The Apparatus

 Thursday, 24 July 2008 A lot bands make up genres to try and distance themselves from their peers and sound more original than they really are, while others try to be vague as possible "we just play rock and roll, we just play what we like, we just play metal, etc." Though Protest the Hero share some techniques and styles with their peers (I.e. Between the Buried and Me, Sikth, Human Abstract, Fall of Troy, etc) The hype is true, Protest the Hero truly defies all classification. You need mention of at least 3 genres for an accurate description.

I've tried to bring up a Power Metal influence when discussing this band but I can't seem to find someone that agrees with me. They sing the words blood, throne, king, and swords so many times how can people not hear it? I know Dragonforce has been influencing a lot of Alternative/ Post-Hardcore bands, if not directly, opening a standard that its cheerful and fun to go over the top. Protest the Hero has more of a Symphony X vibe if anything, despite the guest appearance of Dragonforce keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov on 'Limb From Limb'. Fortress in particular has a ton of sound effects, samples, and nuances that might as well come right out of "the Odyssey". Listen to this audio sample of Bone Marrow and note the use of grandiose horns, strings and choir.

{mp3remote}http://www.grindingtheapparatus.net/mp3/BoneMarrowClassical.mp3{/mp3remote}

The song then goes into this:

{mp3remote}http://www.grindingtheapparatus.net/mp3/BoneMarrowDub.mp3{/mp3remote}

Wait a minute!? Did they just bust into Dub Reggae? I think they did! Dub? Are you kidding me? This band sells me on these 30 seconds alone. I'm not saying only marijuana users* like Reggae but I think it's guitarist Luke Hoskin that knows what's up. I hope Scientist and King Tubby (Dub legends) are proud!

One thing that really divides the lovers and haters of this band is their stick-twirling groove reminiscent of that 80s hair metal fun factor. Even Skidrow had their sass and gang vocals. Rody's angelic powerhouse vocals accompanied by his (recorded) layered, harmonizing vocals come across so clean and positive at times one might mistake this band as sort of a gospel or Christian band. The irony is that their lyrical themes are in complete contradiction to that sort of thing. Lyric examples such as "Take everything your parents/school has taught you, throw it to the dogs," "My Goddess gives birth to your God," "Hell-bent on heaven while our righteous men are stuffing corpses full of shit and faith," and "We will never answer where we came from only how we got here" are only a few of the insightful, atheist innuendos that I picked up from this album.

Fortress brings together the band as a whole compositionally as well as individually. Drummer Moe Carlson has made a great improvement, expanding and changes on what seems like an average of every 4 seconds. They still kept their up tempo punk beat but held it back to a minimum. Singer Rody Walker has a broader vocal range than ever. Despite the rare whaling that turn some fans off, he expanded on his singing, screaming, growling and everything in between. He keeps up with the rest of the bands quick changes. The bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi is well audible and deliciously added a 5th string to his bass. You can hear several mini bass solos throughout the album. Similar to Kezia, Fortress also has an array of 'guest' instruments featured on the album such as acoustic guitar, piano and percussion.

This is one of the biggest and most improved follow up albums I have ever heard. Fortress out shines Kezia in less than 12 parsecs. In comparison to their EP 'Calculated Use of Sound' HA! This band drastically improves album by album. They've evolved their pop punk
roots into something miraculous. With progression like this I can patiently wait another 3 years for a third album. As much as I can't STAND almost all the bands Protest the Hero tours with, I hope the crowds they are playing to start opening their ears, eyes and soul because I'm sure Silverstein and Chiodos fans are taking Fortress for granted.

*In September 2006, guitarist Luke Hoskin was detained at the Vancouver /US border for possessing a bag with less than 0.2 grams of
marijuana, preventing him from continuing on their tour with Trivium and The Sword.

 Friday, 16 May 2008 Death metal has had some pretty big moments, but out of the 20,000 death metal bands both past and present, there hasn't been enough. In fact, it's kind of sad; if you evolve or push the death metal elements that make it extreme, people force it into new genres. As if the Brutal Death metal or Technical Death metal tag is really needed. Technicality and Brutality should be mandatory and not segregated. Without those elements, you have some really poor death metal. That's just one example of how Death metal guidelines can be so immaturely conformist. "This isn't Crypstopsy" or "This isn't the Cryptopsy I've been sucking off for years" aren't tangible excuses for me to hate on this album. A release like "The Unspoken King" should have no weight when compared to the cult-like following Cryptopsy's discography has. I hear it for what it is.

