Finland, I really want to move to fucking Finland. It’s like when a band forms they have to go before a Government panel to ensure they are a pushing boundaries and awesome. If you are approved, you are then free to crack on and do amazing things to brains across the world. Five piece Oranssi Pazuzu are no different and their debut album Valonielu fuses all kinds of styles which pulls your brain in all kinds of directions. Lots of bands get described as mixing styles but Oranssi Pazuzu genuinely have it in abundance, they actually shit it.

‘Vino Verso’ begins the proceedings with an enticing hypnotic riff. Very stoner rock almost doom like but with a hint of kraut rock in the background. It’s pretty damn special and most people with taste would be genuinely satisfied just listening to that for 40 minutes straight but BLAM some harsh black metal vocals get thrown into mix and it’s like holy fuck… what just happened? We’re dealing with a ridiculous beast that fuses psychedelic rock with black metal, not only that they do it with 100% success.

It’s incredibly dramatic and exciting throughout, ‘Uraanisula’ offers us all kinds of time changes and electronic noises but is also wonderfully heavy, almost like Gnod jamming with Winterfylleth. I don’t think I’d quite call this a black metal album as it does not have that kind of percussion but still manages to pull off that kind of vibe which I think even the snootiest black metal fan will give them credit for. Saying that, it has an overarching doom feel too as some of the riffs are repetitive and absolutely crushing with some tracks going up to around the 12 minute mark. It’s just wonderful things being thrown at you constantly, like the moment when relaxed experimental space number ‘Reika Maisemassa’ and the vibrant riffs ‘Olen  Aukaissutn Uuden Silman’ begins, it just goes up a level from nowhere and your jaw hits the floor. Waves and waves of styles that you just did not see coming keep crashing and just makes the whole thing so fresh and engaging.

Valonieulu is a wonderfully crafted beautiful piece of work and as for the final number ‘Ympyra On Viva Tomussa’ all I can really say is wow! A slow build leading into one of the most dramatic, trippy and powerful things you will ever hear… I have no idea what the songs are about and I don’t want to know as this journey is something bigger than can be put into words. I promise you have never heard a band that sound like this and whether you like Summoning, Monkey3, Emperor, Colour Haze, Electric Wizard or Circle you are going to lap this up. A genuine piece of kick ass rock music where no one has been before, all we can ask for really. AWESOME!

Warning! This post may contain references to dubstep…

The discovery of Russian industrialists Type V Blood should have resulted in the discovery of my new favourite band as I am partial to danceable industrial metal, but the fact that Beastkiller gets so close yet fails results in such an infuriating listen!

Essentially an industrial metal band, they don’t seem to know ether to go full for extremity or commercial accessibility and often fall between the two options.

Not helped that they choose the worst track to open with ‘Elber Zombie’ – it’s not a terrible track but its slow pondering nature doesn’t get the blood pumping – it does show off their split personality though with crunching riff and extreme metal vocals one moment and synths and clean vocals the next.

‘Rock The Dancefloor’ is a much better representation with chugging nu metal RIFFs and electronic elements it gets a proper industrial dance groove on much like Powerman 5000 and Crossfaith but with growled extreme metal vocals, and for the most part it works.

‘Shocksong’ has a nice mid paced groove to it while the chorus is all rave synths and black metal vocals (yup!) before the obligatory Dubstep breakdown and then ‘From The Heart To The Sun’ hits a sweet spot after its Thrash intro with a proper stomping groove and gang chants.

‘Zero Tolerance’ is full on nu metal worship even sounding like a synthed up Soulfly at points while ‘Sexyberia’ is a just plain weird! A combination of metal riff, growled vocals and 90’s jungle/trance (but it works!).

Plus points for invention and they can definitely write great songs but the flimsy production job and bi-polar nature makes it feel muted and underpowered, so if Spinal Tap dialled up to 11 then Type V Blood have only dialled up to 8.

Self-perception can get you in a lot of trouble. It’s important, of course, to reflect on who you are as a person and how you can most accurately present who you are to others. So often there is a distortion in how we perceive ourselves as opposed to how others see us, and this becomes a crucial point when marketing yourself as a band. Echelon presents itself not as a black metal band. On their website the band is described as “avant-garde black metal philosophers”. This sets up specific expectations going into a first listen of Vivito! Creato! Moritor!, that are unfortunately skewed from the start.

