Choirs Of The Eye by Kayo Dot

Choirs Of The Eye is an undescriptive album for open minded listeners. This band consists of five multi-instrumentalists. The reason why you should be cautious listening to it is because it's very "artsy", complicatedly recorded, and something you'll probably never here come from anyone else  except by the band that made this album, Kayo Dot.

Each song has it's own type of style. You'll here melodic classical parts that spiral into destructive grindcore vocals. The first song, "Marathon" is a huge mind fuck. If you know what post rock is, you know that is usually starts soft then goes into a climax. This song is the opposite. It's a reverse post rock song. You get to really hear that trumpet ring in this track. Toby Driver's vocals are soft, beautiful and don't seem harsh in this track. This song just seems so spooky to me every time I listen to it. but once you get about four minutes into the song, you get to hear the other side of Driver's dark, hard vocals.

"Pitcher Of Summer" is the second track and keeps it's softness for a reason. It's preparing you for the third track. Many reviewers call this track weak compared to the rest, but I call bullshit.

Then you reach the fourteen minute progressive epic song that rips you to fucking shreds, "The Manifold Curiosity". You can't ask for any more when you hear flutes and clarinets solo together at the five minute peak. Then you get a peaceful side to the song that only climaxes into the guitar tearing your ears to pieces when every member of the group starts soloing at the same time and it sounds like complete fucking chaos. It's hard to describe how fucking crazy the last four minutes are other then that it's the best outro of a song ever.

"Wayfarer" contains an amazing buildup with amazing vocals. The violin is scary and peaceful at the same time. This song is kind of like a slower and saddening version of Manifold Curiosity. The lyrics are poetic and sensational. This song can't go wrong in any way possible.

"The Antique" sums up all tracks in one and you get a charm off each instrument played. It also contains a pretty epic ending (not as epic as Manifold Curiosity). Although I find this track to be the most chaotic by how slowly the guitar riffs go. The last four minutes are pretty fucking good too. I gotta love the trumpet at the end also.

All in all it's a fistfuck awesome album.

What's your favorite album at the moment?

Doesn't have to be just one. I'm just wondering what you've been playing heavily lately.

Right now I've been playing the hell out of "Grandeur Of Hair" by The Goslings. It's a really heavy and loud noise rock album with female vocals.

Totem Two by Master Musicians Of Bukakke

Totem Two is one of my favorite albums of 2010. Master Musicians Of Bukakke is an amazing instrumental folk band using ceromonial and ritual influences. The album is complicated, but also a very relaxing, apocalyptic tune.

"Bardo Chonyid/Master Of All Visible Shapes" is a long ambient track with horns and strange noises that sound like they come from some jungle from hell. The flute is fucking brilliant on "Perde Kaldirma". The looped guitar and drum beats playing with the nice flute solo make the track strangely relaxing. I think this gives you a new feel to apocalyptic folk and psychedelic folk also.

"The Heresy Of Origen" makes me think of a folk version of combining Sunn O))) just without the guitars. It's pretty much everything a long epic drone song should be. The church choir fits in perfectly. This track progresses into the symphonic "Coincidential Oppositorum", which also has a foggy and clear doomsday sound.

We reach "Patmos", the final and probably best track on the album. You do get to here some vocals and a little bit of everything from the previous track. Although, I find this one a tad bit more uplifting and less dark and eerie. It's still atmospheric and wraps the album up into one of the best instrumental folk albums ever created.

Beileid by Bohren & Der Club Of Gore

Ah, my favorite jazz group has just released a new album entitled, "Beileid" and I can say I'm not disappointed. I spent most of last night playing it on repeat and I'm probably going to have this playing every night now before I go to bed. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore spawned the genre "doomjazz". The self titled track on this album feels like a mix of of their last two albums before this one, but that's not necessarily a bad thing sense they did it in a way that doesn't just make me say, "Oh, they're playing the same shit again". No, I'm still liking everything they put out.

What's most noticeable about this album is the song "Catch My Heart", which features vocals from Mike Patton. I'm pretty sure this is a cover song with just a Bohren twist on it. This being an instrumental ensemble I was worried vocals would kill it all, but instead, the vocals were perfect. Who better not do vocals for Bohren other than Mike Patton?

