If you're a fan of Between the Buried and Me, you're no doubt aware that the band recently released their Future Sequence: Live at Fidelitorium live DVD/Blu-Ray performance of The Parallax II: Future Sequence in its entirety (what a mouthful!) But you might be somewhat less cognizant of the fact that the band's frontman Tommy Rogers is a little over a month from releasing his second solo effort under the Thomas Giles moniker.
Or maybe you're super aware of this already, I don't know. Maybe you've already heard "Mutilated World", the first single from the upcoming Modern Noise, and discovered that it's pretty different from Between the Buried and Me while still having flashes of heavy-ish-ness. The little guitar run/drum fill bits that serve as transitions at a couple of points in the song seem particularly BTBAM-ish to my ear, as if the band were experimenting with their kind of style in a new musical context.
But it's a Thomas Giles record, not a BTBAM record, which means the whole thing will likely be a somewhat mellower affair. Does that mean you as a metalhead won't find anything to get behind? Not necessarily. Check out "Mutilated World" and see if you dig Tommy's vocal work in a non-prog/tech/death setting.
Monday, 6 October 2014
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Sunday: Bloodshot Dawn - Smoke and Mirrors
I've written about British melodic death metal band Bloodshot Dawn and their upcoming album Demons before, but now that the band has released a video for a track from Demons I can point you in the direction of the very latest in well done, heavy-ass melodeath.
"Smoke and Mirrors" checks all the right boxes and covers all the right bases for this kind of music: lots of good, meaty riffs; tight drumming; evil-sounding leads; good growls at both the lower and higher ends of the scream spectrum; and all of it done fast and with pummeling relentlessness.
If this sounds like something you'd jam, or if you're at all into this little corner of the metal world (melodeath with some modern thrash), I highly doubt you'll be disappointed with Bloodshot Dawn, Demons, and "Smoke and Mirrors". Click the link above, and then consider how great these guys are going to be in a couple of albums if Demons is just their sophomore effort.
"Smoke and Mirrors" checks all the right boxes and covers all the right bases for this kind of music: lots of good, meaty riffs; tight drumming; evil-sounding leads; good growls at both the lower and higher ends of the scream spectrum; and all of it done fast and with pummeling relentlessness.
If this sounds like something you'd jam, or if you're at all into this little corner of the metal world (melodeath with some modern thrash), I highly doubt you'll be disappointed with Bloodshot Dawn, Demons, and "Smoke and Mirrors". Click the link above, and then consider how great these guys are going to be in a couple of albums if Demons is just their sophomore effort.
Saturday: Instar - We're Getting Older
Just a quick late-night post for today, with something a little weird and spacey (figuratively and literally) to get you thinking this weekend.
"We're Getting Older" is the latest track from self-proclaimed purveyors of adventure prog Instar, and its nearly six minutes of shifting grooves and ambient synthiness (aka figurative spaceyness) feature several guest session appearances from a variety of contributors, including Darkest Hour drummer Travis Orbin.
Add in the fact that the song is lyrically sparse and instead interspersed spoken-word bits primarily concerned with the image of a starship and the listener's reactions and speculations and emotions on seeing said starship for the first time and you end up with the aforementioned literal spaceyness. For maximum effect, have a listen while staring up at the stars and contemplating our insignificance in the universe.
"We're Getting Older" is the latest track from self-proclaimed purveyors of adventure prog Instar, and its nearly six minutes of shifting grooves and ambient synthiness (aka figurative spaceyness) feature several guest session appearances from a variety of contributors, including Darkest Hour drummer Travis Orbin.
Add in the fact that the song is lyrically sparse and instead interspersed spoken-word bits primarily concerned with the image of a starship and the listener's reactions and speculations and emotions on seeing said starship for the first time and you end up with the aforementioned literal spaceyness. For maximum effect, have a listen while staring up at the stars and contemplating our insignificance in the universe.
Friday, 3 October 2014
Mezonz - Untangling the Quantum Pull
If I were a gambling man, I'd be willing to bet that you probably haven't heard about today's band before. But I'd also be willing to be that, if your musical tastes align at all with mine -- which there's a halfway decent chance they do, since you're reading this right now -- you'll be glad you checked them out.
Atlanta's Mezonz self-identifies as a two-man jazz-prog outfit on their Bandcamp page, but that's a bit of a dry description, and one that leaves a great deal to the imagination. A better approximation of the band's sound, especially on recently released EP Harmonic Oscillators might be to say that Mezonz sounds a little like a slightly more metal-flavoured amalgam of Animals as Leaders and Chimp Spanner (if the latter weren't quite so guitar-centric): heavy, proggy, and groovy instrumental stuff that's technical but not overly so.
Since it's Friday and you've probably got all kinds of Friday-night-type shit to do, I'm going to forgo recommending thirteen-and-a-half-minute EP closer "Projective Space: Fields of Matter" (which is a badass thirteen-and-a-half minutes, so you should really check it out, too) and instead suggest that you start exploring the world of Mezonz with "Untangling the Quantum Pull". It's a much more reasonable four-minutes-and-some, and better yet is a prime example of some of that grooving I was talking about. Tasty.
