Meredith – The Shape Of Things To Come, EP (2014)

Meredith The Shape Of EP 2014

Meredith The Shape Of EP 2014 I tried to dig out some background info about this French band, but I didn’t find too much and the few things I found were in French, not a language I know. Guitarist/singer Fred Lefranc sent me a link to their teaser last December, meanwhile the 5 track EP was officially released. Unfortunately they don’t have a video yet, but fortunately, they put it on-line on the Bandcamp. (While Spotify in some countries it’s not available, on Deezer if you don’t have account, can only listen 30 seconds of each song and not everybody it’s iPhone addicted and have the iTunes applications instaled… So, for promotional purposes YouTube, SoundCloud and Bandcamp are still the best free options available. MySpace it’s a… dead space. 😆 )
Although, most of the people don’t even bother to step outside Facebook lately, so, music it’s doomed just as the whole goddamn human race!
But let’s see what Meredith propose us!
The sound of things to come it’s solid, intense, modern, alternative rock/metal. Read more Meredith – The Shape Of Things To Come, EP (2014)

Skindred – Kill The Power (2014)

Skindred - Kill The Power (2014)

Skindred - Kill The Power (2014) Benji Webbe and his comando (Daniel Pugsley – bass; Mikey Demus – guitar, backing vocals; and Arya Goggin – drums) of reggae-metal from Welsh are back with their fifth studio album entitled “Kill the Power”. He stated about the titled and the upcoming album: “We are more than excited to unleash this Skindred bomb on the world! Kill The Power is for all them that are sick of being the underdog, and wanna step up and destroy all those who oppress and hold them down! Use this album as a backdrop to overcome and take your life back! We ain’t fighting the power no more – we are definitely killing it!!” And they delivered probably their best album so far.
Filled-up with powerful, nu-metal flavored riffs, dub aromas, wicked electronic layers, reggae rooted grooves and hardcore attitude, Skindred seems to be at the pick of their intensity and take no prisoners. This is a colorful, heavy, banging and surprising throughout album and probably live it will grind you into the ground for good. Read more Skindred – Kill The Power (2014)

Backtrack – Lost In Life (2014)

Backtrack – Lost In Life (2014)

Backtrack – Lost In Life (2014) Pure, furious, edgy and old-school hardcore. There is nothing fancy, nothing meaningless, nothing just to fill in or fill up, but brutal riff, energy and honest, reasonable anger. And while honesty and being not a clown of the media and a dumb trend follower it’s quite rare, almost exceptional nowadays, Backtrack is an exceptional band with roots both back to punk and metal.
The Long Island bangers are stepping in the footsteps of their predecessors as Minor Threat, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Biohazard – and delivering some raging anthems filled with killer riffs and upbeats. Let’s be honest! Nobody want to re-invent the hardcore, there is no secret, underground revolution going on, fans just want some loud and headbangable songs and pretty much that’s what Backtrack delivers more then fairly. Read more Backtrack – Lost In Life (2014)

Mustard Plug – Can’t Contain It (2014)

Mustard Plug – Can’t Contain It (2014)

Mustard Plug – Can’t Contain It (2014) Lighten up and have fun! – in few words this is the essence of what Mustard Plug delivers on their eighth studio album. In August 2013, Mustard Plug used KickStarter to fund the recording of their new album. “Can’t Contain” will be officially released by No Idea Records yesterday, January 14, 2014. We’ve got 14 high-energy, groovy ska-punk anthems. The album feature cover art by Jeff Rosenstock of Bomb the Music Industry, which, in my opinion, it’s pretty inexpressive, but fortunately, the music compensate. But honestly, in a CD shop lost between million of albums, I would definitively skip this one.
The album starts like a party and it’s a party throughout! “We Came To Party” will be definitively a party anthem with its “hey ho” chorus. It have a more edgy punk vibe then the rest of the tracks, felt a tie back to Dead Kennedys, but with a ska outfit and flavor. Cool. Read more Mustard Plug – Can’t Contain It (2014)

PRoject OxiD & The Demigodz – KILLmatic (2014)

PRoject OxiD & The Demigodz - KILLmatic (2014)

PRoject OxiD & The Demigodz - KILLmatic (2014) Downloadable good shit! For free, 320 kbps on their official site! Korn and Limp Bizkit fans will devour it, but this is a pretty cool mixture of rap-metal and industrial/EDM music, not only Korn and Bizkit fans can give it a shot. And not at least, the album features a pretty impressive list of guest-star featuring from Jonathan Davis from KoRn, Corey Taylor from Slipknot, Chester Bennington from Linkin Park and Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God) to Steklo and Memnoir.
Although, this PRoject OxiD’s Remix album of Demigodz’s original Killmatic 2013 album. While they 2009 debut al;bum entitled “Reality” was not a commercial success, you can find all the PRoject OxiD and DJ Make Illusional albums to download for free at 320 kbps at the discography page of their official site. Read more PRoject OxiD & The Demigodz – KILLmatic (2014)

Blue Touch Paper – Drawing Breath (2013)

Blue Touch Paper – Drawing Breath (2013)

