Record Reviews: BEAR "Doradus" (Let It Burn Records)

Naming your band "BEAR" is all good when you actually make music that sounds like a huge fucking bear landing on your head!

And this is the case here. These wild Belgians have managed to take the hardcore/metal background and shoot it to the moon. In my book, their new album entitled Doradus deserves a place right up there with the essentials of  tecnhnical and progressive hardcore/metal like Coalesce, Curl Up and Die, early Converge, etc. Putting the cherry on the cake for us, Bear also manage to produce some huge sounding, epic moshing rock (or rocking mosh) that is catchy and tuneful, and goes down well any time of the day. It's awesome to hear some music that retains the true hardcore fury of previous époques, but also goes the extra mile, maintaing an equally badass and intellectual feel all the way through.

When a band plays such an interesting mix of sounds, the production that coats the music is always crucial. On Doradus, Bear packs a crystal clear production sound that creates a wrecking ball out of the twisted metallic riffs and groovy drum patterns; Everything crumples under the undisputed pressure of this solidly built destruction machine! The songs are pretty short for this genre (around the 3 minute mark), which is a good thing. However, Bear manage to squeeze in all the power, intensity and passion in each and every song, as they scoop the best elements from deathcore, progressive/post hardcore, djent, and even good old black metal.

The most important thing that this record reminds us, is that even though it's good to take different elements and mix them into the melting pot, balance and composure (sic) are also essential. It's no good to have an album that sounds like it's made up of guest musicians. That is to say identity is all important for a band, and Bear have that in check. They manage to unite all the influences into something we can simply call hardcore/metal, and which isn't overly progressive and/or tiring. Congrats to Let it Burn records for having a band like this on its roster! I am super happy to see hardcore music still making a progess without losing its touch! Check this shit out!

www.facebook.com/bearpropaganda

UPs: Super tight playing, super groovy rhythms, good catchiness factor without going pop, brutal and heavy without being chaotic.

DOWNs: None that I can find.

LOWDOWN: Diligent metallic hardcore making a tour de force, celebrating all extreme music.

Video: The Hundredth "Desolate"

The Hundredth is an up & coming progressive/post hardcore metal band, with the above description not exactly explaining how heavy and awesome these guys really are. They are on Mediaskare Records and currently tour with some Reaper Records bands, like Backtrack and Take Offense. This shows that even though The Hundredth may flirt with the mainstream HC/metal scene (professional videos, some clean choruses thrown in etc) they are still down with the ol' core. Enjoy this cool video!

ALTARS - 'Opposition' EP Review

Today we have another review brought to you by our good old pal, Nick Tolis. He has reviewed the very interesting and brutally beatiful new work by stalwart moshers, ALTARS. Their new ep entitled Opposition is a perfect example of new age, epic beatdown hardcore with melancholic touches and NO clean vocals. Enjoy!

ALTARS - Opposition EP

A mix of sounds

In case you are a fan of metal-hardcore, with lots of beat downs I guess you have found your thing here. The good thing is that this band manages to play something common but so different at the same time. After the intro song the album starts with a heavy beat down that will catch you from the head and throw you miles away. At the first seconds of the song “Advocate” I questioned my self whether this is a death metal band heavily influenced by Morbid Angel or a metal hardcore band. Things change rapidly. Fast beats, melodic loops, some screamo parts and some samples giving an industrial feeling create an interesting plus remarkable album.

To give a clearer idea, the album sounds like a mixture of Poison the Well, Comeback Kid, Born from Pain, Walls of Jericho and Chimaira. The good thing is that Altars succeed to put their signature to the album and to be proud to say that this is their music and not someone else’s music.

