FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 23/03/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Desolate Horizons - We'll Never Fade Away

I feel it’s vaguely lazy to compare the work of Russian Shoegaze/Ambient musician known only as “C. Horizon” to the work of Andrei Tarkovsky. I could easily be blamed for likening to two simply because they’re both from the same part of the world, but I’m going to do it anyway, but for good reason.

Listening to this latest album from Desolate Horizons, my first thought was of Tarkovsky’s Soviet era film STALKER (yes the one the game was based off of.) STALKER is a snapshot of an empty, pointless world that yields not but fear and uncertainty to those foolish enough to probe into its barren corners in search of an ill-defined “more”. We’ll Never Fade Away has that same feeling. It is an album brimming with both hope and emptiness, light and airy float through grandiose melodies that are brimming with sadness. It is the sun rising gloriously over a dead world. The song titles don’t help the sad mood, with tracks such as we loved each other long before we met... when we were just a lonely dreamers and as long as there's a light in the sky, i'll be waiting for you; it is an album packed to the brim with as much quality as feels.

I can imagine this acting as a perfect score to Tarkovsky’s STALKER possible an even better one than the unofficial soundtrack written by Lustmord and Robert Rich. If beautiful melodramatic depression in the form of ambient music sounds like your thing, then you’ll feel right at home here, for what it’s worth.

Lights & Motion - Chronicle

Bleak Russian Dark Ambient isn’t the only highly atmospheric free release we’ve come across this week. Chronical is a Cinematic Post-Rock release from Swedish One Man Project Lights and Motion. If We’ll Never Fade Away is the soundtrack to a movie released decades too late, Chronical is the optimistic soundtrack to what you hope your future will be and the sepia-toned score to the life you’ve already lived simultaneously.

Chronical is an organic merger of crescendo driven Post-Rock ala Explosions In The Sky and ethereal dream pop worshipping at the churches of M83 and Coldplay; even at times seeming to channel Neo-Classical composers such as Craig Armstrong. While you’re not going to find the complexities found in Post-Rock’s best works (such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor) you do find an immensely beautiful album that gives you as much as you give it. This is an album to sit in the dark drinking a glass of scotch with whilst reminiscing over the good ole’ days. The emotion and drama found in Lights and Motion’s output proved tenfold by the Swedish Solo artists recent breakthrough into film scores, with works gracing trailers for Homefront, Transcendence, Lone Survivor and even being used by Google for a commercial.

Guitars shimmer darkly, a Violin murmurs distantly and a Piano twinkles beneath a sky lit only by stars. Tomorrow is another day and you wish you could take everything you have forward with you. 

But you can't. 

Revel in it. 

treestepstotheocean - Migration Light

Why stop at two? Why not make this article a trifecta of mildly pretentious instrumental music? Migration Lights is the 2015 release from the Italian Post-Metal outfit threestepstotheocean (one word, lower case; that’s probably important.)

Migration Lights is a brash yet introspective affair channelling Post-Metal releases from bands like Isis and Neurosis and mixing it with the sludgy dragging qualities of Metallic Hardcore and the more ethereal qualities of Post-Rock. Sneeringly introspective Migration Lights isn’t trying to relax you, but that doesn’t prevent it from reaching for echoy guitars and breathy synths and drones to couple with the crushing distorted guitar tones. Instead threestepstotheocean focus on the negative aspects on life, hate, loss, aggression, depression, all conveyed without a word.

As with the other two albums featured here, Migration Lights is an incredibly powerful experience. Where as We’ll Never Fade Away is existential thought on the futility of being and Chronical is an emotional scrapbook, Migration Light is a punch to the gut and a swift knee to the face, coupled with the realisation that this is real life and that it’s a difficult place to be. As the album art implies, it’s an exploration of a world turned on its head. A grit filled, aggressive rollercoaster of brutality and contrasting fragility. If the artsy-ness of the previous two albums turned you away, you can get all your emotional pretence with your brutal credibility intact with threestepstotheocean and Migration Lights.  

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 09/02/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Cloudkicker – Little Histories

I’m not really sure why the latest release from one man progressive mastermind, Ben Sharp, hasn’t been mentioned before now. Perhaps I just assumed that everyone in their right mind would have heard it already. Assumptions are dangerous things. This is an album that deserved to be talked about. 

