Noise Shaft

Murder Your Gods - debut EP review

2012-03-10T03:33:00.004-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Vile Thrash with Death and Groove tastes
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official Site : > - here - <

Murder Your Gods is a four piece metal ensemble from Olympia, Washington, and their trade primarily registers as heftily executed classic thrash played with high definition vile intentions kept in top of the heat shape all the way back from the golden era of the '80s, yet, the band also brings with itself a surprising level of aptness to grace the ears with flamboyancy directly borrowed from the flesh - auuuua. - of other subgenres, all this for relentless and much welcomed musical variation. Thrash never expected to be left alone. Thrash always expected to be tinkered with, so it can thrash shit to hell and back.

Murder Your Gods, luckily enough is a group that took the harder-, BUT much more admirable route to flatter and express the desire to administer radical sonic intensity, and decided to sculpt out five songs into intricately detailed musical fabrics, as opposed to come forth with a full length debut with more coarse segments. This debut EP has a formidable amount of work AND musicianship behind it, while the production values are quite efficient-, I kind of dare say super-efficient - at revealing the thrash ethos of the '80s, spiced up by various contemporary leanings the band is not at all afraid to showcase. Go Murder Your Gods then come back to read about the influences and various pastimes of this delivery.

I find myself in a quite pleasant position right now, because there is nothing to me to whine about like a little bitch in pink latex lingerie, as this squad keeps the form I hoped they would all the way to the very end of the release. The leanings I have been telling you about are need to be addressed, so now is the time to inform you of the influences I personally think are notable on the stimuli : while non-mistakenly thrash in character, the data seeks and finds exigent musical interludes to introduce charismatic nods toward a myriad of styles. Among these, the most notable one is a tame obsession cultivated towards Pantera / Lamb of God, but imagine the similar spiritual stance riding on a more pronounced variant of thrash metal, while you are pretty much free to dismiss the anticipation of the southern vibes. This also is one interesting aspect of the delivery : whenever it seeks out the groove, it finds other methods to do that by, than to abuse immediate ACME groove patterns. Like : play around on the first three notes of your deepest blues scale, emphasize the open string like there is no tomorrow, and you are grooving like Hell on Earth, man!!!!!1

With great delight and satisfaction I recognize that the Murder Your Gods members seem to be quite aware of the same kind of motoristic genre-agitations and habitual fixations, and their conscious and successful deviations from these trends are a welcome addition to this EP. Other leanings on the release that need to be pointed out is an invigorated tendency to offer thrashy guitar solos from time to time, most often sticked into the heart of a point to cultivate variation or a turnaround from. The intro section of concluding track, "Dark Protectors" is a good example of how detailed things can get herein : the way the group "comes out" of the introductory theme exhibits traits of black metal, death metal, - blast beat those impertinent psyches away for a while - then flows into a verse structure that strikes a fine balance between ballsy metalcore - yeah, there IS a such thing, WOW. - and groove metal. Yes, metalcore owes a great deal to groove metal, in my opinion. (And to Stevie Wonder.)

The shape of music on the disc, as noted, is surprisingly well varied and I have zero doubt whatsoever that the band would harvest relevant, immediate public success and widespread attention - imagine the usefulness of covert success - if to deliver this stimuli in a live environment. Go soak your ears into their stuff at their official site and invade the places they will be playing at.

Check out the official Murder Your Gods site with the free EP this review is based on.

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Cannibal Corpse - Torture review

2012-03-08T08:18:00.006-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Old School Death Metal with New Tricks
Label : Metal Blade Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.5 / 10

Buy it now

Cannibal Corpse's new LP brings all the subtlety of 111 strikes to the truck tire by a sledgehammer. The album, for the most part, is coming to you as black belt level vintage death metal with a sense of more pronounced variation than the genre most often cares to tolerate. Warning! This is not to say that the release would go Barbie on your bitchy little ass. This still is uncompromisingly hard and exigent music, but it bends to the will of the groove that is out to Slaughter All, - as a start - and this is a highly acceptable sonic stance, of course. The delivery seeks and finds relevant pleasure in indulging amidst classic-, exclusively guitar-centered death metal, with more success than with failure at that, and, while I realize that this latter segment of this sentence might just about be enough to bring the Cannibal Corpse maniac into the mood and desire to skin me alive, (as a capricious warmup exercise) I will be the first to admit that the veteran squad brings quite luscious variation on this disc, for most of the time. But not throughout.

