Album Review: Flyleaf- New Horizon

~ Joseph Tingle ~ Leave a comment

New Horizons is definitive Flyleaf. From the frantic energy of the first track, “Fire Fire,” to the ballad-prayer finale of “Broken Wings”, a song which diehard fans might recognize from the band’s first EP, New Horizons stands amid the Flyleaf discography as perhaps the most diverse and deeply emotive record that the band have released thus far. And, though unfortunate, it’s oddly fitting that Flyleaf’s last record with Lacey Sturm also might be their best.

Like Flyleaf at their best, New Horizons covers a broad emotional and stylistic range. There are poppy songs,  like the vindicating “Cage on the Ground”, and hard rock ones, like “Green Heart” and “Freedom”, which remain melodically satisfying despite attaining status as some of the band’s heaviest and most aggressive music. And there are powerful anthems, like “Saving Grace” and “Stand”, doubtless future fan favorites from which the band ooze their glowing spirituality. Flyleaf are leaders on both Hard Rock/Metal and Christian Rock charts, and it’s no surprise: they cover a broad thematic spectrum, and do so genuinely.

All things considered, New Horizons might be a fitting name for Flyleaf’s third studio album. With lead vocalist Lacey Sturm stepping down a week before the album’s release date, it will be interesting to hear how the band develops around new vocalist Kristen May. Though lead singer changes can often be damning to a band, Flyleaf prove with New Horizons that they’re facing no shortage of musical creativity to guide them through their next era of music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Horizons

1. “Fire Fire” 3:03
2. “New Horizons” 3:09
3. “Call You Out” 2:22
4. “Cage on the Ground” 3:24
5. “Great Love” 3:42
6. “Bury Your Heart” 3:35
7. “Freedom” 3:20
8. “Saving Grace” 3:44
9. “Stand” 3:40
10. “Green Heart” 2:44
11. “Broken Wings” 3:34

Album Review: Sithu Aye- Inventing the Universe

~ Joseph Tingle ~ Leave a comment

In a sea of progressive metal and “djent” instrumental acts, Sithu Aye should raise some eyebrows with his newest release, Inventing the Universe. 

Unlike the title implies, Inventing the Universe doesn’t reinvent the genre, and is certainly not going to revolutionize progressive metal for a new generation. But Sithu Aye attains something that many cookie-cutter djent-by-numbers acts can’t: overall and overarching competence.

Invent the Universe is chock full of dazzling instrumental moments and catchy melodies. Electronic instrumentation, which almost seems to take a page from the rap book of beat-making, seams perfectly with Sithu Aye’s extraordinary guitar work.  Conceptually, the record moves from one track to the next with fluid consistency. This record has flow.

Is Sithu Aye the next Cloudkicker? Maybe, maybe not. But he’s just as good, and Inventing the Universe is certainly an indication that there may be much, much more coming from Sithu’s creative wellspring.

You can name your price and download Invent the Universe from Sithu’s bandcamp, here.

Tracklist:
1. Invent the Universe 01:27
2. Grand Unification (feat. David Maxim Micic) 05:00
3. Expansion 03:45
4. Baryogenesis 06:19
5. Particles Collide (feat. Plini) 05:40
6. Nucleosynthesis (Interlude) 01:36
7. Recombination 06:11
8. Dark Ages 06:43
9. Formation 04:38
10. Pale Blue Dot 04:48

101 Kinds of Irony

~ Joseph Tingle ~ Leave a comment

101 Kinds of Irony by Kevin Griffith is a fun little book. And I’m not just saying it because two of my friends, including my fiance, were involved in the production of it. Overall, I found the ironic examples discovered amid its 101 electronic pages to be humorous, lighthearted, and, most importantly, brief, making the book a perfect “snack” between meals of heavier reading.

101 Kinds of Irony starts simple, building on the most basic foundational blocks of irony, like “tragic” and “dramatic”, before venturing off into heavier territory, such as “Figurative Irony”, and even “Ye Olde Medieval Irony”. Most of the examples presented by Griffith are funny, and many of them remind me of the type of James Joyce-esque puns that are amusing to fellow writers, like “Supreme Court Irony”, an entry which is written out as if it were a Supreme Court opinion (as if you needed me to tell you that).

Entries are concise, and well written. Some draw more giggles than others, but all are thought-out and well crafted. Overall, reading 101 Kinds of Irony is kind of like sitting around a University cafeteria table with a group of other English majors, and having a blast because you’re all so pleased that you get each other’s jokes. And I don’t mean that in any pretentious way, but wouldn’t that be ironic if I did?