Avant-garde is about as loaded a term as you can use when describing music. Based on the nature of time alone it is unavoidable that as more people make music there have been more unique ideas expressed, and therefore it is always more difficult not only to define what trends are but more difficult to pinpoint who is creating those trends. The members of Echelon, by best available calculation, are in charge of their own marketing and have unfortunately put themselves in a difficult position. By self-appointing themselves as “avant-garde”, much less “philosophers”, they have put the pressure on themselves to prove a concept or an image rather than allow the music to speak for itself.

The big disappointment in this is that the music is very good, and I worry that first-time listeners will feel their expectations are not met. Each song has propulsion, leading the listener through the album at a fast clip from hook to hook. The vocals are often backed by group shout-alongs which are coupled with a driving rhythm section, giving the listening experience the feel of the gravity found in a great live show. Each instrument is given equal prominence in the mix and is clearly the work of a group with equal strength in all personnel. No one player steals the focus, giving the music an impressively muscular sound. 'Strappado' is an exemplary track showcasing the power of Echelon’s music, and it sounds like it would be most suitably heard in a sweatbox club surrounded by likeminded metalheads. There are plenty of melodic ideas at work and some truly gorgeous guitar lines which are elevated by rhythmic breakdowns and join-in-the-chant vocals. There are a few breaks in the pace, acoustic interludes with spoken word passages to more clearly showcase the ideas behind the album, and while the band would likely disagree these sound out of place and unnecessary. The slab of sound the rest of the album offers is weakened by these passages, even as I suspect these passages are the core of the band’s concept for the album - namely an interesting blend of art and human history, juxtaposing the works of Francisco de Goya and others alongside the long timeline of mankind’s war against itself.

The lyrical material here is dense but is frankly less interesting than the music as a whole. While the language barrier might restrict the listener’s enjoyment of an impressively curated and well-researched topic, it does not detract from the enjoyment of the music itself. This might be why the spoken word interludes are so distracting.  Especially when the album tears into a song with as much passion as 'Die Grauen des Krieges', it seems like the interludes beforehand are obstacles standing in the way of moments of potent songwriting and emotional heft. Metal can certainly be deep and artistic, in opposition to many outsiders’ misconception of mindless headbangers and the societal fringes, but this album seems to succeed most in its moments that allow the listener to escape to a place apart from the intellectual realm where melody and passion have greater power.

The minds deemed avant-garde have always been called such by contemporaries, and it is a difficult distinction to prove when placed on one’s self. The truth is that this music is not avant-garde at all, and it doesn’t have to be. This is simply very good, extremely melodic black metal. It is well-crafted, gorgeous, and often emotionally moving. It does not need to try and be anything more than that, and can only complicate itself with such weighty terminology.

When approaching a band like i am no hero, it’s easy to instantly wipe out all the preconceptions about an umpteenth post rock band, becoming completely conquered with it. As soon as you’ll start listening to them you’ll notice that they are quite pretty in their execution and the whole album is an easy and engaging listening.

i am no hero, and their new album Underwater Cities, is something you’ve heard several times, by several different bands. True, but if you focus on how the post rocky sound evolves song by song you’ll have to admit that this album is very nice.

i am no hero is a four-piece band from Athens, Greece, and this is their second album after the debut record Without Antennas (2011). I have the tendency to link cities or particular places to bands or a kind of music and for me Athens is a post rock city. The Greek capital city is where you can stand admiring the Parthenon listening to we own the sky, Anadelta, Afformance or Adolf Plays The Jazz, just to mention some bands coming from there. Another star of this gorgeous sky is the one composed by Tasos Moulatsiotis, Thanassis Vassiliou, Giorgos Moulatsiotis and Stelios Taktikos that goes under the name of i am no hero.

I really appreciated Without Antennas when it was released – 'Morning' is my favorite song from it – and I like how they have evolved with this latest release demonstrating their capability to gather all the characteristics of post rock music – included the song length that are always approximately about eight minutes with the exception of only one song - to create a sound that that evokes engaging atmospheres.

