Russian Circles, Station

US, 2008

Amid the flurry of post-rock bands it's not easy to sound expressive or distinct. Boasting a similar metal flair to fellow Chicago residents Pelican, Russian Circles feel less monotonous by steering away from long sludge passages, while retaining the epic feel and building melodies until they overflow into riffs. Good stuff.


Playlist:

01 - Campaign
02 - Harper Lewis
03 - Station
04 - Versus
05 - Youngblood
06 - Xavii

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Division By Zero, Tyranny Of Therapy

Poland, 2007.

Division By Zero can be best described as heavy prog rock. Or light prog metal, you choose. They certainly have some resemblances in style to fellow countrymen Riverside, although they lack the softer, more melodic bits. Not as great as Riverside, but interesting nevertheless.

Playlist:

1. Evening
2. True Peak
3. Your Salvation
4. Incinerated Wishes
5. Night
6. Deadline Meeting
7. Self Control
8. Morning

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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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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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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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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

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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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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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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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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

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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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