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I realize that videos like this do nothing but give more ammo to those who say shredders are a dime a dozen, but still, I can’t help but be ridiculously impressed by this kid’s skills. Maybe one day he’ll put them to greater use by writing his own compositions and changing metal for the better like Tosin Abasi has done. You gotta start somewhere.
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Thanks: Matias
Soon enough you won’t need to watch crappy, fan-filmed sideways footage of the new Animals as Leaders song because you’ll be able to watch awesome, right-side-up, pro-shot footage of it: the band is filming a live DVD on their current tour with Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, Last Chance to Reason and Evan Brewer. Here’s MS reader Mason K. with a personal account of how he found out about the DVD at this past Saturday’s tour stop:
But the reason for this e-mail (besides to remind all that they should go if they still have a chance), is to reveal (if you have not heard already) that AAL was filming for a Live DVD at the show, and was verified by “God-sent” Abasi.
The release date of T.R.A.M.’s debut album Lingua Franca via Sumerian Records has been delayed, but that hasn’t stopped the label from releasing 4 minutes of an unmastered version of the track “Endeavor,” picked up by our fellow T.R.A.M. enthusiasts at Metal Injection. The band, of course, features Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders, Adrian Terrazas formerly of The Mars Volta and Eric Moore of Suicidal Tendencies. We’ve been excited about this band ever since we saw them at SXSW, and while the Metal Injection-filmed live footage of that show was super-stellar it’s great to finally hear a studio version of something.
And it sounds exactly like I hoped it would. You can tell there’s a basic structure to the song — Section A, Section B, Section A, etc — but that within each section there’s no set script, and a pre-determined band member is free to improvise within the given framework. T.R.A.M. isn’t really so much a metal band as they are a jazz band with distorted guitars and shredding, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong that; the metal world needs to be turned upside down and shaken once in a while, and #2 Tosin Abasi on our list of the Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists is the perfect guy to do it.
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Did you know that Tosin Abasi’s Animals as Leaders cohort and fellow 8-string guitar wielder Javier Reyes auditioned to be in Periphery five years ago? Me neither, but that’s one of many interesting tidbits of information to be gleaned from this excellent video interview Ryan’s Rock Show recently conducted with Abasi (#2 on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list) and Reyes (equally deserving, no doubt).
Other things you’ll want to know if you don’t have 17 minutes to watch the above interview:
The interview goes on to talk about T.R.A.M., whose debut will come out on June 28th via Sumerian, AAL’s upcoming touring plans and more. Definitely worth a watch if you have the time.
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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Animals as Leaders’ Tosin Abasi…
It’s only been two years since Abasi released his debut solo effort under the Animals as Leaders moniker, but, oh, how times have since changed. When Prosthetic Records took a risk by releasing an ambient, shreddy metal album with no vocals by a relatively obscure, young guitarist, there’s no way they could’ve known the sea change it would inspire, and that there’d be dozens, if not hundreds, of imitators the world over. To say that Abasi has been a total game-changer for metal would be an understatement, and to say that he’s an immensely talented player deserving of every single accolade he receives doesn’t even really come close to capturing just how good he really is.
When Tosin Abasi announced from the stage at the SXSW Sumerian Showcase that Animals as Leaders “aren’t on Sumerian Records… yet… undisclosed information,” we took that to mean the band’s next record would be released through Sumerian. Wouldn’t you? Not the case, says a press release that landed on the MS doorstep last night; the band’s next record will be released through Prosthetic, the label that put out their self-titled debut. And you know what? I’m kinda glad. That’s not a knock on Sumerian at all — but Prosthetic took a risk by releasing a wonky instrumental record by a band no one had heard of, and now that shit’s blowing up for AAL they deserve to reap the benefits for at least another album.
Speaking of said wonky instrumental record, the same press release tells us that Animals as Leaders will be released on vinyl in June! Bonertime. The 180-gram double-LP set, which includes the song “Wave of Babies” (previously an iTunes exclusive) as a bonus track, will feature a high-quality Stoughton gatefold jacket with enhanced album artwork that includes 3D imagery and custom AAL 3D glasses (!!!!!). The set is available in three different color combinations and is limited to 1,000 pieces total. There will also be a brand new, exclusive T-shirt available on its own or in a bundle with the LPs.
