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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Unisonic - Unisonic review

Year : 2012
Genre : Traditional Spandex Heavy Metal
Label : earMUSIC - Worldwide
            Marquee/Avalon - Asia
Origin : Germany
Rating : 7.0 / 10

Buy it now

Unisonic is a traditional spandex heavy metal project from Germany with many illustrious members in its ranks. Michael Kiske, Kai Hansen, Mandy Meyer, Dennis Ward and Kosta Zafiriou are ready and eager to take you to the old school-, radio friendly side of the all-things-metal planet, as this self titled affair of the Unisonic ensemble is a larger than life flow of pretty continuous tributes towards the skirted Puma shoe and the VHS video clip ethos of the '80s.

The disc is an immediate recommendation for the Scorpions fan, and this notion on its own should give you a general idea of this music on exhibition : this is data with a highly noticeable verse-chorus-verse-intermission-huuuugehuge chorus affection served to the listener throughout, and I personally think that you need to give the record some tolerant facetime before dismissing it as a release solely dwelling on yesterday's music, though it undeniably does that, and nothing much beyond said and satisfied agenda. But there ARE pleasant surprises, and I don't mean the powerless James LaBrie sighs at the end of the sung lines. Read on to find out more about the delivery.

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Friday, March 30, 2012

Lega-c - DASH review

Year : 2012
Genre : Hip Hop with a smooth character
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

According to the official sum total of things, Lega-c has made a name for himself within the DC, Maryland and VA area. Starting out small and growing his team and fan base, he is now branching out on a national level. (As a start.) His debut delivery, DASH, and this here review of said full length declaration - that which is as fresh as ballistic dew is on the top of a tent on the Summer Himalayas - marks the firs major tactical operation of this ambitious agenda. Why not consort such a masterplan with exigency IF and WHEN you : can. Witness!! Lega-c actually gives you LYRICS in the digital booklet that comes with the album download.

The shape of hip hop on the debut places emphasis on a relaxed and smooth spiritual calibration that fuels 13 tracks that mostly are highly optimistic, humorous and passionate in nature. The subterfuge-intimidation of grimly realistic ghetto romantics is nowhere to be found on the disc, in fact, the LP openly embraces some ultra-fuzzy compositional strategies like cozily emotional - and great! - female singing and rhythm and blues hooks that tenderly and properly reek the vintage kind of Motown Michael Jackson grown up - quite literally - with. This is not at all to imply that DASH would be a soft hip hop release. Nope. It is "just" smooth. But not at all criminal. Read on to find out more about this elegant debut.

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Tha Sleepwalkers - Sub-Conscience review

Year : 2012
Genre : Hip Hop Mixtape
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Kei-Shon Son is the primordial Dr. Octopus behind Tha Sleepwalkers Hip Hop Collective, and I must say that the Sub-Conscience mixtape of said ensemble channels the high quality sense of straightforward contemporary ghetto rap as I know it. It is safe to say that the grooves the tame rants are packed on are finely constructed sonic entities with never less than four or five layers of continuous happenings to them.

Modal variation and sober limitation is maintained throughout the nine rap-track-rojectiles coming your way on this mixtape, even better : they turn after you in mid-air if you are a dodgy type, and won't hurt you in the process at all. This - surprise, surprise - is peaceful ghetto hip hop. The release reeks authenticity an honesty supported by a muscular, soberly controlled synth pop vibe as musical backdrop. Read on to find out more about this mature hip hop delivery.

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Wretched - Son of Perdition review

Year : 2012
Genre : Deathcore with Melodic Technical and Groove leanings
Label : Victory Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.0 / 10

Buy it now

Wretched's Son of Perdition is 38 minutes of colorful audio data that primarily is unrelenting - I suppose? - "brutal" deathcore, interrupted and spiced up smartly by groove and instrumental segments throughout its sober length. Conforming to the seemingly untold rules of the trendy-, recent day death metal album production ethos, you are free to skip the first track entirely, because it is the just-so-usual intro section that has absofuckinglutely nothing at all to do with the actual music of the release, and which you probably don't really give a shit for at heart, I know I don't. Dramatic church chorus and organ. Oh really. Reverend! Set yourself on fire and GTFO, I'll video.

The primordial direction the band is keen at taking is death metal bordering on melodic and technical death metal in parts, especially during the highly chaotic segments. Don't expect the disc to maintain the obscenely and beautifully super-complex form with such hardcore persistence as Spawn of Possession or Gorod or Blotted Science demands its unconditioned submission with, but the intent is there to offer a tribute for the more crazed inspirators here and there. Read on to find out more about this decent release.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Anathema - Weather Systems review


Year : 2012
Genre : Walt Disney Lion King Rock
Label : KSCope (EU) The End Records (US)
Origin : United Kingdom
Rating : 3.0 / 10

Buy it now

Anathema's latest sounds to be the direct spiritual continuation of 2010's We're Here Because We're Here. I want to tell you right off the bat that the record, in my opinion is highly annoying and contains perplexingly narcissistic music. Anathema seems to have constructed an in-house song generator that is capable to produce smarmy songs, exclusively, as every single piece on this 55 minute affair exhibits the same premiere core characteristics and compositional tactics. I will get into those traits with ruthless efficiency later on. The disc shows constant preoccupation with the establishment of compulsive discomfort-elimination. This Anathema record is here to make you feel OH!, so special, you cosmic schmuck. Luckily, the cosmic schmuck who is writing this, warns you about this dangerous fact. Listen to this music, but know that it is a fragile lie and is designed to make you feel : - surprise! - ssssssssssssssspecial. But "you" are not special, "you" are "only" the expression of an unrelenting process beside an infinite number of other ones, and only this process that gives you the capacity to delude yourself into such ridiculous notions, IS special. It is consciousness medium, looking for lower entropy states. As for Anathema, they are looking for money for assuaging your fears. (Which is the same thing in a physical universe, funnily enough.)

In Anathema's domain, the only bird is the swan and the three colors that are most fervently encouraged to be used by everyone are blue and white and green. Your wasp is not allowed. Boosh! Boosh! Yellow, black, evil, stingy, evil! Boosh! Boosh! This is relentless Nazi music in the sense that it is arrogant enough to assume that the listener is retarded enough to not be aware of the fact the she/he is being fed the same daaaaayuuuumn trick for the 32423423rd time. This is Nazi music because it wants everything to be OH!, so peaceful and OH!, so eloquently and pretty much disgustingly and homogeneously beautiful. Like those posters with the dolphins and the naked ladies and the sunrise from the early '90s. Your receptors are in a constant harassment to submit to the limited/fabricated toy-beauty the songs actually reflect. Their capacity to entertain is vastly constrained by a self-congratulatory artistic behavior and related techniques that the music is forced to vomit out sugar-overdose accessibility for. This is an attempt to commit the slaughter of beautiful music. I adore beautiful music, I "only" demand it to be made from heart to heart, as this Cynic release sounds to me as. This is not the case at all with this baby, designed to sell good in the family friendly section of the record store, right next to Disney's Lion King. You are expected to be affected and be satisfied by very cheap and predictable patterns and methodologies. Read on to find out more about this vastly predictable pink plush toy music that secretly sucks immense demonic alligator dick in putrid anxiety-hell when you are not watching.

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Monday, March 26, 2012

Lord Mantis - Pervertor review

Year : 2012
Genre : Blackened Sludge
Label : Candlelight Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.0 / 10

Buy it now

Lord Mantis' Pervertor LP sounds like a huge, bubbling cauldron resident in hell, and you are the very next entity on a collision course with it. This brave release breaths in sulfur and exhales larger than life comic book hatred and dramatic disillusionment, coating you-, enveloping you into an atmosphere that is super-reminiscent to the cover art of Justin Bartlett. The release is the embracement of all antitheses of positivistic assumptions, immediate private comfort and feelgood belief systems, it denies and executes these sentiments in an attempt to make you feel grateful when you are freed from its clutches, given a chance to reinvent yourself with the soul hack implemented in you. Because this disc wants to hack your soul, have no doubt about that. (Music that does not seek to hack the soul is not worth to take a shit on, by the way.)

