technicalmusicreview.com

 

To change things up and also promote a very talented and unheard of band, Roopam Garg’s brainchild The Surrealist is TMR’S November Featured Artist.  They’re a very cool prog/pop/kinda fusion/experimental instrumental band out of Boston.  If it could get any cooler he graduated the Berklee School Of Music this year as well.  I first heard of The Surrealist over a year ago, and was totally intrigued.  I haven’t heard much, if any guitarists like him so far in my life.  The context of the music of the Surrealist is very intriguing.  The songs that have been released so far are heavily layered in some parts, and have some wild techniques that will make your jaw drop as far as it ever has.  I think he is such a brilliant guitarist that he will eventually be on Tosin Abasi’s level as an artist…..the style is so unique and refreshing you crave more music! Since I’ve known about the band, they’ve been releasing singles periodically and to my knowledge there’s five songs so far.  Every time there’s a Surrealist clip posted, I’m generally watching it possibly foaming at the mouth.  Oh, and to boot in their short existence….they had a slot in England’s UK Tech Fest this past summer! I believe that was their first show? I’m totally not sure….but that British festival I NEED to go to before my time on this earth is done.

I hope my website’s followers take advantage of this opportunity and dive deep into The Surrealist if they have not heard of this new band yet.  I had an interesting time thinking of a solid, newer band to promote for November that isn’t extreme.  I racked my brain and after a few days BOOM goes the Surrealist to the forefront! The artwork for their covers for the singles are equally as mind-blowing. I am forever grateful for the awesome music that they have gifted the world and hope this month of November in 2018 generates the guys some more traffic and more fans discover their music.  I hope you enjoy their music and Roopam’s guitar clips as much as I have.

 

thesurrealist

https://thesurrealist.org

http://thesurrealist.bandcamp.com

From their Facebook profile:

It all begins with a deep desire to explore the unconscious mind and its infinite creative potential. This is The Surrealist. The Surrealist is an American Experimental Progressive band based out of Boston, MA. The band is composed of guitarist Roopam Garg . and drummer John-Marc Degaard Synthesizing sounds from a multiplicity of genres—metal, ambient, minimalism, electronic and film soundtracks—The Surrealist is a reflection of the new era of modern instrumental music. The Surrealist paints upon the canvas of silence and operates on the endpoints of the spectrum of human emotion. Featuring sweeping, whirling guitar lines that cascade over blankets of plush, droning soundscapes, intricate modulating polyrhythms, The Surrealist breaks new grounds and transcends the separation of genres, leaving nothing but a pure sphere of sound. The Surrealist is: Roopam Garg Austin Rockman

 

 

WOW does Indonesia ever pump out so many good metal sub genre bands! WOW IS THAT ALBUM COVER FREAKING AWESOME, oh don’t worry the music is just as good.  If you’re into the obnoxious side of tech death, this band is for you….I’m talking Brain Drill and Beneath The Massacre weird. No consistency, not much rhythm on guitar (although they keep a consistent groove occasionally when they aren’t sweep picking every scale they know on guitar!).  Neptunus released “Alien Conspiracy” earlier this month on October 1st through Eastbreath Records.  I’m gonna have to dig deeper into this record label if they promote obnoxious and technical music like Neptunus….this blows my mind.

I mean, is this shit even human? I definitely get the sci-fi theme the band is going for on their debut.  The guitars and drums are just absolutely mind boggling.  These guys are like the Indonesian Archspire, but a million times more strung out on heroin and speed. Seriously, this band raises the bar for modern tech death.  I won’t be able to listen to this all the time consistently, but when I want to listen to overdone technical death metal Neptunus should come to mind quickly.  How clean the guitars are without hearing any muting is extremely impressive as well.  The range of vocals are great and will please fans of all spectrums between low, mid range and high gutturals.

With a wacky, complex and crazy debut Neptunus has with “Alien Conspiracy” it just makes you wonder…..what the hell? WHERE do they go from this wild debut? Could they top it? Will they do a total 360 and release a pop album? Seriously it’s a whacky 30 minutes (give or take) of your time, just listen to it and if you can buy this impressive debut album.  Look out for more from Neptunus and their label Eastbreath Records! Stay Tech!

Yeah…they really DO mean fucking business!

 

https://neptunusmedan.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/neptunusofficial/

 

Here is one song from the insanity that is Neptunus.

 

Trigger is a solo instrumental project by Michael Trio out of Nashville.  Tonight on Halloween I give you a SCARY good fucking album.  Trigo did all the music and arrangements on this beast and shit is it ever a masterpiece.  It’s a prog-tactic adventure through the cosmic whirlwinds of an endless time warp! Yeah I may have just pieced together a bunch of cool sci-fi fi words to make a cool sounding sentence….judge me, I don’t care.

