alternative rock

When we took a first glance at the cover of this promo we were already teased by the chaos and depth of the artwork (Mark Cruz Teix). The story of The Morganatics is one of progress. The debut album (Never Be Part Of Your World) followed by a live recording of a radio show and their second full recording (We Come From The Stars) were all released  in 2015. The band produced an album (Eternal Return : An Horizon of Infinite) with acoustical versions of songs from the two previous albums in 2016.



The Morganatics call their creations “rock based with a voice of Linkin Park meeting Archive’s atmosphere with Porcupine Tree's guitars”. Well, let us tell you that they have a point but… the two vocalists Seb  (also rhythm guitars and keyboards) and Chris (female vocals, sample and keyboards) have the same timbre as late Chester Bennington. We needed to listen very carefully to distinguish who was actually singing because they sound very alike… The album contains wide range singing with deep emotions and energy. We had mixed feelings with the track Gloria. The vocals sound like a mealy hymn for a commercial add. 

The atmosphere of the tracks is far-reaching, from psychedelic to moodiness and to avant-garde with electronic effects and samples. This band from Paris reaches, indeed, out to Porcupine Tree with their guitar sound. Lauris (lead & acoustic guitars) listened very good to Anathema, his guitar solos are inspired by the two Cavanagh brothers’ weeping sound. There are some unclean vocals by PM (also bass)on this recording. We would have welcomed some more for better variation and balance in the singing. There are two drummers mentioned in the info. Nico, original core member and drummer announced his departure during the production of this album,so Frank took over.

The Morganatics are strange duck in the music pool. Their music is very fused with all kinds of genres and styles, which gave them a somehow an original sound. We’ve  heard creative chemistry with shredding guitars combined with intense and emotional melodies. Melancholy and experimental drift were added to the energetic formula called The Love Riot Squad vs The F-world, which is to our opinion their best work, until now. 

Bands with the same experimental approach but different in style are Område (France) and Thy Catalfaque (Hungary) and Diabolo Swing Orchestra (Sweden).

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Patsker

rock

Madhouse is an Italian female fronted rock band doing their utmost best to be a little more visible on the endless and overpopulated fields of rock bands on this planet. The band consisting of Federica Tringali (vocals), Filippo Anfossi  (guitar), Daniele Maggi (guitar), Michele Canevari (bass) and Ares Cabrini (drums) started playing as a cover band and began working on own songs since 2012. During that same year Federica Tringali decided to name the band Madhouse.

And this Italian band rocks. Madhouse presents ten pumping modern rock tracks with groovy guitar riffs and a lyrical concept, proposing ten hotel rooms in which it is possible to keep looking for your own personal dimensions. Federica Tringali has a powerful voice fitting perfectly with the steaming songs. She does not reach for screaming high chords but uses overdubbed vocal effects which create  harmonic and melodic sounds between the guitar riffs. This charismatic front woman has a powerful voice and can compete with the best modern rock and emo-rock singers these days. Guitar players Filippo Anfossi  and Daniele Maggi conjure some catchy guitar work out of their bag. Minimized keyboard parts furnish interesting  and refreshing impulses to the music. The combo is working hard and had already live gigs in several European countries.

Madhouse’s first full album is filled with enthusiastic (heavy) rock guitars and atmospheres  like 30 Seconds To Mars, Placebo and My Bloody Valentine.  This is a band with international potentials playing catchy, varied alternative rock music. Although they bring nothing new on the horizon this Italian band has balls, courage, musicianship and one hell of a female singer. Very refreshing rock music.

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Patsker

post rock / experimental / alternative

Kota — released in July 2 —, is the debut album of Kota Kota, the personal musical project of English musician Michael Holmes. Sixty-two minutes long, the album has nine tracks: 1)Black Waltz; 2)Lyric; 3)Extend Your Fingers; 4)The End; 5)Burleywood; 6)Transitions; 7)Until The Last Minute You Breathe; 8)Crimea River; 9)L'appel du Vide; with generally long tracks, and exceedingly marvelous and poetic harmonies, this album is filled with  a wonderfully crafted and formidably genuine creativity, that definitely elevates post rock to a whole new level of sagacious originality and splendorous sensibility, unprecedented since the conception of the genre. 

With dynamic melodies, and a very vivacious musical synergy, the sonorous atmosphere conceived in this majestic album circulates within the axis of its own graciosity. Displaying a serene, but conscious acquiescence that delightfully departs from the bright disposition of its fantastic and pristine tenderness, the sound created by the artist delivers directly to the soul the omnipotence of an everlasting beauty, whose poetic resurgence dissipates the eagerness of its volatile and captivating temperance.  

