CD Review: Jakob Dylan - Women + Country

Jakob Dylan
Women + Country
3.9/5

Listen to: Holy Rollers For Love
Skip it: Truth For A Truth

Jakob Dylan’s 2008 debut solo effort Seeing Things faced harsh reviews, most notably accusing Dylan and lone guitar of being too raw and boring a duo. Usher in Dylan’s latest work Women + Country, which forges a new folk-country landscape.

The sun rises over album-opener “Nothing But The Whole Wide World,” revealing the newly acquired feminine vocal presence of Neko Case and Kelly Hogan. Acting solely as a harmony section, Dylan’s women are an easily welcomed contrast to his distinct undertone voice.

A mid-day calm settles in less optimistic sounding second song “Down On Our Own Shield.” The tune furthers Dylan’s musical horizon by dawning an instrumental pair of slide steel strings and banjo that trade up focus between one another, a technique used on most tracks. The ladies persist, providing frequent backup vocals sneaking in at essential moments.

Then “Lend A Hand,” complete with muzzled trumpet squawks and free-ranging blues guitar, leaves Dylan alone on the microphone. The speakeasy appropriate song frumps along a tipsy bass line and distant time-keeping bass drum, then eases seamlessly into slow-wandering “We Don’t Live Here Anymore,” reminiscent of sixties electric country.

The next four songs plateau somberly with Dylan’s voice challenged by the women’s harmonizing cries and emotion inducing western string instruments. “Truth For A Truth” struggles to entertain with an off-kilter guitar lead, before tempo rises again in “They’ve Trapped Us Boys” with a hoedown hop-along banjo and Cash-style bass line.

“Smile When You Call Me That” and “Standing Eight Count” achieve a high point for the album to end on, like it began. A day in the new life of a lone guitarman supported by a rejuvenating backing band.

Track Listing:

1. Nothing But The Whole Wide World
2. Down On Our Own Shield
3. Lend A Hand
4. We Don’t Live Here Anymore
5. Everybody’s Hurting
6. Yonder Come The Blues
7. Holy Rollers For Love
8. Truth For A Truth
9. They’ve Trapped Us Boys
10. Smile When You Call Me That
11. Standing Eight Count

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: The Crinn - Dreaming Saturn

The Crinn
Dreaming Saturn
4/5

Listen To: Anaphylactic Shock
Skip It: Lucid Dream Field

Jazz techniques are used in every genre of metal, from the speedy feathered bass drum turned double bass, or soloing trades between battling guitars. However, it’s always hard to label a band as purely jazz-metal.

That said The Crinn mixes jazz technicality into their sound in a style that can be labeled as jazz-metal. Their sixth studio album Dreaming Saturn is laden with sporadic tempo shifting guitar and bass lines, like on “Incipience,” the disc’s first track that foundations the high-pitch pinball guitar picking to be used in every song.

But when Dreaming Saturn isn’t mud sliding through informal guitar leads, you are subject to staple metalcore techniques. Like the heavy chugging breakdowns of “Meat Eating Machines” that allow vocalist John Nelson to let out some steam-relieving screams. Or the machinegun-guitar sprays of “Anaphylactic Shock” that splice forward motion in preparation for a breakdown of UFO-themed octivated power chords sailing high over a solid drum centre.

“Cathartic Insurrection” features an electrifying hammer on/pulloff guitar frenzy wildly impressive to any player. And that is just it. Dreaming Saturn is largely a display of technical, jazz-style musicianship, often giving Nelson a break on the mic for minutes on end.

The downside to this album is its track-similarity. If you need to know when songs end and begin without watching your track counter, Dreaming Saturn isn’t for you. Like when “Anaphylactic Shock” seamlessly becomes “Cathartic Insurrection,” for example, you don‘t notice a song change. The track’s don’t recycle riffs between one another, but all songs on Dreaming Saturn conform to The Crinn’s distinct style.

