If there's a new Imperial Triumphant album you'll never know what to expect, punishing industrial soundscapes as punishing extreme metal is played through the experimental vein of free jazz.
This trio have been creating music to please themselves for a number of years now, the masked triumvirate always surprise with their records, each one a complex, suffocating trio through desolate cityscapes with art deco visuals around. I've always told anyone who really wants experience the band then do so either live or though headphones.
The latter is the only real way to listen to an album like Goldstar otherwise you'll miss the use of lead bass on Gomorrah Noveaux, which is akin to black metal Primus. It's not just the virtuoso playing though, without headphones much of the claustrophobic atmosphere Imperial Triumphant paint is missed, you can't pick up on the little background sounds, the spoken word fragments and samples.
Of course praise has to be given to long-term producer Colin Marston who always manages to capture the majesty and misery of IT's music. The band say that Goldstar is an album that "captures the tension between grandeur and collapse" completed in just five days there's a sense of insistence, an underlying panic that is only taken away by creating.
From the jazz parps that end Lexington Delirium, more jazz rhythms on Pleasuredome or the squelching black metal blast of Hotel Sphinx which segues into a synthy version of Handel's Suite No 4 in D Minor, HWV 437, Sarabande (any Dave Gorman fans?) This classical piece of music is retained as a motif for the song. They split the album with a retro cigarette advert for Goldstar brand cigarettes but even that feels haunted as if playing at the back of a Bioshock game.
From the jazz parps that end Lexington Delirium, more jazz rhythms on Pleasuredome or the squelching black metal blast of Hotel Sphinx which segues into a synthy version of Handel's Suite No 4 in D Minor, HWV 437, Sarabande (any Dave Gorman fans?) This classical piece of music is retained as a motif for the song. They split the album with a retro cigarette advert for Goldstar brand cigarettes but even that feels haunted as if playing at the back of a Bioshock game.
Goldstar is ominous, disconcerting, euphoric and glorious, Imperial Triumphant continue to forge their own gilded path in the extreme metal world. 9/10
Pop Evil - What Remains (MNRK Heavy)
It's a surprise to me that Pop Evil have eight albums but then I think we've been featuring them here since 2013's Onyx definitely and that was their fourth album. There's a resilience to Pop Evil, they've made their way from the Michigan scene to radio charting, arena selling modern rock masters, fronted by the powerhouse vocals and personal lyrics of Leigh Kaktay.
Pop Evil can be lumped in with bands like Shinedown, Alter Bridge and Breaking Benjamin but they stay true to their own sound too. On What Remains Pop Evil have dialled up the loudness, always a band with the most up-to-date production sound and style they move from Nu-Metal revival on When The Bullets Miss, to industrial noises on Death Walk and into thumping EDM on the title track.
Using the electronic music influences that have become so popular in modern rock music on every track. These atmospheres are due to What Remains being their most introspective album so far, it's also their most collaborative with Drew Fulk (Disturbed/Knocked Loose) producing again as Quistad, Zach Jones (Fever 333), KJ Strock (Ice Nine Kills/Motionless In White), and the Sparrow Sound team of Joe McQueen and Spiritbox bassist Josh Gilbert, all get involved with the sonic presentation of this record.
The huge choruses remain but with tracks such as single Wishful Thinking and Criminal they add some 2000's metalcore heaviness for plenty of beatdowns. Louder, larger and brasher than the previous albums, What Remains sees Pop Evil again evolving with what is popular on rock radio stations, as bands such as Spiritbox, Knocked Loose or Malevolence make waves, the smart ones like Pop Evil adapt to appeal while retaining their earlier mandate. 8/10
Gotthard - Stereo Crush (Reigning Phoenix Music)
I'm not sure what to make of Stereo Crush? It's got a title that should ensure some big hard rock riffs, more that 30 years of rock history lies within the story of Gotthard, they, alongside soon to be tourmates Krokus are the two pillars of Swiss rock music and have been adapting their sound throughout those years but always staying true to their rock n roll roots.
Well some rock n roll roots anyway as Stereo Crush, which the band called their "contemporary" record, seems to be a homage to the Fab Four with songs such as Liverpool and a cover of Drive My Car while spending much of the musical time in the melodic stylings of Bon Jovi. That's basically what their album boils down to, mid-pace stadium rock, a few ballads and some power pop touches on their 14th album.
Is it well written, well produced and well performed? Yeah absolutely. But is it as entertaining as it could be? Not to my ears, I found myself wanting a harder riff, a catchier chorus. I don't really want another song about A.I or another The Beatles cover, I definitely don't want any more Bon Jovi. 6/10
Anneke Van Giersbergen - La Vie EP (Self Released)
The initial part of trilogy of EP's that will form a new album La Vie is the first collection of new songs from Anneke van Giersbergen since 2021. The next two will be entitled La Mort and L'Amour and all three are inspired by Life, Death and Love, thus the titles. They will be a emotive, personal collection of songs written after the passing of both her parents and inspired by the music of the 80' and 90's that formed her musical education in her youth.
