Expected to be released tomorrow, on April 5, 2011 through Sumerian Records the second studio album by English metalcore band Asking Alexandria consisting of 12 brand new songs, rocks hard. The so-called euro trance twists are still there, but they turn them into much heavier, industrial like sound, the band seems very determinate to kick big this time. They have actually a pretty busy agenda taking over the clubs one by one promoting their new album in US and from the end of the month they will return to UK and Europe and they will play constantly the whole summer spending their time on tour and hitting all the major festivals. “Reckless And Relentless” is an intense, powerful release and Asking Alexandria took a winning step further. Generally speaking, the second album of any artist/band is the most decisive one, the one that proof – or not – if the band previous success was deserved or only an accident of conjunctures. Read more Asking Alexandria – Reckless And Relentless (2011)
Metal
Between The Buried And Me – The Parallax Hypersleep Dialogues (2011)
Expected to be released on April 12, 2011, through the band’s new label, Metal Blade Records, “The Parallax Hypersleep Dialogues” consist of three brand new songs and the material is over 30 minutes, so this extended play will mainly satisfy all the band’s fans for the two years of waiting. It’s true, meanwhile Tommy Giles Rogers Jr.- the lead singer and founder – of the band released his brilliant second solo album “Pulse” earlier this year, in February, also through Metal Blade.
Thomas and his band mates – Dan Briggs – bass guitar, Blake Richardson – drums, percussion, Paul Waggoner – lead guitars and Dustie Waring – rhythm guitars – made the conscious decision to preclude a studio album with an extended play in addition to being part of a concept album series, so probably we will hear other new materials from them pretty soon. Read more Between The Buried And Me – The Parallax Hypersleep Dialogues (2011)
Thomas Giles – Pulse (2011)
“Pulse” is one of the most wonderful and exciting records I had the pleasure to listen this year and I admit it, it was a huge surprise. Tommy Giles Rogers Jr. is the lead singer and founder of the band Between the Buried and Me, one of the leaders of the new – twisted – metal wave, a powerful and extremely creative band wich show a new direction and proved once again: metal is not dead.
“Pulse” is actually the second solo album by Tommy, the first was released back in 2004 under the name Giles. The new material is extremely colorful, impossible to label, crammed in some particular box. And about the influences and different musical roots of Tommy we can get an idea by listening the cover collection released in 2006 under the title “The Anatomy of” by Between the Buried and Me where we have songs by Metallica, Sepultura, Depeche Mode , Queen, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Earth Crises, Blind Melon, Counting Crows, Soundgarden, Faith No More, Motley Crue, Pantera, and Smashing Pumpkins. Read more Thomas Giles – Pulse (2011)
MindFlow – With Bare Hands (2011)
The voice of Danilo Herbert reminds me somehow of John Bush (ex-Armored Saint, ex-Anthrax). It’s powerful and classy. MindFlow was founded in 2003 in Brazil and they play a color and powerful kind of modern, progressive metal. Quality stuff, a rare feature now days. You can attach to them a few labels, mostly using the fancy “post” attribute, but actually you can not put them in a specific box and – I believe – it’s another absolutely positive characteristic. In one moment they sound like Anthrax, next minute they sound like Tool or some post-grunge band and they shifting from one thing to another very naturally, it’s enough to listen the title track of this new album and you will understand exactly what I’m talking about. Read more MindFlow – With Bare Hands (2011)
Truth Corroded – Worship The Bled (2011)
Truth Corroded are an extreme thrash metal band from Adelaide, South Australia and since 2003, the band has recorded three albums, “Our Enemy Is The Weapon” in 2005, “Upon The Warlords Crawl” in 2008 – mixed and mastered by Jonas Kjellgren of Scar Symmetry – and in 2010 they recorded their third material, this newly released “Worship The Bled”. On the new album features Daath drummer Kevin Talley, who has also performed with bands such as Chimaria, Misery Index and Dying Fetus. The band has once again worked with Jonas Kjellgren, who mixed, mastered and contributed a lead guitar solo to the albums opening song ‘ Knives of the Betrayed ‘. The album features artwork from Killustrations who has provided art for bands such as Dew-Scented, Zyklon, Sodom, Aborted and One Man Army.
