Nemesea-The Quiet Resistance (2011)

As I have stated before, one of my main concerns about the genre of symphonic rock/metal is that the overpowering operatic vocals get to be too much, lending less creativity to the music.  Some bands sound better with operatic vocals, while some sound better without.  Nemesea is of the latter variety. 

Nemesea is a Dutch band fronted by the extremely talented Manda Ophuis.  She started the band in 2002.  "The Quiet Resistance" fom 2011 is their best effort to date, and rumor has it that they are working on a yet-to-be-titled fourth studio album.  Based on what "The Quiet Resistance" offers, the new album will be at the top of my list in 2013. 

Nemesea has been compared to After Forever, but I find tht comparison to be shaky at best.  After Forever wrote some strong metallic riffs with rangy, operatic vocals, while Nemesea dwell on more of a rock-oriented sphere, preferring catchy rock tunes highlighted with grand keyboard orchestras.  Nemesea operates on the premise of hooky tunes inspired by mainstream hard rock with some punchy metal riffing fronting the extraordinary symphonic melody.

"The Quiet Resistance" was  one of the standout albums of 2011.  It is a fantastic record.  While listners at times will be reminded of After Forever, the album will also bring to mind late Within Temptation and Epica.  Not all symphonic metal bands are created equal, and thankfully, Nemesea is on the top shelf.  If you enjoy epic hard rock and metal music, you will love this release. 

For your listening pleasure, I have embedded the entire playlist from "The Quiet Resistance" below.  Be sure to check out High Enough and Stay With Me, as these are the best tracks in my opinion. Thanks so much for reading and as always, enjoy!

Jimmy Eat World and Jem

My selections for today come from my favorite artists that start with the letter J.  Tho the list was pretty lengthy I decided on these two artists.  One because they make incredible music and two because they are not that well known.  Let's start today with Jimmy Eat World.

In 1993 the alternative rock band Jimmy Eat World broke out onto the music scene.  Since then they have released seven studio albums with songs that have appeared on movie soundtracks and video games.  The band found real stardom with their fourth album Bleed America.  The track The Middle became their best selling single and landed on the Billboard charts.  I along with many of you became a Jimmy Eat World fan when this album came out.  This album has more rock elements to it and the songs are fun and cacthy.  The first song that I wanted to play for you is off this album and is titled My Sundown.  This is a slower song but I really enjoy it.  I appreciate the simpleness of this song.  I like the snapping of the fingers and the subtle drumming.  I also like the female accompaniment in this song.  I think that the lyrics to this song are great and hope you will enjoy it.



The second track I selected from them comes from their fifth album Futures.  I decided on Pain.  I know that this song was really popular when it came out and that it's nothing you haven't heard before but it's a great upbeat song that has Jimmy Eat World written all over it.  This song is fast paced and entertaining.  The music video is pretty cool too.  I like the message of this song too.  I makes me remember that anything artificial that claims to cure emotional pain is just a farce and you have to get to the bottom of the issue to really feel better but sometimes its fun to escape it temporally.  enjoy Pain below.



The second artist I chose is Jem.  She started singing in 2002 and her music is constantly used in film and TV show soundtracks.  Jemma Griffiths is a Welsh singer-songwriter who performs trip hop and new wave music.  I first heard her from a commercial for the movie Ultra Violet.  They played the track 24 in the background and I was like what is this?  I really liked it and had to go out and get the Cd.  24 appears on the CD Finally Woken which was her first album released in 2004.  The first song that I have chosen to share for you is Falling For You off the same album.  I feel connected to this song.  The lyrics are amazing and relateable.  How many of us have gotten our hearts stomped on and are fearful of letting a new someone in.  She displays this emotion beautifully in this song.  Her vocals are amazing as is the music.  Please listen to it below.




The second song I have chosen is It's Amazing off the Down To Earth album.  This song was featured in the Sex In The City movie.  I love the piano intro to this song.  I think that it sets up a great surprise when the electronic instruments start.  The blending of the two make for an intriguing track that you have to listen to.  Again Jem's vocals are soulful and great.  I like the message of this song also.  All of need a little encouragement now and then.  I hope that you have enjoyed the tracks that I have chosen today and as always thanks for listening and enjoy-Kristy

Drowner

When searching for new music, I sometimes stumble across a band whose music is described as something I would definitely enjoy, but upon listening the music still surprises me.

