Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Progressive, Psychedelic, Acid Rock
Label: Independent 

Man, having a baby really fucks up your schedule! I’ve been sitting on this review for so long, that Masonic Weird has changed their name to Martyred Whitmans since asking me to review their demo, Manic And Self Medicated! Apologies all around.

As soon as this demo started up, I was reminded of a band that I review waaaaaay back with E-Metal Reviews called To The Bones. I went a little overboard with praise on that review since it was my first real experience with the progressive/psychedelic sub-genres and to this day, it still creates a massive erection in my trousers whenever I’m allowed to review anything from said genres. And now that you can’t unknow that, I’m please to say that Masonic Weird’s demo is a “boner”-fied piece of doom-y progression! If you’re not familiar with To The Bones, then maybe the comparison of The Sword (sans the poser tag) meets Earth might raise an eyebrow or two (I know it did for me as I wrote that).

Now, I’ve read some reviews about this band in the past that didn’t paint them in the best of lights, so I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t really looking forward to it… how quickly we remember not to believe everything we hear/read/see on T.V.! Seriously, I’d like to know who those guys were listening to when they wrote those reviews? Because I’m positive that it wasn’t Masonic Weird! There’s nothing “hipster” about this music! Sure, pot helps… it helps with EVERYTHING! And who the fuck isn’t gonna toke up when they’re listening to doom or prog?!

Braking down the instrumentation, the riffing is exceptional! You’re not really sure where you’re going to be lead next, but that don’t matter since it’s constantly exciting more than what you were expecting. The bass in Manic And Self Medicated is perfect. Perfect. The mixture or doom and progressive styles pretty much just left the bass roam free. The freest I’ve ever heard a bass be, in fact. In my opinion, this is some of the best use of bass I’ve ever heard! (Kudos to Yehuda McKay) Drums? Yeah, they’re there and awesome. But, prog drums are always awesome, so I’m glad to see that the trend continues here. The only other thing that feels standard are the vocals. They aren’t anything ground breaking, but I wasn’t looking for groundbreaking so it all works out fine there.

There’s not much to say about this demo that I haven’t already touched on or that you couldn’t already gather. It came completely out of left field and rocked my socks off. But if you really want me to gripe about something, I’ll give you this: I was expecting something a bit more “weird”. But that’s not an official gripe.

Overall: Every riff is a combination of thick and catchy. Every lyric is dripping with THC and acid. Every bash of the brass is one that will stay with you after the demo stops playing.   Everything about this offering is genius! Plain and simple. If you like bands that stick to their guns and play shit that isn’t exactly what people think that it should be, then Masonic Weird/Martyred Whitmans is just for you!

10/10

Masonic Weird On Facebook
Martyred Whitmans On Facebook 

Genre: Psychadelic Rock
Label: Ajna Offensive, Feral House

Holy trippin’ balls, Batman! This is a blast from the past, redone by a modern band.
So the Process Church were a cult-like group in the 70’s that wore robes and walked around town with German Shepherds. They also happened to promote a quasi-Gnostic theology that reconciled Christ and Satan through deeper awareness and love. In other words: a bunch of hippies that figured Jesus and Satan could get along if they just talked it over, or some such similar sentiment.
Now, in the 00’s, the band Sabbath Assembly have taken the music that the Process Church wrote for their religion and re-recorded it with Jex Thoth on the microphone. This is a sexy sounding 70’s psych rock odyssey through a religion’s teachings, and it’s tripped out and wonderful.
Check it out, it’ll be on all the cool formats.
9 out of 10.

Genres: Electronica, Cybergrind, Industrial, Psychedelic, Screamo
Label: Kitty on Fire Records

The duo formerly known as A Chicago Typewriter bring another drug addled album to life and call it The Self-Aware Singularity.
Pop culture references and observations and the occasional rant are brought together with some of the most creative music I’ve ever heard. It’s part electronic dance with heavily autotuned vocals and part screamo and grindcore, and meshed so perfectly.
If this were played in a club, it would get asses moving, and heads banging, and some people would probably have a seizure at the absolute dichotomies presented in this sickeningly awesome album.
One of the greatest things about ATCAC, besides the music itself, is that all the music is free. Just hit up their MySpace page and download to your heart’s content.
9 out of 10.

Among the Cells and Circuits on MySpace.

Here’s another old interview. I decided to take it from the MySpace blog and bring it here, because like Typhon said, it’s probably going to be new for someone. It was originally published in October of last year, and there’s still stuff that’s way older that has to make it’s way to the New and Improved site here.

Could you give a history of the band since it’s inception?

Among the Cells and Circuits was started by Matt Burks and J.C. Daigle as a stoner cybergrind side project but grew in to a focus of art… a form of expression if you will of the true state of reality. the idea of ATCAC came up through a night of heavy sacrament burning and star gazing and it was like the band was beamed into our subconscious.

Is there a specific reason as to why you have chosen to wear the masks and the stage names? Or was it just a thing to do for no real reason?

It is a hint at the base of reality. Duality in a pure form. The masks are opposite colors but yet they look the same, they are yin and yang, light and dark, life and death. Everything has a opposite, yet the base of its other can be found in itself. And the Alpha and Omega is to show that we are existence itself. We are the universe reminding itself what it is.

The sounds you make are a little on the strange side. There’s elements of grindcore, cybergrind, punk, and new wave keyboard lines. What do you use to make these sounds, instrument wise? And has Among the Cells and Circuits always sounded like this, or is this an evolutionary step?

We use FL Studio for almost everything, but we are thinking of playing live shows soon so I’m not sure how we are going to do it. I’m thinking of getting a midi and we already have a drum set. Before we were ATCAC we were A Chicago Typewriter and we had more guitar grind based tracks, but I fell in love with the synth and LSD (not promoting abusing substances in anyway but don’t let someone else tell you how to think!).

You’re “under a lot of influences” according to MySpace. Any particular influences you find most inspiring?

Like I said I do not promote drug use. But Cannabis is a beautiful herb that really lets you drift into your imagination. Mushrooms if you want to go really deep and hang around for awhile, and LSD if you want to see colors you have never seen before but the most interesting is DMT; it is found in every living animal and is pumped through your brain during deep sleep and right before human death. It’s a portal to see straight through to the other side.

Musically, are there any bands that you’d like to name drop as influences?

Haha! Bands I like lot are The Locust and Blink 182 (fo sho haha) and a good bit of intelligent rap like Blue Scholars & Del Tron 3000

You’re on a pair of labels, Fake Records and Kitty on Fire. Has being on labels been a liberating experience for the band, or the opposite? And how did you make the connections, were you approached by the labels, or did you send in demos in the traditional manner?

We sent in demos because we really want to get our music out to people. As artists we believe music should be free so all of our stuff is for download, and the labels have really helped out and been open to our freedom to create as we feel fit.

Among the Cells and Circuits on MySpace.