METAL WITH REASON: A blog about metal.

BREAKING: ANIMALS AS LEADERS DRUMMER NAVENE KOPERWEIS LEAVES BAND

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:34:05 -0400

Well, this sucks.

Apparently Navene Koperweis, Animals as Leaders’ drummer, has quit the band.

From Prosthetic Records’ press release:

“These upcoming shows will not include Navene Koperweis, who has decided to leave the group. Says Koperweis, “Tosin and Javier (Reyes, guitar) are the two most generous, caring and understanding individuals I’ve ever met and I look forward to a lifetime of friendship with the both of them. Over the past decade I have done nothing but music. Recording, writing, playing, practicing, touring and producing. It’s taken me beyond what I could have dreamt of as a kid when I started.My new goals extend beyond the drum kit and I’m the type of person who will constantly chase new dreams. You’ll be seeing a lot more of me soon.”

Abasi says, “I’ve shared some of my most memorable musical experiences to date with Navene and truly consider him a brother. I commend him for following his own path in life, even if that means i’ll no longer be sharing the stage with him. I feel blessed to have had the pleasure of working together and creating a lifelong friendship.”

From the sound of that, we can all assume the split was amicable at the very least. It still sucks, though. Koperweis was an integral part of the three-part magical formula that comprised the band and leaves big shoes to fill. His prowess behind a drumset is hard to match. The guys at MetalSucks even recognized him as one of the best modern metal drummers.

Matt Garstka, a Berklee alum from the Boston area, will fill in on AAL’s upcoming European tour, as well as on Thrice’s upcoming farewell tour.

Get tour dates here, then go listen to Weightless.

REVIEW: Cannibal Corpse's Torture

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:30:00 -0500

Death metal legends Cannibal Corpse are dropping their new record Torture next week. Are you excited yet? You fucking should be. The album is equal parts brutal, gory, and awesome.

Classic Corpse album art. I love the fact that much of their album art has a similar appearance to it, almost making them feel more like a series of novels than a set of records. Maybe I read too many fantasy novels. Anyway, full review after the jump!

Cannibal Corpse is a band that I have been aware of for at least 19 years, and have loved for about 5. I know it sounds silly, how could I have been into Corpse when I was a wee lad of 5 years old? Well, when I was a kid, I was really into the movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. As some of you know, Cannibal Corpse has a cameo in that flick.

This scene must have made some subliminal impact on my young formative mind, because I am now hopelessly addicted to death metal. Pretty awesome.

Throughout their extensive career, Cannibal Corpse has been one of the frontrunners of the death metal scene. Many metalheads could potentially lose hours arguing over whether Suffocation or Cannibal Corpse are better, but it goes without saying that the guys in Corpse are undoubtedly some of the best and most successful death metallers out there, and Torture is further proof of that.

Torture lacks any dull moments thanks in part to its dynamic tempos and harmonic structure. Each track has its own unique merits, thus preventing the album from sounding like one 45-minute long death metal riff.

The album opens with Demented Aggression, an uptempo audio onslaught. The track sets the tone for what the listener is about to experience; a dark, gory exploration of the mind’s most sadistic corners, all set to masterfully brutal death metal.

The second track, Sarcophagic Frenzy, is sure to be a headbanging anthem for Corpse’s tours this year. And if you haven’t heard Scourge of Iron, which has been streaming online for awhile, you need to rectify this immediately. Sounds like getting stomped to death by elephants.

A musically trained ear will also notice the harmonic structure of the album. Torture is not the run of the mill, chugging power chord death metal record. Songs like Followed Home Then Killed and Torn Through display some very intellectual songwriting. And holy shit, that bass solo at 2:14 in The Strangulation Chair! Alex Webster, you are a god among men.

All around, Torture is an excellently executed record. Any fan of death metal will enjoy it, and should make it a part of their collection. But seriously, it’s fucking Cannibal Corpse, so do you really need any more convincing? Just buy the record when it drops on March 13th.

Torture gets a 9.5/10 in my book. This album is fucking great, and will make you headbang forever.

Thrice farewell tour w/ Animals as Leaders. Whoa.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:58:04 -0500

That’s right. Thrice is going on their farewell tour, and they’re bringing Animals as Leaders as support. You can get tickets here.

Unfortunately, presales have already sold out in many cities, including all of the ones in my region (Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit), which was only 30 minutes after Thrice’s official Facebook page posted info about the tickets. Sounds a lot like some dickhead scalper website swooped up all of the tickets so they could jack the price and resell them (which should be FUCKING ILLEGAL).

Get your tickets, kids.

IT'S OFFICIALLY THE BEST DAY EVER. NEW TENACIOUS D IN MAY!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:28:14 -0500

IT'S OFFICIALLY THE BEST DAY EVER. NEW TENACIOUS D IN MAY!

Review: Tetrafusion's Horizons EP

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:39:46 -0500

Some of you might have read my interview with Tetrafusion’s drummer JC Bryant last year. I also reviewed their album Altered State. Well, JC hit me up recently to do a review for their new EP, Horizons. I had to put it off for a few days, but I have given the record a solid spin and, I must say, I am quite impressed.

Review after the jump.

I really enjoyed Altered State, but there were a few things that I thought the band could improve. I felt like the record needed a little more intensity from all the members, especially Gary Tubbs, Tetrafusion’s vocalist. Gary’s vocals seemed strained most of the time, and a little bit forced, which is understandable given that the record was originally written sans-vocalist.

After listening to Horizons, I was speechless. The songs are much more diverse, and pack a much heavier punch than the last record could offer. The record’s first song (after the intro track), called Impetus, starts the record of with an epic, flourishing texture, reminiscent of any of the timeless prog giants. Every member of this band has seriously stepped up their game and improved their musicianship. JC’s drumming is much more intense and creative. Bassist Mark Michell defies the ‘bad bassist’ stereotype with a virtuosity comparable to Dan Briggs, Henry Selva or Evan Brewer. Brooks Tarkington’s guitar composition shows a dedication to technical mastery, and a much more daring, confident approach to textural progression. And, as I said before, vocalist/keyboardist Gary Tubbs has impressed me as well. His vocals have broadened quite a bit, which is exemplified throughout the entire record. As a classically trained vocalist, Gary brings a lot to the table.

It’s pretty stunning, really. I can’t say I could ask for much more from an EP such as this. I tried really hard to find something about it I dislike, and I can’t. Okay, maybe the vocals in Impetus could have been mixed a bit louder, but that’s getting really nitpicky. Horizons was mixed by Jamie King, who has mixed records for Between the Buried and Me, The Human Abstract, and Last Chance to Reason, among others. Needless to say, he did a great job mixing it.

