LP Review: "Óreida" by Juseph

Óreida

In times of crisis, it's worth retreating back into ourselves in order to calm and recoup our losses.

I cannot be the Lone Ranger when I say that it's easy to get my fill of extreme metal. Any reader can look at the passages and ebbs and flows on this very site to see that.

There was nearly a six month break where it was all doom, stoner, and sludge because a break was needed.

Lately, I've been retreating into Pink Floyd because of the outlandish soundscapes that build into otherworldly pictures.

What if, there was a metal band that could do something quite similar? Portugal's Juseph does just that.

Yes. Juseph was just compared to Pink Floyd. The former is nearly as progressive as the latter, but the latter isn't nearly as heavy as the former. Because I'm tired and my words are growing thin, the easiest path is the best...

Juseph is Pink Floyd if Waters and Gilmour:

1. Were Portuguese.
2. Decided that Black Metal was better than progressive synth rock.
3. Also figured neither of them should sing.

RELEASE 2/1/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

LP Review: "The Undivided Wholeness of All Things" by Annihilation

The Undivided Wholeness of All Things

It's not been that long since I told you that I had to start making some changes to what music is reviewed around here.

So, let's talk about the subgenre "Brutal Death Metal."

There was an epic twitter meltdown I caused a few months ago because I said that brutal death metal and technical death metal are basically the same thing.

By basically, I mean 88 to 93% the same and by epic meltdown I mean a polite disagreement between myself and one other gent.

So, if we're being completely honest and putting all of our card on the table, I don't really like Brutal Death Metal. To my ears, it typically sounds like down tuned grindcore with a whole lot less to say, because who knows what in the world they're saying anyway.

Album Review: "Rituais e Mantras do Medo" by Dead Procession

Rituais e Mantras do Medo

How many times have you found yourself locked into something?

In my life there have been countless instances of finding myself doing, following, or listening to something just because that's what I'd been doing.

It's easy for me to get stuck in a rut I suppose.

I'm working harder at not ordering the same meal all the time. It's easy, and normal for me to order only one dish at each restaurant that I frequent, but I'm slowly working on that.

Especially with my Chinese lunches. I do not order the same thing each time and that's a great amount of progress to me.

It's easy to fall into ruts in music as well, probably even easier than anything. It takes zero effort to look at a crazily named genre and think, there's no way I'd enjoy that. Then we scroll past this bands youtube video that our friend on Facebook was nice enough to share with us....

Album Review: "The Cycle Never Ends" by Ravensire

The Cycle Never Ends

Every year, for as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving has meant the following things:

Family, turkey, stuffing, and enough mashed potatoes to fill the lower floor of my house.

This is our tradition and how we celebrate the season. I think that most people have more traditions than they can even name.

Started by family members that we don't even remember and have never known. These kinds of traditions can be very comforting and remind of us our loved ones that we no longer see or who have left the physical realm for the ethereal one.

Traditions are more than just what we do, but they make up parts of who we are. It's just important to remember that "because we've always done it this way" is not an appropriate response when someone asks you if we can change it.

Album Review: "Beyond" by Bosque

Beyond

In my halcyon days, my cousins and I would head to what we called the common ground.

Back in that little patch of the suburban neighborhood of which we lived, there was a creek full of fish, frogs, and poisonous cotton mouth vipers.

Just behind said creek though, there was a patch of woods. Those woods held such beauty for us.

We would explore them for hours upon hours. We'd travel the creek looking for crawfish to capture.

This is probably something that I wish my daughter will have experienced when she grows older, but I think her childhood will be wonderful, though different, because we live in the urban center of St. Louis.

Many times, I think back to those woods though.

Album Review: "Alma" by Löbo

Alma

Many people will tell you about how they love music.

That they only listen to good music or that they don't care about genre.

What makes a genre of music? What makes something music?

How can we define three simple chords to be a song, or millions of songs for that matter. G-C-D...that's an easy on isn't it?

There comes a time when people seriously are willing to kick off the shackles of genre and mainstream music, well not many people I suppose.

Löbo is a band from Libson, Portugal. Alma is their upcoming release. Exactly who and what Löbo are is something beyond my understanding.