The second first full length album by British Fen, “Epoch” was launched at the Bull & Gate venue in London with support from the old Corpse Road on the 11th of February 2011 and already gaining positive reviews in most of the magazines. “Epoch” was released in a standard jewel CD case and as a strictly limited – 999 copies – artbook edition with 40, and two exclusive & unreleased bonus tracks, “The Wind Whispers of Loss” and “…From the Mists”.
Following the acclaimed debut, “The Malediction Fields” from 2009, “Epoch” merging black metal, post-rock and shoegaze to express loss, sorrow, exaltation and a sense of ancient pride through music.
The band is named after a region of Eastern England called The Fens. The Fens have very flat and mysterious landscapes, with many marshes and wetlands. The band members grew up in this area, and find much of the inspiration for their music and themes from the atmosphere of this area. Read more Fen – Epoch (2011)
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Sun Caged – The Lotus Effect (2011)
Queensryche/Dream Theater fans will definitively enjoy this third installment of this progressive metal band from Netherlands. Paul Adrian Villarreal – vocals & acoustic guitar, Marcel Coenen – lead & rhythm guitar, Rene Kroon – keyboards, Daniel Kohn – bass and Roel Van Helden – drums delivering a nice mixture of classic, traditional progressive rock/metal with heavy, powerful, strong modern metal infusions. Influences from Yes, Styx, Saga, Marillion and Kansas are present just like sounds of Fates Warning, VandenPlas, Dream Theater and Queensryche.
Formed by ex-Lemur Voice guitarist Marcel Coenen and drummer Dennis Leeflang in the spring of 1999, the style stated by the band on their 2000 demo was rather experimental, with the use of female vocals, death growls, with some melodic vocals and a touch of groove metal rawness. After the release of their 2003’s debut album the line up of Sun Caged changed considerably, Coenen being the only band member left from the original line up and the music grow into the more larger progressive area of metal. Read more Sun Caged – The Lotus Effect (2011)
Starscream – Future, Towards the Edge of Forever (2011)
8-bit fans and lovers will really enjoy this one. Damon Hardjowirogo and George Stroud – the two core members of this project founded back in 2007 – are delivering an exciting mixture of 8-bit electronic textures and live drums. After several EPs and featuring on compilations, “Future, Towards the Edge of Forever” is their debut full-length album of 8 steps walk into the future space of inner search. New York never sounds so out of space before.
Starscream is about vibes, grooves and feelings flowing through machines. The murderous 8-bit sound and the powerful live drums merging into one is quite innovating and gives kind of forth dimension to this music. Read more Starscream – Future, Towards the Edge of Forever (2011)
Trivium – In Waves (2011)
Fans of In Flames can give a try on this fifth studio album by Orlando, Florida’s Trivium. Formed in 1999, the band came out under the influence of Metallica to make it to the nowadays so-called metalcore which incorporated clean and screamo vocals, progressive and melodious heavy themes and death-like grindings. Boil in the proper proportion Metallica, In Flames, Machine Head and Iron Maiden in a music blender and the result should come pretty close to what’s on “In Waves”.
This merging of classic heavy constructions, thrash rawness, few death brutalities and powerful, clean vocals against screams and howls is still quite dynamic and Trivium managed to deliver a few extremely good themes and moments, still, this patters and schemes becomes so predictable that nothing can save it from itself. Read more Trivium – In Waves (2011)
SPIN Presents Newermind A Tribute Album (Free Release!)
Back in 1991 “Nevermind” was an unpredicted revolution. Sold over 30 million copies worldwide, “Nevermind” was responsible for bringing alternative rock to a large mainstream audience, and critics subsequently regarded it as one of the best rock albums of all time. Kurt Cobain on April 5, 1994 decided to join “27 Club” (Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and more recently Amy Winehouse) and this was the premature end of Nirvana.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: following the release of “Nevermind” “nothing was ever quite the same, for better and for worse” – and this is in few words exactly the essence of Nirvana.
SPIN Magazine pays tribute to the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, and as part of their package, tapped some of their favorite contemporary artists to cover the influential album’s 13 songs, in their original order and the tribute album is a gift – free download – at their web page.
