CLOUDKICKER

I feel a lot safer, realizing this album has nothing over 7 minutes in length haha. We start off this little journey with "Fourteen Nights", with rim-hits playing consistently as strangely beautiful feedback (and more) builds. Pretty heavy then, with that highly effected feedback still ringing out until nearly minute 2. Cool idea here, with the slight laxing of the guitar. And from there, we immediately build with intensity once more. Nothing else happens. We walk right into "Modulator/Demodulator", working off of a soft, reverbed guitar arpeggio. Here, I got bored, skipped ahead, and found something of interest, which starts shortly after its second minute. This shifts again and I'm hearing, for the second time in my Cloudkicker kick, a riff that could be found via Mastodon. I feel pretty good about this one. But not great. Any wins this track has are all in its second half.

Cohesiveness continues on as we seamlessly make our way to "Of Smoke and Fog". In its heaviness, and I feel this sounds odd, it's awfully atonal, or something? Maybe the opening riff, as simply put as possible, is chromatic. As I type this, the composition morphs and the china gets a nice smacking. This song is almost, like... breathing? Almost though we get these moments of intensity and then the composition itself gives its response. And here I am, even through its ambient close, finding myself enjoying this'n most thus far. Finally--I say with a greater kindness than I could muster with his first EP--we get to "God Be with Ye" [And assuming God isn't anti-Semitic, this has revealed itself to be a very thoughtful prayer of hope haha /s]. The rhythm section is pretty gargantuan, the bass at least, I felt perhaps, mixed a little too loud for my liking. There's a galloping kickdrum and a super-effected drone from the guitar(s). The middle section is pretty cool... Ok, I'll take that back. What I thought was the middle was just... the end. What a drag. Fade to black should have come at least 2 minutes sooner.

With the moments I most expected to be strong, it sort of let me down. Yet this turned out to be the best, perhaps most cohesive release of Cloudkicker I've yet heard.

And speaking of intensity, the opener "Hold On" is huge and brutally fast. A warning in the midst of the storm. We get a pretty unique shift around minute 2, with a really cool, unusual drum beat and clean instrumentation, which feels like it's looking forward to what would be accomplished by Animals As Leaders. For the genre, this opener offers a lot. We get another recommendation in the next, "Tip Your Van Driver". I think the reason I was able to latch on to these drums, despite their actual normalcy in modern Metal, is simply because of how strongly they're mixed. Regardless, Sharp is a talented musician all-round. Rapidly descending into a creep, "Tip" drones eerily along until its raucous close. Unfortunately, not much else happened here.

We hurry along with the next, "Seriosity". I guess Cloudkicker subscribes to some early Djent-isms. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought this before. Sonically, this track reminds me of Sevendust (which here is a compliment). Just a bit more here for me than the last track, given its middle section.

Ok... I stopped paying attention... The title track is still playing?... It's boring, honestly. Finally, and I mean it, we have "Ever Thus to Deadbeats", which... probably means something to someone. This is a long track, at over 8 minutes, so I was feeling weary yet again haha. Some cool riffs and, again, the drums have some cool patterns. And it's not even 3 minutes in and I'm checking my watch... Before the 5 minute mark, it shifts into softness, quietness. No drums or bass, just reverberations of clean guitar. In the most Post-Rock crescendo ever, following minute 6, we approach heft. Anyways, good things here, but hard-nope subgenre pitfalls aplenty.

A slight adjustment for how I really feel... True Rate: 2.5/5.0

I must admit here and now, I've honestly been a tad wary to even get into this (makes my getting through my ridiculous list even harder haha). But I've heard enough material from Ben Sharp's Cloudkicker, from throughout its history (mostly early on), which has impressed and even excited. I can't tell how many times I've said this, but also important for me to note is my relationship with Post-Rock and Post-Metal overall: I'm a definite skeptic, to say the very least. This is the first LP and release by Cloudkicker, composed and performed by Sharp, released in 2008.

Coming out the gate from a frantic emergency siren, "Genesis Device" slowly, even softly, ramps up to brutal measure. Killer, kickass riff kept steady by a wash of blast beats. All in all, just a great opener. It seamlessly goes into the next, "Dysphoria", said riff opening up in complexity, though maintaining that starter heft. This is reminiscent to me now, in part, of some of the heavier material by early And So I Watch You From Afar, though its Post-Rock simplicity and direction is more in line with other contemporaries Russian Circles (maybe some day I'll rectify my distance and relationship with this latter band, at least). Here, on "Dysphoria", Ben shows off his drumming chops, and the production style of spacy, ethereal string-like keys throughout is revealed. As with much Post-Rock, I did feel this song, even with all its strengths, dragged on by minute 3. We get a modification to that riff, which I think is quite cool in general, on "Avalanche". There's still that grit and groove from before (not let up since "Genesis"), but there's some real interest in the spicy chords selected. Compositionally, we get more going on here than before, but only so much. I do have to mention again his aptitude as a master of rhythm. We get a very classic Metal riff approaching minute 4, which I quite liked.

