Nine Inch Nails. Tesseract. You Me At Six. Strange stylistic bedfellows maybe, but Grumble Bee (aka ex-PaperPlane man Jack Bennett) has succeeded in welding them all together and creating something you absolutely have to hear immediately.
Two of my favourite TMMP genre categories are “Genre Terrorism” and “Complete Batshit Insanity” – and few acts fit those labels quite as snugly as Read more…
Back in the glory days of alt-metal, Marilyn Manson was a massive deal. Nobody else has managed to combine over-the-top religious-Right-baiting showmanship with fierce intelligence and raging, in-your-face rock in the same manner Manson did around the turn of the millennium. But after 2003’s The Golden Age Of Grotesque, things took an awkward turn with a series of albums that Read more…
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…
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the metal side of the music business shuts down. Fans of heavy music across the world use the festive season to hibernate, nurse their bangovers, get drunk, and sharpen their skills on FIFA while the pop side of the music world excretes yet another warbling X Factor karaoke puppet and shoppers get smothered under a tidal wave of Now That’s What I Call Christmas! CDs. All goes quiet on the metal front until the new year hits.
This isn’t so much an album as an unforgiving barrage of beyond-heavy ultra-distorted guitars, cage-fighting drums, utterly guttural bass, and brutalising vocals. If you’re only interested in nice and friendly finger-clicking tunes, Badlands is not for you – but if you’re pissed off beyond reason and your tastes tend toward the corner of musicland labelled ‘Extreme Metal’, it most certainly is. Read more…
I’m not one for golden-age thinking. Although the alt-metal movement that got me into music birthed some breathtaking albums, a lot of it was shit. Alt-metal’s new breed, however, are taking the best of the past and using it to forge a better future. Read more…
It’s weird to think this gig would never have happened had the Boileroom’s licence been suspended – but the former did happen, because the latter wasn’t. The peacefully dubstep-loving crowds were out in droves last night to check out: Read more…
First things first. Beneath Dead Waves are a great band. They clearly know their shit; their instrumental technique is borderline flawless; and any self-respecting metalhead will find something to love on Inertia. Personally, I felt as if this album had been written just for me, clearly influenced as it is by many of the bands that defined me as a metal fan. There’re moments that bring to mind Dream Theater, Tool, Mudvayne, SikTh, Slipknot, and Meshuggah – and it’s clear that Beneath Dead Waves love those bands as much as I do (if not more). For that reason, Inertia has earned a special place in my heart. Read more…
No, Dillinger, it isn’t. Sorry.
Happiness is this song. Read more…
Whether you love or hate these guys, one thing cannot be denied: Periphery are not your standard metal band. While many acts continue to follow the well-travelled offline career path – centred primarily around toilet circuit gigs, the occasional EP, and appeals to labels to fund an album – Periphery head honcho Misha Mansoor made his name online, releasing solo material under the alias ‘Bulb’ and constructing his brand through unconventional (but clearly super effective) communication channels. Although it is popular in some circles to regard online audience-building as the mark of the heretical, double-dealing cheater, in the music business it’s just good sense.
Today, as if to affirm that conclusion, new YouTube bands are born on a daily basis, while labels focus increasingly on ‘platform size’ and ‘audience engagement’ as key metrics when considering a future signing. In a world where everything is on the table – not just the likes of Alex Day and Dorje but more or less every musical performance that has ever taken place in front of a functional video camera – sitting on your laurels guarantees, now more than ever, the inexorable certainty of crushing failure.
Fortunately, Periphery have proven more than aware of this fact, making a clear and conscious effort to consistently push themselves out of their collective comfort zones. Of their work so far, nothing proves this point as effectively as Clear. Read more…