As noted, the audio data on this LP is legit old school death metal, yet it brings an increased amount of good propensity to seek out colors and moods to enrich its robust genre with, but, without ANY tolerance towards the presence of anything less heavy than a mammoth in adamantium armor. The Cannibal Corpse dudes deserve immediate respect for delivering a flow of well varied 43 minutes with a common denominator of being heavy as the tenderness of a Gorilla on Viagra to connect them. Read on to find out more about this spin.

There are times when death metal reveals a new face, like it does via this release, in my opinion. I still can't truly - or remotely - understand why I am the only one on the face of this Earth at this very moment who reviewed THAT album. The LP's favorite method of machination revolves around the constant exhibition of super-massive, charismatic sonic volumetrics, while the face of the kinetic sledgehammer-variation the disc won't relent bringing is mainly thrash-, and groove metal in character, except that well sculpted riffing and/or inventively structured definition is not frequently offered and revealed, - nor fucking needed, paradoxically - though examples of more ripped sequences and more pronounced clarity than those obtainable in an adrenaline rush, ARE present. But it mainly is about going fucking crazy, so deviations from normal insanity - aaah! - are only revealed so you can dive back into All Things Crazy with a fresh mind. Ha, ha. I dare say that this release, upon multiple listens, reminds me of Lamb of God's Resolution, only this shit is more bruuuutaaaaaal!!!!!!11evelen

You may be thinking that you are more into the super-modernistic side of death metal, and listen exclusively to technical death, but let me tell you that the Cannibal Corpse dudes are bringing pretty admirable variation herein with a relentless intent to steamroll your spiritual anatomy into all things coming your way, and I like this attitude a lot. Old school death metal with new propensity to offer variation : Approved / Encouraged / Graced by.

Rating : 8.5 / 10

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Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball review

2012-03-07T05:42:00.006-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Classic Rock
Label : Sony
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.0 / 10

Buy it now

Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball, no doubt, is an immediate and strong recommendation for fans of heartfelt-, simultaneously morose and modestly optimistic rock music that is both honest and more realistic than your worst nightmare of all : physical reality. Bruce Springsteen, as always, is honest to the - oops. - bone, and his music did not change in the past 40 years at all, nor it needed to to be embraced fully and without doubt by the audience that this form of audio stimuli plays the emotional registers of with. The more I listen to this album, the more I smell of gasoline, the more boobs I have littered at the inside of my locker at the dressing room, and the more the middle class American worker I become in general. My palms are sturdy from the monkey wrench, and, while this music is playing, my surroundings smell like a pair of used socks, wherever I go and whatever I do amidst these sonic declarations. It is a fault and a pathetic misunderstanding to attempt to criticize this record beyond the boundaries of its own pseudo-aspirations, as the "aspiration" really is non-existent, as the flow of music herein is "just" a mirror reflection of the spiritual hive-pattern-, the collective psyche of the American working class, as Bruce Springsteen sees that in 2012. Read on to find out more about this contribution.

Normally, I would have given this record a 7.0 with a pretty healthy conscience, and, what eventually elevated this score upward a full category, is none other than the fact that Spingsteen's latest release is exceptionally well varied, and I dare say that it brings to the surface reverberating spiritual connotations IF listened to as a full spin. There is a good dosage of Irish folk-nonsense sprayed on many of the tracks, but, when the record decides to go - paradoxically - publicly introverted, its content weighs in as uncompromisingly honest, and the mere music bends to the will of this urge to being "just" that. And this is not something to register into mind with a dismissing hand gesture.

An artist can never be more than honest.

If I can feel these reverberating spiritual vibes during the numerous peak moments of this Bruce Springsteen delivery, - despite not even being "bo-ooorn in the USA-A" - then I'm pretty sure that an individual who is a part of the spiritual hive-entity the album is primarily directed towards, will have a supersimilar grasp unto those. Perhaps a stone-orthodox American would claim that no non-American has the capacity or right - or either - to understand this release fully. Fine. Believe that for yourself.