This is Pennsylvanian’s first release since his sting of live dates with the one and only Intronaut as his backing band, but such a huge release has not seemed to diminish the quality of his core output. A first listen puts Little Histories down as a heavier version of a previous Cloudkicker release; Let Yourself Be Huge. Perhaps mixed in with the Subsume release. I say this for two reasons. The first is that while Little Histories is a heavier release, though not incredibly so, it is warm. It is chunky but not angular. You feel at home listening to this release, which is where Let Yourself Be Huge enters the mix. The album reveals in the same Post-Rock world as the earlier album. Focusing on an incredible atmosphere that is completely entrancing and hypnotic. 

This isn’t an urgent release, it is a Post-Rock album that throws a little more heaviness in your direction. It’s a spectacular mix between relaxation and metal, something which sounds like a total paradox until experienced first-hand. Little Histories brings the trademark Cloudkicker atmosphere to some kind of strange mid-point, taking elements of the two distinct styles they Sharp has developed over the course of his career. It is atmospheric and hypnotic without letting go of any heaviness. Yet at the same time it is heavy without letting go of any of the welcoming aura found on Cloudkicker’s softer releases.

This is an album not to be missed by fans of progressive rock and metal. This is a one man project that goes beyond Axe-FX and EzDrummer. This is the real deal and it deserves your attention… And even if this one album doesn’t spark your interest, every core release from Cloudkicker is completely free anyway. You’ve got nothing to lose. 

VOLA – Inmazes

Eclectic Swedish Progressive ensemble, VOLA are a strange beast. Initial seconds of Inmazes make it all too easy to write it off as “just another Djent album” but that’s not really want Inmazes is about at all, or at least not completely. There is some definite Meshuggah worship to be found in the more groove focused parts of this album. Though this heavy down-tuned riffage is couple with a myriad of other influences to create something rather unique. 

Clean, melodious vocals on top of chunky djentisms feels a little wrong to begin with, but it doesn’t take long for your brain to stop caring that it’s “wrong” on focus on what a bang on job VOLA do with it. Riffs made of the heaviest alien concrete meld into psychedelic, chilled and hook laden vocals and synthcapes with keyboard solos. It’s like going from Meshuggah to Mastodon to King Crimson without really noticing any disparity between them. Even the heavy riffs manage to have a unique melodic and atmospheric quality you’d struggle to find in other bands. Merely being able to include that word, “unique,” in a style of music that could be linked closely to the echo chamber that is Djent, is high praise indeed.

It’s strange really. There is a lot on Inmazes that you could point at individually and say “this is derivative of its genre” but when it all comes together Inmazes is a 51 minute progressive journey that you have not seen the likes of before. It is equal parts Modern and Old School, taking influences from the best aspects of the entire Progressive World. This is a debut album that shows a band ready to do almost anything. They’ve already proved themselves capable prog alchemists with their ability to meld the incessantly angular and the impeccably smooth and this is only their first full length! I doubt this will be the last time you hear about VOLA from Pyramid Noise. 

Steve Lawson – Believe In Peace

This live recording of Solo Bassist Steve Lawson is beautiful. It is not, as you might expect from a solo Bass musician, an exercise is slapping techniques or trying really hard to get you to take Bass as a “real” instrument. Instead Believe In Peace is an in-situ recording of a performance at an art exhibit focused around the Chinese I Ching texts on Wisdom. As part of this multi-media event Lawson decided to do something more than his standard set and Believe In Peace was this result. This is a 4 track release, clocking in at about 48 minutes of fantastic ambience all created on a Bass Guitar. Percussion, backing drones, melodies and more are all created on this single instrument with a copious amount of pedals. 

This isn’t just one note ambience though, Laweson doesn’t rest on his laurels and allow the art present to make up for any inadequacies in his own performance, I admit however, that the art combined with this music must have been something rather special. Believe In Peace sees drone, darker ambient tones, melodious highly textured pieces, minimalistic soundscapes and other facets of ambient than I am unable to name, brought together to create an incredibly meditative release, as suits the subject of the album. Sometimes it even bursts out into a blissed out distorted lead solo, but that does little to break from the chilled out, psychedelic jam-band quality of this release. 

