ALBUM REVIEW: Intervals - 'A Voice Within'

Intervals are a band I've only recently begun to listen to, and yet their metamorphosis across that timespan is pretty drastic - they've gone from instru-djent to full on melodic progressive metal (with vocalist) since I first heard their music. And their new disc is called 'A Voice Within'. I see what you did there, Intervals!

So, what do we get on this disc? Nine tracks, eight of which bear the vocals of Mike Semesky, all of them energetic, progressive songs with a bit of a pop edge. Not that this detracts from the appeal of the songs - they're still crunchy, technical tunes which get your head bobbing. Surprisingly, most of them seem to be in a straight 4/4, but that's by the by.

We launch straight into 'Ephemeral', which has one of the catchiest guitar hooks I've heard in years. Semesky's voice seems comfortable in the mid range and doesn't stray far from it, but then it never really needs to. The drums are pretty eye watering as well. I've seen Anup Sastry play these tracks live, but I'm still trying to ponder how many extra limbs I'd need to be able to play the tunes, as well as how to actually play them in the first place.

We get some jazz-fusion on 'Moment Marauder', which also highlights that the band aren't afraid to dabble in other genres if the song needs it. We even get a nice little instrumental in 'Breathe' that serves as a nice change of pace.

Do we consider this a debut? Perhaps. The two releases before were E.Ps with four tracks only. So as first albums go, this is a very strong entry and one likely to receive frequent time on my MP3 player.

9/10

GIG REVIEW: Protest The Hero With Tesseract, The Safety Fire and Intervals

Been a while since I did a gig review, right? Why not now? Such lineup! Much polyrhythm. Wow!

So. To Corp I went, upon that cold and windy night, for an evening of curled moustaches, high vocals, and Axe FX preamps. We're in the big room today, and I'm right up the front with a great view of the stage.

First up we have Intervals, a formerly-instrumental band from Canada. I'm peripherally familiar with their work, mostly through a musician mate from America, and expected some serious noodling and complicated rhythms. Recently, their vocalist also took up vocal duties, and so there's no on-stage bass. Presumably this came through their backing tracks, which was a bit of a shame but overall understandable. Their music isn't simple at all. I feel they'll be one to watch.

Next up, The Safety Fire, who I know nothing of other than they were on a gameshow. We have our first villainous facial hair here, and some London banter. One, two. You can normally tell how hard a band will play by the state of the cymbals, and here was a Holy China that was flapping about like a hooker walking the streets. The drummer smanged it so hard, in fact, that a good three inch length of the flange broke off. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO DO THAT? Their performance was convincing, although being so close to the front meant most of what I heard was bass, drums and vocals, so again, a band I should put some time into and maybe buy some CDs off of.

TesseracT, then. A previous review will show that I have a great love of Altered State, and though I've seen them live before, this will be my first time seeing them and knowing the songs. And we get some relatively predictable choices, much like when I saw them last may, in Of Matter (the full 3-movement suite), Of Mind I: Nocturne and Of Energy I: Singularity, as well as a few tracks from Concealing Fate. Tight as always, there's no cock ups here, other than a dropped monitor, prompting a very audible 'ASHE!' from the stage. I realise now as well that Mr Williams reminds me somewhat of Gaston what with his shirt all open like that. Ahem.

Protest The Hero are unfortunately beset with some technical issues this evening. Arif's bass head dies, leading to some amusing banter between band and crowd. There are frequent pauses between songs, allowing for some further crowd interaction, much to the amusement of everyone involved. It looks like Canada doesn't get the very British 'youi' sound, although they do get 'blech'. The band rip through the set, which is predictably fast, fun and a lark to watch. I don't know if he's been practicing but Arif has definitely got the Sheffield Two Step down to a tee. The only disappointment for me was no Without Prejudice, but the rest of the set was good enough that it's a minor quibble.

I had some serious fun last night. And with live music, that's easily the most important thing for me.

YEAR END LIST - TOP FIVE ALBUMS OF 2013

Ok, so it's that time of year where a guy chooses his top albums of the year. I'm going with five for this. So. Here we go.

FIVE: KILLSWITCH ENGAGE - DISARM THE DESCENT

This album made the list by virtue of being a stellar, stellar comeback. Killswitch seemed to start losing their way with As Daylight Dies and hit a slump with the second self-titled (an odd choice, branding the original an EP when it's arguably one of their strongest albums). Someone's lit a fire under their asses here, though, and we see the boys return to fast, catchy songs with predictably melodic choruses ('Beyond the Flames, 'All In Due Time' being standouts), great harmonies and a renewed energy. The re-integration of Jesse Leach is a huge part of this, and no one could have filled Howard's vacant shoes better than the original owner. Live, he also does Howard's songs proud.

