Album Review: "Astra Symmetry" by Monkey3

The psychedelic slow groove music of Monkey3, isn’t going to generate any mosh pits, yet is still a heavy listen in its own right.  It is exactly the sort of music one would expect from a jam band sonically creating a map of the cosmos. 

Astra Symmetry, the fifth album from the Swiss quartet, is a concept album which attempts to serve as a trippy soundtrack to the zodiac.  Although they have toured Europe extensively and earned the respect of their native continent, this may be the album to finally expand the boundaries of their empire.

Album Review: "Pandora" by Celestial Ruin

The underserved, but resilient, genre of symphonic metal has an unheralded champion in Celestial Ruin. After four years of touring in support of their debut album, which included a hiatus caused by vocalist Larissa Dawn’s health problems, they are soon to release an ambitious follow-up up EP titled “Pandora”.

Once again they have so expertly channeled the spirit and influence of genre legends such as Sweden’s Therion and Finland’s Nightwish, one would assume Celestial Ruin is of similar Nordic origin.  Yet, this epic sound of the snowy cold environs of Europe comes from the temperate city of Vancouver. Celestial Ruin could be the band to put Canada back on the metal map filling the void left by the departure of 3 Inches of Blood. 

Each of the five songs on the EP tells a complete ominous story through the powerful, clean, crisp and operatic vocals of Larissa Dawn.  Straddling the edges of hard rock and power metal, Dawn is backed by the performances of guitarist Eriz Crux, bassist Mike Dagenais and drummer Adam Todd, who sear through a relentless stream of bombastic riffs and arpeggio laden solos reminiscent of Helloween, Kamelot and Dragonforce. 

Album Review: "Friches Et Bestioles" by Neurococcyx

Friches Et Bestioles

Basically what I do is sell air.

Remember that scene in City Slickers when Billy Crystal's character was talking about how he sold on air ad time for a radio station when he was discussing how unfulfilled he felt at work?

Think about all of the thousands of bands out there are doing just that?

Naturally, I don't mean this in a bad way! It's a whole other world out there. Some people in this great big marble we call Earth prefer no physical copies of anything. Movies, books, music, video games what have you. They want digital.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have purchased digital things too. My most recent digital purchase was Dungeons & Dragons Shadow Over Mystara to play it in English on the Wii U. My copy was for the Sega Saturn and in Japanese and my daughter wants to know the story!