Jan Rivera - Existential Paranoia (Self Released)
Known mainly in his hope country of Puerto Rico Jan Rivera comes to the word stage with his debut album Existential Paranoia. With a title like that you can tell it's going to be a laugh a minute riot, but Rivera manages to capture this theme through the medium of instrumental prog music. He recruits a strong line up of collaborators with Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, The Aristocrats) on drums, for every song, joined by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa) on one track. Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) and Gary Husband (John Mclaughlin, Allan Holdsworth) on keys, as Nili Brosh (Danny Elfman) joins on guitar.
There's plenty of reference points to this music, the jazz like passages like The Aristocrats or guitarist Guthrie Govan, the floating fingerstule of Andy McKee while there's touches of Plini in the proggier sections and Rivera himself is inspired by the Indian classical style of John McLaughlin, many of these songs featuring Tabla drums to keep that specific sound. Rivera is a brilliant guitar player, being both an educator and the on-set consultant for Fender guitars capturing moods and with his technical displays which are never overly flashy in the compositions, worked in to be part of the brilliant compositions that straddle progressive metal, instrumental music along with jazz and world music.
It will take a more talented musician than I to perfectly encapsulate all of the impressive feats of music that Existential Paranoia contains but for the layman a track such as Morse Code For Hope gives you a good idea of what to expect, atmospheric songs with virtuoso performances. Take a chance on it and you'll be rewarded by some top class musical movements. 8/10
Hydra Vein - Unlamented (Back On Black)
There's been a 32 year wait for Hydra Vein to follow up their second album
After The Dream but has it been worth it, or are they all thrashed out? Having been formed in the mid-80's this UK group, now based mainly in the Netherlands, play second wave thrash with a particular link to bands such as Testament especially in the vocals. It's thrash with a political and social conscience the bone tracks here all dealing with varying topics but none can be considered to be fluff. Another thing they share with Testament.
It's at the heavier end, the production is dirty and sounds authentic to the time they were making their mark, not sterile and modern. The band returned to the stage after all these years just before the global lockdown but used it to finish this album which features some classic sounding thrash such as the two shot that is Age Of Plague and Blood Eagle Dawn both raging thrahsers that show what Hydra Vein do best. This is straight up thrash, that I'm sure someone has been waiting 33 years for, a decent listen for fans of Testament and Xentrix who I'm sure they'll be following around the country on the back of this record. 6/10
Nighted - Absence (Klang Machine Records)
Have you ever listened to Vangelis or Jean-Michel Jarre and thought this needs more blastbeats, tremolo picking and screaming. Now you could go and check out a band like Perturbator or you could chuck on Absence by Nighted. Ivo Henzi (vocals & guitars - ex-Eluveitie, Cellar Darling, Forest Of Fog) and Marc Petralito (synths, Appearance Of Nothing) formed the band in the lockdown as an experimental project to bring these two styles of music together.
Despite starting out with something very similar to symphonic metal bands such as Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Filth with tracks such as Acronyc that 70’s synth sound permeates, making for Stranger Things black metal, EDM drumbeats against ghostly barks. According to the band it’s supposed to convey an “introspective journey rising from the soul's abysses to the universe's endless expanses”, and it’s certainly introspective the black metal giving some po-faced misery, while the synth elements create a brooding atmosphere. It’s very similar to bands such as Harakiri For The Sky and Hail Spirit Noir especially, the latter using synths so much their most recent album was just synthwave.
Thankfully Nighted strike a balance with black metal ragers such as
Crimson taking the lions share of the record, the electronic style used to maximise the effect, such as the keyboard solo on
Crimson or final track
Relinquish. Recorded and mixed by Cellar Darling’s Anna Murphy along with session drummer Dylan Watson (check out his chops on Aeons),
Absence is essentially a symphonic black metal album with some electronic music slipped in. For fans of bands mentioned including Cellar Darling, it’ll be worth checking out. 7/10
The Electric Alley – Apache (Self Released)
Spanish rocker The Electric Alley, wear their hearts and their influences on their sleeves. They play a standard of hard rock that will be loved by anyone who listens to bands such as Guns N Roses (Son Of A Gun) and Aerosmith, the latter particularly on All The Way where they use lyrics from Walk This Way at the end. It’s arena-friendly rock based in the late 70’s, though the band formed in 2012 in Cadiz.
Apache is their fourth studio release and they are still jumping on that Aerosmith, The Black Crowes, blues based hard rock train and rolling it along, just listen to how loose they can get on the driving All The Way and the Southern styled What’s Going On? From the slow burning opening title track, we go into the jangling rocker Hurricane, which feels very modern and should be bothering rock radio wherever possible, as will the pacey One Lasting Light where the gritty yet melodic vocals are a highlight.
The singer has a wide range, getting soulful on Fireworks and hitting those passionate realms on Writing’s On The Wall which also has some great emotional-drenched guitar solos. Apache juggles the classic and the modern with tracks such as Make It Through The Night edging towards the modern. The Electric Alley are still a band on the underground but this could be the album to break them to a wider audience, with the NWOCR still in full swing let’s hope that these Spanish rockers get the recognition they deserve. 8/10