Imagine a frontal collision between Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin and the result will sounds pretty much as Fleeting Circus, the new Alternative Rock star rising from Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia. Their dark and groovy sound also incorporate reminiscences of acts such as Muse, Chore, Deftones, Kings Of Leon, Jeff Buckley and Sunny Day Real Estate, while “The Dream World Of Magic” EP has two songs that made history in the first edition of the Yamaha Brazilian Beat festival, “Fake Station” and “Underground”. “Underground” is 101% Rock radio anthem, have some smooth and gentle Kings of Leon taste and that magic touch witch make a great song unforgettable. On the other hand, songs like “Come On” represents the darker and heavier side of the band where the flesh cutting riffs and pounding drums are served with dissonances and screaming vocals. Fleeting Circus find a refreshing balance between classic heaviness and modern noisiness and merged the past into the future delivering a six station trip in their own magical-musical universe. And in top of all this, you can download even for free (name your price) the EP from their Bandcamp page or buy the hard copy for only $9.99 USD. Read more Fleeting Circus – Dream World Of Magic, EP (2012)
alternative rock
Black Light Burns – The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall (2012)
“The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall”, the sophmore album by the Wes Borland leaded and fronted Black Light Burns sounds sweat and dark in a quite David Bowish manner. It’s impossible to stick any label to this music, it’s impossible to squeeze it into any defined genre of style, this is post “something” without being typically finicky and selfishly obscure and pointlessly exclusivist, it’s simultaneously Rock, mainly noisy and garage taste-like, but sometimes Jazzy, and Industrial in a quite classic sense and approach, but avoiding all the cliches and mandatory conformity. It’s arty, but not abstract and it’s trippy without becoming shapeless. Wes Borland definitively founded a fascinating, very own flavored path here and delivered a pretty exciting material.
Vividly colored, changing moods and grooves, “The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall” it’s a bold, literally edgy cutting, modern (Industrial) Rock album, one of the finest of it’s kind.
Quitting Limp Bizkit in 2001, Read more Black Light Burns – The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall (2012)
Rescue Rangers – Manitoba (2012)
Chip ‘n Dale anybody? 😆 No, seriously, this is heavy, heavy Rock, Rescue Rangers reminds me of Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age, Helmet, Clutch, Black Label Society, and some Grunge and Post-Grunge outfits as Stone Temple Pilots, modern Rock – and Post-Rock – bands such as Tool. Although, “Why So Serious” definitively reminds me of Alice In Chains, and their glowing shadow is pulsing discretely throughout in their music.
“Manitoba” it’s a dark, intense, perfectly build-up and biting Rock album, and almost surprisingly, although they are from Marseille, France, it’s sound very American. Pascal Mascheroni – Vocals & Guitars, Christophe Fresard – Bass, and Pierre Roulois – Drums, find that killer fat sound and write the most addictive riffs and grooves which make that kind of Rock kicking. Read more Rescue Rangers – Manitoba (2012)
EndAnd – Adventures of Fi in Space (2012)
This is Garage Rock, with one leg back to the 70’s and the other kicking into the future, merging Noise and Alternative Rock influences, blinking with an eye to Psychedelia, but adding some Punk attitude and “no future” easiness, they delivering raw, biting, but definitively tasty and smartly layered mixture of Garage/Punk Rock where gentle melodies, smoothly played chords are make an efficient pair with the overdrives and driving, energetic riffs, pounding drums and buzzing basses.
Resulting from merging two EP’s, “Adventures of Hi-Fi in Space”, and “Adventures of Lo-Fi in Space”, both released in June 2012, this LP consist of quite different recordings, from polished studio quality works to all sort of DIY style recordings, including digital 4 track, analog 4 track, live recording, and minimal pro tools editing. Still the album sounds compact, every piece fits right in. And if you are into real Underground, truly experimental Rock, edge cutting stuffs, not only on the surface, but diving deep, EndAnd worth at least a chance.
And for orientation, think of Cloud Nothings, The Ramones, Helmet, Polvo, Jay Reatard, Gang of Four, Wavves, The Pixies, Guided By Voices, The Melvins, Nirvana, etc. Read more EndAnd – Adventures of Fi in Space (2012)
Monks of Mellonwah – Neurogenesis, EP (2012)
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Monks of Mellonwah are a four-piece Alternative Rock band, and their latest, second, ad deadly EP, “Neurogenesis”, was released on 24th May, 2012. MoM reminds me mostly of the British band Bush, they are selling on the same dark shaded seas of Post-Grunge/Alternative Rock, building-up their unique sound by blending different elements, having strong roots back to Classic Blues & Rock, to artists such as Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd, but also incorporating influences from Red Hot Chili Peppers and more recently from Muse.
Their first E.P., “Stars Are Out”, has been highly praised since its release in 2010.
