Voivod - Target Earth review

 

Target Earth is at times a strange progressive metal journey. It reminds me of a weird dream I had years ago, where I was in a space capsule.

I never usually comment on album artwork, as I feel it’s irrelevant. Target Earth’s artwork has prompted me to make an exception, however. It’s astounding that an album brimming with musical excellence should have a cover so awful.

Guitarist and songwriter Piggy passed away in 2005, leaving a big void to fill. New guitarist Chewy has done a great job playing Piggy's parts, and he does a great job on Target Earth as well. The title track contains a great reverb-filled solo which is evocative of the song's outer space theme. On the thrash-oriented Kluskop O'Kom, the memorable solo is fuzzy. Mechanical Mind is filled with catchy grooves and beautiful guitar harmonies. The riffs drone in Defiance, the final track. Chewy is a diverse player who moves easily between thrash, progressive passages and avant-garde, effects-laden interludes. He creates many memorable riffs and solos. I repeated a few tracks before moving to the next track, which is something I rarely do when reviewing an album.

The bass parts are engaging and command attention. They are well-placed in the mix; not so low as to be nearly inaudible, and not so high as to overwhelm other instruments. Away provides some interesting drum fills, and plays in a range of time signatures. His parts add to the atmosphere of the music.

Target Earth is a very engaging album, and I struggled to find fault with it. I don't really have any complaints about the music or the production. The band has changed its sound from being primarily thrash to progressive metal over the years; I've always had respect for a band that follows its own creative path instead of pandering to a style they've become known for.


Personnel: Snake - vocals
                  Chewy - guitar
                  Away - drums
                 Blacky - bass
                 Piggy (RIP) - guitar
                 Jasonic - bass

Web presence: http://www.facebook.com/Voivod
                        http://www.voivod.com/
                        http://www.irongang.com
                        http://www.voivod.net
                        http://www.myspace.com/voivod
                        http://www.voivodfan.com
                        http://www.reverbnation.com/voivod 

Atropos Project - Equator review

Equator is the debut album from one-man progressive rock/metal band Atropos Project. John Quarles, the main member of the band, wrote to me requesting a review of his album. I was happy to find that my first requested album to review was a very good piece of music.

 

A pitfall of progressive rock is that it can meander too far off in its musical meanderings. Quarles manages to avoid this for the most part. A passage outstays its welcome here and there, but he is on the right path to balancing meandering with keeping the music interesting. Tempo changes and quiet interludes add interest to the tracks while maintaining coherency. John also mixes heavy metal –style distorted guitars in with the progressive rock, which works very well.

I picked up a diverse range of influences in the guitar work. I heard passages that reminded me of Carlos Santana, Opeth, Rush and even Megadeth. F.A.C contains both Opeth-like riffs and a Santana-like solo. I could also hear Santana influences in the opening riff of Drudgery. The latter also had a metal-tinged passage which reminded me of the Megadeth track Angry Again. Suspiria had parts which reminded me of Rush.

The drums sounded somewhat unnatural in places, like on the track Deadfall. However, the programmed drums fit well in the context of the tracks which contain ethereal, spacey keyboard effects. Inception’s Promise and F.A.C. made me picture travelling past the planets of the universe, as did Suspiria. Audible bass is always a good thing on an album, and its role in adding strength to a track shouldn’t be underestimated. Equator contains some great bass lines, as on Deadfall and Spiralling. The bass line on the latter has an interesting effect on it, and layers well the guitar riffs.

Atropos Project shows promise with this debut release; moments of brilliance can be found here and there. I look forward to hearing future material.

Personnel:

All instruments – John Quarles

Additional guitars and keyboards – Mark Morris (on F.A.C)

Additional guitar – Larry McClenon (on Spiralling)

Pedal steel, dobro and slide guitar – Gary Richardi (on And…Lift)

Web presence:

http://atroposproject.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AtroposProject

Sindulgence - Recollections review

I clearly remember the first time I saw Sindulgence live. It was my first metal gig at the infamous Cape Town venue ROAR; the gig was organised by members of Sindulgence under the banner ‘Fresh Blood’.  I remember being quite impressed by the band; they had a distinct approach to death metal. Numerous Sindulgence gigs later, and I am still impressed. The debut album (which also comes with a DVD) from this hardworking band has left me impressed as well.

Room 302 is a mysterious opening track. It begins with cheerful piano and violin, which then take on ominous undertones. It then flows into the pounding intro of Swindle, with its earworm riffs. Bassist/vocalist Byron Dinwoodie has a unique growl that contrasts with the guttural growls of vocalist Muller Van Niekerk, who also switches to black metal rasps from time to time. Dinwoodie produces clear clean vocals as well; having three different vocal styles could potentially sound schizophrenic, but here it works very well and adds interest to this track and others. Dinwoodie’s clean vocals shine particularly on Silly Dream and Pale Gardens.