This LP, called Pervertor, fortunately is not "stock" disillusioned music that seeks to circulate everyday average existentialist misery. The delivery instead shows the superb quality of seeking to entertain, primarily. The disc is very disciplined throughout, exhibiting very mature production work. The genre of the game is a blend of sludge and black metal, and the premiere flow of things is that of the cauldron-character I have been telling you about. The down-tuned - seriously? - guitars from abyss most often show and deliver a constant wall of sound structure that emanates a vile kind of lethal sonic heat to lock the psyche in from 360 directions around it, and they show readiness to interrupt this black metallic behavior with the splashy/lazy/arrogant patterns of sludge music, too. This record, as surprising the following might sound, is deeply melodic in its festered anti-heart, and it never trades entertainment in for harmful, self-centered misery-arrogance. Guys, let's talk about the music.


The tracks show great consistency with their faithfulness and nice sense of balance maintained towards black and sludge, leading you into this temper of music so efficiently and relentlessly that the treatment leaves no other choice for you than to admit that you found it pervertedly refreshing, no matter that it just cooked you as a side effect.

The flow of the sonic stuff is well varied, I dare say puristically "pure riffistic" on occasion, like in the opening track : the rhythmic complexity and the riffcraft in the song borders on extremely vile banshee-groove metal, and the sludge splashes bring a profound sense of relentless/restless and unavoidable turmoil. This track and the next do a good job representing the favorite mechanics of the disk, as the strict rhythmic emphasis between drums and guitars that starts out from around 3:30 in the fabric of the first track, is one method the album is fond relying on. The consecutive track utilizes it with great success, as well. In this second track, called "Septhichrist", the organic unison connection between the vocals and the pulsation of drums/guitars is quite efficient and frightening. A set of support-guitars create an impenetrable wall of sound structure that imprisons you with the lethal heat it conveys, - an insect-swarm analogy comes to mind, too - and the vocalist and the solo guitar both ride on an evil central melody that promises no good whatsoever. The song in question is able to offer relevant twists and narratives in its fabric even at the peak and at the climax, I just wanted to give you a brief summary of how intricately stacked and planned the compositions are, and I feel that the elements I have been telling you about are of essential ingredients on this contribution.

The very next track, "Vile Divinity" is pretty much groove metal in character in its start section, later on relying on the great insect swarm wall of sound methodology, spiced up once again by the organic, unison rhythmic emphasis expressed through the simultaneous declaration of guitars, drums, and vocals. This track ends with a pretty unfriendly and well sculpted white noise that comes to violate existence to the core. Good luck with that.

The next track, "Levia", is more black metal in character at the start session, the black metal in which decay is tinkering and feels jolly good about that, too. The middle section is more sludgy with a riff idea that even Meshuggah could have come up with, in my opinion. Later on, the black metal idea comes back to claim the leftovers, in order to feed them to the Meshuggah sludge idea. No worries : such a sludge idea eats everything you give to it.

"Ritual Killer" is very reminiscent in its temper-, in its anatomy to the second track on this disk. In the verse structure, Lord Mantis rips off Lord Mantis. GG! This one is the longest delivery on the album, and I like how the wall of sound entities show varied dynamics in it throughout the "quasi-chorus". Though a second take on an idea that the release already has offered in its beginning, I find this variant enjoyable, too, as result of two additional segments that show up later on, channeling almost a progressive vibe. Then, the central idea comes back. "I. Deny. My. Life." Progressive blackened sludge. Bitch, please.

The vocal delivery is worth mentioning separately. It is a mildly effected deranged rasp, and it has legit punch. It reminds me greatly of the vocal rhetorics of Indian, an aggressive sludge band. The drummer of Indian, Bill Bumbgardner, is the drummer on THIS disk, too. There are some pretty sick vocals on display herein, as I will now demonstrate.

Quote from the comment section of this particular "At the Mouth" YouTube video :
"At a minute twenty seven the vocals start spewing putrid howls infected with deathly perversions like I've never heard before."

SledgeGrayMatter9611

Indeed.

To conclude this Pervertor review, I will say this : the stimuli definitely maintains the black metal vibe, yet the pacing of the happenings-, the mere sonic domain the tracks occupy, belong to mammoth sludge. This is a sibling that makes perfect sense in my opinion, and it compliments both directions very efficiently. Courtesy of routes being open and free to take all the time both towards black and sludge, let alone the sessions the disc spends most time on, which is a middle ground between the two, this Lord Mantis LP weighs in AND emerges as a perverted monument created of assembled corpses and it is scanning the scenery for you to add your hide to its anatomy. Now is the time to learn to fly or to look for a jetpack. Or both. Just to be safe.

Rating : 9.0 / 10

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Pharaoh - Bury the Light review

Year : 2012
Genre : Power Metal Progressive Metal
Label : Cruz Del Sur Music
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.2 / 10

Buy it now

Pharaoh takes its power metal so lethally AND progressively serious that the inherent will is sufficient to enslave the respective spirits of both elegant subgenres, which is not something you frequently witness from the majority of peers, as other-, orthodox power metal ensembles tend to remain occupied revealing unrelenting pathos on the tail of a fight related chorus. This prestigious American enterprise feeds from the power metal fields that are not necessarily available for the risk-freely eloquent, not without creating the character of this music using more flamboyant ingredients than "just" the primer-, super-orthodox components of power metal. A key thing that differentiates this delivery from a - with a term dressed in a hint of spite - generic power metal, is that there is nothing generic about it at all. Pharaoh's Bury the Light LP is power metal from the bottom of the meeeeeeetal heeeeeeart, - rubber heart WTF?? - showing no character similarities to your average live fantasy soundtrack of cheesefest unlimited. Read on to find out more about this exquisite full value spin.

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Mr. Jitters - Multiplicity EP review

Year : 2012
Genre : Soft rock with massive psychedelic leanings
Label : Independet
Origin : United States
Official site  : > - here - <

Dylan Rowe, former bassist of The Matches is the premier mastermind behind the Mr. Jitters project and its Multiplicity EP, a five track soft rock affair with immense psychedelic influences. The music on this disc is a rather interesting "bird" to relate to, - not so with the cover art, it is a human chin upside down with eyes painted on it - and here are the reasons for it : I personally feel the album peaks in super-strongly with the track called "The Road", a beautifully realized-, muscular, elegant soft rock piece with an easy listening anatomy, soaked in top of the food chain acoustic instrumentation. Think of Stone Sour's tender bonfire-compatible deliveries, and you will have an idea of what to expect. As soon as your inner senses are calibrated to the suggested kind of tame soft rock emotional warfare though, prepare to reshape those expectations until they show no similarities to their originators, and read on to find out why.


The other two contributions that are available as the two additional tracks to constitute the effective track palette this review is reliant upon, are less easily decipherable pieces, and it might be so that they refrain from seeking immediate appeal by conscious intent. "Hooked on you" and "Be Alright" both sound to me as deeply personal-, self-reflective circus/clown music pieces with a profoundly psychedelic character, but think "clowny-psychedelic", not "spaced-out-psychedelic." If you have a clown phobia, this release exactly is the last you want to surprise yourself with, because IT has the vibe you are horrified of. Indeed, the EP uses an LSD stamp as the flying carpet, metaphorically speaking. The realization of these two tracks are similarly quite exigent, yet the style they seek to resonate - quite efficiently - reigns beyond the confines of the comfortably expectable. This, of course, is neither an automatic hindrance, nor benefit to the fray. Mr. Jitters' Multiplicity EP has pretty good chances at affecting and leading you towards either instant appreciation, or, into instant bewilderment. Dislike is a mis-reaction, as the music is well made. Do not forget that this review is based on three tracks out of the sum total of five found on the entire album. If you visit Mr. Jitters on Facebook, you will be rewarded by various content-bonuses for a Like, and you can catch the psychedelic soft rock enterprise on tour, as well.

Check out Mr. Jitters on Facebook.
Check out the tour dates, supported by the Foxy Shamaz and Maniac ensembles.

GyZ at Bandcamp.