So, um, what are you waiting for? Pre-order yours here. I just did. The colored version, natch.
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Yep, you read that right — Sumerian has signed T.R.A.M., a new supergroup consisting of Animals as Leaders guitarists Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes, Suicidal Tendencies drummer Eric Moore, and Adrian Terrazas (who used to go by “Adrian Terrazas-González” but whatever), who played flute/sax/bass clarinet/percussions on three albums by The Mars Volta (Frances the Mute, Amputechture, and The Bedlam in Goliath). The band’s moniker, in case you haven’t put it together, is an amalgamation of the last initial of each musicians’ name (For the cheap seats: Terrazas, Reyes, Abasi, Moore).
Serious question: does anyone actually watch these shred instructional videos and go “eureka! that’s how it’s done! it all makes sense and now i can shred too!” on their way to shred superstardom, or do we all just stare at these videos in awe and use them as proof that there are real, live players behind those leads instead of superhuman automatons? ‘Cause it seems to me like these videos are at way too high of a level for anyone to actually be able to learn anything off of them… or, if you’re at a high enough level to where having these complex shred riffs slowed down a wee bit actually helps them make sense to you, shouldn’t you be able to figure them out anyway without the aid of a video like this?
Whatever… I’m content to watch in awe and be astounded that a man can actually make the sounds that come from Tosin Abasi’s guitar. Damn, that “CAFO” riff is sick.
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[via Got Djent]
I usually can’t make it through any video that’s more than 5 minutes, but when it comes to Animals as Leaders my attention span is suddenly infinitely long. Which is a topic that Rob from Metal Injection touches on in his 9-minute interview with all three members of Animals as Leaders: what is it about the band’s music that makes their followers so fanatical? There’s really no in-between; you either looooooove AAL or you don’t care at all about them. In the interview Tosin Abasi also reveals how he found the other two members of the band and how they plan to work as a unit on the next record, the possibility of an AAL headline tour, what music they listen to in the van (it ain’t metal) and more. Watch it below.
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When Sumerian Records announced they’d signed Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Bizzy Bone to a recording contract this past July I predictably ridiculed the move and made a joke that we’d likely soon see Bizzy Bone opening up for The Faceless on their next tour.
Well, seems that I wasn’t too far off. This footage of Bizzy Bone performing live in California is actually from June 12th, before the signing was announced, but that’s Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders on guitar. AAL aren’t on Sumerian but Abasi’s ties with the label run deep; he filled in on guitar for Sumerian signees Born of Osiris on tour in 2009 and his frequent collaborator Misha Mansoor’s band Periphery is signed to Sumerian, just to name a couple of connections.
Unfortunately the sound on this video is pretty poor, but a few of Tosin’s leads do shine through. Now… an Animals as Leaders shred cover of “Tha Crossroads”… that’s something I’d pay to hear!
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Thanks: Binary Code guitarist Jesse Z.
Animals as Leaders completely lived up to my uber-high expectations at the NYC stop of the MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour last night; they were positively phenomenal. What’s more, I wasn’t only person so stoked in advance and so satisfied after; the minute openers Vital Remains finished playing hundreds of kids bum-rushed the stage to jockey for a good spot for Animals as Leaders, and the enthusiasm for Tosin Abasi’s traveling troupe of troubadors did not abate throughout their set. Guitar geeks screeched at the opening notes of each song, heads bobbed along with each polyrythmic shift, eyes laid transfixed on Tosin’s hands of lightning, and last but most certainly not least, bodies grooved along with the pulsating, atmospheric soundscapes.
It’s so good to see that so many people really, really like this band. They deserve all the attention and praise they’re getting, and all too often deserving acts get lost in the shuffle of what’s hip or scene. Animals as Leaders are neither, but judging by the reaction last night I’d say they could cut it on their own headlining tour right now, and they’ve done it solely by playing things their way and their way only. “Fuck yes” for good music winning a battle for once!
