Hypno5e - Acid Mist Tomorrow

A couple of years ago, this little art-y metal band from France called Hypno5e came along with an album entitled Des Deux L’une Est L’autre, that in the most complex manner ever, floored me. This album devastated my reality and all that I thought I knew about heavy music. It was an intense listen that scrambled the brains with its complicated time signatures and dramatic musical shifts.  An epiphany, of sorts.

Please welcome in the band’s long-awaited follow up album, Acid Mist Tomorrow. In a word . . . holy . . . yeah, that’s pretty much me sitting with my headphones on, spinning this disc over and over and over again, and with every subsequent spinning thinking to myself, ‘ This can’t be possible.’ My reality has, once again, be turned inside out, flipped upside down, positive made negative, cats and dogs living together, dark into light . . .

The last album from Hypno5e was a bludgeoning, highly involved listen. Basically, I felt one had to think too much while listening to it and was often left exhausted afterwards. At times, it had a jarring effect from song to song. Not a bad thing, necessarily, just noting how it was an album that could intimidate. Acid Mist Tomorrow has a far better fluidity to it. The songs are much more seamless, even as the band goes from the mellowed out, acoustic and soft passages into the heavily distorted walls of cacophony. Everything is executed with, if it were even possible, greater precision, and then tempered with an even softer touch. A contrast of tones.

The open forty seconds or so of the first song (also the title track) is enough for anyone to know that this album has the makings of something far beyond what we’ve come to know and love from this band. A subtle clean toned guitar with a somewhat tranquil and distorted sound bite of nature hauntingly humming away in the background starts the song. The production of this short bit is perfect, captured in what sounds like mono . . . giving the sounds an old transistor radio vibe . . . before the heavily distorted guitar chugs away at a mighty riff,  and then, BAM! The song goes to stereo, hitting us with this incredible sonic weight . . . and yet, the band gets this great stuttering effect to play for a second as the song is just about to take off, and this little effect, tiny and almost insignificant to most, adds all of this juice and gusto to introduce this song. Without that effect, sure, the song would be fine, but with it . . . added intensity and breaking of tension that makes the listener more vested in what’s going on. The rest of the song roils and tumbles all over itself, highlighting the musicianship of the band and the performer’s insane abilities to start and stop in a fraction of a second. Hypno5e bludgeons with the hardest of them, but the trait that separates these guys from the masses of hyper-intense, metal-core, math-core, progressive neophytes is their ability to bring everything crashing down to the most mesmerizingly melodic and mellow passages. Absolutely beautiful and brilliant moments of tranquility and serenity before they kick the music back into high gear.

The album is essentially five songs in length, however, three of those songs are multi-part passages. One of those multi-part tracks that requires multiple listens for sheer brilliance alone is “Gehenne (I – III)”. Part I is an almost tribal, throbbing and mesmerizing tune with lyrics that sound as if they’re being sung in Spanish rather than France. I could be completely wrong about that . . . the Romantic languages have a tendency to throw me from time to time. Suddenly, as if from out of nowhere, Part II kicks in and we are beaten senseless with the blastbeat that time forgot, and these manic harmonics mixed into the ferocious guitar riffs . . . and then these bizarre string sweeps that raise the hairs on the back of the neck . . . and then, almost as suddenly as when all hell broke loose, the music winds down, the tempo slows a bit, the noise abates, and Hypno5e serenade us with their elegant voices, harmonized just so. Part III picks up there the chaotic frenzy of Part II left off, and almost immediately drops into a chilled out passage that almost sounds like its being led by a mandolin. The remainder of the song is a topsy-turvy affair and ends with us listeners sitting back in our chairs with an audible sigh.

Hypno5e push their music further and further with every release, hell . . . practically with every song. They’re progressive in so many different aspects . . . with their virtuosic abilities, then with their conscious effort to shelve an idea if they’ve already used it, then again with the sonic exploration of heavy and light music, then with their use of samples to further a story along . . . these guys are fucking genius! Smarter than all of us combined! Acid Mist Tomorrow is an early favorite for my Best of 2012 list. I can’t stop listening to the album, probably because they add so many new wrinkles to their style, most notably the mellow melodic portions. These elements tug on the heart strings and are packed with so much raw emotion that I can’t help but go back again and again. This one is a stunner!

Pope

http://www.facebook.com/Hypno5e

RPWL – Beyond Man And Time

You can call it art rock or prog rock and it all means the same to me.  I’m sure there are those dear readers out there who would argue with me and say that art rock is this and prog rock is that, and I’d just tell you to save your breath because you aren’t going to convince me one way or the other.  To my ears, the differences are so small that I’m not going to even try to figure out what they are.

But I do like art/prog rock, which is why I’m writing this review of the new release by German art rockers (their description) RPWL.  According to their bio, they’ve been around 12 years.  Also according to their bio, this is their first shot at a concept album.  We seem to getting a lot of these concept albums to review lately.  Maybe it’s just that time in the great circle of life when every band in existence decides that there just aren’t enough concept albums out in the world. 

The concept of this one is based on a line from Nietzsche’s work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”.   The first of line of this magnum opus reads, “ Six thousand feet beyond man and time….”, so there ya go, the title of the album.  Our protagonist is on a journey of insight, a revaluation of values, and he meets various characters of higher knowledge, etc, etc.  And that pretty much covers the lyrical content of the album.

There are some very good songs along the way.  My favorite is called “The Ugliest Man In The World”, which, contrary to what you might think, is not about former NBA player Sam Cassell, who looks like ET mated with a grouper.  The song does have some good lyrical content and probably the best musical themes of anything else on the album.  I also really enjoyed “The Road of Creation” and “The Shadow”.  Both have very strong musical themes, and also change things up in the musical direction of the album.  One little quibble I have, and I’ve mentioned it before in other reviews, is that these are some long songs, and with 11 of them, a long album.  It is all pretty much the same tempo, so any kind of change up is welcome, and the 3 tracks mentioned above do change things up nicely.

This is definitely the sort of album that grows on you and rewards you with multiple listens.  I enjoyed it from the first time I played it, but if you give it more and more time you begin to hear the many subtleties  in the songwriting, like recurring themes that surely represent our protagonist, very nice musical touches that really add to the listening experience instead of just being placed there to show how cool the musicians are, and some solid lyrics.  If you are expecting metal, give this a pass because there is nothing remotely metal about this release.  But it is solid prog rock and you will be happy you spent some time with this album if that is your cup of tea.

- ODIN

Enslaved - Isa

I had a dream. Not quite what the good Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had in mind, I’m sure . . . but a dream nonetheless. This one, in particular, had me sitting in a wooden box positioned in the middle of a frozen lake. With nothing but a case of beer and my thoughts as my companions, I was alone in the middle of a frozen wasteland . . . alone. Then there was a knock at the door of my hut of solitude. Unnerving, to say the least, for who knew I was here . . . and how did anyone get out here? The door slowly opened and five long haired and imposing figures, draped in practically nothing, stood in the ice encrusted doorway and with one simple statement claimed, ‘It’s time.’

I awoke from my deep sleep and, rather than incur the wrath of these wraiths sent by Morpheus, I pushed play on my iPod (no sense incurring the wrath of the wife either . . . it was two o’clock in the morning) and, as if by the hands of fate, Enslaved’s Isa began its musical transcendence.

Released in 2004, Isa was the much anticipated follow up to one of my all-time favorite records, Below the Lights . . . an album that I once referred to as the musical equivalent of ice fishing, something not meant for everybody, but for those into such things, a short moment in time of sheer bliss. Blistering extreme metal that originated from a black metal core and wound up becoming one of the more intriguing progressive metallic sounds around, and Isa took that Below the Lights blueprint and propelled it through the stratosphere. To say that Isa was a grand leap in direction and sound for Enslaved would be a massive understatement. But, then again, there’s that unique back step that the band takes with their sound . . . incorporating a little of that 70’s prog-rock into their sound, as well. Isa is a fascinating amalgam of, then, current extreme metal mixed with the sounds of yesterday to create a sound all unto its own.

