Saltillo - Monocyte (2012)

Band: Saltillo
Country: Atlanta, Georgia
Style: Modern Classical/Industrial
Label: Artoffact

I'm not going to hide the fact that I love my heavy music, which should be obvious for anyone who's just browsed through this site, but it's nice to check out other styles as well. I'm all in favor of musical exploration, and if I ever find myself bored, I'll skim through various musical databases to see if there's anything un-metal that's looks interesting. That is how I found Saltillo, which aside from a cool looking cover, sonically was something I really haven't covered before.
The fusion of industrial and trip-hop styles with more orchestral based arrangement really sounded interesting to me. Personally, I've always liked darker and more melancholic sounding string arrangements, so this album naturally appealed to me right away because they are used to create mood as well as melody on here. Menton J. Matthews III is definitely a very skilled arranger/composer as each track on here really manages to evoke a different kind of vibe, while the entire album maintains a pretty consistent atmosphere through it. In order to contrast that, the beats used on here are very mechanical and robotic sounding, which is very much in the vein of industrial music more than trip-hop. The clashing of the more morose arrangements with the mechanical beats might be a bit jarring for some, but proves to actually be a melding of ideas that works out more than it fails. Sure, you'll get some obligatory turn-table-ish stuff and softer beats on They All Do It The Same for people who want a bit more of trip-hop kind of vibe, but you won't find a whole lot on the rest of the album that presents that kind of approach again.
While this is by no means a mainstream sort of album, there are a few tracks on here that do stand out, at least to me, because of the vocals that are present on them. Tracks like the stellar If Wishes Were Catholics evokes a great atmosphere that recalls a bit of the style that Michelle Richfield brought to the first Antimatter album while Veil is a bit more of a somber track that might get lost in the shuffle if you're not paying attention because it is in the later stages of the album. It's not as memorable a track as the former one I mentioned, but is a lot more propulsive due to the heavier beats used on it. Most of the other tracks are divided between being instrumental pieces and using samples that definitely thought provoking, which is more than I can say about a lot of other artists. It's a very cold album that from what I read was supposed to accompany a comic, which would be quite an interesting thing to read in unison with this album I should say. Tracks like Gatekeepers and I Hate You are two of the tracks which feature samples that happened to stick out to me, with samples that were really grabbing and managed to convey a dark and almost chilling nature to those tracks. The samples are dark enough that you could either take them as being straight-faced and serious, in which case they are actually quite chilling, or more sarcastic, which, personally, I think would still make them interesting to listen to.
I think that, overall, it's a solid enough album that is more than likely going to appeal to people who enjoy a darker atmosphere to their music while still being able to engage with it. It's not perfect, there were a handful of tracks that I wasn't particularly fond of, but the majority of it is well put together and arranged. If you're a fan of modern classical music or more moody forms of electronic music, I'd say to give this album a shot.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: If Wishes Were Catholics, Gatekeepers, Forced Vision

OSI - Fire Make Thunder (2012)

Band: OSI
Country: New York City, New York
Style: Progressive Metal/Electronic
Label: Metal Blade