To stay on topic, “The Harbor” is an amazing album in the instrumental realms.  It’s good to hear something in the prog realms with a bigger focus on melody.  There’s lots of great djent and extended range guitarists that put out cool music with some electronics and synth and all that jazz, and some instrumental death metal.  Trigo’s melodies throughout this epic album are so smooth and so beautiful.  This would honestly make a beautiful score for some movies, it has cinematic undertones to it as well.  It’s a very moving album, for sure.  The different elements of synthesizer and keyboards bring out even more melody in the music.

He has some great shred, and then with the guitars he tones it down and zeroes in on the melody.  He reminds all of the grasshoppers that there is much more to music than speed, and “The Harbor” perfectly represents that with the different guitar leads.  There’s some beautiful acoustic sections mixed in between the all the sweet dual guitars and double bass drumming.  I never lost interest in the album, and kept me wanting more.  Trigo has his band playing shows too, to boot.  If you live in Nashville try to make it to his shows! I’m damn glad I got this masterpiece in my e-mail and glad I took the time to listen to it.  Great job man!

 

You can check out the band at their next show November 8th! Check out the link right below here.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1934618490174297/

 

https:// triggerbandofficial.bandcamp. com

 

Black Metal/Mathcore crazies Noise Trail Immersion are releasing “Symbology Of Shelter” this Friday November 2nd.  And yeah, it’s absolutely crazy.  Blending mathcore and black metal is an unusual and unorthodox idea (hey, that’s what my website promotes!)….right? BUT, Noise Trail lmmersion gets it done.  The album is a chaotic, trippy ride through the realms of insanity.  There isn’t too much like these guys going around and it’s wild to hear something such as this.  It’s an insane experience with so much energy that doesn’t loosen it’s grip, ever.  You can feel the anxiety and insanity through Fabio’s voice on “Symbology Of Shelter”.  Immediately you can tell there is some sort of unrest on the band’s upcoming release.  The mood that Noise Trail Immersion sets makes the album that much better! It’s a great release in an age of watered down music.

Guitarist Daniele Vergine comments on the creation of Symbology of Shelter:

“With “Symbology Of Shelter” we tried to combine the ominous and misanthropic atmospheres of Dissonant Black Metal  with the chaotic and intricate structures of Mathcore with the intention to represent musically the concept of the inner crisis experienced by everyone’s conscious self, that uses “shelters” in various forms to satisfy a compelling and nefarious need to attach meanings to life.  The album takes the form of a 43 minutes long song (split in seven tracks), in order to take the listener into a non-stop journey in a dead-end vortex full of panic, anxiety, insanity and desperation.”

 

Symbology of Shelter:
01. Mirroring
02. Repulsion and Escapism I
03. Repulsion and Escapism II
04. Acrimonious
05. The Empty Earth I
06. The Empty Earth II
07. Symbology of Shelter

Noise Trail Immersion:
Fabio Rapetti – Vocals
Daniele Vergine (Occulta Veritas) – 8 string guitar
Nebil Jabnoun – 8 string guitar
Lorenzo Sirotto – Bass
Paolo Mingoni – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/NoiseTrailImmersion/
https://noisetrailimmersion.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsUvQG8QqDySL2whfoxcEQQ
https://www.instagram.com/noisetrailimmersion/
https://momentofcollapse.com/label/
https://momentofcollapserecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/momentofcollapse/

 

The band partnered with Decibel Magazine to premiere their upcoming album and can listen to it in full right here.  I hope you enjoy this release as much as I did and put in your preorder for this album!

 

 

Canada’s own Fallen Legion have a new drum playthrough for their track “Way Out” off of their latest EP “Downfall”.  The drumming of Dylan Waybrant is entertaining and couldn’t pass up this offer.  The band has some prog moments that mesh perfectly with their metal sound and make them a unique force in music.  Check out the playthrough below! Once again, TMR has you covered with this awesome premiere!

“Way out is easier than it looks but harder than it sounds.  The opening drum beat was fun to put together and I don’t normally have to notate my music to understand it”. – Dylan Waybrant

 

 

Fallen Legion:

Josh Masterson (Vocals)
Jon Kal (Bass)
Nick Sauter (Guitars)
Dylan Waybrant (Drums)

https://fallenlegionband.com

https://www.facebook.com/FallenLegionMetal/

 

https://www.instagram.com/fallen.legion.band/

https://www.youtube.com/user/6FALLEN6LEGION6

https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/FallenLegion

 

Our second episode is live enjoy!