If you want, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer.
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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Nick Duane - Before The Storm review

Year : 2012
Genre : Ambient Soft Rock / Synthpop / Atmospheric
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Nick Duane comes forth with a release armed with a rather unorthodox and brave character, considering the abundant directions the delivery is fervent, persistent and efficient at exploring. The most frequently applied pace of the flow shows keen interest in delivering ornamented still-life music AND delivering much of it, yet the one thing that utterly and completely saves this spin from any kind or promise of motionlessness in a valiant and natural manner, is the simple and precious fact that Nick Duane sounds to be serious about this style-, about this shape of music. The richly detailed harmonic and ornamental fabrics oftentimes yield results that are pretty delicious to be immersed in when things looking synthpop, - Yello's Boris Blank would be happy to hear those moments - and the other key interest the disc is enthusiastic to go after, is the soft rock side of David Bowie. Sometimes, the cover art of an album is a superb representation of the "daaaaayuuuummmn" music, and, thank God & Co., such is the case with this Nick Duane contribution, as well. Read on to find out more about the premiere mechanics of this rather strong package of high quality-, morose-playful rainmusic.


Despite its restrained and gloomy arch-character of caressing, deep vibrations, Before The Storm is hasty and efficient to draw a picture of what is to be found on the record later on, right throughout the opening track. This particular entry contains pretty much all the key elements the release excels at as a full listening experience : as just hinted previously, the core of the statement as a full listen, sounds to be an exigent take on the David Bowian morose/gloomy soft rock rhetorics. The compositions are honest and admirably faithful to the shores of the constant feeling of being JUST one step away from full blown depression that already has been made sour peace with - this is the beauty and the danger of this music, and both ingredients ARE necessary for music worth listening to in this particular register.

The lyrical pieces of the full length are balanced well via a reoccurring strategy to offer instrumental interludes amidst the majority of individual song-pairs. The tracks show autonomous tendency to project different kinds of eloquent lights to the favorite subject matter of rainy day highway-depression : "G-Whizz" is a Southern ZZ Top piece, the next one, "When We Dream" once again channels Bowie, but adds top of the heat mid-, and high frequency synthpop-ornamentics to compliment the elegant anatomy of the song. The next track, "Beneath the Surface", is an equally caressing and thrilling ambient trip that I personally think is a superb narrative peak moment to signify the middle grounds of the spin. Exquisite, fluidic harmonic structures entertain the ears in a successful attempt to support legit David Bowie singing, narrating a tame spiritual rant : I have nothing but praise for this song, it easily is one of the most significant ambient pieces I have heard in years.

As noted previously, following the middle grounds, the album is yet to hit its more intense side : Rain On Sunday is not YET that, nor is the consecutive installment, but the rabid section kicks off with robust psycho-electro-pop-power with track number 9, "Tightrope" : this sounds like intense "punk-pop" with the promise of going crazy and utterly compromised at the end of the song. Mix Depeche Mode with ZZ Top and a cybernetic mindhack and you have this vibe. Quite delicious!

"Blabber Mouth" is another specialty in the flow of predominant patterns. The song reeks the golden era of house music, when the idea "simply was" to include as many sonic layers in a track as it is humanly / alienly possible without harming the fabric itself, and Nick Duane does a tremendous job herein. I have no doubt whatsoever that this track was never intended to be a song at all, it "just happened to end up as one" during fiddling around with various electronic instruments in the production environment.

The record has a healthy dosages of surprises up its sleeves yet, among these, titular track "Before The Storm" comes to mind. Strangely enough, this "U2-meets Bowie" declaration sounds to convey menace by its mere production values! Because it does not sound "right", yet it does not even SEEKS to sound right, in my opinion. After all, it is being played while there is a hurricane on its way to the place where the music is resonated from, so the mere shores of sky-hell are affecting the music. "Just" logic. In this regard, the song is a superb accomplishment, fulfilling a function that is very rare to see - SIC! - in music.

The album is the perfect soundtrack for a rainy highway. I seriously would pick this on 6 occasions out of 5 times right now for any rainy day highway session. Preferably as the driver. The disc also conveys a sense of X Files science fiction, in my opinion, revealed with soberly limited high frequency sonic entities that cleverly refrain from intimidation, and instead are out to invite you into a risk free cosmos-trance. Watch raindrops draw random (?) fractals on the car window in the morning supported by this music to get a spiritual boost. Track number 2, "No Wages", takes you into this Zone pretty efficiently, - think of Blade Runner meets X Files - and this is not the only occasion you will be immersed in this feeling during the spin. Once again, a rather tight and robust - 55 minutes - atmospheric ambient soft rock album with a whole lot of quality stimuli to soak some ears into. Highly recommended.

GyZ at Bandcamp.

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Cunt - Monday Cunt


GyZ gives you the song : Cunt - Monday Cunt. Listen in HD please.

This is a song about a woman, who, for whatever mysterious reason, loves to be called a cunt.

Lyrics :

I want you to kill me first
then lock me into your festering heart
I want you to wake up next
and do the procedure right from the start

something that I've never seen on you
something that changes you too
revealing the better but hiding the worst
hiding the worst of you
your sudden burst of pride
sucking me inside
stumble around to keep stumble around
to keep stumble around on your mind

your glamour-heart of baby blue

your proper heart of baby blue
it wants all things I am not
'cause I'm shit out of luck

she loves to be called a cunt

rubber lover
she's a miracle
a spectacle
for whatever
mysterious
reason

she loves to be called a cunt

Buy this for $1 at :
http://gyzmusic.bandcamp.com/track/cunt-monday-cunt

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Friday, March 23, 2012

Frostbite - Valentines and Other Stories of Hope review

Year : 2011
Genre : Gothic Rock with a tint of Calm Doom
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

The Valentines and Other Stories of Hope LP from Frostbite takes the refreshing liberty both to stroll-, and to pummel through the extremities of its cultivated genre-palette, which primarily is mid-tempo gothic rock, spiced up tastily and soberly by a tint of Rammsteinian gloom and the sense of impending doom - pronounce : doooooooooom - as it is revealed by Type O Negative or by late Woods of Ypres. The music is more reliant and interested in exigent storytelling and the rendition of moods amidst morose lamentations, as opposed seeking to intimidate the listener by raw charisma distortion-heft for the mere sake of engaging robust goth sonic power.

The LP sounds to exhibit a fine mirror-projection of the Tech Noir mood setting you had the chance to immerse yourself in during the first Terminator movie, as the flow herein is never reluctant to throw in synths or other sample-based secondary ornaments to compliment the guitars, and the behavior of these instruments are pretty rewarding to be subjected to, because they never deviate from the morose mood. They accept the rules and choose to praise them with clever flattery. Check out the anatomy of track number 4, "The Metro", for example : the synth/guitar combo is looking all good in its '80s gloom-metal charm, - bordering on legit dark pop, to be honest - making way for a chorus that summons both hilarious and rather deep metro romantics, which I personally find a quite clever selection for a theme. After all, there is no man on the face of this Earth who did not yet see a woman - khm, or a man, to be politically correct - on a metro who he found supremely beautiful, so the stuff is easy to relate to. Read on to find out more about the disc.


One would assume that the album, with its monstrous length of 63 minutes, surely must be in the dire need to establish focus and variation with nothing less sublime or tender than an iron fist. This is not entirely true, as the full length intentionally builds structures that are not in a hurry at all, while the flow of things-, the direction of the narratives show pretty constant readiness to entertain your receptors with authentically surprising and exigent content along the well established frameworks. I have the impression that the record gets calmer and calmer in character as it progresses, maintaining the right tough to color the largely mid-tempo builds with more intense sections here and there, but the intent herein is definitely not to go Rammstein BENZIIN!, its intensity is much more akin to the latest Woods of Ypres disk, as suggested earlier.

This morose, uncompromising emotional disposition seems to emerge evident through the cover of Hurt, a Nine Inch Nails song, of which American country icon Johnny Cash recorded his shockingly powerful rendition in the mid-2000s. I have the hunch that Frostbite found the variant pretty astonishing, too, because the Hurt cover found on this release is an evident - and legit - tribute to the timeless-, improbably powerful Johnny Cash rendition of the Nine Inch Nails original.

As noted throughout this review, the Valentines and Other Stories of Hope record is more of a spiritual trip of goth/gloom and doomy tastes than a brisk ride of pure headbanging power and fishnet molestation in religious awe, which did not at all prevent the Mastermind behind the project, Christopher Lee Compton from including two bonus tracks to conclude the fray in intense fashion, showing off the favorite extremities of the delivery. One of these bonus additions sounds like a hilarious antithesis of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game", while the other bonus track is a dramatic lamentation with particularly pronounced and massive instruments present in it, - the vocals seem to be threatened by them, but no worries, they are safe, courtesy of competent production work - and the whole song registers as a worthy piece to wrap this surprisingly ripe goth / morose declaration up with. This is a significant and serious record that I enjoyed quite much, and I think you should give it a spin, too.

