In The Whale - Self Titled EP review

Year : 2014
Genre : Glam Rock with a Sludge affection
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - < and > - here - <

This review starts out with a verbatim quotation of the band biography snippet that has came with this review order.

In the Whale is a high energy, two piece rock band hailing from Denver, CO. Members Nate Valdez (vocals and guitar) and Eric Riley (drums and backing vocals) have been making no nonsense, balls-to-the-wall rock songs since they formed the band in 2011.
 
Since then, the two have stayed busy exploring the seedier sides of Denver that ¬inspires their music. In 2012 they released their first EP, ‘Cake’, and followed it up with the EP, ‘Eric’, in late fall 2013. In between releases the band has been featured in national commercials for Victory Motorcycles and have played with a stupid number of artists you'd happily phone home about. In addition to sharing stages with bands like Murder by Death,¬ Local H, Reverend Horton Heat and Electric Six, the band has hit the road and played alongside The Airborne Toxic Event, Agent Orange, Bob Log III, The Pack A.D. and Slash.

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Scan Hopper - Mariana Bridges EP review

Year : 2013
Genre : Psychedelic Soft Rock
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : - here -

With its newest extended play to date, "Mariana Bridges", Austin, Texas based Scan Hopper offers fresh status reports from the same psychedelic fields the flamboyant group best enjoys hanging out at - OR, hanging down at, see cover art image for the ruthless justification of this even more terrible pun. These new status reports seem and sound to have a more strict polarity embedded into them in the sense that a song either is total relentless anti-brutal afterparty-chillout, - moments of infinity that openly enjoy how nothing is happening in them in a psychedelically nothing is happening, but nothing is happening psychedelically-way, counterpointed by a consequent track that exhibits as intense characteristics as you could anticipate amidst the tools the directional and stylistic principles do allow without breaking the rules of a rabid conceptual acid ride. Only - prepare for the kind of intensity on which even madness rents a place on. What other party is worth being at, correct? Read on to know more about the disc.

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Cole Hermer & The Ravens - EP review

Year : 2013
Genre : Hard Rock, Glam Rock
Origin : Canada
Official site : > -here - <

Cole Hermer & The Ravens bring both high octane and mid-tempo radio friendly hard rock heft all in the spirit of genre specifically timeless Aerosmith and "Lies!"-era Guns 'N Roses.
 Radio friendly at heart, yet uncompromisingly experimentive, while at that - not a contradiction, and those contradictions collapse with Meshuggah on the planet surface, anyway.

I especially like the way this EP sounds : it has a garage-setting charm to it, which makes it especially organic and likable. The guys themselves entertaining this type of music might indeed be teenagers, but they make YOU one in the process, too. If you can not be a teenager any time of the day, then I don't know what to tell you, daddy! Daddy. Why are you wearing that - AGAIN?? Read on to know more about this.

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Prehab - I Haven't Been Completely Honest EP review

Year : 2013
Genre : Post-Grunge, Rock, with a tint of Glam Metal
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Phoenix based Prehab brings you an extensive band history paired up with a colorful vision of music that emanates the charms of its most primordial inspirators. On their debut EP, the band accounts the quintessential musical shapes that have formed the collective mind of the ensemble, as, following an orthodox opening track with a lot of raw metal hard rock muscle power being violently exploited by the zero tolerance 4/4 pummel, - the harmonic structure is the epicenter of the Sex Pistolsian original punk ethos, in case you feel you have heard this power chord pattern before - track number 2, "False Horizon", starts out with the exact same guitar riff Eddie Vedder sung "What the FUCK is this world?? Coming TO, you DIDN'T??" to in 1991. Now the timeline is hacked, all that with the approval of Walter Bishop, and you will sing "What the fuck is this world..." at the start of "False Horizon", only to realize at the very next moment that Prehab really is just teasing you. They emerge competent enough to court the cultic soundshapes from yet another-, albeit orthodox direction. During the verse structure, "False Horizon" is hasty to dress into "Smells like Teen Spirit", - Nirvana - even the trademark, badass Starsky and Hutch picking style of Nirvana fronter Kurt Cobain is payed hommage to. Approved. A decent hook that summons a tint of AD/CD gives identity to the song. Read on to know more about the EP.

