It’s a good feeling when something you’ve been working on for a long time comes to fruition. After months of hard slog for very little gain, you might finally feel as if it has all been worth it, and you can allow yourself a pat on the back and maybe a few drinks down the pub. For Malvern-based hardcore quartet AsZerosWeAreInfinite, or AZWAI as they are more colloquially known, that drink should be at least three fingers, and the hand should belong to a big sweaty gorilla.

You see, their self-titled EP was recorded over a year ago, but only now do you, the lucky public, get to sample the fruits of their labour.

The opener, ‘God, By Any Other Name‘, kicks in with the lyrics “between my broken teeth and self-prophesied lies, you will discover salvation for your ache”. This could be as much a comment from anybody who has found their way to the front of the stage during one of AZWAI’s shows as it is about the actual subject, one Wayne Bent. Bent, also known as Michael Travesser, is the charismatic leader of the Lord Our Righteousness Church in New Mexico, a religious community who were featured in the Channel 4 Documentary ‘The End of the World Cult‘.

It’s a belter of an opening track, driving home with the force of something big and forceful and un-clichéd as possible. You might be surprised that there is only one guitar at work here, as the entire band works hard to create a ferocious, full-bodied sound. Vocalist and lyricist Adam Murkin is great at taking a perspective and writing intelligently from it, no matter how bizarre or convoluted the perspective of that person might be. The clout with which he delivers his lines is unrelenting across the board, too, and conveys in part his mighty stage presence (both in front of and mid-crowd).

Next up is ‘Snakeskin in the Shape of Wedding Band, which claims the crown for the longest track on the EP – marginally. And that’s one of the great things about AZWAI’s refined style. The tracks are long enough to have enough substance to hold your attention (I’m looking at you, Ampere), but aren’t so long that the onslaught becomes wearing. I know that this will be a firm crowd favourite – enough breakdowns and catchy lines for them to really get into.

Closer ‘Poor Syntax’ stands out as my favourite. I am still in awe as to how drummer Dan Taylor can manage as many stick-clacks in the space of a single second as he does to bring in this track, but this is by no means the highlight of the track. The influence of The Dillinger Escape Plan is clear from the outset, but it’s no mere consummate rip-off: the guys know how to build on their influences, rather than rehashing existing songs.

The EP may only clock in at seven minutes and thirty-one seconds, but it’s more than enough. It is an unrelenting juggernaut, devoid of unnecessary trimmings or lyrical waffle. Hear me; salvation is coming – and it’s name is AZWAI.

1. God, by Any Other Name
2. Snakeskin in the Shape of a Wedding Band
3. Poor Syntax

Myspace // Get It

- CG

The only thing I cared about is their cover of “Cars” with Gary Numan. The rest is just meh. I know they were influential and whatever, but I honestly don’t get why everyone’s popping e-boners over the “reunion”. I’ll just listen to Strapping Young Lad (which features half of the members of the current FF lineup) and Meshuggah, who did that whole industrial death metal/chuggy thing better, if you can call Fear Factory death metal.

Not only is the sound generally aged and boring, but to listen you have to navigate through the clunkiest site I’ve had to endure in a long while. You need a Facebook account to listen, and you have to unlock tracks by leaving comments spamming your friends on Facebook and Twitter. I listened to opening track “Mechanize” and gave up, because fuck that noise. Snap judgments are too damn easy.

If you still care, here it is. Meh.

- JR

I never really cared all that much for The Ocean (or is it The Ocean Collective? I’ve heard them both used, so I’m not sure which is correct), but the samples thrown up on their brilliantly designed website make me curious and interested in what their upcoming record Heliocentric has in store.

This record seems more melodic, artsy, and epic than their previous albums which, in my opinion, were fairly boring and ran together. Hell, I don’t even remember any stand out tracks. Post-metal is an iffy genre for me. There has to be more going on than 15 minutes of solid screaming and sludgy riffs to keep me interested. Maybe I was in an off mood when I listened to The Ocean before, so maybe I should revisit the last few albums in case I’m missing something as grandiose as the samples are sounding. My apologies if that’s the case. But I’m definitely checking out Heliocentric and its sister album Anthropocentric when they drop March and October, respectively.

And reportedly, they’re anti-christian concept albums. Very interesting. I’m keeping my eyes (and ears, I guess) open.

- JR

Oh… so that’s how it’s done?

Take one part jazz, one part black metal, and throw in a twist of industrial, and you have Shining in a nutshell. Not to be confused with that other Shining from Sweden, this “version” hails from Norway. They started out in 1999 as an acoustic jazz quartet. Color me confused, but intrigued.

