Feel Good Friday

I was going to post this earlier today but work came first. Leigh Nash is my favorite voice in music. Period. I have stated before that if ever I meet her I will ask her to marry me. If you don't own Divine Discontent you should go buy it right now.

Fear is the Driving Force

So Cory Brandon of Norma Jean has a new side project called Fear is the Driving Force. They have six songs up on myspace and they're awesome. Sounds like a punkier version of the Anti-Mother. I'm looking forward to a physical release of this being available.

http://www.myspace.com/fearisthedrivingforce

Neon Horse - Haunted Horse: Songs Of Love, Defiance, & Delusion

Neon Horse is a Tooth and Nail gimmick band. A band of mystery whose lead singer was the legendary Norman Horse. Of course as soon as Cuckoo hit myspace and you heard the hook you knew it was Mark Salomon of Stavesacre and the Crucified. The record was a straight forward rock album featuring the recognizable guitar styling of Jason Martin and Salomon's voice going from standard form to quirky high pitched. And it was a good album. Really good. I don't know who put this band together or where the idea came from but Martin, Salomon, and Steven Dail(Project 86) put together a good rock album.

And they have done it again. The new album (Haunted Horse) pretty much sticks true to form as the self-titled debut. More signature Jason Martin guitar work, more quirky Salomon vocals, a very steady back beat (I have no idea who played drums on this album), and very nicely layered synths. It's hard to find a place to really compare Neon Horse. Maybe think Queens of the Stone Age in 80's? It's a good rock album as is the debut.

Side note: The sound of Jason Martin's guitar work has improved a hundred times since he started recording himself.

Two songs kind of hit me weird: Cell-O-Phone and Chain Gang, Bang Bang. Cell-O-Phone has a nice hook and is a good song but the intro keeps taking me aback. It seems kind of Cold War Kids esque and maybe that's why I perk up when it starts. Chain Gang, Bang Bang is just weird. Like... an updated Stray Cats... sort of thing... The song is odd. Again not a bad song but it's weird on the album. Complete with horns and everything.

If you liked the first record, you'll like the new album. You you didn't like the first album... this one might hit you differently but I don't have high hopes that you'd enjoy this. If you like rock music and are looking for something to put in your car while driving or on your ipod while running, I'd give this album a listen.

Cave In - Planets of Old

So complete omission on my part yesterday not mentioning that the new Cave In ep/12" was out. I picked this up. Gave it a listen before leaving work and I have it on now and it's amazing. It was hard to grasp what kind of music Cave In would be putting out for their reunion. As a band who's style morphed from record to record I was looking forward to this release a lot.

And what they've done is take all the best elements of Cave In's past and create 4 kick ass songs that include the spaciness of Jupiter, the hardcore of Until Your Heart Stops, and the rock that was Antenna and Perfect Pitch Black. It's 4 great songs and fans of Cave In should without a doubt pick this up!

New Releases Today

2 albums of note.

Starflyer 59 - Ghosts of the Past. This is actually all the b-sides from the Ghost of the Future 7" collection and the past couple of eps. A good release if you don't have the eps or the GOTF boxset. I will probably be picking this up just so my cd collection stays up-to-date.

Neon Horse - Haunted Horse: Songs of Love, Defiance and Delusion. This is the second record from the Jason Martin(Starflyer59), Mark Salomon(Stavesacre), Steven Dail(Project 86) side project. I enjoyed the first album. Really good rock and roll. I'll be checking this one out.

Metal Monday - Zao

The point isn't really to feature a band but to talk about metal. Next week I'll be more on top of this (maybe). I would have posted this earlier but I read the Hammock interview and metal monday got pushed aside.

So Zao played the first show in(and possibly for) a while in Pittsburgh this weekend. I wish I had gone. I love Zao and I haven't seen them live since Cornerstone.... 2003. The set list was awesome.

Entropica
The Rising End
Skin Like Winter
Hard Not To Shake
Cattle Masses
Breath of the Black Muse
Physician Heal Thyself
Reveal
My Love, My Love
3(Last Revelation)
Romance of the Southern Spirit
Savannah
Angel Without Wings
What Will You Find
American Sheets
Praise the War Machine
Ghost Psalm
Lies of Serpents
5 Year Winter

A great set list. Songs from all the Dan era Zao albums. I've always been interested in how the songs from The Fear is What Keeps Us Here would sound live. Zao does, always have, and always will kick ass. There have been moments of pain; The Corey Darst year and three songs, the phoned in, mostly terrible Parade of Chaos, the rumors of and the actual break-ups but alas Zao is still alive and still awesome. I know I had checked out of Zao (as I think a bunch of people did) after Parade of Chaos, which was a mistake. Funeral of God is a fantastic record, The Fear is What Keeps Us Here is raw, fast, and heavy, and Awake? is a great album. Zao is great. Their influence is Christian metal is fat too understated (they were the band that influenced As I Lay Dying). I hope they take their show on the road (at least down to DC).

