The twelve studio album by Enslaved was declared both by most of the fans and critics “a classic” and a “masterpiece” even before some of them had the chance to listen it. It’s kind of comfortable and alarming simultaneously, on the other hand, yes, Enslaved is one of those bands you always can relay on, they are constantly there “to pushing the envelope” and “cutting the edge”, breaking down walls and wider the horizon. And yes, “RIITIIR” picking up from where they left off with “Axioma Ethica Odini” in 2010 and pushing things further. Some things are stay the same, this is Enslaved 100%, as well as they are still capable to generate new ideas and explore new possibilities, but staying in their own backyard, giving their fans the comfort of the modern Enslaved sounds and trademarks.
Between ferocious growls, deadly screams and cleanly sung choruses Grutle Kjellson find the perfect proportions and balance; Black and Death metal fueled riffs are switched to smooth acoustic moments; Enslaved seems to be still on a perpetual journey and not getting yet to destination and this make this journey exciting, fresh and surprising. Read more Enslaved – RIITIIR (2012)
post metal
Ribozyme – Presenting The Problem (2012)
Ribozyme means ribonucleic acid enzyme. A ribozyme is an RNA molecule with a well defined tertiary structure that enables it to perform a chemical reaction. Many ribozymes are catalytic, but some such as self-cleaving ribozymes are consumed by their reactions. It may also be called an RNA enzyme or catalytic RNA. Investigators studying the origin of life have produced ribozymes in the laboratory that are capable of catalyzing their own synthesis under very specific conditions, such as an RNA polymerase ribozyme. Ribozymes may play an important role as therapeutic agents, as enzymes which tailor defined RNA sequences, as biosensors, and for applications in functional genomics and gene discovery.
Since forming in Bergen, Norway, in June 1998, Ribozyme have toured extensively in Norway and throughout Europe, while producing a total of four full length albums. They has signed to Indie Recordings for their new album which was released in Europe on the 10th of February 2012, and in North America on the 14th of February 2012. Moving step by step away from their Hard Rock roots and incorporating modern Rock and Metal influences, but also electronics and Industrial elements, their 5th album, “Presenting The Problem” it’s a colorful, intense and exciting trip to the outer limits of modern/post Rock and Metal boundaries merging genres, styles and influences. Think of something between Tool, Prong and Alice In Chains.
If you enjoyed the Brit Slunq a few weeks back, this new Ribozyme will definitively hit you. Their “Spoiled Portion” and Ribozyme’s “Presenting The Problem” are pushing the Post-Rock envelope at the same spot with pretty same results. Read more Ribozyme – Presenting The Problem (2012)
DaCast – Dedale (2012)
Free stuffs are good stuffs? Not always, trust me, but this one is one of those really murderous shits you must definitively grab it and share it! DaCast coming on the wave of bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me, Meshuggah, The Shining, Tomahawk, and they are contemporaries to other edge-cutter French bands such as The Phantom Carriage, merging Extreme Metal with Post-Rock rawness, Jazz aromas and Industrial fueled Hardcore contortions. Where “no boundaries” are the limit, generally there are good chances for creativity and the unique results. And DaCast will satisfy any high demands and expectations. And well, once again, can grab for free “Dédale”, their latest album from their Bandcamp page.
This 35 minutes album split into two sides are the result of almost 2 years of work and recordings, merging improvised and written passages/moments. The material was recorded live them mixed by Francis Caste at The Sainte-Marthe Studio. Read more DaCast – Dedale (2012)
For You.Earth – The Deathsongs (2012)
Contorted and blunt, dark, but intense, For You.Earth saluting us from Nizhni, Novgorod, Russia.
Formed in 2006 by school friends Victor Murzaev -vocals and Andrey Prokofiev – guitars, and with Sergey Tokarev on drums and Maxim Malygin on bass they record their first demo in 2007. At the end of the same year Dima Lobachev became the new drum player and the band played on “Murder By Carrot” festival. In January 2008 they recorded “Traces Of Alarm Rockets” the song which featured on “Screaming Nation”, the first Russian compilation of independent heavy music which included also other friendly bands such as: .crrust, Follow The White Rabbit, Maria:Abort Chosen, Equal Minds Theory, etc.
Based exclusively on the DIY principles and practices, the band started recording their debut album in the rehearsal room with a mobile studio. The album, entitled “The Oldest Songs” was released on September 5th 2009. The songs on album were written between 2006 and 2009 and recorded between 2008 and 2009, including some re-recoded versions of lost tracks from the band’s very first demo. Having faced the problem of releasing the album, guys established their own independent label Opposing Music. Read more For You.Earth – The Deathsongs (2012)
Aoria – The Constant (2012)
Doom and gloom flavored, overwhelming, heavy and cinematic simultaneously, Aoria merging frozen Nordic melancholy with the strength of modern (post) Metal, building bridges between The Cure, Sigur Rós and the raw power and energy of Tool. We’re entering a realm of shadows, haze and dark despair, but Aoria’s music will lead us through and at the end, possibly, there is a crack of light and hope.
In July 2011, after four years of silence, Erik Nilsson of A Swarm of the Sun – vocals and guitars; Robin Bergh of October Tide – drums and Niklas Sandin of Katatonia – bass; began recording Aoria’s debut album. The album will be released October 10th on LP and CD, and is distributed world-wide through Sound Pollution. The album is recorded at Garaget Studio and produced by band member Erik Nilsson. It is mixed at Studio Riddarborgen by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna, Khoma) who, with his uncompromising sound, has intensified what has become “The Constant”. The result, six complex, epic, disturbing songs, a doorway into a still fully unexplored, scary, but simultaneously tempting, hypnotizing world. Read more Aoria – The Constant (2012)
Between the Buried and Me – The Parallax II, Future Sequence (2012)
This is definitively “Future Metal” with some very “alien” perfumed “Scifi” taste. These guys eventually are form out of space. Offspring s of some killer breed.
After five albums, for for Victory, the debut for Lifeforce, BTBAM singed in 2011 to Metal Blade and shortly after released an EP entitled ” The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues”. Set to release on October 9, 2012, originally planned to be another EP, “The Parallax II, Future Sequence” consist of 11 tracks, an extremely contorted, but colorful, spectacular journey over the edge, behind the explored territories of the conventional Metal and the “comfort zone” of most of the people. Think of a musical blender where you can throw in King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Rush and Yes with VoiVod, Pantera, Metallica and Earth Crisis, but came out with an extremely compact, consolidated musical result. Although, they have some extremely biting Metal riffs and intense, brutal grindings, they shifting quite smoothly from extreme, Death flavored Metal to Jazz, Progressive Rock or simple, quiet, acoustic moments. Read more Between the Buried and Me – The Parallax II, Future Sequence (2012)
Bang Ur Head (Byzant At Sunset)
Bang Ur Head [Take One] by byzantatsunset
Byzant At Sunset are back with a brand new track. In a world where the zeros and ones replaced the words and emoticons replaced the human touch, we’re kind of Read more Bang Ur Head (Byzant At Sunset)
Slunq – Spoiled Portion (2012)
The music of Slunq is so genreless and quite post-everything that it is impossible to stick a label on it; to force it into one of the “casual” drawers of the “music industry/business”. But, against the general trends, this is music and not just “food for our iPods”, not just background noise to fill up our ears – and brains – and cut off any possible contact with the people we may crash into on our way back and forth between home and job.
The much anticipated debut album, “Spoiled Portion”, is a post-modern journey into some gloomy music with very different flavours including Post-Grunge and Post-Industrial. Think of Jerry Cantrell (Alice In Chains) on a heavy Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails, How to Destroy Angels) diet, but adding an obvious, typical English flavour to it and although lots of influences are there, you can’t really pinpoint anything – the guys managed to twist everything into their own style and deliver genuine material for our listening pleasure.
The result of 2 years effort, the 11 tracks of “Spoiled Portion” paint not the present, but the future sound of Rock. Read more Slunq – Spoiled Portion (2012)
Bone Dance – Self-Titled (2012)
Morgan Mechling – vocals, Phillip Davis – guitars and vocals, Kasey Richardson – guitars, Bryce Kresge – bass and visuals, and Patrick Santana – drums are here to unleash the Hell of fury and contorted, merciless Metal. Forging genres, melting into one Black Metal and (Post) Hardcore, Sludge and Doom, technical and extreme Metal, Bone Dance is not “just” a band, but an attitude, a state of spirit and mind, and they delivering not “only” music, but their work is a manifest. Back in the days, Rollins Band had this kind of attitude and energy, although Bone Dance speeding up wildly, just like you put a 33⅓ r.p.m. spinning vinyl record up on 45 while Morgan Mechling keep on howling bloody deadly.
Grinding the tooth of chaotic Hardcore/Metal, Bone Dance enforce the balance and sharpness, clarity in their music, find the equilibrium between rage and conscience, despair and revolt, gloom and grooves. And throughout this extremely consistent 10 tracks, Bone Dance manage to merge the extremes: slowly grinding moments with brutally fast overtakes; contorted and gloomy riffs with cutting to the bone sharp ones; truly distorted, twisted passages with groovy, powerful build-ups. This wild, but fluid approach keeps the listener attention sharp throughout this massacre. Give up all hopes and push play!! Read more Bone Dance – Self-Titled (2012)
Kabul Golf Club – Le Bal Du Rat Mort, EP (2012)
Contorted and dissonant, with roots back to Steve Albini’s Big Black and Shellac, reminding me of some pioneering bands such as Cop Shoot Cop, Cardiacs and H.P. Zinker, and being similarly psycho and sick such as some contemporaries like The Dillinger Escape Plan and Blood Brothers, Kabul Golf Club are the brand new monster children of Limburg, Belgium. Merging Noise Rock rawness with Post-Hardcore resonances, KGC might seems a quite unfriendly band, for the comfortable, “decent” listener eventually even not listenable, but this is so fresh, so wild, so honest, so uncompromising, that is hard not to admire their effort for genuine self-expression. This kind of rebellious, twisted Metal have a long and fruitful history already, “Minus 45” for instance could find its place easily on VoiVod’s legendary “Nothingface” album, but this whole aggressive raging incorporates the fury of a brand new generation which must be heard. KGC proves creativity and talent, all their dissonances and noises, all that madness and chaos perfectly reflect the world we are living in, on the other hand, at the end everything fits in and makes perfect sense in their compositions. Read more Kabul Golf Club – Le Bal Du Rat Mort, EP (2012)
