CHON - Woohoo! (2014)

These guys are too good. im convinced they are all musical wizards from a far, far away land. Their 2011 EP was posted here a good while back but i thought they deserved an update since they've been very, very active the last year or so.

CHON released a 2013 album called Newborn Sun, shortly followed by a 2014 EP called Wohoo! Both available on their bandcamp (link below).

Last week, Audiotree released a 6 track live session with CHON. Check it out below....mesmerizing!

Full session: CHON - Audiotree Session

CHON BANDCAMP

L'viv - Compare and Decide (2012)

Pure unfiltered full flavored....ugh..math rock yes math rock is what we have on tap this evening. After Franklinton DC's previous post of the excellent Arc and Sender it got me thinking:

Dark, Thoughtful, Exciting maybe something new as well... and then I remembered stumbling on L'viv.

See L'viv feature on guitar a previously posted fellow, Alexander Litinsk (A.M Overcast) Impressive considering that he easily shifts into a completely different ilk of math mayhem without nary a stumble.

These Canadians lay it on thick and heavy. You need not worry about fret tapping mumbo flumbo. This is some straight dish Math Metal riffage with some razor edges and dime dropping time shifts. The best I've heard in a good long time. Tempo is slow to mid range, which for modern math rock is a bit of a black sheep these days. This is not a negative however. The melodies are strong enough and the drums interesting enough to carry along the songs. Fantastic guitar tones also.

What this automatically reminded me of was some 90's type shizz in a great way. No vox by the way, you won't find yourself missing them either. This is a must have for everyone, in case you didn't catch that by the above nonsensical writing.

Compare and Decide

Bear Baiting - EP

Heres the skinny. 2 bass guitars and programmed drums playing instrumental post rock math metal noise gaze. With some very excellent production it seriously sounds like those bass guitars are going to invade your chest cavity. The shoe-gaze element gives it a nice counter balance to the unfolding metalesque songs. CHECK IT.

                                         extra points:

                                         awesome cover art :)
Bear Baiting EP

Animals as Leaders

Avant Tech. Metal

At the moment mostly a vehicle for 8 stringed guitarist Tosin Abasi, Animals as Leaders lives in a world that embraces left field metal. However they do now have a full band, this release is mostly the brain child of Abasi. Tosin's riff work is extremely varied in its approach and really makes these songs something special. I felt like after yesterdays post both Exivious and Animals as Leaders (while maybe not in songwriting) have a heavy reliance on Jazz. Animal's uses fairly unique chord progressions which opens the drums and bass up for some interesting interplay. YES

Animals as Leaders

Exivious

Fusion Metal (weather channel metal)

Highly Tech. yet also very chilled and flowing, the wonderful fusion metal band Exivious is made up of members of the also amazing Cynic. Complex song structures and instrumentation abounds. The balance of Jazz and Metal is actually surprisingly equal. While having heard this you'd have thought they always belonged together. Extremely amazing.

Exivious   

Behold...the Arctopus - Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning/ Skullgrid

 Progressive Tech. Metal

All three of these gentlemen should get some sort of award for song composition. Seriously twisted passages that give way to even more sick metal riffs. Probably not for everyone but hey what really is? This band can get melodic at times or down right shred-tastic (which they more than frequently do) Oh yes and that massively behemoth guitar that Colin Marston is playing is called a Warr Guitar. It is a 15-17 stringed instrument covering both electric and bass guitar. The guitar features an extremely low action for better tapping capabilities. Any fan of technical music or metal in general should at least take a gander.

Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning

Skullgrid