Meshuggah – I (Remastered EP)

Posted on September 30, 2014 by News Team

Meshuggah. I can just end the review at the end of that first sentence, right? The name speaks for itself as easily the most revered and analyzed band of the decade and a half of extreme metal. They certainly have lovers and haters, but they have clearly set themselves apart from any other band. Many bands want to sound like them, but few can really do it. As the band continues to celebrate their 25^th Anniversary with a Concert DVD and now this Special Edition remastered EP (Nuclear Blast) coming ten years later, now is as good a time as ever to expend a few more brain cells revisiting this creative and crushing release.

If Chaosphere established the bands footing in the underground, and Nothing foisted them into the consciousness of mainstream metal fans, I was made for unabashed, fan-boying worship. Arriving on the scene as a one-off release from Jason Popson’s (Mushroomhead) Fractured Transmitter label, this unassuming 21-minute plus singular track comprises in it everything great about Meshuggah. ‘I’ has insane time signatures, crushing, mechanical riffing, stellar drumming and the classic ranting vocals of Jens Kidman. The track was a flat-out masterpiece, certainly worthy of the best the group had to offer up to that point. Several movements and expansiveness of themes was a portend of future proggy tracks on releases such as Obzen and Koloss.

But hey, let’s not let our admiration totally blind us to a hole in the original version. The mix, especially up front in the first few minutes of the track was muddy sounding. Once the intro was over and the track really kicked in, it evened out sonically, the adjustment of which is audible with headphones. So audiophiles rejoice! The new re-master is crystal clear, upon A-B-ing the two versions.

As an added bonus to ‘I’, The release includes kickass versions of ‘Bleed’ and ‘Dancers To A Discordant System’ live, and a new version of the ‘Pitch Black’ single from 2013.

Worth picking up for fans and completists.

9.0/10

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KEITH (KEEFY) CHACHKES

Territorial Pissings – Sel Balamir of Amplifier

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Steve Tovey

With new album ‘Mystoria’ showcasing a new direction for the eclectic Amplifier, frontman Sel Balamir fielded the Ghost Cult interrogation and emphatically told of how his band are more grunge than prog…

“For me Mystoria is like The Melvins meets Crosby,Stills & Nash” is how vocalist and guitarist Sel Balamir describes Manchester alt. masters Amplifier’s upcoming release, the band’s fifth full length, when talking about the album’s fuzziness married with harmony. It has to be said that Mystoria (Superball) is quite a departure from what we may expect of Amplifier, moving towards a more direct sound akin to grunge and the more typical echelons of rock music.

A lot of people will see the comment above and start running for the hills, but it is important to remember that Amplifier have never been a group to repeat themselves. From the sprawling prog journey of Octopus (self-released) to the more stripped down follow up Echo Street (KScope), Amplifier have always had a knack for trying out different styles and sounds.

As calculated as it appears, however, Balamir dismisses the notion of a preemptive plan behind it all. “It’s not conscious, it’s just more demonstrative of our powers of attention getting shorter and shorter” he says jestfully. “I think it’s just different kinds of people you hang around with, certainly for me, is the undercurrent of what changes sound and stuff. Because you take on board people’s opinions and what they find interesting and they make you interested and think about things and ways you may never have thought about before.”

Time and personal constraints also prove a factor. “The Octopus was a massive sprawling record because we wanted to make a record that no record company would ever put out. Echo Street was different again because we didn’t have four years to make a massive record, we decided we were going to make a record then made one the next week, we hadn’t written it or anything!

“Up until Mystoria all our records were quite complicated and with Mystoria we just wanted to make a record that wasn’t so emotionally complicated, it was just simple.”

Mystoria also differs from its predecessors in the methods of its recording, being rehearsed to perfection prior to a quick recording, which conversely has an effect on its outcome: “It’s basically a live album, there are hardly any overdubs on it, so it’s basically a live record. For me I can hear the difference, there’s a lot more space on the record. There’s my guitar, there’s Steve’s (Durose) guitar, drums and bass and that’s it, no layers of feedback and texture which featured deeply in other records, I think it’s a lot more in your face record because of that.”

The aforementioned Steve Durose (of Oceansize fame), along with Alex Redhead joined Amplifier since Echo Street’s recording as the band shifted to a four piece. This in itself also aided Mystoria’s final sound. “The other guys beefed out the harmonies, and certainly there are a lot of harmonies on Mystoria. It was designed to take advantage of those vibes.”

