post metal / sludge / doom

What’s that you say? Don’t go outside! panic buying! No toilet roll! Human sacrifice, cats and dogs, living together, mass hysteria. All you need to do is look around to realise these are no ordinary times we are living in at present. So, if you need some musical accompaniment in what seems like the end of days then I have the perfect album for you.  The new album from Colchester Post-Metallers Telepathy.

The band initially made waves in the British metal scene with their debut album 12 areas. A heady mix of stylized post metal with sections of aural freak outs which injected something new into the post-metal scene. This trend continued with their next album Tempest which catapulted them onto many people’s consciousness with a refined sound. So, what can we expect with the new album? Let’s find out.

The key to a good instrumental album is articulating what you are trying to get across without the use of lyrics. Some bands do this better than others, and it’s here where Telepathy have excelled. The sense of anguish is palpable throughout this album and there are times when it builds to almost unbearable levels, but the band seem to be aware of this and just when it gets to all-encompassing heights, they turn on the release valve to give you a breather. The first half of this album will be familiar to anyone who has heard their previous album Tempest as it follows quite similar sonic patterns. The sense of familiarity however is tempered by a newfound sense of purpose, everything honed to a precise edge. Not a single note is out of place and the cohesive nature of the album shines through.

If the first half of the album is great, the second half is simply stunning. It’s here where the band seem to take flight and truly explore their range and seek out new sonic palettes to try and get their point across. The main riff leading into the euphoric ending on Aonaran is incredible, and the sense of release I mentioned earlier should be experienced by everyone, even if they have only a passing interest in post metal music. The use of vocals in next song ‘Sorrow Surrenders it’s Crown’ are a most welcome addition, with some gorgeous delicate guitar parts backing them up. This song transitions beautifully into the bewitching title track which has guest cello by none other than Jo Quail.
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If Telepathy’s previous album Tempest was good (and it was more than that) this album takes their music to a whole other level. If they can continue this upwards trajectory, the sky is the limit for this band and if they carry on with their exploration which is found in the second half of this album, they truly are capable of making extraordinary music. This is highly recommended and will probably be high up on my personal albums of the year list.


Simon

progressive / sludge /  doom / metal

Ravenna might turn out to be this year’s capital for everything metal. January saw the release of Nero DiMarte’s angry post-metal record, February witnessed the release of Postvorta’s opus magnum “Porrima” and in March, Void of Sleep show their third full-length “Metaphora” to the world. Interesting is that members of Nero DiMarte and Postvorta also play in Void of Sleep and in some ways there can be parallels in the sound. 

Void of Sleep perform a kind of very proggy post-metal or sludge with twisting time signatures here and there with short breaks and “stop and go”-moments which really takes you on a journey. The most impressive here is certainly the rhythm section because without a tight performance by Andrea (bass, Nero DiMarte) and Allo (drums) this whole thing would fall apart. Nevertheless, that shall not imply that the guitar work by Gale and Burdo (also responsible for vocals) is not worth mentioning, because very often they show an amazing feeling for timing and interweave their sometimes doomy, sometimes sludgey riffs with a soothing solo or some acoustic passages to purvey the songs room to breathe. The only thing that might not be to everybody’s taste might be the vocals as they often delve into the realm of prog-metal (not the cheesy end, but the clean style).

When listening to Void of Sleep you can fall into songs that transport you either to the highest satellites or the deepest ravines, which shows how open the musical horizon is. The author of these lines saw a group of people trying to run up some steep Appenine hill slipping on the rocky parts and yet determined to reach the top as a group not as individuals, helping each other out if one of them stumbled and fell. However, at the supposed “top” of the hill they have to realize that they are not even close to the summit but only mastered a few peak behind which a whole “universe” of mountains of even greater heights hid. Determined to keep their bond and friendship intact, they start ascending the next one.

One might wonder about the structure of the mountains close to Ravenna, the momentary capital for thinking man’s metal. 


