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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Cloudkicker - Beacons review

Year : 2010
Genre : Progressive Geek Djent Metal
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.5 / 10

Cloudkicker is the one man band music project of Ben Sharp from Columbus, Ohio. While consensus seems to classify Ben's material as progressive math metal, though that might be true in some or all sense with his other releases, his 2010 offering "Beacons" seems to exhibit the characteristics of Meshuggah influenced djent with a more pseudo-melodic and introverted character than what the forefathers of oddly executed grouchy-rawmeat silence-mangling are renowned and notorious for. The term "pseudo-melodic" needs justification, and hereby I seek to administer that right away. If you listen to this disc, - which is not a bad idea if you want to know more about it at the first place - it seems to be easy to identify the compositional techniques Ben is most comfortable to utilize and rely on, and those methodologies are the ones that seem to be much more interested in the enigma of the rhythm, of the pulse, than in the actual anatomy of a melody. Read on to find out more about this LP.


The character similarities with Meshuggah are primarily revolving around the drum work, as it sounds to me that Cloudkicker is very interested in Tom Haake's approach to drumming. Indeed, these most often mid-tempo rhythmic oddities are autonomous peeks unto a body of fresh music that to this day is super-exciting to see, let alone touch, so it is just highly sane behavior from any artist to notice with grace the goodies findable at the direction these Swedish guys are relentlessly pointing towards. A funny thing with this shape of music is that the intricately warped mid-tempo drum patterns are practically BEGGING to be complimented by sonic entities with pitch values and timber to them, and, once you start to serve such elements to border an exotic drum loop with, then the magic won't be too hesitant - if at all - to grace consensus. I personally think that this is the "mere magic" of Meshuggah's craft. This form of music is so uncompromisingly and elementary visceral in character, and so free of need to rely on melody with the rhythmic oddity it reeks, that the mere mass of immense sound bending to the will and command of warped rhythm becomes the exquisite attraction, and it is more than sufficient once the intent is to entertain with sounds.

After hearing his music, I have very little doubt that Ben Sharp shares at least parts of the above sentiments, as the Beacons LP is a pronounced worship of the Meshuggah character of sonic warfare, yet, as hinted previously, the absence of the vocals is filled by an intent to deliver layers and layers of pseudo-melodies to praise the capricious beauty of the rhythm amidst. Cloudkicker's Beacon LP, sounds to me, is all about the propensity to experiment with muscular squads of - primarily - guitar sounds, as Ben Sharp takes convincingly psyched-out exotic drum patterns to build layers of sonic entities around - with the not at all concealed hopes of HIM getting surprised by the results, along with you. The primer dosage of this LP - about 85% of it, I'd say - is relentless, guitar centered mid-tempo warfare, in which the momentary environment of sounds you find yourself in - audio environments composed of excessive dosages of sonic entities parked in them - is much more important than such a casual question as where this music is actually going to and what it wants to do. It does not matter at all. It reigns in no hurry to get to anywhere and it does not give a shit to, either. The destination is not important, the journey, on the other hand : is. Aaaaah! Now I'm REALLY getting in, Sensei!

Sure, this is a very humane and likable/adorable method to build music by, and its only hindrance is that sometimes it takes tremendous amount of work to sculpt out a pattern to admit that what you have "just" built - in the past 24 hours - sucks crimson Godzilla dick, and the emotional result it can convey in a second observer is not necessarily of as robust content-power as the artist seeks to convince the listener of.

Though I like this record, what prevents it from hitting into above 9.0 ratings here on Noise Shaft, is its reoccurring desperate tendency to claim hysterical justification to less appealing patterns of organized chaos by iterating them until you can't help but see if your player got caught in a 5 seconds loop, or you might as well submit to the occasional semi-clueless eagerness of this LP and watch your mind being beaten to a green jelly by the clumsy rubber hammers it is armed with by those moments. I feel less focus on this release than on this. Other than that, an enjoyable pseudo-melodic progressive djent ride with a relatively restrained-, introverted character. The progressive geek djent album of Leonard Hofstadter, you know?

Rating : 8.5 / 10

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Monday, February 27, 2012

Asphyx - Deathhamer review

Year : 2012
Genre : Thrash Death Hybrid with a Funeral Doom fascination
Label : Century Media
Origin : The Netherlands
Rating : 9.6 / 10

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Asphyx's Deathhamer defines and unleashes straightforward, unalloyed thrash-death hybrid charisma power as an 55 minutes full length is getting fed into your awareness with a quite literally constant parade of picture perfect musical hooks. Hook on the trail of the previous hook, without end, with extremely tasteful propensity exhibited regarding variation in temper and tempo. This LP is very homogeneous in its premiere structure of submitting to the will of gargantuan, sharply defined drum work, revealing this very act by an elegantly drawn "sonic foam" of the massive rhythm guitar work. Rhythm guitar work that packs all the fine melody this particular direction sounds and seems to feel itself the best with. Indeed, the album has the shocking-, yet cunning impertinence to disregard the epitome of the solo guitar altogether, concentrating instead on bringing you compliments for the instinctive images you secretly have in your soul regarding heavy music. This fine disc, as hinted, has a virtually endless foam of those while it defines itself, throwing quality riff-, and hookcraft towards your direction with rampant efficiency. Read on to find out more about the respective characteristics of these highly beneficial tendencies.


There is a certain "direction" in superficial general consensus that tends to label this veteran band as a death metal formation, which could not be farer from the truth, in my opinion. With Deathhammer, it seems to be very clear to me that the ensemble bows to no urge and drive less than to channel from the very soul-, from the very meaning of the heat, as the compositions on this disc emerge as autonomous entities of sonic entertainment by drawing different patterns of brute elegance with the most straightforward tools heavy music has at its disposal. As stated previously, it is all about the rampant riffcraft, that which simply has no place to fail on as it can't help but define hooks on spot, that come into existence quite naturally and logically, as different sonic domains and tempers - varied pitch, varied tempo - are explored. Notice the little-, but very relevant intricacies the band compliments the respective anatomies of the riffs with, like changing the orders of the notes in the climax of a pattern, for example. A record can be 44 minutes and put you into a biter sleep with a constant tempo of fury and ferocity, - like this satanic disco metal LP - or, it can entertain you properly, as THIS baby does, "simply by" honestly seeking to satisfy that criteria. This album takes you serious. The things this LP does, exactly are the things I personally expect to be subjected to via a serious and rewarding listening experience, one that spares the sentimental bullshit and serves the fucking goodies.

The subgenres the record strolls along, are numerous : the primordial form is a hybrid of thrash and death, and the short, but super-nifty track number 9 called "Vespa Cabro" gives you more entertainment via superb and sober variation in a time interval of 2:50 than the other record I just linked ever had access to. What about the eerie sound in this track, coming in from 1:49 to haunt your receptors for five seconds? Pretty fucking emotionally disturbing! And, as such, approved, of course. The release has a surprising awareness of its own capacities, as it simply does not relent throwing stuff at you, melodic thrash death hybrid kitchen sink included in the first attack wave. As result of this drive, the album arrives to points on which it ritually and hilariously commits creative suicides on, submitting to extremities of metal reigning on the different pole than thrash and death are favorite invitees of.

Funeral doom and sludge that makes Cthulhu a happy boy are revealed on this release to spice up the delivery even more. Had the release lack these attributes, I'd still rate it well above 9 points, but, with such an unprecedentedly well varied and full musculature sonic meat structure to it, I hereby declare this release to be amidst the most powerful ones the year 2012 has graced upon us. I greatly liked a previous sentence I wrote about this delivery earlier, and will repeat it to wrap this review up. Here it is. (This wasn't it, now it comes.) The things this LP does, exactly are the things I personally expect to be subjected to via a serious and rewarding listening experience, one that spares the sentimental bullshit and serves the fucking goodies. Highly recommended.

Rating : 9.6 / 10

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Saturday, February 25, 2012

MC Sykosis - Alex Pauken VS The World

Year : 2012
Genre : Hip Hop Nerdcore
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official Site : > - here - <

MC Sykosis transmits his nerdcore take on hip hop from the gloomy ghettos of Maumee, Ohio. His full length debut, titled Alex Pauken VS The World is a rather brave-, I dare say intact one at that, as the audio data on this album is both unusually heavy, and encompasses a wide array of hip hop rhetorics - including among those a type of experimental style that on spot might be regarded as MC Sykosis' trademark contribution to recent day nerdcore standards. These three notions of the heavy sound, the well varied hip hop rhetorics, the experimental tint are all aspects and related directions the album is ready to reveal something of its true character along, and it takes either a very bitter soul or an incomprehensibly fat butt to remain still and steady while this spin draws an impression of itself in you. Read on to find out more about the primordial qualities of this slick nerdcore debut.


