Artist Of The Day: Nihkeetah

Every so often, I happen across a small project or solo artist that's doing something really cool; the last time that happened, little-known band Aerials turned into massively successful, Deep Elm-signed Lights & Motion. So, ultimately, anything could happen. Nihkeetah has the same thing going on. It might not be as cinematic as Christoffer Franzén's masterworks, but Artūras Juškevičius has as much creativity and passion for his music.

Getting into the debut from Nihkeetah, Perceive:Create is something of a rough-cut wonder. Juškevičius recorded everything from his home in Vilnius, Lithuania and the mixing is quite impressive for one man recording in his home studio. The spacious atmosphere of "Dissolve: Walls of Existence" is beautifully created, and the way he sets the drums in the backdrop of "A Perception" but brings them to the center-stage in "A Deception" is fantastically ingenious to shift the emotional context of the song. Juškevičius has a way with his recordings that portray something magnificent in a way that's very difficult to find with someone working on their own. Needless to say, I'm excited for more Nihkeetah.

To support the man, like Nihkeetah on Facebook and download and donate on Bandcamp!

Artist of the Day: Deathmole

It's been about a year since I've said too much of anything about Jeph Jacques' solo project Deathmole. However, a big step for the one-man band is here; the first physical release. Up until now, Jacques has only had his music distributed digitally, first by simple free fileshare, but presently on Bandcamp as well, despite the first album, Moletopopolis, missing from the streaming site. For his newest release, Jacques teamed up with the organization Make That Thing, a production agency that helps artists organize and complete their dreams through Kickstarter, so that the supporters can focus on the project rather than the process. Anyway, Permanence will be released via digital download, CD, and vinyl, depending on the level of support you want to provide to the man! And knowing what kind of music he puts out, I know for a fact that the newest release will be just as heavy as everything else the solo post-metal project has to offer.

Worried you won't have enough time to scrape together funds for supporting the project? No problem, the Kickstarter runs for another 24 days! And if you can't pick it up by then, there's a good chance that the album will appear on Deathmole's Bandcamp page after that (no guarantees, but just about everything else Jacques has released is up there).

Artist Of The Day: The Sun Explodes

The Sun Explodes released their second album in two years just a few days ago. The newest release, We Build Mountains, brings all the same ingenuity and creative new sounds that the first release brought us in the same strain. However, the sophomore, released just earlier this week, strays much further towards traditional metal, with influences from instrumental, rather than a sheer post-metal performance as featured in Emergence. This is good in some senses, such as the first single released before the more recent full-length, "SevenThreeOne," which features a prominent mathcore feel in the verses, a quieter post-rock-type bridge, and an outro that screams metalcore, which shows a large variety of genres in the composition. This genre-blending gives them the same degree of originality that was featured on their debut, and will serve them well throughout their musical career.

With the album released and everything going well for the band, there's almost sure to be some tour dates posted soon. Keep up with their website and watch for them!

Artist Of The Day: Russian Circles

After a successfully crushing release with their 2011 release, Empros, one can only expect powerful things with Russian Circles. Since the band announced their entry into the studio in May to start recording, there are only good things on the horizon. Since their release of Geneva, the band has pleased many critics with their musical changes and stylistic advances. And following Geneva, of course, the band's masterwork to date. Empros was such a fantastically written album that it received universal acclaim, so as always, I can't wait to see how the band plans to follow it up with currently untitled LP5.

Artist Of The Day: Oak

When I included this little French band in my first quarter update, I figured not many people were going to know about them. Heck, before about halfway through March, I didn't know about them myself. But once I took a listen, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. Oak's Not Afraid Anymore takes on the kinds of sounds that appear in Mogwai's Les Revenants, a slowly creeping sound that establishes an aura of ghostly fear, and then it broadens into a dark post-metal jam that easily matches up with Russian Circles' riffs on Empros. The coolest thing to see, though, is the band hearkening back to when post-rock artists didn't care about song length. Their most impressive work is absolutely "ER, 2am," probably the darkest thing I've heard this year. It crams so much misery into ten minutes that it feels like the song could go on forever, and there would never be a break from feeling anything but an eternal pit of despair. And despite releasing a 40 minute effort in January, the band lets their Facebook page know that they're back in the studio, working away on the next biggest thing. With so much promise in the first full-length, I can't wait to see what else they're coming up with. Bring on the sadness, Oak. I'm ready.

