The Underground Noise

[theundergroundnoise]

Beyonce Drops Self-Titled

In a surprising move, pop mega star Beyonce dropped a new album seemingly out of nowhere just minutes ago. In an unconventional move by pop industry standards, Beyonce dropped her self-titled fifth studio album on Itunes. The album contains fourteen songs and a slew of accompanying videos for each song. The "visual album" had no press or lead-up of any sort to the album, a rare move by such a dominant figure in the music industry. The album features Jay-Z, Frank Ocean, Drake, and Nigerian song writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Notably, the most recent singles by Beyonce, "Standing in the Sun" and "Grown Woman," are not featured on the album's track listing (although "Grown Woman" did get a music video in this package). Right now, only the entire album can be purchased, but an option to purchase the singles will be made available December 20.

[theundergroundnoise]

8. Stop Talking - Pacific Air

The Lawhon brothers took from the best in the dream pop business and weaved their own blissful journey in Stop Talking. Pacific Air primarily implements whistle-powered choruses and shimmering guitars in their debut album. Stop Talking is full of addicting hooks and careless cooings by front man Ryan Lawhon. Eleven tracks channel some of the chillest SoCal vibes the genre has ever exhibited including the appropriately titled "Float" and "Sunshine." Even though Ryan laments about a defunct love life in songs like "Roses," it's displeasure that's eased by the hardcore tranquility pressed by the Lawhon brothers. Ignorantly blissful and unapologetic, Stop Talking's ebb and flow is as effortless as the waves Pacific Air glides on in this essential dream pop LP. 

[theundergroundnoise]

9. Vampires of the Modern City - Vampire Weekend

The Columbia University prodigies exuded boisterous vibes in their first two full-length efforts, leaving them with the daunting task of making their third album an even bigger breakout. The quartet never blinked on Vampires of the Modern City as they pushed their boy-to-manhood narrative out in twelve beguiling songs. Ezra Koenig keeps his bewildering boyish charm glowing even with a darker backdrop than his audience is accustomed to. Vampire Weekend also handles maturity expertly in an impressive range of subject matter. "Unbelievers" is powered by steam-train paced drums and baroque chords as Koenig talks about being condemned as an unwanted sinner. "Hannah Hunt" is a piano ballad guided by Koenig's angst in mindlessly dashing into an uncertain future. Vampire Weekend blossom beyond expectations while still holding onto the elements that won them their endearing fan base. 

[theundergroundnoise]

10. Altered State - TesseracT

Apprehension to accept their present form was one of the emotions presiding over the 2013 edition of TesseracT. With new front man Ashe O'Hara at the helm for Altered State, no one knew how O'Hara would craft his voice in accordance to the British quintet's style of precise djent execution. From the opening chords, O'Hara soared with powerful flexes of falsettos and riding the continuous groove wave the players supplied. TesseracT once again bent metal to their will through distorted syncopation and floating melodies. The focus shifted from testing O'Hara to testing their audience, as TesseracT does so well.

[theundergroundnoise]

2013 Top Ten Countdown

Hey everyone! Today I started my countdown to my top ten albums of 2013. I shall release an album on the list each weekday with the countdown ending next Friday. Enjoy! 

[theundergroundnoise]

2013 Awards

Hey folks! I'll be posting my awards for 2013 here soon. Be on the look out for a top 10 albums as well as the top 25 songs and what I'm most anticipating in 2014. Happy reading!

[theundergroundnoise]

Official Music Video:

Instant Crush - Daft Punk

[theundergroundnoise]

Clams Casino To Create Track Live

The gifted producer Clams Casino has worked with some high profile hip-hop acts (Lil' B, A$AP Rocky), but he's about to do something unlike few others have done. Today and tomorrow, the Rhode Island native will be crafting a brand new track live via a stream on Youtube. The project is sponsored by HP who is providing Clams Casino with the HP Split x2 to create the track. In addition, commentators can go to the stream page and contribute their ideas to CC that may potentially go into his live crafting. The first live display starts at noon P.T. today. 

