The Meads of Asphodel at Myspace
The Meads of Asphodel are one of the most unique metal bands I’ve come across. They mix traditional black metal, punk, Middle Eastern music, and electronica in their brand of music, and they do it well. Damascus Steel is their most recent full-length, released in 2005 (two EPs have [...]

Mithras at Myspace
Mithras has to be one of my favourite recent finds. They actually managed to make their music sound otherworldly and unique, unlike so many other derivative death metal bands. At first, I thought that the album used synthesizers extensively, but after reading an interview with the band, I found out that they were [...]

…The clean minimalist riffs fused with the hypnotic percussion and subtle piano and organ creates a style of music that isn’t really metal but then again can’t really be anything else. If you add some distortion to the guitars and produce it in a different way you’d have something undeniably metal but then that would take away the beauty and ambiguity of this record. This is a bizarre sound…

…North take their own approach to combining post-rock with metal. Sometimes, the post-rock stands out the most, especially on the brief, dark, ominous interludes. Their last EP “Ruins” had one very metal, very promising riff on the track “Nex in March”, but overall was more of a heavy, post-rock, 100% instrumental album. But they decided to go balls-out into metal territory on this one; the post-rock is there, but focusing on the heavy riffs and adding growly vocals has…

Where do I begin? This album is spaz-tastic from start to finish. These boys cover a broad spectrum of avant-garde and technical metal. The album starts out stressing their evil carnival sound, recalling Dog Fashion Disco and Mr. Bungle. After the organ disappears from the mix, you’re left with one brutal treble-y guitar that weaves in and…