Not really sure what the album title is about? Well who cares, it’s all about great indie/alt. country damn it. The passion of indie music got it right, and so shall we. Easily an album that one can point towards the influence of Johnny Cash (those deep vocals are truly zany) and The Velvet Underground, “Victory Shorts” by Absentee is an album rich in romantic ideals and poor in easy to chew pop nuance for which we’re abundantly thankful. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Nick Terry whose recent notables include the Libertines and Bernard Butler, “Victory Shorts” is a mediation on the mind and body’s odd quirks via smart lyrics and careful composure. Great for those of you unsatisfied that the Cure isn’t making good music anymore who can’t stand that Snoop Dogg was allowed to remix Johnny Cash.
Vocalist Sabina Classen isn’t just another hot metal singer; she’s a class act that not only lights up the stage but sets it ablaze with her stirring vocals and stunning presence. Thrash metal has seen a revitalization lately in the metal community but bands like Holy Moses who have been around for nearly three decades never stopped to jump onto the latest trend or bandwagon. Tons of cymbal catches, harsh power chords, and harsh aggressive female vocals. The rhythm guitar takes a lesson or two from Kerry King (Slayer) and the abuse of the metal strings is daunting. A fitting title for an album that will kick you in the ass.
With an album title like that you just know you’re in for the ride of your life. SuidAkra doesn’t disappoint with pagan metal so intense you’ll get tattoo from their heated spears and swords. After 8 studio albums, and thirteen years (duh), this German metal outfit has seen their music grown from a hybrid of death metal and pagan folk metal into an ingenious toke of harmonies and sweeping guitar anthems. Included along with the album is a DVD of an astounding live set from the Wacken Open Air Festival, an acoustic concert, and several nice bonuses. Check out the trailer…
Power pop chords chug away with infinite harmonies leaking out and forming a swirling lollipop around which this Baltimore-based pop icon Edward Joseph Neenan forges dynamic songs. He brings to E. Joseph and the Phantom Heart his crafty ability to build bridges between divergent melodies amid smooth grooves in uncanny. The album opener could very well be heard throughout mainstream pop radio with killer guitar hooks and a seminal nod to retro alternative pop-rock. Power-pop this golden needs to be shared with anyone who will listen. Essential.
Racebannon has always been one of those influential bands that most of the newer kids to the scene haven’t acknowledged or heard of despite the fact that they easily were some of the very pioneers of chaotic post-metal and hardcore. Once again experimenting with the very notion of rock ‘n’ roll with a defiant lack of ‘breakdown’s and clichés, Racebannon returns after a four-year hiatus on their new label Southern Records with a release in “Acid or Blood” that shows up anything Mike Patton or Melt Banana could create. You didn’t think that new singer for Dillinger Escape Plan came up with his style all of his own do you? Well regardless, “Acid or Blood” shows off a band that is unafraid of doing something different on each and every release despite their fanbase. Often compared to the likes of Converge, Racebannon is so much more than that with a firm grip on abrasive, cerebral metal. Distortion-heavy guitars churn and curdle with bouts of noisy anarchy. Drum-wise, I rarely find a band more intriguing and inspiring—it’s not just a bunch of fills and time signature changes but they really use their percussion as an instrument all on its own. This is the most important heavy music release in 2008.
Good grief this thrashy hardcore outfit known as Destruct-a-Thon is totally killer. “Aloha Jihad” is a quick EP featuring two brand-new tracks, a cover, and a couple of bonus tracks. The title track is a big ‘fuck you’ to the Bush administration performed against the backdrop of fast hardcore punk with a firm nod to power violence. Covering Bravado’s “Heart Attack” shows how fucking badass this group truly is. And how can you go wrong with the 17-second voice mail blister “Jet Metal Voice Text”? The ‘radio edit’ of the title track is just as boisterous as the original. This is thrashtastic!
Senegal’s own Seckou Keita has been renowned as one of the world’s foremost authorities and innovators of the kora which is an African harp-like instrument. Often referred to as the Clapton or Hendrix of kora, Seckou Keita has plenty of laurels to go around. Fortunately his music always lives up to the hype with this latest effort “The Silimbo Passage” providing a nice backdrop and introduction to this varied instrument—despite its popularity throughout all of Africa, each musical culture and bright spot seems to employ different tunings and artful playing. In fact the album features Keita’s own invention, a double-necked kora that allows for multiple tunings on a single instrument. Rhythm masters and students alike will find this album both compelling and intriguing.
Yes there is still a punk scene emanating out of England. Yes Rudimentary Peni is one such band. And while some miscreants were declaring the group dead since ‘04’s “Archaic” EP, they weren’t. In fact, “No More Pain” shows just how alive and kicking the group is. With simple-line drawing artwork that is so much more than that at closer glance designed by Nick Blinco (cult punk hero), Rudimentary Peni gouges out eyeballs straight from their sockets only to skull fuck the remains with their unique brand of late ‘70s punk-metal. No one will ever accuse these punk heroes of being anything more than latch-key urban punks who want a little anarchy for brunch to alleviate the hangover blues.
I’ve been awaiting Asva’s follow-up for a while now. Am I disappointed? Not in the least. In fact “What You Don’t Know is Frontier” is a landmark album of vast psychedelic post-metal from a group so wrought with talent that it’s amazing that people in the metal community still have no idea who these cats are. Asva trudges through a bleak landscape of post-metal cursed with stoned-out guitar distortion, crunching mid’s, and stark harmonies. You know how there are those sample discs that you can use to test out your new expensive stereo system or home theatre outfit? “What You Don’t Know is Frontier” is the only album you’ll ever need to test your surround sound system and speakers. Blessed with the likes of Stuart Dahlquist, he of Burning Witch, Sunn 0))), and Goatsnake fame, as well as members of bands such as Earth, Mr. Bungle, and Burning Witch, this instrumental opus is speckled with faint heartaches, sinister sounding organs, and gut-wrenching guitar fuzz. Raw emotion captured and controlled by some of the brightest pinnacles of the heavy doom metal and stoner rock community. In a word, awesome.
Boston has become known as a scene of mavericks in the hardcore and chaotic metal circuits. Ehnahre further exemplifies this theory with their amazing debut record “The Man Closing Up” on Sound Devastation Records. Featuring multiple guitars and even a double bass, Ehnahre is chaotic death metal with elements of doom and experimental orchestral instrumentation dotting the album. Each song is riddled with brooding percussion that devastates with bone-crushing might. Tackling on the experimental scene with an abandonment of traditional song structures, the group seems poised to walk the distance in a similar limelight that previous mavericks Isis, Converge, and Neurosis previously journeyed through.
