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You are here: Home / Archives for Metal

Debut Album Review: Fathom by Patema

October 18, 2019 by Josh Vanlandingham

By August Edwards

Albuquerque progressive rock band Patema seizes idealization from skill with their debut album Fathom, to be released October 31, 2019.

Fathom is about loss, innocence, and exquisite musicality. The four artists recorded on this album—all in their early twenties—have put forth everything they know about professionalism in music to project the image they wish to become.

Members of Patema. Left to right: Jesse Orion, Jaden Lueras, and Thomas Larson. Courtesy of Patrick McHale Jr.

Vocalist Jaden Lueras sings straightforward lyrics that are enhanced by his striking delivery; he coats each syllable in an authoritarian resin. Lueras also kills on lead guitar, with guitarist Jesse Orion beside him to stir up a blitz of harmonic riffs. Certain repetitive vocal and instrumental phrases make for a sort of glorious entrapment, like the feeling of breath condensation inside a rubber Halloween mask.

Hardcore-inspired drummer Jesse Goldstein and classical-oriented keyboardist Thomas Larson combined could be compared to the gothic metal band Type O Negative. Goldstein’s captivating heavy-handedness makes Fathom angry and believable as an album scaling the anxiety of loss.

Patema drummer, Jesse Goldstein. Courtesy of Patrick McHale Jr.

Chemical engineering of the track “Anathema” detonates adrenaline. Lueras’s voice puts the listener in their place; “You stand by and watch as the sheep are slaughtered / The oppressive hand looms overhead.” “Anathema” bulldozes futility and sets fire to the ruins. 

“Reflections” is effervescent with angular rhythms. This sonic spaceship-trek feels like triumph; however, with lyrics referring to a “reflection of internal atrophy,” it is about how the self can deceive and wither.

“Technicolor” is a blissful instrumental; a nine-and-a-half minute dreamscape. The word “technicolor” refers to the flamboyance of an object or idea. The Greek root techne means art or discipline at its truest, arriving at a point that cannot be reached by other means. With “Technicolor,” Patema nods to their grasp of technicality, whether deliberate or not. The track is waterfalls and hail; soft moments of cymbal kisses laced with slick seconds of hair-metal guitar licks. It is a headbanger at the least, and laser beams shooting through clouds at the most.

Despite all its bright guitar, Fathom still bites and has melancholy seeping like venom to veins. The listener is left remembering a past that never was, while longing for a future that could never be. “Once Upon a Burial” begins delicately before stony lyrics hit: “You belong here with me / I wish it were that easy.” Deceptively frank, Lueras’s voice challenges the depth of the meaning. Suddenly, something shallow has mountainous texture, like scarred tree bark that is sap-spackled and impossible to get off your hands. All the crooning of loss and self-criticism cannot cover the fact that Patema wants the listener to know they know what they are doing. There is stubborn strength in every movement of every song: resilience in dealing with alien terrain. Fathom is mobilization when longing is the vital spark that kicks the body into action.

Filed Under: Art, Featured, Magazine, Music Tagged With: Albuquerque, Artists, band, bands, Concerts, debut album, Fathom, Metal, music, New Mexico, Patema, progressive rock, review

Ashes of Jupiter: Fallen Kingdom

August 11, 2019 by Nichole Harwood

By August Edwards

Albuquerque alt-metal quartet Ashes of Jupiter sink us into a gritty pit of rock with its new EP Fallen Kingdom, released on August 24th, 2019. 

Left to right: Jared Houston, Adam Liston, Robson Guy, Tim Scarberry, and producer and engineer Ken Riley. Courtesy of Ashes of Jupiter.

Fallen Kingdom is a sweet-as-salt auditory attack for listeners. Ashes of Jupiter drummer Jared Houston and bassist Robson Guy lay down a foundation of hard rock and metal, sometimes forming the feel of an aggressive sort of blues. The band’s vocalist Adam Liston and guitarist Tim Scarberry have a cutthroat call-and-response that is versatile—saturated and stinging. Each individual of the group works independently to contribute to a torrent of adversity, ultimately melding their sounds for a staggering execution. 

The tracks “Static,” “Gone,” “Coup de Gras,” and “Inevitable” are representative of looking through the gaps between stakes of a white picket fence. Through the evenly-spaced posts could be anything: dying dandelions, vicious dogs, innocuous garden gnomes, or all of the above. The coarseness of Fallen Kingdom swells like lounge music with the drive of boxing champions. Members of Ashes of Jupiter fight each other in sync.

This chaotic quality lends itself to listener disorientation. In the first track “Static,” the opening guitar riff evokes wind whipping desert sand in your face. In another act of displacing the listener, the piece exhibits a grand ending that brings a flourishing, live quality to a digital, non-live performance.

A cornerstone of Fallen Kingdom is the sublimity of Scarberry’s solos. In the track “Gone,” he stretches the musical phrases in a way that gives his guitar its own storytelling lyrics. This effect in “Coup de Gras” steeps in time over Guy’s intricate bassline—both instruments simultaneously giving the listener two very different senses of what a moment is. There is nothing menacing or disorienting about his interludes between vocals; there is nothing superfluous. It is bewitching poetry.

Alternatively, Scarberry’s hook in the track “Inevitable” is foreboding; in the song, Liston snarls, “It’ll all be over soon—you only have yourself to blame.” This track showcases an instrumental vortex. Liston’s voice transforms into a percussive, repetitive instrument as the piece progresses to fuse with his band. This blending sets a harmony of pain and hurt, distrust and fear. The somber finish to the track denotes irrevocable damage. 

Ultimately, Ashes of Jupiter’s newest EP presents a defiant rock and roll strut which calls to the hardcore ebb and flow of the universe. To listen to Fallen Kingdom is to surf the fringe of lawlessness and harmony.

Courtesy of Ashes of Jupiter

Filed Under: Art, Featured, Magazine, Music Tagged With: Albuquerque, bands, Concerts, Metal, music, New Mexico, nightlife, review

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