Tag Archive: Cloudkicker


Top Tunes of 2011…So Far: The Nayon Edition

Filed Under: Lists!
May.11, 2011

So following Dormition’s Top Tunes I decided to share my own favorites from this year. There’s some overlap, so I decided to exclude songs that he already included. This is a loosely ordered list, so don’t rage on in the comments section about band A being better/worse than band B.

1) Encircle – “Watch the Sky Fall“

This one’s by my friend Anthony DiGiacomo. I don’t usually like solely instrumental music, but this one’s pretty good. And I’ve heard more tracks from his upcoming debut album, Watch the Sky Fall, and they’re all great. If you’re a fan of Cloudkicker, Veil of Maya and Meshuggah; you should definitely keep your eyes open for this one. As more becomes available, I’ll share them with you. In the meantime, check out his Youtube channel or Encircle’s Facebook page for more stuff by him including other original songs and many covers.

2) Tre Watson – “Charmander is Evolving!“

Tre is also a good friend of mine, and he’s probably the only other artist that I enjoy in this vein. This is a redo of his older track “Charmander used Flamethrower!”. He has an EP coming later this year, and having heard some of it, I can say that it is insane. Again, keep checking back for more news on his work, and in the meantime you can download his previous albums from his BandCamp page, and become a fan on Facebook.

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Piotrek Gruszka – Cosmogenesis

Filed Under: Reviews
Jan.25, 2011

Piotrek Gruszka

Cosmogenesis

01. Universe
02. Nebula
03. Pulsar
04. Fermi Paradox
05. Stellar
06. Aurora
07. Andromeda
08. Zeta Reticuli

[10/18/10]
[Self Released]

Imagine the wondrous soundscapes of Scale The Summit, only instead of earthy scenes of plainlands, canyons, and mountain ranges, Polish bedroom producer Piotrek Gruszka’s (who also goes by the moniker Gru) brand of instrumental progressive metal invokes images of the ethereal bodies that occupy outer space.

That is really all that needs to be said to convince the lot of you who haven’t heard Cosmogenesis yet to give it a listen. We’re very late on reviewing this album as it came out last year, but Cosmogenesis has been mentioned on Heavy Blog several times, so it should be nothing new. If you somehow haven’t noticed or decided to ignore Piotrek Gruszka because of preconceptions of being just another djent artist with nothing new to bring to the table, then think again.

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Cloudkicker – Beacons

Filed Under: Reviews
Jan.24, 2011

Cloudkicker

Beacons

1. We are going to invert…
2. Here, wait a minute! Damn it!
3. We’re goin’ in. We’re going down.
4. Oh, god.
5. I admit it now. I was scared.
6. We were all scared.
7. Push it way up!
8. …it’s just wide open field.
9. It’s bad. We’re hit, man, we are hit.
10. Amy, I love you.
11. Untitled.

[Self-released]
[09/16/10]

2010 was definitely the year of the bedroom musician. Recording and production tools have now progressed to a point whereby you can make a professional-sounding album on a shoestring budget and still have it appear on numerous best of lists at the end of the year. Anyone who read my top ten of 2010 will know how this review is going to go. Whilst not making the final few, Beacons was still an honourable mention, which basically means top fifteen, which is still fucking awesome. Right? Right.

Of course, doing it yourself and micro-managing your own project, level of talent regardless, can have its downsides. The absolute perfectionist will twiddle and tweak; never satisfied, and as a result the endeavour can easily stall through lack of progress. On the other hand, the lazy will neglect to read the necessary manuals, and

So it is only the tenacious individual, patient yet confident, with shed-loads of talent and an ear for quality production that will succeed on their own. Easy then.

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The Mire – Volume: II

Filed Under: Reviews
Jan.11, 2011

The Mire

Volume: II

01. The Nobleman
02. Shadows
03. The Rift
04. Curse Variations
05. Wheelwalker
06. Fears

[Eyesofsound | 12/13/10]

It’s no secret that we here at Heavy Blog share what is (for the most part) a common love for all things post and progressive. Perhaps a bit too much, some might say; but we’re here to talk about music we love, and that just happens to be in the realm of progressive metal. Way back when my current main man and Heavy Blog editor Disinformatiya first joined, the first thing I can recall him doing is turning me on to a band called The Mire, a relatively new post-metal band born out of the ashes of Bossk and Centurion. He had linked me a copy of their debut EP, Volume: I. While it was a great listen, the extremely short length of two tracks left much to be desired. I promised myself that I’d keep an eye out for Volume: II, as the band had a promising sound.