The album mostly is mid-tempo in temper, and Springsteen's most favored chord passages and moods are identifiable all the way through. The opening track is reminiscent to one of his - logically enough - earlier evergreens, "Dancing in the Dark", while the second song is hasty to reveal the family car-safe variant of wild west mayalish feeling the record seeks to communicate joy and optimism along. This is John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance", only in a new pair of vintage stockings. If you listen carefully to this release - which never is a bad idea with music - you can pick up full blown western vibes hiding (?) in the shadows later on. Example : the track "We Are Alive". Cowboy mayalish. Grandma is running around in the garden with a dog attached to her ass, the kids are shooting each other with water cannons, our neighbors are having a quarrel, and we barbecue, my love.

It is the same archetype of the cultivation method of the famous-, I suppose, instinctively felt American Dream, as the fabric of the wild west must have seen hundred+ years ago whenever a new section of town has been established as result of : profit. This is a reoccurring musical method of the album, one that seeks to paint and proudly reveal the optimistic side of this middle class American perspective, and I personally think that the shape of joy revealed on this album easily rivals that of a bigass cheese burger, and, hell, that probably is more than sufficient. As long as you have work, food, beer, good TV and quality female meat to hop on at night, things are fine.

Wrecking Ball is a Bruce Springsteen release that is more occupied with giving a status report of present day America than to indulge in the rebellious ethos of the '80s, and the disc's great sense of variation easily makes this an immediate music shop trip to any Bruce Springsteen fan, but, I like it too, because, after an hour of it, it is super-refreshing to get away from it.

Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Eluveitie - Helvetios review

2012-03-06T14:18:00.004-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Folk, Viking Metalcore
Label : Nuclear Blast Records
Origin : Switzerland
Rating : 6.0 / 10

Buy it now

Right away I'm going to tell you that this very disc might be a splendid choice if fighting Krakens and zombie Valkyries is Tuesday for you. Some claim this disc to be a folk death metal release, a notion which made my curiosity skyrocket, yet, this music, in my opinion is a rather self-indulgent galore of family safe Viking (?) orthodoxies that are more than enough to put me to Alpha at the third of this disc. Luckily, I could kept my awareness intact with a book while listening to this monster-length 1 hour+ LP. The cause of my highly terrible fear of this delivery is the simple fact that the data on it is heavily fixated on the power metalish stance of fantasy related fighting, and there is fighting in it, too. Sometimes, the fantasy fighting is interrupted by lamentations of fighting. It's the backing track for live fantasy, arranged throughout very standard metalcore verse structures.

Indeed, Swiss Eluveitie combines Viking (!!) metalcore with a very superficial rendition of folk, seeking to imbue the music with the feeling of Irish fairy tale music. The production is quite sterile and traditional metal at its core, - SIC! - with no desire to spice up the flow of things with notable high frequency detail. This music BEGS for epic solos, and you won't get a SINGLE instance of them. Yet, you have exotic folk pipes, capable to produce one sound, but there is a "short" and a "long" variant of that note. Everything is pretty straightforward mid frequency guitar warfare, sometimes rode by Irish folk violins. Read on to find out more about this.

The fray sometimes is spiced up by a much welcomed female singer with a nice timber to her pipes. Sometimes she is forced to move out of her comfort zone, and she looks much worse there than in it. Her participation is much less frequent, unfortunately, than I would have had prefer, and the majority of this one hour affair is narrated by a Viking angry metal guy who sounds to be occupied by themes of wielding combat and spilling gallons of generic enemy blood. I claimed not so much long ago that the compositions are prone to exhibit metalcoresque verse structures. You know the methodology : bang on the open strings, and sometimes interrupt the chugging by a pattern of notes. This technique is a super-persistent tendency herein. The only pseudo-deviation from these pastimes is equivalent with the Michael Flatley fairy tale music that seeks to color up the shape of Viking metalcore affections. The ingredient in question comes with shallow anatomy, and is super-hasty to peak in with its limited top capacity. Irish folk music, you know : three seconds of pure magic, then, the next already is the start of full blown high fantasy retardation. By the 10th second mark, I'm a caught in the act pedophile gnome with a penis for a nose, running from a Viking band of bards, cheered by a pack of valiant high elves and morally eloquent village people. No thank you.

