These days it seems that for every band out there, another instrumental band comes out with an album or something along those lines. When I was younger I used to love instrumentals to death but my lack of resources and knowledge of how to source out new music has kept me in this bubble filled with vocals. Though this past year has opened up a lot of doors for me and I have really expanded my love for instrumental music. It has always been a part of my life too. I used to listen to Metallica‘s “Orion” on repeat for hours. Songs like “Ashes of the Wake” by Lamb of God and other oddities like “Spanish Fly” by Van Halen have always been standout tracks that I listened to more then the punk and generic rock I was into at the time.
Now I have expanded my love for instrumental music due to an immense plethora of outstanding musicians releasing quality instrumental albums. Bands like Animals as Leaders and Scale the Summit have impacted me in a big way, so here are five of my favorite instrumental albums.
5. Protest the Hero – Fortress (Instrumental Version)
It would be criminal not to include this gem. Rody Walker provides some of the most memorable vocal hooks on Fortress and steals the show in some aspects – but Fortress works remarkably well as an instrumental album too. It moves the focus and you get to hear the songs in a different context. I am not going to go so far to say that the vocals shadow the bands talent, but the instruments here tell their own story too, and contrary to what you might expect it doesn’t feel too shreddy and is very modest as the songs were written with the vocals in mind. It is just riffs, hooks, shred and well composed songs; not too over the top, but with the same amount of punch you expect from a band like Protest the Hero. The lack of vocals bring out some of the best in the band too, like the completely underrated keys and sexy bass, and after hearing it the context of both versions became more important.
4. Cloudkicker – Portmanteau
Clocking in at just 20 minutes, Portmanteau goes above and beyond what one would expect from your typical shred album. Portmanteau creates atmosphere. Though it is faster and catchier than most of Ben Sharp’s releases, it maintains that sometimes composition triumphs technical ability. He uses a very unique mixing technique that allow several layers and melodies to be a part of the music without making it too crowded. There are always three or four things going on at one time, yet it manages to sound dense without being a bunch of noise: at some points you will have chords strumming through a progression in the back of the mix alongside another line of atmospheric keys. It will have all of that happening behind the drums and lead guitar melody. It works beautifully too because all of the aspects compliment each other and focus on what is important throughout the composition. This album is also one of the first instrumental albums I had ever listened to, so it has added sentiment there; it is just something I can immerse myself in.
I’ve got a bone to pick about Structures‘ debut album Divided By, which was just released this week on Sumerian Records.
First off, I’d like to say that this isn’t to be considered our official review; we’re saving that for later. Typically when we review things, we try to focus on the good and bad parts about an album and try to give things their fair shake — I do take some sort of pride in being able to find nice things to say about Limp Bizkit and Design the Skyline. No, today I’m focusing entirely on a glaring and unignorable flaw to what could have been an otherwise good album that was worth your time:
Divided By sounds absolutely terrible, and could very well be the worst produced album from a widely-distributing label this year.
Last night, I slept at around 4 AM. I was talking with some friends on Skype and watching TV shows, and I didn’t need to get up early in the morning, so I figured I might as well stay up, right? Wrong. I was awakened by freaking birds at 7 AM. I have a balcony, and for some reason 7+ birds were perched in my balcony, making that weird guttural bird noise. At that point I knew my day was going to be terrible. Once I wake up, I can’t sleep back, that’s just how I am. I thought this day couldn’t get worse. Oh how wrong I was.
Lou Reed & Metallica01. Brandenburg Gate
02. The View
03. Pumping Blood
04. Mistress Dread
05. Iced Honey
06. Cheat on Me
07. Frustration
08. Little Dog
09. Dragon
10. Junior Dad
Have you ever heard something so terrible that you actually not only get annoyed, but amused at how the people involved in its creation could have possibly signed off on its release? Metallica and Lou Reed are both legends in their own right, but there has to be some assumed naivety among both acts, surely surrounded by a bunch of yes men who kept assuring both of them, “yeah, this is totally really deep and stuff. Yeah, totally.” Of course, this sort of embarrassment is nothing new to Metallica, but they’ve really hit a new low with this one. I know there’s a lot of wild claims from Lars Ulrich in the press about how Lulu is their best work yet and “makes And Justice For All look like a Ramones album”, but in reality where people aren’t completely full of shit, this makes St. Anger look like Master Of Puppets.
I was reticent to even post this, by my cohorts tell me this is so bizarre that perhaps it just needs to be heard to be believed. It’s the collaborative effort between two absolute legends – Lou Reed and Metallica – that somehow manages to be less acceptable to listen to that Design The Skyline and Insane Clown Posse combined. Hilariously awkward, we promise.
Lulu is being streamed in full over at loureedmetallica.com and will be out November 1st if your higher brain functions have taken a long-haul holiday to Guam.
- CG
The word “djent” in and of itself is enough to bring any meaningful discourse to a grinding halt, as you can see above. Like it or not, it’s a thriving and lively force in metal culture and it’s best to come to terms with it now, because it’s unlikely to fade for another year or so, and even then you’re going to have the same sort of second and third gen revivals and knockoffs that metalcore has been seeing. Then again, everyone has their opinions and is entitled to them, but it’s always hilarious when someone gets a little too excited over something as trivial as this, especially if they’re in a position of celebrity. Enter one Randy Blythe, vocalist of seminal metalcore band Lamb of God.
The PRP has ran a colorful news piece this past weekend that highlights Blythe’s twitter tirade, where he touches on lack of innovation and the always controversial djent (and apparently a knock at crabcore as well):
“THE STUPIDEST name yet for ANOTHER “genre” of metal. If you call yerself “djent”- cap yerself NOW”
“THERE IS NO SUCH FUCKING THING AS “DJENT”. ITS NOT A GENRE. I’m sorry, it’s STUPID AS FUCK. Metal already WAY over classified.”
“…all this BULLSHIT “Deathcore” & “Djentcore” & fucking “Cantplayinreallifebutcanonacomputer-core” it’s just a NAME”
“People can call themselves WHATEVER THEY WANT- it’s fucking heavy metal- this sub-classifying shit is a pathetic attempt to say that you are re-inventing the wheel. YOU ARE NOT. ITS FUCKING HEAVY METAL. Get over it. “Djent”? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”
“I can say that I am a fruit bat, copy fruit bat movements, & soon all my friends will too. Then we will have fruitbatcore. Can we fly? NO.”
“No, Meshuggah is NOT “djent”. Meshuggah is MESHUGGAH. FUCK.”