Obviously, there's the opener track which is just beautiful and atmospheric in all ways, but I'm not really caring for the background synth. Other than that, the three songs on this album are great and I'm glad to see this added to the collection.

P.S This album is perfect when played with rainymood.com

P.S.S  I am buying the album, so don't bug me about how evil I am for getting the leak.

Amputechture by The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta is a badass band created by Omar Rodriguez Lopez and his brother Marcel Rodriguez Lopez. They combine funk into progressive rock which creates fast paced catchy music. The album, “Amputechture” takes their music to another level.

The first song, “Vicarious Atonement” is simple and to the point. It’s not like any of the other songs on the album, this one is softer. But when “Tetragrammation” begins, you’ll know that whole idea for the first track was to keep the progressive flow. Tetragrammation is an almost seventeen minute track taking the concept the album – possessed nuns and other crazy shit. The track is pure magic – Amazing guitar solos, jazzy parts, and random exploding parts. The vocals are another thing in this track I love. They’re so wacky and powerful, going up to really high notes that men are not supposed to sing, but it’s ok because it just adds onto the craziness to the song and makes it sound better.

“Vermicide” is the shortest track on the album, but it’s still catchy. This track isn’t as jumpy as the rest, but the vocals are what are focused in the track obviously.

“Meccamputechture” is a track that only gets better each time you listen to it. Holy fuck, the introduction should be enough to get you into the band. This song is really an out of body experience. The intensity just blows my eardrums and this track has nonstop surprises. The lyrics are another thing I love. The whole song continues onto this possessed nun story by explaining the life of Jesus, the resurrection and in my opinion, this song depicts how the religion has used this story to make people join it (“Using humans as ornaments”).

“Asilos Magdalena” is an acoustic track all sung in Spanish. The vocals add onto this haunting feeling that the lyrics represent. Many people have debated if the song is about asylums set up in the 19th century in catholic churches, the devil’s plan to kill god, or a man who wants to kill god himself (“Carried the blade to God”).

“Viscera Eyes” is really a kick ass song. Half of the song is sung in Spanish and the other is in English. This song is about someone debating their faith and then turning into this zombie like Satan creature. I think this song is also making many references that make fun of Jesus(“Your convalescent thorns are but a crown of maggots. They rot the shakes inside that third glass eye. Come on and die”).

“Day of the Baphoments” is groovy and has an amazing bass solo. The saxophone and guitar, insane drumming – I mean, you could put twelve sticks of dynamite in my mouth and my mind would explode so high it would reach the sky. “El Ciervo Vulnerado” is the final track and ends just like how the album starts. I really like the guitar soloing over the saxophone going off every once in a while. When you get about eight minutes into the song try not to shit bricks with those vocals.

Amazing album. If you like progressive rock or not, listen to it. The concept is strange and interesting. It has some of the best guitar work I’ve heard. Just put this on while in your car, turn the volume up, windows down,  and let people driving by go, “What the fuck is that person listening to?”

2011

What albums are you looking forward to being released this year?

Saurian Exorcisms by Karl Sanders

Karl Sanders is well known for his heavy metal band Nile, but he also is known for his heavy self titled project. It holds onto many Egyptian, Tibetan, and Indian themes. Unlike his first album, this one, Saurian Exorcisms, this heavier and includes a wide range of different vocals.

The first track, “Preliminary Purification before the Calling of Inanna” doesn’t really represent the project, but the drumming is really nice so the track is still pretty good. If I was going to try and get someone into Karl Sanders, I would choose the song, “Rapture of the Empty Spaces”. The Egyptian feel of it really sticks out and the vocals make it sound allot more exotic. What really interests me about this is how Karl Sanders is able to play all of the instruments in the whole album (Beglama Saz, Acoustic Guitars, Glissentar, Guitar Synth, Keyboards, Drums, Percussion, and vocals), so it really defines what a fucking solo project is.

“Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe” is more ambient and softer than the other tracks. Sanders was inspired allot by Brian Eno’s music and his style of ambience, which really shines here.