For $2.99, you can’t really go wrong with this book, which is bound to please writers and lovers of literature alike. And, you can get it here.

Light in Dark Places- Bon Iver Live

~ Joseph Tingle ~ Leave a comment

A few nights ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver live. 2011’s Bon Iver, Bon Iver was my “album of the year”, so there’s no chance I was missing this. As it turns out, Bon Iver is just as great live as it is in the studio; and much more beautiful and alive sounding.

The show was opened with “Woods”, a relatively a cappella track from the Bloodbank EP, of renewed popularity from being sampled by Kanye West’s track “Lost in the World”.  “Woods” is one of Bon Iver’s more demanding songs, which makes it such an effective opener.  You can’t listen to “Woods” from beginning to end without transporting yourself from your current situation over completely to the world of music, and that’s right where I was when Bon Iver went into the next song, Bon Iver, Bon Iver’s opening track.

There were eight people onstage alongside Justin Vernon (two of them drummers) in what was a performance of supreme audio and visuals. The sound at the Mann Center in Philadelphia was crisp and clear as ever, as the band appeared performing amid haze, phosphorescent curtains, and illuminated in electric candlelight. As the band played song after song– almost all of those from last year’s sophomore record and a good chunk of those from their debut and subsequent EP– Justin interacted warmly with the crowd, sharing a number of jokes and suspicious anecdotes about the meaning of songs.  Performances were tight and precise, but loose enough to be supplemented with the occasional jam or melodic variation.  Bloodbank tracks and solo-spots alike provided atmosphere as the band segued between the folksie For Emma, Forever Ago songs and the more experimental soundscapes of Bon Iver, Bon Iver. 

Masterfully arranged versions of For Emma, For Ever Ago were some of the best of the night, with Vernon proving that the rest of his nine-man band can do something to enhance what would normally be solitary performances of “Skinny Love”, “Flume”, and “Creature Fear” without veering too far from the classics that everyone loves. Meanwhile songs from the sophomore album were more faithful to their studio counterparts. The best part of the night, though, was the “Wolves” encore, where Justin encouraged the crowd to sing along the lines “what might have been lost” before erupting in a climactic scream.

Ultimately, Bon Iver live is full of special musical moments like that, shared from one generous and passionate music lover to thousands of others. As the sun set on Philadelphia, Vernon and Bon Iver continued to play on a stage of mellow music and light.  It was a reminder that, even amid darkness, there is still brightness, magic, and art in the world for those who seek and unite around it. In sum, Bon Iver live is perfectly representative of the melancholy beauty and optimism that Bon Iver’s music stands for.

Cynic- Portal Tapes

~ Joseph Tingle ~ Leave a comment
Cynic’s new (old) CD, “The Portal Tapes”, is my very first contribution to this brand-new blog. Disclaimer: while I love Cynic’s recent output, Traced in Air and Carbon-based Anatomy, I’ve barely listened to Focus (not really big on tech-death), which will probably invalidate everything I have to say about this album in the eyes of die-hard fans who just want to listen to Focus over and over again.

Calling The Portal Tapes a Cynic release is odd, because the material on this record was never meant for Cynic, but for Portal, a ditched side-project from1994-1995 that featured mainly members of Cynic and vocalist Aruna Abrams. On The Portal Tapes, Abrams’ voice dominates, which sets quite a different tone from most of Cynic’s other material. Aside from an overwhelming emphasis on female vocals, though, the material is not much different than what fans of Cynic’s latest efforts have become accustomed to. There is less “metal” and more experimentation. Synthesizers are used liberally, and there are more spaced-out atmospheric sections than heavy, technical ones. Some songs are even audacious enough to have been written in the major key, with sprinkled airy-piano throughout.

In addition, Chris Kringel’s fretless bass work on many songs really adds to the project’s individuality. On the lighter, Jazzier songs it really shines. While Traced in Air was a good album, it really seems stylistically regressive compared to the territory this project was blazing into circa ’94-’95.

The Portal Tapes might not work as an full-length album (even as it’s longer than most Cynic albums), but it is an interesting and rewarding look at a band that has always valued innovation, progressiveness, and self-discovery through music. After listening to The Portal Tapes, it’s become increasingly obvious to me that Cynic’s current musical direction is one that has been in the works for some time. Not everything on The Portal Tapes is good, but Portal were tapping into some potentially awesome styles of playing that were well ahead of their time, and I’m glad to see that Cynic, with releases like Carbon-Based Anatomy, are finally fulling that potential now.