Mammoth – Deviations

by Jeff Nixon

mammothIn the world of progressive rock and metal, instrumental albums are pretty common so it’s a bit hard to stand out. Mammoth absolutely manage to do this with their new album Deviations. Impressive playing paired with amazing production quality and beautiful tones prove that these guys are at the top of their class.

The first song, ‘Entanglements’ sounds like an entanglement of instruments weaving wonderfully through each other. Impressive guitar arpeggios and solos are complemented by ambient keyboards and intense drums. The middle section of the song calms down with a bright clean section that builds back up into … Read more

Mini-Reviews XXV

by Dæv Tremblay

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Strange Loops is my first acquaintance with British death metal band Mithras. The experimental death metal duo’s newest release is almost an hour of fast and sometimes atmospheric music that never fully finds what it strives for. It’s unarguably a promising record, but it doesn’t get to maturity. It’s full of cool moments, but there’s just something missing, something that makes it so that it isn’t completely for me. Try it out, you might like it!
Bogotá, Colombia’s progressive black metal band Cóndor‘s previous album, Duin, has been highly praised by one my favourite reviewers, but I … Read more

Mini-Reviews XXIV

by Dæv Tremblay

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Punk, rock, metal, pop… I think this one’s one of the most diverse sets we’ve had yet!
Vancouver’s microtonal punk band, Jock Tears, have just released their Sassy Attitude EP. They play some pretty light-hearted punk that almost sounds like surf rock at times, and their live shows are apparently a lot of fun as well! In line with pure punk aesthetics, the use of microtonal instruments give the whole a very ‘badly tuned’ sound, with weird vocal melodies, chord voicings, and guitar leads. The 17-EDO system allows for good approximations of the neutral third and perfect fourth and … Read more

Mini-Reviews XXIII

by Dæv Tremblay

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This October is a lot more dry than I expected it to be. Apart from releases from bigger names, the understream level is quite low! Let’s see what I salvaged anyways.
Redrick Sultan is a psychedelic rock band using microtonal instruments as their main composition strategy. The songs, which I believe are in nineteen notes per octave -, are nonetheless very accessible and enjoyable. There are a few places, here and there, where their tuning system clashes with our perception, conditioned to twelve notes per octave, but, with a short adaptation time, you will get to appreciate even the most … Read more

Mini-Reviews XXII

by Dæv Tremblay

osrThe beginning of October has presented itself as a pretty slow moment for experimental underground music. So today I will include a few releases from earlier this year and last, and a big name in metal! You won’t see this often here.
Italian label AltrOck Productions released yet another interesting release. This time from the band Promenade. Their debut album is called Noi al dir di Noi – meaning something along the lines of ‘we tell ourselves’ -, and it’s a pretty funky progressive rock one! The first track, ‘Athletics’, goes a lot of places as the instrumental opener, … Read more