As the "Avalanche" seemingly quite literally ended, quietness morphs into the intro of "Everything's Mirrors". Its function, I'm now not surprised, is simple interlude. "Welcome-to-the-Machine"-esque clanging sounds off "Viceroy". More open riffs here. Slight shift post-blast-beat to a bigger sound before returning to its thematic riff. The guitar effects and tone used on "Segue:" immediately reminded me of some material off a favorite of mine, Katil Dans (released that same year in 2008) by Turkish Art-Rock-meets-Alt-Metal band Çilekeş (I recommend "Akrep", the excellent "Diril", and the beautiful "Sinir"). This second interlude reveals itself to have more electronic roots. Weakest thus far unfortunately. We then get our title track, "The Discovery", and as the longest of the album at 8 minutes, it is a return to the heaviness from before. There's certainly an interesting mix here, the more ethereal elements from any keyboards, though perhaps also just super intense reverb on a guitar, are more present here than at any point before. It's thoroughly pretty heavy, like I said, but nothing really happens: to me, an unfortunate hallmark of the genre.

All dies away and we get a very different vibe in comparison to what came before in "Covington". More melodic perhaps, it's very of its time. Then we get the heaviest of, I would guess, our three interludes here, "Triumvirate!", which features a riff I would honestly have expected from Mastodon. It's pretty cool, and only lasts a minute before our final track, "States". This track then has a very cool main riff, totally unlike but reminiscent most to "Avalanche", following Sharp's exploration of what I felt was a sort of theme to The Discovery starting at the beginning, with "Genesis Device". The focus shifts away from the brutality and we get a soft build from more quiet. I definitely was hoping for more, especially with this closer.

True Rate: 2.75/5.00

Starting off with the short track "Night" (2:18), we begin with atmospheric layers of echoing guitars. The music comes more to the fore with a mid-Eastern vibe in the melody, rumbling synths, percussion and electronic hand claps and tick ticks which lead into "Xaoc" (7:20), which is immediately heavier and heftier, almost following the same melody but with a more western variation in the sound. Loud guitars are layered over backing guitars, heavy drums and bass, and a more complicated sound in the melody. Things quite down just before 2 minutes and the music sort of floats along for a minute before everything tightens up again, this time with more keys added in to the heavy guitars, which become more churning and heavy as it all continues and layers of sound build in intensity to where it all comes to an end in pulsating feedback.

"Blackwing" (5:39) builds off of that feedback and continues with a heavy sound, this time with a more moderately slow tempo. A repeating pattern gets established with a thumping heavy bass as the guitars bring out the post metal style, but still allowing to keep a melodic aspect that doesn't waver in its beat. After 2 minutes, everything stops except for a soft electric guitar pattern overlayed by repeated chords. The drums eventually come back with a rolling pattern and then drone-like layers come back in as the track rebuilds. Layers continue to thicken building in a crescendo until the end.

"AR-Lp 36" (2:26) starts with quiet droning guitar chords that increase in volume. The heavy post metal/rock style continues to be evident with the dark and thick sound, but this track never really reaches full volume, but remains atmospheric and drone- like. "YHWH" (3:35) comes out of the fog with a distinct bass and drum pattern, thumping along at a moderately slow pace, that still has a driving aspect to it. Jangly guitars play in wide intervals and more melodic layers and effects join in. The sound is nice, not becoming overbearing, however, halfway through, it suddenly becomes very thick and heavy. The intensity suddenly drops of at minutes and lead into the short intermezzo "Wall" (0:42), which is fuzzy guitar noise with a industrial feel to it as it is looped and processed, finally bringing in the full volume of "Void" (6:06). The loop ends, but live heavy guitar continue the pattern of the loop and eventually develops into a complex melody and sound. Some cool texture changes soon change things up a bit as the music is disassembled and then put back together in a new, but still heavy sound, this time with a slightly cleaner feel, but time continues to build the sound as the track goes on.

This EP is a nice example of post metal/rock, sort of along the same lines as "Pelican" but less plodding and a bit more melodic. The music mostly follows the building patterns of the genre, but tending to stay on the heavy side and always building interesting, but sometimes overly repeating riffs. It's all pretty good, and probably just the right length as it is sometimes unrelenting, but lovers of the post metal genre should be happy with it. It may have become tiring if it was a full length album and more variety and experimental sections were not added, but as it is, it is just right. Loud enough to keep your interest and I do love the heaviness of it all, yet short enough so as not to wear you out with the sound. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

"Genesis Device" Emergency sirens blare, warning the innocent of the impending thrashing of guitars and drums.

