Sunday, October 31, 2010

All-Rock&Metal Top 10 Songs-October 2010-Part II (Special Germany-USA)

Position Song (Band/Artists) (Album/ep) (Country)

  1. Eismeer (Letzte Instanz) (Heilig) (Germany)
  2. Comedown (Mono Inc.) (Comedown ep) (Germany)
  3. If I Should Cast Off This Tattered Coat (Sailors With Wax Wings) (Sailors With Wax Wings) (USA)
  4. Core Relations (Intronaut) (Valley Of Smoke) (USA)
  5. Chor Der Toten (Leichenwetter) (Legende) (Germany)
  6. Time (The Beauty Of Drowning) (The Beauty Of Drowning) (Germany)
  7. Die Wahrheit (Traumtaenzer) (Der Weiss Raum) (Germany)
  8. This World Starves For Lonely Girls (Feeding Fingers) (Detach Me From My Head) (USA)
  9. Blue Heart (Deine Lakaien) (Indicator) (Germany)
  10. Fairy Said (Pink Turns Blue) (Storm) Germany)

4 comments:

All-Rock&Metal said...

Sailors With Wax Wings features contributions from:

R. Loren – vocals / textures
J. Leah – vocals
Ted Parsons (Swans, Jesu, Godflesh) – drums
Simon Scott (Slowdive) – electronics
Aidan Baker (Nadja) – guitar
Colin Marston (Krallice) – guitar
Vern Rumsey (Unwound) – bass
Prurient (Dominick Fernow of Hospital Productions, Cold Cave, etc) – noise / electronics
James Blackshaw (Young God Records solo artist, Current 93) – piano
Hildur Gudnadottir (Touch Records) – cello
Aaron Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride) – vocals
Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) – vocals
Marissa Nadler (Kemado Records solo artist, appears on Xasthur’s latest record) – vocals
David Tibet (Current 93) – cover art
Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer) – design, layout, painting, collage.

All-Rock&Metal said...

With their previous second effort
Feeding Fingers:
‘Baby Teeth’, the American outfit FEEDING FINGERS opened the gates to their own little cinema for the second time, letting interested people share in the sonic movie, feeding on the surreal lyric visions of creative head Justin Curfman. As for me, I was one of the people who became introduced to FEEDING FINGERS with their second-born ‘Baby Teeth’ that took me away literally, and I’m still visiting this other world regularly. The third offspring that the group, which has a new member on bass with Kris Anderson, will release at the end of September is called ‘Detach Me From My Head’ and if you’ve checked the preview you might have noticed the difference in sound that is distinctive for most of the album that starts right away with the title track, phasing in on gloomy strings, then clear-cut beats of a drum and ethereal guitar chords catch you quite off guard.

A very powerful structure surfaces and then Justin’s unmistakable voice comes in and starts delivering the cryptic lyrics. And while you can’t make sense of every line some bear strong pictures like “Umbrellas cover the world / and we sleep in the rain”. These umbrellas were made by us so they would hide what we don’t want to see: The world is crying because of us! ‘I Am A Brutal Little Boy’ drives a faster pace with a grooving, dirty rhythm while the story of a strange little boy unfolds who’s getting punished for just not being like the others. At least I think that’s the plot but you can never be sure. ‘My Imagined House’ pushes you into the corridors of a decaying life using metaphors of highly frail bodies breaking to document how fast it can be over or turned into a sorry shade of what it once was. The track builds from crawling drums and Justin’s using his deep voice and is making the song sound even more hopeless.

Sometimes, things don’t turn out as we want them to and “The light that we thought would have melted all our broken toys” ceases long before it can accomplish its duty. Some things just are not meant to be. ‘Asleep On Softened Fists’ brings on a reduced electronic pulse as rhythm over which repetitive bass and guitar are being played. As simple as it is, it is a brilliant track. With ‘One Year’ the album features one instrumental piece of piano about the fleeting nature of time and how fast it all runs through our fingers. The cold humming of a machine welcomes you to ‘I Promise To Build You A Machine’ before rhythm and piano, think I’ve even heard an acoustic guitar but it’s not so clear, turn it into a tableau, painted with grey feelings of emptiness and notions not to be needed anymore. “Goodbye Everyone”, says this guy before retreating to “A grave for objects in a place where no one takes them home”

The feeling of being insignificant, not being good enough for anyone to love can be a heavy weight on your shoulders and wear you out. That must’ve been the state of mind of the protagonist when this song was created. He expresses how he’s not good enough to keep anyone close to himself for long. They always leave sooner or later. As sad as it sounds but in a way he’s still lucky. Some miserable beings never manage to get anyone that close to them, damned to walk the path alone forever, watching how only others find their luck. Indeed, a sad ending made to the album with ‘The Stupid Things We Did’.

