Killswitch Engage have 8 demos ready for new summer 2012 album

We haven’t really heard much about Killswitch since they made a thunderous appearance at Download Festival in 2009. It is great to announce that we will be hearing some new Howard style howls over booming blast beats as KSE are set to release their new album next summer.

Founder and bassist of Killswitch, Mike D’Antonio has stated in a web post: ‘Killswitch should be in the studio in February/March, so expect a summer 2012 release for the new record.’ Although, it is going to difficult to match up to the self-titled record which was unleashed two years ago, I think we can have a vast amount of faith in the Massachusetts metal heads.

“We have a bit of a breather in the writing schedule so Adam (guitarist) can finish (producing) the Shadows Fall record, but as of now we have eight demos finished for the new record. Everything is coming together nicely at the moment… My demos are pretty fast. Blast beats, anyone?”

Published on Rock Industry

The Saturdays - On Your Radar

The Saturdays have released their third studio album, ‘On Your Radar’, and it seems that the once power ballad pretty girls have took a different direction. Result? Well, they have definitely not tried to separate themselves from the all-so-similar chart artists. The majority of their track list is heavily club-produced, and although you should appreciate the versatility of artists, this new turn in their music seems to have removed The Saturdays’ philosophy. Like their faces masked by makeup, their distinguished sound seems to be ridden by the metallic club synth which happens to be in every chart song at the moment. Original?

Travie Mccoy makes an unexpected feature in ‘The Way You Watch Me’, a composition which has been highly anticipated. Mccoy’s recognisable vocals flounces over the track, this sort of R&B ballad is flounced in guitar riffs and boasts in liveliness. Unlike most of the floor fillers on the album, this certainly accentuates the girls’ bouncy, energising voices, which combine to form a harmony over the track. However, the lyrics do get a tad repetitive, just like the dance tune ‘All Fired Up’. It flaunts in synthesised vocals and the high pitch, fast-paced squeals in the bridge of this song probably defines it and the same is replicated in ‘For Myself’.

For saying The Saturdays co-wrote the album, it lacks creative flair, “I’m a outlaw, I’m the big boss
I’m a gangster on the dance floor”. Nice. If you choose not to listen to the lyrics in ‘Notorious’ you can say it is probably one of the better produced dancey songs on the album.

Despite ‘My Heart Takes Over’ being a typical Saturdays tune, it is one of the only highlights on the album. It shows the girls can actually succeed when staying within their comfort zone. Those of you who watch X Factor could easily guess how Gary Barlow would respond if this song was performed. Quite boring. The mundaneness is reflected in the UK chart, as the girls failed to maintain their number 15 slot. The sort of good mood you find yourself in when listening to this song gets trampled on as the droney tones of ‘Get Ready Get Set’ comes into play.

The heart felt lyrics of ‘Wish I Didn’t Know’ can be comparable to a majority of sadness which appear in our love lives. When you remove the edited parts from the song, the acoustic skeleton that remains is very beautiful.

‘Last Call’ is probably my favourite song on the album. It is sweet and simple as the piano and strings accentuate the emotional vocals. We have certainly found The Saturdays’ forte. The passionate dynamics in the girls’ voices matches the negative effects of a break up which are reflected in the lyrics.

It is safe to say that we can definitely place the emotional songs from the album on to a cafés playlist which caters for mothers meetings. Without the mess of produced percussion which is only good enough for drunken people in nightclubs, I think we can come to the conclusion that The Saturdays are tolerable. Well done for making it to album three without achieving a number one in the charts.

Opeth & Pain of Salvation @ Manchester Academy 11/11/11

Like most festival goers – you miraculously miss bands you really want to see, and that is what happened with myself and Opeth, not once but twice or maybe three times. So when I found out they were planning a UK winter tour, I was well on it.

We joined the queue a little early; the weather was cold and miserable. Granted. But the atmosphere was lifted by the obvious excitement given off by the thousands of fans patiently waiting for the doors to be opened. My boyfriend and I were dressed in bright blue jackets, so we definitely stood out in the sea of black. This was proven by a guy we spoke to on the way in, “See, that is what I love about Opeth, they attract such a varied audience.” Which was a very true statement, as a mixed group and a large range of ages attended the show.

