TECH/EXTREME PROG METAL

Then again, is "Silhouettes" really an album to sing praises for? Unlike their previous record "Drawing Circles" this one takes an even bigger step in the direction of Meshuggah's poly rhythmical metal, bordering on what is bearable at times. Now this is coming from someone who generally dislikes this brand of metal, so if you love the style of Meshuggah or similar acts I definitely think that you should give Textures a spin or two.

They have branded their musical style poly rhythmical metal and unlike "Drawing Circles" where it was intertwined in the music, serving obvious musical purposes, on "Silhouettes" I get the impression they are smearing the poly rhythms there for show, because I cannot for the life of me see how the drumming makes sense on most of the songs("Laments of an Icarus" is a perfect example).

But when the band shines they do so brightly indeed. There are some truly brilliant songs and moments on the album, so while it does not win any extra points for originality and taste it sure does make up for it in spades with either musicianship, power or melody.

Something well worth noting as well is that Textures features one of my favorite voices in metal at the moment, so if you're looking for a great vocalist or are a vocalist yourself who is looking for inspiration, listening to Kalsbeek's will not leave you disappointed.

Silhouettes is a lot like sequels tend to be; it follows one of the better extreme(ugh) metal albums of the early millennium and is bigger, faster and more complex than its predecessor. Yet bigger is not always better and the album looses a lot of soul and passion in its choice to put further emphasis on its progressive and technical side.

A great album for fans of the genre! 3/5

However, I do have a few qualms with this album. The vocals, especially the clean ones, are very weak. I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to "Hardcore" vocals, so i can't really tell if Luciano George Lorusso's screams are particularly good ones, but the clean vocals really stand out as being underdeveloped. Honestly, any suburban teenager singing with his garage band could probably do as good.

One of my biggest dissapointments with this album was the fact that none of the tracks are as good as the opener, which is really too bad because the rest of them are generally longer. "Praha" was amazing, as well as a few sections of other songs, but sometimes a poor structure of lack of melodic development makes me itch for the skip button.

Also, it doesn't sound so much like Ephel Duath are fusing two genres, and more sort of just... alternating between them really fast. It gets to the point where you can hear "METALCORE METALCORE METALCO-- doodley-bee doo wop be doodle wop --METALMETALMETALMETAL...". It's not so much fusion as it is just... mashing sh*t together. Like they're just flipping a switch that makes everything all fast 'n' angry at regular intervals. For the most part, this is not a true fusion of Jazz and Metal; It's just a band that can play both really, really well.

And that's sort of the redeeming quality with this album. Both styles are played to perfection, with stunning technicality and musicianship. Heck, occasionally they even overlap gracefully, and we get a few blissful minutes of perfectly structured, balanced, and awesome-as-hell fusion metal.

Certainly not perfect, but the unique aesthetic, stunning musicianship, and energy make-up for its shortcomings. 3 stars!!

Voivod mixes a blend of hardcore punk, thrash metal, and progressive metal to create a really unique sound. They are fairly technical without being overly technical, and draw on many themes from Cold-War era politics to science fiction. Rush and Pink Floyd are drawn upon almost as much as early hardcore punk is on this album. To many metal fans who were lucky enough to be growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, Voivod were something of a band with a massive cult following. And many of them who were into the band talk about some of the members on this album as being legends. I wish I had been around then so I could understand what those feelings were like, but I digress. What stand out most on this album for me is how Blacky manages to fill a ridiculous amount of space in the music without shoving the other band members out of the way, and Snake's vocals are quite distinct, which is partially due to the French-Canadian accent in my opinion. When I first heard this album many years ago, I dismissed it after a few listens as being way too out there. Now that I have a more expanded music ear, I'm surprised I couldn't see how original this album was. Quite honestly, I still think it's pretty original. I especially love the Pink Floyd cover of Astronomy Domine. Like UMUR, I heard this version before I heard the Pink Floyd version. And I do think I prefer this one a little more.

While Nothingface definitely isn't a masterpiece in my opinion, it is certainly light years ahead of its time. Even today it still sounds pretty original. I'll give it 4 stars, and I'm so glad I gave it another chance. I may have to upgrade it to 5 stars eventually though because it's so close to masterpiece status.

Between the Buried and Me combine old school death metal and aggressive hardcore with prog indulgences to create a burst of anger that leaves little room for things to develop. I like well-dosed aggression in music but after being slapped around the ears with it for 5 minutes, I sort of get the point and I'm ready to move on towards more interesting expressions of our mental state.

That doesn't happen enough here, there are scattered occasions where BTBAM tempt us with what they could achieve if they would stop hammering down their one point so continuously. Yes we've got it: you're young, angry and very angry. (Well I admit, that's 3 points they're making)

But it's not just that, my main issue is that the aggressive parts themselves are not good enough: it is known hardcore and thrash metal riffs pasted together with monotonous hardcore shouts and a hyperkinetic Mars Volta-on-speed approach to prog. But don't have your hopes up with this last reference. Never do they reach the level of excellence and creativity that we know that band for.

It's only when they open up their neurotic attack for some more laidback playing that it gets more interesting. Examples can be found around the 5 minute mark into "Obfuscation" or 2 minutes into "Diseas, Injury, Madness". But all too soon, the overstressed metal riffs kick in again and we're submerged under a wall of thrash metal again.

BTBAM has a lot of potential and I'd guess that many youngsters will devour this. For me, less predictable songs would have enhanced it a lot. Another option would be to do karaoke versions of their music. Without vocals this would work a lot better. Given the poor state and creative standstill that the metal scene has suffered from in the last few years, it is no wonder that this album comes floating to the top of all year-lists.

