Tag Archives: Tech Metal

Ghost Iris – Blind World

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It is safe to say that tech metal is currently thriving, both in terms of numbers and wealth of talent. With festivals completely dedicated to such artists, including the world-famous Euroblast, there are no shortage of acts to delve into. Of course, this means a risk of over-saturation, which is arguably already a problem. Now whilst Danes Ghost Iris are far from reinventing the wheel, they at least offer a somewhat alternate outlook on the Djent sound when it comes to song structure, and latest album Blind World (Long Branch/SPV) should rightfully make some waves in the scene.Continue reading →


Cynic – Uroboric Forms, The Complete Demo Collection

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In 2017 the landscape of metal is still reveling and rich in the almost unlevelled influence of Cynic. From their début album Focus (Roadrunner), which paved a road for progressive death metal with its complexity and its jazz influences, they returned from hiatus in 2008 to a scene virtually of their own creation and have continued to prove themselves as true kings of the progressive metal and tech metal genres that came in their wake. With Sean Reinert and Paul Masvidal the continuous pairing behind Cynic, their legacy to this day sees them as one of the most revered bands of the genre.Continue reading →


Associate Editor Steve Tovey’s Top 20 Albums of 2016

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For the record, I’m not a huge fan of the first person approach when it comes to reviews or metal writing, but as this is a personal run down, and seeing as it’s you lot, I’ll break that particular fourth wall just this once…Continue reading →


A Sense Of Gravity- Atrament

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When it comes to so-called progressive metal, far too many bands are too willing to tread easy territory and ape their peers. Very few under this umbrella actually seek to be original and stand out. Even fewer still actually boggle the mind on first listen nowadays. Step forward A Sense Of Gravity. Continue reading →


Pomegranate Tiger – Boundless

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Since the release of debut album Entities in 2013, one man instrumental wizard Martin Andres (Pomegranate Tiger) have garnered considerable attention in the tech metal and djent circles, with a concoction of progressive metal which is accessible and welcoming but with masses of complexity and technicality. The follow up Boundless (both self-released), some two years later, gives much the same, and is simply better and richer, and should match its anticipation.

The range of influences at play encompasses such a wide expanse, from tech and djent to even heavier elements and classic prog, all the while feeling fluid and integral rather than bolted on and brash. With one man projects such as this there is always the risk of it feeling bloated and self-indulgent but Boundless proves organic in its range, bold in its scope and easy to delve into, with enough to dig into further. There are even shades of more haunting and ominous territory akin to the likes of Goblin in parts.

In what could have been a display of technical wankery, Boundless proves a triumphant example of how instrumental progressive metal can be compelling enough to draw people in and become familiar, and complex enough to offer new insights on each listen, and  to showcase virtuosity without dragging. Again, Pomegranate Tiger prove a compelling, growing force in prog metal spheres, albeit one with a somewhat daft moniker.

 

7.0/10

 

CHRIS TIPPELL

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Caligula’s Horse – Bloom

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In recent years Australia has given a burgeoning and genuinely exciting scene of metal, particularly those of a progressive nature. From the likes of Karnivool to recent genre alchemists Ne Obliviscaris, such bands are not only making waves on the wider radar but are doing so with inventive, compelling and brilliant flavor. Similarly Brisbane originated Caligula’s Horse have made a mark, with two well received albums, a characterised brand of emotive progressive metal and the eventual signing to prog label titans InsideOut. Not too shabby really.

Latest album Bloom (InsideOut) begins on almost misleading terms, as the title track begins with a lengthy, acoustic passage accompanied by soft vocals before it gradually increases tempo and dynamic, in part reminiscent of Opeth, as it proves to build up towards the comparatively heavier ‘Marigold’. Throughout the album Caligula’s Horse strike that tricky balance between the heavy and lighter elements with aplomb melding the complexity of tech metal and some near djent-like moments with emotional resonance and accessibility. In fact, much like Agent Fresco, there is a great level of pop sensibilities and a weight of influences and styles, but doing so with a style and feel of their own.

At an approximate duration of 45 minutes, Bloom offers a rich diversity and layering but in a run time more manageable for the more novice listener. Catchy, poppier moments and recognisable influences with further draw people in, whilst rich textures and the fluid blend of complexity and aspects of serenity will keep the trained listener engaged for ages. A stunning effort from a band that are quickly proving to be one of the contemporary prog scene’s most promising torch bearers.

 

8.0/10

 

CHRIS TIPPELL

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Ghost Cult Album Of The Year 2015 – Countdown: 30 – 21

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Part three of the Ghost Cult Magazine countdown to our Album of 2015. 

And now the end is near, and so we face 2015’s final curtain, and once more the Ghost Cult army got together to vote for their favourites. The results? Over 20 writers pitched and voted on over 220 albums ranging from indie pop to the most horrific savage tentacle laden death metal showing the depth, breadth and class of the official Ghost Cult Album of the Year for 2015.