The LP is entirely self produced and self mastered by its creator, and I personally have the hunch that eleven out of ten renowned music producers would have been afraid of the musical vision that MC Sykosis have created instead of (just) terrifying others by talking about it. As hinted, the delivery is extremely heavy sounding, and this of course is not the result of the timber of the instruments the tracks tend to rely on, although there are two guitar-centric pieces seeking to flatter - efficiently - brisk-, early hardcore traditions.

MC Sykosis, as you would expect from a proper nerd with an agenda of obligatory Cosmic Domination, is immensely and compulsively fixated on distortion and deliberately insane levels of heavy duty effect wizardry, yet, thank God & Co., he also keeps a sober set of ears on the health and integrity of the musical pattern that he is on the trail of. The pattern is sacred on the debut, so my relief is intact. As result of these two ubiquitous tendencies of sheer sonic aggression limited by a uncompromising leash, the musical environments-, the musical messages always are revealed with ripe definition, only - "only", hah! - they are written with huge letters all the time. Though pretty much all the sounds are wet or distorted - or both - the respective functions of the instruments and samples are treated with rigor and a notable sense on how and when to limit them. There are less amount of effects used on MC Sykosis' vocal pipes, and it sounds to me there are tracks in which his rapping virtually is untouched.

The debut strolls around a flamboyantly created palette of musical moods, in which the common denominator is an affection for the mid-tempo, spiced up in the middle of the album with a couple of tracks with more hefty of a temper to them, reeking the spiritual raw charisma of the amen break and the counter-espionage gangsta hip hop vibe that compliments the natural flow of events rather efficiently.

The experimental leanings of the delivery is notable through MC Sykosis' enthusiastic propensity to trade in one pleasant musical environment for another without any warning whatsoever, which, to my personal knowledge, is a rarity in hop hop. As such, it should be regarded as a significant trait that this debut is ready and able to present. MC Sykosis is not afraid to embark on a hunt for the easily accessible hook, either, or, to sell the listener shamelessly - which is a good thing - on orthodox chord passages with clever complementary melodies and various sonic entities that flatter the structures quite - uhm - emine(m)(n)tly.

The album is a safe recommendation not only for the hip hop enthusiast, but for anyone who is curious about musical environments with extremely thick and volumetric sounds parked in them. Nerdcore for sure, and pretty hip of it. Hop to the site, and nerdify!

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Adena Atkins - The Slowest Curve EP review

Year : 2012
Genre : Tender Poetry Pop with a Morose Tint
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Adena Atkins both has a respectable commitment to put out music that reflects a deeply personal inner disposition, music that does not at all exhibit any urges to conform to pop(ular) sugarcoat-standards. The song structures are freely positioned-, easily accessible musical environments with zero tendency to intimidate. Quite the opposite : the songs seek to convey a semi-morose-, yet always cautiously hopeful spiritual stance in which the common denominator of involved emotional elements is uncompromising honesty, no matter the result it yields. The style Atkins has found and presents herein is a type of restrained musical poetry which though is similar in character to the lamenting tendencies of various renowned artists, its commitment to convey the primer emotion - morose, and, sometimes : fanciful with a lurking danger of getting deeeeply morose anytime - always is greater than any desire to add tastes the primordial mood configuration would have a hard time tolerating.

Adena's debut delivery is a twelve minutes long extended play, that which is available to purchase through the artist's website, - located here - and these twelve minutes are quite informative of the style Atkins has dedicated herself to, at least for the era of this particular EP. Read on to find out more about the character of this tender contribution.


The music, as hinted, is deeply personal and assuaging in character, and it is safe to say that the stimuli has a chance to lend a shoulder to rest or cry on for everybody caught up in a similar soul-content, and this particular one is not at all hard to get into for a human, because it primordially is : human.

One thing needs to be said, and that is that you should not expect Adena Atkins to belt out galactic notes of sonic overpower, as this is not the intention here at all. The EP is super-reluctant to weigh down on you segments with more simultaneous flow of notes parked in them than three-, maybe four at tops, ensuring that your own sentiments have a space between Adena's, and the creation of the sense of this intimacy sounds to be a key agenda of the delivery.

There is a time the debut exhibits more brisk - yet still very tender - rhythmic structures, in track number 3, called "April Rain". A definite peak moment for me, as Adena Atkins herein, for the first time, showcases her upper registers backing it up with more heft than the album previously invites her to, and my personal percept is that adding more of these segments on a full length delivery would definitely result in a morose-fanciful pop delivery to be reckoned with. All in all, Adena Atkins always is ready to lend you a shoulder to rest or cry on, and her latest EP might just be the exact thing you are secretly looking for on a rainy day.

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http://www.adenaatkins.com

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II review

Year : 2012
Genre : Southern Retirement Home Shoegaze
Label : Southern Lord Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 1.0 / 10

Buy it now

On an introductory note : I have no problem whatsoever with the fact that this album is a minimalist offering. My problem simply is that it's shit at that.

I was very glad and excited when I first discovered the doom drone formation "Earth", as their earlier output sounded like an intricately varied-, almost dangerously calm take on southern doom vibes, and the musical thought behind their earlier catalog was and STILL is luscious, evident, rampant. This personal discovery happened by the time that the band was soon to release their consecutive full length, the first installment of a future trilogy, called Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light. I have listened to that particular record for days with the intention of writing a review of it, trying to find out if the problem is with me or the album, as it contained spaced out southern music with a very demanding and tedious tendency to reiterate stone-simplistic riffs for minutes and minutes and minutes and miiiiinutes and miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinutes and oh my fucking God. I was vastly underwhelmed by the release, and decided it is better if I do not roundhouse kick it flat on its ass, and was hoping that the next addition to the trilogy - the enigmatically titled Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II - will show deviation from the ultra-minimalistic approach I personally found the first album to be. Boy, I was wrong. This next baby in the trilogy is packed with decaying cowboy corpse music with very. little. if. anything. going on in the department of actual musical development in it. Honestly, I'm baffled that this record took this much time to release, (create??) as I would say that a semi-shitty sedated blues band recreates this boring pseudo-ambient stimuli on every fucking day of the week, just buy them a barrel of beer to put you into a deep sleep. Read on to find out "more" about this - in my opinion - uncompromisingly uninspired, boring southern retirement home release.


The only way I can imagine digging this record by, is to be an even bigger snob than Yours, Truly, and I can envision a full blown space cowboy commenting on this article later on, informing nearby general consensus that the reviewer is a douché latex gimp with a billiard ball in his mouth and is fucked only by rabid power metal dwarfs, and he has no relevant knowledge at all about HOW you ACTUALLY are supposed to listen to this amazing sonic testament. Yeah, I hear you, cowboy. I suppose I need to ride on a weedrocket heavy enough so I need to hold it with both hands, and, when I'm stoned to a fucking gargoyle, THEN I will get the viiibeZZ o' the recoo'd aye? GTFO, I'm begging you. This sounds to me as supremely mediocre ambient bullshit cowboy music played by drunk ass zombie cowboys that seek to rob out the fabric of reality of time, and SOME segments - not more - of this album could be used in a tryout-Breaking Bad scene that does not appear in the final episode, I'll give it that. This is music played for the enjoyment of its players. And NO, nothing is THAT deep or THAT vibrant on it, no. Everything is randomly spaced/stoned out stillness, and the band satisfies with the limited beauty of the casual pattern that necessarily emerges when even minimally enthusiastic musicians -shame on them - care to pay attention to each other. Other than that, bring the flame and please educate me on what I am missing here. Right now, I hereby declare this release a joke and a bitter of it until further notice, and I of course remain ready to re-evaluate my position if you point out the anatomical distortions of my impressions of this release. A very shameful album, in my opinion, with no capacity other than to rob you out of 46 minutes you could spend better, including amidst these activities to play this ACME- bullshit ambient blues music for yourself with a tormented guitar and a drunk ass monkey, or hell, wanking off to a shitty porn drawing. Good l(i)(u)ck with that.