Actually this is a fun hodgepodge of an album! Approach with care though, maybe some of my intitial criticism will still be valid for you. 4 stars. Subject to change...

The music on the album is a kind of modern melodic death metal with progressive metal elements.The vocal style on the album is not far from the vocal style on the last couple of albums by 3 Inches of Blood. One snarling vocal type, one Rob Halford ( Judas Priest) high pitched vocal type and some melodic clean singing ( well the latter can´t really be compared to 3 Inches of Blood). The clean sung vocal lines are really melodic, but like on all earlier releases by Into Eternity, the vocal lines are not very memorable and after a couple of songs it all kinda sounds the same to me. It´s the same with the music. It´s very melodic and quite powerful most of the time, but after a couple of tracks the songs become forgettable and sounds too much the same. This music seriously lack hooks. While the music is very well executed, the production is top notch and the music as such is pretty well written to, I just can´t get excited about The Scattering of Ashes. And while I probably should give the album 3 stars because of the above mentioned qualities I can´t give something like this more than a 2.5 star rating. Fans of melodic death metal with progressive sensibilities might enjoy this more than I do.

There are two things I must point out about Between the Buried and Me. As much as I enjoy them, they are not a band for everyone. They are relentlessly brutal most of the time, the music is ridiculously heavy during these moments, and they drew much of their early influence from metalcore (they still do, but it isn't as apparent in their music anymore) which is quite apparent on this release. The second is that they are a band who I honestly don't think can truly disappoint me with whatever kind of music they decide to make. And while their self-titled debut is my least favorite effort by the band so far, I've heard much worse than this. This album is quite good for the right mood, which is a mood where I just want to hardcore dance and/or break stuff by jumping around and running into it. This album for the most part either takes lots of influences from other bands (Pantera is one that comes to mind) or is relentlessly heavy. While BtBaM would later learn to add variation through more clean parts as well as mixing around the heaviness in different ways, this is for the most part fairly technical metalcore with a few progressive tendencies here and there. The best example of this is of course in the final 9:24 track "Shevanel Cut a Flip". The song is so heavy, but incredibly progressive and much more similar to what Between the Buried and Me would do on The Silent Circus and Alaska, two albums in which they would greatly refine their sound. The ending part does drag on a bit for me, but otherwise it's a very good song. The rest are for the most part slightly above yout average metalcore song.

I could stretch it and say this is a 3.5 star album for me, but the production does suffer a bit here. Like most of the music, it's not bad, but it's nothing to be proud of either. So I can't rate this any higher than 3 stars. Good if you want to check out how far Between the Buried and Me have come in the last decade, but not good for much else.

I'm sitting in my room, a whisky glas by my side and outside there you can see the colourful leafes of the autumn. And the most important thing, I'm listening to this monolith of modern music.

Still Life might be the album you are looking for an evening like this. It transports the feelings of the autumn like melancholy, depression, hate and satisfaction.

According to the artwork it shows a sad woman, standing in front of a cross and a quite bleak countryside. It is painted in red colours and it fits totally in the whole context. But an artwort can be as good as anything, if the music is bad. I can advise to you that the music is stunning and overwhelming. The album starts with "The Moor", a typical song of Opeth. We have the parts in which Mikael Akerfeld growls like a beast and the parts, which are the most beautiful acoustic experiences I have ever made. By the way, "The Moor" ist the best song by Opeth for me because Opeth perfected their style here. Godhead's Lament is a similar song but not as good as The Moor. The next song is another highlight. "Benighted" is an acoustic ballad, which Opeth quite often does, but it was never so good again. The riffs are stunning, especial the Intro-Riff. Face of Melinda is a similar song but it gets heavy after a few minutes. Not so heavy with growls like the long songs but it has a few heavy distortioned riffs. The last two songs are again some really great songs, which come almost close to "The Moor"

The album ends, my whisky glas is empty, my soul is satisfied with great music. If you are a bit open minded towards Death Metal, you definately should check this album out and make the same experience like me.

The album starts out with the heavy growls of "Ghost Of Perdition", a very diverse and progressive song. The sng takes us through many changes and passages, and really is a brilliant piece of music. The second song on the album, "The Baying Of The Hounds" starts out, just like the opener, very loud. Heavy growls and distorted riffs make this song one of the most striking songs I know. The song has a softer middle section though, but after about six minutes becomes just as powerful as the way it starts. "The Grand Conjuration" is another heavy song, though it is much less good than the previous two. It still is very enjoyable though.

The album has several softer songs, like Hours Of Wealth and Isolation years. The songs give the album some nice atmosphere, and make the album a very diverse thing. Another soft, atmospheric song is Atonement, of which the final minute is called "Reverie". Though the final minute is included in track 4, your CD player will tell you it's track 5 already. "Harlequin Forest" is probably my favorite Opeth track ever. The song starts out hauntingly powerful, though nowhere as loud as "Ghost Of Perdition". The second half is much more melodic though, and really is brilliant. Another great song is "Beneath The Mire". It opens with an eastern riff, but soon turns into a heavy masterpiece in the vein of "Baying Of The Hounds".

Ghost Reveries is a brilliant album, but I don't think it really is a masterpiece. The album definitely is worth four stars, but it just comes a very slight bit short to get five stars. Songs like "Baying Of The Hounds" and "Reverie/Harlequin Forest" are among the very best of Opeth though.