Title pretty much says it all. Brilliant new video from One-Eyed Doll of one of my favourite songs, Committed. Kimberly Freeman looking gorgeous as always, plus Junior makes an epic preacher. Check it out:
So. Much. Yum.
Showing posts with label metal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metal. Show all posts
Friday, October 26, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Band of the Week: Mandala, Plurals, & more!
Well, would you look at that? I actually remembered Band of the Week for a change. Considered renaming it "Band of the indeterminate time period" but it just sounded silly... Anyhoos, onwards.
First up we have English instrumental duo Mandala. Scrummy proggy, metally brilliance. Seriously good. Here's new single Wind Secular:
Next up, more instrumental prog metal stuff! Woo! This time from Belgian project Plurals. Have a listen to the Inner Planets EP, which is currently a free download:
Then we'll have the new (ish) track from Aamir al-Loki because I only remembered it existed last week. New EP should be coming soon, so that's also pretty awesome.
Next, I think we'll have Harlequin Jones. Dark cabaret loveliness. Yum. Check out The Bad Beginning:
Finally, not really a band, but I just had to share because they're absolutely brilliant - the re-issue label Dust-to-Digital. They take old recordings, digitise them, then release them as CDs and I have found some most delicious stuff on their BandCamp. For the purposes of this post, let's have this, which is the first disc of an album of upright bass tracks:
First up we have English instrumental duo Mandala. Scrummy proggy, metally brilliance. Seriously good. Here's new single Wind Secular:
Next up, more instrumental prog metal stuff! Woo! This time from Belgian project Plurals. Have a listen to the Inner Planets EP, which is currently a free download:
Then we'll have the new (ish) track from Aamir al-Loki because I only remembered it existed last week. New EP should be coming soon, so that's also pretty awesome.
Next, I think we'll have Harlequin Jones. Dark cabaret loveliness. Yum. Check out The Bad Beginning:
Finally, not really a band, but I just had to share because they're absolutely brilliant - the re-issue label Dust-to-Digital. They take old recordings, digitise them, then release them as CDs and I have found some most delicious stuff on their BandCamp. For the purposes of this post, let's have this, which is the first disc of an album of upright bass tracks:
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Band of the Week: more random discoveries!
Not Bandcamp discoveries this week (well, maybe a couple), but hurray for random 'net treasures.
First up (and yes, I know I've mentioned her several times before, shush), the delightful Aamir al-Loki. Goth-electro-pop. Check out her video for Don't here:
Next up, Fairy Meds. Female fronted punk rock. Another random Bandcamp discovery.
(tis free download, by the way...)
And then... let's have letlive., who I've also mentioned a couple of times before in relation to their amazing live show. Progressive post-hardcore loveliness. Here's the latest video for Muther:
Next we'll have Cloudkicker, which is another Bandcamp discovery. Instrumental metal. Great for sticking on while working, I find. Let's have Discovery, since that's the album I actually have. There's loads of them though. The title track of this one is especially awesome.
(all of his albums are free downloads, if I remember rightly...)
How many's that? Four's not enough, surely?Ahh, I know what we can finish with. I rediscovered this piece of awesomeness last week and completely forgot to share. This is Pistol Youth's acoustic cover of Flo-Rida's Low. It's rather brilliant, as are Pistol Youth in general. Indie/alternative rock.
Off you pop.
First up (and yes, I know I've mentioned her several times before, shush), the delightful Aamir al-Loki. Goth-electro-pop. Check out her video for Don't here:
Next up, Fairy Meds. Female fronted punk rock. Another random Bandcamp discovery.
(tis free download, by the way...)
And then... let's have letlive., who I've also mentioned a couple of times before in relation to their amazing live show. Progressive post-hardcore loveliness. Here's the latest video for Muther:
Next we'll have Cloudkicker, which is another Bandcamp discovery. Instrumental metal. Great for sticking on while working, I find. Let's have Discovery, since that's the album I actually have. There's loads of them though. The title track of this one is especially awesome.
(all of his albums are free downloads, if I remember rightly...)
How many's that? Four's not enough, surely?Ahh, I know what we can finish with. I rediscovered this piece of awesomeness last week and completely forgot to share. This is Pistol Youth's acoustic cover of Flo-Rida's Low. It's rather brilliant, as are Pistol Youth in general. Indie/alternative rock.
Off you pop.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Review: Break by One-Eyed Doll
And second of the reviews, One-Eyed Doll's most recent album, Break. Actually wrote this a few weeks ago, but no harm in posting it here too. Again, have a listen, let me know what you think.
