Lateral Noise

Paragraphs - Come Nap with Us

2010-11-10T00:52:00.000+02:00

Artist:Paragraphs
Album: Come Nap With Us
Label: Self released
Year: 2010

Tracklist:

01. Once I'm a Doctor, I''ll Think of Great Titles
02. Believeverything
03. We Talk About Enemies More Than We Used To
04. Donna Martin Graduates!
05. The Dead of Night Has Never Felt More Alive

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Minneapolis trio's sophomore release after January 2010's You Can't Make A Ghost Without Its Sheet. Track #1 features Jacob Grun of Me & My Arrow on vocals. Released the same day as Paragraphs' guitarist's solo release Little Slips under the name The Alaska Tile. Hear it at thealaskatile.bandcamp.com. Find PRGRPHS elsewhere at myspace.com/paragraphsband, facebook.com/prgrphs, and twitter.com/prgrphs.

credits
released 26 October 2010
Paragraphs are Dan Vogel (drums/keys), Brigitte Mussack (keys/melodica), and Chris Polley (guitars). Recorded by Jacob Grun, Ryan Maier, & Amy Daml. Mixed by Jacob Grun & Ryan Maier. Mastered by Arun Antonyraj.

prgrphs.com
facebook.com/prgrphs
twitter.com/prgrphs
myspace.com/paragraphsband

Ruined Machines - Pressure & Obsession Press Kit + Sampler

2010-08-07T11:42:00.002+03:00

Artist: Ruined Machines
Album: Pressure & Obsession (Press Kit + Sampler)
Label: Rain Music Group
Year: 2010

Tracklist:

01. The Extremist Hear
02. The Decade's Had Its Run
03. Graceful Pins & Needles
04. ...Waiting Here At Home
05. Endless, Empty Days

Download

(This is a sampler. Support the artist by buying the album)

“An album doesn’t start from the exact time you lay down the first track of the first song the first time. It starts way beforehand. It takes a lot of mental power, a lot of brainstorming, preparing… pressing and obsessing. It takes gathering all of the emotions you’ve gone through, all the experiences you’ve had, all the love and hate you felt up until the time that that album is completed.

This album, as each one before it, is a product of my heart and soul; it’s the creation of a mind and its pair of hands. It’s the aural representation of sadness and happiness and everything in between. Loneliness, pain, pleasure, shock, fear, worry, anxiety, hunger, despair, boredom, regret, wonder, disappointment, pride… It’s all in there.

An album is a journal entry as well as its creator’s masterpiece at its time of completion.

I work with the tools I have to paint on an infinite canvas. I am an artist. I am a musician. Each album i’ve written reflects the changes i’ve gone through, and in turn the album changes me once it’s complete.

The new album, “Pressure & Obsession”, tells a fictional story through music, but at the same time, largely reflects exactly what’s been through my head, in my heart and in front of my eyes this whole time. It’s as heartfelt as can be. It is my vent, it is my release. It is what I haven’t expressed through words. It is an extension of my self. It is everything about me.” -by Joseph Kenyon @Ruined Machines.

Official Site
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Bird From The Abyss - III EP

2010-06-23T16:12:00.000+03:00

Artist: Bird From The Abyss
Album: III EP
Label: Self released
Year: 2010

Tracklist:

01. Neck-Deep in Swampy Mud
02. Powers Hidden
03. Interlude from Abandoned Well

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(The saga continues and here is III EP, presented to you as an exclusive 50, numbered copy stack in a slim mini-DVD style case and black 8cm mini-CDr, with a sticker-on-cardboard insert and cover art by V. Lähde)

Official Site
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Various Artists - A Hydra Head Sampler Phoning It In

2010-03-02T20:38:00.004+02:00

Artist: Various Artists
Album: A Hydra Head Sampler Phoning It In
Label: Hydra Head
Year: 2010

Tracklist:

1. Oxbow + Philippe Thiphaine - "Coalking" From Songs for the French (5:46)
2. Daughters - "The First Supper" From "s/t" (3:18)
3. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - "Unkerich" From Dolores (5:31)
4. Knut - "Calamity" From Wonder (1:43)
5. The Austerity Program - "Song 27" From Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn (4:04)
6. Pyramids With Nadja - "Another War" From Pyramids With Nadja (15:27)
7. Helms Alee - "Lionize" From Lionize/Truly 7" (2:45)
8. Hayaino Daisuki - "Ghosts of Purgatory" From The Invincible Gate Mind of the Infernal Fire Hell, or Did You Mean Hawaii Daisuki? (2:43)
9. Harvey Milk - "I Know This Is No Place For You" From A Small Turn of Human Kindness (5:07)
10. La Gritona - "Tony Alamo" From Demasiado Tonto Para Los Ninos Listos. Demasiado Listo Para Los Ninos Tontos (4:38)
11. Stephen Brodsky - "Here In Spirit" From Here's to the future (5:54)
12. Jodis - "Continents" From Secret House (7:27)
13. Nihill - "Mundus Subterreanus" From Krach (5:16)
14. Cave In - "Retina Sees Rewind" From Planets of Old (2:30)
15. Kayo Dot - "II. Whisper Ineffable" From Coyote (11:13)
16. Keelhaul "THC for One" from Keelhaul's Triumphant Return to Obscurity (3:34)
17. Clouds - "New Bombs" From B Chuggas May Be Logging (2:08)
18. Xasthur - "UNTITLED 4/05" From 2005 Demo (7:02)
19. GridLink - "Amber Gray" From Amber Gray (1:06)
20. Greymachine - "Wasted" From Disconnected (8:43)
21. Bergraven - "Hunger" From Till Makabert Vasen (7:08)
22. Torche - "UFO" From Songs For Singles (2:01)

Download

Regardless of the fact I/we shouldn't need to convince the public to download this sampler because... well... sampler = free, I/we plan on doing a little persuading... Please refer to list of reason for checking out the sampler below:

1. Free Jams!
2. 22 Free Jams!
3. Contains Some Unreleased Jams For Free!
4. Free Photos of the Lovely HHR Staff Having a Laugh and an Ice Creams!

Official site

Strange Glue And The Post-Rock Underground Vol. 3

2010-02-17T18:59:00.003+02:00

Artist: Compilation
Album: Strange Glue And The Post-Rock Underground Vol. 3
Label: Strange Glue
Year: 2010

Tracklist:
01. The American Dollar - Landing
02. Pg. Lost - Crystalline
03. Collapse Under The Empire - Crawling
04. Pelican - Strung Up From the Sky
05. The End Of The Ocean - Setting Sail
06. Analog Sound - Потеряно в переводе
07. Microfilm - State & Island
08. Eimog - Saved By Thirteen

Download

As the new decade begins we all set off on ambitious missions to achieve, succeed and explore. For some people they do so by working hard, for others they get their travelling boots on and for those reading, it's probably portrayed as a quest for new music.

If you are from the latter group then here's us getting the ball rolling, a compilation of the finest Post-Rock music around. A scientifically-proven mix of awe-inspiring tracks from both established and fledgling bands. Eight tracks of new, rare or unreleased material to tickle your fancy, tickle your auditory canal and to tick all your boxes with incendiary sonic explosions.

There is of course a catch, much like your local drug-dealer, we give away the first hit free-of-charge in the knowledge that you'll keep coming back for more at slightly raised prices. This is what is called 'the music industry', so blow the moths from your wallet or purse and start purchasing some albums by these fine bands -by Gareth Jones (strangeglue.com)

Info

Merkabah - Merkabah (EP)

2010-02-16T11:32:00.000+02:00

Artist: Merkabah
Album: Merkabah EP
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Looks, Sounds - Like Stale Time And Space
02. Narwhals
03. Still Water
04. Fields Of Shipwrecks Pointing South

Download

Merkabah was founded at the end of 2007 in Warsaw, Poland. Their music can be described as psychedelic metal combining improvised, noisy soundscapes with more precise, aggressive riffs and post-rock melodies. It often includes electronic influences, as well as tribal rhythms, all mixed with a feel of freedom and experimentation.

MySpace

Planete Sauvage - The Strange Mood Of The Dirty Rocks

2010-02-14T11:48:00.003+02:00

Artist: Planete Sauvage
Album: The Strange Mood Of The Dirty Rocks
Label: Self Released
Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Image d'un objet recomposé (part I)
02. L'immanence des serpentines
03. L'éveil de Shemty (chap II)
04. Le spectacle du non vivant
05. L'éveil de Shemty (chap III)
06. The strange mood of the dirty rocks
07. Le retour de Biculah dans sa patrie (chap III)

Download

Planet Sauvage is a non expandable and unanswered aggregate. It was born on the first year according to the New Messiah (1996 of the older prophet age).
Combination of a gothic roman cathedral and a public dump, it's name is directly influenced by the Rene Laboux's animation film "La planete Sauvage".
It's judged as the first of the six miracles of the duality foretelling the second, the Azirh's king accession, Tresypult. The third being the born of his son, Amagimah, the fourth, the Biculah's resurrection, the fifth, the Semty's reincarnation. Lastly, the sixth, the Kroll's metamorphoses.

Official site

Hollow Branches - Anchored In Sleep EP

2010-02-12T16:00:00.002+02:00

Artist: Hollow Branches
Album: Anchored In Sleep EP
Label: Strix Records
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Steel Flowers
02. Anchored in Sleep
03. Ivory Dream
04. Ante Meridiem
05. Impending Morning Haunts

Download

More than 5,000 miles separates the members of Hollow Branches, they have only been in the same room a hand- ful of times, each is in several other bands, and none of this is likely to change. In spite of these obstacles, Hollow Branches has managed to record two EPs in 2009 alone.
With a sound equal parts ambient, rock and trip hop, Words are Fire received a digital release in February and was downloaded no less than 500 times. Since that time, five new tracks have been written for their second EP, An- chored in Sleep. Thematically inspired by dreams, insom- nia, nostalgia and morning, Anchored in Sleep finds Hollow Branches expanding their sound with elements of progressive and post rock, as well as glitch. Anchored in Sleep will be available for download and purchase before 2010.

Anchored in Sleep:
Robert Hunter
Marius Sjøli
Jason Walton

Official site
MySpace

Eschaton - Godmode

2010-02-12T15:52:00.000+02:00

Artist: Eschaton
Album: Godmode
Label: Self Released
Year: 2004

Tracklist:
01. Narcolepsia
02. Domina Discordia
03. Dominus Satanas
04. Libero Me Ipse Morte
05. Sacred Chaos Part V.
06. Sethamorphosis

Download

KEY POINTS
– 1. Eschaton is an extreme Metal Band from Linz, Austria. 2. They have performed at several independent events in and around Austria. 3. Since their foundation in 1998 they have released two albums. Deus Ex Homine and GodMode. 4. Currently Eschaton is recording songs for a Split-EP scheduled for a release in spring 2010.

PRESS TEXT
– In their eleven year existence ESCHATON have evolved into a consortium of extreme music, ignoring musical boundaries, with the sole intention, to create intensity and awareness far beyond society, moral and religion.

Official site
MySpace

X:THC - The Human Condition

2010-02-12T00:02:00.001+02:00

Artist: X:THC
Album: X: The Human Condition
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Hide
02. Monster
03. A Human Flood
04. The Creature From The Blackened Room
05. Sleeping With One Eye Open
06. Don't Cry
07. Mr. Happy
08. Like Violins
09. You 're Worth Fighting For
10. Tag, You're It

We do not offer a download link since you can buy the album from the band's site for as much as you want!!

