Lune Kiri "Demo"

Country: USA
Sub Genre: Post Metal
Label: Little League Records
Release date: January 24, 2014
Tracklist: 

1. A Black Friday 04:58
2. Stockholm 15:44
3. Interlude 03:57
4. A Burning House 10:28

Line-up: 
Jonathon Shelton
Andrew Walden
Perry Creath
Stevn Kearney

Description/Reviews: 

Lune Kiri is a Raleigh, NC-based metal quartet whose music incorporates memories of atmospheric post-metal groups like Neurosis and The Ocean, high-energy post-hardcore acts like La Dispute and Touché Amoré, and the jaw-dropping noise blasts of bands like Boris and Swans. Needless to say based on this demo EP, my friend [who owns a small record label, that released the EP] was pretty much spot on about what Lune Kiri sounded like and what they were trying to go for. The music itself is very dynamic and seems to pride itself on its constant shifts between different moods, textures, and speeds. It’s all very well rehearsed and very well put together. I won’t deny that at all.

Read the full review at jakobsalbumreviews.wordpress.com

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp (name your price)

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Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra "Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything"

Country: Canada
Sub Genre: Post Rock
Label: Constellation Records
Release date: January 24, 2014
Tracklist: 
1. Fuck Off Get Free (For the Island of Montreal)
2. Austerity Blues
3. Take Away These Early Grave Blues
4. Little Ones Run
5. What We Loved Was Not Enough
6. Rains Thru the Roof at Thee Grande Ballroom (For Capital Steez)

Line-up: 
Thierry Amar: Contrebasse, electric bass, plucked piano, vocals
Efrim Menuck: Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mellotron, vocals
Jessica Moss: Volin, plucked piano, vocals
Sophie Trudeau: Violin, plucked piano, vocals
David Payant: Drums, organ, vocals

Description/Reviews: 

This lyric in many ways encapsulates Menuck's unflinching take on a world replete with shabbiness, greed and injustice, seen through the lens of parenthood, mortality, endurance and defiance. There are few other musicians who deliver social critique with the courage and honesty of lines like “All our cities gonna burn / All our bridges gonna snap / All our pennies gonna rot / Lightning roll across our tracks / All our children gonna die”. Feel-good music this is not; but neither can it reductively be tagged apocalyptic or world-weary. Fuck Off Get Free rages with scorn and with hope, utterly passionate but pointedly unromantic. Thee Silver Mt. Zion once again demonstrates, like few other bands working today, that there is much to fight for and against, and plenty more fight songs to sing. 

Media/Samples 
Austerity Blues (excerpt)

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Major Parkinson "Twilight Cinema"

Country: Norway
Sub Genre: Progressive Rock/Pop
Label: Degaton Records
Release date: January 24, 2014
Tracklist:

1. Skeleton Sangria 02:49
2. Impermanence 04:25
3. Black River 05:08
4. The Wheelbarrow 07:52
5. A Cabin in the Sky 03:46
6. Heart Machine 05:54
7. Beaks of Benevola 04:27
8. Twilight Cinema 05:44

Line-up: 
Jon Ivar Kollbotn
André Lund
Eivind Gammersvik
Lars Bjørknes
Jens Erik Aasmundseth
Steinar Hjelmbrekke

Description/Reviews: 

Somewhere in between pop and psychosis, somber poetry and dark rock, you will find Major Parkinson. A fearless and distinctly different band, with a fresh and unconventional approach to the art of writing music.
The long awaited third epic from Major Parkinson has turned out as a dark, uncompromising and ambitious journey through a dense forest of melodies, a torrential river of poppy cabaret-prog. Twilight Cinema is a darker version of Major Parkinson than the one we know from previous releases, without having gone beyond the band's character. The classic Parkinson-like melodies have now found their place in a far tighter directed and more electronic sound. 