Thorsten

grunge / stoner rock

Iceland’s scene is very likely one of the strongest worldwide as we are talking about a country with roughly 360,000 inhabitants and yet we all know so many bands from Iceland pushing the brim for modern music further and further. Keelrider is another one of those, although they most likely will not see as much attention as Sigur Ros, Björk or the whole Icelandic black metal scene because they are Stoner Grungers with a twist. In 2018 they published their debut album “North” and last year they published two singles from their upcoming album “Second Wind”. While “Too Far Gone” is in parts a very nice melange of Alice in Chains-vocals and Soundgarden-stoner riffs, “Sun” is much more interesting because the band some a little more variety when it comes to time signatures and giving the guitar lines more space to breathe. If you are into stoner rock and grunge, this band is something right for you! 

post metal

Post-Metal from Italy. Most foreigners automatically associate it with Postvorta but some, a little deeper in and a little longer might remember the name Calendula, the sextet from Parma, which released an EP (2011) and a full-length (2012) a while ago. After some changes concerning line-up and musical direction, they released a 25-minute-song in November which definitely doesn’t fit to the title “De Brevitate Vitae” - it’s not brevis (brief) at all. It is quite a monster with a lot of dynamic changes and oscillates between dynamic driving drums and some really clever, counteracting guitar-work following the long intro, which sometimes hints at a bit of Tool. The vocals are pretty good, they also use some samples to give it a more differentiated sonic outline. Something that can be criticized is the sound as the partially trashy Lo-Fi sound doesn’t really fit a record as ambitious as this one, although on the other side it fits to the proclaimed role models  – 90s post-rock bands such as Slint (noticeable in the very effective guitar motif after the first real break). If the guys follow this path, we might have two Italian associations with the term Post-Metal.

electronic 

Svart Records is one of the finest labels when it comes to hard, harsh music, most people know about that. Most people do not know that they also have an electronic sub-label – Svartronix which again is very open-minded. A few weeks ago they released the debut song by A Heart Beats “Dazes the Mind” which is pop music that fits perfectly in any 80s mix of songs by some tropical house producer. This songs purvey a kind of Caribbean calypso feeling but their sex-appeal derives to a large extent from the intriguing vocals of Paile who once was a member of Beastmilk. His delivery is very nice and especially the chorus is so funky that one automatically feels his feet moving, but the line also has some depth “It dazes the mind / and numbs the tongue”. The beats produced by Tuuki are layered with some space basslines in the sense of some more synth-driven Daft Punk and the beat itself is shuffling a bit, so that the sunny, opening sounds give the song a holiday feeling without the stupidity. A promising debut song, let’s hope A Heart Beats and Svartronix has some more servings.

doom / death metal

Russian death doom act Intaglio released a demo version of a new track at the end of last year and in some way, the beauty lies in the rhythm. Many voices will now scream that the rhythm is nothing particular new to the genre, as the slow, dragging rhythm of the song is really quite normal, but the way that the strings connect to it, support it in certain passages, yeah, even form it from time to time, that is really breathtaking – the Gothic attitude it brings to the song turns it into a remarkable one. The lyrics, speaking about the overwhelming character of a memory of death which overshadows everything else, are delivered in regular death metal style. Another standout feature is the use of the use of an upright bass that is tuned so well, that you can hear each tap and each ring.
In some way, three pretty singular metal genres are amalgamated into one pretty dense net of emotions that will leave no open ear without imprinting a memory of itself on the listener. If this is a first sign of a new album then one might keep Intaglio in mind.

punk

Everything about this 7” screams “Old school! Old school!”, the cover (seemingly a reverse from the classic Minor Threat discography cover that also was adopted by Rancid several years ago), the cover b-side, the black-white style, the sound, everything! But first things first: The revived band released a good album in 2018 and last December followed with this 7” out on Heartworm Press. The title track is a new shotgun blast somewhere between Zeke, MC5, The Clash, Turbonegro and Black Flag (although one must say, that only the vocals sometimes hint at Rollins) – definitely a good track. The b-side is a well-made cover of “Left for Dead” by The Lemonheads another one of these late 80s punk bands that turned more and more to indie-rock. The cover is good and shows a different side to American Nightmare. However, there is one thing that is lacking in this release and that is the teenage angst that made AN famous. The despair, the sadness, the melancholy – not there. On the other hand, that might drive the listener to despair and achieves the same effect.

avant garde / folk

Dog Tunnel Records

There are genres that seemingly are so heavily steeped in tradition and customs that it is hard to imagine to hear a new sound in them. Take Irish Folk for example; most of us at first might associate it with pub nights somewhere between the Dubliners and Christy Moore (at best) or Michael Flatley and Enya (at worst). But to combine the traditional folk instruments bodhran, flute, violin, and guitar with a wall of sound, lots of spoken word (not cheerfully and rhythmically, but rather intimidating and fierceful) is something rarely heard before. Tuatha is a fierce project that will leave some of us open-mouthed. Formed in early 2019 and already a rising star on the scene, the septet uses old Irish tales from the Middle Ages and Gaelic Dindsenchas (short poems describing certain places) to deepen their already impressive style. In parts, their unrelentless approach reminds one of the approach Archive and SubRosa took in totally different musical landscapes. This here is unique, bewitching and typical Irish yet also totally un-Irish. Folks, give Tuatha a listen!