In terms of pioneering metal bands with a technical flare, this album is far less disappointing than albums like Miss Machine or Elementary. The Unspoken King hasn't lost any of that signature Cryptopsy speed or intensity. In fact they've improved in those areas even if their progressive moments are amateur. This album is very focused and fresh.

Matt McGachy is a really good grindcore vocalist. His fast and angry screaming compliments Flo's relentless speed. His singing, however, will make any die hard Cryptopsy fan cringe at times. Not that it's bad, but sometimes Matt sings and the music slows to a mid tempo rock. It reminds of The End's "Elementary" but not letting it consume the entire album. Perhaps a better mix of fast-paced parts with clean singing and slower-paced parts with screaming could make for a better execution. I think the clean singing would have been a lot more unique and "forgiven" if it was sang in French. What better way to let your culture shine through your music than to sing in your native language?

Cryptopsy's choice of guest vocalist Gab".357" McCaughry couldn't be a better one. One could dispute Gab's vocal wear and loss of intensity- especially toward the end of his Ion Dissonance touring. That still could be the case, but he pulls it off on the song "Anoint the Dead" and gives it that frantic edge he's known for.

Matt McGachy isn't the only new member in the band. New keyboardist Maggie Durand is minimally noticed throughout the entire album. A keyboard element is what I was looking forward to most on this album. "Contemplate Regicide" has her keyboards predominately featured, but by the end of "The Unspoken King," I'm still left with no conclusion of what her capabilities really are. Keyboards really have the ability to add a lot. I just hope she'll be pushed into the foreground in the future.

Flo Mounier couldn't be more on top of his game. He obviously is the best feature and leader of "The Unspoken King." The production of his drums is beyond crystal clear. It's going to be extremely hard for anyone to top this as the best drumming album of the year. As clean as the new guitars sound, you can't overlook the importance of the new tone. I find a lot of death metal and grindcore bands use their distortion to do a lot of the work for them. This may have been the case with Cryptopsy in the past, but on this album, we really see the band perform with a limited amount of smoke and mirrors. Cryptopsy is a technical band first and foremost. That's why I enjoy their cleaner approach. You can hear the detail and the intricacies.

Cryptopsy has always been a death metal/grindcore hybrid. It's no surprise to me that they are leaning more towards grindcore, given the new singer's capabilities. This is Cryptopsy's first attempt at experimenting to this caliber though. It's a strong attempt, but it still needs work. It's as if their new members and direction were tossed in a blender and pulsed once or twice. Next time, it needs to be left on chop for a few minutes.

 Sunday, 06 January 2008 You have to give Andreas Hedlund, better known as Vintersorg, credit for his uber complex, grandiose vision and one-of-a-kind vocal range. The guy is a madman. I loved the previous album called 'Visions from the Spiral Generator' on account of the beautiful compositions and spacey nature. However, it's on 'The Focusing Blur,' my favorite album so far, that the experimentations get downright bizarre. To me, it's a perfect ice breaker to Vintersorg's material and has reminders to have fun while listening to the album.

It's as if this is on the brink of being too serious. The closer it becomes, though, there's some odd vocal appearance - reminiscent of the Thundercats' Snarf or He-Man's Cringer - with either some cheesy narration or drunken high note by Vintersorg (mostly noted in the first half of the album). I can't help but forgive the guy. His choice of session members will make any tech or prog fan wet their pants. Spiral Architect drummer Asgeir Mickelson once again makes this album worthy of a listen by itself. His ability to play multiple styles of folk, prog, metal, jazz and Vintersorg's 'everything outbetween' is flawless... it's fucking Asgeir Mickelson! Steve DiGiorgio speaks for himself. Plain and simple, he's a far more diverse Chuck Schuldiner of the bass. I think Mattias Marklund's most unprog/untech musical resume out of the bunch is what is keeping this Vintersorg project from imploding into inaudible comprehension.

There is a constant recurrence of acoustic guitar and folk melodies behind the behemoth amount of layers. I miss the Svenska lyrics, but pseudo-ballads like "A Microscopical Macrocosm" gives off the very warm feelings and harmonies of the Swedish folk that Vintersorg excels at. There are a ton of subtle choral vocal layers, in songs such as "Dark Matter Mystery," that propels the music into a very ambient and angelic realm only to slam down into a blast beat; its goes back out to tech while effortlessly hybridizing the two.

