Leeds-based mathcore one-man band [reference needed] II II II (read “two two two”) released their debut album, A Conundrum on My Coffee Table, which we adored, back in 2012. Fast forward four or five years, and they share some work-in-progress demos on their facebook page, stating that they were looking for a new vocalist. Without it being announced officially, they found one! The name hasn’t leaked yet, but the voice remains in the same vein as before. Well, here we are now: we received an advanced digital copy of Frequency Illusion, coming out on September 22. What is … Read more
Tag Archives: mathcore
The Hirsch Effekt – Eskapist
Some albums come along and pleasantly join the ranks of what you previously considered “great music”. Some albums come along and make you question everything you previously classified as “great music”. The Hirsch Effekt’s fourth full-length, Eskapist, is the latter kind of album – a towering post-hardcore monolith that reaches a mountaintop I never imagined to be climbable, from which the view makes most other modern progressive acts look like ants.
The Hirsch Effekt are one of those bands whose sound cannot be tidily summarized in a couple of adjectives. Their own bandcamp liberally describes them as “rooted … Read more
Down I Go – Mortals
Hovering between Iceland and the United Kingdom like the plume of ash of the Eyjafjallajökull, the progressive hardcore trio Down I Go recently released an EP by the title of Mortals. Their 2015 full-length, You’re Lucky God, That I Cannot Reach You struck my imagination – and I’m sure many of yours – with just how near perfection and unique it was. I still have shivers when the “Mother in the Pen” theme gets brought back at the end of “The Sending”, it wraps this masterpiece beautifully. Mortals is more akin to one of the band’s other thematic EPs, … Read more
Ikea Mutilation Manual – Anxiety Assembly
Mathcore can be an interesting beast. What can sometimes be seen by some as just a bunch of weird times signatures and senseless noodling put together in a blender, it has the potential to be a powerful medium of expression for the musician, and a unique experience for the listener. Enters Ikea Mutilation Manual and their debut EP, Anxiety Assembly. Owen Swertz and Tom Verelst set out to write and record nine songs, or “Images”, for this record; each started and completed in one evening. Creative restraints often lead to unexpected and surprisingly innovative results, as is the case … Read more
Grizzly – Reaper
Ontario’s Grizzly band just released their second publication, Reaper, and it rips. Don’t get fooled by the opener, ‘Grave’, this is not horror ambient, but rather some crushing and technical experimental grindcore. You can see this right on the second track, but they keep on providing extra crunchy riffs with weird timings and rapid successions of notes. Though it is barely more than ten minutes long, excluding the Pantera cover at the end, this EP shreds mountains. I guess mathgrind wouldn’t be too far-fetched a description, as it certainly has aspects of both mathcore and grindcore working together. Reaper … Read more