Category: Unmetal

Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg

Apr.01, 2013

Wolfmother

Cosmic Egg

01. California Queen
02. New Moon Rising
03. White Feather
04. Sundial
05. In The Morning
06. 10,000 Feet
07. Cosmic Egg
08. Far Away
09. Pilgrim
10. In The Castle
11. Phoenix
12. Violence Of The Sun

[10/23/09]
[Modular Records]

Australian hard rock band Wolfmother have never truly been special, mostly riding on the coattails of bands that have done the grungy, dirty, metallic sound to death, but much better and had infinitely more success. Largely copying their idols in AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and the like with crunchy riffs and catchy hooks on their self-titled debut in 2005, the band garnered a fair number of fans by being featured in Guitar Hero II with a cover of their hit single “Woman” a year after the album. The wonders from down under started gaining speed and really came into their eggcentric style a few years later in 2009 with Cosmic Egg, truly showing off that they weren’t just another shrimp on the barbie.

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Tags: cosmic egg, egg, eggs, eggy blog is eggy, wolfmother

Hey! Listen to Wintergatan!

Filed Under: Listen To This!, Unmetal

Feb.04, 2013

Wintergatan

Occasionally there will come a band that writes such impressively different, well-executed music that you just can’t help but enjoy their work. They’re a reservoir of infectious melodies and hooky rhythms that’s teeming with instant classics and not much else. Now take all of that description and throw in an insane work ethic with astounding video production.

That’s Wintergatan.

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Tags: Wintergatan

Folk Rockers Yard of Blondes Ready Murderology EP

Filed Under: Unmetal, Upcoming releases

Feb.01, 2013

Yard of Blondes

Stick with me for a second as I shake things up and introduce you to a band on the outside fringes of this site’s collective sense of music taste, yet are still entirely relevant. If you’re not counting folk metal, folk music in general seldom comes into play in the average music library of those who have more obscure and extreme tastes. This of course is changing every day, with artists like Wovenhand and Chelsea Wolfe taking a darker, almost doom-like aesthetic choice in folk rock that complements many bands that are considered sludge and stoner metal. It’s a rare connection, but it’s found among the open minded.

The latest band rising up and promising to capture the crossover appeal is Los Angeles based folk rock band Yard of Blondes. There actually isn’t much in the way of a studio recording of the band available yet from what I gather, but the duo plans to release an EP titled Murderology on March 26th. Their roots seem to be in a more traditional folk rock vein judging by YouTube live bootlegs of older material, but from what I’ve heard of Murderology, Yard of Blondes’ new material seems to invoke an interesting cross section of Ghost, Queens of the Stone Age, and Silversun Pickups. The album art has been unveiled through the short teaser clip found below, and it is gorgeous. It’s NSFW and features full-frontal female nudity, but as my assistant editor Evan “Juular” says, “naked bishes on the album art is always a plus.”

If you’re interested, visit Yard of Blondes on Facebook and be on the look out for Murderology on March 26th.

- JR

Tags: Chelsea Wolfe, Ghost, Queens of the Stone Age, Silversun Pickups, Wovenhand, Yard of Blondes

Year End Non-Metal Roundup, Day Five: D’arkestra – Ghost Town

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Audio, Features, Unmetal

Dec.14, 2012

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Jazz fusion is a difficult to understand genre. On one hand, you have the rather straight forward jazz fusion, which is little more than jazz with a rock beat and more rock structure; and then you have the style bordering on free jazz, that has lots of creative flair while sticking to some form of structure, albeit loose, sort of like BADBADNOTGOOD, which was featured earlier this week. While d’arkestra, a progressive jazz fusion band out of Louisville, KY, are not as crazy as the aforementioned BBNG, this 8-piece definitely have some weird qualities, such as a few post-rock qualities, two songs with female vocals, and a eclectic mix of classic jazz sounds and instrumentation, and modern guitar techniques, such as flanger, wah, and the like. In fact, this conglomerate of sound nearly approaches avant-garde levels of weirdness. However, the clash of the sounds and styles work very well on their debut record, Ghost Town.

Take the first song, “Jazzist“, which sounds this mix of sounds right out of the gates. It opens with guitar and drums in 7 in a very fusion style, and retains this feel through the opening part of the song, building upon it with the brass section, which gives it some much needed oomph. Due to the syncopation and the frantic drum playing, the song grooves for days. Guitarist Brandon Coleman shows his unique style, not just on this particular song, but on the album, as he is always performing super interesting leads and unique chord voicings that shouldn’t make a lot of sense in theory, but somehow manage to create nearly unheard of blends of sound.