Rating : 1.0 / 10

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Napalm Death - Utilitarian review

Year : 2012
Genre : Grindcore
Label : Century Media
Origin : United Kingdom
Rating : 9.0 / 10

Buy it now

I'm not going to lie to you (all that much) and so must admit that up to this point I never was the premiere grindcore guy, as this style seems to revolve around the desire to summon raw, rampant sonic aggression, showing strictly limited interest in the continuous chase of the patterns that deliberately-, even shamelessly seek to appeal musically in some way or another. (Melody, rhythm, God forbid a combo of those.) You already suspect that I am a snob and you surely are right, which does not prevent one from noticing on spot that this ancient grindcore band Napalm Death - the band formed in 1981 as far as I know - needs no extra help to bring down the building around you that you've started listening their latest full length contribution in. This release, simply put, is a cold blooded sonic murder-, even MURRRRRRRDAA! committed with a sledgehammer against the silly little thing called silence, and I have the related hunch that this exactly the central idea of the record is. Read on to find out more about this ruthless silence massacre that is out to end you (too) as soon and thoroughly as possible.


Napalm Death's Utilitarian LP sometimes reminds me of Deceased's All-Eradicator Surreal Overdose record, of which I was and still am blown away. Napalm Death, to silhouette out a difference that seems pretty easy to pick up on though, is hardly if ever occupied with all that much riff definition, as the "mere energy" of the band brings with itself such vile intentions that the musical instruments can't help but produce convincing results in the hands of the members. There is no other choice, if and when being tormented by these vile intents. You don't necessarily need to be able to make out the precise patterns/notes the guitar is riffing along, because it is clear that the sonic axe is possessed by a malicious energy channeled by the band member via unbound nervous system power. If music can reveal and bring you this, than that music is for real, regardless of genre and - for the most part - production values.

What I'm trying to get at, is to point out the visceral quality of this delivery, which pretty much is the only one of it, too. This is NOT a derogatory notion at all, since establishing these attributes of raw sonic intensity/intimacy are evident central desires of the LP, and Napalm Death claims the satisfaction of this complex, steep desire with a stance and artistic efficiency that does not tolerate- does not even KNOW the concept of failure. They are simply too fucking possessed to fail with their music. This is such an authentic form of raw-intensity sonic entertainment as you have ever heard so far. There are no production wizardries on display herein at all. Everything is plugged in, everything is turned all the way to the right, and all nervous systems involved in this formation are fueled by a constant high octane mania to waste all on sight. Super-visceral, hateful rabidity for the listening pleasure of your exquisite soul content and related awareness. Napalm Death still has it, as experience and time both seem to be on the band's side. Something funny I've noticed : track 11, called Blank Look About Face. Pay attention to the rhythmic structure of the base and the vocals from 0:31. Totally Faith No More's Shit. Lives. Foreva., no?

Rating : 9.0 / 10

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I, The Breather - Truth and Purpose review

Year : 2012
Genre : Metalcore
Label : Sumerian Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 5.0 / 10

Buy it now

Approaching this record with great anticipation will almost surely disappoint you, in my opinion. Unless you have bought this LP, of course. It is totally normal to delude yourself into thinking that this is the reinvention of metalcore, in case you have paid for this release.

Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno. I, The Breather brings you the same kind of ultra-iterated metalcore you have heard a million times before, and it seems to me as a shameless distortion of the related "pseudo-facts" if someone you know or hear about this release from seeks to introduce this disc as the next big metalcore thing. The genre seems to stagnate steadily, and this LP does not seem to draw a point to explore a profitable direction from, not to my ears. Read on to find out more about this vastly predictable, sorrowfully complacent sonic product.


I need to re-saturate my delicate position of the blatantly deceived, as birds were twittering to me about this release as the next legit astonishment in metalcore warfare, as I just hinted previously. I sent a bird back with the message attached to its leg : "Get your head out of your ass, I'm begging you". There are vastly more efficient and significant recent releases than this is, even from the same record company this spin belongs the catalog to of. I just reviewed Veil of Maya's latest outing, and that LP, while doubtless belongs to the microgenre of deathcore, brings much more vivid entertainment AND a breath of much needed fresh air than the metalcore ultra-orthodoxies this record is a tepid galore of have ever had the capacity or ambition to dream of. If you are a met(h)(al)core maniac, you still will delude yourself that it is fresh, of course.

Take all the metalcore platitudes that to this day still weigh in as marketable, - which signifies a terrible state of musical massawareness and hive-exigency - dissect recorded riffs to parts, feed them into a randomizer routine and copy-paste your fucking ass to hell and back. Be sure to include a part next where you bang on your bottom open string, and place your fingers on random frets from time to time to add musical variation to your pre. In the chorus, jump to the air while letting easily accessible melancholic minor pop chords ring out to wild space, and be sure to put a blaming index finger into the face of God upon landing. Lastly, rent a random idiot who is willing to whine about his breakup trauma or a fake riot or whatnot, and congratulations, you have just made your metalcore single. Add awesome breakdowns at your taste. Serves : a Stadium filled with zombies.

This isn't to say that the release lacks all good things. It just struggles legendarily to bring any. And WHAT those are, you wonder. As much as it pains me to say this, of COURSE they are the breakdowns. Everything else is "been there, done that, bored to death with it already, thanks". Aren't you annoyed a little bit with the "recent" trend how every metalcore randomer on the Internet is struck by awe from the metalcore breakdowns?

It's like this : "Omigod form 0:45, that brekdaun is raping my soul!! I'm 14 tomorrow and I'm so getting this!"

and

"Can't wait to get my preorder! Those breakdowns are out of this earth!"

Auuuua. They are not out of this Earth. They are very simplistic gap-arrangements on orthodox minigum-guitar chugging, parked into a sequencer ran by a computer, and that is that. Your taste has just been served. I'd certainly believe you if you'd say that there ARE very significant metalcore breakdowns that I'm not aware of, but there only are a very limited selection of those on this baby. The majority of breakdowns herein do belong to the methodology I have just been describing to you, and they are NOT out of this Earth, quite the contrary : they belong to consume culture, and they are made to serve out your taste. Synonym : to serve out your limitations. It is not necessary to wield immunity towards overly iterated patterns, but it in my opinion is a mistake to regard them with false awe claiming they are new. The ending riff of Meshuggah's Electric Red IS out of this Earth with capacity to shape and shock the receptors, to shape and shock your awareness. Other that that, I think "we", as a hive entity, should reserve big words like "out of this Earth" to describe sonic percepts that indeed sound to demand such rabid notions. The latest I, The Breather full length is not bad, mind you. It's worse : mediocre.

Rating : 5.0 / 10

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Monday, February 20, 2012

Veil of Maya - Eclipse review

Year : 2012
Genre : Deathcore with myriad extreme affections
Label : Sumerian Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.2 / 10

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Veil of Maya's Eclipse LP is a deathcore album with much more pronounced ingredients of (technical)death metal present on it than profound leanings towards the easily accessible pseudo-melodic nature of metalcore. The contribution clocks in at 28 minutes, which really does not seem to be all that much sonic meat for a full length, yet the intensity and the kind of variation the disc presents itself along, still gives you a lot to soak some ears into. In fact, this relatively shorter program time is serving justice to the character of the LP, as the epitome of slow tempo is pretty much unknown to this one.

Eclipse, in my opinion is prone-, even enthusiastic to summon vibes quite akin to those that are frequent invitees on a set of earlier records I suspect have influenced the members of the band in recent days. For example, second track of this album, called "Divide Path" in my opinion sports parts that are quite reminiscent at heart - yet definitely not a ripoff of - to Obscura's Vortex Omnivium, while Veil of Maya equally is capable and efficient at revealing fragmented dosages of a groove metal language which sounds like a robotic/cybernetic version of Lamb of God's-, or Pantera's intense side of grooving. As such, the mere charisma power of these segments tend to kick all kinds of asses, regardless how they are obviously arranged on a computer. A focal beneficiary trait of the release is the fact that it is not afraid to chase and speak a technical death metal language even when its flow at the core is defined and directed along the oh, so proven paths of emo metalcore. Guys, let's talk about the music.


