Lesbian are tricky to describe but to have a shot I would say they are a shroom worshipping doom metal band from Seattle who play crushingly heavy progressive jams. Their previous albums Power Hor and Stratospheria Cubensis were both truly epic pieces of work designed to take listeners on a trippy yet sometimes brutal voyage through unknown environments where anything could happen. If going on a voyage of this kind is something which appeals to you, not only do I like you but you urgently need to hop on board their latest cosmic offering Forestelevision which is comprised of just a sole 44 minute long song. This opus sees Lesbian somehow smashing down further boundaries that nobody even knows exist and tapping into weird and chaotic parts of your brain to provide you with a carnage filled hallucinogenic experience. Get in!

The album art offers us with clues to Forestelevision, a minimal shot of some woods through a sinister visual effect which is unsettling but also triggers curiosity. This is about escaping daily life and manmade stuff and plugging yourself into Mother Nature for a more primitive life with 100% freedom. This freedom might involve guzzling down the occasional mushroom if you so wish and has also empowered Lesbian to deliver us such a unique metal experience.

It starts with a warm hum of doomy riff with spacey FX lurking in the background before super slow drums kick in and we’re then punished growling mix of death and black metal vocals. Sound heavy? Yes it is fucking heavy and could stand up to just about anyone in that department. It’s slightly unnerving but before you know everything is breaking down into more of a psychedelic vibe, almost like Colour Haze or Earthless have rocked up for a jam. WOAH! We have had lift on this voyage and promised an adventure of a life time. Thankfully it more than delivers! We’re treated to many influences and styles across the album… post-rock, stoner rock, sludge rock and just as you get comfortable it morphs into something else making it a truly cosmic roller-coaster of an experience.

It totally immerses you and plays enchanting games with your imagination. There is a point where you are flying down a pitch black tunnel towards an unknown destination whilst dodging bolts of lightning which reveal subliminal visuals wizards travelling alongside you. I’m not sure what these wizards are up to and whether they are good or bad guys sorry, all I know is that this album is ridiculous! We’ve been given an unexpected yet brilliant conclusion where things turn slightly classic rock, everything gets a little happier and someone hammers out a ‘Stars in Their Eyes’ final winning impression of King Diamond. There’s certainly a hint of cheese in the air, next level genius!

Instead of a metal album written by four musicians, I believe that Forestelevision has been swirling somewhere in the cosmos in some intangible form since the dawn of time which needed to be unlocked and channelled by Lesbian so it could be experienced by us mere mortals. It’s a force beyond our understanding but I do know an album with such vision and ambition is exactly where metal should be at in 2013 and is a truly remarkable achievement. My album of the year so far for 2013.

Two man band Bölzer pack a pretty good punch on this vinyl EP. HzR on the drums and KzR handling guitars and vocals; these guys are full of hell and great at laying it out there. Really great, the lack of any other members isn’t even noticeable. This entire EP sounds like a full band delivering the goods. And those goods are….good..?

Side A: The first track ‘CME’ (which is abbreviated by the band for a reason, look it up) opens up with a slugged out riff that grows as the drums behind it are spinning in circles. It’s a mid-pace locked song, the slow headbanging type. That is until you get past the first minute. From there on it’s a spiraling black metal/death metal fusion of dizzying madness. The guitars are deep and pack a good roar that compliments the low vocals of KzR. And when I say the guitars are “dizzying” I honestly mean it. At one point I felt like I was at a goddamn circus from hell. And it felt good, yet disorienting.

The other track on Side A is another at times mind bender titled ‘Entranced by the Wolfshock’. This song barrows occasional notes or themes I should say, from the previous song. But as it progresses it becomes a mad dance of guitars and blast beats. Then the boys pull a sudden tempo shift and slow this party down. And the circular riffs come back for the attack!! Not for too long though, Bölzer speed it back up for a climatic ending, no fading out. On to Side B!!

Side B: One track here, at a length of nearly 11 minutes. So it’s safe to say we’re going to hear some more madness, and plenty of it. At times the vocals are over shadowed by the guitars and drums, but it adds elements of deviance and grim to the music. The spiraling riff we heard on Side A’s songs makes an appearance now and then. But, this side of the EP seems to be more of an up and down experience. The occasional slight shifts in speed that curve right back to full pace are done well. When the band does dip into the slow speeds and haunting noises, the death/black metal factor is put on hold, and we have a doomed-the-fuck-out band on our hands. At the tail end of the song you’re left with goose bump-inducing industrial sounds covered in echoes that radiate inside your soul. Pretty fucking evil.