The countdown (to extinction) continues…

 

Tribulation30. Tribulation – ‘The Children Of The Night’ (Century Media)

“The Children of the Night, save for snarled vocals and horror themed lyrics, is a classic heavy metal record, far more interested in melody and catchy songs than aggression and violence; a brave record from an exceedingly talented set of musicians who are just that more subtle when it comes to what style of darkness works best.”

Review by James Conway here

 

Windhand29. Windhand – ‘Grief’s Infernal Flower’ (Relapse)

“…something has happened here; an unsettling event or rite of passage, propelling this captivating outfit to the stars without drastically changing their identity. In doing so it has enabled the band to create its most sombre, hypnotic, emotive and supreme piece of work.”

Review by Paul Quinn here

 

sw28. Steven Wilson – ‘Hand. Cannot. Erase’ (KScope)

“Where The Raven… was mysterious and downright grave emotionally, the new album is poignant and uplifting almost all the way through. Even in somber moments, the songs have an underlying feeling of hopefulness that defies the melancholy. Wilson is a master delivering the unbridled beast of a song in a beautiful package.”

Review by Keith Chachkes here

 

maruta27. Maruta – ‘Remain Dystopian’ (Relapse)

“Seething with a fulminating ire, yet showing unexpected versatility; if you’re pissed off with parents and / or bullies, but don’t want an ignominious revenge to stick you on the front pages, exercise your frustration with these guys instead.”

Review by Paul Quinn here

 

drudkh26. Drudkh – ‘A Furrow Cut Short’ (Season of Mist)

“Like all great Drudkh releases, this is an album that reveals more with every listen, a rousing yell of defiance backed by a passionate beating heart. Tenth full-length release A Furrow Cut Short is one of their finest efforts to date.”

Review by James Conway here

 

hoac25. Heart of a Coward – ‘Deliverance’ (Century Media)

“Writing this review is a bit like trying to make conversation with a devastatingly attractive woman – all I could initially think of to write about each song was “Fucking Brilliant”. In summary, Deliverance is a stunning piece of work that can only be criticised for coming to an end. More of this please lads.”

Review by Philip Page here

 

nile24. Nile – ‘What Should Not Be Unearthed’ (Nuclear Blast)

“Death jams like ‘In the Name of Amun’ and ‘Age of Famine’ give way to breadth and dizzying tempo changes, the kind of searing death metal that recalls prime Morbid Angel. If the prog fans and metal elitists can get past the death grunts and learn to love the blast beat they may just find a band fawn over other than Dream Theater.”

Review by Hansel Lopez here

 

deafheaven23. Deafheaven – ‘New Bermuda’ (Anti Records)

“A sprawling mini-opus, one that tells us much of where this band can really go musically  in the future. While not as groundbreaking or original as Sunbather, which any band would be challenged to follow, New Bermuda hits you in all the right G-spots musically and emotionally for one of 2015’s undoubtedly finest releases.”

Review by Keith Chachkes here

 

mgla22. mgla – ‘Exercises In Futility’ (Northern Heritage)

“Despite the overwhelming misanthropy that is conveyed, the seamless flow and rousing melodies are emotive and enriching. It’s an album crafted with passion and dedication, which is overtly evident in their music. Mgła have honed a pioneering sound that is now getting the recognition it so very much deserves.”

Review by Heather Blewett here

 

highonfire21. High On Fire – ‘Luminiferous’ (eOne)

Ghost Cult Album of the Month – June “The boys have put out one monster of a record. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, get yourself a gallon of Pike Juice instead and keep an eye out for an upcoming tour date near you.”

Review by Aleida la Llave here

PART 1: ALBUMS 50-41

PART 2: ALBUMS 40-31

 

 


SikTh – Opacities

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Extreme geeks everywhere rejoice as for the first time in nine years, tangential Watford sextet SikTh returns with a new product. Latest mini-album Opacities (Peaceville) seems a little more influenced by the vocal melodies of natural descendants TesseracT, though their own progressive atmospheres remain in evidence.

hankfully, despite the occasionally touching and sometimes overwrought emotions here, the savage switches and screams that have influenced so much in the emo and djent scenes during the last two decades are coursing through the set, almost as if to justify the band’s re-emergence. The mechanical creativity and robotic rants of ‘Philistine Philosophies’ might easily have been anachronistic but the personalities and character of the protagonists shine through the vocalising to make this over-mined sub-genre vital once again: the brutal drops and duelling screams as organic and fiery as they are entertaining.

Those twisting, intricate riffs baffle and confuse delightfully throughout the soaring ‘Under the Weeping Moon’, but some of the vocal lines here and in the otherwise poignant closer ‘Days Are Dreamed’ appear rough and tired, the harmonic cleans also seeming somewhat strained – the coruscating yells are staccato and feral enough to win the battle but it’s here that an occasional lack of spark is initially highlighted.