Check out Frostbite at their official Facebook page here, and/or take a listen to an informative selection-palette of the songs, herein.

GyZ at Bandcamp.

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Haemic - Fields of Sanguine

Year : 2012
Genre : Blackened Death Metal with mild psychedelic leanings
Label : Clean State Records
Origin : Taiwan
Official site : > - here - <

Haemic's latest is a full blown ML - Monster-Length - that shows tremendous promise and suffers greatly from coarse-, on occasion, even rudimentary production values. Though the channeled genre of blackened death metal usually exhibits no hard time tolerating modest production appeals while not even signifying rampant desire for anything more fancy than those, Haemic, I feel, is on a constant-, and relatively misplaced urge to move in for the intimidating sound all the time, and the sonic environment that the sounds should be parked into safely and comfortably, - regardless of their intent to give you the hurt real bad - are bleeding to each other like there is no tomorrow to do that again on. The canvas herein is almost never enough to reveal and contain these lethal ambitions in their full anti-glory, and, since no place to paint on remains, the sonic entities are enthusiastic to crash into the void kamikaze style in order to die violent deaths in the triumphant, horrifying clutches of non euclidean anti-existence. Not a nice thing to behold at all, yet, if that was the agenda, then the album is an immediate-, and supreme success. Read on to find out more about the delivery.


The LP has concept of the "vastly powerful sound", the "gargantuanly stupendously powerful sound", and everyhing and anything above THAT. The concept of limitation is damaged to the core on this release, which I feel is a key deficit of the album. Even the gentle sounds bleed through the extremes of the respective frequency domains, which in my opinion is a clear sign of a misinterpreted production ethos, that which seemingly have no current concept of limitation or audio-sculpting.

Almost everything is in your-face sonic maelstrom of limitless, - and thus, distorted anatomy with zero regards to their surroundings. The dormant intent is highly acceptable, until a clear anatomy is devoted to the monsters, and, until the separation between them invites a sense of sublime-, hidden-but-evident interconnectedness to be deciphered by the listener during the listening experience itself. These sonic monsters though bring little else than lethal arrogance at face value, and they "just" kill each other off in cold blood. This is not to say that the thought is missing. The thought IS there, it is only getting compromised by the incoming noise of the other thought. They are competing, when they probably should co-operate to entertain. They are toppled on each other as huge cosmic abominations, eventually being pushed against the walls of the sonic environment as the result of the cumulative arch-chaos they reveal in their dissected-alive-torment, bleeding through into the distortion void when they supposed to convey registers that reign beyond the confines of the canvas of silence. Lionel! LOOK! Silence won! (AGGain. GG!) In other words, the production values of this release are pretty suicidal, yet, once you made your efforts to temporarily accept this fact, there is music to be behold, too. Read on to find out more about that.

Undisciplined realization values aside, the music on display herein is pretty tight at what it seeks to do, and that is to suck out your soul through your eyes, as a start. As noted, the name of the game herein is unrelenting, unforgiving blackened death metal with a whole lot of fine stuff going on in the sense of variation and ideas, no problem at all in those departments. The primordial feel of the LP speaks a quasi-Burzum black metal register that has an affection towards the symphonic death metal of Fleshgod Apocalypse, and a reoccurring psychedelic theme - think of a wicked Tim Burtonian circus master feel - is an equal addition to the favorite pastimes of the spin. A sense of crazed/fanciful, hilariously deranged, neoclassical LSD feel is a frequent invitee of the disc, too, and this compliments the more harsh polarities and tendencies of the flow with rabid eloquence. I especially like the vocal contribution as far as its authenticity goes, it is the good old fashioned crow-spouting that promises no good for no thing at all.

At the end of the day, - and, at the very beginning of the next one - this particular album with this particular mix has legit potential and strong ideas, and it also reigns in the proud need of being re-mastered pretty much from scratch, in my opinion. This is not to say that the album is not a full-value declaration. It IS, but more so as a legendary subculture-demo tape, than as a finished and - even mildly - polished final product. The contribution comes to you with a set of multi-tracks variants, which means you will have instrumental versions of 6 tracks from the total of 10 tracks that constitute the album. A solid output in the dire need of more - MUCH. more - sonic separation in its soulcontent, and, in the need to lose half of its intent to kill, because the remaining will be enough to erase the Sun, as a start.

Check out Haemic's Fields of Sanguine LP at the group's Bandcamp.

GyZ at Bandcamp.

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Overkill - The Electric Age review

Year : 2012
Genre : Thrash Metal with Glam Metal affectations
Label : Nuclear Blast Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 6.0 / 10

Buy it now

The new Overkill LP starts out with a superb, tribal-thrashy introduction, - bouncer thrash guitars on 'roids included - which though is on its way to open up stone-orthodox human growth hormone thrash metal on your awareness. Pinball machine thrash with fast cars and chicks wearing a snarl. Wow. The central character of this album packs the excitement factor of waiting around for the bus at a public bus stop, and that mainly is due - in my opinion - to the shockingly tepid glam metal (!!) chorus work and a submission to road-motorsport metal rhetorics the contribution is an obese, sweaty galore of. What the hell, it still has potato chips charisma. As just noted, Overkill's latest exhibits profound indication of glam metal in - pfff - "traces", and the so called deviation-, - pseudo-complexity it offers are renditions of the thrash metal methods you witnessed serving diligent duty a million times before, only with more vile elegance and inventiveness. This sounds to me as thrash delivered by sheer routine, like they do not even watch. You are free to take the position that I have no clue what I'm talking about, and this is in-your-face badass thrash warfare that emerges

to Destrooooy Eeeeeverything

in its way, and I second the notion that indeed, on OCCASION, the album works pretty well. There are some songs with increased amount of catchy factor and only a mild dosage of (chest)hair metal in them, and the guitar solos are doubtless top of the food chain caliber. But the record's flow suffers legendarily, as result of reoccurring fixations the group can't seem to get rid of during the dire. I mean : ride. Like the favorite note-bending of the singer, which he uses to end 11 out of 10 of his sung lines. Terrible, fucking terrible. Track number 3, "Wish You Were Dead" starts out with a superb intro, - just like as the first song - and then the band practically starts to drown amidst thrash platitudes being raped violently in front of your helpless crying eyes. It is about 15% legit thrash metal with vile intentions and stuff I can take serious, and 85% of Dave Mustaine's trademark cabaret thrash metal that which he plays when there is no musical thought on his mind whatsoever, and cabaret thrash is his method to hide this fact. You know, Inspector Gadget thrash metal. CHUGGA! CHUGGA! - Now! Iiiii! Am! Pretty! Pissed! CHUGGA! CHUGGA! Look! At! The! Kill! You've! Missed! CHUGGA! CHUGGA! GTFO. Pretty hideous thing. Read on to find out more about this release from Overkill, which exactly is just that. (Overkill.)


I personally feel that the members of this veteran ensemble surely must have - arrogant contradiction - decided that they will put out a pulverizing thrash epic weighing in at 50 minutes, no matter what. Guess what : it just mattered what. The album, for the most part, is tired, uninspired and even unfocused routine thrash in traces, and, to validate my claim, I offer you the example of track number 5 : by this time, Overkill is so embarrassed by the fact that there are no thrash platitudes left to assrape without vazelin at the moment, - because they tremble in fear around - that Overkill goes Iron! Fucking! Maiden! on you to administer c-grade Iron Maiden-clone power metal with communist marching song vibe and gang-shouts included. "Save Yourself!"

Good idea.

I do not seek to be especially douchy about this delivery, because the work doubtless is there, only, the exquisite thought-, the aim behind the work canceled the invitation. Instead, the thought simply is "let's thrash like goodol' times boys!", but the premiere ingredient-, the vileness of thrash is substituted by glam metal antics and bicepses, and this, I think, is quite staggering to see and hear. (On a negative register.) I do not deem this release bad by any means, as the complexity is there, but its substance is a towel reeking mansweat. No thank you. Not a bad record though. As the saying goes here at Noise Shaft, it is much worse than that : mediocre. VASTLY - oxymoron? - mediocre. Worth a listen, but don't expect this music to command/tune your psyche in to violent headbanging fueled by the evident desire to submit to the metal. Pinball machine thrash metal with fast cars and chicks wearing a snarl, and the snarl is the sexiest thing of it all. As for this Overkill album, it tries valiantly, but never fucking touches the switch.