"Dysphoria" What makes this an outstanding bit of metal are the subtle bends and slides from the electric guitars. Something about the second half makes it sounds like heavy metal Styx.

"Avalanche" No snow is coming down here; instead, it's a cataclysm of thunderous guitar noise interspersed with eerie quiet.

"Everything's Mirrors" Passing into quieter, more melodic music, this delay-laden piece breathes and invigorates what was heretofore a good but somewhat stuffy metal album.

"Viceroy" After the beautiful interlude from space, Cloudkicker reenters the atmosphere and plows into the earth with more heavy mayhem. A battery of drums floods the middle section.

"Segue:" As the title implies, this is an interlude. It whispers underwater-like tones and pulls the focus away from metal altogether, treating the listener to an Enya-like new age experience.

"The Discovery" A bit predictably, the lengthy title track launches right back into the hefty, coarseness after a tender respite. I appreciate the variations in the rhythm, particularly with the bass drum.

"Covington" The third of the softer, delay-inspired clean guitar intervals serves the album well, and is, I find, the most like dredg.

"Triumverate!" Here is sixty-three seconds of energized and rhythmically interesting metal.

"States" The final track maintains its heavy metal exterior, but it stands out from the others because it has a hollow center; that is to say, the middle passage of the music has much less intensity.

I have really mixed feelings about that record. Cloudkicker's second album, BEACONS, is undoubtedly very interesting effort and given the fact it's released for free, it's even more awkward to rate it with 3 stars. I promise, I'll explain myself. But now for something completely different...

Damn those tricky one-man baaands! They use computer generated drums and think they're cool. Well, they are. Cloudkicker is anyway. Both his drums, guitars and bass sound convincing. As for drums, they're not as realistic as drum set from hell in CATCH 33 by Meshuggah but still realistic enough. Guitars feel a bit too sterile for my tastes but the fact they're heavy and perfectly executed is undeniable. For a homemade album the sound is just amazing.

Less original and more personal yet still technical. That simple phrase describes the music in BEACONS pretty well, but I'll elaborate on the subject in order to seem more intelligent. So, despite being an instrumental collection of songs, BEACONS is a concept album with a story told in... song titles! It's a story about a plain crash, or should I say a desperate report from the crew, just before the crash. I must say that's what's best in the album - dramatic tension that pervades the whole concept is thrilling. It's like a silent film created with sounds instead of images. Stylistically, Cloudkicker went completely opposite way of what I've expected though. Instead of developing his progressive side, Ben Sharp focused on drama and more traditional approach to riffs and melody. So-called djent is still there, but now it's more of a spice than a defining factor. Don't get me wrong, it's an album loaded with excellent riffs and emotion provoking build-ups ("Amy, I love you" shines here) but its repetitious nature makes it tiresome just too many times.

All in all, BEACONS is a solid album with some great features and some really bad ones too. It's still among the best records in djent as it presents a new approach to the style unlike the mass of young djent bands that have nothing interesting to offer (besides making Meshugah's style more accessible and melodic). If you're into post metal, you may love it. Well, get it to find out, it's free anyway!

TRACKS BY RATINGS: 8/10[great]: Amy, I love you.; Push it way up! || 7/10[very good]: We're goin' in. We're going down.; ...it's just wide-open field.; It's bad. We're hit, man, we are hit. || 6/10[good]: Oh, god.; We were all scared. || 5/10[not bad]: Here, wait a minute! Damn it!; I admit it now. I was scared.; untitled ||

-- Originally posted on METALMUSICARCHIVES.com --

THE DISCOVERY is an instrumental post metal, intriguing blend of disturbing/doom atmosphere and djent. Cloudkicker draws extensively on Meshuggah's twisted ideas to create its own, original interpretation of the style. Sharp uses the poly-rhythmical side of the style but its discordant facet is mostly tamed - an ephemeral atmosphere has precedence over an atonal chaos (which is actually very atmospheric in its own way). The album, with its heavy, bass drum-based riffs in the foreground and disturbing, ephemeral high pitched guitar in the background, make up very consistent creation and provide enjoyable listen.

However, with all its shining merits, THE DISCOVERY is not free of flaws. Having worked out his own style, Sharp don't even try to diversify it. Songs are atmospheric but stiffly composed; interesting but hermetic and repetitive at times. There are some great soft interludes of course, but it's not enough to change the impression of uniformity. Therefore THE DISCOVERY is interesting yet at times tiresome experience - divided in parts tastes much better. Another thing is the production. Sharp saw to it that everything sounds relatively clear but some higher frequencies sound... well, sharp. Especially drums, which are fake by the way, are to be blamed for that.

This is a haunting and inventive record - there is talent, originality, beauty, heart. I highly recommend to give it a listen, at least once.

PS.: The album is available for free by the way. "Dysphoria" recommended as quick check on YT. Enjoy.