Texas prog metal merchants WHITE ARMS OF ATHENA just released their excellent debut album on Prosthetic Records, Astrodrama. Metal Army caught up with bassist Tom Sifuentes to chat about the band, how they make music and what it’s like for a relativity young and humble group of musicians trying to make its way in the game in 2011.
MAA: Astrodrama is out today, so congratulations! Can you take us through the writing and recording process.
TS: Yeah, sure. And thank you by the way. As far as the writing goes, I’d say all three of the guitar players, I play bass guitar and the two other guitar players we are all really about writing our own stuff. Writing full parts and full songs too. I play guitar too, so all three of us have a big input as to how the songs go. As far as that goes it’s pretty hard to get everybody’s input in without taking away from someone else. I think we did an alright job of including everybody’s and all their writing input. As far as recording goes it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. We went out to North Carolina and recorded with Jamie King, who is a pretty famous producer. That was our first real band experience. We haven’t done any big tours yet or recorded in a cool studio like that so to be out of town with the guys was a really great experience.
WAOA only take their music seriously. Photo by Chantelle Renee Photography.
MAA: I hear a ton of different influences on this album. How do you make it all work together so seamlessly?
TS: I think a lot of has to do with, like I said there being three song writers. All three of us, in order to really make it work we need to incorporate everyone’s ideas. I like a lot of jazz and a lot of the smoother stuff and I bring that to the table. While the the other guys really like the grimier, metal stuff. We just try to bring everybody in and that’s how we make it all fit together.
MAA: Is there a loose concept tying the album together?
TS: A few years ago we stumbled upon this little website called Astrodrama. I don’t know if it still goes under that name. It’s kind of like an improve, role playing game, as nerdy as that sounds. I’ve looked on the Internet recently and it’s pretty elaborate with dressing up in costumes. They like to take certain characters from the horoscopes like Pisces and Taurus characters and and what they represent in their human forms. What we wanted to parallel that to with our music is that all of us have very different backgrounds and styles. The same thing with Astrodrama, everybody has totally different styles and a totally unique perspectives. Bringing all these different people together from these backgrounds, it’s like us. It’s kind of the same thing: a lot of people coming together.
Tom Sifuentes is a name you will hear a lot in the future of modern metal bassists.
MAA: You have a pretty unique bass style. Who are some of your influences and what gear do you use to get that sound?
TS: I’d say some of my biggest inspiration as of late comes from Joe Lester of INTRONAUT. His bass lines are out of this world. They are smooth when they have to be and really rocking when they really get into it. One of my all time favorites is Sean Malone. He recorded with CYNIC and he did a lot of other stuff as well. Those two guys really influences me and I can’t even count how many guys other I’ve been inspired by. As far as gear goes I’m with Ampeg right now and I just got an Ampeg 7. I’m playing through all Ampeg from top to bottom. And of course I use Ibanez basses. Where I really get my tone from is this little MXR pedal and I keep it on all the time. Even in the recording, Jamie King had another special DI box, but we wound up using my pedal because it sounded so good and Jamie liked so much.
MAA: The cover art of Astrodrama is very distinctive. How did you hook up with the artist?
TS: Around the time we were about to go record the album I came across this artist from Germany, Dennis Constantine. We thought we’d just reach out to him and he corresponded. We started talking and getting along. He was really cool and understood us, where we are coming from. Being that we are such a young band without too much money, it was cool that he still wanted to work with us. He did an original new piece of art for us which was cool. So we gave him the album and he brought it to us and the front cover and back cover run along together like the same piece. It looks crazy, like it’s from another world. We are really happy with it.
MAA: Do you have any touring plans lined up?
TS: We have a few months off until late October and early November where we will be out for two and half, maybe three weeks. We’ll do some local shows here and there. Then we are meeting us with a prog band from New Jersey called EAST OF THE WALL. We’re gonna do a few weeks out with them, getting out to California and New Mexico and then back to Texas. We have some other stuff in the works too that you will hear about soon. We are always looking for good tours and good shows to play.
MAA: What does it mean to you to to have your band on Prosthetic Records?