Previous album Echo Street was released under license by prog label KScope whilst Mystoria sees Amplifier associate with a different record company, Superball. “Echo Street fits on KScope’s roster. It wouldn’t fit on Superball’s roster and the kind of thing they do and conversely Mystoria wouldn’t fit on Kscope. They don’t really do straight-ahead rock bands and for me Mystoria is like a rock album, not a prog album, so Superball is much more suitable. And they are more piratical as well, a bit more dusty knuckles to me, than Kscope.”

A move away from being associated to a true champion of modern progressive rock to a label with little association with the genre whatsoever may seem a strange move to some, but Balamir has before been quick to dismiss his band as simply a prog band. “We are a mongrel band, we’re citizens of the world, we like all types of music. That element of listening to Pink Floyd is as strong in me as the element of listening to Yes and listening to Joan Baez. We live at a time of with a rich cultural heritage that has been recorded. I’ve got records that my parents bought because they were amazing records and they still are amazing, so it’s no wonder that we don’t fit into any pigeonhole because we have never pigeonholed our own tastes.”

In fact the “prog” tag that Amplifier have been lumped with in the past is clearly something that Balamir is disapproving of : ”As soon as you get that prog attachment, for people who don’t know, they think they are just going to get Yes or Rush, and I love both of those bands, but I wouldn’t say they are representative of what my band sounds like. My band sounds more like Nirvana to me than those bands. I don’t think we are prog at all, just an interesting rock band.” Interestingly however, despite Balamir’s issue with the prog tag, Amplifier by transforming throughout their history actually offer the most progressive of elements themselves. “And there’s the irony. Most prog bands aren’t progressive at all, they are conservative.”

Especially with recent ties with Kscope, it goes without saying that a large proportion of Amplifier’s fanbase will be more prog orientated so was Balamir concerned with what such fans would make of the new album? “As soon as you start trying to shape your records to what you think the fans will make of it then you are on a steep, slippery slope. We just do music as an expression, rather than just trying to impress people.”

This being said however, we can mostly expect fans of such music to have a diverse range of musical tastes shown in prog’s all-encompassing umbrella of sonic variants. For Amplifier this is reflected in their (especially recent) presence on festivals and bills of the eclectic variety; from Damnation festival, to Beyond The Redshift, the Kscope anniversary shows and others. “We were talking about this the other day, that all these festivals we play, we never seem to fit in to any of them…I think Amplifier are one of those bands that people who are into different musical styles there is a space for us in their taste.

“We play heavy music so its not weird for is to be on bills with heavy bands. We are there because we are a different colour to other bands that are there. We are an option if you want to take a break from speed metal.”

Speaking of bills, Amplifer have been announced as support for returning cult grungers Kerbdog. A move that only a few months ago would have seemed baffling now makes so much sense. “We are all about the grunge. It would be nice to play with a proper rock band. Nothing complicated.” And from this it seems Amplifier may have found a firm new home. A band renowned for transforming and shifting from album to album seems to have settled into a groove at least for the time being. “That’s where we want to be and stay. If there was one thing that would be our manifesto now it would be just lean and mean. That’s what its all about so playing with Kerbdog, will be good because it will be simple.”

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Words by CHRIS TIPPELL

Knifeworld – The Unravelling

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Steve Tovey

Having formerly been in the ranks of the much missed, oddball maestro’s Cardiacs, any band featuring Kavus Torabi was never going to be a dull or simple affair. Suitably so Kavus’ latest venture, Knifeworld, have been a leading light (along with the likes of The Fierce & The Dead) in a new generation of British Prog of a most eccentric variety.

Knifeworld’s previous record work has shown the band and Kavus’ vision and ability to combine the most unorthodox musical styles with a pop aesthetic, but latest album The Unravelling (InsideOut) is their most ambitious and impressive work to date.

The sheer plethora of ideas at play is quite staggering yet everything flows with precision and urgency, leading from one unexpected twist to another. From the short and sharp assault of ‘The Orphanage’ to the twisted, cartoon-like ‘Send Him Seaworthy’ and the nightmarish eeriness of ‘The Skulls We Buried Have Regrown Their Eyes’, this is a bizarre journey through multiple sonic landscapes, yet it remains completely cohesive.

Kavus’ vocals offer a complimenting addition with his unique tone and the splendid interplay with the additional and contrasting voice of Melanie Wood adds an extra dimension to the album’s almost demented manner.

