Blaze Of Perdition - 2015 - Near Death Revelations

Blaze Of Perdition is a band with who I have a mixed relationship with. I saw them live twice and they were incredibly boring, absolutely no redeeming value. Felt like I'm seeing budget Mgla or something. On the other hand on albums they sound actually really fucking good. While most of their albums are either alright or better this one always stands out to me. Maybe this was because it was made after the band had some really tragic encounters with death and when they regrouped they had something of value to say. In terms of sound they definitely resonate some Mgla (and Behemoth during more chaotic segments) but I'd say they work on the guitar details far more than them and generally have a fairly different approach to writing. Every song has two or three things happening at any point giving them a good proggy and dynamic feeling. There's never a dull moment but songs sometimes feel a bit over designed at places, letting some riffs breathe more would elevate this great album into something even better. It's evident that they were brimming with ideas and they put most of them to good use and I think for a modern "Polish sounding" black metal album this one feels like an underappreciated gem honestly. Give it a chance, skip them when they're playing live near you.

Get it.

Herbie Hancock ‎- 1974 - Thrust

I feel like this Hancock album is often overlooked simply because of the fact that it came a year after the majestic and legendary Head Hunters. Sure, it is a superior album in both execution and ideas but Thrust can readily stand by its own as an awesome album made by Herbie during his prime creative time. While both albums a very approachable I think Thrust is a much more laid back and has riffs that are demand less of your focus. I don't mean that in a bad way by no means at all. There's nothing in it that's out to get you, everything just kinda flows together. The focus is still so much on keyboards but all the instruments are mixed at similar sound levels and I like that. It feels like the band is just one large stream of grooves. Awesome stuff.

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Wayne Shorter - 1964 - Night Dreamer

It has been a good long while since I've dedicated some time for Wayne Shorter but things have changed - today in fact! I was browsing through records at some small record fair in town and I stumbled onto this album. It made me realize that even though I've been into Shorter's solo stuff for years now I don't actually own any of his albums in physical format. This was the album at hand and coincidentally it's one of my favorites as well!

Wayne Shorter is a commonly known musician in the jazz scene but perhaps for those who aren't following it he's not a very exposed one. Shorter got noticed by Miles Davis and got him to play in his groups for a long time, recording many hallmark albums with him. But perhaps to outsider audience Shorter is more known for his work in Weather Report than for his solo or Miles albums but for me Weather Report is too tacky for the most part. In any case when he was starting up his solo career he did three records for a label called Vee-Jay and they're perfectly fine. They're modern be-bop and not much else. If you're into it you'll like and won't if you don't. After those three albums he got picked up by Blue Note and things started cooking.

Night Dreamer was the second Blue Note album that got released (Juju being the first one the same year). On here Shorter and his crew are given much more creative freedom and it definitely shows. It's still a post-bop record in tune with the times but it sounds so much more matured and figured out than those past ones. This record also features Lee Morgan (trumpet) who also gets to stretch his skills by playing less conventionally and less commercially viable (I like the dude but all of his  solo -albums are too much by the book). The approach to the whole album is a more relaxed and perhaps more meaningful approach to playing. There are no maelstroms of chords and riffs here, the playing is more precise, more aimed and less bloated. A good nightly record that has a lot of unique intensity for the time. Good stuff.

Get it in FLAC.