Track Listing:

1. Incipience
2. Meat Eating Machines
3. Anaphylactic Shock
4. Cathartic Insurrection
5. Voluptuous Eruptions
6. Magnetic Magician
7. Syzygy
8. Lucid Dream Field
9. Down, In Waves

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: Bleeding Through - S/T

Bleeding Through
Bleeding Through
3.9/5

Listen To: Breathing In The Wrath
Skip It: Light My Eyes

Bleeding Through’s latest self-titled album is another testament of the band’s boundary crossing sound. Throaty hardcore vocals and heavy power chord structures team up with extreme metal riffing, blast-beat drums, melodic singing and symphonic keyboards to round out a sound far from being simply metal-hardcore.

“A Resurrection” lays out the symphonic foundation for the record with layered violins and keyboards, before bursting into the face-slapping blast-beat and speed metal riff of “Anti-Hero.” All this within two minutes of the disc's opening, and then “Anti-Hero” merges into a hardcore anthem complete with circle-pit inducing triplet drums upholding echoey chants of I’ve Seen Enough of You … I’ve Heard Enough of You scorching over low palm-muted power chords. “Your Abandonment,” “Breathing In The Wrath” and “Fifteen Minutes” follow similar structures with heavy, pace-slowing guitar bludgeons supporting explosive battle cries.

The shape-shifting Bleeding Through also displays progressive metal techniques throughout the album. From the lightning fast guitar solo in “Fifteen Minutes,” to the blast-beat exposé that is “This Time Nothing Is Sacred,” the band displays thrash and black-metal influences jetting out of their hardcore centre.

If that isn’t enough, Bleeding Through also rocks a symphonic-metal sound through a distortion-dissecting keyboard illuminating over massive riffs. In “Slow Your Roll” and “Distortion, Devotion” the synthesized sound grabs your attention by accentuating the chord changes with refreshing bursts of high tones.

Bleeding Through’s sound on this disc punches across that they are not easily defined. If you’re looking for a distinct, experimental sound masked by massively heavy metal-hardcore, you should listen to this.

Track Listing:

1. A Resurrection
2. Anti-Hero
3. Your Abandonment
4. Fifteen Minutes
5. Salvation Never Found
6. Breathing In The Wrath
7. This Time Nothing Is Sacred
8. Divide The Armies
9. Drag Me To The Ocean
10. Light My Eyes
11. Slow Your Roll
12. Distortion, Devotion

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

Palahniuk Back With New Novel, Tell-All

Photo Source: amazon.co.uk

Critically acclaimed award-winning novelist of Fight Club and Choke, Chuck Palahniuk has released his latest novel, Tell-All on Doubleday on May 4, 2010.

A Random House review of Tell-All on The Cult, Palahniuk’s official website, describes the novel as a “Sunset Boulevard–inflected homage to Old Hollywood when Bette Davis and Joan Crawford ruled the roost; a veritable Tourette’s syndrome of rat-tat-tat name-dropping, from the A-list to the Z-list; and a merciless send-up of Lillian Hellman’s habit of butchering the truth” (Source: chuckpalahniuk.net).

Narrator Hazie Coogie, caretaker of Hollywood actress Katherine “Miss Kathie” Kenton, guides the mysterious tale turned murder plot when Miss Kathie’s latest suitor, Webster Carlton Westward III, is discovered to have written a celebrity tell-all memoir alluding to Miss Kathie’s death in a forthcoming Lillian Hellman musical (Source: chuckpalahniuk.net).

Tell-All thus pays homage to American playwright Lillian Hellman, who died in 1984. Following the discourse laid out in Hellman’s autobiography, The Unfinished Woman (1969), Palahniuk reproduces Hellman’s controversial starlet persona crafted during her forty-plus year career. After penning critical successes such as The Children’s Hour (1934) and The Little Foxes (1939), Hellman’s public image was tested in the 1950s when she was blacklisted by the Hollywood Movie Studios for her long-time affair with communist party member and detective-novelist Dashiell Hammet.

Palahniuk is also set to release a novel, Damned, in 2011, which he said in an interview with Doubleday is “about an eleven-year-old girl who finds herself in Hell and learns how to manipulate the corrupt system of demons and bodily fluids. Imagine if The Shawshank Redemption had a baby by The Lovely Bones and it was raised by Judy Blume, and you have my next new project” (Source: chuckpalahniuk.net). Watch for a North American tour by Palahniuk soon in support of Tell-All.

