Wednesday 30 April 2008

Secret Chiefs 3, Path of Most Resistance


US, 2007.

Given the eccentricity of the band, a greatest hits package is a bit bizarre, and that's pretty much all this is with the inclusion of a few b-sides and rarities. Still, for the uninitiated this gives a great (but short) overview of Secret Chiefs 3 and manages to make up for missing tracks (Horsemen of the Invisible FTW) with a kickass rendition of Good Vibrations.


Playlist:

01 - Book T: Exodus
02 - The 4 (Great Ishraqi Sun)
03 - Ship of Fools (Stone of Exile)
04 - Renunciation
05 - The Owl in Daylight
06 - Combat for the Angel
07 - Zulfiqar III
08 - The End Times
09 - Jabalqa / Jabarsa (Live)
10 - Mera Pyar Shalimar
11 - Ciocarlia (Live)
12 - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
13 - Good Vibrations
14 - Heroes and Villains

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Tuesday 29 April 2008

ASHES dIVIDE, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright


US, 2008.

ASHES dIVIDE is Billy Howerdel's (A Perfect Circle) new band, if you could call a solo project featuring Josh Freese on drums and Devo Keenan on cello a band. While musically Howerdel drove A Perfect Circle much of the output was kept in check by an antagonistic Maynard (Tool), who was a lot more interested in a darker counterpoint to Billy's melodic approach. ASHES dIVIDE, being pretty much all Billy, sheds the burden of having to please Maynard but as a result is a lot less convincing and at times too conventional.


Playlist:

01 - Stripped Away
02 - Denial Waits
03 - Too Late
04 - Forever Can Be
05 - Defamed
06 - Enemies
07 - A Wish
08 - Ritual
09 - The Stone
10 - The Prey
11 - Sword

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End of Level Boss, Inside the Difference Engine


UK, 2007.

Contrary to what the name might suggest, End of Level Boss produce good stoner rock. The vocals sometimes hark back to AIC, so they're rather unfairly labeled a grunge band, when musically they're probably closer to Voivod. If you're a sucker for riffs you'll find plenty of promise here, and hopefully their third full length album will be out later tihs year.


Playlist:

01 - Selfish Negative Vibe Merchant
02 - Mr. Dinosaur Is Lost
03 - Reticence
04 - Corners
05 - Words Have No Meaning
06 - Instinktivitus
07 - End of Line
08 - Connortations


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Monday 28 April 2008

Arsis, We Are The Nightmare


US, 2008.

Great melodic technical death metal is hard to come by, so it's no surprise Arsis' latest release is being hyped as a prime candidate for metal album of the year. The term melodic here may be misleading for some, so don't expect the cross-genre appeal of a band in the vein of Opeth. Despite occassionally exaggerating on the technical side, Arsis never really let their instruments overtake their songwriting and so are a lot more interesting than run-of-the-mill metal bands wanking their guitars for glory.


Playlist:

01 - We Are the Nightmare
02 - Shattering the Spell
03 - Sightless Wisdom
04 - Servants to the Night
05 - Failing Winds of Hopeless Greed
06 - Overthrown
07 - Progressive Entrapment
08 - A Feast for the Liar's Tongue
09 - My Oath to Madness
10 - Failure's Conquest

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Saturday 26 April 2008

Opeth, Watershed


Sweden, 2008.

This is the ninth album by Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth. Entirely leaked yesterday, its estimate release date is June 3, 2008. The first single will be Porcelain Heart.


Playlist:

1. Coil
2. Heir Apparent
3. The Lotus Eater
4. Burden
5. Porcelain Heart
6. Hessian Peel
7. Hex Omega

Link.

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Friday 25 April 2008

Rosetta, Wake/Lift


U.S., released in 2007.

Wake/Lift is the second full-length album by art metal band Rosetta. According to the guitarist, J. Matthew Weed, this album retains more melodic, technical and experimental influences than their previous work, resulting in a fusion of post-metal, post-rock, space rock, ambient metal and sludge.


Playlist:

1. Red in Tooth and Claw
2. Lift, part 1
3. Lift, part 2
4. Lift, part 3
5. Wake
6. (Temet Nosce)
7. Monument

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Thursday 24 April 2008

Hidria Spacefolk, Balansia


Finland, released in 2004.

Balansia is probably the best work of psychedelic/space rock band Hidria Spacefolk. This instrumental album was released in 2004 and includes Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks as a guest musician.


Playlist:

1. Kokkola
2. Modus Operand Hermetik
3. Astroban
4. Pajas
5. Pako Originaux
6. Tarapita

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Wednesday 23 April 2008

John Zorn, Six Litanies for Heliogabulus


US, released in 2007.

Music by the clinically insane, for the clinically insane.


Playlist:

01 - Litany I
02 - Litany II
03 - Litany III
04 - Litany IV
05 - Litany V
06 - Litany VI

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Tuesday 22 April 2008

Hidria Spacefolk, Symbiosis


Finland, released in 2002.

This is psychedelic rock combined with oriental folk music and electronics at its finest. Despite being Finnish, their music doesn't sound like the traditional Suomi folk, integrating a lot of different influences. Hidria Spacefolk will please the fans of Ozric Tentacles and Gong.


Playlist:

1. Terra Hidria
2. Reversion
3. Kaneh Bosm
4. Kaikados
5. Nasha Universo
6. Jahwarp
7. Agents Entropos
8. I-Mantra
9. Pangaia

Link.

