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.

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.

Beyond Creation - Elusive Reverence

     It's the start of another week, which means you could probably use something a little heavy to get you back into the swing of the grind. How about some proggy death metal from Montreal that's in the vein of Death and Cynic? Yeah, I thought you might like that.

     Beyond Creation are getting set to unleash their sophomore record Earthborn Evolution in October via Season of Mist, but you won't have to wait until then to sample the proggy wares on offer here, as the band has recently released the first track from the upcoming album.

     "Elusive Reverence" a terrific general example of techy progressive death metal done right, but especially noteworthy is the fretless basswork of one Dominic Forest Lapointe, whose playing will no doubt cause you to become familiar with his name if you're not already. His musicianship, and that of the rest of the band, is top notch without being unnecessarily over the top. There's no waste or wankery here, and one listen to "Elusive Reverence" should be enough to convince you of that.

Monday: SERDCE - Unique Path

     Are you the  kind of person who likes the jazzed-out fusion of a band like Cynic best when the proggy bits are spacey and ethereal? You are? Well let's start your week off right then, shall we? (Sorry everybody else. In future, be more like these space prog people, OK?)

     Your song this evening is "Unique Path", from the fourth album Timelessness by Belarussian band SERDCE, a track that definitely harkens back to late Death/early Cynic with its meandering melodies and intricate bass work. "Unique Path" could easily be a lost Cynic tune, but it's not just a clone. Have a listen and discover SERDCE's brand of progressive death metal for yourself.

Wednesday: Cynic - True Hallucination Speak

     After a delay of a few days, Cynic's Kindly Bent to Free Us came out this week, provoking metalheads everywhere to once again question whether or not Cynic can still be called a metal band.

     Fans who lamented the less-heavy direction taken with Carbon-Based Anatomy won't find a whole lot of redeeming qualities in Kindly Bent to Free Us, and fans who dug Cynic's experimentation with space-jazz-prog likely won't care that death growls and robot vocals have been all but jettisoned in favour of a more organic approach. But I think both camps can agree: that is some fat bass tone.

     A lot of metal bands, the bass sits way down in the mix, its lame recreation of the guitar parts barely audible underneath everything else. Not the Cynic of Kindly Bent to Free Us. All of the instruments in Cynic have always been on much more equal footing, and the time around Sean Malone's bass in right up in yo' face.

     Album opener "True Hallucination Speak" is a perfect example. Malone's deft fretboard manoeuvrings are centre stage alongside the guitar, at times carrying a lot more of the load while Masvidal is being a little more hands off. Is it still metal? I don't know, but Kindly Bent to Free Us is growing on me like the wacky tree-shaped trippiness on the cover.

Cynic - The Lion's Roar

     Prog nerds among you will have seen by now that the next Cynic album is due out in February, and that it's called Kindly Bent to Free Us, but today we got another tasty tidbit to salivate over for the next couple of months in the form of a new song.

     "The Lion's Roar" is the first song to be released from the new record, and if it's any indication of what we can expect from the rest of the album, then what we can expect is proggy post-metal with *gasp* poppy threads running through it. It's different from Carbon-Based Anatomy, but at the same time not radically so. Have a listen and see what YOU think.

Exist - Self-Inflicted Disguise

     Do you like fusion-metal band Cynic? Are you eagerly counting down the days until they release Kindly Bent to Free Us in February? Is the wait until Valentine's Day just too goddamn long for you? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then today's band might just be the methadone to keep you going until you can mainline some more sweet, sweet Cynic.

     Said band, Exist, even have a Cynic-al connection: frontman Max Phelps is a member of Cynic's current live line-up, as well as being the frontman for the current line-up of Death to All, the Chuck Schuldiner-tribute group organized by Death-alums and Cynic prog-nerds Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert.