Eclipse really packs more of efficiency and charm than alibi content, and the latter almost always disguises its relative lack of musical surprise power with easily accessible harmonic passages that fail to do anything at all with a proper set of snob ears. The titular track of the LP, for example, is the contribution of a retirement home Dream Theater-tribute band.

What I especially am content with on this release, is its much more frequent insatiable urge to serve your receptors out with avid variation whenever you find the flow of things on peak efficiency. As just noted, these segments are much more persistent and evident on the delivery. The tendency to compliment the trademark ingredients of sibling-extremities is notable, and a pleasure to behold. Track number 3, called "Punisher", for example : the rabid-ass djenting that starts out from 0:45 is quick to fix you into a wall, not relenting until it brought it down with your body. I dare say that the metalcore leanings and hooks of the delivery ARE pretty good ones, too. I admit I can't make two consecutive words out of what is being sang, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the "girl, you left me, you have risen a monster in me, now look what you have done, is this what you wanted??" rubberpussy-rhetorics.

Concluding track "With Passion and Power" is a great example of the exquisitely varied sonic content that is the defining factor of the LP : the track efficiently bends to the rampant will of myriad extreme subgenres of metal without losing its dignity, coming up with nothing else than pure entertainment factor, and THAT is sufficient. Awesome four minutes of 28 that truly do have anything to be ashamed of or to hide. My only caveat is the abrupt decision of the band to conclude the last song via fading the volume out in the middle of a soul swallower Blut Aus Nord riff, what the hell?? Ah, JUST that. This is a dangling modifier : "I admire your mom in stockings". Check out my song Apocalypse Factory or don't. All in all, Veil of Maya - Eclipse is not only approved, but it also is highly recommended.

Rating : 8.2 / 10

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Friday, February 17, 2012

Semargl - Satanic Pop Metal review

Year : 2012
Genre : 4/4 Disco Metal
Label : Twilight-Vertrieb
Origin : Ukraine
Rating : 5.5 / 10

Buy it now

Ukrainian Semargl's fifth full length has about as much chance growing on you as the super-orthodox, 4/4 goth synth-metal of mid '90s Rammstein has. Semargl does not bring anything new nor challenging to the table, and, to be fair with this release, it does not even aspire to. The Satanic Pop Metal LP is a late-, but enthusiastically realized echo of a popcultural movement-, a mood disposition that both long have expressed what they are all about. You suspect the drill, and your related secret-immunity : the goth disco synths of the late '90s are waging the classic kind of 4/4 war with the classic fat rhythm guitars, failing to notice that they have a harshly limited set of techniques to avoid the fervent pitfall - BZZT! - of tedious repetition. As such, the album's failure to throw a promise of a glance beyond its modest ambitions, first is silhouetted, then it sports the promise of emerging legendarily, hidden behind the cascading 4/4 pummeling that seeks denial of the growing lack of its charisma after its first 5 efficient minutes. Make no mistake : the 4/4 goth synth-metal of relentless pummel power still has the timeless charm factor to it, yet this particular record is on a relentless hunt to exploit its fragile offerings armed with iron-spiked determination and a plastic dildo with YOUR name on it, my love. Guys, let's talk about the music.


I declare, first of all, (I will be the first to fall) that I will be the first and second to admit that the latest official video clip of the band brings all the traits and all the cheap-, but efficient attractions that I personally don't mind seeing in a pop metal exploitation video clip. Check out the clip in question, called "Tak, kurwa" here. "Tak kurwa" means : "Yes, whore". What is more manly that that?? This video, I'm shocked to report, brings everything you are afraid to admit that you kind of like in a pop metal context : a crazy-ass fronter who looks like he just stepped out of Jabba's palace, - he is pretty decent to be honest, legit hand gestures, etc. - the rabid headbanging of the guitarists at the climax is fucking priceless, and the women in the clip are just hotter than fucking hell, let alone how they are treated as objects. Yes, you will say that it is shameless pop metal exploitation, yes, you will say that there is no such thing as "pop metal", as it automatically is qualified as "shit", period., and yes, you will watch the clip again when no one is watching.

That is the idea, you know?

In other words, I like the clip and am not afraid to admit that, but I must say that I can't propagate the same sentiments regarding the full length this song is a part of. Simply put, if "Tak, kurwa"'s DNA is the 100% of what this LP seeks to offer, then the rest of the songs show a maximum of 3% deviation from the template, at best. I realize that you can shoot around with this notion quite cheaply and easily, yet now its legitimacy demands a poker face while at that. I don't know what the deal was with the band, but. They seem to fail to realize that the entire album rolls with you at a virtually constant 200 BPM. WTF! Almost NO deviations from this template. 200 BPM, proudly paved with the most classic techno pattern of "DUMM - c - DUMM - c", just place a snare on every second "DUMM". That is that.

As result of the super-constant tempo and drum pattern, - notice the absence of the plural form - the album is way past its prime before reaching its middle point, and that is frightening to note, and even more so to endure. With its 44 minutes, the album gradually, yet hastily degrades its initial brisk stance into a zombie-like drag at the midsection, while the last 15 minutes are the equivalents of the same amount of eleven eternities.

Not at all surprisingly, the Satanic Pop Metal album has an obligatory fixation on sexual themes and general metal-badasness, - pink latex not included - but the overall-, staggering lack of awareness of its super-monotonous character in tempo and taste make it a safe spot to give a glance to, or, to miss out entirely on.

Rating : 5.5 / 10

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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Sing with Señor - Uno Dos review

Year : 2012
Genre : Educational Acoustic Pop Reggae
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Sing with Señor started out as a warm hearted educational project directed to help children master the basics of the Spanish language, simply by incorporating the lessons into accessible melodies. Don't be so quick to approach this project as you normally would. While you already have heard this concept before both in practice and in theory, the creative dynamic duo behind the project - Felipe Canete and Soleil Kelley - without doubt took the concept a step further than the usual stock-appeal of a family friendly TV matinee. The music, while centered heavily on the sheer timeless charisma of tender, fat acoustic guitars, is very tastefully engineered and presented, flowing both easily and straightforwardly to your receptors. Simplistic-, nevertheless unmissable musical exigency is a main defining factor of the LP, that which invites children, and - much to the initial bewilderment of the men behind the project - their parents, too, to catch up with the tunes and sing along with the musical lessons. Read on to find out more about this project.


Sing with Señor is as much of a language school for children as is a full blown-, legitimate musical project, the latter being the result of an ubiquitous intent to silhouette and THEN maximize the charm of extremely tender-, risk free matinee music. The tracks are packed by assuaging, brisk acoustic sounds and friendly clean singing, exhibiting a rather flamboyant and admirable tendency to differ from each other throughout certain secondary aspects. For example, the children chorus is not an all-time addition to color, to spice up the central themes with. It is quite safe to say that the individual tracks do not refrain from introducing soberly limited complexity into their respective structures on occasions, and the character of this style tends to take on the form of exigent reggae pop, loved by the children, and, secretly (¿?) loved by their parents, too. ¿This is the Spanish way to ask a question, did you know?

All in all, the magic of Sing with Señor is only two clicks and a second away from you, and you need to be one extremely bitter person to miss out on it entirely. The duo is on a virtual constant-tour, and is ready to take the show wherever it is invited to in the area. For more information, and, to check out this warm hearted project, you can visit their official page at :

http://www.singwithsenor.com

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron review

Year : 2012
Genre : Chaotic Black Metal with Ambient and Funeral Doom tendencies
Label : Season of Mist
Origin : The Netherlands
Rating : 7.9 / 10

Buy it now

Dutch Dodecahedron's take on extreme music weighs on the curious soul as an inventive combination of madness-level black metal with a notable funeral doom and ambient affection amidst its focal interests.

This LP has a set of  key behaviors, and, while some of these narrative stances are ready and able to subject you to top of the food chain stimuli, the reoccurring drive to render freely positioned atmospheric interludes, - synonym : drunk-ass jamming - and, to fire the cannons of madness via a relatively predictable strategy of sonic punishment administration, - more on this later - the record is not at all shy to reveal its precious limitations, either. Read more to find out how this contribution seeks to put a bounty on your sanity.


