Plug-In - Hijack review

Year : 2011
Genre : Instrumental Fusion Rock with Metal elements
Label : Independent
Origin : France
Rating : 7.5 / 10

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Plug-in, as a full length delivery, sounds to have two focal attitudes/behaviors it seeks to entertain you along, and one of these guarantees intact sonic satisfaction, for sure : this is none other than the - initial - intent of the release to give birth to unique harmonic environments which I personally find the most relevant thing it does, yet, a good amount of this spin revolves around the act of administering quasi-competent guitar wankery on top of orthodox fusion chord progressions and risk-free harmonic passages that lack the will or capacity to surprise your receptors once they have revealed their limited charms.

Hey Cherokee Warria', this is not a problem, there are solo guitars on top, remember? Of course you remember! You have not been given the chance to forget. The release has a whole mini-army of guest lead guitarists featured on it, and, among these, I only am familiar with the name of Matthias Eklund. Mr. Eklund is from Germany, and he is a vastly talented guitarist with a unique vision of the instrument, as you can see if you take the time and check out some of his stuff for yourself. He truly does inventive, crazy, relevant things with the guitar. This is not something I can tell about each and every guest artists of this contribution, though. The extensive - I mean : exxxxxteeeeensive - solo guitar playing on the release does not have a collective body worth showing as long for as it IS shown for, as the undisturbed harmonic structures often are rode by leads that are above average solo monologues at best. Granted, I'm a snob, but, whenever the name of the game is instrumental, than so should you be, Lover, too, because why satisfy with anything else than stellar content if the potentiality to summon that, only is hindered by the sensitivity/skillset of the - ccc - artist? Read on to find out more about this decent fusion rock / metal hybrid delivery if you want.


You know the world famous solo guitarist Steve Vai? He has a profound fixation on this - kind of - drunk whale melodic rhetorics since 1312, and this spin features an extensive hommage to that particular music lingo. I find that feeling truly punishing. Luckily, the harmonies behind the drunk whale melodies are taming my torment a bit, regardless how they are directly taken from the CD outlet of a play-along magazine, I suppose. The release is a hybrid in its artistic quality, in my opinion, and sounds to cover about 1/3 longer of a distance than it could have looked more than "just" reasonably "good" along. Don't get me too wrong, please. The best parts of the release - which I think are the unique harmonic /rhythmic environments whenever it takes the time to reveal them - are of delicate entertainment value, yet, the tendency to trade in this readiness for "easy way out"-type chord progressions, seems to increase in activity as the record - hahaha - progresses.

Titular delivery "Hijack" sounds to be a good example of the top form of the record, with a warped, colorful rhythmic/harmonic fabric, toppled - for NOW - by top tier, rabid lead guitar playing. The superb bass work demands separate mentioning here, as well. While the next track, called "Conkrete" has tremendous promise, the "gift" of the promise never seems to arrive, and the build is toppled by drunk whale guitars, THEN the release is about to reveal its family friendly jazz fusion character for the first time. Seriously, the content starting from 2:50 is the kind of music I expect to hear in a guitar lesson video on YouTube. "Aaaaah, hello! Did you catch which musical MODE I was just playing in? Hello? HELLO??" Later on, the track brings in a hefty, elegant theme reeking a nice, pink Dream Theater vibe.

Next track, called "Meeting Steeve" is your auto-motor sport background music, and the whole song is superbly reminiscent to Steve Vai's song "Let's get out of here". I have a hunch that the title is a tribute to Mr. Vai. (The mid section features Vai's drunk whales, too! Fuck me running!) As for the music contained in this track, it is your everyday average auto-motor music, and it begs for your cheaply tolled appreciation so shamelessly that you will either submit and give it, or it won't get any of it at all. As for me, I can listen to this song with a poker face. (Not counting the tears.)

The remaining portion of the delivery signifies a profound shift towards the rock fusion side of things, characterized by the risk-free modal guitar playing I have been telling you about. I'll be honest with you, and tell you that I have nothing against it at all, it's only that it has nothing for me beyond its super-orthodox existence, which though is super-easy to appreciate. But don't expect crazy-ass progressive metal stimuli as the final third of this album. Expect family friendly fusion rock, and don't expect top of the heat of that, either. For that, you want to listen to the Almighty Frank Gambale. (He is your Daddy.)