 This album starts off in sheer creepy fashion with the absolutely chilling “Intro: Green Reflection”. Put this song on while walking through a forest and you’ll be shitting ice cubes. If that doesn’t work, wait a few seconds because when “Lunar Force” drops in, the pulse rate will increase. Horrifying demonic vocal screeching complemented by a wall of guitars and wrecking ball of rhythms fill every crevice of space of sound, but this is where I first recognized that this wasn’t the black metal that I thought it was going to be. The guitars don’t have that piercing or grating quality that traditional black metal has. These guitars are cold and icy, but enveloping like an early morning frozen fog. The ambience that the music creates has a sinister organic vibe to it . . . almost like turning over a rock and seeing the creepy crawlies writhing over one another. Then the band takes a massive left turn and gets mighty progressive on us . . . instead of a wall of sound, Enslaved serve up a staccato guitar riff over an off time and complex rhythm. Listen close and absorb the brilliance of the musicianship as all of the players are meshed around each other with their performances, shifting from standard 4/4 to some wild double and triple time rhythms . . . and then feel it as the song begins to build with more and more tension . . . creeping along the forest floor, rummaging for sustenance, and then getting supremely psychedelic before exploding into the main theme again. This song gets better and better with every listen!

Follow that up with “Isa” and the musical journey through the heart of darkness continues. Heavy ass guitars and rhythms again pummel the listener, and the vocals of longtime vocal/bass stalwart, Grutle, assail us with so much venom and piss and bile that you can’t help but feel your skin crawl. But here’s the new wrinkle . . . Enslaved incorporate clean-ish vocal harmonies that further add a discordant chill to the music as they work in contrast to the hellish belch of Grutle. Hehe . . . the Hellish Belt of Grutle . . . my new band name. Keep trudging over the decaying leaves of the haunted forest and hear how the band drops in a little keyboard flourish to add another sinister element to the overall sound. Great use of instrumentation and composition to create a world of fantastic dimension!

For you fans of intricate patterns within music, “Ascension”, especially the first two minutes or so, will call for your love. And again, Enslaved inject clean vocals that add heft and weight to the already burdensome sounds of the band . . . not the type of weight that we dread trudging along with, but the kind of weight that actually feels welcome, gives us substance and the air of accomplishment. Sprawling and magnificent, this song is that song that takes us from wandering around the forest floor and puts us on the back of a soaring eagle, diving though the clouds, hugging the mountainous terrain as we ride the air currents that Mother Nature blows our way.

Something else to consider on Isa is that this is the first time that I really recognize the use of keyboards in the band’s sound. There were some on Below the Lights, but it seems that Enslaved made better use of them on Isa . . . or this album was better produced to better capture the keyboard sounds. I can only think that this is one of the reasons I find this album as compelling as I do. The added depth with the keyboard sounds mixed with the already established traditional metal sound creates a world of intrigue that always makes the music interesting, even if I’ve heard it a million times before.

The entire work of Isa is a fantastic voyage. “Bounded By Allegiance”, “Return To Yggdrasill”, and the near 12-minute epic, “Neogenesis” are further examples of the musical growth that Enslaved has shown over the course of their lengthy career. Where Below the Lights was a dark album with a constant flitting and flickering ray of light to guide us, Isa is a harsh and cold landscape that is showing a little color of Spring breaking through the winter frost. The musicianship throughout this album is top notch and always surprises. Extreme metal, indeed, but I love how the band starts to work in simple little elements of vocal harmony and haunting melody to greater effect. Still a band that won’t appeal to the masses or be everybody’s cup of tea, thankfully . . . sometimes, I don’t like to share . . . a little 70’s rock influence, a heavy dose of nuvo-prog, and a mean streak of extreme metal . . . Enslaved, a band that pays homage to their influences, but refuses to get pigeon-holed into one genre and continuously pushes the envelope on creative expression.

I’m going back to sleep now . . . hopefully I won’t have any more spectral visitors and can get some much needed rest!

Pope

www.enslaved.no

Stratovarius - Intermission

“I’ll take Metal Bands for one thousand,”  The card slipped away and there it was, “Daily Double!”  Alex Trebek said, “You have $5,100,  Frank, how much do you wish to wager?” I thought for a moment.  I was behind the leading contestant by $4,800 and time was running out.  “Hell. it’s not like it’s my money.  I’ve got nothing if I lose.  Metal bands, hmmm,  should be easy for an old metalhead,”  so I exclaimed, “All of it, Alex.” 

Trebek raised his eyebrows, cocked his head to the right, raised the frequency of his voice and responded, “Alright, for $10,200 or nothing Frank - Its name was derived from a cross between the name of a violin maker and that of a Fender guitar. In 2001 this Finnish band disbanded for two years after they released an album entitled ‘Intermission’.”

I was stunned.  Could it be that Alex just asked me a question about a band from Finland?  Wait, what is this stuff about a violin maker?  Damn, I don’t know any violin makers. Fender guitars? WTF?  Let’s see, they make Telecasters and . . .” Alex interrupted my train of thought, “10 seconds.”

My mind raced and drifted.  “Finnish metal bands.  Battlelore? No, what has that got to do with violins?  Hanoi Rocks? Still no violin connection.  Shaked Booze?  Oh, come on,  I mused. I’d like some right now but that is not the answer. . .”  Then Trebek announced, “five seconds.”

His voice hit me like a switch and I went back to Fenders. “Let’s see. Telecaster, Jaguar, Stratocaster . . .  Wait, Stratocaster, wasn’t there a great Italian violin maker called, uh, uh . . .” As the buzzer went off I blurted out, “Stradivarius.”  Trebek raised one eyebrow and looked over his reading glasses directly at me, turned to the orchestra pit and said, “Judges?”  After a second or two of silence I saw the nod and Trebek said, “You are correct Frank, Stratovarius.  You now have $10,200.”  A bell went off and Trebek looked directly at the camera, “That is the end of this round.  We will be right back with Final Jeopardy.”  A stagehand exclaimed “3 . . . 2 . . . 1 and we’re out.”

We had about three minutes before Final Jeopardy.  Irja, a statuesque Scandinavian blonde with blue eyes, contestant number 2, turned to me and whispered with a sensuous Finnish accent, “I am surprised you know of Stratovarius.  Intermission is quite an unusual album don’t you think? It is a collection of B-sides, bonus tracks and five unreleased tracks made during their prior eight albums.  Yet it contains some of the best power metal and symphonic metal pieces you will ever hear.  They cover Judas Priest’s ‘Bloodstone’ and two Rainbow numbers, ‘Kill The King’ and ‘I Surrender.’  After the show would you like to come listen with me? I’m staying at the Hilton across the street.”

Trebek rudely interrupted before I could say a word to her.  “This is Final Jeopardy.  The Final Jeopardy category is ‘Money’.  Contestants please make your final wagers.”  He again looked at the camera, “We will be back with Final Jeopardy right after these messages.  The stagehand began his countdown and we were off to commercial.  I thought, “‘Money’ could be anything.  If I bet all $10,200 and I’m wrong I’ll lose completely unless everyone else does the same thing.  I don’t have enough to sit pat because contestant number 1, Lars, is only a few hundred dollars behind me.  Hell, go for it.”  I bet it all.

Irja turned to me and said, “Well, Frank, my place for some Stratovarius after the show?”  Before I could answer Trebek again intervened, “We’re back.  And the Final Jeopardy answer is ‘Before it used the euro its monetary unit was the “markka”.’” 

All I could think of was Irja’s intimate Stratovarius metal listening party invitation.  I had never heard of the “markka.” I wrote down my answer in the form of a question just as the buzzer sounded.

Trebek repeated the answer and called on Lars to show his card, “What is Finland? Correct and how much did you wager.  Lars turned over his card, “$300.  That puts Lars in the lead with $10,300. Irja did you get Finland?  Irja turned over her card and there it was. “What is Finland? Correct.  What did you wager?  $8,000, all of it.  That puts you in the lead with $16,000.