Here’s Tosin Abasi playing through “Song of Solomon” in a video he recorded for EMG pickups (posted on Got-Djent.com). Hopefully this will silence the haters who claim Abasi is just a fast, soul-less shredder; yeah, he’s fast as fuck, but LOOK at what he’s playing — there’s composition, forethought and most certainly soul behind those ripping quick leads. Abasi is one of the best guitar players in the world right now. Watch:
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I completely, 110% share Metal Injection’s enthusiasm for seeing Animals as Leaders at Summer Slaughter this coming Sunday, for I was also at their SXSW performance and my mind, like Rob’s, was also shattered into a thousand little puny pieces by the superior super-human ability of Tosin Abasi and co. As we’ve said ad nauseam the Summer Slaughter lineup this year is absolutely stacked and I’m excited to see all the bands (except for one), but Animals as Leaders are definitely THE band I’m most pumped to watch. I’ll be rocking out up front and screaming like a little school girl fapping away in the corner as this band of extraordinarily talented gentlemen display their extraordinary musical powers… and somehow I’m gonna have to find a place to burn a doobie before their set. Hey, Summer Slaughter bands, if you wanna do a little puffin’ with Axl and Vince this Sunday, we’ll supply the greens if you supply the locale!
Here they are performing “CAFO” at the Summer Slaughter stop in Fort Worth, TX. Fuck yeah to the guy up front who’s doing windmills despite the fact that the band isn’t playing in any discernible time signature whatsoever for more than a few seconds at a time.
Summer Slaughter rolls through your town soon! Get dates for the MetalSucks-sponsored tour here.
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Tosin Abasi is undoubtedly one of the few guitarists in modern metal that I’d classify as a musical genius. I mean, there’s lotsa dudes that can play… but not very many dudes who can really play and who have a true, fundamental, natural understanding of the instrument the way Abasi does. Abasi is like that young hitter your team calls up from the minors, the guy who possesses the raw strength to smack a home run over the wall but who also understands and appreciates the nuance of the game, can hit curveballs, and can make adjustments to wily pitcher tactics within an at-bat (hey Ike Davis!). He’s that good.
I’m not sure how I missed the fact that his band Animals as Leaders has released a new single yesterday exclusively on iTunes called “Wave of Babies,” but there ya have it, as reported by SMN News. Since I luurrrrved Animals as Leaders’ self-titled debut album so much that I called it the 12th best album of 2009, this was an instant purchase for me (buy here).
Animals as Leaders were so fucking good when I saw them play the small room at Emo’s during SXSW that still, over a month later, I can’t stop thinking about that performance. For me and most people in the room it was the first time seeing the band live, and whenever you see a band you’ve really been digging live for the first time there’s a certain special energy and uncontainable excitement. That everyone in the room was in the exact same boat made it even bigger. Like the first time (and shit, even the second time) we saw Gojira headline… it was all just pure excitement and unadulterated happiness. OK, maybe Animals as Leaders weren’t Gojira great, but they still killed it and I can’t wait to see them again when they come through with the Summer Slaughter tour.
Here’s a live video I found of Animals as Leaders playing “Tempting Time” live in St. Louis this past Fall. The room is bigger, and as such the excitement level lower, than when I saw them… but it’s still a great taste of what these guys do live.
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We need to come up with a new genre name for one-man, instrumental, groovy, Meshuggah-influenced bedroom projects. Pioneered by dudes like Misha Mansoor and Tosin Abasi and proliferated amongst the myriad guitar message boards of the Internet, the metal micro-genre is a force to be reckoned with that’s spawned many bands/projects we’ve written about — such as Keith Merrow, Chimp Spanner, Cloudkicker, etc — and hundreds more we haven’t. This is not Sumeriancore, though that genre is akin to something of a cousin. “Djent” is stupid. “One-man, instrumental, groovy, Meshuggah-influenced bedroom projects” is way too long. “Groovy progressive instrumetal” doesn’t have a good ring to it. Halp.
The latest example is Tre Watson of the Baltimore band Carthage. Tre emailed us last night to tell us that he just released a solo album under his own name that he’s made available for free download [updated link] to the masses (side note: putting up your album for free download is totally the “IN” thing to do in this scene). Then The Number of the Blog‘s deseee posted about it this morning with an embedded stream of the track “Conflicting Intentions” from the album. Don’t let the super thrashy intro fool you; about a minute into the song things get mighty groovy and progressive.
