STAR WAS GOES METAL FOR MAY 4th

May 4th has been official Star Wars day for about 4 years now, combining nerds two favourite things, Star Wars and bad puns.

The one thing that's missing from that is Metal, nerds love Metal. What they (we) love even more is Metal covers of things that never needed them.

To that end I present you this from YouTuber FinTom91.

May the Fourth be with you all....


...who am I kidding, I can't let that be the extent of content I post today, that'd be awful. So I present this short animated film entitled TIE Fighter, it's more Metal than most Metal Music videos. Animator Paul "OtaKing" Johnson has done something incredible here. No excuse me while I go play the TIE Fighter MS Dos Game.

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INTERNET NEARLY COMES TO END AFTER H&M'S SPRING LINE IS TROLLED HARDCORE

Rock and Metal fans are no stranger to more mainstream outlets co-opting their music of choice. From UK retailer Sports Direct stocking Burzum shirts to various pop musicians sporting boutique battle jackets in some misguided trend attempt, alternative music fans have seen it all... And more importantly love to get on their high horse about it.

Hypocritical complaints from Metal heads about people wearing metal clothing and merch to be edgy aside, there is one thing no-one has seen before. Fake Metal merch. Not only that, but fake Metal merch backed up by fake bands, fake songs and fake record label samplers. This example of bizarre commercial choices comes from clothing retailer H&M with their new Spring line. A series of garments sporting logos from bands that don't exist. Take a look see.

Recently news has spread like wildfire across the internet, mainly from Metalsucks.com that H&M were coupling these bands with demos, fake Metal Archive entries and even a fake record label. People took visceral pleasure it seemed in pointing out that the styled NSBM bands meant that H&M were supporting White Supremacy and Neo-Nazi's. I mean it looks like H&M went to quite a length to create legitimately believable music and profiles, including ones that were accurately cringe worthy.

GREY (Germany), gothic metal from Leipzig.
The band was formed in late 1993 by Draken (guitar, drums ) and his wife Vampiria (vocals, keyboards). Draken (Uli Becker) and Vampiria (Magda Schultz) met each other when Vampiria was studying opera singing at the Rudolf Weingott Musikschule in Chemnitz. Even though she was only 16 years old, she was also considered as one of the most talented singers in Germany. And when her beautiful voice was combined with the genius work of self-taught multi-talent Draken, GREY was found.
In 1995 Napla Records released their debut album "Wine and Tears" (recorded and mixed by Hans Holtz @ Blitzkrieg Studios, Leipzig). The album was praised by the press worldwide (9/10 Mental Hammer), but did not find it's audience.
Band changed their language to German and made one more demo "Der Herbst", but decided to quit soon after that. After GREY Vampiria has visited in various metal albums but due to laryngitis was forced to quit singing.

This however, as funny as it is, isn't quite the case. I mean yes, someone went out of their way to create all this content… but it wasn't the retailer in question.

It was however, a feat undertaken by the folks over at Strong Scene Productions, the totally real label every band is coincidentally signed to. The long and short of it is that a collection of metal musicians came together to a) troll the crap out of everyone, b) comment on mainstream appropriation of metal and how it’s more than an aesthetic. Henri Sorvali of Finnish metal bands Moonsorrow and Finntroll gave an interview over at Noisey that will sum up his involvement, and the general project, better than I can here. Though all you really need to see is this:

The purpose of the group (consisting of literally tens of people from different areas of music and media around Scandinavia) was to create discussion on the fact that metal culture is more than just "cool" looking logos on fashionable clothes, and has many more aesthetic and ideological aspects in different subgenres than what some corporations are trying to express. The metal scene is varied, controversial and a sort of a wolf you can't chain into a leash and expect it to behave on your terms like a dog. Strong Scene as a collective has absolutely no political nor ideological intentions, and is only bringing the conversation to the level it should be discussed at. Think of us as the one-time "Yes Men" of metal music.

If that wasn't enough then see this Facebook post from Strong Scene Productions themselves. Though even this doesn't seem to stop Metalsucks from getting butt-hurt over being proved wrong and they are claiming “who does that” on the entire thing.

YOU ALL HAVE BEEN UNDER INFLUENCE OF THE STRONG SCENE.We have never stated to collaborate with H&M in any way but only...
Posted by Strong Scene Productions on Monday, 23 March 2015

After the chuckle and guffaws subside I’d like to question if it was effective. These generic aesthetics were coupled with generic sonic creations to create a believable entity.

Would Mystic Triangle be out of place on Southern Lord as Sgt D claims?

Can you really not imagine Crepuscular being part of the South American Black/War Scene?

Would it be so hard to believe that Blast were part of the extreme thrash/proto-black metal scene that mixed Teutonic Death Thrash with the sensibilities of Venom?