So, finally, I got the CD in the mail! I listened to it and liked it a lot! Then I ripped it so I could put it in my MP3 collection, in my iPod and so on. But as soon as the CD was ripped I realized that I didn't know where to put it in my collection!! What kind of music is X:THC playing? Is it Trip Hop? Is it Dark Rock? Is it Ambient? Chill Out maybe?
Yeap, you got it! X:THC have managed to melt various genres of music into a big music cauldron! From the dark spoken introduction in "Hide" to the jazzy "Tag, You're it" you have the impression that there is more than one band performing on this wonderfull CD. And yet, it remains coherent the whole time, kind of being a concept album.
So, if you like Massive Attack, Nine Inch Nails and Chill Out music, then I bet that you re going to love this album!

X: THC’s Michael Nova is an existential explorer. A powerful performer, composer, filmmaker and producer, Michael is releasing his multimedia music and film project, X: The Human Condition, after over a decade of, at times, seemingly insurmountable challenges, countered by an innate creative perseverance. The project came about as many artistic ventures do – as a means of catharsis at a hard time in Michael’s life. However, hard times got harder, and when Michael became severely ill and almost went blind, X: The Human Condition seemed doomed. After completely revitalizing his way of life, Michael experienced a miraculous recovery, which in turn drove him to complete his magnum opus. Now he brings the work to the world, to inspire others to make a positive change as he did, and make a difference.

Synthesizing music, film, and an unforgettable live experience, X: THC is evolving and redefining how a live show is presented and experienced within the model of the music industry.

The central themes of the show are the universal human sentiments of isolation, loneliness, and detachment. By integrating different live media forms through “synesthesia” (cross-sensory experience), X: THC extends their own experiences to the audience, including them and affirming the fact that each of us is not alone.

The immersive, live concert performance is accompanied by Michael’s original film, X: The Human Condition, whose wistful and mysterious imagery creates an utterly unique and uplifting experience. Citing Tim Burton, Michel Gondry, Jean Cocteau, and The Brothers Grimm as major influences, Michael’s visual companion to the performance is a surrealistic trip inside the human subconscious.

In order to affect concrete change in others’ lives, X: THC has partnered with several charities dedicated to helping others who feel alone, alienated or "different". A portion of proceeds from ticket and album sales of X: The Human Condition will go to aid this vast community of people overcoming difficulties.

Official site
Buy (store)

Spread the Word!!

2010-02-11T15:17:00.000+02:00

Dear friends and followers,

Thank you so much for your support so far! It is a great pleasure to see people being interested in what we 're doing in this blog. Your supportive emails have been a source of inspiration and help us continue everyday. Now you can follow lateralnoise.com on Twitter, so you can have our posts sent or twittered if you would prefer, to your Twitter account!

If you haven't done so yet, just press "lateralnoisecom" on the Lateral Twitter widget located on the right column of the blog and press "Follow" on the page that pops up or just press here!

You can also check our facebook page here!

Tell your friends and bands you know about us!

Please be reminded that you can always follow lateralnoise.com by pressing the "Follow" button on the Lateral Followers widget!

Thank you for your support!

Home - Promo EP

2010-02-10T20:22:00.000+02:00

Artist: Home
Album: Promo EP
Label: Self Released
Year: 2010

Tracklist:
01. Emonoel
02. Matt Demon
03. Dice Game

Download

Home had many names and formations since the beginning of this project. The final formation exists ever since octobre 2009. After a first trailbrazing gig at the end of 2009 in the PMK in Innsbruck the 3-piece decided to change the name a last time and record a Promo EP.

The band exists of very popular names of the underground-scene in Innsbruck. Hans-Peter Ganner (Vocals, Bass; / Bassist-Sahara Surfers, ExBassist-DNR, ExBassist-Crippled), Amadeus Mader (Guitar; / ExGuitarist-Botanical Garden, ExGuitarist-Room 101) and Multi-Instrumentalist Mathias Magerle (Drums; / ExVocalist-DNR, ExGuitarist-Crippled, ExMultiInstrumentalist-Jokers In Trousers).

With the 3 songs of this EP, that was recorded in no time, Home demonstrates pure strength and surprises (at all events ME) with a totally new soundscape. This is Hans-Peters first try in a band as vocalist with a totally brachial voice. The tunes are generally very hard to classify with a genre. It reminds me very much on the sounds of Kylesa. But it is also very hard to range the music of Kylesa.

A mix of Sludge, Psychedelic and Hardcore is awaiting you with this release. This is for everybody who is searching for music full of power! Have fun!

Home Are:
Hans-Peter Ganner - Vocals and Bass
Amadeus Mader - Guitar
Mathias Magerle - Drums

MySpace

dreDDup - El Conquistadors

2010-02-08T20:54:00.003+02:00

Artist: dreDDup
Album: El Conquistadors
Label: Insurrection Records
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Clockwork
02. First Blood
03. With No Teeth
04. Opening
05. Space Error
06. Invisible Tears
07. Mind Games
08. Last One
09. The New Pain
10. El Conquistadors
11. Futurism (MrBd Mix)
12. Oregon
13. Return of the TV
14. One of Us
15. Amputated Soul

Download

Music of dreDDup is a mixture of dark noisy sounds with rough industrial rhythm followed by metallic vocals. They are mostly influenced by post industrial music scene of the late 80's and the mid 90's. After experimenting with weird noises and rough drum beats they embraced commercial segments in their sound, making it more popular for some wider range of listeners. Today, they sound like a crossover of every genre they get in touch with.

dreDDup was formed 4th of June 1997 in the small city of Novi Sad Located in Serbia (Europe). In the beginning the whole band were two punk guys who began to experiment with electronic music. They DIY produced their first demo 'BDTP' in late 1997. and their first demo album 'Abnormal Waltz' in late 1998. During the late 1990s dreDDup were part of what was known as the post- industrial / noise influenced band but their sound changed rapidly - finally gathering it all under the label of industrial / crossover. Many DIY cassette EP's and demo soundscapes were recorded in that period but were never officially released. Live performances took place and members changed.

Exploring the dark sides of the human mind and the distorted production of truthful industrial crossover music, they've released their first official album 6 years later. 'Mr Bordnead's Feast' (2004) saw the addition of violins, keyboards, female back vocals and live instruments. It sounded more mainstream and commercial but band did it with a purpose to get the attention from the Serbian media. More innovative than old demos , yet retaining all the key elements of the early era, 'Mr Borndead's Feast' was slightly darker, although a long way off the intense darkness of the first two demos. This album talked about the past and the bloody feast of the close minded. 2004's showed a band continuing to expand and redefine their sound and purpose. A substantial increase in live performances - once an unheard of rarity - has lead to much greater recognition by a new generation of fans.

In 2005, Holland music label MoocSound Records , released their 'Mr Borndead's Feast' album in digipack format. Band than produced several videoclips and entirely dislocated their sound from the other surrounding bands. dreDDup's next release came in august 16th. 2007, when they released their second album - 'Future Porn Machine'. Following the footsteps of 'Mr.Borndeads Feast' this new album sounded more darker and more industrial rock than the previous one leaving the production rough. The main concept of this album was the pornographic future, where art = pornography = art where machines are replaced by humans. "Insurrection Records" from Belgrade recognized this band's music and agreed to release this album. dreDDup than finally abandoned that mainstream sound and went back to the basics of their music leaving the old work behind. After this move, they finally got the recognition by the wider audience. It continued by making the official remixes for Nine Inch Nails and re-relase of their old demo album 'Abnormal Waltz' on CD for 9 foreign labels.

In 2008, the band was included in much of the foreign music compilations. Third album 'El Conquistadors' was than finished in late 2008. This album was meant to be totally different from their previous ones. The new dreDDup sound followed more post- industrial sound and less melodies, including some very dark vocals and music that brought new dark energy in their live performances. It's concept was to bring the old sound from the 80's back to life. All 15 tracks are for the "chosen ones" only and band decided to release a bonus DVD with it. DVD contains "Industrial Renaissance" 40 min documentary about the band and 50 min live video of the dreDDup show "Live in 219". This album was the last one in time trilogy and is talking about the present tense and human inner boundaries. Album was officially released for Insurrection Records on March the 6th 2009.

Although primarily a musical group, dreDDup has sometimes worked in other media. In their early years, they've produced several works of video art., film soundtracks and theatre music. Collaboration with many underground acts and artists also took place in their career.

They are currently on tour and working on their new fourth coming album which is about to be released in the beginning of 2011. This will also be the last dreDDup album.

Official site
MySpace
Buy

What? - Whateverism

2010-02-07T20:39:00.001+02:00

Artist: What?
Album: Whateverism
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Whateverism
02. Odium Of Being
03.Lost Beyond Recall

Download

20,000 amps and more: Germany is back on the map with alternative rock sounds - What?'s Whateverism EP has more current than a lightening strike. The 3 songs are not only dynamic and captivating, they also provide a wide base range where several emotions fuse into each other. Changing from melancholy to anger, What? finds the right atmosphere for its sophisticated and extraordinary arrangements. Kurt Ebelhäuser (well-known German producer) has equipped the band from the Ruhr area with a powerful production which completes this great band’s line-up.
It is clear that What? has a lot up its sleeve and the Whateverism EP is just the beginning of great things to come.
However let's start with the present.
The songs boast an intensity that might remind one of Placebo at times but very quickly you see that such an association is out of place. Altogether the songs feature a considerable tension; in the climax they resemble an emotional eruption. It grooves and each time you listen it gets into your brain more deeply. The band radiates great vitality and delight in playing, using unconventional instrumentation. They hit the accelerator hard without sounding monotonous. This emphasizes that What? possess a real keen sense of enthralling song composition.
Eleven minutes of progressive guitar storms between alternative rock, hardcore, metal and many other styles that influence What?.
You feel that Ingo (vocal), Skotty (guitar), Schrör (bass) and Marc (drums) know their trade and now want to know their limits.
What? is a well-oiled rock machine with lots of steam and pressure behind their pistons. The Whateverism EP is a true stroke of luck for people who are sick of the usual rock releases. Let the action begin. The tracks can be bought on iTunes and on Amazon. (-taken form the band's press release)

Official site
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Collapse Under The Empire - Find A Place To Be Safe

2010-02-05T11:37:00.000+02:00

Artist: Collapse Under The Empire
Album: Find A Place To Be Safe
Label: Sister Jack Records
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Capture Moments
02. Crawling
03. Find A Place To Be Safe
04. Tranquillity
05. Angle Of Incidence
06. Decay
07. Far To The Past

08. A Smell Of Boiled Greens

09. Intelligence
10. Conscious Of Thirty-Nine
11. Take A Shot On Me

Download

New album Find A Place To Be Safe provided me with my first listen to German instrumentalists Collapse Under The Empire, so I had absolutely no idea what sort of thing to expect. Not to put too fine a point on it, I was pleasantly surprised. Collapse Under The Empire are an essential listen for fans of post-rock, and in fact something more, instilling their music with the sort of passion and contemplation I would have thought impossible without lyrics.

