Hey guys! For today's post I will be reviewing the new Green Day album, Dos!.
Green Day presents their second installment of their ambitious three album release thing that they're doing this year. I am personally impressed that they are able to have this much material to release three albums in a year, but I am also glad they didn't decide to release all the tracks from these three albums on one ginormous 3 CD extravaganza package. Personally that would be too much Green Day for me to handle at once. By putting about a month in between releases, Green Day gives their fans enough time to listen and enjoy one CD and then not have to wait another two or three years for another CD. Also by releasing one album at a time instead of three at once it gives their fans a chance to enjoy each album individually rather than having to process three albums worth of Green Day at once.
On Dos! Green Day continues the formula they presented on Uno! There is an obvious return to their roots with these two albums and one can expect that this style will continue on the third and final installment, Tre! which comes out December 11th. A lot of the songs on Dos! will definitely remind the listener of their albums Dookie and Nimrod and on some of the songs you can even here some influence from The Clash. If there were any fans who were disappointed in the direction Green Day went with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown then you will rejoice in the band returning to their roots.
With this album, as with their previous albums, Green Day does what they do best. Which is writing simple, catchy, and great pop punk songs.
Overall if you are a fan of Green Day old or new, and were a fan of Uno! Then you will certainly be a fan of Dos!
Rating: 8/10
Don't forget if you have an artist you want me to talk about or an album you would like me to review, leave a comment or tweet me @zachktheanimal.
Hey guys! For today's post I will be reviewing Motionless in White's new album Infamous.
I always liked to think of Motionless in White as the bastard child of Bleeding Through and Marylin Manson. Simply because I thought they had the intense metalcore that Bleeding Through has, the keyboards didn't hurt either, and the make up plus Chris Motionless's vocal style sometimes reminded me of Manson. I also thought that their previous album, Creatures, reminded me of Bleeding Through with a hint of Manson. Infamous builds upon that original model but adds a bit more Manson-esque musical style to the mix.
For the fans who loved Creatures, I being one of them, there are still songs reminiscent of that album. The first two songs "Black Damask (The Fog)" and "Devil's Night" along with "Puppets 2" and "If It's Dead, We'll Kill It" (featuring Brandan from Bleeding Through) are examples of songs that still have that awesome and intense metalcore punch that made the mirrors in your car shake and you stop whatever you were doing and immediately start headbanging. Other songs like "America", "Hatefuck", and "The Divine Infection" are clearly influenced by Marylin Manson (all through the song "America" I kept thinking about Manson's song "We're from America"). While still clearly influenced by Manson on these songs MIW still manages to put their own unique stamp on their songs, a stamp which separates them from some of the cookie-cutter metalcore bands you hear now a days.
Overall Infamous is a collection of intense, awesome, dark, evil, and lets face it catchy (the chorus of "The Divine Infection" being one of many examples) songs. I urge fans of the band to go into this album with an open mind and not immediately write it off because its not Creatures 2. Because Motionless in White didn't make Creatures 2, they made something better.
Rating: 9/10
Remember if there is a band you want me to talk about or an album you want me to review leave a comment or tweet me @zachktheanimal
Hey guys! For today's artist spotlight will feature the death metal/deathcore band, Abiotic from Miami, Florida. Now when you think of Miami, the first thing that probably pops into your head are beaches and gorgeous women walking around said beaches in bikinis and not brutal, thrashing metal. Abiotic has emerged from the sun and sand to take on the metal world bringing with them an intense and just plain brutal sound.
I first heard this band on Summer Slaughter 2012 when the tour hit Ft. Lauderdale. I had never heard of these guys before but they put on one kick ass live show. They were full of energy and possessed the ability to play their extremely technical music with accuracy while they were headbanging like the madmen they are. Even though this was my first time hearing them, I was very happy when they announced that they had been signed by Metal Blade Records, one of my favorite metal labels, and were going to release an album later in the year. I couldn't wait for the album to come out though so the day after the show I bought their EP A Universal Plague from iTunes to fulfill my Abiotic fix until the album came out.
The band is a quintet featuring:
Ray Jimenez who's vocals reach banshee like highs and gut wrenching lows, almost like he is in a shouting match with the devil and the devil is losing badly.
John Matos and Matt Mendez who's twin guitar attack produce impressive technical lines as well as room shaking chords.
Andres Hurtado who's drumming ability would make any drummer consider burning all his sticks and give up the instrument all together.
Alex Vazquez who wields his bass as if it was a guitar, playing incredibly technical lines that mirror what the guitars are doing. At some points its almost as if the band has three guitarists instead of two.
One of my favorite things about this band are there breakdowns. Abiotic has the ability to produce this wall of sound that just punches you in the gut every time. The best example of this is in their song "Vermosapien"
At about 1:00 the breakdown starts and you get nailed with this wall of brutal breakdown awesomeness that will make anyone immediately start headbanging.
I would highly recommend this band to anyone who likes good death metal or deathcore. I know there are some metal elitists out there who won't touch deathcore with a 10 foot pole, but a believe Abiotic is one of those bands who, along with Rings of Saturn, have enough of each genre to appeal to the death metal crowd and the deathcore crowd.
