Chicago is renowned for being home to some of the country’s most acclaimed concert venues. Lincoln Hall resides just north of downtown and has been voted as one of the best spots for live music in the city by sites like Yelp and Foursquare. The owners of Schubas Tavern opened their second location in 2009 in a hundred-year-old building and have been hosting transcendent live appearances since. Soen picked well to make this their Midwest stop on their one-month-long North American tour.
Saint Andrew’s Hall is one of the most treasured music venues in Detroit. It once was home to The St. Andrew’s Society which has been around since 1849. Like most of the buildings in Motor City’s downtown, there is a rich and interesting history that goes along with it. These repurposed places carry a rare kind of magic which feeds directly into the pleasant experience attendees have at Saint Andrew’s. It was the perfect spot for one of Modern Metal’s hottest bands to bring their headlining 2022 USA tour last weekend. Jinjer came to town, and they came ready to show off.
It is hard to believe that the Swedish supergroup, Soen, has only been making music together for ten years. Their first full-length, Cognitive procured high praise for its progressive proficiency and emotional maturity. They have stood out for their Tool-like compelling intensity and wide range of sentiment. They have remarkably managed to expand on these ripened abilities with each album they release. Now this quintet is getting ready to celebrate their tin anniversary by releasing a concert film of their classic numbers and a cover with live orchestral accompaniment.
Warforged is one of those bands that has eight and a half million labels used to describe their music. From black metal, technical, death to proggy, I think each and every promo notification I received for this band labeled the band with something different. The multitude of labels are actually appropriate as not a single track on The Grove | Sundial (The Artisan Era), the band’s second album, sounds the same on this album.
One of the most influential thrash metal acts of the eighties, progressive Canadians Voivod have never been content with sitting back and churning out the same record over and over again. A constant desire for change and reinvention has meant the quartet from Jonquière, Quebec has had to endure much unnecessary and often ludicrous pigeon-holing over the years. Post-Thrash. Punk. Speed. Proto-Industrial. Avant-Garde. Progressive. And even Nuclear Metal (whatever that is).
The contradictions of crafting an album using the very technologies and processes the band had previously railed against are but one small element of the complicated and interesting layers that make up Artificial Devices, the self-released second full-length composition of London duo Andrei Alan (guitars/bass/programming) and Chris Bevan Lee (keys/vocals/programming) collectively known as The Ever Living (I promised myself no Mumm-ra comments, but here I am in the intro… I can’t help it, every time I see the band name…).
The talent is evident and the production quality ever-present.
There are shining moments with songs that develop character and identity.
But the abundance of what comes off as shredding for the sake of it, and apparent filler shoe-horned in, tamps down the overall significance of Obscura’s A Valediction (Nuclear Blast).
Jinjer is a Ukrainian four-piece act that has captivated and charmed varying music scenes all around the world. Just over a decade ago, the band started to make waves in their own country and around Europe when they released their EP Inhale, Don’t Breath. The vibrancy and viciousness of their Modern Metal sound stood out and has led them to be one of the most noteworthy bands in the genre. Now they are getting ready to release their fourth full-length album, Wallflowers (Napalm Records) and the expectations are high. Their determination, creativity, and uniqueness has many wondering if this new album can be a crown on top of the quartet’s budding stardom.
Extreme progressive band Voidgazer will release their new album, Dance of the Undesirables, on August 27th, 2021. The band just dropped their new music video for their song “Jesus Take The Needle” and it is a banana-balls slab of riffs, beats, and shrieking guttural howls. Like the bastard child of Lemmy and Obituary, this band is sick, ugly, and possibly hammered all the time. Check out the lcip and pre-order the track from the band on their Bandcamp page.
It is bands like Riddlebreak that make it a shame there aren’t more descriptive titles for genres. Architeuthis may be early on the South African six-piece’s discography, but its ingenuity attests to their clear identity. Whether or not you think Metalcore is dead, prepare for a journey where you will witness its reincarnation into something far more elaborate.