After his band Blue Origin called it a day after the best part of a decade, vocalist Nick Pilgrim set about forming a new outfit. Teaming up with guitarist Alex Coleman, Alter Eden began to create their own brand of alternative rock sounds, heavy on the guitars, but even heavier on the angular intensity. Their 2015 EP release ‘Fearless’ is a loud, confrontational affair set to please those who love hard rock tunes that tease with an almost math-rock complexity.
Tag Archives: metal
KEVEL – Hz Of The Unheard
Kevel are a Greek quartet specialising in a style of metal that crosses several subgenres to create a huge slab of sound. On this debut release, there are moments of progressive metal complexity fighting to be heard against huge blocks of instrumental post-metal and sludge. While there isn’t a vocal acting as a central element from everything to pivot, the tunes are huge and often demanding on the listener; each one exploring different intense musical terrains.
IMPELLITTERI – Venom
For fans of shred-metal, Chris Impellitteri is a man who needs no introduction. With his eponymously named outfit, the Californian fretboard melter has been issuing discs filled with bombastic Euro-inflected metal for years, often with either ex-Joshua mouthpiece Rob Rock or ex-Rainbow man Graham Bonnet on vocals. Heavy and fast are Impellitteri’s two favourite styles – usually demonstrated together – and 2015’s ‘Venom’ (the band’s tenth album, breaking a six year silence) follows that expected pattern.
VOICE OF THE SOUL – Catacombs
Forming in the late noughties when the band were just teenagers – young enough to rival Def Leppard in the precociousness stakes – Voice of the Soul always had very grand musical ideas. Following three self-released EPs between 2009 and 2011, the Middle Eastern extreme metallers found themselves in a great position to expand on their previous works. Taking to the studio in early 2014, the band set about making their first full length release – and in melodic death metal terms, the dark and sprawling world conjured up on ‘Catacombs’ does not disappoint.
ANATHEMA – Fine Days 1999-2004
In the twenty-first century, Anathema have often been mentioned in the same breath as Opeth and Porcupine Tree due to their increased movement towards thoughtful progressive rock structures. It hasn’t always been that way, of course. Like Opeth, the band began life as a totally different musical beast, playing in a melodic death metal style. Shifting line-ups naturally resulted in shifting sounds, and by the time the band signed with the legendary Music For Nations label for their fifth album ‘Judgement’ in 1999, they’d settled on a rather tough but accessible blend of gothy and alternative rock.