TS: I don’t know what to say except that we all really so happy and are ecstatic to be on a label with such a great roster. There are so many bands on the roster that are legendary. We are this little nerdy and new prog band on a label with so much history, it is such an honor. Cliche as that may sound, I mean it. Someday we’d like to be in the class of a GOJIRA or even now ANIMALS AS LEADERS, they are getting so big now and bringing out so much of their genre’s music. We’d like to be one of those bands someday.
The InsideOut music label is know as the home of such metal heavyweight names as THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT and KINGS X, but mainly deals in prog bands, both new and old. One band that has a foot in each world is LEPROUS who are about to release their stunning third album. They combinine all of the nuances and subtleties of classic progressive rock while maintaining the brute force of the best in modern metal. This band is certain to become a game changer once they get in front the ears of a of a bigger audience. They have already opened for IHSAHN and OPETH so who knows how much further they can go? The songs are also tuneful enough for mainstream tastes as well. It is not that far fetched that this band could be poised for big things indeed.
Did you ever think in all of your kaleidoscope dreams, twenty-sided die D&D games and years staring at Roger Dean plastered bedroom walls that a band could come along and combine the best elements of DREAM THEATER, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME and PROTEST THE HERO? Well if you did I am here to tell you that dreams come true. On the title track the band does all of this and more. The first thing you notice is the amazing vocal prowess of singer/keyboardist Einar Solberg. His full-bodied, gorgeous tenor voice has the flair of an Opera star and fire of a rock singer. His soaring melodies carry just about every song and hooked me in immediately since I am a sucker for great vocals. As for the song it is catchy and heavy with a touch of thrash riffs and spacey keyboards. In other words in these modern times this song could actually lift off from this album and make it to a more commercial arena without losing its heart. “Restless” starts off with a syncopated rhythm and an arpeggiated guitar part that sounds like some mellow college rock until the chorus lifts comes in and starts to jam with a dance-y beat and other baddassery. Some of the riffs and singing are as tough as the a fore mentioned rock/metal influences. Tobias Ornes Andersen is a master-killer on the drums and he is often the focal point of the songs after Solberg. The adventurous composition of “Forced Entry” features poly rhythms, shifting keys and time signatures. The guitar playing by Tor Oddmund Suhrke and Oysten Landsverk is ingenious and will have you headbanging one minute and sitting back introspectively the next as well. Both men provide excellent harmonized vocals throughout the album too. Bassist Rein Blomquist steps out on a tasteful mid-song lead bass line that would easily be associated with EVAN BREWER, Joe Lester or other modern greats . “Thorn” is another track that begins with one vibe and quickly becomes another story entirely. Starting off with a mournful trumpet, the song has an ominous groovy feel to it. The chorus would not be out of place on a YES or EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER album with more of Solberg’s vocal magic. Also making a guest appearance is IHSAHN himself and the mid-song riffs are some of the harsher moments on the album. The interplay between the whimsical keys and guitars , jazzy horns and IHSAHN’s death growls are intoxicating. My favorite track on the album is “Mb. Indifferntia”. The song shares many qualities with a classic 1970′s PINK FLOYD track, down to Solberg’s delicate DAVID GILMOUR, MIKE PATTON or DEVIN TOWNSEND style croon. Melodies envelope you and take you over like OPETH would do. The last two minutes of the song are a pure musical orgasm. “Waste of Air” is a chaotic rocker blasting away ghosts of prog past to create something new and modern. “Mediocrity Wins” features a great keyboard part and some neat guitars and bass lines. The whispered, almost rapped verses are a real change up from the rest of the album, but work well here. Blomquist in particular stands out again on a seriously funky walking line that bolsters the main theme of the track. This is another song that could quite seriously become a hit song given varied today’s tastes. “Cryptogenic Desires” is a dense prog metal workout that encompasses everything the band does well in under three minutes. Just perfect. “Acquired Taste” is a slow, boiling ballad that sounds like what I expect the next A PERFECT CIRCLE album to sound like if it ever happens. The final track that closes the opus is “Painful Detour”. The song is prog that borders on djent, goes through many mini movements and still gives you a reason to throw the horns. A definitely a group of artists worth watching.
