The Indie Rock Dojo

 One thing I love about Honey Bone Rush, out of Naples, Florida USA, is their relentless and fierce riffing on top of booming drums.  They definitely do that in "A Victorian Nightmare", plus a lot more! Now this is METAL! This song starts thrashing away immediately with a fast-paced riffing guitars with helicopter kicks pounding away.  The bass is booming away as well, smoothly and rhythmically on point. The vocals came in with a layered death growl with lyrics that blister the soul.  Sometimes in this genre screams can be piercing or make you want to wipe your face while just listening, but this vocalist has amazing control and delivers with incredible performance. "Don't turn your back on the evil within | In your darkest dreams is where it begins".  This is where nightmares come from, that's for freaking sure.  It is obvious that the lyrics, by incredible poet Justin Nugent, who is from England, were written with extremely careful consideration word for ...

 "Galactic Love" is a pop rock song by New Nobility out of Sydney, Australia. This has a nice groove set by the drums right around 120 beats per minute or so, with ghost snare hits in between 2 & 4, giving it an upbeat tempo that the rest of the band heavily relies upon, just as they should!  The guitar is strumming with this rhythm in creative ways, keeping things interesting with slight variations from the rhythm constantly throughout.  The bass is extremely active, playing low and up an octave often, interchanging between octaves without missing a beat. The lead guitar nails very melodic solos with a sound that soars through the mix.  Those solos are what really hit the title "Galactic" for me the hardest.  I do feel a great deal of 80's in this song, which was a great time period for songs with a cosmic theme.  I do believe there is also an embedded 70's rock influence which I mainly feel in the bass line and the song's flow, plus during the guit...

 "Mistakes" by Bill Draper (featuring Jason Ortlieb) is a brand new beautiful fully-acoustic ballad that is introspective with powerful and personal lyrics.  Bill is out of Watertown, New York USA. The acoustic guitar is played masterfully and so naturally that it seems like it is singing just as much as the vocal. I LOVE the harmonics that are especially noticeable in the intro.  Doing that with electric distorted guitars is one thing, but doing that with an acoustic guitar can be a challenge.  Then I notice riffs that fill in between the repeating fingerpicking parts...natural improvisation.  Stuff like this kept me very interested throughout, not only hearing the expected chord progression all of the time. "Mistakes I've been the king | Mistakes self-pity and wallowing | Mistakes burn the brain | All the baggage is following...following..."  These chorus lyrics feel like a gut punch.  So very relatable, yet presented in such a self-realizing way tha...

 "Creeping Malaise" by PINFINGER, out of London, England, are have one heck of a solid METAL sound!  This song released today, and it was really cool to get the opportunity to review the song before the release and present it the day of! First thing I noticed is the giant drums with double-kick are rhythmically in sync with the booming bass and metal power chord riffing guitars every step of the way, even on the speedy helicopter kicking...and triplet hit transitions. The drums are gigantic with a slapping kick, big thudding snare and unrivaled energy.  The bass has a nice low tone that rumbles alongside that kick.  Guitars are on point and really give me Pantera vibes!  Thrash metal it is!  Guitars that crush rhythm like this are hard to come by.  That being said, the vocals have that graveling metal-styled vocal that fits this genre so perfectly...hitting all notes, nailing rhythms, singing when appropriate with harmony and layers.  Vocalists li...

 I'll be completely honest, but when I started listening to "Rabbit Hat Smash" by Sisser (out of St. Louis, Missouri USA), I was incredibly intrigued immediately.  It is definitely not conventional, and I LOVE IT!  Let's see if I can describe this... It starts out with authentic live drums playing a 5/4 rock beat, which is hard to fully grasp until the bass and guitars come in.  The bass is has an incredible punchy thickness to it with 5 strings used in such a way that sort of surprised me that it got so low.  It's very active...not just sitting on the roots.  The guitars are the same...always active...not just chords...always filling in the atmosphere of my headphones.  It feels like the guitarist is just improvising his/her way through the song...sooo naturally. I get a hint of White Stripes and a bit of Sick Puppies when I listen.  (Random thought as I listen).  I would love to know who actually inspires this group. I believe this could be...

 This Side of Anarchy is from Los Angeles, California USA, and "Wolves in the Graveyard" brings a high-energy mix between punk and metal in such a way I've never heard by anyone else. The song starts with fast-moving toms being joined by howling wolves, which couldn't fit this Halloween time of year better!  Soon, the bass, guitars and vocals join in simultaneously.  The verse gives me that eerie feeling of anxiety by all that's going on around me...the wolves pursuing...  "Watch out!  Wolves in the graveyard." The guitars are crisp and clear with distortion, sticking with the rhythm with palm mutes and open power chords.  The vocals are full of gravel, chanting and setting the atmosphere and telling the story while staying in key where appropriate. I'm very impressed with the drummer's creative use of tom-led rhythms throughout the song.  So many rhythms that aren't conventional!  It does an exceptional job of keeping the anxiety to a maximu...

