Impureza - EP 2013

A fusion of flamenco and 'brutal' tech death metal. o_O

Sithu Aye - Pulse

"Happy progressive metal" is the self description. It's awesome instrumental tech widdle stuff done by a physics student in his bedroom. Seriously, when people moan about how easy access to home recording has made music worse show them this. Then punch them in the face. Metaphorically of course. Violence isn't very happy or progressive. Maybe make widdly guitar hand gestures at them provocatively.

Gross Ex Machina - Ruiner

Bloodlet/Candiria/Starkweather/Botch/Today Is The Day/Nocturnus/Cave In style whatthefuckerry. Avant prog tech metal weirdness.

It's not an all out widdle fest though. Loads of sickening slow sludgey riffs in utterly fucked time signatures. Add Disembowelment to the list of bands for that bit actually.

Also makes me think of The Kevorkian Solution or Koreisch and the way they were off in their own little world of headfucking riffs.

The label blurb attempts to explain it:-

Lancaster Pennsylvanias GROSS EX MACHINA have meticulously crafted elements of grindcore, jazz, prog, post hardcore, and experimental electronic music to create a truly unique, avant-metal debut, RUINER.

This monster EP seamlessly transitions between a psychotic vortex of carnal aggression, beautifully layered guitar-scapes, sci-fi carnival music, and a deep lumbering wall of distortion. These elements alone have made way for G.E.M to blaze their own path through the mire of predictable metal and hardcore trends, while concurrently ruining preconceived notions of what “heavy” music is all about.

Not too far off the mark. The sci fi thing is definitely there. Occasional synth bits with spacey guitar fx etc. Oh, and occasional vocoder vocals.

Did i mention that it's really fucking good? Well, it is. Can't recommend it enough.

Bowl Ethereal demo (ex Loincloth/Breadwinner/Honor Role)

Go download it now

Bowl Ethereal is a duo specialising in math rock tech metal twiddle shredding. If you've ever heard Breadwinner or Loincloth then you'll know the deal. This is far more along the lines of Orthrelm than that slick djent type stuff. Only 5 short songs but hopefully there's lots more to come.

Plini - Sweet Nothings

Instrumental widdly tech prog-metal stuff. Coming from a similar place to Sithu Aye, Chon and Save Us From The Archon. However, it's also got a bit of a 70s/80s yacht rock thing going on as well. You could imagine it as the background music in Diagnosis Murder for a flashy guy driving a Ferrari. Or maybe Columbo going into some exclusive hotel swimming pool bar on Hawaii in the 70s.

Daniel Rosenboom - Book Of Omens

This is jazz metal with the emphasis heavily on the jazz. This Rosenboom bloke is a proper jazz bloke (a trumpeter). Watched some live videos and it's all expensive shirts and mineral water and designer glasses. No bad thing in my book. Just trying to make sure you don't think it's some kind of Naked City style long haired skronk-athon.

Imagine the jazz songs Candiria did but with Meshuggah levels of technicality played by real jazz folk. It's weird because some of the guitar playing gets pretty brtual and dissonant but it still all sounds quite smooth. You know how Sonny Sharrock just starts randomly battering his guitar in the middle of Herbie Mann stuff? A bit like that but a tech-metal version.

Oh, and it's not tech-metal in a jaw dropping WTF widdlemageddon Behold The Arctopus type way. You could probably get away with playing it in a fancy restaurant. Well, for a while. The clientele would soon be ordering their steak ultra-rare and eating it bare handed and smearing blood over themselves before demanding a human sacrifice for dessert.

Svart Crown - Profane

Sick, weird technical death metal stuff from France. Starkweather were posting about a new song by Ulcerate this morning. They basically said FFO Gorguts, Pyrrhon, Portal and Svart Crown. Love the other bands already so thought I'd check Svart Crown out. Holy shit! Add something like Deathspell Omega to that list of bands and you're about there. Quality.

Moon Tooth - Freaks EP

Banged on about how great the one song they put up on bandcamp last month was. The whole EP is available now.

Imagine Angel Dust by Faith No More but a preposterously over the top tech metal widdle version.

Wormed - Exodromos (Willowtip)

Ridiculously OTT tech/widdly death metal stuff on Willowtip. Ludicrous time signatures galore, guitar solos that make no sense whatsoever.

I could live without the vocals. They're just that bland, monotone growl that's popular in this kind of thing. Drums are a bit clicky as well.

However, if you can look past that, there's some very silly guitars going on.

Moon Tooth - Ebb/Flow

Got a friend who's always got his ear to the ground for awesome tech metal stuff. This was his tip for today. Lots of techy widdle and odd time signatures. Vocals weren't quite what i was expecting. Kind of sung which makes it sound more like Dream Theater or something like that. They also seem to have a bit of a knack for basing all the widdle on something approaching an actual tune.

Indricothere - II (ex Behold The Arctopus/Krallice/Gorguts etc)

Amazing OTT widdly technical metal stuff.

It's the solo project of Colin Marston from Behold The Arctopus, Krallice, Gorguts, Dysrhythmia etc.

What else do you need to know?br>
Totally mindmelting stuff.

Save Us From The Archon - How Terrible, the Undergrowth's Jaws That Tangle

Instrumental tech metal. Progtastic and widdle as fuck. Bit like Behold The Arctopus crossed with Dream Theater. Maybe The Fucking Champs with added synths.

Nader Sadek - In The Flesh

You love Death Metal, right? You've already got this album, right? Well, now it's on Bandcamp so you can chuck these guys ten bucks if you just snaffled the MP3s from Mediafire.

For those not in the know, this is what Steve Tucker did after leaving Morbid Angel. The last Morbid Angel album was so brain haemorrhagingly awful it almost made me give up on life, but thank Lucifer for Nader Sadek as this destroys pretty much everything Morbid Angel have done since Domination. Just listen to that dive bombed/finger tapped solo at the end of the last track and tell me you didn't weep with joy! Oh yes!
 

Chimp Spanner - All Roads Lead Here

I unapologetically post this knowing a LOT of people (especially those interested in the HC Punk Ewan has posted so far) will hate it. Chimp Spanner is one of those "guitar nerds alone in his bedroom" projects, not a million miles away from what Cloudkicker is doing. The main difference here is that, married to the nerdy poly-rhythmic djent thing, is a REALLY strong melodic influence. It reminds me of projects like Direwolf or even Nocturnus in places, with the synths and general futurism vibe. I cannot get the voice out of my head which keeps screaming "JOE SATRIANI" at me either, such is the use of ludicrously melodic, soaring guitar leads. Satriana is awesome though; I don't care what you think.

Anyway, so far this is my favourite album of the year. The three parts which make up Mӧbius are an absolute fucking masterpiece. Basick Records seem to be putting out a bunch of records like this (all via Bandcamp with options for physical too - bravo!). Some have atrocious emo-metal vocals which I cannot get on with, but the instrumental projects sound interesting. Worth exploring further, I reckon.