MetalSucks

If 2008 was the year of Gojira, then 2009 will most certainly be the year every new band looking for some traction starts saying they sound like Gojira. Especially bands from France. Take recent Metal Blade-signees END. (all capitals, followed by a period. not to be confused with The End, the Tool soundalikes from Canada, or The End Records, based right here in New York). A press release announcing the signing informs us that “Much like fellow homeland heroes Gojira, END. pull off a signature sound that can immediately be picked up by the metal critics.”  Sheesh, I guess they have my number!

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When a press release landed in the MetalSucks inbox a couple of months ago announcing that Fear Factory guitarist (and former bassist) Christian Olde Wolbers had released a signature Randall amplifier head and was currently booking interviews, I got to thinking. Could I possibly land an interview with Wolbers — who also happens to be a talented producer who worked on the recent Threat Signal record and tracked vocals for the new God Forbid album Earthsblood — ask him the one obligatory amplifier question, and then proceed to ask him questions about Fear Factory, producing, and his new band Arkaea? Yes, yes I could. And so I did. Our conversation, after the jump.

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Fiftywatthead – Fogcutter: The band’s name aptly described their sound, but the name of this record should actually be Ballcrusher. Giant-sized, Mastodonian stoner metal that invokes equal parts Neurosis low-end and Kharma to Burn riffage, but often veers a bit too jammy / rambly for their own good.

Fiftywatthead – “Fogcutter”

Silencer – Divisions: Modern melodo-Euro-death-thrash; like The Arcane Order or Soilwork’s heaviest through the lens of Mnemic or (sometimes, almost) Meshuggah. Good chops and solid songwriting but lacking in the dynamics department both song-wise and vocal-wise. Nevertheless solid.

Silencer – “betrayal and massacre: an overture to germania”

Both albums:

(three out of five horns)

[View Musings Part 1]

With One-Way Mirror, the not-quite supergroup of European metal not-quite royalty, this new band has created a surprisingly solid if not particularly revolutionary debut record. You get the impression that One-Way Mirror — which features Guillaume Bideau (Mnemic), David and Franck Potvin (Lyzanxia, Phaze I), Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork) and Loic Colin (Scarve, Watcha) — aren’t trying at all to reinvent the wheel so much as write catchy metal songs with a groove and conventional structure, and at that they’re mostly successful.

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One Way Mirror, a new metal supergroup featuring Guillaume Bideau (Mnemic), David and Franck Potvin (Lyzanxia), Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork) and Loic Colin (Scarve) have released some tunes on their MySpace page. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from this cast of characters, though I don’t mean that in a bad way — a big Gothenberg sound mixed with a more groovy, alt-metal feel. Truth be told, there is some element of American butt-rock in here too, but damn, these are some fucking good songs. In fact, these are some surprisingly really good songs.

One Way Mirror drops June 27 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy), June 30 (Rest of Europe), and July 22nd (US) on Metal Blade Records.

-VN

[One Way Mirror on MySpace]