As the sound achieves the glory of the restless melancholy of its dispersive essence, the rhythm gets more and more pervasive, with all of its pungent density proclaiming in the vastness of its consistence the diligence of harmonies that will never fade away. 

With a clear and distinct sound that gradually departs from the latent darkness of its diluted consciousness, the style of the artist is simple, but delightfully graceful and beautiful, as the sound delivers a melancholic stupor that intrinsically reinvigorates the life present on its simple virtues. With its tempestuous dissonances gradually increasing, the rules of harmonies reborn in a more colorful landscape full of ghosts and shadows; otherwise, the melodies — indebted to a fascinating cosmogony that discreetly compensates in the peripheries of its glory a vast conjuncture of progressive elements and lethargic ordeals — rearrange in more graceful patterns the extraordinary creative devices that comprises the fascinating musical universe of Michael Holmes. 

With a smooth, expansive, unexpected and salutary degree of experimentalism, that delivers to the audience a musical sensibility engraved in an audacious virtuosity, the sound present in Kota is a marvelous exposition of authenticity, crafted by an expressively talented musician, that has all the necessary qualities to create an entirely new genre by himself, departing from the unlimited excellence of his own peculiar and formidable sense of incomparable originality.  


Wagner

noise / dark ambient / experimental

bandcamp

electronic

dSound In Silence

progressive / metal / black metal

heavy metal / thrash metal

downtempo / electronic / post rock / shoegaze

facebook

psychedelic / doom

sludge / black metal

ambient / modern classical / experimental

bandcamp

drone / doom / noise / experimental

ambient / electronic

noise rock

stoner rock / grunge / alternative rock

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​Serge

alternative rock

With a thirty-year career on the heavier side of the musical spectrum, Per Wiberg stepped out of his comfort zone with this release. The Swedish multi-instrumentalist was a member of the progressive death metal band Opeth (no  longer playing death metal but prog). He was also member of the stoner metal band Spiritual Beggars. Per Wiberg played keys and piano on work by Arch Enemy (melodic death metal) and Anekdoten (progressive rock). As a live musician he plays for the doom metal band Candlemass and as a regular bass player with the Swedish power trio Kamchatka, who play more blues-oriented, psychedelic stoner rock.

Head Without Eyes has absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned bands and genres. Per Wiberg calls his debut a different kind of heavy. The urge to go further and further artistically, together with a lifelong collection of records, creates a special mix of melodies that explore the limits of experimental rock music. This release contains a daring pile of tracks full of innovative rock music. The dark lyrics contain intelligent ideas that are accompanied by psychedelic sounds and pumping, rocking guitars.

All instruments and vocals were realized by the master himself. Only the drums were played by Karl Daniel Lidén (Crippled Black Phoenix, Katatonia, Switchblade) and Lars Sköld (Tiamat, Avatarium). Billie Lindahl (Promise And The Monster) borrowed her ethereal voice on the tracks  Anywhere The Blood Flows and Pile Of Nothing. 

Anywhere The Blood Flows and Fader are powerful and drawn-out songs that, despite their length (more than ten minutes), thoroughly influence the sense of time. Much attention was paid to the construction and finishing of the tracks. Hallucinating creative sounds provide an industrial ribbon around this release. The vocal lines of Per Wiberg sound surprisingly good with the threatening song structures filled with gothic leverages.

Head Without Eyes opens after several listening sessions like a lotus. Per Wiberg is a master smith who mixes and forges different types of iron into an insanely strong samurai sword that cuts through the flesh and bones with a sharp rocking blade. This is an exciting piece of rock music with a lot of underlying layers that slowly float to the surface. Head Without Eyes  is an edition to cherish. 

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Patsker

space rock / alternative/ electronic music

Monitor is an album released by Australian alternative / space electronic music act Laedj, from Melbourne. released on June 15. With an interesting, original, exceedingly vibrating musical style – deeply rooted in the preeminent density of expansive harmonies deliberately conceived as a tenacious space-oriented creative dissolution – Monitor reveals itself from the beginning as a marvelous, splendid and highly genuine work of art, whose authenticity defies ordinary genre boundaries, and deals profusely with an audacious and sovereign degree of introspective artistry, that not only aspires to be something inadvertently genuine, but expressively singular, unforgettable and most of all, ostensibly inimitable.  

