Muse ‘The Resistance’ – This album sounds exactly as I expected. Upon seeing the track-listing (multiple part songs, common theme), I thought of the earlier Muse back in 2004 and imagined how they would put together their first concept piece – Anthemic beginnings, pop middle, queen inspired emotional ending. This is exactly what it is, except for the surprising use of 80s electronic beats throughout. Fans of the whole Black Hole era Muse may be put off by the switch in style. Gone are songs like Starlight and Knights of Cydonia, and in its place a thrashing of Take A Bow and Hoodoo. Definitely a great album for fans of their older and less accessible material. Still great stuff.

Editors ‘In This Light And On This Evening’ – This was a big surprise. The last release from Editors, An End Has A Start, took the band from the studio to stage with their more poppy guitar laden collection of singles packed into an album that did not succeed too well. This was a disappointment because their first album, The Back Room, had a more personal and unique sound. In This Light And On This Evening is a bit of a combination of The Back Room, Peter Gabriel Security era disquieting beauty, and late 70s (Ultravox anybody?) electronica. One listen to their latest single, Papillon, will remind you of that era. Because of my love for Ultravox, I found this enjoyable and easy to get into, and again for the Peter Gabriel-like songs. The album may not be for you if you absolutely hate that era, but some songs are a must listen for Editors fans.

Matthew Good ‘Vancouver’ – Remember Avalanche? No? If you enjoy good emotional rock (not emo by the way), you need to check it out, as it is a masterpiece. Since Avalanche, Matthew Good had written two somewhat experimental albums and now we have a proper followup to Avalanche. This is not to say his last two albums are not good, White Light Rock and Roll Review and Hospital Music are fantastic, but they just were not quite up there with the flawless Avalanche album. What makes this album so different from his last few is the lack of quiet acoustic or atmospheric pieces – every track ends up rocking at some point. This was a disappointment upon first listen, knowing how good he is at writing atmospheric pieces, but the tracks are all such a high quality I was surprised to enjoy it so much. Also, the orchestrations from Avalanche are back as well, if you like that kind of thing.

Alice In Chains ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’ – I had this feeling all along that Alice In Chains would get back together and come out with something, and here it is. There are some quality songs here, and some fantastic acoustic pieces, but it feels so quickly tossed together and a bit too long. This seems to be related to the song types and track-listing. To many lows than highs, acoustic interlude here and there, complete chaos. The final track was worth the wait though, too bad it took so many beers to get there.

Antimatter ‘Live @ An Club’ – For those who do not know what or who Antimatter is, Duncan Patterson, formerly of Anathema (a progressive rock/metal band) and Mick Moss formed the band in the late 90s. They write atmospheric rock with mostly guest vocals. After Duncan left the band lately, Mick Moss has continued on with the band with the release of a fantastic progessive album, Leaving Eden, released in 2007. This live album captures a performance from Athens, Greece, in late 2007, with Danny Cavanagh (also from Anathema) guesting on guitar. Some people have described Antimatter as the most depressing music they have ever heard, and a co-worker compared it to Leonard Cohen, which I find quite humorous. It really depends on how you take quiet atmospheric and emotional music, do you take it as a downer or do you feel uplifted by it? I am of the latter and I found this album to be quite beautiful and relaxing, even with beer. The quality of the recording is very good, and the crowd is quiet all throughout except between songs, probably hypnotized by the beauty. This is Sunday afternoon acoustic music at its best.

Hey Rosetta! ‘Into Your Lungs’ – I picked this up because it was produced by Hawksley Workman, I am a big fan of his work. After listening to the album completely it felt like a more folkish Hawksley combined with 54-40 (without the love!) and some atmospheric prog shoved in for modern sake. The problem with this kind of album is how the tracks do not stand out from each other, but they are decent rock songs. This band could very much be on their way to full on progressive rock.

Next update, METAL, as this has been one fucking crazy month.

Valis – Fantastic stoner / hard rock band. They are about to release a new album called Dark Matter soon. (and by the time you read this, it will have released a year ago) For now you can check out their excellent debut Vast Active Living Intelligence System, or their easier to find Head Full of Pills or Champions of Magic. Or… you can just check their myspace page – http://www.myspace.com/valis

Dozer – From Sweden, these stoner rockers have gone from Kyuss imitators (in a very good way) to a more psychedelic and original sound. Their new album Beyond Colossal reminds me a bit of Soundgarden in intensity and creativity. http://www.myspace.com/dozerrock

Sig:Ar:Tyr – Canadian folk metal with whispered-like vocals and excellent guitar work. Their debut, Sailing the Seas of Fate, is far more acoustic than their later more eastern sounding Beyond the North Winds. http://www.myspace.com/sigartyr

Let me know what you think.

Saros – Progressive black metal. Similar to how Arch Enemy has a female vocalist do death growls, Leila in Saros does a more Black Metal style vocal approach. Latest album is Acrid Plains (Profound Lore Records) released earlier this year.