Bölzer have put out a nice EP in Aura and I encourage you to seek it out and give it a listen. One can only hope a full-length album is in the works. But for now, you can grab this on wax through Iron Bonehead Productions.

Do it loud and proud. Support the bands you love and enjoy.

HAIL!!!!!!

I’m sure that a lot of you remember well Acadia, the debut album of Tim Waterfield, aka Karhide, released in 2010.

The Southampton native artist is back with a new EP that will be released next June 17th via the independent label Field Records. Rough Sleep is going to blow your mind with its 30 minutes journey. The 5 songs offer some truly haunting Post-Rock/Post-Metal riffs. I listened to Rough Sleep again and again and I’m still in trouble in defining this album genre of music: it isn’t 100% Post Rock and it isn’t 100% Post-Metal.

What I can say is that it’s a fine balancing act of the two with electronic elements inside. Very loud moments are mixed with the quieter post-rock creating a great effect. Tim Waterfield’s music of is in fact influenced by a multitude of genres and the outcome is a unique style of noisy electronic, post rock and post metal. Indeed the first thing you'll notice about this album is the change in the rhythm throughout its songs.

The opening title track, ‘Rough Sleep’, was originally composed for a fundraising compilation for homelessness charity Shelter. Karhide gave his contribution together with other huge bands like Four Tet, Karma To Burn and Wire. The starting of this song will remind you of a military march accompanied by an electronic beep but this effect will disappear soon leaving the whole stage to a guitar riff that will make your head bang uncontrollably. I really like the clean post-rock guitar melodies at the last part of the song.
The following ‘Piano Run’ seems to be a continuation of the previous song. This track has a typical post rock start with an electronic beat that imposes the rhythm to the whole song and is built on two levels, the piano and the guitars, that alternate creating a memorable vertigo. Approximately four and a half minutes into ‘Piano Run’ and we get a great melodic break. Gorgeous stuff.

Forget the piano melody and go into a ‘Daydream’ dimension where you can recognize the influence of someone like Four Tet but in a darker version. This song is a mix of sounds that evokes also a mix of feelings. It’s sweet in some part, dark in other and sometimes is frightening. It’s a song full of tension and would be perfect as the soundtrack to a drama film. I see it perfect for Requiem for a Dream: Darren Aronofsky should consider this tune for similar kind of movies. ‘Daydream’ will keep you breathless till the end.

‘Excerpts from sleep (MAB Rough Sleep Remix)’ is something never heard before. It’s the marriage of the best electronica with the best post rock: it’s a sort of rock-electronic that indicates the fact that Karhide has no long term plans in his mind, but instead always try to explore a found sound, record it, and again move on to the next thing.

The concluding ‘Ego Plusher (Mender Rough Sleep Remix)’ is again a new experiment of Waterfield that will bring you out of this world into a spatial dimension where the only admitted creatures are the instruments that create an original sound I could never define, augmented amply by the rhythmic mastery of Ash ‘Mender’ West-Mullen. The only solution is that I recommend you listen to it carefully.

Rough Sleep deserves that you listen to it many times and each time you’ll be able to discover new sounds and new shades. And this is the power of this EP. Rough Sleep is really a breathtaking record that I have had great pleasure in reviewing.

Have a listen and enjoy then, there is a great deal of potential here.

The first thing I thought when watching a teaser video for Naam’s Vow was “Wow, this reminds me of Tool.”

The video, posted by Max Wormbrodt, is of Naam at GaluminumFoil Productions recording a song that I can’t seem to pinpoint on the album. Bassist John Preston Bundy plays a bass riff that sounds very Justin Chancellor-esque, both in style and tone. And it’s not often that bands remind me of Tool, even when they are cited as a major influence; more often than not, they’re claimed as a main inspiration for generic radio hard rock bands that play standard verse-chorus-verse songs in nothing but 4/4, as opposed to bands with progressive tendencies.

So it’s strange for me to get that feeling from a band that doesn’t sound all that much like Tool when the entire package is examined. Naam are far more rooted in psychedelic rock, inspired by Hawkwind and Pink Floyd and bearing similarities to The Black Angels, Young Hunter, and Astra.

