On The Vibrant Sound of Bliss and Decay – Cea Serin’s second LP – the self-proclaimed Snergonian mercurial metallers slaughter and sacrifice many a metal subgenre in the name of birthing something somewhat unique. Read more…
Regular TMMP readers (as well as my family, friends, and any stranger who’s sat next to me on the train for more than five minutes) will probably be sick to death of hearing me rant about how goddamn amazing Marmozets are. Well, I have many a good reason for doing so – and this 13-track slab of genius is another one to add to the list. Read more…
Last night was a reset-hitting moment for a venue whose continued survival was confirmed just over 24 hours previously. Vintage swing music played in the background while earlycomers gathered around a table laden with instruments, effect boxes, microphones, an iPad, and even fairy lights to await the arrival of first act, A R T E L S. Read more…
I love bands that mean it. Cold Summer have spent a fair few years working on themselves – and on Car Crash (In Progress), it really shows. Polished and professional yet still raw, passionate, and in your face, this is a total barnstormer of a song that you need to check out right now.
Scroll down, click the link, press play, and be swept away. Read more…
Metal’s been around for a long time now – but it never ceases to amaze me how many musicians are still finding ways to breathe new life into a genre so frequently mocked for its backward-looking retromania.
On Confrontation, Red Seas Fire take all manner of pre-existing metallic mutations and mix them into still another fresh sound. Think Korn’s first album mixed with Periphery’s latest and you have Tyrants; visualise Chester Bennington laying down vocals over a Killswitch Engage / Tesseract jam and you’ll get closing track Compass. The Gold Room, meanwhile, offers fuzzy riffs and hardcore vocals alongside catchy lyrics sure to translate live and a bit of Dillinger Escape Plan-esque mathiness toward the end, while The Grand Escape is pure djent-fuelled filth. In short, Confrontation is all killer, and absolutely no filler. Read more…
This track broke my brain, in a good way. By all rights, rapping and flowing over Dillinger’s hyper-complex mathcore insanity should be as impossible as taking flight by flapping your arms really quickly – but on Rage Jarren Benton proves that assumption wrong with style, panache, and still more style. Math-rap should be a thing, especially considering a) how hard this track wins; b) that being able to rap over something that’s not in 4/4 is as worthy a thing to boast about as the size of your bank account and/or cock; and c) that Jarren Benton’s only current competition (see YouTube below) are missing the point entirely. Read more…
Irish prog-metallers Ilenkus sure know how to stir things up. The moment opening track Devourer kicks in, we’re chucked into a merciless rhythmic maelstrom and dragged through tangential twists and turns punctuated with screams that might echo our own, were we allowed to pause for breath. Relentlessly intense, skin-rendingly cathartic, and hectic as fuck – and that’s just the first track. Read more…
Chelsea Grin do not piss about! Heavy as Tolstoy and as dense as a black hole’s singularity, Playing With Fire is exactly what you need if you’re struggling to stay awake as the excitement of summer fades and winter slowly rolls in. Or if you just feel like listening to some music that kicks serious ass and takes more names than an identity thief. Read more…
If you’ll pardon the pun, there’s something to be said for a precisely delivered lyric. Timing, word choice, vocal delivery and all of its complications – there are so many elements that need to be approached flawlessly in order to make a song super-effective. On No Love, No Hope, No Future, Canvas get it all right – again and again and again. Read more…
While listening to this album, I felt less of a listener and more an explorer of some strange, alien world. Read more…