Tetrafusion posted Horizons on their Bandcamp site on Tuesday, and you can download it for free, but you should give these guys some money, because they need to get out on the road!

Tetrafusion’s Horizons EP gets a 5/5 for being technically flawless and and jaw-dropping. Check out their Facebook page for more info, and expect to see a lot more of these guys in 2012.

And we're back.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:08:15 -0500

Greetings, Internet! I am not dead!

My apologies for the extended and abrupt absence. Long story short, I just finished my last semester of college, and adjusting to post-graduate life has been tumultuous.

Anyway, now that I’ve graduated, the focus of Metal With Reason is going to shift slightly. I’ll post some older interviews I aired on my radio show, as well as some that never got posted due to other technical difficulties.

Beyond that, I will focus mostly on album reviews and other editorials. I’ll also post my belated top 10 records of 2011, so that’s on the way.

Coming up later today: my review of Tetrafusion’s new EP!

MAYHEM interview #1: Straight Line Stitch

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:32:40 -0400

The first interview of the day was with Straight Line Stitch. I’ll be honest, I had only recently begun listening to the band. I listened to their album The Fight of Our Lives only days before attending the Rockstar Mayhem Festival, but it only took a few songs for me to appreciate this band. I’ve always been a fan of metalcore, and I’ll admit I’m a bit of a sucker for female vocals. Alexis and Seth are both very cool people. They had to actually come outside the venue for the interview (God forbid the press passes get released on time). Unfortunately I missed their set, but I’m sure it was pretty baller. Interview after the jump!

The Fight of Our Lives is out now. Check it out! More interviews from Mayhem are on the way!

-Jake

UP NEXT: MAYHEM INTERVIEWS!

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:16:17 -0400

Hey guys,

Just a quick update: I’ll have interviews from Mayhem Fest up this week! Sorry for the delay. Working full time and running your own website is serious business.

First up, interviews with Straight Line Stitch and Unearth! Stay tuned!

-Jake

Soundcheck Rage: MWR interviews The Sword's Kyle Shutt

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:58:00 -0400

Independent internet bloggers don’t always get to conduct interviews in optimum conditions. Sometimes rooms are dark, it’s not very quiet, and since I make a college students’ living, I don’t own very sophisticated recording equipment (yet). And sometimes all of those poor conditions rear their ugly heads at once and make an interview very hard to conduct. This was the case on July 21st when I interviewed The Sword’s guitarist Kyle Shutt. However, despite the poor conditions and having to edit out a good portion of the interview, this one still turned out pretty cool. The video quality is awful, but you can still understand what we’re talking about. What’s really lame is that the best part of the interview had to get cut simply because the local act was started their soundcheck halfway through the interview. It’s not like they were trying to sabotage my interview, but it still sucks being a victim of circumstance. Check it out after the jump.

Warp Riders is out now on Kemado Records, and you should buy it. It’s an album that took a lot of warming up to, but it’s become one of my favorites.

-Jake

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS SUCK. NEW INTERVIEWS ON THE WAY.

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:02:41 -0400

Hey guys,

I’m back again. Sorry for the unexpected hiatus, I just moved into a new house and have been working full time. I have 8 new interviews on the way, beginning with The Sword’s Kyle Shutt. However, I’ve encountered some problems with uploading the video, so it will be posted tonight after I get home from my day job. Thank you all for your patience and dedication! After The Sword interview is posted, I’ve got my run of interviews at the Rockstar Mayhem Festival!

Stay tuned. Stay metal.

-Jake

I'm back, and I've got a sweet interview with Dethklok's Brendon Small to share!

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:53:00 -0400

What a shitty month!

Sorry for my unannounced hiatus, I had to take time off to find work, and to travel (I’m a debate coach, dude, I’ve got a lot of stuff to do). However, I am back in gear for the summer, and what better way to kick it off than with a totally ballin’ interview with Brendon Small. You might have heard of him, he made a couple of cartoons. One is Home Movies, a great toon from [adult swim]’s glory days. The other is Metalocalypse, and if you’re reading my website and haven’t seen that show, shame on you.

Brendon is a really rad dude, from what I can tell. He left a meeting so he could do this interview, which is not something you’d expect from a celebrity of his status.

I did this interview a few months back, but as it usually goes for me, I only recently got time to transcribe and format everything. We talked about Mayhem Fest, the future of Metalocalypse, and his upcoming solo record (yeah, that’s right, a solo record). Check out the full interview after the jump!

Brendon, first of all, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Once I got into radio, you were one of the first people I wanted to interview, so I’m pumped.

You have low standards, my friend. [laughs] I appreciate it though.

I know you’re a little pressed for time too, so we’ll keep it pretty short. How did you get involved with Mayhem Fest? I know you’re just doing the one stop, but how did you get roped into doing that?

[laughs] “They roped me in.” Well first of all, I think it’s a pretty cool opportunity and glad to be a part of it. I believe it came from the gentlemen who books it, I don’t remember his name, but it’s the kick-off show, and it’s the one show that Megadeth couldn’t do, so they said ‘Why don’t we try this pretend band that doesn’t really exist.’ Hey, one show for an entire year? That’s pretty fun. [laughs]

Right on. One thing I wanted your opinion on about Mayhem, there’s a little bit of a disjunct with some of the artists on the tour. For the most part, they’re more extreme metal bands like Machine Head and In Flames and stuff like that, and then you’ve got Disturbed and Godsmack as the headliners. My opinion is that the diehard metalheads that are there are going to feel kind of let down, or alternatively, people who aren’t exposed to the more extreme stuff are gonna get their eyes opened a little bit. How do you feel about it?

I guess the coolest thing is when you have the opportunity to, with the band that you your with, turn people onto cool stuff, kind of like cross-pollinating. I know with Dethklok, we have this crazy thing where we have a TV show, and we have a bunch of comedy fans that come out. A lot of times it’s their first metal show, so we get to introduce them to the bands that we think are really cool, like Mastodon. Or some of them hadn’t heard of [Mastodon], and I’m sure a lot of Mastodon fans didn’t know what this stupid cartoon thing was that they were gonna see. Then they watch us play and think ‘Oh, that was kind of fun and new.’ I think that happens all the time and I think that’s one of the cool things about a different type of lineup. How’s that for positivity? [laughs]

Speaking of the show, when you’re writing for it, do you feel that the comedy aspect of the show or the metal music aspect presents more of a challenge for you?