Dodecahedron's self titled affair, no doubt, meant to be listened as a full spin, and that indeed is the way the release is able to convey its intentions most efficiently. As suggested, the shape of music you will hear on this carnivorous LP belongs to a particularly chaotic rendition of black metal, - which you have heard before - and the production values largely are akin to what you would anticipate from the modernistic standards of the genre, too. As such, the sound is much more clean than that of early contributions of the style, yet its intentions are not a tad less vile. Quite the opposite : the vileness factor is particularly strong on the LP, and, in my opinion, reigns among the autonomous aspects the record is able to deliver convincingly and looks best along. These intense mid-tempo segments always sound to sport clearly identifiable hooks and ideas, and the flow of the sonic data finds superb melodies to transmit fine stimuli from the narrow field shared by decaying classical music and zombie-infestation-groove metal. In other words : necessarily great stuff. This eminent tendency though is not ubiquitous on the delivery, as the album will exhibit its segments of API - Absolute Peak Intensity - with no other notable method in its possession than to engage everything in the vicinity that is capable to produce a sound. While the approach is legit, of course, its limitations become evident as soon as there is a lack of adventurous-, at least semi-precise route to take through the various sonic domains. In my opinion, the LP could use more sense of definition when engaging full power punishment. Hell, I should be careful what I wish for.

Other aspects that demand separate mentioning are the funeral doom / extreme-sludge leanings of the output. Track number 3, called "Vanitas" is one awesometacular funeral doom track, one that masters of the genre would gladly call their own declaration. It is genuine soul-disturber stuff with a perfect sense of the aforementioned-, special musical percepts of decaying classical vibes, coming to you with the power of a gargantuan Space-T-rex. I'm in all the time. The similar feeling once again emerges rampant/unalloyed in the climax of track number 6, "View from Hverfell II : Inside Omnipotent Chaos". The prolonged mid-and outtro sequence gives you a menacing funeral doom riff very reminiscent to the main riff of Pantera's "This Love", now coming to you with superb poly-rhythms, dwelling amidst larger than life decay-atmospherics. Moments of exquisite sonic entertainment.

One other thing the release seems and sounds enjoy doing, is to throw you in front of freely positioned musical spaces ambient interludes. I have nothing against these entities as concepts, yet, I do not think that they are THAT much effective on the release. I especially am unhappy with the freely positioned musical spaces. I mean, they are not bad, sure, but they aren't any more stellar than what I would expect to hear form a drunk-ass live black metal band jamming around. The ambient interludes have their decent moments, but I'd prefer them to touch-, or shatter me instead. Other than that, don't let the not-too-high score fool you. Remember, I scored this delivery as a full spin, and, whenever I do that, I especially am in troll mode. Thank you for your attention. Dodecahedron's Dodecahedron. H. P. Lovecraft : Approves. This is a mindhack.

Rating : 7.9 / 10

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Monday, February 13, 2012

The Cranberries - Roses review

Year : 2012
Genre : Soft Rock
Label : Cooking Vinyl
Origin : Ireland
Rating : 8.0 / 10

Buy it now

The new The Cranberries LP is packed with 11 exigent soft rock songs utterly compatible and recommendable for a mellow-, (semi-)intimate lounge setting, if there is such a thing at all. This Irish quartet is well beyond their rebellious period, giving you instead a finely crafted variant of soft rock music with a warm timber and extremely peaceful, adorable character to it.

The music herein is without doubt heartfelt and elegant, always exhibiting the propensity to seek out and present a legit, platitude-free musical hook in the flow. Granted, the hooks on display do belong to bonfire sonic entertainment, - exceptions are not present, in my opinion - but this is not at all meant to be a derogatory observation. Once again : the music is fine, and - (and not "but") - intentionally super-mellow on this LP. This liquidated super-assuaging quality, when communicated and revealed by the peculiar style and-, by the mere female being of fronter Dolores O'Riordan, greets your receivers as an authentic and embraceable transmission. Know that this is not something that happens automatically. You are permitted to feel discomfort when someone goes mellow on you. For example, I claim and adore my right to suffer a successive nervous breakdown and related twitches each time James LaBrie of Dream Theater sings. A woman "simply" is more natural and "appropriate" to fuel the function of sonic soul-comfort, in my opinion, but this notion partly is made so you can comment about your favorite male performers who you think are evident masters of the same craft. Luckily, this Cranberries album is totally free of James LaBrie's super-artificial mansadness-disposition. Read on to find out more about this risk free soft rock release.


As you may suspect already, Roses is an immediate addition to the secret lovemaking compilation of every weird nerd out there, and one has the hunch that, among other things, establishing a functionality like that must have been included among the premiere agendas of the band while they were working on this declaration. If and when you witness the delivery from an operational point of view, it is easy to hear and see how the band finds precious and safe pleasure by making the sung melody collide with easily accessible-, bonfire-friendly harmonic structures organized into/along orthodox progression templates. What separates this behavior from shameless cliché-exploitation, - the one you would hear on a Nickeldick LP - is the mere quality of the shape of family friendly pancake-music on display. Once again : top of the heat bonfire soft rock attractions with flawless production values. Track number 2, called "Tomorrow" is a highlight for me. Now you might ask : how does it concern you?? And my answer for you is that I do not have the slightest clue. The Cranberries' Roses does not disappoint. Warm, deeply vibrant sonic entertainment, defining a superb record to drift to sleep with, with a proper (alive) human beside you.

Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Break These Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion

Track number 7 from the new Meshuggah album "Koloss" - coming to you at the end of March, 2012 - is intentionally leaked by the band as a marketing stunt. Listen to the stimuli using the player below. The song has been leaked along with the following enigmatic message :

"the ophidian whispered those who seek shall be rewarded a sonic declaration of spite and resentment its resonance grinding to dust our souls the twine of revenge tightly strung its subharmonics the undoing of all"

If you listen to the lyrics carefully, you can hear Jens Kidman singing these lines in the song. So, the message is - logically enough - part of the lyrics. Share your opinion on the track below.

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Friday, February 10, 2012

Max Karon - Will to Exist review

Year : 2012
Genre : Instrumental Progressive Djent
Label : Qapla Productions
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.3 / 10

Listen To It, Get It At :
Max Karon's Facebook Page.

Max Karon is a music producer and audio engineer, releasing his self-created instrumental debut entitled "Will to Exist" under his own name, yet cultivating the eventual agenda to form a real deal band to play this music - with vocals - on live shows in the future. Once you read this review, I hereby urge you to visit Max's Facebook page to check out the music for yourself, but, if you are a musician yourself, then there is another reason to do so, as well : Max Karon is looking for vocalists, and plans to re-release the album with - illogical. surprise. - vocals on it. So, here is the deal : once you start to listen to this instrumental progressive djent monster of an LP, you should always be aware that the fabric of the music has been manufactured with the dormant propensity of vocals being added to it at a later date. Needless to say, finding the flow and the words for the music is an interesting challenge for anyone feeling capable to summon such thoughts and energies. If you think you reign among those individuals, now is your time to prove a point. Guys, let's talk about the music.


Max Karon's debut won't hesitate all that much with knocking you flat on your ass, as the album virtually exhibits no weaknesses as it addresses its flamboyant fascinations on pretty much full cybernetic high octane efficiency throughout its equally rewarding and equally demanding full spin time. The compositions are rabid, mean, extremely intricately varied, - repetitions are virtually non-existent on the debut, so it is safe to say that its complexity is surpassed only by the clinically insane - and conform all the way to the recent epitome-, to the recent primordial character of Meshuggah metal, though it remains interesting to see what kind of music Meshuggah will bring down on consensus with their freshest entry "Koloss", that is expected to be delivered in March, this year.

Max Karon's debut LP demands steep recognition, as it is pretty evident - tautology - that there is tremendous musical thought and work behind the delivery, and, as easy it is to write such a sentence, so rewarding it is to be convinced of the related truth of it, via subjecting yourself to the stimuli by earpower. The respective fabrics of the tracks tend to reveal both a djenty-, both a progressive approach throughout the structures, and the main complementary tool being utilized by Max is to throw in nice high frequency guitars here and there with an ambient character to them. These background-solos, thank God & Co., are exhibiting more of an ornamentic role in the flow than a safety zone notes can be minigunned from towards wankfestland. The djenting does the minigun thing, no problem.