Very few people can match Kavus Torabi when it comes to writing quirky yet brilliant music and The Unravelling is the perfect representation for this. An album built up on both the kookiest and left-field influences and poppy hooks, this is a masterclass in challenging yet still really accessible music. It is certainly not for everyone, but for those with a keen ear to left-field music will find one of the year’s most rewarding listens, and benchmark for modern British Prog.

9.0/10.0

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CHRIS TIPPELL

Empress AD- Still Life Moving Fast

Posted on September 8, 2014 by News Team

Despite a more famous reputation for being the label behind metal icons such as Slipknot, Sepultura and Deicide, Roadrunner Records in recent years has also been a firm backer for modern progressive metal’s titans with Opeth and Mastodon as associates. The newest addition to their prog roster is the debut album from rising British act Empress AD who find themselves in an unusually watched position with a huge major label backing and the eyes of the music media upon them. Unfortunately Still Life Moving Fast(Roadrunner Records) does not hit the heights it needed to.

Influences from the current generation of metals more experimental alumni are notable; predominantly the sludgey yet ferocious tone and pace of Mastodon as well as hints of Tool and Cult Of Luna in part. But for such a dynamic range of influences this debut seems rather stagnant and a little samey throughout.

The album manages to continue without anything that stands out and grabs your attention, instead mostly moving into a sonic blur. Vocally it shows some imagination in its delivery and a range of styles but still feels uninspiring and nothing that hasn’t been heard many times before.

With an impressive amount of coverage for such a young band, this album was always going to have a lot of pressure on its shoulders, and it does show promise for the band who are clearly musically astute. Sadly this ultimately ends up as disappointing and worst of all dull.

5/10

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Chris Tippell

Opeth – Pale Communion

Posted on August 29, 2014 by News Team

Effortlessly blazing a trail encompassing brutal death metal, British folk and classic progressive rock, Mikael Åkerfeldt has led Opeth through many bold new directions and transcended genre boundaries for the band’s entire career. That 2011’s Heritage (Roadrunner Records) saw Opeth forgo the heavier end of the spectrum was for many a bitter pill to swallow. Whereas previous prog masterpiece Damnation was bookended with a heavier companion in Deliverance, Heritage saw Åkerfeldt indulging influences such as Comus and King Crimson in a fastidious and stubborn fashion claiming freedom from the restrictions of metal.

Fast forward three years and Pale Communion (also Roadrunner Records) is, in many ways a continuation of such a direction, but one that see’s Mikael’s uncompromising view drawing more clearly into focus.

Harking back again to the late 60s and early 70s this eleventh studio opus features fluid dexterous drum patterns, moody distorted organ work and another all clean and highly proficient performance in the vocal department. Where Heritage felt somewhat disjointed on occasion Pale Communion is richly woven into a tapestry of ornate and complex elements rather than flitting from one genre to the next.

‘River’ is perhaps the most surprising moment this time around drawing on the southern sounds of the likes of the Allman Brothers with the addition of a classic Rush middle section. It’s the bravest and most refreshing moment herein, unearthing yet another string to the Swedes’ substantial bow.

Largely a more cohesive work than its predecessor, there is a moment of overindulgence in instrumental centrepiece ‘Goblin’ could have been left on the cutting room floor. Though a tribute to the Italian horror soundtrack masters, it feels ill-fitting and out of place.

Far better is the albums longest moment the undulating ‘Moon Above, Sun Below’ a perplexing beast which keeps you guessing while again highlighting the morose beauty of Mikael’s vocals.

“I don’t want to bare my scars for you” opines Åkerfeldt on the graceful ‘Elysian Woes’. It’s a sentiment which is echoed in the fiercely uncompromising approach he has taken to producing music that truly challenges the listener. Hell bent on reinvention, this is another collection of finely crafted salvos from this prestigious group.

7/10

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ROSS BAKER

Nachtmystium – The World We Left Behind

Posted on August 5, 2014 by News Team

Despite single-handedly dragging Nachtmystium from the benighted depths of the US black metal scene to their current position as one of its biggest names, it has not been an easy ride for mainman Blake Judd. Years spent battling drug addiction appeared to have paid their price with Judd announcing last year that The World We Left Behind (Century Media) would be Nachtmystium’s final recording. Howeve,r a recent change of heart means that the band is once again an active entity with Judd seemingly ready to lay his demons to rest and build on Nachtmystium’s successful merging of BM aesthetics with Pink Floyd-influenced prog and post-punk elements that has won them so many admirers. It’s a winning formula and one that Judd has further explored on this new album after the back to basics approach of 2012’s punishing Silencing Machine.