If it’s so easy to fake it with a mix of corporate marketing and generic metal music then what exactly has been proved? That Metal is easy to fake convincingly? That it’s too easy to rile up Metal heads? That the pallet from which the Metal artist has to so cripplingly small that you can throw random parts together and have something that can be accepted as metal?

Whatever it actually proves I think it speaks more negatively about the limiting nature of the genre's traditional core facets than it does about mainstream appropriation.

Though I think we can all agree that one thing that can be proved for certain is that those clothes are atrocious… but it still doesn't beat this… THING put out by a real, for serious, alternative clothing brand.

(If this picture instantly blinded you then yes, that is a long sleeve shirt printed all over to look like a Denim Cut-off. I'm sorry.)

Serious aspects of the Metal scene are capable of being even more ridiculous than people who don’t really “get it.”

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 23/03/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Desolate Horizons - We'll Never Fade Away

I feel it’s vaguely lazy to compare the work of Russian Shoegaze/Ambient musician known only as “C. Horizon” to the work of Andrei Tarkovsky. I could easily be blamed for likening to two simply because they’re both from the same part of the world, but I’m going to do it anyway, but for good reason.

Listening to this latest album from Desolate Horizons, my first thought was of Tarkovsky’s Soviet era film STALKER (yes the one the game was based off of.) STALKER is a snapshot of an empty, pointless world that yields not but fear and uncertainty to those foolish enough to probe into its barren corners in search of an ill-defined “more”. We’ll Never Fade Away has that same feeling. It is an album brimming with both hope and emptiness, light and airy float through grandiose melodies that are brimming with sadness. It is the sun rising gloriously over a dead world. The song titles don’t help the sad mood, with tracks such as we loved each other long before we met... when we were just a lonely dreamers and as long as there's a light in the sky, i'll be waiting for you; it is an album packed to the brim with as much quality as feels.

I can imagine this acting as a perfect score to Tarkovsky’s STALKER possible an even better one than the unofficial soundtrack written by Lustmord and Robert Rich. If beautiful melodramatic depression in the form of ambient music sounds like your thing, then you’ll feel right at home here, for what it’s worth.

Lights & Motion - Chronicle

Bleak Russian Dark Ambient isn’t the only highly atmospheric free release we’ve come across this week. Chronical is a Cinematic Post-Rock release from Swedish One Man Project Lights and Motion. If We’ll Never Fade Away is the soundtrack to a movie released decades too late, Chronical is the optimistic soundtrack to what you hope your future will be and the sepia-toned score to the life you’ve already lived simultaneously.

Chronical is an organic merger of crescendo driven Post-Rock ala Explosions In The Sky and ethereal dream pop worshipping at the churches of M83 and Coldplay; even at times seeming to channel Neo-Classical composers such as Craig Armstrong. While you’re not going to find the complexities found in Post-Rock’s best works (such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor) you do find an immensely beautiful album that gives you as much as you give it. This is an album to sit in the dark drinking a glass of scotch with whilst reminiscing over the good ole’ days. The emotion and drama found in Lights and Motion’s output proved tenfold by the Swedish Solo artists recent breakthrough into film scores, with works gracing trailers for Homefront, Transcendence, Lone Survivor and even being used by Google for a commercial.

Guitars shimmer darkly, a Violin murmurs distantly and a Piano twinkles beneath a sky lit only by stars. Tomorrow is another day and you wish you could take everything you have forward with you. 

But you can't. 

Revel in it. 

treestepstotheocean - Migration Light

Why stop at two? Why not make this article a trifecta of mildly pretentious instrumental music? Migration Lights is the 2015 release from the Italian Post-Metal outfit threestepstotheocean (one word, lower case; that’s probably important.)

Migration Lights is a brash yet introspective affair channelling Post-Metal releases from bands like Isis and Neurosis and mixing it with the sludgy dragging qualities of Metallic Hardcore and the more ethereal qualities of Post-Rock. Sneeringly introspective Migration Lights isn’t trying to relax you, but that doesn’t prevent it from reaching for echoy guitars and breathy synths and drones to couple with the crushing distorted guitar tones. Instead threestepstotheocean focus on the negative aspects on life, hate, loss, aggression, depression, all conveyed without a word.

As with the other two albums featured here, Migration Lights is an incredibly powerful experience. Where as We’ll Never Fade Away is existential thought on the futility of being and Chronical is an emotional scrapbook, Migration Light is a punch to the gut and a swift knee to the face, coupled with the realisation that this is real life and that it’s a difficult place to be. As the album art implies, it’s an exploration of a world turned on its head. A grit filled, aggressive rollercoaster of brutality and contrasting fragility. If the artsy-ness of the previous two albums turned you away, you can get all your emotional pretence with your brutal credibility intact with threestepstotheocean and Migration Lights.  

