Category Archives: Review

ART238 – Atavism

by Lefteris Kefalas

Many things can change in a seven year period; many things can work for the better or the worse. Fortunately, this hiatus worked for the benefit of ART238. After some intense live shows the band did last year in French soil, atavism_recto_promothey decided that 2014 is the right time to hurl their newest offering (the first in seven years) like a radioactive missile ready to awaken and revert the most primal human instincts. However, after the addition of new members,  there are certain elements that have shaped the band’s sound into something different.

At first, Atavism may seem like an … Read more

Clément Belio’s Contrast

by Ben Norton
Clément Belio: the Man, the Myth, the Legend

Clément Belio: the Man, the Myth, the Legend, the Goofball

Clément Belio is, quite simply, making the music of the future.

I don’t say this lightly. It’s a common (trite) trend, to call experimental music the “music of the future” (or, for extra pretense, the “Music of the Future”), acting as though some EP recorded in the bedroom of your favorite obscure indie band is going to herald in a new era of music.

I don’t know if Clément Belio’s music is going to herald anything in, per se, but I would still describe it as the music of the … Read more

Soulmass – Despairing Fates

by Dæv Tremblay


Souls-themed blackened doom metal band Soulmass delivers us, through their indiegogo campaign, their new album, otherwise due October 31st, entitled Despairing Fates. The album is full of great riffs and deep vocals, along with a sense of loss and despair in its oppressing atmosphere.

Bryan and Brett, the two men of the band, wrote lyrics based on the ever more sad and melancholic stories found throughout the games Demon’s Souls, and Dark Souls I and II. This kind of music really is the best to support such lyrical content and emotions, the weight of the … Read more

XYAX – Ode to the Universe (in three parts)

by David Lopez Jr.

XYAX is Dave Tremblay and Ben Norton. XYAX is self-described as “22nd-century electronic un-metal un-music”.

Lyrics are presented on their site: XYAX.net

We all love albums that give us “out of this world” experiences. Well XYAX’s entire concept is to bring you that. XYAX does what modern technical death metal and progressive bands fail to do on a daily basis. XYAX does not feed you a riff salad and actually brings you something that is truly innovate in it’s vocal approach, song structures, rhythmic diversity, and production values.

Even with being so technical and having many layers, “Ode to the … Read more

Blue-Eyed Hawk – Under The Moon

by Dæv Tremblay

This is what you should be listening to all day. Blue-Eyed Hawk‘s tasty avant-jazz, female-fronted, and ornamented with a good number of collaborators, is “an album of beauty, diversity and soaring emotion.” And just listening through the first few seconds, you’ll have no problem believing that quote.

Textures are beautiful and varied throughout, and there’s place to improvisation from the band’s members in every song. If you want an almost dreamy jazz-rock fusion album with pretty vocals, trumpets, and cool rhythms, this is the album to get!

Under The Moon comes out through … Read more