“A Most Effective Excorcism Against Azagthoth And His Emissaries” is like a tribal from the deserts of hell. The 11 string guitar solo blows my mind when I listen to it. The chantings give the song a very atmospheric creepy effect also.

Many tracks like “Slavery Unto Nitokris” and “Shira Gula Pazu” keep a very post folk intensity. The album itself is just really good for any mood you’re in. It can share anger and relaxation all in one. Get this album if you’re into tribal and like atmospheric music.

They don't have any songs from this album on youtube, so I'll post one from his previous release...

Of Natural History by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

It's hard to say what genre Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is. It's avant garde style of mixing theatre and metal together creates this spark of an imaginary carnival ride through hell. The album, "Of Natural History" is a philosophical journey through the madness of humanity.

The first track, "A Hymn To The Morning Star" is a ballad with xylophone on how ironic the Christian religion really is. It's also a introduction to the madness yet to come on the album. 

"The Donkey-Headed Anniversary Of Humanity Opens The Discussion", is the chaotic song that takes the listener by surprise and makes you say, 'What the fuck am I even listening to?' The lyrics speak about how mankind would be better destroyed for the better good of the world. 

"Pththisis" is when you finally get to here Carla Kihlstedt's sensual vocals with an apocalyptic setting of head banging drums and teeth shattering guitars. This track is an easy favorite due to it not being that long of a song on the album and still representing the style of the band.

"Bring Back The Apocalypse" is a self explanatory song which gives a very exploding atmosphere to the album. It's strange and almost sounds like what would come out of a schizophrenics brain if recorded on tape.

The ear grabbing track of the album for me is "FC: The Freedom Club". It's an epic about Ted Kaczynski, the man who caused mail bombings and represents the nihilist who declared war on humanity. Such as in the lyrics, "To blow off the hands of the strong with wooden boxes" talks about the bombs he made. Not only is the message of the strong strong, but the instruments are precise at the right timing and the vocals increase the extreme anger that song was made to show. This track is the must listen and one of my favorite songs ever created.

The Disturbing track, "Gunday's Child" is not something you want to listen to in the dark. The seducing vocals and exotic hand made instruments of the band just seem so spooky and make you really feel like the whole fucking world is ready to explode. It follows into the track, "The 17-Year Cicada", a short instrumental to keep you relaxed before another bang.

"The Creature" and "What Shall We Do With Us?" are strange and mysterious. It keeps you feeling like, "Ok, I know there's going to be some crazy metal randomly popping in", although it never happens. I can't really explain this one.

"Babydoctor" is the longest track on the album and the most aggressive track on it. I've researched and tried to find what the hell it's about, but I really don't know. For some reason they talk about the dental products, "Pelton & Crane". I'd feel very strange if this song was really about brushing your teeth and how being a dentist can be stressful. Just thinking of it makes me laugh. I love this song so much because it makes no fucking sense at all and seems so insane and violent.

And of course, there's the track, "Cockroach". The cockroach is us, and the song is about our extermination. I fell in love with song on first listen. 

The album is a mysterious ride that will show you a different side of music that mainstream music would never be able to show you. Listen to it and let it change you.

Ravedeath, 1972 by Tim Hecker

There's no joking around in the concept of this album. The first word of the title, 'Ravedeath' can go in many ways, but I like to think of it as a way of saying this album is a funeral for electronic music in general, not just rave. On the album cover you can clearly see a bunch of men tossing a piano off a building. There's tracks entitled "Hatred For Music", "Studio Suicide", and "No Drums". I'm seeing a very bleak image painted from this album, but nothing that's depressing, but more in terms of destruction.

Tim Hecker specializes in making ambient music that scrape out beautiful soundscapes. His previous album, 'An Imaginary Country' isn't as dark as this one, but I can still hear allot of the destruction I described on this too. He's easily up there with the best in latest drone artists like Stars Of The Lid, William Basinski, and Fennesz. In my opinion, this album itself counts as one of the most essential ambient albums of all times.

The album was recorded inside of a church, which can pretty much explain some of the influences in the music such as the first track, 'The Piano Drop' which uses a pipe organ. That glitchy sound from his album 'Harmony in Ultraviolet' is still alive in the track 'In The Fog', which progresses into a powerful clastrophobic bleak atmosphere, which is later cleared up by the bueatiful 'No Drums'. Of course, that darkness does come back in 'Hatred For Music'. 

