Fire! – She Sleeps, She Sleeps

by Daniel Kuburoglu

When one first hears of the band Fire!, one may be tempted to first imagine a hardcore punk act, brutally tearing down establishments one performance at a time; an in-your-face barrage of aggression which unleashes your adrenaline and demands your attention. Is this not how one would generally imagine “Fire!” after all? A cry shouted out in the wake of uncontrollable destruction which will shortly reduce all around it to ash? It is a powerful force to say the least.

Yet there is another, more subtle side to fire which many tend to overlook. The flames can emerge, small … Read more

Carpadium – What You Need

by Dæv Tremblay

What You Need CoverAfter an immature debut album, Florida-based Carpadium put out Fake Jokes, an album that solidified their musical direction and sound in a more noisy math rock fashion, and got rid of the vocals too. Their upcoming full-length, What You Need, will be out on the 26th of February.

On its layout, the album is just a tad longer than 30 minutes and consists of five songs, as well as a prelude and three interludes. Continuing the sound found on Fake Jokes, What You Need is upbeat and sometimes pretty angry math rock with a noisy yet very good … Read more

OSR: February 21st, 2016

by Dæv Tremblay
Let’s start off with Montreal’s Éohum, and their black/doom metal album, Ealdfaeder. It’s a very potent album with a strong message about the lost civilizations and cultures because of, mainly, colonialism. A great record. Go big or go home… Axon-Neuron have outdone themselves with their double-LP, Metamorphosis. Almost two hours of great and intelligent prog rock with various jazz and classical influences, as well as a bit of pop and electro music. Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut is a Romanian post-rock band that clearly likes long titles; from the album name to the song titles,… Read more

AJ Froman – Phoenix Syndrome

by Deidre House
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“Retro” is a term that to some, applies solely to bands that are derivative, stagnant, unoriginal, uncreative, and too mired in the past to produce anything of value, like your dad’s bar band. I must say that retro psychedelic progressive rockers AJ Froman prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this is not true at all on their latest release, Phoenix Syndrome (well, not necessarily true, anyway).

Everything here sounds like it could have plausibly been written and recorded in the 1970s. The riffs, bass lines, and synths wouldn’t sound out of place at all. I mean no disrespect by that … Read more

OSR: February 15th, 2016

by Dæv Tremblay

Last week was very slow, but only today I got 4 new albums so I guess it makes up for last week!

Out March 11th, Mithridatic‘s debut album is a ceaseless discharge of blackened death metal that only France seems to be able to craft. It’s a solid and oppressive slab so remember the name. The newest release from Art as Catharsis is Australia’s 苦しみ　(Kurushimi), a free jazz and grindcore melting pot that reminds me strongly of Japanese improvisation noise-grind band Schreckwürmer, but with softer passages. This is yet another stellar album on AaC’s ever-growing list of releases!… Read more