Tea Time

GENRE: progressive, metal All right, I just had to do it. With TOOL 's latest album, there's no reason not to talk about what is probably the best song on the album. It's 15 minutes of classic TOOL  goodness. I was trying to figure out why the first letter is a 7. And honestly, I don't really have the time to. It could either be time signature, the lyrical content, or something else I'm not getting entirely (which wouldn't be so far-fetched for a band like them). They take such simple, irregular riffs, and really milk good quality stuff out of it. It's just so damn catchy. I know I'm gushing over this song, but this is the type of stuff that keeps this genre alive. Rating: 9/10

GENRE: progressive You know I had to do it. Drop everything because TOOL just dropped their newest album. I myself haven't listened to the whole album yet due to life circumstances, but so far it is better than I thought it would be. Sometimes having way too much hype hurts a band, but TOOL does not disappoint. My favorite aspect of their songs are their drawn out phrases and developing ideas. That's especially the case with today's song. Plus, who doesn't love a little irregular time signatures with their entree. Anyway, I'm currently without internet so writing this on a phone hurts my thumbs. Have fun with the album. Rating: 8/10

GENRE: progressive metal And here we have it, the first TOOL song in what seems like more than a decade (and it is). They do not stray from the beaten path in this song, because it could not be none other than TOOL that makes song with this particular style. Sharp drums, an angry Maynard, a distorted and precise guitar riff, a wide spectrum of percussion instruments, droning sounds phasing in and out, a sick bass riff, and an exceedingly long playtime, it's TOOL. All fans of music rejoice today. Now my opinion? Funny that you ask. Personally, it's not the best TOOL song out there (maybe not even top 5), but it's refreshing to hear something new. However, maybe it's the years of wait that inflate expectations, but I was hoping that TOOL would try something new. Granted, the album isn't coming out until the end of the month, so we'll have to wait and see. I just hope this isn't the best of their album yet. Hopefully, it's just a teaser. My only pet peev...

GENRE: progressive  Ok, I had my doubts when I first started listening to this song. It seemed a bit cheesy at first? However, it's definitely grown on me. There's a gradual progression throughout the piece, with various sections incorporating a range of momentum and tempos and time signatures, especially the section about 3 minutes in. This song has quite a bit going for it. The 7/8 is a nice feature as well. I love drumming to this piece because of that. The drummer plays out of their mind to begin with. The composition has a solid theme going throughout the piece that serves as the glue to the song. That chromatic interval appears quite a bit throughout the song. Again, that's grown on me. Rating: 8/10

GENRE: progressive, instrumental  I've actually seen this band recommended to me, but I just brushed it off because I was a bit tired of the timbre associated with progressive rock and such. Now's a good time as any to revisit the genre, and I can't describe how I feel as anything but poignant. I've heard great things about this band, and this is one of their more popular songs, but I can't help but feel a certain staleness to the musical depth of the piece. I can certainly understand the complexity inherent in the individual instruments, especially the drums. The guitar parts themselves play off each other quite a bit, which makes for interesting listens, but the constant barrage of arpeggios certainly gets tiring after awhile, making for a rather amorphous blob of chords and melodic lines, with no distinguishable features. I could say that I'm just not in the mood, because I can definitely see this as more of a background song, but that would be disingenuou...

GENRE: progressive, metal Plini is another artist that has flown under my radar for awhile, but not today. His touch and approach to creating music aligns so well with what envision to be my choice and taste in music. Selenium Forest is a clinic  on how to write and perform articulate, harmonic, emotional music with masks of metal and instrumental styles. The introduction is particularly mesmerizing, but the song only picks up from there. Odd time signatures are the norm here, but nothing too mind-bending on the level of Meshuggah. You almost never really notice anymore considering how persistent it is throughout the song, which is the sign of an artist that composes through the music, instead of filling some kind of imaginary quota for progressive rock. Aside from the technical prowess, the structure of the song kind of all blends, and seems more like one big solo. That's not in of itself a bad thing, but it's hard to pick out particularly memorable parts of the song as a...

genre: progressive metal Dream Theater this, Dream Theater that. I don't have a good reason as to why I never sat down to listen to them. They're obviously aligned with my musical tastes, especially when it comes to metal. They have a tinge of power metal cloaked over their core of progressive metal. This particular song dips into some heavier material with their guttural guitars. Perhaps my favorite part is the full band solo at 3:26. It's ambitious, dastardly, and by god it works so well. It reminds of the type of groovy and hard-as-balls material you'd find in a rudimentary drumline book, so that really says something about their writing and playing abilities. To add onto the list, the song itself develops the themes constantly . You can never get bored listening to this song. You're rather taken for a ride down an instant classic for progressive metal. Seriously, why haven't I looked into them more? The only qualm I have is about the singer. He possesses an...

genre: heavy metal drink:   nuoc mat Now you're in for a real treat. I was curious trying to find songs similar to what my dad used to play (still plays I guess). And one my question had me pegged--do Vietnamese people have some kind of metal band out there? This what I stumbled upon. So apparently, the scene for Vietnamese metal (prog metal that is) is incredibly small, understandably. And so I kept digging, and I found a few songs that I actually enjoyed. They're pretty decent, and not totally foreign on the ears. And by foreign, I mean to say that their musical tastes are far different from mine. Their music tends to be overproduced, completely synthetic in their instrumentation, and downright cheesy. However, I will give them a plus on their vocals. Vietnamese singing usually pleases me.  Enough ranting, here comes a near addictive song that I couldn't stop listening to. With their lack of exposure on more mainstream platforms, I don't even know if this is...

genre: folk metal, progressive metal, drink:   strawberry and banana smoothie Moving on with the album, here is a song that's a real kicker. Listening to this is like taking a big bite out of the album. With this particular song, you can definitely see the similarities with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. And as such, really best way to listen to this song is to divert attention away from other distractions and experience it.  Nonetheless, it has its own place. Firstly, the timpani's back! Good ol' timpani. I wonder if that'll be a continuing theme throughout the album. Moreover, melodic lines throughout the song build upon and vary the phrase from the timpani.  Two minutes into the song, I was pretty caught off-guard, because until now I haven't heard a single word from the band. I hate to say it, but I'm not a fan of a majority of screamo. I understand it's place, but for me it has to have a particular flair to it. Luckily for Agalloch, I find it pretty...

genre: folk metal, progressive metal, drink:   strawberry and banana smoothie Agalloch is a new band that I've come across, and it made sense to me to listen to every song on one of their albums ( The Mantle, 2002) and document each one. In other words, it's a special series! Starting off with the album opener: A Celebration For The Death Of Man. Right off the bat, a timpani roars and introduces a rich acoustic guitar. The melody (if you can even call it that) in the guitar creates a slight dissonance as it moves through the chord progression. With the timpani leading the march, a low, droning, distorted guitar adds color and build up the song.  Being only two minutes long, this piece establishes a mood for the remaining album. In the far off distance, you can almost hear tribal instruments decorating the canvas. Over time, they only become more and more prominent, inciting a sort of mellow march. I don't know if I can really consider this a whole song, as it's m...