The only terrible fault of this album is the length: at only thirty-three minutes long, Monitor is too concise. Nevertheless, when the album is over, you can appreciate it again, as I did the first time I’ve listened to this majestic and formidable masterpiece (I’ve heard two times in direct sequence). With only four tracks – Monitor, Kwingy, Heard From Space and Bad Buzz – the first and the last songs are the longer ones, having both little more than ten minutes each. With a very expressive, consistent and diluted sound, whose impressive originality designs impeccable and profoundly graceful creative harmonies in a very abrasive and elegant surface of organic elements, the marvelous and astoundingly extraordinary capabilities projected by this album is easy to assimilate, but concomitantly hard to embrace, given the fact that its overwhelmingly fulfilling, passionate, beautiful, dynamic and furiously elegant qualities surpasses with an absolute disposition the general standards currently seen in the underground scene.  

One of the most marvelous albums that I ever had the pleasure of listening, Monitor is a fascinating sonorous synergy driven by a colorful festival of original, unrestrictive and extraordinary creative audacity. With gracefully cohesive and pristine harmonies, that perpetuates the diagram of its diffusive density over the majesty of its own creative lucidity, this sensational album is a sonorous spectacle full of highly sober and vivid colliding atmospheres, that dance over the shadows of a fading horizon, in the somnolent placidity of an everlasting, but sincerely captivating personal disturbance. Although the entire album is absolutely incredible – literally out of this world –, if I have to highlight two tracks, they would be Kwingy and Heard From Space, (which, surprisingly, have vocals); the second and the third, respectively. This are two amazingly marvelous, beautiful and effectively rapturous songs, that strikes with deranged virtuosity the soul of the listener. 

Full of qualities, and with an exceptional degree of originality – never seen in the genre before – Monitor is an unforgiving, fantastic and splendorous masterpiece, whose fabulous degree of artistry deserves to be massively highlighted. With a huge potential to make history, Laedj. is a groundbreaking musical act, whose formidable level of authenticity can make them the next starlight of the alternative rock scene. 


Wagner

post rock / experimental / alternative

Toska is an album released in May 13, by experimental post rock project Fat Old Donald, from the Czech Republic. One hour long, the record has eight tracks: 1) Ibn Ezra; 2) Tünde; 3) Larva; 4) Toska; 5) Comme il Faut; 6) Lájos Bácsi; 7) Rybba; 8) Neumann; with an enormously introspective, frivolous and dense style, and exceedingly proverbial, lugubrious and somber vocals that reverberates through a clean, vast and expansive perspective a fragile and depressive, but lucid musical cosmogony, the general sound delivered by Fat Old Donald in this sinister framework is slow, diluted and afflictive, and sordidly anticipates the sentient expectation of a darkness that gradually drains all palpable resolutions of life.   

With an interesting, meticulous and methodic style – that can be quite monotonous at times – nevertheless, Fat Old Donald really knows how to properly conceive an atmosphere of dense, restless and pragmatic uneasiness, whose frigid and melancholic guitar lines are gradually revealed to be the epicenter of an emotionally vague, pale and diffusive disturbance. With a sensible beauty that underlines the melancholy of its existential playfulness, the music found on Toska displays a formidable degree of sophistication and pungent audacity, though sometimes becomes redundant, opaque and lost in the endless repetition of a predictable formula.

Despite the fact that there is nothing too extraordinary about this album, Toska displays a virtuous conjuncture of qualities, and a decent degree of originality. The diluted darkness that comes out of the melodies – slowly trespassing a subtle level of beauty that gracefully indulges in the instinctive desperation dispersed by the harmonies – reveals a consistent degree of compositional skills, whose audacious, uncommon and hyperbolic creativity certainly provides to the muscular tissue of the sound a pervasively robust and cohesive musical density. Nevertheless, underneath this spectacular disposition of tormented artistic vitality, there is a sonorous and coherent anatomic contingence, restraining the monumental order of painfulness that integrates the inherent structure of its horizontal grandiosity.

Unfortunately, you will have to undermine your patience, in order to listen to this whole album at once; despite its deeply depressive atmosphere, though, Toska displays a uniquely proverbial and sincere radiance of detrimental, but veraciously artistic agony, on a very personal scale of lugubrious darkness. Definitely, an intriguing work that deserves to be properly felt, appreciated and analyzed, this strange and bizarre, but amazingly effective, fearless and original album proves all the way through to be one of a kind.   


Wagner

industrial post wave

Almost two years ago, I ended my review for the debut album by This Can Hurt with the words: "This is another example of Belgium's talent, unique but familiar and always intriguing. I'd like to see this live one day, preferably very soon..."

Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to witness these guys yet but judging from this album, a tour is inevitable. Once again This Can Hurt has unleashed something intriguing. 'Worlds Apart' is another excellent statement about crossing genre restrictions, creating emotional alternative music and having great songwriting skills. 


Initially founded as an alternative rock outfit for Ray-M, This Can Hurt quickly developed into a unique entity in the darker regions of the rock industry. The band seemed to nudge towards gothic rock and post punk acts while also incorporating electronic elements from trip hop and industrial. At first glance, 'Worlds Apart' follows the path of its predecessor. The broody elements are still present, making most of these songs ideal for the darker dancefloor, where Sisters Of Mercy, Joy Division and Nine Inch Nails invite you to shake your hips.

But This Can Hurt has also grown over the past few years, and that results in a mature sound and several possible fan favorites. Title track 'Worlds Apart' is one of those and so is the infectious 'Rivers Run Deep'. The latter even brings Evergrey to mind, a melodic metal band. Thing is, with 'Worlds Apart' This Can Hurt tries to appeal to a broader audience. Yet, I didn't expect them to delve into the metal scene. But then again, dark rock and dark metal are very close together, just ask Trent Reznor.

My DJ-mind tells me that 'The Fall Of Mark E. Smith' will mix perfectly with 'Lucretia My Reflection' by Sisters Of Mercy. I'm going to try that out soon. Fact remains, this tune is massive, a certain dancefloor filler, even with the somewhat unusual vocals. And that goes for most of the tunes here. There is still something familiar, something from the dark eighties, but This Can Hurt adds a unique identity to their music which sets them apart from pretty much all other bands. This is the beauty of stubbornness, walking your own path and creating something brilliant.

'Some Days' is the track that mostly nudged towards trip hop, until the guitars come in. The focus here is mostly on straight forward rock music. Electronics seem to have a smaller role, which actually improves the whole thing. I think that's where the mature sound comes from. 'Diane' drives on a harsh electronic bassline but here too, the guitars eventually take the upperhand. The rest of the songs are up to you to discover. If you are a fan of dark rock music, this album definitely deserves a spot in your collection. I know, it's already a massive collection but still, I just know you will enjoy this.


​Serge

post metal / alternative metal

This is not an easy world to live in. An increasing amount of people seem to be unable to find their place in life. They wander alone, haunted by their own past and the circumstances which have lead to a life of uncertainty, emptiness and despair. To them, this hasty, stressful society feels unnatural and downright evil.

On average, these people are extremely creative but also extremely misunderstood and underappreciated. These 'lone wolves' are introvert, scared, tormented and emotional, but they also deliver some impressive music, like the quartet of Carneia, for example.

Formed by members of Miava and King Hiss, Carneia bring some solid heavy rock anthems with intense riffs and the soul shattering vocals of Jan Coudron. 'Voices Of The Void' is their fourth studio effort after two full lengths and an EP. With eight straight forward tracks, this album is a strong and well varied piece of work, showcasing excellent songwriting skills. According to the biography, the band is influenced by bands like Faith No More, Tool, Deftones and Nine Inch Nails but there is so much more to be found. For instance, 'Shadow Man' could have been a reggae tune and here and there you can hear a few death metal growls.

Yet, for the majority this albums feels like a heavy concept album by a well attuned band. While listening to opener 'The Making Of The Universe', I still had to get used to this sound, especially the rough vocals. Yet, as soon as 'Blood and Candy' started oozing out of my speakers, I was convinced of the sheer quality of the music. Element of progressive rock meet with stoner metal riffs and rolling bass. That being said, I think the bass player is the biggest Faith No More fan in this band. Correct me if I'm wrong. He does an excellent job supporting his bandmates, that's for sure.

'The Hangman' is one of my favorites here, a potent piece of alternative metal with a dark, brooding atmosphere. The sludge doom inspired 'Alter Ego' is as immersive and overwhelming as quick sand, or a container of tar. Yet, my absolute favorite here is 'Anthem For The Wasted', which mixes the intensity of heavy music with perfect songwriting skills. It shows a mature sound with a certain au-serieux, which I can appreciate. I'm sure many of our readers can appreciate this as well, so I urge you go over to their bandcamp page and check them out. Fucking hell, I love the musical output of our stupid little country...


​Serge

metal

metal / death metal

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progressive rock / experimental

psychedelic rock / doom

hard rock

progressive metal

psychedelic rock /  doom

sludge metal / doom

black metal

alternative rock / psychedelic / noise rock