Prosthetic records is already having a banner year with releases by TRAP THEM, SCALE THE SUMMIT, BLACK SEPTEMBER, LAST CHANCE TO REASON and upcoming releases by SKELETONWITCH and LANDMINE MARATHON. You can add the debut full length release by WHITE ARMS OF ATHENA to the mix of memorable bands on the roster as this album definitely perked up my ears like an aural espresso. Sitting firmly at the cross roads of tech death/djent and prog this is a talented group with a high ceiling for artistry and talent. After listening to Astrodrama I can say firmly that they incorporate all these ideals and still keep it heavy.
Right out of the starting blocks “Evince” is a busy, tech death workout full of musical complexity and balanced with melody. Brutally hard and quite mature for a young band, the song has many micro movements and a flawless grasp of pulling and pushing tempos to the extreme. “Ascend” is next and is a short blast of fury and technicality that will immediately call to mind the Focus album by CYNIC. The jazzy bass and percussion ending coda is down right magical and shows what this band is capable of. “Creationed” begins with a genial wash of guitars before more prog metal explorations. The brutal parts definitely speak to the influence of MESHUGGAH on this band. Vocalist Josh Everett is really comparable to Tommy Rogers (BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME) or even MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN at times and the entire band shred their ass off. Guitarists Andrew Swinson and Colin McDonell shred their assess off making the difficult passages sound easy. Every song has obtuse structures, spazzy lead guitars and textural intricacy that keeps things flowing nicely. “Recreationed” follows and is an epic track that encapsulates their style. Bassist Tom Sifuentes plays some tasteful lead parts where he takes charge. He is definitely from the Joe Lester (INTRONAUT) school of tone and playing what the song needs. The breathtaking instrumental “Crown Chakra” bristles with an almost old-school progressive rock feel while still remaining heavy. Let’s also not overlook the impressive stick work of percussionist Austin Rupp. You can just close your eyes and let the song transport you to a close encounter of the nerd kind. “Astral Body” is another brief instrumental track that is equal parts prog and tech death. The bass guitar heavy “In The Encephalon”, yet another instrumental is one of my favorite works of the entire album. This band could easily give ANIMALS AS LEADERS a run for their money. Furious, patient and grown: this is heavy mental music. The entire album is very strong on repeated listens, especially the title track. Some of the most transformative musical moments of 2011 can be found on this album.
WHITE ARMS OF ATHENA get metaphysical. Photo by Chantelle Prejean.
We are just a few short hours from the might INTRONAUT rocking our site LIVE in the first ever ‘Live from the Compound’! The Compound is Metal Army America’s online home for metal shows. Tune in to see INTRONAUT play an hour set live, just for you and take questions from the audience in this epic unveiling of the ONLY internet night club.
To be a part of this monumental occasion, just visit The Compound (http://www.metalarmyamerica.com/thecompound/) and log in via your Facebook account. You will be able to communicate with the band and other fans as well purchase band merch and more. Oh, and did we mention the awesome, free concert from INTRONAUT!?!?
Beginning at 8PM (Pacific) / 11PM (Eastern), this is not the concert to miss – and one that you can enjoy from your own couch.
Stay tuned for more exclusive, FREE concerts here at Metal Army! If you want to perform on ‘Live at the Compound’, please email editor@metalarmyamerica.com.
When I think of the band HELMET I think of two words: heavy and uncompromising. Coming out of the post-hardcore and metal scene in New York in the late 80′s and early 90′s every band at the time was trying to break boundaries and be unique. HELMET along side such luminaries of the time like PRONG, QUICKSAND, CARNIVORE, UNSANE, BURN and a pre-major label WHITE ZOMBIE were all disparate musical acts bound by similar tastes and musical ambitions. As a native New Yorker I was lucky to witness this scene rise first hand and Page Hamilton’s outfit always made me proud when other people would speak highly of them. Promoting their recently released Seeing Eye Dog (Work Song) the band is back with another lineup and a new reinvigorated mindset for these times.
Local up and comer’s RIBS opened the show tonight. They have built a nice following though constant gigging and sharp social media skills and the early turnout was evidence as they had a lot of heads in the room. Less metal and more like an ambient, shoe-gazey rocking version of A PERFECT CIRCLE, they stunned the crowd with their fine performance. They may have put off some fans of the headliners, but they have a lot in common with the mellower parts of INTRONAUT and I liked their guts to stand up there and do their own thing. All of their songs have interesting textural, layered guitar parts that swept and swayed over the crowd. The best song of the set was called “Brains Out”. They have a strong sense of dynamics and humor in their style that I dug a lot. RIBS also put on a very good stage show and I will be watching their career with great interest.
