Snake Wine
Lifeforce
Snake Wine is the latest from Atlanta, Georgia based trio Light Pupil Dilate and one of the best releases to come out of Lifeforce this year. The band combines an array of musical elements from thrash-metal and old-style punk to grunge and grind-core. The production is raw and noisy, but this actually works to the band's benefit as it compliments their unique brand of metallic fury. The songs are bewitching in that they convey the ferociousness and garaginess of post-punk in the vein of Fugazi and Rollins Band than intricately spin into spacey progressive-rock in the vein of Voivod. Very cool stuff indeed.
DEAD SOUL TRIBE
A Lullaby For The Devil
SPV/Inside Out
This is the 5th release from this great prog-metal quartet. On A Lullaby For The Devil the band has diversified and modernized their sound ditching their traditional hypnotic-tribal beats (reminiscent of the underrated '90s alt-rock band Tribe After Tribe) for a darker, meatier and much more metallic brand of prog-metal. In other words...leave your pillow behind! This latest CD definitely won't lullaby you to sleep like so many of the outdated and ever-so refined prog-bands of today often do. Led by singer/songwriter Devon Graves (former vocalist for Psychotic Waltz), D.S.T. perform masterful extreme-prog-metal highlighted by guitarist Roland Kerschbaumer's blistering fretwork and drummer Adel Moustafa and bassist Roland Ivenz's pounding rhythm section. Songs like the opening number "Psychospere," the Megadeth-ish "Here Come The Pigs," and "Futher Down" prove this band can definitely rock as hard and as concise as the most technically proficient death/black metal bands out there while other tracks like "Goodbye City Life" (isn't that a line in Green Acres?), "The Gossamer Strand," and the title-track will please even the most stubborn prog fans with its melodic overtures accented by brilliant Ian Anderson inspired flute and piano performances from Graves that build into walls of heavy steel. The band even go back to their hypnotic tribal roots on the song "Any Sign At All." Whether you're a die-hard progressive-rock fan, into classic power-metal or technical thrash/death-metal, Dead Soul Tribe is definitely a band that will cater to your needs.