From Meat Puppets to Titus Andronicus and from Amanda Palmer to The Vaselines this is an exciting and colourful trip to take. Read more SPIN Presents Newermind A Tribute Album (Free Release!)
O.A.R. – King (2011)
Of a Revolution (O.A.R.) due to massive online distribution over campus networks, become a hit among college students. The band is also well known for its live performances, they often creates variations to songs at each concert, making it rare to hear a song played exactly the same way twice. The band incorporates jam elements in their concerts, resulting in many of their live songs running anywhere between 5 and 18 minutes each.
Founded in 1996 by Marc Roberge and Chris Culos, recruited Richard On and Benj Gershman and one year later recorded their debut album “The Wanderer” at Gizmo Recording Company in Silver Spring, Maryland.
They graduated from Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland, then moved to Columbus, Ohio to attend Ohio State University where they met Jerry DePizzo. In 2000 they returned to Gizmo Recording to record “Soul’s Aflame”, their second album. Read more O.A.R. – King (2011)
Dead Letter Circus – This Is The Warning, Deluxe Edition (2011)
Althrough “This Is the Warning”, the debut full-length album by Dead Letter Circus was released in May 2010 and distributed by Warner Music Australia, debuted at #2 on the Australian album charts and at #1 on the iTunes chart. Only in May 2011, one year later, they signed a deal with Sumerian Records to release it also in North America and the band supported Animals As Leaders in a 24-city national tour from July to August.
Formed in 2005 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, their self-titled debut EP released in 2007 made some waves and building an ever-growing army of DLC disciples. Completely independently, the band shifted well over 13,000 units of the debut EP and subsequent double A side single ‘Next in Line / Reaction’. Triple J radio placed everything that the band released on high rotation and live, the band becomes festival favorite. Read more Dead Letter Circus – This Is The Warning, Deluxe Edition (2011)
Krakatau – Krakatau (2011)
If you’re familiar – and in love – with tumultuous, turbulent musical project such as Fantômas, Tomahawk, Moonchild Trio and Mr. Bungle, generally speaking, if you like the mainly twisted and contorted avant-garde experiments of Mr. Mike Patton, Krakatau might just fit your taste and extremely important: this self-titled full-length debut album is available for FREE DOWNLOAD at the band’s official web site.
This is metal only if you’re not committed to Iron Maiden or Metallica, don’t think that “progressive metal” means exclusively Dream Theater. Say (vocals/guitar), Muz! (bass/vocals), Max (lead guitar) and Mark (drums) expands the horizons and sometimes construct music by demolition. Sometimes hypnotic, other times quite schizophrenic, Krakatau is actually an explosive music volcano, this might not be a safe trip, but eventually an exciting one.
Read more Krakatau – Krakatau (2011)
Bomb The Music Industry! – Vacation (2011)
Bomb the Music Industry!’s sixth full-length sounds just like a fun summer album and I swear, I could kill for a vacation!
BTMI! probably have the most devoted fan base in the US. They do everything with enthusiasm and electrifying energy, while the “secret” of their success is the fun, intimate, and personal approach. From fun ska-punk to pop punk there’s maybe not a far way, BTMI! managed to stay between and delivered 13 new tracks of conscious feel good. And I’m envious for this while I’m admiring them for this. This is love/hate. Some people love them for their disregard for conventions, for their stupid lyrics, their shouted, silly gang vocals and sloppy riffs, others hate them for all of this. I’m caught between. Read more Bomb The Music Industry! – Vacation (2011)
Arhythmia – Awake (2011)
An arrhythmia is a disturbance of the normal electrical rhythm of the heart.
Second installment from this twisted groove/nu metal band from Alghero, Sardinia (Italy), “Awake” consist of ten, strong, breathing, modern metal songs with roots back both to classic and groove/nu metal.
Michele Canu – voice, Matteo Lombardo – guitar voice, Riccardo Bevitori – guitar, Luca Moro – bass and Gabriele Angius – drums formed the band in 2004. Focusing on intense live performances, the band gained a devoted fan-base. In 2006 they won the “Sardinia Rock Contest”, a battle involved more than 50 bands from throughout the region. They release their self produced debut effort entitled “Noize Room” in 2008 and continue the intense live activity, opening concerts for various big groups of the Italian scene and not only.
Read more Arhythmia – Awake (2011)
