Review Summary: "Fatal collisions of breakable Riffs"
Hailing from the Netherlands and the ashes of Dutch hardcore band Reveal, Transmission0 is:
Mischa van Rodijnen (vocals/guitar),
Leon de Groot (guitar),
Dave van Beek (bass),
Bart Waalen (drums),
Michiel van der Avoird (keyboard)
Bored and sick of their previous musical endeavors, band breakups and setbacks, (2000-01), Mischa and Dave decided they wanted to explore more creativley and move their music careers in a different direction. Intending on write very heavy metal music with a bit of a soundscape edge as well.
They wrote a few songs, but lacking the time they wern't able to get serious about Transmission0 until 2003 when they met Michiel van der Avoird whos genious on the keyboards inspired and perfected the atmosphere that they wern't able to achieve before.
After a long search they eventually found a drummer, whos hard hitting style fit right in, and they recruited Leon de Groot (The Void) for the second guitar position.
Now a five piece, they finally had the hands and inspired minds to create what they wanted.
what resulted was "Memory of a Dream."
Right from the very beginning with the notes of an epic keyboard slowly filling the speakers and some ambient sounding machinery in the background, you can feel the depth that they wanted to create for their second album.
Then comes the loud but very clear bass chugging away the first riff of the album barely giving you time to prepare yourself for the layers and layers of heavy guitar that come in on a dime with drummer bart right on top of things and Mischa heaving out screaming that reminds me very much of heavy Meshuggah.
Mischa is an all around talented vocalist, when he screams it's almost more of a yell, but a very calculated yell, allowing you to hear what he's saying more often than not.
Like I said, the closest heavy vocalist I can compare him to is the singer for Meshuggah...except that he can't pull off the clean vocals that Mischa does, epsecially Cocoon.
My first thought when hearing him singing was, "ah, he's going to butcher every-...oh hey wait that's pretty damn good." Like his yells, it's very calculated but he pulls it off melodically with the rest of the band.
CONDOR -
Condor is easily one of the heaviest songs on the album, breaking before you've really noticed it's broken and then bitch slapping you.
He gets a full line in almost every measure and I'm sure if there's ever a mosh pit at their show somebody gets wrecked every time the kicker meets the bass drum.
Anyways after that and a quick guitar squeal it moves on into a Toolish, stop and go rythm, breaking again, then building for the last section of the song and completeing what the song was written for.
PARACAS -
Paracas takes a step back, setting off on a different footstep and exploring all nine minutes of the intricate rythm and layers laid down on this song. Although not as mind crunching as their previous songs, it builds an entirely different way, forsaking the normal standards of song writting. Paticularly a Tool influenced song in my opinion.
DREAMS 1 & 2 -
Both tracks entitled Dreams are interludes, no vocals, two minute jam sessions if you ask me.
FRAGMENTS -
Talk about production depth, with a very distorted guitar and simple drums on the for front, and a deep sounding bass and synth playing at different rythms in the background.
Clean vocals finally come in around 3 minutes, adding a forshadowing leading to intense vocals by Mischa and then all of it building to what can only be called a truely climatical ending with guitars that sound as if they're flying miles overhead announcing the arrival of the apocalypse.
DYING LIGHTS -
Starting off with simple eerie melodic guitar picking, Dying Lights is a slower song all around though it's by no means more quiet. Building over seven minutes, it's a great almost haunting song.
DAMN MACHINES -
With guest vocals from the singer for Today is the Day, adding a raspier sound, this song is one of the only songs on the cd that doesn't really take a break. It's upbeat and intense pretty much throughout.
UNREM -
A six minute instrumental that starts out sounding like you're in a submarine with very omnious undertones...until rather surprisingly rising out into an almost happy victorious sounding riff and then plunging back into a more epic drawn out version of the beginning.
The guitars split after that, enjoying some background metal riffage before the entire bands breaks it down to an end on the ever slowing beat of the toms.
TOKEN -
Starting off with a heart beat, moving on to what sounds like a cheesy bass line until the guitars, bass drum and toms come in making it an omnious building similar to what Old Man Gloom do on Zozobra. After a good few minutes, the guest vocalist from Today is the Day comes back in with haunting vocals sounding alot like a woman (a talented woman but a woman nontheless) which is easliy the best singing on the album almost with a Pink Floyd feel to it, with the word, "time" fading in and out.
The song changes gear completely and Mischa comes in with what can only be called desperate yelling...although it's not technically bad musically, I wish they had taken the song in a different direction. But that's just my opinion, in all truth I like it more now than when I first heard it, but still.
What can be said about Transmission0 is that even if some of their songs are a bit drawn out and perhaps boring to some, what they do do, they do with exellence and perfection, making it sound as it should sound, delicate where it need be, forshadowing early on, drawing you into their sound and their music and breaking the hell out of it.
http://www.myspace.com/transmission0
available songs: Condor, Paracas and Dying Lights Live. stuff from their first cd too.
p.s. sorry for the long ass review, I've had nothing to do all afternoon, and introducing a new band and also reviewing the cd takes a good bit more space.