FOUR: CROSSFAITH - APOCALYZE

Musically, Crossfaith aren't hugely innovative. They peddle heavy electronica with metalcore, in the style of many, many bands since the mid -2000s. What they really have going for them is that their music is great fun. Songs like 'Hounds of the Apocalypse' and 'Countdown to Hell' hammer away in a way not dissimilar to Slipknot did back in 1999, we have some party tunes in 'Eclipse' and 'Gala Hala (Burn Down the Floor)', and the entire album is suffused with so much energy that you could can it and sell it as red-bull. In fact, that's exactly what Crossfaith is. Musical red bull. Now give me another can, yeah?

THREE: CHIMAIRA - CROWN OF PHANTOMS

Another 'comeback' album, though from a band that never really went away. Following the departure of most of the band, a lot of people were doubtful that Mark and Co could deliver the goods with a new album. He took that as a challenge, and went on to smash every doubt with a sledgehammer. The new Chimaira is a lurching, grooving riff machine, and the sound works well for the band. The songs are crunchy, to the point, and rarely faff about with showboating, although each new member shows that they have exactly what it takes to do this band's legacy proud. Plus my name kind of made it into the liner notes, so, y'know.

TWO: TESSERACT - ALTERED STATE

Yeah, a non-metal album made it onto my list. "But TesseracT are metal!" I hear you cry. They were, once. They've moved beyond the genre since their nascent days, though. In place of the usual distorted, djenting crunches are ambient soundscapes, open, echoing chords. In place of the mixed clean and gruff vocals are now soaring melodic vocals, and only those. The album itself plays out as four movements which are broken into individual tracks. And it's really hard to pick any highlights from it due to this, though the single 'Nocturne' is an obvious choice, with the massive chorus and ridiculous bridge.

ONE: SOILWORK - THE LIVING INFINITE

Predictably for those who know me, 'The Living Infinite' made it to #1. How could it not? This album is so very nearly flawless, having only one track in twenty that I didn't get on with. Irresistible melodies, crazy drumming, awesome, Swedish dual-lead riffs... It's everything an album needs to be, everything an album should be. How many bands lose their primary songwriter and go on to write the best album of their career? How many can do so after the prior album was so good? Not many, that's for sure. But Soilwork have somehow managed it, and if you disagree, then you have to be a singularly joyless fuck. This is easily the best album I've heard this year, if not in years.

ALBUM REVIEW: Sabaton - 'Carolus Rex'

The moments when you discover a band whose music you really 'click' with are few and far between. A sojourn back home to Weymouth introduced me to Sabaton, and after a few months I picked up their three most recent albums.

Sweden is great. The countryside is beautiful, there are karps in the canals, men in turquoise hotpants carrying bin bags of questionable nature here and there, and sometimes a giant Dutchman will appear and cuddle a tumbledryer (these are all factual, by the way). But what I love Sweden for more than anything is the music scene.

You can probably tell from the artwork that this album is very, very Swedish. In fact, it's a concept disc about the rise and fall of the Swedish Empire in the 16-1700s. Each song plays part of the story, progressing in a linear fashion, cataloging the key events from various perspectives.

Now, if you have any passing familiarity with this band, you'll know that they're a bit cheesy and a lot ridiculous. That's their appeal. The songs are all grandiose, singalong anthems, and this album continues that trend, refining it so that the rapid power metal style they tend towards is expanded. They've done ballads before, but nothing quite on the level that they do here ('A Lifetime of War', 'The Carolean's Prayer').

The album also comes in differing languages. I have the English and Swedish ones (yup, both). The versions cover roughly similar territories, with the points of view changing depending on the song ('A Lifetime of War' is a general diatribe about the pointless waste of life that came with the Thirty Years' War, whereas 'En Livsted i Krig (the Swedish version) handles the soldier wondering if he'll see his family again).

The quality of each song is great, too. It's very hard to pick standouts because of the bar each one sets, but personal favourites include 'The Lion from the North', 'The Carolean's Prayer' and 'Carolus Rex', which has to be one of the most ominous sounding tracks I've heard of late.

If you don't know this band, or this album, I'd suggest you check it out. I'm now planning to try and see them live at some stage.

10/10

RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW: Adversary - 'Singularity'

I've been meaning to do a review of this album for a little while now. Having listened to it again a few times over the last couple weeks, I fathomed now was the time.

So. It's a ten-track disc that I first picked up in October 2010. I picked it up entirely off of the strength of the only video the band seem to have made off of the album, which is the title track 'Singularity'. I don't know if they're still a functioning band right now; this album dropped in 2009 or so (I think) and the last update we had was in 2011, cryptically saying 'people still like us?' and then 'we're in hiding'. If they are defunct, it'd be a damn shame. I suspect that the name Trustkill may have something to do with this.

