El Caco is a norwegian rock band from Lillestrøm, Norway. They are reknown for great live performances. They released the album “Heat” this year, I don’t think the album is that great, but the track Individuals is absolutely fantastic.
It kicks off with a groovy riff and steady bass lines, but the fun really starts at the pre-chorus, and the chorus itself is a powerful, mean beast. Enjoy!
Årabrot is a Norwegian noise-rock band from Haugesund. We (Sludgefudge) had the pleasure of opening for them when they played at Hulen, Bergen. It was the release concert for their new EP “I Rove”, and they delivered an awesome show. They also released their album “The Brother Seed” this year, and that’s where I found this awesome, but short track, The Minute/The Pendulum Swings To And Fro. It’s short and intense, but so nice. This guy really wants his minute back.
Leadsledge is a Bergen based metal band with influences from bands like Machine Head, Skinlab, American Head Charge and Pantera, and they play brilliantly. They claim to focus on the groove instead of reinventing the wheel, and I think they succeed. The band was formed by Haakon Haagensen from Malachord and Clown, and Sjalg Otto Unnison from bands like Hellish Outcast, Betatt and Poze. They filled up the last spots with others members from poze (Kjartan, Loke and Ali), and later recruited the talented vocalist Daniel from In Confesso.
The song I’ve selected is a powerful song with a great groove, awesome drumming and a very cool bass driven part in the middle. The other tracks from the EP are actually just as good, so check them out if you’re into this kind of music. It’s quality, and fills the gap that was left when poze ended their journey.
The Maccabees are one of my recently discovered bands, Stein made a recommendation, and it proved to be worthwhile. They play music one can describe as .. indie rock? Nevertheless, it’s awesome. Great drummer, great vocal efforts, good melodies. The album Wall of Arms is very solid.
Dinosaur is one of the more upbeat tracks of the album, the drumming is particularly superb. Give it a listen, you won’t regret it.
Some copy paste from wikipedia (it’s sunday and I’m lazy :p): Callisto is a post-metal band from Turku, Finland. The band was formed in 2001 in Kokkola. Whilst their early works are hardcore/metalcore, their first album True Nature Unfolds has a strong sludge metal and doom influence and their second album Noir is more influenced by progressive and more dynamic sound. Their third album Providence was released in 2009, introducing wide use of clean vocals in their music. Apart from featuring female vocals on some of their early songs, they have used unexpected instruments, for example saxophone, cello, flute and English horn. Callisto’s short and cryptic lyrics contain Christian themes and references.
I think that In Session is by far the best track from Providence, this track is up there with the best of Isis and Cult of Luna. Nice groove, and great progress throughout the track. A fun track to drum along to.
The american art rock band (according to wikipedia) …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, from Austin, Texas, released The Century of Self this february, and that’s where Isis Unveiled is to be found. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this band, we can say that they are known for a couple of things: They have two drummers on stage at the same time, they change who plays which instrument during their concerts, and they are previously known for smashing instruments on stage. Pretty fun live action (but no smashing of instruments when I saw them at the Roskilde festival this year).
This track is, according to me, by far the best track of the album. It has a great and catchy riff, and a great build down before it explodes back into life at the end of the track, a move that kinda completes the song-circle. And lots of drums. By two drummers. Enough to make me happy.
The so much mentioned White Lies released their debut album early this year, entitled To Lose My Life, which also is the title of the debut single. That song was given a lot of airtime on norwegian radio, and I also had the opportunity of seeing their live performance when they warmed up for Coldplay here in Bergen. That was this summer, but it wasn’t until recently that I got my hands on this album, and realized that it was pretty damn ok!
The track I have selected, Farewell to the Fairground, exposes White Lies ability to good songwriting. The drums and bass are the foundation of the track, and the vocal is also quite important. The guitar and piano than paints the last important pieces. This is actually pretty common in the post-punk and post-punk revival genres, some of my favorite genres. Enjoy.
(Sorry about the late arrival of this post, I haven’t been home all day)
The Low Frequency in Stereo (from now on called TLFIS), is a lo-fi-post rock band. They released the album Futuro this year. The band consists of Linn Frøkedal, Njål Clementsen from The Megaphonic Thrift (why on earth are they not present in this calendar? Damn you, 24 spots), and three others. Check out their EP “A Thousand Years of Deconstruction” by following this link (if you have spotify)!
TLFIS’s music can in short be described as swimming. The drums especially, but also the guitars and bass makes sure the that we have our heads above water. I’m sure this is music that you can dance to. I was really in doubt in which song to pick, but ended up with Geordie la Forge, because of the usage of both male and female vocals, in addition to being a track otherwise. Don’t forget to check out the song Mt. Pinatubo and the rest of the album.
Another hard hitting metal track for you today. Code released Resplendent Grotesque this year, a quality album from a quality band. The music can be described as a weird experimental mixture of Black Metal, avant-garde, and perhaps progressive metal? Either way, it’s pretty neat. The bass player is Viper aka Vicotnik from Ved Buens Ende and Kvohst previously from Dødheimsgard, how can it go wrong? Their previous album Nouveau Gloaming is also worth checking out.
It’s hard to pick out one track from the album, since they’re all pretty good, but I gave it a try with the opening track. Great riffs, and a mixture of clean and grim vocals, which is fairly common for these guys. The drums are handled by Adrian Erlandsson from At The Gates and ex-Cradle Of Filth, and are pretty great.
Radiohead - These are my Twisted Words from .. nothing, yet.
Spotify link: No spotify link, but you can download it from here. Or watch it embedded below:
This track was first leaked on a BitTorrent-site, and later released on their official site, free of charge. It was the root of the Wall of Ice mystery, because it was released with some pictures, and some ascii art with references to the xkcd comic strip “wall of ice”, which is about digital rights management. Some claim it was a stunt made by Radiohead themselves.
Well, let’s cut to the chase. The song is pretty great, and could easily be put on one of their latest records. It features a driving drum beat, and a very radioheadish guitar/bass combinations. And I like Radiohead.
But check out 
