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Intronaut North American Tour

Intronaut put out one of my favourite albums of 2015 and now they are doing a NA tour with The Ocean as support! I'm looking forward to seeing Intronaut live again and The Ocean for the first time, should be amazing. I've heard that The Ocean are a pretty insane live band. Who's coming with me?

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Ihsahn to release Arktis in March

Ihsahn will be releasing a new album on March 4th of 2016. A new Ihsahn album is always good news and I'm confident "Arktis" will be great. Check out a new song below:

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Moon Tooth guitar play-though

Moon Tooth released an EP I was very fond of a couple years back (Freaks EP), so I'm looking very much forward to their upcoming full-length album "Chromaparagon". Check out the play-through of Queen Wolf from that album it might get you as excited as I am:

I grabbed the info from here: Gear Gods

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Baroness - Purple (full album stream)

This on has been on a lot of "Best of 2015" lists. I'm listening to it for the first time at the moment. I'm really enjoying it so far but can't really say I've made my mind up yet. You can check out the full album stream below.

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Favourite Albums of 2015

I’m not gonna bother doing this in a count-down style list. I have no real way to rank the albums I listened to. I’m just going to list the ones I liked and maybe mention a few I wish I’d listed to more.

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

A couple years back I fell in love with a band called The Laze. They released an album which was a soundtrack to the 1925 Phantom of the Opera. Some of the music that appeared on their album was compared to John Carpenter's film scores, so I decided to familiarize myself more with some of what he'd done. I already liked some of his movies, but this really gave me the push to check out his synth-based film scores and I'm so glad that I did. His new album is just fantastic. I wouldn't have previously pictured myself enjoying electronic and synth-based stuff this much, but the music is highly enjoyable. Considering that Carpente's music pretty much directly lead me into this style of music, I'll next list a couple albums that fall into this category.

Gunship - Gunship

Gunship is a synthwave band that I discovered through a compilation of music influenced by John Carpenter. The song I'd heard from that compilation was Pink Mist, which was heavy retro synth wave pop. I really liked the song and soon after saw the music video for "Fly For Your Life" (see below) which solidified my interest in the band. The album came out shortly afterwards and I've been enjoying in ever since.

Zombi - Shape Shift

Zombi is a duo from France who are more on the soundtrack spectrum of the Carpenter influence. They are purely instrumental but very atmospheric. I know they do some live performances and I imagine it would be a very interesting live show to check out. They actually seem to be connecting with the metal crowd as well. Anyways, great album and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Goblin Rebirth - Goblin Rebirth

Goblin have been around for a long time. I knew of them from the Suspiria soundtrack, which is very creepy. This is much less synth oriented then the previous entries, but is still the type of thing you would expect to hear in horror soundtracks. It sounds fairly modern and it's also a really good album that I've listened to and enjoyed several times over.

Listen to it here: https://goblinrebirth.bandcamp.com/

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

I liked this one, but it is my least favourite of the others that make up this list. It's also the one I haven't listened to in the longest. It's tough for me to describe why I'm less interested in this album, but I imagine it would fare better among people who prefer Electronic Dance Music than I do.

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Arrested Development Season 5

Sounds like there might be another season of Arrested Development in the works. Although Season 4 didn't live up to my expectations, I'm still very much looking forward to the possibility of a new. According to Ron Howard everyone is very busy at the moment...

Ron Howard says Arrested Development season 5 is in the writing stage

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The Eternaut

I've been waiting for quite some time for this book to be released. I'd heard about it based on the speculation that the author, Héctor Germán Oesterheld, may have been killed over it.

First off, the packaging is beuatiful. There is a cardboard sleve that envelopes the entire book. Once that is removes there is a thick plastic dust cover (I dislike paper dust covers because they are so easy to tear) as well. The paper is nice and thick and the artwork is fantastic

I spent quite a bit of time reading the book on account of the fact that there is a lot of dialogue and the pages are very wide. I also didn't want to skip of a good inspection of the artwork, so I gave it it's due attention.

As far as I knoiw this book has not been available in English up until recently, having been translated from Spanish. I've done a bit of research on the story and I know that it's based on politcal issues taking place in Argentina in the late 50's. I don't know much about what was happening at the time, so the allegorical elements are mostly lost on me, but i like a good sci-fi story and highly recommend this one.

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My Favourite Albums of 2013 Part 2

Here is the second part of my favourite albums of 2013 in no particular order:

Alice in Chains – The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

Great album from a classic band. If you already like AIC you should like this one.

Tesseract – Altered State

I know a lot of people are head over heels for this one, but I kind of find it boring. The vocals are fantastic, the band is good. The music has evolved a bit, but not enough to keep me that impressed.

Dillinger Escape Plan – One of us is the Killer

I’ve listened to this one enough to know that I’m missing something others are enjoying. I’ve heard a lot of people singing high praises for it, but for me it doesn’t top Miss Machine.

Ghost – Infestissumam

This is another one I’ve listened to a lot. I regret not having seen them tour to support this album. Less heavy than the last one, but better overall.

Anciients – Heart of Oak

There is very little Canadian content on my year end list, unfortunately, but these guys deserve to be here. There is almost a sort of retro vibe on this album, but it feels new. Great live act too.

Soilwork – The Living Infinite

It was about 10 years ago that I heard Natural Born Chaos. When I heard it I liked it from track one. Over the course of the releases that followed my interest in the band began to crumble… and then they released the Living Infinite. Most albums that clock in over 50 minutes are pushing it too long, this one is an hour and 24 minutes and never over stays its welcome. It’s pretty crazy that at this point in their career they are releasing one of their finest albums.

Jolly – The Audio Guide to Happiness pt. 2

I liked pt. 1 enough, but this is a step in the right direction. This is good album through and through. Jolly is a unique band that is starting to make a name for themselves and deservedly so.

Disperse – Living Mirrors

This would probably fall in line prety well for people who like Periphery or Tesseract. Not terribly original, but I like the vocals and it does have rededeming qualities.

Bolus – Triangulate

Slightly reminiscent of Porcupine Tree, this is a decent progressive crossover album, if not terribly exciting. There’s some good stuff here, but it’s not amazing.

Dear Hunter – Migrant

Dear Hunter have changed quite a bit since I first heard them, but I’m digging this part of their evolution. There are some pretty tasty jams on here.

King Crow – In Crescendo

In Crescendo is a progressive hard rock album I’ve enjoyed, but have neglected recently. It’s definitely worth listening to though.

Toxic Smile - 7

I’ve just recently discovered this band and I’m impressed. There are definitely some talented players in this band. It’s progressive metal that doesn’t steal from Dream Theater, which is nice.

Darkane- Sinister Supremacy

Honestly, I kind of forgot about this album. But If you like Darkane, you should like this. Fast paced, thrashy melodic death metal.

Long Distance Calling – The Flood Inside

The music that Long Distance Calling cretes is kind of atmospheric metal. This album is predominantly instrumental with vocals on certain songs. The more I listen to it the more I like it.

Reign of Kindo – Play With Fire

Reign of Kindo is so cool.  I love the mix of Jazz and pop with really great musicians. A nice follow up to This is What Happens.

<code> - Augur Nox

I wouldn't say this is bizarre, but it's considered Avant-Garde. I'm not sure how to classify it at all, but it's got a lot going on and is one of those "repeated listens required" type albums. Listen for yourself, that's my best advice.

Caligula’s Horse – The Tide, The Thief and River’s End

I've only listened through this album twice, I like what I've heard but it hasn't blown my mind. I'm hoping that after hearing it a few more timer I make my mind up about how I really feel.

Aeon Zen - Self Portrait

This is another late discovery for me. I would describe this is sci-fi metal. It's got a spacey futuristic feel to it, I realize that might not completely make sense to everyone, but it's an apt description to me.

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My Favourite Albums of 2013 Part 1

Vangough – Between the Madness

The more I listen to this the more I like it. I remember listening to these guys a few albums back and not really caring for them, but it sounds like they’ve taken a few steps forward. Cool modern prog metal.

You can stream the full album here

Mutoid Man – Helium Head

This album is over pretty fast. It’s drenched in distortion and a sort of metal rock and roll vibe with a sense of urgency. Having come out at the end of November this is a late entry, but really good.

Nami – The Eternal Light of the Unconscious Mind

This is one of those “needs repeated listens to appreciate” albums. It’s really good. I haven’t repeated my listens enough though. It’s slower paced for the most part with spacey type mellow parts interspersed.

Sky Architect – A Billion Years of Solitude

There are a lot of albums I like but haven’t listened to enough, this is another one. It’s a really good prog rock album that I know I’ll be listening to often.

Katatonia – Viva Emptiness and Dethroned and Uncrowned

Neither of these albums are really new releases per se, but they are both terrific and have new elements. Viva Emptiness celebrates its 10 year anniversary with a re-release featuring a remix of the album with updated keyboard sounds (and possible new backup vocals?). Dethroned and Uncrowned is mellowed version of Dead End Kings, with the songs reworked. Where the songs failed on Dead End Kings, I think they excel here. Both are fantastic.

Circles – Infinitas

This is a cool groove oriented metal album with great vocals. It hasn’t quite lived up to my expectations based on how much I enjoyed their EP’s, but it’s certainly worth listening to.

Dead Letter Circus – The Catalyst Fire

This is a decent enough album from an Australian band. It has fairly high pitched vocals with pretty cool backing music, not a life changer but certainly enjoyable.

Protest the Hero - Volition

This album features Chris Adler (Lamb of God) on drums. I thought it would be a weird fit, but it works. I like the album, but I would say it’s just good, not great.

Ihsahn - Das Seelenbrechen

The highs are high on this one and the lows are low. I love it for the most part. I love that Ihsahn is in no way going stale, he keeps experimenting (this being his most experimental so far) and he keeps producing great material. Amazing album, but there are a couple parts I’m not completely sold on.

Anaal Nathrakh – Vanitas

I feel like I need to shower after listening to this album. It’s dirty and it’s fucking heavy, really fucking heave. I guess this might be considered black metal, either way I really enjoy it despite the craziness.

Pearl Jam – Lightning Bolt

After hearing the first single from this album I was pretty optimistic about this album. I was disappointed. This is probably one of the biggest let downs of the year for me.

Secrets of the Sky – To Sail Black Waters

This one is pretty heavy and dark with a lot of slower and mellower passages, but still mostly death metal. Good album, although not good enough that it’s been in very regular rotation for me.

Fates Warning – Darkness in a Different Light

Another let down. This album is by no means bad, but from a band that seems to have been absent for a while I was hoping for something more substantial. Like I said, not bad, but not nearly as good as Disconnected or Pleasant Shade of Grey.

The Gabriel Construct – Interior City

This one is pretty weird. But it has Travis Orbin on drums and that is awesome. He’s got to be the most underrated drummer going these days. Pretty sure this is a concept album. It is beyond definition.

Felix Martin – The Scenic Album

The most interesting thing about this album is that Felix plays a 14 string guitar. It’s pretty wild. Also, Marco Minnemann plays drums. He’s pretty wild. Luckily, the music is really fun to listen to and has a high level of musicianship. If you like technical instrumental music you should like this.

Von Hertzen Broters – Nine Lives

One of the more straight forward rock albums I’ve listened to this year. Von Hertzen Brothers are great It’d be nice to see their popularity in North America grow a bit.

Janelle Monae – The Electric Lady

This one is on a lot of year end lists and it’s the poppiest album on mine. I like the album, but much prefer her previous album.

Their /They’re/There/ - S/T

This is just an EP but it’s really cool. It’s more rock than metal but I can’t really define it.

Moon Tooth – Freaks EP

I love this EP, it's one of the best things I've heard in a long time, not just this year. If this was a full album it would be in my top ten. I really wish there were more tunes. I could party to this one all night. It’s grungy and fast paced and a hell of a lot of fun.

Wintergatan S/T

I find a lot of these songs sound like the should be on a soundtrack, they bring Jon Brion to my mind. They play instrumental music that I have a difficult time describing. Check it out for yourself.

Last Chance to Reason – Level 3

While this is a terrific album it doesn’t quite live up to Level 2 for me. I think the problem is that my expectations were too high. There’s some exceptionally tight playing here and Mike Lessard continues to convince me he’s one of the best modern metal vocalists going.

Extol S/T

This is a terrific melodic death metal album with some truly catch and awesome choruses. I really enjoyed this one.

Wormed – Exodromos

Another interesting death metal album. These guys are weird and I like it.

Karnivool - Asymmetry

I don’t think I’m alone in saying this one was a letdown. Karnivool are great but it feels like there is some wasted time on this one.

ASG – Win Us Over

Cool party metal/rock. I don’t love it, but I like it.

Persephone – Spiritual Migration

Musically this album is dynamite. Generally I like some clean vocals sprinkled in with some heavy stuff, but I actually feel like the melodic vocals are holding this album back.

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My Top 10 Favourite Albums of 2013

1. Vulture Industries – The Tower

I wasn’t keen on this band at first but the album has grown on me a lot. This turned out to be my favourite. Everytime I hear it I like it more. I can’t think of one band Vulture Industries reminds me of. This is a terrific album.

2. Leprous – Coal

Leprous scaled back the complexity music on this one a little bit and it really paid off. The vocals are so good. The music is there to serve the songwriting, not the musicians’ egos. This is easily one of the best albums this year.

3. And So I Watch You From Afar – All Hail Bright Futures

I snapped up a vinyl copy of this album and have listened to it a lot this year. I don’t listen to a hell of a lot of instrumental music, but this is very interesting, never boring. The music is complex and upbeat. Although, for an instrumental band there are a lot of vocals.

4. The Ocean – Pelagial

The Ocean have been getting better and better. This album is amazing. If you like Tool and Isis this should give you your fill. Every tune rocks and leaves you wanting more.

5. Intronaut – Habitual Levitations

This is a band that’s evolved and left some fans of their earlier work behind. I think that’s too bad for them. This album rocks so hard. The jazzy bass lines, aggressive drumming, crazy rhythms, it’s just too awesome not to love.

