Atena – Shades of black won’t bring her back

by David Lopez Jr.

In your fucking face. That is how this album will feel and that is great. Catchy grooves that are met with interesting layers and song structure bring life to this album. It just keeps you interesting in the content while giving you dynamic range to rest your ears from the typical squashed modern sound many bands seem to enjoy.

Atena seems like the kind of band that would be excellent to see live. Shouting, singing, grooves for days just make you want to shout along with the band and push everyone around you.

The production on it is a great … Read more

Monthly Recommendations: November 2015

by Dæv Tremblay

monthlyrecommendationsnovember15

Here are the best of the best from this crazy month of November. Seriously, we could’ve put way more amazing albums to not miss on, but we chose the four on top.

Alarmist – Popular Demain

Brimming with complexity and catchiness in equal measures, Popular Demain is an uncompromising masterwork of progressive fusion that I suspect I’ll be coming back to for a long time. Rarely do you hear such tuneful melodies amidst such deep and layered arrangements.

Instrumental (adj.) – A Series of Disagreements
“A Series of Disagreements doesn’t have any fat; it’s only meat. That’s also what makes … Read more

Zayn – Fields of God

by Dæv Tremblay

a1980823415_16Zayn is a Croatian post-metal quartet, and Fields of God is their third release; it’s also their lengthiest, at around 30 minutes, which barely puts it as an LP.

The music itself is some instrumental amalgamation of post-metal and progressive metal. Some grooves are reminiscent of early Tool, maybe because of the prominent bass guitar. Contrary to many post and prog outfits these days, they don’t do into lengthy songs. The most extensive one on this album is the seven-minute title track. This is also pretty contradictory with their focus on atmosphere rather than polyrhythmics, or technicality. Not that these … Read more

Peculate – Hotline Bling

by David Lopez Jr.

Peculate has decided to join in on the fun that many others such as Sufjan Stevens have in covering the controversial “Hotline Bling”. Peculate does not do a direct cover like many of the others have but a creative jazz-metal arrangement. The outro of the song in itself is a piece within it self.

The video is not just a static image either but something that had effort put into it that goes along with the song.

As usual you can “name your price” for the song and other bits on his bandcamp page by using the link above the … Read more

Slice the Cake – Odyssey to the West [UNFINISHED]

by Dæv Tremblay

a2703576326_16Slice the Cake have been around since 2009 and released their debut EP, “Cleanse” in 2010. They became more well-known with their 2012 album “The Man with No Face”, which raised the band to world fame in the spheres of progressive metal and metalcore, only reinforced by “Other Slices”.

With Odyssey to the West, the trio pushes even farther the boundaries of their own brand of music. Their musicianship and creativity is at their utmost, and is best portrayed on [NAME RELEVANT SONG FROM ODYSSEY THAT MATCHES DESCRIPTION]: a song of epic proportions both structurally and conceptually! They’ve built … Read more