Rating : 6.0 / 10

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Obscura - Illegimitation review

2012-03-05T12:35:00.000-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Cybernetic Black Metal, Technical Death Metal
Label : Relapse
Origin : Germany
Rating : 9.2 / 10

Relapse shoots an Obscura compilation towards your way through an illegal space-time rift, and this is not the worst thing that can happen to you. This German formation, while now it is one of the premiere technical death metal acts the source of all things cares to regard as its own, had its fair share of different musical directions cultivated in its past.

The Illegimination compilation spin-package is a tasteful choice to familiarize yourself with the anatomy of the music that was the source the current variant of the band's language been born amidst. This package gives you 48 minutes of fragmented Obscura activity, ranging from 2003 to 2011. Read on to find out more about this compilation.

The disc is divided into three parts, each dedicated to a certain period. (Of the band, you know?) The first four tracks belong to the Illegimitation demo, released in 2003. These declarations have a keen affection towards traditional black metal, yet the production values are more bombastic and punchy than the general shape of the subgenre cares to dictate, if, at all. Indeed, black metal is ready to work even with modest production values, once the notes are played with the "right" - ha. - mindset.

I tend to think that Obscura's early interest in black metal partly was fueled by the band's curiosity of how black metal would sound if being resonated through steroids, and the results are pretty convincing. Unmistakably the black kind of metal, with an occasional propensity to turn into a blackened kind of death metal during the latter section of the first segment of the record.

Throughout the second region of the disc, that which gives you three robust tracks to showcase fine entries from the preproduction era of Cosmogenesis, - we are in 2006 - the band's readiness to render complexity for the mere-, admirable sake of it, is more pronounced. The death metal tint is more infectious this time around, yet the flow of the music chooses to settle and keep one foot on the field of black. Initially, at least. A propensity to offer instrumental breaks bordering on dignified, epic power metal of cheese-free beauty is notable, while the black metal riffage is revealed with the attitude of the death subgenre. The consecutive and the third addition from this class are stone-orthodox death metal entries with pig squeals and whatnot. The music still kicks all kinds of monumental butts, oftentimes exhibiting a particularly rabid groove metal character. Philip Anselmo approves. The fractal complexity that Obscura gets famous of in a future that these songs keep in store for the band, are "but" promises for now.

The third-, and concluding session of this compilation LP gives you three covers of various - uhm - other bands. A Death, an Atheist, and a Cynic cover, all recorded in a session that took place in 2011. Highly legit deliveries that do not seek to blame the subject matter, they instead adore and praise them with true interest in their respective forms and anatomy. If you are not yet familiar with Obscura, then this compilation is a good starting point to remedy the situation, while obtaining Omnivium will give you an insight of the recent-, technical death metal attitude of this eminent German ensemble.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Red Lamb - Red Lamb review

2012-03-05T09:23:00.009-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Cabaret Thrash Metal
Label : Roadrunner Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 6.5 / 10

Buy it now

Red Lamb is the cartoon-thrash metal project of Dan Spitz, - don't believe the press release, there is nothing alternative metal on this - former lead guitarist and notability of Anthrax. Dave Mustaine, the key figure of Megadeth also has collaborated on this album, as co-producer. The material itself is pretty anti-staggering, and here is why : this spin almost entirely sounds to me as the latest Megadeth album.

This, of course, is not necessarily a bad thing, - nor necessarily the opposite - and it can even be the best you could hope for if this is the kind of music you are looking for right now. I personally tend to think that the character of the sonic warfare obtainable on this release is pretty hyper-orthodox cabaret thrash metal, I dare say, family friendly thrash metal. (Yeah, I could say "tired", "non-inspired", or "routine" if I were to be a troll.) Read on to find out more about the release.

The songs seem to follow and utilize the compositional techniques so keenly used by Dave Mustaine himself, but the content itself, in my opinion never manages to deliver audio data that which I feel is a must to revisit after being subjected to it on one occasion. I feel you. Thank you, don't come again. The album, much to my sorrowful frustration, features the terrible rhetorics when the narrator spouts out pseudo-powerful rants and malevolent declarations to scattered-on-the-floor cabaret-guitar riffs, like a psychedelic circus director would while under the influence of needing a desperate attention-fix. This is exactly as serious for a musical experience as Inspector Gadget is for a psychohorror. It is easy to spot the points when Dave Mustaine has absofuckinglutely nothing to say to you, because those are the moments he utilizes this type of rhetorics by. Highly boring and tolling to endure, and I remember the day I came to this very realization, noting that the problem is not with me, Dave simply plays shit music sometimes.