sludge / doom

A quartet from Phoenix, Arizona with a very grainy, heavy sound, Mosara released their debut demo last November. It shall be a prelude to a record which is in the making and should see the light of day before the end of the year; of course the demo should also draw interest from labels and I think it might: The musical soundscape is strongly influenced by a lot of proto-metal like Sabbath, Blue Cheer, but also by classic doom bands like Electric Wizard or Cough – that means, you get what you expect, low-tuned, richly-distorted, grainy, a bit lofi-ish doom sounds with a tinge of sludge influences (most audible on the second track “Clay and Iron”). Sometimes the howls and growls could be a bit fiercer and less despaired because, sometimes, Tony Gallegos (ex-Twingiant) is a bit too clear. Nevertheless the sound is great, as if someone mated Fu Manchu with Sabbath and their offspring was left in the desert with a guitar as the only means of communication. The riffs are dragging, the bass is dominant, the drums are supportive – all good in the Arizona desert. 

death metal / black metal / doom / noise / grindcore

Noise bastard? Yeah. Death metal? Sometimes. Grindcore? For sure. Doomy Gloom? You bet. All of that and more is “Tellurian Insurgency” by Ploughshare. With their third release in as many years (after 2017’s “Literature of Piss” and 2018’s acclaimed “In Offal, Salvation”) the quartet from Australia’s capital Canberra once again proves that the bar is always too low for them. Excellent musicians with a highly complex understanding of how music works they show that extreme metal must also rely on atmosphere that sometimes exists between the chords and blastbeasts. A great deal of the attraction of this band is the vocals, which never sound cheesy but quite on point. This EP also features a remix of their standout song, the title track of “In Offal, Salvation”, which shows that it is even possible to give this dark nightmare of a song an even more desperate twist. One thing that becomes clear throughout the record is how important good drumming is for such a kind of music as it must set the tone for everyone. If the guys can keep up their productivity we should await a new heir to the extreme metal throne in 2020.

industrial

Describing this Oakland, CA, quartet is not that easy and not that difficult at the same time. Their sound relies heavily on synths, samples but also on guitar, bass and drums. They cross constantly between electronic noise (aka industrial) and post-punk’ish avantgarde sounds. Initiated in 2013 and having independently released already a bunch of records, Lament Cityscape set out to publish three EPs in 2020, each following some red thread and yet also standing out on its own. Something that they share with some of the pioneers of this kind of sonic assault (Godflesh, Killing Joke, Author & Punisher) are the harsh sounds that sometimes remind one of buoys warning the oncoming ships of the nearby rocks and sandbanks which here are symbolized by the rough drum attacks. In parts, this is a good record for those who like Godflesh’s Streetcleaner a bit less polished and a bit more straightforward. Partially, one is left behind by a lack of surprise, but fans of industrial noises and harsh synth-driven drums will really like this.

black metal

At first, the band’s name might sound like a nice pun on 80s karate flic “Bloodsport” (with the amazing multiple Academy Award winning actor Jean-Claude van Shakespeare) but when listening to this new face on renown Swedish Meta label Blood Harvest it becomes clear that the idea of a fungi which sits parasitically on its host and feeds of it before finally killing it works perfectly within the black metal community. It also works nicely because the record to it is really good and leaves one’s ears with an immediate wish to press replay because of its clever changes in mood, dynamics and tempi. The record (especially the second track “Cede to the Saprophyte”) is like a nice blend of groove metal and black metal with the emphasis, of course, on the latter. Thematically, the record presents the idea of the fungal mass on this planet slowly but certainly taking over and destroying all other organisms, a new take on the apocalyptic visions presented by bands like Botanist or Arx Atrata. For a band that only came together in 2018, this is really somewhat impressive. 


​Thorsten

doom / sludge metal

Sludge is Sludge is Sludge. Dirty, Gritty, Swampy. Slow, muscular, fast-paced doom.

Okay, the latter is something that you might not read in every review for every sludge record but if to be honest, sludge has its roots more in doom than in punk although some people might say that it is a slowed-down version of the distorted punk riffs noticeable in blackened hardcore bands. Don’t believe me? Well, listen to the debut by Belgian sludge band Growing Horns. 