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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WHY COMPLAINING ABOUT THE LACK OF ROCK AND METAL AT THE GRAMMYS IS DUMB

The Grammy’s rolled around last night, and by rolled I mean it really did roll around like the bloated, self-satisfied wank party that it is. People have been complaining about this for years, it’s just sort of readily accepted that most official award ceremonies are a load of warmed up bollocks.

So then why has everyone in the Rock World been getting bitchy about it?

Allow me to be your guide to the World of Rock butt hurt and the Grammys and my oh so sensitive rebuttals. (Scroll down for a slightly more sensible look at the Grammy voting process.)

But they didn’t mentioned the late great David Brockie (aka Oderus Urungus)!

Yes they skipped out the death of Oderus, frontman of GWAR, just how last year they skipped over the death of late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman.

I’m sure I’d be joining Brockie, if he were still able to speak, in saying, who gives a rat's ass? I love GWAR, but this is the Grammys, not the Rock n’ Roll hall of fame. Winners this year included Beck, Eminem and the goddamn BEEGEES. And somehow maudlin pile of beige, Sam Smith, got best new artist. Do you see my point yet? Would Oderus want recognition from this puny flesh sacks?

It’d be like going to the Golden Gods and complaining that Will.I.Am. wasn’t included. It doesn’t matter that Brockie was a nominee in years past. GWAR are irrelevant in the world of the Grammys and getting mad about it reeks of the “my favourite genre is better than your favourite genre” mentality that is one of Metal music’s biggest flaws.

(For the record the above Rock Awards mentioned aren't much better)

But they didn’t mentioned the late great Wayne Static!

Again, I have nought but respect for Static-X, but when was the last time they had anything close to a huge radio hit that they could pedal for cash dolla or any other huge mainstream success? If nothing else do you need your taste justified by a panel that decided that Pharrel was the best urban release of the year?

But Paramore winning “Best Rock Song” is a conspiracy!

This is a real opinion held by real people. Just let that sink in.

Not only that it’s an opinion held by Nu-Metal/Alt. Rock band Trapt.

Thing is though, they’re not wrong in a way. Yes it is a conspiracy, a conspiracy based around the fact that they don’t really care about Metal music.

Oh no the Grammy’s don’t like Metal, better get my victim complex in order because it’s really important that the Grammy’s validate my life choices.

Also the BECK record is sweet. Just sayin’. Better than any Trapt record I’ve ever heard.

But Tenacious D won best metal!

How many times does it need to be repeated… the Grammys don’t care about Metal. Tenacious D is popular and shifts units. End of discussion.

*Anything related to how no real Rock or Metal bands won anything*

Grow up. The Grammys don’t mean anything and in no way negatively affect the music you love.

Okay...

Okay...

I’ve had my fun, let’s actually take a closer look at the voting process to explain exactly why a Rock or Metal band was never going to get anywhere close to a prize.

Submission for entries is handled by “Recording Academy members and record companies” this is hint one. The Grammy submission process is already biased towards big businesses in music. To become a member of “The Academy” you have to be a music maker and then you’re let in by the Academy itself, which is likely made up of other Record Execs, Commercial Song Writers and I don’t know… maybe Al Gore? So the chances of a Metal Album being submitted in the first place is next to nil. I somehow doubt any one from Metal Blade would be let in, if you know what I mean. It’s like the Masons, if the Masons loved really bad music.

Once an entry is sifted through the corporate pigeon holing process it goes to nominating. “First-round ballots are sent to voting members in good dues standing.” Now what do you think that means? Past winners perhaps? Record Companies that sponsor the event? Either way it can be re-asserted here that it is a cyclical process. To win you have to fit in to the same standards that have already lead artists to win. Record Execs have to like you, which probably means you’re signed to them. Does my opening classification of the awards as a self-congratulatory wank-fest sound less like an overblown insult yet?

Final voting is again done by “members in good dues standing” which is a lovely ambiguous phrase which basically means, people the Academy likes. Meaning that it’s basically an award ceremony about Record Companies telling themselves how great they are. Rock and Metal bands or any real recognition of artistry are absent. All award shows are the same.

My advice to anyone upset by anything Rock or Metal related that may or may not have been included in the Grammy’s is to simply Let It Go…

…which coincidentally won Best Song Written For a Motion Picture. 

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 09/02/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Cloudkicker – Little Histories

I’m not really sure why the latest release from one man progressive mastermind, Ben Sharp, hasn’t been mentioned before now. Perhaps I just assumed that everyone in their right mind would have heard it already. Assumptions are dangerous things. This is an album that deserved to be talked about. 