Texan shoegaze act Drowner pulled that off earlier this year with the release of their debut self-titled album.  This isn't one of those discs where the cover art intrigued me enough to give the album a listen.  It was tagged as shoegaze music, which was a style I was really into at the time.  I listened to a track from it and enjoyed it. 

So much time has passed and I still have not gotten around to reviewing this album, until now.  While treating you with the style of sound most commonly referred to as shoegazing, Drowner also borrows textures and techniques from post-rock, dream pop, psychedelic rock, and ambient.  What is left is an intriguing blend of all of the above styles.  This album is thick with reverb and distortion, off-kilter drum patterns, and the occasional vocal hook that leaves listeners yearning for more. 

My one issue with this disc is that the vocals are extremely ordinary and don't exactly pop.  This may be what the band was going for, but it struck me as odd and a bit disconcerting.  Lyrical hooks are repeated more often than punk and grunge bands repeat hooky lines from singable choruses.  If you can get past the vocals and lyrics, there is plenty to be enjoyed here. 

In this album, the vocals are often overlaid and sometimes juxtapose with cascading ambiance and post-rock atmospheres.  Casual, slender tones of earthy guitar melodies highlight some tracks, while on others, heavy rock riffs overtake the keyboard atmosphere.

While this band is certainly talented, they can hopefully improve on their vocals with their next disc.  With better vocals, this would be a can't-miss album of 2012.  Enjoy a couple of the standout tracks below.  Thanks for reading!

Randomness: The Birthday Massacre and Jo Blankenburg

We've got the randoms again today.  What, two days in a row?  For some reason we just can't shake the Amazon syndrome lately.  We've gone crazy listening to music from artists we've never heard before.  If you know of a cure to this syndrome, please dial 1-800-EAT AMAZ immediately.

Sarcasm aside, let's get to looking at the firsts of our artists today.  The Birthday Massacre has a silly, but somewhat threatening name.  Their album covers all seem to be equally ridiculous.  Still, their latest, "Hide and Seek," is an eye-catcher.  I listened to roughly the first 45 seconds of a couple of tracks, so I still don't exactly know what I'm getting into.  The first seemed to be a funky symphonic/pop/electronica song with an interesting take on epic atmospheres created through orchestral keys.  The vocals are just as interesting.  The second song begins as a more metal-driven song with those epic keys backing it up.  While simple, my descriptions will have to do, because
I haven't heard much of what I'm writing about.  What I did hear I liked.  Check out these two tracks from "Hide and Seek."

If you are in the mood for some more epic musicianship in the vein of what we talked about in yesterday's post, you are invited to listen to some of Jo Blankenburg's latest music.  This music is film-inspired, but not a true soundtrack.  She fills in plenty of orchestral goodness with modern sounding percussion remarkably.  The album cover was also an eye-catcher (hmm, there seems to be a trend developing here).  If you like film music, "Elysium" is for you.  Check out a couple of tracks from Blankenburg's new effort below.  As always, thanks for reading and enjoy!

Randomness: Two Steps from Hell and Hans Zimmer

Amazon means well.  They really do.  Their main intent, of course, is to make money, and make no mistake they are very good at it.  How do they do it.  For starters their website is set up so that it remembers everything you look at.  From there, it matches other music you might not have heard to items you have viewed to introduce you to more music, which you will hopefully buy.  That's the tactic, and it works on me.  Shame to admit, but it does.  Sometimes I use this tactic to find music i might like.  I was looking up the soundtrack to Angels and Demons, and then stumbled upon two items that caught my eye.

The first thing I saw was the shimmering artwork for Two Steps from Hell's"Skyworld".  I listened to some of it and started digging for information regarding this artist.  Two Steps from hell is a music production company from the greater Los Angeles area.  Their focus seems to be primarily making music for film trailers.  Just this year they have released a public album comprised entirely of brand new music.  This music is grand, epic, orchestral music that is basically made for film.  Throw out every preconceived notion of what recorded contemporary music might sound like, because this artists smashes these boundaries with a profound studio effort that will go straight to my collection as soon as possible.