After what seems like a lay-back year for music last year, I do believe 2011 will pull through to be a great year for music.  If you're a fan of electronic music or wanting explore ambient and drone, this is a must listen to for you.

The Mantle by Agalloch

The Mantle by Agalloch is an atmospheric folk metal album with the concepts of winter. The album was favored by many critics for it's experimentation of the metal genre and having a blend of many other subgenre's with it. It's a magical album that flows perfectly to the last track.

It starts off with the intro, "A Celebration For The Death Of Man..." and moves right into one of my favorite songs of all time, "In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion". This song is a fourteen minute long epic of apocalyptic texture through the atmosphere and coldness you get from the tracks. Haughm's vocals are strong and pierce ears, in a good way. The lyrics also fit the atmosphere and colors it paints the story perfectly. In an interview with the band I saw on youtube, they describe the music as of being in this forest of snow and trying to find this cave or something through this journey of questioning life while freezing in the cold. As complicated as it sounds, it actually isn't. There's two climaxes to the song that are perfectly timed and although this song could of went on for fifty hours i'm sure, i'm OK that ended at fourteen minutes.

"Odal" is an instrumental that fits in with the winter storm feel also. The song has beautiful abstract images of the forests full of snow in my head listening to it. I just love how the music really puts pictures in your head. "I Am The Wooden Doors" is one of the more heavier songs on the album and has this battle feel to it. It's a good track, but probably my least favorite on it. 

"The Lodge" is another instrumental and atmospheric track. You can hear someone walking through snow in the background at the beginning actually. The acoustic guitar just brings this settle feeling of plain darkness to the song and it's ear capturing in a strange way. 

"You Were But A Ghost In My Arms" is my favorite song by Agalloch lyrically. It really fits with all the band wants to stand for with the winter feeling. The song does have a progressive feel to it, but what really captures me is the ending of it.

"The Hawthorne Passage" is my favorite instrumental on the album. It's more alike "Odal" and fast paced. It does stick up to the folk metal title that was given to the band on their first album. 

"...And The Great Cold Death Of The Earth" is the catchiest song on the album and overall fits all the tracks in this one. It sums up what the whole album has pretty much lead to and I'd call this track the climax. The song also contains that epicness of Shadow Of Our Pale Companion. The album ends with "A Desolation song" in which Haughm's vocals just breeze into the song with the guitar and harmonica. Definitely an amazing way to end this epic album.

Torture Garden by Naked City

Torture Garden by Naked City is easily the most brutal album ever created. All these tracks that last from around 13 to 50 seconds are fast paced curb stomps on your face. This music makes Cannibal Corpse look like a six year old girl wearing a tutu dress. Nothing can ever compare to how insane this music is. Even Jeffrey Dahmer listened to half of the album, took off the headphones and said, “This is too much for me.”

But what the fuck is it? That’s what you think when you first listen to it. WHAT IN THE FUCK AM I LISTENING TO? Many people like to call this, jazzgrind – A mixture of jazz and grindcore. Each instrument plays a special part to each miniature track. 

The most obvious instrument to make Torture City sound so fucking strange and insane is John Zorn’s Saxophone. He’ll play these randomly high notes or have a small jazz solo that seems all happy, and then bursts into fucking PCP murder sprees. 

Yamatsuka Eye’s vocals are the other key pointer to the music. He has these awful, sometimes hilarious screaming’s. He always thinks of new ways to make his voice sound weird too, like in some tracks you can hear him making choking and vomiting noises. Let me also say, there is no lyrics. He is literally saying gibberish. That’s what makes it a fuckload better.

Joey Baron has these unnecessary random drum solos and stick tapings that really add to a nice humor to the tracks. Of course the bass player, Fred Frith is pretty funny too when you get to hear those small jazz parts before the chaos where he just does some random solo. Bill Frisell beats his distorted guitar and randomly switches to a nice melodic sound. Wayne Horvitz on keyboards really adds to the funny jazz layers when things get soft.