There is some complexity to Vow, but for the most part Naam focus on atmosphere rather than nonstandard song forms and time signature fuckery. However, there is a harder, darker edge to their music that is not present in the typical neopsych band, a good deal of which can be credited to Bundy’s Chancellor-esque bassing.

‘Skyscraper’ is driven primarily by Bundy, while the guitars on ‘Vow’ and ‘Beyond’ remind me of Adam Jones trying to emulate some classic fuzzy psych. These are juxtaposed with tracks like ‘Pardoned Pleasure,’ ‘Of the Hour,’ and ‘Midnight Glow,’ which are warmer and sound closer to the traditional psychedelic rock sound.

It is the synth work of Johnny ‘Fingers’ Weingarten that ties the two together. Besides having a kickass nickname, Fingers is fantastic at constructing atmosphere, staking his claim to a dominant place on the album with the instrumental introduction ‘A Call’ and continuing to add a spacey feel to the album all the way through to the outro track ‘Adagio.’ ‘Laid to Rest,’ a short acoustic track, is transformed from a quick little interlude to a standout moment on the album through his work. He contributes much to the unsettling nature of ‘Skyscraper’ and is essential to hard-rocking numbers like ‘Midnight Glow.’

Naam are well on their way to becoming standouts in the neopsych scene and fans of the style are sure to be all over this album. Not many bands are able to capture the contrast between the earthy and the spacey sides of psychedelic rock in one place, and Naam’s ability to do so separates them from many of their brethren. Vow is at times warm and inviting, at others cold, haunting, and dark, and at all times beautifully arranged and composed, and missing this album would be a mistake.

Matthew Cooper, aka Eluvium, based in Portland, Oregon has been presenting us with fine electronic instrumental music for a good few years now. With Nightmare Ending, a sprawling 2 CD, 80 minute opus, he takes us on a journey of incredible and beautifully arranged modern symphonies. The label releasing his music is the tremendous Temporary Residence Limited, who are also responsible for bringing Mono records into the world. I cannot thank the people behind this label enough for ensuring that this music is heard. For it needs to be heard. This is music.

I'd never heard of Eluvium before until I ventured down to Dublin to see Explosions in the Sky around the release of All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. Cooper had just released Copia, and had done a remix of an Explosions track for their bonus CD. As the support that night, a solo figure sat behind a laptop, guitar in hand, he was creating these incredible electro soundscapes with minimal effort. I was dabbling in one-man-show-guitar-electronica myself at the time and was in my element watching this guy perform.

Six years later, having missed out on all his releases since (shame on me), it was with trepidation that I selected Nightmare Ending to review. Twitter was going apoplectic with encouraging snippets of information regarding how good it is. The weight of expectation was making it a long wait to get the preview copy.

On first listen, my immediate thoughts were along the lines of "How do you begin to do explain in mere words how good this is?". Repeated listens only made it worse as each track wound its way out of the speakers and took me to other places, where words matter not. The weight of everyday life reduced to dust.

...and I'm still finding it hard to transcribe into words. Usually, my reviews will look closely at the individual tracks of an album, a closer inspection of the highs and (any) lows will be considered. The enormity of Nightmare Ending and its 14 tracks, the very fact that each and every one is as good as the next, renders this sort of analysis almost irrelevant. But it's my duty to provide you with some informative appraisal.

As a way of introduction, opener 'Don't Get Any Closer' winds up on a zither-eal drone, waves of warm stringed chords wash over, plaintive piano winds its way through the track before a heaving organ completes the mix. Reminiscent of composer Angelo Badalamenti and his signature arrangements, Eluvium makes modern soundtracks for unmade films. 'Unknown Variation' begins with the chatter of static, echoed clatter like some outer space train station can be heard, synth chords eerily enhance the backdrop and the whole thing ends in a brilliant warped guitar drone that Kevin Shields would be proud of.

'Caroling' is the best of many short piano-only tracks, uplifting but yet full of mourning. 'Chime' continues this theme, only this time the piano is of the bar saloon variety, processed through an echo chamber; out of this world. Centrepiece 8-minute epic 'Rain Gently' is all lush chords and swooning guitars, the chord progression borrowed from a certain 90s pop hit.

Ultimate highlight has to be the incredible 'Covered In Writing', airy strings float in the cloud filled sky, it's such a tragic tune, but at the same time incredibly uplifting. The album ends with 'Happiness', book ending the set with another hymnal organ piece, this time featuring the vocals of Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo.

