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"

Stray From The Path - Rising Sun

> CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 08/11/11

Stray From The Path are back with Rising Sun, and it's more or less exactly the same as last time. If you were a fan of their previous album Make Your Own History, chances are that this release will have you getting down in the pit just as hard. If you haven't heard their last album... then really I would give this one a pass for now.

Fact is, in comparison to the plethora of modern metalcore, this release from SFTP sounds quite primitive and simplistic - basically endless, dissonant chuggy, breakdowns and anthematic tough-guy lyrics being yelled all over the show. Some of the lyrics even seem a little juvenile (eg. "no matter what you did or who you fucked, I'd go through hell for you no matter what"). They're even getting in on the whole guest vocals onslaught thing, with the likes of Vigil from The Ghost Inside, Andrew from Comeback Kid and Cory from Norma Jean joining in.

And really, that's what Rising Sun is: SFTP returning to their chaotic brand of pissed-off, no-frills hardcore. And though whilst it's not their most advanced, respectable or solid release to date, it's still a hell of a good time.

Rising Sun
Released: 2011
Country: USA
Genre: Mathcore/Metalcore
"Death Beds"
"Bring It Back To The Streets"

FFO: Structures, The Chariot, Embrace the End

Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony

> NOT-CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 06/11/11

It's not often that music of any degree of decency makes New Zealand airwaves (or TV waves), so when shows like MTV's Headbangers Ball come on I leap into action and gawp at the screen for an hour as vaguely-respectable music goes in one ear and out the other. And on the odd occasion they play something interesting like Fleshgod Apocalypse.

What would otherwise be fairly cookie cutter, run-of-the-mill tech death is taken a step further with an intense layer of orchestration that takes the music into an all new realm of majestic epicness.

Agony
Released: 2011
Country: Italy
Genre: Technical/Symphonic Death Metal
"The Violation" music video
"The Betrayal"

For The Fallen Dreams - Back Burner

> CORE ALBUM OF THE WEEK, 03/11/11

This album received a slamming from both reviewers and fans alike, and I definitely wasn't looking forward to it after the let down that was Relentless. In fact, it wasn't until some months down the line from release that I actually bothered to listen to it... and though met with the same shock that many felt, I was also pleasantly surprised.

Let's get something straight: this is no Changes (FTFD's debut LP). And no, it never will be. And I imagine the band will never release another album like that. The problem seems to be that so many people go in expecting Changes because it was an album of such promise, and is considered a hallmark of melodic hardcore/metalcore... and they're disappointed when they realise the band is changing. Shying away from the new ground their first album broke is certainly a change for the worse, but by no means is Back Burner a bad release in itself when looked at separately.

Okay, yes, it seems quite watered-down and simplified in many places. The turn to cheesy clean vocals to provide more an element of melody doesn't help, and the album almost feels like a guilty pleasure. It's catchy, fun, anthematic and heavy, and though mindless at times it's still an entertaining listen. Fact is, in my opinion Back Burner is the band's most instrumentally-solid album to date, and if the clean vocals were dropped it would certainly trump all their previous releases.

Changes itself wasn't even that solid, with only a handful of epic tracks actually standing out. This album makes Relentless sound like B-sides and it seems like the band managed to refine the sound they were trying to reach with it, and though it's not the follow-up to the first album we all longed for, it's a new path for the band with new a vocalist and songwriter that you need to learn to quit whining about and accept.

Back Burner
Released: 2011
Country: USA
Genre: Melodic Metalcore/Post-Hardcore
"The Big Empty" music video
"Say What You Will"

FFO: The Ghost Inside, The Plot In You, A Day To Remember