This is Pennsylvanian’s first release since his sting of live dates with the one and only Intronaut as his backing band, but such a huge release has not seemed to diminish the quality of his core output. A first listen puts Little Histories down as a heavier version of a previous Cloudkicker release; Let Yourself Be Huge. Perhaps mixed in with the Subsume release. I say this for two reasons. The first is that while Little Histories is a heavier release, though not incredibly so, it is warm. It is chunky but not angular. You feel at home listening to this release, which is where Let Yourself Be Huge enters the mix. The album reveals in the same Post-Rock world as the earlier album. Focusing on an incredible atmosphere that is completely entrancing and hypnotic. 

This isn’t an urgent release, it is a Post-Rock album that throws a little more heaviness in your direction. It’s a spectacular mix between relaxation and metal, something which sounds like a total paradox until experienced first-hand. Little Histories brings the trademark Cloudkicker atmosphere to some kind of strange mid-point, taking elements of the two distinct styles they Sharp has developed over the course of his career. It is atmospheric and hypnotic without letting go of any heaviness. Yet at the same time it is heavy without letting go of any of the welcoming aura found on Cloudkicker’s softer releases.

This is an album not to be missed by fans of progressive rock and metal. This is a one man project that goes beyond Axe-FX and EzDrummer. This is the real deal and it deserves your attention… And even if this one album doesn’t spark your interest, every core release from Cloudkicker is completely free anyway. You’ve got nothing to lose. 

VOLA – Inmazes

Eclectic Swedish Progressive ensemble, VOLA are a strange beast. Initial seconds of Inmazes make it all too easy to write it off as “just another Djent album” but that’s not really want Inmazes is about at all, or at least not completely. There is some definite Meshuggah worship to be found in the more groove focused parts of this album. Though this heavy down-tuned riffage is couple with a myriad of other influences to create something rather unique. 

Clean, melodious vocals on top of chunky djentisms feels a little wrong to begin with, but it doesn’t take long for your brain to stop caring that it’s “wrong” on focus on what a bang on job VOLA do with it. Riffs made of the heaviest alien concrete meld into psychedelic, chilled and hook laden vocals and synthcapes with keyboard solos. It’s like going from Meshuggah to Mastodon to King Crimson without really noticing any disparity between them. Even the heavy riffs manage to have a unique melodic and atmospheric quality you’d struggle to find in other bands. Merely being able to include that word, “unique,” in a style of music that could be linked closely to the echo chamber that is Djent, is high praise indeed.

It’s strange really. There is a lot on Inmazes that you could point at individually and say “this is derivative of its genre” but when it all comes together Inmazes is a 51 minute progressive journey that you have not seen the likes of before. It is equal parts Modern and Old School, taking influences from the best aspects of the entire Progressive World. This is a debut album that shows a band ready to do almost anything. They’ve already proved themselves capable prog alchemists with their ability to meld the incessantly angular and the impeccably smooth and this is only their first full length! I doubt this will be the last time you hear about VOLA from Pyramid Noise. 

Steve Lawson – Believe In Peace

This live recording of Solo Bassist Steve Lawson is beautiful. It is not, as you might expect from a solo Bass musician, an exercise is slapping techniques or trying really hard to get you to take Bass as a “real” instrument. Instead Believe In Peace is an in-situ recording of a performance at an art exhibit focused around the Chinese I Ching texts on Wisdom. As part of this multi-media event Lawson decided to do something more than his standard set and Believe In Peace was this result. This is a 4 track release, clocking in at about 48 minutes of fantastic ambience all created on a Bass Guitar. Percussion, backing drones, melodies and more are all created on this single instrument with a copious amount of pedals. 

This isn’t just one note ambience though, Laweson doesn’t rest on his laurels and allow the art present to make up for any inadequacies in his own performance, I admit however, that the art combined with this music must have been something rather special. Believe In Peace sees drone, darker ambient tones, melodious highly textured pieces, minimalistic soundscapes and other facets of ambient than I am unable to name, brought together to create an incredibly meditative release, as suits the subject of the album. Sometimes it even bursts out into a blissed out distorted lead solo, but that does little to break from the chilled out, psychedelic jam-band quality of this release. 

The fact that this album was played live adds something to it. In an age where it is more common to make ambient in a cold digital space, the incredibly human and warm feeling that Steve Lawson offers here is a great departure from contemporary ambient artists. While the bass guitar is run through a mass of different pedals, it never loses itself and you’re constantly aware that this is human music, based in spirutality and care over craft. It is safe to say, prior to veering off into a spiritualist ramble, that Believe In Peace is an album best experienced with eyes closed and mind open. 