Pain of Salvation played a stimulating and entertaining set. For some reason, the band sort of remind me of Tenacious D in their humour, combined with Opeth’s comical value, it shown there must never be a dull moment off stage.

Pain of Salvation proved that they are an amazingly suited support act as they stormed in technicality. Their stage presence exposed the passion their music possesses, by executing their renowned conceptual compositions. Pain of Salvation expressed their ability in using the power of opposites as the use of contrasting aggressive and chilled parts, which shown to be flawless as it generated a fun-filled atmosphere in the crowd.

Oh Opeth. Oh how you made me speechless. As most of you who were in the crowd would agree, it’s going to be a challenge putting the show into words. Those of you who aren’t familiar with Opeth’s music, it is safe to say that they are one of the only bands you will see which transform the sound from their brash instruments into individual harmonising expressions. The ambient lighting combined with the complexity of the vibrato, pace and rhythm left the crowd breathless as everyone stood still, staring in awestruck. Particularly, Axe’s mammoth of a blast beat infused drum solo from ‘Porcelain Heart’, which was somehow equally smooth and savage.

Aside from the performance of their beautiful compositions, you would never have predicted to hear so many KISS jokes, as Akerfeldt’s witty humour never failed to please the audience. Apparently, “KISS means piss in Swedish”.

Opeth knocked down any expectation we could have built as their two hour set flowed with unexpected twists and rushes of emotion. The dimly lit show conveyed a sense of mystery, which cajoled their unique stage presence. They drilled the audience with awe as they performed an amazing rendition of ‘Slither’ which is dedicated to the late Ronnie James Duo; the song is defined by its gentle transformations in to brash guitar riffs. 
The last part of the Opeth adventure was lathered in jazzy and riff heavy guitar solos which defines, ‘Folklore’. Akerfeldt’s accentuated his vocal skills which have been scepticised in the past couple of years for ‘losing their growl’, they embraced the track, brandishing in thunderous technique.  If you ever feel low on motivation, I strongly recommend you give Opeth a listen, as they will grasp your mind and fill you with drive.

Published on Rock Industry

My Outlook on The Brit Awards 2011

Take That kicked off the well-awaited, biggest night in the UK music calendar with a controversial performance of their new single ‘Kidz,’ accompanied by floods of dancers dressed as riot police. A proposed routine that was meant to be performed at the X Factor Final, but was apparently cut by Cowell due to the student riots at the end of last year. Did anyone think it was a surprise to see Jason Orange take more of a limelight, rather than the usual Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams duo? It was no blow when Take That were awarded the Best British Group – yet another Brit to go alongside the many after being in the business for 21 years.

Hosted by a reportedly nervous James Corden – a man who was more than well-suited for the job, however, he was scandalised that he wouldn’t behave himself. He appeared on stage handling the brand new Brit award by the renowned Dame Vivienne Westwood. Corden swiftly moved the show over to Dizzee Rascal to present the award he won last year for the British Male Solo Artist. As predicted, East Londoner and jack of all trades - Plan B received the award, a former rapper who transformed himself into a jazzy soul artist, for his latest album – The Defamation of Strictland Banks. He put on an astonishing show of ‘She Said’ and ‘Prayin’ – complete with a prison riot theme and pyro, it ended in style with a ‘cop’ running across the stage on fire.

Adele pierced the bustling 02 London arena with vast emotion as she pulled off a striking performance of ‘Someone Like You’. It was beautiful and extremely shocking to view an extraordinarily bare act on The Brits, as you’re usually bombarded by money-pumped stage sets pervaded with hundreds of barely dressed dancers, pyrotechnics and distracting backdrops. It was a bit of a shame that Adele wasn’t bestowed an award this evening, as her recently released album ‘21’ just missed out on being placed for nominations.

