“If you’re like me (and you should be, because come on) instrumental metal has never gripped you deeply. While Pelican or Scale the Summit are fine now and then, typically the music just induces a pleasantly reflective mood, with occasional thoughts of “hey, that’s pretty” or “well, that’s a neat riff.”” Metallic mood music has a place, doesn’t it?
“China’s Tengger Cavalry are a rather prolific bunch, aren’t they? With five full-length albums in as many years, these Mongolian folk metallers have been making waves over the last few years, even going as far as opening for Turisas when the latter hit Beijing a couple years back. With their profile expanding and people catching wind of their majestic blend of exotic shaman folk music and melodic death metal, they did what any self-respecting up-and-coming band should do: they re-recorded their 2010 debut.” Is it ok to re-record mega obscure albums no one ever heard? we report, you ponder.
“Pelican is no stranger to EP releases and I’m no stranger to Pelican EP releases (I own every one of them). Their choice to do an EP is based solely on (as far as I can tell), mood. Some of their EPs stand alone as original releases (Pelican and Ataraxia/Taraxia), while others carry a song that will appear on an upcoming full-length. However, The Cliff goes in a different direction by kidnapping a song off the preceding full-length and fucking with it three times over with vocal and/or industrial remixing before closing out with the only original track.” An EP of remixes and remashes. Joy.
“Guitarist Tymon Kruidenier and bassist Robin Zielhost were introduced to the metal masses as the new members of reactivated prog/death gods Cynic back in 2007, with Zielhost replacing bassist/Chapman wizard Sean Malone for live purposes, and Kruidenier handling both guitar and growling duties both live and on Cynic’s incredible comeback album, Traced in Air. Both members would end up departing after the subsequent tours for Traced in Air, instead working on their own muse, the all-instrumental Exivious.” Anytime someone mentions Cynic, metaldom gets all agog. Grymm boldly mentions them here in relation to an all instrumental, prog-metal monster. What comes after agog?
