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.
Sunday, 29 November 2015
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.
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.
Friday, 27 November 2015
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!
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!
Thursday, 26 November 2015
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.
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.
Wednesday, 25 November 2015
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.
"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.
Tuesday, 24 November 2015
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.
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.
Monday, 23 November 2015
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.
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.
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