Atena – Shades of black won’t bring her back

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

Zayn – Fields of God

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

Slice the Cake – Odyssey to the West [UNFINISHED]

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

The Mire – Vice Regalia

a1848591908_16 (1)UK’s The Mire is a black metal band fond of experimentation, and not so much of preconceived ideas about the genre. They’ve been active since 2009 with a two-song demo, and Vice Regalia is their most recent release, which classifies as an EP, clocking in at just under 25 minutes. Unfortunately, the band has announced this release as their final one, and apparently won’t be making new music anymore.

The band blends clean singing with different styles of harsh vocals, which pulls them towards the side of avant-garde black metal just a little, sound-wise. To that is added their experimentation, … Read more