Progressive metal – Page 55

Thoughts Factory – Lost (Review)

Thoughts Factory are a Progressive Metal band from Germany, and here we have their 8 track album Lost, which contains 65 minutes of accomplished music.

It’s instantly apparent that this is a superior release. Superficially all of the Progressive Metal boxes are ticked, (bright keyboards, technical playing and leads, soaring vocals), but the quality of songwriting is plainly above average.

An ambitious release; the band know what they want to achieve and do everything in their power to achieve this. The musicianship and production is faultless and the songs are clearly in skilled hands.

This is quality Progressive Metal with plenty of variety; heavy, light, slow, fast, ostentatious, minimalistic – it’s all here. The songs are complex and show good structure and pacing. They have an ear for a catchy riff, and the guitars work with each song as a whole instead of trying to be the focal point as some bands make the mistake of having them as.

The singer has an extremely capable voice capable of belting out the powerful sections but also capable of frailty and nuance as necessary. His vocal lines are generally effective and emotive, and he knows when he’s onto a good melody.

The album is based around a central concept and accordingly the lyrics are more personal and emotional than the subject matter that a lot of Progressive bands deal with, and this further differentiates them from the pack.

Lost is likely to be one of the best Progressive Metal albums we’ll hear in 2014. A bold claim I know, especially as it’s only just turned February, but I’m confident that Thoughts Factory have what it takes to compete in the big leagues.

A top quality Progressive Metal concept album – time to add it to your collection don’t you think?

Leviathan – Beholden To Nothing, Braver Since Then (Review)

Leviathan are a Progressive/Power Metal band from the US; this is their fifth album.

This is an ambitious release; 76 minutes of Metal, broken down into multiple interludes and the actual songs themselves.

Leviathan have a strong, full sound from the outset. The band are skilled musicians and make good use of all of the instruments available to them, while the production ensures that everything sounds clear and crisp.

The singer has a good voice that is not quite full on Power Metal but neither is it unrestrained. He can belt out the powerful notes when he needs to.

The songs are involved and have plenty of instrumentation, which may be slightly ostentatious but not gratuitously so; there’s a lot of technical flashiness but the ultimate aim is always to enhance rather than just for the sake of showing off.

Check out Leviathan and give them a try.

Lalu – Atomic Ark (Review)

This is French Progressive Metal group Lalu with their second album Atomic Ark. Helmed by just one man, the album boasts a plethora of well known names from the Progressive/Power Metal genres as both band members and guests.

Big sound, big songs. It’s like Threshold and Kamelot have collaborated together with the express purpose of making an album to please just me.

It’s also heavier than you might expect. The drums are solid and the guitars are thick. When they’re not being used for lightning molten-Metal solos of course.

A huge amount of talented people are involved in this album, and it would be a disappointment, (to say the least), if it was all for nothing. I’m pleased to say that all the hard work, years of development and obvious enthusiasm and ability of the contributing musicians has paid off handsomely and this is as fine a slab of Progressive/Power Metal as you’re likely to hear.

With the exception of the final track, (the hugely epic 19 minute extravagance that is Revelations), the songs are all relatively short. The vast majority barely worry at the 4 minute mark, but not a single second is wasted. Efficient and concise; the songs are instant hits yet retain enough meat to the bones to satiate for some time.

The vocals are highly accomplished, as you would expect, and the melodies and harmonies of the songs are very pleasing.

The keyboard-work on this album merits special mention and is more than just an atmospheric addition; certainly they fulfil this purpose admirably but they are also integral to the songs themselves.

One interesting thing about this release is that for all of the calibre of the musicians who contributed to it, the technicality is never too overt or flashy. It’s there of course, just beneath the surface, enhancing the songs and playing its role. Rather than attempting to play centre stage and steal all of the limelight; the playing never attempts to upstage the actual songs.

Achieving the rarest thing of being both catchy and full of depth, this is an exemplary example of just how brilliant and life-affirming Progressive Metal can be when done right.

Mahogany Head Grenade – Return to the Point of Departure (Review)

Progressive Metal from the US; Mahogany Head Grenade offer us 31 minutes of virtuoso Instrumental Metal.

This is a very guitar-driven release played by people who obviously know how to play; and play they do.

The guitar sound is crisp and precise, which goes for the rest of the instruments also. The songs mainly hover about the 6-7 minute mark and are well thought-out compositions. There are some good flourishes in the songs and interesting parts aplenty.

The melodies used are easy to listen to and the band, (a trio), gel together nicely so that everything seems to be moving as one, even when there is a lot going on.

There are a multitude of samples used on the tracks, which in some way are used in place of a vocalist. They do the job well enough and fit the style of the music.