Find A Place To Be Safe opens strongly with Captured Moments and Crawling, before really hitting its stride with tracks like Angle of Incidence and Decay. Perfectly paced, well performed and deeply contemplative, Find A Place To Be Safe is fantastic, with other highlights including the title track, Tranquility... well, pretty much the whole thing.

To conclude (somewhat superfluously), Find A Place To Be Safe is a fantastic work, essential listening for fans of post rock. People who are really into their music owe it to themselves to check Collapse Under The Empire out. (-by Chris Render @ nsrcdrebiews.blogspot.com)

Official site
MySpace

Concentric - Immeasurable

2010-02-03T00:03:00.004+02:00

Artist: Concentric
Album: Immeasurable
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Sedatephobia
02. Balance
03. Counterbalance
04. Ghosts
05. Familiarity
06. Sleep Therapy
07. The Colossus
08. Verdiend
09. Immeasurable
10. Inspiration
11. Rock Island, 1931
12. Monument
13. Opaque

Download

If you think about it, for gruff metal heads a lot of us are accepting of some pretty mellow non metal acts: Tenhi, Nuen Welten, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, old Mortiis, Summoning, Dornenreich just to name a few, seem to get a free pass with metal heads and as artistically brilliant as many non metal acts are , they are not metal, yet get mentioned and reviewed on sites like this. And I’m not here to dispute that or dissect why, I’m just here to introduce you to a pretty stunning Milwaukee instrumental acoustic trio called Concentric.
Featuring former Deadtide.com writer Jerry Hauppa (who I actually owe no favors to for this review since he once publicly called me and digitalmetal.com out), Concentric play a form of technical avant-garde instrumental music that’s largely acoustic and somewhat flamenco-ish and sometimes folky (in an organic, medieval kind of way), has some violin and cello, and some occasional metal leanings, but is superbly performed and a nice break from all the breakdowns and blastbeats.
What Concentric manage to do is be delicate, laid back and relaxing, while retaining some metallic complexity. While certainly most of the album is languid yet intricate string/acoustic (with percussion) busy flourishes that bring to mind some of the great Flamenco/Acoustic soloists (“Familiarity”, “Opaque”, “Counterbalance”, the delightful duo of “Sleep Therapy” and closer “Verdiend”-complete with acoustic blast beat), its obvious that Hauppa’s metal background is still a little on display for the likes of the moody “The Colossus”, end of “Inspiration” and the 9-minute title track which delivers electric guitar riffs, solos and even a surprise blast beat.
Jim Becker adds some enchanting cello (particularly the haunting “Monument” and “Sedatophobia”) and violin work to the mix, while newly added drummer Brad O’ Malley give the acoustics dexterity some backbone- and it comes together for a rather breath taking but definitely non metal, 60 minute experience that, on headphones, just unravels, and envelops with each unique and beautiful chord and note.
A simply breath taking exercise in skillfull, dexterous acoustics, Concentric have to be one of the most talented and enthralling instrumental, non metal acts Ive been exposed too. I hope some of you guys feel the same way. (-by Erik Thomas @ teethofthedivine.com)

MySpace
Buy

Ruined Machines

2010-02-01T19:56:00.000+02:00

Artist: Ruined Machines
Album: The Grasping Hands Of Possibility
Label: Self Released
Year: 2007

Tracklist:
01. Hardly a Place of Honor
02. Earth's Best Kept Secret
03. The Grasping Hands of Possibility
04. Of Aries & Aquarius
05. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
06. Hidden Paths to the Core
07. Your Morphing Mindset
08. Deep Thought & Deep Space
09. Miss Television Intelligence

Download

Ruined Machines are an experimental, instrumental rock band out of Linden, New Jersey, formed July 21, 2006. With influences ranging from post- and space-rock bands such as Red Sparowes and Explosions in the Sky, hard rock and metal acts like CKY and Hopesfall, and even classic rock outfits like Queen and Pink Floyd, Ruined Machines make use of mellow, atmospheric sounds as well as heavy rock guitar solos to make their sound more creative and enjoyable to listen to.

Artist: Ruined Machines
Album: Paths to a Digital Dawn
Label: Self Released
Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Good Morning
02. Her Eyes Hold Poison
03. Paths to a Digital Dawn
04. A Milestone, Your Every Step
05. You Can't Tell Time in the Dark
06. Cathedrals Underground
07. The Broken Lullaby
08. Barriers

Download

"An album doesn't start from the exact time you lay down the first track of the first song the first time. It starts way beforehand. It takes a lot of mental power, a lot of brainstorming, preparing... pressing and obsessing. It takes gathering all of the emotions you've gone through, all the experiences you've had, all the love and hate you felt up until the time that that album is completed.

This album, as each one before it, is a product of my heart and soul; it's the creation of a mind and its pair of hands. It's the aural representation of sadness and happiness and everything in between. Loneliness, pain, pleasure, shock, fear, worry, anxiety, hunger, despair, boredom, regret, wonder, disappointment, pride... It's all in there.

An album is a journal entry as well as its creator's masterpiece at its time of completion.
I work with the tools I have to paint on an infinite canvas. I am an artist. I am a musician. Each album i've written reflects the changes i've gone through, and in turn the album changes me once it's complete.
The new album, "Pressure & Obsession", tells a fictional story through music, but at the same time, largely reflects exactly what's been through my head, in my heart and in front of my eyes this whole time. It's as heartfelt as can be. It is my vent, it is my release. It is what i haven't expressed through words. It is an extension of my self. It is everything about me."

-Joseph Kenyon, Ruined Machines.

Official site
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Follow Us On Twitter

2010-02-01T00:32:00.001+02:00

Dear friends and followers,

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Thank you for your support!

The Atomic Bomb Audition - Light Will Remain

2010-01-31T03:30:00.000+02:00

Artist: The Atomic Bomb Audition
Album: Light Will Remain
Label: Self Released
Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Tracing The Ecliptic
02. Copernicus Apogee
03. Copernicus Perigee
04. The Fifth Wizard
05. We Speak To The Revelator
06. You Are The Sun & The Moon
07. Reseda Books Of Blood

Download

With roots set in the convergent space between doom metal. film music, and apocalyptic comedy, The Atomic Bomb Audution has fashioned its own expansive voice. The Bay Area quartet consructs deafeningly loud yet meticulously detailed sound worlds using a film director's sense of scene, each element chosen to serve the whole. The sound is 21st Century post-metal amalgam of myriad elements: excoriating guitars, haunting bowed contrabass, Moog synth trickery, thunderous percussion mosaics, feedback melodicisms, dulcet gamelan, and moon-governed anthemic crescendos among much else. With pieces clocking from ten to twenty minutes, the band elaborates a wide arc of deliberate sonic architecture through theme and variation rather than indulging in explanatory jams. Sounding at times like Neurosis interpreting the Cure's Disintegration, their artistic touchstones include The Melvins, Mullholland Dr. Bohren und der Club of Gore, Jerry Goldsmith, Bill Hicks, Brian Eno and Pink Floyd's Animals; artists who know how to navigate a wide field of influences with originality and aplomb.

Their 2nd full lenght album, Light Will Remain, is an immense work that represents the band at their creative apex. The album is an evocative document of the art of memory and the evolving significance of events through time. The desire to illuminate and darken aspects of our psychic apparatus based on the indeterminate verity of belief and sense drives this collection of narratives. Peaks of crushing psychedelic metal are buried under ebbs of seasick chords and gently whirring vibraphone. A stoic black hole guitar and bass maw repels celestial debris of processed percussion and voice towards the horizon. The band forges sound like aural filmmakers evoking wavws of synaesthetic images.

Formed in 2004, The Atomic Bomb Audition has performed in clubs, warehouses, galleries, co-ops, and colleges in the Bay Area and throughout the Western Seaboard. They have shared stages with host of ungodly talents including Sir Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls), GIRTH, Gregg Kowalsky, Barn Owl, Lesbian, Wah Wah Exit Wound, Jesse Quattro (Secret Chiefs 3), Dysrhythmia, Aspects of Physics, New Thrill Parade and diminished Men among others. They have collaborated live and on record with Braden Diotte (Tarantula Hawk), Jesse Quattro, avant-garde percussionist Shayna Dunkelman and folk singer Erika Pipkin. The band has completed several tours of the West Coast, and continues to perform live in support of Light Will Remain. (-taken from the band's press report)

The Atomic Bomb Audition are:

Alee Karim - guitar/vox

Brian Gleeson - drums/vox

Jason Hoopes - bass/vox

The Norman Conquest - electronics/vox

Official site
MySpace

Bird From The Abyss - II

2010-01-31T01:28:00.003+02:00

Artist: Bird From the Abyss
Album: II
Label: Starlight Temple Society

Year: 2009

01. Crawling Monuments
02. Travelling With The Bird - Part 1
03. Kyyn Laulu
04. From The Altars Of Fire To The Kingdom Of Ereskigal
05. Travelling With The Bird - Part 2 - Back To The Abyss

<a href="http://birdfromtheabyss.bandcamp.com/album/ii">Crawling Monuments by Bird From The Abyss</a>

Finland's Bird From The Abyss takes flight with their debut album "II",
a 40 minute sinister working of doom rock and folk music that will take you on a journey to explore the inner
mysteries of the ancient Mediterranean underworld and then send you straight into the heart of the creeping muskeg pits and forests of Finland's
mythological past. "II" utilizes a series of authentic classical instruments like the baglama,
zither and flute and more modern ones to create a link between our world and one which still dwells in the nexus of time.
Bird from the Abyss is the music of Pharaohs and ancient Sumerian kings!
Limited to 100 copies on gold CD, with 11"x17" poster, 8 page earth flecked paper booklet and matching 6"x9" printed envelope.

Official site
MySpace
Buy

Canyons - The Rufus EP

2010-01-30T11:30:00.000+02:00

Artist: Canyons
Album: The Rufus EP
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Are You There God? It's Me Rufus
02. Dirt For Sale
03. Milwaukee Talkie
04. Backslider
05. A Question Of Ethics

Download

It didn't take too long to spot this shoutbox message on our blog. I don't like the name Rufus at all so I tried to ignore it. I don't know what made me download it! The only thing I know is that this "Motorhead meets Cult of Luna meets Sex Pistols" Monster knows what it is doing... Check 'em out!!

And as they say themselves:

Canyons is four guys Loud amps and ooh that smell.
Rufus is the party.
Since day one of the CanyonsHouse house shows, Rufus has mingled with touring bands from all over and we've all had a blast.
We wanted to immortalize Rufus in song. So we did. We are in the middle of some projects and realized we had songs we still play live that never saw a real release.
If anything we've written so far deserves a single... it's Rufus.
That being decided we picked two songs to cover to throw with the old and new songs then visited UTG studios on Halloween.
The purpose of this ep is to raise Rufus Robinson awareness. That and to let people know Canyons wants to party.

Official site
MySpace

My Silver Booster - Bunker

2010-01-27T18:34:00.000+02:00

Artist: My Silver Booster
Album: Bunker
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Orfei
02. Taci
03. Ciao
04. Grafica Bambaataa

Download

My Silver Booster are an experimental/ambient/post-rock band that create cold and slow minimal electronic tracks, straight from Italy. They formed in 2006, and released their first LP ‘Pane e Paranoie’ in 2007, and followed it up with Ambient Punk in 2008.
They are a 3 piece, with a 4th member enrolled only to make the visuals and videos for their live shows.