It’s always just the way we do the show. We don’t have a lot of time, we don’t have a lot of resources so we’ve gotta go. So it’s just trying to track the story and make sure the characters resonate, that’s the most difficult challenge. Sometimes we meet that challenge and do a good job, and sometimes we do the best we could with that challenge. Writing music is always fun and easy, and sure, there are times when I’ve thrown away a lot of songs and I don’t think they sound very good, or they’re boring and not exciting. That’s more of the reward of doing the show, when I get to sit around with the guitar and write riffs and glue them all together and hopefully aid the show and help tell story, make the world a little bit bigger for this invented band. But seriously, script stuff is a little bit more difficult. It presents a lot of problems because you need time to write scripts, and sometimes we don’t have time, so we end up fixing stuff in post.

Well, speaking of the songwriting, with each new season it’s obvious you’re stepping your game up a lot. In the beginning, a lot of the lyrics were more entwined into the plot and comedic in nature, whereas now it’s starting to sound less entwined with the plot, and sounds more like standalone badass death metal.

I appreciate that. I think it’s just me being bored with my own stuff. When I’m doing the records, even if they are funny songs, I have to think from the point of view of the band, which is that I think the band, even if they’re being funny, they’re taking themselves dreadfully seriously. The comedy kind of escapes me when I’m working on the music, even though in the early days we were just going for jokes and stuff. The more the band plays, the more they’ve got to believe what they’re singing about. It’s a strange thing, but it’s almost like acting. If you’re an actor and you’re playing a villain or a good guy, you have to justify whatever it is you’re doing and believe what you’re doing. All of a sudden the audience doesn’t see an actor, they see the character there. That’s how I feel with the band. I just think like ‘What would Conan write about?’ And I work with that.

Is there any news you can give on the release of another Dethklok record or the next season?

I don’t know what I’m allowed to say. I have a little bit of news from the TV side right now. I’ll have Lauren from Adult Swim get back to you on that…

[Lauren chimes in on the conference call] It’s a little too early. Once we know for sure, we will let you know.

Okay, thanks. [laughs]

One thing I wanted to ask about- I read about it somewhere, and it’s been many months since I read about it, maybe on Metalsucks[.net], but I saw that you had planned on releasing a solo album.

Yes, I’m having it mixed right now. It’s me, Gene Hoglan, and Brian Beller who’s a bass player that plays with us on the Dethklok records. We’ve got the same mixer and engineer. It’s a ridiculous high-stakes intergalactic extreme rock project. It’s more of a rock album, but with double-kicks and sweeps arpeggios. I’m not using the same kind of voice as I use with Dethklok, I’m singing more. Kind of melodic, but still aggressive and stuff. It’s a whole kind of intergalactic, ridiculous story with high stakes, and if I did my job right it will sound like an audio comic book. It’s a lot of fun. And you’ll be able to tell when you listen to it that it’s kind of a different angle of what I do with Dethklok, but it still sounds like the same guys. It’s a really fun experiment for me to do that, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I don’t have a release date for it yet because I’m getting it mixed and I’m getting all the artwork done right now, but it’s gonna be out this year at some point. Maybe this summer, maybe a little later.

In the third season you did a great job making fun of rap rock with Mastodon voicing the rap rock band. Are there any other big trends or subgenres going on now that you personally find kind of laughable or might become the subject of Dethklok-style ridicule?

Actually, I think Dethklok can be the subject of Dethklok-style ridicule. There was a very dark time for guitar players in the late 90’s and the early 2000’s where you still kind of weren’t allowed to take a solo, but they kept on trying to cross-pollinate rock and hip-hop. Sometimes it works, like Run DMC. I think Anthrax made it work, you know? And then there were all these mechanisms that I couldn’t really hear. There was a DJ and I couldn’t even hear what that guy was doing. What is he doing, percussion? I guess I get that, but it’s not necessarily my cup of tea. For that reason, I think you can smell it from a mile away, what they’re trying to do, which is trying to just please their audience rather than do the best thing for the song. What else is there out there? I don’t know. Any genre suffers and is fantastic for the same reasons. Ultimately, what makes something great is having someone behind it who cares about songwriting and the sound of their band, and tries to put that logic together. How about that for grandiosity, huh?

Last question for ya: most, if not all metal artists out there probably love Metalocalypse and everything that the show is doing for the entire heavy metal culture, but have you ever really encountered any diehard metalhead that is not a fan of the show or is directly against it for any reason?

Usually the people the people that probably don’t like the show don’t seek me out, and if they do want to come to me and complain about my show, I’ll find more flaws in my show than I think you will, because I sit there and you know, I don’t consider it the same way an audience member would. I consider a lot of episodes disappointing because I didn’t hit my mark and stuff like that. That’s how I feel about it. If you’re not gonna like it, I think I’ve already got you beat. [laughs] But I think of the early, early days when people first heard about [Metalocalypse], people were very protective of it. I heard a lot of stuff back then that I haven’t heard about since it’s been on TV. Meaning that I think people are afraid that someone is making fun of their…basically like, that’s my brother, you can’t beat him up, only I can. And I get that. I think that was one of our challenges, to make sure the people knew that we’re fans, we like it. You can only really satirize something that you understand and like a lot. Otherwise it’s just kind of crappy… People can hate it if they want to. The truth is that I’ve got nothing to prove. I already know how I feel about metal. I know what my relationship is to it. I just want to make sure my show works, that I get the opportunity to play guitar every once in a while, which is the whole reason the show exists, and then furthermore to make sure the characters are consistent, and the show is growing and moving forward.

I would say you’re doing a damned good job so far. The Dethalbum II was the highest charting death metal record to date, tour’s been going well and everything, so I’d say you’re doing a pretty damned good job man.

Well I appreciate it man, thank you very much.

Not to geek out or be too much of a fanboy, I’ve always been a big fan of the show and I’m glad to see that it’s doing so well, and that somebody is willing to put forth the effort to make metal a little bit more of a household name.

Hopefully, [laughs] well like I said, the thing that I hoped would happen out of this is that people would get turned onto… well, my favorite compliment that I get is that people say ‘I’m not really into metal, but I like Dethklok. What else is there just like that?’ And I’m like ‘You know what, there are tons of really cool bands that, if you do a small amount of research, you’re gonna find out where I get all of my influences from. They’re out there, and they’re really great artists and I think they are worth knowing about. They work incredibly hard and there’s nothing wrong with expanding your audience and getting more people into something that’s cool.

-JL

Softball Questions: Metal with Reason interviews Between the Buried and Me again!