Underwater Cities makes me think of an enormous galleon that moves in a ocean of sounds against each weather conditions, from the worst storm to the quietest and brightest sun. The 40 minutes journey of Underwater Cities starts with ‘All lines are missing’ that represents a nice incipit for the album. With its 11 minutes, the first track is the longest of the album and has the classic structure of a post rock song with a long intro before exploding in a wall of sound that is the peak of the composition. After that it gently declines till dissolving into the following track. This well-tested formula is applied on almost all the five songs but this is not a negative point because the outcome is a simplistic but an enjoyable post rock release.

I particularly like 'Grotesque' for its dark side and where the band pushed the boundaries of post rock to create something interesting. In some parts it makes me think about the classic sound of Mono of Japan, others time it leads me to Travel is Dangerous of Mogwai.

'Sunny days' is a great track full of sense of sadness and melancholia. It's moving from the beginning to the end and it's strange that a song that transmits me a so strong sense of sadness brings a solar name like 'Sunny days'. The Mono influence here is evident and it will conquer all their fans. Sun arrives with the shortest 'In waves' with its multiple guitars, drums and a bit of bass.

'Underwater cities' – the album title track – concludes the album and also here I am no hero never wander away from its alternation of loud and soft dynamics and the contrast between soft guitar tones and pounding drums.

Underwater Cities ends without adding something new to the post rock genre. The music in it is rather predictable and, even thought we've lived with this sound for almost a decade now and we have several classics to compare it to, these Greek guys have created a motion and engaging atmosphere that is really enjoyable.

Whether or not you'll dive into Underwater Cities will depend on your appetite for loud/soft instrumental post-rock. If your appetite for it is unlimited, you will be very pleased by this album.

Despite the spikey logo and equally spikey stage attire and even hailing from Scandinavia Sister are not black metal but a Swedish glam punk band much like the similarly monikered and fellow Swedes Sister Sin. Originally formed in 2006 Disguised Vultures is actually only their second album to date having spent most of their time touring (Fun Fact: they were signed to Metal Blade Records by Alan Averill of Primordial fame).

So what should you expect from this band…. A dash of gravelled goth vocals (a la Wednesday 13), a dollop of punk rock enthusiasm, a heap of ridiculously infections anthems and truck full of rock ‘n’ roll RIFFS!

It opens in a rather strange fashion mind as ‘My Enemy’ kicks off with ten seconds of the chorus before abruptly stopping to start the actual intro proper and then carrying on where it left off? Something of a curveball but it’s straight up rock 'n' roll after that.

The first single released (they still exist!) and second track ‘Sick’ is one of the undoubted highlights carrying though a bouncing groove and a huge  infectious chorus, we even get  acoustic interludes into the big guitar solo.

‘Disguised Vultures’ is pretty much the same (in a good way) with some more nifty RIFF grinding work  and when you think they’ve settled into a groove we have the barrelling punk rock  of ‘Arise’ to keep us on our toes (and dancing feet) complete with gang chant choruses.

‘We Salute ‘Em’ and ‘Slay Yourself’ keep up the good times but we hit a stumbling block in the god awful ballad ‘Naked’ – it just doesn’t work as admittedly the lyrics in general aren’t the selling point and that vocal style isn’t suited to a ballad.

Happily that’s the only attempt at one and ‘DMN’ kicks straight back into rock 'n' roll (The closest they get at outright sounding like Wednesday 13) as does ‘(Stop The) Revolution’ with its full on punk rock gang chants (The bass sound is especially great here).

After starting with a curveball it seems fitting we end with one as finale ‘Please Kill Me’ turns into an upbeat party folk tune (Rather at odds with the chorus refrain).

So….uncomplicated blistering fun for all you air guitarists out there! (Grabs tennis racket).

A new year and the search for new music begins in earnest. Dropping an album in January is either a masterstroke in getting attention because it's a notorious dead zone, or else just plain daft as come year end, you're forgotten about. Manchester band Patterns have chosen to release Waking Lines, their début album, in the first week of the year. I hope they don't get overlooked along the way as this album is an intriguing collection of hooky experimental dream/drone pop.

The minimalist blurb I could find on them tends to convey a very serious erstwhile collective with a penchant for the technical, when it comes to creating sounds. This certainly comes through in their music, as intros are lovingly textured with gorgeous sounds, "field recordings" apparently.