Published by campusintel.com

10th Annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash Scheduled

Photo Source: joeyramone.com

The 10th Annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash is scheduled for May 19 at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza in New York City. This year’s event is being headlined by Hank III and Morningwood, with supporting acts The Sic Fucks, The Independents (whom Ramone managed shortly before his death), Spanking Charlene, and Heap. The Joey Ramone Birthday Bashers, a parade of rock and roll underworld royalty featuring Little Steven Van Zandt, Mickey Leigh, Richie Ramone, Walter Lure, Cheetah Chrome, Thunderbolt Patterson, Ed Stasium, and Hank III will also perform at the night. All proceeds from the event go to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.

The bash celebrates the punk godfather’s life which ended on April 15, 2001 due to complications with lymphoma cancer. Shortly before his death, the 59 year old Ramone made his brother, guitarist Mickey Leigh, Rattlers, and mother Charlotte Lester promise they would celebrate his birthday that year. Now a ten year long tradition, the annual bash is notorious for its wild party atmosphere and performances from punks the Ramones hung out with and influenced alike. The first bash featured Cheap Trick and Blondie, and since The Misfits, Rocket From The Crypt, The Bouncing Souls, The Waldos, and The Saints have all hit the stage for Ramone’s birthday.

After Joey Ramone died the legacy of the Ramones thrusted into the mainstream. The seminal punk rock band responsible for stripping down pompous rock and roll in the late 70s with such worldly hits as “I Wanna Be Sedated” and “Blitzkrieg Bop” were recognized for their importance to modern rock. The first Ramones album, released in 1976 and produced by the reputed Phil Spector (Beatles’ Let It Be), is widely considered as the prototype for the first wave punk era that reshaped mainstream music.

Joey also did a lot of work outside the Ramones. In 1985 he joined Little Steven Van Zandt’s advocacy group Artists United Against Apartheid acting against the Sun City Resort in South Africa. Other acts he worked with include Youth Gone Mad, Helen Love, Ronnie Spector, Blackfire, and The Independents. In 2003, a section of East 2nd Street near CBGB’s nightclub where the Ramones played their first shows in New York City was officially renamed Joey Ramone Place. In 2002, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the same year that Joey’s last work, a solo album entitled Don’t Worry About Me, was posthumously released by his predecessors. On May 14, 2009, Joey himself was inducted into the Hall of Fame, as well.

With sources from joeyramone.com

Published by campusintel.com

Cannibal Corpse with 1349 and Skeletonwitch @ The Opera House, April 28 (Live Review)

Cannibal Corpse

with Skeletonwitch and 1349
April 28, 2010
Opera House

Cannibal Corpse drew a pilgrimage of diehard metal fans at the Opera House stop of their Evisceration Plague Tour Wednesday night. Skeletonwitch from Athens, Ohio opened the bill to a diverse crowd of cretins sporting everything from original Death t-shirts and knee high shitkickers, to black and white zombie makeup and the odd street punk rat-tail. “Alright, let’s see an old school circle pit” Skeletonwitch front man Chance Garnett summoned during the double bass backed breakdown of “Repulsive Salvation” with a rotating outstretched arm toward the pit, fairly tightly packed for an opener. Rightly, though, because Skeletonwitch’s thrashy half hour performance was like a travelling edition of Headbanger’s Ball. Chance circling around the stage and chugging beers like a possessed ring leader, and N8 Feet Under and Scunty D. funneling out continuous guitar riffs in front of bull skull-and-horns on their amps. Skeletonwitch got all the corpse-grinder lovers partying with “Stand, Fight, and Die” off their newest record Breathing The Fire, which induced propellerish hair swirls from Chance and hundreds of devil horned arms from the pit. The house party atmosphere reigned on with Chance’s pre-song wisecracks of “Smoke weed Toronto” and “We got any beer drinkers out there?” met with yells and whistles from the crowd. Ripping versions of “Crushed Beyond Dust” also off Breathing The Fire and “Beyond The Permafrost” off the 2007 record of the same name got plastic beer cups flying as fans danced to their favourites. The ravenous double guitar harmony of “Within My Blood” off their first album At One With The Shadows ended the energetic set, Chance at centre stage with devil horns extended high overhead. “Drink beer, smoke weed, and for the love of God, eat some fucking pussy” he lastly demanded in his demonic metal hiss, and the beer chugging party was over.