Reflective of the past but hopeful for the future, there are few vocalists who can inspire such an emotional response from their music, but Anneke has always been able to bring me to tears and I'm sure will do so again with this new project. We begin with One More Nanosecond, a beautiful song to begin this EP, a longing for things gone by, the massive band Anneke has playing densely orchestrated music..
When I Die is a Middle Eastern inspired, reflective track with Roland CR-78 drum loop, leading into the boisterous More Than A Thousand Words, a track that is hooked on a U2 guitar riff and an pop ear of Simple Minds or early Talk Talk.
This is just the beginning but La Vie is the first part of what could well be the best album from Anneke van Giersbergen to date. 8/10
Pop Evil - What Remains (MNRK Heavy)
It's a surprise to me that Pop Evil have eight albums but then I think we've been featuring them here since 2013's Onyx definitely and that was their fourth album. There's a resilience to Pop Evil, they've made their way from the Michigan scene to radio charting, arena selling modern rock masters, fronted by the powerhouse vocals and personal lyrics of Leigh Kaktay.
Pop Evil can be lumped in with bands like Shinedown, Alter Bridge and Breaking Benjamin but they stay true to their own sound too. On What Remains Pop Evil have dialled up the loudness, always a band with the most up-to-date production sound and style they move from Nu-Metal revival on When The Bullets Miss, to industrial noises on Death Walk and into thumping EDM on the title track.
Using the electronic music influences that have become so popular in modern rock music on every track. These atmospheres are due to What Remains being their most introspective album so far, it's also their most collaborative with Drew Fulk (Disturbed/Knocked Loose) producing again as Quistad, Zach Jones (Fever 333), KJ Strock (Ice Nine Kills/Motionless In White), and the Sparrow Sound team of Joe McQueen and Spiritbox bassist Josh Gilbert, all get involved with the sonic presentation of this record.
The huge choruses remain but with tracks such as single Wishful Thinking and Criminal they add some 2000's metalcore heaviness for plenty of beatdowns. Louder, larger and brasher than the previous albums, What Remains sees Pop Evil again evolving with what is popular on rock radio stations, as bands such as Spiritbox, Knocked Loose or Malevolence make waves, the smart ones like Pop Evil adapt to appeal while retaining their earlier mandate. 8/10
Gotthard - Stereo Crush (Reigning Phoenix Music)
I'm not sure what to make of Stereo Crush? It's got a title that should ensure some big hard rock riffs, more that 30 years of rock history lies within the story of Gotthard, they, alongside soon to be tourmates Krokus are the two pillars of Swiss rock music and have been adapting their sound throughout those years but always staying true to their rock n roll roots.
Well some rock n roll roots anyway as Stereo Crush, which the band called their "contemporary" record, seems to be a homage to the Fab Four with songs such as Liverpool and a cover of Drive My Car while spending much of the musical time in the melodic stylings of Bon Jovi. That's basically what their album boils down to, mid-pace stadium rock, a few ballads and some power pop touches on their 14th album.
Is it well written, well produced and well performed? Yeah absolutely. But is it as entertaining as it could be? Not to my ears, I found myself wanting a harder riff, a catchier chorus. I don't really want another song about A.I or another The Beatles cover, I definitely don't want any more Bon Jovi. 6/10
Anneke Van Giersbergen - La Vie EP (Self Released)
The initial part of trilogy of EP's that will form a new album La Vie is the first collection of new songs from Anneke van Giersbergen since 2021. The next two will be entitled La Mort and L'Amour and all three are inspired by Life, Death and Love, thus the titles. They will be a emotive, personal collection of songs written after the passing of both her parents and inspired by the music of the 80' and 90's that formed her musical education in her youth.
Reflective of the past but hopeful for the future, there are few vocalists who can inspire such an emotional response from their music, but Anneke has always been able to bring me to tears and I'm sure will do so again with this new project. We begin with One More Nanosecond, a beautiful song to begin this EP, a longing for things gone by, the massive band Anneke has playing densely orchestrated music..
When I Die is a Middle Eastern inspired, reflective track with Roland CR-78 drum loop, leading into the boisterous More Than A Thousand Words, a track that is hooked on a U2 guitar riff and an pop ear of Simple Minds or early Talk Talk.
This is just the beginning but La Vie is the first part of what could well be the best album from Anneke van Giersbergen to date. 8/10
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