The production quality for Waking Lines is exceptional and is ably backed up by some great melodies and playing. Although there's no mention of influences (a good thing as often bands get it terribly wrong), I hear echoes of Sigur Ros in the vocal stylings. Patterns are essentially making (good) pop music here and the experimental yearnings of Yeasayer are evident to these ears, as well as the expansive sounds of The Big Pink. These are modern references, I also hear a lot of 80s act OMD in the panoramic pop that Patterns do so very well.

Opener 'This Haze' begins with some lovely Jonsi-esque coos and a sprinkling of delicate flickering guitars, most pleasing. The soaring melodies compliment the modern yet strangely retro instrumentation. Rapturous, I think would be a good description.

Every band needs to have at least one absolute standout track. Over the years I've bought countless albums by bands that dragged me in with one total killer, only to find that was their peak and the subsequent album just didn't match up. (I'm looking at you Big Pink). Waking Lines, thankfully, has more than one good tune, but 'Blood' is their surefire classic. Reminiscent of the aforementioned Yeasayer, layered up with wondrous vocal melodies, the chorus of this tune is utterly sublime and extremely catchy. If you only check out one Patterns song, let it be this one. If the track gets the right lucky break, then major success will surely come the band's way.

Can Patterns maintain the high quality of the opening duo? Yes, tracks like 'Broken Trains', 'Wrong Two Words' and 'Our Ego' have similar shimmering guitars, superb drone/dream elements and studio expertise to provide a very fresh and hopeful sound. 'Wrong Two Words' recalls 90s band Puressence with a beguiling chorus and the swirling keys remind me of Queen's 'Las Palabras deAmor'.

I have two minor issues with Patterns though, one is that the tunes do tend to sound very similar when absorbed as a whole. I've highlighted the stronger tracks, but unfortunately there are others that don't have the same strength of melody and rely more on the experimental side of things at the expense of a good tune. 'Face Marks', title track 'Waking Lines' and 'Street Fires' have an elegant production sheen but don't have the same memorable hooks. The album's closing tracks 'Induction', (a more rocking affair with 80s stabbing keys), and 'Climbing Out', allow Waking Lines to dissipate too readily with you feeling like the album isn't as good as it actually is.

The other minor point of note is that I found the vocal style a little irksome on occasions with a tendency to overdo the syllables when it comes to vowels. For example, "snow" becomes "snow-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh" on 'Street Fires'. I'd not have mentioned it if it didn't become more noticeable as the album proceeds.

Much like Waking Lines itself, I appear to be leaving you with the notion that this album isn't that good, which really isn't the case. When it's good, it's very, very good, it's just that it's let down occasionally by slight dips in songwriting quality. From the pictures I've seen of the band it could be youthful inexperience causing this. At the same time, if the band is in its infancy and the members have time on their side, then there's definitely going to be more to come from them. This is a very confident debut and I have no doubt we will be hearing more from Patterns in 2014 and beyond.

Pick A Piper, the debut full-length album from Caribou’s live-set drummer Brad Weber, is a selection of utterly delightful psychedelic indietronica that will appeal to the Ghostly International set.

The majority of the music on Pick A Piper is fast-paced, multi-layered and rhythmic, but then that shouldn’t come as a surprise with Brad Weber’s role as drummer for Caribou’s live sets. Neither should the upbeat, dancy nature of the music - Weber’s time with Dan Snaith (Caribou) has obviously rubbed off, that or they share a number of similar influences.

As a fan of Snaith’s work as Manitoba and Caribou, I welcomed this album from Weber. I've had Pick A Piper on my iPhone for a wee while now and cherish it's warmth and inclusive nature. I love the way the music presented gently overwhelms me when I put it on, it provides an alternate reality to the grey of a mild and wet winter in the central belt of Scotland, an alternative psychedelic otherworldliness that I heartily welcome.

Weber uses a mixture of live drums and sampled percussion, old synths, deep bass, guitars and other interesting instrumentation such as a flute on ’South of Polynesia’, a harpsichord-like instrument on ’Zenaida’ or the sax on ’South of Polynesia’ and ’Hour Hands’ to create the whirling layers of music on Pick A Piper. He then brings in some seriously delightful floaty, almost-ethereal male and female vocals to complete the tracks and give them their holistic edge. It is the combination of the great instrumentation along with the vocals that really makes Pick A Piper what it is: 38 minutes of utter delight.

