Suborno – in the eyes of eternity (album review)

There’s a ridiculous assumption that the guitar has reached its limit in its range of sound. It all had been played and there’s nothing left to creatively explore. This record by Suborno is a rebuttal to that claim.

With it’s theme focused on his life as an immigrant, he guides his guitar to strange, beautiful and vulnerable spaces. This music is an absolute expression of the soul.

Each note is twisted, bent, distorted, and drenched in guitar effects. The instrumentals, at times, turn into pulses of subtle discordance. Swirls of amorphous soundscapes implode in on itself creating undefined textures of reverberating echoes.

This album is a gossamer of calming ardency. Pure emotion that reechos deep amid a boundless space. It’s a spiritual deconstruction of artistic expression.

New Shoppe – Ultra Master (Song Review)

This is for listeners who enjoy hearing straight up experimental noise. This piece is 25 minutes of a billowy  warped up track of noise. It has spurts of echoing static wobbling within and without. The sound is twisting and unpredictable. At times, there is a turbulence of rhythm akin to the deconstruction of pure cacophony. This is unstable bedlam. There are moments that it sounds as if an 8-bit video game is being melted and twisted. “Ultra Master” is a caterwauling wreckage of sound. You have been warned.

Eamon the Destroyer – We’ll Be Piranhas (Album Review)

This record is a trip through the rapids of a strange complex vortex of ominous descant. Each song has its own stage of multidimensional soundscapes. Guided by a deep subtle caliginous voice, slowly expressing every lyric with strain emotions. The dark instrumentals vary from melodic electronic ballads to desert scorch melodies to pirate-esque rhythm tunes. This record is painted in distorted guitars and splattering synths. It’s a shifting passageway that is turbulent and ominous. Just click play and let Eamon the Destroyer take the cerebral wheel.

Favorite songs: “We’ll Be Piranhas,” “Rope,” “Underscoring the Blues”

PC Worship – Buried Wish (Album Review)

PC Worship has released an album “Buried Wish” that is a noisy traffic collusion of Velvet Underground and early Sonic Youth. There are layers of Garage Rock, Lofi, Post-Punk and presented in a No Wave attitude. They are synth-like sounds clashing as if they’re stuck in inchoate state. It’s grimy and raw. The instrumentals are desolate clouds of feedback, burnt riffs, demanding vocals, and fractured rhythms that pushes the songs forward. PC Worship is blended every outsider rock era into one chaotic listen.

The album begins with rising violins that resemble a shore in “Rain on an Empty Moon.” It’s a contrast to the erratic instrumentation that is to come. “Back of My $$$” is a dense murky tune that crawls with every drum beat and guitar note hanging on to dear life. There is a bland of beautifully eerie vocals supporting soulless damaged leads. It suits the unstable buoyancy of each track. This is also heard in the track “Help” which moves slowly with dissonant guitar riffs. The violin in the background give the instrumental an ominous glow. Throughout the album, there are strange noises interluding the passing songs giving the release a secular dark theme.

PC Worship has successful taken the dampness and coldness of New York and it’s history of noise rock and made their own mark. It’s bravura of imperfection. You can hear and feel the flaws of human emotion. It’s a soundtrack for the misanthrope. “Buried Wish” is meant to be heard and stored in the darkest corner of a barren area. This volatile sound is related to those moments when our souls are vulnerable and bare. So, where there is that creeping depression engulfing our thoughts we have this album to remind us that we are not alone.

Favorite Tracks: Blank Touch, Help, Perched on the Wall, Moons, Tranquil Pain

Loya – Aimovoria (Album Review)

Loya’s Aimovoria is a blend of modern and influential nostalgia. There are hints of A Perfect Circle, Tool and Deftones. They mold heavy guitars that can send a chill down your spine while crack every fiber within. The vocals are drenched in sentiment and are phenomenal. The album is an experimental rock soundtrack to a journey in the darker corners of the night. Each song blends with the next, so this is a piece that must be heard from the first track to last. I been playing during midnight drives that has been recently frequent due to a breakup. It’s the perfect escape from those moments of heartfelt discomfort.