I haven’t done an opinion piece in quite a while…..between a lot of random emails promoting bands, interviews, album reviews, random streams and everything I put into this site I finally got something to rant about.  First off…..this is generalized, don’t get so self indulgent.  This isn’t against a certain person, band, group, website, or anything.  Let’s face it…..independent music and your local scene is a freaking mess.  Yeah there’s some great bands, but there’s a plethora of issues and only THE FANS can make it any better.  Promoters are rough……nowadays your average promoter picks up shows, “promotes” them and also makes the band sell ticket. HELLO YOU’RE THE PROMOTER! Yeah, that means more than putting links on Facebook. GO TO SHOWS! Yeah, socialize in real life and hand out fliers.  Bring it up at work! Bring it up at family gatherings!  Bring it up at school if you go to one! Tell your friends! Is the job easy? Not at all! More than my local scene here in Buffalo have these issues, and more I will continue to rant about without blowing my lid.   It’s simple……don’t take on so many shows that you can’t promote equally and work hard at it.  Remember the time when promoters would actually sell tickets? And actually promote? It feels like forever, to be honest.  Only you can support for your favorite smaller bands and local bands…..tip them, buy their MUSIC that will help too!

Everyone needs your help to survive in the industry even with that music modernization act passing trying to give more moolah to artists who stream their music.  If you’re a fan of a band, promote everything online……tell people, invite people to shows NOT JUST ON SOCIAL MEDIA! Talk about what they’re doing and do your due diligence! Wonder why some bands can’t carry on or some shows don’t do well? It’s not ALWAYS the promoters fault…..Stop going to those $50+ shows and check out some random band that might interest you in your local scene.  $5 isn’t a terrible cover even $10 to check out original bands! And when you’ve seen some bands, try something new and check out new bands! Switch it up sometimes, and keep that palette fresh.  Meet some people and bands, get into your local scenes actively! You can make a positive difference in your local scene by being proactive instead of being inactive…..being that person complaining their favorite band couldn’t continue on or a venue shuts down at least TRY to make a difference.

 

I have seen far too many good shows with very talented bands with low attendances.  Give something a chance for a band you may have not heard of! I was at The Metal’s Halloween show last Saturday, and damn did Rochester bring the heat.  There had to have at least been 60+ people at that show give or take! That is like 10 times the amount of your average show in Buffalo.  Signed bands with local support, not just a local show…..Alterbeast and Inferi had like 25ish people, Inanimate Existence/Fields Of Elysium/Last Of Lucy had 15ish people at best….Micawber/Ahtme/Lago had a halfway decent turnout with 30+ish people, maybe? There have been worse turnouts we can remember, those are just somer recent shows I have been to that had lower turnouts that should have done much better.  If a promoter is handling too many shows, or isn’t into a genre….why run so many shows you can’t put the attention to? Why book random shows and tours you aren’t putting your heart into? It’s frustrating to see so many great bands come through my area, and get god awful turnouts. And some people wonder why many tours skip over Buffalo……Run contests! At least TRY to get people in the door, relying on social media isn’t always the key to success.  Yes, there’s many factors into the game but I hope this gets better one day…..eventually…..maybe?

 

 

Musicians, lay off the ego and stop being fucking assholes. Wish it could happen, but that too is a pipe dream.  Support each other, grow the fuck up.  If you don’t like something, don’t be a fucking prick.  Yeah, it sucks we all have lives and musicians can’t make a living like they used to.  Stay as late as you can, and don’t lie…..be honest for a change.  Make friendships, connect, and be a good person……I guess that’s a lot to ask for these days.  Too many artists just book it after their set.  Check everyone out….you’re there, why the hell not? Not just the concertgoers and promoters, but the bands itself need unity…..it’s been a long time coming.  Any scene can relate to these struggles, just not Western New York.

Some people talk about shitty show times.  A bill of 4 bands with music “starting” (very loose quotations) at 6pm will be over by 11ish.  Maybe we should start shows earlier so everyone can still hang out after and everyone working the next day can still get a decent nights sleep.  Then theres the crazy folk that try to show hop and hit up a few shows in a night…..trust me if teleportation was real I’d be all over it.  Pick your one show and either stay or spread the love and maybe hit up a few in one night if there’s a lot going on one night.  It just pains me to see so many good bands not have respectable turnouts. Maybe this makes me look like an asshole, maybe it doesn’t…..good thing I generally don’t care what most people think anyways.  I’m just trying to be honest.  I want everyone’s local scene to thrive, and have many bands.  I want good turnouts for shows and to check out new bands and music.  Trust me,  I only want the best for my local scene and wish the best for everyone else’s.  Unfortunately, Buffalo is now a cover band town who draws the best.  Let’s hope original music regains it’s rightful throne of every genre.