Veil of Maya’s ‘Mikasa’ Marks the Official Death of Djent

#VeilHasRisen marks a new phase in the life of the band Veil of Maya (VoM). This new phase is one marked by commercialism: Veil of Maya is a pop band now.

VoM was one of the earliest djent bands. Its 2008 album The Common Man’s Collapse was experimented with polymetric superposition (the hallmark attribute of djent) years before it became a staple for metal bands to pretend they are progressive.

With its release of “Mikasa,” VoM has shown that it has adopted not just clean vocals, but clean vocal melodies that sound as though they were lifted from Top 20 … Read more

Schoenberg ‘Ice Cream Truck’ Is the Best Thing Ever

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), one of the most important figures in the history of Western art music

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), one of the most important figures in the history of Western art music

Arnold Schoenberg revolutionized music. There is no other way to articulate this fact—Schoenberg instigated a musical revolution. 12-tone serialism, or dodecaphony, the style of atonal composition the Austrian composer invented in 1921, was without a doubt one of the most important developments in the history of Western music. The reverberations (pun-intended) of Schoenberg’s works are still loudly resonating with us today.

Naturally, then, a scholar had the stroke of genius to immortalize the musical legend in the way all brilliant composers should be immortalized: … Read more

Review: Tigran Hamasyan – Mockroot

The rhythm section on Mockroot: (from left to right) Sam Minaie (bass), Tigran Hamasyan, and Arthur Hnatek (drums)  CREDIT: Maeve Stam

The rhythm section on Mockroot (from left to right), Sam Minaie (bass), Tigran Hamasyan, and Arthur Hnatek (drums)
CREDIT: Maeve Stam

Being a musical genius is hard. Not in the, “Oh, I’m a musical genius, I’m so oppressed, pity me” sense, but rather in the sense that one must live up to the expectations one has created. This is of course not a problem limited to the realm of music; all artists must ultimately struggle with it. If an artist has released material before, their new work is inevitably, and necessarily, put into a particular context. One must walk a … Read more

Clément Belio’s Contrast

Clément Belio: the Man, the Myth, the Legend

Clément Belio: the Man, the Myth, the Legend, the Goofball

Clément Belio is, quite simply, making the music of the future.

I don’t say this lightly. It’s a common (trite) trend, to call experimental music the “music of the future” (or, for extra pretense, the “Music of the Future”), acting as though some EP recorded in the bedroom of your favorite obscure indie band is going to herald in a new era of music.

I don’t know if Clément Belio’s music is going to herald anything in, per se, but I would still describe it as the music of the … Read more