THE OCEAN - Reggies Chicago

THE OCEAN (performing "Pelagial" in its entirety)

Right off the back of a 6 months world tour, the Berlin-based atmospheric post metal juggernaut The Ocean (Collective) returns with the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Phanerozoic double album. Holocene sees The Ocean add a closing chapter to their palaeontology-inspired album series, presenting a gear shift towards the electronic world while redefining heaviness at the same time.   With Holocene The Ocean draw us into their momentum of truly forward-thinking music and relentless live performances. More than 20 years into their career, this Berlin-based collective still shake us to the core, inviting us to reconsider our lives from different angles. Dwelling in the depths of our inner contemplations, while looking up, we can see the light at the surface. A light we might have taken for granted for so long, but of which The Ocean show us a rare glimpse of perspective. Holocene unites the might of this massive act’s past and present, while creating a deeper understanding of their world as well as ours in the process.

WITHERED

From its inception, WITHERED has been an outlier, a perplexing charge of extremity which the metal scene has never been able to put its finger on.

“We want to compound new elements into every album,” posits guitarist/vocalist Mike Thompson, “and we’re definitely a band for metal nerds. Our audience seems to be the old-schoolers who are absorbed by this stuff every day and jaded folks of a certain age. Industry types and peers tend to get it, but that’s about it.”

Thompson’s self deprecating assessment of his creative output might be part gentlemanly humility talking or a harshly realistic take on WITHERED’s cult status, or somewhere in between, but with an impressive body of work fanned out over the course of 18 years and five albums which have weathered as many trends, the Atlanta quartet continues to confound and refuses to compromise. New album, Verloren is the band’s most daring and iconoclastic work yet, one that spits in the eye of complacency and exists as a contrarian masterstroke.

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR

KYLESA

Since this Savannah, Georgia quintet first formed in early 2001, worrying about genre limitations has never been a priority. Taking musical chances, however, always has been. While KYLESA are as heavy as any band out there, they are beholden to no one scene and no preconceived notions of what heavy music should be.
“Lots of people like to stick to one kind of music,” guitarist/vocalist Philip Cope elaborates, “and even with the underground, lots of people segregate themselves into small little categories and place lots of imaginary rules on these scenes.”

“We just like playing heavy music and we’ve always liked playing it regardless of what is popular or trendy,” guitarist/vocalist Laura Pleasants adds. “It’s most rewarding for us to try and push our own boundaries of what we can to do with our music and hopefully, in the end, offer something that is at least original.”

Kylesa’s third full-length, Time Will Fuse Its Worth, is the eagerly-awaited follow-up to 2005’s To Walk A Middle Course, which topped many year end lists and landed the band in metal and mainstream press alike. After grabbing ink in Spin, the New York Times, and metal mainstays Revolver alike, Time Will Fuse Its Worth again showcases the band as the ultimate definition of do-it-yourself dedication. With Cope lending his ears and hands for production duties at The Jam Room, and featuring comprehensive artistic layout and packaging from Pleasants, the KYLESA of current day continues to put the band’s future in their own hands by touring Europe and North America alike.

Time Will Fuse Its Worth sees the band continuing to evolve upon KYLESA’s signature sound, seamlessly flowing from track to track encompassing listeners with sounds far and wide and an utter disregard for musical boundaries. Bringing together avant-garde experimentalism with the pure fury of dirty, sludgy riffs and raw, coexisting male and female vocals, KYLESA’s ambient noise interludes, grimy rock riffs and impassioned, gruff vocals portray the doom-inspired punishment they are capable of dishing out through the power of the band’s music.

Now adding to KYLESA’s signature sound and trademark triple vocal attack is the recent addition of a second drummer. “When we first started the band, we had planned on having two drummers but it didn’t work out, so now it feels like everything is coming together,” Pleasants says. “There is definitely a new level of intensity to Kylesa now. Since the new lineup has gotten together we have felt the strongest creative spark yet.”

The band’s reluctance to attach itself to one sound or scene and to not play by conventional rules, along with that strong creative spark, has ultimately made KYLESA that much more versatile. With a constantly heavy touring schedule has found the band crossing boundaries, sharing bills with bands as diverse as High On Fire, Circle Takes the Square, Coliseum, Torche, Red Sparowes, Big Business, Baroness, The Sword, Disfear, and Darkest Hour both at home and abroad, as well as playing to enthusiastic crowds throughout Europe. “While we are no kings of one scene,” says Cope, “we have, in a sense, just developed our own thing.”