Overall, we have a six track EP, really well played, melodic-metal-hardcore with interesting ideas and lots of beat-downs to move your head up and down and enter the mosh-pit. Last but not least, the lyrics are faith-God-Christian oriented. Not really my thing to be honest but… nevermind the bollocks… let the guys play their music and express their thoughts…since they play it well… I am okay with it.

http://www.facebook.com/AltarsHC

Nick can be reached at nikostolis [at] gmail [dot] com 

Cave In - "White Silence" Review

Today we have something different to present our readers compared to the usual all hard all core stuff we post here. The following review is written by my friend Nick, who is a definite brutal music afficcionado (proven by standing the test of time!). I think that many hardcore kids will lend an ear to music like Cave In, as they are one of those bands that came out of the hardcore/metal scene and stepped away throughout their career -- but kept  making good music. Read on and find out why you should check out the band's heavy as fuck new album!

Back To The Roots (?)

It is really admirable  when a band can modify its style so dramatically and provide good material. Cave In seem to me like a phenomenon in the extreme music scene. Ok, extreme in some occasions, I agree. Personally I don’t know what to expect anymore when a Cave In album comes out.

White Silence is an 180o turn again for Cave In. On one hand you’ll find heavy, complex riffs, intense bass guitar and noisy guitar fill ups and on the other hand a more prog- rock approach with psycho-traveling songs and less aggression. There is an obvious influence on the sound and the style as also on the vocals, from the sound of the project bands of its members (Zozobra, Old Man Gloom), therefore along with the complex and fast riffs you‘ll find slow, drown, heavy parts and mid tempo songs.

But that is what happens only till the middle of the album, because as the album goes on, Cave In sound more like a prog-rock band than a sludge-doom-metal core one. Prog-rock with a post-rock aesthetic and with loads of psychedelic sounds is what you will find at the second half of the album. Clean vocals appear quite often but when they do so, they are either distorted or alongside with some brutal ones.  I know that the marriage of these styles sounds a bit chaotic and wired. But Cave In do it and most important they do it very well.

“White Silence” is a complete album. You won’t get bored listening to the album and you will definitely play it again and again. You will move your head up and down and gradually you will become heavier, drown back and get lost. The overall result: a dirty, sick and traveling sound with loads of upside downs which leads to a dirty, sick, album that travels you from aggression to relaxation.

Typical Cave In stuff right?

THIS MURDER OF ANGELS - Wake (EP)

I will admit that the majority of the stuff I listen to is kinda violent, or at least intense in one way or another. However I try to keep an open mind and go for other styles of music every now and then, I mean it is always good to have different stuff in your record collection, and a wide palette of music to choose from so to speak.

Bands like This Murder of Angels come and fill that gap in my musical knowledge in a very efficient and refreshing way. They play a style of music that shares equal influences from pop, post hardcore, black metal, prog and even a dose of classical music. This may sound weird but when you actually hear Wake, everything sounds right in place and you can start getting into those chunky post metal grooves.

These Scottish dudes have created a new style in which they are not afraid to go all soft and then come back with hellish screams, thick-layered guitars and prog metal drums. I guess they do pretty much whatever they like, and this is something that I totally respect in a band.

I can imagine myself playing this on a variety of occasions, not when I want to mosh but when I'm feeling a bit down, when I want to go on thinking mode, when I read a book or even when I chill with someone who can't handle too much hardcore or metal. This is very progressive, very clever music and I am glad that a band like this would care to approach a hardcore fanzine like Take Your Shot. So, in the name of Unity, hardcore, metal, post-hardcore, whatever... let's go!

http://thismurderofangels.bandcamp.com/

UPs: complex, thick layered instrumentation with a wide range of influences to stretch and test our musical knowledge.

DOWNs: Not enough heaviness and maybe too much piano/keyboards.

LOWDOWN: Very progressive but also catchy post metal with awesome vocals and and an artistic, almost theatrical feel. Not yer mama's Deftones, but an original band!

Street of Possession - 'The Wolfman' EP (self-released) Review

Just how much ambient instrumental beatdown death metal have you heard lately? Probably not much... Nevertheless, this crazy 'prog meets mosh' band from Lyon, France is here to create a new niche and satisfy your insatiable need for new, crazy, and heavy as fuck music.