The songs hold attention and are full of enjoyable Progressive Metal that is written well enough to not need a singer to be the anchor point. Here’s to more of this in the future.

Eryn Non Dae – Meliora (Review)

French band Eryn Non Dae are really upping the ante in terms of quality with this their second full-length.

Eryn Non Dae are a difficult band to pigeon-hole in some ways. I’m going to go with Progressive Metal, (simply because that covers a multitude of sins), but there are also elements of Sludge, Post-Metal, Doom, Ambient, etc. on this artful album.

As a useful reference point think a band like Tool at their most expansive, only make it heavier and add harsher vocals. Prog gone Sludge? Or Post-Metal with the emphasis on the Metal? Tool crossed with Year Of No Light and Rosetta? Maybe.

A sprawling multi-faceted album that requires a guide to fully map out the terrain explored; there is both depth and breadth here, providing the listener with a complete aural experience.

Meliora is darkly atmospheric and bleakly absorbing. The songs have light and shade and never suffer from losing interest. One of the wonderful things about Eryn Non Dae is that they know how to create these various emotions and moods without following the usual Post-Metal template; although there is a good amount of variety on this album it is essentially all centred around aggression and heaviness. This being true, the fact that they have created such landscapes of hardened sound is very telling of their talented nature.

The songs are heavily involving and speak to the listener in private terms, whispering secrets that are hidden in plain sight, wrapped in an enigma of monolithic guitars and towering vocals.

This is an excellent album that I can’t believe has only just come to my attention. Released in 2012 that’s two entire years it has been missing from my life! Definitely a keeper and in it for the long haul. Get this while you can as it will make your life better.

Interview with We All Die (Laughing)

In the very near future We All Die (Laughing) will release their first album Thoughtscanning, an ambitious and absorbing début that’s sure to earn them many an accolade. I was honoured to get to ask them a few questions about this involving musical journey.

For those that are unfamiliar with We All Die (Laughing) – introduce yourself!

Déhà (all instruments, vocals) : WAD(L) is a band (not a side project) from myself & Arno Strobl, making some weird but effective mixture of progressive dark metal, with black, doom, blues & jazz influences. Don’t expect something too fancy/avant-garde (yet?), this release is dark and depressive as it should be. We’re existing since 2012, we released recently the début, “Thoughtscanning”, a 33-min piece of dark metal, through Kaotoxin Records in 2014, preorders finish soon by the way, so get it since you’re getting a bonus track, which is a cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black”. The album was recorded at my former place, in Belgium (HHStudios) – the mix & mastering was made by El Mobo from Conkrete Studios. The dream production.

As the band is a collaboration between two artists who are already involved in other bands – can you tell us a bit about the background of the band and how the project started?

D : It all started by having a normal contact with Arno concerning my German band “Maladie”. We discussed about plenty of things, musical & cooking mainly, and as Arno is one of my 5 influences with singing, I was really eager for him to listen to my stuff. I sent him the demo version of what became this album, and he was loving it so much that we finished talking by “We have to do something, asap” and voilà.
Arno (vocals) : As every single artist uses to say in every interview in the world : “It came out very naturally”. Sometimes you meet someone and click at first sight, it feels natural to launch a common project. Needless to say it’s not every other day that you feel the need to invest yourself in a new band with a person that you just met. It’s all about intuition, In that very case, my first meeting with Déhà was almost surreal. We were like “Guy, you just said what I was about to tell you”. A kind of magic, to quote that famous Genesis track (oh wait, was it The Police ?)

What was the inspiration behind Thoughtscanning?

D : As cheesy as it sounds, catharsis. Inner envies, self destruction, thoughts, philosophy, …
A : Years of mental cancer that eat you from the inside. Lack of self confidence, guilt, fear… Basically, the main disease of our era, along with back suffering of course. Both of us have a very different way of shouting out this kind of feelings to the world. But we tried to express it together; and here’s the result.

What influences did you draw on when creating this album?

D : We’ve been destroying plenty of limits we had. We released ourselves for this album, for lyrics but also for our ways of singing. Arno & I are what I could call “polyvalent vocalists” and we used it for the better on this album. But I can’t say it brought only good stuff, since it’s quite hard to listen to this album without going down with it.
A : Thoughtscanning has been quite a challenge to both of us. We felt we had to spit out the best of our artistic skills while at the same time being true to the initial purpose of the album, which was the lyrical bottomline around disease. It’s a tough thing to stay true to yourself while trying to create something that doesn’t sound too 1) miserable 2) childish 3) exaggerated 4) no 4, sorry. It’s been my constant fear while recording the album not to sound like a parody of depressive metal. Looking back upon what we achieved, I feel relieved, because it definitely sounds like what I/we wanted.

