While the first half of the year has given us a surprising amount of good metal, electronica still continues to hide a few salvageable records that have potential. Escaping from the revisionist nostalgia that the more popular artists in the style seek to recreate in order to use the same tools to express different ideas.
No CommentsTags: house, on interrupt, reincarnation, stk sound, synthwave, xetrovoid
Thomas Hewitt Jones is a British composer mainly known for being an important figure in the realm of British sacred music. An organ scholar at the incredibly prestigious Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge before then branching off into composing for a plethora of styles that include, ballets, choirs and a notorious piece based on the few hummed notes performed by former British Prime Minister David Cameron as he resigned. Electro Cello is a new take on Neo-romanticism that seeks to focus on the joys of wonder and pensive contemplative.
12 CommentsTags: contemporary classical, electro cello, Neo-romanticism, thomas hewitt jones
In the past, metal journalism used to function mainly as a filtering device; weeding out the bad so that the good stuff would rise to the top. Nowadays, it’s more likely the other way around. We’re now searching for potential in a seemingly endless flow of “interesting” or pleasant-sounding junk. This task often requires time and patience, because those rare and far between releases will often sound similar to their lesser peers on a surface level. One illuminating example would be the Pennsylvanian epic death/black metal act Polemicist and their debut album Zarathustrian Impressions. Their music may not appear spectacular on casual listen, but repeated and concentrated exposure reveal unexpected qualities.
32 CommentsTags: Black Metal, death metal, friedrich nietzsche, polemicist, zarathrustrian impressions
For many bands, summer is the perfect time to record music and to rehearse for live concerts in a boiling garage or studio. The festival season and the holidays allow many musicians to take time off to focus on implementing new songs to their set list or to push their capabilities as players. Where most players seek to play more technically dexterous music, a few friends of mine wanted to master a song that was simultaneously simple yet physically exhausting to play. Nihilist and Sodom both fit the bill perfectly but we would settle on “Sentenced to Death” for its brief periods of respite between the bursts of rapid picking. Though we thought of this song as being a basic and minimalistic slice of powerful metal, after our wrists and arms had been decimated completely, we came to realize that the true power of this song is not the constant madness but the final flurry that manages to go even beyond the insanity before it.
2 CommentsTags: analysis, brief analysis, climax, Nihilist, sentenced to death
The Nomad Project present us here four different singles that will be part of an upcoming EP. An short set of songs that returns seeks to evoke the adventurism of Kraftwerk and the like but through simpler and more modern tools.
7 Comments
So many bands have failed in continuing Sarcófago’s tradition of blasphemic and vicious black metal. Reducing the band to a set of aesthetics and confusing their minimalistic songs for dumb simplicity. I.N.R.I stands out not because of its context or its introduction of certain visual elements that would become common a few years later, but because of its nuanced composition that has eluded later bands. Let us look at the initial riff from the song “I.N.R.I” to understand why.
10 CommentsTags: inri, riff analysis, sarcofago
Unleashed had at this point released two good records that saw the band create Heavy metal songs with limited Death metal stylings and were known for possessing a particularly small set of tools which almost made their previous very repetitive. On Across the Open Sea, the band’s Magnum Opus, the band re-contextualized their previous influences to create rousing and anthemic works while seeking to expand further into Death metal technique and arrangement. “To Asgaard we fly” shows this subtle marriage between the two and how the band were able to combine such styles without to saturate the listener with stolen Iron Maiden leads.
1 CommentTags: across the open sea, death metal, riff analysis, to asgaard we fly, Unleashed
(Join Ionnas as he dives into the final heap of contestants hoping to prove their worth, will there be any talent left or will he be forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel for any redeeming qualities. Either way every band here will have to face the harsh truths of reality.)
May the best survive!
3 CommentsTags: mefitis, mlotek, mvrdvrcvltvr, putrid vision, savagez, song contest, steeped horsehair, tillian
Shub Niggurath is the third band in what can be called the Mexican big three of Death metal with the other two being The Chasm and Cenotaph. Though Shub Niggurath shared members with both bands and subsequently shared some similarities with both in terms of aesthetics they managed to forge their separate identity in regards to composition. Opting for a form of Death metal based on early Morbid Angel,Deicide and some influences from Emperor and Darkthrone. Shub Niggurath create pompous Death metal out of bare bone parts.
12 CommentsTags: A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria, cenotaph, Mexican Death metal, shub niggurath, the chasm, the kinglike celebration (final aeon on earth)
Celebrating Walpurgisnacht, Rob Darken’s (Graveland) folk brainchild Lord Wind has issued a new video clip on the 1st of May.
7 CommentsTags: burzum, graveland, lord wind, rob darken