Rating : 6.0 / 10

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Perilium - Optic 72 review

Year : 2012
Genre : Progressive Rock with a Psychedelic Light-Sludge flavor
Label : Independent
Origin : Australia
Official sites :  > - Bandcamp - <
                      > - Facebook - <
                   

Australian Perilium is into the Opeth horizon of progressive music deliverance, expressing the related key-affections and a nice variety of unique flavors on a full-value debut LP that is accessible at the band's Bandcamp as a whole listen session and a name-your-price offering.

Though it would be misleading to tag this contribution with an additional "sludge" genre label outright, I personally think that the fabric of this music shows a great deal of exquisite and pleasant similarities both to the Opeth-, and, to the Place of Skulls stance towards - so called - things. The instrumental track "Mirage" is a song worshiping a harmonic pattern your premiere doom wizard Victor Griffin would be super-fond of, and it remains notable throughout that Perilium finds considerable joy AND efficiency at channeling from a musical Zone that equally is fervent at progression while belonging at heart to a pseudo-morose/peaceful emotional disposition. This behavior might be a beneficial one to conduct a spiritual experiment with, which pretty much what this album is. A spiritual experiment ready and able to submit both to fragile AND robust southern vibes - submitting to mammoth-sludge, on occasion - among a "spacescape" of the primordial psychedelic private investigations. Read on to find out more about this honest, surprisingly ripe delivery.


Though the individual songs of the flow exhibit evident capacity to exist on their own as autonomous declarations, Perilium's Optic 72 reveals its intended Ultimate Face of valiant and relevant trip-experience as a full listen, - best spent on your-, or on someone else's back - taking you on a spiritual sightseeing that is quite rewarding to be subjected to. The disc, luckily enough, is fueled by the intent to primordially and exigently entertain along the favorite rhetorics it excels at, and these terms, I feel, are not exaggerations.

Perilium maintains focus and luscious variety during the LP's highly ideal run time, which clocks in about 40 minutes. Interestingly enough, bands with a similar approach often dwell on the misconception with misplaced enthusiasm that a progressive rock record with a psychedelic and quasi-sludge flavor should not relent below the 1 hour mark, - at that is just an EP, dudette! - and that often is a tolling length to endure with largely similar sentiments to soak a human nervous system into. If you are a Golem, good for you.

Remember, you can not really go borderline-happy here or suicidal-sorrowful without the majority of the audience being interrupted. No, this direction of music seeks to explore inner spaces and their related thought-patterns in equally calm, YET eventful manner. It is primarily "supposed to be" mystical, as this music aims to be honest regarding the (current) spiritual limitations of both its resonators and its listeners.

Contrary to popular (?) belief, you don't need to be stoned to a sedated gargoyle to be able to scientifically immerse yourself in inner spaces, so a nice sense of variety along the soberly accessible palette of tools is not only a possibility to rely on, but it is pretty good to see and hear when the possibility gets taken efficient advantage of, too. Optic 72 never mistakes trance with self-indulgence amidst patters of limited charisma power. The Aussies are not afraid to entertain the receptors with full blown instrumental narratives, and even tasteful, zero-wankery guitar solos are present. I especially like the solo guitar tone, it packs that "desert wolf" feeling, while the overall production is crisp, in-your-face sonic resonance that could crush you any time, it is just kind enough to refrain from that. (Most of the time.)

The segments exhibit a legitimate, organic flow and it especially is nice to see that the album does not get hooked in terms of orthodox song structuring : you hardly, if ever will know at your first listening if the vocalist dude is nearby with the next verse, or, if the music will form and declare its right to take you wherever it wants to. By all means, please do that. This album does exactly that, and I'm impressed. Recommended.

Check out Perilium - Optic 72 at the official Bandcamp of the Australian ensemble, while
you are giving them your virtual facetime at their Facebook, too.

GyZ at Bandcamp.

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Cynic - The Portal Tapes

Year : 2012
Genre : Easy Listening Anti-Sludge
Label : Season of Mist
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.5 / 10

Buy it now

The Portal Tapes contains music that you can decipher in real time with a grateful set of ears. This is not something that is a "given", as it is natural these days that a disc demands a learning curve. Not THIS baby. It is clear as a crystal, only clearer. The now-full-musculature variant of Cynic's notorious demo session is audio data that has zero concept of strain or lies. Everything I hear on the record is straight from the heart to the heart astral data that manages to convey both dignity and beauty, and not for a single moment I feel like I am being cornered into a -oops - corner to get deprived of my reactionary emotions that the music seeks to toll on me. Cynic "simply" plays the music that they find both honest and beautiful, and, these qualities are reflected in your soul with zero obstacle in the way of the pleasant transfer the album as entity embodies. Read on to find out more about this fine contribution.


The shape of things on this release sounds to me as a special blend of exigent anti-sludge and the best days of Foo Fighters being put on marijuana. The Portal Tapes is a spiritual relative to Wobourn House, only less lethally morose. This Cynic album is capable to present a reverberating listening experience without being fueled of coarse ambitions or showoff-arrogance to do so. It is "just" music - that is exactly the most a music critic expects while optimistic - which has nothing obtrusive in its way at all. Michael Jackson says in an interview that artists tend to get in the way of the music. "Don't get into the way of the music!" - he adds - logically -, and oh, he is so right, in my opinion.

The Portal Tapes LP is a contribution that contains data taken from-, and composed of a natural sonic flow of astral beauty that has a very clear and dainty anatomy to it. Once again : very clear, elegantly simple, but utterly dainty musical anatomy. Track number 7, "Mirror Child", for example, brings to mind Faith No More's Evidence, and I'm pretty sure Mike Patton would sing this song wholeheartedly without a second thought occurring to him in the process.

A set of favorite pastimes of the release are to be mentioned as the premiere defining ingredients of it. Cynic has a superb taste for thrilling harmonic passages, and, so efficient these passages are indeed, that they do not get tedious during the repetitions they are recruited for, quite the contrary : they are used for just the right amount of turns, giving their respective places to another superb follow-up pattern (per motif, of course) that wants to add to its surroundings as opposed to interrupt them with stimuli that is hard to grasp at first. The choruses, the verses all reeking top of the heat easy listening music that is coming from the heart with a natural flow and beauty you can't get around, no matter how hard you try. Okay, the chorus of track number 10 has a little bit too much of Grimes retardation going on, but it is good. (For the exact same reason.) At ultimate value, this here is an instant seducer album and an immediate recommendation.

Rating : 9.5 / 10

GyZ at Bandcamp.

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Monday, March 19, 2012

Meshuggah - Koloss review

Year : 2012
Genre : Math Metal, Progressive Metal, Djent
Label : Nuclear Blast Records
Origin : Sweden
Rating : 10 / 10

Buy it now

The new Meshuggah album Koloss instantly put a huge smile on my face as opening track "I am Colossus" made my hope to be blown away by the first bars of the album, a grandiose reality. The Swedish ensemble goes straight for the core of orthodox time signatures in a flow of fluent attempts to mock it with intoxicating, thrilling eloquency, bashing your awareness with gargantuan guitars that relate to the flux of the rhythm in myriad kinds of illegal ways and feels, and, the aspect that is very quick to reveal itself right from the beginning, is the pronounced feel of the wildspace vacuum I think the band went for with this release. This is sci-fi music, this is cosmic horror abomination music. (When it is peaceful.)

A dystopian narrative feel seems to be evident on the record throughout. "I am Colossus" draws the image of a huge anti-entity, composed of the sum total of fierce, invisible-to-the-naked-physical-eye everyday human urges, like the drive to satisfy the individual ego, to kick the ass of some (pseudo) randomer in manly fashion to feel dominant and whatnot, and this Leviathan grows more and more powerful in its scattered-but-present totality as each negative human act and tendency gives another cell to its immense body. Hard it is to come to the realization that you kicked your own ass the day before. The opening track is a declaration from this Leviathan, who tells you how things will be between you and him, where the "you" is just a cell in a thought he instead chose to forget altogether.