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They show very well that sludge is not about being slowed-down but rather about being sped-up. It is definitely faster than doom but listening to the structures one can hardly but notice that they are playing with sometimes minute changes to the pace of a song. Sometimes they break it down by letting the reins run free and the bull lead the path to extinction. They have more than five toes in a rich honey glass full of riffs that might make some well-established act blush. 

If you listen to the five tracks on their self-released record, which add up to roughly 32 minutes, you will hear that here the candles are blown out by some harsh winds but not by a tropical downpour of Biblical measures. No, they know very well how to establish a sound that oscillates between the sound of leathery skin being rubbed up and down a roughly-plastered wall and the crack of a single bone snapped in two after having been under constant stress by the grip of a Minotaur trying to make your head crack open like the one in Game of Thrones. 

The clearest connection to doom is the way their use the vocals of Dufus Demon, their “singer”, who every often gurgles with a cocktail of elves’ blood and bull-piss before spit-singing his own version of crooning. One of the most impressive moments is – believe it or not – the ending, when they experiment with a piano melody. That really got me wanting more, but then the opening track starts again and there we are again – at pissed-off doom aka straight-forward sludge.


Thorsten

doom / sludge metal

One of the things which winds me up (one of a multitude of things, I really do get wound up more often than is good for me) is when companies say their product is 'quality' when experience usually confirms the exact opposite to be true. Still, saying that, there are three words in the heavy music universe which mean you are going to get genuine quality, those three words are 'Holy Roar Records' Even if you don't particularly like the album they are currently putting out, it will almost certainly be high quality, their track record is exemplary. 



So, what to make of their latest output, which is from Leicester based band Garganjua and is their third album called Towards the Sun. 

The album starts with a spoken word passage with a robotic distorted voice talking about fear of living in the present, it all sounds rather ominous until it segues into the next track and first song proper, which is the soaring 'The New Sun'. It starts off with almost tribal drumming and delicately strummed guitar parts. It builds into a gut punch of death doom with cavernous growled vocals, and yet, the whole thing is dense and yet delicate at the same time, it dances round melodies whilst swinging between the clean and growled vocals which are perfectly in balance.

Second track 'Mire' Starts of with more clean guitars but picks up into a tremolo picked guitar part in the background which swells before building and erupting into black metal blast beats pushing the tremolo picked guitar to the forefront. Next track 'Light Bearer' beings in yet another dimension to the bands sound as towards the end of the song, they bring in some almost thrash metal elements for a glorious head nodding moment which cannot fail to carry you along for the ride.

'Controlling Waves' is a song which Pallbearer would be proud of calling their own, it's monolithic melodies and swirling crashedos means it is perched on the pinnacle of what doom can sound like. The whole album walks a supremely judged line between various genres, with it's highs and lows and the interplay between light and dark that comes with a truly talented band. The new year is only three weeks old and already we have a contender for album of the year, the bar has been set, and it's been set very high indeed. Outstanding.  


Simon

sludge / doom

Consouling Sounds + Belgium = modern hard music. What is is about this (territory-wise) small Western European country that they seem to produce another amazing band every week? Either it’s in the waters or they are doing something right there when it comes to supporting young artists. Consouling Sounds definitely does something right because by now it has become like a trademark for high-quality modern music based on sludge, black metal, noise, post-metal or anything else in that scheme outside mainstream music and beat-orientated noise. With Throatsnapper they simply prove this notion. 

The quartet from Antwerp just published their debut full-length after releasing an EP in 2015. This new record is out since the end of October and I must admit that I kind of overlooked it ever since, shame on me. The record is really good and variable, even though people will say that there is no new twist to a genre that is running out of good ideas. However, one cannot deny the fact that Throatsnapper have a knack for songwriting and, even more important, for creating moods. 

They are able to show up very different sides to their sound, somewhere between post-rock and post-metal and then again going all the way to doom. The basis for all of that is repetition and heaviness. Nevertheless, they are not searching for the loudest sound possible or the longest tracks imaginable, they always try to find what is best for the songs. There are six songs on “About the Dead” and they are quite different, “Another Way” is like a sludge-song flirting with post-metal; “From Wood to Gallows” shows a semi-acoustic intro with the bass as the lead-instrument; one could go on with each and every song, but there is one track that definitely stands out from the others even though all are talking about the death of beloved people: “Dodenmars” is the last and longest track on the album with nearly eight minutes – the name (‘March of the Dead’ in English) is pretty programmatic, the track is a march and one can see the funeral procession dressed all in black denim heads bowed to the rain following the coffin with the widow up front holding her head high not to show any emotion for the loss of her husband who died in an eighteenth century. 