There is zero place devoted to open-minded experimentation and/or notable ambition to deviate from hyper-orthodox, risk free lightweight thrash on this delivery, instead everything tends to weigh in as tireless, BUT very much tired variants on the tendencies and methodologies used by family friendly cabaret thrash metal. This is routine stuff, and this is the thrash metal you are free to show to your grandma, she will like it. Dan Spitz sings pretty much like Dave Mustaine does, what is the deal with that? Strange, strange development, but not a disturbing one. Dan, in fact, sounds to have an even more wider vocal range than the pipes of Dave Mustaine cover, as there are some vocal passages herein that Mustaine in my opinion would not be able to belt out, but, luckily, he would not even try to.

Believe it or not, I do not want to be a douché with this release, because the enthusiasm behind it is evident, - and nothing more or else behind it is such - but I am virtually forced to wrap this review up by saying that I could not find a single thing-, nor a single second on this spin that managed to register on my Geiger counter as being of the "this is the shit!" category. Hyper-orthodox-, pretty much traditional detective cartoon thrash with no vile intentions in it at all. Family friendly thrash. Cabaret thrash. Inspector Gadget thrash. This is Megadeth from 1992, and this is not bad. It's just Megadeth from 1992. Nothing less, nothing else. And you decide if this matters.

Rating : 6.5 / 10

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Cloudlicker

2012-03-04T20:08:00.003-08:00

GyZ gives you the song : Cloudlicker. Listen in HD please.

Lyrics :

everyday I'm dreaming you
so I'm not alone
everyday you're coated in clouds
so I'm licking clouds

everyday I'm dreaming you
so I'm not alone
I'm no longer alone
everyday you're coated in clouds
and I'm licking clouds
through these cloud shafts I'm licking

Sounds on Fire - Stereo Solar Systems review

2012-03-04T08:16:00.006-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Experimental Synthpop
Label : Independent
Origin : Australia
Official site : > - here - <

According to the band's self-definition, Sounds of Fire is so underground that the fire from the Earth's core constructs the mere sounds they produce. This is as good of a perspective as you will ever have if you are looking for a squad ready and able to embed a sonic statement into the very center of your awareness.

Whirling with a thunder from down under, the freshest declaration of this secretive Australian ensemble combines spaced-out - quite literally - visual information with rampant-unalloyed experimental synthpop audio data, coming to your way from highly illegal spatial dimensions in the unprecedented form of the Stereo Solar System Space / Musical experience, from which the only way out is : through. No. Sanity. Remains. Unaffected. Read on to find out more about this rabid synthpop delivery.

It goes without saying that the ideal method to subject yourself to this stimuli by, is to let yourself be affected by the cooperative workings of both the visual information and the audio data. The contribution is not at all reluctant to address its key elements in a hasty and efficient way, of which the myriad of heavily processed computer voices and an intentionally crystal clear palette of mostly evenly spaced synthpop-samples and related compositional strategies are mandatory ingredients. Among the biomechanical voices, one particular female computer is a central character. Her voice is pretty sexy, kind of S.H.O.D.A.N., and remains that even after it turns out that she (?) sports a dick. ¿WTF!!!!!!1one. The character of the music is playfully pseudo-schizophrenic and diffuse, - I'm sane, the voices told me, too - yet, thank God & Co., never to the point that which would harm the anatomy of the sonic flow.

The general shape of things and patterns are freely positioned, casual declarations of an artistic ethos that loves to get surprised and is not afraid to show the facial expression that is coming with it while at that. This monster-length is not particularly after the easily accessible pattern, - synonym : it is brave enough to not give the promise of a shit for it - nor for the environment of sound that seeks to comfort your OH!, so precious anticipations. No. For this release, your instant initial anticipations are not important. People seem to be quite reliable in the sense that they want whatever /whoever does not want THEM, so this behavior from the record's part creates a constant sense of intriguing alienation. It IS a space-mindfuck, after all.