Break by One-Eyed Doll
Release date: March 20th 2010 (independent release through Kimberly Freeman Productions)
Genre: rock/metal/punk...thing
Rating: 10/10
Opening with the upbeat Airplane Man, One-Eyed Doll's most recent album Break throws you straight into the action. Following up with Beautiful Freak, a track I can only call an anthem for the misfits, Break is already looking to be a brilliant album and we haven't even got to the best tracks yet.
One-Eyed Doll are a rock-punk-metal something band from Austin, Texas. Break is their third self-released album and continues with the brilliance found on the first two. The style's kind of hard to define, hence settling with “rock-metal-punk something”. It's not all headlong charges through some sort of metal/rock/punk hybrid though. Tracks such as Murder Ballad (a ballad, obviously) and New Orleans show the band's slightly softer side while Redneck Love Song shows that they're very much capable of making silly tracks just for the fun of it (also evidenced on previous albums with tracks such as Be My Friend (about a serial killer) and Nudie Bar).
There's something of a morbid influence present on a fair number of tracks, Murder Ballad, Murder Suicide and Cinderblock in particular. The whole feel though is somewhat offset by vocalist and frontwoman, Kimberly Freeman's deceptively sweet vocals. I love those vocals – wonderfully sweet and yet at times so harsh and at others so sinister.
The album is driven by solid drums and simple but effective guitar riffs, which is really all the backing Freeman's voice needs. This is music that makes you move. Hell, I hate headbanging – it gives me a headache – but I couldn't resist the force of Break.
Closing with the somewhat epic Resurrection, Break is definitely an album worth buying if you're at all into rock, metal or punk of any kind. With that mash of influences, it should appeal to a fairly wide audience. Stand out tracks are hard to choose, but the rather dream-pop opening of Bumble Bee makes it a favourite of mine, alongside the dark tones of New Orleans. It's fairly rare for me to give a perfect rating to an album, but Break is well-deserving of it - I simply can't find anything wrong with it.
Break by One-Eyed Doll
Release date: March 20th 2010 (independent release through Kimberly Freeman Productions)
Genre: rock/metal/punk...thing
Rating: 10/10
Opening with the upbeat Airplane Man, One-Eyed Doll's most recent album Break throws you straight into the action. Following up with Beautiful Freak, a track I can only call an anthem for the misfits, Break is already looking to be a brilliant album and we haven't even got to the best tracks yet.
One-Eyed Doll are a rock-punk-metal something band from Austin, Texas. Break is their third self-released album and continues with the brilliance found on the first two. The style's kind of hard to define, hence settling with “rock-metal-punk something”. It's not all headlong charges through some sort of metal/rock/punk hybrid though. Tracks such as Murder Ballad (a ballad, obviously) and New Orleans show the band's slightly softer side while Redneck Love Song shows that they're very much capable of making silly tracks just for the fun of it (also evidenced on previous albums with tracks such as Be My Friend (about a serial killer) and Nudie Bar).
There's something of a morbid influence present on a fair number of tracks, Murder Ballad, Murder Suicide and Cinderblock in particular. The whole feel though is somewhat offset by vocalist and frontwoman, Kimberly Freeman's deceptively sweet vocals. I love those vocals – wonderfully sweet and yet at times so harsh and at others so sinister.
The album is driven by solid drums and simple but effective guitar riffs, which is really all the backing Freeman's voice needs. This is music that makes you move. Hell, I hate headbanging – it gives me a headache – but I couldn't resist the force of Break.
Closing with the somewhat epic Resurrection, Break is definitely an album worth buying if you're at all into rock, metal or punk of any kind. With that mash of influences, it should appeal to a fairly wide audience. Stand out tracks are hard to choose, but the rather dream-pop opening of Bumble Bee makes it a favourite of mine, alongside the dark tones of New Orleans. It's fairly rare for me to give a perfect rating to an album, but Break is well-deserving of it - I simply can't find anything wrong with it.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Band Of The Week: One-Eyed Doll
Having recently rediscovered the awesomeness of bandcamp.com, I made the mistake of having a random hop through their catalogues. I came across a band by the name of One-Eyed Doll, thought their album art looked interesting so had a listen. I fell in love within two tracks. So, despite telling myself I wouldn't buy any more music for a while (not counting MATM's EP, because I've been looking forward to that for ages), I went ahead and bought 3 albums of scrummy One-Eyed Doll material.
