RSS

By Jake Wenzel - The Incinerator - 02/18/2009

Back in 1994 Cynic released their debut album, Focus, one of my favorite albums of all time, and one of the albums most important to the development of intelligent progressive metal. They are often credited as being the first band to successfully merge jazz fusion with death metal, and are without a doubt some of the most virtuosic musicians to ever grace the metal scene. But as is all too common for bands that make challenging and truly progressive music, the importance of what they had done was not understood until many years later. After Focus, Cynic disbanded for the better part of 13 years and the members of the band turned their energies towards various progressive rock projects. They decided to resurface for old time’s sake in 2007 to do a reunion tour, and the major outpouring of fan support and excitement led to a headlining spot on the Wacken: Open Air festival in Germany. Cynic went from being booed off the stages of tiny clubs to headlining the biggest metal festival in existence- and all without any self-promotion or activity on their part. The fans finally got it, and now that they have it they’re crazy about it.

This tour they’re supporting their latest album, Traced in Air, which was released in late 2008. Most people seem to agree that it’s not quite as good as Focus, but it’s possible that it’s just even more difficult to understand. The two albums differ in what they’re trying to accomplish: the tracks on Focus are composed around psychedelic, dynamic melodies, whereas Traced in Air makes use of frequent and abrupt changes in mood and tempo, juxtaposing harsh dissonance with cosmic ambience. Regardless of what you think of the album, the new songs are very well suited to Cynic’s live performance style and sounded amazing at the concert.

In contrast with most technical metal bands which attempt to make their live sound as identical as possible to their album, Cynic is solely concerned with capturing the vibe of their songs. As mentioned above, this approach worked well for the songs off Traced in Air. They sounded beautiful- that’s really all there is to say. That whole part of the set was a beautiful wall of psychedelic sound. The tracks they played off Focus were also awesome to behold, but the looser approach didn’t work quite as well and certain parts came across as being somewhat sloppy. Despite this, the crowd was very into the whole set, and even seemed to appreciate frontman Paul Masvidal’s hippy proclamations about how attachment to ego is a form of psychic violence, as well as various pieces of wisdom about the importance of cosmic love and being receptive to positive spiritual vibrations.

This is my second time reviewing a Meshuggah concert for CJLO, so instead of putting the band and their new album into context I’ll just cut to the chase: the show was perfect.

The entire show was filmed for a DVD, so the sound engineers really took their time to do a thorough sound check- it was at least 45 minutes long- but it made everything sound unbelievably good, and the mixing just kept getting better as the night went on. It was so good; in fact, that with this performance I would say Meshuggah is even better live than on CD.

All of the guitars but particularly the bass had an amazing tone- like primordial swamp sludge. It sounded similar to something you’d find on old Primus records, except instead of sturgeon fishing it conjures up images of the primordial cosmic sea and the emergence of consciousness from cosmic chaos- which is of course exactly what Meshuggah is lyrically concerned with and experientially trying to produce. They create the kind of soundscape that you can feel reverberating throughout yourself, offering to carry you to a higher plane of existence.

Meshuggah and Cynic are perfect bands to put together on a tour bill for exactly that reason. Both bands are into promoting philosophical and spiritual progression, and try to use their music to create the experience of transcendence. Cynic comes at it from a positive direction, whereas Meshuggah comes at it from a much darker place, and together they balance each other out extremely well.

In my last Meshuggah review I noted that the crowd was very aggressive and there were quite a few people clearly out to hurt others, but this show was completely different. Maybe it was all the hippy talk, but despite filming for a DVD (which usually makes crowds crazier) everyone was extremely relaxed. I even had a guy apologize to me for slightly bumping into me. I’d say it was one of the best crowds at any show I’ve been to...people were just there to enjoy the music.

By R. Brian Hastie - Countdown To Armageddon - 01/15/2009

Theory Of A Deadman is no one's favourite band. I'm glad I got that statement out of the way at the onset of this review, as I feel like it accurately describes the concert experience I recently flung myself into.

However, if Theory Of A Deadman is no one's favourite band and TOAD's a shitty copy of a shitty idea (Nickelback) about what rock and roll should be, then where does that leave its fans? What kind of people flock to Le National to witness such Canadian lite rock staples like “Gasoline” and “Santa Monica”?