The next track, "The Demon's Name Is Surveillance" takes you to the icy cybernetic Philip K. Dick future of Minority Report. Do you remember those little privacy-corruptor insectoid droids that swarmed the scenery in the movie, looking for a man with a specific retina? I'm pretty sure Meshuggah wanted to depict this ultra high-tech, dehumanized atmosphere in which the mood you are in might be dependent on the set of chemical tablets you could afford at the end of the month. A threatening potentiality of a grim comic book future is revealed lyrically and musically, one that conspiracy terrorists / theorists are fond to offer. I gave you these brief summaries of the first two songs to give you an idea of the mood of the release. I personally feel that reading the lyrics is essential herein to "get" the music, and here is why : the flow of the audio data supports the thought, the meaning behind the word. Sure enough, this should be expected as "normal" behavior from music, but grasping and appreciating the organic connection-, the imagery between the lyrics and the sonic information is quintessential to the experience. This second track offers a paradigmatic variant on a rabid, icy cybernetic wall of sound structure that is much more intricate and complex than you would assume it to be at the first face value, when it comes in rumbling through you as the greeting gesture. Take the effort and soak your ears into its exquisite subtleties. Like : the microscopic note-interruptions in the flow of the rhythm guitar riff are occurring at the same time Kidman delivers a syllable of the given line. In other words, Jens and the rhythm guitar create a symbiotic relationship for the "mere" fun of it, even though the song would work totally intact without this delicacy that flatters an intriguing image of engineered and soberly organized chaos. The disc is reeking superb surprises like this.

It is very rewarding to hear how this band approaches melody : they are interested in the sheer anatomy of the sound, and make magical use of it. Exceptions with highly melodic character ARE present, though. Check out the section starting from 3:00 to 3:48 in track number 3, "Do Not Look Down", for example. This is pure awesomeness '80s synth pop made with 8 stringed monster guitars. The collision between the beautiful harmonic mid-frequency ornament and the dominant monster-guitars reek Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer in a hilarious tribute-way. Once again : '80s synth pop in the Meshuggah style. Sublime delicacies like this are abundant, and not all of them is easy to pick up at first. Here is another example, from track number 2 : notice that the rhythm guitar compliments Jens Kidman's vocals by emphasizing each syllable the vocalist delivers with a massive note in the minigun-fabric of the prime pattern. It equally is hilarious when a riff takes a moment to - kind of - vomit on the floor because it can, before addressing its actual intent once more. This also is something you will find a lot of on the spin. YES, each song demands multiple listens. Who cares about a song that does not, duh.

Meshuggah sounds to introduce a new sonic entity to its relentless terror reign on silence, and this entity is a "feel" of robust suction power. Let's venture - ha. ha. - after its origins. In djent music, the low end register of an audio data - especially of the guitars - is a pretty significant component. If you are any kind of a djent enthusiast, you either have a low end fetish, or you are in the process of cultivating one. The ideal low end, in my opinion, should exhibit an autonomous and evident capacity to cause the vibration it is based on, in YOUR very core. To REFLECT the low end in your central nervous system, practically. It should physically touch you, so to speak. When my palm rests on someone's skin and Meshuggah delivers a black hole motif, I will feel the vibration of that low end on that person's skin.

It is easy to overkill the low end and harm the anatomy of the sound in the process, and, as such, consensus seems to be flexible regarding the top of the heat low - oops - end. The new Meshuggah percept of black hole suction power I'm writing to you about is a low end Sonic Declaration, and its Subharmonics are the Undoing of All, as drummer Tomas Haake writes in the lyrics of track number 7, and vocalist Jens Kidman seems to second the notion. This new concept of the incorporated sonic black holes immediately stroke me as of utter relevance even when the band released the song in question, "Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion" before the official release date of Koloss, with the probable intent to stimulate interest in the LP. It is a little-, yet so significant thing, gaining its power from knowing when to limit itself. I need to embed the read more link now or I will forget to. Read on to find out more about Meshuggah's latest delivery : Koloss.

I'm not completely familiar with Meshuggah's entire body of work yet, - because who is to say that this is their last album, right? - as I know the ObZen album, the Catch 33 LP, and I checked out some earlier - '90s - stuff from them, too, back from the days when the vocals packed pitch value to them.

The reviewer is not important in a review, yet now there is relative need to outline how I familiarized myself with Meshuggah. I'm going to be honest with you, and admit regardless if you will call me a rabid fanboy or not that Meshuggah's ObZen tore my mind out and replaced a rewired version of it when I listened to the album in 2011, three years after its release. After ObZen, I listened to Catch 33, from 2005. Now is the time that I will tell you this : the Koloss LP, in temper-, in mood, is similar to Catch 33, in my opinion. ObZen, I think, is an awesome record, and also a more easily - with an incapacitated word - "graspable" album. Because that is the point : Meshuggah is not "hard" to grasp per se, it is "just" made by people who constantly seek to entertain and shape musical awareness with elements that originate from beyond the orthodox confines of musical narrative as a strategy to express soul content. As adept musicians, they simply want to have a good and THRILLING time while playing, while recording. They want to have fun, as Jens Kidman tells it so naturally in an interview. When the intent is so pure and powerful, chances are that it will work well for someone else who hears it as an outsider, too. And there you have it, indeed : brilliant rhythmic intricacies reveal non euclidean space patterns made of pure adamantium, arranged mostly on mid-tempo structures, though there ARE some full musculature, intense cosmic horror monstrosities on board, too. For example, track number 2, "The Demon's Name Is Surveillance" is "Bleed II" in my opinion.

The music of present day Meshuggah-, the Meshuggah music that has such a committed planetary fanbase-subculture glued together by the appreciation of the group, reigns far beyond the orthodox terminologies of metal. You could listen this music in 8-bit on a C64, hell, on a '80s Casio synth, and it would waste your fucking ass on spot regardless. Imagine the same kind of music with 8 stringed T-Rex guitars and avalanche drums. As I wrote in an earlier review in 1862, Meshuggah seems to worship mere sonic mass, and the magic is the result of limiting the sonic mass with ANY method whatsoever that seems worth exhibiting to limit the rampant flux of the mass with. 


The feeling is such as if you were to decipher the mechanics-, the patterns of the workings of diabolic machines that express sounds while in operation. Meshuggah is not particularly after "mere" melody. The thought overrules it. The ethos of melody most often is used herein as metaphoric pairs of light that cast their audible radiance in an attempt to further showcase the anti-inert immensity of the silence assailant audio-mass below them, that which - the mass, the rumble - equates with the primal statement per build. This band is the master of the sonic domain and its multitime rhythmizational possibilities. The group plays with the frequency, the mood, the thought, with the mere meaning of the sound, entertaining the flux of time in this process by mocking it and violating the orthodox flow and concept of it while Jens Kidman's vocal delivery is a constant-, astonishing sci-fi horror comic book reference point of a pissed off humanity that is neither Animal and neither God ENOUGH.

Sound has no other limit than the absence of all other characteristics you deprive it of as soon as you dress it into a direct shape and form. Meshuggah cast a vote on ultralowfrequency 8 stringed cosmic abomination reality corruptor rumble-guitars because these monstrosities, along with the battle cruiser bass and Tom Haake's avalanche drum, are sound like they MEAN their shit, you now? After all, a sound is "just" a feeling and "just" a thought, and these are the Sacred Maximum a band can operate with and a listener can soak her/his soul into. I personally think that Meshuggah, as hive-entity, has arrived to a point on which they have a flawless grasp of the primer components that are manifesting the raw wildspace charisma their music doubtless embodies. The "suction effect" is a new addition among these, or, at least, it sounds new to me to reveal it in such a pronounced and thrilling manner. Think of a mini portable black hole with an ON and OFF state, that you can turn ON for a fraction of a second, then you turn it OFF. Or think of that silly bathroom game, when you sit in a bath tube, pull the plug out and wait around until the vortex shows up. You know the whirlpool, right? Do you often place your palm on it to experience the suction power of the vortex? Do that, it is fun. The same feeling is incorporated into this music, sonically.