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:38:08 -0400

So, as you might have figured out from my interview with Job for a Cowboy’s Jonny Davy, I went to see the Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues tour last weekend. It was easily one of the best live shows I’ve had the pleasure of attending, as every show featuring Between the Buried and Me usually is. Their live performance is something that will melt your face and leave you with nothing but respect for those guys. I haven’t seen a packed venue sing along as loudly as those folks were in Michigan. Feels good man.

After arriving at the venue, I was led to the basement where the band was hanging out after their sound check. I planned on doing a pretty informative, professional interview, but if you know anything about the members of BTBAM, you know they’re pretty funny dudes, and this interview was no exception. The whole thing immediately turned into lots of joking around, as well as BTBAM trolling the hell out of me. Check it out afte the jump!

Pretty silly stuff. Do yourself a favor and pick up The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, out now on Metal Blade Records.

-Jake

Tetrafusion's J.C. Bryant, pt. 2

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:05:00 -0400

Alright guys, here’s part two of my incredibly long interview with Tetrafusion’s J.C. Bryant. In this installment we discuss things ranging from touring to some of our favorite bands, as well as the history of Tetrafusion. Check it out after the jump!

So, you guys have been together since 2006. How much touring have you guys done, if any?

Since we’re so busy with school and things like that, we haven’t done any legitimate touring. We do a lot of one-off shows. We’ll drive up to Tennessee or over to Texas and we’ll do a small circuit there that we’re headlining. We’re happy, we’ll draw, depending on the venue, twenty to forty people. It’s no huge thing yet. Now that we’re working with nightmare records, we’re working on getting a booking agency behind us so that we can take our entire summer break, and our Christmas or Thanksgiving breaks and we can actually jump onto legitimate tours.

Excellent.

That’s kind of the one missing piece with Tetrafusion is that we don’t have nearly as much time on the road as I would like.

Well yeah, school will do that.

We also live in a very, very bad city. Shrieveport is one of the worst cities for music. It used to be a great place, but now you have a bunch of 15 year olds in hardcore bands that draw other 15 year olds, and we wouldn’t fit in with that. Then the other people making money with music would be the blues and jazz cover bands. I’ve kinda done that thing a little bit and joined in with that, but there’s no scene for progressive music or for metal music or for people who are really aspiring to make music their career.

Yeah, it’s kind of weird the way that the music realm, or more specifically the metal realm has taken. I don’t know, I feel like obviously the internet is to blame, and you might feel the same way, but I feel like kids nowadays, and I use that term very loosely…anyone that listens to music really, has lost their appreciation for music. The availability is so big now that it doesn’t even matter. You know what I mean? Ten years ago, if you wanted to find out about a band, you had to go to the show, and you had to buy their tape or their seven-inch, or their CD if they had a CD burner-

-and you had to pay them for that.

Exactly.

Bands made more money if somebody was just curious. And a lot of the time now with torrenting…supporting a band financially has become more of a choice now than it ever has been before because someone will torrent your album and listen to it. If they like it that much, if it’s in that top one percent that they like that much, they may buy the physical copy of the album. But that’s one thing that there’s nothing we can do about as a musician. It’s never going to end. The government is not going to do anything about it, so the best thing you can do is just hope to have fans that are adamant enough about your music to want to pay for it. I’m sorry if I took that in a different direction than you wanted.

No, no, you’re cool man. I’m not too worried about structure or format. Freeform conversation is great.

I’m definitely digging this.

Cool!

With the torrenting thing, it’s just become a necessary evil, you know? You put out an album and then you google it, and it’s up on thirty different torrent sites in Russia and Poland, blogs are distributing it… there’s nothing you can do about that. I look at it as positively as I can see it. Even though I want people to buy our music, I’d rather someone hear our album than not hear our album, because that’s someone else that may show their friend, who may show their other friend. It’s just building our fan base. It’s something musicians are going to have to learn to work around whether they like it or not.

Yeah, it’s become the status quo regardless of how we feel about it. One thing I kind of like about the fact that this is the way things have gone, it’s forced musicians to be better performers.

Yeah, very much so. You can listen to a band online, and you can tell their CD sounds great, but then when you go see them at a live show, that live show needs to sound exactly like the CD does. And that’s the big thing. Playing live shows is one of the best ways to expand your fanbase. I think that’s why I regret that we haven’t spent more time playing live shows. There are tons of bands that I probably wouldn’t listen to now if I hadn’t gone to their shows. I went down to New Orleans and saw a BTBAM [Between the Buried and Me] show. I had heard Devin Townsend’s name a million times, I had heard Cynic’s name a million times, but I hadn’t put any though into either band. I just liked BTBAM. After that show I went home and bought some Devin Townsend and Cynic and I-

You fuckin’ fell in love, didn’t you? [laughs]

Yeah. I got Traced in Air. I really like Traced in Air but after hearing [it], Focus kinda left me-

It’s a hard sell.

I’m crucified every time I say that. Focus is such a great album, I just like Traced in Air so much more.

I’m one of the black sheep that likes Traced in Air more too, man. So I totally get it.

I’m on the same page with that. I’ve come under a lot of criticism for saying that. There are a ton of Focus purists.

Yeah man. I feel like it’s just obvious that Traced in Air is just a better composition. It’s just the next step. I don’t know, I don’t get why people are so die-hard about Focus.

It may be the whole fact that they knew about it first, and that they found it before we did, or ‘I’ve been listening to Cynic for ten years. You just didn’t find out about them until Traced in Air, so that’s why you liked it more.’ It’s a lot of that mindset, I think. I just think they matured more as musicians. Maybe I’d appreciate Focus more if they did a remix of it. I really liked Re-Traced. A lot of people didn’t like it.

I’m with you, dude.

I listened to Traced in Air so much that when I got around to Re-Traced, it was so cool hearing similar themes. I wish they’d do something like that with Focus. Cynic is definitely one of my top ten bands right now though.

Absolutely, yeah. I saw them for the first time live on that same tour, the Devin Townsend, Cynic, Between the Buried and Me, Scale the Summit tour.

I forgot to mention Scale the Summit. We’re actually friends with Chris Letchford [guitar, Scale the Summit]. When they were pretty small, we were pretty small. He actually gave us some tickets to that show, and also to their show with Dream Theater. They were the reason we went to that show, just because Chris had some tickets he could give away. I just wanted to add that in, I didn’t want him to read this and be like ‘Oh, that douchebag didn’t even mention my name.’