When I was going through my progressive metal phase a couple of years back, back when I thought Dream Theater was the be all and end all of music, I went scouring through anything that was attached to them. It was only a matter of time till I got to OSI, which at the time still featured Mike Portnoy on drums, though my first "real" introduction into the band did come in the form of 2009's Blood. Since then, I have enjoyed the band off and on throughout the last couple of years, but was definitely interested in seeing what they'd do on this new album.
I have to say based on first impressions, I was very impressed with what this album brought to the table. While previous albums were fine and dandy, I don't think that they gave me, personally, all that much to really return to aside from a couple of songs or so from each album. So when this thing started with Cold Call, I was really impressed. While the riffs that Jim Matheos brings to the table for this project have never really been all that progressive, when you put them up against the work he did in early Fates Warning records or even the Arch/Matheos release from last year, they're groovy and thick sounding enough to stick with a listener. Really, that is one of the strengths of the band, rather simplistic sounding riffs that just stick with you for longer periods of time. From my point of view though, the project is really made from the Kevin Moore's input. I don't think anyone would say that he's a great vocalist, but his monotonous and deadpan, near spoken word at some point, vocals help give the band a unique flavor that really hasn't been done in a lot of other groups. But the sound of his voice isn't why I believe he's the group's greatest asset, it's his sense of melody. For someone who really isn't a "vocalist", he has a really good sense of melody and that has led him to create some really catchy parts that I don't think people would really expect. Not to mention the effects that he uses on his vocals that do make them a bit more interesting.
But to return to this album, I think it might turn some fans off because it isn't as heavy as the band's previous releases. Don't get me wrong, this album is still made up of predominantly heavier tracks, songs like Indian Curse or For Nothing are calmer and more melancholic pieces that are probably more engaging than most of the heavier songs are. It's much more interesting, and entertaining, from my point of view to hear a band do something that they haven't done too much in the past before than hear them do the same thing over and over again. If you've heard OSI before, you know they can do prog-metal from the first album, which is arguably their most "traditional" prog-metal album, and we know they can be heavy based on Blood, but we haven't heard them keep a more melancholic mood throughout an album and put out just as many softer pieces as heavy on an album before either. I remember watching an interview with both Matheos and Moore where they had said something to the regard of this being the first OSI album that maintained a mood and atmosphere from start to finish, and I definitely agree with that. While it's not the sort of thing that is immediately apparent, by the time you get to the Enemy Prayer, track four, you will start to recognize a certain mood that has been carried over from the other tracks.
I thought it was a great album that really puts a lot of other so called "prog" albums to shame. Like I mentioned above, I thought the calmer and more somber atmosphere of this album was a big step up for the band and I can only hope they continue with this sort of consistency in the future. If you're a fan of more moody based progressive metal, or progressive metal in general, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't enjoy this album. Hopefully you'll give it a chance.
Overall Score: 8.5
Highlights: Cold Call, Big Chief II, Invisible Men

Pinkish Black - Pinkish Black (2012)

Band: Pinkish Black
Country: Fort Worth, Texas
Style: Experimental Post-Punk/Krautrock
Label: Handmade Birds

I have to say that aside from the rather ambiguous name, Pinkish Black is a band that is unlike any other I've heard (leave it to Handmade Birds to find and sign another band like that). I was really excited when I saw a video of them playing live, I don't usually read too much into live performances from bands to give me an indication of how a record's going to sound, but they just sounded great. So it's with great pleasure that I can now present you this album.
Of course, playing live is one thing, a studio record is a whole different beast all together. I'll just come out and say that the intense, metallic energy that the band had live has taken on a much different form for this record. Instead of full-volume noise, we have a band that channels the spirits of groups like The Birthday Party (I've taken that band from the press notes), but more strikingly Nick Cave styled post-punk and filtered it through a sort of krautrock kind of musicality. The duo channel the sort of dark and moody atmospheres, along with the vocal style and bass-lines from post-punk music, a couple of the bass-lines on here I actually think could work in a funk context to be honest, but it's put alongside the hypnotic and repetitive nature of psychedelic krautrock jams. Tracks like Passerby or Tell Her I'm Dead, which also channels some black metal into the mix as well, really hit that fusion on the head, perfectly nailing both sides of those genres to the point where it'd be near impossible to tell someone exactly what "style" they're listening to.
I was very taken by Jon Teague's drumming on here. He really brings that old-school krautrock sort of vibe to these songs by constantly maintaining a rhythmic pattern throughout a piece but adding more intensity, and obviously there are fills and breaks in there as well, to it as a track moves on. In the live video I watched when first hearing about this band, he was wearing a Magma shirt, to which I mentioned to someone (don't remember who) that that inherently made, not only him, but the band awesome. There are hints of Magma here and there, but they're more fleeting, and in his drumming I can really hear throwbacks to the likes of early Birth Control and Can, drumming wise anyway. The way he just jams out on a single groove throughout a track and just makes it sound so amazingly hypnotic and psychedelic is simply awe inspiring. But, to mention only him would be a disservice to what Daron Beck brings to the table. His synthe tones and vocals are what will draw people to this album. Like I mentioned above, his voice does recall the likes of Nick Cave, though I hear a bit of similarity between his voice and the guys from This Heat as well, while his synthe choices are far more varied.
It is perhaps the range of sounds that emanate from the synthe that allows this record to move across multiple genres so well. While the post-punk/krautrock idea I talked about above is the most common idea on here, as well as the two sonic traits that can be found on every track, this becomes far more interesting on its last three tracks. On those last handful of tracks, the band starts to throw in elements of black metal, mentioned above, doom, drone, and synthe rock, among others that really makes this album even harder to describe to people. I mean, you're not going to get average synthe-pop kind of sounds on here, except for maybe on Everything Went Dark, but that might be stretching what the definition of synthe-pop is. Sure, there's piano and organ, but there's also heavily distorted chords that you can feel in the jaw by how powerful they're hit, and the bass-lines provided actually sound better than a lot of modern post-punk throwback bands provide with a real bassist.
Overall, I really enjoyed this album, and with nary a flaw on it, it's rapidly becoming a personal favorite, getting constant rotation pretty much since I first started listening. It's a total blast to listen to and it's really hard to find an album that does that while being as odd as it is. Do not miss out on this album, for sure, one of the highlights of this year to be sure. Go and buy this now!
Overall Score: 9.5
Highlights: Every Track Is A Highlight

