Sepultura – Dante XXI
Sepultura rocks, plain and simple, they always have and in my mind will always rock, now since the departure from Max Cavalera it has been a bit of a downhill battle, and worst is that they have the ability (well everyone except Max’s replacement) but they just did sub par work after sub par work, sure Max’s Soulfly has never been that impressive, but hell if you are going to keep the name at least keep it in the standard that Sepultura had all of us accustomed with, am i right?
Into The Moat – The Design
Oh God Oh God Oh God, another tech/jazz band, sweeeet, well this is me after a couple of minutes of ranting after listening to “The Design”, like i said 2 seconds ago this is another one ranging the rabid seas of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Norma Jean or maybe Psyopus, mixing, Punk, Hardcore, Metalcore, with strange time signatures and all those jazzy whatnot’s we all love (or maybe it’s just me ^^), this is their first full length album, and what a treat it is.
As I Lay Dying – Shadows Are Security
Again throwing myself into the metalcore arena just right between Shadows Fall, God Forbid, Killswitch Engage (they aren’t here for show, more later) and the likes, well why not, i’m bored, here comes As I Lay Dying, i actually thought their previous effort wasn’t bad at all, especially because it seemed a bit rougher and i liked the “downthesun” like explosions, so i heard there were some lineup changes, that can go either way, so let’s dive into Shadows Are Security.
The Mad Capsule Markets – 1997-2004
Uhh the mad boys are back…well halfway, this is their latest release, but its just a mix of their best tunes from 1997 to 2004, why do this? well maybe because their back catalog isn’t that rich so everyone can save a couple of bucks and just by this one, these japanese boys play a form of electro/punk so the songs are not really part of anything, so albums tend to be collection of songs ratter than something with a beginning, middle or end, anyway i like the mad capsule markets, their use of drum&bass/jungle, so… heavy hitting electronic with the violent overtone of punk/hardcore/thrash, and this mix actually works quite well.
The Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine
I had an eye on Dillinger, ever since they released the chaotic metal meets hardcore meets punk meets experimental jazz of “Calculating Infinity”, difficult to ear at first (much like Meshuggah) after a while you start to see the underlying structure and all the little nuances you can always find in these kind of music, “Calculating Infinity” wasn’t without flaws, it had a kind of abrasive void about it, even in all the chaos it was still punk/hardcore and it had all the bad and good things punk and hardcore have, rough and aggressive songs, one dimension vocals, it goes on and on, well “Miss Machine” is here, so let’s have a look see.
Horse The Band – R. Borlax
How can you not love a band with a name like that, in a hardcore world filled to the brim, here comes … “Horse The Band” the weird name has its pursues just like their interestingly original sound, they join straight faced no bullshit hardcore, with 8bits nintendo music…yeah you heard me right…yeah there is a keyboard player somewhere in there, playing…some retro 1980′s, 1990′s video game reminiscent music, how bizarre, well the use of electronics (or clean vocals) is becoming more common on hardcore bands, nevertheless the self evident genre of Nintendocore is theirs.
A Life Once Lost – Hunter
A Life Once Lost is the kind of band that it’s hard to pinpoint, they clearly ride the roads between death/thrash/hardcore, but with their first release they seemed to go straight for a more point by point math metal approach, with a bit of hardcore in the mix but basically a stop go, polyrithmic ride, that is to say, i liked it, now with a new album, they seem to try and grow their sound, and so a new beast is born.