MySpace
Last.fm

Rosa Parks - Rosa Parks EP

2010-01-26T10:31:00.003+02:00

Artist: Rosa Parks
Album: Rosa Parks EP
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Fanum
02. XX
03. God Spent The Weekend On Earth

Download

Rosa Park is a four-piece group hailing from Győr, Hungary. They took their name from Rosa Lee Parks, a civil rights activist who was born and lived in the U.S.
Rosa Park were formed in 2007 and this EP is "celebrating", in a way, their first two years of being together. I found the music wonderful and easy to listen to. It creates a nice atmosphere similar to "Explosions In The Sky", "Caspian", Scraps Of Tape and the likes...

As Gergő wrote in his message, the band is inspired by underground clubs, friends, hunger, history of injustice, melancholic moments.

Band Members Are:

Gergő – Guitar
Flo – Bass
Laci – Drums
Ádám – Guitar

Well done Gergő, well done Rosa Parks!!

Official site
MySpace

A Cold Dead Body - Promo

2010-01-20T22:53:00.004+02:00

Artist: A Cold Dead Body
Album: Promo
Label: EARTHACHE ArtLab
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Collapse
02. The Chosen Ones
03. Divinity Pt.1

Download

A Cold Dead Body is a band from the North-east of Italy. Everything started in 2005 as a one-man-band of lead singer Sten (ex-singer of the Metal-hardcore band Zune). After Zune's dissolution, this project finally became a real band starting the activity in 2007.

In 2009, they released a Promo EP of 3 tracks – the preview of the forthcoming debut album (spring 2010) – which is the very first publication of Earthache ArtLab - an art collective founded byLorenzo Cercelletta, Lucia Violetta Gasti and Cristiano Perin(members of the band).
Being realised in a limited number of copies (#150), each piece is handmade and hand-numbered, thus unique, and almost entirely made of natural and recycled materials.
The 100 Promo copies issued for the sale went sold out in about 48 hours.

Their first release promise big things to come, it remains to see them fulfilling our expectations.

MySpace

Kylesa - Static Tensions

2010-01-10T11:48:00.002+02:00

Artist: Kylesa
Album: Static Tensions
Label: Prosthetic Records
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Scapegoat
02. Insomnia for Months
03. Said and Done
04. Unknown Awareness
05. Running Red
06. Nature's Predators
07. Almost Lost
08. Only One
09. Perception
10. To Walk Alone

Download
pass: lateralnoise.blogspot.com

While always holding down the fort as a doom metal band, Kylesa has been a great story of maturity in evolution. On their 2002 self titled debut Kylesa was a rough around the edges sludgy doom metal band heavily influenced by the hardcore scene which was becoming the center of the heavy music world’s attention. However, unlike many of their counterparts (Bleeding Through being a good example of a group who has remained static for most of their career), Kylesa has gone from a youthful band adopting the sounds of their peers, to coming into their own as a band best amplified on their latest release, 2009’s Static Tensions. This isn’t hardcore tinged doom anymore, this is a full on psychodelic sludgefest.

Now instead of echoing images of their hardcore brethren, the metal fan will probably liken Static Tensions to the breakout stoner artists The Sword, more than any other group. I don’t know what long time Kylesa fans think of this their latest album, but the crisp guitar tone, laid back drum technique, and well produced vocals leave me, as a newer fan, smiling from ear to ear because I tend to eat this stuff up. Older Kylesa was much more heavier and raw, especially off of their self titled debut, and really brought the aggression, but I think the band has shown true gusto by going in a much more atmospheric/psychodelic direction. Don’t get me wrong, the heavy “sludge” factor is there still which Kylesa should never lose in my opinion, but it’s much, much more refined with far superior production values.

Essentially, Static Tensions represents the band’s transition from the pecking order, into a fully grown outfit. I hope that doesn’t sound derogatory because as a listener, this is about as big of a comment as I could give these guys. Kylesa, despite being a metal band, is one that does not need to rely on heavy, pulse pounding aggression to get people to buy their record, instead, they can interlace quality songwriting with excellent production. Of course, knowing when to turn up the heat and blow people’s faces off is always good too, and thank God that Kylesa still knows how to make eyeballs pop out of people’s heads like Arnold in Total Recall. Oh yeah! - by CODY @ allmetalresource.com

Official site
MySpace
Buy

East Of The Wall, Year Of No Light & Rosetta - Split

2010-01-02T13:18:00.007+02:00

Artist: East Of The Wall, Year Of No Light & Rosetta
Album: Split
Label: Translation Lost
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. East Of The Wall - Scumbrella (Mud Button)
02. East Of The Wall - Scumbrella (Silt)
03. East Of The Wall - Scumbrella (Dirt Merchant)
04. Year Of No Light - Cimmeria
05. Year Of No Light - Metanoia
06. Rosetta - Homesick

Download
pass: lateralnoise.blogspot.com

Post-Metal is a sparse genre. Bands like Neurosis and ISIS have pioneered the genre nearly singlehandedly , then explored every nook the genre has to offer, almost exhausting the genre by themselves. There is not much left to do in the post-metal genre except try to perfect a sound or attempt to find a new one. Three of the most respected names in the underground post-metal scene today are New Jersey based East of the Wall (formed out of the ashes of progressive band The Postman Syndrome), France's Year of No Light and Rosetta hailing from Philly. Each of these bands have high credentials in the underground post-metal scene, but have yet to burst into the mainstream. None of them are fighting to break free from the chains the big guys have tied them down to, but each of them are unique in their own way. Bringing them all together for a split (or should it be called a tri...?) to showcase what they have to offer is a logical decision, and one that proves to be a very enjoyable listening experience.

First up to the plate is East of the Wall with their three part mega song 'Scumbrella'. Starting off with a melody that sounds like a Russian folk tune, 'Mud Button' is a song you have to hear to believe. The song is short and sweet at only a minute long, but it packs in enough substance to stay interesting. A thrashy riff rolls through out of the Russian melody, followed by a down tempo section that segues the song right into the next. 'Silt' is a quiet interlude that acts like the gatekeeper to the main even that is 'Dirt Merchant.' At nearly 8 minutes long 'Dirt Merchant' is classic East of The Wall; progressive and heavy. A slight melody change lets you know that the previous track has ended and the next has begun. The track flows perfectly, bringing together many ideas into one tight package. A fuzzy intro leads into a bass and guitar jam which leads into a galloping rhythm part. The bass is very prominent in East of the Wall's songs, which is nice to hear from a post-metal band. The band dabbles in some post-rock influenced sections before coming together for a balls to the wall metal climax at the end. A delayed guitar rings out waving goodbye, leaving the listener with a great final impression of East to The Wall.

French act Year of No Light starts off the second side of the split with 'Cimmeria.' Right from the start Year's distinct sludgy guitars enter, followed by their Steve Von Till (Neurosis) like vocals. Similar to their full length, the vocals are pushed back in the mix, letting the band take the foreground. Even if one is fluent in French the lyrics are still inaudible as they are purposefully fuzzy, however this is not a bad thing. Unlike their previous work, the songs on this split are a lot more sludge influenced, heavily recalling early Neurosis. As mentioned earlier, bands in this genre typically do not try to innovate, but improve, and Year of No Light have almost succeeded at that task. The songs here do not live up to those on the full length, which is unfortunate. Those looking for the raw aggression found on Nord will be disappointed to hear the new Year of No Light. However, this approach works to some degree. One of the most interesting aspects of the two songs are that they are in major. At points they sound very uplifting and almost happy, but the downtuned guitars and thick bass drown out those emotions. Synth strings and keys can be heard in the background further adding to the feel of the songs. Although the two songs Year of No Light contributed to the split may be their weakest, they are still worth a listen for fans of the band.

Last, but certainly not least is Rosetta. Rosetta have chosen to contribute a cover of post-punk legends The Cure's 'Homesick'; an interesting choice for a post-metal band to say the least (funny enough, Year of No Light has been quoted by critics as "The Cure playing sludge.") Surprisingly, Rosetta pull it off incredibly well, making for the best song on the split. The band sticks very closely to the original song, but add their own Rosetta flair to the tune. Delay drenched guitars smoothly play the dual guitar melody that begins the song instead of acoustic like the original. Clean vocals enter, but it seems as though the entire split was produced and mixed by the same person, sadly pushing the vocals too far back like on Year of No Light's songs. Rosetta adds layered vocals to the mix, pilling up crisp growls over the clean vocals. The track flows just as well as the original, coming to a steady jam near the end with entirely growled vocals. Rosetta could not have done a better job on this cover, they stay close enough to the original while still adding their own twists, making it a must-hear for fans of either band.

Three of the best bands in underground post-metal converge for an excellent split. While none of them are reinventing the post-metal wheel, they are each doing something new to spice up the old recipes of the genre. East of The Wall pulls no punches with their three part epic 'Scumbrella'. Year of No Light decided to go Through Silver and Blood era Neurosis and cover us in sludge, but unfortunately not pulling it off as well as one would hope. Finally Rosetta delivers one of the strangest, but best, cover of The Cure's 'Homesick.' All in all this triple split is worth the cost of admission; there is something for every fan of the genre to be found here. by Alex C. Soothsayer @ sputnikmusic.com

Official Site (East Of The Wall)
Official Site (Year Of No Light)
Official Site (Rosetta)
MySpace (East Of The Wall)
MySpace (Year Of No Light)
MySpace (Rosetta)

Buy

Képzelt Város - Mit Nekem

2009-12-06T11:41:00.005+02:00

Artist: Képzelt Város
Album: Mit Nekem
Label: Major
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Sol
02. D2
03. Papírhajó
04. Zuhanó
05. Sergei6
06. White Noise
07. Hercules
08. Futok

Download

Official site
MySpace

Celeste - Misanthrope(s)

2009-12-02T16:56:00.003+02:00

Artist: Celeste
Album: Misanthrope(s)
Label: Trendkill Recordings, Denovali
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Que Des Yeux Vides Et Seches
02. Comme Pour Leurrer Les Regards Et Cette Odeur De Cadavre
03. Toucher Ce Vide Beant Attise Ma Fascination
04. La Gorge Ouverte Decharnee
05. Il Y Aura Des Femmes A Remercier Et De La Chair A Embroche
06. Mais Quel Plaisir De Voir Cette Tete D'Enfant Rougir Et Sue
07. Une Insomnie Avec Qui Tout Le Monde Voudrait Baiser
08. A Defaut De Te Jeter Sur Ta Progeniture
09. ...Anesthesie Vos Membres Dans Une Orgie D'Enthousiasme

Download

Celeste are a ***ing heavy band. Whatever genre you put them in, post-hardcore, screamo, metal, their atmosphere is completely and utterly choking, almost unbearably so, the sound is dirty and raw and the vocals are raging and spat out with aggression. It's not about being fast, it's about being gruelling, utterly relentless and enraged. After listening to Celeste for the fifty minutes that 'Misanthrope(s)' lasts, you'll probably have choked to death on its gory and insipid atmosphere, and you know what? Celeste will love it, they'll watch you choke and just plod along to the next victim. You can tell that Celeste just love being dirty.

