Antlion – The Prescient

by Dæv Tremblay

Antlion is a progressive death metal quartet from Canada’s capital, Ottawa. Their debut album, The Prescient, came out on October 23rd.

First of all, they don’t do anything spectacularly out of the norm, but they do it well enough to keep it an interesting, and at times engaging, listen. There’s plenty of time signature changes and modulations throughout the album, the riffs are complex and driving, and the overall sound is tight. It just makes you try and fail to headbang to it. The album’s length is decent, giving you just enough juice to enjoy before getting overwhelmed, and … Read more

OSR: 28th October 2015

by Dæv Tremblay

On today’s One-Sentence Reviews, we’re talking about Odetosun, Esmerine, Tod Huetel Uebel, Alberto Menezes, and Charts and Maps!

Odetosun‘s Dark Dunes of Titan is an experience of patience, where riffs are brought up but don’t seem to grow, they just stagnate. Esmerine‘s Lost Voices is a great chamber music album with prog and post rock vibes to it, a must listen! Tod Huetel Uebel‘s new album Malícia is good, throwing some elements of doom into a more traditional black metal formula. Alberto Menezes‘ crazy guitar slapping and other techniques are exploited on his Constant Shift EP,… Read more

Only one week until we can listen to this sweet math rock album!

by Deidre House

Irish math fusion act Alarmist are dropping their full-length debut, Popular Demain, on November 2, and at only one week away, my excitement is palpable. Of the two tracks currently available for streaming, we’re treated to some sweeping, cinematic jazz progressions supported by an arithmetical rhythmic core. At times it’s uplifting, yes, but in harmonically rich and complex ways characteristic of fusion. Think Jaga Jazzist meets Battles and you have a fairly good idea of what to expect. The album will be available on Bandcamp, where you can also check out their existing EPs.… Read more

The Fifth Alliance – Death Poems

by Dæv Tremblay

Netherlands’ The Fifth Alliance is a doom/sludge band active since 2013, from what I can tell, because it’s the year of the release of their debut album, “Unrevealed Secrets of Ruin”. But today I’ll be reviewing their upcoming album, Death Poems, which will come out October 31st through Grains of Sand Records. The album also has touches of post and black metal to it.

It’s rather uncommon to hear a band in that genre that is led by a female singer. Here, Silvia delivers monotonous yet emotional screams that wouldn’t be out of place on a post-hardcore album. And … Read more

OSR: 22nd October 2015

by Dæv Tremblay

Welcome to One-Sentence Reviews, where I’m too lazy to actually write decent length reviews!

Let’s kick today with Drummond‘s EP Getting Comfortable. Globally, it’s a more jazzy Sithu Aye. Now that’s something I can can get behind! Secondly, we’ve got India’s Kouros, with their first atmospheric doom rock album Causa. It does a pretty good job at establishing an atmosphere, but other than that nothing extraordinary. Hybrid Nightmares just released the fourth part of their Age cycle with The Fourth Age, the culmination of destruction. It’s a really good progressive black metal EP, and… Read more