 Before Braille is a band from Phoenix, Arizona USA.  I listened to "Abracadaver", and first thing I noticed was their very well recorded/mixed/mastered this song is.  The distorted guitars sound full, the bass is punching the bottom-end up to the mids, and the drums sound huge with a fat kick and snare leading the way.  The vocals are in-tune, layered with harmony nicely aside from the verses, and performed with high-energy. This is a mix of hard rock and some punk.  It has a strong resemblance to the pop rock of the late 90's and early 2000s, which really packed a hard punch! I love how the guitars get even bigger when the chorus hits.  That is a trick in the studio that takes experience to accomplish...adding that big punch to a chorus that's following a section that's already powering its way along.  Well done! If you want a song that drives hard with an amazing studio sound and performance all the way through, plus an early 2000's pop rock feel, t...

 Agency Panic - @Agency_Panic on Twitter - is from Ireland.  I've been familiar with this band's music for years, and they are nothing less than amazing.  Their music is a mix between progressive metal (mostly), hard rock and heavy metal. "The Middle" starts with a mystical guitar filled with delay and reverb, plus bends as part of this melody.  Soon after a couple vamps, a humming bass comes and goes...adding more anxiety.  The drums come in smoothly with a kick that accentuates the bass so nicely.  Voices can now be heard talking in the distance...distorted similar to the sound of a walkie-talkie.  I can feel that something intense and dark is coming. All of a sudden, the band is full on...loud, angry, clear distorted guitars crush the listener with a crunch and leads that smooth it all out.  The bass rumbles while the vocals are emotionally screaming notes in desperation. Amazingly, the band brings it down after the mosh pit is in full force, a...

 "Shattered" by Kris Anders - @kris_anders from Vernon, BC Canada - gives us an upbeat nicely-produced song with a very strong 80's pop rock feel.  It is very rhythmic throughout, including distorted guitars, bass led by natural sounding drums (not the regular electronic drums that have a snare that never seems to decay). I hear soaring guitars throughout nearly the whole song, but changing the intensity depending on the dynamics of the song.  However, I do hear that the rhythm guitar is nearly the same 2 chords and rhythm the whole time...adding the lower root power chord when the chorus comes in.  So, 3 chords.  They definitely say that some of the best songs out there don't use more than three chords.  This song definitely proves that point! When the chorus comes around, we have keys filling in so much frequency range, background vocals leading in, the lead vocals go to a higher register, the guitars have soaring leads parts...all of this gives that feel...

 "Just for a Day" by Simonjmusic (from Dublin, Ireland) was a very interesting listen for me. It started very slow with light fingerpicking on the acoustic guitar...which builds to strumming acoustic that is doubled with a light distortion.  Also of this builds even with more with volume...hitting those strings harder!  I was expecting drums/bass to come in and start pounding away to continue the build, but they never came.  Although the song did continue to build anyway. The vocalist has a voice to build around, for sure.  Very catchy melody with a rasp in his voice, on-point and emotionally fitting in nicely. The song as a whole gives me a feeling that adventure is coming.  We are waiting for it to happen...and its coming nearer by the second.  "We're wasting time just for a day...".  When that day is over, back to it. I'd have to say that this song does a great job of building without depending on a full band.  It sticks to the meaning of ...

 "About You" by Homeless Radio, from Izyum, Ukraine - @homelessradio1 - is a very well written love song that has a really cool song structure, starting calm and reflective with really nice clean electric guitars strumming, then joined by the rhythm section, and on-point vocals delivering a catchy melody.  I hear the guitar player taking some melodic solos, plus filling in many areas with improvisation.  Lots of talent with that guitar, and the band as a whole.  I also like the choice to layer the vocals...fits so well with a voice like this. I'll point this out right now...I love how the drums and bass work together rhythmically, are super tight, and are mixed very well to compliment one another. I have two pieces of the song that I LOVE so much, and this is along the lines of songwriting creativity.  Most of the way through the song, there is a break for the bridge that brings it all the way down after the lyrics "And this song about you - It is for you, my lo...