You can stream and download all of their music on their Bandcamp page.

Artist Of The Day: Rorcal

Winter is the perfect season for metal. They go hand in hand, truly; with early nights in the cold season, what better way is there to call in the day by blasting some of the darkest genre of music? Sadly, winter is on its way out, but it is fairly safe to say that new metal releases are only beginning. Enter Rorcal, with their third album released late last month. Unfortunately, I was unable to review it within a timely period, but I still wanted to talk about the album, which fits the style of their debut, Myrra, Mordvynn, Marayaa in the sense that it divides the tracks up in a conventional way, but very much hearkens to their prior release, Heliogabalus in terms of musical experimentation. The atmosphere on Vilagvege is well constructed, beautifully set-up by "I" and featured first on "D." However, after the black six begin (tracks "II" to "VII"), the tempo speeds up, leaving the traditional doom feel behind and working their way towards blackened death metal, which is a departure from Heliogabalus in both concept and sound. The change may not be welcome to some, but I think Vilagvege is one of the best metal releases out this year so far.

You can listen to the new record, as well as the rest of Rorcal's discography, on Bandcamp for free.

Free Music February: Take One Car

As the second month of an exciting year draws to a close, we want to offer up what we can find in terms of free. With everything becoming more expensive, the term draws the eye more and more every day. Thus, our Free Music February experiment continues.

The latest addition we have for you is Take One Car, a New York band who came out with a chart-topping album precisely one year ago. The band labels their sound as "Rock or something," which doesn't really define the genre-mixing with justice, but is essentially applicable - elements of heavy post-rock are there, but with both traditional rock influences (which is where Tyler Irish's astonishingly good vocals come from) and much darker post-metal roots as well, melding to form It's Going To Be A Nice Day, which both Casey and I thought was impressionable enough to appear on our year's end lists. On top of the band's fantastic second album, both their first album and live recordings will also be included in Free Music February, due to the band's generosity in celebrating the one-year release of Nice Day. It is an excellent offer for an even better album, absolutely worth a minute of your time.

You can find all of Take One Car's discography on their Bandcamp page, free for the next week only.

Artist of the Day: The Sun Explodes

As JFK so boldly said over 50 years ago, "We celebrate the past to awaken the future." Since the first review I wrote for MuzikDizcovery, two years ago today, I've found that nothing is more rewarding than helping bands get their names out to big audiences, which often gets people excited about music they've never even heard. So I decided the best way to celebrate my tenure would be to get people excited. While I have indeed talked about The Sun Explodes before, and they may not be the smallest of bands, they've got a big release coming up very soon that's worth mentioning. We Build Mountains is the post- / prog-metal band's sophomore album, and seeing as Emergence had so many unique things going for it, I'm expecting some quality composition on this new record. Without a definitive release date, we can't really do anything but hold our breath, but the album will show its face sometime within the next month or two, by the look of the band's Facebook updates. Until then, keep an eye out for the seemingly episodic teaser videos spotlighting the album, and check out Emergence if you haven't already.

The Sun Explodes has limited music on MySpace, but if you have an account, all their music is on Spotify.

Artist Of The Day: Scraps of Tape

Rarely has a band ever stuck to their sound as well as Scraps Of Tape. While the math-rock / post-rock band has added a larger emphasis on vocals in their more recent releases as well as producing higher-quality audio, the feel of each of their albums has been essentially the same. The core of the band's success is creating melodies to funky time signatures that attract the listener's ear and carry some emotional meaning with it; with four releases filling their repertoire, their most recent effort Resident Flux adds vocals to the already-proven formula and simply adds another dynamic layer to the intricate audio. The result is slightly easier for new listeners to relate to, but stays true to the band's original style.

RECOMMENDED ALBUM

This Is A Copy Is This A Copy (2007)
This record is a really fantastic record. The sound quality was increased from the debut tenfold, it features heavily emotional tracks that border on post-metal, and really marks a point of musical maturity for the band. They hit everything exactly right, "Death As It Should Be" introducing the album in an incredible way, the entirety of the album has powerful swells and depressingly moody dives, and it closes with a 10-minute emotional rollercoaster of a track, "Why Marcus Oh Why." The entire record is incredible and definitely warrants picking up and looking at.

You can look up the band's recent news and records on their website, and all of their records are on Spotify to stream for free!

