Dananananaykroyd - There Is A Way

> CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 13/12/11

I know what you're probably thinking... "indie pop/post-hardcore" sounds like a bizarre, and possibly disastrous combination. But believe me when I say that Dananananaykroyd (RIP) played sincere, down to earth, but most of all fun and enjoyable music, and there aren't really any other terms that can do their unique style justice.

I was hesitant at first to list them as my core album this week. Though often just put down as indie rock, there's an edge to their music rare to the genre. Labeling themselves with the unconventional terms "posi-core/fight-pop" seems more along the lines of a good way to describe their music, even if silly and probably tongue-in-cheek. Citing indie rock as an influence, they certainly replicate its fun, swagger and danceability. There's plenty of catchy hooks and softer melodies, but they also regularly let themselves loose; spastically screaming and thrashing away, showcasing this vague post-hardcore element, and the punk influences they also claim.

The Scottish band unfortunately called it quits a couple months ago, which is certainly a loss after the improvement they showed with the progression from their previous album to There Is A Way... and the promise of greater things to come it entailed.

There Is A Way
Released: 2011
Country: UK
Genre: Indie Pop/Post-Hardcore
"Muscle Memory" music video
"Seven Days Late"

FFO: Johnny Foreigner, Tubelord, Pulled Apart By Horses

AUN - Black Pyramid

> NOT-CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 09/12/11

I figured after basically a month of solid metal, it was probably time to move into something else... but that doesn't mean the tone is any less sombre or sinister. Drone is an area of music where if you've heard one artist, you've heard many. There's not much room for innovation in a genre that revolves around minimalism and repetition, so it's not often I test the waters and try something new from it.

As far as drone goes, AUN are really quite good. Multi-layered and relatively complex; the songs hum, fuzz, grind and twinkle in unnerving, dissonant waves. They're one of the more entrancing drone acts I've heard and do an incredible job of immersing you in a dark, dreamy state - aided by some of the most fitting, effective and ominous cover art I've seen in a long time, it makes for an impressively rich atmosphere.

Black Pyramid
Released: 2010
Country: Canada
Genre: Drone/Dark Ambient
"Phoenix"
"Taurus Ten"

Counterparts - The Current Will Carry Us

> CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 05/12/11

2011 has just been one incredible release after another, and this week's album is no exception. The Current Will Carry Us is a gem of '11 that, although having been out some months, I put off listening to because I'd been swamped with music; and being a huge fan of the Counterparts' previous album Prophets, I wanted to give the album the breathing space and mulling time it deserved for the first listen.

You'd have thought Counterparts were pushing it a bit, churning out an album a mere year after their debut. I was both excited and skeptical upon hearing the news of its release. Having dedicated some time to it, I can say my excitement was well-placed... and my skepticism (even though it was kinda justified) was WAY off.

Prophets was a bit hit-and-miss. Some songs were so emotional and awe-inspiring that they almost made others seem like bland "filler-tracks", the quality dipping and diving all over the place. This album on the other hand is pure non-stop melodic hardcore quality, start to finish - fast, furious, emotive, and surprisingly diverse & varied.

Problem is, it lacks the same instant "wow" moments that made their debut so good... hold on, this is starting to sound familiar... yep, Counterparts seem to have followed in the footsteps of peers Hundredth and It Prevails with THEIR 2011 albums; that is, though they've all clearly matured and refined their sounds, the albums are missing the stand-out anthems that made previous releases so memorable. Though these three albums are undoubtedly my favorites from each of them, and are epic in their own rights, my favorite SONGS by each of the bands are still from earlier material.

A more balanced approach to writing albums is by no means a bad thing though. And at the end of it all, Counterparts have seriously out-done themselves this time around and shown the most vast improvement: The Current Will Carry Us has definitely fought its way to my core highlight of the year so far. Just hints that there may very well be some truth to my theory: that Americans simply make fun of Canadians because they know Canadians can do what they do, but better.

The Current Will Carry Us
Released: 2011
Country: Canada
Genre: Melodic Hardcore/Metalcore
"Jumping Ship" music video
"MMVII"

FFO: With Life In Mind, Hundredth, Misery Signals

Fallujah - The Harvest Wombs

> NOT-CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 30/11/11

Sticking with the recent "prog albums with purple-ish covers" theme, this week's non-core spotlight shines on Fallujah's latest album that dropped quite recently. And thank god it did, because I believe I've finally struck death metal gold and found the perfect platform to expand my taste from.