Swindle gives the first taste of the contrasting guitar work which appears on this album. The higher notes of the leads weave deftly between the heavy rhythm parts. Guitarists Ryan Eberlin switch between lead and rhythm on the album; both do very well in either role, since the lead and rhythm parts are top quality on each song. There are brilliant solos and riffs throughout, with the tracks Thorns, The March Hare, Silly Dream, Wine Of the Gods and Pale Gardens being guitar highlights for me.

Michael Snyman does a superb job behind the drum kit, with his drum work that easily switches between pounding heaviness and delicate, softer passages. The drum work is varied and intricate, taking on everything from the onslaught of Thorns to the jazz like opening fills on Silly Dream. I daresay that in years to come, Snyman could become one of Cape Town’s prominent metal drummers.

The DVD that comes with the album is an often-funny account of the process of making Recollections. It gives a very good idea of what it’s like to be in Sindulgence. It would be interesting to get to know more South African metal bands through behind-the-scenes documentaries.

The production is more what I would expect from a live album, as opposed to a studio one. The band did intend to have a live feel, so this is a minor gripe, and it doesn’t take away from an album that is, in my opinion, one of the best African metal releases this year.

Recollections is a distinctive and progressive take on death metal, with interesting songwriting and lyrics. Their incorporation of different musical styles is cohesive, and they switch deftly between worlds of reality and fantasy.

Personnel: Muller Van Niekerk – vocals

                Byron Dinwoodie – bass and vocals

                Ryan Eberlin – guitars

                Rodney Dosson – guitars

                Michael Snyman – drums

Web presence:

http://www.reverbnation.com/sindulgence https://twitter.com/#!/SindulgenceBand http://www.myspace.com/sindulgenceband

Hung - 'Hung' Review

After listening to Hung's self-titled debut album, the musical feature which lingered most prominently in my mind was the violin. Coincidentally, this New York melodic death metal band was started by renowned violinist Lyris Hung (the band's namesake). She trained at Juilliard and Columbia University, and has performed with Bryan Adams and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, among others. Hung came to life in early 2005, with the addition of Jon Clark and Sam Roon. Dmitry Kostisyn joined as frontman, and drummer Kenny Grohowski joined after the band went through a few drummers. Hung is not the band's actual debut release, instead it is their first release on an official label (ReThink Records, as well as The End Records).

An acoustic instrumental track begins the album. Titled Eos, it is a hauntingly beautiful combination of soaring violin, acoustic guitar and a little bit of banjo. Desert of Sad gallops off into a lively melodic death metal track. The violins complement the electric guitars very well. Some bubbling guitar notes come just before a catchy clean singing chorus. Other tracks also contain a mixture of clean and harsh vocals, often with both death metal and black metal harsh vocals. This mixture sounded somewhat random at times, but otherwise added interest to the songs. A solid rhythm guitar line provided a great base for the lead to weave around the music, and the drums were the engine of the song. The next track, Maria, sounded quite similar to Desert of Sad. Upon multiple listens, I found that Maria had a slower drumbeat. This song has a juicy bassline and some good riffs.The end of the song has some catchy riffs, as do most of the songs on this album.


Slower interludes among the gallopy rhythms give the songs breathing space, and also prevent them from being monotonous. Track six, Left For The New Life, clocks in at 12:08, yet doesn't feel as long as that because of the interesting tempo changes. Matter of the Blood is another epic (7:01) which avoids tedium. An acoustic and electric guitar duet opens this track. The sound gradually builds in intensity, with the addition of rising violin notes, and a progressive rock sound. Just when I thought this track would be a prog rock number, marching drums and harsh vocals arrived, taking the song in a different direction. The slow interludes in between faster rhythms don't sound abrubt, and work very well.

All the instruments on this album have their standout moments. Recently I broke out of my habit of paying close attention to the guitars only, and as a result, I have found some memorable bass riffs and drum patterns. Drummer Kenny Grohowski does much to drive the songs on this album. He also adds in some interesting patterns, like on Evil Tsar, and goes thrash-like on Sediment of War. Jon Clark and Sam Roon create layered guitar sounds, with a good amount of counter-rhythms. I enjoyed the solos and riffs too: the high-pitched solo on Progeny dances across the soundscape, while the lead guitar wails on Left For The New Life. Progeny also contains an Opeth-like intro with delicate-sounding acoustic and electric guitars. As I mentioned in the beginning of the review, the violin is a prominent feature on Hung. It soars, drops down into darkness and enhances the emotion of the guitars in particular. Lyris Hung is clearly a top-flight violin player.

Hung sounds a bit like it has been done before, but it still has brilliant moments. I enjoyed listening to this album; I felt that the songs told interesting stories, both through the lyrics and the music.

MetalSucks.com is streaming the whole album here: http://www.metalsucks.net/2012/05/07/exclusive-premiere-hungs-self-titled-album/
Find Hung's official website here: http://hungrocks.com/