Blue Touch Paper – Drawing Breath (2013) Featuring drummer Benny Greb, saxophonist Mark Lockheart, Stephan Maass on percussion & electronics, guitarist Chris Montague, Edward Maclean on bass and Colin Towns (from Ian Gillan Band and Gillan) on keyboards; Blue Touch Paper it’s a Brit-German jazz-rock fusion band while ‘Drawing Breath’ it’s their second album released on the 14th October 2013. Their music it’s a rainbow like colorful mixture of sounds, styles and genres, from Garbarek to Pink Floyd and from ethnic flavored jazz to chilled down and spacy breakdowns, ‘Drawing Breath’ got it all and surprisingly, all those moving parts are coming together nicely and everything make perfect sense. We’ve got 12 songs and over one hour of exciting, groovy music. Read more Blue Touch Paper – Drawing Breath (2013)

Panzanellas – Aggression, EP (2013)

Panzanellas Aggression EP 2013

Panzanellas Aggression EP 2013 Panzanella or panmolle is a Tuscan salad of bread and tomatoes popular in the summer. It includes chunks of soaked stale bread and tomatoes, sometimes also onions and basil, dressed with olive oil and vinegar. It is also popular in other parts of central Italy, but also around the world.
The concept behind Panzanellas is quite simple: just with an act of violence it is possible to conquer freedom, so they start to kill men and animals conquering their own freedom.
Two brand new tracks on the band’s second EP, the same sonic aggression, Panzanellas are grinding on the borderline between free jazz and avant-garde/experimental rock. Heavy beats, contorted and twisted out guitars with tumultuous, crazy saxophone solos throughout. They came in, kill’em all and leave. Pure madness or killer efficiency. No use to compare it with any other band, this is just Panzanellas. And it’s quite alright, we need this kind of out of the box trips and although some will probably label it as a slaughter, this is still much more exciting then most of the prefabricated, plastic and predictable “music” these days. Do yourself a favor, give it 5 minutes from your boring life and get yourself a fair share of aggression and eventually, a broken nose!! Read more Panzanellas – Aggression, EP (2013)

Mechina – Xenon (2014)

Mechina - Xenon (2014)

Mechina - Xenon (2014) Released on the first day of 2014, “Xenon” is the fifth and the brand new symphonic-cyber-metal album of this Chicago based experimental, futuristic metal horde. For Fear Factory fans and followers, Mechina might be just on spot and “Xenon” the perfect year starter.
Dave Holch – Vocals, Joe Tiberi – Guitar, Steve Amarantos – Bass, and Dan Anderson – Drums delivered five albums in five years, which is a pretty intense agenda for any band. “Xenon” pick up where “Phedra” left off last November and the melange of electronic layers, orchestral/symphonic layers and the contorted and furious metal riffings work perfectly. This is a very dynamic and technically flawless mixture of different elements and styles. Based on industrial fueled death metal, the symphonic pads and electronic layers create an unique vibe and tension while the intensity of the music reaches explosively high levels throughout the album. There is no dead moments, meaningless fills in “Xenon”, just pure intensity and grinding throughout. Read more Mechina – Xenon (2014)

Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)

Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)

Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013) Maybe I’m an idiot, but I like “The Marshall Mathers LP 2”. It’s one of the best records of 2013. I can understand the fury and I can feel the pain, taste the irony. This is not a revolutionary record? Eminem did not reinvented the rapping, the rap and the hip-hop? If a bicycle do not need a third wheel – metaphorically speaking – and rap/hip-hop don’t need to be reinvented, I believe Eminem has to be invented. Rap needs Eminem. Simply and plain, just because. Because Eminem is both electric-shock therapy and vitamin. He’s probably not a God as he like to present himself (“Why be a king when you can be a god?” he sings in the song called “Rap God”), but he’s definitively a king. Behind all of his jokes, rhymes and irony I can see a very lonely, very sad, very furious human being. Don’t really give a shit about the over 220 million records he sold worldwide and that make him one of the best-selling music artists of the world, I don’t really consider him one of the greatest artists as the Rolling Stone magazine which ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, but for sure Eminem got style and know how to say things. And his the eighth studio album, “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” it’s a really solid release.
We’ve got a couple of huge songs (Bad Guy, Rhyme Or Reason, The Monster, Stronger Than I Was, Love Game), and having 15 tracks, it’s really something these days. Only at track 10 – “Brainless” – I had a feeling of saturation and I was tempted to skip that one. But maybe that’s just me again! Read more Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)

Keith Jarrett – No End (2013)

Keith Jarrett – No End (2013)

Keith Jarrett – No End (2013) Everybody – at least in my shattered corner of the universe – knows that Keith Jarrett is one of the greatest jazz pianist. But what about a series of (almost home) recordings made in his small private studio back in 1986 where Keith Jarrett plays electric guitars, Fender bass, drums, percussion, table, some vocals and only rarely some piano. He also added an advice for the listener in the footnotes of the record: “Play this music LOUD, especially tracks 2 to 20, since many inner details will be lost at lower volumes.” Some critics, “musical experts” (whatever that may mean!) rushed to scream bloody murder and pointed out that this is not jazz. I’m not an expert, but I’m quite curious what they think jazz is? Listening track II I definitively felt like I was i the room where Miles Davis and his very honorable mates recorded “Bitches Brew”. But well, many (idiots) believe that what Miles did after ’68 was not jazz either, so, nothing’s shocking, this planet can bear much more then we can think of.
The other “argument” is that there are no developed melodies and no “real” song structures, only the same type of jamming throughout. It’s probably true, but not heaving rigid song structures and repetitive melodies it’s not something new, building and exploring out of the box was always a way to get further in jazz and avant-garde music, sometimes even in pop (culture). Seriously guys, did you expected that Jarrett will deliver a collection of standards played on guitar, bass and drums? Read more Keith Jarrett – No End (2013)