“Halogen” shows that the group really can do anything, as it opens with something that could be heard from the 1940′s or 50′s, yet transform into a very slow ballad that is quite beautiful. One thing this song highlights is the bands ability to arrange their music similarly to an orchestra. The brass parts are always moving in intelligent ways, sharing the melody between one another while keeping the song together in a cohesive manner. The group is very progressive, approaching each song differently, yet making each sound like their own.

Even though the whole album is full of sweet jams, hard groover “Squares and Squares” steals the show. The song does not have a single bar of four, and it’s so unbelievably full of energy, due to the brass’ excited delivery and the drummer’s nuanced, yet intense playing. It also can’t be overstated how solid the bass player is, and how he’s always right in the pocket.

Overall, this is probably my jazz album of the year. I would recommend it to almost anyone who had an interest in the style, and I would also recommend it to fans of progressive or avant-garde music. From the tracks aforementioned, to the truly haunting “Ghost Town”, which has an The Devil’s Blood meets Worm Ouroboros sound, and to the unique weirdness of the album, it truly is one of my favorite albums of the year, and I encourage you to at least give it a listen with the provided bandcamp stream. Enjoy

- GR

Tags: BADBADNOTGOOD, d'arkestra, Ghost Town, The Devil's Blood, Worm Ouroboros

Year End Non-metal Roundup, Day Four: Death Grips

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Audio, General News, Unmetal

Dec.13, 2012

Rap has no place on a metal site as far as I’m concerned. Though, we are called “Heavy Blog” and there is something undeniably raw and ‘heavy’ about Death Grips first of two 2012 releases, The Money Store. I’m not versed in the greats of hip-hop. I’ve avoided that genre for far too long, however this album struck me in a way no other hip-hop has. The beats are unconventional, the samples are unique and MC Ride’s delivery is nothing short of prolific.

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Tags: Death Grips, odd future, The Money Store

Year End Non-metal Roundup, Day Three: BADBADNOTGOOD

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Audio, Features, Unmetal

Dec.12, 2012

This year has been no less than epic. There have been so many good records to come out this year that picking my top twenty albums has been the hardest thing I’ve had to do… next to studying for my microeconomics final. This year was not only been stellar in the metal world, but also in the world of non-metal. Earlier this year I remember Cody (Tentaclesworth) pointed out that this band he really enjoyed had a new album coming out. So I checked it out when it was released, and instantly knew that it would be my favorite non-metal record of the year, and possibly in recent memory.

BADBADNOTGOOD are a Canadian trio of kids (yes, none over the age of 21) who have devised a unique way to mesh jazz and the rap music they love. They are comprised of a pianist, a bassist, and drummer, which is a rather odd setup for any band. Originally rejected by their music teachers due to a lack of substance, they quickly uploaded a cover of an Odd Future song onto YouTube, where it was discovered by Odd Future member Tyler, The Creator. He loved it so much he began openly promoting it and pointing people in their direction, and eventually collaborated on one of their releases to great effect.. Regardless of what you think of his music, you can’t deny that he definitely helped them in gaining a very diverse fanbase. I can show them to fans of nearly every type of music and people can appreciate it.

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Tags: BADBADNOTGOOD, earl sweatshirt, electronica, jazz, odd future, triphop, Tyler The Creator

Year End Non-metal Roundup, Day One: Matthew Dear and Frank Ocean

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Audio, Listen To This!, Unmetal

Dec.10, 2012

Throughout the course of the year we’re always highly dedicated to metal releases, even If I’m not too happy with what’s being released, I try and listen to every album featured on the blog, and as well as whatever bands my co-writers happen to be discussing in Heavy Blog headquarters. When you add all of that up, it’s quite a bit of metal that’s assaulting these ear-holes. So I usually don’t get to listen to the widest spectrum of music as I used to, but I still try t0 expand my horizons and find new bands in other genres that pique my interests. Over the past year I’ve found quite a few really amazing non-metal albums that I think even the most die-hard fan of metal could find some appreciation for, even if they are heavily associated with *gasp* hipsters, and *double gasp* mainstream music! This is dangerous territory, folks.

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Tags: Beams, Channel orange, frank ocean, Matthew Dear

Not in the Least Bit Metal: Pokémon Reorchestrated – Kanto Symphony

Filed Under: General News, Listen To This!, Unmetal

Nov.08, 2012

I had the privilege of growing up in the last few years of the 1990′s, and my younger years were filled with images of teenagers in technicolor jumpsuits, animated monkey men with golden hair fighting off androgynous aliens, and lots of fucking Pokémon. Even though it originated in Japan, and still has more draw to it there than anywhere else in the world, you would be hard pressed to find a single soul in modern society who isn’t at least vaguely familiar with these cutesy fighting animals.

