The Joshua Tree vs. Synchronicity

This week on The Loudini Hard Rock and Metal Circus, we take a step back from our usual hard rock/metal theme to pit two giants of rock and roll against each other. The Joshua Tree vs. Synchronicity. Which one do you prefer? And WHY???   Featured Loudini Artists:    Mishti   Stone Giant   Soen

Mishti

Genre

Pop/rock/blues

Band Members

Alex Nolan (vocals, guitar), Greg Schettino (bass), Ganessa James (bass), Matt Graff (drums), Allison Miller (drums)

Hometown

Westchester, New York

About

Rock singer-songwriter negotiating space-time curvature

Biography

Born in Tokyo, Mishti overcame her fear of flying and Asians going on to live in Hong Kong and India and finally settling in the humble hamlet of Chappaqua where she worked at an independent bookstore throughout high school and college serving thousands of satisfied customers while managing to read a total of 3 books and refining the art of the run-on sentence. 

After studying Yiddish and Neuropharmacology (not in the same class), she mastered the ABCD’s of melanoma detection during her day job helping cure cancer while spending nights gigging all throughout Westchester as a rock singer-songwriter/guitarist/drummer with a penchant for Chicago blues, Klezmer and Slash.

Current Location

Westchester, New York

Influences

Michael Jackson, Jeff Buckley, Kate Bush, Lady Gaga, Pearl Jam, Grace Slick, SRV

Press contact

admin@mishti.com

Stone Giant

Genre

Instrumental Doom Metal

Band Members

Trent Emory; Duncan Mandeville; Jacob Kudeviz

Hometown

Boulder, CO

Affiliation

Satan

About

We are Stone Giant. We play music. It's loud. It's metal. It's doom. It's prog. It's weird. We set out to challenge the boundaries of instrumental metal.

Biography

Stone Giant began like many bands, with drugs and alcohol. After long periods of fruitless but fun jamming, Duncan and Trent started playing with Jacob (Badger) and Hashim, and decided they could actually be something. Shortly thereafter, the haphazard amalgam of riffs they had became forty minutes of tight, kickass instrumental metal. They are just beginning their journey.

Gender

Male

Current Location

Boulder, CO

Soen

When Swedish drummer Martin Lopez (ex-OPETH, AMON AMARTH) joined forces with metal bassist extraordinaire Steve DiGiorgio (SADUS, TESTAMENT, DEATH, ICED EARTH), vocalist Joel Ekelöf and guitarist Kim Platbarzdis in a brand new project called SOEN, it was obvious that this collaboration would not be just another name-dropping, substance-deprived “super project”.

Martin Lopez has described the band's music as "melodic, heavy, intricate and different." Even then, Lopez may be selling his band short. SOEN is, in a word, unique.

The foursome paint their musical canvas with broad strokes that on first listen may appear gray and sullen, but the true power of the music lies clandestine, just a little below the monochrome surface. More than just a sum of is rather esteemed parts, SOEN weave an intricate network of melodies and lull the listener submerged in a bliss of melancholy. Yes, at times Soen may resemble the Opeth of old, but it makes more of less, as it features none of the guttural vocals and full-on death metal wall of sound of Lopez' former group. But nothing more is needed when Ekelöf's somber voice, Platbarzdis's transcendent guitar work, Lopez's trademark drum beats and DiGiorgio's exquisite bass lines collaborate to build a pensive tide, just waiting to wash over you.

“Cognitive” sure isn't an instantaneously accessible album but with a bit of listener patience, it can prove to be one of the most rewarding pieces of “thinking man's metal” you will ever come across. In a world full of super-compressed albums waging the loudness war, “Cognitive” breathes with ease thanks to the masterful mixing work of David Bottrill (Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Muse etc.). Like rain on a windowpane; translucent and free of form, “Cognitive” breathes like a living entity.

The colors are there, lingering within the grays. It's just up to you to find them.