I'm really not surprised at all about the amount of praise that's being given regarding Nightmare Ending. This album should be prescribed on the NHS as a relaxant medication. Actually, no, it should just be made compulsory listening for everyone, the world would be a better place.

Goddag music soldiers. Oxide Tones opened its castle window and a fresh wind from the north of Sweden arrived bringing a wave of energy: let’s say hello to Sey Hollo, the one man band that is giving a great contribution to the Swedish musical scene. Sey Hollo is Sebastian Larsson and the main tag applied to his music is post-rock but I think that he goes farther exploring the land of post metal and progressive rock. Sey Hollo is really an open-minded rock band.

Sey Hollo’s first album was released in 2010 and in the two years since Larsson has put out 2 further digital releases. Kombinat is the new album and a mother of pearl in the instrumental rock scene.

In his project Larsson combines elements of post-rock and metal influences exploring the realm of the sound he has crafted over these years and conjures an album that will appease long time fans and newcomers alike. Kombinat is aligned with the previous album and fans of Sey Hollo will recognize the vocal samples that the Swedish artist used to put in his songs.

The new album is a show of musical strength, effort, feeling and solidity that goes through 6 catchy tunes in about 50 minutes – the shortest track being 5 minutes long.

The opening ‘Bunker of Bare Life’ is a sample of the album as a whole. It contains all the elements we’ll find throughout our northern journey. The song induces a tremendous vertigo with its bouncing, serpentine guitar lines that dominate the main rhythm of this track. And the second half of this tune has a rhythm that doesn’t allow you to rest: it keeps your heart beating together with the drums and the psychedelic loop that Sebastian created.

If you are thinking of having a break ‘Haraka Haraka Haina Baraka’ will betray your expectations. It begins with a growing bass drum pattern accompanied by an oscillating synthesis and echoing tremolo picked guitar lines. An 8 minute song in total and, after the first 3 that are mainly metal, the rhythm changes completely like a crack in a wall and the beauty that follows will let you flying away and develop an emotional resonance you wouldn't expect. The light flows high through the hole and the darkness of the intro disappear, however towards the end of ‘Haraka Haraka Haina Baraka’ darkness comes back again. This mix of edges and sonorities is wonderful.

‘Terroture’ is epic! This song moves and you can't avoid coming along for the ride. There's something irresistible in it. A dark tune dressed with a memorable melodic sauce with a continuous crescendo. 7 minutes closing with vocals, the oldest music instrument. This song is a work of art and definitely my favorite song from this album.

‘Lusaka Funeral Association’ is built around two dangerous riffs, the second more progressively shattering than the first one. Listening to this song has the effect of suffocating: you are in a room and the air is slowly ripped from your lungs but few seconds before the total darkness prevails an unknown force pulls you upward to a mysterious haven where you can breathe again in the presence of something eternal. The eternal space is offered by ‘Crowds at The End of The World’, the longest track on Kombinat. The two songs together are a mix of loud and soft contrasts characterized by playing lingering, drifting notes and heavy riffs.

The closing ‘Jimmy’s’ starts with vocals talking about our everyday sharing of knowledge, experiences and ideas. Only Jimmy doesn’t want to do it! This track is dominated by a memorable piano that makes you stop and saying ‘‘hey, what is this?’’.

‘Jimmy’s’ is out of the chorus, it’s another album, another world or the celebration of an end. It’s full of light after an intense journey through darkness and lightness alternation. It’s the wonderful conclusion of a great music show.
I listened to this album again and again and I’m impressed by its beauty. Kombinat is intense, dark and mysterious but also full of hope. I really love it.

Of Martyr’s Agony and Hate is the second album from five-piece, Spanish, brutal, tech/ death metal band Scent of Death (currently signed to Bloody Productions). Formed in 1998 Scent of Death, have seen several changes in line-up, and waited six years between releasing their first 2005 album, Woven In The Book of Hate (that I’ve not been able to get my hands on) and the recording of this follow-up album in 2011.

After completing the mastering of the album in 2012, Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate was released through Pathologically Explicit Recordings this year. Consisting of nine, dark and grisly tracks that are hard, fast and frantically complex, ultimately defining that in short, it is quality and not quantity that takes precedence in relation to the direction Scent of Death have been travelling in over the last fourteen years, and the level of blood, sweat and nightmares that presumably - if this album is anything to go by - have gone into their recording process.

