“Co-headlining tours” are just a thing booking agents set up to stop bands’ respective managers throwing a hissy fit over where their charges are in the running order, right? The most recent players of this deadly game of brinkmanship are Cancer Bats and While She Sleeps. We sent Josh Graham along to the Glasgow leg of the tour to scope out which band came out on top.
6 things we learnt while watching Cancer Bats and While She Sleeps in Glasgow:
Look, we know it’s nearly Christmas, but that doesn’t mean that the relentless touring machine at the heart of heavy metal has stopped yet. Kreator and Arch Enemy have only just finished a punishing double-headliner tour. We sent Pete Long along to headbang himself senseless at the London leg of the tour.
6 things we learnt while watching Arch Enemy and Kreator in London:
Mors Principium Est
Dawn of the 5th Era
AFM Records
05 December 2014
by Pete Long
The key to a good melodic death metal album is a multitude of great riffs, teetering right between wild-eyed aggression and impressible catchiness. But the majority of bands in the genre seem to have forgotten this in their quest to push its boundaries. Mors Principium Est’s new album, Dawn of the 5th Era, is an antidote to that. It’s filled to the brim with great riffs.
tētēma
Geocidal
Ipecac Records
08 December 2014
by Ruth Booth
Attaching the name “Mike Patton” to a project can make a lot of us lose most, if not all critical faculties about music. And when it comes to stepping out of our comfort zones, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. tētēma is the latest project from avant-garde composer Anthony Pateras – and their first output, Geocidal, a heady hyper-future blend of earth-conscious electronica and analogue sound. Patton serves as human instrument – but one that doesn’t steal the scene as much as you’d expect.
Primordial
Where Greater Men Have Fallen
Metal Blade
24 November 2014
by Pete Long
It is impossible to discuss Primordial without talking about the music’s emotion as much as the music itself. Pride, grief, rage; these things meld into each other and every note, giving the band a resonance and sincerity that politicians and Christmas adverts alike would kill for. Where Greater Men Have Fallen is very much in the same vein as its predecessors, and for a band of Primordial’s consistency, that can only be a good thing.
Soen
Tellurian
Spinefarm Records
03 November 2014
The old adage about difficult second albums usually applies to bands whose debuts were heaped with a barrage of saccharine praise. Soen, a supergroup made up of members of Willowtree and Opeth, are now are in a similarly difficult juncture but for opposite reasons. Their debut, Cognitive, was universally criticised for its borrowings from Tool, from its sleek, subversive delivery and socio-enviro-eco-political parables, right on through to its Lateralus-like artwork.
Vesania
Deus Ex Machina
Metal Blade
27 October 2014
by Pete Long
It’s probably enshrined in ancient charter that all Polish metal bands must have at least one member who at some point has contributed to one of Behemoth, Vader or Decapitated. Sure enough, of Vesania’s three founder members, frontman Orion plays bass with Behemoth, bassist Heinrich has played with Decapitated, and drummer Daray has played with Vader (and just about everyone else). It sort of makes them a supergroup in reverse. It also probably accounts for why it’s been seven years between albums.
Devin Townsend Project
Z2
InsideOut Music
27 October 2014
by Ruth Booth
Since Devin Townsend returned to music four years ago, we’ve seen nearly all sides of his diverse output reimagined and revitalised under his “Devin Townsend Project” moniker. All except one that is – Ziltoid The Omniscient, titular star of Townsend’s 2007 record and the musician’s malevolent alien alter-ego. Seven years on, we finally have Z2 – the spiritual follow-up to ZTO’s screed on creativity and caffeine addiction – but with a difference this time.
Anaal Nathrakh
Desideratum
Metal Blade
27 October 2014
by Rob McAuslan
How, if you’re Anaal Nathrakh, do you develop your sound even further into the realms of the ridiculously extreme? It’d be fair to say that in their pretty rarefied stratum, Nathrakh are already top dog – black-grind-industrial-death metal isn’t the largest of fields to be playing in, after all – but not content with this status, these Midlands misanthropes attempt to push harder and harder with each release.
It takes talent and force of will for a band to change direction as solidly and successfully as Anathema have done. The last half-decade has seen the band truly shrug off their heavier, more goth-metal roots, becoming trailblazers in the UK prog scene. We sent Cheryl Carter along to the London date of their most recent tour to marvel at Anathema’s enduring appeal.
6 things we learnt while watching Anathema in London: