A Swarm of the Sun

A Swarm of the Sun delivers with The King of Everything a dark, brooding EP that sounds as if the chasms of hell have opened or, better said, are about to open. If one expects the chasms of hell to be filled with power metal and/or gay metal like Manowar; then one is wrong.

The King of Everything is subtle, powerful, and emotionally haunting, even if the band sounds like many a band we've heard before. Of course, this is not in the sense of A Swarm of the Sun blatantly ripping off other artists – Tool - but in the sense that we've heard this kind of music before. Still, this Swedish band manages to evolve within the EP, eventually leading up to a sound their own. “Refuge” and “King of Everything” sound aggressive. “A Mind But Not a Mouth,” an instrumental only track reminiscent of a repetitive and more chilled out Infected Mushrooms is followed by “The Grip,” which has a silent, calm and almost sad vibe. “An Animal in the Shape of God” is the same story as with “A Mind But Not a Mouth.” The King of Everything ends with “I Fear the End,” which forms a worthy and climatic end to the EP, if only because the band finally seems to settle on a sound of their own.

The King of Everything is solidly produced and it is obvious that it is an album that has been crafted with care. Still, when it is time for me to make a judgment, I remain opinionated that A Swarm of the Sun reminds me of Tool breeding with Neurosis and is, although not completely original, a haunting and solid EP. Good enough to make one curious for more, yet too standard to be memorable. The EP does bode well for the future and it has, which is always a good thing, rekindled my interest in the post-metal genre. I salute A Swarm of the Sun for this.

A Swarm of the Sun's The King Of Everything EP ( 2007 )
Tracklist
1. Refuge
2. King of Everything
3. A Mind but not a Mouth
4. The Grip
5. An Animal in the shape of God
6. I Fear the End

Member : Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund

Hometown : Stockholm, Sweden

Record Label : Version Studio

I Fear The End's pv :

Cynic

Of the many bands that appeared in the Florida death metal craze in the late 80s/early 90s, Cynic is often overlooked, but not forgotten. Many believe that Florida consisted of the heavier, gore-ridden side of death metal. While this is partly true, the lesser known bands took their music into new territory, exploring new abilities and invoking thought. Cynic, alongside Death and Atheist, is the forerunner to this experimental side of death metal. Instead of sheer heaviness, Cynic incorporates jazz and ambient sections into their music while maintaining a level of technicality that is unheard of. Before splitting up in the mid 90s, Cynic left with merely one album, Focus, which stands as a testament to the opportunities of death metal.

Last lineup:
Jason Gobel - Guitars, guitar synth
Sean Malone - Bass, chapman stick
Paul Masvidal - Vocals, guitars, guitar synth
Sean Reinert - Keyboards, drums


Cynic's 2008 Traced In The Air
Tracklist
1. Nunc Fluenc
2. The Space For This
3. Evolutionary Sleeper
4. Integral Birth
5. The Unknown Guest
6. Adam's Murmur
7. King Of Those Who Know
8. Nunc Stans
9. Front





Cynic's new song "Evolutionary Sleeper"(2007) taken from a live performance in Norway

Burst

The members of what was to become Burst first came together in Kristinehamn, Sweden. After extensive touring, the band released two albums, Shadowcaster and Two-Faced, on the label Melon Records. In 2000, the band released Conquest: Writhe on Prank Records, followed by the MCD In Coveting Ways. The latter release spawned a European Tour and saw the band continue to refine its sound, incorporating diverse influences while remaining rooted in a hardcore aesthetic. In 2003, with the release of Prey on Life and a deal with Relapse Records, Burst gained wider recognition within the underground, touring heavily alongside such bands as Mastodon and The Dillinger Escape Plan. The band's musical evolution culminated in the 2005, with the release of Origo. The album sees the band incorporate progressive, black, and death metal influences into their already distinctive sound.


Burst's 2008 Lazarus Bird
Tracklist:
1. I Hold Vertigo
2. I Exterminate The I
3. We Are Dust
4. Momentum
5. Cripple God
6. Nineteenhundred
7. (We Watched) The Silver Rain
8. City Cloaked

“I Hold Vertigo” is what an intentional accident would sound like. It just starts. And then it changes. Then it changes again. The lead track off Burst’s Lazarus Bird, “I Hold Vertigo” is written in a highly entropic fashion; tempos and rhythms change as frequently as the vocals do, which is often; guitars go from crunchy to spaced out -- in short, the song does whatever it feels like, whenever it feels like doing it, and it’s kind of a mess. Even as it seems like there’s no method to the madness, and even when it feels like there’s about fifty thousand and twelve more things going on than necessary, “I Hold Vertigo” is nonetheless somehow captivating, especially in hindsight. This is because it is so diarrhetic that it introduces everything you’ll hear throughout the album without any context or restraint. It’s kind of a cryptic trailer that doesn’t make sense until you get through the finished product, and it would be counter productive had it not been so intriguingly haphazard.

