How many metal bands would be brave enough to write an album and call it “Ghetto Angel”? You’d think there’d be some bootilicious bodaciousness on “Ghetto Angel” but instead you just have the perfect butt-fucking down-tuned down-trodden sludgy doom one metal couple could ever ask for. Sourvein features members of Hail! Hornet, Eyehategod, and Buzzoven, and are 100% guaranteed to rock your socks off. Southern styles with crusty vocals that crank the guitar amps up to 11 and never turn off the distortion pedals. Recorded to perfection by Vince Burke (Hail! Hornet, Beaten Back to Pure), swamp metal Sourvein now brings it to the table each and every time out on the circuit. Doesn’t it figure that MTV, would only mention Sourvein amid a Michael Jackson tribute article?
Coffins is Japanese doom metal! Raw and uncanny metal that is very versed in attention deficit disorder anthems, and avoiding them at all fucking costs. Sure “Buried Death” isn’t your Grandma Metal’s cup of tea, but fuck tea when you can have caffeinated alcoholic beverages. The guitar slices and dices with psychedelic ease though Garcia would roll over in his grave a few hundred times if he heard one or two minutes of this album of sludge. Over the course of time, Coffins has really progressed into one of the more influential sounds out there. Toxic swamp metal that was written in urban squalor. Amazing.
Listen to “Under the Stench” [MP3]
Phil Western and Mark Spybey met in the Canuckistani capitol of Vancouver, Ontario while performing with Download, a band that featured ex-Skinny Puppy members (at the time) cEvin Key and Dwayne Goettel. Recorded across the Atlantic Ocean via England and L.A. with file-sharing software, “Beehatch” dissolves quickly from a peaceful ambient piece into a sculpture of noise and dead-space tones. Phil Western’s duties as a DJ and producer amplify his work alongside Spybey, whose own signature sound alongside Dead Voices on Air and Reformed Faction (ex-Zoviet France) have elevated him among one of the electronic underground’s most sought after voice. Tactile tickling sensations of music collage with tight beat loops and crafty synthetics are but one reason that this album liberates the electronic music world from the tired and repetitive.
Awww, it’s so cute that people like 40 Below Summer still play nu-metal. Well at least they got the album title spot on.
Limited in release, “Holocene #6” is a CD-R EP that utilizes the sweet skills of producer Tim Green (The Fucking Champs) and charges head first straight into your sternum. Ugh! With razor sharp guitar slices and manic depressive melodies, The Mass is one fucking fast machine of lunacy and hilarity. Prepare to be headfucked into solemn submission and then the Mass will smash a saxophone up your bum just to make you airtight. Wicked sick, the way it ought to be.
Screamo, it’s one of those genres you can either dig, or you just totally admonish. Oddly enough I was a pretty big fan of the sound when it was first being developed in the early ‘90’s; unfortunately it got bloated by sound-a-likes and fashionazis. But even while the genre became blander and blander, there were some bands that rose to the occasion. Forget their tender angst riddled lyrics for a second and they’re cheesy melodic croonings and focus instead on the talented hops and skips between heavy hardcore metal and pop-punk anthems. If you can accomplish that you’ll enjoy at least two or three tracks on this sophomore effort by Alesana. Otherwise it’s mall-core to the max.
“Make some fucking noise”, only a nu-metal anthem could start that way and sound just as ridiculous as you might imagine. Live and unadulterated rap-punk noise without the filter of ‘good’ turned on is what “The DiY Guys” bring to the table. Yeah there’s a DVD as well as a live CD of various songs including four brand new (yet moldly) that sound like a retarded Public Enemy who couldn’t escape the ‘90’s music scene if they wanted. (hed) pe == yuck.
Besides their silly attempt to play dress up and look like some cast-off fifth Beatle, Coldplay’s most recent foray into the music world finds them teaming up with oddball ambient man Brian Eno as producer. Eno paints a vivid portrait of incredibly intricate pop music whose choruses soar and verses lay tender hooks alongside drenching wet melodies. There’s a lot of world-beat influences as well as off-beat keyboard work throughout this album whose title was siphoned from renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Is it as good as it gets for Coldplay? Probably not, but it delivers where “X+Y” faltered and this band doesn’t seem to stop impressing, even if the U2 references (iPod commercial, much?) are getting a bit tired. To summarize properly though, I leave you with:
David: “You know how I know you’re gay?”
Cal: “How?”
David: “You like Coldplay.”
Haunting melodies sweep your feet out from under the proverbial rug on this giant of a debut record by A Storm of Light. Signed to the artistically heavy label, Neurot Recordings founded by members of Neurosis. While this is truly a one-of-a-kind aural experience, “And We Wept the Black Ocean Within” conjures forth intense visuals; no surprise when you consider that this Brooklyn trio features Neurosis’ visual director and none other than former Red Sparowes guitarist Josh Graham who also tacks on Battle of Mice and Blood and Time to his storied resume. Rounding out the brutal pummeling alongside the guitarist/vocalist Graham is Pete Angevine (Satanized) and ex-Tombs member Domenic Seita who tackles the bass and back-up vocal duties. Unsane and ex-Swans member Vinny Signorelli joined the group as a drummer post-release. The album tells a story in first-person following degrees of grief and loss though there are no specifics such that anyone listening can jump right in and align their own life story. Grimy guitars weep through multiple layers of distortion and guitar effects. Percussive explosions narrate the march through anger and depression and denial until the bass lays on the denouement with effortless groove and sickly timing. Very dark, very dense, and very essential.
Listen to Mass [mp3].
Wow Portishead is still alive and kicking? I pretty much gave up on this break-through trip-hop band years ago when you know, they weren’t DOING ANYTHING. So it’s been a long time coming since 1997 when the band released their self-titled sophomore follow-up to “Dummy” which was released half an eon ago in 1994. Fortunately the wait was worth it, groove-laden tracks and sultry singing aside, the band has displayed an uncanny ability to redefine themselves in these modern days with even a nod in the direction of the acoustic world on “Nylon Smile”. Beauty shrink-wrapped in plastic indeed.