If you hadn't guessed already, Misanthrope(s) is anything but an accessible album. It might take you several listens to really soak in the disgusting and corrosive music that they play, but once you have, there's almost a filthy level of enjoyment you can get out of the release. While song's often linger around mid-tempo, there's a lot of enjoyment to be had from the varied riffs of the guitarists, who can spit out dense and metallic riffs, or pound forward with hardcore style aggression. The vocals are literally spat out with intensity, sitting somewhere between a a black metal rasp and a more typical hardcore roar, the fact that everything is french only adds to the mystery of the release.

As an entity, Misanthrope(s) is as dense and malicious as albums come. Post-hardcore and black metal aren't usually two genres that you'd imagine together, but between the varied riffs and raspy screamed vocals there is something here that comes close and its nastier than you'd ever imagine. For the light hearted, it might be just a little too much, Celeste simply refuse to let up throughout the near hour long length of Misanthrope(s), but for those who enjoy it rough, raw and dirty then this is definitely something you should at least taste. Just don't come crying to me if that taste is sour.
-by Crimson @ sputnikmusic.com

Official site

MySpace
Buy

Fall Of Efrafa - Inle

2009-12-01T16:40:00.001+02:00

Artist: Fall Of Efrafa
Album: Inle
Label: Halo of Flies, Sound Devastation, Alerta Antifascista Records, Behind the Scenes Records
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Simulacrum
02. Fu Inle
03. Republic Of Heaven
04. The Burial
05. Woundwort
06. The Sky Suspended
07. Warren Of Snares

Download

Fall of Efrafa proves further that there is still a great deal of inventiveness in existence within the underground music scene by basing the entire concept (from band name, to topical song material, to artwork) around a singular work of literature by exploring the themes and moods and the mythology within Watership Down. Inle is the final installment in a trilogy of albums by this U.K. act and impressively lives up to its moniker (in Watership Down the black rabbit of Inle is the Grim Reaper of the world in the book) by bringing an end to the cycle for the band.

Fall of Efrafa demonstrates an exceptional skill with manipulating soft to loud and loud to soft dynamics while at the same time imbuing their music with a spatial depth that mixes harsh distortion with pleasant melodies. Coarse vocals contrast with music well and adds another element to the band's overall sound. Still, the one aspect of Fall of Efrafa that is most impressive on Inle is the exceptional compositional quality of their songs; the songs flow well and do not wear at all, even with some tracks that easily break the fifteen minute mark, possibly due to the music having a narrative quality itself, like it is speaking to the listener. The tension builds and falls only to start the process all over again as the songs roll in a wholly natural and organic manner that is evident from the very beginning with “Simulacrum,” and while the band somehow marries the different musical motifs (imagine if Neurosis got together with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and created a kind of amalgam of their unmistakable styles) to create their sound. Powerful sounding guitars and percussion combine with impassioned vocals and excellent song composition to provide an engaging and oft times exciting listen, and without a single weak track to be found on Inle, the album captures one's imagination.

I truly am taken aback by Inle from Fall of Efrafa, due in no small part to its breadth and scope. The whole album is impressive with little detail, if any, left out of the release from the music from the composition to the overall sound to the lyrical narrative to the packaging. The best way to experience Inle is to sit with the record on the turntable and the stereo turned up loud enough to force out any type of interruption; have the lyric sheet out so that you might follow along with the story, and just absorb the entire atmosphere that emanates around you while you listen.
-by scenepointblanc.com

Official site

MySpace
Buy

Old World Vulture - How The West Was Lost

2009-11-20T18:18:00.004+02:00

Artist: Old World Vulture
Album: How The West Was Lost
Label: Audiolab Recording
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. How the West Was Lost
02. How Was the West Lost (Valiise remix)

Download

After the successful digital release of their debut single "Benny," Toronto instrumental noisemakers Old World Vulture will release a second single, "How the West Was Lost," as a free digital download on November 1, 2009, followed by the release of "Bastard Engine" on December 1, 2009.

The songs will only be available as a free download for 30 days from the date of release. All three songs will appear on the band's forthcoming debut EP, slated for release later this year.

Drawing comparisons to Holy Fuck, Do Make Say Think and Mogwai, the band — Mike Costanzo (guitar), Devin Hughes (synthesizer), Jamie Hunter (drums) and Anthony Perri (bass) — are releasing the singles exclusively through their website (www.OldWorldVulture.ca).

The three songs were recorded between May-July, 2009 in Toronto at Audiolab Recording Company with Chris Hegge (Career Suicide, Fucked Up, The Meligrove Band). Also included with each single is an exclusive remix by electronic composer Valiise.

Official Site
MySpace

Last Rizla - Last Rizla

2009-11-09T18:57:00.005+02:00

Artist: Last Rizla
Album: Last Rizla
Label: Self Released

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Hypoxic
02. Duality
03. Nine One One
04. Threedom
05. On Earth
06. Sixteen Seconds

Download
pass: lateralnoise.blogspot.com

Last Rizla is a band from Hermoupolis, in Greece (on the Island of Syros, in the Cyclades Archipelago). The band started playing in 2003 and, as humorously reported on the myspace page, experienced various line-up changes. The present band’s members are: Greg (drums), Choko (guitar), Zak (vocals) and, last but not least, Kooh (bass).
The demo album was recorded in March 2009 in Thessaloniki, Greece, and was mastered and printed in Athens. It was released just a few days ago (22/10), 1000 copies (cd only) each with slightly different artwork (the band’s members hand-stamped all the packages). It is a self-financed release and the band is unsigned. The band is giving the album for free.

In his e-mail message Kooh says about the band’s musical style: “I won't cope categorizing into a genre - there's a lot of different sounds in there. Well, it's heavy.”
Variety appears to be a constant character of this nice band. Look what they say about their look on myspace!: “The vast majority of the Last Rizla Group members encounter a dispiriting problem of bad, plain bad, haircuts or hairstyles; ranging from total baldness to buddha-looking-chubby-heads, oily-lovelocks to 80s-mane-full-of-shame, disoriented-dreadlocks to yippy-yow-cowlicks, one-bread-all-head to pussy-looking-fluffy-mohawks and weak-afanaz, Last Rizla have made their statement to the world of style! Viva Bad Taste!”

After these due “technical” and “hairstyling” details, let’s move on to the music …
Well, as announced by Kooh, Last Rizla’s sound is definitely heavy and isn’t boring at all! It is truly a melting pot of styles ranging from space-psychedelic rock to fuzzy desert-stoner rock with pinches of doom, hardcore, jazz and even a hint of reggae … So it is quite difficult indeed to give a tag, although the dominant styles are space-psychedelic and heavy desert rock in pure Kyuss style.
The demo contains six tracks whose length varies between four to over nine minutes. The song structures are quite complex as you can get all these different styles into a single track. However the length is adequate to merge the styles quite well. The result is quite dynamic songs where rhythms vary markedly from the slower spacey-psych parts to the faster stoner parts. Some slow parts with strongly distorted and fuzzy guitar sounds and dark, half spoken vocal parts mark occasional “invasions” of the doom realm by this creative band.
The space-psychedelic parts may recall bands like Los Natas or White Hills, although sounds change quite a lot: in certain instances typical space rock sounds give way to parts where an almost jazzy, leading sound of bass is coupled with background reverberating guitars and occasional reggae-like rhythms.
The vocal parts are accordingly variable. Vocal parts are not dominant but just essential and vary from dark, half-spoken to minor hardcore-style shouted (somehow in background), with occasional superposition of the two vocal styles. The effect is nice.
I must say that a character I liked particularly in this excellent demo is the role of the bass. I like it a lot when the bass sound is well heard: I think it helps in giving depth to the sound. I expressed this preference of mine in other occasions (even when dealing with black metal albums …). Here the bass sound is prominent, and I dig it a lot.
And, btw, thumbs up also for the production, guys!
-by Mari @ sludgeswamp.blogspot.com

MySpace

Marasme - Marasme (Demo)

2009-11-01T10:23:00.004+02:00

Artist: Marasme
Album: Marasme (Demo)
Label: Self Released
Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Waves
02. Firebreather
03. Maze

Download

Something athmospheric. Something chaotic, obsessive, melancholic. Claustrophobic and free: something dark, complex, painful. Marasme was born in January of 2008 when five twisted minds joined together to make something different: Jeroni (vocals; ex-Strangled), Tomeu (guitar; TeCorrs, ex-Venus Inferna), Manuel (guitar; ex-Stones From The Sky), Jaume (bass; ex-Dogma) and David (drums; ex-Dogma).

MySpace

Vere - We Are Time

2009-10-25T10:10:00.003+02:00

Artist: Vere
Album: We Are Time
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Yop Rope!
02. Thanks Again
03. Yop The Plank
04. Pterodactyl

Download

Vere is a Rock band from Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee. They formed in March 2008, and they self released an EP titled "We Are Time", recorded at Ardent Studio.

MySpace

The End Of The Ocean - Calm Seas Don't Make Sailors

2009-10-24T17:40:00.003+03:00

Artist: The End Of The Ocean
Album: Calm Seas Don't Make Sailors
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Docks
02. Romancing The Stars
03. Setting Sail
04. Siren Sound

Download

The End Of The Ocean is a five piece instrumental post-rock band based out of Columbus Ohio.
Engulfing listeners in waves of eerie nostalgia and sorrow, the ambiance of The End Of The Ocean becomes a self-voyage of life’s ebb and flow unfailingly finding a beacon of hope at the horizon.

Official Site
MySpace

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Collapse Under The Empire - Crawling

2009-10-18T11:05:00.003+03:00

Artist: Collapse Under The Empire
Album: Crawling
Label: Believe Digital
Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Crawling
02. Captured Moments

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Collapse Under The Empire is an instrumental/post-rock duo from Hamburg / Germany. They formed 2007, when Chris Burda and Matthew Jason got together to develop their own music under the name of Collapse Under The Empire. They both released the first four songs for the EP Paintball in summer 2008.
After that they came up with their self-produced debut album, Systembreakdown, which was recorded in their own studio and saw the light as a digital album of day in spring 2009. The songs were praised by critics and audience alike and brought the young band a lot of attention on the scene.
For the second album the band were signed by the indie label Sister Jack. The new album Find A Place To Be Safe will be out over Cargo Records on Nov. 27th 2009. It was mastered by Michael Schwabe (Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Toten Hosen, Beatsteaks) at Monoposto Studio. The appropriate single Crawling was pre--publicized on Sept. 25th 2009 over Believe Digital.

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Doomina-March On Dead Man

2009-10-12T21:04:00.004+03:00

Artist: Doomina
Album: March On Dead Man
Label: Self Released
Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. El Magneto
02. Psychotron
03. March On Dead Man - Hypersonorous
04. Morbus Sacer - In The Absence Of God

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Doomina is a combination of ELECTRIC WIZARD and ACID KING with a harmonic influence of late NEUROSIS pieces that in some parts even reminds you of MOGWAI and TORTOISE…

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Ahab - The Divinity Of The Oceans

2009-10-09T12:36:00.003+03:00

Artist: Ahab
Album: The Divinity Of The Oceans
Label: Napalm Records

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Yet Another Raft of The Medusa (Pollard's Weakness)
02. The Divinity Of The Oceans
03. O Father Sea
04. Redemtion Lost
05. Tombstone Carousal
06. Gnawing Bones (Coffin's Lot)
07. Nickerson's Theme

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pass: lateralnoise.blogspot.com

Way back in 2006 Ahab released The Call Of The Wretched Sea, a crushing funeral doom album based on Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick". The album went on to win the Metal Storm Award in the Extreme Doom Metal category.