If you’re a little lost, I don’t blame you. I should probably have prefaced the review with some sort of mention about Burst’s past, about how these Swedes came out of the ashes of a crust-grind act and evolved into one of the more interesting progressive metal bands out today. I could probably have mentioned how they effectively blend sludgy post metal with rhythmic prog metal. And now that I have done just that, I -- like “I Hold Vertigo” does relative to Lazarus Bird -- plan to expand upon it.

As the summary suggests, Lazarus Bird is a musical fire that uses elements of Relapse alumni Neurosis and Mastodon as kindling, but to go as far as to call their music imitative would be doing the band an injustice. Yes, the bands penchant for rhythmic shifts does herald Remission-era Mastodon, and yes, their spacier moments to incur comparisons to Neurosis’ The Eye of Every Storm. But acknowledging the influence is doing only half of the work. Burst employ an interesting dynamic with their ability to sound both free and loose and tight and calculated. “Momentum” does its best to support this theory, shifting on a dime between twangy atmospherics and calculated, almost latin-tinged leads and syncopation. “Cripple God” is much the same, employing shaky, rattled vocal work alongside a two guitar line, with one guitar sprinkling quick notes and the other playing a counter-point, all before erupting into a chugging, driving passage. Avoiding the clichéd soft-to-loud technique that plagues the “so hot right now” world of post-metal in favour of this ideologically similar but sonically different sounding loose-to-tight dynamic makes an excellent argument for Burst’s originality. So while they employ sounds reminiscent of other notable acts, they implement them into their own unique formula, making it more allusive than imitative.

Anyone wondering about how Lazarus Bird stands-up against Origo, I’ll come right out and say it’s just flat out better. Origo may have laid the groundwork down but it was in many ways amateurish and a little too ahead of the band’s abilities. Unlike Origo, the ambient interludes and spaced-out passages do not feel like a mask to undeveloped song-ideas, and while Lazarus Bird is definitely no Onset of Putrefaction, Burst have definitely stepped it up from a technical standpoint. Vocally, Linus Jägerskog continues his upward climb and with guitarist Robert Reinholdz lending the occasional vocal back up, Lazarus Bird features a varied (but not to a fault) blend of shouting, yelling, clean singing and even growling, which is to my knowledge a first for the band. To some the vocals will be a detractor, if not for their variety than possibly for Linus’ Swedish accent, which is never more prominent than in “We Are Dust”. And if his way of pronouncing fire (fah-you’re) gets on your nerves, the bridge that follows is so effective that you’ll soon get over it. That’s because the guitar work is always proficient, whether axe-wielders Robert Reinholdz and Jonas Rydberg are playing a precise lead, chugging along rhythmically or spacing out for minutes at a time. If Brann Dailor was a little less in love with himself and a lot less hopped up on caffeine, he’d probably sound a lot like Patrik Hultin, who’s always noticeably above average but never dominating the music with pushy fills. He, like Jesper Liveröd (who tears it up on the bass) are after-all part of the rhythm section.

All the creativity and proficiency aside, Lazarus Bird is still not an album worthy of classic status. Instead it’s destined to be relegated to the underarms of sweaty metal-geeks worldwide. It has considerable energy and a definite “it-factor” and while it’s not entirely transcendent, it certainly demands attention. Lazarus Bird is an anomaly in the “progressive” metal world in that it’s legitimately progressive and that it doesn’t sound anything like Queensryche.

Highly recommended and without question one of the top releases of 2008.


"articles taken from some sources"

Axes

My mini cheap axes that my mum and friends get for me :) thanks!

Disillusion

Back To Times Of Splendor album

Tracklist
1. ...And The Mirror Cracked
2. Fall
3. Alone I Stand In Fire
4. Back To Times Of Splendor
5. A Day By The Lake
6. The Sleep Of The Restless Hours

Disillusion, for this record, is made up of:
Vurtox - Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards
Rajk Barthel - Guitars
Jens Maluschka - Drums