I’ll have to check out Blackjazz, Shining’s latest album, which is due out February 2nd in the US. Of course, Europe gets all to cool shit first. Thankfully, we have the internet.

Check this music out on myspace. It’s totally worth your time.

- JR

The quality is meh, but you pretty much get the picture. Not half bad, in my opinion. The new song is called “My Frailty” and it’s off of After The Burial’s as of yet untitled upcoming album.

That section of shred at the end and what I could hear of the melodic guitar line was pretty good. I’ll be giving this a metaphorical spin whenever it drops.

- JR

New Cynic song, live unfortunately.

It’s even less metal than Traced in Air, but it’s fucking good.

-MW

Seriously, why have Stella Dawes not been signed yet? A clutch of glowing reviews like theirs, and you might have expected someone major to have taken notice by now.

I first received my copy of ‘Contrasts‘, their debut full-length, in the summer of 2008. Boy was I excited. I’d been keenly following this band for a while, ever since vocalist Mike Shakespeare, ferreting his way around Myspace one day, politely messaged a bunch of like-minded people in my area asking us to check out his band. Words such as ‘Mare‘, and ‘Eden Maine‘ were bandied around, and I’ve been in love ever since.

I had known the album had been in production for a while. Mike and guitarist James Barter were taking on the entire process themselves, fitting it around day jobs, so a delay was to be expected. But when it came, I was stunned. Two tracks, ‘Dichotomy‘ and ‘Everything Happens to Eeyore‘ had been favourites for a while, and the recently previewed ‘Happy Ever Afternoon‘ and ‘The Unspeakable‘ had satiated my desire for new material, but even these didn’t prepare me for the majesty of the beast.

You see, with a lot of albums, and ones of this genre in particular, the songs – the lyrics and the heartfelt meaning behind them – can come out quite same-y. Not entirely, obviously, but I quite often find myself having to check the name of the track against the listing to get a bearing of where I am in the record. This is never the case with Stella Dawes. Every song has a unique hallmark, not least in thanks to Bart’s unique guitar sound – something akin to the love-child of a chainsaw and a cheese grater. You know it’s ‘Gut‘ because of the throaty staccato opening. You can differentiate between the two ‘Investment Intercourse‘ tracks (Deposit and Return respectively) because the former kicks you squarely in the groin at 1:31. You know you’re listening to what is arguably the album’s centrepiece ‘When the Tiger Lost His Voice‘ because, well, who else sings about tigers except Survivor? No riff or chord progression is repeated between songs, and they could have, because they’re all good.

For me though, it’s the very lyrics I mentioned earlier that make this record for me. Furious wrath and hardcore go hand-in-hand, and that’s all well and good, but I like my lyrical spice to take a more intelligent twist than your average ‘argh, I’m so misunderstood!’. Mike knows what he doesn’t like about the world, but he expresses it intelligently and, above all, poetically. Lines like ‘we polish shit, but like it or not, nobody here is perfection’ ring true, as well as being delivered with consistent gusto and conviction.

Just a little note on the packaging. If ever there was a reason to buy a physical copy, this is it. The brown cardboard case is beautifully DIY (in keeping with the ethos of the whole package), and charming to boot. The insert, chock full of handwritten lyrics, continues the theme, and a nice little bonus was the typed insert thanking me for buying the CD. It’s these little touches that might draw the ever-increasing number of pirates away from torrent sites and towards their wallets, were the majority of albums not merely templated jewel-case jobs. Anything to help in the war.

I know the band is not currently gigging due to the departure of founding bassist and drummer, Steve Butcher and Simon Kendrick, but I wish them the best of luck finding suitable replacements to fill the void. Based on a heavy amount of speculation (and the appearance of a couple of demos on their Myspace page recently), I suspect that the rest of the band will use this time to gather their creative thoughts, and I hope they will hit us with a stunning sophomore release sometime soon.

1. Mouth
2. Happy Ever Afternoon
3. Dichotomy
4. Investment Intercourse: A Deposit
5. Everything Happens to Eeyore
6. Gut
7. Investment Intercourse: A Return
8. Sleep is For the Week
9. Fifteen Hour Drive
10. When the Tiger Lost His Voice
11. The Unspeakable
12. Decay

Myspace // Support

[The boys are very reasonably offering you to 'set your own price' on what you think is fair for the music. You can choose to pay either £3 ($4.84), £5 ($8.07) or £7 ($11.30) + shipping. Check out the link above to hear what you're letting yourself in for. It's hardly expensive, and the packaging alone is worth it.]