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY:19/01/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Cowards - Rise To Infamy

There are some albums that are difficult to write about intelligently. Though I don’t mean that in a bad way. It is difficult to write intelligently about an album like Rise to Infamy, for example, because it has no interest in being intelligent itself. That is not Cowards’ intention.  What these Parisians would rather do is tear out your throat and stare into your eyes while you die.

Have I made it clear that this is one violent album yet?

Cold and heartless Cowards have built this album on a simple Philosophy of aural terrorism. From the off it’s clear that the Parisians are here to revel in Sludgy Blackened Hardcore, the slow stomping rhythms of Shame Along Shame acting as the introductory punch to a 10 track beating. The discordant riffing of Never To Shine shows of the more unhinged side of Cowards. No less aggressive, but infinitely more insane. The Black Metal influence perhaps comes through best on Bend The Knee with the huge slab of bleak atmosphere it forces down the listeners through in the last two minutes.  Ultimately it returns to my original point. Rise to Infamy is a heavy, brutally angry album. It feeds back as much as it riffs and doesn’t really give a damn about what you think.

This album could have easily been released on Deathwish Inc. For a band you may never have heard of Cowards are every bit as talented and bloodthirsty as Trap Them, Rise and Fall, The Secret and any other band you may care to mention that merges Black Metal evil with Hardcore Sludge groove. Perhaps even more so.

Entropia - Vesper

I feel I should make something clear to all those who believe Deafheaven were the first band to mix Shoegaze and Post-Rock with Black Metal.

They weren’t. Not even almost.

I could honestly write an entire article about how much about that album digs at many Post-Black Metal fans in small, niggling ways. Though, until I throw away regards for semi-decent journalism and do that, listening to an album with the quality of Vesper from Polish then-quartet Entropia is a good start.

Just in case the small rant relating to Sunbather wasn’t a giveaway, this Post-Black Metal release draws heavily from Shoegaze, mixing it with Black Metal to make something that is depressive and bleak, as Black Metal should be, but without sacrificing the ambience and atmosphere of Shoegaze and Post-Rock. With any Post-prefix style of Metal, or even Rock, there is a tendency to lose some core of what the style original was. Few bands manage to keep the intensity and darkness of their original genre, Alcest, for example, as great of a band as they are, would not fit the descriptor “intense.” Entropia manage to cling on to these aspects of Metal, making an album that is both aggressive, heavy, dark and beautiful all at the same time.

Perhaps the most impressive thing however, is the band’s ability to mix in Shoegaze and Post-Rock elements without feeling repetitive. Repetition is core to the Shoegaze sound, as Kerry McCoy, guitarist of that band I’ve mentioned so much that it’s even starting to annoy me, told d'Addario, it kind of works on a Kraut Rock principle. That repetition forces the listener to go through something akin to the 5 stages of grief, but for guitar riffs. Vesper certainly includes repetitive sections, without them there would be no Shoegaze influence, but somehow, it never feels repetitive. Call that a wishy-washy bit of analysis if you will, because it kind of is, but what I’m trying to get at is that this is a great album. Entropia, with Vesper, masterfully bring together separate elements to a coherent, wonderfully satisfying whole.

Snowmine - Laminate Pet Animal

Laminate Pet Animal is the best Psychedelic Indie Pop album I’ve ever heard. Well, to be fair it’s the ONLY Psychedelic Indie Pop album I’ve ever heard, but Snowmine have written an album that makes me wonder if I really have to check out any other bands in the genre; I get the feeling most other efforts would pale in comparison.

With all members having backgrounds is Classical and Jazz, it is no surprise that the Brooklyn quintet have the ability to write incredibly tight songs, nothing is superfluous and nothing seems over the top. While my focus on the band’s measured approach may put some in mind of a stilted or endlessly theoretical album with no enjoyment to be found beyond dusty analysis, this is not the case. While Snowmine know how to give you exactly enough and no more or less, the sonic pallet of the band is ever shifting and experimenting. All songs are related, but no songs sound the same. Songs are exciting and varied and wonderfully detailed without becoming over-complex; this is certainly a pop album, but a pop album written by people who have incredible song writing ability.

The one weak spot on Laminate Pet Animal are the vocals. Thematically the album deals with some interesting themes, according to an interview with NYC’s The Deli, the album is centred on the concepts of direction and preservation of comfort. It’s all very Camus and philosophical, but in practise, on a pop album, the vocals fall a little flat. They are pleasant enough and the music would be slightly worse off without them but they just can’t hold a candle to the wonderfully written instrumentations behind them.

If the other albums on this list are too heavy for you, or even if they aren’t, Laminate Pet Animal by Snowmine is a stand out Indie Pop record that is really worth your time. 

