The Number Twelve Looks Like You - Worse Than Alone

Celebrating an underrated classic today.  This album is a 10 in every sense.  It's innovative, it's an amazing piece of musicianship, and most importantly; it's a blast.  I recommend you listen to the full playlist on youtube rather than simply listening to a track, but two of my favorites are below if you feel so inclined.  Delightful fusion of so many styles that wouldn't seem to work, but do.  Yes, it's a foundation of mathcore, but it transcends into a fairly progressive, and wholly impressive, amalgamation.  Sadly, this was the group's swan song.  I had the pleasure of seeing them twice touring with this album, once with Dillinger Escape Plan.  They were just as good, if not better live.

The Crinn - Shadowbreather

Time for a little technical grindcore to break up the action.  I see The Crinn as Calculating Infinity-era Dillinger Escape Plan mixed with some Converge and put on fast-forward. The musicianship is pretty jaw-dropping, albeit occasionally at the sacrifice of solid hooks and compositions. But I think the point of this is mainly just to drag you to the floor and beat you to death with calculators in various time signatures. Fun stuff.

Enjoyability=8
Musicianship=9
Innovation=7.9
Overall=8.5

Torrential Downpour (US)

A fellow Metal Stormer recommended this on a list, and MAN, was I glad I checked it out.  Progressive metal melding more genres than you can count on two hands.  I love the Mike Patton with Dillinger Escape Plan style vocals.  Has a very sci-fi vibe to it and the production is tight.  It's only $5, don't miss out.  Easily would have made my top 10 of 2014 had I heard it when it came out.

The Heartland

 

Continuing with the core theme, The Heartland are a now defunct 5-piece mathcore band. Atypical from lots of other Mathcore, The Heartland aren't just focused on erratic time signatures and progressiveness. They certainly do not shy away from throwing in melodic passages, The best descriptor would be a softer jazzier Converge albeit less abrasive and more technical. A definite worthwhile listen if you're a fan of mathcore.

 

Listen to more of them here