The fact that this album was played live adds something to it. In an age where it is more common to make ambient in a cold digital space, the incredibly human and warm feeling that Steve Lawson offers here is a great departure from contemporary ambient artists. While the bass guitar is run through a mass of different pedals, it never loses itself and you’re constantly aware that this is human music, based in spirutality and care over craft. It is safe to say, prior to veering off into a spiritualist ramble, that Believe In Peace is an album best experienced with eyes closed and mind open. 

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY:19/01/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Cowards - Rise To Infamy

There are some albums that are difficult to write about intelligently. Though I don’t mean that in a bad way. It is difficult to write intelligently about an album like Rise to Infamy, for example, because it has no interest in being intelligent itself. That is not Cowards’ intention.  What these Parisians would rather do is tear out your throat and stare into your eyes while you die.

Have I made it clear that this is one violent album yet?

Cold and heartless Cowards have built this album on a simple Philosophy of aural terrorism. From the off it’s clear that the Parisians are here to revel in Sludgy Blackened Hardcore, the slow stomping rhythms of Shame Along Shame acting as the introductory punch to a 10 track beating. The discordant riffing of Never To Shine shows of the more unhinged side of Cowards. No less aggressive, but infinitely more insane. The Black Metal influence perhaps comes through best on Bend The Knee with the huge slab of bleak atmosphere it forces down the listeners through in the last two minutes.  Ultimately it returns to my original point. Rise to Infamy is a heavy, brutally angry album. It feeds back as much as it riffs and doesn’t really give a damn about what you think.

This album could have easily been released on Deathwish Inc. For a band you may never have heard of Cowards are every bit as talented and bloodthirsty as Trap Them, Rise and Fall, The Secret and any other band you may care to mention that merges Black Metal evil with Hardcore Sludge groove. Perhaps even more so.

Entropia - Vesper

I feel I should make something clear to all those who believe Deafheaven were the first band to mix Shoegaze and Post-Rock with Black Metal.

They weren’t. Not even almost.

I could honestly write an entire article about how much about that album digs at many Post-Black Metal fans in small, niggling ways. Though, until I throw away regards for semi-decent journalism and do that, listening to an album with the quality of Vesper from Polish then-quartet Entropia is a good start.

Just in case the small rant relating to Sunbather wasn’t a giveaway, this Post-Black Metal release draws heavily from Shoegaze, mixing it with Black Metal to make something that is depressive and bleak, as Black Metal should be, but without sacrificing the ambience and atmosphere of Shoegaze and Post-Rock. With any Post-prefix style of Metal, or even Rock, there is a tendency to lose some core of what the style original was. Few bands manage to keep the intensity and darkness of their original genre, Alcest, for example, as great of a band as they are, would not fit the descriptor “intense.” Entropia manage to cling on to these aspects of Metal, making an album that is both aggressive, heavy, dark and beautiful all at the same time.

Perhaps the most impressive thing however, is the band’s ability to mix in Shoegaze and Post-Rock elements without feeling repetitive. Repetition is core to the Shoegaze sound, as Kerry McCoy, guitarist of that band I’ve mentioned so much that it’s even starting to annoy me, told d'Addario, it kind of works on a Kraut Rock principle. That repetition forces the listener to go through something akin to the 5 stages of grief, but for guitar riffs. Vesper certainly includes repetitive sections, without them there would be no Shoegaze influence, but somehow, it never feels repetitive. Call that a wishy-washy bit of analysis if you will, because it kind of is, but what I’m trying to get at is that this is a great album. Entropia, with Vesper, masterfully bring together separate elements to a coherent, wonderfully satisfying whole.

Snowmine - Laminate Pet Animal

Laminate Pet Animal is the best Psychedelic Indie Pop album I’ve ever heard. Well, to be fair it’s the ONLY Psychedelic Indie Pop album I’ve ever heard, but Snowmine have written an album that makes me wonder if I really have to check out any other bands in the genre; I get the feeling most other efforts would pale in comparison.