[theundergroundnoise]

Death Grips Drops Government Plates

Harrowing disappointment and an unexpected bag of chocolates are all that Death Grips majors in nowadays. Today, seemingly out of the cold blue, the experimental hip-hop trio released an previously publicly unknown mix tape Government Plates. This is similar to how the group unexpectedly leaked NO LOVE DEEP WEB last year and were dropped from their label shortly thereafter. 

In May, drummer Zach Hill spoke about taking time off from touring with the band in order to write and direct a feature film sound tracked by Death Grips. The band also alluded to new material being in the works, but never specified when the material would be released. The group has controversially skipped out of some of their gigs this summer including their set time at Chicago's Lollapalooza.  

Download the mixtape here. 

[theundergroundnoise]

Visit Original Link

Vengeance Falls - Trivium

7 out of 10

When Trivium was introduced with the metalcore tag early on in their career, the band exercised the "core" aspect of the genre, ranging from almost direct Metallica-style thrashing to spiraling black distortion and breakdown flurries across five studio albums. With Vengeance Falls, the Florida-bred quartet makes a formal return to their more flashy shredding days.

Similar to their thrash-tastic excursions in The Crusade, Vengeance Falls features rapid riffs and 95% clean vocals from front man Matt Heafy, save for the James Hetfield-like yells utilized on The Crusade. "Brave This Storm" exhibits enough string bending to spring load a trampoline over Heafy's verses.

"Strife" is the album's centerpiece. A deep bass line keeps the bridges in line and builds up to one of the best melodies Heafy has ever written in a chorus. The record is a simple message to its fan base: Heafy can still make catchy choruses soar and can still grind out a good solo when he needs to. After "Strife", there isn't much change of pace or delivery in any of the songs. "Wake (The End Is Nigh)" serves as a solid album closer and gives the chug fest a much needed pause with some low toned dexterity.

Where In Waves almost sold more of the quartet's style to "core" than their falling may have approved of, Vengeance Falls sticks to a dependable formula for Trivium: lots of rapid fire riffs, skying choruses from Heafy and a dash of distortion and breakdowns mixed to keep it from being another Metallica ripoff record. It's the band's first record where the core style isn't drastically challenged, which will cater to older members of the fan base. It's fast, but not quick enough to separate itself as a stand alone LP in their discography. 

[theundergroundnoise]

Lyric Video:

Afterlife - Arcade Fire

[theundergroundnoise]

Visit Original Link

Perfect War Forever EP - Glass Cloud

6.5 out of 10

Jerry Rousch has tumbled from band to band in a rather short career. After assisting in the once formidable Sky Eats Airplane, Rousch moved on to take over Austin Carlile's brain child Of Mice & Men before being ousted by Carlile right before they recorded The Flood. For now, Rousch has settled in Glass Cloud and doesn't seem intent on abandoning it anytime soon.

The Royal Thousand provided a searingly loud backdrop for Rousch's desperate gasps and the Perfect War Forever EP is no different. Partially inspired by the band's van crash in Grant's Pass, Ore. last winter, the EP features the group's first use of a nine string guitar, compressing the crunches into more brutal expositions by Joshua Travis. "Trapped Like Rats" is GC's closet imitation to syncopated masters Meshuggah featuring the heaviest and grimiest sounds the quartet has ever exhibited. Staying off beat in the onslaught of the curtailed destruction is Rousch, whose voice scratches helplessly against the wall of overwhelming sledge hammer breakdowns. 

A huge departure from melody is made in PWF as the crunchy chugs become a heavy staple. While some of the transitions between stanzas are actually well done, the tuning and pace takes no turns or even budges for five straight songs. "I Dug A Grave" is essentially part two of "Trapped Like Rats." Buried in the wreckage is Rousch, whose scruffy howls sound more worn than ever. Rousch's falsettos are briefly touched in "How to Survive Suicide" while the same string pull cycles throughout in the background. "Soul Is Dead" is mostly stale throughout save for one string fading breakdown that GC used a bit in TRT.