Media/Samples
Bandcamp

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Ring Of Fire "Battle of Leningrad"

Country: Multinational
Sub Genre: Progressive Metal, Power Metal
Label:  Frontiers Records
Release date: January 24/28, 2014
Tracklist: 

1. Mother Russia
2. They’re Calling Your Name
3. Empire
4. Land Of Frozen Tears
5. Firewind
6. Where Angels Play
7. Battle Of Leningrad
8. No Way Out
9. Our World
10. Rain

Line-up: 
Mark Boals – vocals
Tony MacAlpine – guitars
Vitalij Kuprij – keyboards
     With
Timo Tolkki – bass
Jami Huovinen- drums

Description/Reviews: 

“Battle of Leningrad” is the band’s fourth studio album, coming after a 9 years hiatus – a period which has seen the band members getting involved in other projects, most notably with singer Mark Boals becoming singer for Royal Hunt and Kuprij and MacAlpine touring with Trans Siberian Orchestra and Steve Vai respectively.
Ring of Fire reconvened with Boals, MacAlpine and Kurprij during 2012, when they agreed to work on their unfinished business and develop a new album from the true story of the siege of Leningrad during the WWII.
Musically the album is all the fans have been waiting for. True “Neoclassic” Power Metal with technical and exciting musical passages 

Media/Samples 
Sampler

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Random "Pidanoma"

Country: Argentina
Sub Genre: Progressive Metal, Post Metal, Doom, Sludge, Psychedelic
Label: Las Tías Records
Release date: January 24, 2014
Tracklist: 
1. Corto Normal - 06:13
2. Ojota y Media - 02:11
3. Mee Chango - 17:10
4. Mia Gato Está Solo en la Oscuridad - 16:14
5. Guri Guri Tres Piñas - 20:53

Line-up: 
Raul Garcìa Posee - guitar, vocals
Pablo Lamela Bianchi - bass
Marcos Luis Crosa - drums
   With
Adrian Terrazas Gonzalez (The Mars Volta) - Sax in Mee Chango

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp (name your price)

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Glass "Palindrome"

Country: USA
Sub Genre: Instrumental, Symphonic
Label: Musea
Release date: January 21, 2014
Tracklist: 

1. No Sanctuary - 5:00
2. Satori - 2:58
3. Hughtopia - 9:40
4. The Water Is Always Moving On - 3:32
5. The Rain Song - 6:23
6. Wake for Oswley - 5:25
7. Arrhythmia Linger Longer - 20:09
8. One - 4:36
9. Avidya - 3:43
10. Singing Bowls - 2:11

Line-up: 
Greg Sherman: Mellotron 400D, ARP 2600 Synthesizer, Moog Mini-Moog Synthesizer,  ARP Pro Soloist Synthesizer, Wurlitzer Electric Piano, Hammond A-100 Organ, 1889 Whalley Genung pipe organ, Singing Bowls

Jerry Cook:  Double Bass Drum Ludwig Vistalite Drum Set, Ludwig Concert Timpani, Zildjian Gong, Percussion

Jeff Sherman: Fender & Epiphone Bass Guitars, Gibson L-1 Acoustic Guitar, Fender Rhodes Piano, Synthesizer.com Synthesizer, Studio Logic Bass Pedal Controller, Alien Sonifier Circuit Bent Keyboard, Singing Bowls

Description/Reviews: 

There's something here for all fans of Progressive rock music: the Canterbury School-influenced jazz-rock songs the band helped pioneer in the Seventies (complex time signatures, vintage Hammond organ, Mellotron, Fender Rhodes and Mini-Moogs abound), classic European symphonic Progressive rock, acoustic music and much more...

