Unsigned and Unholy: Town Portal, Engines of Gnosis, Valve

Town Portal, who we first featured in this space in 2012, are venturing into even stonier and proggier territory than they did on their 2011 release Vacuum Horror. Now signed to Subsuburban in Denmark and Small Pond in England (but still label-less in the U.S.), debut single “Bonus Trigger” sounds like a mash-up of Intronaut and Baroness if neither had vocals. The Occident comes out on May 25th.

When you first press play on Engines of Gnosis‘ “Fast Enough For You Old Man” you’re gonna be all like, “Awww, man, not another djenty djent band.” But then after about 10 seconds the lead guitars are gonna kick in and you’re gonna be like, “Ohhhh, this guy rips, he’s super-creative and tasty!” and then at 2:15 when the jazzy break starts you’re gonna be fully on board. Really, this isn’t djent at all — the guitars are just tuned low.

https://soundcloud.com/enginesofgnosis/fast-enough-for-you-old-man

Here’s what I like most about Valve: the guitar melodies and harmonic structure of the chord progressions. On the surface it may might seem like there’s not much that separates these guys from the myriad NeurIsis devotees, but I’m telling you, there’s something in the way these guys put together riffs that makes them stand out from the pack. Their music’s got an audible post-hardcore flavoring too. New album Apnee is out now.