Black Metal one man band Maudiir is out with a new EP filled with sinister menacing.
Following up on last year’s release Le Temps Peste, the new set continues the sentiment and drives the dark spike further, leaning in on speed and prog to unveil a broader musical spectrum. Maudiir is comprised entirely of a single musician, F, or Frédéric Bergeron, according to the Metal Archives. Everything you hear on the album is him.
There are five songs, beginning with “Fracture,” which has a head fake up front followed by walloping riffs. The vocals are very much Black Metal in style, with the slider moved toward the middle. And there is a tasty lead guitar passage, too, putting a ribbon on the song. More up-beat and catchy than your typical music in this vein, Maudiir is creating a unique space for the musical brew he stirs up.
“The Slumber” is next, and while it has high concept guitar layers to it, the track does not give up on the melody. The complexity starts to deepen. “The Fortunate Few” has a more death-metal-like opening but rolls quickly into a rollick then shifts toward prog. “Spirit Of Sulfur” is frantic at every turn, while the closer, “The Crowning Hour,” settles back into the blue collar riff and pushes in Mercyful Fate / King Diamond style storytelling and musical theatrics. A lot of ground is covered on this EP, and it is an excellent continuation and escalation of the groundwork in last year’s album. Recommended.
La Part du Diable drops on Friday, February 19th and the Bandcamp link below is the place to get it.
I don’t have to tell you about 2020 – you were there, too. Usually, at the end of the year, I spend December choosing some photos to repost for good vibes and great memories, but this year I didn’t take a single photograph of a live show. Yeah. So, I am going to post a few photos from 2019 that did not see that light of day then, just for fun. I am keeping the cameras warm for 2021 because hope springs eternal.
There was a lot of excellent music released this year. We published 188 reviews in 2020, a lot more than we thought we would. There are so many “Best of 2020” lists out there that I decided not to do one for FFMB. Instead, I am throwing up a couple of covers from albums we didn’t review this year that were really good – just couldn’t get to everything. We’ll try to do better in 2021.
Thanks to everybody involved with Flying Fiddlesticks Music Blog and the Shardik Media Cabal. Deep gratitude and thanks to all the bands, record labels, venues, publicists, and promoters keeping music alive for all of us.
We’re still here and we are carrying on in 2021. See you out there.
Montreal [*]core band Cell Press venture out with their first EP.
The band Cell Press is only about a year old, but the musicians it is comprised of have been plying their trade for some time. The band is Sean Arsenian, Joey Cormier, Mark McGee, and PQ. If I had to label the music on the self-titled EP, I would call it Punk, but the band does not embrace a particular label and writers are calling them everything from Grindcore to Metalcore to Sludge to Noise so I am going to go with [*]core. Fast, loud, guitar-driven music, sometimes discordant.
There are four songs and a longer track that is referred to as a “noise” piece in the press materials. “Piss Police” is up first and it begins tentatively with thrilling drumming and progressively coagulating guitar riffing, joined later by shouting. “Desert Breath” is like a person running down the street in a flaming halter top who seems to be more concerned about being late than being on fire. “Blacked Out in Verdun” – more great drumming and pensive guitar riffs to twist up the personal cataclysm. “Dead at OACI.” I assume this refers to the Metro Station (but it might not), and it goes from linear, certain riffs to pure mayhem, especially as the end nears. The long track is “My Son Will No the Truth,” clocking in at 11:40 and appearing at the end of the set. It is almost as long as the other for pieces combined. It is the sort of thing you have to just listen to and let happen. Describing it wouldn’t really get us anywhere.
Noisy and enjoyable, I give this Cell Press effort high marks. I am a Punk fan from the beginning, and I hear those roots here, certainly in the attitude, even if the category is technically off. The disenfranchisement is very appealing. Recommended.
You can buy the digital at Bandcamp, No Funeral Records has a cassette and T-shirt, and Ancient Temple Recordings will also be carrying products. Links below. The official release date is this Friday, November 27.