The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet (2012)

Band: The Mars Volta
Country: Los Angeles, California
Style: Progressive/Experimental Rock
Label: Warner Bros.

There was a point a couple of years ago when The Mars Volta was pretty much the only band I listened to. Back when The Bedlam In Goliath was released, I was introduced to the band and I was totally enamored with the elaborate and incredibly complex sound that The Mars Volta had introduced to me. Since then, the band has gone through numerous line-up changes and various albums that may or may not have been planned in place of this, but we have finally arrived at this sixth album.
I'm not really sure what to make of this album really. I heard in one review that the band called this their pop album, while in an interview with the band vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala called this the band's krautrock album, at least in spirit anyway, so I'm not completely sure which route the band were attempting to take on this album. From my point of view, I could see this record coming much closer to the krautrock idea than the pop one. The synthe and electronic oriented songwriting does lend itself more towards old-school krautrock groups though to say that the band haven't simplified their sound for this record would be lying because a lot of the songs on here are a lot more straightforward and direct than anything the band have put out on their last couple of records. These are certainly not the crazy post-hardcore by way of Latin jazz fusion freakouts that made the band known early on in their career. I know a lot of people got a little pissed off when the band claimed that 2009's Octahedron was their acoustic album and it turned out to just be the band streamlining their songs a bit more, retaining just as much distortion as previous recordings, but this is definitely the calmest record the band has churned out to date, at least to me anyway.
Though I know that the band's last two full-lengths weren't exactly as well received as their early records, I enjoyed the intensity and sheer aggression that The Bedlam In Goliath had and thought that most of the songs on Octahedron were some of the band's catchiest and most memorable tracks they had written up to that point. Maybe it's the fact that those records were the ones that really got me into the band, as oppose to their first three records, that I may enjoy those more so than other people have. I can understand the approach the band has taken on here, and I like krautrock, but I just don't see what a lot of people appear to have seen in this record. The more simplistic take on songwriting on here has certainly allowed the band to release one of the most unique releases in their discography (again), but where a lot of people have called most of these songs catchy or really memorable, I just found repetitive. Tracks like Dyslexicon and Lapochka were especially monotonous to me with their rather lackluster vocal hooks. Having said that, I thought that calmer and near ballad-ish Empty Vessels Make The Loudest Sound and the full-on krautrock embrace of In Absentia did stand out, in a good way, to me. I felt as though there was a good mix, in terms of diversity, throughout the album between more traditional songs and more experimental ventures (which I just so happened to enjoy a little bit more).
Granted, I might be simplifying the term freakout just a little bit when you take put it in context with the rest of the band's discography. Because there really aren't that many songs where the band break out into more jam based territory and just go off on long instrumental tangents, I feel that when they are used, it is sort of a freakout moment. I mean, the only tracks where the band recall some of their previous work can be found is on tracks like Molochwalker or Zed and Two Naughts where a lot of the band's more "rock" based influences emerge in full.
As an entire album, it's probably one of the easiest to digest, especially when listening in large chunks of it, which certainly does have its own appeal to it. While I enjoy the band's more eclectic and sort of berserker style more, even I will admit to enjoying a good portion of the songs on here. If you're new to the band or always wanted to try and get into them, I'd say that this would be a good place to start because it's not overtly in-your-face and is more song-based.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: Aegis, In Absentia, Molochwalker

Astra - The Black Chord (2012)

Band: Astra
Country: San Diego, California
Style: Progressive Rock
Label: Metal Blade