Being supported live to release the album by a previously-featured band on this blog, Son of Aurelius, and being constantly compared to The Faceless, it was only a matter of time until I got around to hearing The Harvest Wombs. And I have to say, these guys may be the band that seals the deal with me trying to enter the world of death-oriented metal. They just do nearly EVERYTHING right. The shred & technicality you'd expect from bands of the genre, with an extra dose of epic guitar solos, and with somewhat more of a progressive approach than I'm used to hearing.

Songs follow barely cohesive structures, and are frequently divided with atmospheric interludes... that sometimes make their way into the rest of the music. Somehow, the band manage to successfully implement post-rock-esque atmospheric guitarwork and melody into the relentless assault of aggression and brutality. They certainly have the right to call themselves an "atmospheric death metal" band, because the album is more than just 40 minutes of the mindless, speedy tech instrumentation that so commonly dominates the genre; there's real soul, and real emotion here.

Fallujah deliver The Harvest Wombs with the power and passion you'd expect from a melodic death or post-metal band, without sacrificing any of the speed, precision and technicality the foundation of their music is based on. Really, my only complaint is the album isn't entirely solid, some songs or moments overshadowing others. Small wonder why people are considering this their album of year... despite all the worthy contenders.

The Harvest Wombs
Released: 2011
Country: USA
Genre: Progressive/Technical Death Metal
"Alpha Incipient"
"Cerebral Hybridization"

Hopesfall - Magnetic North

> CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 28/11/11

Hopesfall are one of those bands I think I'd have to thank for making me who I am today. Though I was a little tardy to the party with getting into their groundbreaking 2002 album The Satellite Years, on account of only being aged 9 for its inception, the years I did spend listening to the album no doubt shaped my taste in music as I know it.

Hopesfall were one of the original bands to pioneer the heavily-atmospheric, spacey style of melodic hardcore, and though their lineup changed drastically over their 10 year run, that element of the music was always prevalent. Unfortunately I completely diregarded Magnetic North in my ignorant, more youthful days; since there was barely a shred of the original lineup left, their style of music also in turn strayed further towards rock than hardcore as the releases went by... and I wasn't having any of it.

The album is listed as rock first for a reason. If it wasn't for their post-hardcore roots I wouldn't find it hard to abandon the idea of their later music fitting into that area entirely. And that was what netted the band a lot of backlash: the fact that people were crying they weren't getting The Satellite Years again. People even tried to pin the generic "pop" term on the album - which is completely unreasonable.

Magnetic North is a lot softer than where the band started out. Barely any screams and growls, most vocals are simply clean, and the music as a whole is slower and less aggressive. In my maturing taste of music I've come to realise that these are in no way bad things, because what we were given as a result of the band's progression is an awe-inspiring, atmospheric experience that's abstract and spacey in sound and imagery, with enough grit and attitude to make a respectable rock/hardcore release.

The "true" fans need to get their heads out of their asses and get over themselves. The band may have lost most of their core edge, but they only improved in their songwriting and composition over the years, and Magnetic North is undoubtedly the peak of a beautiful career.

Magnetic North
Released: 2007
Country: USA
Genre: Progressive Rock/Post-Hardcore
"Rx Contender The Pretender"
"The Canon/Devil's Concubine"

FFO: Poison the Well, Deftones, Circa Survive

TesseracT - One

> NOT-CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 27/11/11

An album that's taken an incredibly long time to grow on me, but I think I've reached the peak of my appreciation for it. I've listened to these guys on and off for some months now, having dived into the area of math-ish metal after getting into Periphery a couple years back, but although TesseracT are often compared to Periphery, there was something obscenely different about the music I couldn't quite put my finger on that led me to not enjoy it as much as I should have been.

I recently realised that TesseracT's One is as much a head-banging metal epic as it's a serene, entrancing, ambient onslaught of surreal and dreamy soundscapes. It's not an album that really grabs your attention, more it subtly lures you into a lethargic state of complete immersion.

It almost sounds like your average "djent" band's take on a more progressive style of post-rock/metal, and whilst it's not the most exciting metal release (it's the sort of metal you can sleep to), it's an incredibly well-crafted atmospheric masterpiece, the soaring vocals and electronics/effects mixed louder than the chuggy & syncopated instrumentation to push them into a sort of rhythmic backdrop that grounds the music halfway between metal and ambient.

