Throughout their 44-year career, Einstürzende Neubauten has upheld a commitment to making musical art, with little interest in vapid radio hits. They continue this tradition with Rampen (Mute Records). As one of the first industrial bands, it could be easily argued that the genre owes more to these guys than Throbbing Gristle. Continue reading
Tag Archives: drones
Metallica’s Concert Director Discusses World-Wired Tour Staging And Effects
Metallica has embarked on their most ambitious tour ever for the current World-Wired World Tour. Their stage and set designer and show director, Dan Braun, gave an interview to OnMilwaukee where he discussed the preparation and planning that goes into such an undertaking. With a stage features an immersive concert experience with a 44′ x 44′ square main-stage equipped with several prop lifts located in the center of the arena, it is the largest the band has ever used in their career. Included is the first ever use of micro-drones (during the song ‘Moth Into Flame’) as a prop in a major touring concert, designed by Braun. Continue reading
ProtoU – The Edge Of Architecture
How important is the theme of a piece of music? To what extent do aesthetic choices (artwork, lyrics, stated concepts) colour the audience’s perception of the sounds? It’s a question that doesn’t frequently get asked in Metal, where the same basic themes are repeated by the majority of bands until they become taken for granted, but Metal-adjacent genres like Dark Ambient can make it seem much more significant.Continue reading
Muse At Jones Beach Theater
Muse
07-22-2017
At Jones Beach Theater, Port Jefferson, NY
All Photos By Julia Sariy PhotographyContinue reading
Devin Townsend, Max and Igor Cavalera, Orange Goblin, Sick Puppies Added To Download Festival 2017
Already featuring a massive lineup of bands, Download 2017 has added 20 more names to the roster with Devin Townsend Project, Code Orange, Max & Iggor Cavalera playing their ‘Return To Roots’ show, Sick Puppies, rapper Machine Gun Kelly, Sikth, Suicide Silence, Ty Bryant And the Shakedown, Krokodil and many more announced. Continue reading
Video: Caricature – Take Me Home Tonight Cover, Drone Camera Video
Progressive metallers Caricature have released a music video for their cover of 80s classic rock hit ‘Take Me Home Tonight’ by Eddie Money. You can see the video at this link or below:
The accompanying music video features stunning aerial camera footage of Chicago created especially for this clip by noted drone technology innovator and cinematographer Kirk Tindel. The video is a stunning love letter to the skyline of Chicago.
Caricature’s Joseph Spiller comments:
“Sometimes, when you make a record that you need to be as perfect as possible, you have to step back, take a break, and stretch your creative legs on something fun. Rather than smash up the studio, channeling the magic of “The Money Man” seemed more productive. The hook on this song is iron clad with one of the best second verses the mainstream has ever seen. I wanted to add something fresh to the arrangement without degrading the original piece, and the end result is fun as heck to play. Squad”
The band is still supporting their Shadows: Maxi Single from last summer as they prepare a new album its new full-length album, The Fiction We’ve Become due out in 2016. The entire Shadows release is available to stream and purchase from their Bandcamp page.
Shadows (Maxi-Single) track listing:
1. Shadows
2. Leave It
3. Current State of Affairs – Gavin Parsons on drums (ex-Whitechapel)
4. Saviors II – Oscar Nilsson on drums (Miseration/Engel)
Caricature’s current line-up
Joseph Spiller – Guitar and Vocals
Evan Sammons – Drums and Programming
Gerrard Vachon – Bass
Ryan Cummings – Guitar
Muse Release Mercy Video, New Album Drones Out Today
Muse, video still from ‘Mercy’ video (Warner Bros.)
Muse, whose Drones (Warner Bros) album came out today, have released a video for the track ‘Mercy’. You can watch the video below:
Front man Michael Bellamy commented on the concept of Drones, which figures heavily in the ‘Mercy’ video treatment:
“To me, ‘Drones’ are metaphorical psychopaths which enable psychopathic behavior with no recourse. The world is run by Drones utilizing Drones to turn us all into Drones. Drones explores the journey of a human, from their abandonment and loss of hope, to their indoctrination by the system to be a human drone, to their eventual defection from their oppressors.”
Muse – Drones
Muse didn’t become one of the biggest bands in the world by accident. They put in years cultivating their style of smart arena rock, dreamy synthy pop cadences with a super intellectual, cynical bent. Usually once you become to successful, your art starts to suffer. Muse proves on Drones (Warner Bros.) that they have entered their second decade as a band as hungry as ever.