One-Eyed Doll are kinda hard to define. They're female-fronted, that's obvious - vocalist Kimberly Freeman has a brilliant, distinctive voice that puts me in mind somewhat of Romily Alice of Japanese Voyeurs. Style-wise though, there's hard rock, punk and some sort of metal. I mean, some tracks show a very definite thrash metal influence. Not actually thrash metal themselves, but there's that feel there. There's also quite a strong grunge feeling on some tracks. Right old mash of influences, which is wonderful.
It was Freeman's voice that really drew me in - deceptively sweet and yet sometimes so harsh (which is probably what reminded me of Romily Alice). But what caught my attention was the track Be My Friend on the album Monster. It actually made me laugh out loud, which isn't that common a reaction from me with regards to music. It's such a sweet, funny and yet sinister song. It's that that made me fall in love. I didn't need to listen to the rest of the album - I downloaded it there and then, checked out a few of the tracks on their other albums and promptly downloaded Break and Hole as well. Then I discovered this little wonder.
How can you not enjoy that? There's that same fun take on things as there is in Be My Friend. So of course I had to download the You're A Vampire single too. Ahh, new music overdose.
What's wonderful is that on the band's bandcamp, you can pay whatever you want for their albums, including nothing. However tempting it may be to download it for free, I strongly suggest paying for their music - it's well worth the money, and they're the sort of band that actually need your cash.
Damnit, I wish I could see these guys live, but I doubt they'll be coming over to Australia any time soon. I will make do with their awesome albums and the "rockumentary" I found on YouTube. An hour and a half of awesomeness, including bits of live shows. Which look like total epic awesome. When I finally get my arse over to the States, I am totally hunting down at least one One-Eyed Doll show.
So, check 'em out, let me know what you think and pass it on.
Assorted One-Eyed Doll links:
Official site
Myspace
YouTube
Facebook
Last.FM
Bandcamp
Recommended tracks:
From Hole: Scapegoat, Hoochie Mama, Hole, Recipe 4 Success, Wheels On The Bus
From Monster: Be My Friend, Brief Candle, UFO, PAO!, Monster
From Break: Airplane Man, See Jane Run, Cinderblock, New Orleans, Resurrection
You're A Vampire/Battle On! (single/b-side)
One-Eyed Doll are kinda hard to define. They're female-fronted, that's obvious - vocalist Kimberly Freeman has a brilliant, distinctive voice that puts me in mind somewhat of Romily Alice of Japanese Voyeurs. Style-wise though, there's hard rock, punk and some sort of metal. I mean, some tracks show a very definite thrash metal influence. Not actually thrash metal themselves, but there's that feel there. There's also quite a strong grunge feeling on some tracks. Right old mash of influences, which is wonderful.
It was Freeman's voice that really drew me in - deceptively sweet and yet sometimes so harsh (which is probably what reminded me of Romily Alice). But what caught my attention was the track Be My Friend on the album Monster. It actually made me laugh out loud, which isn't that common a reaction from me with regards to music. It's such a sweet, funny and yet sinister song. It's that that made me fall in love. I didn't need to listen to the rest of the album - I downloaded it there and then, checked out a few of the tracks on their other albums and promptly downloaded Break and Hole as well. Then I discovered this little wonder.
How can you not enjoy that? There's that same fun take on things as there is in Be My Friend. So of course I had to download the You're A Vampire single too. Ahh, new music overdose.
What's wonderful is that on the band's bandcamp, you can pay whatever you want for their albums, including nothing. However tempting it may be to download it for free, I strongly suggest paying for their music - it's well worth the money, and they're the sort of band that actually need your cash.
Damnit, I wish I could see these guys live, but I doubt they'll be coming over to Australia any time soon. I will make do with their awesome albums and the "rockumentary" I found on YouTube. An hour and a half of awesomeness, including bits of live shows. Which look like total epic awesome. When I finally get my arse over to the States, I am totally hunting down at least one One-Eyed Doll show.
So, check 'em out, let me know what you think and pass it on.
Assorted One-Eyed Doll links:
Official site
Myspace
YouTube
Last.FM
Bandcamp
Recommended tracks:
From Hole: Scapegoat, Hoochie Mama, Hole, Recipe 4 Success, Wheels On The Bus
From Monster: Be My Friend, Brief Candle, UFO, PAO!, Monster
From Break: Airplane Man, See Jane Run, Cinderblock, New Orleans, Resurrection
You're A Vampire/Battle On! (single/b-side)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Band Of The Week: super-mega-awesome feature... promise
Well, I didn't really feel like doing a proper Band Of The Week blog this week. So, instead, here's a few bands/artists I think everyone should check out.