While the game-play for the original Pokémon games — versions Red and Blue — weren’t exactly innovative or original, they did harbor a certain sort of draw to them that children and adults of all ages were able to latch onto. But most surprising was the music. I have known a lot of people who dismiss video game music, especially the kind created from 8bit and 16bit systems, but I’ve always admired this form of expression. There’s something truly awe inspiring about being able to create beautiful music with so many technical restraints. Junichi Masuda, the composer for these games, not only worked within the restraints of these systems to create something palatable, but he created wonderful music that impacted the game’s experience on a fundamental level.

However, it is hard to deny the fact that the music of these games doesn’t really stand up all that well outside of the context of a GameBoy. Until now. Dedicated fan, and student of music Skotein has spent the last few years creating faithful and innovative orchestral covers of many songs from the entire Pokémon game franchise, but he has just now finished his biggest accomplishment to date; a complete album of reorchestrated covers from Pokémon Red and Blue versions, simply dubbed, Kanto Symphony.

Handled almost completely by Skotein himself, Pokémon Reorchestrated Kanto Symphony is a wonderful accomplishment with just over an hour of beautiful, often times haunting music that faithfully brings to life the music of my childhood. While the music wasn’t composed from actual orchestral instruments — Skotein is just one man, after all — this shouldn’t detract too many listeners, as the music sounds as organic as possible. Discovering Skotein and his Pokémon Reorchestrated project will be one of my fondest memories of 2012, as this is the first time someone has so faithfully, and earnestly re-imagined a key component from the formative years of my childhood.

You can listen to samples from Kanto Symphony and many other projects here, and you can purchase the full Kanto Symphony here, and here. Please buy this album if you like what you hear. This man has put a lot of work into this, and he deserves the recognition. Cheers!

- EC

Tags: Kanto Symphony, Pokemon, Pokemon Reorchestrated, Skotein

I’m False and You Should, Too: Courage, My Love

Filed Under: Listen To This!, Unmetal

Oct.12, 2012

So, as my name denotes, I’m not the most metal of metal bloggers; I regularly listen to easycore, altrock, and radio pop. A lot of my “trve kvlt” metal friends often ask “how do you listen to that shit?” I’m here now to answer that question.

Today’s falsity: Courage, My Love

The first band I’ll be advocating for in this column are Canadian alt-rockers Courage, My Love (or, as I like to call them, “Paramore With Hotter Twins”). Essentially, that’s what you’re getting; female fronted alt-pop with a slightly pop-punk aesthetic. Unlike Paramore, though, C,ML has TWO cute girls in the band, who happen to be twin sisters. These two girls also display some instrumental prowess, as well. Oh, and there’s some almost-breakdown parts for when the songs get serious.

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Tags: altrock, Courage My Love, fall out boy, Green Day, I'm False And You Should Too, Periphery

I Know It’s Not Remotely Metal, But Aesop Rock’s Skelethon Is Easily One Of The Best Albums Of 2012

Filed Under: Unmetal

Jul.19, 2012

When the online metal community is asked what their favorite albums of the year are thus far, one wouldn’t expect a hip-hop album to pop up anywhere. I, however, boast a current list of favorites that includes hip-hop artist Aesop Rock‘s latest opus Skelethon in the top five. As strange as it is, Aesop Rock is quite an outlier in my music library; he’s the only rapper that I consider myself an avid fan of, having jumped on the bandwagon as soon as I heard his previous effort in 2007′s None Shall Pass, one of my favorite non-metal albums ever.

Skelethon seems to do the impossible and improves on an already excellent foundation. What makes Aesop Rock stand out from his peers is his excellent vocabulary and complicated flow and wordplay. I know a lot of people (metal fans especially, it seems) write off the entire genre as ignorant and boastful, but Aesop Rock isn’t one to write songs about “hoes and rims” or whatever one would stereotypically expect from a mainstream/modern hip-hop album. Here’s a breakdown of some of the subject matter one would experience when listening to Skelethon:

A humorous guide to mummifying your dead cat on ‘Homemade Mummy’
An ode to Aesop’s favorite donut shop on ‘Fryerstarter’
A poem about a dog saving a drowning infant on ‘Ruby ’81′
Getting an awesome haircut and a lesson in motivation in ‘Racing Stripes’
A clever telling of a child’s refusal to eat his vegetables on ‘Grace’

See, Skelethon finally reaches an apex in Aesop Rock’s writing ability. His out-there verbosity meets legitimate storytelling, possibly a direct response to the criticism Aesop received, being accused of stringing together serial non-sequiters. While he has always spoken out against these criticisms of his enigmatic lyrics, there’s no denying that Skelethon makes a larger effort to take a narrative approach.

Open minded metal fans may find something of interest in Skelethon. At the very least, you might end up with a newfound appreciation for the possibilities of a genre you may have wholly discarded long ago.