There was a few award winning shockers. If there was one award winner which surprised many, it was the weird and wonderful Laura Marling who cut Cheryl Cole (the face that’s plastered everywhere) to the chase for The Britsh Female Solo Artist, presented by Boy George. Another accomplishment for the alternative spectre was given to Arcade Fire for the International Group Award who won over the enormous Eminem, Katy Perry, Cee Lo Green and Kings of Leon. To be honest, I am thanking god that Katy Perry wasn’t awarded with anything, we all know she doesn’t write her own songs, but why does someone get so much recognition for singing the shit analogy, “do you ever feel like a plastic bag?”

Tinie Tempah swept the Brits this evening, winning two out of the four nominations he received, his phenomenal first year in the glare of publicity he is now holding the title of the British Breakthrough Act and is honouring the Best British Single, ‘Pass Out’ which punched the number one hot spot in UK charts for most of March 2010. Tempah’s track knocked down the X Factor contestants, Olly Murs, Alexandra Burke, Matt Cardle, judge and ‘world-class’ act Cheryl Cole, amongst a few high flying acts such as, The Wanted, Florence and The Machine, Taio Cruz, Scouting for Girls and the stunning Plan B.

For some reason I’ve carried a prejudice for Jessie J since she’s hit the charts in the past couple of months. Maybe it’s due to the poor lyrical quality of ‘Do it like a dude’ and ‘Price Tag’ or perhaps the way she carries herself in music videos? So when she was awarded the Critic Choice award, I was a bit let down. However, her sensitive driven acceptance speech, has led me to change my mind on her a little.

 I don’t think any big night in music could go by without a mention of…you guessed it, the teen heart throb, Justin Bieber. As usual he was made a fuss of by many, even Fearne Cotton gave him a shout out, the budding ‘self-taught’ musician, who has recently bought out a film? He walked away with a Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act. It was presented by fellow Canadian, Avril Lavigne, so brace yourself as I bet she’s going to release some more Canadian cheese later on this year too. Despite being nominated for three awards, English folk rock band, Mumford and Sons walked away with the British Album of the Year. Which the award would have been better to be grasped in the hands of The xx or Plan B who actually show versatility in their persona.

As per, I braced myself before Rihanna took centre stage, flooding onto stage in a lovely, red number, I was stunned that she was actually wearing clothes?! But you know, I jinxed myself as she stripped down into a revealing lacy leotard as she executed the rest of her pastiche off her latest Loud album – including the highly scandalised ‘S&M’. Rihanna has been suffering from laryngitis and bronchitis prior to the Brits, so it was a great accomplishment for her to embrace her voice during her performance. It was very predictable when she was flattered with The International Female Solo Artist – to which she screamed, “I’m the only girl in the world!” which exposes that her vast fame and talent has more than likely gone to her head – doesn’t really surprise you though does it?

A collaboration of tonight’s International Male Artist winner Cee Lo Green and Paloma Faith climaxed the Brit Awards with a red-hot rendition of ‘Forget You’. An unexpected, bizarre combination of artists to close the ceremony – but the performance seemed to transfix the crowd by the hyped up performance of a track which seems to be played everywhere.

A few things The Brit Awards 2011 has taught us is that grime is on the rise and in order to be a breakthrough female act you have to dance around seductively and sing about sex. Oh, and Justin Beiber is a little bitch, end.

Published on www.altsounds.com

Facebreaker - Infected [Album]

Swedish-born, Facebreaker moved onto the scene back in 1999 and, in their lifetime they have brought out five studio pieces, their latest, being a third full-length album. Infected is set to make a storm. Like name, like nature, Facebreaker offers a vast amount of brutality with their drilling, gore-drenched death metal philosophy. The album boasts testosterone fuelled tracks; which express they would be well suited to when you’re in an angry state, when you find yourself on the edge of punching a hole through your bedroom wall.

