Broken Iris - The Eyes of Tomorrow (Alternative)

     To continue this week of frantic yet somehow lazy posting, I bring you an unsigned alt rock band from Sacramento, CA, Broken Iris. Originally I heard one of their tracks in a montage, don't ask which one. I was entranced by the dark overtones of sadness and hate, but somehow the depressing mood was overshadowed by the fast drum patterns, and slightly uplifting vocals, once you take a deeper look there really is a light at the end of this tunnel. One criticism, throughout the album I kept expecting the vocalist to just break and start screaming all post hardcore like but this never happened, maybe if they get together for a new album they  should find someone to do maybe some back up growling or something, just boost the emotion. Overall a satisfactory experience. If you're into the whole slightly depressing alternative scene then give them a try and please consider buying their album or checking out their website here. If you don't have money look  below for the torrent I used, its all legit, if there aren't enough seeders let me know I'll see what I can do.

Broken Iris - The Eyes of Tomorrow (Torrent)

Metalstep Monday 3 : Substep Infrabass and Dead By April

     I love Mondays, well holiday Mondays, they give me time to locate amazing music and not rush about posting, and what a post we have today.

     Introducing Substep Infrabass, lets break it down for you. You start at electronic, then mix in some bass and drop the tempo to get dubstep, the you throw in some eerie noises and the possibility of a metal band and voila! Deathstep.

Substep Infrabass - Rooted In Immense Brutality EP 

     I've been sitting on this experimental future-bass artist for some time. On dubfuckingstep they classify it as deathstep, but its a whole other variety of said mind blowing genre. Its not really as apparent as the last few artists we've had, there aren't any screaming guitars or wailing demon lyricists, no mind bending blast beats, but a hell of a lot of bass, and thats all that matters. This is next level basstronics and even though it doesn't fit in your standard template of metal you just might find yourself swingin that hair around and punching people you don't know. It gets even better when you mix that sound with Beheading Machine, a Polish mechanical death metal band, yeah wrap that around your little skull. Hit Substep's Soundcloud for a free four track album with Beheading Machine and more dark ambient deathstep than you could fit in a stocking.

     Now that we've scraped the sludge of my frontal lobe we can crank the volume, amp the tempo and introduce our next band. Dead By April, a four piece... get this, trancecore band from Gothenburg, Sweden. 

Dead By April - Dead By April

Dead By April - Incomparable

     I was cruising pop-to-core this morning around five and was instantly drawn in by those words, metalcore/trancecore. I couldn't help but be curious about what trancecore could possibly sound like. In reality this band is along the lines of Abandon All Ships and Attack! Attack!, combining upbeat pop sensibilities with metal riffs and a healthy dose of screaming. But its when the synths kick in and the vocalist calms his gift that the trance section really kicks in. Just writing this I can feel my mind floating a bit, my sleepless night headache is fading and there's a smile on my face. Any music that can do that should be patented and sold to the masses. So grab those albums above, the password is pop-to-core.blogspot.com, yes I stole it but damn who wouldn't share this amazing band. Support the artist and support the blogs I pilfer and have a great holiday Monday!

     Hope you enjoyed the post today, Metalstep Mondays are a real treat to research and write cause they don't happen every week, its an occassion and I think it should stay that way. So please support the artists, even if you like thier facebook pages, or download their tracks. Speaking of facebook, like the blogs page here so you can make me happy, come on, you know you want to.

Hardcore Humpday 11 : Martyr Defiled and Three Crowns

     For our 91st post I thought we would attempt to go back to the origins of the Wednesday post, today we take it up a notch, prepare the neck braces. 

     Enter Martyr Defiled, a five man progressive deathcore band from Lincoln, UK. You can put the word "core" after anything truthfully, but to label this as death metal would be going soft on you.

Martyr Defiled - Ecophagy

     First off thanks to Grindcore Brutal Death for having more metal than I could even think of downloading and providing the link to this amazing five track album. So if you are anywhere where there are people with sensitive ears turn down the volume, unless your like me, then crank that shit! This is most assuredly the type of music that will get you kicked out of your parents house, driving guitars, complicated drum patterns and vocals so thick you'll have to scrape the lyrics out of your ears after. So if you have a soft spot for metal or iron ears you'll love this album.

