It has been passed 2 years and 9 months since “Uroboros”, Dir En Grey previous studio album and fans are quite on fire waiting their eight album. They can surpass themselves? Delivering 14 tracks and over one hour of music, “Dum Spiro Spero”, I think worth the waiting. Dir En Grey remains the same gloomy, impossible to label, but intense and contorted, genreless, but colourful music band, one minute they can sound like a psychotic death metal band and in the very next moment they just simply switch into a pop theme. Songs like “Yokusou Ni Dreambox” will bring you through all of this and even more. God blessed hell of a journey. Read more Dir En Grey – Dum Spiro Spero (2011)
avant-garde
Dead To A Dying World – Self Titled (2011)
Mike Yeager – vocals, Leigh Ann Jensen – upright bass, Sam Pruitt – cello and vocals, Sean Mehl – guitar, James Magruder – bass guitar and Stefan Gonzalez – drums, from Dallas, Texas, open the gates of (inner) Hell. Sit back and die – slowly. DTADY will takes you down into a gloomy world build upon black metal foundation and colored with post-rock and neo-classic/experimental elements. Doom and crust metal grindings, dark-depressive themes, abstract and contorted moments, scattered cellos and cutting guitars are merged into one dark, but breathing new universe.
This self-titled, debut double-LP from Dead To A Dying World is for those who truly appreciate the aesthetic value of deluxe packaging and heavyweight color vinyl. The album is pressed on 200-gram, translucent green wax and features heavyweight jackets, metallic-silver printed innersleeves and gatefold graphic, and is neatly enclosed in a heavy-duty slipcase. Mastered at 45rpm for superior sound quality, this is an album that was truly meant for vinyl. Read more Dead To A Dying World – Self Titled (2011)
Daniel Levin – Inner Landscape (2011)
“Inner Landscape” is a solo work by cellist Daniel Levin, released on Clean Feed Records and consist in 6 recordings – landscapes/soundscapes. Tracks 1 and 2 were recorded May 24th, 2009 at Brecht Forum, New York, NY by Robert O’Haire, while tracks 3 to 6 on July 14th, 2009 at The Chateau, Chicago, IL by Brian J. Sulpizio.
Ed Hazell in his liner notes for “Inner Landscape” wrote: Daniel Levin is “a samurai with a calligrapher’s brush in his hand instead of a sword.†And well, Daniel Levin brings six improvising pieces, lead us through moments made of light touch to brutal noise, from abstract fantasies and introspective searches to contorted and abrasive explorations.
It’s definitively not an easy-listening, but Levin delivered a sparkling and glowing experiment. Read more Daniel Levin – Inner Landscape (2011)
The Bunny The Bear – If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say (2011)
I’ve got only and exclusively nice things to say (write) about this album. Erik Kogut and Amber Kogut – guitars, Matthew Tybor – The Bunny and Chris Hutka – The Bear – vocals, Derek Anthony – bass and Brian Dietz – drums are draws from many quite different genres of music including extremes such as electro-pop and death metal to deliver their own and quite unique blending of post-hardcore/metal.
It’s true, there some other bands as well tried to merge dance music with metalcore, but these guys from Buffalo, NY, managed to create a striking, fresh and catchy blending of these styles.
Read more The Bunny The Bear – If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say (2011)
Sicfaist – Road Unknown (2011)
Bill Friese – vocals, Eric Britt – guitar, Ken Campbell – drums and Darren McClelland – bass bring to the surface pieces from a shattered universe, while their music have roots back to bands such as Deftones, Tool, System Of A Down and Korn. Actually, they name as their influences bands such as Mudvayne, Tool, Killswitch Engage, Incubus, Gojira, Deftones, Lamb of god, Sevendust, 40 Below Summer, Meshuggah, Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anyway, these American guys from St. Louis, Missouri, delivering some dark, contorted and sometimes quite strange, but sparkling and beautiful, still heavy enough, modern metal. Read more Sicfaist – Road Unknown (2011)
iwrestledabearonce – Ruining It For Everybody (2011)
Merging colourful, different approaches and genres, iwrestledabearonce managed to create their own unique style metal. Between death metal and metalcore, heavy metal and avant-garde with neo-progressive infusions, iwrestledabearonce seems to delivered an unstoppable album. Their musical style is considered avant-garde metal due to their use of frequent genre changes within songs, including jazz, swing, neo-progressive, grindcore and electronica/disco, on a solid ground of metalcore. Influences for their musical style have come from a wide variety of bands including The Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried And Me, Radiohead and Bjork.
