THE BASEMENT PAINTINGS: Antipodes

The Basement Paintings from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan got together in the winter of 2011 and quickly got to work recording a full-length debut album which was released in March of 2013. The follow-up EP, titled Time Lapse City was released in March of 2014, and their next release was Mystic. The band has a mix of progressive rock, metal, experimental, and post-rock sound that they manage to pull off quite well.

The songs are all instrumental and at times have a touch of Tool in sound, but never enough to make them a copyist, just like adding a touch of salt to your food; it seasons it enough to make it tasty. This band has a lot of talent, they play with such precision and with feeling that you can close your eyes and just nod your head along to the tracks and drift away. Not saying that there isn’t some metal crunch, but the songs just flow so beautifully that you get into a trance-like state listening to it. All of the tracks except one, are all over eight minutes long, the last track is a whopping fifteen minutes long, so make sure that you have the time for this.

With such lengthy tracks, the band has a chance to go places with the listener that they wouldn’t if they were cut shorter in time. Grab a drink, pull up a chair and go on a long journey with these guys and see where you land.

http://www.thebasementpaintings.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Basement-Paintings/140222956134635

https://thebasementpaintings.bandcamp.com/

THOR: Keep The Dogs Away: Deluxe

Thor started out as a concept band in 1973. They used the names “Thor,” “Centaur” and “Mikl Body Rock.” These entities were the brainchild of Jon Mikl Thor, a vocalist, musician and body building champion who won titles such as Mr. USA and Mr. Canada. He decided to combine muscle with music and in 1977, they released their debut album Keep the Dogs Away.

This is a remastered and greatly expanded version of that debut album, one that I remember seeing not long after it came out in a record store and bought it because it looked cool, at least to a younger me, and my mom loved body builders and Dobermans. I took it home, showed my mom who loved the cover, loved the cover…she really did, and put it on. It was a bit lighter in the metal, but still had a cool hard rock sound that we both liked a lot. The title track really stuck in my head, from then until I got this CD and heard it again. My mom owned a sub store called Trudy’s Subs and she put that poster up in her store, lots of people bought food there, so I’m sure she helped sell a few copies of the album with her poster placement. So now I sit and listen to the album again after all these years and I’m surprised that it still sounds good, a bit of the times, but still has the hooks and the fun that carries it. I was really surprised at the bonus songs the most. If you just listen to the regular album, it’s full of catchy hard rock, but the bonus songs are a mix of glam rock and punky new wave. I loved the bonus disc so much because it gave me a new side of Thor that I never knew and these songs are amazing. The playing is tight, it sounds like everyone was having fun and the songs could fool people into thinking that they were underground hits back in the old days…lol. The remastering is fantastic with the sound being clear, and clean, the booklet has pictures from when the album came out, information about the album and…a reproduction of the poster that captured my mom so long ago. Not only do you get two CDs, but you get a DVD with a concert from 1980 that is fun to watch. How can you go wrong?

I really am happy that this has been released again, and with so much added to it, giving everyone a chance to see where Thor came from. This brought back great memories for me, hopefully if you are a fan, it will for you as well, and if you are trying just curious, grab this one today! This is a thunder-god that will slay you with melody, not lightning…thank Odin for that!

https://www.facebook.com/THOR.Official.Page

https://thormusic.bandcamp.com/album/keep-the-dogs-away

https://thorcentral.net/index.html

https://www.facebook.com/CleopatraRecords/

http://cleorecs.com/home/

KEN mode: Entrench: CD

Winnipeg’s KEN mode new release is actually their fifth album, which marks a decade since the release of their first. This album could fool you into thinking that they were new with the urgent and relentless, and angry sounds emanating from them.

This is an aggressive album, and the bludgeoning weight of post-hardcore features heavily with the guitars saw-toothed and gouging in parts, and highly technical in others. The band really rip through this album as though they were a force of nature and are coming to devastate your town. You get song after song of pure energy and power that grabs you and the anger is so strong that you can feel it hitting you from the speakers.

After five albums, these guys show no sign of slowing down or becoming wimpy, instead it sounds as if they got their second wind and really are making their move into bigger and better areas.

https://www.facebook.com/kenmode  http://www.ken-mode.com/

http://kenmode.bandcamp.com/album/entrench  https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial

http://www.season-of-mist.com/