Periphery - Periphery II: This Time It's Personal Review

Periphery - Periphery II: This Time It's Personal [Progressive Metalcore] 

From friends of Animals As Leaders comes this other Djent project from Sumerian Records, and the guitarist is the man behind the production of the fabulous AAL albums. But this is almost completely different from AAL. A more apt comparison would be Trivium or As I Lay Dying. 




Even though the tag says progressive, I did not find anything progressive about this album. As the title implies, this is a personal album, with emotional lyrics and screamo vocals and lyrics about how bitchy his ex-girlfriend is yada yada yada. A lot of the press are praising this album which dazzles me, seeing that there isn't much to be impressed by. Vocals, while emotive, do not strike much of a chord with me. For a 'progreesive' band, the guitarist is one hell of a bore, choosing to go for dreamy Dream Theatre-esque soundscapes instead of creating anything original and captivating. Speaking of which, John Petrucci himself brings one of the few highlights of the album with a solo on 'Erised'.

The production, which cannot really be complained about, helps to bring to life the few moments when electronics come in (see instrumental 'Epoch'), as Misha has showcased in the Animals As Leaders projects, but otherwise, there isn't much to bring to the surface with the album's serious lack of detail. The songs are really just, songs, without much creativity. It's more of an ambient album then a metal album, with the death vocals never really punching you in the face (is it autotuned?), and the album works better as a whole than a song-by-song basis, a bitter irony which describes the homogeneity of the album. Some nice production for a boring band trying to capture the glory of old Dream Theatre days. For a better example, listen to Haken's 2011 album Visions.


Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Passable - One or two good songs, a bit of flow

Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence Review

Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence [Progressive Metalcore]





I was hesistant to listen to this album at first. As you know, Between The Buried And ME has a schizophrenic style that virtually tries to combine every genre of music together, though not as masterfully shocking as Mike Patton did in Mr Bungle, but with enough change to have many people label them as pretentious hipsters who are compromising musicality and trying too hard to shock audiences. I myself, being an Opeth fan, hated the sudden jolts and unskillfully crafted transitions, if any existed.

To my surprise, this album has a lot of improvement from the band's previous 'The Great Misdirect', which was a ironically apt title for the album. To the pros; Tommy Rogers finally sounds like deathcore vocalist and not a confused metalcore-screamo singer in the wrong music. Transitions, though still not as fluid, have become more pronounced and I rarely had a "How did just happen" moment while listening. Production sounds energetic and vital, which amplifies the schizophrenic nature of the music.

Despite the evident chaos of the album, there are numerous moments of brilliant creativity spliced in between every song and there. The inclusion of Nintendo music, some really soulful guitar moments (which also give the band a more mature appearance, at least slightly more than pretentious teenagers) really marks the surprises in this album. The definite album highlight is 'Melting City', with its funky keyboards, gentle fretless bass in the middle, and death metal explosions in its introduction, not mention the polyrhythmic musical outroduction that is sure to dazzle even staunch Dream Theatre fans.

This album is an absolute grower, and time will tell if it moves up the ranks or if I find it disgusting towards the end of the year. The fact that this year's competition includes heavyweights Krallice (whose album 'Years Past Matter' is getting better and better with each listen) and Blut Aus Nord, who have managed to mix creative music with masterful songwriting, doesn't bode too well for BTBAM. This is quite a phenomenal album albeit one for a limitted audience, but as for now, it will not stand out in the year's better releases.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average - Half of album is listenable

As I Lay Dying - Awakened Review

As I Lay Dying - Awakened [Metalcore]




 I will admit that this album took me by pleasant surprise. Metalcore, the most hated metal subgenre today, with it's kiddish clean vocals and youthful immaturity, is usually a guaranteed miserable listen for me, but Awakened manages to overcome many odds with powerful vocals (screamed ones, at least) and relatively strong guitar work.


The same metalcore problems are here, weak clean vocals, relatively inflexible songwriting, but as I mentioned before, this is a shortcoming of the genre rather than the artiste, since the only band adding some colour to metalcore, and not necessarily successfully, is Between The Buried And Me. But for the most part, the strengths are also self evident in the ultra-crisp production, heavy, nuanced and sterile without diluting the dirt. Perhaps this is what gave me the kick when I listened, and to top off that, the accessibility of the band is up there with Linkin Park and radio-friendly rock bands.