Despite the band’s status, first track ‘Intrusion’ seems to be more of a collection of rehearsal room riffs than anything resembling an actual song, more of a warm up exercise that somehow ended up on the finished product. Thankfully the Nachtmystium we know and love announces itself in style with ‘Fireheart’; a hip-shaking post-punk number chock full of jangling melodies that employs several downright catchy riffs that Joy Division might have written had they been around long enough to hear Deathcrush (Posercorpse). A few weird yet restrained keyboards nicely supplement the riffs and driving chorus before the mid-paced introspection of ‘Voyager’ takes things down to more downbeat levels with Judd doing plenty of soul searching in the morose lyrics.

The first appearance of the scalding black metal of the early days is in the eight minute plus assault of ‘Into the Endless Abyss’ which perfectly melds the aggression and iciness of the Norwegian second wave with the depressive elements that are the trademark of USBM. Keyboards nip like wasps rather than drowning the riffs in synth rendering the track a cathartic yet challenging experience, proving Judd still knows how to turn on the hate when required. However, modern Nachtmystium is more about atmosphere than pace these days as the churning riff and sheer gloom of ‘In the Absence of Existence’ lets you know when the band are at their most crushing.

The title track has a defiantly playful nature, merging epic synths with the most basic of drumbeats and another of those killer mid-paced riffs that seems to come so naturally to Judd. The melodies are as achingly sad as ever of course. However, it’s on the final track ‘Epitaph for a Dying Star’ that everything gels perfectly with the gorgeous, ethereal female vocals, soaring melodies and utterly crushing post-metal riff that drives the whole thing confirming just how lucky we are that Judd has postponed his retirement.

The World We Left Behind would have been a brilliant epitaph to a fantastic band but it now takes on a new perspective as something Judd can build on in the future, provided he keeps his demons in check. Or maybe he should let them off the leash entirely? Either way, Nachtmystium are back at the top of the pile and long may they glower down from there.

8.5/10

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JAMES CONWAY

Meshuggah – Between The Buried and Me: Live at The House Of Blues, Boston MA

Posted on June 30, 2014 by News Team

For 25 years, Meshuggah has been terrorizing the ears and cortices of the music world, and so it was only natural that they’d bring along their apprentice masters of the mindfuck in Between the Buried and Me along for the ride. And what a ride, indeed. They could open a carnival of progressive wonders, where musical rules are meticulously followed and simultaneously twisted to Eldritch proportions. But enough of this posh music academy drivel, this is metal.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve caught Between The Buried and Me since their tour in 2009 with In Flames, but we’ll just settle for ‘a lot’. And having seen them a lot, one gets used to the Colors closing masterpiece, ‘White Walls’ being used as a closer rather than an opening. And one also gets used to the suspense in waiting for perhaps one, maybe even two gems pre-Alaska (Victory). What with the success of Colors (Victory) and having released three space-exploration reports since, they’ve obviously got a lot of material to choose from, and their priority seems to be the latter half of their career. Essentially, we can look forward to hearing mainly post-Alaska tunes as they played this night. Though keep your fingers crossed for their upcoming 15^th anniversary.

Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Boston-House of Blues-Between the Buried and Me (1 of 1)-2

This was one of those odd sets where BtBaM played mainly their longer songs, thus making Paul Waggoner’s statement to interviewers all-too-real. Perhaps we can stop waiting for them to bust out ‘Mordecai’ or ‘Naked By The Computer’ when they’re wrist-deep into ‘Lay Your Ghosts To Rest’, immediately followed by ‘Fossil Genera’ to cap off another amazing set. They’re changing, and we’re being taken with them as listeners and watchers. Keep writing/keep dreaming.

Meshuggah and BtBaM contrasted in a way that honestly took me off guard even though anyone with a working ear can see it immediately in their music. I refer to the aura created not only by 7-string guitars that make the sound of super-astronauts punching asteroids into other ones, but also their stage presence and light show. BtBaM was rather conservative this time, with no fancy screens, just stage lighting that undulated chromatically with the music, and kept their beards in sight. Meshuggah on the other hand was strobe hell, with lights that must be programmed by acid wizards for all of the meticulous timing. And no, you couldn’t see any of Jens Kidman’s faces from the floor unless you wanted to risk blinding yourself. Polyrhythms and infectious grooves were the name of the game. They even used the disco ball during ‘Gods of Rapture’. I don’t even remember the last artist who I’ve seen use that, if ever. Maybe The Roots?