The production is massive, as it sounds like Max Karon is seeking for the most dangerous gravitational sonic pull all the time. In other words, the album finds profound pleasure by exhibiting segments with extremely heavy dosages of thick sounds parked in them, doing all this without ending up in a chaotic catastrophe. The clarity of Thought, the clarity of the Pattern both are revered and approached to as Sacred, and never harmed during the debut. As result of these central defining factors, the release registers and weighs in vastly superior to recent day shameless commercial exploitations of the djent subgenre, and it always is nice to see a diligent, heartfelt take on something, and this is nothing less than that. As such, I will wrap this review up and urge you to check out the debut, as it is in the need of listeners.

Check out Max Karon's Will to Exit at the Official Facebook page

Or download it directly to HD from Mediafire. Link supplied by Max Karon. : http://www.mediafire.com/?2dmu1lvby4q4i97

Rating : 9.3 / 10

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Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk

Year : 2012
Genre : Melodic Death Metal Alternative Metal with Disco temper
Label : Redhouse Finland Music Publishing
Origin : Finland
Rating : 6.9 / 10

Buy it now

Tracedawn's Lizard Dusk is as accessible melodic death metal that it might also be regarded as a form of radio friendly discopop music. The data on this LP is crystal clear, polished glitter audio contained within the continuous guard of gigantic rhythm guitars reigning at both channels, and the name of the prey of this sonic hive-entity always is radio friendly accessibility. Nothing else, nothing less, nothing more. This is very friendly bubblegum music, dare I say, cartoon melodic death metal with a discopop temper, and the only thing that will constantly remind you of its death character, - beside the gargantuan rhythm guitars - are the growls and screams. These vocal transmissions are delivered along a deep register, and they are sounding much more convincing in my opinion, than the neurotic high pitched screaming that also is widely popular.

The discopop melodic death metal is constantly colored by segments of alternative metal interludes. These additions are rendered by clean singing, and almost always rely on wall of sound power chord structures, showing relatively mixed results in their success factor. Some of these alternative melodic chorus-hooks are decent, some are less so, and I personally did not find a single one that can measure up to an instant classic hook the Mors Subita debut LP is virtually packed full of. Read on to find out more about this release.


It is an admirable quality of this disc that it is honest and quick at revealing the central sonic rhetorics on board within minutes. The following sentence is not meant to be a negativistic one, quite the contrary. If you have heard one song from this track, you pretty much have heard every other one, as all the songs herein rely on the same template structure, on the same blueprint. The music on Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk is not "just" catchy discopop melodic death metal. It is engineered to be it, and risks are not taken, nor their nearness is tolerated. In fact, this is the first melodic death metal spin I'm aware of that might give you a sugar overdose, as result of its discopop character.

Since the whole album is stable as a rigorous product that never deviates from its aspirations, evidently flatter moments are nonexistent on it. But superb moments are hard to come by, too. My personal favorite of the album is track 4, called "The Crawl". After a nice intro from the beginning to 1:45, the album brings all things it ever will, with top efficiency. Sci-fi pop synths and high frequency sci-guitars wonder around on both channels, disciplined rigorously by a monstrous bass, while all these entities are bending to the will of monochrome cybernetic drums. Then the monumental rhythm guitars are coming in to back the vocals up. Discopop song structure with the tools of melodic death metal. It is a legit thing to do, what I'm getting at is my percept that the Lizard Dusk LP is not capable to bring this top form all the way. Let us see why.

My more bitter qualms and subsequent non-satisfaction are relating to the alternative metal hooks. I love alternative metal, too, if it is worth to be loved. But try introduce a cheap alternative metal hook to me, I will see it coming a galactic mile away. The song I have just been telling you about, equally has an alternative metal hook, and it sucks purple donkey dick, I'm sorry to hear. Yet, do not let yourself be talked off from this decent discopop melodic death delivery until you have heard a track of it. Once again : discopop melodic death metal with zero risks taken. It does not plant you into the wall like Mors Subita, but comes to you as an extremely easily accessible take on the style. Some will dismiss it as a discopop sellout, personally, as long as it sounds thoughtful and good, I don't feel the need to use such harsh words or invade such a position. Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk always sounds good, and sometimes sounds thoughtful. "Sometimes" is more prevalent than "often" though. So a 6.9 will have to do right now.

Rating : 6.9 / 10

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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Skyharbor - Blinding White Noise : Illusion & Chaos review

Year : 2012
Genre : Emo Djent Shoegaze
Label : Basick Records
Origin : India / United Kingdom / United States
Rating : 7.5 / 10 (score evolved from 4.5 / 10)

This review has been opinion-hacked by a commenter below. You need to read the review AND the comments to get a full picture of this beneficial evolution.

There is nothing chaotic or blindingly white noisy about Skyharbor's Blinding White Noise : Illusion & Chaos LP. This shocking emo djent shoegaze contribution - which wants you to believe that it also is a legit progressive metal album, but suffers legendarily far from that point, as I will attempt to justify - is the result of a collaboration between various illustrious artists, - ex-Megadeth Marty Friedman, ex-Tesseract vocalist Dan Tompkins among others - but, one must suspect that the primordial contributors have underwent a creative process in which the protocol was to be blown away on spot by the artistic aptness and related skillset of every fellow musician or producer in the vicinity, no matter how and what went down during the music invocation procedure.

This record, for 75% of its playtime, sounds like a tepid collection of b-side entries of an unreleased Phil Collins popmetal LP, with badly exploited computer-djenting seeking to convey a sense of fresh trendiness in the background with a foul intent of mimicking - synonym : lying - legit musical complexity. The problem is, that the djenting, and the alleged complexity has no form, has no face, lacks TRUE CHARACTER on this release, and its key attribute becomes not rhythmic entertainment, but rhythmic torment. Exceptions are very few and far between. The rabid djenting in the mid-section of track 6 "Celestial" is delicious, but this is the top form I could find the mellower part of the record in. I'll elaborate on this later. In an attempt to assure you that I'm not just having a troll-seizure, being incapable to say a good thing about the djent subgenre which I honestly love, here is a slick, muscular little djent death hybrid release I recently reviewed and found utterly enjoyable. Check this djentchick djenting.

On THIS release though, the djenting is so badly exploited, so heartlessly humiliated, and so obviously and obnoxiously computer generated, that it not just borders on the laughable, but sports the door hinges as nipples upon arrival.

The bread-region of the data operates on this vague, emo-sounding pop metal/pseudo-progressive metal field, but the "mere" integrity of the music, in my opinion never reaches the identifiable character of compositional thought and related maturity. You have very simplistic, prolonged melodic passages of an alternative metal character, supported by pretty taste-lacking copy paste djent samples. An almost utter lack of melodic seriousness, ripeness is on display, along with an almost continuous flow of attempts to conceal these profound deficits. The record does not sound bad, mind you. It just sounds cheap. I can not wholeheartedly give this LP the label "progressive metal". Nor math metal. Naaah. In Dan Tompkins' -ex-Tesseract - mind, it IS progressive metal, because he delivers the same powerless sighs at every last whiny syllable of the sung lines a la Dream Theater's James LaBrie, "- you know I need yaueahhuuuuhhhhh...." - but it is more annoying than impressive, in my opinion. It must be pointed out though that Dan Tompkins has a tremendous set of lungs nevertheless, as he sometimes decides to sing on his extreme capacities on the record, and daaaayumn, that sounds good! The track called "Aurora" packs some top of the heat clean singing with epic belts in its climax section, and I would score this release well above 9 if I'd found on it stimuli of the same caliber throughout, but this is not the case. Simply put, this mostly is a gloomy alternative metal mess with djent and emo affectations, and a pretty shameless kind of those, too. Read on to find out more about the nature of this spin.


Granted, the delivery is divided into two narrative sections, - Illusion and Chaos - yet, only the last three tracks that belong to the Chaos section summon relative redeeming values compared to the preceding sonic region of MSED - massively shoegazer emo djenting, - which is encompassing more than 30 minutes of the 47 minutes the album lasts for. These redeeming values are summoning more intense rhetorics, bringing the record's short top form as a groove / death hybrid of nice variation and complexity. THAT 12 minutes of the album are legit without doubt. But the vast majority of the stimuli, in my opinion, is pretty insulting data as a commercial contribution. It seeks to give you the music Ceterum gave, only, this data seeks to offer lies about that exact same kind of music, and necessarily fails to summon it, using false and/or cheap musical assumptions in trying to accomplish the same effect without giving the aspired effects its inescapable dues. Whereas odd time signatures and poly-rhythms would be true gems and ear-candies to behold, you get nothing beyond standard 4/4 alibi pop metal, "spiced up" in a deceitful addition of computer-sample djenting that exhibits no true character other than the limited charm of scattered, computerized randomness. As noted earlier, ex-TesseracT-er Dan Thompkins can ride on epic notes he belts out from out of nowhere, but the release features a vastly limited set of intense clean singing, with which it looks the best with.

