Sleep Token – This Place Will Become Your Tomb (Spinefarm Records) [Zak Skane]
The Prog/Art Metal enigma that is Sleep Token has just release their sophomore album titled This Place Will Become Your Tomb. If you haven’t heard of this band then you are clearly been under a rock because this group have been planting their mysterious lure since 2016 when they released E.P One with their early sound consisting of eerie soundscapes, ambient keys, soulful vocals as well as djenty guitars. Since then released the band have two E.Ps (One and Two) a few stand alone singles as well as a their debut album Sundowning that has pulled them out of the underground scene.
When the opening track Atlantic starts with cinematic grand piano sections, which could easily be on the next James Bond film before every instrument and layer builds up to a crescendo of and ending. This then leads us into Hypnosis which takes the piano melody from the previous song and re-imagines it on guitar but in a diminished scale which makes this song portray a darker call and response to Atlantic especially with dirtier climatic ending which involves chunky guitar and heavy drum sections. After that Vessel (the singer) and folks takes us to the bands more pop influences with Mine that starts with oriental inspired keyboards and emotional tined vocals before coming in with heart throbbing guitar breaks and the dark and sexy Like That with will definitely be a suggestion for pole dancers. This leads us up to the last two songs of the first half of the album, the single The Love You Want mixes jazz inspired verses and massive pop tinged choruses which is accompanied to one of the best shot music videos of the year before closing the first half of the album with the vocal a cappella Fall For Me even though it’s the most stripped down song on the album it’s still pulls it’s emotional punch just as much as every song on this album.
When the opening track Atlantic starts with cinematic grand piano sections, which could easily be on the next James Bond film before every instrument and layer builds up to a crescendo of and ending. This then leads us into Hypnosis which takes the piano melody from the previous song and re-imagines it on guitar but in a diminished scale which makes this song portray a darker call and response to Atlantic especially with dirtier climatic ending which involves chunky guitar and heavy drum sections. After that Vessel (the singer) and folks takes us to the bands more pop influences with Mine that starts with oriental inspired keyboards and emotional tined vocals before coming in with heart throbbing guitar breaks and the dark and sexy Like That with will definitely be a suggestion for pole dancers. This leads us up to the last two songs of the first half of the album, the single The Love You Want mixes jazz inspired verses and massive pop tinged choruses which is accompanied to one of the best shot music videos of the year before closing the first half of the album with the vocal a cappella Fall For Me even though it’s the most stripped down song on the album it’s still pulls it’s emotional punch just as much as every song on this album.
When its comes to the opener to the second half of the album, Alkaline, greets us with some eerie 80’s sounding synths before Vessel haunt us with some spooky lyrics till every layer builds up to some of the most juiciest breakdowns on this album. This leads us back to some of the bands poppier sounding songs like the emotion filled Distracted and the naughty trip beat filled Descending in where you hear Vessel displaying the most swagger he’s done with producing vocal lines like "And we all know that talk is cheap so come and save me now." Telomeres shows the bands more soft rock influences that take homage to bands like Muse and old schools Coldplay where as a High Water takes influences from pop acts like Bastille and George Ezra with a modern metal twist. The final swan song on this album is the emotionally driven Missing Limbs, which is all stripped down to just vocals and a simple acoustic pattern that would reminisce on folk and indie artists like old school Ed Sheeran and James Arthur but it also shows how great Vessel is as a songwriter.
I’m going to be honest this is an amazing album, it took me a few listens to fully appreciate the album but once I got over comparing them to their previous album Sundowning which was more Prog/Djent inspired. My advice is if you want to get into this band don’t get fooled by their Black Metal looking attire and start comparing them to any other band in the metal category because their a band that are clearly set out to push the boundaries of heavy music, so my advice is come into it a general music lover. The song writing has matured, there is more natural balance of the arrangements when it comes to pop meets metal, I’m going to give this a solid 10/10
I’m going to be honest this is an amazing album, it took me a few listens to fully appreciate the album but once I got over comparing them to their previous album Sundowning which was more Prog/Djent inspired. My advice is if you want to get into this band don’t get fooled by their Black Metal looking attire and start comparing them to any other band in the metal category because their a band that are clearly set out to push the boundaries of heavy music, so my advice is come into it a general music lover. The song writing has matured, there is more natural balance of the arrangements when it comes to pop meets metal, I’m going to give this a solid 10/10
Time for a bright, fresh, and energetic new band. Meet Syncolima, hailing from Nottinghamshire and whose lineup contains the familiar faces of bassist Chris ‘Stoff’ Daughton and drummer Gazz Evans, and the newer face of Josh Morgan on guitar and vocals. The band, formed within the past eight months have gelled well with instant jam sessions providing confirmation. Ten songs written in four months form the debut album Where The End Meets The Beginning. There’s a blend of stoner meets classic rock in Syncolima’s music. The album opens with Into The Sun, led by some neat bass picking before a crashing riff begins the first listen. Stoff’s bass lines are dominant, Gazz gives the drums some welly and there’s a catchy riff and hook to boot. Josh brings a different vocal style to the band, whose driving engine room ensures that there is enough power to keep things moving.
Things get a good deal more psychedelic with the trippy Laguna, showing the band’s diverse approach to their song writing. Stoff’s rampant bass lines adding just the right support to the track. As the album develops, there’s plenty more to get stuck into. Strong Beer is a rampant rocker, a dirty Mastodon feeling adding dirt under the nails in all the right places. These Tongues has an intro that is reminiscent of a faster version of the opening of Robin Trower’s Bridge Of Sighs, although that’s where the comparison ends, as this is another fist pumping stoner track that grabs you by the lapels with some searing lead work. Holding central position is the title track, an atmospheric and brooding piece of work which meanders between grunge, stoner, and classic rock.