This being their 25^th anniversary, they played the “hits”, if you will, opening up with the caustic ‘Future Breed Machine’, an industrial hellride banger that never fails to incite mechanised violence. Plenty of material from their debut album, Contradictions Collapse (Nuclear Blast), including the robotic thrash of ‘Greed’ and the earlier mentioned ‘Gods of Rapture’. Choice tracks from Chaosphere, one being the mighty ‘New Millennium Cyanide Christ’, and quite heavy on the Koloss. ‘Straws Pulled At Random’ was my favourite of the night, though I wish they had found room for ‘Spasm’ as well, while they were doing Nothing.

Encoring with Riddler-esque green lights and a back-to-back delivery of ‘In Death – Is Life’ and ‘In Life – Is Death’ from Catch ThirtyThree, I can say they’ve officially won me over. Nevermore will I be ambivalent about Meshuggah, as they put on a killer show, even if their crowd doesn’t know the physics of how a circle-pit should work. During the fast parts, people.

[slideshow_deploy id=’7054′]

Meshuggah Set List

Future Breed Machine

obZen

The Hurt that Finds You First

Do Not Look Down

Cadaverous Mastication

Greed

Gods of Rapture

Neurotica

New Millennium Cyanide Christ

Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion

Bleed

Demiurge

Straws Pulled at Random

Encore:

Mind’s Mirrors

In Death – Is Life

In Death – Is Death

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WORDS: SEAN PIERRE-ANTOINE

PHOTOS: HILARIE JASON PHOTOGRAPHY

Roadburn Festival Part I: Live at 013 & Het Patronaat, Tilburg NL

Posted on May 5, 2014 by News Team

Roadburn festival is special, as many who have gone know. It’s one of those festivals where it’s impossible to see everything you wanted to and you end up missing things that were awesome, but you didn’t even know about or seeing things you’d never heard of before but are now suddenly completely addicted to. It debuted bands into the world at large like Goat and Ghost, and manages to pull reform bands that quit ages ago, or pull bands that never perform out of the woodworks. Doing a “proper” festival review of Roadburn is utterly and completely useless. Instead I’m writing an impression. An impression of a magical special place where everyone, except a few bad eggs, is so nice and friendly no-one wants to leave and you’re instantly addicted. A hidden place where the bands stick around to see others play and get just as excited about seeing things as the visitors. A place where all is awesome, so really nothing can be said.

I have the difficult task of squeezing four intense days of not only music, but people and party into a readable format that won’t be too long. I can go on about this festival forever, but I’ll restrict myself.

Day One as always starts a little uneasy. Excited as I was for the past weeks to go back to Roadburn (year four and counting…) I’m mostly reconnecting with friends and bands I’ve not had around for a year. This year I didn’t have the time to properly prepare and listen to all the billing before going, but I had a fair idea of what I wanted and needed to see. I wander into the 013 venue, which has three rooms available for this festival. There’s the main stage (capacity 2100), the greenroom (around 400-500 capacity I believe) and the stage 01 (about 150-200 capacity) across the street, in an old parish building there’s Het Patronaat (capacity around 800) and on the edge of the perfect “beer street”of Tilburg, around the corner of the 013 venue, there is the Cul de Sac (capacity 100-150). All in all the Roadburn crowd take over a major part of the city with their happy blackened hippie vibe. So in we get and hang around the foyer of the completely stuffed Greenroom (the small rooms always get full up) to listen to a bit of Brutus’s set. It’s incredible they’re even here, as just before their tour their studio burned down and they lost all their equipment. The band is hard to YouTube, because of their (rather generic) name, but definitely worth the effort. What I pick up from their set sounds incredible, nice retro stoner blues rock. Their vocalist really reminds of Ozzy in his better days and a few more of the older vocalists. After about 15 minutes I go to catch some of Sourvein in the Mainstage. The sludgey doom these Americans give us just doesn’t quite catch me the way other doom and sludge greats do. Maybe it’s not slow enough for me or maybe it’s the vocals that feel a little forced. So off we merrily wander again to check out the merch street and then catch some 40 Watt Sun. Damn these guys can play. Heavy, slow and oppressive, even though it’s an acoustic set with out the normal bass volumes. Het Patronaat, which has heavy carpeting on the balcony and always gets notoriously hot, adding to the atmosphere. The sound was impeccable. Sadly it’s impossible to finish watching their set if I still wanna see Beastmilk. They’re one of my “need to see” bands this year. While I’ve heard plenty of people be incredibly impressed by them live or even like them better than on record, I was a little disappointed. The music was good and solid, but the second vocals were gone, as was the echo that you get on the record, drowning the vocals. On record they’ve got the more new-wave feel while live they’re more punky. I also expected more show of these guys. The stage looked incredibly empty and while Kvhost played the crowd like the professional he is, it lacked something. The backdrop was just a still of their album cover and the strength from the album just wasn’t there even with songs such as ‘Death Reflects Us’. Good, but not as mind-blowing as I had expected. Then again expectations were very high