Rating : 7.5 / 10

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Nazhand - Complicated Antitheses review

Year : 2011
Genre : "Blackness Music", Black Metal
Label : Metal Throne Productions
Origin : Iran
Rating : 8.5 / 10

Nazhand is a black metal act from Iran, and its Complicated Antitheses demo is as discomfortingly authentic as a local riot footage made by a cell phone - to say the least. It sure seems to be an interesting question to pose what kind of extreme music is given birth to by souls and nervous systems shaped and formed by the Iranian consensus reality, and let me tell you that the results are pretty disturbing AND culturally/sonically relevant. As far as I ""know"", - (from the media) - many natives of Iran feel a constant-, suppressed urge to leave their homeland, wanting to flee from the pseudo-democratic oppression propagated by the local government. Legislated atrocities are commonplace, administered by the power as parking tickets.

Nazhand's music renders this rampant experience of instinctive disillusionment, anger and hopelessness with a degree of authenticity that needs and tolerates no criticism. How can be disillusionment "authentic", when you have no actual experience of the things you are lacking? You don't need to have free will to know that it is your birthright to have it. The experience of lacking freedom and free will, is the operational field of the unacceptable disillusionment, because the heart and the mind have a collective, autonomous right and natural desire to possess freedom and free will, and both instinctively know when these birthrights are radically interfered with. As such, being a rebel when your freedom and free will is interfered with, is not only your option, but your duty. Guys, let's talk about the music.


The music on this demo is sick. I have no clue why it is labeled as a demo, because it seems to weigh in as a legit full length to me, with 46 minutes of seriously fucked up sonic content, and that, of course, is a positivity. The album sounds evil and hollow, as it would seek to - in my opinion, with great success - represent all the feelings its creators have to bear and endure as result of their immediate habitual, emotional and ideological surroundings. In this regard, the music herein is a method to get rid of the slitherer spirit tar, and THIS particular rendition of it, I dare say, is one you will not easily forget. Imagine Burzum with a cybernetic tint, - Major Maxim, anyone? - subtract all beauty whatsoever, and you are third-way there.



Major Maxim thinks nothing of you.

The record primarily is a mid-tempo build with the occasional tendency to bring the pace to a restrained-but-still-steady cybernetic crawl, feeling no urge whatsoever to violate the stone-traditional rules of ancient black metal. In other words : if the band finds two strong harmonies, then they - fortunately - won't relent playing them for you until those harmonies reveal their true meaning of malevolent menace, ready and able to start to chew on your soul, which, of course, is the central idea of this Iranian spin.

I especially am content - as a proper pervert - with the vocals on the delivery : the opening track starts out with a calmly paced synth intro of relative mood-disturbance power, but, when the heavily distorted, under-a-cosmos-of-suffering grade vocals are coming in, the tone of the stimuli changes radically, and not for the pleasant. Listen the opening track from 2:09 : oh my God, this is some sick fucking vocals in a truly sick place in the fabric of the mix. The sonic data, in my opinion, is exceptionally dark, discomforting, evil and smartly paced throughout the record, as result of the combination of the cybernetic Burzum rhetorics and the most seriously warped/distorted/tormented vocals I have heard so far.

Nazhand is into what I used to refer as "specter" or "lich" black metal, as the sonic weight of the album is more of a broken spectral character than that of good old fashioned groove metal meat-mass. It's relevantly broken, beautiful ugly music that wants to know if its creator is willing yet to reinvent herself/himself when the music is over, or not. The release comes to its conclusion with an instrumental epic, and I personally am not happy with the fade-out it chooses to end up with, via arriving to a simplistic piano arpeggio. Other than that, the release does not give the sear promise of a shit if I am content or not with it, and that is what it makes it an immediate recommendation. Nazhand's Complicazed Antitheses takes you to places you are grateful you do not have to stick around at, and also places you need to check out if you are serious about your extreme music.

