sign.

Thursday: Protest the Hero - Turn Soonest to the Sea

     For your belated Throwback Thursday song for last week, I'm turning to perennial Loud Noises favourite Protest the Hero. What does such a young band have to do with throwing back, you ask?

     Despite their relative youth, Protest the Hero have been busy over the last decade, releasing four LPs and touring like crazy. More importantly (at least for my purposes today), the band's stellar debut album Kezia turned ten years old at the end of August, and to commemorate the guys have planned an anniversary tour with the original, now-defunct lineup. There's no Kingston date this time around (what gives, guys?) but it still looks to be a good time.

     So that's why you're getting a track from the ten-year-old Kezia today, namely "Turn Soonest to the Sea". Crank this one and then go grab your tickets for one of the Kezia X dates. It'll be worth your while, I promise! (hint: you might get to hear some Mandroid Echostar material if you catching them opening on this tour...)

Wednesday: Mestis - Pura Vida

     Regular readers should by this point have picked up on the fact that I dig instrumental music, and they may have heard me talk about Animals as Leaders a couple of times, so it should come as no surprise that I'm excited to hear about the upcoming full-length debut from AAL guitarist Javier Reyes' side project Mestis.

     Even better, Polysemy will be out in less than a month. Better still is the fact that we can all have a taste of the new material in the form of first single "Pura Vida", which even features some guest guitar work from members of another proggy instrumental outfit, CHON. It's a track that manages to be a little heavy and a little chill at the same time, with lots of interesting guitar stuff going on but none of it too over the top. Mestis has always been a somewhat different beast than Animals as Leaders, and Polysemy sounds like it could be a big step forward in the evolution of Javier and Mestis. Check it out if that sounds like it could be your thing.

Tuesday: Soundgarden - Full On Kevin's Mom

     Was my Monday City and Colour post from earlier a little too melancholy for you? A little too maudlin? I've got just the quickie follow-up to clear that low mood away. You're welcome in advance.

     Grunge legends Soundgarden have covered a lot of musical ground over the course of their careers, but the somewhat more serious (read: high falutin') tone of much of their later work might cause one to lose sight of the sex and sense of humour that's nearly omnipresent in the band's earlier work.

     To remind you of those more lighthearted times, your Tuesday track is "Full On Kevin's Mom" from Soundgarden's 1989 sophomore record Louder Than Love. If you've got a friend named Kevin, or even a friend with a hot mom, you owe it to yourself to play this song for them at volume as soon as possible.

Monday: City and Colour - Sensible Heart

     What could be better than an alliterative post title? Why, a double alliterative post title, of course! That one should have been obvious. Specifically, your much-belated Monday post will be both Mellow and a little Melancholy. Prepare to get your feels out.

     Your Mellow, Melancholy Monday song is "Sensible Heart" from City and Colour's second album, 2008's Bring Me Your Love. Metalhead though I might be, this is one of those tracks that I always find both beautiful and a little depressing. Maybe that says more about me than the song, I don't know, but "Sensible Heart" has always sounded bittersweet to me. How does it sound to you?

Sunday: Monster Magnet - She Digs That Hole

     Sometimes your Sunday should be a little sleazier, and those are the times Monster Magnet's Dave Wyndorf has been preparing for his entire career. Spaced out, sorta retro heavy rock is his bread and butter, and few have carved out a better example of this little musical niche.

     The last couple of Monster Magnet projects have delved even further in this direction, namely involving some remixing, rerecording, and re-imagining of earlier material. In particular, the band's upcoming record Cobras and Fire (The Mastermind Redux) revisits the band's 2012 record Mastermind. The results, more often than not, are maybe even more fun than the originals.

     Case in point: Monster Magnet's latest single "She Digs That Hole", a mulligan of the song "Dig that Hole" that oozes more sleaze and double-entendre than even the usual Monster Magnet track, if that's possible. Pour yourself a stiff drink, roll yourself a stiff smoke, and then check this one out.

Saturday: Frenzy - Lethal Protector

     Do you like Venom? No, not the band, the Spider-Man character. If you don't, you fucking well should, because the idea of a living alien suit that bonds with the wearer and grants them super powers (as well as possibly nudging them towards evil) is pretty badass all around.