So how would 2009's follow up, The Divinity Of Oceans stack up?

For starters, the nautical theme continues with this album. The Divinity Of Oceans is based on "The Loss Of The Ship Essex, Sunk By A Whale" by Owen Chase and Thomas Nickerson. The book is about the horrors suffered by the crew of the Essex after the ship was sunk by a whale… some 20 sailors spent 90 days floating around the South Pacific, thousands of miles from home and hundreds of miles from land in small wooden boats. The book was also the inspiration for the climactic scene of "Moby Dick".

The album kicks off treading the same musical water as its precursor. A nice quiet, serene clean piece slowly ushers in the album until a tsunami-sized riff slams home and consigns you to a watery musical grave.

But whereas their initial offering was fairly one dimensional (albeit a fantastic album within that dimension), The Divinity Of Oceans has more depth to it, primarily in the vocal department. You aren't more than a couple minutes in to the album, with familiar riffs and growls before vocalist Daniel Droste switches to a clean tone, which is every bit as mournful as the growls are menacing. He alternates between both clean and guttural through-out the record.

The music itself has a bit more to offer as well. Aside from just crushing, slow riffs that seem to ebb and flow with the tide, there are some great melodic and melancholic guitar leads over the riffs adding to the atmosphere. At another point during a calm break around the four minute mark of "Tombstone Carousal" a nice clean, almost optimistic, guitar comes in for a few seconds that reminded me of acoustic wizard Adrian Legg's Guitar For Mortals and conjures images of the crew languishing in their little life boats during a light rain… Of course the peace is very short lived. It's as if they added a couple shots of darkwave to their own brand of nautic funeral doom.

The nutshell version? They took the same formula that spawned the immense The Call Of The Wretched Sea and built upon it, resulting in an album that surpasses their initial, award-winning offering.

Doom ahoy, mateys. -by BitterCOld @ metalstorm.ee

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Pandoras.Box - Barriers

2009-09-27T12:15:00.004+03:00

Artist: Pandoras.Box

Album: Barriers

Label: Clinical Archives

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. A Modarete Breeze
02. This Tenderness
03. Golden Spoon
04. Arrows & Bows
05. Next To Mine
06. Dolphins & Seaquakes
07. Sight unseen
08. I Don´t Care
09. City Cultures
10. Chaos Back
11. You Master
12. Interlude
13. Virtual Sun
14. Minerals

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Download Arrows & Bows (RMX)

One of the best moments during music discovery is the one when you hear an album the first time and instantly are addicted to it. To know that you will hear it over and over again, that after hours of mediocre or boring music you found a new pearl in the ocean of music.

The independent rock band Pandoras.Box from Lower Bavaria with their album Barriers gave me the last incarnation of such a moment. The album could as well be sold on CD, the quality of song-writing and production does not need to hide behind commercial releases. I would be surprised to not see their next release in stores.

Their sound reminds me of Muse’s rich instrumental arrangements and Blur’s distinct vocals. The album is very balanced and features both slow melancholic (Next to Mine) and fast paced (Golden Spoon) songs. Golden Spoon is my favourite (non remixed) song of this album. The song Interlude is an instrumental meditation with guitar and strings. The final song is a danceable Remix of the fourth track “Arrows & Bows” by Rampue which I personally like best because it frees the original song from its lethargy. -by (ojdo.de)

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Oak Is Keeping - Animal Style

2009-09-26T12:49:00.003+03:00

Artist: Oak Is Keeping

Album: Animal Style

Label: Self Released

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. SiNk
02. No Kiss
03. How We Treat Girls
04. Tell Me These Things
05. Tempt
06. Book of Matches
07. Devil in the Truth
08. Burn It All Down
09. So Sweet
10. What We Live

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Oak Is Keeping’s first full length studio album is a successful straightforward alternative rock album from a band that is still making a good name for themselves. Animal Style is a title that that leaves little to the imagination. That animalistic behaviour can be, and still is, very much a part of people. This is the subtle theme throughout but can also be given as a direct and obvious sign in the album’s first few tracks; most notably “No Kiss”. The solid direct guitar riffs matched with unison vocals sound like they challenge you to think about humanity – that were not as refined as we make ourselves out to be: “The human race cut off a nose despite the face – let’s split some hairs let’s see what were about” Animal Style can feel like it’s an opinion piece cloaked in a musical compilation. The words are as direct as the music in terms of delivery.

Delivery may be one of the most admirable qualities of the record. Almost every track sticks with the solid forms of traditional alternative rock but each guitar riff is set with a unique quality. Each song has a tight melody but perhaps the most interesting examples are seen at the end of the album. “Burn It All Down” and “So Sweet” definitely have the markings of a rock influence but they really use a more spacious sound with a recurring swoop of a fast drum line. In tone they sound more optimistic than the others but they still demonstrate the overall theme Animal Style tries to create. There are many sides to people, on the outside there may be subtle differences. Beyond that, we all share the endearing animal style theme of humanity.-by (awmusic.ca)

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Sihr - Beneath The Twelve Mile Zone

2009-09-24T18:44:00.004+03:00

Artist: Sihr

Album: Beneath The Twelve Mile Zone

Label: Self Released

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Russian Legs
02. Comes With The Territory
03. Working With Knots
04. Running Wild
05. Unbecoming Misdeeds
06. Kumari Kandam

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Sihr are heavy, sludgy, fuzzed out metal with elements of experimental noise, progressive, psychedelia and stoner groves. For fans of Neurosis, Electric Wizard, Mastodon, Melvins, Clutch, Bongzilla, Intronaut, Big Business, Kylesa, Minsk, Young Windows, Cursed, The Sword, Mouth Of The Architect, Hawkwind, Ufomammut, 35007 etc.

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Rising Winter - In Times Of Great Storm

2009-09-23T18:17:00.003+03:00

Artist: Rising Winter

Album: In Times Of Great Storm

Label: Self Released

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. H0st
02. Remnants Of Society
03. New World Rising
04. pH45
05. Another Empty Shell
06. Hyperborea
07. Rural
08. In Times Of Great Storm
09. Upon The Winter Way
10. Rebirth
11. Where Moment Lasts Eternity

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Formed in January 2009, with the idea of playing rock music, Rising Winter has achieved much in past couple of months. From its very beginning band was meant to be international project, a collaboration of musicians from around the world. Line ups came and went and recording became more or less a problem. Also due multiple composers band had too much space between sounds of the songs. From 18 composed songs, only 10 were selected for debut album “In Times Of Great Storm” which is finished recording and its being slowly prepared for mixing. Band decided to release the album as internet release.
Concerning the band line up, band is open to collaborate with session musicians but there are four permanent members in line up at this time – Nordawn, Dušan, Mathijs, Igor and Marko. The line-up is working on the second album whose recording is expected to start in October 2009. Much more work will be dedicated to it. Meanwhile work on small EP called “Svet U Ogledalu” is in progress. EP will be sang in Serbian and also available for free download when completed.

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A Backward Glance On a Travel Road - A Backward Glance On a Travel Road

2009-09-06T12:24:00.008+03:00

Artist: A Backward Glance On a Travel Road

Album: A Backward Glance On a Travel Road

Label: Self Released

Year: 2009

Tracklist:

01. Regular Barbary
02. Falling
03. Johny Got His Gun
04. In Absentia part I
05. In Absentia part II
06. Hier Régnant Désert
07. Approximativement Moi

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As a musician and producer, I find it truly amazing to be introduced to something new that touches my mind so intensely, I not only hear the music, but I also feel and see the music. A Backward Glance on a Travel Road, or ABGOATR, is a project born of the group Hypno5e. Knowing the work of gifted, multi-instrumentalist Emmanuel Jessua and drummer Thibault Lamy, my first thoughts predicted pieces of intense, powerful progressive metal that the band Hypno5e master. I would have welcomed a new record of equivalent weight, but I was encouraged by this album’s alternative beginnings.

A dark mix of progressive rock, experimental landscapes, and unique emotional texture, infused with multiple layers of ethnic styles, instrumental arrangements and moments of vocal majesty, A Backward Glance on a Travel Road is not music for your average listener. It contains some moments of heartfelt sincerity that mercilessly pull on your hearts strings, and in the same moment, can send dark, threatening visions of evil though your mind seamlessly. Without a true category which to be placed, this collection can only be looked at as beautiful unique, art form from the minds of true innovators.

"Regular Barbary", hypnotic and desperate, takes some illusive vocal samples and intertwines them with colorful acoustic guitar to add a perfect level of dramatic appeal. This is beyond a song or a just a good tune. It is too grand to be attached to such a small label. A sonic painting would be a much more accurate description. The middle-eastern and Spanish influences make this piece live beyond ones hearing. The second, "Falling" expands on the same architecture and fills you with a feeling of sadness and dread, but somehow holds you comfortably as the voices sore. Again, the brush strokes paint a very powerful picture if you are listening carefully. It makes you visualize more than just listen. Threatening at times, but consistently beautiful.

The classically, progressive influences come out clearly within "Johnny got his gun". It is horror, sadness, gloom, and a touching stroke of pleasurable pain set carefully between each and every one of its notes. Clearly an experimental homage to both Dalton Trumbo's 1939 novel of the same name, and Metallica's "One," the overall production, use of dynamics and chanting of "S.O.S. help me" makes a truly frightening and brilliant ending to the song. The beginning cascade of "In Absentia part 1" floats down softly, but darkly. The overall shapes and musical arrangement achieved in this composition is tight and warming. Again, it is an audible, but truly visual experience if your ears are tuned carefully.

As the remaining half, "In Absentia part 2" reaches for your senses, it's mood follows an upward motion like ascending slowly to the light from a deep, dark pool. There is still an underlying coat of darkness but you can feel it climb to something powerful and bright. "Hier Regnant Desert," a rhythmically aggressive ride away from the heavier textures and space of the earlier pieces, it latches on and pulls you down a road of tight, thumps and clicks joined by the same mystical phrasing that makes the other pieces so inviting. By the time the vocal cadence appears, you are held captive. These musical journeys are full of change, adventure and stories waiting to be written. It has beautiful breath and stamina which over powers you by its conclusion. "Approximativement Moi" wraps up the piece with less detail but with huge scope and depth. Soundscapes with obvious restraint, its tone and ambient quality is fitting to end a great album of pure, human emotion. (-by Bryon Turcotte)

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Caravels - The Earthling Sessions

2009-09-04T20:40:00.005+03:00

Artist: Caravels

Album: The Earthling Sessions

Label: Self Release

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Dark Obsession
02. Snake Plissken
03. Flawless Victory

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Caravels is 5-piece band from Las Vegas, Nevada, who play a unique brand of progressive hardcore, owing just as much debt to early screamo acts (Portraits of Past, City of Caterpillar) as they do to Botch and These Arms Are Snakes.

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Radius System - Escape/Restart

2009-08-29T12:08:00.004+03:00

Artist: Radius System

Album: Escape/Restart

Label: Feels Like Home Studio

Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Release Chemicals
02. Bestsellers
03. Monochrome
04. Mental Guides
05. Impulsion Pt.1
06. Into Orbit
07. Impulsion Pt.2
08. Not Coming back

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Paneye - Along The Way To The Bigtop, My Life Just Dissolved

2009-08-28T10:53:00.003+03:00

Artist: Paneye

Album: Along The Way To The Bigtop, My Life Just Dissolved

Label: Secret Station

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Along The Way To The Bigtop, My Life Just Dissolved
02. Brain Forests
03. The Sallow Flesh Of The Sky
04. Tidal Breeze
05. Caravans Of Moss Are Camped In The Woods
06. Tents Hide Creatures
07. Balloon Skin Suits Of Rainbow Gimps
08. The Elephant Keeper
09. Headfogmindsmog
10. He Found Scales On His Chest
11. Sick Faeries
12. The Clearing Where She Once Stood

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Sad Breakfast - Sad Breakfast

2009-08-24T15:20:00.003+03:00

Artist: Sad Breakfast

Album: Sad Breakfast

Label: Because You Rock Records

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Atahualpa Yuyeti
02. Antlia
03. Aldeano
04. Camaleon & Andromeda
05. Enloquece Rabino, Enloquece
06. Munaf
07. Rompiendo Cosas

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Deviniance - Tempora Mutantur, Nos Et Mutamus In Illis

2009-08-13T11:15:00.007+03:00

Artist: Deviniance

Album: Tempora Mutantur, Nos Et Mutamus In Illis

Label: Self Release

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Curriculum Vitae
02. Cease And Heal
03. A Slow Decay
04. Cease And Heal (live)
05. A Slow Decay (live)

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Deviniance is a 5-peace band with two vocalists/guitarists a drummer, bass player and a synthesizer. A mixture of pure sludge, post rock, progressive metal they bring an anxial sound. The band is one year old and hungry for gigs everywhere and anyhow.

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Aesop - Van Pelt EP

2009-08-12T12:39:00.003+03:00

Artist: Aesop

Album: Van Pelt EP

Label: Self Release

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. A Hunter From The Darkest Wilds. (Intro)
02. You Know They Stopped Making These In 1903
03. Damn. I'll Be Needing A Replacement Weapon
04. You Miserable Coward! Come Back And Face Me Like A Man!
05. He's A Hunter. He Kills Things, That's What He Does
06. Any Last Words (Outro)

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Ender - Ender

2009-05-30T11:16:00.004+03:00

Artist: Ender

Album: Ender

Label: Darkroom Recordings

Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Part 1
02. Part 2
03. Part 3
04. Part 4

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Within the post-rock-encompassing skies of this four track EP, the listener finds herself confronted with the instrumental quintet Ender, who slaves over the most popular of instruments (guitar, bass and drum) to produce a self-titled audible calling-card. The album is made up of moody, yet powerful post-rock shrouded in a haze of gritty ambient. Imagine an cardboard egg-box branded "post-rock," filled with eleven battery-laid eggs and one odd-looking kiwi. Ender stands out just like that kiwi, with the familiar post-rock form, but without the clinical approach taken by so many others.

Like most of their Pacific colleagues, Ender knows how to manipulate the space and ambiance needed for their compositions to flourish and gradually evolve. The combined destructive weight of rhythm guitars and drums in the form of dragging riffs arch the elaborated structure that spans over the whole release. The introspective waves of evolving ambient and stacks of heavy hypnotic hooks are good for forty-two minutes of dark, enticing variations and a few spine-shivering moments, but never seem to deploy their full potential. Near the end of Ender, the band trades in their most heavy weight guitar sound for a piano, and tips the scale in favor of the conformist form.

Once the piano finds it's place in the closing composition, Ender brings it home with a less powerful but more subtle and emotional undertone. Without the drive - one that reminds the listener of European post-metal bands - of Ender's opening, the whole gives the impression that this is still not the best possible result. Their strength lies as much in esoteric explorations as in latent aggression, but I, for one, believe that the latter one - given some more attention - has a few interesting options to strengthen the whole.

Adding a few (distant) vocal accents would expose a more captivating, emotional side of their sound and thus engage the listener even more. At a certain point in "Track 2", the deep combined sound of the bass and guitar triggered a memory of a dirty-sounding Celtic Frost vocal line, fueling the dark tones of that dangerously fierce cloud-formation and accentuating the beauty of the redeeming matte light found in the ambiance. For obvious reasons, Tom Gabriel Fischer's vocals - or vocals in general - will not be the perfect solution to allow Ender to rise above the level of this EP, but if the outfit's drummer could batter their grayish blob of expressions with more depth and edge, they could have a decent shot at knocking me out of my socks. Perhaps then a reference to the hypnotic stoner doom slabs of Windmills By The Ocean is in order.- by Jurgen Verhasselt (thesilentballet.com)

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Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving - Tiny Fragments

2009-05-25T20:38:00.003+03:00

Artist: Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving

Album: Tiny Fragments

Label: Self Release

Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Part One
02. Part Two
03. Part Three
04. The Banshee

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Tangled Thoughts of Leaving's music is progressive by nature. The inclusion of sparse influences, guided by concept and fused together, is the conception of their own sound, as each musicians respective inspirations force the collective into unchartered territory.

After several years of existence and growth, mid 2007 saw Tangled Thoughts of Leaving construct themselves a purpose built, make shift creative space.

A medium sized room, dedicated to forward thinking; the birth of new sound. In that very room, what was previously theory, became reality, and so began the process of four people leaving mediocrity behind them.

In the months of January, February and March of 2008, TToL used their creative space to record a concept, aptly titled 'Tiny Fragments'. This EP was to represent their current thought process. They gave themselves a series of themes, ideas from a previously recorded improvisation and a set amount of time.What followed was roughly 3 months of sproadic sessions, in which the 18 minute, 3 part title track was written and recorded.

With the creation of Tiny Fragments the band have demonstrated that they would rather risk potential failure than never pursue the invention of interesting art.

In late 2008, TToL approached likeminded instrumentalists sleepmakeswaves, from Sydney about doing a split CD. Hundreds of emails were exchanged as each band went away and recorded their contribution for the CD. The final product was released in April 2009 to an extremely positive reaction.

TToL are now working on their debut album, working towards a late 2009/early 2010 release date.

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ELΩXIM

2009-05-25T19:37:00.007+03:00

Artist: ELΩXIM

Album: In The Half Light

Label: Self Release

Year: 2007

Tracklist:
01. In The Half Light
02. Lighthouse Keepers Solitude
03. Night's Plutonian Shore
04. Seascape
05. The Cry Of Seagulls

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Download - 2009 - Lost in silence

My band called ELΩXIM, It's structured around 3 basses (2 distorted-1 clean) and drums in specific records.
No guitars are used in any record of ours.
We play a mix of Funeral/Doom/Drone and even Black in some tracks. We are two people from Macedonia Greece and made this band come true since 2000. Our influences are bass bands like: Methadrone - OM - Big Business - Thrones - Necromantia - Godheadsilo - Bunkur - Skuldom - Halo and more. The specific album recorded in October 2007 in my home studio which was also mixed and mastered by me. I hope you like It.

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Nuggies - EP

2009-05-25T19:01:00.005+03:00

Artist: Nuggies

Album: EP

Label: Self Release

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Angry Beavers
02. Spam
03. Banana Pancakes
04. Breaking The Ice
05. I And
06. Commander Keen
07. Bazooka Joe

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Nuggies are a Noise Rock/Electornica/Post-Music band from Brooklyn, NY and Burlington, VT. Currently based in Burlington, VT the band has achieved much critical acclaim in their short time period making music together. Started in January of 2009, avant-garde musicians and artists, Eli Lederman, Matt Michaels and Matt Selsky have come together to create a new sound to challenge the way we think about music, sounds and the way we percieve reality. The trio Self-Released their debut EP on February 10th, and has since been noticed as a landmark of 2009, and many have cited Nuggies as a band to follow closely in 2009. The band is finishing the touches on their debut album Native American President which is slated for release for Spring 2009.

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Manatees - Icarus, The Sunclimber

2009-04-27T01:09:00.009+03:00

Artist: Manatees

Album: Icarus, The Sunclimber

Label: Eyes Of Sound

Year: 2009

Tracklist:

01. Of Wax And Wing
02. The Sunclimber
03. Hyperion Altitude
04. Untitled
05. False Sun
06. Out Of The Sky, Into The Gutter

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pass: lateralnoise.blogspot.com

I am pretty sure that there should be some sort of award for best use of a Neurosis influence. If and when said event occurs, Carlisle based Manatees will be in the running without a doubt. Having absorbed the Oakland cultists combined skills of the riff and the ambience, Manatees have crafted one of the most introspective and downright crushing UK releases I have heard in a long time. It would be easy to chuck the sludge label in the general direction of the 3 lads that make up Manatees, but just like throwing gravel off a motorway flyover, it’s pointless and the results are not that impressive really.

They belong at some sort of cross-roads where sludge, post-rock, the tiniest traces of hardcore and Amrep all converge into one huge, Neurot paved brick road.

Opener “Of Wax & Wing” stumbles in on a staggering riff that explodes into some crushing riffage and hoarse vocals. It’s more of a surprise when it ends less than 2 minutes in and the title track rumbles through its slow burning build up of feedback, granite melody and synths to a crescendo only to give way to ambience and acoustic chords plucked over shards of reverb.

Additional drumming appears in “Untitled” driving the fuzz and feedback drenched guitars through the tortured vocals and pounding backbone.

What’s most impressive about this album and Manatees in general is the relative short time they have been kicking around. To create a work of this depth and skill at this stage only means there is so much more to come. Superb. -by dieshellsuit

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My Beloved - Force Feeding Love

2009-04-07T19:07:00.004+03:00

Artist: My Beloved

Album: Force Feeding Love

Label: Voices Records

Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Backworld Blues
02. Hell's Kitchen
03. Disabled Butterfly
04. Dirty Pearl
05. Lunatic Rising
06. Retracing Steps
07. In Vitro
08. Aware Of Thorns

Download (Link removed after request from the artist)

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Since 1997 it didn't take long for MY BELOVED to peak out in the Copenhagen musical underground scene as a pioneer band that with their unique, aesthetic and emotional music where telling dramatic, painful and sinister stories through instrumental surfaces that in the late 90's most of all were compared as a detour of the, at that time, almost dead post-rock genre. Since then MY BELOVED has gone ways of their own and are now in total unspoiled music dimensions which the band themselves are calling Instrumental Music Noir.

MY BELOVED aligned their success debut "Servant Of Secret Places" (2003) with "On Happiness Hill" (2005) and cemented with their sinister, dark and incredibly well reviewed 2nd album, that MY BELOVED are an extremely innovative, imaginative and acknowledged band with a growing fan crowd in both US, Europe and Asia.

November 2008 MY BELOVED released their 3rd official album FORCE FEEDING LOVE. This album was the result of 3 turbulent years for each band member and was enhanced with collaborations with John Contreras "Current 93 + Baby Dee" playing cello and Zef Noi$e "Psychic TV + Flesh Test" on viola. The music kept the band together through rough times and the result was released on cd and double vinyl.

