Are you dipping your toe into the classical music waters, not sure if you’re up for the full swim, but willing to wade around a bit? 1,666 more words
via 10 Tips for the Fledgling Classical Music Lover — The Imaginative Conservative
Sloan: “The Day Will Be Mine” @sloanmusic
SLOAN, one of Canada’s greatest bands ever (that’s right, we are talking about the Rush-level upper echelon here, folks) has a new album coming out in April. Their brilliant last album was in 2014, and you will remember my Progarchy promotion of it. Here’s the new single, so buckle up and get ready, because it is awesome…
Review: Meliorist – ii.
As if Progressive Metal met Metalcore and Djent for lunch and the three later casually partook in rough coitus, Brisbane-based Meliorist make some heavy, heavy music. Call it progressive metal or even an incredibly atmospheric derivative of death metal, the band’s sophomore EP, ii. is an oppressive sea of fury, and it resonates with me in a way few bands of its style manage to do. The songwriting may be solid and the production some of the best I’ve seen in metal, but it’s the ubiquitous atmosphere that has this album screaming ‘masterpiece’.
Too many bands in metal ultimately sound indistinguishable from one another, and it is a bleak statement. True enough, Meliorist’s resistance from this heavy metal clone complex pays off. Although their dark brand of tech metal can still find itself associated with a number of prescribed genres, ii. feels like a natural collision of influences from across the spectrum, from black and doom metal to modern and extreme variant of prog.
As a whole ii. relies on a sickening atmosphere of rage and fear. Although Meliorist sticks exclusively to their vocals, guitars, drums, and bass, the music sounds vast. “New Chapter” introduces the tech-sinister mood that pervades the majority of the release. By the cornerstone “My Reflection,” Meliorist have developed their riff energy into a dense fury complete with burstfire picking. All the while, Brisbanites layer their music with atonal atmospheric guitars. The band’s style will certainly draw a number of comparisons with other bands (Between the Buried and Me, in particular), but Meliorist combine the elements and make the sound truly their own.
Although it’s not the biggest reason why ii. has stood out to me so much, it’s worth mentioning that Meliorist enjoy some of the richest, most organic production I have heard on a metal record for quite some time. Perhaps it’s the heavy presence of the bass guitar, but Meliorist find an incredible balance between a live ‘raw’ energy, and a clear mix between instruments. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Meliorist channel their atmosphere-laden heaviness through such an organic studio execution. Those willing to set the time aside to fairly digest the atmosphere will find an incredible world to explore with ii., one governed by beauty and chaos. I give my highest recommendation.
Get ii. from Bandcamp here.
Album Review: TerraTerra – TerraTerra
TerraTerra, an instrumental post/progressive metal one-man band from Russia comprised of multi-instrumentalist going by the name Ayli K., has quite a challenge as with any new band playing this stylistically demanding music. TerraTerra either needs to add something exciting and original to the genre, or be so bloody good at delivering captivating instrumental rock (that visits quite a few genres) in its conventional form that it stands head and shoulders above the oceans of ordinariness that surround the project. While TerraTerra will not win any awards for innovation, the self-titled debut release does in fact rise most convincingly from the latter category, and has enough variation in its eight tracks to keep interest levels high.
Beginning with “Just Once,” TerraTerra expertly marry the sludgy histrionics of “Panopticon” era Isis to the noise rock sensibilities of Melvins. Ayli K. doesn’t joke with long intros, and likes to get on with the business at hand, with only three tracks passing the 6-minute mark. This makes for a more urgent and also provides a much more organic feel to the musician’s playing and performance.
In addition to Isis and Melvins you can undoubtedly hear the massive influence of Cult of Luna, Mono, Mastodon, all the major names, but TerraTerra somehow manages to put a unique stamp on this rather derivative framework.
TerraTerra has risen far above the sum of its influences, and delivered a very fine instrumental rock album. Check it out!
soundstreamsunday #97: “Mistral Wind” by Heart
As a commercially successful American hard rock band fronted by two women in the 1970s, Heart was unique, and while it’s Patti Smith and the Runaways that have turned legendary (with merit, no doubt) for their stories, Heart’s impact on women in rock is, must be, outsized, and deserving of the same attention. While their 80s albums were marred by a soft rock sheen (but still, wildly successful), the early catalog resonates strongly: “Barracuda” with its gallop and biting reaction to a record company and music press that wanted, badly, to portray the Wilson sisters as objects of sexual intrigue; “Crazy on You”; “Magic Man”; “Straight On”; “Heartless”; “Dog and Butterfly”; “Dreamboat Annie.” For what they did and when they did it, Heart’s story is that of women in rock and roll itself, playing off and pushing against an industrial complex bent on making them something they weren’t.
What Heart was in the 70s was a band with a heavy jones for Led Zeppelin, a singer with unearthly vocal breadth and firepower, and a band with the chops to back it up. They could bring it live and in the studio, and even if their records had the typical filler allowed for groups tasked with putting out an album or two a year, Ann Wilson’s vocal flights had every bit of Plant-ish Zep swagger with room to spare. Nancy Wilson’s light acoustic touch was given heft by Roger Fisher’s advanced, melodic shredding, and was propelled by a cracking rhythm section. They could lay waste.
“Mistral Wind” is straight out of the school of Houses of the Holy, with, in its no-nonsense thundering second section, a darker lean towards Sabbath. Written with friend and co-writer Sue Ennis for Dog and Butterfly (1978), the song never received radio play but maybe describes Heart — both the music and the relationships and tensions in the band –as well or better than any of their other work. Along with the studio version here are two live versions, one from the year of its release and the other from the 2007 Dreamboat Annie anniversary show. All are worthwhile in their way, but the 1978 Largo version, even with all its bad lighting and video dropouts, is most compelling, the song still fresh, growing as a performance piece. Get out your lighter….
soundstreamsunday presents one song or live set by an artist each week, and in theory wants to be an infinite linear mix tape where the songs relate and progress as a whole. For the complete playlist, go here: soundstreamsunday archive and playlist, or check related articles by clicking on”soundstreamsunday” in the tags section.
Galahad – an epic for our changing times
Based in the same county in southern England as Big Big Train, the backstory of Galahad could be a prog prototype for Spinal Tap. In the 30 plus years the band has been together, there has been more than a fair share of drama – multiple personnel changes, mayhem on the road and alas, tragedy.
But this is a band which lives up to its name by being bold and courageous, not afraid to take a few risks and break taboos along the way.
Central to all the band activities is Stu Nicholson, the band’s vocalist, lyric writer and spokesperson, who is the only original member and who once auditioned for the vacant singer’s berth in Genesis.
Stu has seen it all and, despite the band going through so many changes, he has kept his focus throughout – and his sense of humour. He is also a very shrewd observer of life as his lyrics and many personal conversations I have had with him have revealed.
Southern Storm
Couple of seconds of blast beats and we can discern Southern Storm is no misnomer. From the land of Sepultura emerged another force named Krisiun. But their extraordinary precision and extremity can be a tad overwhelming. These compositions, quite like a complex death metal alloy, elevates that already intricate electric blues to over-the-top intensity. The steady hammer of drums, constantly daunting, and recedes only when getting carved up by piercing guitars. Rooted in Terrorizer, Grave, Immolation and Nile school of death – Krisiun’s craft is flawless. In other words, they reflect all the essential deathly qualities — constant and subtle shifts in flow, melodic leads and demanding riff/drum patterns. Quite like Sepultura, this band of brothers consistently push musicianship to disturbing levels of fury. With songs titles like “Slaying Steel”, “Minotaur” and “Massacre Under the Sun” – lyrics become that last cowing piece of this technical death storm.
By S. Bollmann (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Tillison/Tangent/Kalman Filter News
This arrived, happily, this evening from Sally Collyer. Great update about all things Tillison.
Happy New Year to everyone and first and foremost a huge thank you to all who supported Andy and the band last year, bought “The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery”, attended the live shows in Europe and the USA and voted for the album and band members in the PROG Magazine readers poll, huge congratulations to Andy for being voted number one in the Keyboard players category and to Jonas and Luke for gaining 5th place in the Bass Player and Guitarist categories respectively, the album “The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery” also achieved 5th in the best album category, all in all incredible achievements considering the wealth of talented output in the progressive music genre over the last 12 months, in addition to the fact that we have a policy of never asking fans to vote in polls, it was wonderful to get this news in the knowledge that people had chosen to give support without any outside influence, the music really did speak for itself!
Lots going on here at Tangent HQ right now:
Steve Hackett’s Latest Single: When the Heart Rules the Mind
Guitar Mastermind Steve Hackett has re-recorded the GTR classic, “When the Heart Rules the Mind,” with Marillion’s Steve Rothery. The new version will be available tomorrow for purchase.
[With thanks to Prog Magazine for posting this first]
More Tears Than Fears: News
Ugh. I was just looking up Tears for Fears news to find out if the release date of the new album had been announced. I had thought it would have come out last year, and, admittedly, I was a bit frustrated and surprised when it didn’t. To this day, Tears for Fears remains not just a favorite band, but certainly my favorite proggy pop or poppy prog band.
Here’s the “ugh.”
I had no idea that Roland Orzabal’s wife, Caroline, passed away last year.
Roland, you don’t know me in the least, but I am so, so sorry for your loss. I knew that something had happened when the tour got cancelled, but I’d assumed nothing as drastic and horrible as losing a family member.
Caroline had been a major part of Roland’s life and his music as his wife and best friend since the early 1980s. They married in 1982.
The Express and Star (Andy Richardson, January 13, 2018) writes:
Roland is finding his way into the day. He’s tired. Yesterday was a big day, a tough day. Though he’s still grieving Caroline – and how could he not, they were happily entwined for all of their adult lives, she was his rock – he’s trying to stay in the moment, rather than slip into the past.
Now, of course, my worries about no new TFF album in 2017 seem nothing short of absurd. Our condolences, Roland. May Caroline rest safely and happily in the embrace of eternity.
Progarchy 