That’s definitely a great group of bands for you guys to be around. Another thing I wanted to talk to you about was your style. Like I said, listening to Altered State, it was a good breath of fresh air for me. I didn’t know what to expect with it. I had only heard Monologue, I had seen the video. But it took a much more progressive and jazzier turn than I had expected, which was awesome.

I really appreciate that. Is it cool if I touch on more of the history of Tetrafusion?

Absolutely!

Gary and Mark were childhood friends. They’ve known each other for all their lives. I met Gary when I was ten or eleven. That was when we started jamming. He would come over and I had an organ in my drum set room, and we would just play. I don’t know what we’d play, but we’d play and play. So then, fast-forward to high school: I met Mark probably in middle school in the gifted program. In high school, we were all in jazz band. So my freshman year, it was me on drums in jazz band, Brooks also on drums, Gary on keyboards, and Mark on bass. We remained the rhythm section for our high school jazz band all the way through high school. And that’s kind of how Tetrafusion started. Mark and I had a Metallica/Pantera cover band that dissipated, and we needed something else to do. So we were like ‘Let’s start a jazz project. So me, Mark, and Gary started this project and wanted to bring in a saxophonist and just do jazz covers. And that never worked out, we never contacted a saxophonist, but Brooks showed up one day and wanted to play guitar. I don’t ever remember when Tetrafusion formed, but it was such a natural…. you know, it just kind of became a band, and before we knew it, we were writing songs. I was fifteen years old, we were just jamming in one of our bedrooms. That’s kind of the history. We’ve been playing together for a long time, we’re comfortable with each other, and that’s something that I can’t imagine: being in a band with somebody that I just met. There’s just the chemistry that’s there with these guys, especially between Mark and myself. If Mark looks at me when we’re playing, I know exactly what he means without him saying it. And that’s something that I really appreciate, that when I’m playing in the jazz band at my school, I look over at the bassist and he’s kind of staring blankly, not that he’s not a good bassist, but he’s not nearly as attentive to what I’m doing as I am what he’s doing. And that’s something that I like, that we’re very comfortable with each other.

Yeah, you guys are on the same vibe. That’s awesome. How old are you guys? I know you said you’re like twenty.

I’m almost twenty. Mark is twenty-one. Brooks is twenty-one…[to Brooks, in the room] Brooks, you’re twenty-one right? [pause] He’s twenty-one and a half, he wanted to add that. Gary…I think Gary is twenty. I’m the youngest one, I’m still nineteen. I was in the lowest grade, Mark and Gary were in the same grade above me, and Brooks was in the grade above them, so we’re kind of spread out.

Yeah, you guys are really a lot younger than I would have expected. And I don’t mean that as a bad thing it’s just that, well, you guys have a very mature sound. It’s very eclectic, very progressive, very jazzy. That’s not something that you come to expect from younger people nowadays. Especially with American metal bands. Like for the most part, everybody just wants to take the brutality and the heaviness and the speed to another level without really experimenting with other genres. And one of the things that I love most about metal is that you can incorporate anything into it.

Yeah, I really like that aspect of, well not just metal, but music in general. We all listen to very diverse music. Mark will be listening to The Beach Boys one day when I get in his car, Gary is listening to Hot Ship and Ratatat one day, I sit down and Brooks is listening to Gustav Holst. I really thank my parents for that. I was seven and eight years old listening to Yes and some of the older Metallica albums, and some Emerson, Lake and Palmer. They exposed me to a lot of good music at a young age, so I really feel like I’ve had a very diverse taste in music for a majority of my life. I’m really thankful for that, especially coming from a household that really supported music, but my parents weren’t musicians.

I grew up in a similar scenario man. I’m the only musician in my family, but like, my stepdad took me to see Yes and Kansas when I was like thirteen, and just all the shit like that kind of conglomerated into what I’ve become today.

See, Kansas is one of those bands that you know, they’re a very under-appreciated band. So many people hear Dust in the Wind or Carry on Wayward Son, and that’s Kansas to them. But if you look more through their discography, they have a lot more progressive stuff than that. And Yes is up there, probably one of my top five bands. Very influential to me, especially in the era when they had Bill Bruford. I’m a very, very big Bruford fan. I’m working on a new drumset that’s going to place my hi-hat directly in front of my snare, kind of like his, just because I’ve been applying a more ambidextrous outlook to drums lately. I’ve been playing for about fifteen years, and I did jazz for probably the first eight or nine and didn’t branch out much from jazz. It was all jazz drumming. And my first drum instructor, one of the things he always mentioned was he didn’t like the whole show. He’d made a big point of ‘Don’t cross your hands if you don’t have to.’ And what I did was I kind of took that a little further and wanted to have my hi-hat directly in front of me. I had that idea, and I didn’t know anyone else had done it, because I was ten years old or so. I didn’t get around to it.

Of course. You were ten man, you were watching cartoons and shit.

Exactly. I’m waking up early on Saturday mornings to watch Pokemon, I’m not too worried about-

I don’t need to go to a drum clinic today!

Exactly. I would practice drums every single day, but I did normal kid stuff. I played video games, I went to school, I played outside. So music was a very big part of my life from an early point, but I never really got big into following other musicians until middle school. Then I learned there are a ton of people that do it. I’m not just limited to what my drum teacher has to offer. With the whole crossing hands thing, I really want to do a more open setup I really like the way Bill Bruford did things, and I stumbled across Travis Orbin [former drummer, Periphery] a while back when he first got with Periphery, and I contacted him. We talked a little about the way he’s doing things with drums. I like his open-handed philosophy. I’m really big on that.

[So there’s part two, folks! Come back next week for the conclusion!]

DOOM & GLOOM: MWR interviews Job for a Cowboy's Jonny Davy

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:48:52 -0400

Last weekend my friend Sam and I drove all the way to Pontiac, MI for the Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues Tour, featuring The Ocean, Job for a Cowboy, and the mighty Between the Buried and Me. The show was absolutely phenomenal, of course, and totally worth losing my job. Yep, I’m unemployed now, and I did it all for metal. Talk about dedication!

[Sam’s getting really good at taking live shots.]

Anyway, I’ll do a post about the tour later, but first I want to bring you the interview with Jonny Davy, vocalist for Job for a Cowboy. Jonny has earned a reputation in metal for having one of the most powerful and extreme voices out there, and as a longtime fan of JFAC, I was excited to finally get to talk to him. PLUS, since my bro Sam came along for the ride, we were able to film the interview! None of that boring transcribed crap. We talked about the tour, their upcoming EP, and tons of other totally ballin’ stuff.

How about that title card, dudes? Things are starting to look slightly more professional, am I right? Whatever, I think Plato and Aristotle discussing metal is awesome.