This isn't a mindblowing release, there is nothing new. But for fans of the genre or the band, the album is about as consistent as anything AILD have put out in their last decade.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Passable - One or two good songs, a bit of flow

Revocation - Teratogenesis Review

Revocation - Teratogenesis [Thrash Metal]

 

 This is a free E.P by Revocation which may be downloaded legally here. It downloads at 320 bitrate for five extremely well crafted songs. Revocation hit the metal world only in 2008 with their long awaited debut 'Empire of the Obscene'. This was enough to get scooped up by Roadrunner Records, which gave way to 2009's excellent 'Existence Is Futile', with many noting the prowess of young guitar virtuoso David Davidson, which has led to some dubbing Revocation the next Metallica or Megadeth. Fusing technical death metal and thrash metal together for a fresh style of music that moved forward with as much reverence for the past, Davidson's solos demonstrate astonishing confidence and skill for a young man, and this brought their 2011 album (yeap it was only last year) Chaos Of Forms to mainstream attention. The thing about Revocation is that they truly are the next big thing; accessible, complex, technical, old-school and clearly having fun just listening to the record.




And if Teratogenesis is any indication, this band can only keep getting better. Starting off with 'The Grip Tightens', the title is apt for a truly refined sound that sounds even tighter than previous records. And there is a sense of urgency too, Davidson launches to a blinding solo just one and a half minutes into the song, after a well crafted chorus that can be enjoyed both in studio quality and in a live setting. There is also a new concentration on groove in the second song 'Spurn The Outstretched Hand'; vocals are more bearable and guitarists always give time for the bass to have some show off time but he rarely produces much to be interested in, whilst drums manage to keep up with the varying song tempos. 

 This may be the one and only big flaw of the album, and the band on the whole, that none of them match up to Davidson's guitars. But think about it, did Metallica and Megadeth come to power with equally talented band-members? Perhaps this is what gives the music its youthful accessibility, its human element despite the technical wankery, and not in the emotional way, but in the reckless teen way, a bridge that metaphorically gaps the guitar-hero days with the newfound anger with political systems, and if that isn't metal, then you are obviously a Megadeth hater. 

 One of the few bands of today with a serious amount of potential, watch out for them in years to come. 

Rating: ★★★★☆ Good - Strong flow, immediately grabs you

Bury Tomorrow - The Union of Crowns (Review)

Bury Tomorrow - The Union of Crowns [Metalcore]

Bury Tomorrow are a British metalcore band; their newest album The Union of Crowns was released on the 13th of July. Founded and formed in 2006 by two brothers (vocalist Daniel Winter-Bates and bassist Davyd Winter-Bates) and three of their friends (guitarists Jason Cameron and Mehdi Vismara and drummer Adam Jackson), the band has released two EPs and two full-length studio albums, the latest of which is The Union of Crowns.

Standout features of the band's music, particularly in this album, are the band's preference for the mid-tempo number instead of the typical modern-day speed fest, and the dual vocals of Daniel Winter-Bates (primary screamer and secondary clean) and Jason Cameron (primary clean). Bates' warm metalcore growl is a nice contrast to the thin, shrieky screams of many modern metalcore bands (hi Trivium); Cameron is a solid rock/metal vocalist in his own right as well.



'Redeemer', the first track off The Union of Crowns, displays many stereotypical metalcore elements, such as the cut-time passage starting at around 1:10 and the liberal use of harmonised/contrapuntal guitar riffs and breaks. The band members mainly employ clean vocals (the entire chorus is sung clean in fact) in this song; there are a few well-placed screamed verses that show off the band members' diversity. Overall, the album kicks off in a very 'safe' and measured manner - the first track is nothing too over-the-top or explosive; rather, 'just the right amount' of each of their key features is showcased alongside the usual metalcore cliches.



'The Maiden' is the second track off this album and frankly should have been the opening track. One thing that stands out about this track is the pristine diction shown by Winter-Bates in his screamed vocals; I actually played the video and tabbed away to Soccernet (yes I know it was a lyric video and I perhaps should have instinctively stayed on page to refer to the lyrics) and was surprised to find that I could actually make out what Winter-Bates was screaming, English accent and all. The song's strong, energetic beginning and middle section - characterised by Winter-Bates' signature roars - is however tampered by the superfluous and frankly fairly annoying clean/harmonised instrumental bit at 2:49, but overall the song is clearly more impactful than 'Redeemer' is.



Now we arrive at the album's single, 'An Honourable Reign', listed as track five in the album. The band channels some Scar Symmetry in this track - minus, of course, Per Nilsson's blinding guitar solos - and coming from a huge SS fan this is a major compliment. The downtuned guitars, dual vocals and controlled changes in tempo lend this song a very Scar Symmetry-esque feel, the bit at 1:10 onwards a particular highlight. An astute choice of single from the band, who it must be said are a mature outfit despite the relative young age of the members.

Overall, this album is an above-average collection of metalcore tracks that does not display any remarkable musical diversity or ingenuity, but has strong genre 'fundamentals', particularly where the vocals are concerned. The lack of guitar solos in this album is a downer for me, but maybe that is not the band's usual style anyway.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average - Half of album is listenable

- JE