Here we are back for another collection of the latest in heavy rock that passes muster.
CD Reviews
Animals as Leaders: Animals as Leaders
This oddly named group is a basically an outlet for Tosin Abasi, the 7 string guitar master, formerly of the band Redux. Redux was described as politically charged progressive-tinged metalcore. Fortunately, this release only retains the progressive elements and dispenses with the boorish metalcore that so many bands use as their template these days.
Instead we have a great collection of prog guitar-led and ambient-tinged music that glides past electronica at times. It's quite a rewarding album to listen to and is best if appreciated over several listens. You are sure to miss the nuances of this release on the first few attempts. The decent modern prog album seems to grow to the ear which each listen. As you might imagine, considering Abasi plays both 7 & 8 string guitars this CD would probably be most interesting to guitarists. You can quite imagine this guy using the (in)famous and notorious hard to play “stick” for his next release.
It's more or less a concept album about getting older, but don’t that let that put you off. There is none of the pretentiousness one might expect from such a release. It might not be for everybody, but those who give it a chance will amply rewarded.
Exilia: My Own Army
I made the mistake of playing this while playing pool with my wife and a band-mate. They both forced me, under a decent amount of pressure, to take it off as they both considered it “rubbish”. The metalcore-cum, rap-metal release is not exactly what I would call the best thing I have listened to of late, although there has been a few worse things. The album does get better towards the end when the front-woman stops trying to out scream the lads and actually sings.
The band describes it as “heavy”, I would describe it as heavy going. There is not much of what you would call songs here merely a bunch of shouting, breaks, and playing fast as you can. It doesn’t seem very together for a release and it really never took hold. Yes, there is lots of heaviness and power on here, but seems all for not.
What it most reminds me off is the bloody awful band My Ruin. All in all not exactly my favourite release of the week and one that is best avoided. I wish the band would “exilia” themselves to some island and try to come up with some decent songs.
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