By the end of Skeletonwitch’s set there were double the people roaming around the Opera House in anticipation of black-metal heavyweights 1349. I skittered upstairs to the Opera House balcony to find some breathing room, where I scored an impeccable view of the stage. A floor rattling cheer erupted as the house darkened and reverberating thunder noises echoed around, and someone on the balcony sparked up a skunky joint. Clouds of dry ice fogged up the stage as 1349 laid down their first track which drew more attentiveness than moshing from the crowd below. Vocalist Ravn was in full black-metal garb with spiky forearm bondage gear and mid-thigh warrior boots, bassist Seidemann lurked around in a black wizard cloak, and all four 1349 guys were sporting black and white face makeup. Touring guitarist Sechtdamon outstretched a grappling talon toward the crowd before “When I Was Flesh” off this year’s Demonoir which fractured the continually used inter-song storm sound samples allowing the band to catch their breath. The lightning fast snare buzz-blasts of “I Am Abomination” off 2005’s Hellfire finally got about fifteen to twenty pitmen thrashing hard, and Ravn slowly sauntered around the stage like a cocky, satanic Mick Jagger. “Sculptor Of Flesh” opened up the pit some more, and “Atomic Chapel” got all three frontmen and several crowd members head banging hard for the end of the forty minute set.

The now amply warmed up crowd cheered as a massive banner reading Cannibal Corpse in dripping blood red letters elevated behind the drum kit. Corpsegrinder opened with a four song inferno that saw the sardine-can-like dance floor break out into a chaotic slam pit - arms, legs, and beer cups jetting out from every direction. “You guys are fuckin’ rowdy tonight, let’s keep it goin’,” singer George Fisher said before introducing “The Wretched Spawn” with a growl, triggering an eruption of cheers. A punching rendition of “I Will Kill You” led to the band’s first of many breath-catcher breaks, during which Fisher, dressed simply in a black t-shirt and cargo-pants tucked into mid-shin combat boots, raised and lowered cheers from the crowd with orchestra conductor arms.

“Don’t make me vertically destroy you, ‘cause it’s quite obvious I can kick your head in” Fisher said before the title track of Corpse‘s latest album Evisceration Plague, laying out his violent, vengeful rhetoric for the set. He was largely concerned with keeping up pit energy, introducing other songs with “This is for anyone giving you shit,” “I wanna see a fuckin’ circle pit for this one,” and “This is Cannibal Corpse’s time, so if you see anybody on the outside playing with their pecker, pull them in and start slammin’.” A mid-set execution of “Death Walking Terror” off 2006 album Kill got everyone grooving with its slower-tempo head banging opportunities and thunderous tom drum fills beat out by original Corpse-ster Paul Mazurkiewicz.

Then came the first song ever played by Cannibal Corpse, “Splattered Brains, Scattered Remains,” one of many old school offerings for the first wave Corpse diehards represented by original 90s tour shirts. “Pit Of Zombies” off 2002’s Gore Obsessed brought the show back to current era and got the pit swaying from wall to wall in crashing waves of people. Original Corpse bassist Alex Webster approached the stage monitors afterward to give a frown-mouthed nod and air-props of approval to the adoring fans. Next was a wicked rendition of “Make Them Suffer,” during which Fisher pointed at all corners of the Opera House, considerately pulling all into the song’s sentiment. “This goes out to everyone in the pit. And for those not in it, buy them a beer or a shot later, or I’ll kill you myself,” he then threatened before another old school offering of “A Skull Full Of Maggots” from first Corpse album, 1990’s Eaten Back To Life. Thrashing drums rolled out from the stage while Fisher once again conducted the crowd for the hair raising “Maggots” chants . Fisher growled “Keep supporting death metal” before sending off the insanely long hour and twenty minute set with “Hammer Smashed Face,” which no doubt got the most erupting response from the crowd, notably during the bass fill from Webster somewhat answering the crowd’s previously unanswered calls for a bass solo. The Corpse was tight, and needless to say, my ears were bleeding when I left the Opera House.