What can we call this genre? ‘Cause lord knows the need to categorize exists in the human psychology and we at MetalSucks certainly aren’t above pigeonholing. So let’s go… give it your best shot. Anyone who answers “crap” (or similar) gets an e-slap on the face.
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I’m always fascinated when dudes with genuine musical talented take gigs with bands that are far below their level. I mean, it makes perfect sense; band needs a fill-in member or hired gun and someone else in the band / their label / their management knows someone who knows someone who can learn the material fast and play it well. Dude takes the gig because it pays crazy loot. I guess mostly I’m just disappointed that someone with such obvious talent isn’t doing something that really puts their skills to full use. Last week I ended up drinking beers with the keyboard player for Kanye West and Lady Gaga’s live bands; dude’s all sorts of talented but instead is relegated to playing little pop ditties. I guess we all have bills to pay, right? And on the brightside, those endeavors can certainly fund more interesting ones later on.
This is all a very long-winded introduction to MS Maniac Mark Moritz-Rabson’s discovery that Korn’s current fill-in guitarist Shane Gibson turns out to be quite a musician. He certainly doesn’t make Korn’s shit-tastic music sound any better, but on his own he’s a talented player. His style really reminds me of Animals As Leaders’ Tosin Abasi.
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Okay. I get it. The boys in Born of Osiris are young. Real young. And judging by the brand-spanking-new tour bus they were ghost riding in, someone has really big plans for their future. And, honestly, so do I. Those kids can play. They can play real well, and I have honestly been a fan of theirs for some time now.
But I’d suggest that someone tutors them a bit about the history of the music they are making. Also about giving good interview: despite there being obvious differences between their Sumerian debut, A New Reign, and their recently released follow-up, A Higher Place, the boys think the biggest difference is that the latter is… longer. Seriously.
I could explain more, but… it’s probably best that you just read the interview. Full transcript after the jump.
Born of Osiris are making it very hard for those of us who like their music to defend them against the tr00est of the tr00. Next week we’re going to run an interview in which many members of the band admit to some pretty serious lapses in basical Metal 101 knowledge; now New York Magazine, of all fucking publications, has a video of guitarist Tosin Abasi (also of Animals as Leaders), well… just read for yourself:
Tosin Abasi is on tour with the heavy metal band he plays in, Born of Osiris. On stage he wears all-black, but when he’s not working, he likes classic men’s formalwear. The day our Video Look Book cameras caught him he wore a fitted vest from a thrift store and carried a camel leather bag he bought for half-price at Marshall’s. He also wore women’s shorts from Banana Republic and a vintage Schiaparelli hat his girlfriend gave him. “Actually I had dreadlocks and I cut them and I was like, ‘What the fuck do I do with my hair now?’ And she was like, ‘You should have this hat.’ So I’ve been wearing it every day.” Watch the Video Look Book to find out where he got his pink paisley scarf.
I really, really don’t like to judge people solely for what they wear, but… what the fucking fuck dude. Women’s shorts? I’m at a loss for words. Truly.
Click on the screencap below to watch the video. It’s supposed to be embeddable, but New York Magazine is essentially a douchie tabloid for rich people who like to pretend they’re above reading tabloids, and whomever runs their website obviously has no fucking clue what he or she is doing.
-AR
When we introduced you to Sikth, you thanked us. When we introduced you to Textures, you thanked us again.
So, when we say you absolutely need to hear something… you fucking need to hear it. And why not: it’s free!
LISTEN TO ANIMALS AS LEADERS!!!
The fine folks at the unfuckwithable metal label Prosthetic Records have hooked us up with a free track for you from the brand new Animals as Leaders album, out next Tuesday. This is intricate instru-metal of the highest caliber for the kind of metal fan who’s more concerned with musicianship, arrangement and composition than with “being fucking br00tal dudez!!” (though it certainly is heavy). It’s the brainchild of guitar wunkerkind Tosin Abasi, who is pretty much the Trent Reznor of this micro-genre of metal in that the band is basically just his project. Stream and download below. Enjoy.
Animals as Leaders – “Tempting Time”
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