I am so excited to see a heavy band like Abiotic come out of my home town Miami. Most of the time when you talk about Florida metal you talk about the death metal bands who came from the more northern part of the state. Now with Abiotic added in the mix it puts Miami on the map as a city that can produce heavy as fuck bands.
If you like good, heavy, brutal, thrashing metal then I highly suggesting picking up Abiotic's debut Symbiosis out now on Metal Blade Records, you won't regret it.
I am excited to see what these guys do in the future because I believe they have the ability to become a major player in the future metal scene.
Thanks guys! And as always if you have suggestions for albums I should review or artists I should talk about leave a comment or tweet me @zachktheanimal
-Zach
Hey guys! So yesterday I did my first artist spotlight on the band Kontrust, I tweeted about it and mentioned the band in my tweet. Went to bed that night and woke up this morning to find this on my twitter feed:
When I clicked on the link it took me to the post I did about the band! I could not believe it! This is definitely one of the coolest things to happen to me and I would like to thank the band for supporting my blog, even though its only two days old.
So yeah just thought I should share that because its so freaking cool! I'll have another post tomorrow when I discuss the death metal band Abiotic and then the first CD reviews will probably be posted on Wednesday and Thursday.
Thanks for the support and if you have any bands you would like me to talk about or and CDs you would like me to review leave a comment or follow me on twitter @zachktheanimal.
Hey guys! For my first artist spotlight I would like to talk about a band that I have deemed "the best band you've never heard of, but seriously need to check out". I am talking about the Austrian band Kontrust.
I first found out about this band earlier this year when their video for the song "Sock n' Doll"(there is a link to the video at the end of this post) appeared on my Youtube feed. I clicked on the link and was blown away by this band. This band is one of the reasons why I love Napalm Records, the label to which they are currently signed, because they have a knack for finding unique and original bands and Kontrust is a perfect example. They are heavy but poppy at the same time and I feel like they can appeal to a wide audience. After the video finished I immediately replayed the it, I was hooked on this band.
The band is a septet with two vocalists, two guitars, bass, drums, and percussion. I really like how the drums and percussion work together. Its not like they have a drummer who records some percussion on the album, they have a separate drummer and a separate percussion player, this adds a lot of color to the band because it allows the drummer to keep a steady beat and the percussionist fill over him adding more depth to the band's sound.
The most unique thing about this band has to be their use of two vocalists. Now I know what you're thinking, "Zach how can this be unique? Lots of bands use two vocalists." You're right but I've never heard two vocalists be used as unique as this. The band's vocalists are Agata Jarosz and Stefan Lichtenberger, now most bands with a male and female vocalist will usually have one sing the verse and one sing the chorus or they will trade back and forth during either of those, but I've noticed that Kontrust uses their vocalists as actual instruments. What I mean by that is when either Agata or Stefan is not singing the lyrics to the song they will sometimes sing a melodic line in the background to go along with the melodyhttp://www.kontrust.info/en/. The first time you hear it you think are they using electronics in the song? The answer is no, its one of the vocalists singing in the background, it just sounds like their using electronics.
The best example is in their song "Sock n' Doll" at 3:33 Agata sings a melodic line a capella, once the rest of the band comes in around 3:35 she continues to sing that same line. It creates the impression that there is a synthesizer playing in the background when really it is Agata.
Here is the video for "Sock n' Doll"(I know I said earlier that the band was a septet and there are only six members on stage, they added another after this video and use him in live shows, also sock puppets? Freaking awesome!)
Now technically Kontrust is labeled a crossover band (I just call them a rock band), meaning they will use different styles in their songs which I think is really cool. In "Sock n' Doll" they have instances of Rock, Reggae, and Pop.
In conclusion Kontrust is a delightful mix of Rock and Pop, their songs are super catchy and are best played at loud volume while driving in your car (as are most songs). I think can appeal to a wide audience, so I will say that if you are a fan of good music then you will like this band. Sometimes their lyrics can get a little weird, but when you get past that you have a band that, in my opinion, needs to be wider known because I can totally hear some of their songs being played on the radio.
If you would like to find out more about this band you can visit their website at http://www.kontrust.info/en/ and pick up their new album Second Hand Wonderland which is currently out on Napalm Records.
Also check out some more videos from them below:
Video for the song "The Butterfly Defect" off Second Hand Wonderland
Video for the song "Bomba" off Time to Tango (yes I know they are dressed in lederhosen its apparently what they wear when they play live)
Enjoy guys and I'll talk to you next post. Remember if you have any requests of a band you want me to talk about or an album you want me to review, leave a comment or tweet me @zachktheanimal
Hello everyone! Welcome to Mostly Metal, a blog where I review CDs that I buy and talk about any new artists that I find.
I wanted to start this blog because I love to buy CDs and discover new artists. I also wanted a way to tell other people about new and interesting bands that I find and what I think about CDs that are released during the year.
I will try to update this blog as much as I can. I hope to have CD reviews whenever I get the chance as well as have a weekly artist spotlight, where I talk about a new artist that I have discovered. If you have any requests as to a CD you would like me to review or an artist you would like me to talk about feel free to request it by leaving a comment or tweeting me @zachktheanimal.