6. Cyclamen – Ashura

It’s too bad more people don’t know who Cyclamen are. They are really a fantastic technical metal band with a lot of heart. This album isn’t a huge departure from their last album, but the polish the sound a bit more.

7. Haken – The Mountain

Haken are fucking great. They are the best progressive metal band going right now. All three of their albums are great. Dream Theater has been a letdown for me consistently and these guys have stepped into their place as the best prog metal band on the menu.

8. Gorguts – Colored Sands

Best death metal album of the year and it's by a Canadian band. It’s dark, creepy, original and not just guys playing as fast as they can. Might be suited for fans of Gojira.

9. Tété – Nu-La-bas

I really like this album. It is unlike a lot of the stuff on this list. I’ve heard Tete called the French Jeff Buckley. I don’t really hear that, but he is a great vocalist with some wicked tunes.

10. New Keepers of the Water Tower – Cosmic Child

I haven’t seen this album mentioned anywhere. It’s a shame, these guys have a wicked unique style. The songs develop really well and are all awesome. It's almost like Opeth meets Mastodon with all clean vocals.

I'll post the rest of my favourite albums, in no particular order, as soon as I can.

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My Favorite Non-English Bands pt. 6

I probably won’t do this as an ordered list, I will just pick bands as they come to mind, so there will be no particular order to this list.

Alcest - France

The music from Alcest is a combination of Shoegaze and Black Metal. There is a very melancholy feel to their music, but it's pretty beautiful too. Although I speak a little French I have done little in the way of actually exploring the lyrical content.

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My Favorite Non-English Bands pt. 5

I probably won’t do this as an ordered list, I will just pick bands as they come to mind, so there will be no particular order to this list.

Stam1na - Finland

This band is terrific. Their album "Nocebo" is such a breath of fresh air in a genre that has many band that are more stale than year-old bread. It's like upbeat thrash:

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My Favorite Non-English Bands pt. 4

I probably won’t do this as an ordered list, I will just pick bands as they come to mind, so there will be no particular order to this list.

Cyclamen - Japan

I am not entirely certain where the main operations for this band take place,  but the lyrics, written by bandleader Hayato Imanshi, are written in Japanese. Their LP "Senju" is awesome. It's crazy, technical metal that is fresh compared to a lot of what is out there. 

This one is very new (the album hasn't been released yet), but it's a lyric video, which I can't understand on account of not knowing any Japanese:

This is the 3rd track off of "Senju" and really gives you an idea about how wild this band can be:

And here is a live performance of one of the mellower tracks off of "Senju", although the original is heavier:

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My Favorite Non-English Bands pt. 3

I probably won’t do this as an ordered list, I will just pick bands as they come to mind, so there will be no particular order to this list.

Tete - France (I think)

Apparently Tete was born in Senegal, but I think that he lives in France now. His new album "Nu la Bas" is turning out to be one of my favorites of 2013. He's been referred to as the French Jeff Buckley, but I don't really see that, either way here is a live performance of the first couple of tracks from his new one:

And here is a live acoustic performance from a while back:

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My Favorite Non-English Bands pt. 2

I probably won’t do this as an ordered list, I will just pick bands as they come to mind, so there will be no particular order to this list.

Tristema - from Italy

I've only heard the album "Come Ti Vorrei", but it is an excellent album. Unfortunately I've had some trouble tracking their other material down. Their music is a sort of straight-forward rock, but they have a cool vibe. Here is the first song from the above mentioned album performed live:

This is a song from their newest album, which I've heard very little of, featuring the vocalist from Pain of Salvation (Daniel Gildenlow). Daniel's parts are actually sung in English, but I think that is the only time that happens with this band:

And this one is my favorite track off of "Come Ti Vorrei", but I've been unable to find a live performance. This is just the studio version:

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My Favorite Non-English Bands pt. 1

I probably won't do this as an ordered list, I will just pick bands as they come to mind, so there will be no particular order to this list. But at least I know where I will start: Elio e Le Storie Tese - from Italy I don't know a hell of a lot about these guys, from what I understand they are considered to be one of the best live bands in Italy. From the clips posted you will see that they are indeed excellent. I suppose this is prog rock, but they play a pretty wide variety of musical styles and really aren't limited by any boundaries. For example:

That is obviously a very famous classical song. Now contrast that with this:

I'm not even sure how to classify that song, let alone this one:

They are certainly a strange band, but you never know what you'll hear next with them. The range and talent in the band is also pretty wild.

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Mothlite - Dark Age

This album passed me by when it was originally released and to be honest I can't remember at this point how I discovered it. Most likely, Mothlite came to my attention through their association with Ulver, whom Daniel O'Sullivan (the multi-instrumentalist behind Mothlite) is a member of. Other than Ulver I have a difficult time thinking of a way to describe or compare Mothlite to anything that I've crammed into my ear holes. However, instead of me trying to describe it, you should just listen (and watch, if you'd like):