Album: Monocyte

Genre: Trip Hop, Industrial, Gothic

Label: Artoffact Records

Recommended for fans of: COIL, Tricky, Love Spirals Downward, John Bergin

Rating: 5 out 5

Quite honestly this has been my favorite record this year so far hands down.  Seriously, I’m trying to think of another record that I’ve enjoyed this much and nothing comes close yet.  This is an album that is a companion piece to a comic that the musician and artist did himself, but I must be honest I’ve only just skimmed the comic book so far, I’ve been so deeply engrossed in this album that I can’t quite get past this beautiful piece of work.

What I find most intriguing about this album is that he doesn’t need lyrics to convey his message or his ideas, the music the timbre, the samples, the programming all speak volumes.  If Trent Reznor can get an Oscar for his sound design then surely menton3 can find his place in this business to do the same, and if he doesn’t this will be criminally over looked by the art community in whole.

What this album does is take you on a ride from beginning to end, using dynamic sounds to capture you, it could be easy background music or something you could just play and forget about while you focus on other more important things, but the subtle melodies and haunting female vocals grab you by the ear and lead you on a journey.  This album is a journey from beginning to end.  It’s engaging, haunting, beautiful and inspiring all at the same time.

A lot of times the albums I review are really for a certain audience or for a certain brave person who likes to take risks, but this album I could as easily recommend to my mom as I could to my 13 year old niece.  It’s like classical music, modern classical music with solid beats and excellent use of melody.

So now that I’ve gushed enough about the music how is the production you say?  Absolutely amazing.  Some of the best production I’ve heard in this genre in a long time.  Every thing is solid, you can hear every instrument, every note and every range.  Simply put this album is the first flawless record of 2012 for me.

So do yourself a favor, walk, nay RUN to your local record store, web store or Storming the Base to get your copy of this record today!  You will not be sorry and if you are leave me comments below.

A copy of this record was provided to me from Artoffact Record for review purposes.

Album: Icon:Koru

Genre: Industrial, EBM

Label: Metropolis Records

This is my second [:SITD:] record that I’ve listened to now and I’m still on the fence on whether or not I like them.  I will freely admit that I’m kind of old school with my industrial and I’m not always really into this new stuff they call EBM.  My biggest compliant with this is that it all starts to sound the same after awhile.  You aren’t sure who is who in the genre.  [:SITD:] falls victim to that too many times.  They don’t very it up enough to make it sound more interesting than anyone else doing what they are doing.  That is really my biggest complaint on the whole thing.  From a production and musician standpoint these three are on solid ground.  It’s well mixed and has some really nice melodies that contrast the harsh vocals.  Speaking of the vocals they are mixed squarely in the front of the music, and sung in a combination of both German and English.  Again not really a complaint for me since I’m used to listening to music sung in many different languages!

What we have here is a solid release in the EBM genre but it doesn’t really have a lot of meat on it’s bones.  I’m not much of a lyric guy and honestly when they are singing in German most of the lyrics are lost on me so whether or not this record possess some deeper meaning is beyond me, but musically I just wish it had more teeth and less repetitious sounds and themes.  After awhile it feels like this is beating a dead horse, or a one trick pony.  Maybe next time they will expand their sound a bit more.

I recommend this for fans of the genre and bands like Front 242.

2.5 Stars out of 5

I was given this MP3 download from Metropolis Records.

Back when I was just a youngster one of my favorite labels out there was ReConstriction Records.  Chase at ReConstriction was the bomb.  So much great music came out of there including the Operation Beatbox compilation that had coldwave/machine rock/industrial bands on it doing covers of hip hop songs.  MTV even mentioned it playing a bit of Numb’s cover of Salt N Peppa’s Push It.  If you haven’t heard Don Gordon’s version of it you should probably check it out cause it rules beyond all rules.

Any who, I got off point, so here’s the deal.  I want you to go to Society Burning dot Com and get yourself a copy of the rekkit.  Then head on over to their facebook page and like it.  Tell them I sent you.

So lastly why am I supporting this record?  Well the biggest reason is cause I’ve had it for awhile, I actually bought it the day it came out.  Yes, despite the fact that I get tons of promos all the time I do buy music when I believe in it and I believe in Society Burning.  So get yourself a copy today, absolutely free and tell Twitch, Boom and Daveoramma that you believe in them too.

