Meshuggah – Obzen
Meshuggah “Obzen”, ahhh it just flows out so sweetly, well here we go, first of all i would like to say, kind of like a disclaimer that Meshuggah might be my all time favorite band, so please take that into consideration with the review to this piece of shit… wait… maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, i get this very strange vibe, just like with Tool‘s 10000 Days, that the hype did not help at all, well lets start from the beginning, Meshuggah hail from Sweden and play “normally” a form of metal i like to describe as math metal (just like there is math rock) even though i like to call it calc metal, but if you want a more precise category i would say progressive death/thrash metal (wikipedia decided to call this avant-garde metal or experimental metal, but well we all know wikipedia is apparently filled with a bunch of crack heads that think that editing a piece of text on a website makes it true, fuck them), and their new album is out and its called Obzen, we have previously reviewed their albums Nothing and Catch 33, so lets get into it, shall we.
Fredrik Thordendal’s Special Defects – Sol Niger W.
This is the kind of album that’s hard to review… well because it’s so awesome, i know, i know, so instead of going on a rant fest and just saying good things about everything, i’ll just give a quick and dirty review, i’ll try and talk about the things i like the most and a bit of the background.
Behemoth – The Apostasy
Oh Jesus… Behemoth has a new album, for anyone that weren’t paying attention Behemoth’s last album “Demigod” was actually the first review on Soundcult, so it’s my pleasure to again grace myself in the presence of awesomeness … heheh maybe yes, maybe no, there are big shoes to fill after “Demigod”, again it seems we are in the irreligious theme, so let’s see how good is “The Apostasy”.
Intronaut – Void
Intronaut play a interestingly mix variety of music, i would put them in the alternative/progressive metal/rock arena, close in resemblance with what Mastodon excel at, maybe a bit less overwhelming, i don’t know if i would fit it into the sludge category as well, nevertheless loads of skill and sprinkles of loads of genres popping in and out, so how does “Void” fit into this?
Mastodon – Blood Mountain
From sea huntin to mountain tracking, what can i say, new album from Mastodon, incase you don’t know Mastodon, let me tell you, the name fits the music, their sound is like the prehistoric mammoth like animal, you know, big and hairy, scary tusks, well they play a kind of Technical Heavy Metal band, that mix loads of different genres and styles, from Progressive Rock/Metal to Thrash Metal, from Hardcore to Power Metal, from Sludge Metal to Southern Rock, with memorizing odd ball jazz like drumming (their best feature in a long list of excellent features) and complex heavy guitar riffing, so a new album is here “Blood Mountain”, I’m wondering how it will fare against their critically acclaimed (including myself) last album “Leviathan”.
Ram-Zet – Escape
Ram-Zet hail from Norway and therefore they play…. Progressive Metal? well they do throw in Death/Black/Industrial and of course some symphonic touches, mostly through the piano/violin combo, that and the dual vocals (harsh male/clean female), do create a Progressive metal kind of fusion, seems people are calling it Avant Garde Metal (or Schizo Metal/Experimental Metal), so let’s just have a look at “Escape”.
Meshuggah – Nothing
Meshuggah are back! Well, not really. They just released «Nothing» again. So… Is it just another stupid re-release in digipack with a Japanese bonus track? No, this is a remastered version of «Nothing». Well, to be honest, remastered version do suck most of the times. Let’s see what about this one!
Unexpect – In a Flesh Aquarium
Indeed delightful (giggling all the way through), indeed, to the point of causing a syncopic episode, it’s quite wondrous at least for me, when i start a review with glaring praise, it’s actually refreshing, Unexpect hail from Canada, they have a quaint lineup with a double vocalist, one female, another male and guitarist, another guitarist, a bassist (with a custom 9 string if the press doesn’t fail me), a keyboardist, a drummer and a violinist, i guess a weird lineup for weird music, they play a sort of … how can i put it … progressive metal? i guess, but it’s weird in a nice way, wait let me rephrase that, its totally mind boggling out of this world weird in a phosphorus glare of …. ohhh I’m just being silly, let’s just take a pause and let’s talk about the album.