With all members having backgrounds is Classical and Jazz, it is no surprise that the Brooklyn quintet have the ability to write incredibly tight songs, nothing is superfluous and nothing seems over the top. While my focus on the band’s measured approach may put some in mind of a stilted or endlessly theoretical album with no enjoyment to be found beyond dusty analysis, this is not the case. While Snowmine know how to give you exactly enough and no more or less, the sonic pallet of the band is ever shifting and experimenting. All songs are related, but no songs sound the same. Songs are exciting and varied and wonderfully detailed without becoming over-complex; this is certainly a pop album, but a pop album written by people who have incredible song writing ability.

The one weak spot on Laminate Pet Animal are the vocals. Thematically the album deals with some interesting themes, according to an interview with NYC’s The Deli, the album is centred on the concepts of direction and preservation of comfort. It’s all very Camus and philosophical, but in practise, on a pop album, the vocals fall a little flat. They are pleasant enough and the music would be slightly worse off without them but they just can’t hold a candle to the wonderfully written instrumentations behind them.

If the other albums on this list are too heavy for you, or even if they aren’t, Laminate Pet Animal by Snowmine is a stand out Indie Pop record that is really worth your time. 

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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FREE MUSIC ... THURSDAY?: 15/01/2015

Yes, Free Music Monday was delayed this week. So instead we have the far less catchy Free Music Thursday to take its place. The outcome however, remains the same. 

Free Music from Bandcamp.

Sometimes not on Mondays!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Pile - magic isn't real

Pile are a hard band to pigeon hole. Part Screamo, part Hardcore, part Grunge, part Old School Blues Rock and part Daisy era Brand New, the Boston trio manage to scratch many an itch over the course of magic isn’t real. The band take a mature approach to their demons realising that there is as much dark expression in well-crafted melodies and catchy riffs as there is in screaming and aggression; Pile excel at both.

There isn’t exactly a stand out song on magic isn’t real. That doesn’t means it’s a bad album however, (if it was do you really think I’d feature it here?) it is rather an album whose quality is rock solid from beginning to end. Songs are wonderfully crafted whilst remaining simple and easy to listen to, despite the complex mixture Pile’s sound its self represents. The song writing remains captivating and focused rather than the cultured mess such an experiment in blending could become. The band know how to work their sound to the fullest extent moving from heavy screams, to grungy dirges to straight up Hard Rock swagger exactly when the songs require.

Raw and dirty magic isn’t real manages to be unique through its strange mixture of influences. It’s hard to put your finger on but there is something ephemeral about the quality of this album. While listening to it you can pin point influences and genre shifts left right and centre, but none of that matters. You can analyse this album all day and never quite grasp hold of what makes this album so enjoyable. If nothing else it’s incredibly rare to find a band that would be just as at home opening for Foo Fighters as they would be headlining your local punk show. 

Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Self-Proclaimed Piano Slayer and The Dresden Dolls member Amanda Palmer shows the dark side of levity and the shimmering gleam of bleakness in this 2008 release. A Piano focused, Baroque Pop, affair, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, was Palmer’s first solo release, and on a first listen it’s hard to see why these songs weren’t simply used for a The Dresden Dolls album, rumour has it that these tracks were deemed too balladic for the Gothic duo. Enter American Piano Pop figure Ben Folds. Folds’ Pop influence permeates this album, and while that may sound like a criticism, it is far from it. What was once intended to be a Piano bedroom project became a lush and layered album of dark bombast through Fold’s production work.

Who Killed Amada Palmer strikes the contrast between instrumentation and dark thematics to a degree that perhaps even outstrips The Dresden Dolls in same cases. While some tracks synchronise dark instrumentation with even darker lyrics, tracks like Runs in the Family would be a completely different song if the lyrics were written by anyone else.  The upbeat driving piano and grandiose strings do not instantly scream “investigation of depression and family illness” but that is indeed what we find.

Nowhere is this more obvious than on the highly controversial track Oasis, a track accused of making light of rape, religion, and abortion. An accusation possibly based entirely on the contrast the majority of this album consist of, as Palmer stated on her blog:

I suggested that I might be allowed to play it if I just slowed it way down and played it in a minor key. Think about it. If they heard the same lyrics against the backdrop of a very sad and liliting [sic] piano, maybe with some tear-jerking strings thrown in for good measure, would they take issue?

