We’ve been somewhat mystified by Spires of the Lunar Sphere‘s debut, back in 2015, so their newborn with a most megalomanic title, Siren (Take the Fair Face of Woman and Gently Suspending with Butterflies Flowers and Jewels Attending Thus Your Fairy Be Made of Most Wondrous Things), has less of that bewildering factor. That being said, it doesn’t mean it’s bad – far from it –, just that you only make a first impression once. Still jumping between metalcore, post-hardcore, mathcore, and deathcore, the duo takes its idiosyncratic eccentricity to extremes of peculiarity and heaviness. Think Arsonists Get … Read more
Tag Archives: post-hardcore
Redshift Pilots – Moonlight Synthesis
We recently often write about bands who bridge post-hardcore and progressive metal, it seems, and some also other genres, but here’s one that almost uncompromisingly links it with black metal. Redshift Pilots released their debut full-length album, Moonlight Synthesis, in early October. It impatiently shows its black colours with fervent blast beats and tremolo picking riffs, but then sways into atmospheres of post-rock and post-hardcore ambiances seamlessly and in an honestly impressive manner. Sure, some tracks stay more on one side than the other, like “Overgrown”, which is almost entirely post-rock, but has a blackgaze twist near the end, … Read more
Tvivler – Negativ psykologi #3
The punkish hardcore-n-roll quartet Tvivler, from Denmark release their third Negativ psykologi seven-inch tomorrow. I covered their first one in 2015, but since then they released #2 last year – of which I had no word –, and #3 just now! In the same line as #1, the two most recent ones range from ten to fifteen minutes and boast some aggressive neck-breaker tracks. One of the most interesting, however, is “Oprydning”, which is almost entirely a drums and vocals duo, that is until the bass hits a few notes near the end as a sort of … Read more
II II II – Frequency Illusion
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
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