Aamir al-Loki: Wonderfully odd self-described goth-pop. I'd put it closer to electronic rock, but goth-pop will do. Make sure to check out her new album Kill Your Demons. (Yes, I know I already wrote about her last week, but I'm just emphasising the point.)
Ahab: Funeral doom metal. I've never listened to doom metal in my life, but I'm pretty much in love with Ahab. Brilliantly atmospheric, plus their work's based on Moby Dick and whatnot. Someone on last.fm called it "whalecore". Made me smile.
The Damned Things: Pretty much straight up rock, with some melodic metal influences. Fall Out Boy + Anthrax + Every Time I Die evidently = a brilliant combination.
The Left Rights: Brainchild of Jimmy Urine and Steve, Righ? from Mindless Self Indulgence. Bizarre, crude, not all that imaginative, but good fun. Warning: may offend. No, seriously, may offend. I've seen the comments on some of their stuff.
Me And The Mountain: English, female-fronted rock. And if you dare compare them to Paramore I'm likely to kill you. Just because it's a female fronted rock band doesn't make it like Paramore. Besides, Me And The Mountain are shitloads better than Paramore. The debut EP Ruthless is due out at the beginning of February - should be on the iTunes store.
Get Scared: Post-hardcore type stuff. Or possibly rock with post-hardcore influences. Who needs this whole Black Veil Brides hype when you can have Get Scared and they're so much better?
The Blackout: More post-hardcore. Better live than on disc, so if you get the chance to see one of their gigs, take it. Although I warn you, it may mangle your knees. Check out their new track too - free download at the mo.
Last but not least, the wonderful Emilie Autumn, love of my life. Well, my musical life and she's a gorgeous woman too. Hey, a girl can dream. Ahem. Self-labelled "victoriandustrial", look out for the epic electric violin solos against industrial beats. On top of all that scrumminess is her voice. Eargasm, much. Seriously, go check her out. Hmm... maybe next week's band of the week can be for EA. Seeing as she's my favourite musician and all that and I don't babble about her enough. Mmm.
Anyways, go check them out, tell me what you think and pass it on.
Aamir al-Loki: Wonderfully odd self-described goth-pop. I'd put it closer to electronic rock, but goth-pop will do. Make sure to check out her new album Kill Your Demons. (Yes, I know I already wrote about her last week, but I'm just emphasising the point.)
Ahab: Funeral doom metal. I've never listened to doom metal in my life, but I'm pretty much in love with Ahab. Brilliantly atmospheric, plus their work's based on Moby Dick and whatnot. Someone on last.fm called it "whalecore". Made me smile.
The Damned Things: Pretty much straight up rock, with some melodic metal influences. Fall Out Boy + Anthrax + Every Time I Die evidently = a brilliant combination.
The Left Rights: Brainchild of Jimmy Urine and Steve, Righ? from Mindless Self Indulgence. Bizarre, crude, not all that imaginative, but good fun. Warning: may offend. No, seriously, may offend. I've seen the comments on some of their stuff.
Me And The Mountain: English, female-fronted rock. And if you dare compare them to Paramore I'm likely to kill you. Just because it's a female fronted rock band doesn't make it like Paramore. Besides, Me And The Mountain are shitloads better than Paramore. The debut EP Ruthless is due out at the beginning of February - should be on the iTunes store.
Get Scared: Post-hardcore type stuff. Or possibly rock with post-hardcore influences. Who needs this whole Black Veil Brides hype when you can have Get Scared and they're so much better?
The Blackout: More post-hardcore. Better live than on disc, so if you get the chance to see one of their gigs, take it. Although I warn you, it may mangle your knees. Check out their new track too - free download at the mo.
Last but not least, the wonderful Emilie Autumn, love of my life. Well, my musical life and she's a gorgeous woman too. Hey, a girl can dream. Ahem. Self-labelled "victoriandustrial", look out for the epic electric violin solos against industrial beats. On top of all that scrumminess is her voice. Eargasm, much. Seriously, go check her out. Hmm... maybe next week's band of the week can be for EA. Seeing as she's my favourite musician and all that and I don't babble about her enough. Mmm.
Anyways, go check them out, tell me what you think and pass it on.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Band of the Week: The Damned Things
Fall Out Boy. Anthrax. Every Time I Die. Listened to any of them? Like any of 'em? Listened to The Damned Things? If not, you should totally check 'em out. They're amazing.