How did you go about writing this album? What was the process involved?

D : I started it in the beginning of 2012, wanting to make something different from what I’m used to do, a bit more complex music but still affordable / digestible (since I’m a huge fan of chaotic music). I took 6 months to make it. Then, like I told you, meeting with Arno, we made the first demo with voices. Then I unfortunately lost my backup harddisk, so I had to re-track everything (which I did in one week in 2013), then one week of cooking / recording voices, sending all that to El Mobo and voilà. We had a lot of funny moments, as well as unfunny moments (hence the music), but we were not stressed about anything (time, deadlines, etc) so this is an amazing memory.

Why did you decide to produce one very long track instead of a selection of shorter ones?

A : This was no choice nor any of a decision. We had this long track that was begging for us to play it and dress it up with sincere words. Therefore we just had to focus on it and give it all our best.
D : I believe that for any length of music, a trip has to be settled. Which means simply that if you feel, as an artist, that this trip shouldn’t be finished in several minutes, you should let it go and vary it. This song, Thoughtscan, is long because the concept demands it. You have to feel the slight variations throughout the album, and the same riffs coming up again sometimes but different, so you can just… feel it.

The album takes the listener on a musical journey through different moods and feelings – how important was this to you when creating the song?

D : That goes perfectly with the previous question : the trip I was talking about, that’s the reason. Plenty of moods, from sad complaints to harsh primal violence, to philosophical questions, to inner wars…
A : Once again this may sound very cheesy but the track is the exact Xerox of life itself, at least the harder moments of it. It’s a succession of sadness, anger, introspection… Depression is a complicated matter. The end of the album that sounds like a light of hope could well be also like the new start of the cycle, and a new dive into darkness. Because that how it goes.

What plans do you have for We All Die (Laughing) in the future?

D : We all will make more music (or die trying). Believe me, this is just a beginning.
A : That’s for sure : we’ll soon have more work on the slab together. I just hope we’ll come out with an album that won’t be as painful to record. I’m not talking about our relationship that’s been great from both ends, but because we had to come out with personal things there that were hard to handle.

Thanks for your time!

Interview with Barishi

Barishi have recently released their self-titled début album, the review of which you can see here. A harsh, angular, progressive Metal treasure trove; this is an album with a lot to give to those who crave experimentation and music that forges its own path. Their guitarist was nice enough to answer some questions I threw at him…

Hi! For people who are unfamiliar with your band please introduce yourself!

Hi, I am Graham Brooks, I play guitar in Barishi. We are from a town called Jamaica, Vermont. We have been playing together in various forms since high school, about four years ago.

What are your main influences?

My favorite metal band is Iron Maiden, I am also a Beatles nut. We are all big Mastodon and Meshuggah fans. Jon (our bassist) and I are both really influenced by bands like The Cure and MBV. Our singer Sascha is a huge funk fan and also is a Queen and Led Zeppelin fanatic. We draw from a lot of those bands and a lot more that I can’t think of right now.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

I have been listening to “So” by Peter Gabriel. I think it is incredible. I am sure a lot of full-metalists wouldn’t be into it but I think it is a great album. I have been digging on this band called “Anciients” who kill it and a band from chicago called “Yakuza.” I highly recommend both if you are looking for some metal that comes out of left field.

You have an unusual sound that fuses Progressive Metal with more 70’s-style Proggy vibes, all wrapped up in with elements of more modern avant-garde bands such as Ephel Duath, (at least to my ears anyway!), how did you go about deciding on the sound that you wanted as a band?

Cool! Honestly we never really talked about what type of sound we wanted to go for. I think we sound the way we do because we never had one of those talks. Some of the songs that we like playing the most came about because someone in the band wrote something that made us say “I don’t know if that would work in a heavy band” and then we would try it and it would sound cool. I think the freedom to do that had a big impact on how we sound.

I love the angular guitar work on this release. How do you write your songs? What’s the process involved?

One of us usually has a riff or something that they will come into practice with and then we will just try to expand on it. We don’t really have any method or go about writing in an organized fashion. Sometimes it can be a shit show because we will be writing 3 different songs that we think sound cool and we will end up abandoning all of them because we get overwhelmed with all the little parts that are floating around.

After seeing the album art and band pictures, your album surprised me slightly as it contains more harsh and more abrasive moments than I was expecting. Was it a conscious decision to embrace the heavier aspects of music just as much as the more mellow/melodic aspects?

I think we just naturally got heavier. We play with a ton of bands who are way heavier than we are and I think some of it rubbed off on us.