The year then flew by without the band being so much as a blip on my radar—until December, that is. I had just barely missed the release; I had found the band on Facebook to see that they had released Volume: II a few days prior. Great timing on my part, given the fact that I had completely forgotten their existence.

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Is That A Ben Sharp Interview I See?! It Is!

Filed Under: Interviews, Video
Nov.11, 2010

If you’re even on this website, chances are, you’re at least familiar with Cloudkicker‘s always excellent work. You’re also probably aware of how hard it was, up until recently, to find information on the man behind the music. Interviews and inside scoop has been trickling in as the release of Beacons has been getting a lot of hype and attention.

In a surprise move, Metal-Injection have scored a video interview with none other than the man Ben Sharp himself, in the flesh. Peep this, folks. This is what a genius looks like.

Now the mystique is gone and we have an actual person and a personality to attach to the music. Do you think this is good? Not so good? Does it have any effect on you at all? Let me know in the comments. Personally, it’s nice to see the dude behind the music and I hope he makes appearances more often.

Check out Cloudkicker on Bandcamp and download some killer music for the asking price of whatever the hell you want.

- JR

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Pointless Rambling Filler Content: General Album Gripes

Filed Under: Editorials
Oct.01, 2010

This is my response to all the bands about to be mentioned

As a disclaimer, I intend no disrespect. In fact, this whole article is tongue-in-cheek so don’t take it offensively/seriously in any way, shape or form. I understand the effort, time and creativity it takes to make albums and that it’s a “career” (so to speak) that few can do successfully, especially with the lack of profits involved and the gratuitous amount of resources required. It’s utter passion that drives people to make good music and I have the utmost respect for these people. Again, the title speaks for itself. Plus, Alkahest egged me on a while ago to write something like this.

That being said, is anyone irritated, to any degree, with bands who take forever to release albums? Take a look at Wintersun and Necrophagist. These bands have albums that still aren’t out yet they’ve been in the works for such a long time. Though rushing albums isn’t a good idea (see Emmure), as the longer you take (generally) the better the quality of the end result, but as a personal gripe I’m always craving new music from bands that I love. It’s been at least 6 years since Necrophagist released an album and I don’t even want to know how long Wintersun will take with an album title like Time. That has to be a deliberate, trolling pun.

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Cloudkicker’s Beacons Out Now!

Filed Under: Downloads, New music
Sep.16, 2010

Yes! Download it right here for free. Or if you’re awesome enough you can support this solo project and pay some money for it. Either way, check it out and drop a line in the comments after you listen to it and let me know what you think!

<a href="http://cloudkicker.bandcamp.com/album/beacons">Beacons by Cloudkicker</a>

PS: “Amy, I love you.” is the best Cloudkicker song ever.

-MK

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New Cloudkicker Release Date + Teaser

Filed Under: Audio, New music, Upcoming releases
Sep.03, 2010

Instrumental progressive metal solo project Cloudkicker has set the release date of his upcoming album Beacons for September 17th.  If you aren’t jizzing your pants already, you need to. Because Ben Sharp, the genius behind Cloudkicker, is, well, a genius. Check out this small snippet right hurr:

Cloudkicker Teaser

Beacons is Cloudkicker’s 5th overall release and 2nd full-length. If you’d like to download his music (it’s all free!) you can do so from here by clicking on the album covers to the right.

Get excited.

-MK

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Marten Reed of Deathmøle: The HBIH Interview

Filed Under: Audio, Downloads, Interviews
Aug.24, 2010

I’m a bit of a webcomic fan, and there is no doubt in my mind that when it comes to character development and addictiveness, no one does it better than Jeph Jacques’ Questionable Content, which stars Marten Reed (left in above pic) as he and his circle of friends… exist. It is seriously the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning; I roll over, turn off my alarm clock, and I check QC.

In the series, Marten is the guitarist in the instrumental post-metal band Deathmøle, which fans of Isis, Pelican, Cloudkicker, and Cult of Luna should enjoy. Much like Metalocalypse’s Dethklok, this virtual band releases music, and has released all of their work for free (which you can download here.)

In a surreal turn of events, I was actually able to get an interview with Marten. It wasn’t easy, and don’t ask me how, but I managed to make contact with him and ask him a few questions!

Deathmøle – Two Chord

Thank you for talking with me today. First thing’s first: introduce yourself!

Okay uh my name is Marten Reed and I play guitar in the band Deathmøle.

How long have you been playing guitar?

I started when I was like 14 and I am 24 now so about 10 years!

I mean no offense, but you seem to be the indie hipster type of guy, so what made you decide to be in a metal band like Deathmøle?

Well it sort of happened by accident, the other guys in the band with me when we were starting out (Amir [Bass] and Nat [Keyboard/Sonic Texturalist], Nat’s not in the band anymore since she broke up with Amir) were more into the metal stuff and I just kind of went along with it. And it turns out that playing metal is pretty fun! Especially now that we have an actual drummer.

On that subject, what music inspires you, metal or otherwise?

Oh most of the stuff I write is pretty Isisy or Pelicany I guess, then sometimes I’ll be playing a riff and Amir will be like “dude that is a total High on Fire riff if you speed it up!” So I speed it up! My girlfriend is actually way more into metal than I am, she’s all about Behemoth and Opeth and Deathspell Omega and all these other bands. I really like Gojira, those dudes write some great stuff and their drummer is CRAZY GOOD. But I listen to all sorts of things, mostly indie rock but some electronic things too. I guess I get most of my guitar inspiration from people like Hum or Failure or Isis, those guys were all really good at doing huge guitar sounds.

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Kevin Suter – Kevin Suter [EP]

Filed Under: Reviews
Jul.26, 2010

Kevin Suter

Kevin Suter

01. Prism
02. Eyes of the BEholder
03. All At Once
04. Watcher
05. Nuclear Baseball Bat
06. New Millennium Cyanide Christ (Meshuggah Cover)
07. Zombie
08. 010001010100111001000100

In my humble opinion, the djent fad is becoming way too popular thus resulting in a lot of half-assed, uninspired and hollow music. There are a couple of djent bands that I like (Periphery, Uneven Structure) and only a select few of independent solo projects that I listen to regularly (Cloudkicker). However, Kevin Suter‘s self-titled EP shows that djent can still be fun to listen to if you do something different with it.

Before you go assuming, let me say that while it is different from most djent bands/projects, it still has a familiar vibe to it. There’s a lot of Meshuggah influence here, especially in the track “Eyes of the BEholder” that it may be almost frightening to listeners. That being said, Kevin’s main separation factor is this EP has (for the most part) a pretty deep soundscape. For one, the guitar’s tone isn’t vapid and dirty like most djenters. It’s thicker and has a much more low-end vibe to it. No worries, though, as this contributes to the EP’s overall depth. There are a lot of underlying dark ambiances here that really elevates things to a new level, which you can hear from the get-go with the opener “Prism”. Couple it with the groovy songwriting and you’re left with something that really stands out. In fact, that’s what makes Kevin Suter a much better djenter: groove. The songs themselves never go apeshit insane and tend to stay on the mid-tempo (sometimes upbeat) side of things. Though at the same time there’s much alacrity to be found. My personal favorite, “Prism”, makes me think of walking through the woods at night with the full moon above. It’s a wonderful contrast of brisk darkness that works well. Unfortunately, this creepy feeling doesn’t carry throughout the full EP. While tracks like “Zombie” and “Watcher” have abandoned-hospital-freaky sounds, tracks like “Nuclear Baseball Bat” and “Eyes of the BEholder” are seemingly forgettable and generic. I also really disliked the transition from “Watcher” to “Nuclear Baseball Bat” as it really killed the spooky atmosphere he just managed to create. Nevertheless, the multi-layered tracks are very strong through his creative guitar ambiances and enveloping VSTs. It’s a shame they aren’t consistent.

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