It’s something in the air, and I don’t mean love, this must be the year of P.I.L. (Public Image Ltd). First John Lydon teamed up again with former (and future) PiL members Lu Edmonds, Scott Firth and Bruce Smith and recorded and release the first new PiL album, “This is PiL” after two decades. Then founder PiL members, bassist Jah Wobble and guitarist Keith Levene revisited this year the PiL’s groundbreaking 1980’s album “Metal Box” – which they were the driving forces behind – with several highly-acclaimed shows performing “Metal Box in Dub live”. Now they make a step even further and they decide it record some new material which became “Yin and Yang”, a 10 track journey in the outer limits of Dub and Post-Punk/Modern Rock. Read more Jah Wobble and Keith Levene – Yin and Yang (2012)
Reviews
Tweaker – Call The Time Eternity (2012)
Tweaker it’s the side project of drummer/programmer Chris Vrenna started after his departure from Nine Inch Nails in 1996. The album, The Attraction to All Things Uncertain, was Vrenna’s “solo” debut in 2001. The following “2 A.M. Wakeup Call” in 2004 also made the debut of guitarist/programmer Clint Walsh as a permanent fixture to the band and featuring a quite famous line-up of guest vocalists including David Sylvian, Will Oldham, Robert Smith, Burton C. Bell, Craig Wedren, Hamilton Leithauser, Buzz Osborne, Jonathan Bates and Johnny Marr.
Tweaker toured select North American dates with Skinny Puppy in 2004 and the live band line-up was consisting of Chris Vrenna (drums, percussion and keyboard), Clint Walsh (guitar and keyboard), Paul Ill (bass guitar and keyboards) and Nick Young (vocals).
There was rumors that Tweaker would release a new album in 2008, although no material surfaced, and in that period Vrenna worked with Marilyn Manson on his 2009 album “The High End of Low”. Read more Tweaker – Call The Time Eternity (2012)
ASIDEFROMADAY – Chasing Shadows (2012)
This is the third album for the French Post-Metal/Sludge band and they deliver a disturbing and noisy mixture of heaviness and gloominess. With roots back both to Sepultura/Soulfly and Kyuss/Monster Magnet, but emerging a Post-Rock/Post-Metal edge and exploring the darkest corners of soul and contorted music, ASIDEFROMADAY merged the vibe of Depressive (Black) Metal with the energy, noisiness and strength of Modern Metal while the seven epic tracks of “Chasing Shadows” it’s a fearful voyage colored with complexity, flavored with raw aggression and twisted ambiance.
This is definitively not an easy-listening, but darkness has its own beauty and ASIDEFROMADAY explore and reveals those aspects step by step. Read more ASIDEFROMADAY – Chasing Shadows (2012)
Slut Machine – From Blind to Blue, EP (2012)
With traces back to Kyuss, Monster Magnet and Corrosion Of Conformity, gathering inspiration through Queens Of the Stone Age from Kyuss and related to Soundgarden and Down, Slut Machine blends perfectly Stoner Rock and Sludge Metal.
“From Blind to Blue” it’s the band third EP and we’ve got four heavy weight Stoner/Sludge hurricanes. Released on 14 April 2012, the EP it’s available for FREE DOWNLOAD.
“Collapse”, the opener track, it’s powerful and pounding, will grind you into the ground with it’s strong riffs and thundering drums. “Cosmic Monster” have some strong Soundgarden resonances and roots back to Heavy Metal. Once you hear it, it’s hard to get rid of it. “(Ain’t) No Way Out” have more heaviness, it roots lead us back to Black Sabbath. The closing “Tornado” it’s a Mississippi flavoured, slow grinding epic. Heavy as the elephant shit, a classic monster build upon bone cutter riffs and pounding drums and an intense, gloomy vibe. Read more Slut Machine – From Blind to Blue, EP (2012)
VS – Just a sigh (Part 1), EP (2012)
Formed in 2004, VS it’s a French band playing a mixture of atmospheric and electro fueled Post-Rock. It’s hard not to compare it to Sigur Rós, but simultaneously, VS it’s quite different from the leading band of Iceland and their foggy, still soulful music.
“One” kicks in like a modern electro Rock anthem, it’s more related to Filter then to the nowadays fancy Shoegazer obscurity. VS manage to mix smartly electronic layers with acoustic instruments and the result it’s a very gentle, but groovy, pulsing music rooted back to very different genres.
Surprisingly, “Industrial”, the second track is a much quieter, mood and not groove oriented track. It’s a dark, but gentle track nicely coloured with strings and samplers.
The following “Exp” have a strong late Smashing Pumpkins taste and vibe, even Billy Corgan would be proud of it. Read more VS – Just a sigh (Part 1), EP (2012)
Rolo Tomassi – Astrea (2012)
To be brutally honest, at the first two or three listening, I wasn’t quite impressed by this third installment of this tumultuous, but brilliant, experimental, whatever-core band from Sheffield, England. While their debut, 2008’s “Hysterics” shake my world and blew me away, the following, 2010’s “Cosmology” was a fair, but less shocking follow-up.