 Yes, the song title and artist's name are all lower case, just as it is in Spotify.  :) My first reaction to nate snow's song called "for real" (from Nova Scotia, Canada) was to suddenly stop everything and FOCUS...is every single instrument in the mix extremely distorted?  Why yes, I believe every single noise in the song distorted.  I can't fully tell if the distortion on the drums comes from extreme compression and the master volume being high above the limits, or if the drums were played much harder than what the gain limits were when recording...or what.  Maybe they are drum samples?  The vocals and bass seem to have a cleaner distortion!  It definitely feels like all the speakers are busting and about to blow! OK, I said the above...but I think it's a really cool idea!  I can't imagine the bass not sounding as piercingly energetic and obnoxious as it is...because it leads the whole song...and the vocals are very rhythmically catchy.  W...

This is my first time listening to this band, Culann, who come from Scotland.  I'm instantly amazed at the production, sound quality and musicianship.  All of the instruments sound amazingly clear. In the verses, I hear clean guitars filling in the areas of the audio spectrum that need it.  I hear bass that smoothly thunders its way through both calm verses and under thick distorted power chords.  I hear drums that instantly start building up starting at the beginning, getting heavy, then sliding into flowing16th note hihats without missing a thing.  The vocals are obviously very trained, hitting notes, using emotion beautifully, filled with harmony when appropriate.  OK, honestly, every musician sounds highly trained and is spot on. The songwriting is very impressive.  Has very calm parts, that build intensity, then heaviness ensues.  This is a progressive hard rock/metal song.  It's so very impressive when a band can go a full song without ...

 I've followed Mastesy, from Germany, for multiple years now.  He has done acoustic music in the past, but he also can really rock, too! "Breathe" is a very energetic grunge, sprinkled with punk, rock song with some blaring fuzzy distortion that brings me back to the grunge movement and sound of the early 90's.  Those guitars feel a lot like Blur's Song #2, and the vocals have that same style as well. This 1 minute and 40 seconds of pure mosh-pit rock is a heck of a tune!  The attitude is all there, and it is AWESOME! This song has been added to the "Fight the Storm" playlist.  Check it out and be ready to jump, but try not to knock anything down or break anything...because chances are really good that you're not actually in a mosh pit right now. Thanks for submitting @Mastesy_ .  I'm a fan! Click below to listen on your favorite streamer! https://songwhip.com/mastesy/breathe

 This is the first time I've listened to Suckerpie - @Suckerpie1 on Twitter.  "Think We're Lost" has some very strong grunge and hard rock influences.  The guitars are very strong in this track.  This guitarist can really play lead through a whole song and improvise through it.  It's a nice tone, too. I also hear good flowing bass parts, with a nice low-end tone.  The vocals did a good job hitting notes and filling the grunge genre.. As a track as a whole, I enjoyed the song's progression and intense riffs. I do have to say that this song has the potential to be a VERY strong track.  If I were to give a bit of constructive feedback as a listening fan, I would have to point out that the drums struggle to stay consistent and steady.  It made it difficult to listen to because there wasn't a dependable flow, making it tough for the other instruments to stay tight, and making the listeners a bit uncomfortable. Overall, I think the rock listeners out th...

 I couldn't believe it, but just a couple minutes after I had made this blog public and had posted about it on Twitter, I got a submission from Chris Hardy World, with Twitter handle @chrishardyworld.  This was super cool, and I thank you so much for being the first submitter! This was my first listen to the Chris Hardy World's music who is out of Edgefield, South Carolina USA, and I do have to say..it is some really dang cool rock and roll!  I do have to point out the obvious -> That distorted bass is the king of the show!  It is constantly dancing around in that low end, and in the mids for that matter...with a very talented bassist at the helm.  He's got the chops to be able to pull of such bass licks, that's for sure. I feel a touch of funk and lots of blues.  It's extremely danceable (although I don't dance).  The mix did a great job of giving this song a strong vibe of being played live in front of an energetic crowd that participates through ...

This is a very exciting moment for me.  I just started typing my first post, and I truly do not know if this will be interesting to anyone but myself. Welcome to "The Indie Rock Dojo". I'm The Sound Ninja.  I'm an independent rock musician, songwriter and recording artist out of Minnesota, USA.  I'm writing these reviews in full support of the Independent "Indie" rock music scene.  It's a community that I'm a part of, and I've had so much fun meeting musicians around the world virtually through mainly the Twitter platform. I love music that does something new.  Musicians doing it their own way.  With passion,  Strong meanings.  Songs that take the listener on an adventure.  Moments that send chills down the spine.  I love the soaring guitars, riffs and powerful rhythms.  I also love the watered down acoustic rock songs.  Those can be just as powerful.  I've been known to praise hard rock, punk, alternative, metal, nu-metal...