This iteration of Mini-Reviews marks a new step in Can This Even Be Called Music‘s. Since our inception, we’ve been growing further and further from review scores because of the many problems inherent to them. The previous step was the shrinking from percentage scores to a simplified, three-level system, but it still retained many of the problems that any scoring system has. Namely, they oversimplify an often complex and subtle appreciation of a piece of art, they cannot represent integrally the complete written review, they can be misleading, and people might only look at the score without even reading … Read more
Mini-Reviews XXVIII
This week, I came across Stranger Aeons, one of my new favourite music blogs, where I discovered Numenorean and Gilded Lily, which I will be reviewing today. Go check this website, and here’s to many more discoveries!
Numenorean is an atmospheric black metal/blackgaze band from Canada, and Home is their debut album. They include a lot of post-rock elements to their songwriting so the contrast between these atmospheric buildups and the apex moments is rather cathartic. Home came out earlier this year, and is a very promising album.
Nova Incepta is a cinematic progressive metal band from Australia. New … Read more
Monthly Recommendations: October 2016
Here’s what we think are the best releases of October! As always, it’s a very difficult choice, as there are many other very worthwhile releases, so I would suggest going back to read some of our mini-review sets!
‘Car Bomb‘s Meta is a whole new level of terrorism. From their 2007 debut, Centralia, the band kept digging deeper and deeper into the realms of philosophy and mathematics (as showcased in w^w^^w^w) and applying them as compositional tools. I don’t need to tell you how relieved I am to see that this trend is continued in their latest attack. Their undecipherable… Read moreMini-Reviews XXVII
British melodic progressive metal band Hieroglyph are to release their new album, Ouroboros, on November eighteenth. The eleven-track, sixty-seven minute concept album explores cards of the tarot, most specifically the Major Arcana. Most tracks are pretty generic, but showcase an enjoyable if expectable sound, but the closer, ‘Ouroboros (The Magician)’ shows what the band can do with some additional time to explore their compositions. Overall, it’s a pretty good album, but it’s nothing exceptional.
Værbitt‘s Tid is a pretty substantial slab of Norwegian atmospheric black metal with blackgaze elements. The three tracks on record, each at around … Read more
Mini-Reviews XXVI
Dischordia is a progressive death metal band from the United States of America, and their upcoming album, Thanatopsis, out on November twenty-fifth, is something I would’ve preferred not heard. It’s difficult to pinpoint where they failed, because they’ve got many elements that would otherwise get my happy: dissonant harmonies and voicings, odd time signatures, cool riffs and extreme drums, and yet nothing seems to be held together. My best guess is either something with the production or the cohesiveness of the different band members.
Brazilian fusion jazz band Metá Metá have released, back in August, MM3, an album, … Read more