MY BELOVED are playing magnificent capturing instrumental music noir that in basis consist of guitar, synths, piano, drums and bass. The music is a mood creating and emotional maelstrom that with storming crescendoes and beautiful passages creates a lively and organic feeling of existence and will. The experimenting sound-surfaces clarify the presence of the art and especially of the passion, and the use of noise makes MY BELOVED appear as a totally unique band, which with new thinking and in a different way produce yet another fearless album. Yet an atmospheric journey in time and mood.

Live, MY BELOVED shows their true strength. With great performance and energy they drag the audience deep into their universe and leave non behind. MY BELOVED is a live band. An artwork where the magic is created in the moment and where the listener becomes a part of the work. -by (cdbaby.com)

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Bird From The Abyss - I

2009-04-04T00:20:00.001+03:00

Artist: Bird From The Abyss

Album: I

Label: self released

Year: 2009

Tracklist:

01. Intro - Beginning At Center Of The Chaos Azathoth And Flute
02. Song To The Great Black Fox
03. Ways Of Slaughter
04. Abdul Alhazred's Anxiety

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Plug "Bird From The Abyss - I" to your headphones, take a trip to the darkness of your local forbidden forest and experience the unreal. Hailing from Finland, Bird From The Abyss is playing music from the unknown depths, according toancient Gods long forgotten. Primitive instrumental / fuzz doom folk / heavy psych.

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Long Distance Calling - Avoid The Light

2009-03-28T19:18:00.007+02:00

Artist: Long Distance Calling

Album: Avoid The Light

Label: Superball Music

Year: 2009

Tracklist:

01. Apparitions
02. Black Paper Planes
03. 359
04. I Know You, Stanley Milgram!
05. The Nearing Grave (Ft. Jonas Renkse)
06. Sundown Highway

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Although we'd almost given up hope, there seems to be a parallel universe away from anaemic supermarket muzak, restless radio formats and short-lived trends after all. There still is music which allows its listeners enough space for unlimited enjoyment, unfolds all its glory on top of lavish arrangements and takes the liberty of celebrating sounds and harmonic sequences in the elaborateness they deserve. This music is available here and now, thanks to Long Distance Calling, a five-piece from Germany's Münster region. Their second album, Avoid The Light, will be out on 24 April 2009 on Superball Music and promises everything you find yourself looking for without avail in most contemporary bands: an immediate coexistence of depth and exaltation, melancholia and joie de vivre, great gestures and small peculiarities. And somehow there's so much more to discover in Long Distance Calling's music: Avoid The Light opens a big gate which you step through to find a great diversity of moods and atmospheres. The basics consist of instrumental guitar rock with an ambient flavour, an oscillation of psychedelic and progressive rock elements. At the same time, Avoid The Light is an album which requires few words to communicate a lot. Should we call it post rock? Or perhaps new art rock? The label is irrelevant, it's the content that matters. Reactions to Long Distance Calling's debut, Satellite Bay (2007), were unanimously positive: "Off the beaten track, away from the hype fostered by bumptious music publications, away from all fashionable trends and the maundering zeitgeist, without a 3-minute corset but a with a lot of persistence," commented a reviewer in the magazine, Schallgrenzen, by all appearances covering all important benchmark data that mark Avoid The Light. At the same time, the five band members, David Jordan (guitar), Janosch Rathmer (drums), Florian Füntmann (guitar), Jan Hoffmann (bass) and Reimut van Bonn (ambience), impress with an even more open-minded and progressive approach on Avoid The Light. According to the musicians, the six new tracks present "an even wider stylistic range than our debut and are – as a direct consequence of our numerous gigs in 2008, with Dredg, at the Rock am Ring and Roadburn festivals, among others – faster, more haunting and more dynamic. Thanks to the thoroughly positive reactions to our first release, we have generally become much keener on experimentation." In view of the whole album's atmospheric density, there seems to be little point in highlighting individual tracks, yet the impressive opener, 'Apparitions', with its hypnotic flair, 'I Know You, Stanley Milgram!', an expansive number in terms of playing time and style (coincidentally, Stanley Milgram happens to be an interesting character who is definitely worth googling), and the closing track, 'Sundown Highway' with its sophisticated guitar work should not be left unmentioned. As its predecessor, Avoid The Light features – along with the five instrumental tracks – a number with a renowned guest vocalist. While Satellite Bay presented The Haunted's Peter Dolving, Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) recorded the vocal number 'The Nearing Grave' on the latest Long Distance Calling release. "We're all great Katatonia fans, so it seemed the obvious thing to do to ask Jonas." Avoid The Light was produced by Kurt Ebelhäuser (Blackmail, Donots, among others), a true master of his art. "The collaboration with him had a thoroughly positive effect on our sound," observe the band members and can be confident that the transparent production does justice to their fascinating compositional parameters at all times. What a band, what an album …"

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Collapse Under The Empire - Systembreakdown

2009-03-27T23:16:00.008+02:00

Artist: Collapse Under The Empire

Album: Systembreakdown

Label: Unsigned

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. Monumental Sequence
02. Sky Falling
03. Innocence
04. The Taste Of Last Summer
05. Quiet Dimension
06. Environmental Obsession
07. Turn
08. Depending On You
09. Further Than The End Of The World
10. Buried In Pieces

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Collapse Under The Empire start their newest album systembreakdown with a little electronic feel. Synth-pads cause the obligatory, melancholic mood, whereon the song flows into a mellow bridge-part, until it appears for the first time on this CD: the notorious "wall of sound". A post-rock phenomenon, which has attracted all possible adjectives - from outstanding to horrible. Well, on systembreakdown? The words melodic and tangible might apply the most here. Those are drawn through, from the first to the last second - for 42 minutes.

Creating an album, which offers a central theme, aswell as the possibility to hold the listener's attention for nearly three quarters of an hour is not easy for a band. The both guys from hamburg, however, handle things a little differently. By all means, the listener is allowed to drift away temporarily - sooner or later the band will take you back anyway. Oddly, it's not the hit of the album, which is responsible for this, like usual, but single, crucial and convincing moments of this record. Everyone has to decide on his own, whether it's the climax of the yearningly depending on you, the moody, electronic ambience of quiet dimension or the casual playfulness of the drums on further than the end of the world. The important thing is, that Collapse Under The Empire have built a countless number of these key-moments into their CD - there is one for everyone. (silence is also a sound)

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If These Trees Could Talk - Above The Earth, Below The Sky

2009-03-16T22:10:00.003+02:00

Artist: If Thees Trees Could Talk

Album: Above The Earth, Below The Sky

Label: Indie

Year: 2009

Tracklist:
01. From Roots to Needles
02. What's in the Ground Belongs to You
03. Terra Incognita
04. Above the Earth
05. Below the Sky
06. The Sun is in the North
07. Thirty-Six Silos
08. The Flames of Herostratus
09. Rebuilding the Temple of Artemis
10. Deus Ex Machina

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If These Trees Could Talk return with their long awaited full length album “Above the Earth, Below the Sky.” Recorded during the summer of 2008 under the watchful eye of Tim Gerak (6P7), the album is a dark emotional journey that picks up where the debut E.P. left off. With the roots of the album firmly planted within the industrial boomtown of Akron, Ohio, the Trees have made every effort to evoke the desperation and triumph felt by a city in despair and rebirth. Utilizing a dynamic range of auditory explorations fluctuating from delicate to deafening the Trees have once again provided their listeners a primed and ready canvas upon which they may paint their own visions of chaos and serenity. The types of images only seen when our eyes are closed or when the true nature of a world operating under insanity and irrationality is exposed. -by (cdbaby.com)

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Presence Of Soul - Blinds

2009-03-13T22:30:00.006+02:00

Artist: Presence Of Soul

Album: Blinds

Label: Wheel Records

Year: 2008

Tracklist:

01. Seven Mortal Sins And Seven Doors
02. Sink Low
03. Lost
04. Whitenoise Snowfall
05. Ephemera
06. Rule
07. Forgiven
08. Tightrope

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Japanese group PRESENCE OF SOUL is led by female singer and composer YUKI, who also handles guitars, keyboards and Mellotron. She's accompanied by a guitar player, a bass player and a drummer.
"Blinds" (2008) is a first album to be listened to somewhere between GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR !, SIGUR ROS, MOGWAI and ANEKDOTEN. As a matter of fact, the band was the support act for the swedish musicians during their 2008 shows in Japan.
From the very beginning, PRESENCE OF SOUL proves to be absolutely innovative and mature at the same time: ethereal female vocals create a sharp contrast with guitars fury and drumming power. Sad atmospheres, often enhanced by Mellotron and a great sense of slowliness (Without mentioning softness) evolve step by step, with an increasing violence, reaching its climax in an overwhelming maelstrom. It's a kind of "Progressive post-rock", and one cannot imagine a more intense musical world. You'll surely be haunted a long time after listening...

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Ghaust - Ghaust

2009-03-06T19:10:00.002+02:00

Artist: Ghaust

Album: Ghaust

Label: Purbaharuan Recordings

Year: 2008

Tracklist:
01. Day After (Entering Into Peace)
02. Sleep And Release
03. Torchlight
04. Akasia
05. The Wolf And The Boar
06. At Sea (We Are Nothing)

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Post-rock, in case you're a neophyte, is a genre of alternative rock defined by the use of common rock instruments for non-rock purposes. Guitars and drums are standard, but the rhythms, harmonies, melodies, timbre, and chord progressions used are not found in the rock tradition.

Basically, your typical post-rock song will consists of long guitar jams that explore layers of sound in order to create a certain mood. It is a genre that requires not only great technical skill, but a strong melodic imagination.

There is quite a considerable number of bands out there in our local scene that dabble in post-rock. Most of them border on only just decent, simply because they lack imagination. There are even fewer bands here that play hardcore post-rock, the darker side of this musical dream-weaving, as this subgenre requires technical mastery and a lucid imagination; which narrows the field of play tremendously.

South Jakarta-based GHAUST is one band, however, that manges to thrive beautifully in this dimly lit alley of post-rock. The nightmares constructed by this collective (comprised of Uri A. Putra (guitar) and M. Edward (drums)) are built with the utmost precision. The layering of instruments, the slow but steady progression of hard chords, the grinding distortions and the calculated drums are dispersed in careful doses that guide the listener through each space of the somber realm of their musical machinations.

After a few online releases, as well as participation in various compilations, this year saw the release of GHAUST's self-titled full length debut LP, available nationwide through Purbaharuan Recordings. This powerhouse of an album is guaranteed to take you to corners of your imagination previously untouched by other bands. This record is truly mind-blowing; as you read, I'm still picking up the pieces of my brain that were scattered across the floor upon my first listen. It immediately gets a place on my list of 2008's Top Five Local Releases.

GHAUST is an experience the listener would never want to, or be able to forget. Their music will seep into the nooks and crannies of your mind and build little grim empires in your subconscious. I am truly curious as to how their sound will evolve in the future. I will definitely keep my eyes on these guys.

Enough of the grand descriptions, you can learn more about GHAUST firsthand and give a listen to their brilliant pieces at www.myspace.com/soundofghaust. Be sure to leave them some nice comments. Their self-titled debut LP is now available. For a complete listing of record stores that sell the CD, check their myspace page. Be sure to buy it! -by (thejakartapost.com)

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