Neurosis – Given To The Rising

Neurosis can be seen as the godfathers of the whole postcore movement. Almost every band within the genre owes something to them. Originally the band started out as a hardcore/punk outfit, but they gradually shifted their style towards doom metal, noise core and avant-garde. In their wake they created a whole new breed of bands, collectively known as the postcore movement. Enemy Of The Sun (1996), Times Of Grace (1999) and A Sun That Never Sets (2001) are seen as landmark albums. In 2007 the band released Given To The Rising, their current record. Let’s take a closer look.

Mose Giganticus – Gift Horse

Mose Giganticus is a solo project by multi-instrumentalist and singer Mat Garfield. Gift Horse is the name of his latest release and it’s somewhat of an concept album. It’s all about God and Satan facing each other during the end of days addressed from a philosophical point of view. Let’s see whether the music on Gift Horse matches its pretentious concept.

Interview With The Ocean

The German post rock/metal collective known as The Ocean are well known for releasing high quality music with often thought provoking lyrics and concepts. Last year the band released two albums, namely Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. Although both records are musically quite different from each other, they’re both linked by the same concept. I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with guitarist Robin Staps, the creative mastermind behind The Ocean and its concepts. He turned out to be a very intelligent and outspoken conversationalist and I believe this is one of the best interviews I’ve done so far. Enjoy!

Lantlôs – .Neon

Lantlôs is a German post black metal project with Herbst as main composer and musical visionary. This time around he’s joined by Neige (Alcest, Amesoeurs) on vocals. Their latest is called .Neon. Let’s have a closer look.

TesseracT – Concealing Fate EP

TesseracT are a young band from the UK that have managed to create quite a stir in their native country. The English metal press is quite chauvinistic when it comes to supporting UK bands, so let’s take a closer look what the hype surrounding TesseracT is all about.

Interview With Name

Thanks to Twitter I managed to do an interview with Wes Fareas (guitars/vocals) of Name. He’s the main composer and lyricist and he had a lot to say about the new record, the background of his lyrics, crazy antics and everying in between. Prepare yourself for a bumpy ride through one of the most entertaining and interesting interviews I’ve done in a long time…

The Ocean – Heliocentric

Once an ever revolving collective of musicians and artists, The Ocean have established themselves as a band with guitarist Robin Staps as the main leader and creative force. They’re known for their intricate and artistic brand of post-rock/metal with progressive tendencies. Just as with Fluxion/Aeolian their latest effort is another two-disc behemoth in the form of Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. Subject of this article is Heliocentric, the more subtle and quieter of the two.

Baroness – Blue Record

One of the strange and unintended consequences of our 24 hour rolling news and arts media is that responses and reviews must be instantaneous, immediate, or they get nowhere. You can understand this when it comes to news headlines, less so when it comes to talking and discussing music. I can imagine just how galling it can be for an artist to have spent about two years on what they regard as a masterpiece to have it trashed in print within five minutes.

Textures – Silhouettes

Arguably one of the best bands ever to emerge from the fertile Dutch soil are the progressive techheads from Textures. Their debut album Polars was hailed as one of the finest metal releases in the Netherlands ever and its successor Drawing Circles was met with almost the same critical acclaim. Some say the third album is the make or break for a band, so let’s have a critical look at Silhouettes.

Klone – Black Days

Another excellent example of the French brand of innovative metal is Klone. They’re from Poitiers and their blend of metal is quite original. I got totally blown away by their previous All Seeing Eye album. In May this year they released their third album, entitled Black Days. This record is on display now.