After the 2011’s departure of two of their founding members, bassist Joseph Thorpe and guitarist Joe Nicholson, Rolo Tomassi bring two new spirits into the band, guitarist Chris Cayford (current vocalist/former guitarist of No Coast) and bassist Nathan Fairweather (who plays in Brontide); and band leader James Spence stating that the new members “breathed new life” in the band, while the music was already 70% complete when they had come.
Ethereal, chill and large spaces are nicely interlaced with the bands disturbing and brutal grindings – and this seems to be the key to decoding “Astrea”. Very groovy, extremely smartly build-up and throughout tensioned, the 10 tracks of “Astrea” will keep you focused and connected. Read more Rolo Tomassi – Astrea (2012)
Birds In Row – You, Me, and The Violence (2012)
Chaotic, contorted and extremely noisy, Birds In Row sounds to me like a desperate protest. Listen throughout several times this “You, Me, and The Violence” and – honestly – still don’t came through anything else then anger and – eventually – bitterness. Without reading the printed lyrics, this raw fury seems lost in the hurricane of the noise.
The first three tracks are running through like a night train, “Guillotine” it’s their first track where they leave the tempo slower and the riffs with the screaming vocals finally making some – but not too much – sense. The following “Walter Freeman” is also a slower, but still weighty enough chaotic Hardcore piece while surprisingly, the very next “Last Last Chance” it’s an experimental dark Blues, in a very post-everything sense which blows directly into the explosive title track. One of their best butcheries throughout.
And like in a nightmare or a loop, everything comes back to rape your ears all over again starting with the slow grinding “Grey Hair”, through the fastest “The Illusionist” and the almost anthematic “Police & Thieves” (The Clash [dis]connection?). Then again, the closing “Lovers Have Their Say” it’s an escapade into smooth chords, acoustic teasing, counselor softness, being humanly gentle even when things are getting a little bit rough. It’s an almost 13 minutes long trip, a Shoegaze kind of closing with large, foggy spaces for a brutally disturbing material. Read more Birds In Row – You, Me, and The Violence (2012)
Promethee – Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes (2012)
Growing up from the solid ground of Technical Death Metal and from the sonic neighborhood of murderous bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge, Promethee is a five-piece Metal band from Geneva, the heart of the Swiss metal scene.
Founded in the spring of 2008, and after only a few months of writing their first songs, the band started to play as many shows as they could, gaining quickly loads of local support from bands, friends and promoters.
Gathering experience, the band found it’s own personal sound in order to record a full-length album. Promethee doesn’t have a particular political, religious, philosophical message of any kind, but writes about the things that touches and effects them in this world and through their lives with the music they create.
Recorded at Conatus Studios, mixed by Vladimir Cochet and released on October 13th, 2012 through Bad Mood Records, the 10 tracks of “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes” will grind you into the ground without mercy. Read more Promethee – Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes (2012)
Tiamat – The Scarred People (2012)
After a quite long break and the announcement of Thomas Wyreson quitting the band back in 2008, Tiamant’s tenth full-length studio album, “The Scarred People”, is expected to be released on November 2, 2012 through Napalm Records.
The current line-up consist of Johan Edlund – vocals and guitar; Anders Iwers – bass, Roger Öjersson – guitars; and Lars Sköld – drums.
Formed in Stockholm, Sweden in 1987, Tiamat initially played straightforward Black Metal under the name Treblinka. After having recorded the album Sumerian Cry in 1989, vocalist/guitarist Johan Edlund and bassist Jörgen Thullberg parted ways with the other two founding members, and subsequently changed the name to Tiamat. “The Sumerian Cry” album included re-recorded Treblinka songs and was released in June 1990. Edlund changed the band’s style incorporated colourful influences from different bands such as Mercyful Fate, Candlemass, Pink Floyd and King Crimson, and with Sumerian lyrical themes.
Their 1994’s critically acclaimed “Wildhoney” led to the band’s appearances at the Dynamo and Wacken Open Air heavy metal festivals in 1995. The band mixed raw and clean vocals, slow guitar riffs and synthesizer, their sound moved gradually into the area of Gothic Rock. Read more Tiamat – The Scarred People (2012)
Lost Reality – Roboid 371304 (2012)
“Roboid 371304” is a concept album which focuses on the affairs of two aliens who for contrasting reasons, are drawn to mankind. As the story goes on, soon becomes clear that aliens and humans are closer to each other than previously imagined.
The music it’s related as style and approach to bands such as IAMX, Imogen Heap, Cut Copy, and generally to the area of Indietronica, IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), Synthpop, with some Rock colours linked back to the 80’s David Bowie and Depeche Mode.
No wobbling, no contorted noises, no twisted metallic blows and drops, this journey filled with spaces, dark vibe and chilled, sometimes Dream Pop flavored moments might sounds for many pretty out-dated, eventually not enough groove oriented, but this retro electronic taste and the futuristic, scifi story it’s the very essence of this concept. Read more Lost Reality – Roboid 371304 (2012)