Trebek then turned to me and asked,  “Frank, you said . . .” I turned over my card.  Trebek read, “Irja, what is your room number?”

- Old School

Lance King – A Moment in Chiros

For some reason unknown to most of us, this is the kind of power/prog metal that causes European audiences to lose their minds, but most American metal fans kind of shrug and give a collective, “Meh”.  I’ve read others’ opinions on this and the most prevalent is that power metal often has classical roots, which are embedded in the European conscience, whereas American listeners are used to more blues based music.  Whatever the case, if you dismiss power metal, you are cheating yourself out of some good stuff.

For me, power metal is a more positive, uplifting form of metal.  Usually the lyrics contain a positive message.  Kind of like that happy feeling you get from 80’s hair metal without the cheese and spandex.  We who love metal don’t always have to listen to stuff that sounds like it was ripped from the bowels of hell with Asmodeus on lead vocals.

If you’re not familiar with Lance King, he has been the vocalist for Pyramaze and Balance of Power, and has sung on 25+ releases in his 21 year career, so he’s not a newcomer.  This is, however, his first step out as a solo artist.  The story goes that Lance decided at the end of June 2011 to do a solo album, began recruiting other musicians to help him out, and they had the entire album written, recorded, mixed and mastered 90 days later.  So dude obviously knows how to get things done.

What of the results?  Well, I’ll be right up front here with the one negative I have with this album.  It is meant to be a concept album, but in many places the lyrics seem very forced to fit this concept, as well as some spoken word parts inserted for, apparently, narrative flow.  But other than this, it’s a very good album.  If you’re into Dream Theater, Symphony X, or the seemingly 100’s of European bands that play power/proggy metal, you will be very happy with this album.

Lance King has assembled a very competent cast of musicians and this is a very solid album.  Most of it sounds pretty much like you would expect from this sub-genre, but there is also some very interesting instrumentation on some of the tracks.  “Awakening” and “Manifest Destiny” manage to use what sound like real woodwind and traditional instruments without veering over into folk metal.  “A Moment in Chiros”, the title track, has a nice change of tempo and feels as though it goes through a couple of movements.  And since I ripped on the lyrics a little, I have to say that “Dance of Power” has some well worded political commentary for those who listen closely.  Track 9, “Joy Everlasting” has some true ripping and head banging moments, which is another nice change of pace.  “Sacred Systems” is probably the proggiest track on the album, and actually manages to remind me of Queensryche at the same time.

“A Moment in Chiros” is a solid solo outing for Lance King.  So come on, American metal fans, give power metal a chance.  You gotta listen to something between now and the next full moon when you hold your Satanic rites.

-- ODIN

Tesseract - One

Everyone keeps telling me, “Alex, listen to Tesseract, listen to TESSERACT!”  So I listened to their MySpace awhile back, and honestly it didn’t do too much for me, so then it was on to the next thing.

Fast forward a few months, and I am holding a copy of their debut full length, One, which is out now via our friends at Century Media.  I take back what I said earlier, because now I am literally doing backflips!  Will definitely say now that I thoroughly enjoy these progressive metallers, and that I can continue to put One in my CD player on a continual basis.  The use of dark, melodic, theatrical, and sometimes pop-like clean singing in progressive metal has been a hot trend lately.  Many of you nobs are quick to think Tesseract and Periphery, but think back 4-5 years when The Human Abstract came out with Nocturne, and you can love or hate that band (I’m kinda 50/50), but at its time it was totally different and groundbreaking.  Go back further and study up on the Swedish progressive metal movement of Katatonia and Opeth and the harmonic vocals that were used, maybe not in a pop fashion, but with a great sense of harmony.  Now rewind back to the beginning where Queensryche and Fates Warning helped define everything that is progressive metal, taking influence from Rush to Judas Priest, and making something completely brain numbing at the time.

 Anyways, the point I’m trying to make here is that I’m glad to see progressive metal keep progressing when a great band like Tesseract comes along.  The term progressive metal is almost being taken for granite now, and I can’t fucking stand it.  With every new band on the block cloning Meshuggah and calling themselves “progressive” really bugs me!  I’m not going to namedrop a million bands here, nor am I even the biggest prog nerd in the world (my Uncle worships Queensryche religiously, so I’ve had my fair share of Tate [Geoff] growing up) , but what’s obvious is obvious – I want that real, rhythmic challenging, epic, and trend setting progressive metal that defines such a niche genre.

TESSERACT’s opus One album flows perfectly from start to finish, and you’ll easily get sucked into its rich concept.

“Acceptance - Concealing Fate Part One” is my favorite song on One, and is loaded with memorable melodies, thick overtones, an undeniable clean guitar rhythm, and plenty of low end, as AcieKahney and James Monteith’s guitars gently weep.  The song buildup of “Acceptance - Concealing Fate Part One” keeps the listener engaged to the max, and is filled with a lot of down tuned drops, a gentle yet perfect-sounding clean guitar, Tomkins’ epic vocals, and even a few mosh worthy breaks.  Complexity is a norm for Tesseract as all of their progressive transitions, sudden mood swings, and time signatures come so naturally.  The ending is as epic as can be, with Tomkins is at his catchiest expressing his great harmonic vocal range.  This song will move you.

Other great songs like “Deception - Concealing Fate Part Two” and “The Impossible - Concealing Fate Part Three” have their moments.  Tomkins’ vocal prowess is quite intriguing, and there’s plenty of low end and interesting time signatures for all you djent lovers!  The clean guitar passages and the atmospherics again is what really separate these boys from the pack.  These two songs showcase more of the heavier side of Tesseract as well as introduce a tribal side of the band, and at times sounding very similar to fellow UK progressive metallers Sikth in the instrumentals.

Tesseractcan also put on quite the jam session in “Epiphany - Concealing Fate Part Five” and “Sunrise”, and show the band a tad heavier than their other songs.  In “Sunrise”, the song is brutal yet equally unique with its ambient passages, and the intro chugging reminds me of old Sevendust for some reason.  Vocally, Mr. Tomkins I swear starts to morph into Maynard James Keenan when in clean singing motion, and screaming, yeah, a little bit like Morgan Rose of Sevendust.  The percussion truly shines in “Epiphany - Concealing Fate Part Five” and talk about quite the Meshuggah jam session in that one.  You definitely hear a heavy Meshuggah influence, and if you’re a fan of the almighty Fredrik Thordendal then you’ll probably like “Epiphany -  Concealing Fate Part Five”.  Tight and heavily syncopated riff work at its best on One.

One is easily one of my favorite progressive metal releases of the year.  Overall, Tesseract does a great job enveloping the listener, and taking them into their own world.  I’m curious to see what Tesseract has up their sleeve next, because a band as creative as this has always got something neat in the works.  Yes, I’ll say it right now: I think Tesseract is better than Periphery.  Anyways, would anyone like to come to the 4th dimension with me??


-- Alex Gilbert

Buy here mp3: One [+Digital Booklet]
Buy here CD:One

Fantastic Fen Inteview from This is Rock Magazine

Hi Doug, this is Francisco from This Is Rock Magazine Spain. First of all, I must congratulate you for Trails Out Of Gloom. Given that the album was released some months ago, do you already have a perspective of what has it meant to your career?

Thanks, Francisco. Trails Out Of Gloom is Fen's fourth album, but it's our first to get much critical attention. For many listeners it's the first they've heard of us, and they think we must be a new band, when actually we've been around for well over a decade. In that way, Trails Out Of Gloom is a new beginning for us. The album title could be significant in the sense that we have spent many years milling about in dark obscurity, and now we have finally come into the light of the media's narrow gaze. Ah, the wonder of marketing!

- Given that this is your first interview to our magazine, it would be great if you could tell us about Fen's origins. How did you and Sam Levin meet, and what did you want to achieve?

Sam and I met back in 1998, in a little pot-smoking mountain town called Nelson. We were teenagers at the time, and we started Fen after a single jam, where we droned a riff in 5/4 for about 45 minutes. We both played guitar, we both worshiped Tool and GnR, and we were driven to create our own dark and complex sound. The union came without hesitation.