Overall this is a welcome return, albeit seeming a little dated, and it’s very possible that new fans of the scene spawned by these guys might find much to like. Borne out further by the more mature (I’m being kind here, you understand) sound of ‘Walking Shadows’, however, the bouncing, switching sound fails to fully disguise the lack of instantaneous chaos and youthful risk that this kind of music – Meshuggah excepted – largely demands. More energy and some fat-trimming please…

 

6.5/10

 

PAUL QUINN

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Shrines – Shrines

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You know how it feels when you just can’t decide what to listen to? You cycle through ten albums in as many minutes, hearing bits and pieces of everything but not feeling entirely satisfied by any of it. The first time you listen to Shrines (Apocalyptic Witchcraft) you may well think that you’ve just done that without changing the album.

Shrines are one of those bands that it’s hard to pin down on paper, not because they’ve forced some uniquely individual style, but simply because they jump around so often that it’s frequently easy to forget that you’re listening to the same band. Across their debut’s ten tracks, Shrines cover sweeping Post-Metal, melancholic Black Metal, vaguely pastoral Doom, masterful Death Metal, bullish 90’s Metal chugging and some oddly laconic Gothy stuff about wolves that even manages to sound out of place on this album.

As this review is likely to focus on the negative, it needs to be said that the playing on Shrines is absolutely top notch – the band are in lockstep throughout, not missing a beat despite the complex and changing nature of the material – and there’s no shortage of excellent moments throughout. The problem is that they never manage to coalesce into anything meaningful. There’s nothing wrong with variety, of course, but the bands who really pull it off are the ones who invest every style they touch with a sense of their own identity – Shrines cover a lot of bases with style and precision, but there’s never a sense of who they are beneath that, and each time the album finishes you’re left with no greater idea of who they actually are as a band. The vocals also don’t help, moving (as you’d expect) from soaring clean singing to angry shouts and gruff roars, but never really committing to either and ultimately sounding passive and withdrawn.

Shrines is an impressive performance from a talented band who are undoubtedly trying to forge their own unique style, and for the right listener they may well “click” into something that truly transcends the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, the abiding impression will be that of so many ideas that none of them really have chance to take root.

 

6.0/10

 

RICHIE HR


Heart Of A Coward – Deliverance

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Now then. Every once in a while, you find an album where the first track gives you a stupid shit-eating grin because you just know the whole album’s going to kick your ass. Deliverance (Century Media) by Heart Of A Coward is one of those. Writing this review is a bit like trying to make conversation with a devastatingly attractive woman – all I could initially think of to write about each song was “Fucking Brilliant”.

The greatest thing about the djent “genre” is the huge diversity of influences and styles across the different bands. The potential for originality and excellence in such fertile ground is vast – the scene is a passionate community, has already bred a wide cadre of noteworthy bands and boasts its own labels, producers, websites and festivals.

Heart of a Coward are a fairly recent band on the scene, having formed in 2009, and, with the likes of Periphery and Animals as Leaders, are among the second generation of djent acts delivering on the rich promise of the genre. Taking the djent tropes as a given, there’s a plethora of high-grade influences evident in the mix – from Fear Factory crunch to Strapping Young Lad noisescapes through Lamb of God grooves and Killswitch Engage energy with Deftones breaks and Soilwork shout-a-longs. The real achievement of all this, however, is the fact that it’s realised without sounding fragmented or derivative. The different elements all coalesce into a cohesive sound that’s original, distinctive and incredibly full-on.

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This is the Milton Keynes noisemongers’ third album, and it’s an absolute pearler. It’s different in tone to their last outing – Severance (Century Media) – darker, fewer atmospherics, more aggressive and only a dash of clean vocals. This one’s less about the story and drama and more straight-ahead moshbait pitched perfectly to destroy any venue that dares to have them on the bill. We start with ‘Hollow’, which has you wishing for a mosh pit before the first bar is done; a blistering statement of intent that leaves you with absolutely no doubt as to what’s to come, ‘Miscreation’ is up next, and is basically one long beatdown interspersed with soaring screamalong vocals. ‘Turmoil I – Wolves’ is a masterpiece of metalcore chug with shades of Killswitch, following into ‘Turmoil II – The Weak Inherit The Earth’ which sounds like early Chimaira injected with a heavy dose of groove.

‘Anti-Life’ and ‘Grain of Sand’ are triumphs of production, successfully replicating Devin Townsend‘s “Wall of Sound” to crushing effect. Absolutely superb before ‘Mouth Of Madness’ slows things down a touch with a Slipknot-esque opening and a chorus that features the first appearance of clean vocals on the album. ‘Deliverance’ is the most outwardly djent entry on the line-up and the song that most closely resembles their prior work. It would be wrong to call ‘Skeletal I – Mourning Repairs’ a slow song, but it’s an immersive, soulful number that’s up there with Filter or Porcupine Tree for heavy shoegazing. ‘Skeletal II – Arise’ follows straight on as an extended outtro and a melancholy end to the album.

In summary, Deliverance is a stunning piece of work that can only be criticised for coming to an end.

More of this please lads.

 

9.5/10

 

PHILIP PAGE