Simon Montague-Bassett

Simon Montague-Bassett is an instrumental artist just dripping with potential, and for the most part, that potential is put into reality by skillful work on the drums, bass, and guitar. All of the songs have a very distinctive thrash feel to them, but they lack a certain heaviness which would complete the package. The sound is similar to that of classic thrash bands like testament or megadeth, through the drums, and in particular, the bass. The music as a whole had a neat progressive sound to it that in some ways resembled Normul's. Another thing I noticed was the odd "egyptian" sound to things like nile delivers, and slower, albeit it more linear, less interesting riffs. The "solos" were played in such a manner that felt truly original and genuine, with a bit of a fuzzy guitar tone. There were doom metal influences and all sorts of cool effects on the guitar, scales, chainsaw riffs, and a slew of other things that I don't feel a need to list. Simon Montague-Bassett is really quite a diverse listen throughout the tracks; this diversity does not scale down to the songs however, and each song seems to drag on with a repetition of one thing for 15 seconds, then a couple new things, then a revert back to that old thing. This applies to nearly all instrumental bands, but I figured I'd mention it here anyway. I can't blame the guys for using this technique because they need to categorize their sounds into songs somehow; all of those elements can tall fit into one song. But I would greatly appreciate the library being truncated, and having Simon Montague-Bassett trying to write somewhat shorter songs in the future to mesh appropriately with the instrumental style. (9.5 on the style, 1 point deducted for lengthiness / repetitiveness on some of the songs).

8.5/10

http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/Simon-Montague-Bassett