I’ve been exploring the web for a while and lately I discovered a lot of interesting new bands, some of which completely blown my mind, as they push the boundaries of what I held for possible. Some of these aren’t completely Metal, but all of them are exceptionally cool and certainly worth of your time. So enjoy the next half hour of Post-Alternative Blackened Punkcore.

Shining

First up are a Norwegian band called Shining, which is not really a name associated with the more serious, dark or violent themes addressed in Metal. It comes as no surprise then that Shining started out as an acoustic Jazz-quartet. However, after two albums, they started taking their music apart and evolved through a form of Jazzy Post-Rock to what they are today on their album Blackjazz, a dark combination of Industrial, Jazz, Deathcore, Alternative and Experimental Metal. In one word, Avant-Garde Metal, whatever that might mean.

When I first saw the title of this album I was kind of confused. Never, ever did I see an alternative rock/metal outfit sing about gore. Because yeah, grinding organs is not something one does daily, doesn’t one? However, after hearing the lyrics to the title song, I was reassured, and images of meat pies filled with human body parts were left to the bin.

First of all, I’m very impressed by the graphical concept and design these guys display on their website and album. Congratulations guys, this is top notch.

[Danimal or Buffalo is back, this time with his take on The New Psychodalia, the recently released solo album of Mushroomhead frontman Jeffrey Nothing. This stuff is psycho, as you’d expect, with a dark undertone and plenty of freakiness. Strictly speaking it’s not “proper” Metal, but that has never put us off. We’ll let DoB explain to you what he thinks of it!]

Well here we go. To all those out there that are into Mushroomhead, this album is defiantly for you. Jeffrey Nothing recently came out with his new solo album, titled The New Psychodalia, a top notch album from the moment I pressed play. It was a little strange for me at first hearing Jeffrey without Waylon Reavis or J. Mann, but I can say that this album is for sure worth every second the band spent writing and recording it. If you like Mushroomhead on the whole, this is for sure something you want to check out.

You won’t regret adding this album to your collection with its talented members he couldn’t have created a better sound for a solo album. To me it was one of those special albums that made me wipe the dust of some of my old Mushroomhead albums and listen to them again. With great range in the vocals, with great variety in the band’s sound and with lyrics that are actually meaningful and very dark at times, there is something for every Metalhead out there.

When thinking about the state of Texas, images of cowboys, horses, chickens and George Bush come to mind. Fair to Midland however, is not in one of those images. When I first saw them, I thought they had something Canadian about them, something which is probably enhanced by the French looking singer.

Pumping out a fresh form of Progressive Metal, Fair to Midland are on the block since 1998, serving us with four albums and one EP. Musical Chairs being the lead single on their latest album, which counts 15 songs (!).

Ah, Soundgarden. I’m pretty sure that anyone who’s listened to any heavy music or even just Rock radio in the past sixteen or so years has heard of them, thanks to Black Hole Sun. That song alone isn’t responsible for their wide-spread success, several songs from the Superunknown and Down on the Upside albums enjoyed lots of radio play. That’s not what we’re diggin’ into today.

Many people don’t realise that the band formed waaayyyy back in 1984. Nearly a decade before the height of the Grunge movement they’re usually associated with and the release of the songs they’re best known for. So, today we’re going one album back from Superunknown to 1991′s Badmotorfinger, my personal favorite Soundgarden album.

I’m struggling here. With what to call this band. Wiki states ”Eye Empire is an American Rock supergroup”. “Rock”, you read. But listening to their material this stuff seems pretty borderline to me. Sure, there are primarily clean vocals, but really, the use of clean or unclean vocals says nothing about stuff being Metal or not. But then I wouldn’t know what would pull this band into either of the two sides.

Can we even speak of two sides? Isn’t it a continuum? A continuum in which these guys are just somewhere in between some roughly defined areas? Probably so. But, ‘cause I’m lazy and because my balls shrink from too much philosophical discussion, we’ll just have to go with the Wiki definition: it’s Rock. And that, dear children, makes it suitable for our Rockin’ Out series!

The rules are simple: Metal sprung from Rock, hence we appreciate Rock. In the Rockin’ Out series we pay tribute to it even. If it’s Rock – and if it’s not of that über-commercial four-chord ramming crap – it fits here!

I do not expect to introduce any of you to something new with this post today. After all, you’re a fool if you do not know Tool! They are among the most well-known – to the uneducated general public in any case – Metal bands of all time and have been of great influence to many bands and artists in the genre. They may be on Metal’s softer side, but that doesn’t make them a less respectable band, not even for those who prefer Extreme Metal, like ourselves. It doesn’t all need to possess concrete smashing capabilities.

I discovered Tool when I was about 16, when their 2001 Lateralus album had been released recently. I was still a bit of an ignorant chap – fuck, I’m still ignorant, but at least now I’m no longer ignorant about the fact that I’m ignorant – and I listened to Rock, which I picked up from MTV and shit like that. Back then MTV would still occasionally play proper music (Tool, Soundgarden, Nirvana, stuff like that), whereas it seems to be a 110% worthless crap that’s being cashed upon big time these days, unless you’re a night creature of course, and can keep your eyes open long enough to watch the middle-of-the-fuckin’-night Metal show. Tool’s one of the bands I discovered that way, by means of their Schism video clip, which is an absolute piece of art.

Anyway, I don’t pride myself on many of the bands that I picked up and listened to in those days, but some of them have stuck. Not so much that I still listen to them a lot, but in the sense that when I do hear them again these days I still consider them producers of high quality music. You can feel it coming: Tool’s one of those!

When I wrote about that Indian Metal Hangover 0.1 disc the day before yesterday, I mentioned one of the songs on it reminded me of Chevelle. Now, apart from a heart-stopping beauty of a car, it’s also an American Hard Rock/Alternative Metal band, from nearby Chicago, Illinois. I used to listen a lot to these guys and so yesterday’s analogy made me happy to return to the band for another feature post in our Rockin’ Out with … series.

The band was formed in 1990 by the brothers Pete and Sam Loeffler, and they were joined by their youngest brother Joe in 1994. The group’s name was taken from the Chevrolet Chevelle, of which their father owned a specimen. Youngest brother Joe either left the band or was kicked out of the band somewhere in late 2004, depending on whether you ask him or his brothers. In any case, there was disagreement.

Today we’ll be running through the band’s five full-length releases, of which most notably the first three had a huge part to play in my own musical taste’s development, which has a lot to do with the prominent bass line that’s prominent in all of the band’s music.

I’m sure many if not all of you know of Bam Margera skateboarder, star of MTV’s Viva La Bam and Jackass cast member. Well, his brother Jess has been playing drums for the band cKy since it’s formation in 1998. They share their name with a series of skateboarding videos produced by Bam which stands for Camp Kill Yourself. Thats kind of metal ain’t it?

I picked up their 2005 album An Answer Can Be Found a few years ago out of curiosity and enjoyed several songs on it, enough to pick up their 2009 release Carver City when it came out. Now I’d like to share some songs from each of those albums with you. I’ve found it to be great for something to please a gathering of friends when Metal and non-Metal types are in attendance.

I have no clue how long it’s been since I last listened to Faith no More. My dad must have bought their 1987 Introduce Yourself album in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s somewhere though he didn’t even want it – he just didn’t know that yet. What he did want was their 1989 The Real Thing album, because that had the song Epic on it, that he’d heard on the radio. I’m glad he made the mistake though, as I discovered the album many years later and played it silly.