Deftones "Ohms" (2020)

Deftones is a band that I got into very reluctantly, their sound didn't strike me as appealing the first couple listens, only a few months after I originally listened to Koi No Yokan I realised how genius their sound is and became entranced by it, their recent release of Ohms was more of what I already loved by the Nu Metal band. 

This record pulled me in with sludgy guitar and beautifully emotional vocals in the form of screams, this combination creating a gravitational force, like being thrown about in a sea of sound. This push and pull mechanic between the low distorted 8 string guitar and ethereal vocals makes sure this band never tires. This feeling is most beautifully shown in "Urentia" the third song on this record, it begins with a heavy assaulting riff, preparing you for a giant breakdown. Instead this song steers hard in the other direction going for a tender whimsical sound, later the opening riff begins but it holds an entirely different power, with some pop influences on chords. Suddenly the groups' main dynamic isn't contradicting at all, the vocals and sludgy guitar twirling around and perfectly complimenting each other, an odd balance in a stormy ocean of sound.

Something this record does more than any music I've listened is reach beyond, it is no longer just sound, the emotional pull between glimmering vocals and tugging sensation of the albums heavier aspects really do make it feel like you're in a whirlpool, Ohms is a delicate equilibrium. The sound holds their power in tension, like slacklining on a thread that could snap at any second.

9/10

 Challenger Deep ''Challenger Deep'' (2019)

Showing up in my Spotify Weekly not too long ago this band pulled me in with their allure of strong basslines and powerful instrumentals. I'm glad I've got to know Feed Me Jack and Polyphia before listening to this, getting to know Math Rock better, this band uses a slightly more aggressive and sloppier sound than what I've gotten to love from Feed Me Jack, and in comparison to Polyphia they don't quite have as genius riffs. Another comparison I'll make is to Intervals and Plini, both instrumental bands I've discovered quite recently, Intervals a bit more energetic than Plini but still not on the level of Challenger Deep.

This 4 man boy band's biggest asset on this debut album is their powerful basslines, often taking the front stage for a while with rhythmic riffs, droning onwards, though the main attention is still on the electric guitar, this band's main skill lies on merging technicality and earworm worthy melodies into beautiful songs. With their catchy hooks, electric energy, and graceful technicality these song jump out at you catching you by storm. 

The intro track 'The Bloop (It Begins)' sets atmosphere, a good reference to the geographical name Challenger Deep, the deepest natural point know to date, it gives us a mystical welcome before we get dragged into the frenzied finger tapping guitar work and aggressive machine gun like drumming of 'Welcome to the Show', that's not all they know to do though, punctuated stops and punchy basslines grab you by ear once you start to decipher the sound a little.

For 30 minutes of completely immersing, amazing sound and skilful guitar licks this record has surprisingly little listens, a real shame. In 8 songs the band has outdone itself, selling their point of beautifully merged punctuated technicality and their catchy hooks for their debut album to us like real masters.

8/10

 Feed Me Jack ''Chumpfrey'' (2012)

This was one of the first records and bands I've been introduced to by a good online friend of mine (you know who you are :D), originally the Math Rock or Prog Rock feel and poppy influences on the album were a bit overwhelming, but since my first listen more than half a year ago I've really grown on this genre and more specifically this set of songs. One of my few complaints on this album, the songs don't connect or flow with each other too well, the sound is there and individually I love all of these songs, the record just lacks cohesiveness, there are tons of fun quirks to find and discover on this record though. Speaking of quirks, after doing a tiny bit of research before writing this I've found this debut album was actually released in 2012 and not 2015 like Spotify tells us.

Wonderful, jazzy, groovy, Indie band is what you might think listening to this record, but that description is informative at best and very underwhelming to anyone who has listened to it before. With smooth basslines and twinkly percussive work laying a good and supportive background to push the infectious clean electric guitar forward this band knows what they're doing with their dynamic. With melodic picking, tapping and rhythmic phrases the guitar takes the front spot, bass and drums aren't the only thing supporting it though, we can't forget about the 3 man harmonics and singing, with slightly mismatched voices it sounds hard to believe that they could produce something so magical, yet they know how to perfectly play off of each other, creating some incredibly catchy hooks.

Undermining the genius song writing isn't something we should do either, these lyrics play off of the jazz like feel really well, but apart from lyrics they create some impressive and immersive textures of pin point rhythmic changes for you to lose yourself in. This record isn't all mystifying, complex musical work though, we get given a good amount of slower paced, less note filled spacious time too, often accompanied by soft waves of synths and more simple percussions and guitar picking. The main thing making all these songs special is their unique quirks, Rosies gets given a funky start with some keyboard notes, Until Then manages to catch one of the catchiest riffs, Jelly The Queen receives more funkiness in it's starting notes and outro. I would love to explain all of these but I simply don't have the time

10/10

 AJJ ''Christmas Island'' (2014)

With Sean's tragic voice an this band's Folk Punk sound consisting of acoustic guitar, bass, drums and some electronic keyboard tunes they manage to put pure emotion an nerdy yet fantastic lyrics into song. Getting this album recommended to me by someone online at 4 am a year ago made this a surreal listening experience.

