The “death of the album” has been declared many times in recent years – but nonetheless, musicians keep making them and are showing no signs of stopping (and thank God for that!). Almost a decade and a half into the twenty-first century, there still exist bands and artists capable of composing immersive, engaging, and fully satisfying collections of songs that stand up to repeated, unshuffled listens. Here are fifteen of them. Read more…
As the originators of the metal style known as djent, Meshuggah are one of the most influential heavy bands in existence today. If you’ve ever sat and scratched your head at an ultra-complex riff until you listened to the cymbal pattern and suddenly it all made sense, you were most likely listening to a band paying lip service to Meshuggah – if not a track by the Swedish maestros themselves. Djent bands the world over owe their rhythmic and tonal signatures to Meshuggah, although the origin of the genre-encompassing word itself is the subject of much controversy. Read more…
One of my favourite things about the Internet is easy access to music from across the world. Here at TMMP, I’ve been honoured to hear music from the UK, the USA, Belgium, France, Israel, Japan, and many other territories besides. Júlio Stotz hails from Brazil – and his debut EP Suspended In Reverie is a confident, flamboyant, and solid-as-concrete construction. Read more…