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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FREE MUSIC ... THURSDAY?: 15/01/2015

Yes, Free Music Monday was delayed this week. So instead we have the far less catchy Free Music Thursday to take its place. The outcome however, remains the same. 

Free Music from Bandcamp.

Sometimes not on Mondays!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Pile - magic isn't real

Pile are a hard band to pigeon hole. Part Screamo, part Hardcore, part Grunge, part Old School Blues Rock and part Daisy era Brand New, the Boston trio manage to scratch many an itch over the course of magic isn’t real. The band take a mature approach to their demons realising that there is as much dark expression in well-crafted melodies and catchy riffs as there is in screaming and aggression; Pile excel at both.

There isn’t exactly a stand out song on magic isn’t real. That doesn’t means it’s a bad album however, (if it was do you really think I’d feature it here?) it is rather an album whose quality is rock solid from beginning to end. Songs are wonderfully crafted whilst remaining simple and easy to listen to, despite the complex mixture Pile’s sound its self represents. The song writing remains captivating and focused rather than the cultured mess such an experiment in blending could become. The band know how to work their sound to the fullest extent moving from heavy screams, to grungy dirges to straight up Hard Rock swagger exactly when the songs require.

Raw and dirty magic isn’t real manages to be unique through its strange mixture of influences. It’s hard to put your finger on but there is something ephemeral about the quality of this album. While listening to it you can pin point influences and genre shifts left right and centre, but none of that matters. You can analyse this album all day and never quite grasp hold of what makes this album so enjoyable. If nothing else it’s incredibly rare to find a band that would be just as at home opening for Foo Fighters as they would be headlining your local punk show. 

Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Self-Proclaimed Piano Slayer and The Dresden Dolls member Amanda Palmer shows the dark side of levity and the shimmering gleam of bleakness in this 2008 release. A Piano focused, Baroque Pop, affair, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, was Palmer’s first solo release, and on a first listen it’s hard to see why these songs weren’t simply used for a The Dresden Dolls album, rumour has it that these tracks were deemed too balladic for the Gothic duo. Enter American Piano Pop figure Ben Folds. Folds’ Pop influence permeates this album, and while that may sound like a criticism, it is far from it. What was once intended to be a Piano bedroom project became a lush and layered album of dark bombast through Fold’s production work.

Who Killed Amada Palmer strikes the contrast between instrumentation and dark thematics to a degree that perhaps even outstrips The Dresden Dolls in same cases. While some tracks synchronise dark instrumentation with even darker lyrics, tracks like Runs in the Family would be a completely different song if the lyrics were written by anyone else.  The upbeat driving piano and grandiose strings do not instantly scream “investigation of depression and family illness” but that is indeed what we find.

Nowhere is this more obvious than on the highly controversial track Oasis, a track accused of making light of rape, religion, and abortion. An accusation possibly based entirely on the contrast the majority of this album consist of, as Palmer stated on her blog:

I suggested that I might be allowed to play it if I just slowed it way down and played it in a minor key. Think about it. If they heard the same lyrics against the backdrop of a very sad and liliting [sic] piano, maybe with some tear-jerking strings thrown in for good measure, would they take issue?

Who Killed Amanda Palmer takes the formula that makes The Dresden Dolls so appealing and filters it through lush pop production of Ben Folds. Songs are hook laden, upbeat, tortured, sonically unique; wryly humorous and incredibly bleak all at the same time.

Sabertooth - Sheol

Following in the mammoth marching footsteps of Trap Them, Nails, Gaza, This Routine is Hell, Baptists and similar heavy as Hell bands, Oklahoma City’s Sabertooth have offered a focused and relentless slice of Metallic Hardcore brutality. Sheol comes in at just over 20 minutes, though about a third of that comes from final track Brother which runs a whopping 7 minutes and 48 seconds. Sabertooth pull no punches and this album is as much of a rollercoaster as the short track lengths imply. Favouring pure aggression over subtly Sheol is the sort of album you punch your friends in the teeth to.

This rock is my home, this rock is an empty grave.

Sabertooth have taken the chaotic barely controlled philosophy of the music through to the production. This album is rife with feedback and the guitar tones sound a little more than similar to the Boss HM2 Pedal tone. A kind of guitar tone used by old Swedeth bands like Dismember and Entombed and more recently by hardcore bands like Trap Them. Sludgy and violent it fits perfectly with the in your face, hatemosh song writing that takes up the majority of the album, that is until we reach Brother, of course.

This near 8 minute track is a huge departure from the rest of the album, it is spacey and experimental, but no less filthy. Whilst you may think “ambience” means peaceful or at least quiet, there is nothing relaxing about the low bubbling of hate made audible that builds on this track from the 3 minute mark. The same point at which any traditional semblance of a song breaks down. The agonised vocals are pushed back and joined my clean, innocent female vocals, it’s an eerie experience and is arguably more frightening and emotional raw than any other aspect of the album.

