Dàmn, I lóve this band's most recent release...in fact, I dare even declare that it's one of those rare exceptional albums the seasoned voluntary (meaning: not paid for all his hard work) music journalist comes across, which entice him to continue to waddle through hundreds of middle-of-the-road and occasionally mediocre stuff. The thing that keeps him goin', what!? Okay, enough personal issues, let's get down to the business of presenting this ultra-fine band to you!
Upon A Burning Body's music is generally listed as Deathcore (with additional influences from Groove and Southern Metal), but quite honestly, I personally fail to see the difference with the original definition of the term Metalcore (= a blending of Hardcore music with elements of the “Metal” - be it Black or Death – genre). Ach, well...everybody's entitled to their own view, right, but what eventually should prevail, is how the musicians see themselves!
Well, well...mysteries àre of this world, 'cause here's yet another relatively well-known Canadian Progressive Rock act (selling 1.6 million albums worldwide and achieving a #1 hit on the Canadian singles charts with “Heaven Coming Down” in 1999) on with no less than now 12 albums (among which a compilation and a live album, but also 8 releases through EMI Music Canada) to their name...and I'd never come across any of the trio's music! Until now, that is...but looking at the band's history, the latter two albums just might never have happened!
When I first heard the music of this band [and regrettably that was already a couple of months ago, but all kinds of elements – such as conditions at work (where I gather the extra info needed for my reviews) worsening, new batches of releases delivered to me by the editor-in-chief containing stuff taking priority, getting ill a couple of times, and generally having less time (again due to work conditions weighing thru') – have delayed my starting on this here article], I could not help, for some obscure reason, thinking of a somewhat raw version of UK's Amebix.
Ach...Buster Shuffle, that delightful Ska Rock band from London (and just forget about the funny fact that their name abbreviates to BS, will you) centered around lead singer/ pianist Jet Baker...got acquainted with 'em through the Spring 2011 re-issue of their debut album Our Night Out by the German People Like You label, didn't I? What a whopper of a debut album that was indeed...I mean, I did, after all, put the album in my 2011 year-lists, didn't I (check the review, posted 07/05/2011)?
This Melodic Hardcore band from Seattle may be new to me personally, but it certainly is not new to the world, as it was founded back in 2008!
Anyone even slightly interested in Progressive Rock would find it difficult to get around the band Marillion, which in fact is the most successful act to have emerged from Britain's 1980s Neo-Prog Rock scene. Marillion's guitarist, Steve Rothery, happens to be the band's longest running member, having joined in 1979 at the age of 23, when they were still called Silmarillion.
If there's one thing those with a somewhat broader taste for music will agree upon, it's that Neal Morse is quite a personality in the Progressive Rock world.
How painful : a Metal band with its first 3 albums (2001's Revolution Revolución, 2003's Confession and 2005's One Nation Underground) out on Roadrunner Records...and there's not even one in my collection, nor any of the albums which followed (2008's Enigma, 2010's Dead New World and 2012's Epidemia), and that with the sales figures of the two first albums already exceeding a million copies! I guess I' have to make some kind of mending, by relating to you the band's history in a nut-shell?
Ahum...it would appear that it's but a good thing, that I always check into a band's past when first coming across it. You see, goin' on just this latest release, I would've categorized Four Year Strong (abbreviated to FYS from now on) as being an up-tempo “Easycore” act, and looked for its previous material accordingly. But it so happens, that musically speaking, FYS has been somewhat fickle in the past, say even somewhat unreliable to a certain degree.