- How would you describe Fen's sound?

The current sound is plaintive and brooding. Heavy and light. Subject to change.

- 'Trails Out Of Gloom'... the thing is that, although definitively dark sounding, the new album has many acoustic passages that, somehow, enlightens the compositions, taking them out of the gloom that surrounds your previous works... Has this acoustic side of the album been in the composition from the beginning of the writing sessions?

Most of the songs on Trails Out Of Gloom began on classical guitar, and the original plan was to make an acoustic album. During moments of weakness though, I strayed from that initial plan and experimented with bits of distortion here and there, and once I'd heard those distorted layers, I couldn't do without them. My roots are in heavy music, and that primal pull was too strong to resist. The final recording ended up being an amalgamation of the two textures, heavy and light. I always loved those classical-sounding Metallica intro's, but I wanted them to carry on for longer, and I wanted them to develop more slowly, rather than cutting straight to the thrashing. In a way, Trails Out Of Gloom helps bridge that transition for me.
 
- Fen's lineup has gone through several changes throughout these years, though yourself and Sam have always been the band's core...Do you think that these changes brought new elements into the band's sound?

Everyone we've played with have been exceptional musicians who can't help but bring something new to the sound. At the same time, our approach to songwriting has changed with each recording. This combination of variables has resulted in a big gap between the chaos of our first album, Surgical Transfusion of Molting Sensory Reflections, and the measured progressions of Trails.


- Given the band's sound evolution... Have you got an idea of how will Fen sound in a couple of albums time?

We've been working on new material, and from a guitar perspective, it's heavier and proggier than Trails. Sam's been writing high energy rock/metal-type riffage. Also, for the first time since our 2003 album, Heron Leg, we're bringing bass and drums into the writing process much earlier. For anyone who's only heard Trails, the next album may be a shock.

- 'Trails Out Of Gloom' is an album that requires several listenings to be fully appreciated, and is a perfect example of what a "grower" is.  Does the good music always need an extra effort in order to get into it?

It's a fine balance in songwriting, offering enough yum-yums in the first few listens to keep people coming back, but reserving the more exquisite treats for subsequent listens. I can't say that I know how it's done. The music for Trails took a long time to write - about three years. Perhaps that slow evolution into being can account for its "grower" status.

- For 'Trails Out Of Gloom' you have signed with Ripple Music. How was this contract forged? Do you plan to re-release your former albums with Ripple, so they could reach a wider audience?

I had contacted The Ripple Effect Blog a couple years ago, asking them to review our latest album at the time, Congenital Fixation. They came back with a killer review, then they requested an interview, and eventually they told us they were starting a label and wanted us to sign on. Their hard work and enthusiasm has helped us reach a lot of new listeners. And yes, we'll be re-releasing Congenital Fixation under the Ripple flag later this year.

- Remembering the fast and energetic entrance of 'Cockroach Eyelids' from the previous 'Congenital Fixation', I can do nothing else but wonder how you have taken that energy and embellished it with layers of emotional playing. Even the guitar parts seems to be more melodic. Is 'Trails Out Of Gloom' Fen's more intimate work?

With Congenital Fixation, Sam wrote the guitar parts and I wrote the vocals and the songs came together collaboratively. But with Trails, Sam was occupied with school and health issues, so I took up the guitar end as well. There's no doubt that he's a superior  player, and I did everything I could to keep the standard high with my more limited skills, which included layering and different textures and a lot of attention to arrangement. As you've mentioned, the result was pretty different. I guess the intimacy of Trails can be attributed in part to the acoustic root of the songs, but also to the fact that I was working on it alone.


- Your voice has been truly improved all along these years, and it feels like you feel much more confident with your singing style... Do you agree with that?

Thanks for your kind words, Francisco. I'm always trying to improve my skills as a vocalist. That's what keeps me going - the thought that the best is yet to come. But as much as my skills might have improved, I think it might be that I've come closer to finding a musical landscape that allows my voice to explore its full range. If I was suddenly thrown into any number of bands that go strictly with power chords and driving beats, half my lines would disappear. I'd be a vocal cripple.


- It has been recorded a video for 'Miracle'... Why did you choose that song? What can you tell us about this video?
 
The guys at our label thought 'Miracle' was the strongest tune on the album, and when making a video on a tight budget, shorter is better, so it was an easy choice. The video features two marionettes in a miniature landscape constructed of rocks and sticks and brambles and whatever else we could grab from nearby parks and beaches. In this set, arranged on a 4ft by 6ft plywood board, the two puppets play out a story of decayed love. We made the video with the help of Mind of a Snail Puppet Co and a handful of friends. You can watch it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP4zO07MF3I

- Given the fact that 'Trails Out Of Gloom' was published more than half a year ago... Do you think that this is time to think about Fen's future plans?

Our biggest goal right now is getting our live sound up to snuff. To do that, we plan on making some short tours through western Canada over the next year, and expanding the periphery of our local shows. That, plus writing and recording a new album should keep us busy.

- Can you tell us something about the gigs that you played for 'Trails Out Of Gloom'? How would you describe a Fen gig?

We're still getting comfortable in the live setting. I don't think we've found what we are yet, live. Right now we're slowly adding new elements to the show to see how we can create a more Fen environment while we're up there. We've got a show tonight and we're going to try out some sound effects between songs. We've been wanting to incorporate some kind of visuals as well, but haven't found a way to begin yet. For us, the music comes first, and the entertainment aspect is a faraway second, so it will develop more slowly.


- Well, I Think it's all by now, Doug. Thanks a lot for your time, and wish you all the best. Have you got anything to say to your Spanish fans?

Gracias! We're honoured to have you as listeners. To stay in touch with Fen, join our email list at www.fenmusic.ca or "like" us at www.facebook.com/fenmusic. We have many more albums ahead of us.

Symfonia - In Paradisum

You ever get really drunk and order a pizza?

And even though you were so bloated you couldn't breath, let alone sleep, it was the greatest pizza ever?

In Paradisum is that experience, in album form.

It's everything you might imagine: European metal (e.g., Helloween, Scorpions, Stratovarius, Rising Force, etc.), modeled distantly off European composers, playing heavily-distorted metallic symphonic music; so cheesy it's beyond semantics: tapped guitar solos and, ahem, symphonic chord progressions....

In the right mood, it is goddamn glorious.

Track one, "Fields of Avalon" intro's with fucking harpsichord...! Then operatic vocals, telling a tale of epic woe over a riff George Lynch is mad he didn't write! An updated version of Yngwie's "I'll see the light tonight"....

[You're either totally in by now, or not. You know. If not-- you disgust me. Don't even look at me, Jesus. I can't stand the sight of you.]

Next-- the fucking solo starts with harpsichord! Then...! a guitar solo that would make Herman Li ejaculate!

"Come By The Hills," track 2-- again with the harpsichord! Yes, they will abuse it, and you will love it, bitch! Then: a menacing guitar/bass backup! Holy Fucking Buddha, could this get more awesome?!

Yes.

Yes it can.

Track 3, "Santiago," is symphonic Motorhead, complete with D-beat... somehow managing to squeeze in a solo reminiscent of Warrant, of all bands....

Holy Shit-- I'm actually trying to listen to this in sections, a bit at a time, but I can't stop listening... In Paradisum draws me in....

"Alayna," the exemplary power metal ballad, won't let me stop listening... it's every relationship I had my Junior year in High School, down to its up-bent final note... It's actually freaking me out how it's completely transporting me back to 1987.... I feel so sad about this chick Alayna, and I have no idea who she is... whoever she is, she fucked up the singer... whore!!

[This is what I'm talking about! This fucking cheesy shit grabs you and makes you take a stand...! Regardless of how stupid you sound!]

"Forevermore," (who else would dare call a song that?) starts with manic riffs, both heavy and melodic....

"Pilgrim Road," melody in the thin-guitar-stringed riff with keyboards, Helloween in 2011, essentially... face-fucking solo at 2:15....