INTRONAUT released one of my top 5 albums of the year yesterday. ‘Valley of Smoke’ is massive, sprawling and one of the most organically original records I have heard in the last ten years. The band also just unveiled the fourth and final installment of ‘In the Valley of Smoke’ with bassist Joe Lester! Check it out and make sure you pick up ‘Valley of Smoke’!
INTRONAUT has become one of the most respected purveyors of Thinking Man’s Metal in the past five years or so thanks to underground releases ‘Null’, ‘Void’, and my personal favorite ‘The Challenger EP’. Then the band began their breakthrough, signing with Century Media Records for the release of 2008’s ‘Prehistoricisms’ – a masterpiece that was heralded by Decibel, Revolver and the blog world.
INTRONAUT then toured with the true titans of this scene, MASTODON, and have also completed treks alongside CYNIC and other respected bands in the progressive metal scene. Frontman Sacha Dunable has become a bit of an online celebrity since beginning his Blogronaut column over at MetalSucks, drummer Danny Walker has begun a household name in the metal community, Joe Lester (bass) and Dave Timnick (guitar) have received gargantuan praise for their performance of ‘Prehisoricisms’ and it has begun to look as if INTRONAUT can do no wrong!
Now comes ‘Valley of Smoke’, INTRONAUT’s second album for Century Media due out October 12 and it’s vastly superior it’s predecessor. Now including clean vocals that will please fans of JESU or CYNIC and what seems to be a more mature writer in Dunable has made for a quite interesting listen. The song “Above” seems to be just that – above everything else that has been done in the last five years with regard to progressive metal.
I have said repeatedly that this is one of the best times in the history of metal. Not only are there a plethora of great new bands charting new musical territories, but many of the older legacy type acts are not only still alive, but also remain creative forces. One such act like this is CYNIC who made their name in the early days of the 1990′s Death Metal scene in Florida. Now they are based in Los Angeles and are striking while the iron is hot with their 2008 comeback album Traced in Air and their recent EP Re-Traced (Season of Mist). Always possessing ninja level chops and favoring a lot of authentic progressive rock flavors, they have been an indispensable influence on many of today’s prog-metal flag-wavers. Even after their break-up and reformation a few years back CYNIC remains one of the most talented, original and professional bands in all of music.
I have seen DYSRTHYMIA several times over the years and they always shine. They play a combination of instrumental metal with a lot of jazz and prog-rock touches. Considering the crowd tonight was largely populated by a lot of Berklee College of Music types, this saw a band playing directly to their key demographic. Unlike your typical instrumentalists DYSRTHYMIA always show off their impressive chops with as little pretense as possible, which I think endears them to fans. If you dig this type of stuff I highly recommend you pickup their latest release Psychic Maps (Relapse Records) which I bought after their set.
INTRONAUT was up next. I liked their last record, Prehistoricisms (Century Media, 2009), but really fell in love with them when I caught their live performance opening up for MASTODON last year. There were definitely many fans in the house on this night who were there to see them as much as the headliner. The band wasted no time after taking the stage kicked things off with “Elegy” a new song from their next album coming out this fall. The track encapsulated everything this band does great: hypnotic beats, crushing guitars, cool vocals and outstanding bass chops. The song also sees the band charting some new ground as they balance their sludgey modern metal with the newer adventurous material they have been mining of late. Reminiscent of an early HELMET song, “Elegy” goes through several interesting shifts thematically. Next was “The Literal Black Cloud” which was equally heavy, trance- like and amazing. As always the middle section of the track features the beautiful chordal bass work by standout player Joe Lester. Next they played two more new songs which vocalist/guitarist Sacha Dunable told me after the show were called “Above” and “Sunderance”. These tracks are just as sprawling and heavy as the rest of the bands’ work. Closing with the epic “Any Port”, they topped off a fine set with the ending drum-jam between ferocious drummer Danny Walker and guitarist/singer/percussionist Dave Timnick. Sacha was gracious with his time chatting with me after the set which I appreciated and I am really looking forward to that new album.
