Antlion – The Prescient

Antlion is a progressive death metal quartet from Canada’s capital, Ottawa. Their debut album, The Prescient, came out on October 23rd.

First of all, they don’t do anything spectacularly out of the norm, but they do it well enough to keep it an interesting, and at times engaging, listen. There’s plenty of time signature changes and modulations throughout the album, the riffs are complex and driving, and the overall sound is tight. It just makes you try and fail to headbang to it. The album’s length is decent, giving you just enough juice to enjoy before getting overwhelmed, and … Read more

Kvøid – Nihility

Experimental black metal has lately been a thing I opened about, and I’m glad I did. The amount of incredibly good music that this genre hosts is mind-boggling, and I won’t ever forgive myself to not have opened up to the marvellous world of black metal before that. That being said, the latest band I became acquainted with is Kvøid, a duo from Portland whose first album, Nihility, came out September 23rd of this year.

First off, the amount of field recordings and minor seconds on this album is rather impressive. It reminds me somewhat of Ulcerate and … Read more

Sithu Aye – Senpai EP「先輩EP」

Through a significant amount of releases, Sithu Aye accustomed us to quality material: great music, especially for guitar solo lovers, high quality production, and the thematics of space and astronomy. The latter is obviously absent from the Senpai EP, but the music is still on par with most of his releases, although being quite different.

So,「先輩EP」is a fun, light-hearted EP about a Japanese anime girl waking up late for school, being stalked by a “kouhai“, and dreaming in class about battling evil frets (all that is in the video below). Sithu puts his heavier elements … Read more

Armand Jourdain – Entre deux

Armand Jourdain is a French self-taught musician who likes to blend djent to jazz and world/folk music. It’s really not the other way around because there is just so little heavy moments compared to the amount of lighter ones that it can’t be classified as a heavy metal release.

This short, three-track EP maintains this style of keeping the djent just for the more intense parts. This is a good trick, as it allows for a wide dynamic range, and the rise in intensity can be truly felt, rather than implied. However, it most likely turns off most djent kids. … Read more

Serious Beak – Ankaa, an overanalysis of

After their wildly acclaimed debut album “Huxwhukw” back in 2011, we didn’t hear much from Australia’s psychedelic progressive band Serious Beak. I was much delighted when they announced a sophomore album under the name of Ankaa and released a single for it, “Red (Laniocera hypopyrra)”.

First of all, “Ankaa”, from my best suppositions, comes from the Arabic العنقاء, al-ʿanqā’, which means “the phoenix”. Now, a Phoenix is a mythological bird related to the sun, and that lives cyclically. Ankaa is also a star, otherwise known as α Phoenicis, a rather common binary star that will … Read more