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

Fuck The Facts at The Alex in Brantford (Live Review)

Fuck The Facts
The Alex, Brantford
April 23, 2010

“Move the fuck up here,” beckoned Fuck The Facts bassist Marc Bourgon at the Alex in Brantford last Friday night while lead vocalist Mel Mongeon skittered around the empty front row pit-space. The audience of local punk and metal-core diehards quickly filled the floor’s void for the intimidating 10-song mudslide of drop-B tuned guitars and blast-beat infernos leaving a grind core bullet hole in the Brantford scene.

The quintet slipped ferociously into “Wake” off their latest release which came out in February. You can’t find the limited 1000 copy pressing in stores, aptly titled “Unnamed EP,” no doubt playing on Fuck The Facts’s fractured metal style most closely associated with grind, but ever indefinable with varying genre injections of industrial, punk, and stoner groove. Further personifying the confusion record buyers face when encountering their music, the band played on a continuously unlit stage at the Alex with minimal banter between songs that often seamlessly melded into one another. The distortion dripping chaos is faceless to the average heavy rock listener, empowering FTF’s niche noise to its fullest intentions.

They slowed the set’s tempo with “My Failures (Just Like Yesterday)” off their 2008 split with Belgium deathgrinders Leng Tch’e. Then a quick, audacious rendition of “The Sound Of Your Smashed Head” off Stigmata High-Five triggered more slam-moves in the pit, and Mongeon couldn’t help but tizzy-groove her growl spewing noggin with the blast beat crash along. “Kelowna” off 2008 full-length Disgorge Mexico and “Ballet Addict” from 2003’s Backstabber Etiquette rounded out the performance that gave Brantford a glimpse of what‘s going on around Ottawa right now: original hardcore metal that knows no borders and plays into no commercial agenda. Or, real art.

Bleeding Through, Born Of Osiris, Sleeping Giant, Oceano, Stray From The Path @ Opera House (Show Review)

Bleeding Through
with Stray From The Path, Oceano, Sleeping Giant, Born Of Osiris
April 26, 2010
Opera House

Long Island’s melodic metal-hardcore upstarts Stray From The Path kicked off the Toronto installment of the Spring Breakdown Tour with singer Andrew Dijorio’s crowd-waking stage presence, marking his territory by constantly pacing back and forth between bassist Ryan Thompson and guitarist Tom Williams. The band slipped into the ferociously fast “Damien” off their latest album Make Your Own History, and got some help from a dedicated fan on the breakdown vocals. After giving props to the rest of the bands on the bill, Stray From The Path punched out “White Flag” off their 2007 release Villains which instigated high-raised leg-slams from all three frontmen. “You guys havin’ a good fuckin’ time tonight?” asked Dijorio after a quick two minute breath catcher intermission. Then the guys offered a cover of “Bulls On Parade” by Rage Against The Machine that saw the whole dance floor hopping along and huddle jumping toward Dijorio’s outstretched mic hand. The set ended with “Comrades,” inducing a telltale hardcore rant from Dijorio of “Male, female, black, white, I don’t give a fuck. You can joint this shit, be a part of music.”

Next was renowned four-piece Chicago death metal powerhouse Oceano who unleashed a quick twenty-five minute, yet wildly impressive set. Singer Adam Warren’s gut-wrenchingly low growls sounded like those of an angry froth-mouthed hellhound looking for a rage outlet. The distortion drenched drop-A tuned bass and lead guitars manned by Kevin Colabuono and Andrew Mikhail (respectively) provided a perfect match for Warren, pulling out of him the most intimidating underworld growls and high-pitched metal spews of the night. After a couple numbers Warren demanded “Let’s open this fuckin’ pit up,” and onlookers followed queue by breaking out in massive wind-mill arm throws and floor-cracking boot-stomps. The band belted out a thrashing rendition of “A Mandatory Sacrifice” off their recent debut album Depths, and also debuted a new song in their audience pressured encore. One word describes the feel of Oceano’s set: devotion. With minimal inter-song banter and ravenous death metal offerings, these guys had an explicit ‘no guff, let’s fuckin’ throw it down’ air.