The album begins with ‘Awakening Of The Liar’ which as far as its intro goes may as well be the noise you’d expect to hear when you’re screeching open the gates of hell. As the unpleasant ghosts and ghouls of the past are fully awoken and unleashed, I’d suggest you run for your puny insignificant lives ahead of tightly wound brutal tech that will pummel the fu(ck) out of you if you stand still too long. Then there’s ‘The Enemy of my Enemy’ with creepy, sinister growls, and impressive blast beats and shredding it’s kind of like inviting a sped up version of Cradle of Filth and DragonForce to a party and having them endure a heated argument with one another via the medium of sound. Or to be less imaginative, think in the “eat your heart out and devour it” style of Morbid Angel.

Even the slower paced tracks on the album hold no mercy being just as impressively stifling and intoxicating still holding the tenacity to evoke the anti-Christ. Look out for ‘A Simple Twist of Faith’ for a daily dose of “this is what happens when you wake up a raging beast.” and the very much needed interlude “The Sleeper Must Awake” for melodic instrumentation that goes to show however brutal/technical/outrageous these guys are, they are so much more than growls and beatdowns. Fans of Immolation, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, come out of your caves and grab a copy, this album’s for you. Finishing thought: If this is what hell on earth sounds like…I kinda like it.

Here we go again. Canada brings in another blistering slab of metal, albeit black metal. Gevurah claim to uphold the true values of black metal, praises to Satan with intellectual thought into their music and lyrics. I myself am no professional on the fallen angel myself; I’d say they’re doing a good job though.

‘The Essence Unbound’ is slow lighting of the candles before the attack of blast beats and tremolo picked guitars begin to dominate your ears. The vocals are clean in a sense that you can make out the lyrics, but make no mistake, they are spitting evil. The occasional Tom G. Warrior “UGH!” is thrown in as well, much appreciated. At one point the drums lead out and you think the song is over, but it’s simply opening up for an eerie guitar passage and incantations for the damned. ‘Flesh Bounds Desecrated’ is a straight shot of evil all the way through, sometimes pushing the vocals into the background and the bass forward in the mix, making the vocals more of an instrument for atmosphere. It adds an all around evil to the song that sounds perfect.

‘The Throne of Lucifer’ stays a slower pace with a great set of guitar riffs all over the song and a steady, slow and strong beat. Occasional speeds in the drums do occur, but this song is all burning hellfire and devoting. Vocals are mixed between yells and chants (and one more UGH! for good measure). ‘Divine Ignition’ is the mass at its highest moments. A mixed-bag as far as tempos and volumes, but make no mistake, this is a dynamic ritual being performed. The last track, a cover of Malign’s ‘Entering Timeless Halls’ rounds out this Ep nicely.

A fine EP of black metal: end of story. If you like the genre you’d be a fool not to pick this up. Black metal for the black mass. May 28th through Profound Lore Records, mark your calendars. Pick up this brief sermon and enjoy.

HAIL!!!!!

A ghastly feeling immediately takes hold upon introduction to the Black Testament. As the pages turn, the body is slowly sucked in and encapsulated in darkness. Rigidity is felt in the hands and the stomach as the sounds begin contracting their heavy grip around the intestines. All of a sudden a cold chill and a familiar transfixing energy are felt.  The dynamism of obscurity and decay, the recollection of life lost.

As one song bends to the next, the progression follows a journey heavy with rapacious vocals that ignite a fear that’s both disquieting and apocalyptic. As 'Carving A Temple' progresses, so begins a walk down a spiral staircase of unimaginable expanse. This descent is both dark and dreary alike, reminiscent of something unknown and unsettling. The drums create a storm and the guitars weep, the atmosphere grows darker and darker.

‘Eyes of the Earth’ strikes with an eeriness that feels as though you’re being watched from afar, like an ominous being is burning a hole in your back. With a guitar sound that almost screams, a grimacing scene is painted. The album closes with ‘Black Testament,’ a song that winds and weaves in haunting tempos that guide the listener to the end, unleashing the hammering that closes the book.

This album as a whole will delight the tastes of someone with a thirst for Dissection (only more raw), Watain, Sorhin, or Craft. Hailing from Sweden, this is the bands 7th full length in follow-up to their last release, Wrath Upon the Earth. Svartsyn is a Swedish word for “pessimism,” and the gloom and blackened ghastliness of this album holds true to that meaning.

With their full-length debut album, The Only Truth Is Music, 6-piece His Name is Codeine present a subtle blend of mixed-up Americana fuzz and reverb heavy punk and psyche-rock. The band are clearly influenced by The Velvet Underground (VU), Spiritualized, The Black Angels and The Jesus and Mary Chain and have used these groups as a springboard to create a dense, energetic and impressive record which is happy to be both seedy and, at times, extremely refined.

This is a difficult balance to achieve but when they get it right we are treated to indignant and concentrated songs which suggest that the band want to break free of the small-town of Elgin and soar much, much higher.

The LP opens with ‘My Tragic End’ which sees surges of passionate punk guitar blending with Lyn Ralphs's rumbling vocals. This is pop with a prog rock edge, all dished-up with self-assurance and vigour.

‘Before the Apple Fell’ follows, their first single, which perfectly balances arrogance with intimidation before ‘Shoot To Kill’ animates the brooding soul of Jesus and Mary Chain with a nice vocal interplay that is intensely raucous yet harmonious.

‘Not A Number’ sees the introduction of Americana and country influences. For me this was the weak point of the release, I personally just can’t stand this genre of music but fans will lap it up. Next ‘Magdalena’ sees a dizzy madrigal being offset by guitar noise and a cold, repetitive bass line before ‘Replica Gun’ switches the temperament back to pop, which is a jarring change that makes for a pleasing dynamic contrast.

‘The Measure of Your Misery’ opens with a bluesy feel which does nothing to prepare the listener for guitar bursts which abruptly attack before the sweeping melody makes a comeback. ‘I’m Not In Love (With The Way Things Are)’ starts quietly and then suddenly the listener is engulfed in rolling waves of guitar complemented by crashing drumming before returning back to the serenity of the beginning. The album closes with ‘Medal’ which sees the band back in VU mode: slide guitar glints off gleaming singing before coiling around a recurring eddy of sound and vocals.

The Only Truth Is Music may appear to be an arrogant assertion for a band's first full length release, but here it’s absolute reality.

The spoken word juxtaposed with music can be an immersive and rewarding experience, in particular powerful rumbling minor chord majesty such as found on GSYBE’s ‘Dead Flag Blues’ from their F# A# (Infinity) album, can take you to places that are hard to find.

Above all though, it has to be the music that provides the emotion and tone, and this is why I have always found Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds a bit clunky and obvious.  Indeed, it now seems to have found its more natural home on the theatre stage, where the drama can be played out as first intended.

So we come to a concept album by Australian artist Mark Healy released under his band name Hibernal.

The Machine is ostensibly a solo release by Mark who clearly wears his Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson influences on his sleeve. No bad thing, in fact some of the instrumental sections are superb and have a spacy, fluidity reminiscent of the best of Lightbulb Sun, Up the Downstair and Signify. Don’t forget that Mr Wilson was heavily influenced by Pink Floyd and there is an element of Floydian dreaminess here as well.

However, the narrative sections simply don’t carry the album well enough for me. It might be my age (old !) but I’ve heard this corporate story so many times in different formats it is definitely tired now –  the cliché of the giant company taking away any individuality and replacing people, or parts of people in this case, with machines is frankly old hat.

The first time through, it’s reasonably rewarding and you find yourself wanting to see what happens but after that, it becomes a rather tiresome, am-dram affair and I really can’t imagine anyone reaching for this after more than 2 or 3 spins.

There are no individual tracks as such that you could pick out and think ‘Yeh, I fancy a bit of that again’ and it really does need a full play through for maximum effect, so this in turn limits it’s repeat playability.

There is no disputing the artistry involved here.  The recording is flawless, crisp and clear. The playing is precise and involving in certain sections and the actors perform their spoken parts with authority.

But for me, it just doesn’t work which is a shame as I really wanted to like it ……

John Robb is undoubtedly a smart guy, perhaps better known these days for his polemics on the music industry via the site Louder Than War and as an author of a number of books, he also has another life as the frontman of Goldblade. On this, their new album, Robb uses the stage as his own state of the nation address in what is a raucous and scathing attack on modern life.

That he uses punk rock as the voice to do this is even cleverer. Not the first punk band to do this by a long mile, Robb and co present an album which is equal parts retro and contemporary. Punk has hardly evolved since those heady days of 1977 but it hasn't needed to. The raw energy and tendency to drift into uncharted territory such as ska has made it the ideal template for speaking to the youth.

