Brond - Feint

The EP format is usually a great thing as it doesn't contain the fat that an album and it's over quickly. Brond are a post-hardcore band from Sofia, Bulgaria, which have chosen to release an EP entitled "Feint".


Brond's music is heavily influenced by the likes of Fugazi and Helmet. The first track has a lot of throaty hardcore shouting and a great start/stop dynamic. "Build Re Build" features some quick drumming and vocals which are a reminder of Fugazi. There's a progressive type feel to the music as it is difficult for a listener to guess which direction the song will take. Despite that, there's definitely not a lack of focus as Brond sound super-tight. While it falls between the post-hardcore of Fugazi and the more stripped down metal of Helmet, "Atlantic Empress" employs a tasty and fitting jazz-punk type direction. "Lava Divers" features the strong pound drumming that Helmet are known for and clear hollering over the music.


This is the sort of release that kicks a slacking off reviewer in the ass and leaves drool stains in the floor. There's mopping to be done shortly.

4/5

Check out the Feint EP on bandcamp here

Noye - Away

In the review of Ukranian band Nonsun, I mentioned that I hadn't heard any Russian rock or metal bands since the eighties and then sure enough a Russian sludge band shoots and lands an email in the inbox.  Calling them sludge isn't really fair as there's much more going on in the band's music.  Noye themselves state "we play some mix of sludge, doom and post-metal but we try to do it our own way".  

The album features a few short songs by an electronic band called Kratong which assist in creating a post-rock atmosphere and in some ways this could be considered a split release except for the fact that Kratong are on track 1, 5, 7 and 10 instead of the usual direct split separation of bands on shared releases.  The first track "Mire" by Noye is Sabbath tinged sludge with all the heaviness of elephant testicles.  The song quietens down towards the end and will keep those who like a little post in their metal smiling happily.  The vocals fall somewhere between Cookie Monster and Caveman but are still more accessible to a more casual meta listener than the average death metal vocalist maybe because the vocals are much sparser here.

  I'll admit I'm not the greatest fan of a great many bands who have tried their hands at post-metal hybridization but with this crew it works.  A problem many of the lesser post-metal bands suffer is the songs sound disjointed but Noye's quieter moments are obviously part of the song and wallop with a crushing heaviness that lighter moments, when in the right hands, can provide in "Spinners".   On the surface, "Fracture" is a noisy beast but there's a soft underbelly that allows you to stroke it but then yells at the listener and stands up to brutally assault the senses in a pleasurable way.   Doom strikes in more than one way in "Terror", the riffs are slow paced and convey that an unescapable evil is making its journey your way.

Noye are proof that the Russians are coming and also offering up musical hybridizaton of the highest and heaviest order.  Check out "Away" on Noye's bandcamp page.

Noye on facebook

4.5/5

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John 3:16 - Visions of The Hereafter - Visions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

When you've been writing music reviews for a number of years, you get to witness bands improving, getting worse and far more commonly just completely disappearing. Sometimes from the ashes of the disbanded comes another project and John 3:16 is one of those. The project comes from Phillipe Gerber, who was the founder of French alternative band, Heat from a Dead Star, who the more attentive may remember were reviewed in this here blog a while back. As John 3:16, Gerber previously released a 5 track EP entitled "Sinners In the Hand of an Angry God" and now there's a 9 track album.

The album starts off with "The Ninth Circle" possessing a post-rock style and fools the listener into thinking that they're in for an entirely instrumental album until the vocals kick in which have an undeniable contemplative nature resembling a cross between a shoegazer and a group of chanting monks. The ambient "Throne of God/Angel of the Lord" has a shimmering guitar sound that isn't miles away from Mr Gerber's previous band or for a more recognizable comparison, Mission of Burma coupled with chants that are reminiscent of Enigma. Loud drums open the 7 minutes of shoegazer ambient drone that is "Abyss of Hell/Clouds of Fire" with a simmering pleasantness that totally betrays the song's title. Fans of instrumental post-rock will have that excited smell of urinated underwear when hearing "Ascent to The Blessed/To The Heavenly Paradise".


Despite all the religious titles whether or not the religious overtones of the chosen monikers of the project are the actual beliefs of Mr Gerber is entirely unclear and up to the listener to interpret. Throughout the album are some fine tracks here and the level of musicianship is undeniably high. Personally I have trouble paying attention to the entire album for the full length of time but that's a complaint I have with instrumental albums and almost every post-rock album I've ever heard so despite the best effort to be objective as with all reviews subjectivity filtered through personal tastes weigh higher however I am likely to listen to "Visions of The Hereafter - Visions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory" again purely as background music despite or maybe because this music would be perfect for a Wim Wenders movie or a nature documentary.

Check out the album for your self by clicking on the bandcamp site below.


3/5

John 3:16 bandcamp site



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Monks of Mellonwah - Neurogenesis

It has been a while since I've reviewed a band from across the Tasman but then this EP from Monks of Mellonwah showed up in the inbox. With my x-ray eyes I possess the ability to see the puzzled look on your face and see you're thinking Mellonwah? Yeah, I've no idea what that is either. Monks of Mellonwah are Sydneysiders so maybe it is food from one of their swankier breakfast restaurants and totally out of my price range.