It is pretty safe to say that the release exhibits no particular weaknesses in any of its zones, - there are a plentiful, remember, it is a ride weighing in with 17 minutes - yet its tendency to make the sacred core of 4/4 pummeling deviate from itself rhythmically, is a trait the album looks quite superb with, whenever it decides to submit to this pastime. The primordial character of the release though exhibits that of a decent-, muscular, modernly old-school synthpop statement with a constant, reliable pulse to it, and a key beneficiary trait of it is the fact that it delivers the sonic goods without ever seeking to intimidate the listener.

Shodan : out.

Sounds on Fire - Stereo Solar System Space / Music experience : in.

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Spawn of Possession - Incurso review

2012-03-03T10:53:00.006-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Technical Death Metal
Label : Relapse
Origin : Sweden
Rating : 9.3 / 10

Buy it now

Spawn of Possession's Incurso is a robust technical death metal release with 52 minutes of - not at all surprisingly - super-intense fractal complexity. The Sweden ensemble of illustrious characters put together a delivery which is a worthy flow of ripost to what the recent era of this exceptionally demanding subgenre has graced upon us.

Obscura, Gorod and Blotted Science are quick to come to mind when witnessing the rampant ways of this delivery, which, no doubt, has the obscene amount of work in it that, make no mistake, a technical death metal release necessarily demands during its own creation process, during its own evolution. Read on to find out more about this slick rebellion against silence.

The miserable critic finds itself in a pleasant position when graced by such eminent content as this disc is, as the music on this record simply reigns above the tools of criticism, regardless of the - phah! - sophistication level of those tools. The reason behind this is simple enough : technical death metal, when done even "remotely properly", is able to reveal such a pronounced index finger into the face of the epitome of all expectations, that the causality of being subjected to seemingly random-, but, in reality, extremely rigorously organized sonic content, to THIS very day equates to one of the most intense listening experiences a human nervous system can go through.

Technical death metal is a bitch AND a very mean at that, because it tolerates no lies, nor shortcuts. It only tolerates the pair of desire and devotion to submit to the steep urge to flatter the blind potentiality of chaos, with intent to draw million eyes and million faces for it, and pay for its intricate patterns with Godzilla workhours. In short, technical death metal already is in the position that it tolerates ONLY top of the heat audio content, no exceptions.

Everything less and anything less kills this music on spot. All bands that are playing technical death metal, need to create top of the heat content, because the standards already are super-high, courtesy of central declarations of the subgenre. As such, there is no need-, nor method for me on my part to "properly" tell you about the technical death metal music you will find on this spin, because words are not capable to reflect the experience of this music. All I can say, is that it is legit technical death metal, and that is NOT the same as saying it is legit power metal. I guarantee you that you will find a legit power metal band in every closet, you just need to search for a bit.

Delivering in this genre is much more demanding than, say, to create a superb progressive metal album, in which orthodox methodologies to narrate a musical thought, are totally acceptable. (Hell, even James LaBrie is totally acceptable in progressive metal!) In technical death metal, only intricately revealed chaos is acceptable, and everything else is dishonesty towards the intent-, towards the mission of this music. Beethoven is a technical death metal musician, have zero doubt about that, ladies and gentlemen.

This record brings intricately sculpted sonic chaos for 52 minutes. The experience, as hinted, is reminiscent in nature to the music you will find on the other great releases I have linked the review of for you in the intro section of this text. This sonic declaration of Spawn of Possession is greeted by its similarly monumental peers as a worthy partner to glorify the technical death metal subgenre with. The minds behind these albums are contemporary musical heroes willing to put tremendous workhours to bring you this level of deliciously obscene sonic intricacy, and you need to check them out as soon as possible, in my opinion.

Rating : 9.3 / 10

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Black Pyramid - II review

2012-03-03T09:43:00.004-08:00

Year : 2012
Genre : Stoner Rock reeking (the promise of) Doom
Label : MeteorCity Records
Origin : Hell, naturally.
Rating : 5.0 / 10

Buy it now

It seems super-easy to understand where Black Pyramid is coming from, as this group is quick to establish the basic rule set by channeling coarse epic rock and almost-power metal vibes with a doomy heft and timber to get the actual point across. My primordial concern is that with the latter sentence I have just wrote-, I told you pretty much everything I feel there is to be told about this delivery. "Doomy" never turns to "doom" herein, the coarse epicness never puts goosebumps on your soft skin, yet, in my opinion, being forced to produce a physical reaction to doom music is the minimum a doom aficionado can expect. I DO want to be blown away by this release, as I am blown away by Argus' latest doom offering Boldly Stride the Doomed, yet this baby here, while packs theoretical sex appeal from top to bottom, (on paper, that is) simply does not impose relevant danger to my trusty little Geiger counter, you catch my drift? Read on to find out more about this rock-orthodox stoner rock album.