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Taylen - Masque EP review

Year : 2013
Genre : Power Metal Progressive Metal
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Taylen's Masque EP brings to you pink teen pop with sugar and chocolate syrup on top, which equates with the most optimal sonic medley in case what you are looking for is nothing else or less than what this ultra-soft and idealistic lookout on life has to offer at immediate and intentionally superficial observation.

The disc, I feel, is primarily targeted for a younger and preferably female audience, since, though I condone no particular qualms or caveats at all towards the installment, - and sub-zero towards a female ethos - its relentless urge to conform to the teenager emotional disposition is rampant/evident throughout. There is nothing wrong with being a teenager. It is a state, and this is the very music that seeks to reflect on the intentionally positivistic aspects of said state. Read on to know more about this.

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Mercury Underground - debut EP review

Year : 2012
Genre : Modern Rock
Label : Independent
Origin : Scotland
Official site : > - here - <

Buy it now

Mercury Undergound is a Glasgow based modern rock group which sounds completely committed to bring you the classic era of said parent genre with recent production standards, pulling this stunt off without falling to the other side of the horse, where over-production is as pronounced of a danger as is volume-fetischism. The situation of the miserable music critic is pleasant now, as the debut LP of scrutinized ensemble comprises of three muscularly realized, straightforward modern rock tracks indeed, and the love for the genre-, the solid understanding of it is tight and convincing throughout. Read on to know more about this slick-, massively guitar centered EP.

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Gone For Days - Gone For Days EP review

Year : 2012
Genre : Alternative Rock with a Stoner Rock flavor
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Paradoxically, Gone For Days comes (SIC!) to a spot near you to molest silence with ruthless efficiency. The quartet sports and brings a ripe understanding of exigently constructed alternative/stoner rock. Think of a trivium-consortium composed of the radio friendly behavior of Stone Sour, the melodic rhetorics of Disturbed, and add JUST a hint of Place of Skulls on top, and you will have a quite trusty image of the shape of music the self titled EP features. The compositonal tactics exhibited on the spin are easy to decipher and even easier to enjoy without noticing it, - this is a key trick in music, and, once summoned, the music is doing something right - making the 7 entries highly suitable prospects to receive sublime airtime on a radioshow without the band members and their agenda losing credit and dignity in the process. The data is without doubt engineered to be safely approachable from different directions, and it strikes up a pretty sober and muscular balance amidst the elements it emerges to court. Read on to know more about this pleasant alternative/stoner rock effort.

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Francis Bowie - Francis Bowie EP review

Year : 2012
Genre : Synthpop, Intelligent Pop
Label : Independent
Origin : Denmark
Official Site : > - here - <

Francis Bowie is Francis Bowie in Francis Bowie's Francis Bowie EP, and the official name of the trade is pop music of the intelligent kind. The EP represents an odd-, nevertheless pleasing behavior in the sense that it manages to set things more and more right after a relatively trite and ultra-orthodox opening track. From that point on, the lighting and the mood becomes fluorescent and intriguing in a "shady side of the '80s" kind of way, as Francis Bowie takes you on an atmospheric/emotional sonic stroll that indeed is able to resonate with the ethos it is dormantly obliged to resonate with, which is none other than the one represented by world famous name-kin David Bowie. The builds are simultaneously playful, slim, dainty, fragile, while being uncompromisingly dark, though never enough to make a lady frightened - nooooo, no - and there IS the promise of high definition bliss and happiness, but hopelessness is not someone who has no access to the party, either. Read on to know more about this EP.

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Kyley Styles - One Short Of A Six Pack EP review

Year : 2012
Genre : Alternative Soft Rock
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Kyley Styles' One Short Of A Six Pack EP brings to you a form of alternative soft rock music that Foo Fighter's lead mastermind Dave Grohl equally has a whole lot to cheer-, and to be concerned about.

Kyley Styles clearly is a mature and precise response from "mere" population to the cultural impact of how Grohl's music affected regions of its collective psyche, and, from now on it is official that the pantheon of legitimate alternative soft rock contenders is enriched by a nominee who is all about radio friendliness, combined with the competent realization of a sound that is capable to convey a tint of grit without being aggressive enough to scare your grandma's chihuahua away. Read on to find out more about this.