Hey, that sounds like Canadian political folkster Bruce Cockburn was my recalling thought as "Neurogenesis" opened the EP but then the band veer closer to the heavier side of Tool but as they favour the progressive side of rock, the Monks of Mellonwah don't completely leave their quieter side but the chanting is definitely not of the silent contemplative nature. "Neverending Spirit" is more of a ballad although the guitars shimmer through the underbelly and the beer-bloated overbelly. The strength of the rhythm section bounce through the sweaty audience inducing "Kyoto" aided along with a wall of guitar sound reminiscent of mid-80's U2 or closer to their own home around but from the same time period, v.Spy v.Spy. "You Shine" is a slow building ballad that is reminiscent of those many 80's metal bands found obligatory.

Fans of Muse and Tool will take to this radio-friendly rock EP. It'll be interesting to see what the Monks of Mellonwah produce when it comes to putting out an LP length release.

4/5



http://www.monksofmellonwah.com/



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Into The Storm - Captains

Into The Storm – Captains, 2011
(self-released)

Anyone who has been reading this blog regularly will be aware of the current wave of noisy Seattle rock bands. Into The Storm are definitely in this category and fall under the experimental metal umbrella.

The band have self-released a five song album. There’s absolutely no nice greeting for a listener in the opening song “Bodhi Zephyr” as the song opens with fast complex riffing and raspy scooby doo death metal growls yelling “Fuck Off”, the song does slow down for a little and the death metal growls continue over slow clanging metallic noise. Quick tribal rythms open “Jean-Luc Picard” which then slow down into ambient noise that is not unlike some of the territory Jakob cover but that cartoon dog voice comes into action once again before the song ends with samples over the quieter side of the band. The cliched metal reviewer adjective crushing was coined for “K’nuckles” as it is punishing Obituary death metal. This song is easily the highlight of the album and also the shortest. “Walter White” has a more melodic voice half-singing and dueling it out with the death metal guy and the end of the song the more melodic guy is still left standing.

While the self-releasing an album is applause worthy, Into The Storm could have been a better album if the band either made better use of the melodic vocals or did away with them completely. The death metal vocals make it unpleasant to listen to and that may well be the point but it doesn’t win the band any points here and neither does the fact that most of the songs are just too long.

“Captains” is available from the bands bandcamp site below either digitally at a price of your choosing or on vinyl for $15US.

2/5



Into The Storm on bandcamp.


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Oceansize- Home and Minor

OCEANSIZE “Home and Minor”, 2009
(Superball)

When I was a kid my parents subscribed to National Geographic and the magazine would sometimes come with a flexi-disc with animal sounds intended to give the listener a fuller experience of articles about humpback whales.  UK band Oceansize have stripped their sound down by solely going for a quiet showgazer sound.  Opener Album opener “Legal Teens” is bland Radiohead/Coldplay fodder.  “Monodrones” is an ambient drumless piece with tranquil whirling guitar sound that pulls a listener into the pool so that they find themselves giddy from recurring circles.  Fooling the unwary, the beginning of the title track is difficult to tell from its predecessor as it just blurs together until eventually after snail pace instrumentation drums come in. The band sound like they’re more than a little familiar with The Red House Painters with slow quiet building guitar and half-whispered male and female backing vocals.  

A couple of tracks on this album are unnecessarily long and just bore.  The album won’t melt any faces off but would be the perfect for a coffee shop owner looking for unobtrusive inoffensive mellow background music.

2.5/5

Oceansize website

Basendrums and stuffs

I was sent some stuff to review by a record label> I'm not too certain how much they read the blog as some of this stuff veers more than a little from the usual content.

Here goes:

Slicnaton Basendrums(Extemporate)



Boring instrumental music that monks might listen to on the quiet comtemplatve road to Nirvana. For people who consider the sound of a dripping tap to be music.

Remora - Derivative (Siber Records)

Instrumental post-rock music that would likely be those who listen to Mogwai, Clione-Index, 8mmSky or Explosions in the Sky. These songs are reworkings of the likes of Joy Division, Warrior Soul and Pere Ubu. Not something I'd reach for but it's not bad. The final song Love Corrupt strikes me as the strongest song with the audible loops in the background and and the guitar sounds taking foreground.


Remora


Plumerai - Electrical Mess

I saw another review which compared this band to The Smiths. I must be getting deaf in my old age because I don't hear Morrissey and Johnny Marr in this band at all. There's a female singer who sounds a little like Shirley Manson singing over guitar feedback that comes and goes in the title track. If the song was coming from a transistor radio you'd put the aerial up to kill the static noise. "Die Die Slowly" is music Portishead fans would eat up. It's slow building but with those sultry vocals over the top of shoegazer guitar reverb. "Shapes and Trees" has a pulsating New Order style electro-dance beat. There's a couple of live tracks with audience noise that distract more than a little from the music.

Plumerai on myspace