Faith No More - Sol Invictus review

Year : 2015
Genre : Alternative Metal
Label : Reclamation Records / Ipecac
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.0 / 10

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What can you say about a new Faith No More full length beside wanting to say everything and then something more about it? The renowned group is notorious for a set of illustrious and well deserved feats, the casual invention of funk-, and alternative metal steadily included among those timeless accomplishments. If you are a newcomer to music in general - which happens to everyone, usually sooner than later - then the mere act of correctly gauging and weighing the significance of this group, is not self-explanatory at all.

Suffice it to say that Faith No More was THE upcoming band that other bands of  excessive amounts of established notoriety of the given era seemed and reported to enjoy listening the most to: Slash of Runs 'N Goses, the members of Metallica, and as I recall, even Nirvana expressed their utter and complete artistic admiration towards what Faith No More was doing even back in 1992, - the era of "Angel Dust", a timeless record to this very day - while Corey Taylor of Slipknot/Stone Sour goes as far as to say that witnessing Faith No More's live performance of Epic in 1990's MTV Awards, - from the audience - has completely rewrote his nervous system and gave him a completely new grasp on music.

Read on to know more about the release.

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Lamb of God - VII: Sturm und Drang review

Year : 2015
Genre : Groove / Thrash metal crossover with tints of doom
Label : Epic Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Following 2012's "Revolution", - here is my review of it, IF - Lamb of God returns with a particularly mature disk that showcases clear commitment towards a set of carefully orchestrated evolutionary choices. While the group was renowned and notorious for putting rabid guitars on eloquently purged chili overdose in an attempt to successfully court Southern registers, the Lamb of God of today showcases an even more refined identity, now complimented and highlighted by a musical interest that dares and manages to successfully embrace newly implemented rhetorics of true creative value and mature musical variation.

In the context of Lamb of God, the riffing never was suspect of non-convincing levels of relentless punching power, and this circumstance is once again stressed by a particularly clever and adept command of throwing the mere dynamics of the riffing around with new and fresh approaches/themes that simultaneously come out of nowhere, yet consort with their adjacent elements via establishing true organic connections with them.

It is not that the band makes sure that no sequence will overstay its welcome, it's more like you are not even given sufficient amount of time to comfortably appreciate the pure awesomeness of a given pattern, because right away they will throw yet another one AND a bloody kitchen sink at you. This was intended as a compliment, mind us, because no matter how brief awesomeness is, its character of being "just it", necessarily remains faithful to itself, once you recognize it as such.

If, once the recognition is present in your soul, and you are invited-, even better: commanded by the music to undergo this process again just to arrive hastily to yet another instance of the same optimum realization, then, Pro Tip - > this is the clear sing that you are listening to a great fucking record. This Lamb of God release puts me on this train of much appreciated sonic massacre, then showcases the brakes of the train, only, they are no longer part of the apparatus, as they have been utterly and competely dismantled. Finally!

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Symphony X - Underworld review

Year : 2015
Genre : Progressive Metal
Label : Nuclear Blast
Origin : United States
Rating : 10 / 10

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After 2011's Iconoclast, Symphony X returns with a - logically - consecutive sonic declaration, one that sounds to showcase a commitment to the formula that already has been established and pretty much been perfected even with the latest full length contribution of the group. Once you reach a type of supposedly attainable near-perfection in your selected craft, repeating the results is sufficient enough, as long as your work retains the quality that is high enough to be able to reign above the immediate reach of the tentacles of a random music critic.

Luckily/unfortunately for you, I'm not JUST a random critic, and so I will immediately say that this release is super-similar to Iconoclast, and I will second this notion with a "AND thank god & co. and Symphony X for that, because, frankly, Iconoclast was a blast, hell, even a Nuclear Blast, just to give you a terrible pun(ishment.) Sorry for doing it again.

While the former delivery of the band remains a pleasure to listen to, and it is still easy to spot new-found and delicious things in it, the group just toppled this abundance with a whole new batch of data, which, is mentioned, evidently bears the hallmarks of songcraft and compositional tactics that have been introduced on the 2011 delivery. Yes, the sound is the same, too, and you will fucking love it. (Once again.)

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