Mannheim - Super - Empowered (2013)

Woo talk about a barn burner these cats from the Netherlands have successfully held my attention and won my heart of hearts.

Mannheim are a four piece unit which have the secret weapon of baritone sax in their midst. Its a great formula really, a spritz of prog math heavy on the groove and a post metal back drop for this fairy tale to unfold before. Compositions are a titch slow moving for me and occasionally the guitar riffage becomes a bit stale. Minor gripes truly. These guys really shine however when the sax is playing lead or when these guys bust out a nice mathy groove. Its a pretty damn self assured debut album which always means a lot of practice and care was put into the construction. Check it .

mannheim

Control - Volition (2013)

One track featuring a UK based two-some... wait for it... bass and drums. While your brain is conjuring some blasty-aggro-shoddily-produced-mess this is leagues away. Control have a wonderful progressive backbone and move in and out pretty freely between mathy sections and post-metal yarn while always keeping a heavy hand on the melody button. These guys cover a disgusting amount of ground in six minutes and it's honestly over before you can bat an eye. Oh and that cover art of the boat? They play on it in their video, clutch biz.

Apocalipsis - Expansion (2012)

In the mood for some post-metal via math from Mexico? :)

Indurain - Indurain

Got very little info on this here band.. What I do know is they make some pretty cool tunes. Mostly instrumental bar the odd murmurs and a few shouty moments. Mathy? yep and with that comes a nice dose of noise and a healthy splash of post-hardcore moments. The whole thing has a kind of post-rock to post-metal kinda vibe, though no real build ups with the twists coming in at the right times. They managed to slip this one under the radar too, released all the way back in January '12.. Indurain

An Aesthetic Anaesthetic - Names (2012)

This Chicago group has some riffs to share. What kind? some post-metal for sure with

progressive rock structures and our very favorite math rock veneer over top. It makes for some really nice distorted instrumental rock with that right amount of attitude. I have to say that if a passages is moving a bit slow for ya just relax because these guys move through influences in the span of a song. Your always bound to come out on the other end with at least a couple awesome things. Will be very interested to see what they have in store next for our ears.

names (2012)

Meniscus - Absence of I (2007)

Post Metal can be a tricky sort of mistress...you see she's been around the block awhile and her "tricks" aren't all that original anymore.  Seriously look at all the acts that sound exactly like Isis. Australian group Meniscus take a familiar approach with some welcome variations. For one its pretty ambient and jazzy at times. Sure these Aussie's get heavy handed with the metal chug but this is certainly more tech than it lets on. I'm fairly certain they have just released a new album with a new drummer this year but I am woefully unfamiliar.

My apologies for not posting as frequently. I am in the throws of purchasing my first home so bear with my sporadic posting habits.

Absence of I (2007)