This year I stumbled into a couple of excellent Brazilian bands from quite different genres – not that I actually care about labels – , starting from The Tape Disaster and MindFlow to the Campbell Trio and Lisabi. Copacabana Club reminds me of another great Brazilian band: Cansei de Ser Sexy, and by the way, after a three years gap, their new album entitled “La Liberacion” will be released at the end of the next month. So, Copacabana Club have the same kind of vibe and groove, labeled by some as New Rave, they mixing indie pop with 80s funk, rock with pop and push you directly to the dancefloor. Their mixture it’s very fresh, pumping, energy full and catchy, but it’s also kind of glamorous and retro, still absolutely now days, fresh. And “Tropical Splash” is filled with one by one catchy songs, from the anthematic “Peach” to the provocative “Sex Sex Sex”, the minimalist “Pas Toujours” and the catchy “Just Do It” or the bluesy “Darling”. Read more Copacabana Club – Tropical Splash (2011)
music
Planeta Imaginario – Optical Delusions (2011)
Combining elements of classic British progressive rock and jazz, not so popular genres nowadays, probably may seem commercial suicide, but this extremely exciting eight piece band from Barcelona, Spain, delivering an absolutely groovy and colorful mixture of jazz, jazz rock and progressive rock, their music overlapping the classic sounds of the 60s and 70s, but introducing modern, avant-garde textures, glows, experimental turns and subtle colors, creating unique, new musical fusions.
Founded in Barcelona in 1999, the band is named after a radically creative children’s TV show from the early 1980s – Imaginary Planet. Their music should appeal to listeners of such diverse artists as: Anekdoten, AKA moon, Area, John Coltrane, King Crimson, Avishai Cohen, Steve Coleman, Deus ex Machina, Gabriel Faure, Gilgamesh, Hatfield at the North, Pat Metheny, Nucleus, Soft Machine, Van der Graaf Generator, Frederic Mompou, National Health, Weather Report, Kenny Werner, Frank Zappa, and John Zorn. Read more Planeta Imaginario – Optical Delusions (2011)
Exes For Eyes – The Amsler Grid (2011)
From Canada, this band bring to the surface the perfect balance between raw hardcore and groove metal, merged into one the energy and the strength of the classic Pantera sound and some of the now days schemes of metalcore and a nice twist of southern rock delivering powerful and brutal, but still catchy and sometimes quite melodious metal anthems perfectly suitable for an extreme moshing down in the club. Songs like “Romanticize the Struggle” (over 8 minutes) are disturbing mixture of Pantera/Down like elements with a nice addition of modern, metalcore-like elements will give you a pretty good teaser of what’s Exes For Eyes essence. Most of their songs (“Feel Again”, “Stop Thinking Start Feelin'”, etc) are almost classic groove/southern metal anthems, Pantera fans are mainly targeted and for sure will be absolutely delighted, Exes For Eyes brings southern riffs back to metal as only Pantera managed before, but still, Exes For Eyes sounds quite as Exes For Eyes and their almost old-school metal comes quite refreshing while lately most of the bands struggling only to copy the now days trendy so-called metalcore cliches and recycling the same patterns. Read more Exes For Eyes – The Amsler Grid (2011)
Given The Day – In Search Of Eden (2011)
Powerful, cutting, groovy – Pantera-like – riffs, grinding tempos and exciting breaks, melodious passages are merged together in the work of these two guys from San Diego, California, and currently they are looking for new band mates playing drums, guitar, bass and keyboards. Garett Chambers – vocals and Mike Burrows comes in the footsteps of bands such as We Came As Romans, Sleeping With Sirens, Emarosa, Attack Attack! All That Remains, August Burns Red, Of Machines, Saosin, Lower Definition, etc and “In Search Of Eden” is a colorful, flowing metalcore album up to date, Garett brings raw vocals, but shift to clean singing while Mike delivering very good riffs and some nice guitar solos. These 11 songs are absolutely ok and promising, my only problem with this “genre” is that everything is quite predictable, too many bands/artist are playing the same kind of patterns, it might be trendy, but it’s full of cliches. Still, I think Given The Day have a good start, I really enjoyed Mike’s riffing and generally his guitar work, Garett have a strong, powerful voice and if they will manage to find their own path, detach them self from the trends, Given The Day have quite potential. Read more Given The Day – In Search Of Eden (2011)
Black Spires – — (2011)
“This is a collection of demo’s, not a real album,” and it’s available for FREE DOWNLOAD at the band’s Bandcamp page. Black Spires are a new band from Ghent, Belgium, consist of Olivier Copejans – music, vocals, guitars and programmed/played drums and bass, and Kristof Luyckx – guitar, working together since 2010. Imagine H.P. Zinker playing Pink Floyd songs (the 1967-1972 period) in a garage. It’s quite exciting, a little bit psychedelic, but cutting, drowned in the garage/noise rock approach and sound. Slower, tensioned moments are twisted into explosive, noise rock avalanches, they use exciting shifting of moods and themes, maintaining an intense groove, alternating subtle, sometimes acoustic moments with intense and inspired rock themes, noisy releases. Read more Black Spires – — (2011)
Crossfade – We All Bleed (2011)
Flowing directly from the boiling veins of Korn, Crossfade reaching to their third album and “We All Bleed” is a dark, intense trip, Ed Sloan and his band mates managed to put together a gloomy, but beautiful, dark, but intense material, proving that their more than just some trend followers, they have their own touch and style, and managed to writing a couple of intense and exciting songs. Actually, “We All Bleed” are over 48 minutes of tumultuous flow, kind of trip to Hell and back, but showing us sometimes sparkling from Heaven, breaking cracks to leave the light comes trough.