‘Creeping Flesh’ flounces the introduction of Infected with thudding bass and mind crushing vocals, and presents the fact that many faces would be broken in the midst of their pummelling live performance. ‘Cannibalistic’ is invaded by searing riffs and roars which place you into a Texas Chainsaw Massacre setting. Mid-song the track cleverly mutes the vocals and emphasises the eerie guitar solos and a freaky beat, as it climaxes you know Facebreaker had only one thing in mind when writing the song; the motion of transforming the pit of moshing metal heads into a bloody wall of death.

The longest track on Infected, ‘Mankind of Siege’ manipulates your mind into subconsciously tapping your hands and rocking your head to the strong beat which resembles that of the human heart. It really does lead to raising the question, "what really does go on inside these guys’ heads?" As we know the creation of the ‘I’m gonna’ tear out your heart’ gory music has been prominent in death metal for years, so Infected’s feel of unearthing the dead is no big surprise. Unlike most upcoming, hard metal that prevails nowadays, Facebreaker are actually listenable as their music isn’t set on destroying their well-working sound with unnecessary, ear drum blasting pitches.

‘Infected’ finishes the album with gusto, as the incorporated range of tempos, deathly vocals and demolishing guitar solos, accentuate the album’s sense of industrial catchyness. Despite the composition being 37 minutes long, Infected offers a Traditional English Breakfast type feel - something which lacks originality but leaves you wanting more.

Published review on www.altsounds.com

Rihanna's steamy new sinlge 'S&M'

Rihanna's brand new, saucy single ‘S&M’ has recently been released off her filth studio album, Loud. In the short time of it being out in the open, it has caused vast scepticism around the world, resulting in the video being banned in 11 countries and has even been banned from Radio 1's playlist. You don’t need to be a genius to work out that Rihanna is obviously channelling her freedom by expressing that she can do whatever she wants, despite what the media scandalise. We are shown this specifically with the vast visions of the gagged press throughout the video. I guess we can all give her a round of applause for taking the piss out of the paparazzi, but isn’t this one step too far?

Rihanna has never been one to be camera shy, by never being reluctant to reveal herself or shy from performing her notorious, dirty dancing. It becomes no big shocker that the 'S&M' video entails a vast amount of sexy attributes and the bearing of lustful flesh. Rihanna acts out an array of kinky actions; portraying herself as a dominatrix, by dressing in tight latex numbers, whilst prancing around, provocatively cracking her whip.

I suppose she’s not all guilty as we have seen pretty much every female celebrity in some suggestive manner. But this is still promoting that women should have to take their kit off to make a living, or feeling forced to dress seductively, don’t you think? Particularly, after seeing men lust over these “irresistible” images and videos. Conversely, for those of you who are self-conscious, as we see Rihanna show off her curvaceous figure, flaunting around in PVC lingerie, carrying a bucket of popcorn beside her in “S&M”. It shows that you don’t have to be skinny like most highly publicised celebs. However, the unreality of the flawlessly “perfect” face of Rihanna in the video, is probably likely to make some of us girls feel badly of ourselves. With the upheaval of young girls choosing to dress revealingly to match their idolised stars, seeing girls as young as 11 or 12 getting eyelash extensions amongst other treatments, is it right that we’re allowing this to happen? Especially with the issue of paedophilia and accessibility of child pornography, should these music videos be allowed to hit the “mainstream” if they promote sexuality in such a strong way?

Rihanna is an obvious role-model for millions of people. We have all observed the mirrored effect when Rihanna changes her style. So does everyone else. Most recently her red headed army has invaded the world, exposing that wannabe-Rihanna’s’ are romping the streets. So when you see her music video being jam-packed with erotic imagery of her sexualising the “normal” act of eating a banana, being cling filmed to a wall and seeing her raunchily tied up, it comes to mind what young girls think when these sexualised images, by a world-class artist are being publicly aired? As we already have a crazily high teenage pregnancy rate in the UK, and STI’s crawling at its peak, do we need further encouragement for mini rih-rih’s to lose their virginity earlier than they should? And with 'S&M’s' steamy lyrics - "'Cause I may be bad but I'm perfectly good at it. Sex in the air. I don't care, I love the smell of it," she sings. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me." Need I say any more?