Track number 7, called "Maeva", - which also is the concluding track of the Illusion section - is the only one I think is a truly successful entry in the majority section, with a tender quality and a nice hook for chorus. Beside the awesome vocal and harmonic climax of "Aurora", the only secondary islands of solace the release is capable to offer when flatting around in tepid agony, are brief solo guitar contributions here and there, moments by which Marty Friedman - ex-Megadeth - showcases his most recent fascinations on yet another set of exotic scales. The solos are OK, yes, - nothing that rewires my mind though - but their surroundings remain pale reminders of what this music probably sought to be before its creators decided to (mimick to) get satisfied with the act of establishing second-tier compositional efforts and shameless/weightless production wizardry - conceptionless copy-paste djenting - as its defining "values". The clean vocal delivery is particularly annoying, - the screams are legit in the latter section - though I must confess if you force me to choose between death by napalm and James LaBrie's emotional singing, I pick death by napalm anytime. Saved for its superb climax lasting for 12 minutes, a pretty enervated record.

Rating : 4.5 / 10

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White Wizzard - Flying Tigers review

Year : 2011
Genre : Power Metal
Label : Earache Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 6.0 / 10

Buy it now

White Wizzard brings your skirted Puma shoe power metal fix via ambivalent methodologies and related successes. There are no secrets-, nor any intent to conceal the lack of those - WTF?! - that the members of the band are Iron Maiden fanatics, and the music on their latest output indeed is 59 minutes of diligent worship performed for the sole rapture of the Iron Maiden song structure and its musical narrative. The singer has a convincing siren-throat, too.

What strikes you as something of promising qualities right away, is the "feel" of the product itself. The record-, as a commercial commodity, comes to you in slick, beautiful presentation, and you are quick to find yourself in the utterly/terribly unfortunate position of WANTING this LP to be so much more consistent in quality than it actually - sigh - is, most of the time. Unfortunately there is not too much reasons to add a "most of the time" into this sentence, either. Read on to find out more about this Iron Maiden fanband release.


Musically, White Wizzard serves you finely produced-, decent power metal in its TOP form, but, it shows a reoccurring misplaced satisfaction in harassing your awareness with perplexedly shallow instrumental content, as well. First and foremost, the record is about 25 minutes longer than it probably could have brought a respectable prime for with, and it is something to say about a 60 minutes declaration. During this terribly long abuse session of much less efficient segments than the release can claim as peak moments, you will hear musical "ideas" that are originating from a stale, cheap and rudimentary approach towards riff-, and songcraft.

Here is my grim suspicion : a huge chunk of this record is not made out of a desire to attempt to realize the music actually HEARD inside by its creators. These segments, instead, came into existence as the unnatural expression of an industrialist's self-proclaimed moral obligation to deliver his heaVVVy!! fucking. metLLL!! time to time. "OK, guys, here we are in the studio, here are the beer barrels, guys, now let's make some Iron Maiden metal music, we know how it is done after all, right guys? Right?" Oh really. What makes Iron Maiden's music efficient, in my opinion, is the emotion and the "mere" sonic rendition of the emotion, which ultimately it is all about. Emotion is something you can't substitute with anything else. If you have no idea or thought behind the emotion, or, God forbid, have no emotion at all, then, guess what : it will show.

As result of this, White Wizzard's Flying Tiger LP is oftentimes found repeating coarse-ass, sweaty, tired power metal riffs Iron Maiden would not embarrass itself to shit out. The band is doing this abuse "fueled" by a desperate attempt to summon a sear promise of legitimacy to their more enervated riffs and pseudo-ideas, and the album has a robust share of those, in my opinion. Success in the pursuit of legit power metal is less frequent - though doubtless present - of an entity to greet than relative failure is throughout the Flying Tigers record. Titling an album like this after Iron Maiden's Aces High is like forming a band Tigera, too.

The music is never "bad" on this release. When flatting out, it is just uninspired, and shows no cunning to realize it. 25-30 minutes of this 60 minutes just do not make the Geiger counter grouchy, you know? It does not make the fucking thing beep at ALL, in fact. That is the key factor, in my opinion. The album, though sports a rather legit early portion, steadily prevents itself from emerging as instant recommendation as results of its lack of capacity to spot-, rebel against-, and omit its portions of uninspired power metal platitude harassment. This is easily one of the best mediocre releases of 2011, yet it without doubt exhibits a modest set of memorable moments worth to revisit.

Rating : 6.0 / 10

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Dunderbeist - Black Arts & Crooked Tails review

Year : 2012
Genre : Alternative Metal
Label : Indie Recordings
Origin : Norway
Rating : 9.0 / 10

Buy it now

Norway's Dunderbeist brings a wide array of influences to your receptors, and it isn't afraid to show them, either. Opening track "La Guerette du Feu" - bless you, bless you - is as special and deceitful of an entry as any other on the release, as its fabric touches upon well executed, epic power metal as a start, which later transforms to an alternative temper, spiced up finally by intense groove metal. Then, the next track, "Through the Peeophole", not only shares Mike Patton's theoretic (?) voyeur fixation - see his band Peeping Tom and his avid fascination with the classic originator movie of the same title - but the structure of the song, the vocal mannerisms utilized are very reminiscent to that of Patton, too. Granted, the singer, while he does a likable job, does not sport the priceless pipes of his n1 sonic hero, yet the intent to give you a Faith No More song sounds to be Evident - ha, ha. - to me. I'd be surprised if the members of Dunderbeist would reject the assumption that "Through the Peeophole" is FNM influence from top to bottom. This is a mindhack. As you will see, the album bends to the command of the Faith No More influence in an eager fashion, oftentimes giving you results that are top of the tier. There is nothing wrong with such an influence, of course. In fact, the nicely presented Faith No More fixation is one of the bests I can think of. Does it make sense to write "best" in plural? Read on to find out more about this surprisingly-, and radically colorful release.


Third track, "Fear and Loathing" (not in Las Vegas, but, under your skin, for a start) conveys a mixture of early Beasty Boys, and, once again, Faith No More : the chorus of this track is a total tribute. "Lucifer Eyes" starts out with a relatively deluded vocal performance, in my opinion. It is lengthy, sporting an artificial bluesy vibe. When at 1:20 things start to roll, you hear - Surprise, You Are Not Dead - another Faith No More song. This one is an entry the inspirator band probably would have thrown away as "hmm, it has something, but it is not THAT strong". "Lucifer Eyes" is reminiscent to the Faith No More song "Collision" in its basic structure, in my opinion. I write that band name so much in this review, I hope you won't faint no more.

"Worst Sentence" - and you'd rather be shot in the face, huh? - sounds to be one of the flatter tracks on the delivery. A simplistic ACME doom-chord progression flatters a mid-tempo chorus that invites to mind a b-side Megadeth song. This sounds like the rhetorics when Mr. Mustaine goes New World Order in the Old World Odor. Think Dr. Feelgood. Family friendly cartoon metal, and, regardless how the mid-section tries to convey radical emotion in menacing cartoon style - "there is no time to fix you, no time to heal you now" - I must point out that the song failed to bestow the strike, at the first place. Not a bad song. It is just a sonic foam to skillfully conceal an utter pseudo-lack of actual inspiration.

"Shields Aligned" starts out like a Place of Skulls song. Google "Victor Griffin", he is not only the fronter of Place of Skulls and a valuable member of Pentagram, but he also is your Father, Luke. But, hell, check out the 0:48 mark of this entry, and pardon me the immature smiley. :D This is SOOOOO super-early '80s Faith No More, that it is both brilliant and ridiculous. This track is one of the strongest, with a superb-, 101% Camambert-free power metal concept. (So it has 1% of anti-cheese, yeah.) "Back into line, hold formation, hold your shields aligned, wait for my sign." - and all this in a way that remains 101% free of power metal cheese. I. Do. Not. Say. This. Easily. And I do not say easily the following, either. This is a very significant song, in my opinion, which kicks all kinds of asses to hell and back on spot.