Next I try to catch some of Samothrace, but walk in just when their last lengthy notes and ringing through Het Patronaat shaking the rafters. I hear it was good but I really cannot judge on half a minute and two notes. After a brief chat with some friendly people I go on to see some Napalm Death, one of the few Deathmetal bands I almost always enjoy seeing live. Their insane hysterical party energy is just wonderful, and though this time they chose to t a special, slower, doomier Roadburn set, the hysterics were still their in their vocalist who just cannot stay in one spot for more than five seconds. I did miss the exuberant party energy though, but still an incredible set. I caught a little of Goatess, from the back of the room (well outside the doors towards the stage 01 so…) and I remember thinking they rocked, but the wall of people made it hard to really enjoy, so I went to see some of Corrections House. Many people didn’t like them since they’re more in the industrial corner of things, but their dark bleak pounding sound did catch my attention for sometime, and while they were the definite odd duck of the day they were good at what they do. By now I’m in a serious dilemma. I wanted to see Anciients and True Widow, and The great old ones, all playing the same time slot. I also wanted to catch a bit of Crowbar. I ended up mostly shooting and watching a bit of Crowbar, realizing they weren’t getting to me and popping off to True Widow, watching them from the side of the stage. True Widow are amazing live, and I’m kicking myself I forgot to pick some of their stuff up. The interplay between the vocals of both bassist and guitarist, the difference in their voices and the sheer thunder of their music is wonderful. They’re tight and minimal but not simple. The room was packed and everyone loved it. Sadly Anciients was packed so the wait began for Bong to start. How shall I describe the transcendent experience Bong is when you’re already tired yet excited of a day of running from band to band and making room to chat with people and make new friends? After the photo-pit time I snuck upstairs to the relatively calm balcony and just sat there eyes closed letting their atmospheric heavy jam carry me away. Afterwards I did attempt a look at the Heavy Metal Disco in the main foyer, intending not to stay to long. It was 3:30 by the time the lights came on and music turned off and I snapped out of my conversation with a new friend, and sheepishly started the trek home with my bunkee.

After a night of far too little sleep and a heady breakfast, the track back to the festival arrived. For me this isn’t too massive an affair: about 10 minutes in the buss or 20-30 walking, but there are people staying all over the south of the Netherlands and the camping itself is a good 30 minutes cycling away.

When I get to the venue the restaurants and bars are filled with the flock off bearded black-shirted Roadburners settled on the city. Today Opeth’s Mikaël Åkerfeldt got to plan in the main stage. Roadburn always has a fair amount of proggy bands on her billing, but with Åkerfeldt curating and his band playing, the spread of them is even more. Today starts with the phenomenal Magma, French prog ancients with a jazzy 60’s psychedelic style that confuses the masses. Some people flee after about half a song, the rest stays, entranced but confused, trying to figure out what is going on while really liking what they hear. While it’s sort of like listening to five songs at the same time, the music itself is impeccable and the unique operetta vocal style (no not the high waily kind but the proper male low sound) wielded by the male baritone of the group is refreshing and highly impressive.

While others run to see the heavy duo The Body, I decided to have a peek at the vintage Caravan, new kids on the block playing the stage 01, but definitely buzzing. Sadly it’s impossible to get into the room, it even took the ban 5 minutes to get to the stage through the throng. People are latterly packed against the wall opposing the stage 01 doors. And all of this is justified. These kids can play. They play a delightful retro 70s style rock, very listenable and done so well you ‘d swear they lived through the period. They play again on Saturday but after this thunderous set they’ll be more impossible to see. Up on the mainstage Comus is getting set up. This is proper 60’s feeling, acoustic, gentle more formal prog, impeccable harmonies and very quiet. The show is a little static as everyone is either sitting or has a steady place on stage surrounded by monitors but all in all the music is impeccable. The static feeling of the show doesn’t mater, it’s not a band you watch it’s a band you dream away to.