I wasn't even aware that Astra was putting out a new album until maybe a week or so ago to be honest. It's one of those things where I listened to their debut, the appropriately titled The Weirding, when it was first released but really haven't kept up with the band since then. So, when I found out they were putting out a new record, I obviously wanted to cover it.
As many people probably know by now, I'm a big fan of 60s and 70s progressive and psychedelic rock and folk music. I love that stuff, whether it be the more classic and well known groups or more obscure bands that might have only released one album before dissolving, so as much as it pains me to say this, I dig groups that can pull off that retro sound well. As their first full-length demonstrated, these guys know how to channel the mood and sounds from those days correctly, without making it sound too cheesy (there's always going to be cheese if you're playing retro, especially prog music) but they give it a slicker and more modern sounding production. I mean, that description is probably a bit more fitting for the band's last full-length because the definitely amped up the retro production on here, and it definitely sounds more analog than digital, but it's still crisp and clear. It doesn't sound like a band trying to sound like they recorded in the 70s and more like a band striving for a sound that is more warm and natural. It feels like that was brought about by natural means rather than contrived ones, if you catch my drift.
Though I'm sure the band is striving for an original sound, their influences come out clear as day, whether they like it or not, on here. Probably the biggest and most obvious comparison is to Yes, to the extent that I actually wish modern day Yes actually sounded like this. It's classic prog-rock with extended solo passages and strong instrumentation. Besides that, there are also nods to the likes of early Genesis on the ballad sections of the album, Hawkwind, listen to the first third of opener Cocoon, and ELP (Emerson, Lake & Palmer for those unaware) in some of those more interesting guitar and organ solos. There are numerous other groups one could mention, but this review is meant for Astra, not hidden prog gems. Even though their influences shine through extremely clearly, I still commend the band for writing songs that don't rely too heavily on a single influence or at the very least, rely on them in ways that make me think that these guys are simply ripping off all of the bands I just mentioned. There's a nice balance between more rocking moments, psychedelic jams, and more somber balladry on here, all of which is expressed within the title-track if you want a good summary of what this album is really about, but I personally felt like the band was at their best when they were working with either a single idea or a couple. The title-track felt a little too monotonous for me (and this is from someone who loves it when bands are all over the place and love lengthy pieces of music) and didn't wow me as much as some of the shorter tracks did. Tracks like Quake Meat and Drift work because they're principally based on only a couple of ideas, the latter being a well executed ballad while the former is a great psyche-rock track that goes into a really cool jam near its conclusion.
Is it cheesy, is it over the top, is it probably going to turn a lot of people off by how unabashedly retro it is? The answer to all three is yes, but that doesn't stop the record from being extremely fun to listen to over and over. I doubt that this record is going to go down as a classic, but it's certainly a nice record that I got a good amount of enjoyment and entertainment from while listening through it; and I hope others have a similar feeling towards it as well.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: Cocoon, Barefoot In The Head

Mencea - Pyrophoric (2012)

Band: Mencea
Country: Athens, Greece
Style: Melodic/Progressive Death Metal
Label: Indie Recordings

When I first hear Mencea, they were getting lumped in with the whole djent scene, at which time I was probably even more into than I am now, and decided to check them out. It seemed strange that they were signed to a label like Indie Recordings that was known for signing more "progressive" black metal and rock groups, but after listening it is easy to see why they stood out. Even on their debut, it was hard to really call Mencea a djent band, but I wasn't sure how they had evolved after four years.
I have to say that with all the good will in the world that while Mencea's debut full-length, 2008's Dark Matter Energy Noir, was a nice change of pace when it comes to Meshuggah influenced bands, I didn't find the record to be all that interesting. Luckily enough, the line-up change that occurred in the band has really re-energized the band cause this record just rips from the get-go. The debut was fine, don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad album, but very dull, I found that it was in one ear and out the other, with nothing all that interesting going on, but on here, the band really strike a good mix at the Meshuggah grooves mixed with more modern melodic death metal. Personally, I like the shift, vocally, that the band have taken on here. No longer are mid-range screams the dominant style, but lower and more powerful growls, which really do fit the band's style a lot more.
I feel the need to discuss the djent tag attached to this band because, at least to me, there's quite a difference between this band and many groups that have that tag lumped onto them. Where many djent groups have very polished and clean sounding records that are very precise with the whole stop-start riffing patterns, Mencea have a much more natural sounding production that has more low-end crunch to it than mid-range punch. The grooves are also not as fast, favoring more mid-paced head-bobbing grooves over technical and overly staccato patterns. It may be the more melodic influences bleeding through that makes the more mid-paced songs work, but the band's use of melody really strikes an interesting chord with me because while I said above that the band had more of a modern melodic death metal vibe on here, it's probably not in the way many of you are thinking it is. This isn't modern in the sense that it relies on keyboards for melody and has guitars just chugging away, this is modern melo-death because it's a band obviously taking influence from the genre but applying it in a more interesting, and modern, day context, which is how I feel the term should be applied. A lot of the melodies on here actually remind me quite a bit of the Deftones to be frank with you, which is quite an interesting thing to hear, but I thought it was really cool.
Having said that, unlike their debut, this album, while melodic, is still very much a death metal album. While it doesn't rear its head all that often, there are moments on here where the band channel straight-up death metal within their percussive delivery, mid-way through Beheading is probably the clearest. and it totally works. In fact, I'd actually like to hear the band make use of pure death metal a little bit more on future releases to be honest, but what they have done on here most certainly works to their benefit.
I really enjoyed this album, a lot more than I expected to actually, and thought it was a really nice surprise. Definitely a band to not overlook if you're looking for bands that use melody in an interesting way, or bands that use interesting melodies, either or both, because these guys definitely have a unique perspective on the whole melo-death sound. It's great to see a band evolve into something unexpected, but most certainly welcome, and this is the result of a band evolving and growing into something great.
Overall Score: 8.5
Highlights: CCC, Beheading, Pyrophoric