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Murder Your Gods - debut EP review

Year : 2012 
Genre : Vile Thrash with Death and Groove tastes
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official Site : > - here - <

Murder Your Gods is a four piece metal ensemble from Olympia, Washington, and their trade primarily registers as heftily executed classic thrash played with high definition vile intentions kept in top of the heat shape all the way back from the golden era of the '80s, yet, the band also brings with itself a surprising level of aptness to grace the ears with flamboyancy directly borrowed from the flesh - auuuua. - of other subgenres, all this for relentless and much welcomed musical variation. Thrash never expected to be left alone. Thrash always expected to be tinkered with, so it can thrash shit to hell and back.

Murder Your Gods, luckily enough is a group that took the harder-, BUT much more admirable route to flatter and express the desire to administer radical sonic intensity, and decided to sculpt out five songs into intricately detailed musical fabrics, as opposed to come forth with a full length debut with more coarse segments. This debut EP has a formidable amount of work AND musicianship behind it, while the production values are quite efficient-, I kind of dare say super-efficient - at revealing the thrash ethos of the '80s, spiced up by various contemporary leanings the band is not at all afraid to showcase. Go Murder Your Gods then come back to read about the influences and various pastimes of this delivery.


I find myself in a quite pleasant position right now, because there is nothing to me to whine about like a little bitch in pink latex lingerie, as this squad keeps the form I hoped they would all the way to the very end of the release. The leanings I have been telling you about are need to be addressed, so now is the time to inform you of the influences I personally think are notable on the stimuli : while non-mistakenly thrash in character, the data seeks and finds exigent musical interludes to introduce charismatic nods toward a myriad of styles. Among these, the most notable one is a tame obsession cultivated towards Pantera / Lamb of God, but imagine the similar spiritual stance riding on a more pronounced variant of thrash metal, while you are pretty much free to dismiss the anticipation of the southern vibes. This also is one interesting aspect of the delivery : whenever it seeks out the groove, it finds other methods to do that by, than to abuse immediate ACME groove patterns. Like : play around on the first three notes of your deepest blues scale, emphasize the open string like there is no tomorrow, and you are grooving like Hell on Earth, man!!!!!1


With great delight and satisfaction I recognize that the Murder Your Gods members seem to be quite aware of the same kind of motoristic genre-agitations and habitual fixations, and their conscious and successful deviations from these trends are a welcome addition to this EP. Other leanings on the release that need to be pointed out is an invigorated tendency to offer thrashy guitar solos from time to time, most often sticked into the heart of a point to cultivate variation or a turnaround from. The intro section of concluding track, "Dark Protectors" is a good example of how detailed things can get herein : the way the group "comes out" of the introductory theme exhibits traits of black metal, death metal, - blast beat those impertinent psyches away for a while - then flows into a verse structure that strikes a fine balance between ballsy metalcore - yeah, there IS a such thing, WOW. - and groove metal. Yes, metalcore owes a great deal to groove metal, in my opinion. (And to Stevie Wonder.)

The shape of music on the disc, as noted, is surprisingly well varied and I have zero doubt whatsoever that the band would harvest relevant, immediate public success and widespread attention - imagine the usefulness of covert success - if to deliver this stimuli in a live environment. Go soak your ears into their stuff at their official site and invade the places they will be playing at.

Check out the official Murder Your Gods site with the free EP this review is based on.

GyZ at Bandcamp.

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Adena Atkins - The Slowest Curve EP review

Year : 2012
Genre : Tender Poetry Pop with a Morose Tint
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Adena Atkins both has a respectable commitment to put out music that reflects a deeply personal inner disposition, music that does not at all exhibit any urges to conform to pop(ular) sugarcoat-standards. The song structures are freely positioned-, easily accessible musical environments with zero tendency to intimidate. Quite the opposite : the songs seek to convey a semi-morose-, yet always cautiously hopeful spiritual stance in which the common denominator of involved emotional elements is uncompromising honesty, no matter the result it yields. The style Atkins has found and presents herein is a type of restrained musical poetry which though is similar in character to the lamenting tendencies of various renowned artists, its commitment to convey the primer emotion - morose, and, sometimes : fanciful with a lurking danger of getting deeeeply morose anytime - always is greater than any desire to add tastes the primordial mood configuration would have a hard time tolerating.

