December 2015 Music Pick

Dazed and Delight - Aldious 

There's not a lot of girl metal bands out there. Aldious is one of the few and they sure stand out. They are five beautiful women rocking it out hard in their performance. The last I listened to Aldious was their album, Determination, when they still had their old vocalist, Rami. Their new vocalist, Re:no has very similar vocals to Rami and sings in a very similar fashion. This alternative album by Aldious show improvement from their previous songs. They're not as repetitive as I found them. They snuck in a softer song, I Don't Like Me, which surprised me because it sounded like something that might belong on a new age album. They are experimenting a lot more spanning from grungier sound to pop sounding. The Breeze at Dawn sounds like gothic metal if not a bit of ominous nu metal. Butterfly Effect and Dominator are the headbangers.

Epsilon - Blood Stain Child 

Blood Stain Child hasn't released anything except an EP in 2014. I don't know why they keep changing vocalists and there's pretty been no activity. What I liked about Blood Stain Child is their heavy metal mashed with industrial and trance. It always has that futuristic sci-fi feel to it. I came across their music in Imaginary Flying Machine, a cover album dedicated to reinterpreting Ghibli songs into headbanging metal. If you enjoy cyber metal or something of that type, Epsilon may be the album for you.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children - Nobuo Uematsu 

The odd one out of this months list. I go back to this soundtrack a lot because I really enjoy the combination of hard rock and orchestra. Nobuo Uematsu has created a lot of musical works for the Final Fantasy series and this is one of the best he has done in my opinion. Apart from the series, listening to the score itself is very enjoyable. One of my favorites is Let the Battles Begin (piano version). It plays during the fight between Tifa and Kadaj and rather than going with "typical fighting music", they chose an intense piano piece. There's a lot of tension in the heavy tracks and the operatic qualities of the orchestra tracks add to the dominance of foreboding.

Eye of Providence - The Agonist

If you are looking for something on a more edgier side, this album may be the one for you. Bold and brash, The Agonist brings melodic death metal to new heights. I recently found out about this band from my many musical suggestions on the web, thanks to Youtube. I was mainly looking into Alissa White-Gluz who has been a vocalist in many metal bands. It led me to discover that Vicky Psarakis is the current vocalist. Vicky's voice can emulate raw screams, but in songs like Faceless Messenger, it can sound a lot like a sweet hymn. I admire the versatility in the album as well, it is not just screams and growls. now I'm looking forward to try out their old works.

Take It Like a Man - Butcher Babies

I only watched their MV, Monster Ball, and I could see that there was so much energy. It's so aggressive and if I watched it live, I think it would be even crazier. Perhaps in these contemporary times that many of us are pushing for gender equality, Butcher Babies seems to be a good example of pushing the envelope. Their vocalists, Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey, are practically showing it through their music and image that women can be hardcore, sexy, and not give a shit about what you think about them. Hence, Take it Like a Man. I was surprised to learn that this was a fairly new band. It feels like they are challenging the existing tropes of women in metal music.