Artist of the Day: Alcest

Music is, and always has been, about communicating a message from the artist, something they hold as a close personal ideal, to the audience. It's intended to be open to manipulation as the artist sees fit and send this message in as receptive a way as they can for the world to see. For Stephane "Neige" Paut, this message is a musical adaptation of memories of a far off country, "Fairy Land," that Neige remembers as a child. The point of Alcest is a way for the listener to be able to experience what Neige once had through his songs. The concept is hard for us to believe, feels so absurd - yet, whenever I hear Alcest, my mind wills itself to wander, and it becomes difficult to focus on the present. To me, this feels like solid evidence that whatever Neige has planned for his music, it succeeds at making the listener escape the world of today for something bigger than ourselves.

Artist of the Day: Beware of Safety

Our good friends over at the Mylene Sheath released Beware of Safety's most recent full-length effort. And I reviewed it, it was fantastic; it even made my top ten of last year. But after listening to it, I was curious - what happened in the history of the band that led up to the 2011 release Leaves / Scars? So I delved (not very deep, because everything's on Bandcamp). Their first EP, It Is Curtains, is an insightful look into their past. It features a much more laid back, rough-cut charm to the band's post-rock/post-metal approach; while it's not as stereo-quality, it does carry the emphasis of the band's core mechanic, and does it well, so it's not hard to see just where the band is coming from.

Meanwhile, dogs is the first release Beware of Safety has had on the Mylene Sheath, and it's the record that BoS really started refining their hybrid sound; the line between post-rock and post-metal are much more blurred, and in this sense, there's some of each going on at all times; there's always some intensity building, even when everything quiets, you can sense conflict, pressure, tension. And finally, Leaves / Scars, the culmination of the band's years of effort, showcase the best and brightest from the band, which you can read about in further detail in my review. It was their most fantastic thing to date (without a lot to choose from, but a lot of quality to consider to make up for quantity), and there are sure to be exciting things coming from Beware of Safety, so I'll keep you posted. But you should keep an eye out too, and watch for the next big thing.

Meanwhile, if you need something to tide you over until then, here's a link to Beware of Safety's Bandcamp page.

Artist Spotlight: Autism

One-man music projects always allow for a creative freedom that larger bands simply can't afford. When you're making music on your own, it lets you branch out and experiment with different sounds that may not be viable if you're working in a strictly one-genre environment. Autism is a band from Lithuania that pushes even the boundaries for solo projects, pushing into hopeful experimental post-rock and chugging If These Trees Could Talk vibe with post-metal riffs. The five-song EP coming soon, Falling Motion, features a greatly varied set, with tracks like "Cloudscapes" leaning towards an influence from Explosions in the Sky, and others such as "Bleak Reverie" siting stylistic sway from its darker brethren. It's a curious little release, and I urge you to check it out if you're looking for something to fit your instrumental needs.

You can stream the entire thing for free on Bandcamp, or download the five-track release for free here.

Artist of the Day: North

If I was going to introduce someone to post-metal the slow and careful way, to make them appreciate the genre for what it is instead of forcing them to listen to 20 minutes of a screaming man who sounds like he's on fire, I'd probably introduce them to North, an Arizona-centered band that does post-metal extremely well, but throws in touches of Mono or Explosions in the Sky to lighten the intensity a bit. The contrast between melodic portions and the heavy intensity that truly makes the band is what's beautiful about post-metal, and it's not hard to find a track in North's discography that really means something on a full spectrum of emotions, ranging from anger and hatred to a tender reminiscence.

Album Review: Deathmole - Advances

Album Rating: B+

I know I've been obsessing over Deathmole a little too much since I've been at MD, but there's been a lot of really great music coming from the one-man effort. The new album, Advances, plays off of what the previous album, Meade's Army brought to the Deathmole sound a month or so earlier. It's darker, more aggressive, and doesn't provide a clean cut, obvious melody for listeners to fall back on to get to the theme of the song. Advances is an intense, powerful work of post-metal that's definitely noteworthy if you want a more-than-decent gap-closer for the next Rosetta or Pelican release.