-Jake

Prog Jazz Fusion, bro!: Pt. 1 of MWR's interview with Tetrafusion's J.C. Bryant

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:10:00 -0400

Finally! I can write again! This is great. I’ve been going crazy not having enough free time to write for you guys, but the wait was worth it. I’ve got great stuff coming this week.

First up: the first installment of my interview with Tetrafusion’s drummer J.C. Bryant! We had a very lengthy, awesome talk a few months back. As I began transcribing the interview, I started to realize it was going to be about 22 pages in length, and let’s face it: no one’s going to read a 22 page interview in one sitting. So instead of dumping the whole thing on here in one post, I’m gonna break it up into a few smaller parts. I use the term ‘smaller’ very lightly here. Like I said this thing is still about 22 pages long.

Anyway, you can read part 1 of my epic interview with J.C. after the jump. We talked about things ranging from band history to high school debate. Whoa, man.

You should probably also check out my review of their album Altered State.

One thing I was interested in asking: I believe Mark said in the email that you guys were recommended to me for an editorial.

Yeah, Mark [Michell, bass], who recommended us?… No, like, who recommended we do an editorial with him?… He’s asking me a question, Mark! Who recommended us to do an editorial? He said that he emailed you first. So I’m not really sure what he’s talking about.

I don’t know. I got an email from Mark out of the blue and I was like ‘Hey, what’s going on with this?’ So yeah, we got it all worked out and everything. And by the way, the album, is absolutely awesome. Like, I had no idea what to expect from you guys. I had never heard anything about Tetrafusion ever, but I got the promo from you guys to listen to, and I was really pleasantly surprised.

So you heard the whole album then?

Yes.

What was your favorite song?

My favorite song? Oh man, that’s a tough one. I’m gonna have to look at the track listing.

Because that’s kind of what I’m taking a poll on, because I’m getting such mixed responses. Like, there’s not a singular favorite song that I’ve come to know about yet.

I would say, and I haven’t given the last two or three songs as much attention as the first four, but it’s a tough call for me between Collage of the Present and Monologue.

Did you see the video for monologue?

Yes, which by the way, is perfect. I read another interview, one that you guys tweeted or posted to your Facebook page, and I got to know a little bit about you guys through that. I read about the lyrics and everything, because I’m a huge prog metal nerd. Like that’s one of my favorite subgenres to listen to. Inevitably what comes along with prog metal is thematic lyrics and concept albums. So I was gonna ask about that but then I started reading a little bit about you guys’ lyrical content. It’s really interesting. Each song’s kinda got its own thing and they’re such different types of stories. As the drummer you might not have a good answer for this, but where does the inspiration for the lyrics come from?

Well, to be honest, before this album we were an instrumental band. We put out an instrumental album and it got really good feedback and everything, but we contacted a bunch of labels. Everybody was like ‘I love your music, we’d love to work with you, but we don’t like the fact that you’re instrumental.’ So we got a bunch of ‘I really like your music but it’d be cool if you had vocals.’ We decided, let’s give it a shot at vocals. Gary [Tubbs, vocals/keyboards] has been singing all of his life. He sings in tours internationally with a choir every single summer. He went to New Zealand last summer and he’s going down touring all of South America this year. So we decided to let Gary sing. We kind of had this album written, a lot of the instrumentals already written, so we were already halfway done recording the album, and it just kind of hit us like, ‘Let’s add vocals!’ So when we did that, I hate to say this, but a lot of the vocals were written very last minute. There were some times when we were sitting in the studio and we’re still kind of debating on which phrase to use here, or how this needs to go with alternatve verses. It was really not as prepared as we were with the music. But I guess the inspiration came from a lot of the things we read. We all went to school together, and Mark and I grew up in the gifted program where we did a lot of poetry and writing. So I really enjoy writing, I really enjoy poetry and lyrics, but sadly on this album, I really didn’t contribute much. A lot of that fell in Gary’s lap and Brooks [Tarkington, guitar/vocals] contributed a lot to that, so Mark and I really didn’t get to help. So this time around, the lyrics were such an urgent thing to finish, we didn’t really get to prepare the lyrics as much as we prepared the music. So I guess some of the inspiration came from the need to have lyrics, that we had studio time booked the next day and we needed to have… like I hate to be so honest about it, but looking back, I wish we had put more work into the lyrics but I’m happy with the overall product if that makes any sense.

Well, and inevitably, you’re always going to feel like there’s more that you could have done, so I totally understand that.

You have to blame that on something, and I’m putting it on the lyrics. I don’t dislike the lyrics, I don’t even know if it’s that I feel like enough work wasn’t put into them. I wish that I had contributed more to that, because I have been writing poetry. A lot of my assignments in class were writing poetry. I really enjoy work. It’s just a shame that I didn’t take a more active role in that.

Well, better luck next time around I guess. But you have nothing to be ashamed of with that record, dude.

I’m sorry I didn’t really answer your question. You asked where the inspiration came from.

Oh no, it’s cool man. I mean if you don’t really have a better answer for it, that’s all you got. Like I said, I’m just trying to learn a little about you guys. By the way, I will be writing an album review, and expect a good one.

I’m not worried about bad reviews. Every review is still promotion.

Exactly. Everybody’s gotta have haters, right?

Exactly. I mean, you know you’re doing something right if people care enough to write an article bashing your music. I’ve kind of gotten past that point. Like when you get online when you first start a band, all you get is that little bit of positive feedback and it puts you on top of the world. Then you start breaking through and you get more and more negative feedback. And if you look, a lot of your favorite bands get almost as much negative feedback as they do positive. For a while, I’d be kind of down when I’d read something super negative online, but it’s getting to the point now where we’re moving in the direction of a lot of the bands we look up to because any band has to put up with very harsh criticism. Our music’s not for everyone. If we posted our music on the Billy Joel forum and they don’t really care for our music, then that may mean that we’re doing something right because that’s not the crowd we’re trying to lend ourselves to. Our music gets posted on a lot of forums, and if you look on a forum and every single post is negative, people that like the music don’t always take the time to post something about it. They’ll click the link and they’ll post their comment on the video, so it’s not really a fair representation of what people think of us on a forum. People feel more passion about disliking something than liking someting.

Right. And the internet makes it so easy for people to talk shit nowadays.

It definitely does. There’s a lot of shit-talkers online, and you know, looking at forums…a lot of people who post on forums are people who had a hard day at their full-time day job, and they want to come home, and they want to talk shit. So they’re going to get online and post something negative about anything. That’s just part of the internet. That’s part of the game. As a sixteen year old in a band, that was getting me down, but we’ve come a long way. I’m going to be twenty soon, I’ve just gotten used to it. That’s just part of our generation I guess.

