Good Tiger – ‘A Head Full Of Moonlight’ [Review]

The Safety Fire, Tesseract, Architects, and The Faceless would have made a great co-headlining tour a few years ago. Fast-forward many moons, an assortment of splits, and an Avengers-style assembly later, and Good Tiger have not merely emerged, but exploded into the metal world’s consciousness. Made up of former The Safety Fire guitarists Derya “Dez” Nagle and Joaquin “Jo” Ardiles; ex-Tesseract vocalist Elliot Coleman; drummer Alex Rüdinger, previously of The Faceless; and one-time Architects touring guitarist Morgan Sinclair on bass, Good Tiger crowdfunded A Head Full Of Moonlight to the tune of almost $48,000 last year.

Listening to A Head Full Of Moonlight, it’s clear that Good Tiger’s fans were Read more…

Posted on 27 March 2016

Visions – ‘Shake The Earth’ [Review]

It may be almost April, but with Visions’ new album wrapped up in my inbox, it feels like Christmas again.

Listening to Shake The Earth unpack itself is an absolute pleasure. It may be covered in scalpel-sharp spikes on the surface, but there’s plenty of substantive, tasty, bass-flavoured cake under the none-more-black icing and razor-edged tech-metal decorations. Modern metal bands often forget that there’s more to a mix than just a knob marked “TREBLE,” a fader marked “VOLUME,” and an onscreen icon labelled “COMPRESSION,” but Visions avoid that particular pitfall.

The probably-Home–Alone­-inspired Wet Bandits Read more…

Posted on 24 March 2016

Aliases – ‘Derangeable’ [Review]

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According to the press release that accompanied my review copy of Derangeable, Aliases are “for fans of tech-progressive metal and heavy bendy guitars that go WEEAAAAOORGGHHH CHUG CHUG”.

I can’t argue with that – but I would hasten to add that Derangeable will also satisfy your cravings for guitars that go “BEEADOODLEBEEP,” time changes that would give Stephen Hawking a migraine, and the kind of screams you’d normally associate with Read more…

Posted on 12 March 2016

The Algorithm – ‘Brute Force’ [Review]

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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…

Posted on 07 March 2016

Marco Minnemann – ‘Above The Roses’ [Review]

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Calling Marco Minnemann prolific is a little bit of an understatement. This guy is easily one of the hardest-working drummers on the weirder side of showbiz, playing on no fewer than five of TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2015. That’s one studio album (Tres Caballeros) and one live album (Culture Clash Live!) as part of fusion trio The Aristocrats; one studio album with guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani (Shockwave Supernova, TMMP’s top album of the year alongside Jon Gomm’s Live In The Acoustic Asylum); one studio album with Porcupine Tree frontman and prog godfather Steven Wilson (Hand. Cannot. Erase.); and, finally, an 18-track beast of a solo album called Celebration.

Phew. That’s just Marco Minnemann’s recorded output, too; add in countless Read more…

Posted on 01 March 2016