And now I'm going to back that statement up. Or a least attempt to. The Damned Things are one of these supergroup type bands, made up of Andy Hurley (drums) and Joe Trohman (guitar) from Fall Out Boy, Keith Buckley (vocals) from Every Time I Die and Scott Ian (guitar) and Rob Caggiano (guitar) from Anthrax. Three fairly dissimilar bands. I mean, FOB are/were kinda pop-punk, alternative, Anthrax are one of the big four of thrash metal and ETID play some sort of metalcore (don't ask me what, I haven't managed to figure it out yet). Diverse bunch of musical experiences there. The result is a hell of a lot more coherent than you might expect though. The Damned Things play straight-up hard rock with a strong heavy metal influence. And damn, it sounds so good.
For instance, take Friday Night (Going Down In Flames). It's quite simply a good solid rock track. Plus, it's got a brilliant chorus that I reckon is just brilliant for singing along to. Lovely little guitar solo, great vocals, good solid rhythm. And it's on free download at the moment, which is just wonderful. It'll tide me over until the album comes out in December. Currently, it's playing on repeat on my iTunes.
The only other tracks I've heard so far are We've Got A Situation Here and album title track Ironiclast. Again, good strong tracks with brilliant vocals from Mr Buckley. I do love his voice. It's just a great voice for rock. I spent months listening to the rough mix of We've Got A Situation Here on their MySpace, so it was kinda nice when they put the final version up. It was great to see the changes that had been made. Nothing drastic, but it was a far more refined version, which is what you'd expect, really, but I mean totally awesomely refined. They've still only got the rough mix of Ironiclast up, but going by their standards, I reckon the final version of that's going to be pretty damn awesome too.
Hmmm... what else to say? Well, totally check 'em out if you like rock, hard rock, heavy metal (especially of the early variety) and hey, just check 'em out full stop. They're wonderful. I mean, they make me want to headbang and I really don't like headbanging - it gives me the most ridiculous headaches. The debut album, Ironiclast, is due for release on December 14th. Anyways, check 'em out, tell me what you think and pass it on.
Assorted The Damned Things links:
MySpace
Last.FM
Free download of Friday Night (Going Down In Flames) (you'll need to "Like" the band first)
And now I'm going to back that statement up. Or a least attempt to. The Damned Things are one of these supergroup type bands, made up of Andy Hurley (drums) and Joe Trohman (guitar) from Fall Out Boy, Keith Buckley (vocals) from Every Time I Die and Scott Ian (guitar) and Rob Caggiano (guitar) from Anthrax. Three fairly dissimilar bands. I mean, FOB are/were kinda pop-punk, alternative, Anthrax are one of the big four of thrash metal and ETID play some sort of metalcore (don't ask me what, I haven't managed to figure it out yet). Diverse bunch of musical experiences there. The result is a hell of a lot more coherent than you might expect though. The Damned Things play straight-up hard rock with a strong heavy metal influence. And damn, it sounds so good.
For instance, take Friday Night (Going Down In Flames). It's quite simply a good solid rock track. Plus, it's got a brilliant chorus that I reckon is just brilliant for singing along to. Lovely little guitar solo, great vocals, good solid rhythm. And it's on free download at the moment, which is just wonderful. It'll tide me over until the album comes out in December. Currently, it's playing on repeat on my iTunes.
The only other tracks I've heard so far are We've Got A Situation Here and album title track Ironiclast. Again, good strong tracks with brilliant vocals from Mr Buckley. I do love his voice. It's just a great voice for rock. I spent months listening to the rough mix of We've Got A Situation Here on their MySpace, so it was kinda nice when they put the final version up. It was great to see the changes that had been made. Nothing drastic, but it was a far more refined version, which is what you'd expect, really, but I mean totally awesomely refined. They've still only got the rough mix of Ironiclast up, but going by their standards, I reckon the final version of that's going to be pretty damn awesome too.
Hmmm... what else to say? Well, totally check 'em out if you like rock, hard rock, heavy metal (especially of the early variety) and hey, just check 'em out full stop. They're wonderful. I mean, they make me want to headbang and I really don't like headbanging - it gives me the most ridiculous headaches. The debut album, Ironiclast, is due for release on December 14th. Anyways, check 'em out, tell me what you think and pass it on.
Assorted The Damned Things links:
MySpace
Last.FM
Free download of Friday Night (Going Down In Flames) (you'll need to "Like" the band first)
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