"More Me" starts out in a disorganized fashion, and finds pleasure "keeping" - seemingly inadvertently - this pseudo-pace. The intense end section saves something of the day, but there is way too much obstacles in your way until you get there, regardless of the short length. An aptly varied track with significant redeeming values among more insignificant primordial characteristics.

"Winter Past" will masterfully deceive you into thinking that you are listening to some Viking Metal Berserker stuff. Seconds after the intro, the Viking temper submits to easily accessible-, legit alternative metal, and I assure you that the music keeps its dignity, and does not cause harm in Viking metal. It sounds like Viking Abba metal, and, from that point on, you don't really have much other chance than to check it out. The singer is pretty good herein. No effect wizardry, "just" emotion, and that is sufficient.

"8 Crows and Counting" starts out with the signature Faith No More tribal drumming, Mike Bordin style. The whole song is hasty-, desperate, psyho-motorly A.G.I.TATED. to reveal the Faith No More vibe. Partly "Midlife Crisis", partly "Epic", partly "Caffeine". I would be very surprised if you'd listen to this and told me I'm an idiot, this has nothing to do with a Faith No More influence. It has nothing else to do. But, a legit song nevertheless.

Concluding track, "Hum Hum", I leave to you to discover on your own. In conclusion, I will say this : Dunderbeist's Black Arts & Crooked Tails is definitely a pleasant addition to early 2012, and I recommend it with a poker face. A must for all who wants to hear new classic - sorry about that - Faith No More song structures.

Rating : 9.0 / 10

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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Ketha - 2nd Sight review

Year : 2012
Genre : Death Djent Hybrid
Label : Independent
Origin : Poland
Rating : 8.5 / 10

Quite simply, Poland's Ketha brings to you the music I personally hoped the latest Vildhjarta album would contain. While I have mild admiration toward that particular Swedish gem, its limited set of charms and its relative - cough. cough. - lack of inventive variation made it, in my opinion, a tolling spin as a full listen.

Ketha, on the other hand, is not afraid to sacrifice program time for pronounced sonic motion, giving you an unusually motivated and flamboyant 36 minutes of hybrid djent death warfare. Read on to find out more about this charismatic, charming release.


2nd Sight is a rather interesting bird, as it has zero concern regarding the listener's auditory cravings, and, as result of this, necessarily lacks any intent and any constraints to satisfy those. The nature of the music is rigorously varied, colorful, sober death metal with a much gratefully consumable djent fascination, yet, interestingly enough, the band produces a sound that is more akin to massive black metal character than the cybernetic djent sound popularized by others. This is a mindhack. The vocals are pretty standard death metal shouts, - not growls in my opinion - and, while they don't aspire to challenge the all-challenger maniac style of Jens Kidman, they are doing an efficient job at throwing vocal presence into the mix. Figuring out the lyrics without the booklet is something you will have fun doing for five and then some eternities.

Sometimes, less is more, in fact, this truth seems to be claiming legitimacy more often than to failing at it. With 36 minutes of finely varied stimulus of volatile qualities, 2nd Sight efficiently reaches the field on which you can't be bothered to turn off the music, you let it on for another spin, because the motive you are hearing already is hooky and familiar. This is a clever behavior with a related-, cunning decision behind it, especially when compared to recent robust releases with - in my opinion - tolling qualities, like the latest to date Lamb of God LP.

The music on this Polish contribution has its fair share of utterly magical moments. It has more than one, and I will give one right now. Track number 3, "Take 1" comes to mind : on a fabric of buzzing monster-wasp guitars, a cybernetic-, high frequency solo guitar addresses its own vulture-qualities, as it is witnessing how decay is tinkering below it, looking for a chunk of mildly rotten meat, suitable to sink its sonic teeth into. OK, I give another, too : the very ending of the album is superb, too. It is a short atmospheric interlude, but it has so elegant and sly melodies that it could be a splendid addition to all sci-fi movies.
There is a video game with the same title, "2nd Sight", too. Here is a link for info on it. The game is good, don't believe the opposite. I thank you for your attention and recommend this djent death hybrid with maximum personal persuasion power.

Rating : 8.5 / 10


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Friday, February 3, 2012

Attack Attack! - This Means War review

Year : 2012
Genre : Barbiemetal
Label : Rise
Origin : Disneyland
Rating : 3.5 / 10

There is a saying attributable both to Hegel and Marx, that goes roughly like this : each terrible event in history happens twice. First, as a tragedy, then, as a farce or comedy of its original form. Emo music, as far as I know, has a more robust history than a recent observer would assume, as the implementation of radical, short emotional outbursts was a little extra added to the repertoire of hardcore bands of the early '90s. With time, the fake screaming rhetorics have become a full-blown narrative of "some", and Attack Attack! is a premiere representative of how obnoxious it can get, in my opinion. Look at this fronter, what the fuck is up with him? Don't know about you, but, to me, he genuinely seems and acts like he needs to be put down with a sedation shot for the good of the community and himself. Then he needs the help of a qualified professional ASA fucking P.


The name of the game of course is posing, and the shameless kind of it, too, and nothing more. Caleb Shomo is a businessman, and THEN he is the artist who delivers the EMOtional - phah - goodies needed by the 13 old manboob-sporter adolescent. I realize that this album with two erect penises on the cover is definitely not constructed to serve out my particular cravings, but, after I have watched some of the videos of this band and listened to the music on this spin, I think it is safe to say that Attack Attack!'s latest is a risk free product - PRODUCT, and not MUSIC persé - package that you will find enjoyable if you have a girlfriend you regularly enjoy playing suicide with.

Attack Attack's latest is a smartly and harshly limited product that seeks to make your adolescent-soul vomit up all its casual pseudo-torments, and there you are, treatable and beneficial to society - WTF?? - once again. The record's most terrible attribute, in my opinion, is Caleb Shomo's forced, obnoxious, disturbing, annoying-ass faked screaming, along with the little vocal subtleties he constructed on this release and probably is totally content and happy with. Such an example is, that sometimes you hear a crystal clear-,almost spoken syllable - recorded separately - bursting into the fakeass emo screaming. Read on to find out more about this release if you want.


This Means War's premiere redeeming value, from the point of view of casual social commentary, is the fact how it makes money by congratulating for its listener and True Embracer for what he is : an adolescent with manboobs who assuages the bitterness of a lost XBox battle by dumping another sack of chips in. If you are past 13, you can't take the premiere core of this music as something relevant or TOO serious. The record starts out with the lyrics : "Start the Revolution," but the fronter fake-screams it in a way that it sounds like "Santa Revolution", and, from that point on, my attempts to take this record serious, are to be kept intact with scientific rigor.

As it quickly turns out, this short, but soberly paced LP - 36 minutes - mainly is about the terrible screaming of the fronter, as he addresses his platitude-frustrations without end. "All is lost, everything that I love is gone!" Clearly, this is nothing else than an attempt to find resonance in a not yet integral and/or stable spiritual system. If All is lost, and everything you love is gone, the last thing on your mind is to listen to this LP. The most frightening thing is, that, if you are subjecting yourself to this for multiple sit-throughs - which Yours, Truly did - the intent of the music indeed clicks in, as Coverkillernation says in his review. His notions are spot on about the matter : when revealing its face, Attack Attack's latest variant on music takes you to a terribly dark and shallow place, where you are all alone with your penis.

Attack Attack! shamelessly exploits the instable spiritual integrity of the angsty adolescent, offering cheap refuge by showing a mirror with a comic book reflection of these comic book routine-torments, and that is that. "My girfriend dumped, me, I will fucking kill myself!" With an attitude like that, I'd dump you too if I were gay. Now that I'm not, please conduct yourself or get away from me. Or go volatile. The only minor redeeming values of this package are the rhythmic patterns of the breakdowns, but each of those will flow into a pop chorus, and those never register more than segments taken from an entirely different song, in my opinion.

This is an album primarily consisting of faked, constant emotional outbursts interrupted by below average pop choruses and breakdown sections of mild rhythmic entertainment value. Do not expect wonders in that department, either. Other than that, this is music with not much other intent to it than to serve out the expectations of its trend-audience, (synonym : music not worth wiping a decent gorilla's ass with) but also music that needs to exist this day and age, otherwise it would not. Santa Revolution, Lover.

Rating : 3.5 / 10


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