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Monday 21 April 2008

Faith No More, Angel Dust


US, 1992

Faith No More's crowning achievement was a pretty big departure from 1989's The Real Thing. Patton's new found musical maturity clashed with his bizarre onstage antiques which pissed off just about everyone. Roddy went apeshit with the samples, which made this album a bitch to tour, but as a result Angel Dust is IMO Faith No More at its finest, going mad before disintegrating slowly with Jim Martin's departure. This release includes the bonus track "As the Worm Turns".


Playlist:

01 - Land of Sunshine
02 - Caffeine
03 - Midlife Crisis
04 - RV
05 - Smaller and Smaller
06 - Everything's Ruined
07 - Malpractice
08 - Kindergarten
09 - Be Aggressive
10 - A Small Victory
11 - Crack Hitler
12 - Jizzlobber
13 - Midnight Cowboy
14 - Easy
15 - As the Worm Turns

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Wednesday 16 April 2008

Sparks vs Faith No More, This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us


US, 1997

It's been ten years almost to the day since Faith No More split, so I'll be posting some FNM related stuff. This collaboration was one of the last recorded outputs by FNM, and was featured on Sparks' "Plagiarism" album where they rerecorded some of their most popular tracks.


Playlist:

1 - This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us (feat. Faith No More)
2 - This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us (album version)
3 - Something for the Girl With Everything (feat. Faith No More)
4 - The Great Leap Forward

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Sunday 13 April 2008

Negative Zone, Self-titled


France, 2005.

A psychedelic/progressive rock band from Marseille, France, inspired in the Seventies music of King Crimson, Magma and, most notably, Pink Floyd.


Playlist:

1. Ouverture
2. Cats
3. The Stack
4. Don't Sleep, part 1
5. Who We Are
6. Farewell
7. Fly Away
8. Don't Sleep, part 2
9. Hold Out Your Hand
10. Island
11. Fairy Tales
12. Negative Zone

Link.

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Wednesday 9 April 2008

*Shels, Sea Of The Dying Dhow


England, 2007.

Formed by ex-Mahumodo's Mehdi Safa in 2003, *Shels are a post-rock/post-metal/experimental band. A sort of crossing between Neurosis, Oceansize and Red Sparowes.

Playlist:

1. The Conference of the Birds
2. Indian - Part 1
3. The White Umbrella - Intro
4. The White Umbrella
5. Water
6. Sea of the Dying Dhow
7. Atoll
8. The Killing Tent
9. Indian - Part 2
10. Return to Gulu
11. In Dead Palm Fields

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Tuesday 8 April 2008

Meniscus, The Absence Of I


Australia, 2007.

Meniscus' debut EP is a mesmerizing mixture of post-rock and post-metal, completely instrumental but never boring. Somewhat alike in style to The Pax Cecilia and Junius, these guys sound very promising.

Playlist:

1. Cusp
2. Pilot
3. Mother
4. Idiot Savant - Far

Link.

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Monday 7 April 2008

Down, Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow...


US, 2002.

While hard rock is a label often tagged on any whiny pop crap these days, Down is probably one of the few great bands still pushing boundaries within rock while never completely trespassing into metal. While Phil Anselmo is obviously the main focal point in the band, musically Pepper Keenan drives every single song with great riffs.

Playlist:

01 - Lysergik Funeral Procession
02 - There's Something on My Side
03 - The Man That Follows Hell
04 - Stained Glass Cross
05 - Ghosts Along the Mississippi
06 - Learn From This Mistake
07 - Beautifully Depressed
08 - Where I'm Going
09 - Doobinterlude
10 - New Orleans Is a Dying Whore
11 - The Seed
12 - Lies, I Don't Know What They Say but
13 - Flambeaux's Jamming With St. Aug
14 - Dog Tired
15 - Landing on the Mountains of Meggido

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Sunday 6 April 2008

Efterklang, Tripper


Denmark, 2004.

A gentle mixture of Eluvium's electronics with Gregor Samsa's vocalized post-rock.

Playlist:

1. Foetus
2. Swarming
3. Step Aside
4. Prey and Predator
5. Collecting Shields
6. Doppelgänger
7. Tortuous Tracks
8. Monopolist
9. Chapter 6

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Friday 4 April 2008

VAST, Turquoise & Crimson


US, 2005

Terminating VAST's record deal was pretty much the best thing Elektra did for Jon Crosby, as he pretty much jumped straight back with the collection of recordings that would ultimately form Turquoise & Crimson. While on the label front things continued to run amiss, the songs are a return to most of the elements of their debut and are not to be missed.

Playlist:

Turquoise

01 - Turquoise
02 - Ecstasy
03 - Be With Me
04 - Thrown Away
05 - Don't Take Your Love Away
06 - Falling From the Sky
07 - Candle
08 - I Woke Up LA
09 - I Can't Say No (To You)
10 - Desert Garden

Crimson

01 - Dead Angels
02 - I Need to Say Goodbye
03 - Lost
04 - Winter in My Heart
05 - All I Found Was You (Japanese Fantasy)
06 - That's My Boy
07 - Evil Little Girl
08 - Beautiful
09 - Señorita
10 - Where It Never Rains
11 - Bruise
12 - Goodbye

Link.

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