Jonas Nilsson – bass and vocals, Hampus Henningsson and Elias Mellberg – guitars and drummer Pontus Svensson from Sweden deliver us a heavy material with roots anchored both in the deep sludge of southern USA and the other planted in the deep crevices of doom-metal. Signo Rojo’s promo album can be listen and download at their Bandcamp page and “name your price” means you actually can download their album even for free, but I believe any artistic effort deserves to be rewarded. (Giving one dollar for example it makes no sense, PayPal and Bandcamp having 40 revenue from any transaction and by transferring from PayPal to the current bank account the money the artist loose a few more percents, so, in the end to the band will not attain more than half of the original amount.) Read more Signo Rojo – Promo Album (2011)
post rock
Battles – Gloss Drops (2011)
Imagine the living room of a mental hospital where some guys left from the seventies high on some unknown substances are jamming with some drunk, but friendly aliens. Or anyway, something like that. It’s spooky, but controversially, it’s kind of exciting. And quit surprisingly, the guys from the band called Battles managed to control all that crazy sound battles. This is an experiment which sometimes sounds like the Nintendo games, but somehow simultaneously it’s goddamn serious. The band’s current line-up comprises guitarists and keyboard player Ian Williams (formerly of Don Caballero and Storm & Stress), bassist and guitarist Dave Konopka (formerly of Lynx), and drummer John Stanier (formerly of Helmet), and their benefit from the guest featuring of Matias Aguayo, Gary Numan, Kazu Makino and Yamantaka Eye. I think a permanent vocalist would do no harm, their music is kind of dense and more singing may bring some release and add a human touch. Read more Battles – Gloss Drops (2011)
Henceforth – The Gray Album (2011)
Henceforth are another exciting band from Brazil, another nice surprise after MindFlow and The Tape Disaster. Formed in 1993, they released their first album (Full album on-line streaming) in Brazil in December 2005 via Voice Music, label owned by Silvio Golfetti, guitarist of the Brazilian thrash metal band Korzus. The current line-up is made up by singer Frank Harris, guitarist Hugo Mariutti, bass player Luis Mariutti, drummer Fabio Elsas and keyboard player Cristiano Altieri. Luis and Hugo were former members of the band called Shaaman, and Luis is a former member of power metal band Angra – as of 2007 they are no longer in Shaaman having left the band with singer Andre Matos in order to pursue new projects. Fabio has played in the past with bands Skyscraper and Firebox. Their experience is clearly mark positively the sound and compositions of Henceforth. Read more Henceforth – The Gray Album (2011)
The Black Dots Of Death – Ever Since We Were Children (2011)
Michael Shawn “Clown” Crahan, also known by his number #6 in Slipknot, is an American musician, music producer, and artist, he also is interested in photography and painting. He is best known as one of the two custom percussionists of Slipknot, but also the drummer of To My Surprise and Dirty Little Rabbits. The Black Dots Of Death is the project he’s involved most recently and this “Ever Since We Were Children” is their sick, but convincing debut album. Hard to label very explicitly this material, The Black Dots Of Death twisting around the borders of rock from its roots to the post rock, horror rock and industrial area, but they include also post grunge tunes and trip hop elements and surprisingly they are heavy without being noisy at all, they are absolutely sick, but still kind of… beautiful. Well, maybe I’m sick and pervert as well, but I really like this shit. “I’m sorry that I failed you, I’m sorry I wasn’t there, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I really don’t fucking care!” Say that again! 😆 Read more The Black Dots Of Death – Ever Since We Were Children (2011)
The Tape Disaster – Realidade Aumentada (2011)
Mainly in rock/metal circles the mention of Brasilia bring up almost exclusively the name of Sepultura. Cliche or not, that’s a fact. Ratos de Porato for many still remains an unknown name. Anyway, a few days ago I was excited (and surprised) by MindFlow, a powerful and intense progressive (post) metal/hardcore band, now I’m listening into this “Realidade Aumentada” by The Tape Disaster and it’s quit a pleasant surprise. Waving around progressive and indie rock tunes, The Tape Disaster put together a beautiful world of images and sounds, they write a couple of nice tunes and some great songs shifting between moments of calm and dynamic twists. Unfortunately they don’t have a singer, but even exclusively with instrumental resources they managed to fill up the spaces and create a colorful and flowing material. Read more The Tape Disaster – Realidade Aumentada (2011)
A Swarm Of The Sun – Zenith (2010)
I actually miss this one last year, but thanks to Erik Nilsson, I had the pleasure to listen this Swedish duo’s full-length debut album now. A Swarm of the Sun was formed in 2007 in Stockholm by Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund and they released the EP “The King of Everything†in the same year on Erik’s independent record-label Version Studio. “Zenith” was released on August 30, 2010 and their influences including a number of different genres from post rock and indie rock to assorted electronics and film score like music. It’s a gloomy, but colorful blending, their music shifting from slow glowing textures and spacy dimensions to powerful rock explosions, it’s flowing and floating, warm and cold moments, elements are melting down or sometimes frozen into a strange, touching soundscape. Read more A Swarm Of The Sun – Zenith (2010)
The Residents – Lonely Teenager (2011)
The Residents are for a quit long time around and since the end of the 60s they explore the experimental/avant-garde area of the music releasing over 40 albums, but also they explored the multimedia area. Pioneers in exploring the potential of CD-ROM and similar technologies, The Residents have won several awards for their multimedia projects, and Ralph Records, a record label focusing on avant-garde music, was started by them. Actually they are more an art collective than a classic band. The Residents – as they declare – are “four people who dabble in the arts, they make music, videos, perform, and generally have a pretty good time.” Well, “Lonely Teenager” is pretty dark, but still colorful, surprising and exciting material. Mostly navigating on some strangely colored space rock/psychedelic fields, “Lonely Teenager” is a trip into a dark labyrinth of conscience. Read more The Residents – Lonely Teenager (2011)
Vessels – Helioscope (2011)
Vessels are a post-rock band from Leeds, UK, born from the ashes of the band A Day Left in September 2005. The band members are: Tom Evans – guitar, Tim Mitchell – drums, Martin Teff – guitar, bass, synth, Lee J. Malcolm – guitar, synth and Peter Wright – guitar, keys, bass.
The debut album “White Fields and Open Devices” was released through Cuckundoo Records in 2008 and a compilation called “A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters: An Instrumental​​/​​Post​​-​​rock Compilation” is available on their Bandcamp page for download.
In May 2010 Vessels recorded their second album in Dallas, Texas, with John Congleton, known as a Grammy Nominated producer/engineer/mixer and through his own band, The Paper Chase. Read more Vessels – Helioscope (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)