     Continuing the crunchy theme today is Kitchener's own Three Crowns. This amazingly Canadian band just released their Debut EP, and it features some big names, like Ben Waugh of Exalt, and Lee Heintz of Blind The Carrier.

Three Crowns - The Resistance EP

     Coming into this now means that I have no excuse not to follow this band. Seriously this is one of the best debuts I have ever heard, rivaling higher funded bands. Its always a good idea to get those features in now, have those connections, it certainly drew me to the album and should make for some interesting live shows. So swing that hair and gargle those razor blades this album will break you.

     Hope you enjoyed the post today, please grab those albums and support the artists. If metal isn't your thing then stay tuned, we have something you'll like coming up soon. Check out the blogs I mentioned and hit  our facebook page here.

Hardcore Humpday 8 : Red and 55 Escape

     So first off, today has been a day without any inspiration when it comes to posting. Well until I remembered one of my oldest sources, montages. I was skipping around Youtube and stumbled across a great montage called Spirit|Inglorious. Although I'm not really into the whole online gaming scene anymore, I still recognize the ability of Youtube editors to find these amazing auditory treasures so without further ado, Red and 55 Escape.

      First off let me say I rarely like Christian rock bands, for a couple reasons we won't get into here, but hearing RED without knowing their history blew my mind. A four piece rock band from Tennessee, Red blasts outside their genre label and with their new album, have created something amazing.

RED - Until We Have Faces

     From what I understand this may be their heaviest album yet, which might also be why I'm so impressed by it. This is an eleven track album full with the kind of alt rock you would expect on the top of the charts. Although this isn't exactly the metal we usually feature its still an amazing album for those of us who appreciate the milder side of hardcore. 

     This is where the Wednesday is redeemed. 55 Escape is a five piece metal band from Trondheim, Norway. Its not everyday that you stumble onto a band with as much talent as is shown here, so read on and grab their newest album.

55 Escape - Angels and Demons

     When it comes to metal bands, they seem to be stuck in their roots, not so with 55 Escape. The intro song starts softly with actual singing, yes you read that right, singing, not screaming. Before you get too comfortable a choir jumps in and strings pull the song into a more traditional sense of metal with heavy riffs and rage full screaming. This album is the energy of the day, and done so well so it surprised even me, strap in and hold on.

Hardcore Humpday 7 : Top 3 Post Hardcore Bands

     In this era, what I like to call the inter-blog state, I come across so many different genres of music that completely blow my mind. Some of you may remember our first Metalcore Monday with Ephixa and Stephen Walking, Deathstep... who would've known? These days with the discovery of pop-to-core I've grown to love hardcore again, but little did I know, the amazing electro infused sub metal that I've been groovin to is classified as post hardcore. Post hardcore, but when did hardcore end? Dumb question really, hardcore will never die. Thats the amazing thing, like all major genres of music, there are so many ways to take that sound and make it your own, thus post hardcore. Looking back to a very helpful list of artists I discovered I've been listening to and loving post hardcore for many years, ever since Alexisonfire I would say. It took a long time for me to figure that out really, but now that I know, research will be mine. Thanks to pop-to-core, I have all the post hardcore that I need for a week or two....

     Post hardcore is in my mind the most creative and imaginative sub genre of metal/hardcore. Blasphemy you may say, but its true. No where else in this huge genre do you find the sheer variety as you do here. Sure you start off with your standard metal band, electric guitar and bass, a set of drums, acoustic or electric, and a vocalist that gargles razor blades before walking on stage to spit blood and hatred on those in the mosh. But when you take that tested and true template and add to it, synthesizers, drum machines, soft vocals, symphonies and strings it gives you a chance to spice up your music. One second the vocalist is screaming over blast beats and riffs so heavy my ears want to bleed, and the next the vocals are replaced with a secondary vocalist who almost could sing in a pop band. The guitars are swapped for a soft electro melody and a DJ is introducing himself right before it kicks back into some of the best metal I've ever heard. These are the bands that strengthen my love of hardcore, head their words.

Attack! Attack! : Attack! Attack!

Abandon All Ships : Greeving

I Set My Friends On Fire : Astral Rejection

Those links will take you to a mediafire page with the album, don't forget the drill, the password when unzipping them is "pop-to-core.blogspot.com".

Hardcore Humpday 6 : Warped Tour Compilation

     Today although I only have about ten minutes to scrape a post together, I thought it should be something well worth it. Que this years Warped Tour Compilation CD, a two disc mix of choice songs by artists lined up for this years edition of the iconic concert.

     Warped Tour Compilation 

     Follow that link to one of my new favourite music blogs, pop-to-core. The page contains links to both mixes and the password for the files. This for me has been the single find that turned me back onto hardcore and metal music. Over the last week and a bit since I downloaded the mix I've run discographies from the same site for, Asking Alexandria, set Your Goals, August Burns Red, Taking Back Sunday, I Set My Friends On Fire, Abandon All Ships!, Against Me!, and Attack Attack! If that doesn't show you that my faith in hardcore has been revived I don't know what will.

     So sorry for the short post, but you should have time to go through everything that mix has to offer. When you find something you like, do what I do. Search on pop-to-core and run the bands most recent album, then from there work back if you are really interested. 

Hardcore Humpday 2 : City Delivered, Fall City Fall, and Vices, Live in 3D + Bonus Amazingness

     Another wednesday, another half a day or so figuring out what to post. Or so I thought. Last night upon asking for suggestions a long time friend of mine suggested we take Hardcore Humpdays to a whole other level. Thus today we kick it up a notch, moving from pop-punk to a heavier sounding hardcore. So hope you don't have sensitive ears, cause we're going to take them on the ride of their lives.

     Our first band is a five piece hardcore band from San Diego, California, City Delivered. As most people are, I was slightly shocked when I discovered that their youngest member is fifteen, I guess that California breeds them heavy these days. My usual sources for background information has turned up nothing other than that this band is actually a hip hop group ranked among the top 100 of all times by Rolling Stone... which doesn't seem right to me, hopefully upon hearing them you will understand. Their sound is nothing even close to hip hop, growling closer to metal with riffs that may or may not break your neck assault your senses, and heavy blast beats cut the sound waves. Hit the preview below or download their new EP A Star is Born.

City Delivered - A Star Is Born (Album Download)

(Click to download)

     Our second group today is a six piece from Calgary Alberta, Fall City Fall. As always we love nothing more than to showcase Canadian talent. You need trained ears to pick apart the differences between metal bands these days. To the journeymen of rock, metal is all the same, but give it a second, play tracks back to back. You'll notice that Fall City Fall, gets more of its roots from punk that City Delivered. The vocals are higher and faster, the guitars and drums are more for accenting the overall sound, relying on the vocals to drive the song forward to a place where every sound collides into one complete package of doom. Give it a listen and if metal isn't your thing then check the bottom of the post or head on back tomorrow.

Fall City Fall - 1629 (Album Download)

(Click to download)

     Yet again we have another slight variant of the normal metal sound, from Toronto, Ontario, Vices, Live in 3D. This time they even go so far as to classify themselves as hardcore/punk, and hardcore doesn't even start to cut it. Toronto seems to be the focal point for alot of Ontario talent, and thats fine with me, being about an hour away. Now I just need to get that truck I've been saving for and start hitting some of these intense shows I've been hearing so much about. They have six tracks up on mediafire for download, all of them worthy of showing here, so...

Vices, Live in 3D 

... head on over for six tracks of musical adrenaline, head out and rage the day away.

     *Three days to one month and still counting. My goal is to have 1000 views in a month, and I think thats very achievable seeing as how we already have almost 950. No apologies if metal isn't quite your thing, as we cater to all musical tastes, but if you really need something new then if you remember back to the first Suggestion Saturday, we featured a DJ by the name of Drivepilot, he recently dropped a brand new track and its been floating around. So drop on down for the download and thanks again for all the support.

Drivepilot - Money 

(Right click and save as to download)