Atlanta's Mezonz self-identifies as a two-man jazz-prog outfit on their Bandcamp page, but that's a bit of a dry description, and one that leaves a great deal to the imagination. A better approximation of the band's sound, especially on recently released EP Harmonic Oscillators might be to say that Mezonz sounds a little like a slightly more metal-flavoured amalgam of Animals as Leaders and Chimp Spanner (if the latter weren't quite so guitar-centric): heavy, proggy, and groovy instrumental stuff that's technical but not overly so.
Since it's Friday and you've probably got all kinds of Friday-night-type shit to do, I'm going to forgo recommending thirteen-and-a-half-minute EP closer "Projective Space: Fields of Matter" (which is a badass thirteen-and-a-half minutes, so you should really check it out, too) and instead suggest that you start exploring the world of Mezonz with "Untangling the Quantum Pull". It's a much more reasonable four-minutes-and-some, and better yet is a prime example of some of that grooving I was talking about. Tasty.
Thursday, 2 October 2014
Star Ark - Prey
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: there's some sort of magic in the air in Australia. Maybe it's the Fosters.
Tonight's peal of thunder from down under comes courtesy of one man project Star Ark. On his latest EP God Complex Avatar, Neil Flavelle has managed to craft a cool sound that's grounded firmly in metalcore but also shot through with enough twists and turns to still sound fresh.
I don't know what the best way to describe Star Ark to you is, so I'll just let you discover for yourself. Start with "Prey", the opening track from the aforementioned God Complex Avatar, and see how it fits you.
Tonight's peal of thunder from down under comes courtesy of one man project Star Ark. On his latest EP God Complex Avatar, Neil Flavelle has managed to craft a cool sound that's grounded firmly in metalcore but also shot through with enough twists and turns to still sound fresh.
I don't know what the best way to describe Star Ark to you is, so I'll just let you discover for yourself. Start with "Prey", the opening track from the aforementioned God Complex Avatar, and see how it fits you.
Album of the Week: East of the Wall - Redaction Artifacts
This week's album is another instance of me putting your money where my mouth is, so to speak. What in the fuck do I mean by that? Well, it's not unheard of that I recommend a song to you on any given day with the caveat that, sure, song X is great on its own, but put back into the context of album Y it's even better.
In other words, I often tell you about bands and artists whose work is best experienced in complete, album-sized chunks rather than one song at a time. These are the albums that, for one reason or another, demand to be heard in full -- no skimming just the singles, no skipping the "boring" stuff, just put in on and let it go.
One of the aforementioned possible reasons for taking in the whole of an album like, say, East of the Wall's 2013 record Redaction Artifacts, is sheer density. There's just so much going on in East of the Wall's intricate, layered compositions on Redaction that it takes more than one song to get your head around the band's sound.
But like a Tootsie Roll, I promise you the time investment will pay off when you get to the creamy centre. The only downside? No full album streams floating around that I've found, so you'll either have to content yourself with the band's previous album The Apologist or you'll just have to do yourself a favour and pick yourself up a copy of Redaction Artifacts.
In other words, I often tell you about bands and artists whose work is best experienced in complete, album-sized chunks rather than one song at a time. These are the albums that, for one reason or another, demand to be heard in full -- no skimming just the singles, no skipping the "boring" stuff, just put in on and let it go.
One of the aforementioned possible reasons for taking in the whole of an album like, say, East of the Wall's 2013 record Redaction Artifacts, is sheer density. There's just so much going on in East of the Wall's intricate, layered compositions on Redaction that it takes more than one song to get your head around the band's sound.
But like a Tootsie Roll, I promise you the time investment will pay off when you get to the creamy centre. The only downside? No full album streams floating around that I've found, so you'll either have to content yourself with the band's previous album The Apologist or you'll just have to do yourself a favour and pick yourself up a copy of Redaction Artifacts.
Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Queens of the Stone Age - If Only
Venerable stoner rock/post-rock/whatever band Queens of the Stone Age have been around long enough, and developed a back catalogue deep enough, that everybody's bound to have their own opinion about what's good and what's not.
While we're not going to debate which album is the band's best (because that's clearly 2000's Rated R) we could spend some time one which album is most underrated. Or most overlooked. Either way, the answer is Queens' 1998 self-titled debut. Most Queens fans would likely acknowledge how great Rated R and Songs for the Deaf are, but might also forget that Queens of the Stone Age is a great record full of great songs.
Grooves like today's song. I thought perhaps you could use something a little more chill today, both because it's Humpday and because I've been assaulting you with technical death metal for the last two days, so I've decided to go with the laid-back groove of "If Only" from Queens of the Stone Age. Sit back, turn the volume up, and let your fondness for newer Queens of the Stone Age be swept away in a wash of fuzzed-out guitars.
While we're not going to debate which album is the band's best (because that's clearly 2000's Rated R) we could spend some time one which album is most underrated. Or most overlooked. Either way, the answer is Queens' 1998 self-titled debut. Most Queens fans would likely acknowledge how great Rated R and Songs for the Deaf are, but might also forget that Queens of the Stone Age is a great record full of great songs.
Grooves like today's song. I thought perhaps you could use something a little more chill today, both because it's Humpday and because I've been assaulting you with technical death metal for the last two days, so I've decided to go with the laid-back groove of "If Only" from Queens of the Stone Age. Sit back, turn the volume up, and let your fondness for newer Queens of the Stone Age be swept away in a wash of fuzzed-out guitars.
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