I think Columbia Records in 2008 were – as usually – impatient when they kick them out, “We All Bleed” is an excellent work and Eleven Seven Music (also current home for Drowning Pool, Papa Roach, She Wants Revenge, Mötley Crüe, Lit, Vince Neil, Blondie, etc) were inspired to sign them. Read more Crossfade – We All Bleed (2011)
Stardown – Venom (2011)
Merging the rawness and intensity of Pantera with the gloomy and twisted moments of Korn while Ardentis sung on a scale from howling brutality up till clean vocals which sometimes reminds me of Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory) often then of Jonathan Davis (Korn), Stardown includes leaders of Russian metal scene from Amatory and Korea and delivering an extremely intense and powerful modern metal album.
Following “Insi Deus” which was produced & mixed in Denmark by famous sound engineer Jacob Hansen (Maroon, Raunchy, Volbeat), “Venom” was mixed by the same Jacob Hansen while all the drum tracks were recorded in Australia by the drummer Richard Evensand (ex-Chimaira), also featuring guest star Alex Pavlov from Amatory and leader of the band Ardentis. Read more Stardown – Venom (2011)
Earth Crisis – Neutralize the Threat (2011)
Karl Buechner keeps the wheels of Earth Crisis running since 1989 – with a gap between 2001-2007 while he focused on his project called Nemesis and later renamed Freya -, using music as weapon to promoting a straight edge and vegan lifestyle, debating further social and political issues and supporting animal rights. Taking off from hardcore punk, Earth Crisis evolved into a metal machinery, getting to their sixth studio album, their mixture of metalcore and hardcore is heavier then ever, established a bridge between metal, hardcore and punk communities.
Earth Crisis’s message of human, animal and environmental liberation has resonated beyond the music industry, they have received national media coverage on CNN (Earth Matters), TBS, FOX (America’s Most Wanted), CBS (48 Hours), MTV (Music News) and ABC (World News Tonight) and Karl Buechner has spoken in front of members of Congress about teens and substance abuse. Read more Earth Crisis – Neutralize the Threat (2011)
Nervecell – Psychogenocide (2011)
For those who cries back the most brutal era of Sepultura (Morbid Visions, Beneath the Remains, Arise), Nervecell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, brings back all that merciless butchery with crushing, clean and powerful sound, “Psychogenocide”, their second full-length album released through Lifeforce Records in Europe and Spellbind Records in the Middle East, might be the new favorite. And Nervecell managed to merge with style all that classic thrash and death schemes with technical, brutal and still colorful, modern metal sounds also introducing Pantera like riffings, short acoustic or exotic, Oriental spiced moments, Slayer like schizophrenic solos, in few words, they put together a killer metal machine which definitively will rip off your head instantly.
Also, conservative fans dissapointed by the latest Morbid Angel album, “Illud Divinum Insanus”, might discover in Nervecell a new favorite, these guys combining extremely inspired and intensely tradition and modern sound into pure, uncompromising massacre. Read more Nervecell – Psychogenocide (2011)
Cindy Bradley – Unscripted (2011)
Cindy Bradley blows the trumpet since she was in the 4th grade of the elementary school, it was her last minute “weapon of choice” at the school’s band program while she began playing piano at the age of 6. Back than probably little she anticipate that it was a choice of a lifetime.
Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, Cindy enjoyed a varied career in music starting from a very young age. At the age of 12 she began performing professionally with a Buffalo area jazz band that consisted of all promising young musicians called “Sugar and Jazz.” The group consisted of kids from ages 12-17 and stressed the importance of professionalism and emulating the big band sounds of the 1940s.
Cindy went on to earn a bachelors degree in jazz studies from Ithaca College, and a masters degree in jazz trumpet performance from the New England Conservatory. It was there that she studied with and was influenced by many jazz greats including John McNeil, Bob Brookmeyer, Jerry Bergonzi, George Russell and Steve Lacy. Read more Cindy Bradley – Unscripted (2011)