Adena's debut delivery is a twelve minutes long extended play, that which is available to purchase through the artist's website, - located here - and these twelve minutes are quite informative of the style Atkins has dedicated herself to, at least for the era of this particular EP. Read on to find out more about the character of this tender contribution.


The music, as hinted, is deeply personal and assuaging in character, and it is safe to say that the stimuli has a chance to lend a shoulder to rest or cry on for everybody caught up in a similar soul-content, and this particular one is not at all hard to get into for a human, because it primordially is : human.

One thing needs to be said, and that is that you should not expect Adena Atkins to belt out galactic notes of sonic overpower, as this is not the intention here at all. The EP is super-reluctant to weigh down on you segments with more simultaneous flow of notes parked in them than three-, maybe four at tops, ensuring that your own sentiments have a space between Adena's, and the creation of the sense of this intimacy sounds to be a key agenda of the delivery.

There is a time the debut exhibits more brisk - yet still very tender - rhythmic structures, in track number 3, called "April Rain". A definite peak moment for me, as Adena Atkins herein, for the first time, showcases her upper registers backing it up with more heft than the album previously invites her to, and my personal percept is that adding more of these segments on a full length delivery would definitely result in a morose-fanciful pop delivery to be reckoned with. All in all, Adena Atkins always is ready to lend you a shoulder to rest or cry on, and her latest EP might just be the exact thing you are secretly looking for on a rainy day.

Check her stuff out at :
http://www.adenaatkins.com

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Gorod - Transcendence EP review

Year : 2011
Genre : Technical Death Metal
Label : Willowtip Records, Listenable Records
Origin : France
Rating : 9.6 / 10

The Transendence EP from French superheavyweight technical death metal formation Gorod brings you a package with exceptional readiness to offer flamboyant variation of mood and behavior. The first track, called "Earth Pus" - clap your hands for the dude with the title idea - is an intense album opener that, in my opinion, as a direct escapee from a recent day Obscura LP. Radical-, no holds barred melodic work tears silence with a constant hunt for the bidding of its own capriciousness to see if it wants the fucking riff or not, finding plenty of space to freely and inventively lament beside the blast beat and the singer dude, who happens to have a charismatic nervous breakdown each time he is opening the mouth. So things are pretty acceptable.

The second track is a more gently shaped direction that makes use of a buff acoustic setting, one that is pretty much steroid unplugged in character. Steroid unplugged IS good for your awareness, my love. The music exhibits a nice variety of surprising sonic traits and aspirations via the myriad kinds of minor mood-references it connects with each other to form the flow of the experience. I'm picking up vibes of bittersweet bourbon-schanzon, quite traditional Shakira-asshaker Latin that borders on Al Dimeola's take on circus music, - whenever he shreds madly, he plays circus music, no? - supported efficiently by a haunting-, abundantly note-rich feel that is one favorite of aforementioned act Obscura, as well. This narrative, mysterious mood is traded for yet another set of impressive runs of more traditional forms of music as the build progresses, and, while the skills these passages are explored by, guarantee a rewarding momentary experience, when combined with the musically more engaging feeling of the Obscura-like sci-fi thrill, are prone to deliver a final fabric that blames the traditional elements as finely calibrated fillers, in my opinion. Guys, let's talk about the rest of the tracks, too.


Third installment, "Textures", is a cover of the original piece of the same title from progressive band "Cynic", and, since I must admit I do not currently know the source material, all I can say is that I find this cover to be a more successful -, more richly sounding dataflow to flatter the buff quasi-unplugged setting you have the chance in track 3, as well. This super-eventful delivery, though has distorted twin guitars to offer legit, liquified riff -work with great enthusiasm, also sports a sanely controlled global sound that does not seek to intimidate the ears, and remains a gentle composition at heart, instead. Gently, BUT very richly sounding, that is. I think it is safe to say that the Cynic cover is a superb moment of the LP, and I have the hunch that it ends abruptly enough to express dissatisfaction for. So do that if you want.