Christian hardcore group Sleeping Giant was up third. They opened their set with “Gang Signs” off their latest 2009 record Sons Of Thunder during which there was an issue with microphone levels. Singer Thom Green didn’t let it bother him, though, continuing to instigate the crowd by approaching the stage monitors and beating his chest while mouthing the lyrics. “No One Leaves This Room Sick” got the five-piece’s guitarists head banging which spread contagiously. But some members of the audience grew uneasy when Green set up their next tune “Whoremonger.” “Religion has ruined who Jesus really is,” he said, “you won’t find the real Jesus in a church.” Some booed, some cheered, and Green attempted to justify his stance: “We’re not here to preach religion to you, but we’ve made friends with a God we didn’t know before.” Then during the song’s breakdown Green busted an odd lip-biting and ball-grab move.

Next was symphonic metal sextet Born Of Osiris, who were the clear crowd favourite evident by the fullest mosh pit of the evening. “Now Arise” off their latest full-length album A Higher Place got singer Ronnie Canizaro and guitarists Lee McKinney and Jason Richardson standing uniformly with left feet high on the stage monitors. Keyboardist/backup vocalist Joe Buras abandoned his instrument for a centre stage headbang before returning to his mark. Stage monitors were often used for a dominating, yet interactive presence, like during fourth song “Exist” for its attention grabbing guitar solo battle and fifth song “Abstract Art,” off 2007’s The New Reign, which saw both guitarists and bassist David Da Rocha standing tall above the crowd. The technical doubled guitar leads of “The New Reign” solidified the talent of Born Of Osiris’ guitar section. “Bow Down” sent the Opera House into a whirlwind of slam-dancers demonstrating the best of their style. And there were high-fives all around for front row fans from Born Of Osiris as they outro’d “Open Arms To Damnation,” another audience pleaser notable by numerous arms and bodies flailing around the pit.

After a few scenesters filed out from the pit and the bar filled with older metalcore diehards, Bleeding Through graced a blood red-lit stage. Vocalist Brendan Schieppati, scantily clad in mere gym-shorts in My War era Rollins fashion, hopped around the stage monitors creating a larger than life persona. “I wanna see a circle pit” he beckoned, and an honest attempt by those left on the floor was made. Third song “Declaration” got keyboardist Marta Peterson rocking into an air-filling hairswirl stance amidst bright white strobe-lights creating dark silhouettes of the band members. The strobe-light effect was used throughout Bleeding Through’s set, notably in “Rise” that saw Schieppati raise an inspiring fist high above his head. “We’re real fuckin’ happy to be on a Canadian label,” Schieppati explained in his set-up for “Anti-Hero” off the band’s 2010 self-titled album, out on Distort records. He let some crowd members help out on the I’ve Seen Enough vocals for the first breakdown, and the version also featured a tweaked drawn out feedback session before the second and final breakdown.

Schieppati reminisced about Bleeding Through’s early days as a “new band” before a smashing rendition of “Breathing In The Wrath.” “Now we’re the old band that can look down on all the new bands and say who the fuck are these guys,” the tattooed hardcore hero chuckled out before thanking all the bands on the bill by name, whom he called “the bands of the future.” Their next song, “Beneath The Grey” off 2008’s Declaration, was dedicated to Toronto’s own Cancer Bats, who now have a new title from Bleeding Through as being “bitchin’ dudes.” The set finished with “Kill To Believe” from 2006 full-length The Truth, during which guitarist Brian Leppke faced the drums for some feedoff energy. The band came back for an encore song determined by a coin toss, turning out to be “Sister Charlatan.”

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine