Metal For Art's Sake

Over the last month or so I've discovered several bands who have produced albums purely for the love and passion of metal. These albums are not intended for the mass commercial market, but rather for the satisfaction of the artists, the pleasure of metal fans, and the pushing of the boundaries of metal itself.

All of these albums are available at no charge, but throwing some money at these bands can help secure this new surge of creative, proficient, and above all excellent metal.

Colosso - Abrasive Peace

Colosso is the brainchild of Max Tomé, Portugese song writer, musician and singer extraordinaire. The aim of the project was to produce a "no boundaries" death metal album, and in that he has certainly succeeded. Joined on the album by Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork, Aborted, Scarve, Bent Sea) on drums, this album is really quite an accomplishment.

Opening with the sound of, I imagine, an evil robot just before it eats your brain, the album swiftly kicks into gear with hard hitting riffs combined with slower, ominous chugging and some top quality riffs beneath the earth shattering vocals. There's no lack of atmosphere and the more experimental sections are well put together. When the barrage of mind abuse abates for a moment, the melodic instrumentals are almost serene, before your ears are blown out again by another thundering explosion of death metal. Highly recommended for fans of technical and experimental death metal with a taste for the atmospheric.

Krokmitën - Alpha-Beta

The embodiment of metal as art, Krokmitën's album Alpha-Beta consists of precisely one track. At 46 minutes long it's an imposing beast, but quite honestly the time flies when experiencing this masterpiece of experimental metal. There is an accompanying lyric video with psychedelic imagery to befuddle the mind and is available for download in 720p high definition, should you feel inclined to dedicate your entire brain to this metal leviathan. The music is also available as a single massive MP3, or as a set of 19 MP3s intended to be played on "gapless" capable players, which all should be. These 19 chapters, as they are referred to by the band, have their own titles and are also present on the CD.

The concept of the album is the man-made creation of the antichrist, from what I can glean. It's certainly an interesting concept, and is carried well by the album. Musically it is, understandably, relentless. There are breaks and instrumental passages, and progressive elements are certainly present, but the entire duration of the song is an immersive death metal experience. The drum work is atmospheric and carries the character of the album, often at the forefront as the jarring, crunching guitar riffs strike the senses again and again. The album is intended to be listened to from start to finish in one go, and so it is better to experience the complete work as one mind-expandingly brilliant piece of music.

As an aside, the artwork is really quite wonderful, too. I can heartily recommend getting the desktop wallpaper. It's certainly made my monitors stand out in the office.

Lithium Dawn - Aion

Last up is Lithium Dawn with their debut album Aion. Rather than the experimental death metal nature of the preceding two, this is instead some of the best independent prog metal I've heard in a very long time. From the ominous intro track to the intricate drum and cymbals, the beautiful guitar tone with djent overtones and great melodies, I was impressed as soon as I heard it. The vocals are certainly worth a mention; emotive, strong, yet soft when required, they don't need growls or screams to be powerful. Delving deeper showed great lyrical talent, too. One of my favourites is:

I've made my mistakes
Never paid my dues
I've left the box open
I've left the screws loose
I don't want any answers
I've asked for too long
I've danced all your dances
I've sang all the songs 

The overall concept for this album is that of a man made immortal, seeing the downfall of man, feeling the deep loss and anger and ultimate acceptance. Each track takes the listener through a chapter of his experience, from initially realising what is happening, through war and destruction, and through personal loneliness, loss and anguish. All of this is told through both lyrics and through the music. Punctuated by classic prog riffs, wailing guitar solos, and epic instrumental passages.

There doesn't seem to be a vast amount of information about this band around at the moment, but I predict we'll be hearing more about them. They've had a mention on got-djent.com and were very well received on Reddit's /r/metal community, which is where I found the link. Keep these guys on the radar, they're going places.