‘Detach Me From My Head’ is the next scenery of the movie, given life to by the abstract thoughts of Justin Curfman. Some pictures are too coded to decipher now, but maybe they will do in time. The music has gone through a shift towards an overall clearer and detailed sound as opposed to the deliberately old-school style of ‘Baby Teeth’. Also I love the power some songs like ‘Detach Me From My Head’ or ‘I Am A Brutal Little Boy’ radiate. Can’t recommend this one enough!

All-Rock&Metal said...

Mono Inc. is the Gothic/Alternative band based in Hamburg, Germany. “Comedown” is the brand-new mini EP, followed after the fourth studio album “Voices Of Doom” released last year, containing six tracks, with three completely new ones and three remixes from bands like Heimataerde and Combichrist of tracks taken from their latest album.

The title track, “Comedown” is very catchy with a great melody and the dark voice from singer Martin Engler gives the music that great atmosphere. His very touching voice kinda reminds me of David Din of Informatik. The second track, “In My Darkest Hours” is an emotional ballad that starts out with only the setting of a piano and the voices of Martin and the addition of the female singer Katha Mia is beautiful. It’s hard to miss the sad message that this song really catch. The third, and last of the new songs, “Why Can’t I” is another up-tempo song and once again the band manage to bring a very great track. A catchy melody, great vocals and beautiful atmosphere.

The EP ends with three remixes and the first one is from Germanys Medieval fighter Ashlar Von Megalon and his project Heimataerde. Compared to the original I actually think this version is better, but then again, I’m a huge fan of Heimataerde. He has really managed to create a beautiful and amazing remix here as his well-known bagpipes and cymbals match perfect with the voice and melody. The Agra remix of “Trail Of Thorns” is also a great remix with a great beat and electronic setting, but the last remix from Combichrist is a big fail. The tunes are really good but the music and the voice of Martin doesn’t match up and the result is a sad experience. On the other hand, it doesn’t sound very much like Combichrist as it is too poppy and more like Icon Of Coil or something like that style.

All-Rock&Metal said...

Letzte Instanz, founded in Dresden, Germany in 1996, is a German medieval metal band particularly noted for their use of the violin and cello. The founding members included Hörbi, Tin Whistle, Muttis Stolz, Kaspar Wichman, Holly D. and Markus G-Punkt. Benni Cellini and Robin Sohn entered the group a year later. To date, they have released six studio albums, one live album, a live DVD, a single, and have appeared on a number of mix CDs.

When the band's first album, "Brachialromantik" (Brute Romance), they earned swift comparisons to the giants of the popular German medieval metal genre like Subway to Sally and Tanzwut, despite objections from the band that this was not an accurate expression of their sound or style. Shortly before the album's release, the singer Hörbi left the band to pursue other projects, and the band was left unsure of themselves and faltering with the public taking little interest in their record.

Enter Robin Sohn and a new era for the band. With sharp, complex German lyrics, the new singer arrived and helped shape a new sound. The result was the critically acclaimed "Das Spiel" (The Game), a stark departure from the sound of their previous effort. The strings were drawn more into the background and the focus shifted to the conventional band instruments, making room also for electronics. Also, two of the new songs ("Das Ist Der Tag"/"That is the Day", "Das Spiel" let Robin take a break from the microphone and introduced background vocalist Holly D's rap stylings. This album also demonstrates Robin's linguistic versatility, featuring a remake of Camouflage's "Love is a Shield." Shortly after the release, Kaspar departed the band, and the introduction of Rasta F. marked the first in a series of changes in the bass player position.