Last week progressive rock, this time progressive metal! Recently your Music Cricket made a new discovery: the early-nineties progressive death metal band Nocturnus. If, like me, you enjoy your Atheist, Cynic, mid-career Death and mid-career Carcass, you will certainly appreciate Nocturnus, too. I can’t believe no one ever mentioned them before. They hail from the same Florida scene as Atheist, Cynic and Death, as well as Deicide, Morbid Angel, Obituary, and countless others. With their raging whirlwinds of blistering guitar riffs, lightening fast thunderous blasts of drum beats, virtuoso solos, odd time signatures, and complex song structures, Nocturnus have also been instrumental in the development of technical and progressive metal. What’s more, they had a keyboard player who added spacey atmospheres, and their lyrics uncharacteristically do not deal with the ghoulish and macabre, screaming bloody gore, death-dealing Armageddon, or hell-raising Satanism, but rather with occult science fiction themes, reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft. What an amazing find! Please get yourself a copy of The Key!
A friend of mine first mentioned Opeth to me already five years ago now, knowing better than I did then how much I would appreciate their music. Opeth’s sound is a unique blend of progressive rock and (melodic) death metal with hints of gothic rock, folk, classical, jazz and some blues, taking cues from Yes, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Faith/King Diamond, Slayer, Death and Morbid Angel, as well as fellow Scandinavians Arch Enemy, In Flames, and At the Gates. I guess it’s hard to top their classic masterpiece Blackwater Park (2001), even if Ghost Reveries (2005) comes close. Lately, I have been listening to their most recent album Watershed (2008). On this outing, Opeth treats us on songs averaging seven-and-a-half minutes, meandering compositions, shifting time signatures, beautiful melodic acoustic passages alternating with heavy riffing, thumping bass lines, thunderous drum blasts, mysterious keyboard swaths, and deft guitar solos. I’m particularly fond of “Heir Apparent,” but can recommend the album to any fan of heavy metal.
I’m not sure why I never picked up a CD of Liquid Tension Experiment. It’s not like I never once had one in my hands. Three-fourth of the project consists of (current) members of Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess, plus longtime King Crimson bass player Tony Levin (who’s also Peter Gabriel’s favorite bassist). How can you go wrong? How about never? At least, not in my book. Well, some tunes are a little tacky, like “State of Grace” and “Hoursglass.” But mostly, we’re talking about hard hitting instrumental rock, mixed with a dose of heavy metal and hints of jazz fusion. All musicians involved are incredibly proficient – not only in the vein of the virtuoso metal of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, but also like jazz fusion masters John McLaughlin and Al di Meola. The guys feast us on dramatic mood shifts and dynamic tempo changes. We get the overly self-indulgent noodling, otherwise known as musical improvisation, or extemporized group jams – a prime example of which is the near-half hour of “Three Minute Warning” in five parts! Favorites are “Paradigm Shift” and “Universal Mind” from the first album, and “Acid Rain” and “Chewbacca” from the second. I don’t think I need to say more, you already know whether you’re going to like the LTE. So, go ahead, and find ‘em!
A friend of mine first mentioned Opeth to me already five years ago now, knowing better than I did then how much I would appreciate their music. Opeth’s sound is a unique blend of progressive rock and (melodic) death metal with hints of gothic rock, folk, classical, jazz and some blues, taking cues from Yes, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Faith/King Diamond, Slayer, Death and Morbid Angel, as well as fellow Scandinavians Arch Enemy, In Flames, and At the Gates. I guess it’s hard to top their classic masterpiece Blackwater Park (2001), even if Ghost Reveries (2005) comes close. Lately, I have been listening to their most recent album Watershed (2008). On this outing, Opeth treats us on songs averaging seven-and-a-half minutes, meandering compositions, shifting time signatures, beautiful melodic acoustic passages alternating with heavy riffing, thumping bass lines, thunderous drum blasts, mysterious keyboard swaths, and deft guitar solos. I’m particularly fond of “Heir Apparent,” but can recommend the album to any fan of heavy metal.I’m not sure why I never picked up a CD of Liquid Tension Experiment. It’s not like I never once had one in my hands. Three-fourth of the project consists of (current) members of Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess, plus longtime King Crimson bass player Tony Levin (who’s also Peter Gabriel’s favorite bassist). How can you go wrong? How about never? At least, not in my book. Well, some tunes are a little tacky, like “State of Grace” and “Hoursglass.” But mostly, we’re talking about hard hitting instrumental rock, mixed with a dose of heavy metal and hints of jazz fusion. All musicians involved are incredibly proficient – not only in the vein of the virtuoso metal of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, but also like jazz fusion masters John McLaughlin and Al di Meola. The guys feast us on dramatic mood shifts and dynamic tempo changes. We get the overly self-indulgent noodling, otherwise known as musical improvisation, or extemporized group jams – a prime example of which is the near-half hour of “Three Minute Warning” in five parts! Favorites are “Paradigm Shift” and “Universal Mind” from the first album, and “Acid Rain” and “Chewbacca” from the second. I don’t think I need to say more, you already know whether you’re going to like the LTE. So, go ahead, and find ‘em!
