Amebix always had something that other crust bands lacked, a sense of the mystical or something existing beyond the consumerist, political, atomized, and individualistic modern world. It seemed to be connecting to something both ancient and futuristic.
5 CommentsTags: amebix, crustcore, Hardcore Punk, Heavy Metal, Industrial, tau cross
Revolutionary but traditional metal/punk band Tau Cross — continuing, among others, the legacy of legendary hardcore band Amebix — unleashes its forthcoming album Messengers of Deception on December 4th, but has released a teaser track for the song “Burn With Me,” featuring a video by Jakob Moth which showcases some of the imagery and aesthetics behind the band. This continues the search for a single voice between punk, metal, and hard rock that avoids both commercialism and indecisive polyglot, instead creating a powerful sound of dissent and exploration.
12 CommentsTags: amebix, crustcore, Hardcore Punk, Heavy Metal, tau cross
Hardcore supergroup Tau Cross has come under fire for bassist/vocalist Rob Miller citing an off-narrative thinker in their liner notes. Band members have distanced themselves from Miller, and Relapse Records has dropped the band from its roster in response.
66 CommentsTags: amebix, gerard menuhin, rob miller, tau cross
Tau Cross regress from playing Motorhead and Killing Joke influenced crust punk and heavy metal on Pillar of Fire to mainstream 1990s alternative rock similar to Amebix‘s Sonic Mass swansong. Boredom awaits.
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Tags: alternative rock, crustcore, dumbing-down, hard rock, pillar of fire, Post-Punk, relapse, relapse records, review, rob miller, tau cross
Punk webzine Antihero Magazine interviewed vocalist Rob “The Baron” Miller and guitarist Andy Lefton of Tau Cross recently.
2 CommentsTags: andy lefton, antihero magazine, Crust Punk, d-beat, Heavy Metal, interview, rob miller, Speed Metal, tau cross
Tau Cross premiered a new properly seizure-inducing music video on Youtube this week to promote their upcoming second album, Pillar of Fire, which comes out July 21st on Relapse Records . “Killing the King” shows the group’s anti-authoritarian bent which Relapse is trying to turn political to appeal to their scenester sludge rock and metalcore audience’s hatred of everything Donald Trump despite the band’s obvious intent and medievalisms in the published lyrics.
No CommentsTags: arthurian legend, crust, Heavy Metal, king arthur, lyrics, mainstream metal, Medieval, medieval metal, medievalism, Middle Ages, music video, new track, Post-Punk, procopius, relapse, relapse records, rob miller, Speed Metal, t.s. elliot, tau cross, upcoming album, upcoming release
Tau Cross previewed the cover art and a track of their upcoming Pillar of Fire album on Relapse Records. “Deep State” sees the supergroup headed by Rob “The Baron” Miller regress towards a hybrid of crust, thrash, and modern rock as seen on the final Amebix album, Sonic Mass. While free of the overt Brit pop and Godsmack of Sonic Mass, “Deep State” is still almost static like a rock song with riffs around a static chord for catchy rhythms and vocal hooks to be arranged around. The instrumental music is a tired retread that I have heard at least a few dozen speed metal band do better before.
5 CommentsTags: Crust Punk, hard rock, mainstream metal, new track, pop, relapse, relapse records, rob miller, tau cross, upcoming release
Today Relapse Records announced that heavy metal/post-punk band Tau Cross, whose self-titled debut was one of the Best Albums of 2015, have completed their second album, A Pillar of Fire, for release later this year in the summer.
7 CommentsTags: Heavy Metal, mainstream metal, new album, punk, relapse, relapse records, rob miller, tau cross, upcoming release
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M3Y6AimGqs
So Tau Cross’s debut made our best of 2015 list. That should make their upcoming short tour a worthwhile endeavor; time will obviously tell us whether that was an accurate appraisal. This group (featuring members of Amebix and Voivod amongst others) will be playing a few dates in the USA on the boundary of March and April, as well as two in Canada. Furthermore, they’ll be following it up with a performance at Roadburn in the Netherlands. While this doesn’t provide all that many options for seeing the band perform live, it’s still something to consider if you have an opportunity to see live shows. No supporting acts have been announced yet, but the dates follow:
Tags: 2016, Crust Punk, modern metal, punk, tau cross, tour dates
It took some time, but despite the deluge of content constantly bombarding us and aspiring metal fans worldwide, we’ve been able to reach some level of consensus on 2015’s worthwhile metal music. Not to say that we’re in perfect harmony (If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll note that there’s some room for dissonance in our musical language), but the hope is, like what our recent reinspection of 2013 revealed, that some of this material remains interesting for more than the year it was released.