 As for direct examples of this new percept, check the anatomy of the riff in "Break Those Bones", the black hole suction note - the entire riff is ONE brilliantly placed note - is situated in the fabric of time in such a way that the riff reigns both as a driving force and as a stop in the flow. A truly special musical experience that is out to crush you with no concept of doubt in its driving thought, and, once you saw it, you are crushed indeed. The HORROR! The MADNESS!  By the way, here is something extra I have noticed, and I'd like to know your impression of it. Did you notice how the track "ObZen" features a verse and a subsequent hook that are super-similar in CHARACTER to the flow of "Break Those Bones"?
 

Meshuggah paints non euclidean sonic geometries and they make them move in countless dimensions, and the sight, the feeling is nothing short of magical. You see these beautifully deformed-, yet cosmically diligent patterns that make you feel intrigued to adept your awareness to them enough to manage to grasp them. You instinctively know that there is a way to hop unto these shapes to see where they take you to, and you equally enjoy if they drop you off as much as you do when you have learned their orderly chaotic character. To me, a Meshuggah song is a cosmic abomination rampant-unalloyed that thinks this exact same thing about me when we spend time together. This album is as honest, as thrilling and profoundly intricate in mere character as music can get. In this regard, as miserable music critic and djent aficionado, I have no other obligation to fulfill than to declare this contribution an immediate-, flawless masterpiece and a privilege to be subjected to starting from 2012 to eternity.

Rating : 10 / 10


Reviews with thorough Meshuggah connotations, IF you are curious of them :
Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks review

GyZ at Bandcamp.

If you want, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer.
Read more!

Miss Myi - All Eyes On Us single review

Year : 2012
Genre : Pop Dance Electronic
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

Noise Shaft finally has the rabid opportunity to deliver its first single track review, and now it is official that it is none other than the brisk, bouncy debut delivery of Miss Myi, a Dancefloor Diva coming to make your body move in intentionally rhythmic fashion to her sonic declaration All Eyes On Us. My mission is relatively simple herein, as the song wholeheartedly relies on a four chord pop progression that packs the same capacity to carry the charisma of this style from the start line to the finish as it did from the very beginnings of risk free dancefloor entertainment. In other words, the flow of things is not a flow at all, it instead conveys the bouncy pop feel that you can safely showcase the dance moves you are comfortable with to, and that is that for an agenda, which is highly acceptable. Consider : you are armed with a beer and your most silly smile. Read on to find out more about this single.


What I like about this track is its propensity to wage a tender war on your receptors with a set of intentionally bloated-, ridiculously pink pop synths that convey the feeling of gargantuan djent guitars, only, on the opposite extreme of the imaginary sonic-rhetorics spectrum. As suggested, the song does not exhibit any urge to deviate from the four chords pop progression that equates to its relentless core, yet soberly limited ornaments are present to outline the anatomy and charisma of this simplistic, but elegant-efficient gravity well.

While the music is progressing, Miss Myi takes the opportunity to share her extroverted inner sentiments about the beauties and joys of receiving profound public attention in a dancefloor environment while occupying such a ridiculously hot body as hers is, - all this in a singing fashion - and the next logical step, not at all surprisingly, is to make a music video with hot chicks performing hot dance moves. Despite her young age, Miss Myi already has an impressive resume as a professional dancer, and this necessitates the video even more, I feel. You can try going wrong with hot chicks dancing to the camera, but you won't succeed. That stuff always sells, with or without music. Check out Miss Myi's All Eyes On Us single right here.

GyZ at Bandcamp.

If you want, check out my music

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Rob Crawford - Cross Fingers

Year : 2012
Genre : Britpop / Rock with supermild punk affections
Label : Independent
Origin : United Kingdom
Official site : > - here - <

Rob Crawford is a one man band project led by and centered around - seek out an airmchair to succumb to - Rob Crawford's musical vision. The artist makes continuous and inventive efforts to cultivate and maintain an organic community-connection with the audience through his website, and now is the time to talk about the music, too.

Cross Fingers is a pleasant set of sonic patterns to relate to, as the key influences are very evident - tautology - and presented in tactile fashion throughout the record. The vibes that are eager and fervent to surface up on the delivery to fuel autonomous full value compositions all in the spirit of their respective modal aspirations, are numerous, yet honest to the core in their character. Read on to find out more about those.


The Cross Fingers LP conveys the hilarious morose/borderline-happy emotional disposition so ubiquitous and - paradoxically - unique to the archetype of British popular music. The album manages to corner me into the classical Britpop/rock mood of not being able to decide if I'm cheerful or down in the dumps, so, what the hell, let me grab something - anyone/anything from fat woman to broomstick - and let me dance with it whatever way I can, whatever the thing might be.

The album is quick to reveal a spiritual content-field super-reminiscent to the classical synthpop statements of the '80s, revealed by a production environment that has an eye for the tender, and, for the rabid, too. When you would have falsely thought that the LP has shown what it is all about and submit to the morose/marching britpop vibes, Rob Crawford puts The Beatles on steroids to reveal a superb extra-aspect of the album.

The tastily presented "Beatles-Punk" affection is pronounced on the delivery throughout, and let's be realistic and admit that you still need to be a very bitter person frequented romantically only by pissed off midgets to not enjoy the character of music the Beatles bring. Think of the same music at heart, yet, with more punchy production values and a more eager propensity to bring heft than the most comfy and risk-free "girlaneedja" Beatles register is prone to exhibit.

Warning : the album does not seek to bring "just" heft, it claims the right - thank God and Co. - to submit to various flavors and patterns of a seemingly conscious decision to bring tasteful britpop/rock variety, though I personally think that the majority of the album's peak moments tend to define extreme value via these intense Beatles-meets-Sex Pistols constructions. The music is never aggressive here, as all vile intentions are assuaged by The Beatles vibe, which is a primordial factorial. I dare say that sometimes even a Black Sabbath takes a glimpse at the fray, but there is no need to hide your daughter into the closet. (Sir, I feel obliged to inform you that your daughter is ugly like a sloth, only uglier, anyway.) These contributions bring a nice sense of emulated "digital dirt" and Rob employs JUST the right amount of effects on his voice and on the instruments to take you to a parallel universe where the only space-time is that of a loop encompassing a period of 1963-1972, and the meaning of sonic art is resonated by speakers made with top of the heat tube technology.

I don't have anything against the britpop deliveries on this disc, either, I especially like the ones that seek to reveal the charming cheese-factor of the '80s, as this affection is exhibited with style and charisma, while some of them invite me to the company of a channeled Martin Gore/Dave Gahan hive-entity who promised that JUST this ONCE, it WILL reveal disgustingly pink hope and I'm not yet decided if I believe it, but I tend to, and that frightens me. But this, of course, is entirely subjective matter and you are free to beat me to death in your mind with the peeled skin of a banana for thinking so.

Heavy duty commercial exploitation-attempts are few and far between on the spin, nevertheless present and eager to Affect All willing to give a damaged self-image to them. They emerge somewhat tolerable, - oops¿. - just pretend you are a chocoholic woman looking for a fix other than audio, and never forget that you are - as the track and its title tells you - Beautifully Wonderful. WHAT? You heard a similar concept before? "You're BEAUTY! fu. ull. Here is my life in my pocket, look, look, it's me, look!" Yes. A human artist needs to eat to live on, so he eats if he can, to keep on living. You Are Beautiful. (Of course I'm lying. Buy the single or I will stop lying.)

The disc comes to you via a well balanced structural flow, with the majority of the compositions weighing in around the four minutes mark, and the 8 eight minutes Epic also is included, which, also happens to be among the strongest segments of the fray. Sigmund Freud laps my back with a shovel and a violent rubber lady for pointing out the relevance of the intensified "Beatles-rock" influence of the LP, as the Epic in question is structured on that particular rhetorics, too. Rob Crawford's Cross Fingers LP is a ripe delivery with a coherent vision of what it wants to do, and manages to fulfill those aspirations with an intact shape revealed to the things it is after.

Check Rob Crawford and his debut LP at the artist's official site.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Enthroned - Obsidium review

Year : 2012
Genre : Black Metal
Label : Agonia
Origin : Belgium
Rating : 9.2 / 10

Buy it now

Enthroned has been around since the early '90s, and is considered by the under-connected underground to be among the elite representatives of the black metal genre. This usually means that you hardly will read frequent interviews with these artists, and their live performances are much more ceremonious and memorable than those of a black metal ensemble for which sacrificing a retirement home community on stage is pretty much Friday night.

