Tag Archives: metal

EXCLUSIVE STREAM: The Mercury Tree and Cryptic Ruse – Cryptic Tree

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music

The Words

It’s here! It’s finally here! Listen to the Cryptic Tree EP in full right now, 24 hours before its official release! Let’s bask in the glory of heptadecaphonic music, and the occasional polyharmonic passage with icositritonic tuning, crafted in collaboration by Portland, Oregon’s The Mercury Tree and Seattle, Washington’s Igliashon Jones of Cryptic Ruse.

I shan’t say more! Let the music speak for itself. This record is mind-blowing, so check it out!

The Links

Bandcamp – The Mercury Tree
Facebook – The Mercury Tree

Bandcamp – Cryptic Ruse
Facebook – Cryptic Ruse

The Recs

Cryptic … Read more

Special Providence – Will

by Dæv Tremblay

The Hungarian jazz fusion metal quartet Special Providence has got me hooked since their album Essence of Change. Their newest work, Will, is an all-around improvement over the former, though, and to tell you this was unexpected without sounding like I’m discrediting the band is difficult, but it’s just to show how impressive I thought Essence of Change was. Yet, Will is even more so. The four talented Magyars put their chops on display in all of the ten songs on the album, by offering tremendous solos, odd-timed riffs with many a rhythmic complexity, and all that with … Read more

Sunn Trio – Sunn Trio

by Dæv Tremblay

The scorching heat of the Arizona day, and the complementary soothing coolness of its night, is whence Sunn Trio emerges. Playing a punk-spirited, Arabic-music-tinged free jazz, the ‘trio’ release cassette recordings of their live performances since at least 2015, with Radiowaves. Their new, self-titled endeavour takes the form of a vinyl record. What baffles me is that there seems to be a whole lot of people credited for a trio… Indeed, there are no less than eleven players mentioned on bandcamp, making it rather close to the scope of a big band, but I suppose they would be guest … Read more

Vmthanaachth – Inferotemporal

by Dæv Tremblay

Chamber music is, by definition, classical music played by a small group of instruments, where each member has its own independent partition to play. For example, string quartets and your usual metal band can, technically, be considered chamber music groups. Due to the minimalistic nature of the formula, it’s where we see the most experimentation happen. Indeed, it’s easier to gather a few people to play weird, boundary-breaking music than to convince a whole orchestra to do the same. Texan band Vmthanaachth is a quintet comprised of two guitars, a viola, and two saxophones. That is, according to some pictures … Read more

B L A C K I E… All Caps, with Spaces – Remains

by Dæv Tremblay

B L A C K I E… All Caps, with Spaces – yes, that’s the full name and stylization – is an experimental metal duo from Houston, Texas, and Remains is their latest release. The album starts off with a minimalistic piano-saxophone-voice trio that still sets the tone for what is about to happen, although things get much darker and heavier. Most of the music is made from saxophone, keyboards, programmed drums, and samples that create a chaotic, ambiguous space full of contradictions. Yet, there is beauty to be found on there. Beauty in the chords and their progressions, in … Read more