The album starts off high energy and stays that way pretty much throughout. Vicious riffs, meaty bass, and an avalanche of speedy double kick bring in the first track, 'Hedonist', which pretty much showcases what the band are about: riffs, melodic leads, searing gruff vocals and soaring clean singing. The choruses are catchy as fuck without sounding forced, and will leave a man singing along for days on end. Lyrical topics are typically metal, focusing on overcoming self doubt, denouncing religion and how man is dependent on possessions. We even get a drinking song (In Vino Veritas - "pull up a can and fuck the bullshit!"). Each song is nicely distinctive from the next, and there's little to no track blending, so once you've learned which track has which name, you can instantly say which one it is without looking to the CD case.

The entire album sounds great as well - the production is tight, dense and leaves nothing unsaid by any performer (including the bassist). The only issue with any of it is during closer 'Wisdom in Regret', on which the snare seems to be largely absent. A shame, because the song rips it up.

This is a proper metal album, and I really hope we get another from these lads soon.

9/10

ALBUM REVIEW: Chimaira - Crown of Phantoms

So! A new Chimaira album. Always an exciting time. But also quite an important one for the band who have had a lot to prove since their last disc, 'The Age of Hell' came out in 2011. This is, as you'll have guessed, to do with the lineup changes that came over the last few years.

A lot of people have been saying it'll suck purely because no Rob/Matt combo on guitars. The band have (understandably) been saying 'fuck the haters, this is who we are now'. The question is, is it still Chimaira? Mark Hunter assured us it would be. And handily, it is. 'Crown of Phantoms' sounds exactly like a Chimaira album usually does. Like Chimaira. Because it's by Chimaira, presumably.

So, the band now consists of Mark, alongside new (at least in the studio) members Beard, Euphemism, Nuts, Dairy and Poland. The first thing you notice is that the juddering, Fear Factory-esque riff/kick patterns are largely gone. The band have put away the precision drill and replaced it with a sledgehammer - a BIG fucking sledgehammer. The album lurches from song to song, less worried about impressing us with technicality and more concerned with bludgeoning you until all that's left is blood, which ironically is the name of the first single. Planning ahead guys, A+ for that!

I opted to contribute to the campaign for the disc and got the extended Fan Edition, which comes with a hefty wallop of extra tracks, including a re-working of 'The Dehumanizing Process' from 2003's 'The Impossiblity of Reason'. It's a lot slower than the original, and a lot heavier for it. It's hard to pick individual tracks to highlight, although title track is one of my favourites.

My criticisms are few, the main one being that the kick drum feels a little soft for a disc with this much kick drum. It would have been nice to have a punchier, 'metal' kick sound. I wasn't hugely keen on the remix of 'Wrapped in Violence' either, but then electronic remixes aren't really my thing.

To conclude, the album is definitely Chimaira, through and through. And it's a good one, so don't be a dick about the last two years and go buy the damn thing already.

9/10

ALBUM REVIEW: Means End - The Didact

Sometimes I find a relatively unknown and obscure band through the medium of online music blogs, and like them enough to buy an album. This is one of those situations, so many thanks to the guys at heavyblogisheavy for turning me on to these guys.

The wait for the album was relatively long, being that they're an independent and unsigned band. The parcel came, handwritten and hand posted, too. All very impressive so far, especially when you consider that Robin Portnoff did the artwork (and a lot of it too).

The music is the key here, though, so how do I summarise this band? Quite easily. They're djent-jazz-choir-core, obviously. No, but they've very tough to pigeonhole beyond 'progressive metal'. The band tend to eschew the usual verse-chorus-bridge format, instead following a flow through each song and refusing to drag the tracks out overlong. The only real comparison I can think of is TesseracT, in that Means End are more a band using texture and modd over dazzling technicality, although there are some very impressive performances from each of the four members. No overplaying or showboating, just playing for the song. We even get some jangly blaxploitation moments. When the guitar is playing a lead, the bass will come in and fill the sonic gap. Meaty.

The vocals are especially impressive, with singer Rob Luciani displaying perhaps a more impressive range than Christian Alvestam, and a voice that seems inherently more powerful. His growls are meaty and enunciated, his cleans are soaring and epic. He's also done a good series on how to improve vocally.

On the first iteration of this review, I griped slightly about lack of separation between songs around the midpoint of the album. In retrospect this was unfair; I was simply not listening closely enough, not paying the music the attention it deserves. Each track is a diverse maze of ideas that have been woven together, from the headbanging crunch of 'Omega Barrier', to the dreamy haze of 'Aeronaut' to the blast-laden 'Sun Wukong'. Lyrically, the album is as complex as the compositions, which is a nice treat.

I have to amend my original rating of 7/10 as well; it's a rare debut that brings all these factors together in a coherent package that you don't tire of.

9/10