Metalcore it’s definitively epidemic this year. The scene is flooded by hundred (thousands?) of bands and most of them are really good in the butcheries they unleash. But still, too many band sounding almost the same, will bury the genre pretty fast. Identity Crisis? Hope not. Eventually all these youngsters must find their own sound and style or they will just simply disappear in the grind.
If the genre originate from the fusion of Extreme and Groove Metal with Hardcore Punk, after the mid 2000s, the new genre became popular and successful due to the breakthrough of bands such as All That Remains, As I Lay Dying, Bullet for My Valentine, The Devil Wears Prada and Asking Alexandria, most of them hitting the Billboard charts and sneaked up into the mainstream and opening the door widely for a whole generation anxious to prove themselves.
The French scene seems to be extremely receptive to the seeds of the new genre and one of the furiously blooming new bands are Karma Zero. “Next Time”, the leading single from their debut album sounds heavily furious and intense enough to grab the fans attention. Brutal and complex, Karma Zero kicking in the doors with their right foot! Read more Karma Zero – Architecture of a Lie (2012)
brushvox
brushvox
Inflatable Best Friend – DMT Bike Ride (2013)
Noisy and raw garage punk(rock) rides twisted into some weird psychedelic trips and flavored with lo-fi, drone contortions – this is the menu on the debut album by this Michigan based and DIY devoted band. Not for those who are in the search of the perfect crystal sound and are only comfortable with the polished and mainly over-produced, but tasteless, and inconsistent fancy products of the almighty digital era. No, these guys will take you back to their garage, will tear the walls down at the house party in some suburb or in the basement of some filthy and obscure club. This taste like life, sounds messy and full of trouble as reality, wear perfectly with cheap beer, sleepless nights and lost memories.
With roots back to The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed (“Circus Dog”), but with the fury and energy of Sonic Youth (“I Wanna Ride a Sabertooth”), Inflatable Best Friend will shake you up and grind you down, and rock you into weird, vivid dreams only to crash you down again. This is legal, but dangerous stuff. Read more Inflatable Best Friend – DMT Bike Ride (2013)
Beyond The Styx – Sloughing Off The Shades, EP (2012)
This is brutally good! Merging Deathcore with modern flavored Metalcore, but with solid roots back to classy and powerful Heavy Metal, this 5 piece band from Tours, France formed in 2010 are making their debut with a consistent 5 track plus intro EP. It’s almost like August Burns Red would play Manowar covers.
And Emile Duputié (vocals), Adrien Joulin (drums), Matthieu Dupou (bass), Mickey Martin (rythmic guitar) and Anthony Mateus (lead guitar) mention as influences bands such as: August Burns Red, The Ghost Inside, Lamb of God, Norma Jean, Pantera, Haste the Day, Chimaira, Hatebreed, The Bled, Every Time I Die, Emmure, The Acacia Strain, Comeback Kid, Cancer Bats, Trivium, All That Remains, etc.
Powerful, furious riffs, mainly death like growls and intense, pounding drums are the ammunition of Beyond The Styx and they gonna grind you into the ground. Read more Beyond The Styx – Sloughing Off The Shades, EP (2012)
Labyrinth of Knowledge
Special offer: only $175 (shipping not included!), 40×40 cm, acrylic on paper.
