Marc Palmer

Cynic were a progressive metal band that releases a seminal album in 1993 called “Focus”. It turns out, by happy accident that they have reformed 15 years later and are touring to promote a new album, in support of Opeth who I am going to see play in a couple of weeks.

The new album is excellent – a modern progression of their original sound and composition. As ever brave and somewhat disorientating it is wonderful to have Cynic back with their new album Traced In Air. It comes as little surprise that their jazz-fusion-metal approach sees them playing a cover of a Mahavishnu Orchestra track live.

Their sound and unusual jazzy chord progressions tend to leave me feeling rather mournful at the end of it all, rather than pumped up and ready to crack skulls, as when I listen to most metal. The album actually reminds me of a metal’d up Oceansize at times, and even strangely reminiscent of some Smashing Pumpkins.

OK so it’s wet outside and I’m in my nice new shed… which reminded me of this great piece of Cardiacs rehearsal footage, which I have not embedded in my blog yet so thought I’d give it a try. This is such an old Cardiacs track but a great favourite… with such an excellent thrash up 6 minutes in which accelerates after ska bit.

I have just spent 6 hours in the car driving to and from London. I listened to Ire Works, Dillinger Escape Plan’ new album no less than four times, three times back to back. It has completely blown my mind. It is just unbelievable. There are some reviews out there that say its no progression from the previous, "Miss Machine" but they are just fuckin’ naysayers man!

I always find their stuff hard to assimilate at first, but after four or five listens I’m in. This album is much more detailed than previous stuff. Lots of little scratches and buzzes buried in there, and my oh my Gil Sharone on drums is just insane. I thought Pennie leaving was a disaster, and Pennie is an amazing drummer, but Sharone has more of a groove rather than being completely robotic.

"When acting as a wave" is just stunningly spastic – check out the drum’n'bass sinewave bombs (you’ll need it loud with decent sized speakers) in that track, they had me laughing out loud in the car when I noticed them. "Horse Hunter" is just completely mayhem for the first 20s or so, how they do it I do not know. The final track is the biggest surprise… latin rhythms in metal? You bet. It shouldn’t work at all but oh my god it does. Possibly the best track on the album.

Get it. Listen to it loud. At least FIVE times before you make any judgement.

Thank you Ben Weinman and co.

Ziltoid the Omniscient is the latest musical creation of Devin Townsend and sits somewhere between his previous solo efforts and Strapping Young Lad.

It is seriously rocking B-movie prog metal that once again showcases Devin’s distinctive sound and production. The guy is a genius and knows exactly how to press all the right "metal" buttons.

All the drums on the album are apparently programmed using some sample setup from Meshuggah. The drum patterns are insane in places, I shudder to think about the hours that must have been spent slaving over "grid edit" in his sequencer.

I was sad to read that he no longer plans to tour or record with Strapping Young Lad or the Devin Townsend Band… but family life always seemed to me rather incompatible with ROCK (that’s rock in captials man).

The highlight track for me is "Ziltoidia Attaxx!" which has to be the most bouncy and pounding not-taking-itself-seriously metal track ever. Other tracks are on the Ziltoid myspace.

Also for a few minutes of fun you can check out the Ziltoid transmissions on YouTube.

Most stupid rock lyric from a puppet in a metal song ever? "Aha! Surprise!"

I went to a small club to see Cephalic Carnage play. It’s been a while since I went to a real "grindcore" gig (I use the term loosely), and I really enjoyed it. The energy and musicianship in bands like Cephalic cannot be denied, whether you like the noise they make or not.

I’ve not spent much time in the past trying to work out why I have such eclectic music tastes. I love a few grind bands, a few metal bands, some hardcore, some classical, some contemporary, some progressive rock – but I seem to be very selective. Nu-metal or whatever they call the stop-start "let’s just make a grinding chugging tuneless riff" bands that are so prevalent these days in the metal scene are fine – but they don’t appeal to me. For 30 seconds I might think "ooh I like the sound of this" – but it is exactly that. The sound "feels" good. Interest is not sustained because the songwriting is not "out there" enough.

This is why I really like bands like Strapping Young Lad, Mastodon, Cephalic Carnage, Dillinger Escape Plan. Tons of energy, musicianship and … tunes. Remember those elusive things? That’s exactly why I just can’t sustain interest in the Meshuggah tracks that I’ve heard to date. I love their rhythmic complexity and the heavy sound, but I get so bored because there’s never a decent melody (that I’ve found) to occupy the melodic part of your brain. DEP for example have plenty of bluster and noise, but absolutely killer songwriting within. Heaviness and complexity with great melodic hooks is what separates the men from the boys, in my tastes at least. Pretty much anyone can sit down and write an aggressive and heavy-sounding song with a few chugging chromatic riffs.

Personally I do struggle with the sound at these "grind" gigs. Maybe its just my ears, but I am inevitably a bit disappointed as the mid-range of the guitars is typically lost out to bass rumble and the drum assault. On record its a lot better, but seeing a bunch of guys play such insane music while leaping around and generally having a great time is always invigorating.