The instrumentals of GC plummet deeper into the djent hand book of disorienting bursts of groove. Does it make for an admirable effort and sonic progression? Yes and no. While it's nice to see GC experiment with more rigid tuning, it partially detracts from some of the elements that make The Royal Thousand a rather diverse product.

GC is caught in between two scenes: the metalcore and djent scenes. The band has toured with a wide variety acts, from modern post-hardcore torch bearers like Silverstein to contemporary metalcore acts like Miss May I. GC is unique material in the metalcore scene, but rubs off as generic and unimpressive in the djent scene. This EP is an attempt for GC to cross the bridge over to their groove influenced cousins as they tour with acts like Veil of Maya. The nine string guitar is the tool that supports this bridge, yet it can't fix some of the nuances that still plague GC in their quest to separate from the metalcore scene. 

[theundergroundnoise]

A Day To Remember Court Ruling

After a very long and messy court dueling between A Day To Remember and their label Victory Records, the judge has ruled that ADTR is allowed to self-release their new album Common Courtesy. However, there was a strong silver lining for Victory's party. Part of the ruling enforced contractual obligations that ADTR still owes Victory two more albums. In addition, there is a strong possibility that any profits contributed to ADTR's sales of Common Courtesy will go straight to Victory in accordance to these contractual bindings.

The ruling is directly linked to Victory's attempt to imply a negative injection upon ADTR. The judge disarmed this injection in order to save Victory from suffering "irreparable harm" and thus not being compensated from money damages if the album were to be self-released. The case is still proceeding to the trial stage, where Victory will face ADTR's bold claims of mistreatment from the company. 

This essentially ended up being a successful defeat for Victory as the judge saved them potentially losing large profits. Keep in mind that ADTR isn't the only band that has spoken out against Victory. Between the Buried and Me recently discouraged their fans from purchasing any of the material they released via Victory. It served as a protest to the label's right to still repackage and release all of the band's material created before they signed with Metal Blade Records, with none of the money via sales going into BTBAM's pockets. 

It's up to ADTR's fans to determine if it's even worth contributing funds to Common Courtesy if all of the money does indeed end up in Victory's hands. The trial is yet to commence and personal accounts from both sides are still very foggy at this point. A full account of the ruling can be found here and pre-orders for Common Courtesy are still going on. 

[theundergroundnoise]

Memphis May Fire Announces New Record

Memphis May Fire churned out Challenger last summer, but the Rise Records mainstays are already planning on another full length LP for earl 2014, according to their recent interview with Property of Zack. No further details have been announced yet, aside from that the record will be released either February or March of 2014.

[theundergroundnoise]

Glass Cloud Announce New EP

After releasing their solid debut The Royal Thousand last summer, Glass Cloud are releasing a new EP called Perfect War Forever on October. The quartet is already showcasing the first single from the five-song EP "Trapped Like Rats." The song features a sample of the first nine string material recorded by the band. Pre-orders for the EP are available now.

[theundergroundnoise]

Official Music Video:

Currents - Eisley

[theundergroundnoise]

Visit Original Link

Keith Morris has been in the midst of FLAG's nation wide tour. Once that's over, the grizzled punk veteran will return to his current standout project OFF!, who are planning their second proper full length LP right now. The band has a new song called "What's Next" featured on the ever popular Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack. Like previous efforts, this one features Morris' wacko poetry and exhilarating twists from guitarist Dimitri Coats. At 2:08, it is by longest track recorded by the collective and is one of the few songs in their catalog to feature any sort of bridge between melodies at one point in its running. The track is an exclusive addition to the soundtrack and will not be featured on the quartet's new album.