Rating : 8.5 / 10

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Cryptodira - The Four Quarters EP review

Year : 2011
Genre : Math Metal Death Metal with Experimental tendencies
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Rating : review requested by the band

Get this EP as a free download from the band's Facebook page

Cryptodira's The Four Quarters EP - you got to love the crazy cover art, which, in high resolution, reveals fractal level complexity in good old C64 vector visual lingo - starts out with a deceitful arpeggiated guitar intro, armed with the function of opening the gates up on what the then-hidden primer tools of the warfare actually are : since Ceterum, I'm kind of a maniac of intentionally fucked up rhythmic grooves, and with great delight I have to realize that the opening track of this EP seems and SOUNDS to have its fair share of grudges with orthodox rhythm work, as well : the traditional flow of the music, in this case, gets more abruptly and more aggressively disturbed herein, but, never to the point that it would cause harm in the fabric-, in the character of the music, fortunately. So, this first instrumental track on the release, with its bravely abused time signature and rabid set of mean, fat riffs is a definite winner for me. Read on to find out more about this EP.


Second track, called "Asphyxiate" starts out promisingly enough, with another sonic hive-entity getting held hostage by a timehack, and this scenario sells out a one minute intro no problem. Then, a verse comes your way with metalcorish vocals, and, if you frequent these pages, then you know my generic input on metalcoresque vocals, so I will leave my related nervous breakdown at that.

The band employs compositional techniques akin to what you frequently hear in the djent subgenre: the reoccurring engagement of industrial iron cutter guitars is often used herein as a method to offer something to connect elements with, while the "body" of the flow has no problem at all finding legit instrumental directions to take your awareness to between two of these sonic outposts. And, in fact, when the metalcore vocals do not explode into a shitsniffer metalcore chorus - and they do not herein - then they are much more tolerable. The complexity offered by this song is bordering on the experimental, and this always is something a listener should-, in my opinion be grateful for, as the smartly sculpted-, at heart easily accessible yet monstrous sonic elements herein indeed serve audio content worth soaking your ears into.

Third track, "Anonymous" is a strange, relatively neurotic track, in my opinion. It sounds to me as easily the least successful on the entire EP. No wonder they did not even gave it a name. It starts out with a lost in space, superwet, reverberated guitar arpeggio, flattered by timehacked drums and an environment that bows down to this rule set. Humpty Dory so far. Not so much later, these drums engage death metal blast beats, - really? - while the fronter does not relent addressing his favorite frustrations to date. A frightening reminder of a metalcore chorus is the last hint of a stable element I feel is worth grasping after, then the build exhibits its reoccurring desire to squash me smaller and smaller and smaller with relentlessly wet sonic mass that does not sound to me as something I would bother deciphering too much, I let it fall on me noprob the way it wants to, instead. The audio data starting from 1:48 in the body of this track, for example. The charm of randomness? Nnnnnnnnno. Only the casual ugliness of it, in this case.

Track four, "Victim Complex", reminds me of a groove metal song with its start sequence, fronted by a cowboy from hell who had way too much fucking chili for the throat. The track is hasty to arrive to an interesting interlude that borders on the thin, collective field of technical death metal and thrash, then, the more tame and more assuaging groove comes back as an element to make way for further developments. These consecutive sequences are pretty tight : they once again bring to my mind thrash metal connotations, - the middle of this track diffo has a Kreator vibe, in my opinion - while surrounding the thrashy vibe with a truly interesting selection of various death metal attractions : the robust, smartly limited harmonies of melodic death are as equal ingredients of the occurrences as are the little tints of crazy-, high frequency liquid guitar riffs you anticipate from bands like Obscura or Blotted Science.

Track number 5, called "Amenity", is the one you will check out for yourself, beautiful Ladies and notably miserable Gents. Remember : Noise Shaft does not give scores for albums that are not yet in commercial circulation, because the site does not seek to super-subjectively hinder in any numeric way the chance of any sonic content reaching such status. OK, I just lied, because you won't regret checking this LP out, which you can find as a free down on the band's Facebook page.