Genre: Metal

Album: Katharsis

Recommended if you like: Napalm Death, Machine Head

Explicit Lyrics

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars out of 5

One of my New Years Resolutions is to review material as soon as it comes across my desk and so this morning this came across my desk via me email inbox so I sat down with it and gave it a spin.

So 2012 is starting out pretty swell actually.  Katharsis is the sixth album by one of Germany’s underground metal heroes.  They’ve shared the stage with some of the top names in metal and played some of the biggest festivals while keeping themselves truly independent.  They recently signed to Massacre Records and are getting ready to unleash their latest assault of metal meets hardcore.

With guttural vocals and slashing guitars I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t just a one trick pony out of the gate.  The production on this is top notch and kept my interest through out the run time of the record.  Although the run time did get a bit long in the tooth for music of this nature.  Although the final song was different enough from the rest of the album to really inspire the listener to finish it out.  What I liked best about Hate Squad’s newest album was how it reminded me of other bands that I really like.  You could easily hear the influences from Napalm Death in there and even at moments it felt like I could hear bits of Monster Voodoo Machine (now there’s a blast from my musical past).

While the album does tend to get a little bit stagnant with the same kind of tones and lack of real dynamics from song to song, that shouldn’t let listeners of this kind of music to be put it off by it.  There is enough here to keep most metal fans happy while treading on a little new ground here and there.  I was pleasantly surprised by this release and I look forward to what these metal maniacs bring for the audience in the future, I’d also like to get my hands on their remix EP as well. 

Long time no talk eh?  Well the first really part of the season with my real job is done so now I can get back to spending a little more time with my blog!  I’m glad you all are still reading.  First up an interview I orginally did back in May with Traci Parson of Surrounded by Monsters.  I saw their video on YouTube and automatically got in contact with the band.  Two brilliant things about this band.  #1 their music rocks.  #2 they are an unsigned band and I like to focus on unsigned bands when I can.  So here ya go!  A nice interview with Traci from Surrounded by Monsters!

I thought this was really cool and I really like the music so I thought I would share with you all. Enjoy.

Percy Trayanov

Been awhile since I popped in with an interview for everyone.  Got a new one here.  Next week one of my favorite blues/rock/reggae crossover bands of the last few years will be making a stop in Cedar Falls at The Wheelhouse and I dug out this interview I did with them back in March after the release of their latest record.  I’m glad I hung onto this until now so we can do some fresh promotion on them.

The album is really really solid.  I highly recommend it for people who like music that isn’t easily classifiable but ultimately entirely accessible.  Think Sublime meets Texas Blues meets Clutch meets Bob Marley.  Yeah that may sound strange but it really really works when you put it all together.  So here is part one and two of my interview with Nate from the band.

And if that isn’t enough here is their video for “You’re Trying to Kill Me”.

So come on out and see them at The Wheelhouse next Tuesday night with Larry & His Flask and Safe Word.

Album: Evolve

Genre: Industrial, Metal, Goth

Grade: B

Release Date: October 4th, 2011

Recommended if you like: Collide, Bella Morte, Evanescence

It’s always tough to review a friends album.  The line between being a friend and being a critic is always a very fine line.  You want to make sure that everyone is happy in the end.  Also, I must say in a moment of honesty, that I do have a vested interest in SutureSelf not only as friends with Brandon but also I’m working as A&R for the release of this record, so take that into account when you read this review.  It will be honest, but obviously I have an angle as well, don’t you wish politicians where this honest?

So here ya go.  SutureSelf, upon the first listen I was swept away by the atmospherics of the first track and the samples.  They seemed eerily poignant in this day and age of war and turmoil.  The main songwriter in SutureSelf Brandon Chase, himself is a veteran of our military and knows what it’s like to serve our country, adds a deeper level to the samples here.  The music finally kicks in.  What strikes me most on the listening of this record is the mixture of acoustic drums with the programmed drums.  At times it feels like they are at war with each other one trying to over power the other and a couple of times I actually thought I didn’t like what was happening but then they seemed to come together and mesh perfectly and create a thin red line between the two adding depth and a human element to a genre often times over run by sequencers and electronic drums.

