A you’ve all noticed we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus today, but now it’s Friday night and the large part of my exams are over, so I’ll just throw down some of the music I’m digging at the moment. Nothing special, just some bands to keep you busy.

First up is a song by Enslaved, which seems to be a band of contradiction to me. I’m not very familiar with them, but I was really attracted to this song called Ethica Odini, an 8-minute long hybrid of Black Metal and Progressive Rock. It’s really a fabulous piece of music, but when I look at the list of album reviews at the Metal Encyclopedia, I actually find people who are angry with Enslaved for putting out this album Axioma Ethica Odini. I really like it though, because the balance between Black Metal and edgy Prog Rock is just perfect.

It wasn’t very long ago when I wrote a little something about a Russian outfit named Shturm. They are hot shit and so you should read that article if you haven’t already. I thought it worthwhile to sort out an interview with these chaps. Didn’t take long to get it arranged!

Thanks to Adar, vocalist and guitarist, for answering the questions and to Alex, from the band’s label, for arranging the interview for us!

Nosebreaker. On the cover is a picture of a French Bulldog. Those don’t have a nose.

That aside, Nosebreaker is the debut EP of a Belgian, Brussels-based psychedelic Rock outfit called Coubiac. Or as they put it themselves, ”Heavy Chaos Rock”. The band is four dudes, P, F, S and HP, responsible for drums, guitars, vocals and bass respectively. I know no more. Let me briefly shine my light on Nosebreaker.

Knowing that you will have picked up this news already some time ago, I still deemed it just for me to serve you this. You know, there may always be people that missed it and shit.

7 Horns 7 Eyes, from Seattle, is an absolute novelty to me, but I guess that’s because their first record is yet to be released. Still, the band are leaving a major buzz across the web already. Quite an achievement, and I’m not quite sure what’s fueling it. Other than that the upcoming shit sounds hot, of course.

Just got my ass handed to me by this stuff. It’s some very proper Progressive and Melodic Death Metal from Germany. Disillusion has been a band since 1994 and I can’t believe I haven’t heard about before.

Thankfully due to Ventilation Shaft now I have, who found out about the band on Last.fm. There’s a reason why I hadn’t heard of them though: their list of achievements is a tad short for a band that has been active for nearly 20 years. There are only two full-length records on it, one called Back to Times of Splendor (2004), the other simply Gloria (2006). According to VS, ”both are good but different in style”. Wouldn’t it be good to have a sample from both?

So you write five songs that you name Bodhi Zephyr, Jean-Luc Picard, John Jameson, K’nuckles and Walter White and you stick ‘em all on an EP that you title Captains. I find that pretty original.

Why? I have no clue, I guess that’s why it’s original. At first I thought all of them were going to be captains, but that shit flies only for Jean-Luc Picard and K’nuckles. You can pull it wider and say all of them are TV / movie / comic characters, but even then I’m left with Bodhi Zephyr. Who / what the fuck is that? Well, the cool thing is that the music on Captains works about in the same way: it makes you think you see patterns and then proves you wrong about them.

I can’t really find anything about Into the Storm, except that they’re four dudes out of Seattle and that they released Captains as a sophomore to their 2010 album Amidst a Sea of Chaos, which I haven’t heard, by the way. I’ve heard plenty of Captains though, and it’s hot shit.

For some reason, Canada is Technical Death Metal-land in my head, easily taking the crown with Ascariasis and April 20, they will solidify their position with Derelict’s third full-length Perpetuation. We already covered the fact that two of the twelve songs were up for free download before, but vocalist and owner of Ricburn Media Eric Burnet offered us to take care of his baby. A duty I will fulfil with the greatest pleasure.

The fact that I mentioned Ascariasis is a bit problematic, because they are just fucking epic, and in such I have a hard time in objectively judging Perpetuation. It will most probably be the case that in my effort to not underestimate this album, I’d grossly overrate it, which is good for the band image, but bad for mine. So I’ll dive in while trying to forget Ocean of Colour, which we didn’t even cover on here. Where have we been with our meat-covered asses over the past few weeks?

Clock Paradox, a Finnish band, formed only three years ago, have wasted no time in developing their slightly off-kilter blend of Groove and Progressive Tech-Death Metal. Their third demo-EP The Five Precepts stirs in several influences, with a new vocalist at the helm bringing further change from their previous groove metal sound.

The band take a risky approach, kicking off the EP with the instrumental F21, featuring a mix of Opethian and Meshuggah-like riffing from Hiltunen and Karhu (The Man-Eating Tree). It’s a mid-tempo affair with some strong guitar work, and the rhythm section of Tyynismaa on bass and Kuorikoski on drums do their job, although their limelight comes later in the EP. Confusingly, any pretense at the band being an instrumental group is instantly dispelled in Footprints, when Koskela’s (Abysmalia) roar emerges under a Death Metal rumble reminiscent of Gorguts and Cynic. Within the first two minutes, the vocalist throws out a mixture of Pyrrhon-like screams and growls, both of which kick ass, along with some receded spoken-word which is less to my taste. They have, however, now dropped the cleans which Karhu provided, which only adds to the old-school feel.

Only four songs and with a mastering that leaves a lot to be desired. But man am I digging this motherfucker!

Wall of the Eyeless are just two chaps, SL and Simon. The first is Russian, lives in Sweden, plays bass and all guitars and grunts around a bit. The latter is Swedish and bangs the bongos. They found each other only a few months ago and already came up with a first demo, downloadable for free (‘name your price’) on BandCamp. Worth your while!

If you’re a fan of Tool, you’ll love this – or perhaps hate it for sometimes being a copy. Another link dumped by Rufio!

Rishloo, out of Seattle, formed in 2002 and aims to push the boundaries of Rock. Indeed, this isn’t really Metal. But it isn’t really Rock either. Well, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. What I can say is that it’s mostly psychedelic and progressive, sometimes nuts and freaky. In short, it’s absolutely great!