Listening to the almost raging, furious and noisy guitar hurricanes of “Sepastia” it’s obvious why Lou Reed ask guitarist Aram Bajakian to perform guitar on his summer tour. And Aram Bajakian’s Kef is electrifying. “Sumlinian” is blowing like a chainsaw from one ear to the other and will leave you breathless. Aram Bajakian – Electric And Acoustic Guitars, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz – Acoustic Bass and Tom Swafford – Violin delivered an unique and extremely groovy mixture of traditional Klezmer music with Garage Rock resonances, merged electric explosions with sensitive acoustic braiding, combined the energy of the free Jazz improvisation with the clearness and smoothness of classic and traditional music, Aram Bajakian’s Kef puts on the same level the bursting electric guitar shredding and the joyful violin plays.
I was at the middle of the 5th track, “Wroclaw”, when I noticed there’s no drums or percussion in this… Holy Moses! Read more Aram Bajakian’s Kef – Aram Bajakian’s Kef (2011)
2011
Primus – Green Naugahyde (2011)
12 years are more than a lifetime in nowadays music industry. Bass player Les Claypool was considered by many a weirdo even back in the 80s, beginning of the 90s, nowadays with the more uniformed, pattern-driven music, with all those self-proclaimed “whatever-core” stuffs pretending to be “alternatives” and post-everything we might think or dream of, the Primus project seems much more off-beat. I’m quite curious what the media will write about this and how the ex-emo kids, now sport-ware and iPhone fan teenagers will receive it. Things that don’t fit in the boxes, labels don’t stick to them and aren’t easy to chew and swallow are not so welcome nowadays. If you want to be appreciated, you must stay in line. Odd… isn’t it? While everybody struggling to sound the same, Primus comes back and sounds just like they did two decades ago. Like nothing else and like… Primus. Bloody bastards! Read more Primus – Green Naugahyde (2011)
Antenna Trash – Ded Comes for Ded (2011)
Free stuffs are good stuffs. Worth to give a try, listen to, download for free from their Bandcamp page.
Antenna Trash merged Glitch-Wave with Post Punk, noisy garage Rock guitars with electronic layers and textures, Punk energy with Disco beats and the result is something between Devo and Joy Division, eventually between TV On The Radio and Victorian Halls.
Named themselves after a song of the German experimental electropop band Lali Puna, Sebastiano Meneghini – vocals, guitar, percussion; Marco Menegazzi – bass, vocals; Alessandro Monaco – synthesizer, groovebox, vocals, noises and Alberto Casagrande – drums, percussion, vocals introduce themselves and their music with this four track release. Enjoy it!
Read more Antenna Trash – Ded Comes for Ded (2011)
The Defiled – Grave Times (2011)
Rocksound call them “The saviours of UK alternative metal!” while Kerrang!! consider them “An explosive mangle of Manson stage craft and middle finger metal!”. When the media praise an artist unanimously, I’ve become suspicious and precocious.
Good to know: “We are not some American band who will write a love song just to appeal to teenagers” said vocalist Stitch D, and listen to their songs, this 5-piece London based metal band delivering some kind of aggressive, wicked metal, something which might be described as the collision of Murderdolls with Static-X, a deadly mixture of Nu and Groove Metal. Brit-Metal or not, they sounds more American-like than similar to Iron Maiden or Bullet for My Valentine and find a loud, powerful way to put their riffs and noises in the right place and afterward punch them right in your face.
So, kicking all my skepticism and prejudices considering everything labeled “metalcore” lately away, The Defiled – almost surprisingly – are absolutely worth to listen. Probably if Pantera would form today they might sound pretty close to what The Defiled deliver. Also Slipknot fans might find this album highly inflammable!!! Read more The Defiled – Grave Times (2011)
Victorian Halls – Charlatan (2011)
This isn’t Metal, but I love its vibe and it’s noisy enough. But if you ask me, “Burn Me Up Like a Wax-Kissed Letter” it’s heavier than most of the so-called “alternative metal anthems” the media try so hard to sell us day after day. And when a band labeled “Pop” becomes heavier than bands labeled “Metal”, it’s something very wrong with this world we’re pissing on.
Juggling between Noisecore and Power/Dance Pop, this Chicago four-piece band find an exciting crack on the music pallet to breaking through at and “Charlatan”, the band’s debut album comes crushing like a hurricane with songs as “A Crush Is A Crush”, the retro dizziness of “Lucky 16” or the bursting energy of “It All Started In The Hall” and won’t let you (sit) down for a second, leave no space to take even a breath.