Until then I only have this video...

Hammock

So today was going to be Metal Monday (that post will come later) but I read this and changed my mind.

Hammock did an interview with Trap Door Sun. I love Hammock. They're incredible. They make great music and are nice guys. I was lucky enough to see them live when they opened for Stars of the Lid and I am considering going to see them in Philly in October. Read the interview, listen to their music.

http://www.trapdoorsun.com/music/hammock.aspx

Hands - Creator

So I don't keep up much with hardcore these days and christian hardcore even less (if solid state doesn't put it out, it will probably go unnoticed). I know kind of what is going on but I'm not a fan of many newer bands. And then we have Hands.

I was on the Facedown Records site and clicked the link to Hands myspace page. First thing they had going for them was the name of the band, Hands. Short and to the point (the same with name of the album), a plus in my book. Good artwork and a good track posted on myspace was enough for me to check the album out. Their described as post hardcore/screamo but the album moves more towards the hardcore end of the spectrum and is not in any shape close to the modern screamo scene. Thank God. At times I'm reminded of Misery Signals.

The opening track Hurricanes comes right at you and kicks you in the face. A mix of Isis and Misery Signals. Really heavy and really groove based. Yes the singing vocals aren't the strongest but they compliment the screaming And the sound doesn't require pitch perfect, auto-tuned nonsense (you can get that from Attack Attack). Rescue continues in the same vain. The grooves and melody never take away from how heavy this album is.

The album as a whole reminds me of older bands (Cave-In, The Blamed, Bloodshed) and a few newer bands making quality melodic heavy music (Trenches, Misery Signals). It's not at all in the vain of the newer screamo scene (Underoath and the like) and that's not a bad thing.

As far as song diversity, forget it. What you hear on track one is what you're going to get for the rest of the album. Not that I minded that at all. It's good to hear a heavy record from start to finish. Tracks like Robed In Majesty and Resistance bring a little more of the emo side into the music but 2 minutes into the songs the groove and heaviness comes back.

Another winning point on this album are the drum tracks. Not the heavily sampled and triggered kits that have become associated with heavy music the past couple of years.

The final track Creator is very similar to the final tracks on the past couple of Underoath albums. Slow, almost ballad type songs to close. It's the song that drifts furthest away from the heavy groove sound that Hands has created. If you hand in there, there is a hidden track that fits right in with the rest of the album and is another good song.

Great debut from a good band. I look forward to seeing what happens now. There are two paths they could take. One good, one terrible.

Behind the Sun

Anyone remember Living Colour (Cult of Personality). They have a new album coming out. You can download the first single from the record for free. It's called Behind The Sun. I didn't care for it too much at first but I listened again this morning and it's a good track.

Enjoy





http://www.livingcolourmusic.com/

Tertia

Ok, too much Stryper today and I will not let this day end with Stryper being the only things I mention today.

Caspian is a fantastic post rock band from Boston. They have a new album coming out this fall called Tertia.

More Stryper

I figured I'd give us a throw back to Christian metal at it's greatest(and worst) moment.

New Stryper?

So I just got a text from my buddy asking me if I had heard the new Stryper album. How did I not now there was a new Stryper album? It's called Murder By Pride. 4 songs in... I'm not terribly hopeful. The first track sounds like Michael Sweet singing on a Green day track. The next 2 songs sounds like Bon Jovi. Track 4(Alive) is a ballad, and not a very good one. Maybe a song in like a Disney film.

I'm just going to skip ahead. Ok, this album is half bad early 2000 modern rock and half bad Bon Jovi. Don't pay for this album.

Steph Modder - Hope's Got Me

Leigh Nash from Sixpence None the Richer is my favorite female vocalist. I love her. On my first listen of Hope's Got Me, Steph Modder entered my top 5. Produced by Michael Pritzl of the Violet Burning, Hope's Got Me is a journey through love and pain and into hope.