Truth Corroded give us 10 new tracks of classic, intense thrash metal with some death and metalcore infusions. Read more Truth Corroded – Worship The Bled (2011)
Ten After Two – Truth Is… (2011)
Intense, smashing and raging post-hardcore phrases and post-emo/screamo, more melodious passages seems to be the recipe of this young band from Sacramento, CA formed in May of 2009 by two school friends, drummer Vincent Adorno and guitarist Pat Hennion.
Next arrived vocalist and guitarist Josh Doty, who previously played in a band called Elanor Manor and he also introduced vocalist Sean Wall. The final piece to the puzzle was bassist Danny Clark and the band begun writing, producing their music. Read more Ten After Two – Truth Is… (2011)
Terra Tenebrosa – The Tunnels (2011)
A tenebrous album by Terra Tenebrosa from Stockholm, Sweden. Build on the ruins of Breach, Terra Tenebrosa is a new band on the metal scene and “The Tunnels” is they debut effort wich contains 7 twisted and gloomy tracks. Since Terra Tenebrosa is a brand new brand, their biography is more or less a blank page, I found them only on MySpace and Facebook, but not any useful background info, so all I have are their songs. And as I said, their are deeply heavy and dark ones, not an easy listening for sure, but still, Terra Tenebrosa navigate on some troubled, but intense and interesting “waters”. Read more Terra Tenebrosa – The Tunnels (2011)
Aiden – Disguises (2011)
Beavis and Butt-head were sitting on they famous couch and watching a video on the almighty eMpTyV. Actually it was an old Black Sabbath clip. “Paranoid” if I remember it right. They joking about “this is Ozzy’s son” and stuffs like that. Beavis said “they rocks! they are Americans!”, but Butt-head screamed back: “No dumbass, they are from Seattle!”
Well, it was two decades ago, but I remember it now because the new Aiden material starts like a Black Sabbath album from the 70s and continue with a great Iron Maiden riff and well, these guys are from Seattle. For real.
America is a nation of immigrants and I believe the power of America comes directly from this multicultural composition. When a British band try to copy the American sound usually they ending up being nothing but a pale imitation, but when American bands try to sound British, well, sometimes they do a better job than the originals. Read more Aiden – Disguises (2011)
VA – Homefront – Songs For The Resistance, OST (2011)
“Homefront” is the controversial first-person shooter video game developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ. The antagonists in “Homefront” were originally intended to be Chinese, but were later replaced by North Koreans for two reasons: a possible backlash by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the reality of economic interdependence between America and China. Homefront is set in a near future America in 2027 when a nuclear-armed Korean People’s Army invades the USA. The game is written by John Milius, who co-wrote “Apocalypse Now” and wrote/directed “Red Dawn”. In the speculative fiction, post peak oil world that features a significantly diminished United States, and a united Korea that has built a massive alliance in East Asia. The game focuses on the collapse of the United States, subsequent occupation by the Greater Korean Republic – a united Korea under the rule of North Korea – and the American Resistance that fights said occupation. The player is invited to join the American Resistance, “using guerrilla tactics, commandeering military vehicles, and utilizing advanced drone technology”. For sales of Homefront to Japan, the game has been censored by removing all references to North Korea including pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.The changes are replaced by using a “A Certain Country to the North” and the “Northern Leader”. Read more VA – Homefront – Songs For The Resistance, OST (2011)
Steak Number Eight – All in Chaos (2011)
A nice piece of post-rock/noise album from Belgium. Steak Number Eight was formed back in 2007 and won the local rock contest Westtalent. Only a few months later they became the youngest winners ever of the biggest Belgian rock contest, Humo’s Rock Rally (former winners: Deus, Goose, etc). After that they released their first demo album entitled “When The Candle Dies Out†in self-production. They played at the biggest Belgian festivals, a.o. Graspop Metal Meeting, Dour, Marktrock and also supported bands like Pelican, Torche, Deftones, etc. Planned to be released in the winter of 2010, “All in Chaos” is the new material of the band consist in 10 brand new contorted songs, and the album is produced by Matt Bayles (Isis, Neurosis, etc).
Brent Vanneste – vocals and guitar, Joris Casier – drums, Jesse Surmont – bass, and Cis Deman – guitar claim their roots in the sound of bands such Neurosis, Tool, Deftones, Pelican and Isis, and they managed to blend smoothly the dark and gloomy post-rock/noise elements – mostly very heavy and slow stuffs – with a few nice harmonies and calm moments. Read more Steak Number Eight – All in Chaos (2011)