Each track is just so violent, chaotic, and almost too much. Allot of people will ask, is this even music? How could this be good? 

The answer is that this album is going to either piss you off or make you piss your pants laughing. It’s an amazing experience and I love the album. Your eyes are wide open the hole time and you’ll be going, “WHAT THE FUCK” nonstop. It’s the music made for nobody, but I think you should try it. You might just shit yourself.

Sunset Mission by Bohren & Der Club Of Gore

Sunset Mission is a cult album by one of the greatest jazz groups ever created, Bohren & Der Club of Gore. They spawned this genre of Darkjazz/Doomjazz in 1994’. Sunset Mission is the first album by the band that was to include a saxophone and it’s clearly the best playing by the saxophone in the band yet. 

The sound of the album is exactly what the cover shows you – The midnight down town area in a rainstorm. All songs have this powerful atmospheric feel that brings this dark noir sound to it and mixes it with the feel of comfort. It’s complicated to explain but when you listen to it, you feel yourself exactly in the mind of what they wanted.

“Prowler” is that track that starts off the album and defines what Sunset Mission is. It’s this laid back soundtrack to a warm night watching rain hit the windows. “On Demon Wings” has this heartache felt and the saxophone sounds so beautiful if you blast this as high as you can on your speakers. I do feel like I’m in the middle of a David Lynch film listening to “Midnight Walker” with its more upbeat and progressive ambience. 

“Street Tattoo” is a song I had on repeat allot during this drought that happened in Texas a while ago. It really had a rainy feel to the song and I would play it at night thinking that it was raining. Jesus fucking Christ on a stick this song is so atmospheric it’s like an out of body experience. 

“Painless Steal Angels” is the most ambient track and experimental. It doesn't quite fit with most of the tracks, but it is the center point of the album.

“Darkstalker” feels like a never ending deep jam of relaxation and chaos in one. The saxophone makes me think of echoes down streets and the piano gives me this feeling of bleakness. It does allot like “Nightwolf”, the longest track on the album. The track really features on this dramatic saxophone telling some type of story. Well, at least that’s what I hear.

“Black City Skyline” is sublime and strange. It’s not really relaxing, but more exotic, sensual, but at the same time frightening. 

The album ends with “Dead End Angels”. And that’s exactly what this track leads you to, the dead end in some rainy alley way of darkness. It’s probably the spookier track on the album and perfect being the final one on it.

Trust me; this is an album you’ll want to fuck if it were a person. I listen to it almost every fucking day because it calms me. But don’t think this album is just to calm you. This album fits all moods. It’s an open book and an album you can put on repeat for a while. This album is for everyone. Even If you’re some big Metal head, you’ll like this. 

Infinity by Jesu

Justin Broadrick is the man behind this experimental group, Jesu. They have released three albums that all seem to be different from each other. This one is on one single song that lasts fifty minutes.

The song contains a mixture of Ambient, Slude Metal, Guitar Droning, Shoegaze, and Electronic effects. The song itself begins with a kind of poppy feel, but it doesn't take long for the smashing guitars to kick in. Justin's vocals on the track are emotionally charged especially once the song reaches the twenty five minute part. It has a tragic, but yet beautiful feel to all of it. The ambience and electronics are dreamy, but they don't let you back away from the violent crunching chords.

Many people have tried to do what Jesu has done and seem to not do it correctly. He holds a talent of creating music that is way farther out there then where most people can go. Let's just say that Infinity takes a step out of the comfort zone and smashes it to fucking pieces. I find that idea brilliant.

Get this shit. 

Doll Doll Doll by Venetian Snares

Doll Doll Doll is the cult favorite album by Venetian Snares which created a large spark in the breakcore genre. It inspired many other genre's in the electronic genre. Not only is this album haunting and strange, but it's strangely fun and exciting. 

"Pygmalion" starts the example of what breakcore is very quick. High BPM with industrial based kicks. "Remi" is another nonstop breakcore track that can be described as a seizure. 

What I really like about breakcore is how open it is to experimentation, as seen in, "I Rent The Ocean". It has a dark feeling with saxophones, piano's and horns along with really eerie distorted drums. The choir kicks in around 2:20 along with strange vocal sounds. It's a really fucked up strange track that makes me want to a worm dance while being stabbed in the back by a pitchfork.