Vintersorg continues to dabble in the avant-garde with everything from 20s Old-time numbers to twinkling sci-fi keyboard effects to militant drum snare rolls. There is also a huge orchestral backdrop to the album, as well as a lyrical narrative of astrological/quantum physics themes. The compositional ideas are definitely jazz, the techniques are definitely neo-classical and the presentation is definitely progressive. There are SO MANY dynamics to this album that it's hard to digest, and each musician is a legend of the genre. There is so much talent playing all at once that you don't know who to listen to.

Symbolically, 'The Focusing Blur' feels like a snow ball effect, or the old standby of a roller coaster ride, if you will. It's all ups and downs, left and rights, and in and outs all on a seamless track. It's thrilling and fun to some while making others puke at the same time. This is purely a result of guided and focused (pun) musical madmen. How these men could be in the same room, yet alone play and record music that is this astonishing, is about as improbable as successfully connecting the same polar ends of two magnets. Sorry, but after reading an album's worth of Vintersorg's profound oxymorons and every archaic astrological phrase in the English language, I'm a little dried up.

 Thursday, 06 December 2007 What's bad about this album: it sounds like rubbish. There's supposed to be 10 songs but it just sounds like one long song. The singer is monotonous and all he does is scream the whole time. The drummer is fast but sounds extremely sloppy. You can't tell what the hell the guitar is playing. It's super distorted and noisy. Nothing on the CD is anywhere near coherent. It never fucking slows down. Except the last song, song named "10". It's so completely slow (unlike the rest of the album). So slow it feels like it will never end. But it does. Clocked in at 20 minutes and 10 songs. It fells like its over before it began. It goes by so fast; it's over before you can really get "into" it. Robinson cannot write songs. They are pushing the boundaries in what's tolerable to listen to. What exactly is their purpose? Is this really "music" in its purest definition?

What's good about this album: it sounds like rubbish. There's supposed to be 10 songs but it just sounds like one long song. The singer is monotonous and all he does is scream the whole time. The drummer is fast but sounds extremely sloppy. You can't tell what the hell the guitar is playing. It's super distorted and noisy. Nothing on the CD is anywhere near coherent. It never fucking slows down. Except the last song, song named "10". It's so completely slow (unlike the rest of the album). So slow it feels like it will never end. But it does. Clocked in at 20 minutes and 10 songs. It fells like its over before it began. It goes by so fast; it's over before you can really get "into" it. Robinson cannot write songs. They are pushing the boundaries in what's tolerable to listen to. What exactly is their purpose? Is this really "music" in its purest definition?

 Thursday, 06 December 2007 This album is too unconventional for metal listeners, too aggressive for Alternative listeners, and too 'artsy fartsy' for traditional Grindcore listeners. Fanatics of Daughters or Orthrelm might enjoy this but unlike Daughters and Orthrelm, The Abodox purpose isn't to annoy you. They do fuck with you though, don't get me wrong. They constantly catch you off guard. At times I have a hard time telling if this band is taking themselves seriously or not but to me that's part of the fun of listening to them. Perhaps the attitude of the band is to take fun music seriously and the result is both coming across. I would more or less share this album with a Naked City, Patton, even a Khann fan over a Daughters or Orthrelm fan.

One thing I really like is that they only use technical accents when needed. This isn't a technical band by any means but they make up for it by flourishing in genre mixing. This band is all mixed up. A few of the genres they incorporate include Power Violence/Grindcore, Sludge, Alternative, and Experimental. This band can play almost any genre as long as it's dirty and has a ton of power and enthusiasm behind it.

The most epic and heaviest track on the album is Jones of the Bridge. Just when you thought you've figured the band out they throw in Saxophone at the end. I honestly didn't see it coming... Fucking brilliant on their part.

A New Knife of the Bezerker is overly heavy and is almost too good for their own recording. The shit production brings down the album but in away gives it its own characteristics. Judging from The Abodox take on music, I guarantee any new recording they do will sound nothing like this. Yet, I guarantee I'll love it. This band covers so much in such a short release it can only expand and grow from here. Look out for The Abodox!