mulating our opinion of an album before diving back into the endless sea of new releases. Sometimes, however, a confluence of factors generates a scenario in which one album stays in rotation for an extended stay before pen gets put to paper. White Ward‘s Futility Report is an album I’ve been trying to write about since January, when I heard its first publicly released song. It took about 30 seconds of that track to convince me this was a band worth paying attention to. They were kind enough to send me a review copy, but shortly thereafter, the always-excellent … Read more
Mini-Reviews LXXVII
The quality of French avant-garde black metal band Way to End has already been tested with their previous album, Various Shades of Black. Their newest release, Senestre, continues on that slope with forty-five minutes of melodically dissonant black metal filled with intricacies and oddish moments worthy of the genre tag.
Belgian band Vøs released their debut EP, Ran, in late March. The twenty-minute five tracker brings home some electro-djent that camouflages itself with post-hardcore into a result that’s melodic and energetic. This EP is certainly promising for the future of the band and what they can do … Read more
Mini-Reviews LXXVI
Appalaches is a progressive post-rock band from Quebec, and they released Cycles in late March. The songs on the album are all really good and well fleshed out, in relatively long structures – up to the twelve-minute ‘Milsai’. Their instrumental compositions speak of themselves, and they surely will be a band to look out for in the coming years!
Animatist‘s Face Club is a top-tier album putting math rock, post rock, and jazz fusion in the blender, which results in a greenish goo that tastes much better than what it looks like! Odd-time ostinati are repeated extensively to create … Read more
Monthly Recommendations: March 2017
‘The Dutch quartet Kuhn Fu will release their newest album, Kuhnspiracy on March thirty-first. The album consists of highly-addictive compositions zig-zagging through experimental and fusion jazz. The songs are often slow and deliberate, rather calm, too, but go into overdrive from time to time, which really adds to the dynamic spectrum of the songs and makes for a really subjugating experience. This is one release to write in your wishlist.’
Mini-Reviews LXIX.
‘Holy shit.
This is quite something. Prometheus Omega is a self-described ‘progressive rock band’, but I think it would be fairer to call them a vaporgrind band. Their … Read more
Mini-Reviews LXXV
est album – a concept one at that – about the social movement of the same name. On that subject I think it does a great job of contextualizing it and making it accessible to the listener, so hurray! As for the music, it’s also very well crafted and played, and manages to create memorable and epic passages, as well as inspiring and impressive riffs from all members of the quartet. Go get it!
Thanks to Mike for this recommendation! Replacire might be one of the most promising technical progressive death metal bands I’ve heard! They released Do Not Deviate… Read more