While it true that the production value of 7K during their “Make It Up” is solid, the track present does not have enough energy to do much of anything until the band can corral their forces for a brief time during the midpoint of this track. The tension that 7K is trying to create with the design to hold back guitars towards the end of the track is a tack…
Sevendust start this album with a pretty hard rocking track in “Hero”. The fact with this track is that the song does not really lift individuals up like previous Sevendust tracks. It is middle of the road and does not enjoy the hooks that are needed to really bring individuals in by the barrelful. “Ugly” is a track that relies a little more on the creation of a vocal harmony,…
Smartly using Jonathan’s synthesizer in place of a third guitar, Settlefish adds a different element to the chaotic soundscape that marks the compositions on dance a while, upset as paradoxical, intentionally human even through completely electronic instruments. Keeping along with the focus on the keyboards, Jonathan makes it the most versatile part of the band; the beat of “On Symmetry Pebbles” pokes a hole into one’s soul with each beat,…
“Death Triumphant” starts out in a fairly normal way. The band is playing at breakneck speeds, but there is nothing that brings Setherial to that next level. The first track on the disc is “Limbo of Insanity”, and while it is fun to listen to, one cannot hear anything that has not been done before on this track. The title track begins in much of the same vein, with Setherial…
There are CD reissues all the time. However, many of these re-releases still sound as if they were created in an earlier period. Dwarr’s 1984 album, Starting Over, has a timeless quality to it that simply is not present in many of the recordings that are reissued every year. This is because Animals touches upon the different musical currents that were present in 1984and creates an utterly unique and haunting…
Sepultura has changed a lot in the last few years. One of the first metal albums that I ever bought was a copy of “Roots Bloody Roots”, and the band seems to have moved well beyond that style in the 6 or 7 years since I picked up that album. There seems to be a lightness among the tracks on “Dante XXI”, one in which the bass is eschewed for…
Punching through the static nature of emo with an extremely forceful bass line, September is Falling start off their self-titled LP and fill it with a very rhythmic drum line and compelling vocals. With each part of the band fighting for the top of the hill, pushing out its fellow instruments as soon as an opportunity is reached, the bands intensity cannot be understated. The staggered nature of each of…
Pretty much every local emorock band that came out since the release of Senses Fail’s EP has done a cover from the formers retinue, whether it be “187” (Silver in December, The Goodlife) or “Stephen” (Tripping Linda). It is simply not possible to overestimate their influence on the up and coming emo scene, and it is this fact that “Let It Enfold You” is an album that is tremendously important,…
Semaphore “make” an album that is very slow in starting, and has tracks present during “Make” that really start over each time. Thus, when a track like “Childhood Revisited” ends, there is no presumption that Semaphore has already been through this same scheme time and time again in the past. While the compositions (especially during “Drone”) are fairly sedate, this is not to say that they are Spartanly arranged or…
For decades, the follow up to The Beach Boys brilliant Pet Sounds was one of rock and roll’s best urban legends. Sure they eventually threw up their hands and released the so-so album Smiley Smile in 1967, but there was always talk of what was almost released. A sonically-layered masterpiece, bootlegs dripped out in the years that followed and in 1993, Brian Wilson finally released, a newly recorded version of…
The remix of September Sun by Lumia is a perfect introduction to Kodomo, as it will immediately showcase the emotive force that are typically present in his recordings. I personally like the seemingly conflicting electronic feel and heaviness that is established here; Kodomo is incredibly talented at what he does. While listeners may be afraid of the track’s nearly six-minute run time, Lumia is arranged in such a way that…
Coming bursting out of the gates with a fire that rivals that of Fifteen or Brand New, Selfmademan inflicts their brutal, political vision of screamo on their audience. “Who Will Sing To This” spirals more and more out of control, with a barrage of different instruments coming into play. Slipping a little bit, Jay’s vocals and corresponding guitar work is needlessly plastic during “Listen Closely This Time”, with a breakdown…
Sedalia play the same style of very calm, acoustic-led rock that has dominated the styles of acts like Devendra Banhart and Vetiver. This is essentially the lowest of the lo-fi, where it sounds as if a microphone was placed into the recording room and the band huddled around it. This does not mean that the band is lacking in any meaningful way with talent, but just that there is not…
The opening of “Ten Silver Drops” coalesces the last forty years in rock music to create something that authoritatively speaks to all who listen to music. This is not just rock music, but taps on a number of different styles while doing so. This means, during a song like “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned”, segments of the track come forth in a very indie rock style, but the vocals soon after…
There is a timeless quality to Devil’s Walk that will make it particularly germane to any fan of electronic music, whether it be the early work of Kraftwerk, the New Wave era, or something newer. This is because each of the 10 tracks that are on Devil’s Walk are able to speak singularly and as a larger effort. The title begins with Sweet Unrest, a track that touches upon the…
I had heard The Secret Machines have their name dropped a number of time in the indielitist circles of acquaintances I’ve met, but hadn’t gotten a chance to listen to them until I put on this disc. Very open, spacey guitars open the first track, “First Wave Intact”, and while the track nearly ends at the nine-minute mark, The Secret Machines are no more the worse for wear. The drums…
Considering that the title of this album has “dance” in it, I was expecting something completely different than the emo-rock that was provided by Secret Lives of the Freemasons. This is not to say that I was disappointed; rather, it was doubly shocking (first, that it wasn’t a dance-punk type of band and second, that “Make Like A Door and Shut Up” was so damn good.) Even if some of…
The disc’s first track is odd to say the least. The first half of this seventy second track starts off with a very “Children of the Corn” type of chanting, before Secret Apollo moves into a seventies rock type of sound. “Daydreamers Anonymous” brings a few different styles to the repertoire of Secret Apollo. In fact, the only thing that seems to be a constant with Secret Apollo has to…
The music that one encounters on Secret Agent Bill’s disc is hard-hitting, to say the least. The swirling guitars may not be the most exciting, but the political message that winds its way throughout the track is something to behold. The harmony that the band creates during “Gentrify or Die” just through the vocals present is topped off by the ever-changing time signatures on the track. “Thought I Knew” mixes…
Screwjack, formerly The Freedumb Fries, formerly The Freedom Fries, and even before that S.B.C., have been at the top of their game since their first EP, Dicktad, came out in 2001. While I can go back and listen to it now and see the solid songwriting for what it is on these early tracks, there is no denying that the members of Screwjack have came a long way in originality,…