The record moves from high to low (mostly low) as Steph sings about finding her way out of pain and into something better. The production on Pritzl's part is done marvelously, with instrumentation being just enough to compliment Steph's vocal and guitar work. The only track on the album that bugs me is "The One Thing" featuring Pritzl on vocals. It stands out as the "rock" track on the album and in terms of flow doesn't seem to fit where it's placed on the album (second track between the beautifully understated "Come Away" and a heart wrenching "This All Leads to You"). Maybe different placement would've helped this song. (It is my girlfriends favorite song on the album so maybe I'm wrong)

The record has a handful of great songs (This All Leads to You, Not Ready, Stay Oh Stay, Hopes Got Me) and only one (in my opinion) skip.

Hope's Got Me, the albums closer is the light at the end of the tunnel. The album as a whole is moving towards something more, towards a finish. Hope's Got Me is the turning the corner song. That this isn't the end but a brand new beginning. Where David Bazan would've ended with a track about death and destruction, Steph Modder ends with Hope, with something new on the horizon. Life has turned around.

This album is a journey a book, about love, pain, redemption, and hope. Pour a glass of wine and enjoy. I look forward to better and bigger things from Steph Modder.

Hope's Got Me from Joe Portnoy on Vimeo.

Mastodon - Crack the Skye

I don't think there are have been too many records this year to make me really perk up and take note. My best of list thus far had consisted only of the Chariot's "Wars and Rumors of Wars".

I read a blog called metalsucks and they love Mastodon. I had never listened to Mastodon. Watched the "making of" Crack the Skye on myspace and was interested. The record came out and I had more or less ignored it. On some whim I picked it up (it has great artwork). I know not to judge records based off of the Opening track but goodness if Oblivion isn't a kick ass song. What an opening to a record. From their the album is great.

Like previously stated Oblivion is a great song. Divinations follows suit nicely and the album as a whole is great. Fantastic riffs, catchy hooks, killer leads, just an all in all good metal record. It's hard for me to put this record into words other then awesome. This is metal at it's finest. Buy the album (you can get it on vinyl), turn your stereo up, and enjoy. There is no bad track on record. It's solid from start to finish.

Go buy this album!

Mastodon-Divinations
Uploaded by brienta. - Explore more music videos.

No content yesterday expect for the completely kick ass video of Mastodon playing their awesome song Oblivion. Sometime this weekend I will post two album reviews (Mastodon - Crack the Skye and Steph Modder - Hope's Got Me).

Here's Mono playing their beautiful song Halcyon(Beautiful Days).

Mastodon - Oblivion

Do Not Listen To...

...Attack Attack!

Everyone has talked about this... but it's funny.

Project 86 - Picket Fence Cartel

So why not review a record that came out today? Project 86 released their 7th full-length album today. I've had about 3 listens fully through the album and I dig it. If you're looking for a marker for what the sound is, if you combine Songs to Burn Your Bridges By and Rival Fractions you get Picket Fence Cartel.

Project 86 is a band that fell off the earth for me when Truthless Heroes came out. It had some good songs but the record just fell flat after Drawing Black Lines. I skipped Songs to Burn (what a mistake) and ended up getting a copy of ...And the Rest Will Follow when it was released. An ok record with some catchy songs but still didn't grab my attention. Heard the three songs posted on myspace before Rival Fractions was released and ended up buying the album. Liked the record and it has done nothing but grow on me and get better with every listen. But my love for Project 86 came back when I picked up Songs To Burn Your Bridges By. What a great album. Post Hardcore/Melodic Hardcore goodness.

Picket Fence Cartel strikes me in a very similar way. A little bit darker, maybe slightly heavier (but not much). The opening song "Destroyer" is very much like "Spill Me" from their self-titled debut. A dark, mid-tempo song that sets the tone for what's to come. Not a high energy kick you in the face opener like all previous P86 albums. Not to say that this album is lacking kick or energy. Songs like The Butcher, Dark Angel Dragnet, A John Hancock with the Safety Off, The Black Brigade all carry the feel and energy that Rival Fractions had. The rest of the album feels a lot like songs that could've just as easily been on Songs to urn Your Bridges By, which is a good thing.

The album closes with To Sand We Return, which although not as good a closing track as Normandy (which is just freaking sweet), it is a very fitting end to what is from start to finish a good album. Not since their first two albums have I thought Project 86 has put out back to back quality records but this records changes that. I hope there is more music from Project 86 in the future and I hop they continue to make good music.

Here We Go

Ok, a third blog for me to look after but this one seems much simpler and more easy given my love music. The point of this blog, to give you my opinion on music. You probably don't want or need my opinion on music but it's going to be here. Album reviews, classic albums spotlights, maybe an interview, and bands or artist that are trying to destroy music (ie things I think suck!).

So enjoy and let's have fun.