Cinco de Mayo Edition. Unfortunately, no Mexican bands will be featured in this edition of one-sentence reviews.
Echo Spiral　エコースパイラル　is an American atmospheric djent band that really plays in the same park as Plini, Sithu Aye and David Maxim Micic. Dark Mirror is a short and sweet EP, at just over 10 minutes of carefully selected material. They put their talent on display in technical melodic riffs that maintain that feel good vibe that this part of the genre is known for, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be blast beat, does it?

Masiro arose from its wrongfully assumed death with Technocologist Unknown, a very special album that I’d like to call post-mathcore. More on that later today.

Wang Wen 惘闻 is a post-rock band from China, and 岁月鸿沟 (Sweet Home, Go), their latest album, is only a reaffirmation of their mastery of the genre. With experimentation in instrumentation and technique, they craft a musical soundscape that is very unique. The whole album is very good and will please fans of the more orchestral, laid back side of post-rock.

Yes! Sithu Aye‘s semi-concept album, Set Course for Andromeda is out! I’ve been waiting for that one, but ultimately it’s just more Sithu. There’s nothing really new that we haven’t heard on Invent the Universe or Pulse on the first side of the album, which is the non-concept side. Side two, “The Andromedan”, comprises the six tracks that make up the self-titled, 29-minute track. And here we see him exploring outside his habitual comfort zone a bit, and I only can say that he should do so more frequently!

Projects II is Travis Orbin‘s third solo EP, and is somewhat a sequel to 2014’s Projects. This really is mathematical metal, but I’ve already said that about the first one. In short, if you want something that will make you think and calculate how the rhythms therein can go together, it’s the thing for you.

Progressive technical death metal gods Gorguts are releasing their newest EP, Pleiades’ Dust on the 13th. It’s a 33-minute concept song that defies the imagination, and proves once more how important Gorguts are today, even if the band is almost 30 years old. If you’re into music or art at all, this is an invaluable release.

Alunar is a 2014 album by ambient black metal, or black drone band Aureole. It’s a concept album about Citadel Alunar, and is – I believe – one song split into five movements. The dissonances exploited here, especially in “III: The Senility of the Hourglass”, are rather well thought out and give a haunting sense to the music. Very good, spatial drone.

And finally, French dark synthwave artist Perturbator just released their new album, The Uncanny Valley. It might be their best one to date. Just the opening song, Neo Tokyo, blew me away! Femme Fatale almost sounds like a synth jazz song, Venger and Sentient have beautiful vocals, and the title track serves as a wonderful closure. Perfect album to imagine a retrofuturistic dystopia.