Fourth track, called "Earth Pus - Salvation" is a much more focused acoustic build, focused on content that is quite rare to behold, that is. The territory this music is coming from is not one you can fake access to if you have none, and it also is a close border-territory to the thrilling sci-fi vibe so eagerly cultivated by recent technical death acts. It sure as cartoon-hell much better, in my opinion, than the arpeggiated fantasy-bard direction.

Titular track, Transcendence is a 15 minutes epic with an initial tendency to flatter the Turkish cutpurse-chaser vibe with varied intensity, and, though this vibe is not one that I would fight with a raksasha for, I must admit it looks interesting when Gorod jackhammers the living music out of it. When this happens, and the flow arrives to the 5th minute mark, the build already is totally free of the need to relate to any mood, and it sounds much more gracefully consumable. At 6:42, you are in heavy fucking duty death metal with truly top level efficiency, and the sonic richness-, AND the integrity of the fabric herein demands unalloyed praise. The music is relentless and raging for a good amount of time herein, and it stays super-focused while declaring its urge of wanting to devour all, leaving you no other chance than to believe and be devoured, indeed. A devoured listener is a shitty one, too, so Gorod spits you out and resurrects you into totally acceptable form, and takes on a more restrained-, but absolutely rewarding mid-tempo stroll that never loses focus from the intricate melody, be it any shape or form or direction to flatter it along. At 11:59, Gorod sounds like it is creating a hilarious parody of metalcore, as the riffcraft shows the anatomy of that particular trend-genre, but supports it with such sexy and relentless rhythmyzation that badly abused metalcore as Thesis finds a new, magnificent will to live and shine by.

Rating : 9.6 / 10

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Metallica - Beyond Magnetic EP

Year : 2011
Genre : Thrash Metal
Label : Vertigo
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.2 / 10

Metallica is quick to release an EP following the controversial Lulu quasi-shockumentary that gave your mom a series of successful nervous breakdowns. Beyond Magnetic sounds bravely old school and "garagy" - sorry about that - in a skillfully and tastefully researched Black Sabbathian way, and the Metallica members thankfully bring re-invigorated thrash heft with relevant melodic power, hell, yes! James Hetfield's voice sounds especially ripe, confident and complete, in my opinion. Notice how he sometimes exhibits a midrange timber that is very reminiscent to Freddy Mercury's. What I personally hear on this release leaves me absolutely content as far as the post-black album Metallica era is concerned, and here is why : I always liked the Load and Reload albums, despite the amount of flame those albums seemed to have generated, and the nature of this EP brings to mind character-similarities with the direction of those two black sheep LPs, in my opinion. Beyond Magnetic does not sound to me as cyber-polished OR gritty as Death Magnetic does, yet still sounds superb in the spirit of a much different, more restrained, yet sanely chosen and well focused music methodology. This restrained, but at heart hefty Metallica is more authentic to me to be honest than Dave Mustaine is with a song to the metalcore adolescent, WTF. Read on to find out more about this Metallica EP.


You know the recent day Metallica listening deal : good old fashioned-, always honest Larsian 4/4 pummeling - check out this timeless EPIC FAIL video about Lars Ulrich, too - interchanged with melodic sequences that promise a lot to sink your teeth into, and rightfully so, because, though these compositions are accessible and relatively simplistic in nature, - not necessarily a hindrance, nor benefit - this simplicity never lacks musical exigency and convince power, and the riffcraft is pretty stable, too. Classic Hetflield riffing with great sense and taste exhibited throughout the mere sonic frequency domains, and, oh, Kirk Hammet's feet are still glued to the whammy bar, and she is not afraid to use it!! Unbelievable!

Metallica seems to be taking the fanbase seriously, and this new EP, regardless how similar it is in parts for earlier works, - example : opening track "Hate Train" has this intensified segment. This totally sounds like "Fuel". This is not a problem by me at all, I'm just saying - is once again the Metallica you can regard as a formation that seeks to entertain and not to self-indulge, though I do not find all that much need in myself to flame the Lulu superlong-play anymore. One has the hunch that the next Metallica LP is coming through a space-time rift near you, and there is nothing else to add to this than what Caleb would.

Bring it ooooooon!

Rating : 8.2 / 10

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