Spires of the Lunar Sphere – SIREN (take the fair face of woman and gently suspending with butterflies flowers and jewels attending thus your fairy be made of most wondrous things)

Eden Kupermintz
Reviews
The measure of the chaotic band is, ironically, how much order they inject into their basic pandemonium and how they inject it. Based on that measure, Spires of the Lunar Sphere is one of the more interesting bands operating in metal today. Their 2015 debut, Pangea Ultima, was a shocking experiment in what happens when you turn the dial on discord almost as far as it can go; it blended glitch electronics, metalcore, grind-like aggression and video game music into one challenging whole. One album is fine and all; it was certainly impressive and, perhaps even more surprisingly, highly enjoyable. But the true test is whether Spires of the Lunar Sphere could do it again (and again), proving that they actually had control over the chaos and that their first effort wasn't a fluke. Well, was it?

Fire! Orchestra – Ritual (Can This Even Be Called Music?)

Dave Tremblay
Listen To This!
To understand what Fire! Orchestra is, we have to first know whence it came. And that would be the Fire! trio. Since 2009, Fire! is comprised of mastermind, saxophonist, and keyboardist Mats Gustafsson (who is widely known as a great jazz musician, especially for his improvisational style), bassist Johan Berthling, and drummer Andreas Werliin, both of whom are also known in the Swedish jazz scene for their work in other bands. As of today, they have released three full-length albums on their own, as well as two collaborations - one with Oren Ambarchi (In the Mouth a Hand), and one with Jim O'Rourke (Unreleased?) - plus a couple of EPs. They gained further recognition by playing fresh, inspired and energetic avant-jazz, getting better with each subsequent album, culminating with their 2016 release, She Sleeps, She Sleeps. Back in 2012, they had the idea of expanding their formula with the addition of an orchestra. Now with nineteen musicians instead of three, there was much more space for experimentation and variety, although there was already a lot of both in their simpler format.