Maxi Curnow – ‘If We Make It’: A Hard-Hitting Video You Need To See [Review]

Although everyone has the right to express themselves however they like, the world needs more musicians willing to stand up for a positive cause and draw attention to serious issues. Maxi Curnow is one of those musicians.

The video below is fucking harsh. It’s not easy viewing, not by a long shot. But it also only hints at the brutal reality the assorted emergency services deal with every day.

Maxi Curnow isn’t just an insanely talented multi-instrumentalist with Read more…

Posted on 08 November 2015

Mestis – ‘Polysemy’ [Review]

Through Mestis, Animals As Leaders guitar maestro Javier Reyes has set out to challenge himself, setting the following self-described standards:

1) “Create a style of music that focusses on being emotionally exploitive and technically sound…

2) …yet simple enough for the average music listener to appreciate…

3) …using the eight-string guitar in a form that is unconventional to the “trends” or independent of characteristics that are found in music styles/genres that have popularized it, [and]…

4) …create music that [expresses] my personality, upbringing, emotions and musical taste.”

While the results are unlikely to immediately appeal to 1D fans or your gran, Polysemy is definitely a far less cognitively overwhelming prospect than the average instrumental guitar-driven offering. What really sets it apart, though, is Javier Reyes’ ability to Read more…

Posted on 05 November 2015

A Dark Orbit – ‘Inverted’ [Review]

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…

Posted on 03 November 2015

SikTh – ‘Philistine Philosophies’ [Review]

The masters of tech-metal are back, and just as fiercely original as ever.

It’s been almost a decade since what once seemed like SikTh’s swan-song, 2006’s Death Of A Dead Day. In that time, SikTh have inspired countless metal-oriented musicians across the world – but nobody has ever managed to incorporate more than a sliver of SikTh’s signature sound into their own work. These guys are simply inimitable.

Frantic, fierce, insatiably voracious…Philistine Philosophies is all of the above and more. This is no nostalgia trip. SikTh made a name for themselves by Read more…

Posted on 02 November 2015

Outside The Coma – ‘The Battle Of Being’ [Review]

Remember science class? Man, it was boring. Stuck staring at a textbook or a blackboard while the world’s most monotonic teacher droned on and on about everything from leaves to light.

You were interested in light, at least. Sunlight. The light from the sun shining outside, while you were kept out of it.

But one day, you got to experience something even cooler than escaping. You gathered around the teacher’s table with your friends, to watch a series of substances with arcane names go up in flames. Blinding lights; miniature explosions; the world’s most compact firework display.

After all the sleepy gloom that came before it, that lesson was imprinted on your memory forever. Even when it was over, you were still buzzing. Excited.

The Battle Of Being is just like that lesson. Read more…

Posted on 27 September 2015

No Consequence – ‘Vimana’ [Review]

No Consequence are known as purveyors of top-notch tech metal. Their instrumental skill is indisputable – as is the level of social awareness amplified through past classics such as Coerce:Conform and Enemy of Logic. Beyond that point, you still have to take pristine production, ball-bursting heaviness, and shattered-mirror riffage into account before you get the whole picture.

Vimana sees the introduction of a new side to No Consequence. Their signature blend of fragmented riffs, disjointed melodies, and Read more…

Posted on 21 May 2015