Omega Lithium – Kinetik (2011)

“Kinetik” is the second full length album by this four piece Croatian band and they melt down dark, epic metal into the Rammstain masterd, so-called Neue Deutsche Härte industrial metal while the band is fronted by female singer Mya Mortensen. Her band-mates are Malice Rime – Guitars and Synthesizers, Zoltan Harpax – Bass and Torsten Nihill – Drums, Percussion. The band was formed in 2007 in Umag, and is signed to Drakkar Entertainment, a part of Sony BMG.
The band’s debut album, “Dreams in Formaline”, was released in 2009 and its first single, “Stigmata”, was played on the MTV rock chart and peaked to the 4 place on the MTV Adria Rock chart, receiving a constant airplay for more than 2 months. The video also appeared on other European and worldwide TV stations in their daily charts. On YouTube Stigmata received more than a quarter of a million views, which is the highest viewing number for a debut song in this genre. Read more Omega Lithium – Kinetik (2011)

DIY – Burn Studio

I just discover it – via Victor Love, thankx bro! – but it seems pretty fun and might be very useful for some interested in new experiences to create music. Burn Studio is an on-line audiotool to play and record music and make remixes of existing and shard track while you – obviously – can share your own stuffs. You can work with Beatbox 8, Beatbox 9 and Machiniste drum-machines, three synthesizers: Pulverisateur, Bassline and Tonematrix, all the useful effects including Tube, Stereodetune, Slope, Reverb, Pitchdelay, Phaser, ParametricEQ, Gate, Flanger, Delay, Crusher, Compressor, Chorus and Rasselbock using audio tracks, samples, midis and the tools you need: Splitter, Merger, Kobolt, Minimixer, Crossfader, Centroid. You can start from a new “empty project” or dive into one of the three existing templates, a Dubstep template by Infyuthsion, a Techno demo by Sandburgen or the Drum ‘n’ Bass demo by Cgman. I had some fun with the noisy Dubstep template for the beginning and I think it’s awesome. Read more DIY – Burn Studio

August Burns Red – Leveler (2011)

Being quite skeptical ’bout everything labeled lately “metalcore”, songs such as “Internal Cannon”, “Cutting the Ties”, “Carpe Diem” and “Salt & Light” from the fourth studio album by American band August Burns Red, convinced me to give them another chance. State that they have been inspired and influenced by bands such as Between the Buried and Me, Misery Signals and Hopesfall, their powerful, technical, filled with heavy breakdowns and groovy riffs and not at least some nice, acoustic or slow passages which offering release and an exotic flavor, is quite the essence of what actually metalcore means now days. Merging some almost traditional heavy metal riffings with intense modern metal with roots back to death metal and adding raw, extreme vocals, August Burns Red comes crushing and this combination of melodious themes with blowing brutality, I had to admit, it’s quite efficient and have some charm. Still, when a million plus one bands are begun doing the same kind of thing, using the same schemes and cliches, don’t really matter how intense they doing it, all the excitement is gone and the thing becomes pretty boring. Some Pantera lyrics came back haunting: “be yourself, by yourself…” Read more August Burns Red – Leveler (2011)

8in8 – Nighty Night (2011)

This is an ambitious project gathering together Amanda Palmer – performer, she was the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls, Neil Gaiman – author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, etc, Ben Folds – singer, songwriter, musician and Damian Kulash – vocalist and guitarist of OK Go, for an exciting experiment. Monday, on April 25th, the four musicians joins in Boston at the Rethink Music conference to explore/re-conceptualize the entire notion of artistic creation and its mechanical dissemination and human reception in these topsy-turvy modern times of ours. The original goal was to write and record eight songs in eight hours, after then play a concert and forther release the album. The effort resulting in 6 songs in 12 hours, entitled “Nighty Night”. In addition, the entire process was streamed live on Youtube, lasting from 4 pm on April 22nd to 4 am on April 23rd. Read more 8in8 – Nighty Night (2011)

Ok Go – 180/365 (2011)

Ok Go – 180/365 (2011)

Ok Go – 180/365 (2011) In my list of “10 best albums of 2010” one was “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky” by OK Go. These guys rocks. They wrote some great songs, they are funny and full of life. Made a few killer videos. Not too many bands have now days their energy and ability to deliver quality stuffs. Actually OK Go were the exception, as I said, I’m pretty sick lately of anything labeled “indie” or “alternative”. Damian Kulash (lead vocals and guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar and vocals), Dan Konopka (drums and percussion) and Andy Ross (guitar, keyboards and vocals) delivered a new package consist of the album and a volume of gorgeous OK Go tour photos taken by Nathaniel Wood. 180 gigs in one year, resumed in 15 great songs. Read more Ok Go – 180/365 (2011)