The idea behind the excursion was to gauge what, exactly, made TOAD (which, incidentally, is an apt acronym, fitting for the music I was subjected to) fans tick. Were they entranced by the run-of-the-mill musicianship and songwriting, did the shatteringly hollow lyrics ring true for people? Was it their (non) explosive stage show that made people fall in love? All of these questions were left very unanswered, even after mingling with several attendees.

In true scientific fashion, I quizzed people about their reasons for attending the show before the proceedings got underway. The most common one I got was that the music was "enjoyable" and "somewhat catchy", that the vocalist seemed to have a "good voice" and that they had nothing better to do on a Thursday night in January, and that the price for tickets was just about right. The room was still largely empty as I continued to make my way around it.

I switched gears. "Would you say that Theory Of A Deadman is your favourite band?" I advanced the theory, hoping to give the people I informally interviewed an out. Not one of the ten people I talked to answered in the affirmative. They were people's third or fourth choice, generally, after heavyweights like Nickelback (oh the irony), U2, Metallica and Pearl Jam. No surprises there, unfortunately. Just as I was about to probe more, the lights dimmed and the evening's musical entertainment got underway.

The Rev Theory (who were last heard of as no-shows at last June's Heavy MTL metalfest) put up an uninspiring opening slot. Lead single "Hell Yeah" inspired a few scattered cheers and generally the crowd was very receptive to a band that seemed like a tepid mix in-between latter-day Papa Roach and Buckcherry, only blander, with neither band's penchant for irking out an enjoyable song once in a while.

The sauntering and fake sense of danger that most bands try to create (using the f-word repeatedly, snarling menacingly and trying to come off hard as nails) continued to crumble as at one point during their set they launched into a half-heated cover of Nine Inch Nails' “Head Like A Hole”.  The band generally tried to stir up a true sense of high energy (the singer, at one point, wandered into the crowd) but it felt trite and soon déjà vu set in.

The headliners hit the stage a half-hour after Rev Theory cleared out and started with “Crutch” and it was all boring stage banter and same-sounding songs for the rest of the evening. As boring as Rev Theory came off as, TOAD were even better at sapping up the crowd's energy. Singer Tyler Connoly seemed jovial enough, but lacked the presence of a true frontman as he juggled in-between singing and playing rhythm throughout the night's set, unsure which role suited him better. In the end, neither did, as he fulfilled both roles marginally well.

Being forced to listen to FM radio at work, I came to recognize some of the band's singles – they were better in a live setting, but still leagues below being able to redeem the songs as listenable in a non-forced (read: non-radio) way. The best thing I can say about their show was the fact that they had a competent light show. The band played songs from all three releases, favouring none and trying to make fans of their discography happy. “Better Off” got a surprisingly loud response as the mostly mute audience refrained from doing much of anything. The tossed-off encore of “Santa Monica”, “Bad Girlfriend” and “Hating Hollywood” put a merciful end to a night that would be best chronicled as forgettable.

Tune into Countdown to Armageddon with Brian every Thursday from 4PM – 6PM

By Lady Oracle - The Limelight - 09/15/2008

Everything is Borrowed is the fourth album from Mike Skinner aka The Streets. I actually heard about The Streets last year through a guy I worked with. He gave me a copy of “The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living”, The Street's third album released in 2006. I immediately became a fan of this UK rapper and producer. I was excited to get my hands on his new album. It is definitely different from the last one. “The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living” had a Hip Hop sound. This album has more of a pop sound, mixed with rock and old school jazzy sound, it's a lot of different elements which initially threw me off guard but suits his rap & singing style.

Once I got used to the sound I can honestly say I enjoyed his latest effort. I really like what he raps about. He talks about issues of love, spirituality, the earth & its environment. His song “The Way Of The Dodo” coins the issue of the global warming and points out in the hook “It not earth that's in trouble, it's the people that live on it.” 

Another song I like is “Everything is Borrowed” and it’s chorus of “I came to this world with nothing and I will leave with nothing but love...everything else is just borrowed.” I like that he can be deep and entertaining at that same time, which is something that I can relate to. It's definitely a good way to make the listener pay attention to your message.