Within the first few bars of "Skyworld"s opening track, my jaw was picking up lint cat hair from the floor.  I highly recommend this music.  Stay tuned for a full album review when I get the chance to listen to the whole disc.  For now, here is Titan Dream.


My second discovery was that the new soundtrack to The Dark Knight Rises has been released.  Hans Zimmer returns to the fray to compose the music for the third new Batman movie, and is impressive as always.  It seems that official full tracks are hard to come by on the Internet, but I did manage to pull this track from YouTube.  I have not checked the track listing on the soundtrack for this, so who knows if this track is part of soundtrack or not.  However, if this is but a taste of what the soundtrack offers, count me in.  Just a few more dollars of mine to Amazon's coffers.  They are so good.  Either I'm terrible or my love for music transcends money.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!

New stuff from SycAmour and Winters Wish

I feel I have to star this off by quoting a movie called Mercury Rising.  "I'm so glad I missed the whole (djent) thing, so my (ears are) virgin territory for (punchy riffs and soaring melodies)". 

If you are unfamiliar with the recent wave of djent music, I can offer some insight on what the term implies.  Djent is a sub genre of metal built from fragments of metalcore, groove metal, and thrash.  It gets its name from the way it sounds, because the riffing sounds like the word djent.  It mostly earns a negative connotation these days amongst fans of extreme metal music due to how popular it became a few years ago where bands began to copy each other.  It seems that the basic template is the early work of Meshuggah.  This style of music is pounding, groovy metal music with both extreme and melodic vocals.  Michigan's SycAmour does not list Meshuggah as an influence, but you can hear it in their music.  This is heavy music with low, growling vocals during the verses, and uplifting clean vocals for the chorus.  I never was a fan of djent or anything related to it, but I am a huge fan of both Textures and Gojira, which take the Meshuggah sound and adapt it to their own philosophy on heavy music, therefore earning them a sound all their own.  I'm not willing to say yet whether SycAmour has their own style nailed down, but what I do hear is pretty good.  Take a listen to the stream from their bandcamp page below.


Winters Wish is a Sydney-based pop outfit that creates haunting melodies with slow, layered pop vocals over a stunning wash of ambiance.  This is not your average drone ambient, either, as the music is rich is soul and texture, something that drone is not.  The problem with this group is that their self-released EP "Persia" is so fresh that you cannot seem to buy it anywhere.  What is a person who likes the music to do?  At least they do have a full stream on their bandcamp page, which I am embedding below.  This music has a great balance between pop and ambient that I find to be unique and intriguing.  Listen below.  Enjoy!

Monochromie-Angels and Demons review

Don't get me wrong.  I liked the film adaptation of Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" a lot, and the score was incredible.  But, no this review has nothing to do with the film, the book, or the soundtrack.  Today we are looking at the new album from French post-rock act Monochromie.

Monochromie is the product of Wilson Trouvé.  His music shows a unique perspective on the post-rock genre, presenting numerous attitudes and textures through the musical landscape.  This variety is what makes Monochromie one of the best post-rock artists around in my opinion.  Airy ambient structures collide with more earthen live instrumentals and keyboards, which are at times distorted beyond recognition.  These opposing viewpoints, between light and bleak atmospheres, creates an impressive melody that at times flows like placid waters and at others like jumbles of boulders.  Chaos is interspersed with calm.  This texture may sound disjointed, but it works remarkably well. 

Citing influences ranging from Explosions in the Sky to Frederic Chopin to Franz Schubert, Monochromie is well-versed in several styles of music, including ambient, electronic, post-rock and even classical.  This variety is presented well throughout the album.

"Angels and Demons" relies on electronic ambient spheres of music played in tandem with heavily distorted live instruments to create melody, which is a tactic many post-rock bands employ.  This album has no vocals.  The music at times sounds uplifting and proud, and at others downtrodden and sad.  These kinds of contrasts are present at every turn during this album.  I can proudly give this album better marks than many of the other post-rock albums I have reviewed of late.  This is on par with Hammock's new offering, and even better than Inner Trip and Ana Never.  I highly recommend this music to fans of down tempo and electronic music, as well as the average fan not experienced in post-rock. 

Check out the full album stream, courtesy of Monochromie's bandcamp page below.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!!