Who Killed Amanda Palmer takes the formula that makes The Dresden Dolls so appealing and filters it through lush pop production of Ben Folds. Songs are hook laden, upbeat, tortured, sonically unique; wryly humorous and incredibly bleak all at the same time.

Sabertooth - Sheol

Following in the mammoth marching footsteps of Trap Them, Nails, Gaza, This Routine is Hell, Baptists and similar heavy as Hell bands, Oklahoma City’s Sabertooth have offered a focused and relentless slice of Metallic Hardcore brutality. Sheol comes in at just over 20 minutes, though about a third of that comes from final track Brother which runs a whopping 7 minutes and 48 seconds. Sabertooth pull no punches and this album is as much of a rollercoaster as the short track lengths imply. Favouring pure aggression over subtly Sheol is the sort of album you punch your friends in the teeth to.

This rock is my home, this rock is an empty grave.

Sabertooth have taken the chaotic barely controlled philosophy of the music through to the production. This album is rife with feedback and the guitar tones sound a little more than similar to the Boss HM2 Pedal tone. A kind of guitar tone used by old Swedeth bands like Dismember and Entombed and more recently by hardcore bands like Trap Them. Sludgy and violent it fits perfectly with the in your face, hatemosh song writing that takes up the majority of the album, that is until we reach Brother, of course.

This near 8 minute track is a huge departure from the rest of the album, it is spacey and experimental, but no less filthy. Whilst you may think “ambience” means peaceful or at least quiet, there is nothing relaxing about the low bubbling of hate made audible that builds on this track from the 3 minute mark. The same point at which any traditional semblance of a song breaks down. The agonised vocals are pushed back and joined my clean, innocent female vocals, it’s an eerie experience and is arguably more frightening and emotional raw than any other aspect of the album.

In short Sabertooth with Sheol have created an intense Hardcore album, which any fan of unstoppably heavy and hateful music is likely to enjoy.

We are all dead inside. Sheol, oh lonely Sheol. My only home.

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 05/01/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Sea Oleena - Sleeplessness

There are certain trends I notice when trawling BandCamp for free albums. The first is folk, a lot of people put out free folk albums. While I’m sure some of these are great I don’t listen to enough Folk to be able to tell if they’re worth listening to or not and so I tend to leave them be. The second is Post-Rock, a genre second only to Djent in the rock world's hierarchy of bedroom produced albums.

With such saturation of the market, it seems impossible to not include a Post-Rock or Folk album into these articles week-by-week. But what’s the point of posting something generic when you have Sea Oleena’s Sleeplessness? This Canadian release’s mixture of Folk elements and Post-Rock sprinkled over a stew of Ambient Lo-fi Shoegaze creates a rather appetising sonic signature. Unlike much Post-Rock and Shoegaze, the instrumental focal point is not on electric guitars, but the haunting and ethereal vocals of Charlotte Oleena. Indeed Electric Guitars are completely absent from this special brand of Shoegaze; Piano, Acoustic Guitar and big round Bass tones instead fill up this dreamscape (with a small hint of electronics for good measure,) I suppose that’s where the folk elements become apparent.

The song writing is gorgeous, and the production is lush and deep. This album, I believe, will bring up different metal images for everyone, but to me it is the backdrop to a rainy city street. Not because the album itself is sad and grey, but because it is the opposite. It’s soft and comforting, but in a way that makes you feel as if those Summer days are in the past; not the present. Sleeplessness manages to take stale genre tropes and make something fresh out of them; a release well worth your time. 

Vanishes - All Cities Flashing, Forever

I was initially drawn to this release by the album art. It is thoroughly bad-ass isn’t it? The suitably retro cover is the gate to an impressively detailed Chiptune release from Vanishes. While some of the synth sounds on All Cities Flashing, Always seem harsh and unpalatable on BandCamp’s over loud player (as their divine will seems happy to cover VAT calculations but not add a volume control) the production is actually rather impressive. Sounds that could easily become a loud mess are instead highly emotive, tracks like Beatrix Saves The Queen, for example, takes white noise and crafts it in to a surprisingly emotive melodic tool.