Blackness prevails when talking “About the Dead” just like the title itself says it. Let’s step out of the light.


Thorsten

hardcore / sludge

How you feel about an album or artist usually involves how you feel about the genre that they play in. Doom metal, jazz, pop etc. you know what you like so you tend to stick within the confines of a certain genre that you like. Some bands blend the edges between genres, other like Earth Moves, the  London based group we are talking about today, tear down the walls of genre with will full abandon and create something which, whilst schizophrenic in it's approach to genre, is an exhilarating experience which makes you think about music in new ways.

Superficially I guess you could call this album a post-hardcore one, even a punk one, but that is doing it a massive disservice and doesn't really tell you the whole story. Indeed whilst post-hardcore is a frame to hang some of these songs on, most of them don't even cover this base at all and instead veer off into other territories entirely.

 Opener 'Falling Away From the Ground' is a great example of what they are attempting. It starts with a strummed guitar part until lead singer Jordan Hills impassioned wails come in imploring you to take his hand for the journey ahead. The guitar picks up pace and before you know it, the song is a crescendo of noise. Second song 'Into the Either' sounds similar but explodes with punk energy half way through and even dips it's toes into black metal territory for a ferocious onslaught toward the end of the song. The rest of the album twists and turns between moments of savage noise making and gentle almost ambient sections which should sound jarring (and in a lesser bands hand certainly would do) but each passage has been thought about and placed there for a reason, not jammed together haphazardly for the sake of it. 

If you are interested in heavy music at all then please do yourself a favor and listen to this album, at the very least, it will introduce you to other genres you may not ordinarily listen to, sometimes within the same song!  


Simon

post rock / sludge

Anonymous band collective from England releases a concept album about a dead African elephant that an old Nazi tried to bring back to life but that was then rescued by a female shaman who has her own plans for the creature. Whaaat?! Yeah, it sounds like the story of a crossover between Hellboy and Raiders of the Lost Ark – one never knows how seriously the collective takes its music. But one must admit that it is catching and one has heard worse stories to base a record on.

Bull Elephant from London do an interesting mix of post-rock and sludge with some death metal-tinges to portray the savage nature of the creature. It is a mix that sometimes really surprises with a lot of coherence, however there are some moments – especially the high-pitched clean vocals – that makes the author of this review wonder, if they really wanted to sound like an 80s hair metal band. It’s not as if the singer is incapable of doing that, it just sounds too cheesy and takes away from the band’s seriousness. But wait – maybe that is exactly what this shall be?!

The concept is hilarious, the music is really good, sometimes doomy, sometimes fast, quite often pretty and posty with clean licks and the drums are really driving and energetic. The vocals alternate between 70s proto metal, the glam vocals mentioned before and some death grunts. They have a knack for making those seven songs spanning 38 minutes really worthwhile and entertaining.

One definite flaw is the typo used for the otherwise really excellent artbook – it’s barely readable, but maybe that’s due to the electronic press kit. An album that will amuse you with its savages attacks, its own take on the stories of old that we loved on the big screen, its hilarious portrayal of the Nazis trying to embrace anything remotely occult. If you want your music serious and thoughtful, then do not follow this record, if you like it with an ironic twist – then this will put a smile upon your face. 


​Thorsten

sludge

The Osedax from Leesburg, Virginia is one of those things many would call a dark horse. They are very good in what they do, some people love them for exactly that. But they never gain as much popularity as they deserve. A dark horse running a race against vanishing in the midst of too many releases in a time of too much availability.

Let’s hope that his changes with their upcoming third record “Meridians”, which is due on January 19th.  Following the release of the debut full-length “Titans Lament” from 2015, the band slimmed down to a threesome after the departure of former vocalist and keyboard player Josh Albright with bassist Mike Horn and guitarist Scott Caldwell (both were also in Mod Flanders Conspiracy) now sharing vocal duties, accompanied by drummer Kevin Grevey. 

Osedax, named after a deep-sea worm, play a kind of very epic sludge including a refreshing kind of song structure. Very often the songs take their time to slowly but effectively build layer upon layer and at the very moment when you would normally expect a bone-crushing, simply heavy riff, you might be confronted with a kind of blastbeat-orientated monster frantically biting at your notions of how such a kind of music functions. Or you hear a doomy breakdown accompanied by infernal growling. Very often you hear spacious guitar motifs echoing from side to side resembling the kind of echo you might expect in the deep sea – quite an intellectual idea and a pretty post-rocky approach. 

