01. Shadow
02. Dagger
03. Eternal Golden Monk
04. Benblåst
05. Östpeppar
06. Traces
07. Phobon Nika
08. Måsstadens Nationalsång
09. When No One Walks With You
10. All These Feelings
11. Nojja
12. Deceit
13. The Lone Deranger
[11/29/11]
[Century Media]
With the impending release of their debut album Måsstaden, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that the ravenous Swedes of Vildhjarta will round out djent’s version of ‘The Big Four,’ which also includes the likes of Periphery, Tesseract, and fellow thallmen Uneven Structure. Indeed, they carry many of the common staples that the genre is known for; the syncopated riffing, twangy guitar tones, and use of ambiance come in spades. However, Vildhjarta do much to differentiate themselves from the pack with their own distinct flair and nuance, being much more dark, unsettling, hypnotic and off-kilter with their refreshingly chaotic and dissonant approach at a genre that some believe is starting to wear thin.
As much as I hate to undercut my good man Jeff, I figure I could offer up an argument for the opposing side of the three guitar player approach. Jeff cited Periphery, asking, “What’s stopping Periphery from writing a few crazy proggy sections where all three guitars are doing something completely different but complementary to each other?”
Absolutely nothing, because they’ve already done it. It happens all over their debut album, albeit often in a subtle fashion, because they’re either tucked behind vocals, or overpowered by production that isn’t actually as good and clear as it could be. The best example I can give is Periphery’s epic “Racecar,” which you can hear above. There are moments throughout the track where there are two harmonizing rhythm tracks playing alongside each other with a cleaner delicate melodic part over it—for example, 5:30; harmonies are panned left and right and there’s a centered clean ambient track being layered that you have to really listen for). There are moments where there are two melodic leads and a rhythm track—6:50, harmonizing leads and a chuggy rhythm being laid down underneath. Most importantly (and properly answering Jeff’s rhetorical question), there are even moments where there are three different guitar tracks being played simultaneously where nothing is doubled—clean atmospheric layering, killer guitar lead, and a low rhythmic chugging during the song’s major hook at 9:55. It takes more than a passing listen to pick out several different guitar parts, especially when they’re all being challenged in the mix alongside bass and drums.
So over the weekend I finally got around to checking out the Foo Fighters latest, Wasting Light. I’ve never been a huge fan, but I have nothing but respect for Dave Grohl and the boys for consistently delivering high quality rock records. And since Wasting Light has sold about a billion copies so far and has received nothing but high praise, I decided to give it a spin. Sure enough, it is a damn fine rock album. BUT-one thing I was really looking forward to that slowly drove me nuts while I was listening to it, is their brand new three guitar attack-specifically, the lack of it.
Despite reading an interview with the Foo Fighters in Guitar World a few months back stating that they have all these crazy, interwoven guitar lines throughout Wasting Light and Grohl saying something to the effect of “with three guitarists, you have to be really careful or everything turns into a big fucking mess…”, I found myself desperately searching each track for a part, ANY part, where I could even tell there were three different guitars playing. Much less playing three separate parts….
Which brings me to my point, and I think all bands with three guitarists (Periphery, Whitechapel, Chelsea Grin, Iron Maiden) suffer from this. I’ll call it “trying so hard to not overplay that everybody underplays” syndrome. Or to reference Grohl’s statement above, they try so hard not to make a mess with their three guitar attack, that they end up sounding like they don’t have three guitars at all.
After Jimmy asked you readers a tough question last week, I thought I’d ask an even tougher one on this day of freedom and tomfoolery: what are your favorite breakdowns?
The breakdown is a simple concept to grasp, but difficult to use it to good effect to a song. No, we aren’t talking about the herp-derp breakdowns every deathcore band and they’re dogs do, we’re talking breakdowns that are crucial to the development and fullness of a piece. My all time favorite breakdown is:
Elitist – Caves (2:24 – 2:37)
This breakdown is very unique. The whole breakdown is accompanied by an arpeggiated chord, giving the breakdown the element of size. Also, the rhythmic structure in these eight bars is complex. The first bar goes through relative unassuming, thinking it’s another one of those standard breakdowns, but the second bar comes in with a rather unique rhythm, throwing a triplet in on beat 3, while not ending the bar with another triplet. Instead, it throws straight sixteenths at you, while removing the 3 note in the sixteenth. This gives the illusion that it is in an odd time signature – but it is actually all in straight 4/4. It’s really that bar that makes it for me. The guitarist do some neat breakdown riffing by throwing bends in the mix to give it added originality. The drummer perfectly accompanies the band with machine-like precision. The band does a great job at using triplets to change the feel of the breakdown. A lot of technical jargon there, but in short it’s just plain fun to hear and to comprehend what is going on, and it’s just full of energy.