     What all of this six degrees of separation stuff means for you is that Exist displays a lot of the same jazzy-sounding prog-metal goodness that can be found in Cynic's more recent work, making Exist a pretty tasty way to make it through the next couple of months. Have a listen to "Self-Inflicted Disguise" from Exist's debut LP Sunlight and see if it'll scratch that fusion itch for you.

The Black Dahlia Murder - On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood

     Between the week of instrumental stuff and yesterday's Cynic tune, things have been a little bit proggy around here. So tonight I feel like we need to get back to basics, so to speak, and feature a song that just stomps in and says Fucking Metal. And I've got just the song in mind.

     Your song tonight is "On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood" from 2011's Ritual by none other than The Black Dahlia Murder. I could have gone a lot of different directions to arrive at something Fucking Metal, but for my money TBDM is one band that absolutely crushes every time they come up to bat. Even within the band's catalogue, I could have picked any number of tracks that display balls out heaviness, but "On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood" just might be my favourite track off of Ritual, not to mention being pretty high on my list of favourite songs from the band's whole discography. Plus that's a pretty Fucking Metal title too, right?

Cynic - The Space for This

     Prog dorks the world over shared a communal musical boner today with the announcement that Cynic's long-anticipated next LP, entitled Kindly Bent to Free Us, will be released on Valentine's Day 2014. Even though I'm a latecomer to the Cynic fold, I'll still freely admit that I'm one of those dorks.

     Such feelings of arousal, however, are alas not universal. The proggier, spacier musical direction of Cynic's last EP, 2011's Carbaon-Based Anatomy, left many old school Cynic fans unimpressed, and this EP continues to be divisive, with some fans lamenting the band's progression away from it's death metal roots and some fans embracing it.

     I'm one of the latter, and I can't wait to hear a whole album's worth of newer-school Cynic, but as an olive branch to the former chunk of Cynic fans I've decided to go back a bit in the band's catalogue for a song to commemorate the occasion of the album announcement. To that end, your song this evening is "The Space for This" from 2008's classic Traced in Air, because I think that's a track and record we can all get behind. Cynic fans of the world unite!

2012 Round-up, Part 2: 2013 Top Prospects

     Guten tag, kinders, it's time for part 2 of the Loud Noises 2012 Year End Round-Up. This time around we've got my 2013 Top Prospects list. Like a hockey scout watching the juniors for the next big star I'm on the lookout for the year's big records, not in the sense that I'm trying to get ahead of the curve a predict the next big thing (although you know how I like spreading metal love to the masses) but more in the sense of letting you know which gestating records that I'm looking forward to are likely to be birthed in 2013. How's that for an analogy, eh? Basically, I'm answering this question: of the bands I'm currently digging, who's got new material in the works that we're probably going to hear this year? Simple, right? Let's just see, shall we?

Song of the Day: Cynic - Box Up My Bones

     Yeah, I'm lame and continuing the "box" theme started yesterday on Boxing Day. Fuck off. You'll like today's song, I promise.

Wham Bam Boom: Three Day Catch-Up

     Another rapid fire day today, as Saturday night's belated Hallowe'en party left me very ineffective this weekend. First up is your song for Saturday.

Song of the Day: Cynic - Evolutionary Sleeper

     Recently I've been getting pretty into Cynic, who I'd never even heard of until maybe six months ago but who apparently are death-prog legends whose sound has mutated and evolved into something I'm not really even going to try and describe*. I'll only say that Cynic is a bit like Tool, if only in the sense that Cynic is also comprised of a group of phenomenally talented musicians pushing the limits of their craft

     To give you just the smallest taste of Cynic, your song for today is "Evolutionary Sleeper", from 2008's Traced in Air. It's a cool song, and kind of a middle ground in Cynic's catalogue, a stepping stone track if you will, showing what Cynic sounded like in the middle of their journey from death metal to... wherever the fuck they are now. Hope you like it.

* Well not right now anyways. Cynic will definitely be the subject of a What You Should Be Listening To at some time or another. Whenever I get around to it. Stay tuned.