Hey! Listen to Lithium Dawn

Simon Clark
Listen To This!
It is probably unsurprising that modern progressive metal regularly reaches into the realm of science fiction for inspiration. Sleek, shiny futurism fits the atmospheric mood, the aesthetic and often the ideology firing the creative juices of these bands. As we know, the success of a science fiction concept often rests on how seamlessly the familiar and the unfamiliar are blended together by whoever is holding the pen.

Djent Was A Genre Full Of Great Debuts And Little Else

Joshua Bulleid
Deep Dive, Features
Djent had an explosive entrance into the world of heavy music, around the start of the decade. It was a truly exciting occurrence, with first-wave acts like Periphery, Animals As Leaders and Cloudkicker filtering the technically-driven progressive sound of acts like Meshuggah, Sikth, and those of the budding “Sumeriancore” movement, into something  altogether more accessible, while still retaining much of their forebears’ technical and progressive edge. Yet, like most new sub-genres, djent quickly devolved into pastiche and gave way to over saturation—perhaps a little bit quicker than most. Djent, it seems, has had a propperly ballistic trajectory, and—in 2017—as its momentum trails off, it's hard to get excited about this once-promising phenomenon.

ZETA – ZETA

Eden Kupermintz
Reviews
Some albums are a long time coming; production, schedules, lack of inspiration, and much more can all lead to a delayed release. When that happens, there are two possible results. Either the eventual release falls short of expectations which have been brewing for so long or the album is elevated by catharsis and a long wait reward. Happily, the latter seems to be the case with ZETA's debut. Born from a collaboration between Katie Jackson, Paul Antonio Ortiz (AKA Chimp Spanner), and Dan Tompkins (TesseracT, ex-Skyharbor), the album is a retrowave trip tinged with a slew of 90's pop influences. The wait for the album has tallied years of teasers, singles, artwork, and baited breath for a collaboration that seemed too good to be true. Finally, as of today, it has been released to the world and lo! we are pleased, for it is good.

The Algorithm – Brute Force

Jimmy Rowe
Reviews
The fusion of electronic music and metal has been and always will be controversial. This problem stems from an imbalanced focus or a shallow appropriation; you have to do both genres justice, and placing synth arpeggios over breakdowns isn't how you make compelling music. It takes a well-worn understanding of both genres to execute a worthwhile fusion, and it's true that few have been able to demonstrate this knowledge and creativity. Of all the acts that have made an attempt to bridge metal and electronica, French musician Remi Gallego's project The Algorithm may well be the one that makes the best case for the cause.