Dysrhythmia-Test of Submission review

Recent and current college students will know what it is like to cram for an important exam only to stumble upon material they have not previously studied for.  No matter how much you try to absorb this material, it feels strange and foreign, and you hope it doesn't actually show up on the test.

Dysrhythmia's most recent album is a similar test for listeners.  Indeed it takes an unusually varied and advanced musical taste to appreciate the work of Dysrhythmia.  It is challenging music to listen to, perhaps more challenging than spelling the band's name.

This is a Philadelphia-based instrumental metal band with the ever-talented Kevin Hufnagel at the helm.  Hufnagel self-releases experimental and ambient solo albums occasionally, and much of the work on those discs is riveting guitar-based music.  Hufnagel is also a guitarist for technical death metal group Gorguts. 

Dysrhythmia plays an uncommon style of instrumental music that is influenced by guitar jazz-fusion and technical math metal.  They notes so numerous into their average six-minute track, that it is difficult to get a handle on any certain melody or pattern.  To many, this playing style will sound like pure noise.  To the more trained and refined ears, the music sounds like a a sonic wash of textures and emotions somehow impossible to put into words.  This is the beauty of music in general, and
Dysrhythmia captures that essence in spades.

Throughout this eight-track album, both the tension behind the riffing and drumming changes to dictate the shifting tempo of the music.  With this style of metal, vocals are an unnecessary albatross to the progression of the music, only serving to hamper the feeling it displays.  This band is similar to Animals as Leaders, but with a less prevalent leaning towards jazz-fusion passages.  The focus of this music is obviously Hufnagel's guitar wizardly, complete with otherworldly leads and furious shredding alongside complex metal drumming. 

The purpose of the drumming and the shredding is not to produce rhythm, but to shun it.  In this regard, the band's name is a perfect reflection on the style of music they play. 

I was neither impressed nor disappointed in this disc.  It was a good listen that will certainly earn it a regular place in the rotation, but not something I would listen to over and over again.  If you are in the market for an unusual listening experience bordering between metal insanity and jazz-fusion textures, then there is a good chance you will like this disc.  If you are a fan of Animals as Leaders, check this out.  We've got the full album stream via soundcloud here for you today.  Sorry that we could not find an embed.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!

A Mass of New Music

Good afternoon everyone!  Since we've fallen a little a lot behind on all the new music we like, we are going to take this opportunity to roll them into one huge post.  We are passing all of these along because we discovered them on the various blogs we follow.  We are also nice enough to cite our sources even though it is not a legal requirement.  Gotta give some love to those blogs. 

Here they are in no particular order:

Trapt-This California hard rock band's self-titled debut album was something else and turned into a huge hit.  We have just discovered through The NewReview that they have a new album on the way.  The following song is a typical Trapt rocker that includes their trademark harmonic vocals with occasional screams.


Caligula's Horse-We heard about this group through No Clean Singing. This band crafts amazing jazz-fusion guitar work and chugging metal riffs.  Similar in some ways to Animals as Leaders, they play an interesting brand of jazzy shredding laced with melodic clean vocals.  Their latest album is available now.  Check it out below.


SPC ECO-This long-standing British shoegaze band have just released their spacy new album "Dark Notes"  The new song below features more of the same nu-gaze reverb we loved from their previous work, but adds to it with a more impressive array of mostly electronic sounds. From what we've heard so far it is even better than "3-D" was.  We learned of this new track through Sounds Better with Reverb. The new track is below.



Teen Daze-Dream pop rarely comes to life like it does with Teen Daze's latest effort, which we also heard through Sounds Better with Reverb.  As advertised, this song begins with spacy echoes amidst comfortable and recognizable electronic pop beats.  This band is one of the best dream pop artists around and it is easy to see why.  Listen to their newest track from their upcoming album "The Inner Mansions" below.


Causemos-We discovered this Finnish band's new EP from No Clean Singing.  This is a spaced-out progressive extreme metal band that we find to be quite talented.  Here, ambient atmospherics combine with subtle keyboard-fueled symphonic sections and chunky metal riffs.  The vocals vary from hardcore yelling to gutteral roars to soaring clean vocals all in the same song.  This happens to be a 'name your price' download from Bandcamp, so if you like what you hear, you have nothing to lose. Listen below.

Qurious-This artist, which we heard about from Sounds Better with Reverb, is an electronica outfit from Atlanta, Georgia.  Sometimes electronic music can get stale and repetetive if artists don't put enough effort into creating new and unusual sounds.  We like what we hear from them so far and will be eagerly awaiting the new album, "Void Vanishing" on November 20.  Listen to a selection from that album below.


As always, thanks for reading!