At first instinct it seems handy to label Le Minus as a Primus follower and probably this French trio would not even consider themselves insulted, but listening throughout “Make My Day”, beside the obvious Les Claypool influences, Le Minus incorporates in their vivid musical universe elements which lead back to bands such as Mordred, Infectious Grooves, Fishbone, Living Colour and Rush. Sometimes getting wickeder and more Metal fueled (“Playing With Echoes”, “One Parachute”), the band forged some furious heavy riffs to combine them with some twisted funky grooves and crazy rhythmic structures finding the perfect balance between heaviness and fluidity, precision and wildness, complexity and efficiency.
Lord Murray, sing and play the bass pretty close in Les Claypool’s manner; Captain’ Yo have those Primus flavored crazy solos, but also deliver some serious riffs while drummer MOX is responsible for the solid structural and rhythmical bases of the trio. 9 tracks, a wild, colorful incursion in the experimental/avant-garde outer limits of Rock/Metal, an explosive fusion of energy and power, colors and flavors, murderous grooves, perfectly suitable for the fans of Claypool and Primus, but not only, more conventional/conservator listeners, fans of Rush for instance, may find this pretty exciting. Read more Le Minus – Make My Day (2012)
post metal
Aphrodite’s Baby – 90, EP (2012)
My French is rusty ( 😆 ), so, their bio in French really did not helped me too much, but this 4 track EP is definitively pretty convincing. Aphrodite’s Baby reminds me of an unleashed Rollins Band, they managed to merged together the Punk attitude, the Hardcore rawness and the intensity and grooves of the modern Metal and delivered an ass-kicker material.
But this “90” it’s also a fun concept. Danny Madigan, played by Austin O’Brien, was the kid in the “Last Action Hero” movie, (1993) the big fan of Jack Slater, a larger-than-life action hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Axel Stone is one of the main character of the “Streets of Rage” series video game beside Adam Hunter and Blaze Fielding. And far as I found out, “Hocus Locust” is a skill from the “Dragon Quest” series and this skill reduces the MP of one enemy. I’m still in trouble and digging for Larry Kubiac who might be Francis Lawrence “Larry” Kubiac III played by Abraham Benrubi in the American teen sitcom, entitled “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” which originally aired on FOX from September 1990 to June 1993, but I’m really not sure about this…. 😆
So, the music is Read more Aphrodite’s Baby – 90, EP (2012)
G.M.B.C. – Complete Omnivore (2012)
Completely disturbing, noisy and contorted, explosive, G.M.B.C. delivering the most dangerous type of Hardcore with Metal outfit in the footsteps of Converge and merging the furious attitude of Dead Kennedys with the overwhelming sound and energy of Pantera. G.M.B.C. are here to set the world on fire. The 8 tracks of “Complete Omnivore” are a merciless and compromiseless ride into the wild and once the pogo starts, nobody can stop it! But this isn’t only about energy and aggression, G.M.B.C. came up with some grinding you into the ground rhythms, some cutting to the bones riffs and at the bottom line they actually delivered a couple of great songs.
“Baldwin’s Case” have some moments which sounds like a meat grinder. “Evil Sex Machine” have the heaviness and southern spirit of Down combined with some madly speed Hardcore grinding. “Platini Beach” have a kind of Punk vibe while “Rasputin” sounds like a modern version of Napalm Death – both track are only few seconds over one minute. “Fat On Dry” sounds like Dead Kennedys doing a little Grindcore butchery, and “Moto Salad” have the sick taste of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Read more G.M.B.C. – Complete Omnivore (2012)
kafabindunya – Obi (2012)
According to kafabindünya, ordinary songs with lyrics limit the story that the listener imagines, by the content of the lyrics That’s why kafabindünya composes instrumental music and they want people to build their own stories and use their music as the soundtrack of their own fiction, only influenced by the song’s name. Denying the so called moody and repetitive harmonic structures used by most of the Post-Rock bands, kafabindünya focuses on composition and express feelings through music.
Formed at Istanbul, Turkey in the early 2000s, kafabindünya shared the stage with bands like Mogwai, Caspian, Kokomo, Arms and Sleepers and alike, in 2012, they finally released their debut album “obi” through Peyote Music. Merging heavy, intense moments with fluid and gloomy, smoothly layered cinematic moments and Oriental tests with Western sounds, kafabindünya creating their own flavored universe. One of my favorites it’s the explosive “When We Were Young” and the tumultuous closing act, “Yapılabilecek Bir Åžey Yoktu”, but “Obi” it’s a 11 stationed, vividly colored, flawless journey gently adorned with surprises and exciting twists. Read more kafabindunya – Obi (2012)
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)
Inside-Project – A History of Violence (2012)
Pounding drums and murderous tempos, cutting till the bone riffs, bloody howling/deadly screaming vocals, “get the hell out of my way” attitude, merging the Death and Thrash Metal rooted with the intensity and energy of the Hardcore, Inside-Project are back!
Three years after “Alone facing death” and after playing more than 100 gigs across Europe, shredding the stage with bands such as Motorhead, Suicidal Tendencies, Agnostic Front, Gojira, Entombed, Tagada Jones, Paradise Lost, L’Esprit du Clan, This Is Hell, Ultra Vomit, Mass Hysteria, The Arrs, Eluveitie, “A History of Violence” consist of 11 merciless, the Alpha and Omega of modern Metal brutality. Read more Inside-Project – A History of Violence (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)
The Contortionist – Intrinsic (2012)
Positioned right between bands as Between the Buried and Me and Cynic, The Contortionist sophomore album “Intrinsic” is a 10 station journey to the outer limits of Deathcore rooted Progressive Metal. Quite disturbing, twisted in and out, upside down and back and forth, complex and technical, but power and soulful, focusing both on intensity and subtle, gently layered atmosphere, “Intrinsic” is a refreshing search for authentic expression in a patterned, predictable and rarely creative world – strictly profit oriented music industry. Also blinking to artist as Rush and Dream Theater, and sometimes reminds me of the early VoiVod (“Nothingface”), The Contortionist deliver an extremely inspired and complex Progressive Metal product, the perfect blending of brutality and edge cutting, experimental, boundaries shattering music. Read more The Contortionist – Intrinsic (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)