So yeah, hit me with your favorite breakdowns, and after the jump, I have a few more for you.
Everyone’s favorite pissed off technical powerhouse The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza are almost done recording their new album, tentatively titled Danza IV. It looks like the only thing left is getting Jessie Freeland in to record vocals and the album will be complete. It looks like guitarist Josh Travis took the helm on the instrumental front after all, making this a two-man operation—more or less the same minds that went into Danza III, so this should be absolutely amazing… especially if those demos we heard last week are Danza tracksEDIT: They’re not. Oh well, can’t wait to hear it!
Ah, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza. Yet another tech core band with humble goof-off origins turned serious musical force to be reckoned with. After losing damn near everyone but vocalist Jessie Freeland, saving grace multi-instrumentalist Josh Travis stepped up to the plate to write the instrumental front to the much anticipated third album Danza III: The Series Of Unfortunate Events. The hype was so large that the monumental expectations seemed impossible to meet, but Danza III shockingly exceeded those expectations. Travis’ fresh take on the patent Danza sound added a melodic twist, throwing down pummeling riffs and technical wizardry against melodic ambient undertones, at times sounding like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah, and Isis were thrown into a room and told to hammer out some ideas. This, coupled with Freeland’s ferocious and pissed off screaming, made Danza III one of the greatest albums of 2010, serving as close to a breakout hit as this particular scene could allow.
It’s not exactly a secret that the band—now with a full lineup—have been writing. Guitarist Josh Travis seems to be once again taking the helm with the major songwriting duties, as he uploaded two new demos to his soundcloud page. Now, there’s no indication if it’s Danza material or some sort of solo project or what have you, but it certainly sounds like an exploration of the sound we heard on Danza III, while still sounding like it could be for something else entirely—it’s hard to tell. It should go without saying that the new tracks are mindblowing, moving in an even more melodic focus while still keeping the aggressive and technical aspect that the band is known for. If this is what Danza IV is going to sound like, then it might just top Danza III.
Unfortunately, one of the tracks has since been removed. Awww bummer. However, the other new demo track and an older demo from a couple of months ago were uploaded together on YouTube. Hooray internet!
The band has promised to deliver some ‘big news’ soon enough. We’ll let you know when that happens!
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza easily had one of the best records last year in Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events. It was aggressive and technical, yet somehow catchy in its quirky bi-polar approach. I’ve always wanted to see them live, as they perform almost flawlessly and are fairly intense, especially guitarist Josh Travis, who can do some wild two hand tapping while thrashing around without missing a beat. Unfortunately, they’ve never came close enough and they always seem to tour with generic or terrible deathcore bands like Carnifex and Oceano. I love you Danza, but tour with Dillinger or something!
Fortunately, Hardtimes.ca captured their set recently on some tour that I didn’t keep up with. It really doesn’t matter; the important thing is that Hardtimes were there and got the footage for you so you didn’t have to wade through a sea of bros to catch their performance.
I hear that they’re working on Danza IV. Sweet Jesus, I can’t wait for that one.
Sometimes I neglect checking out bands based on their name alone, and it’s a shame that I do that because some of my favorite bands have the most ridiculous names (Arsonists Get All The Girls, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza). Chickenhawk are one of those bands that I’ve sadly passed up on because it’s hard to take a name like that seriously. Turns out they’re pretty damn good! Won’t I ever learn?
Chickenhawk are an experimental hardcore band from Leeds with a knack for huge riffs and fast pace. Their debut album Modern Bodies is due out November 1st, but the band are offering up their song “Scorpieau” for free. Check that out via the bandcamp player below and rock the fuck out.
Be on the lookout for this band. Modern Bodies is out November 1st.
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.
Sounding like a melodic version of The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Tre Watson‘s new song “His Name Is Clover J. Fields And He Hates Babies” is one killer jam. The title is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. You can blame me for that one if you hate it, in which case you are no fun and your vagina is showing.
You can check out “Clover J. Fields” below. It is from his upcoming sophomore solo album, Empirical Dichotomy. It is tentatively due out later this year, but some computer shit happened and he has to re-record just about everything. Fucking technology is a double-edged sword, man.
Vildhjarta
