The first time I heard about The Hell, I was advised to imagine The Lonely Island – only metal. Well, The Hell might not have Justin Timberlake crooning about how “Every Mother’s Day needs a Mother’s Night”, but they do have a bottomless bag of fat grooves and slightly less than serious lyrics. And they’re called The Hell – which should really be enough for any self-respecting metal fan. Read more…
Bursting out of the gate with a crystal-clear salute in Meshuggah’s direction and really coming into its own from second track 91367 onward, No Sleep is a dense album easily penetrable to fans of modern progressive metal, and worth the time and effort for the curious. Read more…
I got my teeth into this track a few days ago, and quickly wrote up a piece full of thoughtful phrases and quirky descriptions of its inner goings-on. But since then, I’ve not been able to stop listening to it – and my old words have been consigned to the circular file. Words, orgasms, and white sugar aside, I don’t have much of an addictive personality – but Ark is officially my fourth vice. As a music journalist, this kind of craving is not good for a career based on listening to innumerable songs over the course of a day, rather than just one – but when I mentally implode and wind up working as a “waste disposal technician”, at least I’ll be able to look forward to listening to Ark on the drive home. Read more…
From the big picture perspective down to the finest details, this album is a spectacular triumph. Skyharbor’s struggle to make their latest opus more than just a fanciful dream is finally over – and they’re evidently revelling in the results, as well they should. Read more…
Outside Brighton’s favourite seafront venue, the wind is whipping up white waves that crash heavily into the shoreline. Inside, the air is moving even more violently as Idiom tear through a barnstorming set, followed in short order by Heart Of A Coward‘s crushing djent-fuelled brutality. Both bands deserve their dues for effortlessly eliciting manic reactions from a crowd set on saving their energy for the headliners. Read more…
What do you get if you cross Brandon Boyd’s lyricism, an idiosyncratic yet familiarly contemporary male pop vocal, a touch of Biffy Clyro’s more commercially-oriented song structures, and a little Jon Gomm-esque acoustic work? Well…this. Into Color manage to take so many disparate parts and fuse them into something appealing in a pop sense, yet sufficiently inventive to attract the praise of the most hard-bitten muso. Once again, they deserve massive respect for another solid step in the right – and a fresh and exciting – new direction. Read more…
To say that I was looking forward to this show would be an understatement. Long-time TMMP followers will have already seen me wax lyrical about this Southampton-based math-pop quartet – but until this night, I’d not ticked off the final – and most important – box on the ‘Band To Watch’ checklist: The Live Show. No matter how good a band sounds on record, if they suck live it’s going to be tough to justify really getting behind them. Read more…
Over the past few decades, the instrumental guitar community has done little to silence its critics, the “It’s all just wanking over a lame backing track” lot. With Atomic Mind, Nick Johnston is coming to the rescue – and his efforts definitely deserve acknowledgement.
Backed up by two of the ever-classy Aristocrats in Marco Minnemann and Bryan Beller (and inviting third fusion luminary Guthrie Govan to share the spotlight during Silver Tongued Devil), Nick Johnston infuses every note with character and soul – which is an impressive feat considering just how many notes get pumped through your headphones over the course of Atomic Mind‘s ten tracks. This is instrumental music, after all – but there’s still no sense of ego-gratifying profligacy, provided you can hear fast enough. Instead, Johnston, Minnemann, and Beller brew up consistently moving and hard-grooving sketches that grow on you with each listen. Read more…
Somewhere in the labyrinthine depths of the Scala, Allusondrugs got this Friday night off to a raucously grungy start. Stir remained as shiver-inducing as ever, while the Reuben-esque Am I Weird? elicited laughter followed by hectic headbanging. Throughout this short but perfectly formed set, Allusondrugs shone through the dirt like a five-piece Nirvana, with jagged guitars rending the air before climaxing amid a frontman-versus-guitarist wrestling match. Read more…
This EP is aptly titled. If you’re feeling starved of intense and immense prog-fusion brilliance, then you should do two things: Read more TMMP, and check out CHON. They’ll seduce you effortlessly with opening acoustic-centric track Super Potion, and leave you wondering what the fuck just happened by the time Knot is finished. Not bad for just two tunes. Read more…