Pick A Piper reminds me of Caribou, The Postal Service and Hot Chip; with my eldest daughter hearing similarities with Owl City when I played the album out to her in the car. Think too of Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace or on the deeply layered nature of King of Limbs and you'll get the gist. Weber’s music sits nicely with the current output from Ghostly International and it wouldn't be a shock to see Weber’s project on the same bill as Tycho or Shigeto or featured on the same set list.

From the opening bars of ’Lucid in Fjords’ to the closing of ’Dingy in a quiet Cove’, Pick A Piper is a treat for indietronica fans like me with each track holding their own. I dislike the ’all killer, no filler’ cliche but it is true for this album - each track could be easily played in a forward-thinking DJ’s set.

I would highly recommend fans of the bands mentioned above or, in fact, of the fabulous Ghostly International ... Pick A Piper is definitely up there and well worth checking out.

In its origins, death metal was a genre that always came with a disclaimer that you knew what you were getting into with any particular release. The often-mentioned releases from bands like Morbid Angel, Entombed, Suffocation set a template that has largely been unchanged for years. While traditional death metal still has its loyal disciples, there has been a recent influx of bands whose sounds are so labyrinthine and mutated that it’s only after you read that they identify as death metal that you can tilt your head, squint, and feel this is an applicable description. Abyssal is one of these newer bands whose sound requires several backslashes and is most often referred to as black/death/doom, but while sub-genres are useful as shorthand to categorize a band’s sound, Novit enum Dominus qui sunt eius makes it clear that this is not music easily described or consumed.

It would be very easy to compare Abyssal’s music to that of Portal, who are also clearly students of Immolation. Portal’s music has itself become a sort of benchmark for a new sub-genre of metal and metal fans in the know will vaguely understand what to expect when hearing a band sounds “like Portal”.  Similar to the classification of black/death/doom, however, this conversational shortcut in recommending this album becomes inappropriately vague with further inspection. Abyssal does have qualities similar to some contemporary artists, specifically a penchant for huge, queasy guitar work, arrangements that leave you unsure of your footing, and vocals that sound like the dying exhale of a living cave system. These are elements that are increasingly familiar, but Abyssal marries them to a rhythmic structure that blends what is often a difficult, atmospheric sound to a more driving and accessible core. If this style of music could be described as having “hooks”, Abyssal would be the prime evidence in making that case.

The track ‘As Paupers Safeguard Magnates’ is the best showcase of the band’s strengths, chiefly its emphasis on developing a structural anchor in its rhythm section that allows for the layers of guitars to create their own ordered chaos. The music is surprisingly accessible in this way, and Novit enum Dominus qui sunt eius is actually enjoyable to listen to even as it challenges and provides obstacles to the listener. The guitar offers a lot melodically, not simply serving as a noisy sheen atop the rest of the music. On album closer, ‘The Last King’ there are flourishes that reference everything from death metal chug to Dissection’s arpeggiated black metal to ecstatic passages resembling ascending, flurried classical movements. This all links into a bizarre, but not out of place, jazz interlude, which readies the listener for a crushing, hypnotic finale.

The inner-workings of these songs are revealed as a hissing, steaming factory machine at the center of a clatter that at first sounds like total entropy but can be examined closely to reveal the immaculate placement of each moving part. There are moments of pure emotional bottoming-out, whose cog teeth join perfectly with moments of harmony and triumph all at a pace that is at once manic and stately. Abyssal have an almost alchemical property to them, dabbling in mystical recipes that result in some of the more well-formed iterations of a class of music that is willfully amorphous and difficult to describe. It is most useful to describe it as something to which you must listen.

When it comes to writing great tunes, you really can't deny the ability of the good folks of Scandinavia. A long lineage of superbly written (and insanely catchy) pop songs has been gifted to the rest of the world from the likes of Abba, A-ha and The Cardigans. Well, I'd like to add Sweden's The Sounds to that list. Their fifth album Weekend is bursting to the seams with brilliant melodies, joyous playing and great vocals from enigmatic front woman Maja Ivarsson.