The Nightwatchman – Union Town (2011)

During an interview in October 2010, Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha allegedly confirmed that a new album is in the works, with a possibility of a 2011 release. All the fans waiting this since 1999 and obviously most of us hoping for more killer tracks such as “Killing in the Name”, “Bullet in the Head”, “Bulls on Parade”, “Testify” and “Guerrilla Radio”. It’s not a big secret, RATM are one of the most activist and lefty rock band of the scene, extremely involved in politics, maybe too involved. Well, growing up “behind the iron curtain” in a so-called communist system, I have a quite different experience and implicitly a totally different view about what “left” actually means. On the other hand, the troubled times we’re living in and the obvious failure of the capitalist system I thought will somehow release and satisfy these guys. Well, it seems not. It seems they wanna “slayer the dragon” right till the end and dance on his grave. Some things I can understand, others not, everybody must be aware of his own limitations. I know that the United States has had a two-party system for over a century and well, it’s not quite the “free world” we dreamed about and democracy is only an illusion while all the information we received are filtered, censored and distorted, but still, I will never ever waving a fucking red flag knowing at least what guys like Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Ceausescu and Kim Ir Sen did.
The Nightwatchman is the alter-ego and solo act of Rage Against the Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club and former Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello. It was formed in 2003 as an outlet for his political views – while some claim Audioslave was playing apolitical music, still, they played on May 6, 2005, a free show in Havana, Cuba and became the first American rock group to perform a concert in the socialist republic of Cuba.So… Read more The Nightwatchman – Union Town (2011)

Iggy Pop – Roadkill Rising, The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009 (2011)

While we’re all waiting for “Angle of the Dangle”, issuing four discs of live recordings and to summarize a career as Iggy Pop’s, it makes sense and we’re talking about a career for 40-plus years. “Préliminaires” was marked obviously by the death of Ron Asheton, Iggy took on a path down to blues with some jazz overtones and it was the less rock-oriented album he ever made, listening now into this raw sounding bootleg, reminds us of who Iggy actually is and why – most of us – love him since the 70s. And well, on the first CD features material from Pop’s legendary 1977 tour with Bowie on keyboards and the Thin White Duke, it is quite something even if the recordings are not surgically clean. And we also have the Stooges reunion gigs from 2003, the best proof that nobody else can play those songs like the guys who wrote them. Read more Iggy Pop – Roadkill Rising, The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009 (2011)

Dexessus – Punish me with Love (2011)

Generalizing, Dexessus might be the Russian answer for Rammstein. Metalic, heavy riffings, electrifying sampler layers, deep and strong male vocals mainly spoken and spiting the words and as a nice addition, some smoother female vocals, and this dialogue offering them a special sound, makes the difference. Marching tempos, aggressive guitars, colorful textures and the catchy themes full of adrenaline are the winning schemes of Dexessus. It reminds me – obviously – of the collaboration of Rammstein with t.A.T.u.. “Накажи меня любовью” (Punish Me with Love) is an absolutely correct industrial metal album from this band from Odessa. Read more Dexessus – Punish me with Love (2011)

Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)

Marcus Miller once said: “that one of the problems with making contemporary music is that you never know how it will be judged in the future”. That’s true, but still, I believe it really doesn’t matter what anybody think about it, who and how judge it. I’m conscious that I disappointed most of my fans from the 90’s, but I always felt like I have to move on and I’m kind of pathologically scared not to repeat myself. Under the moniker “Mr.Pan[k]sament” I’m exploring extremely different areas of musical expressions from electronica to metal and from punk to jazz, it might be confusing, I’m aware of it, but this is who I am. Writing recently about Queensrÿche and reading some of the fans comments about their latest release I was thinking about one more aspect: a band should play what their fans demand or what they actually feel? Some great artists such as David Bowie with each release moved on in some other direction while bands like AC/DC played the same riff for decades but both are just great exactly for what they did. So, it’s no “right” or “wrong” answer. On the other hand, thinking about music exclusively in genres, I think it’s definitively wrong and leave us with a very narrow horizon… Read more Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)