Tracks like “Crimson” has a icy effect in the instrumental. The music has a gust of bass, skipping drums, echoing drums, and cold vocals. It’s as if you are walking through a forest covered in snow and darkness. Then there is periods midway that contrast the calmness with screams and slamming guitars. “Glitch Killer” is a personal favorite. The song starts off with sedated guitar effects and wintry vocals. “Artifact” is a standout from the rest. The beginning begins with a loop string of sounds and morphs into a strange foundation of rhythm. Again, there is a freezing fog overtaking the entire song. It sounds as a recollection of the past. There is a sense of longing. The song “Lotus” closes the album with a gentle clean guitar guided canticle. It’s the final act of an aphotic exploration of within a soul.

I honestly enjoy the vocals on every song. There is a blend of Maynard James Keenan and Chino Moreno. It’s not a photocopy though. The singer pushes each instrumental with such power and emotion. This album has excellent production and can withstand the cliché of rock music. If you enjoy the bands that were previous mentioned, you must pick this album up. The influences are there but doesn’t take away the credit of originality.

This was on my playlist during a hard time in my personal life. I been hardly writing or listening because of my depression but this band was still a daily listen. It was a companion among others bands I was constantly listening. Things will get better, I am sure. I enjoy writing on this blog, music is my passion and this album was a helpful realization of that. Thank you, Loya.

Favorite tracks: “Crimson”, Glitch Killer”

Nine Inch Nails – Not the Actual Events EP (Album Reviews)

Trent Reznor, the Nine Inch Nail mastermind, said new music will be released in 2016 under the NIN name and as December was coming to an end, we lost hope. Then with at a random time of the day on 23rd, an EP came out entitled “Not the Actual Events.” The title is sort of a contrast to the tense year we have gone through. As though, these five song collection is from an alternative reality which dark, ominous, and nostalgia.

This release is a throwback to an old sound while patterned them in a recent modern fashion. You hear grisly and blurred out noise. From the throbbing distorted bass drum signaling the beginning of the EP, “Branches/Bones” pushes the listener into a broken reel of memories with a strong heavy gust of wind of sound. Reznor screams as he feels as if fallen back into the bottom of a hole. He voice sounds painful and swollen complementing the waves of fuzzy bass lines, bursts of guitar, and static with bare direction of chaos.

There is a common thread in the lyrical content. There is themes of relapse and falling right back to beginning. “Dear World.” has spoken word verses that moves as a lost spirit in time. The instrumental is leaning more toward the recent styles Nine Inch Nails has been experimenting with. Electronic synth sounds bubble up like a technological swamp. Reznor speaks and sings as he has little or no strength.

“The Idea of You” is one of the fastest songs in recent memory of this band. Splices of guitar riffs repeat in a hypnotic haze. The drums are incredible and enticing. The verses are buried deep in the discordant instrumentation. Then the vocals are sprung into the front once the chorus kicks in as if it’s a punch to your ears. This song is very close to bring back familiar terrains of “The Downward Spiral.” It’s very fast as it will grab in you it’s unfathomed disorder. This is a favorite of the bunch.

“Burning Bright (Fields on Fire)”ends the album with a grimy slow closure as if society is decaying in front of our eyes. The echoing vocals, the greasy guitar riffs, and the dissonance ambience of the reverb come together in a formless noisy track moving ahead somehow. The chorus is contiguous and full of emotion. The whole sound is as cold as a sun rising in a recently destroyed city. This track closes the EP as it opened with disarray and imbalance. I enjoyed this record very much. It’s a storm of the great sounds that NIN has made in recent times and some into very early albums. It’s a rocky blend of chaos and noise, which makes Nine Inch Nails so great and unique.

Favorite tracks: “The Idea of You”, “Burning Bright (Field on Fire)”

Mayflower Madame – Observed In A Dream (Album Review)

The music in Mayflower Madame’s album “Observed In A Dream” is exactly what it’s title says. It’s a noisy soundtrack of dreams of every kind. Guitars colored in haze and guitar pedals mimicking galactic clashes deep in space. The drums are organic and cacophonic. The bass is slithering through every crack left by the rest of the instruments. The singer controls the shaken topography as it turns chaos into beauty.