In typical fashion, the lead track and bona-fide hit single ‘Dead Inside’ is the album’s catchiest ear-worm, yet is highly subversive. I giggle to myself thinking of teenagers bumping this song on the way to school, parents unaware of the lyrical nature of the track. The slick pop rock of the tune aside, you can tell a well written song when you hear one, with clever key changes and great singing from Matthew Bellamy. He shines throughout Drones.
‘Drill Sargeant’ gives way to ‘Psycho’ which could give Marilyn Manson a run for his mascara in the goth-rock swing he perfected so well; right down to Christopher Wolstenholme’s distorted bass rumble. One thing that Muse has done well historically is to infuse their dystopic visions of the future with slivers of hopefulness. ‘Mercy’ is a rousing anthem of pain and possibility. Initially I was put off by ‘Reapers’ weak opening: kind of a slo-mo guitaring ‘Hot For Teacher’, but without the great drumming. But the full track itself is an ass kicker. Punk beats, big riffs and a great delivery from Bellamy again. To say that ‘Handler’ sounds like it could have easily been written by Trent Reznor 10 years ago, is a high compliment. Another giant, ebullient chorus you will be singing for days. The last third of the album is not quite a strong as its opening however, with tracks such as ‘Defector’ and ‘Revolt’ being a little too ELO sounding, even for a nerd like me. This is the part of the album where producer Mutt Lange flexed his muscles, so hard. ‘The Globalist’ saves the day though. Epic in scope, rain drops falling, lonesome Western-themed whistle, despondent protagonist going through an epic transformation emotionally, and all the musical movements reflecting that change. Amazing! The title-track/finale is a gorgeous display of chorale style singing and heart-string tugging words and solid way to put a bow on another release from modern rock’s royalty.
Muse, Photo by Danny Clinch
8.5/10
KEITH CHACHKES
Muse New Single Reigns, Drones Album Out This Week
As Muse’s first single from their upcoming album Drones (Warner Bros.), continues its reign on the charts, the band readies a media blitz for the album release. ‘Dead Inside’ has been at #1 for a fourth consecutive week on the Mediabase and Billboard Modern Rock Charts. Muse holds the record for number of weeks at #1 with for the song ‘Madness’, back in 2012.
‘Dead Inside’ music video:
Co-Produced by Muse and legendary producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange (AC/DC,Def Leppard, Shania Twain), Drones is comprised of 12 tracks, 6 of which have been made available as lyric videos. All six tracks are available for instant download with a pre-order from digital retailers and the bands’ own website, Muse.MU.
Dead Inside (Lyric Video)
Psycho (Lyric Video)
Mercy (Lyric Video)
Reapers (Lyric Video)
The Handler (Lyric Video)
Defector (Lyric Video)
Muse, Photo by Danny Clinch
Muse is on a tour of European summer festivals with more dates worldwide to be announced soon.
Culted – Oblique To All Paths
As a knuckle-dragging Metaller, I’ve always thought of “background music” as a term of abuse – insipid, weak, unchallenging sounds for people who can’t take their music kicking them in the face. Culted, however, seem determined to reclaim this phrase, writing sinister, languid Doom that slips into the back of your mind and then proceeds to lay its rancid eggs there.
The basic sound of Oblique To All Paths (Relapse) is akin to Through Silver In Blood-era Neurosis stripped down to its bare skeleton, and then built back up into something very different with the use of ambient drones, atmospheric noise and sparse instrumentation.
Opener ‘Brooding Hex’ charts out the shape of the whole album in microcosm (although not that micro, at just over nineteen minutes long), leading us from whispered atmospherics into waves of dense, slow-motion riffing underscored with shifting, chittering electronic noises and distorted yelps. After nineteen minutes it fades out in a pulsing, irregular tattoo of drums and noises, and then the album goes back through the whole thing again, breaking it down and drawing it out to almost painful lengths. It’s not an easy listen, be prepared to invest three or four spins before you start getting any kind of attachment to it, and it is perhaps too long for what is essentially a one-dimensional affair, but it takes a distinctive, unsettling approach to an over-saturated genre and delivers something quite special.
There’s something oddly passive, something unconfrontational about Oblique To All Paths which for a Metal album seems as though it should be a failure, but very much works in its favour. There are plenty of other bands ready to smash you in the face, or blast you with arcs of searing energy, or drown you in coils of writhing black tentacles if that’s what you really want (and you should, because it’s awesome), but Culted instead take you by the hand and lead you very gently, very calmly into a place filled with unspeakable horrors and then whisper terrible secrets sweetly into your ear. Or, you know, something.
8.0/10
Richie H-R