In short Sabertooth with Sheol have created an intense Hardcore album, which any fan of unstoppably heavy and hateful music is likely to enjoy.

We are all dead inside. Sheol, oh lonely Sheol. My only home.

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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RELEASE ROUND UP: 28/12/2014 - 10/01/2015

Since we’ve been away for a little while, this week’s Release Round Up will be covering the last couple of weeks to make sure some great releases don't get lost in the aether. 

Aesop Rock
Cat Food (EP) (Rhymesayers Entertainment)

FFO: Eyedea & Abilities, EI-P, Atmosphere (USA), Smart Rap Music
Listen: Cat Food

Word Wizard Ian Matthias Bavitz, better known as Aesop Rock, the rapper with the largest vocabulary in Hip-Hop, is back with this two track EP. While it's easy to listen to this and call it your "standard" Aesop Rock release, that still puts it at the pinnacle of Hip-Hop. Bavitz spits word play that requires 10 listens or more to be understood over dirty and dark beats produced by Blockhead on Cat Food and Aesop Rock himself on Bugzapper. If you’re an Aesop Rock fan, or at least a fan of smart Hip-Hop that tells stories, then you owe it to yourself to pick up this EP. Especially since these tracks won’t appear on any album.

The Kill

Kill Them… All (Obscene Productions)

FFO: Kataplexis, Insect Warfare, Wormrot
Listen: Album Stream

Fast, furious and absolutely relentless. Grindcore unit The Kill have released the best album of their ferocious career. This is a tight album, everything is honed to razor sharp perfection. The production is cutting and horrifically aggressive allowing the Hell-for-leather speed of this album to show through without becoming a hopeless mess of noise. That is not to say that Kill Them… All (and yes that is a joke on the Metallica album name, previous releases from the group references Napalm Death’s Make Them Suffer in a similar way) is sterile or over produced, this is still a grim basement of a record. This release is violent and frightening in a way few bands still manage to achieve and is a must for Extreme music fans.   

A Skylit Drive

Rise: Ascension (Tragic Hero)

FFO: Issues, Alesana, The World Alive, Acoustic covers of Post-Hardcore songs
Listen: Shadows (Acoustic)

Modern Post-Hardcore outfit A Skylit Drive have with Rise:Ascension have re-imagined their 2013 release Rise as an acoustic album. While it may be questionable to many whether this music, from the poppier side of the Alternative Music sphere, is worth re-recording at all, taking a more acoustic slant to the music does the band a lot of favours. By not putting on the face of a heavier album, the band is able to fully embrace the pop aspects of their sound. Something which really allows the true talents to shine though. This is arguably the interesting version of Rise, as with Genre-buddies Issues, not trying to be heavy seems to be where A Skylit Drive really excel. 

Other Releases

Altars – A Profound Respect For Life (Self-Released)

Cendra – 666 Bastards (Xtreem Music)

Chaos – Violent Redemption (Re-Release) (Transcending Obscurity)

Cry Excess – Amibition Is The Shit (Luxor)

Defaced – Forging The Sanctuary (Rising Nemesis Records)

Delusion Parasitosis – Ingurgitating Intenstinal Rot (New Standard Elite)

Disloyal – Godless (Self Released)

In Legend – Stones At Goliath (Self-Released)

Joshua Radin – Onwards and Sideways (Glass Bead)

Jupiter – History of Genesis (Universal Music Japan)

Ketha - #!%16.7 (Instant Classic)

Nailgun Massacre – Boned, Boxed and Buried (Xtreem Music)

Niburta – ReSet (Self-Released)

No Turning Back – Never Give Up (Take Control Records)

Sans Soleli – A Holy Land Beneath A Godless Sky (Tofu Carnage)

Sata Kaskelottia – Sata Kaskelottia (Inverse Records)

Scarab – Serpents of The Nile (ViciSolum Productions)

Traitor – Delaware Destroyers (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions)

Volahn – Aq'ab'al (Iron Bonehead Productions)

Wasteland – Slava Pakim Ratnicima (Winter Realm Records)

Weight of The Tide – Epilogue (Undergroove)

Witchrist – Vritra (Iron Bonehead Productions)

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"ART FOR ART'S SAKE"; A LOOK AT METAL'S IGNORED ARTISTS: PART ONE

One thing that arguably sets your average Metal album part from say a Pop album, or even the majority of Rock albums, is album art. Back when I actually still had a local record store I used to buy a lot of albums based on album art. I wouldn't have developed my lifelong man-crush on Mike “Gunface” McKenzie if I hadn't picked up The Red Chord’s Fed Through The Teeth Machine based on the artwork. I think most of you would be lying if claimed not to have had a similar experience.

