Cloudkicker - Beacons

Cloudkicker is the name of the one man project by Ben Sharp. In the past, Sharp always released his music for for free via download, which is impressive considering the professional quality of the recordings (these definitely aren’t your “garage band demo tapes”), but Beacons, his second full length album, is his first album that is available in CD/vinyl format. Though, you can still download it for free. 

Now, to the music. 

Cloudkicker can be described as meshuggah-esque, instrumental metal because of the heavy use of odd time-signatures and poly-rhythmic drumming. Though I believe Cloudkicker departs from Meshuggah by being more melodic and interesting with the guitar parts. Each song is very layered, creating a “wall of sound” effect that I particularly enjoy and forces the listener to go over the same song and find something new each time.

Or you can just put it in, turn up the volume, and bang your head.

In short, I really do love this album and highly recommend it and all his previous work.

Recommended tracks # 3, 4, 7, 9

- E