In the greenroom Änglagärd are setting up to play their set. You cannot avoid the massive, huge sound starting up in the main room as Goblin starts to play. While not where near as abrasive and “loud’ as some Roadburn bands their sound is so massive and so well layered that it envelopes you and take you with them on a journey through the musical movie themes they composed. The level of balance is incredibly, while the bass notes are heavy and deep, earth shatteringly so, you can literally hear any sounds in the lighter higher registers, and their bassist sound is at times more funky than doom. Incredible set and so engaging it will drag you back for more time and time again. For a while I try to go see the jam sessions Åkerfeldt set up in the stage 01, which were almost deserted while very good musically, the Goblin set kept dragging me back again and again.

Candlemass know how to get a party going. I think this may be the best and biggest response and interplay between band and crowd I’ve ever seen at the usually quite mellow and movement reserved Roadburn crowd. And they were good, exceptional, with vocalist Máts Leven shaking his wild curls around with fever. As Candlemas have been playing switcharoo with their vocalists so often I had a bit of a pickle finding out who the wild-haired curlyman playing the crowd so well was. His voice was impeccable too, and combined with the excellence of the music surrounding him, he took it upon himself to entertain besides singing.

Opeth, what can be said about them that hasn’t been showered on them already/ praise for their immaculate sound? Criticism for not being rough enough? Reverence for their musicality? I’d like to talk about Åkerfeldt’s sense of humor. The set begins with a heartfelt tale about how impressed he is with Roadburn and it’s welcome not only of his band, but also of the strange bands he programmed instead of the more traditional Roadburny taste. Their set was surprisingly heavy, much to the joy of the crowd, as they switched lighter, proggy songs off with heavy grunting old stuff. Eventually of course people start yelling requests, to which Åkerfeldt had a great solution, he asked if the one guy yelling ‘Freebird’ would yell so now, and after a chorus of replies, they did play ‘Freebird’, ignoring all other requests. At the end, instead of leaving and making the audience shout for them to come back and play one more song, they stayed on stage and made the crowd ask for their encore as if hey wren;t there, and then launched into the massive song everyone had been waiting for since forever: ‘Black Water Park’. I’ve never seen so many people pleased, even mentioning it was their best show in ages for playing the heavier stuff. The intense and amazing day of proggy rollercoaster tired me out to such a point I didn’t even go to the afterparty and went straight home to sleep, longing for something heavier and more traditional Roadburn fare.

Roadburn Festival on Facebook

Words and Photos by Susanne A. Maathuis

The Dillinger Escape Plan – Trash Talk – Retox – Shining (NO): at Brighton Music Hall, Allston MA

Posted on April 24, 2014 by News Team

There aren’t many tours that are revealed that I get giddy with excitement for immediately after they are announced. After hearing The Dillinger Escape Plan were playing Boston, however, it became one of my most highly anticipated shows of the year, and it did not disappoint in the slightest. They are one of those bands who, from the times I have seen them, put on some of the most intense shows I have ever seen.

So, when I reached the sold out Brighton Music Hall and saw the crowd building up when doors opened, I knew Boston was going to be in for a hell of a show. The night started off with the band Shining. No, not the black metal band from Sweden, but the experimental metal act from Norway. Fronted by guitarist, vocalist, and saxophonist Jørgen Munkeby, Shining blends the intricacy of progressive metal with the sound of jazz and black metal in order to craft very interesting pieces of music, which can be heard on their releases Blackjazz and One One One (Indie Recordings). Opening with the track ‘I Won’t Forget’, it was obvious that some of the crowd did not know what to expect after they began to play. The band played with a lot of energy and had a very strong stage presence throughout their set. By the end, most of the crowd was into their performance, even some of the people who were talking about why they were on the bill. They ended their set with a cover of ’21st Century Schizoid Man’ by King Crimson, and having the whole crowd sing along was a perfect way to close their set.

Following Shining were glitchy hardcore noisemakers Retox, whose mathy approach must have been a tad too offbeat for a crowd awaiting Trash Talk. With a more straightforward and urban approach to hardcore, it lends itself more to the mosh, essentially. Busting out oldies like a souped-up version of ‘F.Y.R.A.’ and the title track from their fastcore favourite, ‘Walking Disease’ and evenly dotting in some of their darker, heavier material from Eyes & Nines and 119 paved the way for stage-dive and crowd surf central. With vocalist Lee Spielman keeping the crowd hype in order to give them their money’s worth in next day bruises, there was no shortage of circle pits, rafter hanging (guitarist Spencer included), and of course, good old fashioned mosh ignorance. Those near the stage during the seasonably doom-laden ‘Hash Wednesday” would also be able to smell a certain sweet leaf making the rounds. Surprisingly, no hospitalizations, but definitely a lot of damaged shoes.

