Tera Melos have changed. But that shouldn’t be a surprise. Tera Melos hate ‘the same’. And ‘normal’ and ‘safe’ and ‘simple’ too. So while the Californian combo have kept the instrumental math-rock backbone from their early efforts, they’ve added loads more fuzzy layers, blissy melodies and smooth hooks to the mix for album number two. Oh and vocals too. Yeah, […]
Read moreWhat’s the difference between growing up and getting old? Well, one usually means development, maturity, confidence and clarity. And the other means teeth falling out and eyes glazing over. Perhaps, if you’re lucky, the latter comes with a little grumpy belligerence but most of the time it means going soft, going off the boil, and fading away. Just ask Skunk […]
Read more‘Beacons’, the second full-length from Cloudkicker, is a whirlwind of progressive, instrumental rock, dense post-hardcore, and complex metal. It sometimes sounds like two bands playing at once. Impressive then, that it is all the work of just one man. This hasn’t exactly come out of nowhere, Ohio native Ben Sharp has been kicking out solid solo jams for a few […]
Read moreNorma Jean are always at their best unleashing impulsive primal screams, not concept-heavy brain-busting bluster. That doesn’t have to mean relentless rabid dog rage (although there is some of that here), just that the band’s noisy metal really works when you can feel them thinking on their feet, not thinking every riff or lyric to death. ‘Meridionial’, despite the title […]
Read moreThe Ascent of Everest are doing it wrong. Not with the music they make- ‘From This Vantage’ sounds smarter and more confident than any sophomore effort should- but in the way they sell it. From that band name to talk of mountainous music and walls of noise see, the Nashville outfit are lying to us. Instead of booming riffs here, […]
Read moreIf it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. These are words The Acacia Strain live by. Sure, they might have improved their chops, paid for better production, and somehow got more pissed off over the years but this is essentially the same black-hearted, bloody-knuckled misanthropic metalcore the Massachusetts mob were writing a decade ago. That’s not a slight though. Where most […]
Read moreThis is some weird shit. Ok so Mastodon have never really done anything normal but the monstrous quartet’s fourth full-length is officially freakin strange. The concept (of course there’s a concept) is a collision of time travel, ghostly possession, spirit worlds, and Russian wizards, and the music is no simpler. First single ‘Divinations’ mixes warped country twang with wrecking ball […]
Read moreIf there is another band more haunted by their past than Sepultura, then god help them. Despite the fact that frontman Derrick Green has been centre stage with the Brazilian titans for almost as long as original member Max Cavalera, despite the fact that this is Green’s fifth record at the helm, and despite the fact that none of those […]
Read moreThey say every cloud has a silver lining. And while the darkest of clouds rolled in for Deftones in 2008 when bassist Chi Cheng was involved in a car accident that keeps him in a coma today, the band’s sixth album, ‘Diamond Eyes’, is brilliantly, blindingly special. That might sound trite but it’s no joke- this thing glitters, sparkles, shines, […]
Read moreThese dudes weren’t messing about when they named their band. One listen to The Serpent Servant and you’ll be convinced that the end of days has come. But don’t panic; now we’ve got the perfect soundtrack. This is no devilish new noise- it’s the sort of booming, impossibly-heavy, super-intense metal that bands like The Acacia Strain and Emmure do so […]
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