And now for something different.

Our inboxes with have been flooded with “Readers’ Choice” entries of late. By and large people seem especially prone to sending us bands that can loosely be defined as deathcore, metalcore, or Sumeriancore, but claiming that for some barely perceptible reason THIS band is different and therefore worthy of our attention. They almost never are.

Tim Shanks sent us a link to a band called The Chronicles of Israfel that falls into none of the above categories or any easily-definable sub-genres at all other than “really fucking impressive.” This Montreal one-man project falls somewhere in the nebulous continuum between Devin Townsend, Cynic, Meshuggah, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, King’s X and Tool. They (he) play complex, melodic but punishing progressive metal that doesn’t lose sight of the art of writing actual “songs.”

If that description doesn’t pique your interest, I’m not sure what else there is that I can say… so just check out the 7-song collection on the Chronicles of Israfel MySpace page. I actually think the songs farther down the list are the strongest. I listened to all 7 though, and I wish there were more.

-VN