With an eclectic and diverse album like this I can imagine possibly having parts of it that were potentially divisive when creating it – where there many discussions in the band about which parts to keep/throw out/change/etc.?

We wrote a lot of stuff that did not end up on the record. Usually when we did not end up using something it was because we just were not digging it that hard. We try to keep the songwriting process as democratic as possible. If someone really does not like a part or song we usually will end up changing or discarding it. Fortunately everyone in the band understands and it doesn’t require a long talk most of the time.

Are you happy with the finished album? Is there anything you would change next time?

I am. We had a lot of fun recording together and I think the album represents what we were doing for the past year. Brian Westbrook who produced the album is an amazing musician and producer. Thanks to Brian the album sounds way better than we ever thought it would. In terms of things I would like to change, I would really like to record an album down-tuned. It adds a really guttural element that I love.

As I said in the review; my favourite track is Through Mountains, Through Plains. It’s brilliant. This is less of a question more of a comment really! This is also the longest song on the album – do you see yourself going for more of the longer, epic-style tracks in the future?

Thanks so much for the kind words. I love writing long songs. I am sure that we will have some longer songs in the future.

What does the future hold for Barishi?

Hopefully a lot of touring. We love playing shows, it is our favorite thing to do. I think all we want is to play as much as possible and keep on recording. Hopefully at some point we will find a label that is a good match.

Thanks for your time Graham!

The Restitution – Waves (Review)

From the US The Restitution are a Progressive Metal band who aim to take a more cerebral approach to harder music.

According to the band they are influenced by modern Metal giants such as Deftones. The Restitution combine both clean and rough vocals over a more thoughtful and progressive musical background to create some good songs, and I hear elements of bands such as Isis, Devil Sold His Soul, Cave-In and Tool in their sound as well.

Melodies are used well and there is enough aggression strewn in with the Post-Rock elements to keep the energy of the tracks moving.

It’s obvious that a lot of attention and hard work has gone into crafting these songs and it all pays off. Whether they are raging and shouting or crooning and lulling, everything feels deliberate and you get the impression that every single second of this release was meticulously thought through and passed rigorous quality control methods before being confirmed as an actual part of the album. All of this leads to a varied and enjoyable collection of songs that work well individually but even better as a complete package of tracks – a listening experience.

Overall this is a high-quality release combining melodies and aggression seamlessly in a modern Metal style that leaves out all of the clichés and rookie mistakes that a lot of more accessible Metal usually makes. Recommended.

Barishi – Barishi (Review)

Barishi play off-centre Progressive Metal that goes down a storm and comes back up a real treat.

This is a rather great album. Unusual but memorable melodies and guitar parts are all over the place, with a meshing of off-kilter tunes and 70’s prog vibes sharing the same space sometimes at the same time. And even some Saxophone.

Barishi are obviously not afraid to experiment or explore and it pays off handsomely. Overall this album has a harsher sound than I was expecting; combined with the eclectic sound that they have it has quite a unique style that is a refreshing change from the norm.

For the most part we get shouted, almost hardcore-style vocals alongside the more occasional cleans that work well together to build atmosphere over the tangential music.

Favourite track: Through Mountains, Through Plains. Just brilliant.

This is the music of a mathematical nightmare come to burn synapses and wreck memories. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes abrasive, never ordinary.

Code – Augur Nox (Review)

Code are from the UK and they specialise in Progressive Avant-Garde Black Metal that’s a triumph of both style and substance.

A good musical starting point of reference would be bands such as Arcturus, Dødheimsgard and Enslaved, as well as aspects of Opeth or Borknagar. This is only a starting point however, as Code definitely have their own sound as well as masses of talent and songwriting skills.

Gleaming, obsidian riffs crash against each other in a sea of percussive paranoia and nightmare orchestration. It’s as if someone has been having fantastical dreams about a dark future and they have sprung fully-shaped into life in the form of this album.

The vocals criss-cross all over the complex music and create the impression of power, synergy and importance. Very impressive and brilliantly realised.

There is so much colour and depth to these songs that most bands sound one-dimensional by comparison. Multi-layered vocals take centre-point while the music is no slouch either, effortlessly conjuring up the impressions and feelings that these songsmiths wish you to experience as you travel with them on this wild journey.

This truly is an exceptional and individual release; the kind of album that keeps Metal alive and kicking; stops it from becoming stale and stagnant.

Favourite Track: Garden Chancery. Vocal harmonies to die for. But really I could pick almost any song – Augur Nox is that strong.

This is for all fans of Metal, or just for those with heavier Progressive proclivities. If there’s only one album you get in the near future then make sure it’s this.