My mother always told me to not judge a book by its cover. I have always tried to heed the words of my wise Madre’, but sometimes in doing music reviews I consign to oblivion that idiom. Case in point, when my editor sent me the new single by SINthetik Messiah, Black Sheep, I was tad incredulous. My feelings stemmed from seeing the heading on the Soundcloud link, #cajun industrial bass. I had never, in all my Skullgurl years, have encountered a musical group described as this. I started reading the bands press release, and SINthetic Messiah is described as Cajun electronic/industrial bass there also. Well, slap my fanny and call me fancy, I had just been given the gift of a brand new musical experience.Continue reading
Only a few years ago, and on the back of their well-received Zion EP (Sony), Crossfaith were heralded as the next big thing, armed with a formidable live reputation and an electronica/dance heavy brand of metalcore that oozed crossover appeal. Fast forward to 2018 and the Osaka troupe haven’t quite risen to such promised heights, to the extent that a brand new album seems to have almost fallen under the radar to some – not that they have lost any edge, as Ex Machina (UNFD) is not only their most creative release to date, but their strongest since Zion.