Rating : review requested by the band

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Alcest - Les Voyages De L'âme review

Year : 2011
Genre : Shoegaze / Retirement Home Black Metal
Label : Prophecy Productions
Origin : France
Rating : 8.5 / 10

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Alcest is a musical project in which fundamental band member Neige attempts to channel messages and emotions from a foreign land he is in contact with. With the earlier body of work of this band being partly misunderstood-, many have thought that the squad's previous outings are sinister, whereas they sought to be hypnotic and peaceful - Alcest indeed moved towards a direction that reveals the respective characteristics of eloquent, harmonic shoegaze music and retirement home black metal. This latter subgenre, of course, is not entirely over-populated yet, so Alcest's work certainly sounds to be quite relevant with the tremendous charm it has the capacity to account for. The album is a super-pleasant surprise in my opinion, as it does not concern itself at all with meta-expectations, finding and sharing peaceful, caressing content that I dare say, oftentimes is of transcendental significance. I will attempt to validate my claim in the body of this Alcest - Les Voyages De L'âme review. Read on if you want or don't.


This release is peaceful all the way through, making use of the orthodox black metal elements in a way so those are free to reveal their secretive tender side without inviting you to call treachery. Alcest's latest offers the content through a smartly limited set of compositional techniques, and, as result of this, the band is able to deliver SOME harmonies of unique significance - more on those later - while the bigger part of this release is "just" pleasant, straightforward, tame black metal that lends you a shoulder to put a head on, and the most aggressive it will get is a funny interlude in track number 2, in which the fronter reveals the Varg Vikernes for a minute or so.

The release makes use of a "real-and-natural" sounding production environment, and scarce are the times when the data seeks to invade you with fabrics having a lot of sounds parked into them. Even when such a thing happens, the wall of sound structures of the release demand immediate recognition : a central harmony always serves the function of a lighting tower, the tides are not intimidating, and you would have a hard time ending up lost in here, no matter how hard you tried.

The music of U2 gives me the shivers, probably because of the singing that I think lacks charisma and dignity, but, strangely enough, regardless how a particular mood calibration of this release reminds me of that findable in U2, in this record, I find the mood charismatic, charming and relevant. I promised to address the moments I think this LP shows true brilliance through, and that is the track called "Beings of Light". A very simple-, but heart-wrenchingly beautiful harmonic structure submits your awareness into blissful submission, and that's going to be be good fun. Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Ame sounds to me as the precise counter-pointing of Blut Aus Nord's trilogy, that which is expected to conclude this year. Listen to this, too, because if everyone listens to Blut Aus Nord, only, than that is so anti-underground, you feel me?

Rating : 8.5 / 10

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Woburn House - Sleep Summer Storm review

Year : 2011
Genre : Atmoshperic Sludge
Label : Zeitgeister Music
Origin : Germany
Rating : 9.0 / 10

Woburn House plays a rather rare type of sludge music, and what makes this sludge special, is that it does not seek to intimidate its listener. This German group delivers caressing lightweight sonic data, coming to you through touches hidden in a glove hot as the vicinity of hellfire, and the intent never is to wear you down or to fix you into a brick wall.

Woburn House's music cunningly and willingly reigns in the position of being elegantly lost in space, yet always remains ready to give a ping of life upon request. The album's agenda is firm and original, while its sound is capable to summon - in my opinion - a truly special mood that reeks an alternate universe Type O Negative of the early '80s with Peter Steele contemplating in ambient terms. Read on to find out more about this.


The peculiar character of the music on this release is not something you can easily come across. In fact, it is safe to say that Sleep Summer Storm comes to you with a sound that has all the chance in the world to hit you as rather original, free and unmannered, and, as something you did not hear before. Sludge, and its closely related extreme buttbudy, funeral doom are subgenres that seem to utilize the method of musical intimidation without restrain : the explosion of the tuned-below-hell guitar and the crawling drums are sonic entities you are familiar with while under sludge-siege, or, if you find your awareness amidst the tidal anti-torsion fields of funeral doom. Booooosh! In other words : sludge, and funeral doom are intimidating forms of music, and what makes THIS particular release unique, in my opinion, is the fact that it is capable to summon a super-similar vibe with tender methods and instruments, while rejecting intimidation.

