Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genre: Progressive/Technical Death Metal

Label: Willowtip Records

In the ever expanding world of metal, few bands polarize audiences like Gigan and their ilk. The sweep picking, uber-technical, organized cacophony machines.  Revered for their technical prowess. Hated for their pretentiousness. I’m a student of the later school. Sure you can play, but mind bending guitar work doesn’t solely make a band worth listening to. Is Gigan going to be the band to change my mind about these technical wangers? Read on and find out.

During the course of Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes, I had a handful of reoccurring thoughts:

1) This band in no reminds me of any sort of kaiju.

2) This band is 83% unfathomable guitar wizardry.

and 3) I CAN’T FUCKING BANG MY HEAD TO THIS!!!

So I guess the answer to my earlier question is “no”. I mean, I can see the appeal on some level. The songs are fast, furious and full of conscience altering guitar work and off time drums. But that’s it. The vocals (as mentioned in other reviews) are generic death metal vocals. Think George Fisher in Kill and subtract all of the notoriety. If that’s all you really care about or if you have the stomach for a band that’s praised for their advancements yet has all of their mediocre traits just glossed over, then you’re probably gonna love this album regardless of any review you read. But for those of you who have higher standards for your metal (then you probably wouldn’t be anywhere near this website), then you’re gonna be left high and dry.

Overall: This band honestly doesn’t need to exist. The guitarist should just splinter off and just do a solo project of him making spanking material for all the Guitar Center picks that love this shit.

4/10

Gigan On MySpace

Genre: Progressive/Technical Death Metal

Label: Willowtip

The problem that polarizes technical death metal is that bands get away with being lousy songwriters because they are technical virtuosos on their instruments. Unfortunately, just because a piece of music is complex and difficult to play does not mean it is good. So we are left with good tech death like Origin, Anata, and Acid Death, and bad tech death that is nothing but blastbeats and sweep arpeggio masturbation.

Gigan falls into the second category. I wanted to like this album, especially since I’ll be seeing them live with Grave in September, but I just can’t. Some of the other FR staff seem to be really into this, so maybe I just don’t get it, but I don’t think there is much musical substance here. This is a high octane journey through nothing but dissonant chords and ultratechnical licks. This album is the definition of wank; it showcases devastating technical skill, but is entirely overindulgent, not enjoyable to listen to, and strikes me as goddamn pretentious to boot.

No songs stick out to me; they all use shock and awe tactics to dazzle the listener, but ultimately fall flat when you realize how boring or even annoying they are. Every song has riffs that sound like they were written as typical power chord death metal riffs, and then moved into a more awkward and spider handed chord position solely for the sake of being unusual and progressive.  The drums refrain from blasting constantly, instead following the awkward rhythmic  nature of many of the riffs, and serving only to drive the lackluster riffs deep into my brain. The bass is sometimes audible, but it gets lost in the guitar. The vocals are standard growls, and the vocalist could be switched with any other death metal vocalist and no one would know the difference. More positively, I must mention that judging by the song titles (Transmogrification Into Bio-Luminoid”, “Within The Tentacled Grasp of a Buried Behemoth”) and what I can decipher of the lyrics, this band at least has an interesting, metaphysical, and perhaps Lovecraftian lyrical concept. If I must pick one stand-out on this album, I will select “The Raven and the Crow”, because the intro reminds of The Chasm.

The one place this album does succeed is in the atmosphere department. Quasi Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes sound very ominously spacey, like being trapped in the epicenter of some kind gargantuan black hole event. This might make a good soundtrack to a sci-fi movie. But does anyone listen to the soundtracks of sci-fi movies recreationally? No, you smartass, don’t lie to me.

The last observation I would like to make is that I don’t understand why this is being labeled grind. I guess it’s kind of grind influenced in places, but this is “grind” in the same sense that Cephalic Carnage and Dying Fetus are grindcore bands. Atypical rhythm a grindcore band does not make, and fans of pure grind will probably hate this. I can’t see this going over with traditional death metal fans either.

If you really must have a sci-fi death metal album, I would suggest “The Key” by Nocturnus. I give this a 3.5/10.

On myspace

On facebook

Genres: Progressive Death Metal, Technical Death Metal
Label: Willowtip

In the span of forty-five minutes and forty-one seconds Gigan not only push their own envelope, but the envelopes of pretty much all of technical and progressive death metal bands.
A mindblowing (fuck bending, it’s outright gone) adventure through the cosmos as only these Chicago natives can do, Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes is perfect for many reasons, most notably that you can hear it in the background, driving, or you can listen to it, with headphones and a darkened room. It’s not a one-way road with Gigan, it’s a multi-lane highway of listening choices.
It’s also perfect because it’s just a solid fucking album. Sure, it’s prog and tech, but it’s also got songs in it, which is what ultimately makes or breaks an album. If you have no songs, just a bunch of wankery, that’s all you have. If you, like Gigan, have songs, you have albums, fans, and the thing that keeps you in the music business, sales.
Which brings me to my final point. This is gonna be on colored vinyl, as well as CD. So don’t be an ass, and buy this album. I ordered the vinyl before I even heard the promo tracks.
10 out of 10.

Gigan on Facebook.
Gigan on Myspace.

Canadian-based Sonic Unyon Metal are proud to announce that they’ll officially reissue Concealed, the classic first album from progressive death metal outfit Augury, this March. Originally released in 2004 via Galy Records, this updated version features a fully remastered recording of the album, also expanded to include two bonus tracks from the band’s 2006 demo. This definitive edition will also be packaged in a new digipak format, designed by Sven De Calluwe of Aborted.

Formed in Montreal, Quebec at the end of 2001, Augury immediately made an impact in the Canadian death metal scene with their technical/classically-inspired progressive death metal attack. The unit entered the studio with Yannick St-Amand (Martyr, Unexpect) in 2004 to record their Concealed debut. The record was mixed by Jean-Francois Dagenais (Kataklysm, Misery Index) and then set loose upon the anxious public. After the release of Concealed, Augury signed with Nuclear Blast Records, who in 2009 unveiled the band’s critically acclaimed 2009 album Fragmentary Evidence, further cementing the band’s name into the upper ranks of the progressive death scene.

Sonic Unyon Metal will re-unleash Concealed to North American audiences on March 8th, 2011.

Concealed reissue track listing:
1. Beatus
2. …Ever Know Peace Again
3. Cosmic Migration
4. Nocebo
5. Alien Shores
6. In Russian Dolls Universes
7. Becoming God
8. The Lair Of Purity
9. From Eden Estranged
10. …As Sea Devours Land
11. Skyless (Bonus Track – 2006 demo)
12. Faith Puppeteers (Bonus Track – 2006 demo)