Thei are winner of the award for “Best Indie Rock Band” at the 2012 Artists In Music Awards and nominated for Best International Act at the LA Music Awards, the Monks of Mellonwah are entering some very exciting times. Dean Cramer of the influential blog Kings of A & R recently listed the Monks in his “Top 8 Emerging Artists”, and CMJ featured their track “Neverending Spirit” on their trendsetting mixtape series.
Jet Plane – All The Static Stars (2012)
“Disappearance At Sea” starting with the sound of breaking waves at the sea-side and the smoothly glowing instruments creates a mood which slowly suck you in, imprisoning you.
Max – guitar, Serge – guitar, Dima – drums, and Kostya -bass are from Bryansk, Russia and they formed Jet Plane back in 2009, while “All The Static Stars” it’s their third installment so far, selling on the sonar seas of bands such as Mogwai, Sigur Rós, Rain Tongue, dEUS, Sonic Youth, Malkovic, Jeniferever, Explosions In The Sky, etc. Minimalist, stripped-down to the bone sound, but filled with emotions instead of convenience, colored with soul-flare instead predictability and burning creativity instead fancy cliches, Jet Plane delivering quality (Post) Rock with gentle, but edge cutting experimental taste, focusing on expression of feelings and reveling of emotions by sound, rather then delivering 3 minute long Pop emptiness. Read more Jet Plane – All The Static Stars (2012)
Feuerzeug – Dead Wahines and Tsunamis (2012)
A band called “Lighter”? C’mon!! But digging into it, they sounds much interesting then most of the nowadays delivered, fancy-labeled, “post” whatever, obligatory Metalcore bands. Feuerzeug reminds me mostly of the Ricky Warwick leaded Scottish The Almighty, band formed in the late 1980’s and rose to fame mostly in the mid 1990’s with albums such “Powertrippin'” and “Crank”. True, probably Rick was most famous because he was formerly married to MTV’s Headbangers Ball presenter Vanessa Warwick.
So, Feuerzeug sounds pretty much like The Almighty, eventually more contemporarily, but still classy and with roots back to the American Stoner Rock tradition and adding some tasty post-Grunge. But this isn’t an American band, but another stainless delivery from Switzerland. Imagine Godsmack crashing into the tour bus of Kyuss, merging Grunge energy with Stoner Rock hardness and we’ve get pretty close to what Feuerzeug sounds like. And actually this is a pretty groovy and addictive material, classy and quality Rock. Read more Feuerzeug – Dead Wahines and Tsunamis (2012)
Abandon All Ships – Infamous (2012)
Ten tracks, 32:41 minutes, the sophomore album by the Canadian Abandon All Ships are a tumultuous merging of electronic layers and grinding Hardcore raging. Labeled “Metalcore”, Post-Hardcore, incorporating Trance and even Electro-Pop elements, this new type of Metal targeting a new generation of teenagers lost between Facebook and escapades down in the club with fake IDs. I do not mean to be Infamous, but no sneakers, no cry!!
The music is dark, furious, noisy and more heavy then electronic, the Trance inspired breakdowns, breathing pauses are only accentuate the violence and explosion of the contorted, heavy parts.
While the opening Read more Abandon All Ships – Infamous (2012)
Serj Tankian – Harakiri (2012)
Although to put together a Rock album seems a quite simple thing, to be honest, it’s been a while since I didn’t heard a good Rock album. Maybe because everybody pretend to be somebody else, maybe because music isn’t art anymore, but business and industry, or because everything became patterned, excessively target oriented, predictable and plastic taste-like. Tankian – once again – seems to put his thoughts and his soul on the table, while he’s completely cut off any ties to any particular genre, style and expectations and focused on the music and his message. “Harakiri” isn’t a “complicated” album, but a honest one. And “Harakiri” isn’t a classic Rock album in its pure conservative sense, but a colorful, tripping, searching and experimenting material, each and every song have its own soul and style while all together is absolutely and unmistakably Serj Tankian. Read more Serj Tankian – Harakiri (2012)
P.O.D. – Murdered Love (2012)
P.O.D. anybody? Remember them – or their hypnotic/anthematic “Youth of the Nation”? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems (at least) a lifetime ago. Although “Satellite” was the band’s fourth studio album and it was released in 2001. “Satellite” went on to become RIAA-certified triple platinum while the author of “Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music” has described P.O.D. as “One of the biggest success stories in recent Christian music.”
Their previous album, “When Angels & Serpents Dance” was released in 2008, “only” 4 years ago and that album also marked the return of the original lead guitarist Marcos Curiel and the departure of his replacement, Jason Truby.
The band’s name, Payable on Death (P.O.D.), derives itself from the banking term “Payable on Death” and they chose this name to be a direct tie in to Christianity, which explains, that since Jesus died on the Cross, Christians inherit all of his assets – Heaven. Well, I do not buy products at my door from traveling salesman, and well, I do not buy salvation from (Rock) bands. Still, they sold over 10 million records worldwide. 😆 Christian Metal actually it’s not a genre oriented music, but targeting a huge market of believers and eventually, ultimately non-believers. Read more P.O.D. – Murdered Love (2012)