Read more iwrestledabearonce – Ruining It For Everybody (2011)
Free releases. Mr. Pan[k]sament
I have in mind lots of shit such as: “Money, money, money, must be funny in the rich man’s world”, “Now look at them yo-yo’s that’s the way you do it, you play the guitar on the MTV, that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it, money for nothin’ and chicks for free”, “Money don’t matter tonight, it sure didn’t matter yesterday, just when you think you’ve got more than enough, that’s when it all up and flies away” or “Money – it’s a gas, grab that cash with both hands and make a stash, new car, caviar, four star daydream, think I’ll buy me a football team”… Get the point, don’t ya?
As I said and repeat not for once, everybody sings, nobody listen anymore. And well, with this downfall of the global markets and this over-saturated music scene, actually nobody gives a shit anymore about anybody. So, all my releases are available for free download. Read more Free releases. Mr. Pan[k]sament
Nox – Freaks (2011)
Don’t misunderstand me: this is a pretty cool material. But why “Nox” – the Latin word for “night” – ? There’s a pretty famous Hungarian Pop band using this name,a Death Metal horde from Netherlands, although they were formerly known as Centurian and it seems they shift back to this moniker in 2010 – use/share the same name. And it’s pretty annoying. On a market over-saturated as the music market are, your name is your brand and musicians – artist – I expect to be more inspired, creative, conscious and careful when they pick up their name. Not to mention the possible legal issues and other inconveniences. Actually, it was pretty hard to dig them out on the internet… Others may not bother that much.
Nox (trio) comes from Brussels, Belgium and it’s the project involving Catherine Graindorge – who also plays violin in Monsoon, Elie Rabinovitch – drums and David Christophe – bass. Read more Nox – Freaks (2011)
Ana Kefr – The Burial Tree II (2011)
When the mainstream becomes extremely boring – just like eating margarine each and every day -, everybody try too hard to fit into all the generally accepted patterns, boxes, labels and genres and even the so-called “alternative” scene is nothing, but a cliche, still, the underground may bring salvation. Quite sadly, even the avant-garde scene and improvised music sometimes becomes predictable and boring…
I’m not a Black Metal consumer, but from time to time I find myself enjoying some Black Metal products. And well, not exclusively the traditional Scandinavian scene delivering quite exciting surprises.
Kyle Coughran – rhythm guitar/vocals, Shane Dawson – percussion, Alphonso Jimenez: bass guitar, Rhiis D. Lopez – lead vocals/keys and Brendan Moore – lead guitar/vocals/saxophone bring to the surface an extremely colourful, intense and exciting album. Black Metal roots are merged with Folk and Progressive Rock/Metal elements, complex structures, grinding Metal constructions are filled with style and inspiration with condiments from Folk to Jazz, from classy epic construction to spacy cinematic soundscapes. Read more Ana Kefr – The Burial Tree II (2011)
Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire / Nesseria – Split (2011)
Throatruiner Records maintains their fan-friendly approach, this brand new split is available to physical pre-order 12″+CD, but fans can download for free via Mediafire or directly from the Bandcamp page (“name your price”) the digital version – links on the official page.
The American Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire sounds like the prophets of Apocalypse, delivering a contorted mixture of blackened grindcore and filthy sludge metal, slow, grinder passages are twisted into dark, chaotic metal explosions. Fans of Today Is The Day, Robinson, Admiral Angry, Khanate will enjoy their new four tracks of extreme metal.
The French Nesseria comes along with dirty, complex and extreme metal massacres, four tracks of total brutality and violence, fans of The Secret, Buried Inside, Cursed or Trap Them will get their dose of metal adrenaline from here. Read more Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire / Nesseria – Split (2011)