Managing to disappear from my radar since 2006's Dying to Say This to You, I'm glad I opted to give this album a spin, if you've any semblance of interest in great songs you will too. Though you might wonder what I'm on about if the only track you hear is the opener 'Shake Shake Shake'. A fairly generic rocker propelled along by punky guitars, it's the weakest melodically on an album so bountiful in tuneage. So I reckon the album properly begins with 'Take it the Wrong Way', with its earnest and heartfelt verse melody so passionately sung by Maja. The album has a very sophisticated sound, introduced on this track, the snappy chorus is full of twisting hooks and is tailor made for TV ads.

Without overdoing any retro sounds, these bright pop songs could easily come from the late 80s, 'Hurt the Ones I Love' is a lost Belinda Carlisle song if ever I heard one, a yearning melody full of loss, the clever chorus denying any urge to go over the top with vocal overload. I can imagine this tune playing over the end credits of some 80s brat pack movie.

Title track 'Weekend' is heartbreaking, lovely processed vocals, a simple but well composed melody, utterly infectious and memorable. 'Great Day' is just a great song, the hooky melody reminiscent of so many other tunes, typically Scandinavian with the slightest hint of Abba. A real standout track and surely bound to soundtrack some TV ads with the happy sentiments of the lyrics.

It's difficult to keep up this high standard of quality songwriting and as you might expect, it's the middle of the album that the lesser memorable tracks make their appearance. 'Outlaw' has a choppy tempo but relies a little too much on having a certain sound. 'Too Young to Die' is another track with an 80s vibe, great chorus intact. 'Animal' features a snappy clappy beat and is another tune that could find itself on the telly before long. I just found some of these songs a little too direct in the melody department when others really excited me with their hooks.

The album picks up the quality again with 'Emperor', a clever sprightly up-tempo tune with Abba moments in abundance. 'Young and Wild' has the best blend of good production and brilliant songwriting, overtly happy but never twee. Get those credits rolling again!

You may recall Moby's TV saturation from the Play album years ago. With Weekend, The Sounds have managed to deliver indie pop's very own Play. For some big rock acts, The Sounds have been the support band of choice, which is a shame, because some of those acts ought to be supporting them, when the music they're making is as good as this. This album really is a vibrant collection and has more hooks than a fisherman's gear box. Give your ears a treat and check out Weekend.

So what condiment should I eat my hat with?

Legion of the Damned are a Dutch four piece thrash metal band that have been doing the rounds since 2004 and up until know have never really done anything enterprising to warrant my undivided attention.

However a new track ‘Doom Priest’ surfaced on one of my youtube surfing days and it’s Behemoth-ish Death Metal vibe intrigued me enough to give the Legion another try by spinning this their seventh album Ravenous Plague.

And boy I’m glad that I did!

After an intro track consisting of the standard dramatic orchestral tension builder, all hell is let loose on ‘Howling For Armageddon’’ as it rips into gear in a very “German” style of thrash (Slayer via Destruction via Possessed), and it sounds absolutely huge thanks to an impressive production job by Andy Classon (Stage-One-Studio’s) while a change in guitarist (Richard Ebisch has been replaced by Twan Van Geel) seems to have been the inspiration they needed as the RIFFS come barreling out of the speakers with incredible ferocity so much so that their intensity and variation makes it all the more impressive that they only have the singular guitarist in their ranks, plus he chucks in some dive-bomb solos for good measure, all backed up by an impressively tight rhythm section.

Admittedly all these songs clock in at over four minutes and feel possibly about a minute too long in places so by the time the fifth track ‘Ravenous Abomination’ has battered you senseless you’d be forgiven for wanting something to mix up the formula and that's exactly when they drop in the afore mentioned ‘Doom Priest’, but after that though it's back to the balls out thrash for another five tracks!

It's big, it's loud, it's fast, it’s heavy….And a mightily impressive gauntlet to throw down to any other thrash bands planning to release albums this year!

"These are not your usual downtempo sounds ..."

This was my first thought when I began listening to Water Door by Anna Morley, an Australian multi-instrumentalist and composer, who is currently based in Berlin.

Morley's main focus is the vibraphone, but she is known to lend her talents to violin, vocals and a range of keyboard and percussion instruments. Her musical abilities show on Water Door, an album that has remarkable depth that highlights some utterly fascinating instrumentation.

On her Bandcamp page Morley is credited with not just with the instruments mentioned above; but with keys, harmonica, ukulele, and beats too. Her partners in crime - Jorge da Rocha & Alex Forster - are credited with double bass & classical guitar (da Rocha) and tenor & acoustic guitar, oud, and moog (Forster).

