Reviews

An almost ludicrously young, as yet unsigned London-based band, Acoasm have escaped their beginnings in duller territory to join the more complex, intense strain of metal known only by the undeniably apt onomotopeia 'djent', and this EP paints a clear picture of their still-forming sound.

Ahh instrumental djent. Witnessing the evolution of a band from the Soundclick samples, the MySpace "INSTRUMENTAL NEED VOCALS" song to a fully fledged band is a beautiful thing indeed. Obviously, I am talking about Periphery here and its tumultuous journey from Bulb's clips on Soundclick, to the vanguards of djent today. Of course some projects never progress beyond the instrumental versions, with the creators preferring to let the guitar and whatever else they have included become the be-all end-all of the band. However, I am going to go out on a limb here and say most instrumental djent is pretty poor. The cliche of an downtuned 8-string, chugging away, with Superior Drummer adding to the artificiality already in place. The songs go nowhere, say nothing and quickly slide from the mind.

Of the exceptions to this is Paul Ortiz, better known as Chimp Spanner. Instead of solely relying on the Meshuggah sound, Paul brings in a myriad of interesting influence to his sophomore album "At The Dream's Edge". This is not the domain of monotonous chugging riffs with uninspired and lazy production. No Chimp Spanner sets out to encompass Mr. Ortiz's influence while tying it all together under a recognizable sound of his own.

The album starts out with a spacey intro, reminiscent of a sci-fi movie soundtrack, appropriately titled 'Galaxy Rise'. Each song brings something new to the table, be it the laid back bluesy soloing backed by some excellent piano work on the title track, to the straight ahead, yet entertainingly technical "Bad Code", to the apocalyptic "Terminus" suite.

My descriptions are extremely inadequate however, as the strength of this album means that each song is based on a particular idea, yet always incorporates other bits and pieces. Like the aforementioned Bad Code which apart from the tech riffing also has a great deal of dynamics, with the subdued middle section highlighting some simple yet effective bass and guitar work, while building up to a heavy ending.

The production is stellar, with a big, thick guitar tone, believable drumming, tasteful keyboard patches and sweet sounding bass. It being yet another one man job, At The Dream's Edge really highlights given the effort you can make an incredible sounding album at home, given some elbow grease and a bit of cash.

Out of the much maligned deathcore movement, Veil of Maya are often held up as an example of how to do deathcore "right". Their self-produced debut "All Things Set Aside" and aggressive touring got them picked up by the ubiquitous Sumerian Records. Their follow-up album 'The Common Mans Collapse' still is one of the best -core releases around. Guitarist Mark Okubo's does the work of three guitarists, imprinting his unique style of angular riffing and intricate melodies, dominating the band and making it what it is.

[id] is VoM's attempt to further explore the guitarwork of Okubo while adding some new elements to keep things fresh. While the riffage on this album is by-in-large very interesting and satisfyingly technical, the brevity of some of the songs and weak vocals on the album do hold it back some, along with, predictably enough, too many break-downs. Yes, the album is over very quickly indeed, clocking in at a scant 27 minutes. While this helps keep this moving along without becoming stale it would be interesting if some of the ideas on the album were explored further. For example, Resistance the 6th track has an excellent keyboard melody and some ambiance over some fairly standard polyrhythmic chugging. It really adds a lot to the section and definitely warrants a bigger inclusion on the album.

One improvement from previous albums (and a step up from most metal at the moment) is the bass work. With the addition of former Born of Osiris bassist Matt Pantelis, Okubo has found someone equally as skilled in their instrument as he is. Pantelis adds that extra bit of flavour to the album in his basslines, with counterpoint runs and some unique takes on Okubo's riffs, especially in songs like Mowlgi, The Higler, Namatse and Conquer. Pantelis seems to be immune to the slavery that most metal bassists have with regards to the guitar, following it wherever it goes.

Drumming provided by Sam Applebaum is a solid backing to the two guitarists and varied enough in itself not to be robotic or boring. Vocals however, fail to add anything new to the sound, easily being the most generic and disposable element of the album. Brandon Butler has two distinct styles, a high shriek and a guttural growl, often used in unsion to try and add some extra brutality. Unfortunately, his additions don't really stand out in any special way.

Production by Michael Keene of The Faceless is very flat and lifeless. While some people think this approach adds to the music, it often comes off as irritating and too sharp. The kicks are overly clicky, the snare is obviously sampled and limp, guitars are bog standard, with the surprisingly high in the mix bass really being the only highlight of the production.

“Space... the final frontier... these are the voyages of the band Periphery. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new music, to seek out innovation and creative expressions, to boldly go where no musician has gone before!”... (insert killer orchestral music here).