eyeswithoutaface – Dead Friends EP (2015)

eyeswithoutaface Dead Friends EP 2015

eyeswithoutaface Dead Friends EP 2015 Released on 11 July 2015, the new EP from the Canadian project eyeswithoutaface brings brutality to the next level. Their rough and contorted mixture of post-industrial electronics with sludge/black/death metal leave the listener without any option, but to love or hate this sonic slaughter. Extreme metal at its best!! Related to Malhavoc, Godflesh and other alike oddities, eyeswithoutaface was formed in 2009 in Toronto, Canada, comprised of current members of Homolka, Kosmograd, John XII, Ancress and more.
They avowed that they are “somewhat inspired by a broad range of artists both within and outside of the doom/sludge, post-industrial, electronic and hip hop genres, and are sometimes compared to artists such as Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails, Swans, Red Harvest and Genghis Tron.”
And their music it’s quite complex and disturbing. I wrote about their debut album “Monotoneoteny” back in 2011 and they made it to my list of favorite releases of the year. They have something of their own and they explore musical places where nobody else dared to drift before. Sometimes this make the journey difficult, but keep it exciting throughout. Read more eyeswithoutaface – Dead Friends EP (2015)

Van Halen – Women And Children First (1980) (Remastered 2015)

Van Halen – Women And Children First (1980) (Remastered) (2015)

Van Halen – Women And Children First (1980) (Remastered) (2015) “Women and Children First” was the third studio album by the American rock band Van Halen, released on March 26, 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. Generally speaking, the third album of a band it’s crucial, while the first might be an accident and the second a sequel of that, the third generally proves if that band have something to say or they never really had. In the particular case of Van Halen, “Women and Children First” was really a turning point of their career and the moment when the boys grown up and became men. “Women and Children First” rocks your s*it off. Literally. And their both previous albums were hard as a rock!
Kerrang! magazine listed the album at #30 among the “100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time”. If you never heard the duo of “Tora! Tora!”/”Loss Of Control” you have definitively wasted your life or you’re in the wrong place! Or if you never had partying on “Could This Be Magic?”. “Tora! Tora!” it’s blacker then Black Sabbath and “Take Your Whiskey Home” bring the blues to a brand new level of… aggression. Not to mention “And The Cradle Will Rock…” which is an absolutely rock classic!
My mom had this one on vinyl, “Loss Of Control” and “Everybody Wants Some!!” were among my favorite songs beside “Rapid Fire” (by Judas Priest) and “Ace of Spades” (by Motorhead) – all of them songs of 1980!! Afterward I bought “Fair Warning” as well. The rest is history! Read more Van Halen – Women And Children First (1980) (Remastered 2015)

Meredith – Meredith III, EP (2015)

Meredith - Meredith III, EP (2015)

Meredith - Meredith III, EP (2015) Guitarist/singer Fred Lefranc and drummer Ben Delacroix are back with their third installment, a four track EP.
The previus EP, released last year “The Shape Of Things To Come” was an intense, modern mixture of alternative rock and metal with roots back to grunge and garage/noise rock. Now they sound more consolidated, mature if you prefer. The raw fury is there, but it got a polished make-up now which don’t mean they get any softer. The two guys managed to create a complex and intense music and surprisingly they filled up the spaces smartly, everything it’s nicely balanced. Rebels with cause – if you know what I mean.
I always liked about Meredith that they sound passionate and personal, they open up honestly and sometimes bring up unpleasant subjects like abuses or domestic violence with fair simplicity. Can’t fix issues if we refuse to step up and speak up. Read more Meredith – Meredith III, EP (2015)

Therapy? – Disquiet (2015)

Therapy? - Disquiet (2015)

Therapy? - Disquiet (2015) Believe it or not, but “Disquiet” is the fourteenth studio album by Therapy?. “Teethgrinder” it’s still ringing in my ears like it was yesterday and their 94’s “Troublegum” it’s probably one of the best punk-rock albums ever. Between their fourth and fourteenth album lot of things was going on, but the only thing it’s really matter is that Therapy? are still alive and kicking.
Co-founder drummer Fyfe Ewing left the band in 1996 and he was replaced by Graham Hopkins. Hopkins left the band in 2001 and was replaced next year with Neil Cooper. Although they never delivered a “Troublegum 2” type of success album, Therapy? had a couple of great songs and some really good albums in between. Just for the record, their previous album, the 2012’s “A Brief Crack of Light” it’s a solid, modern rock album. But there’s one thing that kept the band going: the love and the support of their fans.
“Disquiet” it’s definitively a perfect gift for them. And another killer album from a quite under-rated band! Read more Therapy? – Disquiet (2015)

Gallows – Desolation Sounds (2015)

Gallows - Desolation Sounds (2015)

