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)
2012
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)
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)
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
Blackburner – Drop Bass Not Bombs (2012)
Dubstep and Glitch music it’s what was the Punk in the late 70’s and the Grunge in the 90’s – the fuel of a new generation, the dynamite in the hand of a furious, disoriented, sidelined and with no future generation. Considering all the social, economical and political tensions and conflicts in our late society, Dubstep works both as catalyst and discharger.
The downside – and the death – of becoming mainstream and fancy for the Dubstep it’s the same as for the other genres: it’s become patterned, predictable, and boring while everybody sound the same. Bass drops, wobbling and contorted sounds, but without any particular content are flooding the already saturated market and pretty soon the kids will start digging for something else, something different, something which once again, will break the line. Unfortunately very few products are actually worth to listen nowadays and pretty soon this will bury alive the genre. Read more Blackburner – Drop Bass Not Bombs (2012)
John Zorn – A Vision in Blakelight (2012)
Gathering – once again – a quite selective collective of musicians: Cyro Baptista – Percussion; Joey Baron – Drums; Trevor Dunn – Bass; Carol Emanuel – Harp; John Medeski – Piano and Organ; and Kenny Wollesen – Vibes and Bells; “A Vision in Blakelight” it’s probably one of the most soft, most beautiful and chilled releases of Zorn in years.
Inspired by the spiritual mythology of William Blake, Zorn continue his endless exploration of the mystical work by all the means of the 21st century’s Jazz and contemporary music. This time Zorn is less noisy, less tumultuous and experimental, but further more sensitive and meditative, creating a cinematic groove smoothly flavored by Jazzy rides and the fluorescent play of these extraordinary artist collective. “An Island in the Moon” it’s a pearl, are breathing through standard already. Read more John Zorn – A Vision in Blakelight (2012)
c.db.sn – …At The End Of It All Remixed (2012)
“Emotion driven electronic music” – this is the essence of what Chase Dobson (aka c.dobson or c.db.sn) delivers and this brand new collection of twisted in and out remixes delivered by Tineidae, Architect, Larvae, Sean Byrd, Worms Of The Earth, Displacer, Access To Arasaka, Consolectrl, Anklebiter, and Erode it’s an extraordinary opportunity do dive into this mysteries flavored spaces filled with subtle grooves and smartly arranged layers of sounds and noises.
And what you people like even more then anything else, it’s a (half-way-through) free stuff, “name your price” means you can give even zero and grab it, but you should consider that artists need and deserve all of our support and music it’s not a free background noise or residue for our iPods and mp3 players. Read more c.db.sn – …At The End Of It All Remixed (2012)
Byzant At Sunset – Bang Ur Head, double EP (2012)
This is Jazzcore, Avant-garde and experimental, genres merging and envelope pusher music, weird for any average, comfortable and conservative listener, but definitively something intriguing and exciting for the people with open mind and open ears, bored of comformities and cliches.
While the album starts quite furiously with a grinding and contorted Tango followed by a genuine Punk classic in the vein of Dead Kennedys twisted into modern contortions and fueled by wildly improvising saxophone solos; the album rides in and out of genres from Post-Rock to Jazz and from Dubstep to Industrial only to quieting down to a Coltrane feel-like Jazzy smooth ballad as a closing act. Anyway, almost like a ballad. With Byzant At Sunset you never can be sure of anything.
An extended play (or EP) is a musical recording that contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full studio album or LP.
This is the second EP by Byzant At Sunset, a double EP actually, but this is really-really an ultra-mega-super extended play while the band delivered 9 original tracks (more then 44 minutes) and 10 plus 1 (hidden bonus) remixes – which are pounding more then 46 minutes.
Totally 95 minutes of music, it’s definitively hell of an extended play!!
The three members of this project are living on different continents, they never been in the same room, not even in the same country ever, but they are playing together. This is an exclusively “via internet” (on-line) collaborative-creative project. One proof of the positive effect and impact of Globalization and technology over humanity. Although they never had the opportunity and pleasure to playing together in the rehearsal room, this music sounds very alive, very fresh, raw and impossible to fit into any genre. Read more Byzant At Sunset – Bang Ur Head, double EP (2012)
Rabih Abou-Khalil – Hungry People (2012)
Jazz, Oriental vibe and an excellent sense of humor. “Music is all about enjoyment and that comes easiest when you laugh” says Rabih Abou-Khalil. Speaking of his new album and his band, Abou-Khalil said: “We’ve been playing together for nearly 16 years now. We know each other very well so, as you will hear, the band is very tight indeed.” This is also a quite multicultural project as well. Abou-Khalil – who plays oud – grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, Germany during the civil war in 1978. Saxophonist Gavino Murgia are from Sardinian and sometimes he provide also vocals – for instance listen into “Bankers’ Banquet”. Frenchman Michel Godard is a phenomenal player of the tuba and its ancestor, the serpent, but he also plays bass. Luciano Biondini is a virtuoso Italian accordionist. Jarrod Cagwin sre form Iowa, USA, he is equally masterful with sticks and bare hands, and using both, western drum-kit and to Arabic frame drums.
Their music uses elements from Arab music traditions, together with many Jazz, Rock and classical references, particularly to the school of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, but also other influences include Frank Zappa, Bela Bartok, and such unexpected musicians as the Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener from Trinidad.
Since ’81 Rabih Abou-Khalil released over 20 albums and contributed to many more.
“Hungry People” it’s a direct reference to the “Arab Spring”. Read more Rabih Abou-Khalil – Hungry People (2012)
Green Day -Tre! (2012)
Why I bother to write about this? Well, probably because I get into this trilogy and after two bitter pills, the deadly strike it’s unavoidable. While “¡Uno!” was not so convincing, and “¡Dos!” was even worst, “¡Tré!” it’s definitively the most forgettable Green Day release ever. And one by one, even some of their most devoted fans are starting to give voice to their disappointment. Honestly, really don’t get it why Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, Tré Cool and Jason White get so stubbornly ambitious to release a trilogy while they hardly had enough songs for a barley mediocre simple album? And who actually expecting stupid (piano) ballads from – even a Pop – Punk band? And after all, who needs a soft and sweet Green Day these days anyway? Not even my 5 year old son. He prefers Rammstein.
Green Day announced that ¡Tré!’s released date had been pushed forward to December 11, along with the cancellation of the rest of the year’s tour and a postponement of their early 2013 arena tour dates. They also announced that Armstrong will probably hit the rehab while he’s seeking treatment for his serious alcohol issues. Read more Green Day -Tre! (2012)