The songs herein are deceitful images, as is a woman who comes close to you, only to make you realize that her face, which seems so pretty from the distance, is 1000 years old. The fabrics of the tracks are not too "busy" at all, there always is plenty of room for modest, but proper variation, mainly administered by simplistic, yet efficient arpeggiated harmonies and random sonic entities that find relevant function in their respective environments. The delivery remains tender in nature, armed with its lethal kiss even when it puts its grouchier face on.

The vocal contribution sounds to me as a conscious fanboy tribute to Peter Steele, as the method the related data is expressed through is quite similar to the vocal style of the Type O Negative fronter, in my opinion. It must be mentioned though that the singer lacks the

(n)e(c)rotic deep

of Peter Steele, and, fortunately, does not even try to go for THAT pitch. He instead delivers along the similar mood register, but, on HIS natural frequency.

The Type O Negative correlation is something that the whole album baths and finds beautiful sonic pleasure in, but not with an intent to rip the mood off. Good luck ripping off Type O Negative properly by the way, as Peter Steele had - and I sure hope still has, in his favorite form of existence - an exceptional sense for brutal-fragile harmonic hooks that pull a checkmate on the awareness right away, and this methodology evidently is one that the creators of this LP are greatly enjoying from Mr. Steele, too. I have a hunch that this record might work pretty well with a variety of situations and moods, and the only viable test to the pudding fails to elude me, too. This LP easily is one of the most special releases of 2011, and you definitely should check it out.

Rating : 9.0 / 10

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Lamb of God - Resolution review

Year : 2012
Genre : Groove Metal
Label : Epic / Roadrunner Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.0 / 10
(score evolved from 7.0 / 10 on 2012, September 13)

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With its 2012 LP Resolution, premiere Pantera clone Lamb of God declares that it still is the devoted follower of the T-Rex. The name of the game herein is traditional groove metal with minimal - if any - deviations from and/or additions to the well established primer formulas of the testosterone Heavy! Met'll! subgenre, and, if one tiny thing could be added that seems to draw somewhat of a promise of an identity to this ancient clone band right now, - that is more pronounced than "that" of other lambs of the large clone flock - then it is the album's much welcomed raw-meat heaviness, which utterly rejects the recent day sterile plastic sound. The robust meat-charisma sonic data of this release comes to you as the primordial benefit, and, as result of its relentless abuse, as the primordial hindrance of the stimuli, as well. Because, trust me, this LP has no novelty other to offer than the legitimacy of the new autonomous pattern - which is a splendid offering on its own merits - AND the character of the sound, which kicks your ass to hell and back. If you have expected anything else than highly traditional groove metal from this band, then you are obviously deluded, and in for a gentle awakening. Read on to find out more about this super-orthodox release, if you want.


Resolution is a risk free groove metal pill with a huge dosage of decently engineered T-Rex content, and tints and tints of brilliant variants of the exact same thing. It would be unfair and unnecessary to criticize this record for what it tries to do, as the band's intent once again is to duplicate - reinvigorate, ripof... TUKK! - that which does not need any of these operations, as the thing we are talking about, still is the groove metal of the early '90s, established by Pantera. Only (much more) neurotic. Check out this great Pantera clone with no (t that much) neurotic tendencies at all.

This new Lamb of God release, one must admit, at least exhibits the characteristic of being entertainingly and semi-convincingly angry on a comic book register, and also poses the question : what is the best age of your life to cultivate and resonate your primal rage in a fashion that you look the least laughable while at it? This is a tough question. The Lamb of God dudes are quick to address the peaking of their engineered product-(r)age herein to serve out "Y"ours with a capital reverse-"WHY??" , and, as such, this LP reaches its full potentiality in superfast fashion. The release no doubt is honest like a cartoon asskick by a cartoon electronic bull in this regard, yet I have a personal percept that the mere raw charisma of the grooving rumble oftentimes is utilized as a method to escape the need to deliver a new-, autonomous groove of reality punishment for. The best moments of the album demand immediate recognition, though. I especially like the track "Desolation", with its relentless minigun grooves and capricious shifts. I love the song, OK? But what is up with the timber of the guitars? Am I the only who thinks that they would sound better with a little bit more mid-and high frequency let through? Share your input, and please know : I do not want to give you the concern troll, nor the snob with this question. My question is honest.
 