Are you guys all college students, then?

Yeah, actually we’re all going to college.. Brooks and I go to college together about an hour away from our hometown. Gary still goes to college in our hometown, and Mark lives about an hour in a different direction going to college. All of our majors are different. Brooks is a music education major.

Very cool.

Mark is accounting or finance or something. I don’t know, he’s changed it a million times. Gary is a composition major, actually. He’s looking at doing some composing after school. I myself am a business administration major and a music minor. I’m focusing on law. I really want to make music a career, I’ve just come to terms with the fact that I need to have something I’m good at. I did debate in high school…

No shit, man? You did debate in high school? Dude, I’m a high school debate coach.

Awesome! Do you do cross-ex?

Well, we do public forum, student congress, Lincoln-Douglas, and policy.

See I did just policy debate. I took third in State two years in a row.

Very cool!

One year with my current girlfriend, we debated together and took home a third place trophy. I’m pretty proud of that. It’s pretty neat. I also did extemporaneous speaking, I don’t know if you do any of that up there.

Yeah, we’ve got a speech team and they do extemp.

Down here we’ve got an extemp box, and it was kind of a really bad box. Like it was supposed to be prepared by the class and someone was supposed to be adding folders which gets you to the tournament, and none of the folders had been added. It’s not any current events. So I’d get there and not have any information. I’d just go up and BS my entire speech. I’d make things up, I would cite made up sources, because there’s no rule that says you can’t do that. I have a bunch of first place extemporaneous speaking trophies because it’s all about convincing the judge. I don’t know if it’s wrong to do that.

No dude, I get it. You got the trophy, so it speaks for itself, right?

Yeah, because you see the guy that spends his entire thirty minutes of prep time looking for what little information he had and cramming it together, but what I would do is I would sit down and write out this entirely made-up argument, and if you’re making up your entire argument and you cite a source like Time magazine 1999, then that’s…I don’t know. I’m just kind of getting back on my debate stuff.

Oh I could go on about it forever too. I’m right there with you. I’ve got a student that I should be able to get to nationals this year.

That’s awesome.

Fingers crossed, we’ll see how it goes.

See, regrettably when I did debate, I didn’t get into it until my sophomore year. I did it sophomore year and junior year, then in my senior year I was super busy with all my music stuff and getting ready for college and we had a problem with the debate coach leaving, so I just completely dropped debate. I kind of regret that because college debate’s not quite the same. I was just so comfortable with policy debate, I don’t want to have to go through and have to learn a new debate style. Because in high school it wasn’t necessarily about winning the arguments, a lot of the time, you’re not arguing about the topic. You’re arguing the ethics of debate, or you’re talking about whether or not they’re on topic, or you’re critiquing. I was a really big fan of critiques. I’ve lost a lot of it since high school. I just miss it so much. That’s definitely something I miss a lot.

I totally understand. I didn’t even get into debate in high school because my piddly-ass high school didn’t have a debate team. Got into it here at Ball State, then I found out this high school next to us needed a coach, so I fell into it. It’s been rewarding. It’s pretty cool to see students achieve things rather than yourself. Sorta like vicarious success I guess. It kicks in that whole paternal mentality. It’s awesome to see your students achieve things.

I completely agree with that. I think that’s one the big points of teaching something like debate or music, there’s actually a tangible, concrete experience of seeing these kids learn and progress and achieve things. It’s really neat. That’s how Brooks is gonna be as a band director someday, and he’s gonna have kids that go off and make All-State. That’s not only an achievement of theirs, that’s an achievement of his as well.

Exactly. I was a music education major for a year as well, so I’m right there with you.

What happened with that?

Honestly, what happened was a lot of things. I had a really rough year my freshman year. My grandfather passed away, and Ball State’s music program went through this huge shift in policy and faculty. There were basically two factions. One would teach one way of learning and doing music theory and composition, and they would basically say ‘This is the way you’re going to do this, and if you don’t do it this way, I will fail you.’ But then another half of the faculty is saying ‘Remember what they said? Don’t listen to them, because if you do that in this class, I will fail you, so you have to do it this way.’ So I felt like I was doing twice as much work as I should be. I got out of it and got into communication studies and then fell into the radio thing.

That’s where I was at my first college. I went to the same college as Gary here in my hometown, and I was a double major in communications and music. That college, I really didn’t like it. Their music program was dissipating. They cut 22 of their 44 majors, and I just wasn’t happy there. I transferred the next year down to the school that Brooks goes to. I’m a lot happier down there, it’s a much cheaper school, and I’m not incurring a ton of debt. I had almost a full ride at the private school, but it’s nice knowing that I’m not gonna have $200,000 dollars of debt when I graduate.

Right. What’s the writing process like for you guys? Is it pretty collaborative for you guys, or are there a couple of you that are the core writing group?

To be honest, I’m not gonna lie, Brooks does a majority of the writing. Sometimes he’ll sit down with Gary and work on something, and each of us will sit down and he’ll play something and I’ll say ‘It’d be cool if you did it like this.’ Or ‘How about you try that riff but instead of 4/4 put it in 7/ 8.’ We work together like that, but Brooks is really committed, too. He’ll start a song and then I won’t hear from him for a couple days, and then he’ll send me a GuitarPro file of a seven or eight minute song. He’s a multi-instrumentalist. He plays guitar, drum set, and a million different woodwind and brass instruments now that he’s in all those methods classes. So he really can write the parts for everything, so he writes the parts for everything and sends then to us, and we really edit the parts. Mark changes the bass parts up because he’s on that giant 7-string bass now.

Right.

He does that. I do some stuff with my drum parts. One of my favorite things is that Brooks is also a drummer. He does a lot of really neat things with drums, like a lot of really cool polyrhythms that he sets up. And then he kind of writes the guitar part and the drum part to function together. So instead of the guitar part and bass part having a really cool chemistry, it’s the drums and guitars working more organically together, with the bass part more… well, everything’s sort of playing off of everything else, and I really like that rather than the bass and drums with the guitar soloing over that.

Right.

I think the guitar playing is an equal part to the overall chemistry of the group. So with the writing process, Brooks does a majority of the writing, and we work with him on changing some stuff. He’s a good writer.

[That does it for today’s portion of the interview. Tune in tomorrow for part two!]

How about that new logo, dudes?

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:33:11 -0400

Whew, what a shitty couple of weeks.