Possible album highlight "Rhapsody in Black" is Accept meets Queensrÿche with a dash of Journey and Kiss' "I Was Made for Loving You...." "I walk in neon" suggests Geoff Tate and Co. again with the title and the opening harpsichord....

Closer "Don't Let me Go," another ballad with what is probably a cello in the background... this should've been on MTV's top 10 in 1986... sad, cheestastic: my inner teenager could not be more involved now....

You will hum every Goddamn inch of this album. It's a earworm waiting to happen, again and again....

All irony aside: In Paradisum is cheesy as shit-- but it's completely unironic, optimistic, exalted Heavy Metal, in all senses of the term-- and it will rock your goddamn face off, like nothing else.

"Irony" has a half-life. "Irony" is for hipsters and people too cool (read: afraid) to believe in something.s

Symfonia believe.

Mock them all you want, but they love their music.

The term "Heavy Metal" either has a religious, holy, sacred connotation to you... or you smirk at the notion.

If you know, and I mean know, in your heart of hearts, know in your very studded soul, in your denim-jacketed world, what Heavy Metal means--

GET.

THIS.

ALBUM.

10/1o, two thumbs up, Gold Metal, whatever:

Beer chugging, horn-throwing, spliff-smoking perfection.

Thank me later.

--Horn

PS: Fucking suh-weet album cover. Get that shit airbrushed on the side of a van, PRONTO.

 Buy here: In Paradisum

Urizen - Universe: Red

Can you hear it?  The sounds of familiar 8-bit noises and metallic riffs ring through the air. “What is this sound.”, you ask yourself. This is the sound of Urizen. Born from a secret laboratory in Colorado and transported to Texas, Urizen are on the rise. There latest record, Universe:Red sets a new standard for progressive metal.

Universe:Red is the third installment from Texas Avant-Metalers Urizen. From the first track, “A Noiseless Flash” you can already tell this will be a special album. Reminiscent of your favorite 1980’s video game, the tack makes you wonder if you will be saving the Princess or shooting some Asteroids.

“A Noiseless Flash” seemingly integrates into the powerful blast beat laden, “A Budding Consciousness”. The vocal styling of Thomas add a much needed wittiness to an otherwise dull metal scene. Thomas has an almost Phil Collins flavor to him (please do not ask to taste him). His Collins-esque vocals can be heard predominately on the track, “Nothing Is Epic”. A groovy mix of metal and jazz. Also included on this album is the  highly catchy single called “Boxmen”. It makes you want to see the world through that of a box and scream BOXMEN!! BOXMEN!! over and over. By God, you will never get the beat out of your head, and that’s a good thing.

As great as the album is, their live show is something someone must truly witness. I have been fortunate enough to have been able to see them at least once every few months for the last 5 plus years. From their birth during the “Autocratopolis” era to the current “Universe” era, Urizen stage shows continue to progress.

Robots, blob monsters and Urimen. These are but a few things that are a Urizen show. They are something that must be witnessed live to truly get the whole feeling of how great this band is.
I mean there’s a giant f’n robot on stage through half their set. What more do you need?

Go to www.urizenonline.com and pick up your copy of Universe:Red. It's is the perfect gift for weddings, Bat Mitzvahs, shuttle launches, corporate retreats, or even just as an afternoon pick-me-up!


--Cicatriz

buy here: Universe Red
or from the band: www.urizenonline.com

Opeth - In Live Concert at The Royal Albert Hall

No matter how hard I try, how many fancy words I string together, to try and describe Opeth’s In Live Concert at The Royal Albert Hall, I fear I simply won’t do this package it’s due justice. To aptly describe this majestic release, I would have to channel the essence of James Michener, who’s thousand page epics have a tendency to sprawl across hundreds, nay . . . thousands of years of a subjects existence, depicting the great land movements, the tectonic shifts and violent volcanic episodes that formed the environment that the subject may call home. I would then have to detail out every last bit of emotion and nuance from the main character(s), so rich in detail that you would feel that you’ve just spent the last century walking in their shoes. Then, I’d weave such an intricate tapestry of words that you would swear that you could taste the dust of a country road on your tongue, feel the bitter cold of a Chesapeake winter, or smell the floral scents of perfume on a maidens breast . . . or, in the case of Opeth, the stinging taste of battery acid on your tongue, the sweltering heat of an enclosed venue, or the ripening smell of the bodies struggling within said venue.

I can use all of those nifty adjectives that we writers like to use so much. Awesome. Amazing. Fantastic. Astonishing. Yeah, they all work because they do express some amount of excitement about that which they are describing. But in the case of In Live Concert at The Royal Albert Hall, they’re simply not adequate enough descriptors. A four disc vinyl set with two DVD’s will never adequately be described by one word, especially a set as painstakingly detailed as this particular issue. This set deserves . . . no, requires a tome of words to form a shadow of what is actually going on. The set will require another volume to add color.

For Opeth’s twentieth anniversary, Mikael Akerfeldt and company decided to do a short tour, hitting a few venues that harbor an image of class and respect, and then release the subsequent recordings in a package that would be represent the band and cater to the record collecting masses (of those of us who are still out here.) The two album set is all recorded live and spans the full career of Opeth, paying homage to many of the members of the band who have since moved on, and spotlighting with special attention their breakout album, Blackwater Park, by performing it in its entirety. The packaging on this set draws me back to those glorious days of the 1970’s, an era when rock n’ roll, progressive music, whatever, paid close attention to the visual marketing of the album art, the imagery, the overall sensation of buying a record and vegging for hours with the music as the soundtrack to the visual stimuli that the artist had created . . . a phenomenon that was inhibited by the CD revolution and completely lost in the digital age. This particular box set includes a concert poster and a twenty page book with “Awesome. Amazing. Fantastic. Astonishing” photos from the concert at The Royal Albert Hall . . . all serious eye candy to lose oneself while the vinyl does its glorious dance on the turntable.

However, the imagery really means nothing if the musical quality isn’t there. Let’s face it. We all have those great pieces of vinyl where the album art is infinitely superior than the musical quality . . . Meatloaf, I’m looking at you. In the case of In Live Concert at The Royal Albert Hall, the musical quality is sharp, loud, and clearer than just about any live recording I’ve heard, and the performances are a testament to the physical and mental abilities of these five musicians. I’ve said it before, with the advent of Pro Tools and all of the various technical studio tricks, recording ten minute epics that shift moods, musical styles, tempos, and time signatures is cool, but it’s almost too easy. Maybe I’ve become jaded. But to pull off that feat live, without a net, as they say . . . that, my friends, is what being a musician is all about! To put this latest live adventure into perspective, imagine that Opeth is playing all of Blackwater Park, which they do, without fucking up the parts and transitions (coz’ you should know that there are plenty of those lying around) and then follow it up with an additional eight songs that touch on every variation of the bands creativity, every stylistic change, every musical nuance from the last twenty years. Breath taking.

I could go through every song and wax poetic about their deeper meaning to my every heartbeat, but that got old the second I thought about it. Instead, you really need to listen for yourselves. In particular, “Bleak,” “Blackwater Park,” “Advent,” “The Moor,” “Harlequin Forest,” and set closer “The Lotus Eater” jump to mind as the moments that I felt the greatest shiver of someone walking on my grave, of staring into the mesmerizing gaze of a thousand succubi, or breathing in the noxious and intoxicating fumes of Hades. I can’t help but marvel at the performances of these musicians, the rich textures that they apply with their respective instruments, and the overall exhilarating physical sensation that I get when I hear the sounds and tones spew from my speakers and bathe me in their brilliance.

