My FTP space amount doubled, so now I can have the album available again, this time as a direct download

Industrial Metal with progressive influences is what it's about. If you are new to the stuff, check out Sycophant Gods and Terra Ultimatum, for example, for starters. If you like some Dark Ambient or Dark Industrial, you could also check out the tracks Apoapsis Mentis and End Game. Enjoy



Released originally on April 11th 2006
http://www.vortechmusic.com

01. The Institution
02. Terra Ultimatum
03. Crescent Moon
04. Mind Awakening
05. Sentinels of Pain
06. Apoapsis Mentis
07. Judgement of the Amenti
08. Lunar Eclipse
09. Sycophant Gods
10. End Game

Encoded in Lame 3.92 MMX with VBR alt-preset standard. Enjoy

And in other news, my next album with Vortech is progressing well, there's now 12 songs almost ready to be recorded for a new album later this year Check out the website for additional info, including videos

Just started listening. I really like what I hear so far, I'll post more thoughts once I hear the whole thing.

EDIT: Here's my initial impression, track-by-track. Written as I listened to it.

The Institution:
Love the bit at 1:47. The speed changes throughout are a bit much at first, but they're really growing on me. Quite insane. The whispered vocals somehow fit in quite well, too.

Terra Ultimatum:
Crazy programmed drums, some very... inhuman double bass, there. Just as insane as the first track. I love the little bridge segment and the part with the pinch harmonics. Very heavy.

Crescent Moon:
Starts out really heavy, gets extremely thrashy in some parts... Love the quiet anvil hit sample that appears in the background now and then. Nice little melodic singing bit at 1:30, too, and the very sudden tempo change after it.

Mind Awakening:
Really cool background keyboard bit, or whatever that sample is. Gets nice and thrashy almost right away, which of course I like. Keeping with the frantic tempo changes of the other tracks, I see. Really liking the quiet guitar/keyboard break at 2:34. Gets REALLY heavy afterwards, too.

Sentinels of Pain:
Wow, pretty crazy right off the bat. Some really messed up timings and tempo changes. The slowwww bit at at 2:02 is nice and creepy. Cool change.

Apoapsis Mentis:
Weird, creepy opening with that dull thudding noise, then the quiet, overdriven guitar feedback comes in. The motorcycle sounds in the background are awesome too. Really gives the impression of an old highway at night in the rain.

Judgement of the Amenti:
Awesome opening riff, and of course filled with the usual wild tempo changes. Some cool use of blastbeats, too.

Lunar Eclipse:
Some Fear Factory-ish guitar/kick synching near the beginning (more complex overall than anything they've done though ). Nice ambient keyboards, too, though I keep expecting to hear some clean vocals over them. Awesome clean guitar break 2/3 of the way through, too. The bit at 2:33 is pretty crazy, too. Neat little schizophrenic chuggy guitar bit.

Syncophant Gods:
Feels like a continuation of the last song. Neat little vocoded vocal part in the beginning. I like that odd bit where things kinda stop, then it changes a couple times before going back into the initial riff. Neat little semi-lead bit halfway through as well. Very odd ending, too, where the guitars go off-rhythm then synch up again for the end.

End Game:
Very bizarre bass/synth/something bit set over some nice distorted breakbeats. Really liking this one. Awesome sampling halfway through. Probably my favorite track on the album.

Very cool, overall. The whispered vocals throughout get a bit monotonous, they could probably do with some variation-- some clean singing or occasional more forceful growling would do wonders. The vocal style fits pretty well for the most part, though, and sort of adds to the dark, misty feel of the album.

The production reminds me alot of Skrew's 'Shadow of Doubt', both in a good way and a bad way. Very heavy guitars, and that kick drum has a LOT of heavy, low frequencies on it. It really thumps. However-- and this is noticeable with alot of modern music, really-- the production is exactly the same for every song. Not to say consistency is a bad thing, but it sounds like it's all just one preset for the entire album-- It's not a huge issue, but personally I like when each song has little characteristics of its own.

Aside from that, excellent work.

Heh, thanks for the comments

Here's a demo version of a track from the upcoming album. Just one rhythm & lead guitar + drums though, but it's sound nice already

http://koti.mbnet.fi/juhau/vortech-thecore.mp3

Being the album opener, it's a bit more straightforward

The Core sounds awesome, I love that lead melody that follows most of it. I hope the new stuff will have more of that, leads or even just 'higher' guitar bits can really up the intensity. Can't wait for the new album.

I'm assuming this is all you, by the way? Also, are you releasing this stuff independantly, or is it just up for free download?

It's free for download, within the limits of available FTP space. I've only got 100 MB, and half of that is taken by my websites, and currently the other half is taken by Conclusion

And yeah, it's just me.

i'm gonna download it ASAP

[Blazingmonga]

Hey dude,

downloaded this the other day but have only just listened to it. I would be best to review it after I have listened more than once but I know I will forget.

Anyway, what a really cool album! Hard to believe that this is all just you. As usual your recording and production is perfect. You have managed to achieve a fuller sound than many bands with their big budget studies and producers. My hifi says thanks!

I think understand what Josiah is saying though. I do think the album is a bit monotonous in a way. All the songs are really good, but perhaps the problem is that they are all really good in the same way.

Though obviously the two tracks that stand out are End Game and Apoapsis Mentis. These two are stunning and I am really glad they were included. Although of a very different style to the rest of the album they fit the mood perfectly and serve well to add a bit of variety.

When I get home tonight I will put this on MiniDisc and listen to it on the bus in the morning. That is the best way to judge an album!

hey man, im stealing some of my univ´s bandwidth to listen to some stuff, but unfortunately still havent had the time to get it all
So far i only listened to the core´s new demo and Terra Ultimatum. Both sound really good, especially this last one. I digged the production too, except for a few issues (thougth the drums were a bit too filled with high freqs, especially on the snare, but that´s probably cause i´m a drummer, so i tend to get more bitchy about that )
The guitar tones are really good, think it´s the best part on it all. I´d add some more volume to the ambience stuff you do, but that´s also a personal thing, i´m a sucker for wall of sounds

Listening to sentinels of pain, i think i kinda get what josiah meant about the production being too alike on all the songs. Obviously can´t say that 100% cause i havent listened to all of it yet.

So anyway, from what i´ve heard, sounds like a pretty cool album, nice guitar tones, some good themes all around, just have a few issues with the production. IMHO, you should play around with louder ambience throughout the songs, just to get it beefed up, and get the drum EQing a bit lower on the high freqs, but that´s just me

oh, and i have to mention i love any form of meshuggage, so keep it up!