AJJ was my first dabble into Folk Punk, this band utilises it's key components of acoustic guitar, bass, and drums masterfully, but in this album they've strayed a bit from their roots, experimenting around with more electric guitar and synthesizers than before which turned out better than anyone could have expected. Sounds building up and having it all come back down on top of Sean's lyrics or gentle guitar picking, drums for keeping track and adding a bit of spice with brushes instead of sticks, and synthesizers keeping a friendly swooning tone. 

The first song on this record immediately sets the tone for a large portion of this album with lyrics like ''Find a nicer way to kill it'' which is a mean and angry (yet still positive) take on Temple Grandin's (the person) work to strive for a more humane way of setting animals up for slaughter. This cynicism is heard throughout your time listening to these songs.

The lyricism on this album is nerdy and near perfect, classic AJJ. They often touch on topics like poverty, humanity, religion, addiction and politics. This 30 minute record is no exception of that, managing to check the box on quite a few of them.

All in all I can describe this record as nothing short of emotional, meaningful and almost tragic with it's distortion on the synthesizers, guitar, and drums, forming a solid background for Sean to perform his wonders. I could go on about individual songs for another 400 words but that's not what this is about.

9/10

STARSET ''Transmissions'' (2014)

Me from 3 years ago was busy discovering new music when he landed on Transmissions, STARSET's debut album. I was instantly hit with the hard rock and electronic synths in the form of a beautifully crafted sound wall. This 1 hour long album was one of my early encounters with hard rock and really cemented my love for the genre. STARSET's front man and vocalist Dustin Bates blew me away with his incredible vocal range and screams, something I had never heard before at the time. Transmissions was the first album of a book and story written by Dustin, the cohesiveness of this record might just be it's most amazing part.

The aesthetics of this album and story is set in an alternate universe with sci-fi, space and astronomy galore! Instrumentation wise this band plays around with simple drums, ongoing synths and electronics on every track which drive home the theme of the record, additionally the electric guitar almost get drowned out which is a shame, but the cello and violin you can hear in the background of some tracks truly make up for it.

My favourite part of some of these tracks have to be Dustin's screams continuing throughout build ups and drops, his voice will drown out and synths, electronics and harmonics will take it's place, only for you to notice that the scream is still going on 30 seconds later, upon re listening you'll realise that he never stopped. The build ups and drops on these tracks are never disappointing, the wall of sound I described earlier doesn't actually exist, it's so well mixed and layered that you can perfectly pick out individual bits and pieces that form the intricate and complicated sound, it makes you wonder how this was their debut album with no previous releases of individual songs.

 

 Apart from sound STARSET has also mastered the lack of sound, with the layering falling away leaving only some white noise and giving the attention to an individual instrument or Dustin's voice which speaks deep lyrics only for it all to build up again and crash into something beautiful. STARSET is a band you can come back to anytime and listen through an album you've heard tens of times before yet there will still be new things and layers for you to pick out and put your focus on.

8/10

 Weezer ''Weezer'' (1994)

For the first post on this Blog it's only appropriate I start with one of the first albums I listened in actual album form. Weezer's blue album was the first album I listened to that wasn't something young me had picked up on the radio in car rides with my mom, when getting this album recommended to me somewhere online I was very reluctant to listen to it, and rightfully so, the grungy electric guitar wasn't something you ever heard in the Alan Walker or Imagine Dragon songs I used to religiously listen to.

The blue album was Weezer's debut and also the high of their career, there now are fantastic individual tracks who rank a bit higher on total amount of listens or copies sold but overall the blue album is yet to be beat. The grunge electric guitar is amazing and the drums and riffs are kept quite simplistic with lyrics that are easy to follow which makes these songs so satisfying to listen to, I still get Buddy Holly stuck in my head occasionally.

The intense geekiness of Weezer and this album is very apparent in the album cover and lyrics, but the sound is a page straight out of Nirvana's book who Rivers was massively inspired by, yet the band made this their own album, with enormous hooks and incredibly catchy riffs, melodies and lyrics. 

Weezer has been constantly growing and developing their sound which is almost sad to see, you can see the numbers dwindling in comparison to their origins but I will not look at the blue album and think ''Oh we could have had more of this'' but instead I am happy that there is no album that's a straight repeat.

6/10