After basking in the sonic splendor of the aforementioned four discs, I made my way to the Ripple Theater and dropped in the DVD’s. “Awesome. Amazing. Fantastic. Astonishing.” I honestly don’t think I breathed for something like four hours. Mouth agape, I stared . . . completely transfixed on the visual performance of this concert. The band must have used something like 3,000 cameras (a slight exaggeration) for this production. We had the standard center stage angle, left stage angle, right stage angle . . . got a little creative with the behind the band, over-the-shoulder angle, some nice crowd angles and then a few nice shots of the drummers foot (always a fan of the drummers foot work) . . . and then there were the camera angles where I swear I could count the musicians’ nose hair. The visuals were cool, nothing interstellar like a band mascot running out on stage and catching fire (as cool as that always is), just clean and concise images that help separate Opeth from any other band on the face of the planet. I found the stage presence of the various band members intriguing. Martin Mendez with his hair whipping from side to side, Fredrik Akesson dropping into the classic metal headbanging pose, the relaxed, almost bored look of drummer Martin Axenrot, and maniacal glare and eccentric demeanor of keyboardist Per Wiberg . . . and, of course, the stalwart center figure of Mikael Akerfeldt . . . they all just had that look!  

When watching this, note the guitar issues that the band has during particular songs. With a simple wave of his hand, Mikael Akerfeldt signaled to his guitar tech, and without panic, without stepping away from the mic, continues belting out his trademark death growl with the same sincerity as we’ve grown to become accustomed . . . guitar tech switches out guitars in mid vocal line and BAM! He disappears and the show goes on. I give a nod of respect to the professionalism that Akerfeldt shows here because I’ve seen the opposite from bands in the past, people become flustered, they freeze or start throwing tantrums, ultimately making the show suffer. Not here, not with Opeth. The best part though is in the second set closer, “The Lotus Eater,” as guitarist Fredrik Akesson has his own set of technical issues with his gear. In listening to the LP version, it simply sounds like the band has an extended quiet passage going on in the song, kind of like they’re playing with the crowd a bit . . . as if this was a planned break. Seeing what actually happened fills in the gaps from the pure audio portion, but I think it’s interesting how the mind goes places based on the information it’s given.

Yeah, I spent more money than I could really afford on this production, but food is overrated anyway. Hey! It’s not like anyone’s ever really starved to death, right? In truth, based on how much I want to listen to this album, and spend four-plus hours glued to my television watching this performance, how excited I get when I start talking about this album to people, how many words I just wrote as tribute on this release, hell . . . I’d spend the money all over again. If you’re an Opeth fan and you’re on the fence about this album for any reason, then I would hope that these words have acted a gentle nudge to knock you off the fence. If you’re new to Opeth and are looking for a jumping off point to get into this band, this is the place to do it. You get Blackwater Park in its entirety and select choices from every album before and since, with performances that capture the band at the height of its creative brilliance. If you don’t like Opeth and have no interest in the band whatsoever, I thank you for reading this far though I’m confused why you would have spent your time doing so.  -  Pope    

FYI – this release does come in numerous formats, so don’t feel that because I wrote about the vinyl edition that you have no other choices. Rock on! 

--Pope

buy here: Opeth - In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall (2DVD/3CD)
buy here: DVD Opeth - In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall (2DVD)
buy here: mp3: In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall

www.opeth.com

Fen - Trails Out Of Gloom

WOW!! Every now and then you roll across a CD that just affects your soul in a way that is both disturbing and pleasing. You find yourself listening to it over and over and with every repeat listening, a deep trance like feeling washes over you. Songs seem to flow, as you find yourself adrift in a collection of Progressive Rock filled aggressively dark, brooding and hauntingly majestic material that you will find difficult to put down. This is what Vancouver, B.C. band, Fen will do to you. The brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Doug Harrison and guitarist Sam Levin, Fen, have released their 4th album, Trails Out of Gloom (Ripple Music), a scrapbook of 9 eerily memorable lullabies, sagas and stirring ballads, which engages the audience onto a trip of almost mythical proportions. Filled with dark lyrics and delivered by painstaking personal vocals, Fen offers a CD that feels like a beautifully, anguish filled dream, with songs that stories with both voice and instrument. Haunting, deliberate and chilling.

Blending elements of Progressive Rock with the aggressiveness of Metal and the melodic sensibilities of modern Alternative Rock, Fen have created a complex artistic expression that from the first acoustic, lamenting notes of CD opener, "Trails Out of Gloom", simply captivates the imagination. With the ability of being able to grasp the listener and dive in and out of various musical forms, fans of Porcupine Tree, Tool, and the elegant side of Opeth, will easily call Fen their own. Doug Harrison delivers vocal performances that are stellar and soothing with beautiful and soaring melodies, all the while being quite quirky. Imagine if you can, a blend of the passionate vocals of a Brent Smith of Shinedown and the obscure, often falsetto'ed, idiosyncratic styling's of The Mars Volta's, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and you are on the right path. Harrison somehow makes this delicate combination work and leaves you wanting more.

Gloomy dynamics of early '90's Seattle-themed Hard Rock, filters through the excellent production on this opus and hi-jacks you through a myriad of moods of almost psychedelic proportions that showcase the overflowing talent of both Harrison and Levin. Heavier moments on Trails Out of Gloom are counterbalanced with acoustic guitar passages that just co-habitat so perfectly in a grandiose fashion, much in that brilliant Opeth/Porcupine Tree way. Enormous and intense are just two of the magnificent words that come to mind to describe the utter brilliance contained within. Standout track, "The World is Young", while heavy and herculean, this song intersects with a delicate cascading beauty with glorious vocals.

 Fen delivers a different type of "heavy" with Trails Out of Gloom, one that is dank and opaque, with plenty of texture and substance that requires complete digestion for your optimum pleasure. This is very much like a classic '70's Prog Rock record that contains immensely crafted songs with excellently well written lyrics that also allows for the musical interludes to not be self indulgent, but rather an integral piece of the pie. There are no 12 minute overkill pieces here, but rather 6 minute voyages into remarkableness. And remarkable this CD is. This CD will impact you immediately, but the true brilliance of Trails Out of Gloom comes from further absorption. This is a stellar release.

--Butch Jones via Sea of Tranquility

Buy here: Trails out of Gloom

Let your Fingers Do The Talking – Progressive Instrumental Masterpieces - featuring Charles the Osprey and Canvas Solaris

In recent weeks, I’ve been holed up in the Ripple Offices concentrating on getting this label up, running, re-charged so that it could run some more, etc. Y’know, business as usual. And, like any record label/music PR firm/music review blog/music commentary radio show office will, there’s music going on. I haven’t really wanted to listen to too much new stuff because when I’m entrenched in detail oriented work or acts of mundanity (yes, I made up my own word,) I like to have material that I’m familiar with., stuff that I can unconsciously sing or hum to. But, that kinda’ changed when I discovered a couple of instrumental albums. I found that while the music was unfamiliar and went all over the place, it didn’t inhibit my flow of energy. I like that. Then I began to take note of the musical intricacies nestled within the flurry of notes, and I that I wasn’t singing with my voice, but rather with my hands. Just as the musicians within these submissions were doing.

Take a gander with your eyes and ears to these two releases, and hopefully you’ll find that little something that will inject you with some additional energy.

Charles The Osprey – Consider

This outfit is a duo, and frankly, I’ve never heard a two-piece create so much intricate sound. The duo of Rafael Ohli on guitars and Derek Lancioni on drums seem to speak in waves of sound as the weave their musical performances between each other like two birds in flight, like two dancers across a ballroom floor. The music is kind of post-punk-y, post-rock-y, post-harcore-y, and at first glance, may appear to be senseless showmanship, but that’s where folks would have the completely wrong idea of what these guys are doing. These songs have structure, albeit, a loose one. The tightness of the musicians’ performances are enthralling and, often times, breathtaking. Ohli’s fingers pull off impossible chord changes, scale runs, and technical feats  . . . all of it leaving my finger joints a little more sore than when I woke up. Lancioni’s drum work is as expressive as the guitar work . . . filling the songs with huge tom patterns, incorporating subtle cymbal crashes, and propelling the songs into some of the oddest time signatures imaginable. The two musicians then meet somewhere in the middle for these hopped up musical conversations and magic is created.