- CG

Unlike the Mayhem/Tombs/etc tour I posted about today, this one seems right up my alley!

Is much as I don’t hate iwrestledabearonce (see my review of It’s All Happening), I’d gladly sit through their set and be mildly entertained while waiting for the awe-inspiring Dillinger Escape Plan to take the stage and tear it up. And Animals As Leaders are crazy good as well. That will be a great show to see.

So far, there’s only two dates announced and none of them are near me, so there’s still hope I’ll get to see a decent show this year.

EDIT: Full tour date itinerary has been announced. No dice here. If it comes near you, well lucky you. And it appears Darkest Hour will be on board for every show.

Mar. 11 – Irving Plaza – New York, NY
Mar. 12 – The Palladium – Worcester, MA
Mar. 13 – La Sala Rossa Cabaret – Montreal, QUE
Mar. 14 – Opera House – Toronto, ONT
Mar. 15 – Grog Shop – Cleveland Heights, OH
Mar. 23 – The Social – Orlando, FL
Mar. 24 – Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
Mar. 25 – Tremont Music Hall – Charlotte, NC
Mar. 26 – Greene Street Club – Greensboro, NC
Mar. 28 – First Unitarian Church – Philadelphia, PA
Mar. 29 – Otto Bar – Baltimore, MD
Mar. 31 – Diesel – Pittsburgh, PA
Apr. 01 – The Eagle Theatre – Pontiac, MI
Apr. 02 – Reggie’s Rock Club – Chicago, IL
Apr. 06 – Republik – Calgary, ALB
Apr. 07 – Starlite Room – Edmonton, ALB
Apr. 09 – Rickshaw Theatre – Vancouver, BC

- JR

Now I don’t feel SO bad for having to miss out on their most recent tour with the best lineup ever, which is still underway.

SNM News reports that YouTube user shaggy288 has been uploading HD Multicam Between The Buried And Me footage. Oh boy, does it look nice.

Here’s “Disease, Injury, Madness”. On his channel, you can see “Obfuscation”, “Shevanel Cut A Flip“, “Mordecai”, and well… a fuckton of other BTBAM footage. This man is awesome. I hope he uploads Swim To The Moon soon!

- JR

This may or may not actually happen

Black metal all up in our business this April as Mayhem tours the US and Canada. They’re bringing Ludicra and Tombs in tow, along with Krallice in select dates.

4/7 Washington, DC | 9:30 Club*
4/8 New York, NY | Fillmore at Irving Plaza*
4/9 Cambridge, MA | Middle East Downstairs*
4/10 Montreal, QC | Les Foufounes Electriques*
4/11 Toronto, ON | The Opera House*
4/13 Chicago, IL | Bottom Lounge
4/14 Minneapolis, MN | Triple Rock Social Club
4/15 Winnipeg, MB | Royal Albert Arms
4/16 Regina, SK | The Exchange
4/17 Edmonton, AB | Starlite Room
4/18 Calgary, AB | Republik
4/20 Vancouver, BC | The Commodore Ballroom
4/21 Seattle, WA | Studio Seven
4/22 Portland, OR |  Hawthorne Theatre
4/24 San Francisco, CA | Slim’s
4/25 Los Angeles, CA | Henry Fonda Theater
[*with Krallice]

Nowhere near us. I guess they’re avoiding red states (Mitch = Texas, Me = Kentucky) and are leaning more towards Canada. Can’t say I blame them. Canada is generally more awesome. I’d go see the tour if I could; not because I like black metal, but because of  the theatrics:

- JR

Bossk. Bossk were good. The first time I saw them, they outshined the headliner of the evening, Envy. Some dude lay down right in front of the stage and just took them in. I felt like joining him.

But as so many great bands do, they broke up, and our stages seemed a little darker. But towards the end of last year I got wind of bassist Tom Begley’s new project, formed with ex-members of Centurion.

They call themselves The Mire, and are as much a spiritual successor to Bossk as we’re going to get. They’re largely akin to Isis or Cult of Luna, but something about them just feels fresh. So far they’ve only put out a two-track sampler, but I’m already clamouring for more.

Did I mention it’s free? Yeah, probably should have mentioned that. Make haste, minions.

Download

Myspace

- CG

It’s always weird when the driving force behind an influential metal band branches off and does his own solo thing on the side. A lot of the core fan base expects more of the same, but as it’s been shown time and time again, we end up with something different. Devin Townsend is a prime example. How did we get from the Industrial Progressive Death Metal pummeling of Strapping Young Lad to the pop metal in Devin Townsend Project’s Addicted? Likewise, what is the point of doing a solo project if it sounds exactly like the band you fronted for years?