This instrumentation really does come together to make something beautiful. It is used imaginatively and used well to make 9 unique tracks that stand on their own as well as work together to form a cohesive whole. The layers of sound create a truly immersive audio experience, one that I found I could lose myself within very easily. Each track has its own identity, its unique character. Over 37 minutes, I am continually astounded by the sounds presented - for example, the keys on 'Not Letting Go', the double-bass on 'Bold' or the vibraphone on 'Sea Ballad' - it is both a surprise and a comfort, like bumping into an old friend, someone you didn't expect to meet but are glad you did.

Water Door is exemplary of the downtempo genre with its deep, immersive, handcrafted layers of sound. It shows what can be done in a genre that has become almost too familiar to the listener.

The stand out track for me is Morley's cover of Eric Satie's 'Gnossienne no1'. It is a wonderfully fresh reimagining of a timeless classic, with the most exquisite vibes on offer. It has a decidedly film-noir feel to it, one that I simply adore especially when her haunting, ethereal vocals are presented.

I guess this is Morley's genius and why I love Water Door so much ... she has taken a loved and well worn genre (downtempo) and given it a fresh reimagining. And, in doing so, she has made something worth listening to, something that will stay with you long after the album has stopped, something that will compel you to press play or reach for repeat.

I would highly recommend Water Door to anyone with a fondness for either downtempo music or a preference for varied and imaginative instrumentation. For me, this album was one of the finds of 2013.

The power of the RIFF compels thee.

And it especially compels Sierra who are a Canadian three piece specialising in stoner rock and they have a simple self-penned mission statement to “to melodically worship the RIFF” which is easily accomplished with a little help from sludge rockers Kylesa.

The help comes in the shape of extensive touring as their support act (they are soon to be conducting a European run in early 2014) and that Kylesa front man Phillip Cope also recorded and produced this debut album proper Pslip (There is also a 2012 EP).

Although despite these mentions that is where the comparisons end as Sierra are their own beast and owe a lot more to the straight up riff rockers such as Wo Fat, Red Fang and Fu Manchu rather than any progressive tendencies of Savannah’s finest.

Saying that though, the instrumental nature of the intro ‘Pslip In’ is a bit of a curve ball to open proceedings with its funky almost post-rock vibe and is a feature they also repeat with the outro of ‘Pslip Out’ and in between these bookends we have seven songs proper. It transpires the titles of the intro and outro is rather accurate as although these songs are full off riff worship Pslip is a totally laid back affair.

That’s not intended as an insult as there is obviously a time and a place for aggressive and confrontational music but in instances like this it is an opportunity to kick back, relax and soak up the vibe on offer - Not in the psychedelic trips offered by the likes of Earthless – but an enthralling journey all the same.

So allow yourself to be enveloped by the RIFF and enjoy what you could say is a true “stoner” album.

Somewhere around the early 2000’s, the gods of hard rock seemed to have been sleeping contentedly with their copies of Led Zeppelin’s II wrapped in their arms. Despite the efforts of the garage rock and post-grunge movements, the gods didn’t seem all that interested in awakening. When The Dead Weather and Them Crooked Vultures, among others, cranked their amps up and brought back the raw, filthy hard rock of yesteryear, the gods finally shook from their slumber. The flood gates opened and over the past few years, the likes of Graveyard and Natural Son have been part of a true hard rock revival. Among them is The Vintage Caravan, hailing from Reykjavik, Iceland.

The Vintage Caravan started as two childhood friends, both only 12 years old at the time, playing music with inspiration drawn from their parents’ music collections. In just a few years they had recorded a full length LP and began touring all over their home country. Soon thereafter they offered up Voyage. The album is a psychedelic journey bent on leading the listeners down the stranger avenues of the mind. The young group consistently exhibits their extraordinary talent and knack for progressive hard rock throughout Voyage.

The first track, Craving', wastes no time in getting Voyage going. It is only one of the many fast paced, riff heavy songs on the album and is a fast lesson on what The Vintage Caravan are capable of. Guitarist and vocalist Óskar Logi’s aggressive vocals come through soon after the song has begun, and all the parts of the hard rock equation are in place. On the second track, 'Let Me Be', Logi lets his guitar loose over a chunky, head banging bass and drum driven progression.