Through the course of the four songs and 47 minutes it becomes clear that the Osedax are master in the craft of building songs and playing with the conventions of the genre sludge and the expectations of its fans. If you like your sludge a bit more on the doomy side and playing with post-rock ideas, you should definitely give “Meridians” a chance, because the Virginia guys ought to be much more popular! 


Thorsten

sludge metal

“Demonic Black Magick for Tortured Souls.” That’s one of the first sentences you read when coming across Seventh Circle’s FB-account. Interestingly this record has less death metal than you would assume after such a proclamation and after a record title referring to Dante’s Seven Circles of Hell. The record is a solid pastiche of stoner-influenced sludge metal with a share of death metal miniatures. The duo from California really hits some weak spots in all of those people who like their death metal a bit more on the hard rock-side with these three tracks.
The sound is gritty and heavy and the breakdowns are not too hardcore-ish so that those 13 minutes are over quicker than you wanted. Most interesting are those moments when they take some time to establish the mood of a song instead of just racing into it. The only thing that might be bothersome is the mixing because although of course a band like this should be produced raw and dirty but the vocals are too far in the background. 

black metal

Invictus Productions

Iron Bonehead Productions

Belgium’s black metal band Possession brought a totally new concept to split EPs at the end of November by releasing two different splits with two different bands but with one unifying theme. “Passio Christi Part I / Witch’s Spell” is their split with Spite from the US and “Passio Christi Part II / Necrophagus Abandon” is the one with Venefixion from France. The second part of each record’s title is one of the track of Possession split partner. 
Interesting about these two separate releases on two different labels with bands spanning five countries is that it all sounds very organic and as if this was meant to be. But the logistics and planning for this thing must have been arduous. 
However, when playing both records in a row, you do not have the feeling of a loss of quality or a change in sound and vision. The releases each start with a very atmospheric intro by Possession with the second one even played on a church organ and incorporates carillon bells. Very, very good. The Belgians pursue their idea of a raw punkish sound and attitude, a high-octane version of black metal. “Stabat Mater”, the last of their six tracks total, ends in a whirlwind of drums and riffs that has mantra-qualities just before their final contribution to this duo split turns the song into an instant classic as they take up the intro from “Passio Christi Part I” again using a choir to make their songs one big entity. 
The other two bands are not only bystanders but take part immensely with each giving their respective releases a different element. Spite, for example, delivers the cover song that each good split should have doing Manitú’s “Cruel Creator” in their own way, very lo-fi and very chilling.  Venefixion, on the other hand, do the best thing to do after a song as good as “Stabat Mater” - they do their own piano-intro (!) and then all hell breaks loose, no barriers holding back, no hostages taken, no one left standing in their way – straightforward black metal!
As a final say, one has only very seldom heard such a coherent, thoughtful conceived combination of split series as this one!

psychedelic / stoner / rock

The California-based trio is set to release their next album on Valentine’s day next year and “8hr Parking” is the first single off of that record which will be called “Mortal Foils” and released via Italy’s specialist label Heavy Psych Sounds Records. 
And as this is not their first release but another one in quite a long list of excellent ones, it shows that singer/guitarist Enver Koneya, bassist Travis Williams and drummer Braden McGraw really know what they want to sound like – a mixture of “full-throttle, pedal to the metal” and “whirling swooshing Tornado jet”. The new song thunders like steamrolling in a Mad Max-vehicle without roof right through Los Angeles all the way up the coast with the wind rushing through your hair while tanking north on Pacific Highway 101 and then having to step down a bit because otherwise the turns and curves will not be mastered especially in Big Sur and North. If the upcoming record is as convincing as this one then we might up for something special!

alternative rock

Sometimes there comes a band that is able to emulate a sound that directly brings up several memories from your past that you had forgotten you had somewhere deep in you. Now a lot of you readers will say “Of course that is what good music should be able to so that you find a connection to it!” For clarification: Listening to an EP with the singer in the first song sounding like a first-class Layne Staley impersonator is never a bad thing, especially when he concentrates on the articulation and breathing and not on the impossible to imitate the voice of Alice in Chains’ front man. With the second using the same bells that Radiohead used for “Karma Police” is another very positive thing and the third one witnessing a voice imitating Thom’s way of phrasing words and sounds while the band is finding the middle between both bands the author of these lines is back in a room at home with the lights on, thinking about former loves and igniting hundreds of candles to fit his mood. Or is that just what this record wants me to feel like? Probably; well: Well done!

Thorsten