Beats Make Doom Sound Fun
It’s all about the rhythm with These New Puritans. Head honcho Jack Barnett, responsible for songwriting, vocals, and production, claims Wu-Tang Clan as a hearty influence on his band’s sound. Good thing New York’s grimiest hip-hop titans made their way across the ocean, as the beats presented on These New Puritans’ second LP Hidden are merciless. In fact, Barnett (whose twin brother, George, provides live drumming) has said he intends there to be refrains in his records, both individually and as a discography. And if there’s one refrain it’s percussion, both synthetic and physical. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews These New Puritans
Western Australia : Prog Metal :: Seattle : Grunge
This is a big deal record for metalheads. Western Australia has produced a few bands that have become staples in the prog metal genre, namely Cog and The Butterfly Effect. But with Sound Awake, Karnivool have emerged as the ones to watch. Their previous LP, Themata, was released almost five years ago and this 2009 full-length clocking in at 72 minutes puts them solidly in the upper echelon of progressive nu-metal. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews Karnivool
History’s Been Kind, and the Future’s Bright and Sunny
Thomas Erak and Andrew Forsman are young, both 25, recording since they were 17 and no doubt inspired by their Washington state-inherited grunginess. Back then they were The 30 Years War, getting that name by dropping a finger into a history textbook—the same way they got their current moniker. In The Unlikely Event is their fourth and strongest album to date with a good deal of complexity and diversity of sound. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews Terry Date, The Fall of Troy
Metal’s Seen Better and Worse Days, No Breaking News There
It’s a dangerous place, post-grunge metal. So many bands have proven to be pathetic excuses for such in this oft-tired genre. Even without naming them I’m sure they come to mind: Korn, Nickelback, Linkin Park, Puddle of Mudd, Limp Bizkit, etc. Some of them may have had not-so-awful moments in the sun with a single that blasted across FM radio and fueled many a teenage male’s rage fantasies. But that’s the ultimate conflict, isn’t it? When you’re trying to sound hard, edgy, and ominous, if you score a radio hit you’re not so hard. Breaking Benjamin’s fourth album, Dear Agony, is a solid one, proving itself listenable and well-recorded if not monotonous and unadventurous. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews Breaking Benjamin
Black gold mined from all over the world
There’s a lot to say about Mos Def’s The Ecstatic. It’s his best in years, if not ever. Everyone was disappointed (with due cause) in his last few releases, all of which made fans go ‘What the.. ?’ He was busy working on movies and other non-rap things, but where was his next Black Star or Black on Both Sides? Clearly he was fulfilling some contractual obligations but did we have to wait until Geffen let him go? Seems like it, and it was totally worth the wait. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Mos Def
Spinning ’70s Rock into Turntable Gold
In 1996, DJ Shadow dumped a bucket of freezing cold water over the shoulders of hip hop with a record of turntablism for the ages. Entroducing… changed the game. We may have been slapped in the face by the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, Afrika Bambaataa, Kraftwerk or even De La Soul, but pure sampling and scratching had never sounded this funky. Chinese-Canadian Eric San is the scratch-master behind Kid Koala and half of the brains behind his brand new project The Slew. What Shadow did, San took to a similarly scratched and pasted place in 2000 with Kid Koala’s brilliant Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Seven years later, he and Dylan Frombach (aka Dynomite D) were asked to soundtrack a documentary about the Seattle psychedelic blues rock band by the same name. They were so inspired by their recording sessions with the legendary Mario Caldato Jr. that they are taking The Slew and running with it on 100%. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews
(Emo + Metal x Butt Rock)/Prog Rock = Just Too Much
Coheed and Cambria are to rock music as Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts are to the gaming community. Nerdy and weird, they’re a little over the top but not in a brazen, flashy kind of way. They’re more so in a no-haircuts, disgustingly decorated bedroom kind of way. The title of this record, their final piece of a prog-rock opera, is a mouthful: Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow. Only Coheed and Cambria fans can appreciate this dramatically epic rock opus. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews Coheed and Cambria
Equal Parts Punk and Classic Rock
The Israeli punks in Monotonix are something else. They sing in English but it might as well be Hebrew. It’s nearly unintelligible. But that doesn’t really matter – their brand of garage rock is dirty, gritty and heavy on the guitars and wails. Where Were You When It Happened? is their first proper LP after their successful 2008 Drag City EP Body Language. Clocking in at half an hour with eight songs, it’s a rollicking bundle of energy full of screams, moans, drum rolls, feedback, crescendos and lulls. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews Monotonix
Wearing Their Hearts on Tattooed Sleeves
Turns out Eagles of Death Metal are not a death metal band. They are, in fact, a kick-ass glam rock band. Despite an opening spot with Guns n’ Roses’ reunion tour that went horribly wrong (they were booed and Axl called them the Pigeons of Shit Metal, which lead guitar/vocalist Jesse Hughes promptly tattooed on his forearm), they’ve honed their own brand of scuzzy goofball glam. The tongue-in-cheekiness is everywhere; hello, the record is called Heart On. They sport mustaches, aviators, and ooze silliness alongside their sexiness. Read more…
By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews
The big hairy beast from Georgia charges at full-speed.
Mastodon have done it again. The Atlanta boys were already on top of the metal world with 2004’s astonishing Leviathan, followed by 2006’s ridiculously awesome Blood Mountain. Their much-awaited follow-up Crack the Skye is equally breath-taking, but it also takes their brand of prog-metal to a new and fascinating place.
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By Bill Chenevert Posted in Reviews Mastodon