Kicking off with ‘This is War’, it is immediately obvious that nothing has changed for this music. Loud, trashy and anthemic, it takes you by the gut and raises you up. This continues for the next couple of songs with the Sham like ‘Psycho Takes a Holiday’ upping the ante for dumb choruses.

Musically this is up there with the best of punk with ‘Serious Business’ really proving the point by taking a side step into dub soundsystem territory. It's a shame there isn't more like this on the album as it gives a welcome breather from the norm.

That's all beside the point though as the terrace anthem of ‘We're All In It Together’ with its blatant political meaning gathers up the rest of the album for a one stop blast of rhetoric. It could all get too much with songs starting to sound the same but justice prevails and authority crumbles with a fantastic ‘They Kiss Like Humans, Act Like Machines’ being a highlight

Most impressive is the title track which turns into an industrial stomp which gives the album its focus. Spread out over eight minutes which must be almost unheard of in punk circles, it wraps itself around your brain with its robotic rhythm and clanking machines. It truly is a terrifying experience and one which raises Goldblade above their peers.

Punk may still have its beating heart and god knows we need it but it also has the habit of falling into the same traps. The Terror of Modern Life breathes new life to the scene though and brings a certain respect and intelligence with it. 

Dark Tranquillity, along with At The Gates and In Flames, helped rush in the Gothenburg sound of metal. Melodic yet powerful, and guitar tones with bite, among other things. And while one of those bands split back in the day only to re-unite in 2008 for live shows (I’m ok with it) and the other hasn’t put out an album I’ve enjoyed since 2002, Dark Tranquillity is still here, churning out noteworthy material.

I myself am a fan of the fast and aggressive sound that Dark Tranquillity brings. And on the opening track ‘For Broken Words’ they do indeed bring that sound, albeit mixed with their calm, brooding verses. Follow up track ‘The Science of Noise’ brings the same aggression, only without any soft moments. In a perfect world (mine anyway) Dark Tranquillity would stay the course and pack the rest of the album with rippers and barn-burners. But this world is not perfect as we all know. Tracks such as ‘The Silence In Between’ or ‘What Only You Know’ will be eaten up by those who enjoy the more melodic side Dark Tranquillity have been known for. It’s not to say those songs are completely soft, but they pale in the heaviness factor when compared to a track such as ‘Endtime Hearts’. Even though that track does pack melodies and keys as the norm, it’s a higher speed and packs a solo that left me satisfied.

The album follows suit, a back and forth mix, from this point onward until the final track ‘None Becoming’, a slow churner that will fit nice mid-set if played live. It closes out the album well, and on a particular dark note. I only hope they pick up where they left off when they write the follow up. If you manage to snag the US version, you’ll get two bonus tracks. One full track ‘Immemorial’, which I honestly should have been left on the regular version and used as a closer, and the instrumental ‘Photon Dreams’. Both good tracks, but I still stand by my statement on ‘Immemorial’.  Either way, if you’re a Dark Tranquillity fan you’d be right to purchase this album. And if you’re not, well I don’t know if I see it winning you over, but you have to start somewhere!

You can purchase Construct now through Century Media Records. Support artists and music you love, go buy this album.

HAIL!!!

When we slow sound down, what happens? 

Well, we know it lowers the pitch of the sound, we also know that it dulls the tone and timbre, as it's operating in a totally different frequency range than originally. This often imbues music with a totally different quality than previously: bright and upbeat music becomes prosaic, melancholy and otherworldly. 

This was an area explored by composers who used tape-manipulation and, later, samplers to exploit the changes which time and pitch exerts on sound.

Rather than make this technique the whole of their music, Cyberchump have utilised bespoke software to re-pitch and stretch their own tracks from the past, to create backings for new compositions. 

Just so you know, Cyberchump are Mark G. Eberhage and Jim Skeel. They work apart, only meeting up to mix and finalise their music. On their website, I count 10 previous releases, not including Flutter & Flow. So, quite prolific, then. They're experimental, conceptual and, as it turns out, compulsively listenable.