I’m also really down with the vocals Ronay’s female voice completes the project nicely.  Balancing between the stabbing guitars and oscillating synthesizers.  Her vocals are mixed pretty far up front, and while that’s something I personally wouldn’t have done, I think it works for this album.  I’m also glad the Ronay decides to sing on this album and not try to be a screamer.  She let’s the music speak for itself and only compliments the melody, ton and timbre of the music as a hole.  My biggest complaint with the vocals is that at times they come across one dimensional and I would have liked to hear Ronay brand out a bit and push herself into different registers and try something new.  She’s got a wonderful voice and I’m glad they didn’t bury it under piles of distortion and reverb though.

As far as the bass and guitar go both seemed appropriately fitting for this genre.  The bass was never too over powering, in fact I believe it could have been mixed a little higher up in the mix.  The guitar work here is actually a bit more intricate than a lot of bands in this genre.  Single notes are heard and palm muted power chords are not the predominate guitar playing of choice.  I was surprise actually by the guitar work and I think when all is said and done it might be the most surprising part of the entire release.  The great thing about the guitar is that it’s EQ’d out to hit perfectly in it’s own world, but that also separates it from the music a bit more than I’d like.  I think a little extra bass on the EQ nob on the amp might have helped the guitar find a little more delicate place in the mix, but that is getting really really nit picky and you can tell I spend way too much time thinking about the nuts and bolts of the actual recording process. 

All in all Evolve is a very interesting record from SutureSelf, it surprised me in a lot of ways.  It’s far less Metal than I expected and far more Goth than I expected.  This is not a heavy record persay but a record you can put on and sit back with a nice glass of red wine and enjoy from beginning to end.  I look forward to hearing more from SutureSelf in the future.  And I hope you will too!

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So this Thursday night Creedence Clearwater Revisited will be hitting the stage at the Isle in Waterloo to bring some good old American rock and roll to the Cedar Valley!  Let me give you a some back ground on the group for you.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rhythm section (bass and drums respectively) from the legendary group Creedence Clearwater Revival launched the Creedence Clearwater Revisited project in 1995 to once again perform live Creedence Clearwater Revival hits ‑ touchstones of a generation. Though the pair initially only planned to play private parties, Creedence Clearwater Revisited now performs up to 100 shows a year and released the album “Recollection.”

“We never really had any intention of playing for the public,” says Stu. “But a friend wanted to promote a couple of concerts. We got talked into it, but didn’t know how it would go over.”

Since then, the reaction to Creedence Clearwater Revisited’s concerts has been astounding, and driven in part by a generation of kids who, as Cosmo says, “weren’t even born when the music came out.” Likewise, the release of a double‑live CD on Universal’s Hip-O Records label, which features passionate, authoritative version of 22 classic hits ‑ was the result of public demand. “It was generated by requests of the people who came to the shows,” Stu acknowledges. “Over and over they would ask, ‘do you guys have a CD?’”  Creedence Clearwater Revisited’s “Recollection” has proven so popular that in 2008 the RIAA certified it Platinum.

 

And you know the hits don’t you?  “Proud Mary”,  “Down on the Corner” and “Fortunate Son” are just a couple that spring to my mind.  And really it does some a bit fitting that a band of this nature be touring again behind those songs of protest from another era in American history full of strife and political upheaval.  So the next question you may be asking yourself then is this, who are playing with Stu and Cosmo in Creedence Clearwater Revisited?  I can answer that for you from the press release:

As fans who have experienced a Creedence Clearwater Revisited concert can attest, Stu and Cosmo found the right players.  Lead singer/rhythm guitar player John Tristao, a powerful tenor with the energy to power songs, initially rose to prominence as lead singer for the band People when their hit “I Love You” bulleted into the top ten.  The newest touring member of Creedence Clearwater Revisited is lead guitarist Kurt Griffey.  As a guitarist, song writer, producer and performer, Griffey has recorded and toured with musicians including members of the Eagles, Foreigner, the Moody Blues, Wings, Lynyrd Skynryd, Santana, and Journey.  Talented multi‑instrumentalist Steve Gunner rounds out the group.  As Cosmo puts it, “Gun provides live all the overdubs that were on the records. He plays keyboard, acoustic guitar, percussion, harmonica and sings the high harmonies.”

So what better way to spend a Thursday night at the Isle then catching some live, classic American rock music that is truly as deeply a part of our lexicon as it is a part of our history of a nation of free speech and the right to speak our minds on some of the really crappy things happening politically in our world today.  Hopefully I’ll see you there!

Where: The Isle at Waterloo

When: Thursday, August 25th

Time: 7:30 PM

Cost: $25