The thing with Street of Possession's amazing new EP The Wolfman is that it is actually has no vocals and consists only of heavy downtuned guitars, sick groovy rhythm patterns and beatiful ambient layers to accompany all the unsurmantouble heaviness. A one-man project on this one, SOP also work on stuff with death metal vocals on other recordings, but here Jeremie (guitars, bass, drum prog, samples) ventures on his own to create a masterpiece of avant garde post-deathcore. This is really like nothing else I've heard before, as this kid takes the ball from bands like White Chapel, Misery Index, For Today etc and keeps running, stripping it all down to the bare essentials.

SOP manages to combine the heaviness with some hair raising type of melodies, thus balancing between the extreme and the almost catchy, even mainstream sound if you like. The record is also based on something like a concept theme, about the cruel transformation of a man into a wolf. Sounds kind of crazy (or maybe typical if you're a metal fan), but as I am into all that anarcho primitive, back to wilderness feral type thinking, I can surely dig! Our feral edge is always calling, waiting to make a beast out of us again... Another interesting fact is that  since there are no lyrics, each song leaves you on your own to start making a plot in your head based only on the song title and the complexity of the music.

Awesome work from this French beatdown eccentric! I easily give it a [9.5/10]. I am just curious to see how the next stuff (with vocals) will sound like...

Red Sparrows live - Thursday 4 Nov. 2010

Tonight, a chill night. A favorite alternative among hardcore kids world wide. Premium US alt rockers Red Sparrows live in Athens!

Dead At The Scene - 'Sharktopus' EP Review

One thing that does not come up frequently in TYS is the fact that I love progressive metal... especially progressive, technical metal with post/hardcore influences and excellent musicianship! So Dead At The Scene is exactly the type of band I am talking about--progressing and transgressing, creating their own style of metal that sounds totally fresh and inspiring!

First of all, I guess I should say that this isn't exactly 'metal' per se; it combines a ton of different musical influences which won't allow even the most narrow-minded critic to pigeonhole this band in to any specific genre (well...). It would suffice to say that it is really heavy, really tight, with constant changes without becoming chaotic or 'jazzy'! I mean, it is progressive for sure, but luckily it is also catchy and groovy, and goes down well from start to finish. In other words, you won't sit there wondering what the fuck? or strive to make sense by playing the record over and over until you get it. Au contraire, you will be able to just enjoy it from the first play. Then, of course, you will end up giving it repeated listens like me, because it will grow on you like a motherfucker!

Another good thing about Sharktopus (what a title) is that it contains various layers of heaviness. It doesn't just go back and forth between heavy/calm like so many so called progressive bands out there; it actually has parts where the band slaps you across the face really heavy but also melodic parts, blending the brutality with an almost chilled, hypnotic at times atmosphere. And all that without sampling and programming or keyboard additions of any sort! So the record ploughs on through with all its heavy riffs and double bass drumming and exchanging complex rhythms, but there is an immense sense of beauty about it, too. I can't begin to understand how these guys tie up their songs with so much brutality and at the same time thoughtfulness and melody. Good job!

DATS: trippy deathcore for a new age

It's the combination of those trippy, calm parts with the sheer technical intensity that makes this Scottish   band stand out so much. All the players know their shit for sure and do their progressive thang but without competing each other, while the vocals top it all off with a wide range of different styles. Everything is so in phase and perfectly correlated that creates a nice sense of balance. Just perfect, melodic, modern progressive metal. There is a part on the song Echoes on 02.56 when the solo kicks in, that is just fucking magic and explains exactly what I mean.

Most of all I like this band because they can pull off all this technical stuff and at the same time keep it  metal and down to earth. But you better get your hands on this gem and check it out for yourself asap! This is music for thought...

http://www.myspace.com/dats