My initial stance towards Enthroned was open minded skepticism spiced up with a tame troll attitude, as I was very eager to be subjected to the so called "elite" black metal, and was ready to whine like a little bathroom bitch if I'd had felt that I got anything less than that. Oh boy, Enthroned kicked my ass to hell without a return ticket, so I write this review from under the robust ass of a bile demon. Read on to find out more about this exquisite black metal delicacy.


Obsidium simply is 39 minutes of equally super-straightforward and super-exigent black metal. The flow of things is rabid, the band shows no interest in tamer passages than rigorous mid-tempo, while the most favored rhetorics is reliant of relentless blast beats that border in character on death metal, but the sonic mass that surrounds the drums always conveys good old fashioned soul-eradicator black metal warface, that which always shows mercy at the very last moment, pointing out the evident, that it is "just" for fun.

I dare say that this disc is a pretty consistent flow of hooks, as it is clearly revealed if you care to focus your attention on the data. Quality riffage trades the door knob to another riff of different character, well before the respective expiration date of any one of these luscious sonic constructs. The mood, as hinted, is classic skeletal/lich black metal, but it is done so honestly and beautifully AND with such ripe of a style and set of skills, that frankly, I think it is more peaceful and relaxing than anything else.

What I enjoy particularly about the release is its ability to come forth with an exceptionally natural flow of elegant structuring. If you listen to the instrumental variation in the song "Deathmoor" starting from 1:37 to the climax, for example, I think you will grasp what I mean when I say Enthroned places especially keen emphasis on taking you, the listener, seriously. You are never harassed with second tier data, and the flamboyancy that the top of the heat black metal thoughts are coming to you, are communicated and presented very flexibly and so supremely clearly. The band looks good whatever they are doing, because they are doing everything with heart, and without a concept of doubt on board. The little intricacies are present throughout, like the "launching comet" solo guitar that sings its one note song of declaration of independence at 0:53 in the track "Oracle of Void." This is the crystal clear music of the blackest dirt, and, as such, it is an immediate recommendation.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Impending Doom - Baptized In Filth review

Year : 2012
Genre : Deathcore / Groove Metal
Label : eONe
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.8 / 10

Buy it now

Mere Impending Doom is finally realized through the eagerly anticipated Baptized In Filth LP, and the disc is pretty obedient and rampant towards satisfying and shaping your likely anticipations. Officially, this is a pure deathcore release, but I think it sounds pretty evident that the contribution packs much more than usual groove metal influence, and the whole 34 minutes 34 seconds build is on a constant agenda to submit to a nicely presented Pantera influence, only this T-Rex has been put to a vegan diet in a cage it was imprisoned in, and now it is finally breaks free, so you can imagine the mood it starts to acquaint itself with the environment in.

Luckily, the fray won't find too many - if any - places to lose relevant amount of steam on, as the Impending Doom members made sure to cultivate this deathcore / groove hybrid with high definition groove riffage and blast beat galore for this period of time, - the slowest tempo the record has concept of is the good old mid-tempo earthquake rumble - so the fabric shows a well balanced and exigent character, most of time. The one caveat you are free to have is the pronounced reliance on the scattered-on-the-floor iron disc cutter metalcore breakdown structures, which, in theory, are still awesome methods to deviate from a main theme, but their (over)usage these days tends to slaughter down the last remaining promise of a surprise, in my opinion. Read on to find out more about the disc.


Fortunately, I already have mentioned the Pantera influence I think the disc is openly and keenly submits to, so now is the time to tamely iterate. Notice that even the lead vocalist sports a super-similar style to Anselmo's, only this particular timber lacks that uniqueness, that clearly revealed personality, but he still gets the job done no problem.

The core of this release is constructed upon a pair of compositional key-behaviors, as the band comes forth with an equal urge to deliver mid-tempo and more intense flows reeking all premiere blast beat patterns and then some. With great delight I inform you that the mid-tempo builds are exhibiting constant-, and highly successful efforts to surprise you with odd rhythm patterns through the contact comfort of riffage and drumwork, up to the point that the resultant stimuli writes into your psyche as an organic mixture of rabid-ass groove metal and cybernetic djent. The guitars have an almost percussive effect, which always is as sexy as being stabbed by high heels. (Multiple times.)

The album is not in a hurry to seek out all that unorthodox elements other than tasteful addition of soaring synths here and there - the music relentlessly remains guitar-centered even by those times - and there is a three minute sludge / ambient epic on the disc, too, which registers as a superb blend between Depeche Mode and Type O'Negative. I have a hunch that Peter Steele, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan are approving of this song as a hive entity, and such a track must truly be efficient at what it seeks to do. Indeed, this track, called "My Light Unseen" is a very nice addition to the otherwise total-hyper-fucking-extra-brutal grroove/deathcore fray, and quite frankly it fell upon me as one of the most pleasant musical surprises of the year so far.

The disc, I feel, is less fervent musically than certain other representatives of its peers is, in the sense that it satisfies with drawing the intended form and it lets it to live on its own, the band does not really cares to offer high frequency compliments to the archetype of the form once it has been revealed. Bear in mind that this behavior might exactly be what you are looking for. Recommended.

Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Monday, March 12, 2012

Gorod - A Perfect Absolution review

Year : 2012
Genre : Technical Death Metal
Label : Listenable Records
Origin : France
Rating : 9.2 / 10

Buy it now

France's premiere technical death fleet is tearing through mere chaos to deliver 38 minutes taken directly from the infinite attributes of its radically capricious originator. With its latest full length declaration "A Perfect Absolution", Gorod makes an efficient move towards the harmonic hook in the sense that the release is packed with full musculature music that exhibits noteworthy propensity to offer masterfully sculpted semi-prolonged motifs to hop unto, while maintaining the intoxicating level of musical intricacy and playful sonic brutality that are trademark ingredients of the genre. The album shows great consistency and content-richness that takes the flow of things galaxies beyond the usual field of operation of miserable criticism, - remember, the piece of art reigns above the critic - a circumstance which is starting to become pretty much "just natural" with legit technical death. This LP is all about the precious readiness to summon top of the heat sonic rabidity with a good amount of metaphoric sonic outposts in the fabric that openly seek to convey a more easily approachable anatomy, and it is safe to say that these segments are flattering their chosen archetypes with a skill set that is very rewarding and supremely pleasant to be treated by. Read on to find out more about those.


Technical death metal and its valiant mission to worship chaos rampant-unalloyed is taken mad serious on the delivery, an artistic behavior that bends to the command of scientific sonic warfare that tolerates no limits other than the ones worth violating. Gorod sports a truly stellar Godzilla mode that turns your pineal gland into a raging maniac on spot, - tazer cannon not included - its technical breaks are compact and efficient, and the one aspect I have been telling you about that I feel characterizes this release, is indeed a pronounced urge to play around with different subgenres in a fruitful attempt to "Gorodify" those without any concept of failure and mercy regarding these key initiatives.

The rhetorical elements to be found are numerous and somewhat/entirely subjective, while the music is complex enough so it can reveal novelty even upon the 111th listen, - I did not yet try it, I just know it instinctively - and this especially is true concerning the very core of the spin, which submissively belongs to fractal-level death metal. With that being said, I picked up herein the musical rhetorics of exigent progressive metal with the promise of going death metal any time, muscular metalcore is equally a part of the fray, - easy, there are no emo choruses - and the band takes the well positioned liberty to deliver radical surprises on occasion, like with track number 5, "5000 At The Funeral". This is a brief-, very well executed moment of smooth jazz all in the tradition of manouche swing with a well defined blunt, just notice how the music exhibits a chord progression-, a harmonic environment that reeks Summertime all the - aua. - time.

With this 38 minute full length, Gorod brings to you an eloquent technical death metal statement that guarantees a lot of pure gold content to soak your ears into. This genre is supremely demanding, and the only reason I score this robust release a tad tamer than what very recent technical death metal has brought to us, is that the other early TDM contribution of 2012, Spawn of Possession's Incurso clocks in at 52 minutes. Other than that, I love them both, and I'm pretty sure that you're loving them, too, if you are serious about what you are giving your listening time to.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Saturday, March 10, 2012

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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