Centurion’s Ghost – After coming out with their excellent album in 2007 titled ‘The Great Work’, which is a blend of doom, sludge, with some excellent technical writing, I still have yet to find any of these albums anywhere. Currently writing their third album for release later this year.

Anael – Absolutely fantastic German black metal band. Their latest release ‘From Arcane Fires’, based on an old German poem about the end of the world, features great writing and atmosphere with an epic story.

Asva – Their last release was a fair album but ‘What You Don’t Know Is Frontier’, released late 2008, showcases their talent in writing and musicianship. This 8 member drone/doom band writes some emotionally powerful and haunting music.

Feel free to send me comments or suggest some bands.

Soundgarden (1984 – 1997) – One of the first grunge bands, and the first to sign a major label (1989). Creating intense, and often angry experimental punk rock/metal. Personally, I do not remember many other bands that were as exciting as Soundgarden was back in their heyday. Their final album, Down on the Upside, was an incredibly dark rush of various metal styles and influenced me to write songs which will appear on my Shattered album.

Since the band broke up, Chris Cornell (vocals) had gone on to projects such as Audioslave and that wrote that one good solo album Euphoria Morning. Since this website is more about opinions, I did not care much for his other solo albums. The other band members post-band projects are less known, usually acting as session musicians on various metal releases. A great joke about the band getting together at a Cinnabon was released in The Onion August issue in 2008. More recently, the band (minus Cornell) played a few songs at a Tom Morello show.

Aereogramme (1998 – 2007) – A perplexing post-rock band from Glasgow Scotland – their myspace page reads ‘Confusing everyone and ourselves since 1998′. This band is quite difficult to categorize as any album (except their final album) will contain songs that are heavy enough to be on a metal screamo release, and soft enough to be played along with Sigur Ros music. Some people have compared Aereogramme to Matthew Good, particularly the vocal style. I am a big fan of beautiful music and I would say this band has written more beautiful songs than any other band I can think of. A Winter’s Discord, Barriers, Messenger, etc. When I found this band I felt a bit like I found a secret, and after I listened to the whole catalog I realized it was dying to be found. Have a listen to Sunday 3:52 and you will hear what I mean.

RIP

Candlemass ‘Death Magic Doom’ – One of the few new releases this year that has me excited. I had not heard much of Candlemass before this but it is time to search for the older releases. This is not typical doom, has a bit more thrash. Great vocalist.

Primordial ‘Imrama’ 2009 edition – I had yet to hear the black metal days of Primordial. The massive epic structures of their newer work is present here but tangled within their blackened roots. Excellent album.

Static-X ‘Cult of Static’ – Quite a bit of an improvement over their last few albums and hints at their earlier and less nu metal influenced work. Some of the songs sound similar to eachother but this will iron itself out in relistens.

First I will introduce my music collection which I call ‘The Shelf’ which will prove how crazy my music tastes are. I listen to quite a few genres, including Indie bands like Arcade Fire, 80s rock bands like Genesis, post 80s material like Nine Inch Nails, pop-rock like The Church, progressive rock bands like Rush, Hip Hop mix bands DJ Shadow, mind fucking beats like Aphex Twin, alt country like Ryan Adams, experimental rock bands like Wilco, melodic electronica like Psykosonik, 90s alternative like Smashing Pumpkins, 2000s alternative like TV on the Radio, new aged rap projects like Saul Williams, doom metal bands like My Dying Bride, math metal bands like Meshuggah, progressive metal bands like Burst, and black metal bands like Mayhem. I am sure I am missing a few genres.. perhaps a dozen. The Shelf contains imagination, inspiration, and keeps me quite happy.

Swan Lake – Enemy Mine

This is an incredible album. Anybody who has a chance to listen to their first album Beast Moans, will find a new world behind the veil. This band consists of Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes, Daniel Bejar of Destroyer, and Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown. For those who are not familiar with these artists and are interested, this is a very strange place to start. These musicians have a strange style of writing and sound where it could be quite difficult to describe, but I guess you could say that listening to the artists other projects will seem like walking carelessly through jungle, stumbling over artifacts never before seen. This band in particular is like being in the middle of this jungle, in it’s most secret place.

The songs sound as if they were written acoustic and the songs feel more intimate compared to their first album which sounded less natural and thus more experimental. This is not to say that they played it safe on their second album as the complexity is still there. Beast Moans is one of my top 10 favorite albums, and Enemy Mine is definitely growing on me.

I do not know if these artists are on sites like itunes as I buy only physical copies of albums, but if you are interested in this band check out these tracks:

A Venue Called Rubella (from Beast Moans)
All Fires (from Beast Moans)

Spanish Gold, 2044 (from Enemy Mine)
Heartswam (from Enemy Mine)

Or check out their Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/swanlaketheband