This is not a Valentine’s day special.
Zeitgeber‘s upcoming album, Heteronomy, has just been announced, on Art as Catharsis’ bandcamp, but I’ve been able to listen to the whole thing and… It’s fascinating beyond words! The duo manages to create an entrancing and intellectual experience through a fusion of traditional and modern instruments, merging world music with psychedelic rock and electronica. It’s something I wholeheartedly recommend, if you’re even slightly piqued by ‘Phase Responsive Curve’, the available single. The album comes out on March fourteenth, and it is absolutely fantastic!
Québec’s symphonic folk death metal act Aeternam, who released a strong album, in 2012, entitled Moongod, are back, even stronger, with Ruins of Empires. The orchestration is lush and powerful, the vocals are deep and varied, and the use of traditional instruments on the record adds a layer of quality that makes it tower above other albums of the genre. It’s remarkable and certainly one of the best melodic death metal album of recent history!
The progressive jazz of the British quartet Bad Brew shines brightly on this eponymous debut EP. It’s barely twenty minutes long and three songs wide, but the changing compositions and tasty lines accompanying the chord progressions are enough to qualify this a promising start! It wouldn’t suffer from more variety, but it’s a solid basis upon which to expand.
Open up the Earth is the first EP of Colorado melodic progressive metal band Critical I. The sextet seems to draw a lot from djent, but only the better side of it, with technical interplay and interesting song construction. The production is a bit rough, but it’s easily forgiven because of how enjoyable the four songs are, here. Another great start for another promising band!
Kurdaitcha is an Australian blackened post-hardcore entity who just released Epilogue, their debut EP. The screamo vocals and harsh distortion make it satisfyingly rough, dark, and aggressive, while the songs are diverse and interesting. That’s a certain banger you should get into.
Masons is a post-rock band that crossbreeds post-metal. Their tripartite debut EP speechlessly tells a story, like that of a mute storyteller. It’s a very well-made EP just shy of thirty minutes long, but that will prove a great addition to your heavy post-rock collection!
Somewhere between doom and post-metal lurks Raziel, a new band from Montana, and its debut album. It’s bleak and heavy, and features a bunch of nasty blackened riffs, sickening atmospheres, and lo-fi vocals. It’s really good, and unique because of their own style of playing.
Eater of Man come from the United Kingdom with a massive gift of progressive deathcore. Despite the raw production, the composition and playing shine through to give us a really powerful EP with a lot of qualities and intricacies. It’s well worth your time!
The Space Cats is an improvisation-based progressive post-rock band, and The Spacement is now at its third volume of selected improvisations. The cats-themed tracks evolve slowly, and are very contemplative and evocative. The buildups are quite rewarding, too, with an intense climax for closure. Check them out, they have a pretty big back catalogue as well!