Arcade Messiah - Arcade Messiah (2014)

Genre - Heavy Metal / Metal / Hard Rock / Progressive Rock / Instrumental

Label - Stereohead Records

Track listing:

01 - Sun Exile

02 - Your Best Line Of Defence Is Obscurity

03 - Traumascope

04 - Aftermath

05 - Everybody Eating Everyone Else

06 - The Most Popular Form Of Escape

07 - Roman Resolution

Arcade Messiah is the latest project from KingBathmat front man John Bassett following hot on the heels of his debut solo album Unearth. With Arcade Messiah, John Bassett manages to combine elements of stoner rock, prog rock, metal, doom and hard rock into a beautiful blend of instrumental music that paints lush soundscapes with brooding atmospheres and great metal guitar workouts within the mind of the listener.
John has been quoted as to saying, "After writing and producing numerous KingBathmat albums and more recently the acoustic solo album Unearth, I decided I wanted to create my first instrumental album. I wanted it to be set audibly and visually is a dark, bleak and apocalyptic aura of despair and anger." Well he has almost managed to pull that off  perfectly, the only problem is that the songs are a touch too melodic and multidimensional to come off as really bleak and apocalyptic, but that's not a bad thing. Here with Arcade Messiah we John has produced a great instrumental album that can be enjoyed on so many levels.
Instrumental albums are not for everyone, but if you want to test the water so to speak then you could do far worse than Arcade Messiah!

Rating - 8/10

 

ARCADE MESSIAH have today released their self titled 7 track debut album as a Free (pay what you want) download on bandcamp.
The entire album can now be streamed/downloaded from their bandcamp site at https://arcademessiah.bandcamp.com/releases



John Bassett (KingBathmat) - UNEARTH (2014)

Genre - Progressive Rock / Alternative Rock
Label - Stereohead Records

Track listing:

01 - Stay Away From The Dark
02 - Survival Rate
03 - Nothing Sacred
04 - Unearth
05 - Pantomime
06 - Kylerhea
07 - TV Is God
08 - Keep Dear
09 - Something That's More Worthwhile
10 - Comedian

John Bassett is an English multi-instrumentalist, singer songwriter and producer hailing from Hastings (UK), mainly known for being the driving force and front man of UK progsters KingBathmat. Here he delivers his debut solo album in the form of Unearth released via Stereohead Records.
Unearth proves itself to be a to be a subtle, sophisticated album of modern acoustic songs, imbued with melancholic melodies with a progressive slant. The emotive songs of "Unearth" encompass and depict the dark substratum of modern life. Social engineering, existential contemplation, survival ism, childhood truama, love & despair and everything in-between! Capitalising upon the songwriting skills and production techniques that he has developed over the past 10 years or so.
Every song on offer here is jam packed with layers and harmonies, often leaving the listener guessing as to just where the song is going to lead them next!
Lyrically the songs have the depth and meaning that we have come to expect from John's songwriting and musically, well the songs are just sublime!
Looking for standout tracks? Well to be honest I really wanted to list a couple but they are are all equally brilliant. Stay Away From The Dark, the albums lead single is definitely a good place to start, TV Is God, is another gem, as are Kylerhea and Something That's more Worthwhile, but to be honest I could easily list the entire album.
Unearth builds splendidly upon the huge body of work that KingBathmat have already produced and really showcases John Bassett as one of the UK's best singer songwriters, producers and performers!

You owe it to yourself to check this album out!

Rating - 10/10

KingBathmat - Overcoming The Monster (2013)

Genre - Hard Rock / Alternative / Progressive
Label - Stereohead Records

Track listing:
01 - Sentinel
02 - Parasomnia
03 - Overcoming The Monster
04 - Superfluous
05 - Reality Mining
06 - Kubrick Moon

KingBathmat return with their eclectic mix of hard rock, prog rock, neo-prog rock and alternative rock in the form of their seventh (yes 7th!) album, Overcoming The Monster, and what an album it is!

Whilst not as instant as its predecessor, Truth Button, Overcoming The Monster still has a hell of a lot to offer, its just that this time around the listener is required to put in a little work themselves, and actually listen to the album, as with each spin of this tremendous disc you discover more and more layers to each track!

Album opener "Sentinel" is a great rocking piece, with heavy guitars, combining with strong vocals and abundance of keyboards slotting in nicely into the driving melody. "Parasomnia" follows, a moody composition with epic moments and dreary atmospheres starting as if its a horror/thriller soundtrack. The band mix things up a little more with the albums title track, "Overcoming The Monster" with its Fripp like riffs, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis styled melodies and very harmonic vocal lines. The guitar / keyboard interplay has a really British sound. Awesome.

 "Superfluous" is the neo-prog number,Reality Mining", the shortest song on the album, is about technological monsters: the state using technology to snoop into our private affairs, very apt considering the news as of late!

In contrast the albums closing track, "Kubrick Moon", is the albums longest track. Atmospheric is the right word to describe the first part, almost cinematic, including some awesome Howe-approved guitars. Then towards the middle the song gets a punch of energy and goes in a full power section, another great song by the way.

With Overcoming The Monster, KingBathmat show that that they are going from strength to strength, and prove themselves to be amongst the best prog bands in the UK if not the world!

Very highly recommended!

Rating - 10/10

KingBathmat - Truth Button Review (2013)

KingBathmat - Truth Button Review (2013)

(released via stereohead records)

Track listing:
01 - Behind The Wall
02 - Abintra
03 - Book Of Faces
04 - The End Of Evolution
05 - Dives and Pauper
06 - Coming To Terms With Mortality In The face Of Insurmountable Odds


KingBathmat are a 3 piece progressive / alternative rock band band hailing from Hastings England. Truth Button is their sixth album to date. Coming across as the almost perfect blend of early Black Sabbath and Jellyfish, KingBathmat really could be the natural heirs to the 70's prog rock crown. Magnificent songs, twisting and turning through a labrynth of tempo changes and atmospheric textures. Lush guitar work and some great vocals and harmonies to boot, make Truth Button possibly the best album in this genre that I have listened to in years. featuring only six tracks yet clocking in at a whopping 51 minutes long Truth Button really is an album to sink your teeth into. Despite the length of the tracks they seem to pass by in a flash, never feeling over indulgent or too long, just twisting and turning through their various soundscapes as mentioned earlier. Powerful, quirky, melodic, spacey, stunning, I just cant find enough superlatives to describe this album!

If you are a fan of progressive rock music I really cant reconmend this album enough.

Rating - 10/10