"Dollmaker" is the centerpoint of the album and contains violins, crazy fucking jazz drumming solo with some violent vocals saying, "I'll fucking murder you young style like JonBenet Ramsey!" It's just fucking hilarious.

Then you reach "Befriend A Child Killer". It's atmospherically disturbing and not something you'd want to try and fall asleep to. It contains allot of similarities to "All The Children Are Dead". These two tracks are scary breakbeats mixed with classical and violent drone noises. 

"Pressure Torture" is the strongest and craziest spastic breakcore track on the album. It's never ending and the samples are horrifying. "Macerate And Petrify" is Venetian Snares' strangest track yet. 

I can say this album is one hell of a trip. It's strange and fucking awesome. If you like electronic, don't play this thinking it's something you've heard before. This will make your ears bleed from exploding beats and ejaculate semen from enjoyment at the same time.

The Narcotic Story by Oxbow

The Narcotic Story by Oxbow has to be one of the strangest things your ears will come in contact to in your entire life. Their style is something you won't ever see by anyone else. Why? Because nobody makes sick vocals like Eugene Robinson. The vocals are part of the noise in these tracks and are like an instrument. His voice almost sounds like someone groaning while taking a dump, crying in a corner, speaking nonsense in a stray jacket and it's fucking awesome.

"The Geometry Of Business" has the same creepy chords going through the whole song as Robinson moans and says things like, "Agabungada!" The piano also helps give it that eerie effect.

"Down A Stair Backward" at first sounds like some crazy noise rock chant, but has a very light part in it with a symphonic sound. Tracks like "Frankly Frank" and "Franks Frolic" have the same type of off centered guitar style and funny voice grumblings.

But you can tell that this band isn't focused on noise rock as there genre in the song, "She's A Find." This jazzy, slow, and dark song fits up to the albums title. Robinson's vocals are one part of the piece that show he does know how to sing, but also the instruments together give it a very tragic sound. Possibly the track on the album I would call the must listen. It's experimental and hard for interpretation.

"A Winner Every Time" is just fucking insane. Robinson talking about dropping his car keys and yelling fuck through every part of the song; it just doesn't get any better then that.

The ending track, "It's The Giving, Not The Taking" puts you back into the brain of Oxbow - The chaotic hell of crack smoking noise and slow jazz in one. This is a must recommend album for anyone who's been looking for something weird and/or anyone who wants a new taste of music they'll never see from anyone.

Angels of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1 - Earth

I was going to write this review about a month ago and rembered to do it when I saw one of the people I watch already have this album reviewed, so now it's my turn to give my opinions on this beast of an album.

Earth started out making some of the loudest and longest metal songs with intense guitar droning, which inspired the whole drone doom genre. Now there's handfulls of artists making that music, but after a few releases, they decided to take there music in a different direction.

The past three albums have revolved around this kind of westernized sound of stoner metal, but laid out and relaxed to give it a nice psychedelic feel. While Hex was still quite dark, Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull moved away from the doom-like sound and into a more rythmaticly beautiful place. In this album, Angels Of Darkness, you'll find a cello played out on the tracks. Now personally the cello doesn't stick out as much as I think they wanted to on most tracks, but once you hit that self titled track, that's when the cello really sucks you in. 

'Old Black' immediatly sets the mood for this album right from the start. Allot of people have a way of saying, "this is the type of music you get stoned to without having to even use a drug". It's pretty much that. I mean the stoner riffs on this album really flow together when droned and seem relaxing in a sense of euphoria. If you aren't relaxed by that track, then I think the track "Father Midnight" might do the trick. 

'Descent To The Zenith' continues this nice trip and keeps the atmosphere alive, making you flow even deeper int othe music. Literally, when I listen to this album I can feel myself moving closer to the speaker like as if it's literally just drawing me in from relaxation. I wouldn't go as far to call this track the best, because it's probably the weakest in my opinion, but at the same time I feel like it does a good job keeping you glued to the music.