Ok, so what about the music? Well, several boxes are ticked. This is a duo whose influences aren't necessarily apparent, but I'd guess they're pretty eclectic and esoteric. There are touches of Another Green World-era Eno in places on 'Sign By Night', but this is fairly fleeting as deep Cooder-esque blues guitar and mellow mid-pitch bass punctuate the emerging soundscape. This is 'ambient', but not in a new-agey, self-indulgent and inwardly reflective way. It is ambient in that it's relatively sedate music which conjures some mildly dark and cinematic imagery. Picture music, in fact.

Later, in 'Neon', we get treated to some odd little timbres and dissonance. Dark and gradually escalating space-rock that broods and flows (and occasionally flutters).

There is a danger that the music becomes unfocused and lacking in structure with this type of project however, it is eminently melodic also. Little tuneful sequences and riffs pop in and out of the noise, tying the tracks together. In possibly the darkest and seemingly most formless track on the album, 'Dark Machine Language', a beatless drone and machine noises bring to mind sci-fi scenarios, as well as Martin Hannett's 'Lift Recordings' for Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures sessions.

The album concludes with the euphoric pads of 'When Time Was No Time', made more foreboding-sounding by an eastern bass melody and slowly opening filters. It develops into an awesome swathe of chiming guitar and deep drone.

A simple conclusion for you, dear reader: How to summarise this album? Dark, melodic, contemplative, cinematic, experimental, headphone-filling. Therefore, it pushes all my buttons.

When I got first introduced to Leah Kardos’ music, I was about to review her debut album Feather Hammer, sold to me as “something weird and tricky”. I immediately fell in love. The follow up, Machines, has been stealing my heart ever since it entered my world. Again there’s a strong concept behind it, very consistent throughout the record - it’s a song cycle around the theme of technology.

What makes Machines instantly unique and captivating, is the soprano of Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz, an Australian opera singer. The angelic voice, teamed with the theme of the album, create a very touching commentary on the current human condition. It sounds like a lot of big words, however the lyrics have been composed using the cut-out technique and the material Leah used to cut them out of was nothing else but her spam folder (I highly recommend having a look at the actual lyrics sheet with the original spam messages on Leah’s blog). The combination is striking: automatically generated spam messages, evoking the loneliness and hollowness of cyberspace, sung by a classically trained opera singer to the sound of Leah’s electronic soundscapes.

The album opens with ‘Incantation’, a song that could fool you into thinking that it’s just classical singing to electronic music, until you listen to the lyrics: "Perfection not faultlessness / All the software you need". The chorus of the following ‘Credo Deus’ (in English - ‘To believe God’) "You can reach me, you can read me" again strikes as existential until you realise that the rest of the song is based on an email we all received at least once: "I wish to notify you again / A deceased client of mine / That shares you (sic) name / Whose tragic heart condition / Was due to the death (sic) of his family in the / Tsunami in Sumatra". There’s ironic beauty in the contrast between deep and meaningful phrases and the generic junk they get lost between. As the record progresses, the soprano gets more and more electronic alterations, like in ‘Radiate Heat Into Space’, where the automated message is spoken by an equally automated voice - "Is there a you for you to take?".

My personal favourite on the album is ‘Sexy Monday’, a song that pops up in my head every time I think of the three reasons why I hate my job (sexy Monday isn’t one of them, I wish I had a sexy Monday to moan about). It opens classically and gets into a very synthpopy zone - if you can imagine synthpop with a soprano that is, before it bears cabaret references. To me this is the peak of the record - everything comes together: the soprano climbing the highest of heights, the spam message so relevant to our everyday problems ("why do you hate your life?"), yet so mechanical, the synths and the beats sounding oh so happy-go-lucky... If someone asked me to explain post-modernism with a piece of music, I’d just play them this song, it really embraces it to the fullest. ‘Highly Active Girls’ are the perfect complement - "Highly active girls craving for you / We have the medical cure / Stop leaving your partner dissatisfied" - a machine voice on a cloud of electronic music offering solutions to the most intimate of human problems in the most robotic and inhuman way.

Machines is the perfect follow up to Feather Hammer - Leah Kardos isn’t scared to experiment and doesn’t fail to surprise. Her debut was focused on music and celebrated the piano, while creating escapist soundscapes. This time she takes a step forward and uses lyrics to engage a discussion. The concept of this album is more than relevant to all the issues we face while living in an online community. Musically it’s beautifully understated and once you get past the lyrical level, you’ll discover Leah’s virtuosity. It’s an absolutely stunning and unique piece of work. It makes me completely clueless as to where Leah’s heading next, but I already can’t wait to find out.