A lot of people think prog is cold and soulless – but Plini’s show on Sunday night was one of the most heartwarming shows I’ve seen in a long time. Some parts of the world are dark and hateful places – but The Borderline was not one of them.
With a sold-out queue stretching around the corner and down the street, it goes without saying that Sunday night’s lineup was pretty special. Although I had heard of David Maxim Micic and Disperse before, I deliberately didn’t do any research on them before the show, because I wanted to be surprised by what they had to offer. Instead of being surprised Read more…
Back in 2011, French progressive metallers Uneven Structure released Februus – a landmark album for the much-maligned genre, djent. Combining a wide range of influences from TesseracT to Karnivool and, of course, Meshuggah, Februus still stands the test of time six years later. Now Uneven Structure are back with La Partition, which marks another career milestone and is, frankly, fucking epic.
Metal is all about questioning, challenging, and ultimately overcoming limits. Listeners tend to find themselves drawn into heavier and less orthodox territory as they become acclimatised to the styles they already know. Meanwhile, metal musicians today are forced to expand their horizons or risk stagnating, boring themselves and ultimately succumbing to some formulaic approach that might please traditionalists, but few others.
The title of Once Human’s sophomore album – Evolution – is well-chosen. It sums up Read more…
Since it first emerged at the turn of the 1970s, metal has been through so many evolutionary shifts that at this point, any given band has a vast wealth of influential options to cherry-pick from. Anything goes, and anything can happen. Only one rule remains: There are no fucking rules.
Betraying The Martyrs are the ultimate embodiment of that one and only rule. For their sophomore LP, 2014’s Phantom, these guys pulled out a fat and brutal cover of Let It Go – a key track from the soundtrack to Disney’s monster hit movie, Frozen. Naturally, Let It Go proved controversial and divisive – and so Read more…
As the music industry slows down, its alternative end hibernating while the pop-enamoured mainstream hungrily ogles Christmas shoppers, the time has come to look back on a seriously strong year for organised soundwaves. For me, it’s been heavy, intense, and a hell of a lot of fun thanks to the releases listed below.
With so many exceptional contenders in the running for the top spot, the thought of ranking them in order of quality is plainly ridiculous. So instead, I’ve picked out three releases that had memorable impacts on me when I first heard them, and assembled the others in alphabetical order.
The Pretty Reckless’s Who You Selling For – along with previous effort Going To Hell – is conclusive proof (if it were honestly needed in 2016) that women belong in rock music, and are fully capable of kicking ass. The sexists of the music world are like Wile E. Coyote; they’ve run off the edge of the cliff, nothing surrounds them but empty air, they’ve looked down, and they’re panicking. Sonic Boom Six’s The F-Bomb picks up where that image leaves off – it’s cheeky, chirpy, happy and hard-hitting (sometimes simultaneously), addressing a wealth of gender-related issues and providing a great ska-fuelled party soundtrack as only Sonic Boom Six can.
Musically, Dissociation is The F-Bomb’s polar opposite. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s swan song is crammed with brutal and ultra-experimental mathcore – but it’s also Dillinger’s most delicate and diverse album. The Dillinger Escape Plan are living proof that you can achieve great things without compromise, by sticking to your guns and just going for it.
Beyond that point, you’re free to dive into an epic range of albums including solidly grooving rock sets, monolithic slabs of military-grade metal, and progressive masterpieces. Since I’ve not reviewed many EPs this year, I’ve also included a pair of extended-playing mind-blowers in the form of Dorje’s Centred And One and Toska’s Ode To The Author. Dorje specialise in utterly idiosyncratic rock tunes with added progressive spice, while to me, Toska (made up of Dorje’s backline, namely guitarist Rabea Massaad, drummer Ben Minal, and bassist Dave Hollingworth) represent the future of instrumental metal.
Both Dorje and Toska are bands on the rise – and they fully deserve to hit the same peaks enjoyed by the biggest names on this list.
There’s little more to say; for me, this list represents the top albums of 2016. Enjoy the full reviews linked below, follow TMMP on Twitter, subscribe to my brand new YouTube channel, and stay tuned for more world-class music next year!
The human capacity for perseverance and survival is absolutely incredible. When our backs are to the wall, we’re capable of coming out fighting – and that’s exactly what Ion Dissonance have done with upcoming album Cast The First Stone, reviewed on TMMP here. I talked to Ion Dissonance guitarist Antoine Lussier about his band’s first album in six years, life changes, Donald Trump, and keeping the dream alive under pressure… Read more…
Animals As Leaders represent that rarest breed of bands, so far ahead of their time that even their most visionary peers struggle to keep up. For fans of instrumental progressive metal, Tosin Abasi, Javier Reyes, and Matt Garstka need absolutely zero introduction, their names synonymous with music so intricate that the fact there are only three of them is still scarcely comprehensible. To those for whom djent is everything, Animals As Leaders are the leaders of the pack.
The Madness Of Many is not going to do anything to change that. The thought of Read more…
Ion Dissonance are pissed off – and with good reason. Held back by behind-the-scenes struggles for the past six years, the Canadian metallers are finally ready to unleash fifth album Cast The First Stone upon the world.
By the time Ion Dissonance are done, you may not have any ears left Read more…
Metal is often dismissed as being brutish, blockheaded, and generally stupid. In some cases, that reputation is well deserved – but Exist Immortal’s upcoming album Breathe (reviewed on TMMP here) stands as a great example of intelligent metal done right. I got talking to Exist Immortal vocalist Meyrick de la Fuente about not only Breathe, but also an approach to spirituality that pretty much exactly matches my own.
When most people discuss bands in real life, they rarely do so using hundreds or thousands of words; they sum it up succinctly. Face to face with a metal-enamoured mate in a rush, I’d describe Exist Immortal as “a sick tech-metal band,” and recommend the person in question check them out. But if that same guy or girl hadn’t yet heard Meshuggah, that same task would become far harder; pushed for time, I’d tell them just to listen to Nothing and brace themselves.
On Darkness Of An Age, Exist Immortal managed to combine an impressive range of influences from the increasingly ubiquitous Meshuggah to Fear Factory and Devin Townsend. The result? Read more…