It is this use of emotion that I find most impressive on this release. Chiptune, which is basically electronica made with old video game sounds for those not in the know, is normally associate with a far happier, more melodious style. Vanishes however, seem to be going straight for a dark audio assault that is about as far from the genre stereotype as you can get. Yes the production is spot on; that doesn’t mean it is always pleasant, but it is always effective and enjoyable.

Even when melodies and synth sounds present themselves in a more upbeat fashion, the sampling philosophy found on this release has a habit of undermining it. The majority of the “vocals” on this album are samples from old 80s and 90s cassettes that the artist has. These tapes consist of children saying random kid stuff, presumably they’re old home movies or kids playing radio or something like that. Adding these recordings to the nostalgia fest that is Chiptune, the whole thing becomes an experiment in the halcyon days of the listener (assuming they’re in their 20s or early 30's.) Even when the kids aren’t saying sad things (which they do) the whole thing seems rather down, like someone realising that these are not the times they live in any more. All Cities Flashing, Forever is a soundtrack to lost youth presented in a wonderfully retro package.

Kowloon Walled City - Container Ships

I was honestly surprised to see that this album was free. I remember reading about it some time ago and it received pretty good reviews. Now that I have listened to Kowloon Walled City’s 2012 release, Container Ships, I can see why. Drinking heavily from the chalice of Unsane and Isis this is a dragging monolith of an album which is as light and it is expensive …which it is to say it’s damn heavy. San Franciscan Sludgy Noise Rockers' pulsating, bass heavy sound is that special kind of sinister that only Post-Metal and Sludge seem to be able to pull off. It doesn’t need speed to be aggressive. This album has all the aggression you could ever need, bubbling under the surface of the instrumentation and in the grim, desperate vocals.

Atmosphere is truly the focus of this release, it is minimalistic, spartan and absolutely oppressive; it is indeed much like the Container Ship of its name sake in its utilitarian bleakness. As far as album names Kowloon Walled City have really hit the nail on the head here. It is a cliché thing to say, but this is one of those albums where staring at the album cover while listening really does fit perfectly. The band care not for soloing, overly melodious leads, or anything that distracts from the percussive, groove based riffing. That is not to say there is no melody, tracks like Container Ships itself do have incredibly emotive (i.e. bleak) passages based on melodies created through the interactions between the low-end and guitar parts. Creating melody whilst remaining absolutely devastating. If you're looking for something as heavy and roughly hewn as a concrete wall, then look no further.

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page.

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 22/12/2014

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Anup Sastry – Titan

The world of one-man Djent projects tend to fall into certain patterns. In the minority you have the unfairly talented people who are able to play every instrument they need with more skill than most of us can dream to play one. Damn you Ben Sharp, Damn you. For mere mortals however, machine aid must be sought. Often you’ll find that an artist will track guitars and bass and shove Superior Drummer 2 in the mix for their percussive requirements. The drummer for Skyharbor, Intervals and Jeff Loomis, Anup Sastry, however, has done things in reverse. The only real instrument on this impressively meaty Djent album, are the drums, but it’s very hard to tell.

Call it a criticism of the oft over-produced nature of Djent if you will, but even without such loaded opinions to back it up, this is one hell of a release. Despite being a drummer at heart it seems that Anup has the art of melody writing pretty well covered. This album djents in all the right ways and in all the right places. In reality it is perhaps not that surprising that this album is as solid as it is. Good Djent, in my opinion, requires two things; a good sense of groove and rhythm and a strong ear for melody, both of which are present here. As the rhythmic power house behind many a progressive band as well as for two bands that both appeared on our best of 2014 list, I wouldn't be surprised if some of that Melody work has rubbed off on him. If nothing else, this is worth a listen just to see how that programmed guitars sound.

(Spoiler: Better than you’d expect.)

Nicholas Nicholas – Wrong

Brooklyn project Nicholas Nicholas’ brand of Shoegazey Dream Pop is somehow both nostalgic and comforting whilst still feeling new and interesting. Wrong feels like a distant memory, something from your childhood half forgotten. The production is unashamedly inspired by the 80’s. Old school synths, guitar and drum tones that wouldn’t feel out of place on a The Cure record and, perhaps unsurprisingly for a Shoegaze record, reverb and delay on basically everything. While it is influenced by this 30 year old sound however, it retains a sense of modernity that prevents Wrong from simply becoming another throw back release.