To pile mayhem on mayhem came The Dillinger Escape Plan, who, unlike Retox, have the history and long-standing reputation for hosting shows where the trend generally is rafter hanging, pit violence, more rafter hanging, impassioned singalongs, and maybe more rafter hanging, but this time instigated by guitarist extraordinaire Ben Weinman. Of course, you can guess that this set followed the formula of a normal Dillinger set, but is that ever a bad thing?

Aside from vocalist Greg Puciato telling all couples to make sweet love for the sake of procreation during the swank, ear-friendly intro to the title track of their Sumerian Records debut, One Of Us Is The Killer, you can guess what happened, short of the venue walls collapsing under the weight of ‘43% Burnt’, or the glorious pile-on/stage invasion during ‘Sunshine The Werewolf’, a fitting closer. Whoever programs their light show should get an academy award for the headache inducing task of syncing up anti-epilepsy death rays with the mind-bending time signatures that they bust out as easily as a grade schooler can beat-box. When even ‘Panasonic Youth’ is a comparatively ‘easy’ song to tap your foot to, you know you’re in for the musical equivalent of a plane crash. In the best way, of course. Be sure to pick up the wreckage that was your brain on the way out of the venue.

Despite all odds, the Brighton Music Hall still stands, and so we may tell the tale of the night it survived Trash Talk And The Dillinger Escape Plan back to back. Honestly, I’m still puzzled, but some things are best not to think too hard about and just accept. Life is kind of like stage-diving, if you think about it that way.

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Shining (NO) on Facebook

Retox on Facebook

Trash Talk on Facebook

The Dillinger Escape Plan on Facebook

Review by Jason Mejia and Sean Pierre-Antoine

Photos by Meg Loyal Photography

Guest Post: Davide Tiso on Gospel of The Witches

Posted on April 11, 2014 by News Team

Ghost Cult is honored today to bring you an exclusive message from Davide Tiso, known for his work with Ephel Duath. Davide’s current passion is the creation of his ongoing project with his muse and partner, Karyn Crisis: Gospel of the Witches. Intended to be Karyn’s long anticipated solo project, it is being crafted with heavy hitters Ross Dolan (Immolation), Danny Walker (Intronaut, Murder Construct, Exhumed) and super star producer Jamie King (Between the Buried And Me). Davide walks us through the genesis of the project:

“I started composing songs for Karyn Crisis’ Gospel of the Witches in
2009: it is now 5 years that I’m working on and off on this project.
Karyn and I dealt with, arranged, recorded, rehearsed and lived with
dozen of songs to choose from and I’m nothing short of amazed at how
good the 13 lucky ones that we picked sound. Most of these tracks are
literally born from bursts of inspiration. There were moments where I
had to run to my desk with the guitar, turn on my laptop, record and
make sure to press the save button. Most of the time, half an hour was
enough. I don’t recall much about the composition process, I was
probably channeling from my good star. What I have stuck in mind are
the following days of arranging process: every bar in this album has
been maniacally shaped and refined to sound heart shattering and
intense. Musically, I feel like the key factors of this work are sonic
layers and mantra-like shapes. To me these songs are like an emotional
vortex that steal you away from reality for much more than their few
minutes of duration. I’m so proud and impatient to finally record this
album. I wanted to offer Karyn the very best I can as a musician and
band member and I feel that my dedication and obstinacy paid off big
time. These songs are what Karyn Crisis proudly sounds like these
days: to my ears, and as a fan, I feel like this album is going to
touch the very core of who has followed her thus far in her career.
Karyn is one of a kind – too challenging for many, too twisted for
others. I say we are lucky to have her around the way she is.”
–Davide Tiso, April 2014

To launch Gospel of Witches and bring it to the masses, the group has launched a Kickstarter. The rewards are mostly personal, unique and crafted from Karyn’s visionary brilliance. There are just 9 days left, so check out their page and give what you can here:

More about Gospel of the Witches:
http://curranreynolds.blogspot.com/2014/03/karyn-crisis-gospel-of-witches.html

Ghost Cult will bring you further updates on this project from now until its release.

Gospel of the Witches on Facebook

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