Gallows - Desolation Sounds (2015) Gallows it’s the perfect mixture of the Aleister Crowley originated mysticism and healthy, punk rooted hardcore. Definitively one of the most interesting and solid Brit acts of the last decade and a band with the power and talent to deliver further exciting releases.
After the release of their debut album, Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz named “Orchestra of Wolves” as one of his favourite albums of 2007, praising it as being the best hardcore album since Refused’s “The Shape of Punk to Come”.
In 2007 the band won the Kerrang! Award for best British Newcomer.
They signed to Warner Bros. Records for a £1 million contract for one album with option up to three, were dropped after the release of the first one, “Grey Britain”. “Grey Britain” was a killer album, but probably not commercially successful enough for the Warner Bros. expectations.
Lead singer Frank Carter left Gallows in July 2011 and formed his own project with ex-The Hope Conspiracy and Suicide File guitarist Jim Carroll named Pure Love.
Former Alexisonfire guitarist/vocalist Wade MacNeil replaced Carter shortly after Alexisonfire announced their disbandment.
They launched their own record label, Venn Records, and the eponymously titled third album “Gallows” on 10 September 2012.
In February 2013 the band announced that they would be continuing as a four-piece, with Steph Carter leaving to focus on his other band, Ghost Riders in the Sky.
Their fourth album, titled “Desolation Sounds” was released on 13 April 2015. Read more Gallows – Desolation Sounds (2015)

Celldweller – End of an Empire (Chapter 03 Dreams) (2015)

Celldweller - End of an Empire (Chapter 03 Dreams) (2015)

Celldweller - End of an Empire (Chapter 03 Dreams) (2015) Klayton is back again and we’ve got the third installment of his quite ambitious project, “End of an Empire”.
Maybe I’m tired, maybe I’m getting too old for this EDM scene, don’t know, but Celldweller lost me lately, the previous Chapter 02 did not left any marks on me, although it was a top Celldweller production. His other project, “Transmissions vol. 01” was a nice surprise, Klayton explored the limitless spaces and possibilities of analog synthesizers, but somehow didn’t really touched me. Too much, too fast…too many releases. Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I still believe in the value of an album, a solid release, eventually on vinyl. F_ck digital!
I think in this digital era it’s getting harder to reach out to the people, the time feels shorter and our brain can’t absorb all the information anymore. Or maybe it’s just me.
But now, Celldweller delivered the wickedest track in years and one of the best electro-industrial anthems of the decade!!
“Good L_ck (Yo_’re F_cked)” it’s the best song Klayton have written and performed in years and it can be considered an excellent radiography of the times we’re living! Read more Celldweller – End of an Empire (Chapter 03 Dreams) (2015)

Agnostic Front – The American Dream Died (2015)

Agnostic Front - The American Dream Died (2015)

Agnostic Front - The American Dream Died (2015) The album begins quoting George Carlin: “The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it” which synthesize perfectly the state of facts and the perception of America today. We might consider it a joke, but it’s a deadly serious issue.
If you ask me, I think the American dream was gunned down in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 PM Central Standard Time on Friday November 22, 1963, but a huge machinery of propaganda made it looks like it was still alive till more recent times. Make no mistakes, we, the citizens of this world, are the victims of manipulation and propaganda both from Vest and from East. I’m living a nightmare because I’m caught in the middle and I was seriously abused by both sides, although believing in the “American dream” kept us alive while the other part made our life a living Hell. Now Hell have no boundaries and it’s hard to tell on which side of the planet the lie it’s bigger…the dream it’s deader. Read more Agnostic Front – The American Dream Died (2015)

The Prodigy – The Day Is My Enemy (2015)

The Prodigy - The Day Is My Enemy (2015)

The Prodigy - The Day Is My Enemy (2015) There are a couple of albums expected to be released this year (2015) I am anxious to listen to. One of them it’s the upcoming Agnostic Front album, the upcoming Limp Bizkit album, the debut album of Black Futures (ex-Subsource) and not at least the 6th The Prodigy album.
The Prodigy promised “violent sound” and a brand new level of sonic aggression. And well, have listen the whole album now for a couple of days and the sound it’s definitively there.
I’m still not sure if there are real songs under the massive sound and if The Prodigy have added anything new to their already fat repertoire.
“The Day Is My Enemy” sound almost exactly as “Invaders Must Die” back in 2009, the structure of the album and the structure of the songs it’s quite similar, but the songs are not that good and memorable. While I still can sing almost each song from the previous album purely from memory, after a couple of days of listening to “The Day Is My Enemy” the only thing which still ringing in my ears it’s “Nasty, nasty!” and that’s not really that good, but it’s more something quite compulsive. Only “Invisible Sun” it’s more stickier, but less radio friendly. Read more The Prodigy – The Day Is My Enemy (2015)

Seasick Steve – Sonic Soul Surfer (2015)

Seasick Steve - Sonic Soul Surfer (2015)

Seasick Steve - Sonic Soul Surfer (2015) Some stories are too good to be true. Imagine a hobo, a man with no past, future, nor present who eventually end up making a blues album and bringing in John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin to play the bass only because he do not knew anybody else playing that instrument. So, yes, I mean no, this could not happen.
Steven Wold (aka Seasick Steve) was born in 1941 in Oakland, California and in the 1960s he started touring and performing with fellow blues musicians. He made friends like Joni Mitchell and since then he has worked, on and off, as a session musician and studio engineer. In the late 80s he worked with several indie label artists around Seattle. In the 1990s he work as a recording engineer and producer, producing several releases by Modest Mouse including their 1996 debut album “This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About”. Read more Seasick Steve – Sonic Soul Surfer (2015)