A wrathful reminder of what war metal should have been: a melodically-structured, chromatic holocaust to the god of this world. Jan Kruitwagen’s leads awe listeners and are optimally placed to hold attention just as each rhythm riff runs its course. An impenetrable mix rewards repeated listening to an album that may surpass Kruitwagen’s work on Sammath’s Godless Arrogance. March to Kaeck’s martial heartbeat or revel in shit.
Reviews:
Bolt Thrower meets ritualistic black metal. Rather than cathartic bending into climactic oriental leads, Desecresy diffuse tension by methodically varying into bizarre melodies with carefully placed, otherworldly leads to a steady metronome.
Mid-paced riffing in the style of Bolt Thrower builds tension with melody and drifts off into space with variations and well placed leads. Where Bolt Thrower themselves shoot a rifle at the ballon using rhythmic change to introduce another riff or dramatically bending the riff into a climactic, oriental short solo, Desecresy insert ritualistic blackened leads for dramatic contrast with the rhythmic, power chord riffing.
Review and Interview:
Rob Miller returns from blacksmithing to his previous metallic occupation with an album of catchy post-punk in Motorhead and Metallica song formats. Thankfully free of the Godsmack and other MTV influences present on Amebix’s swansong.
Review:
An effective album of mid-paced death and heavy metal riffing. There is no psychedelic rock pretending to be Black Sabbath “doom” here. Highly structured; the opposite of the random tossed riff salads of most modern metal. This band takes an approach more like that of classical guitarists toward melding death metal with progressive rock, blues, folk and other influences: it mixes them in serially and adopts them within the style, rather than hybridizing the two styles.
In other words, most bands that try to sound like progressive death metal try to act like a progressive rock band playing death metal, or a death metal band playing progressive rock. Cóndor takes an approach more like that of musicians in the past, which is to adopt other voices within its style, so that it creates essentially the same material but works in passages that show the influence of other thought.
Reviews and Interview:
This vinyl 7” single features two new, well constructed death metal songs from one of from one of the few truly underrated bands in the genre. Those foresighted enough to purchase the identically-titled CD boxed set version received the band’s entire catalog in one of the rare remasters that sounds better than the original releases.
Interviews:
One last Motorhead album of mostly Motorhead songs. Nothing “new” is introduced for those in the non-metal audience who disdain metal and wish to feel intellectually superior to the common headbanger. The final work from a relentless machine of a band.
Review:
Crusty death metal of the better than braindead Benediction but worse than Cancer category.
I’ve possibly heard too much but Hanger 18. I know too much. Although not as degradingly vulgar as Surgical Steel, Atom by Atom results in a pretty tacky affair. Vocals are as emotional as in the first album, except that in here they seem even more disconnected from the music as the music veers into some sort of progressive speed metal akin to Helstar’s. (Editor’s note: I liked it, but David Rosales was critical)
The band shows promise with their Unique Leader-style rhythmic riffing and soaring heavy metal leads. While being above par for technical deaf metal, aping a different one of your heroes every few verses doesn’t make for particularly enjoyable repeated listening.
Fredrik Nordstrom’s Arghoslent.
Technical power metal carnival music.
Nobody is allowed to edit themselves or turn on their bullshit filters in Steve Harris’s band anymore (Read a full review here).
Kvist meets the randomness of metalcore. Indistinct riffing and songwriting mix with pointless shoutout verses to past greats that makes listeners wonder why they aren’t just playing Sodom and Mayhem in the first place.
Where are the riffs?
Every Teutonic speed metal band gone Voltron.
The band has no need to repeat half the song just so the guitarist can get over his refractory period and play another solo. This is also an extremely distracted riff salad in which the individual riffs can be brought in from sources as different as galloping power metal to thrashy death metal to alternative nu and groove “metal”. This is headbang-core for beer metallers and other social metalheads. This recording received two reviews in 2015.
A collection of interesting renaissance faire riffs written into songs that quickly wear out their welcome as metal, becoming RPG background music.
A few strong songs on a demo do not warrant a two CD set of Swedish death with limpid keyboards anticipating the steps black metal took towards mainstream goth rock in the late nineties.
This is the type of black metal as repetitive rock music that ignorant hipsters will praise as “ritualistic”. The album’s title sums the quality of its musical content: futile. (Editor’s note: I wanted to give this album a chance. It didn’t age well.)
Gothenburg cheese and Meshuggah licks are less appetizing than a lead-laced Mexican lollipop.
Grave Miasma returns. This time with 1993’s atmosphere.
Candlemass meets Soundgarden.
Every Teutonic speed metal band gone Voltron.
Solid underground metal in the spirit of Sarcofago that is perfectly well-written but does not amount to more than the sum of its parts; does not conjure up any long-lasting message.
Tags: 2015, best of, best of 2015, Black Metal, condor, death metal, desecresy, Heavy Metal, kaeck, mainstream metal, morpheus descends, motorhead, reissues, Speed Metal, Stormkult, tau cross, underground metal
