Travels With Nate

A while ago, James from Hold Tight gave me the idea of interviewing some American bands who were touring over here about European beer but sadly that didn’t come to fruition. I was heartbroken as that sounded like the best idea ever but luckily his partner in crime, Lisa discovered something awesome. Lisa discovered that Aaron & Brandon Smith from 7 Horns 7 Eyes who you may remember from my review of their debut full length album Throes of Absolution which is my #2 album of 2012 , is a beer geek. Yes, I know, it’s unbelievable to me too! So yes, I sent them some questions and Aaron is such a gent that he answered them!

2012 is almost over so I figured I should do a blog post about my favourite musical type things of the year. Most of them have been easy decisions which was quite nice.

I've been struggling lately. Struggling with life and struggling to write. I've been doing loads of thinking and overthinking and I'm not sure what the fuck is happening. However, today is Sunday. Sunday is the one day I can sit back and not give a fuck. I am really hungover. Last night I drank way too much bourbon and passed out on someone else' sofa whilst watching Ghostbusters. I'm quite fond of this person but that's irrelevant because today I have stopped giving a fuck. Picture this scene. It's Sunday. It's cold. I'm at my computer. I'm smoking lots of cigarettes and tweeting shit. I want a beer, I'm hungry and I'm listening to music.

It’s interview time again! This time, it’s Graham ‘Pin’ Pinney from Aliases and Sikth. Oh how I miss Sikth. I remembered last night that I actually met Pin in 2006 when Sikth played in Norwich. I remember watching Lord of the Rings on their tour bus. I reviewed Aliases debut mini-album, Safer Than Reality yesterday and bloody good it was too. Now, they’re currently working on their debut full length album but Mr Pin was nice enough to take a break from his busy schedule to talk about Booze, Beats, Bites & other such bizarre things.

When I was asked if I could review this album, I instantly laughed at the name. Alright, I’ve had my rant about terrible band names but this one is actually hilarious which makes it awesome! I have no idea why I laughed so much but I did. Anyway, dropbunny is a seven-piece metal band from Melbourne, Australia that formed in 2009 with members Xero & John Barrymore recording their first album, “Hypothesis” with the aid of session drummer Matt Leiber. After six months, they’d added a permanent guitarist and began performing live. If they’d have distributed their album through more mainstream channels, it would’ve been at #50 in the ARIA charts which is bloody impressive for a first album, especially as they were self-promoting! I’d never heard dropbunny before, so I wasn’t quite knowing what to expect... I really love getting sent an album having not heard the band previously. The first track, Plummet , starts out with static noise and a nice, heavy bassline which isn’...

I’ll be honest; when I read “DnB rockers” I didn’t think I would enjoy this EP. Especially when I read “think Skindred meets Pendulum”. Alright, I absolutely love Skindred and Pendulum are alright but “Just no” I thought. I soon ate those words. The title track, Believe in This (Listen to it here: http://soundcloud.com/collisionsuk/believe-in-this ) starts off with this weird electronic kind of ambience before going into a nice riff whilst fading out the ambience along with some nice snare drums which builds up into Olly Simmons fantastic vocal jump into the song. I absolutely love his vocals, especially on this track. He’s just got that straight up young rock vocal style which is something I really dig. The weird electronic ambience that I’m not usually fond of carries on throughout the track, I’m not fond of the style of it but it works in this track. To be honest; It’s just a straight up nu-metal track. I wouldn’t call it anything else. If this song was brought out arou...

I first heard 7 Horns 7 Eyes a few weeks ago; I was trawling through my email inbox looking for music that I hadn’t listened to and came across a link to their Convalescence EP on the Basick Records bandcamp page. I was instantly struck by the artwork for it. It’s literally a goat with 7 Horns and 7 Eyes, it was weird as shit. Needless to say, I enjoyed the EP and was instantly excited about the forthcoming album. I must admit that even though I loved the 3 track EP, I was pleasantly surprised that the metalcore sound seemed to have disappeared. The opening track Divine Amnesty opens with a black metal like atmosphere which builds up for a while then fades into a big blast of guitars, more atmosphere and growls. It’s quite upbeat for a death metal song; it makes you feel somewhat energised but not wanting to mosh. It’s death metal but with a black metal edge. Each track on this album flows into one another to the point where I don’t think I’d enjoy listening to individual songs. ...