Although metalcore’s boundaries have become defined to the point of dogmatism and the suffocation of originality, there do still exist bands who aim to employ stylistic constrictions solely as guidelines rather than snares, or the bars of a gilded cage. It’s one thing to sit down and say Read more…
OMSQ never do anything half-arsed. Whether you’re talking about their doomy genre-mashing instrumentals, the passion poured into their live shows, or this interview, it’s more than obvious that OMSQ give a shit – and make a point of doing so. Here, the Belgian forward-thinkers talk art, inspiration, futurism, and much more… Read more…
While listening to this album, I felt less of a listener and more an explorer of some strange, alien world. Read more…
Long-time TMMP favourites OMSQ describe themselves as “The hallucinated journey of our tribe”. If that sounds cryptic to you, just wait until you hear White Suit. Read more…
Well, fuck me. These kids are pretty angry! Hardcore prog-punk’s been a fairly trendy genre since the rock world wised up to the genius of The Dillinger Escape Plan, and few bands following in Dillinger’s wake have made a serious, crystal-clear-obvious effort to escape their heroes’ back-flipping, ceiling-walking, onstage-shit-flinging shadow. But on Tell-Tale Hearts Now, Voyager do precisely that. Read more…
This has to be the dirtiest album I’ve heard in a long time. The most recent instrumental offerings collected in TMMP’s archives have been markedly slicker than Spooky Action (Alon Tamir’s Terraforming and The Best Pessimist’s Love Is…) and/or Belgian (Celestial Wolves’ Wood For Wood; Marteleur’s My Anvil Is My Tuning Fork; Industroika’s North) – but thanks to The Fierce & The Dead, we now get to check out an album that not only promotes the joys of filthy instrumental noise, but was also created less than an hour away from TMMP HQ. Finally, London gets a well-deserved spot among its overseas art-rock contemporaries, represented in fine form by TFATD. Read more…
Belgium certainly seems to have its fair share of atmospherically-minded musicians, and Marteleur is no exception. There’s a very clear Tool influence on My Anvil Is My Tuning Fork, which initially marked Marteleur out in my mind as potentially being ahead of the competition. This album is very interesting, but to be perfectly honest it sounds more like a soundtrack than something intended to be consumed in a solely audio-only format. As a chillout album it works very well, but the instrumental pieces on display here often feel directionless, with a lot of repeating vamps that remind me of an old songwriting tutor berating me for overusing my DAW’s copy-and-paste function. Read more…