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp
No Sanctuary

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Metatag "Transmission"

Country: Norway
Sub Genre: Electronica, Ambient
Label: Hel Audio
Release date:  January 22, 2014
Tracklist: 

1. Day One 02:28
2. Genetic 04:04
3. Antidote 03:05
4. Headspace 02:25
5. Meridian 02:38
6. TT 03:56
7. Quake 03:39
8. Message 01:09
9. Lowlight 02:44
10. Timer 02:42
11. Peach Trees 04:29
12. Clouds 02:37
13. Moon Scan 05:02
14. Black Glow 02:04
15. One Dream Lost One Dream Found 01:53
16. Ram Page 3 04:24
17. Trace 02:15
18. Never 02:18
19. Blade 02:08
20. Mørketid 02:29

Line-up: 
TBA

Description/Reviews: 

"Transmissions" is a fine debut album by Metatag. Their brand of dark, ambient and electronic music isn't one that will appeal to a broad audience I suspect, the often bleak and desolate landscapes explored ones that will intrigue a select few. But if you enjoy minimalistic, ambient electronic music of the instrumental variety, and especially if you enjoy the sound of vintage keyboards, this is a production that should intrigue you. Even more so if you tend to enjoy music of this kind that contains at least some references to the so-called Berlin school of electronic music.

 Read the full review by Olav M Bjornsen at progressor.net

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

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Univers Zero "Phosphorescent Dreams"

Country: Belgium
Sub Genre: Avant Prog
Label: Label Arcangelo
Release date: January 22, 2014
Tracklist: 
1. Shaking Hats
2. Rêve Mécanique
3. Très Affables
4. Vocation
5. Les Voleurs d'Ombre
6. L'Espoir Perdu
7. Phosphorescent Dream

Line-up: 
Kurt Budé - clarinet, bass clarinet, alto and tenor saxophones and percussion
Daniel Denis - drums and percussion
Dimitri Evers - electric and fretless bass
Nicolas Dechêne - electric and acoustic guitars
Antoine Guenet - keyboard
   With
Nicolas Denis - drums and percussion (3)
Hugues Tahon - trumpet (2, 6 & 7)
Adrien Lambinet - trombone (2 & 6)

Links:
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Toy Masheen "Toy Masheen"

Country: USA
Sub Genre: Progressive Rock
Release date: January, 2014
Tracklist: 

1. Moonshot Me 7:04
2. Molto Vivace  11:27
3. Portmeirion 9:07
4. Toy Masheen Suite 15:42

i Overture
ii Modern Day
iii Fugue
iv World's Competition
v Modern Day Reprise
vi Misfit Toys Revolt
vii The Ties That Bind
viii Llanberis Pass (an Improvisation)
ix Yorkshire

Line-up: 
Brett Bottomley - Chapman Stick and Stick Midi triggering
Rich Broga - Vocals
Paul Petrillo - Drums
Roland Pepin - Keyboards
Deanna Broga - Vocals

Media/Samples 
Teaser

Links:
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Tempel "On The Steps Of The Temple"

Country: USA
Sub Genre: Instrumental Post Metal
Label: Prosthetic Records
Release date: January 21, 2014
Tracklist: 
1. Mountain (8:30)
2. Rising from the Abyss (9:05)
3. Final Years (4:35)
4. The Mist That Shrouds the Peaks (10:15)
5. Avaritia (8:41)
6. On the Steps of the Temple (10:59)

Line-up: 
Ryan Wenzel - guitars, keyboards
Rich Corle - drums

Description/Reviews: 

Tempel mixes black, doom, post and a few death tones but not by inserting them one after the other or taking a few standard riffs of each. Instead, the sounds of the genres are mixed, creating a sound that’s utterly new and better than the sum of the genres. A grainy guitar that synesthetically speaking sounds just like the brambles on the cover underlines every riff, while chiming guitar embellishments with a sound as golden as the album cover sky raise the atmosphere. Underneath all this bass riffs and complexities amplify the other sound elements. There are never too many overdubs, but always enough. Interestingly, the skeletal drums have a vague touch of that mixed-in quality of Electric Wizard’s ‘Come My Fanatics’ while retaining their heaviness.

Read the full review by Jochem Visser at thesleepingshaman.com

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

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