One
Released: 2011
Country: UK
Genre: Progressive/Math Metal
"Concealing Fate Part Two - Deception" music video
"Lament"

The Contortionist - Exoplanet

> CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 25/11/11

These guys were one of the first bands to surface in my recent discovery and following infatuation with deathcore of the more prog/tech/melodic variety, in fact, probably the band that piqued my interest for the area entirely, long before I even started this blog. I recently started giving them more of the listening time they deserve, and was reminded again of how completely awesome they are.

The style of the music is odd. In terms of the deathcore, it comes in through the more guttural style of vocals and the sludgier down-tuned chug. This is constantly contrasted with the plink and chimes of the guitars and atmospherics though, and the sparse clean vocals which range from sounding angelic to robotic. It's probably also a good time to mention these guys are all about space... not that it isn't immediately obvious from the album art/name or track titles. Lyrically, that's the other thing that sets them apart from other death or core-oriented bands; this fixation with the future... the stars, planets and beyond.

They're also one of the more progressive bands around the scene today, drawing fans even from the prog & math metal realm. Song structures are consistently inconsistent, there's syncopations aplenty, and they aren't afraid to soar into the beautiful realm of the serene or minimal, and then come crashing down with an fist-pumping, head-banging chug, riff or shred.

Let's just say there's a very good reason why many of the comments on their music on youtube are about the users jizzing themselves or otherwise becoming aroused, and that The Contortionist have the potential to be one of the greatest deathcore bands of all times (if they aren't already considered so by some out there).

Exoplanet
Released: 2010
Country: USA
Genre: Progressive Metal/Deathcore
"Flourish"
"Primal Directive"

FFO: Volumes, Born of Osiris, Between the Buried and Me

Battlecross - Pursuit of Honor

> NOT-CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 20/11/11

At last, another death metal band I can really get into. Shred so insanely epic and melodic it sends shivers down your spine. They have a similar style of guitar-driven melody to another favorite of mine, In Dread Response, even if clearly more geared towards thrash.

As epic as the album can get, it still isn't perfect. Many songs overshadow others, particularly the opener "Push Pull Destroy", which as the most adrenalin-pumping track on the album sets a standard the following tracks struggle to reach. These guys are still fairly new however, so it'll be interesting to see what they're capable of creating with releases to come.

Pursuit of Honor
Released: 2011
Country: USA
Genre: Melodic Death/Thrash Metal
"Push Pull Destroy" music video
"Misery"

Structures - Divided By

> CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 20/11/11

Structures released their rather promising debut EP All Of The Above last year, and this follow-up LP certainly lives up to the promise they delivered. It's everything the EP was and then more - quite literally too, since the best couple songs off All Of The Above, "Encounter..." and "In Pursuit Of", were re-recorded for the release.

The re-recordings are a great addition and really serve to showcase the band's improving songwriting, with various recording changes and new bells & whistles nearly making them feel like new songs. One odd addition is the strange new style of clean vocals, which seem a little misplaced amongst the chaotic and heavy music. Though they distance Divided By's style slightly from that of the EP, it's not necessarily a change for the worse.

As with many metalcore albums though, it's all fairly hit-and-miss. Far from perfect, whilst there are a fair few epic songs, others can be pretty forgettable. One just hopes that the band manages to utilise the elements that make their music interesting more thoroughly in future releases, making similar improvements as from the EP to the LP, rather than turning into just another core band slogging out mediocrity.

Divided By
Released: 2011
Country: Canada
Genre: Progressive Metalcore
"Encounter..."
"Paralyzed"

FFO: Elitist, Misery Signals, The Contortionist

The Good Natured - Skeleton EP

> NOT-CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 13/11/11

One of the most insanely catchy releases I've heard from this area of music in a while, I do have one bone to pick with it... it's far too short. What's with this three-songs-long business? Seems like the band have only ever put out EP/single-like releases, and desperately need to bring us something more along the lines of an LP... we need it!

Intensely melodic, akin to those like La Roux or Ellie Goulding, with a similar level of heart & emotion. I look forward to future releases from these guys and hope they manage to get the popularity they deserve.

Skeleton
Released: 2011
Country: UK
Genre: Electro/Indie Pop
"Skeleton" music video
"Wolves"