Anyway, I’m back on track. I’ve got some big stuff in the works.

Before I get to the rest of that though, you probably noticed the new banner on the page. I’m happy to present the new logo for MWR! Plato and Aristotle were obviously huge metalheads, and yes, Slayer can travel through time.

Big thanks to my best friend Cameron Cranor for making the logo for me.

I’ve got some big interviews coming up this week, and considering my recent unemployment, I’ve got time to work on them! Stay tuned for new stuff. Thanks for being patient.

-Jake

Fuck-it Friday.

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:09:14 -0400

It’s Friday. And I usually don’t have enough to post anyway, so I figured I’d try to start a new column where I just post something cool…on Fridays.

Check out the trailer to this movie Hesher, due out May 13th. All I’m saying is it’s a movie about a metalhead, and it’s got Natalie Portman. Zaaaang.

Jake-
Little something you might not know about Tetrafusion. Their first album was all instrumental. Vocals are relatively knew to this group. Think they did a great job for first time including vocals in their compositions. Will be interested to see if they take some of your opinions from the review re well-placed harsher vocals or heavier sound.
Regards,
Rock Don
Lafayette, CO

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:59:00 -0400

Herro Rock Don,

I was actually aware that Tetrafusion’s debut album Absolute Zero was an instrumental. I have not heard it, but I bet it’s awesome. I agree that Gary did a great job singing on Altered State, I was merely purporting my opinion that a broader vocal spectrum would offer a lot more to work with.

The Grammy Awards: Once prejudiced, now just plain retarded.

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:02:00 -0400

I’m sure most of you guys don’t really care (as you shouldn’t), but the people behind the Grammy Awards have officially gone from being prejudiced against heavy metal and slightly irrelevant, to simply being a buch of ignorant fools with no real cultural significance or credibility.

Until today, the Grammys were a set of awards I viewed with a passing interest. I never saw them as being very credible given their massive bias toward certain genres of music. For instance, the heavy metal artists of the world were always forced into fighting over the lone metal award for Best Heavy Metal Performance. This was ludicrous, given the copious categories made available for genres of music like Latin or Gospel, each having 7 award categories. Sure, metal might not be as big as Pop or Country, but I found this disparity nothing short of ludicrous…

…until this press release came about. In it, the Grammy honchos announce that, among other categories being downsized and restructured, the lone metal award has been combined with hard rock into the Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance.

What does this really say about the Grammys? From what I can surmise, it means one thing: in their eyes, heavy metal and hard rock are similar enough to be contrasted and compared using the exact same criteria. To anyone who doesn’t actually listen to music, this might make sense. I’m sure there are plenty of old folks who don’t differentiate between hard rock or metal, but let’s be real. Heavy metal is one of, if not the most, diverse genres of popular music today. One can endlessly list a litany of subgenres and blank-cores until blue in the face, and many of those subgenres are absolutely legitimate (death metal, thrash metal, progressive metal, power metal, metalcore, etc.). How are two metal subgenres like death metal and power metal even comparable, given their drastic sonic deviations? Manowar vs. Suffocation: which band is “better?” Apples and oranges, my friend.

More importantly, now that hard rock and metal are apparently the same fucking thing, how are the many great metal bands supposed to compete against bands like Stone Sour or Nickelback? Yeah guys, virtuoso musicians like Between the Buried and Me have to compete with Chad Kroeger and the Aural Abortion Boys.

Fuck the Grammys. What little relevance they ~~had~~ feigned is now dead. At least we’ve got the Golden Gods.

-Jake

Album review: Tetrafusion's Altered State

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:44:00 -0400

A few months back, Tetrafusion contacted me and asked if I would be interested in doing some writing about them. I was happy to oblige. Unfortunately, the last few months have also been overly busy, so writing took a backseat, but I’m really happy to finally give you guys my review of Tetrafusion’s sophomore release, Altered State.

Before we get into the review, check out Tetrafusion’s video for their single Monologue. It’s got everything: split personalities, murder, guns…what’s not to love!

Check out the review after the jump.

If there’s on thing I can tell you about Altered State, it’s that prog-nerds everywhere need to listen to it. While many die-hard metalheads might be too interested in the headbang factor of a band to give it a listen, anyone willing to give it a solid listen will quickly find this record to be a true gem.

Altered State begins with an almost Rush-like sound, quickly evolving into a series of different styles, somewhat reminiscent of Between the Buried and Me or Opeth. Many of you might take that statement as negative, or as a statement of Tetrafusion’s lack of uniqueness, which is not at all what I mean. I mean that if these guys keep doing what they’re doing, I can definitely see them becoming heavy hitters in the progressive metal realm.

Within the first song, aptly titled Collage of the Present, Tetrafusion’s compositional technique is clearly displayed. At the 4:30 mark, the song quickly takes a turn into a jazzy feel, then quickly and seamlessly converges back into metal timber at around 5:15, even hardening its sound at 6:08 into thrash metal, then further into an almost death metal sound.

Another thing about this record that you’ll quickly come to notice is the vocal style of Gary Tubbs, Tetrafusion’s vocalist and keyboardist. His vocals are haunting and deeply emotional (think TesseracT, only more ambient), and completely devoid of any growls or harsh, death metal vocals. While the absence of any harsh vocals might dissuade many metalheads from listening, I can assure you that your fears are misplaced. However, I do feel that if he (or anyone in the band) would implement some well-placed growls, it would greatly broaden the overall emotional-breadth of Tetrafusion’s music as a whole.

As Altered State progresses, you’ll find a lot more meandering through musical styles a la BTBAM. It’s an emotional album with enough musical technicality and solid groove to prevent it from sounding disjointed like so many progressive bands do. (In my opinion, this is the metaphorical ‘separation of the men from the boys’ in progressive metal: e.g., whether or not a band can seam those ideas/sounds together, as opposed to ungracefully switching gears.)

Overall, Altered State deserves a spot on any prog rock fan’s shelf. The record is fantastic. However, like almost everything else, it’s not perfect. I only have two real complaints about it. First, I would really like to hear some harsh metal vocals in Tetrafusion’s upcoming work, simply because I think it would add that much more depth to their diverse emotional scope. Aside from that, I just think the heavy parts of the record don’t sound heavy enough. I feel like some added low-end on the guitars or in post-production would add a LOT more emphasis to the heavy parts, drawing more contrast between the heavy and the ambient. But like I said, this record is awesome, and if you like good music, you should absolutely check it out. And because it’s so good, and has so little for me to complain about, I give Altered State a score of 8/10.

Altered State is available now. Listen to it.

-Jake