Josh’s vocals work a treat and the blend of fuzzy bass and crisper guitar work combine neatly. There’s a couple of sharp, short songs in the shape of So Into You and No Fright In Dying which sit nicely whilst another pumping track You Hold The Cards brings the record to a sweet close. This is a debut to warm the heart against those autumnal frosts. There’s groove a plenty, ample stoner fuzz, and all wrapped up in a range of songs that switch between genres without challenge. It’s good to have these guys back playing music and this style works on all levels. Tidy! 7/10
Franklin Zoo – The Dandelion Child (Self Released) [Alex Swift]
Creating prog of a uniquely avant-garde yet epic nature, Franklin Zoo are as odd as their name to suggests. Songs like the opening title track often dance wildly between moments of aggression and anger, to dreamlike and mellow sections. Except, unlike many of the prog revival bands, these musicians seem less hung up and structure and cohesion and more on sonic disorder. While that does lend to the perplexing nature of this bands sound, it does lessen the appeal and personal attachment that you feel towards these songs. Although there are certainly some fascinatingly intricate moments, any chance the listener has to immerse themselves in one of these sections is fleeting, due to the compositional absurdity on display.
Creating prog of a uniquely avant-garde yet epic nature, Franklin Zoo are as odd as their name to suggests. Songs like the opening title track often dance wildly between moments of aggression and anger, to dreamlike and mellow sections. Except, unlike many of the prog revival bands, these musicians seem less hung up and structure and cohesion and more on sonic disorder. While that does lend to the perplexing nature of this bands sound, it does lessen the appeal and personal attachment that you feel towards these songs. Although there are certainly some fascinatingly intricate moments, any chance the listener has to immerse themselves in one of these sections is fleeting, due to the compositional absurdity on display.
On many of these tracks such as The Fugitive or The Void, these musicians are attempting to bring a sense of strung-out sadness to their compositions – this is actually the element working most in The Dandelion Child’s favour and once you begin to see the album more as a hallucinatory soundscape, rather than a set of ‘anthems’ so to speak, the experimental nature becomes a lot more intriguing. Sadly, getting to that point, took me multiple listens and lots of thought. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that and I’d say if you like a challenge in your listening habits, give this a try. That said, there’s engaging challenges and ones I feel like giving up on halfway through. While I get the sense that some will appreciate this record a lot more than me, I’m unlikely to return to this particular puzzle anytime in the near future. 5/10
Siren's Rain – Rise Forth (Self Released) [Simon Black]
‘Symphonic Folk Metal’ is one of those combinations that my younger self would be somewhat bemused by, given that in those days the fact that Metal had only just starting fracturing into splinters when I was a teenager. It was hard enough when plain old Heavy Metal gave birth to its two divergent children Thrash and Glam, so you can imagine what I made of the birth of Folk Metal courtesy of Skyclad back in the day (actually I was hugely positive and still love them to bits). Nowadays you all take these fusions and diversions in our stride, helped as you are by us journos and our insatiable need to pigeonhole everything into convenient sub-genres every time someone does something original. But then Siren’s Rain have the benefit of being a young band able to take its influences from the huge panoply of sub-genres that the intervening decades have spawned, which is why you occasionally, just occasionally get something like this that seizes an eclectic sub-set and fuses it into something refreshingly different.
Siren's Rain – Rise Forth (Self Released) [Simon Black]
‘Symphonic Folk Metal’ is one of those combinations that my younger self would be somewhat bemused by, given that in those days the fact that Metal had only just starting fracturing into splinters when I was a teenager. It was hard enough when plain old Heavy Metal gave birth to its two divergent children Thrash and Glam, so you can imagine what I made of the birth of Folk Metal courtesy of Skyclad back in the day (actually I was hugely positive and still love them to bits). Nowadays you all take these fusions and diversions in our stride, helped as you are by us journos and our insatiable need to pigeonhole everything into convenient sub-genres every time someone does something original. But then Siren’s Rain have the benefit of being a young band able to take its influences from the huge panoply of sub-genres that the intervening decades have spawned, which is why you occasionally, just occasionally get something like this that seizes an eclectic sub-set and fuses it into something refreshingly different.
Let’s start with the fact that the five musicians here have an impressive combination of instruments to play with here, with a mandolin and a harp adding to the usual instrumental mix, along with some quite interesting percussive effects and layers with two other members of the band contributing here alongside drummer Scott Eugene Jones- creating the kind of percussive explosion that someone like Slipknot made global. The title track is the best example of this, with its hypnotic melody lines, relentless pile-driving instrumental delivery, repetitive but incredibly catchy vocal melody lines and the drums, the drums, the drums. It’s relentless, powerful, unforgiving and stands up heads and shoulders over some of the more folk influenced material, which to be fair, has plenty of representation out there in the wider world. Then add to this vocally you’ve got the traditional female Symphonic voice in Rena Hellzinger also able to turn in an incredibly dark and moody Extreme vocal turn interchangeably and seamlessly.
Add to this a huge streak of Punk energy and edginess, and you really have something rather unusual here. Nothing sums this up more than the album closer – the bizarre instrumental Folk Metal Funk, which does exactly what it says on the tin! Most folk influenced bands tend to be European, so when a band from Washington State USA so this probably contributes to the unusual sound, but personally it works for me. The negative side of this is that the production isn’t doing this unusual sound any favours, as it’s just a little too under-polished for the material, which is crying out for a big, rich fat and in your face delivery, but hopefully that will come with time, as this is certainly a band to watch. 7/10