The ambience of this album may best be described by a faded photograph, perhaps a photo of yourself when you were very young. There’s nostalgia, sadness of things passed, but it’s warm; bittersweet perhaps being the best word to use, but the album, despite its title, refuses to become completely morose.

The guitars drone ethereally as you expect and the melodies both from the guitar and mouth are hauntingly delayed to the point of incomprehensibility. It is all very Shoegaze, very solid, but nothing unexpected. I don’t see the album causing any hardcore fan of Shoegaze proclaiming this to be the future of the genre and all that came before it are now irrelevant. But it certainly is a great example of the genre and well worth a listen.

Elizabeth Veldon – Music For The Solstice

As today marks celebrations for the Winter Solstice over on the Salisbury Plains, it seems apt to include an album released just for the occasion. Glaswegian Experimental Noise Aritst (as if there’s a non-Experimental Noise Artist) released Music For The Solstice on December 21^st, which the actual date of the Solstice according to Google.

Citing John Cage as a major influence, it is unsurprising that much of this album is quiet to the point of silence. This is not an album to have on in the background, as I made the mistake of doing on a first listen. This is an abstraction of ideas and is something that should be paid attention to. Music For The Solstice represents what the event means to Elizabeth Veldon, realised in processed sine waves. It may not make sense to anyone else, but that’s okay. Music is a very personal expression and that is what I believe this to be, pure personal expression. It is perhaps not something you would listen to over and over, but on this, the darkest night of the year, it might be worth sitting alone with your headphones for half an hour and reflecting.

this is music for the solstice, designed for headphones. 
listen in the dark, wrapped in sound.

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Metal Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page.

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 15/12/2014

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Birnam Wood – Birnam Wood

The hard and heavy Blues of Black Sabbath was incredibly dangerous to the first generation of metal fans and as traditional styles of metal become more and more popular (perhaps as Metal tries to hold on to its ever distancing roots) an increasing number of bands are attempting to recreate that danger. And in the case of Birnam Wood, this is no bad thing.

If you’re not nodding your head 30 seconds into this record, you might want to check that you’ve not died or suffered some serious injury to your groove gland (If this is the case I recommend 30cc of Earth, Wind and Fire.) This Boston outfit bridge the gap between Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard, expertly capturing the thiny veiled vibe of evil of the former and the far out psychedelia of the latter whilst submerging it in a vat of the heaviest grooves. They are not a one trick pony however, at times the band break from the traditional slow pace and speed it up and go straight for the throat; channelling bands such as Judas Priest into their miasmal mix of Trad and Stoner Doom. It’s extremely effective and Birnam Wood’s self-titled release is a great album to both mong out and headbang to.

Whilst it is fair to say that Birnham Wood is product of its influences, so are the majority of Trad Throwback bands. This group easily punches above its weight and gives some of the biggest bands in the genre a run for their money. 

Saintly Rows – In A Year, We Were Nothing

The O’ too close comparison between this New Mexico band’s name and a certain zany crime sandbox video game may put you off, however I urge you to take Saintly Rows very seriously indeed. The world of DIY Punk is somewhat of a mystery to those any less than those fully submerged in it. Much like the Underground Metal scene, thousands upon thousands of musicians are doing it for themselves and without the big label budget needed for intensive marketing. Saintly Rows are a gold vein in this deep, deep mine

The aptly melancholy title of this release, coupled with the faded creased photograph cover (DIY to the extent that it's cassette cover sized) which brilliantly imbues a sense of joys long past, is a perfect preview to what lies within. Melding evenly both Emo and Screamo music, Saintly Rows have crafted a stunningly emotional, yet incredibly honest record. At no point does it feels as if the band are being melodramatic or making a record to target the teen angst demographic; it is very easy to believe every single wavering word. This is no small part aided by the lyrical content, the band has not taken the easy root of simply listing bad things that have happened to them or using trite metaphors to explain their sadness. Instead they have opted for something far more poetic, reading the lyrics along to this album is a special kind of joy. The kind of joy that is really depressing. 


(Also yes I know this was posted at 1am on a Tuesday, shush you)

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