Watch the video below and tell us what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdS6HFQ_LUc

Click here to view this feature on altsounds

Various Artists - U Dun Know [Album]

New State Music has recently released, the well-titled album, U Dun Know, showing a British urban side on the electronic compilation of dubstep. Over the past couple of years, we have seen an immense increase in the popularity of dubstep, as Pendulum’s début, Hold Your Colour is set to hit platinum. It is no big surprise that we have begun to hear dubbed backdrops plaguing the “mainstream” tracks which flood the charts. Hounding club nights across the UK, dubstep and bass infused rhythms have certainly made an evident mark on the dance and electronica scene, becoming the new sound of the streets. The album comprises of big-tracks by big-name producers such as Nero, Bare Noize, Drumsound & Bassline Smith, Skism, Doorly and Crissy Criss.

Marco Del Horno & DJ Swerve’s – ‘Ho! Riddim’ features top Grime MC P Money, kicks off the compilation. With its rippling bass and explosive wobbles throughout, it races the firey and fistful bars of P Money. ‘Ho! Riddim’s’ well-placed breaks from the grimey lyrics, is occupied by soulful synth and fluidity. Shooting straight into Dodge & Fuski’s remix of the UK Funky hit ‘For U’ by FunkyStepz featuring Lily McKenzie. The upbeat qualities of the track is something you would find on many high-street club’s playlists on a crazy Friday night. The ever-changing prolific beats would be the consequence of many intoxicated dances, as the harsh rumbles and techy synth contrasts with Lily’s harmonious vocals.

Doctor P’s Remix of ‘Star,’ a more well-known track on the compilation, comprises of Drum & Bass legend Blame with warm vocals from Camilla Marie. Kicking straight into warped pulses, it launches you into the nostalgic feeling of the slow-motion, hazy memory of seeing the whole club pause before bouncing into the awaited breakdown. The electric, zippy synth tears into the track, as it zooms into a calamity of experimental crashes and thuds. Typically, tracks containing a great amount of repetition is something which is frowned upon, however, Doctor P pulls off the reappearance of Camilla’s ‘you know I wished upon a star’ with the pulses of electronica.

N Dubz’s vocalist Tulisa has lately aired her opinion that the UK doesn’t appreciate urban music, and to be honest, you either hate it or love it, correct? However, ‘On My Own’ (Drumsound & Bassline Smith Remix) by Blame & Ruff Squad offers a track which suggests that urban music is abundant in dynamics and shows great technicality. ‘On My Own’ portrays a vast amount of versatility; the gorgeous, urban female vocals pierce through the harsh bass lines, the song also making unexpected twists and turns and somehow swims through a pool of tranquillity.

 My preferred track off U Dun Know has got to be ‘Egyptian Horns (Amen VIP Mix)’ by Ed Solo. It portrays a musical journey through a patchwork of styles, showcasing cultural influences which cut over the metallic crunches and pummelling pulses of the warbling synths. ‘London Town (Doorly Remix)’ by Man Like Me is another great composition, distinguished by its pensive bass mixing into sketchy, wonky layers which scratch over the back beat and submerge you into the soul fully synthesised ‘London Town’ lyric. Let’s face it, whether you like dubstep or not, the genre is now prominent on pre-drink playlists and isn’t just exclusive to a passing by subbed up, blacked out Citroen Saxo, like it used to be.

As you find yourself lost in the composition, tracks such as; ‘7th Key’ by Numan and ‘Hand Grenade (Datsik & Excision Remix)’ produced by Ivory, offer a chilled take, both consisting of innovating, reverberant drum patterns and layered funk. On the contrary, ‘WTF (Crissy Cris Remix)’ by Kid Sister, Pase Rock & Tittsworth, is a real let down for the overall compilation, with its sickly drone and irritating vocals and poor lyrical choice. If I’m honest, ‘WTF’ reminds me of waking up with an awful headache and a general feeling of “hating the world” after drinking more than you should have the night before. A memory no one likes to reminisce, right?

Click here to see the published review on altsounds