If I had known the name of the artist whose work adorns the cover of Fed Through The Teeth Machine, I would have named them and trust me, I looked. The fact that I found nothing is perhaps a sign that the art on the surface of an album is not as well respected as the art found within. Take your favourite album, do you know who did the album cover? I know I don’t.

This doesn't really seem all that fair does it? So to help remedy this, let’s talk art in this first part of our two part feature on some of the best visual artists in Metal.

Derek Riggs

Let’s start of easy. Derek Riggs is possibly the most iconic album artist in all of Metal. Though that may likely be to the fact that he's the core artist for Iron Maiden, one of the biggest bands ever.

Rigg's style is heavily influenced by Science Fiction and Horror art which certainly comes across in his work for the British Metal Super Stars. Incredible landscapes and strange beings aplenty grace Rigg's work and you can almost believe in these fantastical worlds. The Sci Fi influences being no more apparent than they are on Gamma Ray's Power Plant. Truly awesome stuff.

Larry Carroll 

Larry Carroll's claim to fame is his work with Slayer, finding his place on the front of Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss and Christ Illusion. Prior to being contacted by Rick Rubin to work on the trifecta of Thrash brilliance (and Christ Illusion) Carroll's sole work was with political magazines. Yet somehow he managed to create some of the most gruesome and deeply interesting album covers that didn't just focus on gore. In an age prior to Photoshop Larry Carroll  created collages through manipulating Xeroxed images and this style is easily seen on Slayer's detailed covers. Larry Carroll is unlikely to return to the Metal world but his contribution to the genre and unique style cannot be denied. 

Dan Mumford

Iconic artists seem to mainly be relegated to the history books, many of them are no longer active, or at least only working with the same handful of old school true metal bands. Dan Mumford however, with his work with bands such as Biffy Clyro, Protest The Hero, The Devil Wears Prada, THE HELL and well... a huge amount of modern bands outside of the realm of "trueness", makes him a very much a contemporary figure. Dan's bold, cartoony style is unmistakable. Despite being mainly known for his Metalcore album covers, this is not the only place he flexes his creative muscle, working with charities, art galleries and film directors on a variety of different projects doing general arty things, Dan Mumford has his fingers in many paint pots. You may not like the bands he's working with, but you can't deny the guy has talent.

Ed Repka

If we think of Derek Riggs as the king of NWOBHM Art, then Ed Repka, most famous for his depiction of Megadeth mascot Vic Rattlehead, is the king of Thrash Art. His vividly colourful depictions of the comically and satirically grotesque can be found on albums from Austrian Death Machine,  Nuclear Assault, Possessed, Death and many, many more. Repka's brand of supernatural realism has become a staple of Metal album art and is perhaps one of the most replicated styles in its field; the impact the now Art Director of NECA's work has had on album covers is huge. Ed Repka is still an active artist and still takes commission for album covers and basically anything else. If price is no obstacle how cool would it be to have art from the guy who gave life to the most well known mascot in all of Thrash Metal and provided cover art for the Godfathers of Death Metal themselves?
 

Eliran Kantor

While Eliran Kantor is not as big of a name as Riggs or Repka his work is no less spectacular. From the early 2000's Kantor's varied style can be found on bands from a variety of Sub-Genres. Manipulated photographs, classical inspired painting and supernaturally real works graces albums from Testament, Sigh, Kataklysm and a whole range of other modern releases. It his perhaps his classically inspired paintings that are the most memorable, the painterly style adding a sense of grandiosity and importance to every album such work adorns. The art for Kataklysm's Waiting For the End to Come is perhaps the best example of this, highly reminiscent of  Gustave Doré's illustrations for Milton's Paradise Lost, this cover sets the album off to a dark and imposing start even before you've put the CD in the player.

John Dyer Baizley

Apparently not satisfied with merely being the guitarist from one of the best Progressive Sludge bands out there, Baroness guitarist John Dyer Baizley has continued to develop his first love of Graphic Design, becoming one of the most instantly recognisable visual artists in the Metal world>. While Baizley is a little uncomfortable working on a commission basis, as he told Metal Injection, Baizley has worked with many bands, including high profile work for Metallica. Citing his influences at Art Nouveau meets Black Flag covers with a dash of  Punk artist Pushead, John Baizley has a surreal, comic-like style with thick lines and bright colours. Baizley does not seem to be slowing down with his work, despite claiming there is no money in album covers, so you're sure to see his expressive pieces on many more albums to come. 

That's it for Part One of our Two part feature. Make sure you check out part Two where we'll be featuring even more great Cover artists!

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