With so many soundalike metalcore bands out there, The Agony Scene managed to differentiate themselves by going darker and harder than most of their peers. Now making their return after a lengthy hiatus with Tormentor, their first album in ten years, these guys have decided to mark the occasion by Read more…
Oceano are a brutal band with a thought-provoking and timely message.
Our world is in trouble. This is a fact that has been debated countless times over multiple decades – and yet we continue to slip down the slope. All is not yet lost – but how long do we have left? And what can be done to turn the tide?
Revelation considers the above in devastating fashion Read more…
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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!
1) The Pretty Reckless – Who You Selling For
1) Sonic Boom Six – The F-Bomb
1) The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation
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2) Read more…
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There isn’t another musician on Earth like Rémi Gallego. With The Algorithm’s new album (try saying that ten times really quickly) Brute Force dropping on April 1 after scoring 91% on TMMP here, and many ears awaiting its onslaught of labyrinthine synth lines and cortex-crunching grooves, TMMP caught up with Rémi Gallego via email to talk Brute Force, influences, creativity, and thoughtful neighbourly feedback…
Your new album Brute Force is out on April 1. How’re you feeling about it?
I can’t wait to finally unveil this album. It’s my proudest achievement so far and I’m excited that people can finally hear it!
What’s your earliest music-related memory?
Listening to my dad playing Read more…
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The Algorithm’s new album.
Try saying that ten times really quickly.
When it comes to creating the heaviest electronica imaginable while maintaining that all-important accessibility, Rémi Gallego is the undisputed Read more…
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You are lying in a field. It’s sunny. Everything is happy. Good. Nice. Yay.
Suddenly, black clouds obscure the sun. Drum-thunder rumbles for a second or so.
Then the hail begins.
Freezing, harsh, relentless. Bullet-like balls of ice fall from the sky, their journey ended only by the soft flesh of your face. You flail frantically, your hands tugging your hoodie’s hood over your head as you get up and run. Head down, eyes Read more…
Heavy music is often dismissed as bring brutish and blockheaded. Sometimes, that’s fair enough. A Dark Orbit, however, are fiercely intelligent.
That extra cognitive capacity lends a sense of near-bottomlessness to Inverted. It’s the sonic equivalent of doing this:
I’m about to sound like Yoda, but for the faint-hearted, this is not. Weighing in at 15 tracks totalling well over an hour of sludgy subterranean grooves, bleak and Read more…
Having had my ears blown by Employed To Serve’s debut long-player Greyer Than You Remember and seen the Woking-based post-hardcore upstarts tear through a riotous Palm Reader support slot, I can safely say that if you love hardcore-related shenanigans and haven’t checked these guys out yet, you need to fix that ASAP.
A bleak and brutal whirlwind of off-kilter riffs, hectic drum abuse, and scorching vocals, Greyer Than You Remember represents pure, no-shortcut quality; over the course of every track, Employed To Serve push themselves past their own limits and into the previously unknowable. Here, ETS vocalist Justine Jones chats about her band’s origin story, self-worth, onstage nerves, and some sick future tour plans…
Your album Greyer Than You Remember is dropping on May 25th. How do you feel right now?
Really excited! We’ve had some of these songs written for a year, so we’re really happy to finally be playing them live and for people to be able to listen to them!
How would you describe your creative evolution over the course of your last few releases and the creation of Greyer Than You Remember?
Pretty drastic! I feel like we’ve forced Read more…
I’m writing these words on a cloudless spring day. My laptop is on a table on a freshly swept patio, and birds are chirping happily in the trees. My neighbours are playing fetch with their dog.
Greyer Than You Remember is not an appropriate soundtrack for this.
Calling this album chaotic would be Read more…
Palm Reader don’t deal in niceties. Where some of their peers might opt for an expansive, solemn intro in order to lull listeners into a false sense of security, Palm Reader give it ten seconds before going straight for the throat. From there, I Watch The Fire Chase My Tongue starts proceedings as Palm Reader mean to go on – with a good metric fuckton of math-ridden, Dillinger Escape Plan-inspired brutality.
Beside The Ones We Love is the sound of a band shoving impatiently against its own limits – and then Read more…