Stereotactic – The Dawning © 2005 Avebury Records Stereotactic, hailing from the dusty desert plains of Bakersfield, CA –home to the likes of Buck Owens, Korn and Philo Beddoe–is a 4 piece emo/metal band with a remarkable facsimile like quality. The Dawning is the bands first full length after their regionally successful self-released EP. Sadly it boils down to the pop-emo-metal that I just can't stand. I forced myself to listen to about half of the CD before I wanted to rip it out of the player and smash the crap out of it. Though the band has reasonable musicianship, the talent falls upon deaf ears. The basic principle being, "Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should." The songs are all fully geared for the sterile sanitized realm of commercial rock radio and are comprised of pretty much all the things you've heard before–The crap I don't want to hear again.
Category: Metal
Priapism
Priapism – Last Stand (EP) 2005 1332 RecordsWith intensity and urgency Priapism’s Last Stand blasts out at you from the speakers with metal-laden insurgency. Hailing from a seemingly odd location for this type of aggressive metal, Boise, Idaho’s Priapism puts it out there in such a way to convince you that Boise may not be the north western cow town that you’d probably expect.Last Stand is reminiscent of the hardcore metal onslaught of bands such as All Out War and Premonitions of War (war seems to be a binding thematic element here) Priapism offers a bit more diversity than that however with Clutch like breakdowns and a lot of Slayer influenced progressions. Musically the EP pounds and shreds, and for the most part I don’t have any complaints. I do however always make a point of contention with growling death metal vocals. That sort of thing ain’t my cup of tea. Fortunately much of the vox are done in a more intelligible hardcore friendly way.Aside from that, 3 of the 4 tracks clock in over 3 minutes with the average being approximately 3.8 minutes. My short attention span just can’t keep up. Barring any of my personally perceived down falls, Priapism seems to be a pretty promising new band.http://myspace.com/priapismusic-Jerry Actually
Between The Buried and Me – The Silent Circus
(c) 2003 Victory Records
[rating:4.5/5]
Between the Buried and Me has struck me to be one of the most intriguing bands that I have come across. This five piece band out of NC has shown a refreshing side of the “metalcore” scene. They express their diversity in many ways throughout the entire album that can send you on an emotional rollercoaster. “Lost Perfection” starts you off with countless mathematically sequenced rhythms leave you begging for more. From Clutch to Six Feet Under riffs you never lose interest on what the band is revealing to you. From there you get about half way into the album and it takes a heart felt anthem feeling with some ambient guitar tones, completely different from what the album began with. Lead singer Tommy Rogers continues to show his varied singing attributes throughout the clean softer part of the album. You get an abrupt awakening when “Ad a dglgmut” opens up, and the album continues its precise placement of speedy “riffery” to the end. This CD has not left my stereo yet….
Fulcrum