Five Star Hotel

Five Star Hotel 

Michigan, USA

For fans of:
Venetian Snares, Prurient, A$AP Ferg

Wow, a really extreme electronic artist. Five star hotel dissects the structure of a lot of modern electronic genres, mixes them up and turns the gain up to 11. In my view it's beyond a gimmick, as I hear a deliberate attempt to create melody and nuance within the dense cornfields of static. This is about the closest I can get to a noise artist and still enjoy it.

Influences

Michael Jerome (All):

In his own words:

"This whole album, regardless of being relatively new, has influenced me a lot recently but this is probably my favorite track on it. To begin w/ the production here by Zaytoven is fucking amazing, and Future's hopeless writing style really completes the tour-de-force that is the track. I was listening to this album on a daily basis while coming up with Hotelseason 2 and the moods presented here are definitely things I try and hit in my own music. I'm still riding off the wave of inspiration the album has given me on some new stuff too for the album I'm working on."

The usual

Facebook Bandcamp Soundcloud

Monolith

Monolith

Torbay, United Kingdom

For fans of:
The Acacia Strain, Vildhjarta, Meshuggah

Monolith play a gory, seething type of metal. Every note and beat seem to matter in creating this powerful onslaught of screaming, downtuned guitars and polymetric drums. 'A Votive Offering's cover depicts what looks to me like a stone collosus of tremendous power. Enormous, angry, and that's precisely how the music sounds to me. Crushing, powerful, and almost disastrous, as if it were the soundtrack to buildings collapsing in the wake of something unstoppable.

Influences

Luke Ricketts (Vocals):



Rob Gibbons (Guitar): 


Lewis Hoare (Bass):


Dan Van-Delft (Drums):

The usual

Facebook Bigcartel Bandcamp Youtube Instagram

Sonance

Sonance

Bristol, United Kingdom

For fans of:
Thou, This Will Destroy You, Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Sonance play a tempered mix of crushing sludge metal compounded with carefully arranged minimal movements verging on modern classical or post-rock. This band goes beyond the down-tuned dissonance of sludge metal, beyond the incessant pounding of doom, to create some of the heaviest music I've ever laid ears on. Both sides of the Like Ghosts LP, at its heaviest, sound like an old warehouse full of high powered industrial machinery tearing itself apart. The more minimal arrangements between the sludge sections do so much with so little. Sonance choose not to add layer upon layer to build to a crescendo, but rely on simple, beautiful chord progressions and their relationship to the sounds around them to create an emotional, yet distant feeling, one I hadn't heard before or since Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Influences

Nick Borrie (Live Visuals):


Ben Chappell (Guitar):


Chino Woods (Bass, Vocals): 


Will Turner-Duffin (Guitar, Vocals): 


Jamie Thompson (Drums):

The usual

Facebook Bandcamp Twitter

USA Nails

USA Nails 

London, United Kingdom

For fans of:
Bad Brains, Sonic Youth, The Fall

If USA Nails were a dish, they would be curry. This band has punk-rock at it's core, and is infused with a multitude of flavours including krautrock, noise rock, no wave, hardcore, and god knows what else; and when it all comes together, it knocks your socks off. The lyrics are spitefully shout-spoken, occasionally screamed, while the band hammers away making noisy, dirty punk-rock that comes fitted with psychotic guitar wailing akin to Sonic Youth. The whole thing is a tightly-wound, sweaty, pissed-off mess, and that's a good thing.

Influences

Steven Hodson (Guitar, Vocals): 


Matt Reid (Drums):


Dan Holloway (Bass):


Gareth Thomas (Guitar): 

The usual

Facebook Bandcamp Twitter Tumblr

100 Onces

100 Onces 

Los Angeles, USA

For fans of:
Hella, Chimp Spanner, Alcest

100 Onces play high-energy, emotionally charged math-rock. Their ambitious song structures pay homage to Giraffes? Giraffes! at times, and often veer off down high-tempo heavy metal dirt roads. The metal movements come thick with distortion, almost like black metal, but the melodies themselves somehow remain positive, happy go lucky. Speaking personally, it's great to see two young people who really enjoy every second of what they're playing. They thrash the living day-lights out of their instruments, and they love it. As good as 100 Onces sound on record, I would endeavor to say they're even better live. What's more, they're both really nice guys.

Influences

Barrett Tuttobene (Guitar):

Richard Ray (Drums):

The usual

Facebook Bandcamp