Album Reports

Matador (CND, UK) - Above, Below and So

Many thanks to my Bandcamp algorithm for suggesting this masterpiece. Never heard about this band who moved from Canada to the Uk. Despite my penchant for 3-minute rock 'n' roll songs, my brain craves unpredictable, dynamic music that caters to my tastes with bands like Tool, Amenra, Morne, Communic, Soen, Toundra, and others. This year I discovered the Catalan band Syberia and immersed myself in their walls of sound; what the Canadian band Matador achieves with their latest album borders on genius, a keen sense for the perfect balance of vocals, heaviness, and rhythm. It's an album that leaves you increasingly curious and simultaneously speechless with each listen, because every song is such a multi-layered composition. There are multiple harmonic and parallel guitar tracks layered on top of each other, twin guitar hooks, rhythms beyond 4/4 time, symphonic guitars—it's as if you're picking the best bits from a five-star buffet.