'Do You Remember' offers a look into the bluesy side of The Vintage Caravan, and it comes across very well. Logi reminisces about a too-long lost friend over reverberating guitars that sound like they came right out of Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. 'Do You Remember' leads into the psychedelic trip over the rainbow that is 'Expand Your Mind'. Their video for the track, directed by Bowen Staines, is a perfect companion to the song- incredibly triply while maintaining its cheekiness. From the first measures of drummer Guðjón Reynisson’s pounding solo to the expansive, varied movements throughout the song, 'Expand Your Mind' is The Vintage Caravan at their best. Alex Örn gets a chance to take his bass for a walk through a fantastic solo as well.

Örn also leads the charge throughout the expansive 'Winterland'. The track begins with a movement reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s 'No Quarter', and then into a thumping middle passage and finally into a fantastic guitar solo from Logi. 'The King’s Voyage' is a constantly varied twelve minute journey through a myriad of hard rock genres and influences. The intro is even reminiscent of present day stoner metal.

A young group with as much talent and potential as The Vintage Caravan doesn’t come around very often. They are clearly very adept at what they do, and are amongst a plethora of hard rock bands seeking to fully resurrect the genre. Voyage is a fantastic album of throwback hard rock with just the right touch of progression injected into it, and is a more than worthwhile album to give a listen.

Depressive black metal (DSBM) is one sub genre of black metal that you either like or dislike. To me, DSBM is like post-hardcore or early 90s emo, in it is a small niche of people who are really fans of the genre. DSBM however, I think is great to listen to. I really like the more clean and melodic guitar, the wailing scream and sometimes almost choking vocals, and of course, the raw, emotional lyrical themes.

Vardan, a one man band from Italy, really encompasses all the motifs I just mentioned. His sixth full length release, Vardan has really been putting work into the genre of DSBM.With three full releases in 2013 and one in 2012, this guy is a machine. The Woods Is My Coffin is a dark dark album. The lyrical theme is of course bleak, misanthropy, and suicidal.

The album opens up with 'Night of the Horned Rebirth', which really does open the theme of the rest of the album, dark and drudging. The album also has a feel of isolation, the kind of isolation which comes with being stranded on a cold mountain top, alone, and with nothing but the disparity. It continues until the tracks 'Dawn of the Followers I & II' which wind down the album into a deep comatose slumber.

With most songs hitting the 8 minute mark, this album is one that needs constant meditation, which again, I love about most DSBM bands. To fully digest all the intricacies of the album you really need to sit and just enjoy this album. The layers of guitar and vocals creates a black moody soundscape. Also, unlike some DSBM black metal albums, which have only one member, this album is produced really well. I do sometimes like the raw feel of black metal albums, but if you are going to do of a more symphonic feel, I think a better quality recording would do it justice. Which this album is full of great examples of some quality tracking, which add to the environment of the track.

The Woods Is My Coffin is a great album, one that I would recommend to anyone that is into black metal and wants to get into more exploring of the sub-genre DSBM. I think even the most purist black metal fans will appreciate the musicianship, flow, and dark atmosphere of this album.

Flying And The Silence  is already the fifth album of drummer, composer Massimo Discepoli under his Nheap flag and it’s the first that came to my notice recently. I believe I encountered this one in my Soundcloud stream and after listening to some tracks I immediately got caught by the relaxing mood but above all the warm sound of the Fender Rhodes piano that features on many tracks besides a whole range of other keyboards and synths. It surprised me that Massimo is originally a drummer though, a job he also does very tasteful.

The music presented here is generally quite relaxing blending atmospheric ambient with a jazzy undertone and some distant post-rock influences as well. But don’t expect to feel asleep as Massimo cleverly presents some complexity as well, just listen to 'Lost in a leaf' and you can hear an almost Porcupine Tree kind of music, especially the drumming reminds me of the great Gavin Harrison. Guitars are sparse on the album but when played they induce the typical jubilant post-rock sphere.('Wandering').

The track that really stands out is 'Expressionism at night', a rather dark ambient jazz piece that tends more towards something suitable for a Bohren & Der Club Of Gore album. Impressive drumming on this one as well!

I already bought this album on Bandcamp. It’s available for a symbolic price of only €1 so come people, do yourself a favor and support this talented guy from Perugia.