Listen to a song like “Hornets Don’t Have To Feint” and marvel at how these guys can be so damned technically proficient and still craft a compelling song. The song is filled with amazing guitar acrobatics . . . scales played at stunning speed, but executed with clarity. In the background, loosely holidng things together, Lancioni fires of rolls with accented snare crashes to compliment the work that Ohli is doing, and then things get crazy and off time. These guys say more with their hands than a gymnasium filled with debate teams do with their mouths. The composition of this song is immaculate. One part loose and feeling like they just sat down and jammed this out in one sitting, the other part of it feels like they must have stood in front of chalk board, plotting out the parts for eons. Heavily structured music with a loose under current.

And while songs like “Conversations With The Deacon, Vol. I” are mind-boggling feats of musicianship, the song that absolutely floored me was “The Frontal Lobe A-Go-Go.” What a fucking master work! The clean guitar tones sound like they’re being pinched within their own groove and the way that Lancioni drops in, the whole tone of the song becomes this jazzy little epic. While Ohli is still holding down the rhythm, Lancioni is able to go ape shit, lobbing huge bursts of expression with the aid of his kit. In time, a dubbed in heavier distorted guitar creeps into the mix, adding an ominous wave of tension and intrigue. As the song cruises along its path, the duo holds back the barrage of notes and lets the song breath by adding longer pauses between the notes. But when they do get back to their chaotic nature, they don’t overdo it . . . they add just enough nuance and cacophony to create a dynamic shift in mood.

If you like progressive music and don’t’ mind a thrill ride when it comes to individual musical performances, then Charles The Osprey is not going to let you down on the first listen . . . or a one thousandth listen.

Buy here: Consider

http://www.frictionrecords.net/

Canvas Solaris – Irradiance    

     

Much like East of the Wall did a few years back with their stellar album Farmer’s Almanac, Canvas Solaris approach their post-metallic sounds with a complete disregard for the vocal element. Irradiate is filled with many an epic moment, constantly shifting the focus between the individual performance and the song composition, ultimately creating a piece of nine song masterpiece. The music, like most progressive music, utilizes odd time signatures, and what I’m finding most intriguing about Canvas Solaris is that they have an uncanny ability to create huge moments of mood. When these guys are all playing in seemingly different directions, it’s like walking through a dense forest, the senses are working overtime to process all that surrounds us, at times feelings claustrophobic and disoriented . . . and then when the band drops down to a more standard tempo and allow more space between the notes, it’s like walking out of that forest, into a wide open plain where the world is open for us to delight in its vastness.

“Conveyance of Flux” is a beautiful epic of a tune. Crafted in what sounds like a linear fashion, the song feels like it’s telling a story. I love how the track opens with some distorted synth-bass tones and then the rest of the band joins in with their avant jazzy attack, scale runs at a million miles an hour and drums snapping, smashing, and crashing like a wall full of china exploding on a hardwood floor. Then, to create nuance and extra dynamics, the band drop down and open up, sustaining notes and tones . . . creating space for the listener to breathe in the delights of the various sounds. This song has a lot of metal elements and, at times, reminds me of some of the more progressive moments of Iron Maiden and the gutter grit of Metallica. Note the exceptional bass work around the 3:34 mark. It doesn’t start off all that fancy, but after the first couple of measures, the bassist works some magical extra notes into the run and makes that portion of the song pop. Then, of course, there’s the understated guitar work with its volume swells and moody tones. I love that Canvas Solaris took us somewhere a little different on this song and didn’t simply dazzle us for the sake of dazzling.

“The Horizons Feast On Stars” is another fabulous journey into the mentally challenging areas of progressive music. Again, the band brings more mood and elements of emotional expression than most prog-music, and we as listeners don’t have to over think what the band is doing. This is partially due to them breaking up the din of multi-note flurries with ambient moments and subtle melodies. The three minute mark of this track is another high mark to listen for as this group of musicians executes highly proficient runs of music. “Glacier” follows it up with a high speed thrill ride that kind of paints images of riding on a snowmobile across an icy terrain, weaving in and out of frosty canyons, daring death to sweep us away. Then, there’s “Soliton,” a song that has huge jazzy elements, a quasi-Latin polyrhythm vibe, and some sexy bass tones. Amazing execution and an album that simply gets better and better with every listen! --Pope JTE

Buy here: Irradiance

http://www.myspace.com/canvassolaris

A Sunday Conversation with Mindslaved

In the last days of 2009, we touched on a number of bands hailing from France that were doing some amazing stuff with sound. One of those bands was Mindslaved, who's EP, T(h)ree, was as elegant as it was abrasive and struck such a chord with us at The Ripple Effect that we had to know more about how these guys approach making music. We recent;y caught up with Quentin and Tink, and they explained the mindset behind the creation that is Mindslaved.

Every musician is influenced by those who came before them, but what were your major musical epiphanies that inspired you to create music? What major musical moments helped define you as musicians?

Quentin: I started listening to metal with Slipknot, who definitely influenced a lot my way of seeing music at the time. But as time goes my influences change and I’m more and more influenced by the French metal scene itself. As for major musical moments I’ll say when I say Tool live…best show of my life, these guys are amazing, the visual is incredible, and it must be one of the only bands with a better sound live than on a CD. Other shows that really impressed me are the three times I saw Gojira and the four times I saw Hacride. These are really good bands and they definitely change the way I look at music.

Tink: As a crate digger, there’s a big distance between my early influences and what is inspiring me now. At first as a pre-teen, I was listening only to classical music because of my practice in school. Then I was introduced to rock music by the mean of mainstream commercial “MTV like” rock bands, such as Offspring, P.O.D, Linkin Park and all the Nu-metal stuff (no shame! A young boy makes mistakes!), then under the influence of my brother and some friends (even their parents!), I started listening to the 70’s progressive band (Yes, Camel, Magma, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, among others, discovering real ambitious and “avant garde” music) which lead me to Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Spockbeard’s and co. After that, all the doors were wide open! I became a metalhead, and after many bend, I was fond of post rock/post HxC (Mogwai, Red Sparowes, Godspeed You Black Emperor! Isis, Oceansize), mathcore (DEP, Psyopus, The TDTE, The Arusha Accord, The Number Twelves Looks Like You…I’m sure you know a lot about this huge American avant garde scene!), polyrythm stuff (Meshuggah, Tesseract, Textures) without forgetting HxC stuff (Unearth, Every Time I Die, The Chariot, Chimaira). And now I’m discovering with a lot of enthusiasm, the summerian core, new school death, quality deathcore. From After the Burial, to Veil of Maya, switchin’ by Burning the masses, Martyr, the Canadian scene (Ion Dissonance, Despised Icon) etc.

It’s a little bit long, I know, but it’s really hard to make a selection. I’m a kind of musical geek, diggin the web hours a day to find some new pearl.

But, I think the way we create is really far from these influences, it must be an unconscious synthesis…

 T(h)ree is an EP that is equally brutal as it is beautiful. How did you guys approach the songwriting to create such a contrast in sounds?

Q: We’ve always done like this, we like to play with contrasts in music. For us metal is kind of the perfect music in the sense that you can express anything you want because you have no limit. It would be hard to imagine some pop rock band starting to blast and scream their guts out where it doesn’t seem weird for a metal band to include melodic elements and be really soft. For us this variety of possibilities of intensity is just a perfect panel of choice to express emotions. So when it comes to songwriting we just take what comes, including a soft and melodic passage can make your song lighter and/or reinforce the next violent passage so why wouldn’t we use it?

T: Our aim isn’t to make commercial music or easy listening radio format stuff. Starting from there, you allow yourself to do anything you want! Depending on your mood, your musical pick of the moment (If I’m fond of Lady Gaga’s 80’s keyboard, I will have no remorse to use them!), the sensation of a new guitar etc. The long format permits us to put a lot of ambiance and different atmospheres in a same song. The challenge is to keep the whole thing coherent.

In my opinion, you can compare Jazz and metal music, both have the ambition and the ability to push the limits of music. These are music genres that make the music progress. Complex cerebral stuff mixed with primal emotions and a lot of intensity. Both promote a very clever and technical way to use the instruments with the goal to reach new harmonies, new tones or rhythms that are enriching your ears.