If you want to try to give an introduction of this band to anyone, 'Hell's Winter' would be the correct choice. This song speeds up the tempo and isn't as drone-like, but it still has the atmosphere needed. Of course the title track, also the final track on the album is the best one on the entire album, weighing at twenty minutes long. I mean, damn. It's all perfectly timed in the song doesn't get boring in any sense of way. Actually, that's something I should olaberate on.

When I say the words relaxing and slow, don't think this is a boring album, because it's not. This album holds as much intensity then allot of Death Metal bands have, but also holds a center of beauty that nobody can completely do themselves. What i'm saying is that the style that Earth plays it purely original and they've given out two different types of music to the music world now with their two different sound phases they've gone from. 

Currently posting a bunch of old reviews I've done in the past, but later on I'll post new reviews. I really want to review more music from 2011 sometime soon.

The Good The Bad and The Queen review

The Good, The Bad, And The Queen is an unnamed project by Paul Simonon, Simon Tong, Tony Allen, and mainly Damon Albarn. Most of you might know Damon Albarn from his two projects Blur and Gorillaz. He is also the creator of this folk project also. It’s quite funny because many people think that the band name is “The Good, The Bad, And the Queen”, but like I said, it’s unnamed.

“History Song” sets the atmosphere of this concept album about life in London. The acoustic guitars and vocals are aspiring. It’s similar to *80’s Life”, which is sounds like a hymn for a funeral. 

“Northern Whale” is one of my favorites on the album. I hear this downtempo style that reminds me of Gorillaz, but this is a softer side of Damon Albarn and one of the only upbeat songs on the album.

“Kingdom Of Doom” is another acoustic with huge bass lines. Albarn’s voice is pure magic on this track, which might explain why they chose this song as there hit. It has a very pop feel to it, but not too commercial lyrically. I think one of the most important things were for the project to not grow overrated and stay more of a fan favorite.

“Herculean” is more melodic then the other tracks and stands out as a chill track. Although it still holds tension through the background voices. 

“Behind The Sun” is almost like I’m listening to apocalyptic folk band Death In June, but at the same time it would be too soft to fall in that category. This is proven on the next track, “The Bunting Song” due to the simplicity of the song but rhythm. 

“Nature Springs” is like a jazzy chill out track for driving down the town on a nice sunny day. The lyrics can really tell the story that Albarn said makes the concept album. “A Soldier’s Tale” is so beautiful and peaceful that I really feel relaxed completely by it.

They say the best two tracks of the album as the last two. “Green Fields” is addicting, powerful, and really fits British pop. The final track, “The Good, The Bad, And the Queen” is an epic mother fucking work of fucking art mother fuckers. The piano, Albarns mother fucking awesome ass vocals, and the full out crazy jam at the end of the song that feels like it could never end just proves that this project is different than Blur and Gorillaz. Not only that, but its better. 

The Door by Religious Knives review

Religious Knives started as an industrial band but moved onto experimental genre's. They're sound is more of a psychedelic drone with trippy vocals. The Door takes on a slower rhythm but a catchier side also.

"Downstairs" has a jazzy feel and turns into a nice jam for relaxing. This track is mainly different from the others by not using the eerie noise sound effects. It almost sounds like a mix of Jim Morrison if he would of made world music.

The melody of "Basement Watch" is easy listening and simple. It's also abstract by using the instruments in a drone fashion and flowing with the vocals. The song is all over the map. 

"On A Drive" and "The Storm" show the more exotic side of the album. These tracks are slow and bizarre. The off centered drums and the fuzzy guitar playing quietly gives it a chilling effect. Vocals on this track just hit the nail even harder. The Storm shows a really nice image of weather to help the atmospheric feeling. 

"Major Score" surprisingly comes up as a faster with agitated vocals. Distorted guitars, unclear drum loops, and intensity all go together into this track. It seems to be chill in a strange way, but at the same time purposely off centered.

"Decisions Are Made" is pretty much every other truck in one. Both the male and female vocals function together perfectly. I can feel the crumbling madness that they want to show and the flashy randomness in it.

Alltogether the album turns out to be a wicked turn of bringing 60's psychedelic back with noise. This album is for anyone who is a fan of The Doors, Velvet Underground, and Syd Barret.