The Labyrinth of Knowledge or the Tree of the Knowledge (of Good and Evil)
“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:9)
There’s a thin line between good and evil, extremes always reach out to each other. In the Christian theology, the Tree of Knowledge is connected to the doctrine of Original Sin (Gen 2:17 and 3:1-24). In the Book of Genesis God directly forbade Adam (before Eve has been created) to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. A serpent tempted Eve, who was aware of the prohibition against eating the forbidden fruit. The serpent had suggested to Eve that eating the fruit would bestow wisdom upon them. Eve and then Adam ate the forbidden fruit, and they became aware of their nakedness. After discovering their disobedience, God banished the couple from the garden in order to deny them access to the Tree of Life, which would have bestowed immortality onto them. God cursed both the snake and the ground, obliging Adam to survive through agriculture “by the sweat of his brow”. He told the woman that her childbirth pains would be greatly increased and that the man would rule over her. Read more Labyrinth of Knowledge
Matryoshka – Laideronnette (2012)
Very chill, very trippy, sounds like shattered from a dream and feels like heroin. Rhyming was unintentional and regarding the heroin, I never experienced it, so, probably my perception it’s at least false. And then again this music it’s smooth, floating, heaven-like. I’ve never been in heaven as well, so, I might be wrong again. The music it’s beautiful. We all have a different perception of beauty, but this is really nice. Quite cinematic, smoothly layered and smartly chilled, merging Trip Hop with Dream Pop, and Glitchy IDM with classic music, the Japanese Matryoshka creates a very comfortable and restorative ambiance with their minimalist, but nicely flowing music. The duo it’s made of Sen responsible with the instrumentals while Calu it’s the female vocalist. She’s angel-like singing reminds me mostly of Julee Cruise (probably best known for “Falling”, the theme song for the cult U.S. television series Twin Peaks). They are based in Tokyo, Japan, and this album was released on 12-12-2012 by Virgin Babylon Records, perhaps this is their second album, but my Japanese it’s pretty rusty and I did not manged to dig out any further useful information about them. Read more Matryoshka – Laideronnette (2012)
Birth of the Balance
Special offer: now only $250 (shipping not included!), 40×45 cm, oil on wood. 2006.
Vajra – Inside the Flame, video single
Singer, composer, producer, writer, and keyboard player Annamaria Pinna formed Vajra during her self-imposed exile in India and “Pleroma” is kind of a collection of 10 “sonic postcards” which painting up by sounds this mystic journey to self-conscience filled with hypnotic mysticism and some explosive sonic hurricanes. Read the full review HERE.
Now Varja released a music video for the fan favourite track “Inside the Flame”. The song have that ancient driven power which made magic the debut Tool album and it’s a perfect attention grabber. “Almost One” have the touch of Godsmack, it’s a mixture of gloom and groove with Rock strength, hypnotic, but simultaneously kicking. Read more Vajra – Inside the Flame, video single
The Missing Frames
Special offer: now only $240 (shipping not included!), “The Missing Frames of a Dream Randomly Re-rendered” 50×70 cm, oil on paper. painted in 2006.
Beyond The Styx – Between Scylla & Charybdis, video single
Beyond the Styx is a five piece Alternative Metal/Hardcore band from Tours (France), formed in October 2010, delivering a kind of hybrid between Deathcore & Metalcore. Their declared influences are bands such as August Burns Red, The Ghost Inside, Lamb of God, Norma Jean, and Pantera. Some really intense heavy s*it!!
Beyond the Styx are: Emile Duputié (vocals), Adrien Joulin (drums), Matthieu Dupou (bass), Mickey Martin (rythmic guitar) and Anthony Mateus (lead guitar).
“Between Scylla & Charybdis” it’s the band brand new video single, enjoy it! Read more Beyond The Styx – Between Scylla & Charybdis, video single
Eve
In ancient Hebrew “messiah” and “snake” were the same word. Think about it. It is possible that Eve (“the living”) actually lead Adam (“dust”) out of the dark by offering him the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge at the urging of the Savior? Dangerous supposition… It flips all the concepts and prejudices we’re comfortable with. Do not know if this is true or not, but I know I can not be so stupid to exclude any possibility before I think about. I keep wondering why for centuries the church insisted on “believe and do not search”. Whatthey really hiding? And why? The generally accepted version of the New Testament is a collection of texts selected and censored. The clergy have decided what we should and should not know. Church argued for years that the Earth is the center of the universe (and the only planet), stating vehemently that the earth is flat … And so on. Read more Eve