This is the future sound of the dancefloor and it’s definitively makes you jump off your shoes and do some crazy things. Read more Victorian Halls – Charlatan (2011)
Psychostick – Space Vampires vs Zombie Dinosaurs In 3D (2011)
The third strike of this so-called “Humorcore” band from Tempe, Arizona, will be released on August 16, 2011 and the band also made available the first two singles, “Political Bum” and “Beacuse Boobs” as free downloads on their web site in order to promote the album.
Quoting from their official bio: “a breath of fresh air has come for those who need a break from the standard angry rock or metal band. While many fans love the rush of loud and heavy music, it usually comes bundled with negative lyrics and attitudes”, Psychostick brings humor in Metal, adds dumb and funny lyrics to cutting riffs, pounding drums and the pulsing bass, reminds me somehow of Green Jellÿ, they add spices to classy Metal and sometimes full of shit life and boring, cliche-full (mainstream) music.
Read more Psychostick – Space Vampires vs Zombie Dinosaurs In 3D (2011)
Media Blitz – A Voice Of Our Own (2011)
It’s been eight years since Wattie Buchan and his buddies released their eighth studio album, “Fuck the System” and I actually miss a little bit of anarchy and I miss The Exploited quite a lot. I love their raging Punk since the mid 80s.
And this phrase: “Riot starting, bouncer bashing, cop baiting, hotel trashing, foul talking, noise making, chaos causing, venue wrecking, government hating, rule breaking, piss taking, unrelenting, punk rocking. Clearly we’re not talking about Pepsi adverts here!” (excerpt from The Exploited History page) somehow quite fits right here as I’m listing Media Blitz, a quartet from Orange County, California, formed by Jason Schwartz – vocals, Eddie Oropeza – guitar, Jeff Salisbury – drums and Ryan Blank – bass.
Read more Media Blitz – A Voice Of Our Own (2011)
Diamond Plate – Generation Why? (2011)
Absolutely classy Thrash Metal, fans of Testament, Overkill, eventually Metal Church will be positively surprised by this new Bay Area quartet released by Earache Records. And well, their album title is quite a good question nowadays: generation why? Don’t bother answer it, it’s quite obvious: for sport shoes, iPads and big screen TV sets. Nothing else matters anymore. But once again, not quite to everybody.
Konrad Kupiec – lead and rhythm Gguitars, Jon Macak – vocals and bass guitar, Jim Nicademus – drums and Mario Cianci – rhythm guitars gave us a hell of a trip back to the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s through their debut album, and this full retro taste-like Thrash album somehow feels absolutely fair and alright. Read more Diamond Plate – Generation Why? (2011)
Today Is The Day – Pain Is A Warning (2011)
Today Is The Day was founded by Steve Austin and Brad Elrod in Nashville, Tennessee in 1992. Nominated as “Experimental-terror-metal noise heroes”, Today Is The Day incorporated from Alternative Rock elements to Grindcore, and from Garage Rock to Industrial noises all type of sounds and structures, genres and approaches. Contorted, still fluent, noisy, but also quite harmonious and musical, Today Is The Day are a perfect killing machine.
After a four-year wait since their previous release, “Axis of Eden”, band’s founder, lead guitarist/vocalist and producer, Steve Austin teamed up with Wetnurse‘s Curran Reynolds (drums) and Ryan Jones (bass) for this ninth studio release of the band. Read more Today Is The Day – Pain Is A Warning (2011)
Samsas Traum – Anleitung zum Totsein (2011)
Gregor Samsa wakes up to find that he has been transformed into a giant insect-like creature. This is the starting point of the novella “The Metamorphosis” (Die Verwandlung) by Franz Kafka which inspired Alexander Kaschte to use “Samsa’s Dream” as name for his project. Formed in 1996, after Alexander performed as vocalist and guitarist in several Black, Death, Doom and Melodic Metal bands before, he decided to step forward into the wider fields of darker electronic and neoclassical music, including both elements of elements of Neue Deutsche Härte and cantastoria.
Three years after the release of the first solo tape, the project became a group of three, and their official debut “Die Liebe Gottes – Eine märchenhafte black metal Operette” (“The Love of God – a black metal fairytale-like Operetta”) divided the scene: some people considered that Samsas Traum was the best newcomer band of the year, others started hate them, mainly because of some provocative statements of Alexander Kaschte. The band relocate from Germany to Austria.
If I count correctly, “Anleitung zum Totsein” is the 17th album by Samsas Traum. Read more Samsas Traum – Anleitung zum Totsein (2011)
