Ever have album art melt your face? Every once and awhile a band will create or commission artwork which is undeniably awesome, iconic, or inspiring. Sometimes it compliments the music in the perfect way, leaving a mark on the listener or maybe even music history itself.
Introducing the Art Gallery. We're gonna take at some really cool art and listening to some good music in the process.
First up we have Australia's Ne Obliviscaris, an incredible band hailing from Australia. Their vocalist Xenoyr actually created this masterpiece himself in order to compliment the band's aural masterwork. Well done.
AC/DC! Ok that's kinda obvious...oh gosh, we're here for an exploration! Give us something new! Ok...Australia definitely has a prestigious history when it comes to metal and hard rock. But in the last few years, from 2000 onward, a lot of new bands started to gaining worldwide exposure. Two big names, Airbourne and Wolfmother, picked up the heritage of AC/DC but Australia has recently developed a really fecund underground metal scene with a lot of talented bands emerging from every genre of modern metal. Let's try to make a small recap of the best things that this great nation has to offer to the world, since a lot of people don't even know that some of these bands are actually from another continent.
Let's start by taking a look at the local metalcore scene. The first huge name we all immediately think of is Byron Bay's Parkay Drive. This band definitely became one of the world's leading metalcore bands, especially in the wake of their last two albums "Deep Blue" (2010) and "Atlas" (2012).
A strong push to the Australian metalcore scene was also given by the local label We Are Unified which discovered almost all of the following metalcore bands, some of which also got signed by Roadrunner Records. For example, the party hardcore of Deez Nuts is currently enjoying huge success and it's taking them on tour all over the world. They have a new album coming out at the end of the month called "Bout It!" and it's looking to be a hit. Another band which is kicking ass world-wide is The Amity Affliction, recently signed by Roadrunner Records. Also Buried In Verona, who are currently on tour with Chelsea Grin, Attila, Betraying The Martyrs and Within The Ruins and will soon be trekking across Europe with Emmure and Obey The Brave too! Other bands like In Hearts Wake or Dream On Dreamer also have a good fan-base internationally and were both launched by We Are Unified.
There's plenty more to find if we talk about death-related genres. Thy Art Is Murder took the world by storm with their huge 2012 album "Hate", which led directly to their record deal with heavy metal giant Nuclear Blast Records who are now planning to re-release the album. Huge sounds, aggressive and groovy riffage, raw talent and creativity got this band to a really high level during the past few months. Now they even have a nomination as "best new band" at the Metal Hammer's Golden Gods Awards! A really important technical deathcore band is the amazing Signal The Firing Squad. They released a full-length album in 2012 too which was called "Abnegate". It was easily one of the best deathcore albums of the year. Should also mention Make Them Suffer, a young talented symphonic death metal band who's earning big time recognition everywhere thanks to their latest album, "Neverbloom". Psycroptic is another technical death metal band which is well known everywhere by now. They were also signed by Nuclear Blast Records and released a new album in 2012 called "The Inherited Repression". Last but not least you should really give a listen to Universum, a good melodic death metal band which had the honor of working with a lot of amazing guest musicians from bands like Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, Nightrage, MyGrain, and Mors Principium Est!
But some of the most intresting proposals are coming from the progressive scene. The "Toolish" progressive sound of Karnivool, for example, has earned them a ton of followers and the same thing is happening currently for the djent-influenced progressive metalcore band Northlane, which just released their new album "Singularity", brought to you by We Are Unified, again. But the greatness doesn't stop there. What about Dead Letter Circus and their amazing take on progressive rock? The incredible experimentation of Ne Obliviscaris? The sharp cyber-metal delivered by Synthetic Breed? ONAN's incredible guitar skills? The beautiful and symphonic-influenced instrumental soundscapes created by Bend The Sky? The high level music of Circles? The Schoenberg Automaton and their hyper-technical math metal? And there's even more! Halcyon, Memoirs, Escapist etc... Australia is STACKED.
It's safe to say there's a lot of amazing stuff coming out of Australia right now. So many that it looks impossible to make a complete recap of the awesome music you can find down under. So many that I'm sure I forgot someone. We couldn't provide music from every band for obvious reasons, but if you're interested in listening, go ahead and search The Circle Pit or on Youtube / music provider of your choosing. Great stuff \m/
To put it simply, Ne Obliviscaris is amazing. If you deny that, your opinion is invalid. Formed back in 2003 down under in Melbourne, Australia - the band is composed of six members covering guitar, violin, drums, bass, clean and harsh vocals. With these tools, this band has been making nothing but quality music for awhile now. Offering a wide variety of aural pleasures, Ne Obliviscaris touch on a number of themes and genres through their Progressive Metal front, crossing Black, Thrash, and Death Metal. They even throw in Jazz and Flamenco elements at times. And with the band's superior execution, it makes for one incredible mix.
Most recently, Ne Obliviscaris released their expansive full-length, "Portal of I", last year. It provided 7 impressive tracks, clocking in at a total of 71 minutes of amazing music. This is fully recommended to anyone who enjoys music. Period. Have a listen below and go support great music!