So the contrasts are very natural, it’s only feelings, very simple stuff finally, spontaneous stuff. Your guts are speaking, and then your brains do the rest!

When you write a piece of music, do you consciously write from the mind set of being different than what's out there now?

Q: Yes, I think we definitely try to experiment as much as possible to try to make something that sounds different, include breaks that you wouldn’t expect, don’t satisfy the average listener by using standard structures and classic harmonies. We like to surprise the listener, and maybe make them think more, get their attention.

T: We just want to make a music that satisfies us, in the hope that people will understand, appreciate and follow us. But we don’t want to make compromises. If no one cares, too bad. I keep thinking about the Mamas and the Papas hit single “Make your Own kind of music, Sing your own special song, even if no one else is singing along!”

That’s the only way to create something fresh.

From where we’re sitting, the French music scene appears to be a burgeoning entity of massive creativity. Being that you’re there, does it feel the same way?

Q: Yes, more and more. When we started the band in 2005 we had this impression that French metal wasn’t really popular outside France because it wasn’t really good. But since then, new bands keep appearing from everywhere and some are really incredible. Bands like Gojira, Hacride, Klone, Mistaken Element, Psykup, Hypno5e, Gorod, etc. who have brought something really new, they just came out of nowhere and now we can be proud to be part of this new and extremely rich scene. Even in our city there are a lot of bands, maybe even too many! Even two or three years ago there weren’t really many shows around here but now you have shows almost every week!

T: The main problem in France is that the rock culture isn’t anchored as in the Anglo-Saxon countries (the UK is the homeland of rock!). So mass and quality media despise the metal scene, or at least are not interested at all. I once read in an article, that in Wal-Mart in the US, it’s totally possible to hear some Slipknot while you’re doing your shopping. And people are ok with that. Mainstream cultures in France are Hip-hop, r’n’b, songwriter, brit rock…and…then…metal.

Too bad, ‘cause there’s a big audience and money to make : ). But I’m also disagreeing with my drummer; there’s always been a quality French metal scene (there’s no blank between Loudblast and Gojira…), but because of Gojira, the rest of the world (and in particular the US) is now looking a little bit the French scene (bring the spotlight!).  So we’ve got the impression that there’s a kind of buzz, now, many good band (with a ten years past!) have to take advantages of Gojira’s success for being recognized.

In my opinion the real problem is that 1% of the European culture is crossing the Atlantic, and that’s a shame.

Is there a lot of camaraderie within the various bands of the French underground?

Q: Not all the time. But I think it’s developing more and more. We have always been trying to support other bands if possible, go to shows see the local bands playing. We have even organized some big shows with bands like Hacride and Psykup with another band called Lethal Unraveling and are now trying to build a kind of collective with Ahimsa.

T: The metal scene is sectarian. It’s the war of genres. Black and death metal fan aren’t mixing up, and it’s the same for HxC fans, geeky progressive guys and Symphonic fans! Even the dress codes are so different! The music place is a constant place of ego fights and competitive behavior. But our passionate commune and the DIY spirit are gathering us.

What do you see as being the biggest obstacle in getting your music heard in some of the more major markets, such as the U.S.?

 Q: First locally, it’s really hard to get known because there are so many bands out there. And in France the metal public is quite restricted, and for us it’s quite hard because where we live most people listen to Death and/or Black metal so when you play progressive metal it’s not really easy to get people to come to see you. The other problem is that it’s hard to get out of your city because you have to make exchanges with bands from other cities if you want to go there and so it means you have to organize shows in your home town quite a lot if you really want to move out. Then if you want to get a label to get a better exposition, with all the stuff going on about downloading and music market collapse, the labels don’t really want to risk money with new bands so they prefer to find bands that have already paid for the recording of their album and take care only of the promotion of this album. But an album costs quite a lot of money and not everyone can afford it, especially when you’re a bunch of young students (hopefully cultural offices of the cities could give you subs). If you have a label and you make yourself known in France it’s already an achievement. But then go out in the U.S. in completely another scale. The only band who really managed to do so is Gojira and it’s because they have been doing only these for more than ten years, that they were already the biggest band in France and that they had contacts in the U.S. So except if major labels start looking more closely to France to find new bands I think it’s going to be quite hard for any band to go out there…

T: Hopefully, with the achievements of the Internet, your music could easily flow everywhere. And it’s already pleasant to be heard and considered in others country (although it doesn’t help you to live on your passion).

About our case, we’re all very busy students, and there’s no professional objectives to reach for us. Going as far as we can, but we’re not expecting success.

What is you musical intention? What are you trying to express or get your audience to feel?

Q: We want to express some kind of disgust of the society we live in, a society where we just destroy the hand that feeds us, destroy other species… but maybe also some hope and appeal to consciousness for people to realize before it’s too late that you can’t really eat money… So to transcribe this musically, you have anger and sadness mixed together basically.

T: We like to express very pessimistic and melancholic feelings with committed lyrics towards politics, human nature, finance, human needs and disease, links with Earth... We wish to approach more introspective lyrics dealing with metaphysical/spiritual stuff, the kind of very deep and sensitive subject which you debate for hours at 5am. There’s a duality, the individual (man in the mirror) and the collective (globalization, industrial plague, the world government, conspiracy, fake “demonocracy”, Mk Ultra and stuff like that). We’re living in a pre-Orwellian or a science fiction “pre-post apocalyptic” world. It’s all about manipulation, brainwashing people, make them accept their false lives script in the name of a minority’s interest.

The business of music is a brutal place. Changes in technology have made it easier than ever for bands to get their music out, but harder than ever to make a living? What are your plans to move the band forward? How do you stay motivated in this brutal business?

 Q: Surely it has gotten easier for smaller bands like us to get known through the Internet, but even harder for bands trying to make a living out of music. For us, we don’t really see too far, now we are focused on writing and recording our first album and try to find a label to release it; we’ll see what will happen next. We are motivated because we like playing the music we write, we like to be able to play with other bands, we like being part of this scene. Even if we don’t expect to be famous or make a living out of it, we just like doing what we do.

T: Bands who are complaining about illegal download are wrong. Without this, they couldn’t do any quality shows. Now, the music is spreading faster than ever, better than ever, and in a bigger scale. I can’t afford a record twice the price it should be or I just don’t want to, it’s a moral question! (In France cultural products, especially CD are very expensive), the problem comes from the label. No one is able to build up a new economic model based on monthly paid plan, with a proportional remuneration depending on the number of downloads (No, this isn’t communism). Major labels’ managers are old conservatives making deals and arrangements with the politicians. They’re unable to adapt and they keep on making money on artists. Our only motivation is music; we’re building a quality school background to keep art as a passion with no money constraint.

Describe to us the ideal (realistic) record label and how you'd work with them, and they with you.

Q: Ideally, we would like a record label that would pay for the recording of our album, but apparently this is not so realistic anymore, so a label that would sign us, release our album and promote it properly. Then hopefully we would get some good openings for good bands and maybe a French tour. That would already be a really optimistic scenario.

T: Our unrealistic fantasy dream (just for fun!) would be to be signed by a French label called “Listenable records” (It promotes half of my favs band! Textures, Gojira, Hacride, Sybreed, Gorod, Eyes of a traitor, Kruger, The red shore, The Amenta, Centaurus-A, Hate, Mors Principum Est, Soilwork, Scarve), the perfect mix between alternative and full of integrity alternative approachable band.

Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?

Q: Mainly CD and digital. Digital because it would be cheaper for people to get our music, and easier to diffuse our music. Still, we like CD because you can offer a visual aspect linked to your music and we like to have a physical support for an album. But if one day we have an occasion for a vinyl we’ll probably think about it because it allows you to develop the visual aspect and have another type of sound for your music.

T: The packaging is very important. It fixes a color, an image, an approach in the listener’s mind. It’s completing your music with visual art that we love to make!

Also, to listen to your own music on a turntable drinking a whiskey and smoking a stick is one of the best egocentric snobbish pleasures I’d like to taste one day!