There are a lot of music festivals out there. Are they all the same? And where does Heavy Montreal land in the mix? It all depends on what you are looking for in a festival.
Let’s confine ourselves to general rock festivals in the US and Canada (but mostly in the US). For example, I am leaving out Maryland Deathfest because, even though it is a great festival, it is too specific: Death Metal. I will compare Heavy Montreal to Aftershock, Inkcarceration, Sonic Temple, Rocklahoma, etc. Festivals like that.
What matters about a festival? I think these things are important: lineup, price, number of days, venue (and location), other cool stuff at the festival, food, and promoter policies. With these things in mind, let’s see how Heavy Montreal stacks up. Lineup. Heavy Montreal has headliners just as prominent as any other festival. The festival headliner this year was Slayer doing its final lap on their farewell tour. The real strength in the acts they present lies in two characteristics: there are more heavy bands than at other festivals and there are always bands that no other festival has.
MONTREAL, QUE.: July 28, 2019– Slayer perform during the Heavy Montreal festival at Montreal’s Parc Jean Drapeau on Sunday July 28, 2019. (Tim Snow – @timsnowphoto)
Price. This festival is less expensive than other major festival, and by a considerable margin. General Admission passes and VIP are both cheaper, and recently, if you are traveling from the US, the exchange rate really helps you out because the US$1.00 is worth about C$1.32. More bang for your buck. Number of days. Heavy Montreal is two days while many other festivals are three days. This difference partly accounts for the lower ticket price. However, the 77 Festival is held at the same location on the Friday before Heavy Montreal, and you can buy tickets as add-ons for a very modest price difference. If you want three days, you got it. 77 is a punk festival and the lineup is always impressive. It is a strong complement to Heavy Montreal. Venue (and location). Montreal is a beautiful city with a European feel. There are endless art and cultural activities all year round, and excellent nightlife spots. Public transportation is easy to use, safe, and inexpensive. It is a great city to visit. The festival venue is Parc Jean-Drapeau, an attractive green park on an island in the St. Lawrence River that runs along the city. There is a Metro stop immediately at the entrance to Heavy Montreal – you can’t miss it. This unique and amazing place adds depth and ambience to the festival. There are other festivals in beautiful and special places, like Fire in the Mountains, for example, held on a ranch in the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Most festivals are situated more for access than for environment. It is truly something special when you both come together. Other cool stuff at the festival. Some festivals offer other attractions besides the music. Inkcarceration has a expansive tattoo festival going on at the same time. Sonic Temple included beautiful art installations all over the festival grounds. This year, Heavy Montreal had professional wrestling – something I have never seen at any other festival. The live wrestling events drew a small but loyal and enthusiastic crowd who clearly knew the wrestlers involved because the cheered the heroes and booed the villains. Food. The food is what I would describe as Canadian cuisine. Poutine plus food that has standard US Midwestern equivalents. Prices were good (especially with the exchange rate bump). Water was sold very inexpensively (C$2.00/bottle) and there were many hydration stations with free water – a very important and valuable benefit mostly absent or extremely limited at US festivals. Indeed, the water makes up for the limited food selections, in my view. The greatest food tragedy for me was the absence of Island Noodles! I didn’t know what to do with myself. Promoter policies. The two complaints I hear most from fans about event policies are the bag policy (what bags you can carry into the venue) and ticket discounting. Heavy Montreal has a clear tier system for selling tickets, and they tell exactly how many tickets are available at each step. When one step sells out, then the price goes up. There is no mystery about it. They also allow VIP (called “Gold”) upgrades from GA tickets you have already bought, which is a rarity in the festival world. Some festivals have enraged fans by selling tickets at deep discounts near the start of the event in order to sell it out. Heavy Montreal does not do this. The bag policy is very relaxed compared to other festivals, and security is simplified so the lines move quickly. Overall, Heavy Montreal is much more fan-friendly than most other festivals.
To summarize in one phrase: Heavy Montreal is one of the top 5 music festivals in North America. If you can go every year, you should. I you can’t go every year, you have try it at least once and see what the fuss is all about. You won’t regret it.
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