I'm not too happy with the vocals on the album, but I don't have so much against them as if I had twice as much against them then I actually have. They mostly sound "just" neurotic to me, and the only instinctively perceivable emotion of the LP is the constant fucking nervous breakdown. Sure, some of you are in for that, exactly. The vocalist's Anselmo imitation became less raw and believable, in my opinion, and I'm relatively shocked to report that his delivery sounds to exhibit metalcoresque vocalfry screaming here and there. On the other hand, one can not take away from the band that they are sounding more "real" and aggressive than the latest album of them that I am familiar with, - here. The production values of this decent groove metal release are more than enough to call it a SAFE recommendation. And that is the problem with Lamb of God - Resolution, too.

Rating : 8.0 / 10
(score evolved from 7.0 / 10 on 2012, September 13)

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Primal Fear - Unbreakable review

Year : 2012
Genre : Power Metal
Label : Frontiers Records
Origin : Germany
Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Primal Fear's Unbreakable is your perfect way to open up a new year in skirted Puma sport shoes. The Photoshop covert art has a tremendous 1992 Amiga computer game vibe somewhat, at least in my mind. Unbreakable is fueled by oldschool enthusiasm rampant-unalloyed at the start line, as these German vets bring a good amount of quality power stimuli on a record that shows only minor irregularities in the OH!, so important department of ruthless cheesefestation Camambert efficiency.

Following a budget Casio orchestra epic - synonym : pinball machine soundtrack - intro, unbreakable starts out with definite highlight delivery "Strike", in which a hilarious sense of a blend of proper Megadeth and hefty Iron Maiden is unleashed on your receivers, and this attitude is maintained intact in the consecutive track, "Give 'Em Hell". From then on, the record has a mixture of decent tracks, a couple of - not more of - fillers, and you really need to look with intent eyes to sport a definite yawner, fortunately. And, according to my experience, if you are looking for boredom with intent eyes, then there isn't any. Read on to find out more about this fun power metal release.


The Unbreakable LP has a high expectation level it demands from itself, and, courtesy of a galore of quality paua metal parts to soak your ears into, the release, for the most part, satisfies those expectations in - sorry about "teh" following - quite satisfactory fashion. The exclusive moments of less integrity I perceive in the fabric of this baby always punishes through the sinister means of the the goodol' communist marching song vibe, but, the band almost sounds to notice how embarrassing the feeling in question can get at times, and they are hasty to wrap that feel up prior its dominance.

The delivery shows a multitude of well cultivated primordial behaviors, as it does and delivers every method and mood you ever wanted a power metal album to immerse you in : it rumbles with that pink latex thing, violating consensus with the concealed retina-silhouette of the highly power metallic evident testicle, and, when it chooses to put a leash on speed, its mid-tempo contributions, along with a set of larger than life power metal ballads, work quite well, too. Personally, I think power metal ballads are sucking out female zombie eyeballs and won't relent doing that, but, if your opinion differs greatly, then please share your top five power metal ballads in the comment section to the reading pleasure of the other visitors and yours, truly.

If you are a power metal fanatic-, OR enthusiast, then it is very unlikely that you will have any problem at all listening to this release, as it has absolutely ripe melodic moments while it respects /worships the unwritten rules of power metal compositional techniques. The less muscular tracks are still good enough to give your very best puzzled look to. When compared to the other pieces on the release, the track "Bad Guys Wear Black" is a pretty terrible song in my opinion, and probably the worst on the entire release. The next one, "And There Was Silence", has terribly mannered singing in the verse. If you can endure these moments, - which is not as hard as French kissing a cobra - then the release is pure gold for you. Enthusiastic, exigent, tame-but-diligent power metal that finds an Iron Maiden banging her head, and that says something.

Rating : 8.0 / 10

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