...And the Mirror Cracked: This song starts right off with a heavy setting to it. I really like the riff. This continues, and at one minute into the song Vurtox's vocals are shown. His growls are good, they fit very well with the music. His clean vocals soon take the place of his harsh grunts, he's very talented. It slightly reminds me of some power metal vocalists, but not when they are singing in a high falsetto. At roughly 3 and a half minutes into the song, everything calms down. Acoustics join in, and it sounds nice. It's my favorite part of the song. Vurtox's clean vocals come back in, and there is a solo of sorts, and the song seems like it's going to get heavy but it doesn't. Once everything becomes totally quiet, all of a sudden the beginning of the song is repeated. It's a nice ending to a great song. 5/5

Fall: The beginning riff reminds of sludge metal for some reason. The drumming is very excellent on this record, the ride cymbal is highly utilized in this song. It is also completely clean vocals from Vurtox. The way his voice is layered in many of the songs on this album is tasteful. The best part of this song is the chorus, it's a beautiful thing. 4.5/5

Alone I Stand in Fires: This is my personal favorite off the album. It kicks off with the sound of a man breathing, then with some nice cymbal work. Guitars fade in, then start full force with a riff you just have to nod your head to. During the verses of this song, a effect is placed on Vurtox's voice. It's odd, yet it fits. The chorus, just as in Fall, is the best part of this song. In the prechorus, Vurtox uses his clean vocals, but then switch to his growls which work so well. "But today, today will be my day!" is very moving. The song ends with some piano notes. This song is amazing. 5/5

Back to Times of Splendor: This song starts off with some violin, which I find to be a great add-on to the music. Guitars and drums come crashing in with the violin, which is one of the many high points of the album. Vurtox has some great lyrics in this one, and Rajk and his riffs are impeccable. Throughout the song, the violins fade in and fade out, and it just is an excellent addition. At 7 minutes into the song, everything drops out except the sound of rain and some birds chirping. Then drums and bass come in, and I must say I admire the drummer on this record. He's pretty versatile and mixes it up a lot. Anyway, the song continues to be soft and with Vurtox singing cleanly. The acoustic guitars add an atmosphere to the music. A beautiful guitar solo is played, and then the album gets heavy again, and this is probably the heaviest point on the album. The vocals remind me of Nergal from Behemoth, and that's brutal if you know Behemoth. This is a great song. 5/5

A Day by the Lake: I don't like this song as much as the rest of the songs on this record, but that isn't because it's the lightest. It's mostly acoustic guitars and all sung vocals. I feel a lot of Opeth influence on this one especially, but I feel it all over the album due to the progressive/death combination. This song ends too abruptly also, but it's still alright. 4/5

The Sleep of the Restless Hour: This is the longest song of the album, spanning over 17 minutes. It starts off with some acoustic guitars, with Jens playing around with his cymbals. The heaviness kicks in, a nice riff with some cool drum work. Everyone delivers a wonderful performance in this song, especially Vurtox with his vocal work. And about 12 minutes in, there is silence, and for the remainder of the song we are treated to an instrumental. This a great way to end an album. 5/5

Disillusion is most definitely an excellent band. I'd say the band the resemble the most is Opeth, but there are still many differences between them. All in all, I give this album a 5/5, it's great and all metal fans should enjoy it. Vurtox is a mastermind.

taken from "unknown" sources

Weekend's Night

Last Saturday night was a havoc. All friends back from places and gathers around. Lols. I love festival season.


Fook, me, tony and edward
Edward is the fastest striker ( football, futsal ) i ever encounter, and also the most ego player, hahha

Me, Tony and Ah Ki
Tony? Lols, the most alcohol consumed guy i ever know. He able to consumed RM600++ of alcohol with a friend for a night. Shocking. And took him more than a crate to make him vomit, hahaha

Henry, Ah Lik and me
Lik? Super titan guy. For safety, never ever body contact with him during futsal, coz i darn sure u either get crushed and lay on floor or any part of your body suffers injury. Oh ya, he's just 21 ( i know i look younger than him, haha) Henry? He's my personal CPU engineer. With him around, u can expect yourself ended up in weird places during happy hour, seriously weird places -.- And he's so proud of his new "li ko" tattoo and planning to get another more. Haih


Chien Chien and me
She? Lols. Sibeh cho lo ah, as in, erm, ganas? Her attitude more to like guy than gal. Yeah, "big-boob guy" hahhaaha. She told me she wears red g-string that night and seems so proud of it. Sorry, im not interested in that, if other hot ladies, maybe? Hahahha

Fook and me
Fook? My old buddy since we're in Primary 4. Been 14 years I know this guy. Yeah, times flies and yet we're still friends, haha. I remember back I start going his house at aged 11 till now, and still, his house are our HQ. Everyone will just gather there for no reason, lols. And recently, he starts smokes, which reduced my non-smoking friend's list >.< arghhh. I think myself and another friend the only one didnt smoke ah. Urgh