Alaskan / Co-Pilot Split

ALASKAN - CO-PILOT - Split
2012
The Treaty Oak Collective

Here is a delightful split, something to please both eyes and ears. Released on 12'' vinyl, this approx 20-minutes long record presents two bands: Ottawa's Alaskan, and Houston's Co-Pilot.

This fantastic combination of bands is brought to you by The Treaty Oak Collective, a new "micro-label" based in Texas, whose first release happens to be this split.

Alaskan occupies side A. "Euthanize" (9:37) picks up where Alaskan left on their latest album "Adversity; Woe". It's the same sludgy and post-metal band you've come to know, but I feel they wanted to go slightly further on this split. In fact, they incorporated more "atmosphere", this time through a collaboration with Ottawa's The Sun Through A Telescope . It's subtle, but it's adding a lot to the whole progression of the song. My first thought was to compare it to the song structure so characteristic of Envy: it starts with some kind of ambiance, then the instruments slowly incorporate, progress, take a left turn, stop, then burst into a short, but grandiose finale. As it turns out, it works really well with Alaskan's musical ideas, so well that each time I am left complaining that the song could have continued for a few more minutes.

Co-Pilot's song "The Bering Sea" (8:51) displays great post-rock instrumental qualities. It reminds me of Three Steps to the Ocean, A Cold Dead Body, Russian Circles or Toronto's Theyageletters.

The artwork is in the same vein as Vestiges' clean, dramatic, and beautiful artworks. It blends perfectly with the music of both bands.

http://alaskan.bandcamp.com/album/split-w-co-pilot
http://thetreatyoakcollective.bandcamp.com/
Also check out The Sun Through a Telescope here: http://tstat.bandcamp.com/album/orange

Titan - Colossus EP

TITAN - Colossus EP
2009
React With Protest

For all of those metal unbelievers out there, who hesitate before picking up a hardcore album, I present you Colossus, an EP drenched in sludgy heaviness that might just convert you.

Like its mythological reference, Titan's walking the earth with a familiar shape, both heavy and epic. It is a wall of muscular and inhuman aggression, laid back at a steady, monumental pace. It is gigantic, punishing, and decisive.

Toronto Titan plays some crossover between mid-'00s sludge and late '90s hardcore. This EP is heavier and slower (not like doom... just less hardcore) than what else I heard from the band. References to Ottawa's Buried Inside might be a appropriate, although Titan clearly points in a different direction.

If I'd rate this album, I'd give extra points for its overall design. From the photography to the layout, and from the choice of cardboard to the decision to release it on vinyl, it is what I consider a "complete" piece of art.

http://titanslays.bandcamp.com/album/colossus
http://www.myspace.com/titanslays

Tunguska Mammoth - First Chapters EP

TUNGUSKA MAMMOTH - First Chapters EP
2011
Indie

Probably the best canadian stoner/sludge metal EP of 2011, First Chapters is the first offering of Montreal's Tunguska Mammoth. I never heard about those guys before, but they definitely got my attention.

First Chapters is a 3-song, 13+ minutes EP. Because of its duration, I would have called it a demo if it didn't have such a solid production. Recorded in the band's own rehearsal studio, its sound quality is excellent, and without a doubt, it will help the band get a lot of visibility very fast.

Tunguska Mammoth swims in troubled waters between the seas of stoner metal, heavy metal and sludge. It's definitely not old school, although it will appeal to both ol'schoolers and nu'schoolers. In comparison with similar canadian acts such as Bison BC, Buffalo Theory Mtl, or Collider, Tunguska Mammoth has this melodic lead guitar orientation that sets them apart.

It's weird to say, but with such a solid EP, one can only expect the album to come to be a masterpiece. Expectactions are high, guys...

http://tunguskamammoth.bandcamp.com/album/first-chapters