In their 20 year history, Austin, Texas act …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead have never been a by the book kind of band, always shifting and turning in unpredictable directions. An incredibly hard band to pigeonhole, one that has over time been adorned tags such from hardcore, to prog, to indie rock and even mathcore; trying to quickly define this band is a waste of time.
This ‘trend’ of the unexpected continues on ninth album, IX (Superball Music), with songs that were originally intended for use in film and television as instrumentals, before the creative rivers flowed some more. Also surprisingly is how refined and near simplistic it all is (in comparison to previous work at least). Still far from being an AC/DC template like band but IX does relinquish their sense of indulgence and expansion for a more streamlined approach, somewhere between their punk influences and indie rock, with the merest suggestion of prog. ‘A Million Random Digits’ is one of the more up tempo moments and has an aggressive streak in comparison to the synth driven ‘Jaded Apostles’ that precedes it.
On the first instrumental effort, ‘How To Avoid Huge Ships’ is where we are reminded just how bombastic this band can be when they turn up the prog; with piano and strings bolstering and building the song over its course, bigger and bigger. It is in this latter half of the album where the band’s extravagant side rears its head again, with these instrumentals and the long players like ‘Lost In The Grand Scheme’, in contrast to the short and sharper blocks in the previous half.
IX is another turn in this band’s very winding road and one that sees many of their sides come together, and at times in an all new perspective. There are signs of their punk like volatility and their whimsical prog side and a little in between. Another fine addition to their already captivating catalogue; this band simply refuses to be boring.
7.0/10
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CHRIS TIPPELL
Last Chance To Reason is essentially a dead band and Level 3 (Prosthetic Records) represents their final fling. For those new to the band this is the third interactive album that matches to a video game (which I haven’t played) and there’s plenty of game noises thrown in here and there to make sure you don’t forget. It’s progressive technical metal full of bass grooves and chugging, arpeggios and riffs from guitar, driving drums and rather quiet and highly-processed clean vocals sharing with a bit of harsh. There’s a large measure if synth building depth that contrasts with sparse moments and even some well-placed silence.
A minute into the opening, title track of Mouth Of Swords (InsideOut), the new album from The Safety Fire, and you’re hit by full and complex layers of progressive metal and rock that reaches back to the ’70s and forward to the future as it takes inspiration from a broad range of themes and styles. Whether it’s chugging riffs or twidly high-pitched dissonant shredding, smooth flowing grooves or erratic rhythms and arpeggios, higher-range vocals or angry shouting, the songs are a conglomeration of many and varied parts.
Palehorse don’t appear to take themselves too seriously, with a few tongue-in-cheek promo shots that include corpsepaint, cups of tea and the morning papers. What is serious though is the cruelty and severity of the cacophony that is their music held within this new album Harm Starts Here and it’s the clashing of these two opposing views that makes the album something worth exploring, if only once.
Since forming in1999, Canadians KEN mode has not been strangers to receiving feverish acclaim and devout attention for their intrusive and impacting albums and continually inspiring invention. With the release of their fifth album Entrench the trio from Winnipeg has sculpted their most intensive and compelling, not to forget impressive creative statement yet. With sonic alchemy the band has fused the most incendiary essences of hardcore, noise rock, and their imagination, to create an inflammatory and barbarously contagious incitement which leaves the passions in a delirium of manic and tempestuous glory.
With their previous album Canadian sludge/noisecore outfit KEN Mode made quite an impression. Their latest record, entitled Entrench, is another mucial tour-de-force. Ghost Cult caught up with with guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson to see what’s going on in the KEN Mode world..
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