Overall a good album, if this was a Limelight review it would get 3 out of 4 limes.

Tune into The Limelight with Lady Oracle every Saturday from 4PM - 6PM

ByPaul Brown - The Go-Go Radio Magic Show - 01/14/2009

The thing about side-project bands is that they are always a gamble the first time around…and when gambling, the outcome can go one of three ways: win big, lose bad or come out even. The latter is how it was last night at the Green Room when Nickel Eye pulled into town to kick off their North American tour. Given the fact that their debut album, The Time of the Assassins, will only be released on Jan 27th (and I haven’t had the chance to hear an advanced copy either), it was -30° outside and the show hadn’t been overly advertised, breaking even isn’t such a bad thing.

Nickel Eye is a clever play on words for The Strokes’ bass player Nikolai Fraiture’s side project. While the hiatus following the last album and tour for his main day job began to drag on, Nickolai hooked up with the UK band South and recorded some demos in London. Taking the songs back across the Atlantic, he enlisted the help of some New York musicians/friends (Nick Zimmer of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Regina Spektor) and finished the album. Completely written and produced by Nikolai, Time of the Assassins, is a departure from the Strokes upbeat post-punk sound. Rooted in the songs of Leonard Cohen, it is much more influenced by the 60’s Greenwich Village folk sound than the 70’s Lower East Sides music scene. Now this may not be the best description of the album, but as I’ve already said, I have yet to be able to sit and give the album a proper listen … but since this is a review of the show and not the album that isn’t something I’m going to worry about.

The fact that I gave the show a “breaking even” rating isn’t to say that the music wasn’t good, it had more to do with other factors that kept it from being a stand out show. First was the fact that it was the kickoff show of the tour and it felt like it. While the songs were okay, it just seemed like the band had not had enough time playing them to inspire an audience that has yet to hear them. It was more like a dress rehearsal than a proper show. Adding to the problem was the fact that even though the Green Room was pretty full, most of the audience seemed like they had come to see a member of the Strokes rather than Nickel Eye. This is something that is going to happen when you begin a tour two weeks before the album comes out and you are mostly known for being the quiet member of the band who at the turn of the century were christened the saviors of rock. Singer-songwriter folk rock isn’t going to get much of a response from people expecting The Strokes hits like “Last Nite” or “Hard to Explain”. At one point early on, Nikolai even mentioned the lack of energy in the room by commenting “You can cut the silence with a knife,” that got a few snickers but didn’t solve the problem. All of this added with the Wednesday night slot, the aforementioned -30° and the drive through a snowstorm in the Adirondack Mountains to get here, the show was in a bad spot from the start.

That’s not to say that there weren’t any highlights. The first single Brandy of the Damned is the closest thing to a Strokes song Nickel Eye has. It could easily be an out-take from Room on Fire or First Impressions of Earth, with its weird Gypsy/reggae beat and jangly guitars. Back From Exile, which is the B-side to Brandy, is a Dylan-esque folk-rock song that could easily have been released as a single on its own strength. My personal favorite Nickel Eye song of the night was probably Providence, R.I., a song rooted in the memories of visits to his Grandfather’s place in the woods of Rhode Island. In fact it was the one song that was shouted as a request from someone a few songs into the night. Deciding to stick to his pre-arranged set list Nikolai reassured the audience member that it was coming up and adding “this is all we got.” The best song of the night had to be the cover of Nico’s classic track These Days. I hate to say that the best song of the night was a cover, but when you have the foresight to pick such a perfect song that works with both your folk-noir sound and your New York City connection, then it isn’t a negative, is it?

All in all I give Nikolai credit for doing his own thing and not just trying to recreate The Strokes. These are his songs and his musical statement. For the quiet one to step out of the shadows and pick up a guitar and harmonica takes guts. Had the album been out a while and the band been able to have a few more shows under its belt, then this show would probably have rated higher for me. Then again all things are relative, since a girl named Claudia told Nickel Eye on their myspace page that it was “the show of a lifetime.”

Tune into The Go-Go Radio Magic Show with Prince Palu every Friday from 6PM – 8PM