Circles - The Compass

Another find from Invisble Oranges' 2011 In Review: The Year in Tech-Death, Circles - The Compass features beautiful singing over equally heavy riffing. With their emphasis on melody Circles carves their own niche somewhere in between groove metal and modern progressive metal. Melodic tech metal you could call it. Intelligent use of samples and keys, and wisdom enough to don't over do it. And as the IO article continues Really, I mean that: the singing is beautiful. Here are reviews from No Clean Singing, Heavy Blog is Heavy, and Don't Count on it Reviews.

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7 Horns 7 Eyes - Throes Of Absolution

Throes Of Absolution the album by 7 Horns 7 Eyes has just been released on the Basick Records Bandcamp. This is atmospheric, modern death metal. Progressive and technical yes, but also melodic and brutal. The deep menacing growls are the perfect counterpoint to the spiraling melodies, similarly the guitar wizardry is fenced in by the pummeling drumming.

Two of the songs from their Convalescence EP are included here, one of them, Vindicator, is perhaps the best example of how seamless 7 Horns 7 Eyes alleviates brute force with proggresive mastery. Special mention goes to the production, it is modern, but not overly technical sounding. Despite the epicness of it all this is still the sound of a band playing. Here's a reviewfrom No Clean Singing.

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Spiralmountain - Spiralmountain

Artwork by Jimmy Rowe.

Spiralmountain is instrumental metal, more interested in creating ambient soundscapes than shredding your face off. Think of it as a heavier and more visceral version of Cloudkicker. So yes, this is djent, I can even use my new favorite genre name 'ambidjent'. Passages here and there does turn into elevator music, but in quite a nice elevator. In general there's a good mix between the hypnotic crunchy riffing, the progressive parts, and the ambience. Here's a review from Sputnikmusic.

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Bispora - The Cycle

Bispora's The Cycle is heavy progressive music with the perfect mix of ambience thrown in. Here are two mentions on 2001 year-end lists - this from Heavy Blog is Heavy and this from No Clean Singing that says

The Cycle is essentially one twenty-minute song that bounces between a couple of different genres as deftly as Between The Buried And Me do. The main motif of The Cycle is excellent. It is seriously one of the best melodies of the year.

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Returning We Hear the Larks - Proud England

Returning We Hear the Larks - Proud England is ambient djent/tech metal with vocals and a bit more straightforward songwriting than typical for the genre. The Deluxe Package includes an instrumental version of the original EP. Here are a few reviews from Heavy Blog Is Heavy and Don't Count on it Reviews.

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