惘闻 Wǎng Wén

Switching gears once again, we return to China for another great post-rock band. China has been a definite source of my attention  and interest musically for the past couple years. When coming acorns bands such as Wǎng Wén, i'ts not difficult to see why. Influenced by the likes of Tortoise, Mogwai and Mono, Wǎng Wén could in many ways be considered the child of these great post-rock acts. They combine so many of the wonderful traits that many post-rock fanatics have come to know and love. The flawless execution of sad melodies by way of piano, vibrant whirling guitars and soothing string passages evokes a myriad of emotions This in lies the sheer power of music. The intertwining of so many musical elements will intoxicate you as you engage in a wonderful musical journey

 Check them out here

Crystal Castles (US)

Another throwback, but this duo has 3 excellent albums, one of which came out in 2012.  However, their debut is my personal favorite.  This is some ambient, sometimes dancey, sometimes rave-inducing electronic music...but with some of the most chaotic, anarchistic outbursts of unintelligible, and occasionally punkish, fury since Converge.  See that woman on the left?  She is not to be fucked with.  She is Blondie meets Liam Neesan in "Taken."  Stream it here.  (Crystal Castles...Not Taken)

Ur Draugr - The Wretched Ascetic

Take a look at this album cover. With something like that adorning this record, how could someone not expect the music to be weird? Ur Draugr is a three piece supergroup hailing from Australia. Looking at the other bands of the members, mainly Deathfuckingcunt and Corpsebitch, one might expect another brutal album with a sense of humor. But 'The Wretched Ascetic' is a different beast altogether. Mixing black metal and death metal, they offer the genre a twisted touch. The way the music alternates between clean acoustic guitar parts to mind crushing harsh parts is absolutely stunning. While the flow from the clean parts to the harsher areas are relatively smooth, the transitions in the black death parts of the song are schizophrenic in nature. Unpredictable and weird beyond words, Ur Draugr offer the genre a much needed breathe of fresh air. The album has its moments where the clean guitars sound beautiful and soothing, while at other times it challenges your mind with its maddening turns in direction. The two main tracks 'Unseen Golgotha' and 'The Wretched Ascetic' are both very long and highly compelling listens. Perhaps this is how the mind of an actual wretched ascetic work; calm, collected and beautiful when not entertaining twisted and maddening screams of a thousand imaginary voices. This was initially supposed to be a part of a full length, but unforseen circumstances led the band to push the full length away indefinitely with a chance that the other tracks may never see the light of day. This makes me sad as I really like the way the tracks on this record have shaped up. This is highly recommended if you fancy a weird, harsh and twisted take on black death metal.

Neolith (Netherlands)

There are a lot of excellent releases this February, but most of them are of the slower and/or atmospheric variety: Leviathan, A Forest of Stars, Enslaved.  Those are all absolutely worth your time, but every addict needs his fix.  If you're like me and have a quota for maximum overdrive speed and head-banging riffs, this album from Neolith is probably for you.  While there are plenty of reasons to draw comparisons to Behemoth, the guitar here is far thrashier and caused me to make this face more than once:

Stream and/or buy here.

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 

The Artificials (US)

Very emotive technical post-hardcore from Alabama.  The guitar work is nothing particularly new, but I like the interplay of the male and female vocal leads.  There are plenty of feels to be had.  Check it out here.