After, the third solo album of Emperor mastermind Ihsahn, doesn’t take a huge leap in genre and style like the aforementioned Devin Townsend, but if there’s anyone out there expecting a black metal album then they’re bound to be disappointed. Ihsahn does indeed take a leap, but it’s a well thought out and confident one. If I didn’t know any better and you told me that a black metal God wrote this album, I would be hesitant to believe you.

Okay, so After does contain the black metal influence. But if you’ve been playing in a certain genre for 20 years, you can’t expect the influence to just drop off completely. There’s bursts of blackened riffing and blasts beats here and there, but there’s so much more going on in After. Putting it fairly broadly, After is a progressive metal album. From the get go, this fact is evident in the opening guitar melody in “The Barren Lands“. Tasteful hyper-melodic progressive guitar wank that reminds me of Scale The Summit can be found here and there.

There’s also an Opeth sound to some of the record with use of acoustic guitars and a clean vocal style (as heard in the track “Austere”). Ihsahn also makes good use of saxophone throughout the album, giving some sections a crazy avant-garde feel. The jazzy sax section in “A Grave Inversed” sounds like a blackened Mr. Bungle record. Holy shit, was it amazing. For a majority of the album, Ihsahn’s vocals are harsh and throaty screams. But the spotlight seems to shine on his beautifully raspy, yet serene singing that somehow manages to send a shiver down my spine.

After has me spellbound. In my opinion, this is the first truly amazing record of 2010, unless I’m missing out on something. And if I am, please let me know. But for me, this is the first sign that 2010 will be an amazing year for metal.

1. The Barren Lands
2. A Grave Inversed
3. After
4. Frozen Lakes on Mars
5. Undercurrent
6. Austere
7. Heavens Black Sea
8. On the Shores

Ihsan MySpace

Candlelight Records

- JR

Veil of Maya are one of those bands that are pretty split as far as the metal community goes. Mitch hates em while I think they’re okay. As far as deathcore goes, it could be worse.

But on to the point: Chicago based Sumeriancore darlings Veil of Maya have just completed recording their new album [id], with The Faceless‘ Michael Keene at the helm producing. No new studio quality music has been posted yet, but here’s a clip of them playing a new song last month:

The album is due out some time in April. Oh hey, Periphery’s debut is also due out April. Looks like April will be a busy month for Sumerian.

I say this because Dillinger Escape Plan Fansite Spreading Like Wings reports that over the weekend, teasers of every track from DEP’s upcoming album Option Paralysis have hit the net (which you can listen to below), along with a track by track review at Rocksound.

These teasers have got me pumped up for OP even more than I already was. It features everything I’d want in a Dillinger album: Chaos, jazzy shred, and Faith No More influenced rocking melodicism. If they can make an album half as good as 2007’s Ire Works, then I’m sold. However, judging on what I’ve heard so far, it’s going to be up on that level, if not greater.

Option Paralysis is due out March 22nd, and I can’t fucking wait.

- JR

“This goes out to the guy who yelled to turn the bass down. What kinda fuckin’ show do you think this is?”

So that was Glassjaw. Six years, £18 [roughly $30 for us American folk - Ed.] and three hours travel, and finally, FINALLY, I get to see them.

Glassjaw have had a hard time of playing in the UK. Their first tour over here, back in October 2002, was postponed due to Daryl Palumbo’s ill health. The rescheduled shows that December were also canceled, and then four shows into the tour the following April, Palumbo relapsed once again. That’s a lot of disappointed fans.

Basically, you take any opportunity you can get to see Glassjaw over here, and so when they announced a run of headline shows ahead of their support slot for Brand New at Wembley, I literally jumped at the chance.

A lot of the songs you could probably predict (stand-outs included John Lennon, Ape Dos Mil, Two Tabs of Mescaline, and Pretty Lush), but there was a healthy slice of juicy exclusivity. I nearly screamed like a girl when the drummer started playing the intro from El Mark, which Daryl informed us was the first time they had ever played it live, ten mighty years since it was written. They also played a brand new song entitled ‘All Good Junkies Go To Heaven’, which was met with a very healthy response.

I came away sore, soaked and smiling. So was it worth it after all this time? Well, yes, of course, but my one small gripe was the lack of support act. The rest of the UK got Pulled Apart by Horses and one of my favourite up-and-comers, Shapes, so why no love for Portsmouth?

But fuck it; it was a hiccup in paradise. Euphoria’s endearing, so I’ll let them off.

Thinly-veiled Glassjaw lyric-references over. Promise.

4/5 | B

- CG