     Maiden-esque classic/power metal act Frenzy apparently agree, because they've penned an ode to Eddie Brock and Friend for their upcoming debut EP. "Lethal Protector" is fast and full of energy and harmonized guitars, and really does sound like something from an old school metal act. For my taste, I might have preferred a sprawling tech-prog opus to the symbiote, but beggars can't be choosers, right?

Friday: Gorod - Temple to the Art-God

     French tech death masters Gorod have a new album just around the corner (about a week or so), meaning that now is a perfect time to buckle down and get metal.

     For that purpose, we're going with "Temple to the Art-God" from the almost-here A Maze of Recycled Creeds, a track that's certainly fast and technical enough to satisfy those who simply have the need for speed. There are, however, lots of interesting melodic ideas going on here too, including the sorta-chorusy chorus with the sweet bassline. I'm not as familiar with Gorod's work as I should be, so it seems like now might be a great time to get educated. Maybe you should too?

Thursday: Cynic - Veil of Maya

     Prog fans will likely already have heard about, and be lamenting, the apparent break-up of legendary band/duo Cynic -- I say "duo" both because the core of Cynic has always been Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert, and because it seems to be the friction between these two that has caused the band to implode.

     I don't know that I would want Cynic to continue in some other form, and if Sean and Paul's differences are really that irreconcilable then I don't know if I'd want them to even try to get back together as musicians unless there was truly some resolution for them personally. So: it seems that Cynic is dead.

     What better reason to throw it back to their 1993 breakthrough debut album Focus for your Throwback Thursday track. Blast some "Veil of Maya" and wonder at how ahead of its time this record was.

Wednesday: Exotic Animal Petting Zoo - Ira Lore

     'Two steps forward, one step back' seems to be my Loud Noises mantra lately, whether I want it to be or not. The sad truth is that this blog doesn't pay anything (start putting those pennies in the post, please) so when I've got to pick up some extra hours at work to fill the ol' wallet, you guys unfortunately have to take a back seat.

     But enough Debbie Downer, right? What about a Wednesday post? File the source of this one under "please record a new album already", because I would love to hear some new Exotic Animal Petting Zoo. Their latest record Tree of Tongues is really killer slice of mathy, sorta grimy post-hardcore/post-metal that not enough people know about, but it's also getting a little long in the tooth in album-cycle terms, having come out all the way back in 2012.

     Strangely enough, however, I'm going back to the band's 2008 debut I Have Made My Bed in Darkness for your Wednesday song. For a taste of what Exotic Animal Petting Zoo is like, have yourself a listen to "Ira Lore", and then join me in being disappointed every time you check the band's Facebook and find no news about new material.

Tuesday: The Faceless - The Spiraling Void

     Fans of The Faceless will no doubt have heard the news (and perhaps even the new song) by now, but both are definitely tasty enough to warrant their own Tech Tuesday post.

     First, the news, which is that the latest lineup to join Michael Keene under the Faceless banner includes a couple of guys from the band's Planetary Duality days, most notably former-and-now-current-again vocalist Derek "Demon Carcass" Rydquist. History would try to tell us that this lineup might not be the most solid long-term, but longtime Faceless fans seem generally pretty stoked that the Planetary Duality-era team is back at all.

     Second, the song, an unsurprisingly technical and proggy number called "The Spiraling Void" that sounds right at home on the possible spectrum of progression since Autotheism. Besides the new track, most news out of The Faceless HQ lately has been tour (and lineup) related, so no word just yet on a new record. But a new single is always a good sign that more new material might be right around the corner, and I for one would very much appreciate an album's worth of stuff like "The Spiraling Void".

Monday: Gods of Eden - The Overseer

     OK, let's do a catch-up day here at Loud Noises, starting with a Metal Monday post. Yes, it's time Metal Monday once more, and this week I've got a doozy. Do you like your shit to be technically proficient, ferociously heavy, and just proggy enough? Then read on, my friend, read on.

     As is so often the case these days, when looking for the bleeding edge of good heavy music, we're well served to spin our globes to that bit with nothing but Australia and the Pacific Ocean on it. The Land Down Under has proven time and again over the last couple of years that it can be depended upon to produce something cool for fans of any sub-genre you could come up with.

     Like I said above, today it's proggy tech metal from Sydney's Gods of Eden in the form of the track "The Overseer" from their forthcoming From the End of Heaven. Fans of this particular corner of the metal world should definitely have a listen, and then get their plane tickets to Oz in order, because the list of talented Australian bands just keeps getting longer.