Fornax Chemica are one of the most impressively fresh things I’ve heard come out of New Zealand in a long time.  They blend vocal-less post-rock with technical and progressive metal and the result is spectacular.

I first saw these guys at a gig in Hamilton where probably only 20 people showed up.  I had no idea what to expect going in, but the name intrigued me and man was I not disappointed!

At the time I couldn’t tell where one song started and another began, and after buying this album I can see why.  There’s only 4 tracks, with 3 of them being 14+ mins long, and a 4 min radio-friendly track for good measure.

Corey Friedlander’s drums are absolutely mindblowing, and its great seeing a metal drummer (he’s from 8 foot sativa) really getting to showcase their technical chops in a band like this.

Chemical furnace is the standout track for me, and the wah guitar that comes in at the 9 minute mark gets me dancing in my chair every time.

http://www.myspace.com/fornaxchemica

The Tea Party are a band that throughout their career, have continually managed to reinvent their sound, while retaining the core components of blending a rock mentality with world music.

Transmission sits squarely in the middle of their career, and is probably the most different album they’ve ever done.  Much darker in sound and theme than anything they’ve done before or since, Transmission is their classic eastern rock sound, as filtered through the gothic industrial style of Nine Inch Nails.

While in the 5 years following the release of NIN’s “The Downward Spiral” there were almost countless copycats with bands like Filter, Stabbing Westward, and Gravity Kills, The Tea Party’s offering to the genre stands out from the rest due to its impeccable vocals, and middle eastern influences, as evident on the intro to the opening track “Temptation”.

While the album starts off fairly straight-forward with “Temptation”, which is as made-for-radio as industrial gets, the highlights of this album for me are the incredible slow-build of “Psychopomp”, which really shows off Jeff Martin’s amazingly powerful and soulful voice; the eastern rock vibe of “Gyroscope”, and the experimental beats of “Transmission”.  The piano interlude at the end of “Babylon” also deserves a mention.

Shortly after this album they released a DVD with many of the songs being performed on a music tv program, and while this would have been perfect video footage of a great band at their peak, the sound mix is unfortunately quite terrible, and much of the guitar punch is lost in the mix.

I recommend this to anyone who doesn’t mind embracing their dark side on occasion :)

http://www.myspace.com/theteaparty

Dead Letter Circus are one of the up and coming Australian alternative rock bands that people are keeping a very close eye on.  Exploding on to the rock scene with their first self titled EP with its soaring vocals, guitars drenched in delay effects, and tight rhythm section (the drums are pumping!)

Highlights for me are the chorus from “Disconnect and Apply” which has one of my favorite guitar r

hythms ever, and the softer “Alien”, which has really grown on me over time.

The next EP “Next in line” was shorter (3 songs instead of 5) but got a bit heavier (a pretty insane double kick) and introduced more synth elements, while still retaining a defined “DLC” signature sound.  I’d heard rumors that the vocals from the first EP were autotuned quite heavily, and that the band was having a hard time doing the songs justice live, and if this is

true, it makes sense that the vocals are slightly less ambitious this time around, but don’t worry, they’re still plenty catchy.  Unfortunately the EP is padded out with a pretty terrible remix by Mammal, which saddens me, as they are one of my favourite bands.  Remixes have to be pretty special to warrant being officially released by the band in question I reckon.

Their latest release is the single “The Space On the Wall” which should tide us over until their debut album is rele

ased.  Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see these guys live soon, as I’d love to see how the guitarist pulls off some of his riffs.

http://www.myspace.com/deadlettercircus

The Devin Townsend Project (not to be confused with the Devin Townsend Band) is (oddly enough) Devin Townsend’s latest project.  Since becoming sober, and chopping off the ‘skullet’, he’s decided to release a series of 4 albums in fairly quick succession, just months apart, over the course of a year.  The idea is that each album will be slightly heavier than the last, and deal with different types of music.

The first and softest of these albums is “Ki”.  The songs are less epic and softer than most stuff Devin’s put out, even though they occasionally flirt with the evil sounding Devin we love (Disruptr, Heaven Send).  The softer songs are layered with beautiful harmonies as one would expect from someone who’s a master of their art, as Devin clearly is.

The odd track out is definately “Trainfire”, which is a surprisingly listenable swing experiment that sounds like it could be an Elvis cover (until the typically devvy chorus breaks the pattern).

While this isn’t going to replace Accelerated Evolution or Ziltoid the Omniscient as my favourite Devin albums, its definately a worthy addition to his already impressive catalogue, and I look forward to the next installment, “Addicted”, due in November 09.

http://www.myspace.com/devintownsenddtb