Artist of the Day: Deathmole

One may have noticed that I've written about Deathmole before. However, they're a band that I keep coming back to, and with good reason. In a similar strain to Kupek, Deathmole is a one-man band, writing music for the sake of writing music and spreading ideas. Jeph Jacques, writer of the webcomic Questionable Content, leads the effort of Deathmole, and has been quite successful musically, leading metal fans that read the comic into a realm of post-metal that compares itself easily to Russian Circles, or Isis. Jacques creates a dark atmosphere in his music with chords that don't necessarily resolve beautifully, creating a lot of tension in the music, and combines this with fast, aggressive rhythms that cause one to really feel what he's trying to portray. However, unlike a lot of post-metal, he's able to resolve a lot of his songs in the choruses, usually with a four-step chord progression similar, but way ahead of, much of metalcore music you might hear today. All of these musical qualities make Deathmole a very unique listen, and it's definitely worth checking out if you can appreciate some weird metal.

You can find most of Jacques' music on Bandcamp, and what you can't find there, you can easily find on Last.fm.

Album Review: Red Orchid - Blood Vessels & Marshmallows

Album Rating: C+

Sanmeet Sidhu is the driving force behind Red Orchid - an experimental band, if anything. Red Orchid works on ever expanding their genre base, drawing influences from everything to progressive rock to post-rock, and stopping at quite a few good (and a few not so good) places along the way. The full-length debut fully shows each genre Sidhu borrows ideas from. However, the way he goes about it is both the best and worst part of the album. Although a creative idea to mash each of one's favorite genres into a unique musical sound, there's too much blending of ideas into Blood Vessels & Marshmallows, to the point of muddling the core of the album into too many different strains to follow.

Artist Spotlight: Junius / Rosetta Split (vinyl)

A long time in coming, a split release on vinyl between Junius and Rosetta is something post-metal fans have been awaiting, and now it's here. Both of the tracks are wonderfully complementary to one another, with Michael Armine's screams in Rosetta being counterbalanced by Joseph E. Martinez's smooth crooning, and the melodies of "A Day Dark With Night" flowing easily into "TMA-3". The release is a great way for both bands to gain a bit of publicity too - Junius, of course, had just released a new album, and their single off of the split complements the new album beautifully, being in the same strain; Rosetta, on the other hand, allows fans to re-focus on their music, their release of A Determinism of Morality having been released halfway through last year. Rosetta has been planning for some new music in 2012 and had performed a couple of days ago in New York's Metal Suckfest, so we should be seeing more of them in the near future. One thing is for sure, though: this split rocks, and shows off the sound that both bands have been working for, and judging by this release, have clearly perfected.

The split comes out on vinyl on November 22nd, and you can pre-order it here!

If you haven't heard either of the tracks yet, you can find the Junius one here and the Rosetta one here.

Album Review: Beneath Oblivion - From Man To Dust

Album Rating: A+

When I said that the Mylene Sheath would have a successful year, I wasn't too far off, and the new Beneath Oblivion record really enforces the point. From Man To Dust is an extremely power record in post-metal, combining Agalloch's black-metal exploration with Grief's eternal hate, topped off with a strong dosage of Zoroaster-esque heaviness. For one who doesn't have a reference of any of those bands, if I were to make a comparison between Beneath Oblivion and Russian Circles, the former makes up in sheer intensity what it lacks in Russian Circles' technicality. This record is an immovable object, an emotional exploration of a post-apocalyptic world that will stand the test of time.

Album Review: Junius - Reports from the Threshold of Death

Boston-based project Junius isn't just going to kick the door in with the new record coming out October 25th - they plan to decimate it until nothing remains. Reports from the Threshold of Death is such a strong follow-up to the well-received 2009 work The Martyrdom of a Catastrophist that the album has received critical acclaim even prior to world release, and for good reason. The album is a veritable canvas upon which life, the universe, and everything are laid out plain for the eyes to see, and for the mind to develop. There isn't just one way to view and understand this album, it's a fluctuating, evolving experience that takes time to take in and longer to truly understand and appreciate, although its beauty is blatantly apparent right off the bat. It's a fantastically smooth listen and an experimentation in dark wave and space rock that leaves a unique taste in the listener's palate.

Album Review: Russian Circles - Empros

Chicago-based trio Russian Circles is a strong headliner in the post-metal business, and with the release of their fourth album, they mean business. Empros itself is a tour de force, and brings a fantastic progression from Geneva that does not beg to be played, but commands it. The sheer onslaught brought on by this album is like trying to fight a tank with your bare hands - the weaving riffs and quiet intensities only exist to serve the overall purpose of building an album so very reinforced that the entire release is a juggernaut. Simply put: post-metal fans, wait no longer. The brutality is here.