With a program time of 60 minutes of super-homogeneous stoning - with two songs clocking in above the ten minutes mark, one above 15, even - I personally feel the release is stupendously self-indulgent and has an ubiquitous set of minor difficulties deciding what "exactly" to do, and how "long" to do "that" for. Still here? WOW. The band follows and exhibits mostly - if not entirely - orthodox compositional techniques similar to that of ancient doom groups like Pentragram, - check out their latest album, superb record to put yourself to sleep with in 2 seconds - yet, in my opinion, the Danger-, the Animal contained in Black Sabbath does not accept the invitation to be featured on this delivery. It never touched the fucking envelope. The songs simply ain't that fun, nor that dangerous, the hooks reek sweat and worse, and the band, as hinted, has a reoccurring tendency to prolong simplistic musical ideas to their own pleasure. The jam session in track number 4, "Dreams of the Dead", for example. A tormented-, stone-simplistic guitar riff collides with a bonfire chord structure for eternal aeon-minutes. What?? The title justifies the means? You might be right about that.

Black Pyramid, in my opinion is pretty above average at best, and I do not think it is that harsh of a thing to say when you witness what the prominent representatives of the genre offer to this day, - hell, a Mors Subita intro packs triple the doom this album has the concept of or the access to - then why satisfy with less? I feel the release is packed with musical sections the whole would looked better without, simply because they are not that well defined, nor that well articulated or well presented. Granted, there is not much on this bloated LP that falls below the minimal expectation levels of my secretive inner stoner rocker, but I'm damn sure that there is zero on it that registers as manna for it.

A bloated-, relatively uninspired release with a modest set of charms that will start to reek sweat pretty swiftly, simply because the whole album takes itself much more seriously than the character of its (intended) music is flattered by the band members. The release suffers legendarily from a falsely positioned self-image of its own capacities, in my opinion. Other than that, I've heard worse. (A few times.)

Rating : 5.0 / 10

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Cloudkicker - Beacons review

2012-02-29T00:48:00.003-08:00

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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Reality Pill EP V1.0 Now Available!

2012-02-28T13:18:00.007-08:00

The Reality Pill Extended Play V1.0 features four tracks ranging from experimental blackened djentmetal-mayhem - "Apocalypse Factory" - through psyhopathic doom-groove metal hybrid - "In Bloom" - to cybernetic sludge on amphetamine, - "Monochrome - You Are Explosion" - while the track called "Immune - The Rapture", a gargantuan Godzilla reality seek concludes the fray. All tracks come to you with individual artwork, and, heck, the music and the lyrics are different per track, too.

Obtain your copy of the Reality Pill EP today by clicking on the image or by following this link.

Asphyx - Deathhamer review

2012-02-27T10:10:00.004-08:00

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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MC Sykosis - Alex Pauken VS The World

2012-02-25T22:58:00.002-08:00

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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Adena Atkins - The Slowest Curve EP review

2012-02-23T04:23:00.001-08:00

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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Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II review

2012-02-22T15:28:00.001-08:00

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

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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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Napalm Death - Utilitarian review

2012-02-21T23:51:00.001-08:00

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

2012-02-21T11:27:00.007-08:00

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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Veil of Maya - Eclipse review

2012-02-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

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

Buy it now

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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Semargl - Satanic Pop Metal review

2012-02-17T11:13:00.003-08:00

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

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Ukrainian Semargl's fifth full length album has as much chance to grow 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 digest to the table, and, to be fair with this release, it needs to be said that it does not even seek 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, than 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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Sing with Señor - Uno Dos review

2012-02-16T13:01:00.003-08:00

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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Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron review

2012-02-14T09:08:00.003-08:00

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

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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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The Cranberries - Roses review

2012-02-13T12:54:00.001-08:00

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

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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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Break These Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion

2012-02-11T08:31:00.001-08:00

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.

Max Karon - Will to Exist review

2012-02-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

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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