Vorkreist - Sigil Whore Christ (2012)

Band: Vorkreist
Country: Paris, France
Style: Black/Death Metal
Label: Agonia

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned in the past that I've never been one for black and death metal hybrid bands. Personally, I find that separately, the bands are a lot more interesting, but the fusion of the two always leaves me wanting more, and a lot of the band's I've heard doing this sort of hybrid sound have a lot to be desired in terms of dynamics as well. But with my love of a band like Blacklodge came me learning about Vorkreist and finding a band that could actually pull off the fusion of the two genres.
I have to say that if you're going to use movie quotes in your music, especially to open up your album, it's best to use a movie that is not only amazing, but also a section of the movie that is memorable, and that's something that Vorkreist do to open up this album. I applaud them for not only using a portion of The Last Temptation of Christ, but using a section that has Willem Dafoe in it, inherently giving that intro a much more eerie vibe to it. But onto the music itself. Like I said above, I'm not usually one that's all that into the fusion of black and death metal, but then again, a lot of band's I've heard do the fusion never strike any sort of interesting balance between the two. Being brutal is all well and good, but songwriting and catchy riffs should still have a place in the blend, and for crying out loud, I have heard very few bands come close to the memorability of tracks like Maledicte or Dominus Illuminatio Mea. But to be honest, most of these tracks wind up being top-tier level songs that far exceeded what I had expected from the band.
Like I just mentioned above, the use of good riffing is hard to find in bands that try to fuse death and black metal together, for one reason or another, I don't know why a lot of the band's just can't put two and two together, and it's always great to find bands that know how to put together a memorable track. Aside from the two obvious genres I've mentioned throughout, it's also good to hear an embrace of the likes of thrash and sludge in here as well, which add the necessary variety to this album to give the faster songs that jolt of adrenaline need to propel them ahead of the pack on here, while giving the slower songs more weight and atmosphere. When I say atmosphere, don't expect some dense backdrop though, I'm not referring to the kind that sticks out obviously when you're listening to a black metal record, the atmospheres on here are the sort that creep up on you when the band is making more use of their dissonant and slower side, hear Memento Mori for an example. Like the sample used to introduce the album to us, the atmospheres are more eerie and chilling than overpowering or intense. Of course, I then have to mention the epic of the album, Scalae Gemoniae, which has no build up to its ambiance at all, and just bursts out of the gate with a haunting backdrop. While it probably isn't that great a surprise that I happen to like longer tracks, when it comes to longer death metal songs, it can be hit-or-miss with me; but of course this was a hit.
I'm seriously not kidding when I say I want more albums like this. There needs to be more bands who know how to write interesting songs that are still catchy as all hell out there, this cannot be the only one out there. If you like extreme metal bands who can actually write riffs, than do not ignore this band. More people need to hear this band and more bands need to know who to look to for influences. I wish I had more to say, but I guess the last thing I really can say is that you need to hear this album.
Overall Score: 9
Highlights: Deus Vult, Memento Mori, Scalae Gemoniae