Sorry this is a day later than normal! This completely slipped my mind yesterday. Unfortunately I’ve been fairly busy, so I wasn’t able to listen to any 2011 releases this week. I will be listening to the new Boris albums sometime soon, however, so except commentary on them for the next week in review.
Genre: Mathcore
“Irony Is a Dead Scene” by Dillinger Escape Plan
Generally regarded to be one of the most extreme and technical bands in any of the “-core” genres, Dillinger Escape Plan have proven themselves time and time again to be creators of chaotic and forward-thinking sonic assaults. Irony Is a Dead Scene, released between their first and second full lengths, captures the band in limbo between vocalists. During this time period they collaborated with the famous Mike Patton of Faith No More fame. It’s an interesting pairing, that yields some incredible results. This EP is abrasive, dissonant, and hyper-technical, yet Patton’s vocal contributions give the album an odd avant-garde flair. For those who enjoy both experimental and hardcore music, this unique EP by DIP is a must-listen.
“Frances the Mute” by The Mars Volta
Genre: Progressive Rock
Frances the Mute is perhaps the pinnacle of modern day progressive rock. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedrix Bixler-Zavala, the masterminds of TMV, essentially abandon their post-hardcore background entirely on this album to fuse a wholly original sound drawing on influences as varied as ambient noise to Latin American rhythms. The result is mesmerizing; during almost every second on this album there are multiple musical ideas playing off each other simultaneously. Normally this would result in an exhausting listen, but the music is so well arranged that it never becomes overwhelming. The album opener, “Cygnus….Vismund Cygns” does an excellent job of introducing the listener to the variety of sounds they will be exposed to on the record, “The Widow” and “L’Via L’Viaquez” are the more ‘accessible’ numbers of the disc, “Miranda That Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore” provides the most atmospheric section of the record, while the 30 minute album closer “Cassandra Gemini” is personally one of my all time favorite songs. This is progressive rock that is technical without being indulgent, creative without being derivative, forward thinking while not overly-intellectual, and sentimental but not sappy. An absolute must-listen.
Genre: Progressive Rock
“Re-Traced” by Cynic
When I heard that progressive metal behemoths Cynic would be following up their 2008 masterpiece Traced in Air with a EP of acoustic versions of previously released material I was a tad disappointed. Thankfully, Cynic rises well above this description and completely re-works some of their best songs to create entirely new interpretations that sound entirely fresh. These are not the same songs with slightly different instrumentation. “Space for This”, for example, is re-worked to sound like an electronic glitch-hop song, while “Integral Birth” almost works better as a soft rock song. The EP also ends with an entirely new song titled “Wheels Within Wheels” that is just as captivating as anything on Traced in Air, which bodes well for future releases. Leave it to Cynic to turn a ‘remix EP’ into something incredibly interesting!
