Tuesday: The Arusha Accord - The New Face of Revenge

     I know you haven't been able to get your metal fix from me for a while, but we're going to remedy that situation right now. And to do it, we're going to start with something a little techy for last Tuesday.

     Mathy British proggers The Arusha Accord might not be full on Tech, but they've certainly got enough tech flavour to kick off some catching up with a belated Tech Tuesday track. Arusha's 2009 debut LP The Echo Verses is an all-around rock-solid, under-the-radar tech-core album that I've sort of forgotten about and then excitedly rediscovered in my music collection a couple of times now.

     A bigger catalogue might keep this promising young band on my radar a bit longer, a problem The Arusha Accord might be able to help me with if and when they finish up writing their second record. For the time being, however, I'll just have to rediscover The Echo Verses once again and jam "The New Face of Revenge". Join me?

Silverstein - Bleeds No More

     In yesterday's post I mentioned a Canadian post-hardcore band that it now occurs to me might not be familiar to everyone out there. So this evening we're taking a trip down the 401 to Burlington to feature a song by Silverstein.

     I won't make any bones about the fact that Silverstein are in many ways a band that could be derogatorily labeled "emo", but I also won't make any bones about the fact that I used to really dig bands like this, and the fact that bands like this helped get me into the kind of music I listen to today.

     So chart the evolution of my musical tastes and get some insight into what the fuck I was on about even mentioning Silverstein in the same breath as The Arusha Accord. Two pigs with one bird! Here's "Bleeds No More" from Silverstein's 2003 debut LP When Broken is Easily Fixed.

The Arusha Accord - Last Rise of the Fallen King

     Whether or not it's a bad word in your household, the "metalcore" umbrella can cover so much ground, can't it? Case in point: when first hearing British band The Arusha Accord, my initial thought was "OK, some tasty strain of metalcore then..."

     But there's so much more going on with The Arusha Accord than some chugga chuggas and some screamed vocals. They're techy, proggy, and even mathy -- think a little Dillinger-esque, maybe some The Safety Fire, or some early Architects -- but they've also got some cleans and harmonies in there that leather-clad metal purists might deride as "emo" -- a heavy, techy, Silverstein comes to mind.

     It's a well balanced mix of tech and melody that makes The Echo Verses an interesting listen from start to finish. That finish is where we're stopping today, with album closer "Last Rise of the Fallen King". It opens with a very Toolish guitar and bass part, and it only gets better from there.

Devil Sold His Soul - Time

     Regular readers (I'm going to keep making reference to you despite the dubiousness of your existence) should have clued in by now to the fact that I'm a big fan of British label Basick Records. With a few exceptions, I dig pretty much their entire catalogue to varying degrees, so when I hear they've got a new signing my ears prick up like a ravenous dog hearing kibble hit the food dish.

     As such, I just had to check out Devil Sold His Soul, the latest addition to the Basick roster, and while I'm not immediately as head-over-heels as I was for, say, Skyharbor (I lurvs me some Skyharbor) Devil Sold His Soul has a lot of tasty goodness going on. Think epic metalcore with big melodies and bigger vocals and you're probably in the right ballpark.

     To see if this is a ballpark you want to be playing ball in, check out Devil Sold His Soul's latest single "Time", the first track to feature the band's new singer Paul Green, who you might already know from his other gig in The Arusha Accord, another Basick band. Between "Time" and the band's back catalogue, there should be enough there to hold us all over until the next Devil Sold His Soul LP drops.