“Confusion Hill” is a messy painting of a rising sun. Slowly as the song progress, you begin to see the soundscape enticing and mesmerizing.  “Lovesick” strikes a chord into the history of post-punk and showers it with reverb. It’s romance for the gothic painter. Chills in every word, descending and ascending guitar riffs mixing together into a road trip into an aching heart of discord. “Self-Seer” has a deep shade of darkness that can penetrate into the bones of frail souls. The instrumental moves in a very menacing manner echoing the works of Joy Division and The Cure. This band has a habit of turning noise into works of art. My favorite track “Upside Down (The Death Loop)” glows as bright as a moon glistening over an icy forest. The guitar effect loop in infinite with the singer’s whispered lyrics. They both blend into an internal brew of emotion.

Mayflower Madame knows how to take the right pages of past greats. The madness is cerebral and dissonance. It’s fear but it’s poetic. The instrumentals moves as daringly without being impetuous. Distortion can resemble a soul in distress and this album successfully shows that pain. It’s relatable to those who spent endless nights writing poetry or painting the walls with subtle meanings. It’s an album I truly used as an inspiration as I mused on my arts. It will inspired you until you turn mad. Distortion is bliss, this is the proof.

 

Loya – Holly (Album Review)

Loya is a musical project of Nathan Johnson who mans all the instruments and vocal duties. His influences are A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails and Deftones, and filter them through a very heavy, harsh light. The opening track “Medium” has crunchy metal guitar riffs that break bones, screams that recall agony, and melodic vocals that send chills up your spine.

“Leaving” is directed with vocals in tribute to the Maynard James Keenan of Tool. The instrumentation is in a spacey and radiant atmosphere. There is a similar layer in the track “Northern.” It’s a journey through a rocky terrain of otherworldly locations. This is my favorite of the bunch. The Maynard influence is very clear in the song “N.A.R.R.” The melody has a punchy descent into madness that recollects the feeling as listening as Tool. The ending is mind-grabbing and chaotic. “Shores” takes you into the canorous sentiment of Trent Reznor’s work. It’s stirred with industrial inspired rhythms that give the song a distinctive aspect of emotion.

Clearly, if you enjoy the works of Tool and A Perfect Circle, you will enjoy this release. For the Deftones fans, the guitar work on this release will be familiar and satisfying. As I mentioned before, there’s a deep lowness to the guitar tone that leave deep cracks all over the instrumentations. The constant similarities of the music with its influence don’t devalue the art behind these tunes. Johnson takes his favorite artists all paint them onto his own canvas.

War Party – To Love Is To Fear (Album Review)

According to Cameron Smith, the singer of Texas’s War Party, their album “To Love Is To Fear” is about paranoia and compulsion amid your own head while rejecting outer influences. This concept accurately describes the current state of the country in recent times. Yet, with the band’s sound is uplifting and buoyance as a driving force, this collection of songs is the best distraction to have from this conjuring political mess that is about to explode or already has.

War Party’s sound is a thick mixture of garage, surf-pop, a little reverb and orchestral keys mixed with the attitude of post-punk. “Chinese Handcuffs” enters the album with a luminous and catchy bang of guitar riffs. It turns into a gummy garage rock that sticks into your shoes as you run up and down the halls in jubilation. “Stoned Not Stupid,” which can be an anthem for the aspiring youth, has a chanting effect that is difficult not to follow along after a couple of listens. “The Aurelian” has a grungy riff and song structure that is nostalgic and in tribute. Smith’s voice has a little raspy delivery to add the nineties texture as well. The bridge has an excellent drum rhythm and it’s a highlight.

“Jellyfish” moves into indie pop territory guided by a static and spacey synthesizer sound. The instrumental is passionate and personally resonated. This guarantee to shrug a couple of heartfelt nerves in your body. The song “To Be Young Again” and “Happiness is a Warm Dress” brings in a hint of brass into the clamorous instrumentation of the band’s assonant. This is heard throughout the album.

“Pieces Together” is a favorite of the album and it’s where the listener clearly hears the surf-rock influence. The guitar sounds blends with the thumping bass and the song is leaning toward a garage rock molding flavor. The organ leaves a psychedelic layer gentle simmering on the bottom. War Party has successfully blended a handful of genre of creating an intriguing intonation. One that stays crisp after multiple listens and a great album is exactly what we need during these times of cerebral entanglement. We may be going mad as we shout to our TV sets but at least we can enjoy some great music.

Best Tracks: Chinese Handcuffs, The Aurelian, Jellyfish, Pieces Together