Blastbeat Reviews: David Maxim Micic, Red Fang, MEASURE X UP

More quick reviews before the year is over!

DAVID MAXIM MICIC - BILO 3.0

David Maxim Micic captured my attention a couple years ago when he dropped his instrumental djent/ progressive metal project Bilo for free to the masses. Fast forward two years and two more albums, we have Bilo 3.0, the most adventurous of his releases so far. There's still djenty goodness hidden deep in this album, but it's covered in layers and layers of orchestration, choirs, jazz fusion, and a gajillion guest vocalists. David Maxim Micic flexes his song-writing muscles here, and while he's a phenomenal guitarist, I really think his composition skills are streets ahead of his djenty peers. Overall Score: 4.5/5

RED FANG - Whales and Leeches

I love Red Fang. They're the prefect blend of doomy, fuzzed out stoner rock and high energy, straight-forward, crush-beers-and-bang-your-head metal. Whales and Leeches is a touch darker and heavier than their previous effort, Murder the Mountains, but everything essential to the Red Fang sound is there. Kick-ass dual vocals, monster riffs, and bluesy leads are found all over this album. I'd definitely recommend checking this album out if you're a fan of any sort of stoner, doom, or sludge metal. Personally, I like it but I prefer their previous two albums for their more fun and laid back attitudes. Overall Score: 3/5

MEASURE X UP - DEMO 2013

More from the Halifax hardcore scene! These Maritimers keep sending me promos, I keep loving 'em, and MEASURE X UP's 2013 demo is no different. This is more straight-forward 80's and 90's straightedge hardcore, reminiscent of bands like Minor Threat and Youth of Today. The vocals are absolutely vicious on this demo, and the music matches the singing's intensity to a T (or in their case, an X). Whether you're edge or not, MEASURE X UP's demo is some killer hardcore, and you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not checking it out. Word on the street is they're working on another demo to be dropped soon, and I'm super stoked to hear that once it's out as well. Overall Score: 4/5

In other news, my yearly Top 10 list is going to be posted soon! Until then, satiate yourself on my unsolicited opinions from last year. Also, there's a big announcement coming up which may or may not involve Needs More Noise Gate picking up another writer! Excitement.

That's all for now, folks!

-DG

Bandcamp Chronicles: Vol. 2

Bandcamp is an awesome site. It lets artists host their music to stream for free, and lets them sell (or give away) digital copies of their music as well as physical CDs, vinyl, or other merch. Bandcamp is stupid easy to use (even I use it), and keeps the musician's focus where it should be: on the music. Anyways, I'm not here to slobber over Bandcamp itself, but over some awesome artists I've found on Bandcamp. I'll try to briefly introduce the artists and then get straight to shutting the fuck up so you can check out their pages and let their music do the talking.

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DISFRACTURE

I'm normally not a fan of djenty progressive metal. I stick mostly to sonic power-titans Meshuggah, and not much else. In my eyes, the genre is starting to come to a standstill, but there are still a couple wicked bands that trudge onward in this sea of noise gates and compressors to drop some sick tunes. Disfracture a bunch of U.K. boys who keep things rolling really smoothly between all their ridiculous time signatures and song structures. You'll barely even notice that you're headbanging in 27/16 time.



MANDROID ECHOSTAR

Think a heavier, more guitar driven version of Coheed and Cambria. No, seriously. Their vocalist sounds so exactly like Claudio Sanchez that I'm concerned that Mandroid Echostar kidnapped him and forced him to sing on their new EP. These proggers are from Guelph, which is something I can brag to my out-of-city  friends about as these guys blast through some awesomely tight playing and spiraling song structures.



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Check out these dudes if you get a chance! Hopefully it'll be worth your time. I know it was worth mine.

Do you have a Bandcamp? Want to be featured on the next Bandcamp Chronicles? Shoot me a link to your page and if you melt my face off, you could have a chance to be on the next post!

That's all for now, folks!

-DG

Album Review: Twelve Foot Ninja - "Silent Machine"

When you read the word nu-metal, what do you think? A bunch of sweaty thirty-somethings in masks playing angsty music for angsty teenagers at Scenefest? Maybe a rad bro with a snapback and throwback jersey rapping over caveman guitar riffs and drumming? If you couldn't tell, I'm not a fan of much nu-metal, and unfortunately, more often than not, that above description is true for most of the genre's artists. With a bunch of super srs dudes being all dark and edgy playing super srs, dark and edgy songs, there needs to be someone to come out of he super srsness, darkness, and edginess to bring some fun into the scene. Out from the srs, dark, and edgy fog steps none other than Twelve Foot Ninja with their debut, Silent Machine!

Twelve Foot Ninja are an Melbourne-based band that can only be described as "a clusterfuck of genres mashed together into the the musical equivalent of blunt force trauma". Rooted in a blend of classic nu-metal and djent/ modern progressive metal, TFN boggle the mind by reaching out to genres like funk, latin fusion, reggae, and electronic over the span of Silent Machine's 45 minute running time. Just the opening track, "Coming for You" has everything you need, from slammin' Periphery-esque, keyboard laden choruses to salsa dance inducing Abraxas-era Santana fusion and pure 70's  funk verses. What's that? You think that's impossible, and if it was it'd sound like shit? That's cute.

If you watch this and think "DIS SUX! METUL IS SRS BSNS GUISE!", please leave 

this page and never come back. You won't be missed.

So, point proven: TFN are genre-bending masters. Unlike most metal bands that like to shove in a little bit of cross-genre fun, TFN is actually able to pull it off flawless consistency. Using "Coming for You" as an example again, if I heard the fusion section without hearing the rest, I would have thought they were actually a latin fusion band. Same goes with the funk. They're all proficient enough musicians to be able to play all these different styles, all while keeping it all coherent. I know some people think the genre changing is a little gimmicky, but I don't think so. While at first you find it funny that they jump around so quickly, you soon realize holy shit, this isn't just a bunch of random ideas stitched together. These are actual songs. This album is more than just a cheap, quick laugh, there's substance here that you have to keep digging into. That's one of the reasons why I think Twelve Foot Ninja are going to have the staying power that a lot of other bands wish they had.

If there's one thing I have to pick to love more than anything else on this album (and that's hard, trust me), it would be the vocals. While lead vocalist Kin is a monster, capable of bellowing out some aggressive nu-metalish vocals and dropping suddenly to soft soaring vocals, the rest of the band members provide incredible backup vocals and harmonies throughout the whole album. At first, sometimes you barely even notice them, but the more you listen, the more they seem crop up and the more you can't stop grinning because it's always done so well.

Production is handled very well, as is expected from a release this ambitious. Any band that jumps around with styles as much as TFN do wouldn't want to mix and master everything with a heavy as balls sound and keep that production style for the funk sections. Silent Machine sparkles and dazzles when it needs to shine and bears it's black toothed grin when it it wants to get down and dirty. Even still with this varied production, everything sounds coherent. Whoever produced this album is a studio wizard.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Coming for You, Mother Sky, Shuriken, Silent Machine

Overall Score

4.5

Twelve Foot Ninja. Silent Machine. SHIT IS SO PRINGLES.

That's all for now, folks! Slam that siqqness.

-DG